The Dhamma
(the Truth) which I am talking, belongs to everybody. It dos
not belong particularly to any religion, whether Buddhism,
Brahmanism or Christianity; nor to any nationality, whether
Thai, Chinese, French, English, American, Japanese or
Taiwanese. Anyone who realizes it, possesses it.
One who realizes it, possesses it.
One who does not realize it, does not possesses it. It exists
in everybody regardless of his religion.
Having
realized it, you cannot prohibit others from cultivating it.
Having
realized it, you cannot destroy it, because it is
indestructible. Nothing can destroy it.
It is impossible to stop others from
realizing it because one who cultivates it will realize himself.
One having
realized, it is impossible to destroy because is so all the
time.
[2]
Man himself
is religion.
Dhamma is in man. Man is
Dhamma.
The ancients
said, “heaven or hell is in the mind, so is Nirvāna (the
extinction of all defilements and suffering).”
Where is the
mind?
Have you ever
seen the mind?
If you have
never seen it, you should practice until you know what the mind
is.
Hell is
mental suffering or unhappiness. When it fades away, we are in
heaven. Whenever anger recurs, we then revert to hell.
[3]
The
Buddha-nature is the mind that is clean, clear, calm, pure,
bright and quick. This kind of mind exists in everybody without
exception.
Water and mud
are not the same thing. It is the mud that makes the water look
turbid, but the water itself is clear. Our mind is the same.
If we realize this, we will gradually follow the Path. The
Buddha-nature is the mind that is clean, clear, calm and pure.
When the mind is pure, the mud cannot pollute the water any
more. When the mind is bright, the mud will transform into
sediment and break through the bottom. When the mind is quick,
it is light and can see everything.
The Mundane
Dhamma (Worldly Truth) and the Transcendent Dhamma (Ultimate
Truth) are in co-existence. If we really realize the later,
then we can distinguish them from each other. If we do not
realize it, we cannot make a distinction.
[4]
The Dhamma
that made Siddhartha become an Arahant or the Buddha existed
prior to him. It is the neutral mind that exists at the moment
(neither being happy nor sad).
While you are
listening to me now, how is your mind?
It is
neutral.
Are you
conscious of this state of mind?
If you are
conscious of this neutral mind, this is what we call calmness.
You can work, talk or think anything. This kind of mind
requires no effort.
It can be
easily taught, but one who does not understand it tends to make
something easy unnecessarily difficult or something simple to be
complicated.
This neutral
mind (is natural and) requires no effort.
Everybody has
this kind of mind, but we have never looked before. It is
called Upekkhā [Equanimity].
[5]
Man is born
to think. He thinks this and that endlessly.
Thoughts flow
all the time like a stream.
Thought is
the quickest thing. It is quicker than lighting or anything.
Suffering
arises because we do not see thought. Thought itself is not
suffering. When thought arises, we do not see, know and
understand it simultaneously, so greed, anger, or delusion
arises and brings us suffering.
If fact,
there is no greed, anger or delusion. They occur because we do
not see “the source of the mind”.
[6]
So let us
cultivate self-awareness. When thought arises, we see, know and
understand it. It is Sati-Samādhi-Pańńā
(Awareness-Attention-Insight). We call it “self-awareness”.
Whenever we are aware, thought cannot concoct. If we do not see
it, it will concoct endlessly.
This method is the shortest way to Sudden Enlightenment.