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Venerable Ajahn Pasanno -
Foundations of Virtue and Right View
A talk
given by Ajahn Pasanno, co-abbot of Abhayagiri Monastery, during a visit
to Cittaviveka, October 2001
I came to England to attend the meetings of the Elders of the community
that were held at Amaravati. One of the striking impressions from them
was of the first meeting when we were together in the Temple. It was a
meeting for the Theras and Theris -- those of us, monks and nuns, who
have been in the robes for over ten years. There were thirty-seven of
us; it was quite powerful to have that amount of experience in one
place. Just sharing a space with people who have that kind of commitment
to the Holy Life was a real treat, to recognise the strength of the
commitment and practice that is in the community.
The other day I was asked what we had decided in those meetings. But
that wasn't the point of them. I don't think anybody was trying to
decide anything, to come out with great new edicts. But the fact that we
were able to come together in harmony, talk with each other in harmony
and then to disperse in harmony, that was enough, that was extraordinary
in itself. Just having people coming from different ends of the globe
with different kinds of practice and different ideas of what the
training is, and just to delight in each other's company and not to get
into arguments was enough. So the time spent at Amaravati was extremely
fruitful. I think it's good for everybody to know, to realise that the
Sangha does come together from time to time, that there is an underlying
harmony and commitment which is really worthy of delighting in.
Whether we're looking at the external form of the Sangha, the people who
are practising, or whether we are looking at ourselves, so often we're
measuring, comparing, trying to come up with something, trying to pin
down a detail of what we're accomplishing, of what we're gaining.
Oftentimes we overlook the fundamentals of our own personal practice or
what the fundamentals for a community to practise and dwell in are.
Certainly what Ajahn Chah would emphasise over and over again, and this
is corroborated in the suttas, is the foundation of sila (virtue) and
samma ditthi (Right Understanding). If the practice of either a group or
an individual is going to flourish and grow, they need to rely on those
fundamentals.
When we think of sila (virtue), oftentimes we think of taking the
precepts. That's one aspect of virtue, having precepts, having rules of
conduct which we adhere to, but it's not really the whole picture of
what virtue is. It's good to have parameters that you take as standards
for conduct, but it's essential to be able to reflect, 'Well, what are
those precepts for?' Whether they're the five precepts for lay-people
living in the world, whether they're the eight renunciate precepts,
whether they're the Siladhara precepts, whether they're the two hundred
and twenty seven precepts of the Bhikkhus, what are the principles that
underlie them? Certainly the qualities of harmlessness, of honesty, of
restraint, of integrity, of composure, of trustworthiness, these are
what really underlie them. You can expand on them in terms of precepts
and training rules, but those fundamental wholesome qualities are what
the precepts are for. One takes precepts on in order to learn and
understand how our conduct affects the world around us and how it
affects ourselves.
What kind of intention comes up in the mind that impels us towards
particular actions? Because the intention, the volition within the mind,
within the heart is compelling us to act, to perform in certain ways. As
long as we don't understand that we keep following patterns that are a
product of habit or conditioning and are not really grounded in wisdom
and clarity. Until we can understand intention we'll be following moods,
feelings, habits and conditioning. So precepts and training help us to
reflect on what is going on internally so that we can learn. That's
exactly what the meaning of the Pali word which we translate as a
'precept' is. Sikkhapada means a foundation for training or learning;
sikkha means learning or training, and pada is basis or foundation. This
shines light on what a Buddhist precept is for. It's not for forcing us
into a particular mould, pattern, or a disciplinary code; it's something
that's assisting us in understanding ourselves and what our actions do,
where they come from and what they lead to.
