Friday, 05/23/2025
Posting Essays
Nibbana Is Giving Up, Letting Go, and Being Free
Update: 30/10/2016
The basic principles of practice are not beyond our\r\nunderstanding. In practicing generosity, for example, if we lack wisdom, there\r\nwon’t be any merit. Without understanding, we think that generosity merely\r\nmeans giving things. “When I feel like giving, I’ll give. If I feel like\r\nstealing something, I’ll steal it. Then if I feel generous, I’ll give\r\nsomething.†It’s like having a barrel full of water. You scoop out a bucketful,\r\nand then you pour back in a bucketful. Scoop it out again, pour it in again,\r\nscoop it out and pour it in—like this. When will you empty the barrel? Can you\r\nsee an end to it? Can you see such practice becoming a cause for realizing\r\nnibbana? Will the barrel become empty? One scoop out, one scoop in—can you see\r\nwhen it will be finished?
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Going back and forth like this is vatta, the cycle\r\nitself. If we’re talking about really letting go, giving up good as well as\r\nevil, then there’s only scooping out. Even if there’s only a little bit, you\r\nscoop it out. You don’t put in anything more, and you keep scooping out. Even\r\nif you only have a small scoop to use, you do what you can, and in this way,\r\nthe time will come when the barrel is empty. If you’re scooping out a bucket\r\nand pouring back a bucket, scooping out and then pouring back—well, think about\r\nit. When will you see an empty barrel? This dhamma isn’t something distant.\r\nIt’s right here in the barrel. You can do it at home. Try it. Can you empty a\r\nwater barrel like that? Do it all day tomorrow and see what happens.
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Give up all evil, practice what is good, and purify\r\nthe mind. Giving up wrongdoing first, we then start to develop the good. What\r\nis the good and meritorious? Where is it? It’s like fish in the water. If we\r\nscoop all the water out,
\r\n\r\nwe’ll get the fish—that’s a simple way to put it. If\r\nwe scoop out and pour back in, the fish remain in the barrel. If we don’t\r\nremove all forms of wrongdoing,
\r\n\r\nwe won’t see merit, and we won’t see what is true\r\nand right. Scooping out and pouring back, scooping out and pouring back, we\r\nonly remain as we are. Going back and forth like this, we only waste our time\r\nand whatever we do is meaningless: listening to teachings is meaningless; making\r\nofferings is meaningless; all our efforts to practice are in vain. We don’t\r\nunderstand the principles of the Buddha’s way, so our actions don’t bear the\r\ndesired fruit.
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When the Buddha taught about practice, he wasn’t\r\nonly talking about something for ordained people. He was talking about\r\npracticing well, practicing correctly. Supatipanno means those who practice\r\nwell. Ujupatipanno means those who practice directly. Nayapatipanno means those\r\nwho practice for the realization of path, fruition, and nibbana. Samicipatipanno\r\nmeans those whose practice is inclined toward truth. It could be anyone. These\r\nare the sangha of true disciples (savaka) of the Lord Buddha. Laywomen living\r\nat home can be savaka. Laymen can be savaka. Bringing these qualities to\r\nfulfillment is what makes one a savaka. One can be a true disciple of the\r\nBuddha and realize enlightenment.
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Most of us in the Buddhist fold don’t have such\r\ncomplete understanding. Our knowledge doesn’t go this far. We do our various\r\nactivities thinking that we will get some kind of merit from them. We think\r\nthat listening to teachings or making offerings is meritorious. That’s what\r\nwe’re told. But someone who gives offerings to “get†merit is making bad kamma.\r\nYou can’t quite understand this. Someone who gives in order to get merit has\r\ninstantly accumulated bad kamma. If you give in order to let go and free the\r\nmind, that brings you merit. If you do it to get something, that’s bad kamma.
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Listening to teachings to really understand the\r\nBuddha’s way is difficult. The dhamma becomes hard to understand when the\r\npractices that people do—keeping precepts, sitting in meditation, giving—are\r\ndone in order to get something in return. We want merit, we want something.\r\nWell, if something can be gotten, then who gets it? We get it. When that is\r\nlost, whose thing is it that is lost? The person who doesn’t have something\r\ndoesn’t lose anything. And when it’s lost, who suffers over it?
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Don’t you think that living your life to get things\r\nbrings you suffering? Otherwise, you could just go on as before trying to get\r\neverything. And yet, if we make the mind empty, we gain everything. Higher\r\nrealms, nibbana, and all their accomplishments—we gain all of it. In making\r\nofferings, we don’t have any attachment or aim; the mind is empty and relaxed.\r\nWe can let go and put down. It’s like carrying a log and complaining it’s\r\nheavy. If someone tells you to put it down, you’ll say, “If I put it down, I\r\nwon’t have anything.†Well, now you do have something—you have heaviness. But\r\nyou don’t have lightness. So do you want lightness, or do you want to keep\r\ncarrying? One person says to put it down, the other says he’s afraid he won’t\r\nhave anything. They’re talking past each other.
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As the knower of the world, the Buddha saw danger in\r\nthe round of samsara. For us who are his followers, it’s the same. If we know\r\nall things as they are, that will bring us well-being. Where exactly are those\r\nthings that cause us to have happiness and suffering? Think about it well. They\r\nare only things that we create ourselves. Whenever we create the idea that\r\nsomething is us or ours, that is when we suffer.
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Things can bring us harm or benefit, depending on\r\nour understanding. So the Buddha taught us to pay attention to ourselves, to\r\nour own actions, and to the creations of our minds. Whenever we have extreme\r\nlove or aversion to anyone or anything, whenever we are particularly anxious,\r\nthat will lead us to great suffering. This is important, so take a good look at\r\nit. Investigate these feelings of strong love or aversion, and then take a step\r\nback. If you get
\r\n\r\ntoo close, they’ll bite. Do you hear this? If you\r\ngrab at and caress these things, they bite and they kick. When you feed grass\r\nto your buffalo, you have to be careful. If you’re careful when it kicks out,\r\nit won’t kick you. You have to feed it and take care of it, but you should be\r\nsmart enough to do that without getting bitten. Love for children, relatives,\r\nwealth, and possessions will bite. Do you understand this? When you feed it,\r\ndon’t get too close. When you give it water, don’t get too close. Pull on the\r\nrope when you need to. This is the way of dhamma, recognizing impermanence,\r\nunsatisfactoriness, and lack of self, recognizing the danger and employing\r\ncaution and restraint in a mindful way.
\r\n\r\nAjahn\r\nChah – Lion’s Roar