Born to be I or born to understand life
(Excerpt from the Dhamma discussion with Ajahn Sujin in Binh Chau (VN) 03/03/2024 pm.)
[A. Sujin] Life is so short. Enjoy it, or understand it? No answer?
[Joe] Life is so short, so we have to enjoy it.
[A. Sujin] So, born to enjoy it, no understanding the truth of it, and understanding it, understanding what's there as it is. For example, we were born now, already, born to be I, or born to see, to hear? Born to see? One moment? One moment of seeing, right? When there's no eye, can there be seeing? And without that which impinges on it, there can never be seeing? So what conditions it? Just conditions a moment, just one moment of seeing, and then gone. Is that right? Yes. So what is calm?
[Joe] At that moment, because I understand... Understand is a reality, it's not calmness.
[A. Sujin] Each different reality cannot be changed at all. Understanding itself understands, and calm cannot understand anything, right? Seeing sees, it cannot hear, and at the moment of hearing, it cannot see. Different moments. So, born to be I, or born to understand the truth of life, that actually nothing can be taken for I, or anyone, or anything at all? What is true? Beginning to understand. If there's no understanding, what is there? See, when there's no understanding, what is there? No understanding. What is there? Considering, without wise considering, there cannot be any understanding, and no answer for any question at all.
So when there's no understanding, what is there? Ignorance. At the moment of calm, is there any understanding? [Yes.]
But calm is not understanding. [Yes.] So, at the moment of one thinking that he is calm, is there any understanding of calmness?
[Joe] Yes, if there's understanding, so the calm will be there.
[A. Sujin] We talk about just one reality, okay? It's right understanding the reality which is calm? Calmness is calmness. Understanding is understanding. Can calm understand? [No.] That's why calm cannot be understanding. And what is more precious, calmness or understanding? [Understanding.] Okay, so now, don't think about calmness at all, because it's useless just to think about it, but to understand the truth of whatever is there.
Because what is there now is so real, but no understanding of the truth of any reality right now at all, as it is. No thought about it, what is seeing. So now, what is seeing? Because there is seeing right now, and this is the developing of understanding the truth of seeing. So, what is seeing? Right now, it sees. Yes, it's real, it's real. But seeing is not that which is seen, right? Which one is I? No one, nothing. The seeing sees, it's not I-see, and that which is seen cannot be anything or anyone at all. It's only that which can be seen when it impinges on the eye base. So, it's the world of dhamma, different realities, different conditioned realities.
So, what is the moment of birth or being born? A moment of experiencing an object, right? Can there be experiencing without an object which is experienced? Impossible. That's why we learn to consider the truth, the difference between each reality. So now, there can be a little more understanding of the truth that actually, what is there has to be conditioned just to arise to be there, only there, and then gone, never to arise again. Is that true? [Yes.]
And this is dhamma, the truth of realities. What is real is real, no matter if it experiences the object or just not being able to experience anything at all, but it's real, like hardness is hard, taste is taste, sound is sound. What is real must be different realities from one to another, like sound cannot be taste, seeing cannot be hearing, and this is life. Is this the understanding of the truth of life? Otherwise, it's not the understanding at the moment of I-see. So, I want to be calm. What is that? It's wrong. It's wrong. [No-I is calm.]
No-I and no understanding of calmness. And this is right understanding. Beginning to understand that wanting to have something is not calm, and we have to learn a little more about whether it's calm, the real calm, or wrong understanding, taking it to be calm, but why it's not calm at all. Is this moment calm? [Yes.]
What moment is calm? [J: It means the I is not real.]
So, what is it? Even it's not real? [J: This is just the five khandhas.]
Okay, now, new word. Five khandhas. Is the khandha real? What is real? [J: The hearing, the seeing.]
The seeing is real. Whatever is real arising and falls away is a khandha. So, khandha means that which arises and falls away, no matter what. So what is now appearing is conditioned to arise, to be seen, to be heard, to be touched. Each reality is a khandha because it has arisen. Whatever arises falls away. So, it just is there at the moment when it's there, and then gone instantly. So, khandha is any reality which arises and falls away, never to return at all. It's thinking khandha?
How long did the Buddha teach for? One day? One month? Or how long? [For forty-five years.]
How many words? Did he say anything about reacting? [Yes.]
What is it? [J: I just learned from the monk, and all my understanding is from my experience.]
So, what did the Buddha say? [J: He talked about dukkha and no-I, and everything will change, change, change, and change. Anicca. Yes.]
Isn't what he said so very subtle? Is there anicca now? [Yes.]
What is anicca? What's the meaning? [J: Everything is changing.]
Change or falls away, never to return again. Nothing can be changed. Can anyone change anything? [J: People can change.]
People can. What about you? [J: I only can change understanding.]
So you can change as well, right? [Yes.] Okay. Change seeing. Can you change seeing to be hearing? [Cannot.]
Why not? [J: Because when I was born, the hearing and the seeing was like that.]
Not at the moment of birth. There's no seeing at birth. Right? Possible? Or impossible? [Yes, yes.]
So, what is anicca then? At the moment of birth, we just talked about that moment. Is there I? [No, no.]
No I. What is there? [J: Just the condition of me who was born.]
No you at all. [Yes.] So what is there at the moment of birth? And this is the words of the Buddha. So we learn to understand the truth of each reality. For 45 years... Did he say anything about birth moment? What is there at birth? [J: Please teach me.]
It's the same as now, but different moment. What is the same? The reality which is there arises and experiences the object. Otherwise, there cannot be any birth at all. Right? No matter it's the birth of an elephant or ant, fish. What is there at birth is the reality which arises to experience an object. Can we change that reality which arises not to experience anything at all? Not at all. Hardness, can it experience anything? Can it see? Can it like? Hardness? But this moment, what is seen, is seen only by a reality which arises. We use the word seeing, which means it experiences that which is seen.
So, any moment in life, from the very beginning, the first moment of life, birth, it's there. If that reality does not arise to experience the object, there is no life at all. Right? That's why we begin to understand each word the Buddha taught from his enlightenment about everything, no matter in this world or other world or any world. The truth is the truth.
That's why understanding why the Buddha said, anatta, all dhammas, and dhammas is that which is real, all dhammas, no exception, all dhammas, are anatta, are not atta. So we learn to understand the word the Buddha taught, little by little, from one to another, dhamma, anatta. Atta is something, but anatta is not anything at all.
Mp3 audio file:
2024-03-03-pm_calmness.mp3
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