There are other aspects of sila (virtue), which we may not consider very
much. Oftentimes when we think of sila, we think of precepts and rules,
but from the Buddhist perspective, that's never enough, it has to
encompass all of our actions of body and speech -- how we engage with
the world around us. So another aspect of sila is sense-restraint. When
we come into contact with the world around us -- sights, sounds, smells,
taste, touch -- do we get excited? Do we get agitated? Do we follow our
impulses of liking and disliking? Or do we have a composure that allows
us to reflect upon that sense-contact? That sense of composure is called
indriya-samvara. It's talked about as having enough composure and
restraint so that with the sense-contact, the sensory-impingement that
we're experiencing we have enough clarity to not follow the patterns of
desire or grief, like or dislike that would normally arise if we weren't
restrained in the senses. The usual story of our lives is of the
constant ups-and-downs of our moods, of liking and disliking, being
happy or being unhappy because of what we experience around us.
We had a fair amount of meetings at Amaravati, and then outside the
meetings we were connecting with people we hadn't seen for quite some
time. With one of the monks I was talking about the times living at Wat
Pah Pong with Ajahn Chah. He was telling me about an occasion when he
was at Wat Pah Pong in the morning time before the meal. That could be a
highly charged time, a time when Ajahn Chah said 'you don't admonish
anybody -- wait until they're full and happy.' Anyway, this monk did not
heed Ajahn Chah's advice and got into an argument before the meal over
the distribution of food. The passions could arise over it because there
would be a few monks who would volunteer to distribute food, they'd go
down the line putting the food into the bowls. And there were those who
used mindfulness and consideration, and those who just slopped it in. So
this monk got into an argument with one of the other Venerables and was
still fuming about it after the meal had finished and he'd washed his
bowl. Then he heard a voice behind him say, 'Good morning.' He turned
around and it was Ajahn Chah, who never spoke English. He heard this
'Good Morning' and saw Ajahn Chah smiling at him. So he thought, 'Isn't
that wonderful!' He was so touched by that and uplifted. The whole mood
of being angry and upset blew over completely and he was just feeling
joy from Ajahn Chah's friendly contact.
So he had a pleasant day and then that evening he went over to Ajahn
Chah's dwelling. There were several other monks there and he asked if he
could massage Ajahn Chah's feet. When the bell for evening chanting went
Ajahn Chah told all the other monks to go to evening chanting and said
to this monk, 'You can stay massaging my feet.' So he was sitting
massaging Ajahn Chah's feet, everything was all warm and friendly when
the evening chanting started. Normally when you're in the chanting,
especially in Thailand where it's usually chanted in Pali and then
translated into Thai, you're sort of bored and wondering when it's going
to end. But he said that night, listening to it from outside, it was
just an ethereal sound coming from the Dhamma Hall. It was just this
wonderful evening, the moon was coming up, the sound of the chanting,
sitting there with Ajahn Chah; he was having these waves of joy coming
over him, even tears were coming to his eyes he was so happy. Then, all
of a sudden, Ajahn Chah took his foot and kicked him in the chest! Hard
enough to knock him flat on his back and send him flying. Ajahn Chah
rebuked him very strongly, saying, 'You're really a fool. Somebody says
something you don't like and you get angry. Somebody walks over to you
and says 'Good morning' and you get happy. You hear things that you like
and you feel good. That's not the way of a practitioner! You're just
going to spend your life going up and down with moods and feelings about
the impingements around you. If you want to practise you're going to
have to learn to have some sense-restraint and some composure, and not
get caught up in things.'
Point taken! A very, very direct admonishment and teaching. And it's
true, when we experience the things that we like we enjoy them and we
want them to stay, and when we experience the things that we don't like
we try to push them away. We get caught into the movement in the mind
and heart of going back and forth, pushing 'this' away and trying to get
'that' experience. We don't have an internal foundation, an abiding
place of clarity, this fundamental mindfulness and wisdom that comes
from sense-restraint and composure with the contact of the senses.
Sense-restraint is a fundamental virtue for someone who really wants to
experience the fruits of this practice. This is important because if we
think virtue is just going to come from keeping rules, getting the
system down -- and then we'll be all right -- that's not it, there's a
whole other realm that we need to consider.
