110: Retreat Dhamma Talk 5: Root Causes of Birth and Death

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SPEAKER_01 0:03

Namo tasabhagwato Arhato Sama Sambudasa Namo Tasabhavato Rahato Sama Sambudasa Namo Tasabhavato Arhato Sama Sambudasa A retreat series Dhamma top number five Dhamma in Pali Dhamar Dharmar in Sanskrit that what is you will see a lot in a Buddhist scriptures and it has many different meanings based on how it is used and where it is used. Dhamma can be just simply phenomenon, it covers both anything and everything in this physical universe and mental universe. So Dhamar is physical phenomenon, mental phenomenon. Dhamma is Nama and Rupa. Dhamar is Buddhist teaching. The teachings of the Buddhist also called Dhamma. So in here, if you look at the Buddhist teaching, the essence of Buddhist teaching is the full noble truth. Noble truth of suffering, dukkha sasa, noble fruit of the cause of suffering, samudhya sasa, noble truth of the cessation of suffering, the Rodha Sesa, and the noble truth of the ways that lead to the cessation of suffering. Magad Sisa. So these four noble truth are called Dharma because that's the essence of Buddhist teaching. So in here there are four noble truth. The first two, the whole noble truth of suffering and noble truth of the cause of suffering, these two. In other words, dukkha and samutia. Those two are called Lokia Sisa. Lokia is mundane, mandain, the truth of the wall of mandain. Lokia Sisa. Also it is known as Vuddha Sisa, the truth of the rounds. The root, the truth of the rounds. Buddha is translated as rounds. What it is is it is directly related to where we are living, where we are experiencing about us of this world. Lokia, mundane world, this world. Because in this world, to put it in a different way, all these physical phenomena and mental phenomena, what we call self, it is always perpetuating, going round and round, round and round, circle of birth and death, and birth and death. The circle of birth and death or cycle of birth and death. And that is our world, Loki, or mundane world. So this going round and round. Circle of birth and death. To put in a more in a technical sense is kilisa, mental defilements. Kilesa Vudak, rounds of mental defilement. Kama Vudak, rounds of actions. And then we baka vodak, rounds of result, resultant. Those these threes are going round and round. Those three rounds are the one that is producing this cycle of birth and death. In other words, what can be said as the truth of the circle of birth and death. So those two, it is about wutta rounds, going round and round. Those truths are the two truths of this mundane world. And these two truths are difficult to see. Of course, we can understand theoretically very easily. But whenever in a Buddhist sense, when we see see the truth, see the Dharma, see, see, that word see is actually the direct experience. Whenever there is a direct experience and understand that through that direct experience, they use the word see. I see the Dharma. It is not that you are actually seeing, you have actually directly experienced that aspect of the Dharma and you truly understand through direct experience. That's called see. So seeing the Dharma is you directly experience the Dharma. So these two noble truths, okay? Dukkhasesa and Samutia Sesa. The truth about the about life and death, birth and death, birth and death. And these are the Dharma. You can call it Dharma, the first two noble truth. This Dharma is very profound. The Buddha said it is very profound. Why is it profound? It's profound because it is difficult to see. Difficult to see. Not intellectual understanding, direct experiential understanding. That is what it means by difficult to see. It is difficult to directly experience, to understand. Those are the first two noble truth. The second two noble truth is cessation of suffering and the ways that lead to the cessation of suffering. They are called Lokutra Sisa. Okay, ultra mundane truth. The truth of the ultra mundane world or the truth beyond the mundane world. And it is also called as we wutta, sisa, we wutta. Wudda is not having, not included, lack of. And we also already know what wutta is, the rounds of birth and death, the cycle of birth and death. We wutta means. In this ultramundane world, there is, there doesn't exist birth and death, doesn't include birth and death. That's why it's also called we wudda shisa. And these two are also Dharma. These two Dharma are also profound. All Dharma is profound in the sense of this full noble truth. But this one is profound. Profound because okay. The first two is profound because it is difficult to see or to experience. The second two is profound. Therefore it is difficult to see. There's a different meaning. One is because it is difficult to see, and second one is therefore profound, therefore it is difficult to see. But these two are at this moment it is beyond our direct experience. That is where we are going, trying to go, trying to experience. And