Teaching of Thabarwa Sayadaw U Ottamasara
Question and Answer and Dhamma Discussion with
Overseas Disciple
3rd September 2012
Part - Four
In the case of understanding 'dana' as doing
actions such as working, earning money and doing good deeds and 'sila' as
ability of taking precepts as well as doing whatever you can do and saying
whichever you can say, the mind power of 'doing' does not equal to
'abandoning'.
In the case of meditation, practicing
meditation by applying all kinds of conventional knowledge and methods can be
considered as merely 'doing' actions without abandoning the habit of the mind.
In reality, you always have to remember the
truth, 'abandoning', in your mind while carrying out the activities of the body
(kaya kamma), oral (vaci kamma) and mind (mano kamma). This is called trying to abandon those
activities in your mind while physically doing them.
Your power of abandoning will eventually be improved
if you keep on doing 'abandoning' all the time in your mind.
Central emphasis should not be placed on
'doing' or 'not-doing'.
Central emphasis should not be placed on
'doing created actions' or 'not-doing created actions'.
Central emphasis should not be placed on
'doing meditation' or 'not-doing meditation'.
Placing central emphasis on the following
actions can merely be called as 'habitual way of placing central emphasis on actions'. They are ... must do meditation, must do routine
actions, must seek for medical treatments, must depend on yourself, must depend
on doctors, must depend on parents, must depend on teachers, must depend on Buddha,
Dhamma and Sanga (Triple Gems), etc ...
The above mentioned examples are the glaring
evidences that you are still unable do 'abandoning' in your mind. You are merely 'doing actions' in your mind.
By carrying out 'doing actions', your power of 'doing' will eventually be
increased. You can merely 'do actions'
but unable to 'abandon actions' in your mind.
Mental disorder in human beings is one of the
evidences that those people are incapable of doing 'abandoning' in their
mind. If people start to do whatever
they wish to do and say whatever they wish to say according to their wish and
will, regardless of the situation, they will eventually become mental patients.
Only when you can practice 'abandoning' in your
mind, you will gradually be able to stop using life as if you are the owner and
master of your own life, stop grasping life as if it is your own and stop referring
to life as yours.
('abandoning' = abandoning physical actions,
oral actions, mental actions, grasping of living and non-living beings as well
as stop using things for grasping purpose, start using things for abandoning
purpose, using life for abandoning purpose, etc).
The essence is to 'abandon' your habit of
using life in a wrong way. As a result
of the power of abandoning, you will gradually know how to use things, life, all
other actions in a right way of 'using only, doing only, etc'.
Abandon the central emphasis on "happening or
not", "doing or not", and "understanding or not" as
reality or real importance.
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You need to abandon your habitual
understandings. Started from the leader,
your 'mind', you need to learn to abandon all the actions of 'doing'. If not, your mind will always be busy with
'doing this and that', 'saying this and that', 'contemplating this and that',
'concentrating this and that', 'doing this and that good deeds', 'taking this
and that precepts', etc.
If your mind only understand the action of
'doing', your power of 'doing' will be increased. Your ability in doing kamma actions will also
be increased. But they are not the genuine
mind power of 'abandoning'.
Your power of true 'abandoning' will be
increased only when you have the right understanding and faith in
'abandoning'. Hence, you need to start
changing the actions of the leader, your 'mind'.
You will always be remained as ordinary yogi
(meditator) as long as you practice meditation with the understanding of
'doing' and 'practicing'. You will also be contemplating on and practicing
meditation like other traditional yogis.
If you observe 'sila' with conventional
understanding in mind, you will only become one of those who take Uposatha
in conventional ways.
If you do good deeds with conventional
understanding in mind, you will only become one of those who do good deeds in
conventional ways but will not know how to do good deeds to achieve perfection
(parami).
Starting from the leader, your 'mind', you
need to learn to do the right actions such as using living and non-living beings
for abandoning purpose.
Change must be started from the leader, your
'mind'. Only then, you will learn to use physical (kamma) and oral (vaci)
actions for abandoning purpose ... do actions with the power of abandoning in
mind, say things with the power of abandoning in mind, etc.
Started from the leader, your 'mind', you must
try to abandon all your physical actions.
By doing so, you will gradually be able to 'abandon' all the created
actions such as worries, anticipations, suspicions, 'I', me, place,
possessions, life, death, health, well beings as well as placing central
emphasis on those created actions in your mind.
Placing central emphasis on life and death in
your mind can be called as 'placing life and death as prime importance'.
Placing central emphasis on health in your
mind can also be called 'placing health as prime importance'.
In order to abandon those actions of your mind,
you need to do 'abandoning' at all times ... be it whether you are healthy or
sick. Even while listening to dhamma
teachings or while practicing meditation or etc, you still need to remember and
contemplate on 'abandoning' in your mind.
You need to listen to dhamma teachings and
practice meditation with the understanding of 'abandoning' in your mind.
The essence of this teaching is to change the
duties and actions of the mind because mind creates everything.
Becoming this and that is also the created action
of your mind.
Feeling healthy or sick is also created by
your mind. By nature, your physical body will either be healthy or sick. Mind will automatically interpret this nature
as feeling healthy or sick. Hence, those
feelings are purely the creations of your mind.
If your mind is associated with pleasant
feelings, you will feel pleasant. If
your mind is associated with unpleasant feelings, you will feel
unpleasant.
Unpleasant feeling is created by your
mind. Pleasant feeling is also created
by your mind.
Good or poor concentration is also created by
your mind.
The real duty is to stop doing all those created
actions of the mind and perform the single most important action of
'abandoning' all the time.
When the actions of the leader, your 'mind', is
changed, all the actions of the followers will automatically be changed.
If the actions of the leader is not changed,
the actions of the followers will never be changed.
Since the leader is your 'mind', the leader
must do the action of 'abandoning' continuously at all times. Only then, the actions of the followers,
physical and oral actions, will be changed.
To be
continued .....