Our present birth is to be thought of as resembling
a journey along a road. It is necessary then to have a good
look and discover which is the right and which the wrong
way to walk this road. If we just follow the crowd, we may
well go astray and miss the true destination. This is not
the kind of walking we have in mind when we speak of
"walking the Path." By "walking the Path" we mean progress
towards nirvana, towards freedom from the unsatisfactory
condition.
If this comparison of our present birth to a journey
along a road is still unclear, the matter must be thought
over deeply, discussed, and studied thoroughly. In this study
and practice, we can find help and guidance in the teachings
of the Buddha, the one who succeeded in walking the Path
right to the end. Unfortunately however, most people take
no interest in the Buddha's teaching as a guide to the Path
and how to walk it.
Now here is an important point to consider: this
person who is to walk the Path -just which particular person
is it? Or if it is a number of people, how many? Taking
the broad outlook we can see that it is really the whole
of humanity, mankind in general. Think about it. As long
as noone exists who knows the Path and how to walk it,
most people are sure to stray from the Path. But slowly
and by degrees the right way is found, little by little the
Path is re-discovered, until the time comes when there
arises a fully enlightened being, a buddha, someone who
manages to walk the perfectly right Path. In other words
walking the Path is a long-term project which mankind is
engaged in collectively, until such time as some exceptional
individual happens to increase so much in insight that he
manages to walk it right to the end.
Let us put this another way. Most people live no
longer than one hundred years at the most. Walking the
Path more or less clumsily, they cover only a short distance
before they die. No single person gets very far -and who
is to carry on where he leaves off? The answer is posterity.
Succeeding generations, benefiting from the insight gained
by their predecessors, inherit the task of carrying on the
journey. Children and grandchildren carry on where their
elders have left off, making steadily more progress until the
time comes when one of them manages to complete the
journey.
Looked at in this way, even the having of children,
the propagation of the species, has as its objective continual
progress along the Path, and ultimately arrival at the end.
But do people at the present time really have this objective
in view when they have children? People go on producing
more and more dark-eyed little infants - but are they thinking
of these new individuals as heirs to the task of carrying
on along the Path? If not, then their motivation must be
on some lower level, the level of animals like dogs and cats.
People give birth to offspring, which they then love so dearly
they would willingly lay down their life for them. But animals
do this too. The attachment to offspring dominating the mind
of a parent operates in precisely the same way in animals
as in man.
But let us examine why an animal has such an
attachment to its offspring, such a strong desire to protect
them. Just what is the purpose of it? We can safely assume
that it is not a result of rational thinking on the part of the
animal. Attachment to offspring and desire to protect them
are naturally present in animals. And why has Nature
equipped animals with this kind of instinct? In order to guard
against the extinction of the species. And for what purpose
should the extinction of an animal species be averted?
Ultimately in order to make possible further evolution, further
steady progress towards the highest stage possible for a
reproducing species. Thus we see Nature working to save
each species of living things from extinction, thereby
ensuring continued evolution up to the highest point. This
is Nature's purpose. Animals in general are subject to this
law, whether they realize it or not. It can be said, then, that
for the lower animals too, birth is a journey. It is a nonstop
journey of progress until the top is reached, until there
evolves Man. And after that further progress is possible to
the stage of Fully Enlightened Man.
Now, for what purpose does present-day man
produce offspring? Possibly there do exist people who
genuinely believe they are producing children in order that
the human species may be perpetuated and Nirvana
ultimately attained, in other words, in order that there may
be continual progress along the Path. But obviously the
great majority do not think like this. They love their children.
They feed and care for them and make all sons of sacrifices
on account of their blind love. Everyone wants his own
children to be the best and the most beautiful. Noone is
concerned about the propagation of the species for the sake
of continuing the journey. Noone looks on his children in
terms of humanity's collective progress towards the goal.
Everyone thinks in terms of individual benefit, in terms of
"me" and "mine." It is only "my child" that matters. It is only
he whose condition and progress are of any concern. This
kind of thinking conforms with the laws of Nature, but
conflicts with all the principles of Dharma. As a result,
children are bound to bring their parents misery and tears.