it belongs to the ultramundane world or the world that excludes birth and death, that doesn't have birth and death. So all these four dharmas are profound. Dharma is profound because it is difficult to see for the first two, and dharma is profound, therefore it is difficult to see second two. We'll be dealing with the first two because that is where we can directly experience through our practice. The noble truth of suffering. So what is the noble truth of suffering? Dukha Sisa. Dukha Sisa is anything and everything that is happening in this world is suffering. Now, in here you have to know the word in this world. What does it mean? In this world is the world of living beings. We have two phenomena. One is a physical phenomenon and one is a mental phenomenon. Physical phenomenon by itself. Buddha didn't say it is to kasisa, only to the world of living beings. And the world of living beings mostly are the dual process. It is the working of the physical phenomenon and mental phenomenon together, hands and glove. That is the world of living beings. In the world of living beings, both physical phenomena and mental phenomenon coexist, exist together. And works like hands and glove. Except a few. That is again far beyond our reach. There is a world of living being in which only there is mind only. Very special case in the Brahma Ram. And also there is another world that is the matter only, only rupa. That is also in Brahma Ram. You have to specialize, believe in something, and practice through that belief with a certain technique to reach there. But even though they are mind-only world, matter-only world, they also have the expiration date. Whenever there's a birth, there's a death. So no world of living beings has permanency. It simply is under birth and death arising and passing away, arising and passing away. All things are. To put in a different way, all physical and mental phenomena of the world of living beings is suffering. Nama and rupa is dukkha. So if you want to go even more detail of this nama and rupa, we know what it is. The five aggregates. So all these things are suffering. Every aspect of the living beings, the world of living beings is suffering. That's the way the word Buddha put it. That is dukkasissa. Yes. Okay, it's sad so we understand. What is it? We say the five aggregates is suffering. Let's take an instance of our existent. Whether this at this moment or every moment in the past or every moment that's going to come in the future, they are always involved with this five aggregates. Five aggregates. Let's look at the one instance. Okay, seeing. Seeing. Whenever you say the word seeing, seeing it involves an object to be seen. Okay. An object that has a form, shape, color, size that can be seen within the visual range of our human eyes. There are many materials beyond the visual range of the human eyes. We cannot see, but it exists. Science already has proved it to some aspect. There are many materials or matters. It exists that we cannot see. That's it. Buddha said that over 2500 years ago. So in here, seeing there must be an object within the range of our visual range that we can see. And then also there must be the eye. In general, we can all it high or the eye sensitivity or retina must exist in good functioning situation or order. And whenever these external objects that can be seen, an internal physical object, eye sensitivity. As soon as we say eye sensitivity, that means there is a living being. Object, internal object, external object, and attention. They have to come in contact, which is called mental contact pasa. And then an experience of seeing arises. Or seeing arises, or seeing consciousness arises. So just that one, if you look at it, in that process, that's a little process, many factors, many conditions are involved. Whenever these conditions come together, at that moment a process arises. And if you dissect into that process, you will not see anything that can be called self. You cannot see anything that can be called self. In that process, self is not there. Or that whole process is not called self either. That whole process is not called self either. Because when the conditions, when the object disappear, or when you shut your eyes, or when you can't see, or when you don't have attention, that process cannot happen. That's why that process is not also self. In that pro self, you can dissect it, you won't be able to see self. That pro-self is not called self either. And Buddha called it, Buddha called that process, arises out of complex conditions at that moment, arises out of complex conditions that arises at that moment. Buddha gave a name to it. Buddha called it anatta, non-self. Buddha called it anatta, non-self. First and foremost, he approaches through the self. He picked up and presented a process that is happening at the moment. In there you dissect and look for it, there's no self. And that whole process is not self either, because it simply arises and passed away. And for that