Birth & Death
People come with questions — some of which I can remember — and everyone has the question that's waiting right at the barn door: Is there a next world after death? The next world, who goes on to the next world: These sorts of things aren't any one person's issue. They're an issue for all of us who are carrying a burden. When people ask this sort of question, I ask them in return, 'Was there a yesterday? Was there a this morning? Is there a present at this moment?' They admit that there was and is. 'Then will there be a tomorrow? A day after tomorrow? A this month? A next month? A this year? A next year and years after that?'
Things in the past that we can remember, we can use to make guesses about the future. Even for things that haven't yet happened, we can make comparisons with things that have already occurred. The future has to follow the way things have been in the past. For example, yesterday has already occurred, today is occurring. These things have followed one after the other. We know this, we remember, we haven't forgotten. This afternoon, this evening, tonight, tomorrow morning: We've already seen that things have been like this. This is the way things have happened, without being otherwise, and so we accept that this is the way they will continue to be.
Doubts about this world and the next, or about things concerning ourselves: This is delusion about ourselves. This is why these things become big issues, causing endless fuss all over the world of rebirth. 'Is there a next world? When people die, are they reborn?' These questions go together, for who is it that takes birth and dies? We ourselves — always dying and taking birth. What comes to this world and goes to the next world is us. Who else would it be? If not for this being of the world, this wanderer, there wouldn't be anyone weighed down with these questions and burdens.
This is the harm of delusion, of being unable to remember. It shows within us, but we can't catch hold of its causes, of why it has come about. Things that have happened, we can't remember. Our own affairs spin us around in circles and get us so tangled up that we don't know which way to go. This is why self-delusion is an endless complication. Being deluded about other things is not so bad, but being deluded about ourselves blocks all the exits. We can't find any way out. The results come right back at us — they don't go anywhere else — bringing us suffering, because these sorts of doubts are questions with which we bind ourselves, not questions by which we set ourselves free. We can have no hope of resolving and understanding these doubts if we don't find confirmation of the Dhamma in the area of meditation.
This is why the Lord Buddha taught us to unravel and look at our own affairs. But unraveling our own affairs is something very critical. If we do it by guessing or speculating or whatever, we won't succeed. The only way to succeed is to develop goodness step by step as a means of support and of drawing us in to mental development (bhavana), or meditation, so as to unravel and look at our own affairs, which lie gathered in the range of meditation. This is what will lead us to know clearly and to cut through our doubts, at the same time leading us to satisfactory results. We will be able to stop wondering about death and rebirth or death and annihilation.
What are our own affairs? The affairs of the heart. The heart is what acts, creating causes and results for itself all the time: pleasure, pain, complications, and turmoil. For the most part, it ties itself down more than helping itself. If we don't force it into good ways, the hearts reaps trouble as a result, the suffering that comes from being agitated and anxious, thinking restlessly from various angles for no worthwhile reason. The results we receive are an important factor in making us pained and unsettled. This is thus a difficult matter, a heavy matter for all those who are deluded about the world, deluded about themselves, agitated by the world, and agitated about themselves without being interested in confirming the truth about themselves using the principles of the Dhamma, principles that guarantee the truth. For example, once we die, we must be reborn; as long as the seeds of rebirth are in the heart, we have to continue being reborn repeatedly. It can't be otherwise — for instance, being annihilated at death.
The Buddha teaches us to keep watch of the instigator. In other words, we should observe our own heart, which is what causes birth and death. If we don't understand it, he tells us various angles from which to approach until we understand and can deal with it properly. In particular, he teaches us to meditate, using any of the meditation themes, repeating it so that the mind — which has no footing to hold to, which is in such a turmoil of finding no refuge that it dwells in unlimited dreams and infatuations — will gain enough of a footing to get on its feet, will gain quiet and calm, free from the distraction and unsteadiness that would destroy the peace of mind we want.