This narrow thinking does nothing to help humanity towards
nirvana.
All this discussion is intended to bring us back to the
questions: "Why was I born?" and "What ought I to be
doing?" Even if one has children and keeps the species
going, what must one hand on to them so that they may
be fit to encounter the Dharma and become genuine
Dharma-followers: As long as each individual considers
himself a single self sufficient unit, not involved with the rest,
mankind has no means of moving forward towards the
coming into existence of an enlightened being.
All of man's scientific knowledge is of no use unless
it helps him to progress spiritually. Now, speaking in terms
of material values, it does happen that what evil people
achieve and pass on to evil people following them brings
about progress. If this were not so, the world could never
have attained its present unbelievably high stage of
technological development. It could be maintained that we
were born to work for the material progress of mankind
up to the ultimate. But in material progress there is no
ultimate. Progress, as understood by the average house-holder,
the man of the world, never loads to any ultimate
goal. By contrast, spiritual progress progress towards the
Truth known by an enlightened being, does have an ultimate
goal. On this road it is possible to go right to the end and
attain complete freedom from the unsatisfactory condition.
Let us pursue the question further. Given that man
was born to walk the Path to nirvana, how exactly are we
to set about this walking? The Buddha has said:
Sabbe sankhara aniccati
Yada pannaya passati
Atha nibbindati dukkhe
Esa maggo visuddhiya.
"When a man sees with insight that all compounds
are transient, he becomes fed up with them as
unsatisfactory. That is the Path to Nirvana, to Purity."
When a man comes to recognize the true nature of
compounds (Sankharas); he becomes fed up with them. And
this disenchantment with compounds is the first step on the
Path leading to Nirvana, to Dharma. The Buddha said
furthermore:
Sabbe sankhara anicca,
Sabbe sankhara dukkha,
Sabbe dhamma anatta,
All compounds are transient,
All compounds are unsatisfactory,
All things are not selves (anatta).
When one has seen these three characteristics, one
becomes disenchanted with those unsatisfactory compounds.
And that is the Path to Nirvana -or at least the
beginning of it. The point to note here is that when a person
has come to a proper realization of these characteristics
of compounds, he finds himself naturally repelled by
compounds, that is, by the unsatisfactory condition. All
compounds are thoroughly unsatisfactory. As soon as a
person begins to see compounds as thoroughly unsatisfactory,
he becomes utterly fed-up with compounds. Compounds
are by their very nature unsatisfactory. The word
"compound" automatically implies unsatisfactoriness. There
is no such thing as a satisfactory compound. When
compounding stops, there is Nirvana, the ideal state.
But the last line of this quotation covers both
compounds and non-compounds. Nothing whatsoever, be
it compound or no compound, is a self that might be grasped
at as being one's own. This is the last word. Compounds
are ever changing; compounds are unsatisfactory; all
things, compounds or not, are such that they may not be
grasped at as selves or as belonging to oneself. Only when
this fact is seen in all clarity has the real Path begun; only
then has one really started moving towards the overcoming
of the unsatisfactory condition, that is, towards Nirvana.
The word "Path" has several meanings. First of all
and most basically it should be understood as synonymous
with "practice" (Patipatti) or "way of practice" (patipada).
Both of these terms imply stepwise progress like walking
along a path; and they also imply the path itself which is
to be walked. The word "Path" refers specifically to that
which is practised or walked, but strictly speaking the Path
and the walking of it ought not to be distinguished. The
walking, the walker, and the path walked are not to be
recognized as separate things. In the Pali language one
single word was used for these, or at least one basic root
word was used in slightly different forms which referred
respectively to the one who walks, the path walked, and
the act of walking. All these are in Peli variants of the one
root word. So when we hear of the practice (Patipatti) or
the way of practice (patipada), let us bear in mind that they
refer to walking the Path.
