Simple and Direct

revised on 2019-12-02

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Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw; no date noted

Right attention comes with the sitting meditation. With family matters and business, it’ll not arise. First, do with just knowing the in-breath coming in and the out-breath going out, for 15 or 20 minutes. This is for someone not doing it before. Someone who already discerns impermanence does not need for it.

(If we only listen to a few talks by Sayadaw we can misinterpret some of his talks. For general listeners he always asked them to calm the mind down for a while with the ānāpānasati. Thai forest monks were also doing the same thing. They always sat for samādhi before contemplation. Some even talked about Sayadaw’s instruction as vipassanā yānika way (dry insight).

Even though he didn’t mention much about samādhi, his instructions to close disciples on samādhi were not the dry insight practice. For example, see the instruction given to U Kyaw Thein, one of his close disciples. In many of his talks he emphasized the contemplation of impermanence. How do you contemplate impermanence if you don’t have samādhi?)

You have to know every time it going out and every time coming in. The mind does not run away anywhere if you are continuously knowing in this way. And you know it continuously. You bind your mind at the post of in-breath and out-breath.

When you’re knowing like this and if the body becomes hot or cold or whatever arising, with the samādhi, khandha will tell you. It could tell you itches, pains, aches, numbness, tiredness, etc.…It could also tell you hot, cold, calmness, vibrations, etc. Someone has samādhi and knows them. No samādhi and doesn’t know them.

For example, this room is 18 feet (55.7m) high. At around mid – night if a small lizard falls from the ceiling can hear the thud sound. With a lot of people like now we don’t know it. Because with the interference of the sound of the machine and human voices.

Someone has samādhi knows everything what the khandha tells him. The khandha talks about its nature. Its nature is here one thing and there another thing. The khandha is changing (vipariṇāma). Even it’s changing before the samādhi, but we don’t know it.

Samāhito yathābhūtaṁ pajanati – someone had samādhi knew about the khandha rightly, which was mentioned by the Buddha in the suttas on samādhi. How to know it rightly? If the khandha is itching and telling you that I am the feeling aggregates (vedanākkhandha), with pain and also the same.

Different kinds of feelings arise and you know them. Different mind states arise and you know them. Forms are changing from hot to cold. After you arrive back home just try it out.

The Buddha taught that khandha was called vipariṇāma – change. Every time a new one is arising with the abandoning of the old one. Someone has samādhi, by observing the change and seeing its dissolution. Vipariṇāma is arising and dissolution is vanishing. So it’s arriving back to the rise and fall of phenomena.

In the khandha only rise and fall exist. In the khandha only change and dissolution exist. Only by seeing the change and dissolution, it is neither a man nor a woman. It is no need to dispel diṭṭhi for you. At that moment the face and the hairs not appear to you.

By observing the changing and vanishing phenomena, man and woman naturally disappear. Men and women are the saying of the society, which were taught by your father and mother. You close the five sense-doors and observe with the mind door.

You only see the change and dissolution if you observe with the mind eye. Vipariṇāma lakkhaṇaṁ dukkha saccaṁ – the characteristic of change is truth of dukkha. Change is abandoning of its nature.

Dissolution is abandoning of its nature. Note the change and dissolution of phenomena as dukkha sacca. At that time don’t separate them as mind and body, because you contemplate them as truth (sacca). So it becomes dhammānupassanā satipaṭṭhāna.

Change and dissolution are dukkha sacca and seeing is magga sacca. It becomes right attention. Yoniso and paññā are going together. With right attention and you found dukkha sacca. It’s the vijjā eye, sammā – diṭṭhi eye and ñāṇa eye.

You get the eye of seeing dukkha. Normally you take them as man and woman and never think about it as dukkha. Now, you know the differences of your body and dukkha sacca. It happens with its nature, and unstoppable.

It’s the nature of not-self. Therefore, anicca, dukkha, and anattā are including in the dukkha sacca. At last only seeing the truth and enter Nibbāna. Ven. Sāriputta had said it was like all the foot prints of other animals had to enter into the foot print of an elephant.

All the anicca, dukkha, anattā and asubha are included if you observe only the change and dissolution. Contemplation of impermanence is contemplation of sacca. With the contemplation of impermanence, indulgence of sensual pleasures not arise (kāmasukhalikānuyogo); neither arising the indulgence of self-mortifications (attakilamathānuyogo).

This is not the way of pleasure and suffering. It’s the middle way. If, for the pleasure of mind and body and becomes the way of taṇhā. And it is for the suffering of mind and body and becomes the way of dosa. Without them and you’re on the middle way. Seeing the change and dissolution is the middle way. Seeing it longer and become mature. By seeing a lot of change and dissolution and become disenchantment.

Why is that? Because we attain the changing and vanishing things. Normally we take it as having a good thing with us. Actually we get the disgusting and hateful thing with us. After that, we don’t want to stay with it; not only for disenchantment but also with the contemplation, and we develop to the knowledge of not wanting to get it. As soon as with the development of this knowledge, the changing and vanishing things disappear.

The khandha also disappears. With own knowledge seeing the place of not changing is nirodha sacca. The stability of no change appears. Nibbāna arises. How does it appear? Note it as a movie show. At first it’s complicating with pictures on the screen.

When the movie is ended the white screen appears. Here also in the same way. Contemplate with samādhi and seeing the complex. With the contemplation of not wanting arises, and it becomes clear away things like seeing a white screen.

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revised on 2019-12-02; cited from https://oba.org.tw/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=4371&p=36329#p36329 (posted on 2019-04-16)

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• Content of Part 12 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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