For example, he teaches us to repeat 'buddho, dhammo, sangho' or 'atthi' (bones), 'kesa' (hair of the head), 'loma' (hair of the body), or whatever phrase suits our temperament, being mindful to keep watch over our meditation theme so as not to become forgetful and send the mind elsewhere, away from it. This is so that the mind, which we used to send in various places, can latch onto or dwell with its Dhamma-theme: its meditation word. Our awareness, which used to be scattered among various preoccupations, will now gather into that point — the mind — which is the gathering place of awareness. All the currents of our awareness will converge at the Dhamma-theme we are repeating or pursuing with interest. This is because the meditation word — which is something for the mind to hold to, so that it can gain a footing — becomes more and more an object of clear and conspicuous awareness. Thus at the beginning stages of meditation, the meditation word is very important.
Once we have seen the intrinsic value of the peace that appears this way, we at the same time see clearly the harm that comes from the agitation and turmoil of the mind that has no footing to hold to, and that creates havoc for itself. We needn't ask anyone: The benefits of a peaceful mind and the harm of an agitated mind, we see within our own mind from having practiced meditation. This is a step, the first step, by which the Buddha teaches us to know the affairs of the mind.
We then try to make the mind progressively more firmly settled and calm by repeating the meditation word, as already mentioned. We keep at it, again and again, until we become adept, until the mind can become still the way we want it to. The sense of well-being that arises from a calm heart becomes even more prominent and clear all the time. As soon as the mind becomes still, giving rise to clear and prominent awareness, it is at the same time a gathering in of the defilements into a single spot so that we can see them more clearly and more easily observe their behavior — so that we can more easily cure them and remove them with the levels of discernment suited to dealing with crude, intermediate, and subtle defilements step by step.
Now, concerning defilements, the things that force the mind to be agitated in countless, inconceivable ways: We can't catch sight of what defilement is, what the mind is, what the Dhamma is, until we first have a firm basis of mental stillness. When the mind gathers in and is still, the defilements gather in and are still as well. When the mind draws into itself, to be itself or to become a point on which we can focus and understand, the affairs of defilement also enter a restricted range in that same point. They gather in at the heart and rarely ever run loose to stir up trouble for the heart as they used to before the mind was still.
Once the mind is still so that it can stand on its feet, we are then taught to use our discernment to investigate, unravel, and contemplate the various parts of the body in which the defilements hide out. What is the mind interested in? When it isn't quiet, with what does it like to involve itself? While the mind is quiet, it doesn't stir up trouble for itself, but a common habit with us human beings is that once we have gained peace and relaxation, we get lazy. We simply want to lie down and rest. We don't want to unravel the body, the elements, or the khandhas with our mindfulness and discernment for the sake of seeing the truth and removing the various defilements from the heart. We don't like to reflect on the fact that those who have abandoned and removed the various kinds of defilement that hide out in the body and the khandhas have done so by using mindfulness and discernment. As for mental stillness or concentration, that's simply a gathering together of the defilements into a restricted range. It's not an abandoning or a removal of defilement. Please remember this and take it to heart.
The heart, when it isn't still, tends to get entangled with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations, and to take them as issues for stirring itself up. We can know with our mindfulness and discernment which of the various sights, sounds, etc., the mind tends to favor most strongly. While we are investigating, we can know with our mindfulness and discernment the objects with which the mind is involving itself. We can observe the affairs of the mind because the mind has been still. As soon as it begins to head out toward its various preoccupations, we know. This is why we are taught to investigate and unravel things with our discernment so as to know what the mind goes to involve itself with. Try to observe so as to know, so as to see clearly with mindfulness and discernment while you are investigating. Only when you are stilling the mind in concentration is there no need for you to investigate, because concentration and discernment take turns working at different times, as I have already explained.
When you are investigating visual objects, with which visual object is the mind most involved? What is the reason? Look at the object. Dissect it. Analyze it into its parts so as to see it clearly for what it truly is. Once you have dissected the object — whatever it is — so as to see it with discernment in line with its truth, at the same time you will see the absurdity, the deceptiveness of the mind that grows attached and misconstrues things in all kinds of ways without any real reason, without any basis in fact. Once you have investigated carefully, you'll see that the object has none of the worth construed and assigned to it by the mind. There are simply the assumptions of the mind that has fallen for the object, that's all. Once you have investigated, separating the various parts of 'their' body or 'your' body so as to see them in detail, you won't see anything of any worth or substance at all. The heart of its own accord will see the harmfulness of its assumptions, its labels and attachments. The more it investigates, the more clearly it sees — not only the various sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations, but also the acts of the mind involved with those objects — until it fully knows and clearly sees with discernment, because it has been constantly unraveling things both within and without. You fully know and clearly see the acts inside the heart that become involved, knowing that they come about for this reason and that, all of which are thoroughly absurd.