And there are numerous other terms all referring to
this same Path. A person who, not having studied the matter
very closely, comes across such a large number of
equivalent terms may well jump to the conclusion that they
refer to several different things. In reality they all refer to
this one Path. For instance the Task (kammapatha) is
simply the Path to be walked; the Ten Skillful Actions
(kusalakammapatha) are also simply the Path; Morality,
Concentration, and Insight (sila-samadhi panna) are the
Path; the Noble Eightfold Path (ariya atthangika magga) is
once again the Path; and even to see all compounds as
transient and unsatisfactory, and all things as not solves
-this too is the Path. Anyone who has been thinking of these
various names as all denoting different things would do well
to correct this misunderstanding. All these different names
denote one and the same Path locked at from different
points of view for purposes of instruction.
Now what are the Ten Skillful Actions? These are
ten kinds of abstinence from sinful bodily, vocal, and mental
action. Taken together they are called the Ten Skillful
Actions because anyone who practises in this way is walking
the high Path. The Buddha used this particular mode of
speaking when teaching ordinary average people. When he
wished to teach on a higher level or in briefer terms, for
the benefit of people with a more than average degree of
understanding, he spoke in terms of the Noble Eightfold Path
-right understanding, right aspiration, right speech, right
action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and
right concentration. This Eightfold Path is a mode of practice
rather above the level appropriate for the average
householder. But its objective is just the same. It too aims
at the attainment of Nirvana, differing from other schemes
only in intensity or level.
Now let us look at the Buddha's brief statement that
whenever transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood
(anicca, dukka, anatta) are perceived with insight, that is
the Path. This is even more clearly a statement designed
specifically for people with insight. The Pali says quite
clearly: "When transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood
are perceived with insight, that is the Path."
Reflection will show that when we have proper insight
and understanding of the true characteristics of all
compounds, that is, of Nature itself, then at that time our
behaviour, bodily, vocal, and mental, will be just as it should
be. It will be right behaviour - but not simpy right in terms
of the law-books or general morality, or social custom, not
just unintelligently right. To put it another way, if a person
really perceives transience, unsatisfactoriness, and
non-seifhood, he cannot possibly do the wrong thing by way
of body, speech, or mind, because the power of this understanding
acts as a governor, If we properly know and
understand and perceive the three characteristics, we
cannot possibly think wrong thoughts or have wrong
aspirations, or say or do the wrong thing. Having had clear
insight into the true nature of things, we are no longer liable
to become obsessed with them. Actions based on true
insight are always right actions. Thus morality, conctentration,
and insight (or the Noble Eightfold Path, or the Ten
Skillful Actions, etc.) come into being of their own accord.
Suppose now, that, having reached the peak of
insight into transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood,
we then descend. Any action we then do at this lower level
will be a thoroughly right action. And taking it the other way
round, if we are working up from the bottom, we have to
build a firm foundation of right behaviour, bodily, vocal, and
mental, supported by which we may grow in insight day by
day. So a man of the world, one who is still an ordinary
deluded worldling, must have faith in the efficacy of the Ten
Skillful Actions and try his best to practise them. If he does
this constantly, he will soon start making progress in insight
because this is the nght way to walk the Path. Ultimately
he will reach the peak, attaining insight into transience,
unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood. So regardless of
whether the Path is viewed from the end towards the
beginning, or from the beginning towards the end, it is seen
as something that can be done -provided of course the
individual concerned is reasonably wefl equipped as to
character, sense faculties, and intelligence. Everyone who
has been born in the world and blessed with long life, ought
to make it his business to develop insight, Iittle by little, every
day, until he reaches the stage where he is able to see
the three characteristics of all compounds, to see the
endless process of compounding as unsatisfactory, and to
perceive escape from unsatisfactoriness in the state of
freedom from compounding.
This is sufficient answer to the question why the
Buddha taught the Path in several different ways. At the
high level he taught the Four Exercises in Mindfulness
(satipatthana) as the One Path, the perfect system for the
individual walking alone, the one way towards the one and
only goal. He taught the Path under the name of Mindfulness,
and under many other names which we need not go into
here at length.