reason, that whole process, that whole condition, Buddha called it a nada non-self. That's what it non-self means. So if you look at it, this is the Buddha's approach. When you say dukkha sissa. Dukkha sissa is existence is suffering, life is suffering. So when he called it life suffering, five aggregates is suffering. And in this seeing process, that seeing process is simply the five aggregates. If you dissect it, I won't go into detail because we are limited in time. That same seeing process is five aggregates. In that five aggregates, there is no such thing as self. It is called non-self. So one can expand further. Why? Okay, you see, you can argue. You see something. Of course, when we see something, when we see ugly thing, yucky thing, a pile of dog poops, or all bloody situation, unjust, all these things. Of course that's suffering. Whenever you see something unpleasant, unwholesome. That is suffering. Ah, okay. I agree with Buddha. When we see something that is suffering. But what about when we see something good and pleasant and nice? Beautiful rose, a beautiful scenery, beautiful people, anything that creates a pleasant feeling in you. We are seeing something that is pleasant and give me a pleasant feeling. How can we call it suffering? We are not suffering. We are having great fun, great joy, all the pleasantness. That's the way one can argue. Yeah. That's correct. That's fine. At this level, at that level, if you look at it that way, that is correct. Because you are only look at the one level, the level that we are always every day. Lokya level. Okay, mundane world. But Dharma is not mundane, Dharma is profound, Dharma is deep. If you look at on that surface level, there's no way to argue out of it. But even with that, you can extend it and weave around or spin around. You can call it even spinning. Yes, fine. You have something, it is beautiful. You have a you bought a beautiful car, you're happy, and then suddenly next week you crush into it, you lost it, you are unhappy. So, whatever that pleasant thing, when you have it, you are happy. When you lost it, you are unhappy. That's why it is suffering. Okay, it's a logical argument. Or you want something and you can't have that, you suffer. That's a way, that's also a very good argument. That's why blessing things are suffering. Good argument, but still debatable. But as we say, Dharma is profound. You have to look it deeply. You have to look in a profound way. In other words, you have to go to the roots. You just don't look at the branches and flowers and fruit. You have to go to the roots, the root cause. What is this pleasant feeling and unpleasant feeling root is? Or what is the commonality? The commonality is unpleasant feeling arises and they pass away. Pleasant feeling too, they arises and they pass away. That is the commonality. That is the condition or common situation. It is consistent, persistent, and every time it is true. You cannot find any moment that is not true. Both pleasant feeling and unpleasant feeling, beautiful things and ugly things arise and pass away. You can't hold on. You might struggle to hold on, but all these struggle, all these difficulty let go is suffering. It is stressful. That's why both pleasant feeling and unpleasant feeling of our world, in a profound sense, it is unpleasant, it is suffering. The common root cause is they arise and passed away. Nothing can be held on. For that reason, existence is suffering. Nama and Rupa, this mind and body is suffering. That is dukkasissa. You have to go to the root level. And when you go to the root level, then you understand this statement. Okay. All things, all mind and body, all living beings, all five aggregates are suffering. Yeah, theoretically now we understand. That's great. And but still, it is profound, difficult to see. Now logically, you can accept it, but still, does every fibers of your being can accept it? Okay. No. We might say yes, but if we look at our actions, physical and verbal actions, there will be a lot of many instances that contradict that our saying, yeah, I believe it. In other words, you don't walk the way you talk. Your talking and walking are not the same. Walking and doing are not the same. That's why Dharma is profound because it is difficult to see, difficult to experience. Always come back to direct experience, seeing, direct experience. And here, one thing. The Buddha taught us in many different ways. Most of the time he will talk as you, me, I, this, Mr. A, Mr. B, Mr. X. And then he will also talk as his nama and rupa. This is mind, this is body, this is feeling. Oh this is consciousness. And sometimes there's one word it used. The word is called datu. Datu. Datu means directly translated as element. Datu. You consider just to simplify the This body is an element. This consciousness is an element. You use the word datu element. Element is for us to understand. Let's look at the science. Okay, in the chemistry, we have how many? How many elements we have now?

