To Deal with Wrong View and Doubt

revised on 2021-07-28

Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw; 14th Nov.1960

Sit comfortably and observing the breath in and out normally. This is oriented for samādhi. Samatha by itself can't arrive to Nibbāna. Let us talk about vipassanā. After you are observing the breath for sometimes, there arises an itching sensation at a place on the body. Before, this does not exist on the body. It's changing now (vipariṇāma). Changing is arising, the change disappears is perishing. Only arising and passing away exist. After stop ānāpānasati for a while and observe, seeing the arising and passing away. Changing is the truth of dukkha. What the Buddha said was right. Knowing is magga sacca. In this way following all the arising phenomena and seeing their arising and passing away is truth of dukkha. Then you know what the Buddha said that clinging to the 5-khandhas was dukkha sacca. In this way whatever mind arises and know, feeling arises and know. You will discover them on the whole body. They are arising without any gaps for a needle to get in. Kāye sabhāvaṃ viditavāna – It’s knowing the nature of the body. You know that one's body is truth of dukkha. Don't follow ānāpānasati, but if samādhi and discernment become weak, then return to the breath. Observe the mind at the heart base which is knowing the breath. After that follow whatever arising and then without anything to follow just return to the breath. This is knowing the phenomena of dukkha, so it's mindfulness of the dhammas – Dhammānupassanā satipaṭṭhāna. Practice as the simile of a spider taught by Ven. Nāgasena to King Milinda. By watching and catching, you will get the prey of impermanence. After you discerning them as disgusting, and disenchanting and the knowledge develops. Before you discern the impermanence of dukkha, and now is knowledge of disenchantment. If you are becoming disenchantment, then it's the second development of knowledge. After disenchantment I want to remind you, continue to follow the arising phenomena. They will show you the truth of dukkha. After that, develop to the knowledge of not wanting, because it's the assemblage of dukkha that becomes the knowledge of not wanting. And then all dukkha will come to an end. Dukkha nirodho Nibbānaṁ – you will find Nibbāna, the ending of dukkha. The death of taṇhā-diṭṭhi is samudaya sacca. It extinguishes the hell fire and wok. (In this talk Sayadaw urged his disciples to do vipassanā first and later for business.) You have to practice vipassanā during your daily life, such as eating, working etc. After you are closing the doors of painful rebirths and can live as you like. You have to practice hard before death comes and before your kamma and intelligence becomes weak because old age, sickness and death are always there.

For healthy and safety life people are looking for refuge here and there. Some times with superstition and wrong ways. If you have envy and avarice will never safe from dangers. You have to make precautions beforehand when it comes, and know how to defend it. Don't forget about that treasure accumulate with treasure, and rubbish with rubbish. If you have love and hate, then envy and avarice will come. Greed and anger are the source of it. If you are practicing Dhamma, then you are the insider of the Sāsana (Dispensation of the Buddha) and without it the outsider. The outsider can't enjoy the sun and the moon of the Sāsana. If you die earlier, Sāsana also disappear for you. So there are 2 reasons for its disappearance, die early and not practicing. Love and hate come from desire. There are two kinds of desires, wholesome and unwholesome. Desire comes from thinking. You can't sleep at night because of too much thinking. So, have to contemplate thinking (vitakka).

Wrong view and doubt are sticking in the khandhas. So have to know the cause of the khandhas. To understand the khandhas have to know Dependent Arising. Without fallen off diṭṭhi beings are wandering in the pleasant and unpleasant existences. The cause of the khandhas is Dependent Arising. From there you know how to strip off wrong view and doubt. Real understanding of it is quite rare (Sayadaw emphasized was true, most Buddhist even don't know about it.) Want to strip off diṭṭhi have to understand the source of Dependent Arising. Without knowing the causes of the khandhas, stuck with doubt. Don't know the result, stuck with wrong view. This is a very important point. In the Saṁyutta-nikāya the Buddha mentioned that it was more important than the head was burning with fire and the body was piercing with a spear. Have to deal with wrong view first and later the other problems. Don't take it as I am frightening you. There is nothing more frightening than wrong view. The Buddha used his knowledge and saw that nothing was more serious than wrong view. There were a lot of stories on killing parents (Nowadays a lot of news on patricide and matricide appeared in the east and west.) If you have diṭṭhi and taṇhā will come. Forbid the Path and Fruit is diṭṭhi. Resistance by wrong view and doubt even someone discerning anicca can't realize Nibbāna (Sayadaw in his many talks emphasized this point very often.) If you don't intellectually dispel wrong view beforehand whatever you are seeing can't realize Nibbāna. There were many stories in the Pali Texts. For examples, Ven. Anuradha, Ven. Channa and Ven. Yamaka, they couldn't realize the Dhamma before because of their wrong views. Only by the help of the Buddha and Ven. Sāriputta that became success. After Ānanda became a stream enterer but could not developed forwards was looking after the Buddha and busying with other matters.