Before, you didn't know why the mind was involved. But now you know clearly that it is involved for this reason and that: namely, delusion and mistaken assumptions. When you investigate in line with the truth and see the true nature of external things, you know clearly within yourself that the mind has construed phenomena to be like this and like that, which is why it has continually developed more and more attachment and clinging, more and more of the defilements of love and hatred. The heart then realizes its own absurdity.
When the heart realizes that it has been deluded and absurd, it withdraws inward, because if it were to continue to think of becoming attached to those things, it would get cut right through by discernment — so what would it gain from becoming attached? To investigate so as to know clearly that this is this, and that is that, in line with the truth of every individual thing of every sort: This is the way to unravel the great mass of problems that, taken together, are results — the mass of suffering inside the heart. This is how we are taught to unravel it.
As discernment constantly keeps unraveling things without letup until it understands clearly and distinctly, we don't have to tell it to let go. Once the mind knows, it lets go of its own accord. It is bound to let go of its own accord. The mind attached is the mind that doesn't yet know, doesn't yet understand with discernment. Once the full heart knows, it fully lets go, with no concern or regrets. All the concerns that used to bother and disturb the mind vanish of their own accord because discernment sees right through them. Once it sees everything clearly and distinctly, what is there left to grope for? The problems of the heart that used to be broad and wide-ranging now become more and more restricted. Problems concerning outside affairs become less and less, as I have said in previous talks.
The next step is to unravel the mind, the gathering point of subtle defilements, so as to see what it is looking for when it 'blips' out. Where does it 'blip' from? What is there that pressures the mind into forming thoughts of various issues? When mindfulness and discernment can keep up with the thoughts that come 'blipping' out, these thoughts vanish immediately without amounting to anything, without forming issues to entangle us as they did before. This is because mindfulness and discernment are wise to them, and always ready to herd them in and wipe them out as they keep following in on the tracks of the origin of defilement to see exactly where it is. Where do its children and grandchildren — the defilements — come from? Animals have their parents, what are the parents of these defilements? Where are they? Why do they keep forming again and again, thinking again and again? Why do they give rise to assumptions and interpretations, increasing suffering and stress without stop?
Actually, thought-formations are formed at the mind. They don't come from anywhere else. So investigate, following them in, step by step, without losing the trail that will lead you to the truth, to the culprit. This is genuine exploring, observing the affairs of all the defilements, using the power of genuine mindfulness and discernment. Ultimately we will know what the mind is lacking, what it is still connected with, what it is interested in, what it wants to know and to see.
So we follow the connections, follow the seeds on in. Day by day, the defilements become more and more restricted, more and more restricted. This is because the bridges that connect them to sights, sound, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and the various things of the world in general have been cut away from the mind by using continual mindfulness and discernment to the point where we have no more doubts. It's as if the outside world didn't exist. There remain only the preoccupations that form — blip, blip, blip — in the mind. This is where the rebellious monarch lies. The one who concocts and creates, the one who struggles and writhes restlessly in big and little ways, lies right here.
Before, we didn't know in what ways the mind was writhing. All we knew were the results that appeared, unsatisfactory every time, giving us nothing but suffering and stress, which no one in the world wants. Our own heart was so burdened with stress that it couldn't find a way out, because it had no inkling of how to remedy things. But now that we know, these things gradually disappear so that we know and see more and more clearly at the mind, which is where unawareness is performing as an actor, as an issue-maker, here inside us. It can't find anything to latch onto outside, so it simply acts inside. Why doesn't it latch on? Because mindfulness and discernment understand, and have it surrounded. So how could it latch onto anything? All it does is go 'blip, blip, blip' in the mind. We now see it more clearly and focus our investigation on it, scratch away at it, dig away at it with mindfulness and discernment until we have it surrounded every time the mind makes a move. There are no longer any lapses in alertness as there were in the first stages when mindfulness and discernment were still stumbling and crawling along.