All we wish to do here is to realize that this thing
called the Path will have come to be the True Path just
as soon as there arises insight into transience, unsatisfactoriness,
and non-selfhood. As long as this insight has not
yet arisen, it is still not the True Path, but only the very
beginning of it. So if a person has not yet gained this insight
into the three Characteristics, he still does not know the Path
to be walked. Instead he goes oft in search of things which
are transient, unsatisfactory, and not selves more than ever,
and his life becomes more and more unsatisfactory. But if
a person does come to see that all Compounds are transient,
unsatisfactory, and not selves, his mind will seek to avoid
those compounds. It will seek to transcend them, to get
above them, so that they cannot harm it. This is the True
Path, the Path that leads away from unsatisfactoriness and
towards the overcoming of it.
So it is up to each one of us to develop the True
Path based on insight and try to gain understanding of the
transience, unsafisfactoriness, and non-selfhood of campounds,
to see them as inherently unsatisfactory, as nothing
but unsatisfactory, as the unsatisfactory condition itself, to
be avoided at all costs. This seen, behaviour will thenceforth
be free of compounding with craving and attachment. Once
transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood have
bean seen, craving and attachment cannot arise. All that
is left is the insight. Insight serves to prevent the arising
of craving and attachment. So this life can be one with the
Path. Life can be in itself a good steady progress: it can
be one and the same as walking the Path.
I hope you will all now take a greater interest in these
three words "transience, unsatistactoriness, non-selfhood."
Don't go just memorising someone's explanation of them,
See for yourself that things which go on perpetually
combining and changing possess these three characterstics.
When a person does not realize the true nature of
things, he unwillingly takes them as lasting, worthwhile,
selves belonging to himself. You can imagine the trouble
that then results. lt's like taking a thing with certain properties
and trying to force it to have different properties. It can't
be done any more than fire can be forced to be without
heat. The result is both comic and tragic.
So the majority of people believe that having been
born into this llfe, we ought to go after one thing or another,
according to our desires, being pleased when we get what
we want and upset when we don't. When people have
children they have nothing better to teach them than this
primitive philosophy. This is all they have to offer. It is a
far cry from the Path taught by the Buddha. Children walk
in the same old ruts as their parents, and so it goes on
from one generation to the next. There is no progress
forwards, no variation or improvement based on knowledge
that all things are transient, unsatisfactory, and not selves,
and therefore not to be grasped at. If then our children,
and we ourselves too, are to walk the Path easily and
quickly, it behoves us to take a special interest in this matter
of grasping and non-grasping, to train ourselves in it and
teach it to others;.
True, we have to live in the world. We have to eat,
to make use of various articles, to see and come in contact
with all sorts of things. But it is possible to live with these
things without grasping at and clinging to them. We must
act intelligently, always mindful of the three characteristics.
When our offspring have this insight, when they have come
to see that nothing whatsoever can be grasped at and clung
to, we can then leave them to look after themselves. They
are then able to think, speak, and act correctly of their own
accord, in the way that is free from the unsatisfactory
condition. It is up to us to teach and train our children in
this matter of grasping and non-grasping so that they may
be free from excessive depression and elation. They must
develop sufficient intelligence to keep them above the things
that would otherwise make them laugh or cry. They must
develop in this insight just as they develop physically. This
is how to be a good parent who hands on to his offspring
the job of walking the Path the right and rapid way. This
is how it should be, in keeping with the principle that man
is born to walk the Path so that the goal way one day be
attained.
Now let us have a look at Thailand, and the hundred-odd
other countries of the world, and see what sorts of
things people are teaching their children. What sorts of
things are people doing? What are their desires, the causes
of those actions that are producing so much suffering and
misery in every part of the world at the present time?
