Impermanence and Right View

revised on 2020-03-04

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Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw; 6th March 1959

By knowing only mind and body can't see Nibbāna. With explanation it is easy to understand mind and body. In reality we have to know is anicca. Mind and body is only for analyzing. Without discerning impermanence and can't see Nibbāna. If you discern it and you have the seed of arahant, can become an arahant in this life. It must develop from this view from sotāpanna to arahant. You still not get the seed of sotāpanna if you still have not discerned anicca. Without seeing it can't close the doors of painful rebirths, also still not have right view (i.e., vipassanā right view). By discerning anicca has purified view. (Sayadaw recited some of the Pali verses by the Buddha and explained it.)

During sitting, if your body feels pain and wants to change is all right. I don't say not to change it. After changing, the feeling disappears and not there anymore. You have to change it with contemplation. After changing, observe it as it's there or not. In this way, you have right view. Die with right view is dying with knowledge. After seeing anicca, continue with the contemplation will become disenchantment with it. Knowledge becomes sharper but it’s still anicca. Aggregates (khandhas), sense bases (āyatana), elements (dhātu), truth (sacca), all are anicca. But by themselves is separated (i.e., separated nature). You discerning of impermanence can make you free from carrying the corpse. (Sometimes Sayadaw was using words which had the double meanings, profound, vivid and humorous. For example, in some talks, "changing new births" conveyed as "changing the corpses".) You must not argue by looking at the differences of the ways of practice. At last by discerning anicca and become the same. The main point is discerning impermanence. (Sayadaw made a warning on argument that was very common in Burma; may be also in other countries and other religions. The important point was not other right or wrong, but one's own practice.) Discerning of anicca is only possible when the Buddha's Teaching exists and encounter a teacher who can teach them. If you discern anicca you will be free from craziness. Therefore, make perseverance for the sake of discerning anicca.

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revised on 2020-03-04; cited from https://oba.org.tw/viewtopic.php?f=22andt=4031andp=35585#p35585 (posted on 2018-12-15)

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• Content of Part 3 on "Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw"

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• Content of "Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw"

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• Content of Publications of Ven. Uttamo

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