Our persistence at this level is no longer a matter of every activity. It becomes a matter of every mental moment in which the mind ripples. Mindfulness and discernment have to know both when the rippling comes out and when it vanishes — and so there are no issues that can arise in the moment the mind is fashioning a thought, an assumption, or an interpretation. This is because our rocket-fast mindfulness and discernment can keep up with things. As soon as a rippling occurs, we know. When we know, it vanishes. No issues can arise or connect. They vanish the moment they appear. They can't branch out anywhere because the bridges to outside matters have been cut by mindfulness and discernment.
When mindfulness and discernment are exploring earnestly, relentlessly, unflaggingly, they want to know, to see, and to destroy whatever is hazardous. 'What causes us to take birth as individuals and beings? What leads us to wander in the round of rebirth? What are the causes, what are the conditions that connect things? Where are they right now?' This is called scratching away with mindfulness and discernment, digging away at the mind of unawareness. There is no way we can escape knowing, seeing, and severing the important cause and condition that creates suffering and stress for the beings of the world: namely, the defilement of unawareness that has infiltrated the mind in an insidious way. See? This is the power of mindfulness, discernment, conviction, and persistence on this level, something that meditators never imagine will be possible to this extent.
This is where defilements begin to reveal themselves, because they have no place to hide. They no longer have the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations in which they used to hole up, because the bridges have been cut. Their only hideout is in the mind: The mind is the hideout of unawareness. When we go ransacking through the mind until everything is smashed completely to smithereens with nothing left — in the same way that we used discernment to investigate phenomena in general — then when the mind of unawareness is ransacked in this way, ultimately the supreme defilement — unawareness, the emperor of the round of rebirth — is completely obliterated from the mind. At this point, how can we help but know what it is that causes birth on this or that level? As for where we will or won't be reborn, that's not important. What's important is seeing clearly that this is what has caused birth and death.
This is how we prove whether death is followed by rebirth or annihilation. We have to prove it at the mind by practicing in line with the principles of mental development, in the same way the Buddha and his Noble Disciples practiced and knew so that it was clear to their hearts. There is no other way to know. Don't go groping, guessing, scratching at fleas. You'll end up all mangy and dirty, without gaining anything at all. When we reach this point, it's called eliminating birth — whose primary seeds lie within — completely from the mind. From this moment onward, there is nothing that can ever again connect and branch out. Mindfulness and discernment on the level of Dhamma-realization know this completely.
This is the culprit who asks, 'Is there a next world?' This is the one who reserves a place in the next world, the one who reserved our place in past worlds, the one who has been born and has died over and over and over again, unceasingly, relentlessly, to the point where it can't remember the births, the deaths, the pleasures, the pains, the sufferings large and small in its various lives. This is the one.
So please remember its face and take it to heart. Probe it and slash it away to smithereens. Don't show it any mercy: You'll simply be feeding and fattening it for it to come back and destroy you.
When we gather the defilements, they come into the one mind. They gather here and we destroy them right here. Once we have finished destroying them so that nothing is left, the questions about birth, death, and the suffering and stress that result from birth and death no longer exist. We can know this clearly and fully for ourselves in a way that is immediately apparent.
There is no more problem about whether or not there is a next world. Our past worlds, we have already abandoned. As for the next world, the bridges have all been sent flying. And as for the present, we're wise to it. There are no conventions, no matter now refined, left in the mind. This is truly a mind with no more problems. This is where we solve the mind's problems. Once they are all solved here, there will never be any problems again.
No matter how wide the world, no matter how many universes there are, they are all a matter of conventional reality, which has no limit. The heart that knows all around itself is no longer involved.
The affairs that have been constantly assaulting us up to the present, and that will do so on into the future, are the affairs of this mind that has hazards buried within itself. That's all there is. When these hazards have been entirely removed, there is nothing left to be dangerous or poisonous ever again. The question of whether or not there is a next world no longer holds any interest, because the realization has gone straight to the heart that it is done with the question of connecting up with any other world again. So in studying and solving our own problem, we tackle it right here. This way there's hope that we can put an end to it — at the same time not causing any harm to ourselves or to others at all.
The Lord Buddha solved the problem right here. His arahant disciples solved it right here — knew it right here, severed it completely right here. The proclamation that the Teacher was completely free of suffering and stress, that he was the foremost teacher of the world, came from this knowledge and this freedom from issues. Our study of the world is completed right here at the mind. Our study of the Dhamma reaches full completion right here.
