Don’t Obey Your Desire
Teaching of ThaBarWa Sayadaw U
Ottamasara
Delivered at Wat Ananda Metyarama
Thai Buddhist Temple
Singapore, March 2014
Part - Two
When you meditate, you
are not the only one who is meditating. There are a lot of people meditating.
Some are in a forest or in a cave, some are in a meditation center. There are a
lot of people who are meditating. Because of someone, we pay attention to
someone, to one of the meditators. That habit must be abandoned. If we cannot
abandon the habit of paying attention to someone, we are not following the
Middle Way. The Middle Way is free from rejecting and attaching.
There are many
meditators who practice meditation but they cannot abandon their habits; if
they work they will pay attention to their work. They will pay attention to
their life as a worker. If they meditate, they will pay attention to this life
of a meditator and they will pay attention to their action of meditation.
Although they are
meditating they cannot detach from themselves and from their actions. I mean,
they are doing good deeds for themselves. They are misunderstanding the
practice of meditation as being their own work. If doing with the idea of
something that we own, it will never end. We are usually representing something
or someone. So we must try to represent the Truth , which is Ever New Impermanent
Nature.
We can understand, we
can think, we can recognize, we can feel the sound, we can feel the smell, we
can feel the cold. We misunderstand that 'I understand' or 'I am thinking' or 'someone
is thinking' or 'someone is feeling cold'. This is wrong. All these
powers are concerning the Ever New Impermanent Nature. Only the Ever New
Impermanent Nature can know, can think, can feel, can remember and can make
actions. This Ever New Impermanent Nature is not something, not someone.
We are always using the
power of Ever New Impermanent Nature, but we misunderstand; we don’t know the
Truth, which is Ever New Impermanent Nature. This is why we misunderstand that
there is someone, 'I' or 'you', there is something: 'mine' or 'yours'. We can
use living beings, including ourselves. We can use non-living beings, but we
must try to detach from the idea of something or of someone.
So the practice of
detachment is not paying attention to something or to someone. We can pay
attention but we must try to stop that habit. Not daring to abandon the habit
of paying attention is attachment. We can eat, but we should also try not to
eat. We can sleep, but we should try not to sleep. We must understand
that abandoning is necessary.
Abandoning is also an
action. Normally we understand that we have to work but we should understand
that the work is necessary to be done and also to be abandoned. Eating is also
to be done and to be abandoned. Sleeping is also to be done and to be abandoned.
We understand that we have to 'occupy' our life; this is not complete
understanding. Life is also to be used and to be abandoned, to be lost. We must
try to abandon our belongings and also ourselves. If we don’t understand that,
we will only understand that we must work, we must learn, study, we must try to
get everything.
So we want everything
because we understand that things must be possessed. We understand that
food must be eaten. This is why we want to eat all food. We understand all
places are meant to go to; this is why we want to go everywhere. Because our
understanding is not complete. We can go, we can eat but we must understand
both doing and abandoning. We must try to do and we must try to abandon also.
In this way we will be able to control ourselves.
Here in Singapore and in
Japan the people think they have to work too much. Without work no food, no
life. They are believing in the wrong way. This is why they cannot live without
work. They are using incomplete understanding. This is why their action is also
not complete. We should do when we have to do. We must be able to do when we
should do. We must be able not to do when we should not do. We must eat when we
should eat. We must not eat when we should not. All the actions are also to be done
and to be abandoned. If we understand that the action is to be done there will
be strong attachment for doing and in this way we will be busy all the time.
Most people in society
are interested in education, business, sports or politics but they rarely are
interested in meditation and the practice of mindfulness and detachment. They
are not paying attention to Buddha’s teaching. This is why their understanding
is not complete, so their mind is not complete, their life is not complete. We
can do education, business, politics but we must also be able to do meditation,
to do good deeds and not to do bad. We must each purify our mind also.
There are a lot of
problems in the mind of people. Because they don’t care, they are not
interested in purifying their mind. They are paying attention to work, money,
and to success; that is why their mind is not pure. This is why they
suffer.
You should try to
meditate daily, at least one hour in the morning. In this way you are trying to
detach from your daily work. If you do not meditate, you will be busy with your
work all the time. By meditating daily you will be able to detach from your
work for one hour. In this way you must continue to detach for longer
periods of time. If you can detach from society, from your job, then
there is no need to do as other people do. Because of attachment, human beings
are busy with their work. So also animals are busy with their work.
To
be continued