Right Perception, Knowing and Viewing

revised on 2024-07-10

---

Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw; 20th December 1960

The five objects were like the five spears, and the five khandhas were the things poked by them. Sallato means it has the nature of always trembling (when hit by darts). When it was hit by darts, it became rogato, having diseases, the diseases of dukkha, domanassa, etc. Therefore, the Buddha described them as sallato, yogato, etc. Because of that, feelings (vedanā) of gladness, sorrow, etc., arise. Therefore, having the desire for the khandha means being hit by a spear and dart and suffering with many kinds of feelings. People who pray for the khandha are foolish and stupid. As an example, when the body is poked with the spear of a mosquito, it trembles with dukkha. Vedanā of itching arises. (We can give other examples for other āyatanas). Does this khandha have any desirable affection to own it? Whatever khandha it may be, there’s no happiness (i.e., human, devatā, and brahma-god). This body is always having diseases, liable to tremble, and always has to worry about it. (These points are clear in everyday life; with getting older, they become clearer). You all are looking at it with taṇhā eyes, but with the ñāṇa eyes, it never is free from sores.

Therefore, the Buddha tells Nakulapitā that except for the fools, no wise men ever say it is free from diseases (So there are many human fools on earth). Does it have any pleasantness and pleasure here? People think the khandha is free from diseases and pray to get it (think of it as happiness and pleasure). With a wrong perception, they ask wrongly for it (by making merits and prayers). There are three wrong factors that come in: wrong perception, wrong knowing, and wrong viewing. All these arise because you don’t know you’re hit by spears. Now! You know the culprits who made you get the khandha (i.e., inversions of dhamma). If you can abandon these three wrong factors, you will not get the khandha. With the three right factors coming in, the three wrong factors have to disappear. You must note it as having only mind and form, not as man nor woman, not as a person nor a being. They are perishable phenomena. You have to remove the wrong notions of man and woman; it has only mind and form. You must observe its arising and vanishing – do you still take it as stable and permanent?

Saying there is no man nor woman means abandoning the wrong perception. Acknowledging that only mind and form exist means abandoning the wrong knowing. You abandon the wrong viewing of stability with the right viewing of instability (i.e., anicca). I’m asking you to contemplate the impermanence of mind and form to abandon the three wrong factors. This is having noble eyes; before it was the blind eyes of a worldling. With the abandoning of diṭṭhi-taṇhā and diṭṭhi-kamma, no apāya khandhas will arise (hell, animal, and ghost). If you can’t abandon the three wrong factors, then all kinds of khandha will come to you. Being hit by many kinds of spear and dart will cause many kinds of diseases.

---

revised on 2024-07-10

---

• Content of Part 16 on "Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw"

---

• Content of "Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw"

---

• Content of Publications of Ven. Uttamo

---

According to the translator— Ven. Uttamo's words, this is strictly for free distribution only, as a gift of Dhamma—Dhamma Dāna. You may re-format, reprint, translate, and redistribute this work in any medium.