The 'world' means the world of living beings. 'Living beings' (satta) means those who are caught up, caught up right at the mind. This is where we cut through the problem. This is where we study and know. The arahant disciples studied and knew right here with their full hearts — and that was the end of the problem. They solved the problem and it fell away, with nothing remaining.
But as for us, we take on the whole thing: the entire heap of suffering and stress. We take on all problems, but we aren't willing to solve them. We simply hoard them to weigh ourselves down all the time. Our heart is thus filled with a heap of stress that nothing else can equal, because nothing else is as heavy as a heart heaped with stress. Carrying this heap of stress and problems is heavy on the heart because we haven't completed our studies. We carry nothing but this heap because of our delusion.
When vijja — true knowledge — has appeared and eradicated all the hazards from the heart, this is what it means to 'graduate' in line with natural principles, with none of the conferring of degrees or titles that would cause us to become even more deluded. To complete our study of the Dhamma in the heart means that we have erased it completely of all delusion, with no traces remaining.
At that moment, the three levels of existence — the levels of sensuality, form, and formlessness — become no more problem, because they all lie in the heart. The level of sensuality is a mind composed of sensuality. The levels of form and formlessness are the conventions of the various things in those levels buried in the heart. When the heart removes them, that's the end of the problem. When we solve the problem, this is where we solve it. This world and the next world lie right here, because that which steps into any world lies right here. This mind is what steps out to receive stress in greater or lesser measure. The motor, the propeller, lies here in the heart and nowhere else.
The Lord Buddha thus taught at the right point, the most appropriate point: the heart, which is the primary culprit. The things I have mentioned here, with whom do they lie if not with each of us? And if we don't solve them right here, where will we solve them?
Living beings have to go to their various worlds through the power of the good and bad kamma within the heart. That which goes to the worlds — to the bonfires — is this very heart. If we don't solve the problem right here, there is no way of escaping the bonfires of stress and anxiety. If we solve the problem right here, there is no problem as to where the fires are, because we can keep ourselves protected. That's all there is to it!
All of these things are very heavy worlds for living beings in general. Whatever problems arise, they arise right here. 'Is death followed by rebirth? By annihilation? Is there a next world? Does hell exist? Does heaven? Does evil exist? Does merit?' Everywhere I go, there's the same question: 'Do heaven and hell exist?' I never feel like answering. I don't see any reason to answer it, because that which is burdened with heaven and hell is the heart, which everyone already has. So why waste time answering? After all, I'm not a record-keeper for heaven and hell!
Straighten things out right here at the cause that will go to heaven and hell. Straighten out the bad causes and foster the good. There will then be no stress, if we straighten things out right on target. And how can we miss? The well-taught Dhamma (svakkhata-dhamma) teaches us to solve things right on target, not off-target. The Dhamma that leads (niyyanika-dhamma) by means of the well-taught Dhamma, leads out those who are caught up in stress and anxiety through the power of delusion. Where will we solve things if we don't solve them at the heart? The big problems lie solely at the heart, at this awareness. Crudeness is a matter of this awareness. Refinement is a matter of this awareness. That which makes people crude or refined is this awareness, with defilement as the reinforcement. If the mind becomes refined, it's because goodness is the reinforcement, making it refined until it goes beyond the final point of refinement, beyond the final point of conventions, and ends up gaining release from all stress, with no seeds for any further connections.
Another question that people are always asking is how to overcome laziness. If we were to tell them to use laziness to overcome laziness, it would be tantamount to telling them to become an enemy of beds, blankets, and pillows by sleeping without ever waking up. It would be as if they were already dead, because laziness makes you weak and listless like a person ready to die. How can you use laziness to cure laziness? Once you get a nice resting place as a means of lulling you to drown in sleep, it's as if you were already dead — dead right there on the pillow! Even when you wake up, you don't want to get up, because laziness stomps all over you and destroys you, forcing you not to get up. This is how it goes when you use laziness to cure laziness.