Khandha Paṭicca-samuppāda – doesn't mean the whole day of process but what happening at the present moment. Present khandha is not the khandha gave birth by mother or yesterday khandha, but the new arising khandha. If you know this, you are free from the view of permanence. From young you are growing up is eternalism – sassata diṭṭhi. People will think the new arising khandha is nothing to do with the old khandha, then it becomes annihilationism – uccheda diṭṭhi, so wrong view is sticking here and there. These 2 wrong views are hindering the Path and Fruit Knowledges. The Buddha said to go on the middle way. The matter of the eye is conditioned by kamma, citta, utu and āhāra (action, mind, temperature and food). Eye consciousness is caused by ārammaṇa-dvāra (sense object and sense door). By knowing these will free from uccheda diṭṭhi. The cause is not cutting off. By intellectually free from diṭṭhi and discerning impermanence can enter Nibbāna. These 2 wrong views are coming from identity view – sakkāya diṭṭhi.

Don't let these views arise with the 5-khandhas. The Buddha said if you had any one of them even didn't have the knowledge in accordance with the truth – saccanulomika ñāṇa. If you have identity view and also have all the 62-wrong views. By knowing that it is the process of cause and effect and not created by Mahā Brahmā or God, then you are free from doubt. These are cause and effect phenomena, not a person and not a being. There are only mind and body while the 5-khandhas condensed. In the discussion between Ven. Sāriputta and Ven. Koṭṭhita (Mahākoṭṭhita), it was said that with contemplation of the mind, it includes the body; with contemplation of the body, it also includes the mind. (If you contemplate the mind, it includes with the body; so as with the body, it also includes the mind. They are working together, arising and passing away together. So it doesn't need to do all the satipaṭṭhāna in the twelve links of D.A. .) Viññāṇam and nāma-rūpa (consciousness and name-form) are also the same way. These examples were by the Buddha and Sāriputta. They are depending on each other. If one of them is collapsing and the other also do. Therefore, Sabbe saṅkhāra anicca – All conditioned phenomena are impermanent. Everyday people are doing uncountable unwholesome kammas. So the result would be also a lot but the time is not yet arriving to give the result. They are not doing anything to cut off the kammas. Because of vedanā living beings are doing a lot of kammas (vedanā paccaya taṇhā..., kammabhāvo – feeling conditioned craving..., action). These are kammas desire for khandhas. You all take kamma as parents so rely on them as kam father and kam mother (kam – Burmese word for kamma). But the Buddha taught you to rely on nyan parents, nyan father and nyan mother (nyan – Burmese word for ñāna). Insert knowledge between feeling and craving. You divide the 5-khandhas and get the 4-satipaṭṭhāna. If you can contemplate impermanence to anyone of them, then craving and clinging are gone. Therefore, the Buddha declared that he had got rid of all wholesome and unwholesome dhammas. Wanting to cut off kamma, practice with one of the satipaṭṭhāna. Without it become a human ball and kick by the wholesome and unwholesome dhammas. So must contemplate impermanence to one of the satipaṭṭhāna.

revised on 2021-07-28; cited from https://oba.org.tw/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=4031&p=35608#p35608 (posted on 2018-12-15)

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

Content of "Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw"

Content of Publications of Ven. Uttamo

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據英譯者—鄔達摩比丘交待，此譯文僅能免費與大眾結緣，作為法的禮物（Dhamma Dāna）。你可以在任何媒體上重新編製、重印、翻譯和重新發布這部作品。