Another aspect of virtue that the Buddha talked about is having Right
Livelihood -- whether one is a monastic or a layperson. To consider how
we live in the world, how we maintain ourselves in the world, looking
after our needs in a way that is not harming or creating more suffering
for others or ourselves. For a monastic, there are the aspects of Right
Livelihood which are about establishing the relationship that we have to
the lay-community; not manipulating, not being dishonest, not trying to
get some kind of gain through praising, giving something or being
deceitful. For the lay-community, there are elements of Right Livelihood
around what kind of things there's involvement with, particularly
avoiding those kinds of livelihood which are involved with weapons or
substances which would harm others, or ways of doing things which are
fundamentally dishonest. As human beings we need to have a livelihood of
some sort. There has to be a fundamental honesty and integrity otherwise
we undermine our aspiration for peace.
Another aspect of virtue that the Buddha talked about is how we relate
to the requisites. Again, whether one is a monastic or a layperson,
there are our fundamental requisites of clothing, of shelter, of food,
and medicines for when we're sick. So, with both the acquiring of those
requisites and the use of those requisites, we reflect on, 'what is my
need?' Rather than, 'what are the standards of the society?' or, 'what
are my desires?' Particularly being in a modern society that is based on
consumption, 'what is just enough?' So that takes real reflection and
investigation -- 'what is it that is just enough?' And not getting
caught up into our desires, into constantly seeking security, comfort
and gratification. Not trying to pump ourselves up in terms of our
material well-being so that we can have a sense of security and a sense
of self that is somehow elevated when one looks at one's fellow human
beings. We have to learn how to function in the world, and to relate
skilfully to the things that we rely on for living in the world, the
basic requisites that we consume and rely on each day.
Considering our food, 'what is just enough for our well-being?' How
often do we consume something just because there's nothing else to do?
How many times do you just go to the cupboard or the fridge because
there's nothing else to do? The Buddha said there's certain fundamental
qualities which are developed and need to be developed in terms of the
use of the requisites. Wisdom is the dominant quality that needs to come
to the forefront of consciousness, in terms of what is enough and what's
not enough. When one investigates with wisdom, you start seeing all that
food is supporting is just the four elements, the basic elements which
make up a sentient being -- fire, earth, water and air. When we say
there's fire element, it doesn't mean there's fire burning somewhere,
but it's that element of heat or cool. Water is the element of cohesion;
the element of earth is the element of solidity. Anything that we
consume is just those elements also. Just reflecting on the interplay of
these elements we see they're not a personal thing.
So wisdom is the quality that is needed in terms of relating to the
requisites. The dominant virtue that comes with the relationship to
livelihood is the quality of effort or energy, applying effort or energy
in the appropriate ways. The quality that is dominant in terms of
sense-restraint is the quality of mindfulness, awareness, the ability to
be attentive to moods, to feelings, to contact, to sensation. The
dominant quality or virtue that is cultivated and needs to be relied
upon for the keeping of training precepts is faith. So these different
elements are cultivated through virtue. With sila as a foundation for
practice, we start to expand into something that carries through into
all the different aspects of our cultivation.
The other element that Ajahn Chah emphasised was Right View (samma
ditthi). Right View can be expounded on in many different ways but
fundamentally it is understanding the nature of kamma, the fact that all
actions have some sort of result. That is a fundamental basis for Right
View; particularly from the perspective of the mundane, day-to-day level
of how we live. It is being able to consider and reflect on how our
actions bring results.
I was reading a manuscript by somebody I know in California who was
asked to write a book about his life. This person has a very strong
practice, but he came to it through a lot of pain and suffering, through
confusion, drug-addiction and jail. He talks about what brought him to a
spiritual practice; it was really seeing, 'Oh, yeah. What we do has
results'. It was interesting reading the point where he decided, 'I've
really got to start meditating.' He was in jail for one more time,
having to go through withdrawal one more time and thinking, 'I can keep
repeating this or I can look for a way out.' Most of us don't go to
those extremes, but we still have to come to that point where we really
see, 'I don't have to follow the patterns that I have set for myself.