If you use energy and persistence to cure laziness, then you get right up, ready to fight. If there's a fight, you have hope of winning. But if you simply lie prostrate, all you can do is lose — although whether we should call it losing or something else is hard to say, because you don't even put up a fight at all, so how can you say that you lose? If there's a fight and you can't win, then you can say that this person wins and that person loses. But here there's no fight at all! You simply lie there groveling. If you don't call this being a servant in the house of defilements, what would you call it? Because that's what it is: being a servant in their house. If you use laziness — to the point of being its servant — to cure defilement, you end up piling on even more defilements. Or what would you say? As things stand, defilements already fill the heart, so if you foster them even more, where are you going to put them? You've got only one heart! The only way is to remove defilements so that you can begin to breathe, and not let them sit on top of your nose so that you can never gasp a breath at all.
Remove them so that you can begin to see yourself: 'At last, after all the time I've been meditating, I've finally seen a piece of defilement's grandchild — laziness — fall off, just like a chip of bark off a tree. Today at last I can begin to see myself. Up to now there's only been defilement making use of my nose and mouth. It's really infuriating!'
Persistence. Diligence. Exertion in the way of reason that can accomplish our purposes: This is the path that sages have followed. Even though it may be difficult, we're up to the fight. It's like removing a thorn from your foot: Even though it hurts to remove it, you have to bear it. If you let it stay there, your whole foot will become infected and putrid. You won't be able to walk at all, and may even lose the foot. So there's only one reasonable course: Pull it out. No matter how much it hurts, you have to bear it, because you have to get the thing out! This is a line of reasoning you have to accept. Once the thorn is out, it holds no more poison. Put medicine on the wound, and the foot will heal without flaring up as it would if the thorn were still embedded there.
Defilement is just like a thorn. We let it lie buried forever in the heart. As long as it remains, the heart is infected and putrid, there in the midst of the round of rebirth — an endless monotony. Is this what you want? To be a putrid person? Ask yourself. Don't ask the defilements. They'll simply do you more harm. If you don't want this, you have to fight them. Once you fight them, you are sure somehow of finding a way to win. No matter how many times you lose, there will have to come a time when you win. Once you've won, then you can keep on winning, winning and winning until there is nothing left for you to fight because the defilements are completely mauled.
When you win, whom do you defeat? You defeat laziness with diligence. You defeat defilement with energy and persistence. This way you gain release from all stress. This is how you solve the problem of birth and death, right at the heart. There is only this spot that most needs solving. It's the most appropriate spot, the most correct spot to solve. To solve things, you solve them here. There is no way you can solve them anywhere else. Keep on making assumptions and interpretations for aeons and aeons, and you'll simply continue to be burdened with the problem as it leads you to birth, death, suffering, and stress. So you shouldn't be bold in speculating and guessing, or you'll waste your time and die in vain, because there is no way the problem will be solved with guesses and speculations.
'Does suffering exist, or not? Do merit (puñña) and evil exist, or not?' Actually, we are experiencing these things, all of us, with no possible exceptions. 'Evil' is mental darkness and stress. 'Merit' is well-being and ease. These things exist in the body and mind of every person, so how can you deny them? 'Merit' is a name for well-being. The Buddha calls it merit. Stress he calls evil. We are touched by good and evil all the time. Whether we live in this world or the next, we can't help but meet with good and evil.
Hell or not-hell, if there's pain filling the body and mind, who wants it? Who wants to meet with it? This is something we all know, so why ask about hell when it's already with us like this? Wherever pain is burning us, it's as hot as being branded with fire. No matter where you're branded, it all has to be hot in the same way. You can call it hell or not-hell as you like, but nobody wants it, because pain is something we have all known for ourselves.
And where — to trouble your heart — are you going to go looking for heaven? When you meet with the well-being that comes from practicing the Dhamma — and especially with well-being in the heart, beginning with stillness and calm in ascending stages to the point where the mind develops a firm and solid footing within, so that it is sure of itself; and then further, to the point where you gain release — then where are you going to ask about heaven and nibbana? There's no need to ask. You know them directly with your heart. You are the owner, in charge of the heart that is clearly the instigator, so where else are you going to look — for the names 'heaven' and 'hell'? What is there to grope for?
You've got the real thing within you. That's all there is to the matter. The Dhamma of the Lord Buddha doesn't delude people into groping for this or that. So take hold of the real thing right here.
Well then. That should be enough for now.
