Don’t Waste Your Precious Times

revised on 2021-03-16

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Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw; no date noted

You don’t know that a thief is entering your khandha. Aging is a thief. Taking your good eyes and leaving the weak eyes behind. Good complexion, good hair, good teeth, good mind and brain are not there anymore.

(Good complexion becomes dry with wrinkles, with colored spots and others, including ageing smell. From black dark hairs become white and grey. Good teeth become bad teeth, yellow, broken, come out or shaky and painful. The mind and the brain do not work well and properly.

There are a lot to say on the working of the mind and the brain of ageing people. There are a lot for contemplation with ageing. Before, we were still very young, we didn’t feel much about it. After getting old by oneself and has compassion for parents and old people.)

It’s stealing all the times. Because of the ageing – jarā thief and there are no more good kamma and ñāṇa. The contemplation of dhamma is profound, and you’re arriving here with poor kamma and ñāṇa. You have been wasted your good kamma and ñāṇa with the five cords of sensual pleasure. The thief is stealing the properties and oneself also wasting it. Is there anything left? (In the audience there were some old disciples sitting in front of him).

Therefore, you must use the short way to Nibbāna. With the long way it can be wasted the time and chances. With time moving on, you’re misusing the good kamma and ñāṇa with sleep. And at the same time the jarā thief is stealing it. If you were in an early death it would be a great loss.

The short way is after the vipassanā knowledge and follows with the magga knowledge (i.e., insight knowledge and the Path Knowledge). Therefore, don’t do the samatha practice. Death will overcome you with the poor kamma and ñāṇa if you are developing samādhi. It was like dying with the outside sāsana dhamma. Therefore, I’ll not talk about the samatha practice.

Let’s go with the vipassanā samādhi (In this Sayadaw was using the Susīma Sutta and talked about the practice). Don’t do the ānāpāna and kasiṇa practices. It takes long and you’re sure to die. I also don’t think you’ll make it.

Precede with the mundane path factors (i.e., the five maggans or insight knowledge); then follow with the supramundane path factors (i.e., the eight maggans or Path Knowledge). The saying of I am not like before means you’re in the stage of poor kamma and ñāṇa. Let’s observe the arising phenomenon of now. If you see a visible form, there are two factors of seeing and knowing arise.

You must contemplate with insight to the now arising dhamma. If you can catch on the seeing and just do it. If not then try to catch on the visible form. The knowing mind arises at the heart. With the second mind rethink about the knowing mind (second mind observes the knowing mind). You’ll find out that it’s not there.

Why is that? As the knowing mind arises at the heart and the thinking mind also arises at the heart. The seeing arises in the eye. The knowing mind arises at the heart and vanishes there. It's not there anymore when you think about it.

It’s like a sitting chair. (Two persons can’t sit down on it at the same time or at the same moment.) Seeing the visible from and its vanishing are the arising and passing away of dhamma. The knowing as it’s not there is the magga. Try to practice not let the kilesas come in between the vanishings and the maggas.

The vanishing is always there. The problem is you don’t follow with maggas. If magga is not following, then kilesa will follow. If you’re not discerning the vanishing, then kilesa comes in between them. If you don’t contemplate, also kilesa comes in. These are the causes of not seeing impermanence. If you pay attention, you will see it. If you don’t see it, then avijjā arises. That means kilesa come in. Don’t think about oneself as rootless (without wholesome roots) or two rooted (with only two wholesome roots) person. (i.e., someone shouldn’t speculate about it and just do the practice if he does not discern impermanence.). It will become mature if kilesa does not come in between the contemplation and Vipassanā magga. And then it will develop to nibbidā ñāṇa – disenchantment with the vanishing dhamma.

After that the path knowledge of not wanting of it will arise and complete with the eight path factors. Does it include any samatha practice?

(And Sayadaw continued with the Susīma Sutta to support this practice).

Here had only two knowledges; these were the knowledge of discerning impermanence and the knowledge of seeing Nibbāna. It’s sure that at the end of insight knowledge and the Path knowledge which sees Nibbāna arises. (He recited the Pali verses and explaining them). So don’t practice samādhi separately and start from impermanence because you’re with poor kamma and ñāṇa. This was supported by the Buddha and arahants.

(There was a research many years ago by the late Prime Minister U Nu of Burma. He was a strong supporter of Mahasi Sayadaw and the dry insight practice (vipassanā). He wrote his research in a small book about the Pali TiPiṭaka. At one time he invited a Mahasi yogi monk whose name and monastery were not mentioned. It was sure that this monk was not living in Yan-gon because this monk flew back to his place by plane after the research.

They placed him in a room and he entered into the Fruition state for six days and six nights. U Nu arranged some men to observe him day and night in turn. He was sitting there all the times for six days and six nights.

It was sure that he was not in the absorption state because he was not a samatha practicer. The commentary mentioned about supramundane jhāna which arises at every stage of enlightenment. It has connection with the Fruition state)

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revised on 2021-03-16; cited from https://oba.org.tw/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=4371&p=36338#p36338 (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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