SPEAKER_00 30:25

608 elements.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

108 elements? Okay, all the elements. Whatever in this universe is composed of these 108 elements. Okay, H2O. H2O. Water. Okay, when we say water, okay. As water we all know. But we never say, okay, give me two pieces of hydrogen and one oxygen. But it is true. Two pieces of hydrogen and one oxygen. We are asking for water. But in a conventional way, we simply say water. But in reality, that is oxygen and hydrogen under a certain set of conditions combine and make water. And what are they called? Elements. Oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen. These are called elements, the base unit. There's no soul, no self, no living being, nothing. That is the quantitation, the word element is used. Just that kind of a word it called datu. Buddha used it. So just to give an example, we'll use the one that we use. What do we use? An external object to be seeing. And that one, the Buddha called it a striking element. Again translated. Striking element. And we have this internal rupa, internal matter, eyes or retina. That one Buddha calls it receiving element. External object is a striking element, internal object is a receiving element. Striking element and receiving element. When these two come in together, there is a a spark is happening or igniting element. That's a consciousness. Consciousness we call it igniting element. Striking element, receiving element, and striking element. To make it to see let's move clearly, let's use a matchbox. A matchstick is a striking element. Matchbox is a receiving element. When those two come in contact, what happens? Spark flies and fire arises. Just like that. When the external object and internal object come in together and strike it, there's the another element called striking element or sorry, igniting element happens. So that is how Buddha explained. There's a striking element, there's a receiving element, and there's the igniting element. Igniting element is simply the power or awareness to know. Power to know or awareness. That is the igniting element. That's it. That same process, Buddha used different words and explained to us in this nature. Striking, receiving, and igniting. And that is the process. Now we say we must truly understand. Okay? Profoundly understand about this dukkha sasa. Dukkhasesa. The truth of suffering. And in here, what is this dukkha? This little moment is that seeing is a dukkha. So whenever seeing happens, you must observe it in such a way. Ha! There is the striking element, external object. There's a receiving element, internal object. There goes the spark, igniting element. Whenever seeing is happen, you understand explicitly in that sense. When hearing happens, the same thing, the three elements, strike, receive and spark. Smelling happens, strike, receive and spark, and so on, all the five senses. And if you can see the moment, every present moment in such a fashion that's a process going on, you can call it external object, internal object, and the seeing consciousness, or you can simply call it strike element, receiving element, igniting element, or spark, sparking. And that is how one can observe your daily activities. When something has happened, at the beginning is a little bit cumbersome, you think, not you think it is, but you keep exercising and observing in such a way with awareness. Sometimes your emphasis will be deeper on the external object, sometimes your emphasis will be deeper on the internal object, sometimes your emphasis will be deeper on the consciousness itself. But these three, in other words, this is a process that is occurring, happening at this moment. And the next moment come, it is gone. As such, if you understand it, as such, if you understand it, you are seeing, or you are directly experiencing as it really is to what Buddhists call it Nata, non-self. That's in other words, you are directly experiencing the non-self. Your thoughts are not wavered with any ideas or opinions or things, but simply on facts as it is happening. That's what it is. So Buddha said this noble truth of suffering must be thoroughly understood. Completely understood. Thoroughly understood, completely understood. That is our job. Our job is to thoroughly understood, completely understood. And how can we understand it? By experience. And in this one little instance of explanation of seeing, at that moment you really understood that as it really is. External object to be seen, internal object retina, and the attention or seeing consciousness all come in together. A simple process that arises and passed away. And if you really experience and see that you have understood that moment, that is the noble truth of suffering. That is how ones understand noble truth of suffering. Noble truth of suffering must be thoroughly understood. Okay. Now here it is. You do not really understand. In other words, you are ignorant. You are ignorant about the true nature of this mind and matter, the workings of the true nature of the mind and matter. All that it is is you are not focusing, observing in this as it's really happening. At that moment, you are ignorant about it. In other words, you do not fully understand it. In other words, avija. The Pali word is avija. Aviya Pitya Sankara. You know that avija. So that's avija. Simply when you are not knowing the moment as factually as it is happening at that moment, you have avija. You do not understand. You are ignorant about the fact. That's what avija means. Avidja. But as soon as you understand it, why? Because you observed and you see everything as it is. At that moment that