What I'm experiencing, whether it's painful or pleasurable, I've had a
hand in that. It didn't just drop down from the sky; it wasn't foisted
on me by some divine intervention, it was very much about what I chose
to do. I chose to incline my mind and actions in that way'. The more
clearly we see that, then the more able we are to really take
responsibility for our actions.
One of the reflections that the Buddha encouraged us to chant on a daily
basis ends on the refrain 'I am the owner of my actions, heir to my
actions, born of my actions, related to my actions, all that I do, for
good or for ill, of that I will be the heir'. This is a fundamental
truth: this is the basis of Right View. There are all sorts of ways we
try to duck out of it, duck around it, moan and groan about what we're
having to put up with and how miserable things are, but it comes back to
what we're putting into the universe. Our actions have results.
There's a very nice story of an American who went to study in a Zen
monastery. He wasn't quite sure what he was doing there, but he knew he
was supposed to be practising, so he tried to meditate and follow the
routine. He was there for many weeks and when he was ready to leave the
Abbot of the monastery invited him to have an interview. The person was
both a bit nervous and honoured as this was an old, very well known
temple in Japan and the Abbot was highly respected. Fundamentally the
Abbot said, 'You've been practising and training here, that's very good,
but you have to understand one thing, come with me'. So he took him to
the entrance way to the monastery. There was a very old scroll set up
there. The Abbot said that the calligraphy was a poem that was written
by one of the founding teachers six or seven centuries before. The
essence was this -- There's nothing really to do. There's nothing really
to gain. There's nothing really to become. There's nothing really to
achieve. And although this is true, still, when it rains the ground gets
wet, and when there's a fire things get hot.
This is what you need to understand. Everything has results. Although on
an ultimate level of Buddhist philosophy, there's a concept of emptiness
and non-attainment, that isn't how you live. You have to live in a realm
of cause and effect. When you go out in the rain, you've got to have an
umbrella. When it's hot, you've got to protect yourself. In the same
way, our actions have results, and if we act on impulses that are
unskilful, then we'll reap the fruits of that. Also, when we act on
those intentions and feelings which are wholesome, the fruitful benefits
will come from that; well-being, harmony and peace will come from that.
It's with the same kind of surety that if you spill water on the carpet,
it's going to get wet -- it's just that sure.
So, really being attentive to our actions, recognising that we can
choose between that which is going to bring benefits into the world
around us, creating well-being and happiness for ourselves and others,
or those things that are unskilful and will create disharmony, create a
sense of dis-ease within our heart or conflict with others. To be really
clear because we have to live with the fruits; that's a fundamental
Right View.
These two qualities, virtue and Right View, are what Ajahn Chah used to
emphasise over and over and over again. These are what we need for
laying the foundations for practice. You might ask, 'Well, why didn't he
talk about meditation?' Well, he did. But if we don't get those
foundations of virtue and Right View, then our meditation is not
efficacious.
If you're doing a building (I'm doing a lot of building work these
days!), if you're laying the walls out and you're just a little bit off
when you're at one end, by the time you get to the other side of the
building it can be a foot off. It makes for a wonky building! It's just
so important to get those foundations, those bases right, precise and
clear, then everything else falls into place. With virtue and Right View
as the foundation, then our meditation falls into place. The qualities
of reflection and investigation, of wisdom, they fall into place. It's
natural. One of the images that the Buddha used was of when the rain
falls on the mountain. It then gathers in rivulets, it gathers in
streams, it gathers into rivers and it flows out into the sea. It's just
natural; it's ordinary. In the same way the cultivation and the looking
after of our virtue and Right View leads us into the deep body of wisdom
and freedom.
Forest Sangha Newsletter: July 2002, Number 61
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