The Insight Meditation of Achaan Chah
Part II Correcting Our Views
The Discriminating Mind
Right understanding ultimately means non-discrimination -- seeing all people as the same, neither good nor bad, neither clever nor foolish, not thinking that honey is sweet and good and some other food is bitter. Although you may eat several kinds of food, when you absorb and excrete them, they all become the same. Is it one or many? Is a glass big? In relation to a little cup, yes; when placed next to a pitcher, no.
Our desire and ignorance, our discrimination colors everything in this way. This is the world we create. Again, a pitcher is neither heavy nor light; we just feel that it is one way or the other. In the Zen koan of the flag in the wind, two persons are watching a flag; one says it is the wind that moves, the other say it is the flag. They can argue forever, take sticks and fight it out, all to no avail, for it is the mind that moves.
There are always differences. Get to know those differences, yet learn to see the sameness too. In our group people come from different backgrounds, different cultures. Yet without thinking, “This one’s Thai, that one’s Lao, he’s Cambodian, he’s a Westerner,” we should have mutual understanding and respect for the ways of others. Learn to see the underlying sameness of all things, how they are all truly equal, truly empty. Then you can know how to deal with the apparent differences wisely. But do not get attached even to this sameness.
Why is sugar sweet and water tasteless? It is just their nature. So too with thinking and stillness, pain and pleasure – it is wrong understanding to want thinking to cease. Sometimes there is thought, sometimes stillness. We must see that both are by nature impermanent, unsatisfactory, not a cause for lasting happiness. But if we continue to worry and think further,” I am suffering, I want to stop thinking,” this wrong understanding only complicates things.
At times, we may feel that thinking is suffering, like a thief robbing us of the present. What can we do to stop it? In the day, it is light; at night, it is dark. Is this itself suffering? Only if we compare the way things are now with other situations we have known and wish it were otherwise. Ultimately things are just as they are -- only our comparisons cause us to suffer.
You see this mind at work -- do you consider it to be you or yours? “I don’t know if it’s me or mine,” you answer, “but it’s certainly out of control,” It is just like a monkey jumping about senselessly. It goes upstairs, gets bored, runs back downstairs, get tired of that, goes to a movie, get bored again, has good food or poor food, gets bored with that too. Its behavior is driven not by dispassion but by different forms of aversion and fear.
You have to learn control. Stop caring for the monkey - -care for the truth of life instead. See the real nature of the mind: impermanent, unsatisfactory, empty. Learn to be its master; chain it down if you must. Do not just follow it, let it wear itself out and die. Then you have a dead monkey. Let the dead monkey rot away, and you have monkey’s bones.
Still enlightenment does not mean to become dead like a Buddha statue. One who is enlightened thinks also but knows the process as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty of self. We who practice must see these things clearly. We need to investigate suffering and stop its causes. If we do not see it, wisdom can never arise. There should be no guesswork; we must see things exactly as they are – feelings are just feelings, thought are just thoughts. This is the way to end all our problems.
We can see the mind as a lotus. Some lotuses are still stuck in the mud, some have climbed above the mud but are still underwater, some have reached the surface, while others are open in the sun, stain-free. Which lotus do you choose to be? If you find yourself below the surface, watch out for the bites of fishes and turtles.
Part II Correcting Our Views
The Discriminating Mind
Right understanding ultimately means non-discrimination -- seeing all people as the same, neither good nor bad, neither clever nor foolish, not thinking that honey is sweet and good and some other food is bitter. Although you may eat several kinds of food, when you absorb and excrete them, they all become the same. Is it one or many? Is a glass big? In relation to a little cup, yes; when placed next to a pitcher, no.
Our desire and ignorance, our discrimination colors everything in this way. This is the world we create. Again, a pitcher is neither heavy nor light; we just feel that it is one way or the other. In the Zen koan of the flag in the wind, two persons are watching a flag; one says it is the wind that moves, the other say it is the flag. They can argue forever, take sticks and fight it out, all to no avail, for it is the mind that moves.
There are always differences. Get to know those differences, yet learn to see the sameness too. In our group people come from different backgrounds, different cultures. Yet without thinking, “This one’s Thai, that one’s Lao, he’s Cambodian, he’s a Westerner,” we should have mutual understanding and respect for the ways of others. Learn to see the underlying sameness of all things, how they are all truly equal, truly empty. Then you can know how to deal with the apparent differences wisely. But do not get attached even to this sameness.
Why is sugar sweet and water tasteless? It is just their nature. So too with thinking and stillness, pain and pleasure – it is wrong understanding to want thinking to cease. Sometimes there is thought, sometimes stillness. We must see that both are by nature impermanent, unsatisfactory, not a cause for lasting happiness. But if we continue to worry and think further,” I am suffering, I want to stop thinking,” this wrong understanding only complicates things.
At times, we may feel that thinking is suffering, like a thief robbing us of the present. What can we do to stop it? In the day, it is light; at night, it is dark. Is this itself suffering? Only if we compare the way things are now with other situations we have known and wish it were otherwise. Ultimately things are just as they are -- only our comparisons cause us to suffer.
You see this mind at work -- do you consider it to be you or yours? “I don’t know if it’s me or mine,” you answer, “but it’s certainly out of control,” It is just like a monkey jumping about senselessly. It goes upstairs, gets bored, runs back downstairs, get tired of that, goes to a movie, get bored again, has good food or poor food, gets bored with that too. Its behavior is driven not by dispassion but by different forms of aversion and fear.
You have to learn control. Stop caring for the monkey - -care for the truth of life instead. See the real nature of the mind: impermanent, unsatisfactory, empty. Learn to be its master; chain it down if you must. Do not just follow it, let it wear itself out and die. Then you have a dead monkey. Let the dead monkey rot away, and you have monkey’s bones.
Still enlightenment does not mean to become dead like a Buddha statue. One who is enlightened thinks also but knows the process as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty of self. We who practice must see these things clearly. We need to investigate suffering and stop its causes. If we do not see it, wisdom can never arise. There should be no guesswork; we must see things exactly as they are – feelings are just feelings, thought are just thoughts. This is the way to end all our problems.
We can see the mind as a lotus. Some lotuses are still stuck in the mud, some have climbed above the mud but are still underwater, some have reached the surface, while others are open in the sun, stain-free. Which lotus do you choose to be? If you find yourself below the surface, watch out for the bites of fishes and turtles.
