The truth is what has born and what dies

(Suitable for beginners) - A. Sujin: Would you like to be kind? Would't everyone like to be kind? It's your own accumulation, your own understanding and your own liking, would you like to be kind?

David: Yes, I'd like to be useful to people.

Su. Would you like to understand what kindness is?

D. Yes, certainly.

Su. I think that to be kind without understanding and to be kind with understanding is different, so what's the best thing in life? Because anyone can be kind but what about understanding, can anyone understand what is there now or any moment in life? All depends on ignorance or understanding and let us consider when there is ignorance, that brings about so many many unwholesome deeds and speech and even the mind, the mental factors are hurting that person who has such akusala, unwholesome realities, so it has to be right understanding of the truth which is not easy at all to understand the absolute truth of whatever is now, and when it's right understanding it does not hurt, it doesn't harm at all, it brings more good deeds, good speech, with understanding. So without understanding, no matter how much one thinks what it's good enough, it's not enough, because not understanding the truth of what is there, even right now is not understood.

So how can there be the understanding of anything in life? That's why we have to understand what is best, the best thing in life, because everyone has to pass away, no understanding or thinking when and how, but it has to be by conditions. So life, no matter whose, goes on by accumulated conditions, that's why people are different. Some might not like to understand anything at all, they just live and want to live happily, that's all. But some think of what life is, can there be the understanding of the absolute truth of this moment as it is, so true, and understand about birth and death, and deeds and speech in a day, in one's life.

Better than just live without understanding at all, because everything does not belong to anyone at all, it's just like a dream, when one wakes up, no more, like a story of what we take for people and things in a dream, exactly the same. That's why: what about the past moment? Just that, the previous moment. Where is it? Is it still there now? It's gone, completely, never to return, not only in this life but in samsara, no matter how many lives will arise and fall away. Only once in samsara, no matter what kind of reality is arising now. But it's unknown, about its absolute truth, the nature of it. It cannot stay, it's conditioned to be just like that, not another thing, no different at all. So seeing now is not seeing just a moment ago, so if there is the idea of "I see", right or wrong? Because seeing is gone, never to return, sound is gone, hearing is gone, everything is there just for a very short moment. So how can that belong to anyone or be something? Because it's no more and this is true when there is the understanding of what was born and what dies, because one knows that one cannot live permanently at all, just for some years. So this life is so short and no one knows how short it will be, but what is the precious moment in life: to understand the truth, that the truth is what has born and what dies.

So there can be the understanding of what is now appearing because of the enlightenment of the Buddha, who just developed parami enough to insight the truth, penetrate the truth, the absolute truth of what he has accumulated to enlighten the truth, and he taught it to anyone. After his enlightenment, he said that the Dhamma is so very subtle, very difficult, but it can be understood. So he taught to anyone who listened carefully and saw the value of the precious reality which is right understanding, it can arise from the right words of his talking, taught by his enlightenment. That's why we listen to each of his words and study it carefully, wisely, to be sure, firm, understanding. Have more confidence in the truth of what is there now as it is, that no one can think about or understand by trying to find it out, but from his enlightened words, he taught about the way to let go of the wrong understanding which takes seeing and everything appearing today as me or mine. Actually, if there is no reality which can experience, it's impossible for anything to appear, so we have to understand what is there in a moment. For example, there is seeing, who makes it arise? But it has arisen already. While we are talking there is seeing all the time, who makes it arise? No one there at all. So there must be conditions for that to arise, to be just that, seeing cannot hear, it cannot think, it just arises to see, that's all, and then gone, where is it now? Cannot be found at all in samsara, and this is what one takes for life, only in a moment of experiencing an object. Can anyone stop the reality which arises to see and then is gone? Just arises to hear, different from seeing, and then gone.

And what is gone, can it belong to anyone anymore? Anything, no matter it's attachment, anger, or whatever, only just very short and then gone completely. That is the way to let go the ignorance and all troubles in life, because understanding that whatever is there is conditioned by conditions, and the Buddha showed what are the conditions for whatever arises, even right now. Without the eyes, can there be seeing? Who can make seeing, who can try to have seeing? Impossible. And how come the eyes [into being]? Who makes them arise and be there? Even the eye, the eye-base where the seeing arises, it's conditioned to arise. Whatever arises falls away instantly, the rapid succession of the arising and falling away of dhammas, so rapid that no one can experience that, but there is the way to understand each different one, so when there is the understanding of each different one, it's not like when they are all the same one: there can be moments of studying, beginning to understand just one characteristic at a time, otherwise it's only the idea: seeing it's not hearing, is that enough? It's "my seeing", not "my hearing".

That's why so many many things in life are unknown, and wrong understanding is there, no matter in what manners: such and such idea, such and such religion. But the truth is the truth. Even what we are talking about, we don't have to name it, what religion or what teaching it is, but it's the teaching of the truth, just about the truth that anyone can listen to and consider carefully, whether it's right or wrong, and this is the beginning of right understanding. All unwholesome moments or troubles or very unpleasant situations come from ignorance, while nothing belongs to anyone at all, because it's just conditioned to arise and fall away. So it doesn't matter at all what is there, just for a very short moment. It cannot bring about regret or sadness or whatever as before, because it's not there anymore. But as long as there still are conditions for such and such to arise nobody can stop its arising.

And beginning to understand what is meant by no one, no self, nothing, anatta in pali, because atta is something. Only hardness, very very minute, very very tiny, and passes away instantly, how can it be something like table and chair, flowers and trees, mountains and legs and arms. As long as there's such idea, is it right or wrong? Because actually what we take for mine, from my head to my toe, arms and legs, without that which is hard arising, can there be such thing? So in truth, in the absolute truth, what is there? Not my hand, not my head. Touch it, it's hard, or heat, or cold. And seeing is just the same, it arises to see, that's all. So it doesn't last for anyone to take it for my seeing or I see at all, and the word we use is anatta: no thing, no one at all, only absolute reality, no matter for whom, fish monkey human being deva or anyone, hardness is experienced by that which arises just to experience hardness, because of there being body-sense all over the body. This is so true, to see that actually they are all conditioned realities. So realities are realities, each is different, no one can change it, no one can make it different, no one can take it for me or mine or thing at all. Just begin to consider whether it's true, from birth up to death, and next life, because of the understanding of what is life: non-stop, by conditions.

Isn't it better than just to have sorrow thinking about that person, not enough kindness, and so on and on and on, without the idea, wrong understanding, how can it be yours? It's gone, and one day, when death comes, we'll forget about this life, just like we forgot about last life, at moment of birth. But the continuity of the arising and falling away, by conditions, as long as there are still conditions it has to go on. So it's just the word, to think that it's death, but when it arises and falls away it's temporary death, each moment. So birth and death is the arising and falling away of whatever is there and then, and now, temporary death, exactly the same as at moment of death and the next moment is birth, no gap at all, like now.