avija become vidja. They cancel the A out. In other avija means you understand. In other words, you don't have any more ignorance. You understand. In other words, it is vinya wisdom. Automatically avija ignorance replaced by vinya wisdom. At that moment. That one little observation when you have the perfect observation at that moment your room, the dark room is being switched on and the lights just clear up that moment. That is binya, that is wisdom. Aveya replaces by binya. Ignorance replaces by wisdom or insight. That's it. Our observations are every time when we are observing precisely and know exactly what the moment is. That moment, the wisdom is shining in you, and then it shines and it disappears. It shines and disappears. And how many shines can you make or can you have? It depends on you. Depends on how intensely and consistently and constantly you can observe these moments. That is the amount of wisdom you will have. Wisdom also arises and passed away till you got to the critical mass. Before you get to the critical mass, they come and they go, they come and go. But once you reach the critical mass, that wisdom becomes you and you become that wisdom. It never leaves. As it never leaves at that moment, ignorance. The mental factor ignorance can never arise in that field anymore. Ignorance is gone. So basically it is the ignorance is gone. When you are not observing, ignorance is there. And whenever you are ignorant about it, Avija. There are two types. It's called the devil blinds. Ignorance of the devil blinds. Devil blind is one is it is simply you are ignorant about what is happening. That is one kind of blind. And another kind of blindness is not only that you are not aware or understand what is really happening, at the same time you have another pet theory or pet concept, and you hold on to that concept so tightly you wrongly understand it with your own pet concept or pet opinion or whatever you can call it pet, you can call it something that you are totally devoted to. Any way you can put it, you can put it with that. So what happened was whenever you are not observing at that moment, ignorance arises. One is you simply don't know, and when you do simply don't know, automatically you begin to believe in something that you want to believe, flow into that direction, and you believe with something. And that something most of the time is self. You identify everything with self, self, self, self, self. And that's how self becomes solidified, identify, and then eventually it becomes a mask that you cannot erase. In other words, that is called deity the view. The wrong view or the right view. The right view is something you know exactly as fact at the moment, how it works in intricate details. The wrong view is you do not know the actual facts, how it is working at that moment. That's a wrong view. That's it, wrong view and right view. Samaditi and Macha Diti. The view. So in other words, this view, okay, or Macha Diti, this wrong view, or this ignorance is the cause, suffering is the effect. Wrong view is the cause, suffering is the effect. Because you believe in a certain way, you believe in the self. And as long as you identify the world with self, what arises? There is a likes and dislike, likes and dislike, dice and dislike rises. Facts. You cannot like it, you cannot hate it. Hate it because it is truly fact. Whether you like it, it is there. Whether you hate it, it is there and it is true. But when you identify with self, to yourself, automatically likes and dislikes come in. What is likes? Craving. The na craving. Whenever you like something, you like something that you crave for it. And also, what is dislike? Dislike is dosak, anger, hatred. But what is anger? Anger is not getting what you want. Not getting what you want. In other words, you crave for something that you cannot have it. Or losing what you want. In other words, you are craving for that what you lost. Still, dosa boils down to craving. Loba boils down to craving. Whether you are with likes, that is craving. Whether you are with dislike, there is craving. And why does this craving arise? The craving arises because of the identity of self. The craving arises because you have a wrong view about self. Because of that self, you create or you are involved or you are engaged with craving. And whenever there's a craving, there is suffering. So in a deep-rooted sense, ignorance is the main puppet master. Ignorance is the main puppet master. But of course, the Buddha taught the proximate cause. Suffering is the effect. But why does the craving arise? Because of ignorance, awajya. That's why people who are attending Batisha Samubada. Okay. The cycle of birth and death. Well know what are the two causes, two main root causes of birth and death. Abijah and Datna. Ignorance and craving. They are twin brothers. Awija and Dana. Of course, Awija is the older brother. But Datna, the younger brother, is the one who really cut the sword. Use the sword. So the right view. When you have the right view, it is said you have wisdom. When you have the wrong view, it is said you have the ignorance, not knowing truly what is really happening at this moment on this mind and on this matter. Like we are explaining on one instance, one moment basis. But we know we have to observe, observe, and moments. Moment never stop. Present moment never stop. There's a present moment, and there's a next present moment, next present moment, next present moment, it never stops. And our job is to be able to identify the factual existence of all the conditions at every moment, the best we can. That's how we unravel. And when we reach