We find that people, far from walking the right Path,
are following the Devil, Satan, Mara, whatever one cares
to call him, which is bound to be a source of all sorts of
misary. This is not at all in keeping with the purpose of
birth as a human being, let alone a human being who has
encountered the Buddha's teaching. Even any ordinary
human being ought not to behave like this, because the
term "human" (in Sanskrit manusya) means something
rather special. It implies a high-minded being, a descendant
of Manu the wise, something higher than average. To
deserve the title of human being, one must walk the True
Path. As soon as one wanders from the Path, one ceases
to be human in the true sense. If one thinks along lines
inconsistent with Truth of Dharma for even one moment,
then in that moment one has ceased being a true human
being and is instead walking the path of Mara, or the path
of the beasts. Our examination has to be done in such detail
that we walk the Path all the lime, with every breath we
take, every minute and every second. We must walk the
Path all the time. As soon as we relax, we go astray.
So let us not go lapsing into thought patterns that
lead to carelessness or overconfidence, or the idea that this
journey is an easy one. There is also a danger of relaxing
and simply going downstream, drifting with the current. This
is one of the worst dangers. The Buddha taught us to be
constantly aware, to walk the Path every single "thought
moment". One moment of unawareness and the mind is off
the track again. Sometimes it may go so far astray that to
return to the Path becomes very difficult and time-consuming.
Suppose one falls into one of the "woeful states"
such as hell. This means that one has done the wrong thing,
relaxed, and let the mind drop to the low level known as
hell, so that it is difficult to return promptly. This wandering
from the Path is like walking into a trap, falling into a pit
or ditch. It comes from being careless, not keeping to the
Path, not being constantly aware of those three characteristics,
transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood. And
there is no travelling companion who will help us keep to
the straight and narrow. There is noone to keep an eye
on us and see that we don't wander off the Path. Each
of us is just a blind man being led by blind men. The lot
of us are just fumbling along all the time. It is because the
great majority of people are forever being careless and
wandering off the Path that the entire world is in such a
pitiful and hopeless condition.
Do realize that this business of the Path and the
walking of it is no small matter, no joke. On the contrary
it is the most vital matter of all. It is the task for a human
being. It is a job to be done with all the intelligence and
ability a human being carn muster. Don't waver for an
instant, not for a split second! In a single instant one may
go astray from the Path, If the mind is not on the lookout
at every moment, there is a danger of its running oft the
Path and even falling into hell. It behoves each one of us
to reflect on the dangers of this kind of lapse, and resolve
to maintain clear and unobscured insight into the transience,
unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfhood of every single thing
about him. His every action, word, and thought will then
be in keeping with that insight. There is no way it can lapse
and give rise to some kind of suffering.
This, then, is in brief the way to walk the Path. It
is just a brief summary, just the essence of it. It could be
dealt with in more detail to cover the numerous different
forms of practice out of which an individual may choose
just the one that best suits his own partIcular temperament.
One can think of it as the Noble Eightfold Path, or the Four
Exercises in Mindfulness, or the Ten SkilIful Actions, or
something else, just as one chooses. We way choose to
think of it as the Ten Virtues, which a Buddha is said to
possess. These Virtues are once again the Path to be
walked from ordinary human status to buddhahood. If we
feel ten Virtues are too much for us to aim at, that is all
right; and it we feel we could manage all ten but not to
the degree possible for a buddha, that is all right too. These
Virtues simply constitute a mode of practice governed by
insight into the thoroughly unsatisfactory nature of this
worldly condition, this cycle of Samsara, these compounds.
Our job is to cross over from all this to the other side
Nirvana, by means of the kind of action that sees things
as they really are, as transient, unsatisfactory, and not
selves. So we practice in such a way as to wipe out all
grasping and clinging to these transient, unsatisfactory, selfless
things. We practise charity, goodwill, honesty, tolerance
all the virtues that we realize will give mastery overthe lower
kinds of thought, the kind that is blind to the three
characteristics.
To sum up then, walking the Path must begin,
develop, and culminate with perfectly clear insight into the
three characteristics. This is all there is to it. I hope you
will follow this Path taught by the Buddha and gain the
benefits of so doing.