the critical mass, then that wisdom becomes you, and you become that critical. That wisdom and what that is called enlightenment. So in here you will see how this avijja and dana ignorance and craving works and how it gives suffering the first noble truth. And now you also see this ignorance. Created this craving, and this craving cause, and suffering is the effect. That's the first noble truth and second noble truth. And that's how the cycle of birth and death goes on and on. Because the two root causes, ignorance and craving. And that's how suffering arises. So for the suffering to go away, if we want to eliminate, if we want to eliminate suffering, what do we do? We have to abandon this craving. We have to uproot this craving. And when we can uproot and abandon the craving, there will be no more suffering. And as soon as you reach that, we can step into the other two, Local Dura or Ultra Mundane Noble Truth. So in here, we must abandon this craving. To abandon the craving, there are two steps you need to do. Just like any disease. Whenever there is disease, you can do two ways. One is you prevent everything that could happen and you make sure you don't have the disease. But when you got it, you have to cure it. So prevention and cure. In here too, this craving, we have prevention and cure. What is prevention? Sila. Okay. Morality, that is prevention. Samadhi or Samatak concentration. That is prevention. They temporarily pushed away. And that's how you can prevent it by having sila and samadhi. But if you want to cure it, you need bhavana, mental development, mental culture, which is satipatthana vipassana. And if you are going to abandon this dana craving, if you want to uproot this craving, there are four things one needs to know. First and foremost, you must have a correct method. Correct technique to practice, to abandon this. So you must really study and learn the correct method, correct technique. And while you are learning that, you learned it seriously and respectfully. If you do it superficially, you won't get it. Whatever the method you are practicing, you must take it seriously and you must take it respectfully. That is one. And once you have done that, you must study and you must learn. You must study and you must learn that technique. Study and learn mean you have to perfect the system. You must know exactly what it is. Okay, just for an example, ask a straight question. What is vipassana? You don't even pause for a moment, you have the precise correct answer in your mind, and you must be able to say it. If you have to think about it, what vipassana is, then you are not under step two. How do you observe? You must be able to instantly answer that question. Only then will you be able to, if you have to figure out how do you observe, then you are not with it yet. Okay, what do you observe? You must have a precise, correct answer instantly. That is what it means by you are learning, you are making that knowledge a part of you. It's in your memory bank. You can pull it out at any instant. The correct, precise answer of the technique that we are going to do, the salient points of what we are going to do, you must learn in such a fashion. If you have to stop and think for that answer, you are not there yet. Because these are the salient points, these are the ones that you need every moment. Or there are some cases it can reinforce you. As an example, we talk about pleasant and unpleasant already, and they are all suffering. So you have a little line saying, sukkha is to cut, sukkha is to cut, sukkha is to kut. Reinforcement. You are not blindly just saying because your teacher tells you to do. You are saying it's because you are intellectually have analyzed and understood and downloaded that line instantly on a quick access basis. Something like that. That is called learning what you are doing. That's a second step. And you to do that, of course, by reading, by listening, by reflecting and analyzing yourself, that is how you go. And while you are doing that, there will be roadblocks, a certain aspect that you don't know, that you are not quite clear, then you are confused about. That one you discuss with the teacher, that you have confidence in. Discussion with the teacher in general. And that is what our meditation retreats are about. Interviews are the discussion of the aspect that you are not quite clear and confused. Sometimes you don't even know that you are not doing right. Discussion with the teacher is number three. And number four, number four is contemplation. All the theory that you know, that you learned, that you memorized, respectfully and seriously, you put into practice. You practice, you practice, and that practice there's no thoughts at all. In other words, you are trying to directly experience all the theories that you learn through the practice. It's called contemplation. That is where your theory and your experiential, okay, all the experience, direct experience come together face to face and reconcile. That's number four. And if once one to uproot this craving, once one to abandon that craving, a yogi needs to go these four steps. By doing so, you will abandon the craving, the second noble truth, and you will thoroughly understand the first noble truth, dukkha, all mind and matter. Are nothing but suffering. You will understand the first two noble truth. May all of you be able to practice Satipathana Vipassana, which is the prevention and curing of all our mental ills and uproot craving as soon as possible. Sadhu Sadhu Sadu Buddhambudemi Dhambujem Sangam Bujemi.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:00

Thank you very much.