                                        
                                        
                                        
                                        
                      TOWARD THE UNCONDITIONED
                                        
                                        
    Today is the day on which we Buddhists come together to observe 
 the Uposatha [*] precepts and listen to the Dhamma, as is our 
 custom. The point of listening to the Dhamma is firstly to create 
 some understanding of the things we don't yet understand, to clarify 
 them, and secondly, to improve our grasp of the things we understand 
 already. We must rely on Dhamma talks to improve our understanding, 
 and listening is the crucial factor.
 
 * [//Uposatha//, or Observance, days, are the days on which 
 practicing Buddhists usually go to the monastery to practice 
 meditation, listen to a Dhamma talk and keep the eight //uposatha// 
 precepts -- To refrain from killing, stealing, all sexual activity, 
 lying, taking intoxicants, eating food after midday, enjoying 
 entertainments and dressing up, and sitting or sleeping on luxurious 
 seats or beds.]
 
 
    For today's talk please pay special attention, first of all 
 straightening up your posture to make it suitable for listening. 
 Don't be too tense. Now, all that remains is to establish your 
 minds, making your minds firm in //samadhi//. The mind is the 
 important ingredient. The mind is that which perceives good and 
 evil, right and wrong. If we are lacking in //sati// for even one 
 minute, we are crazy for that minute; if we are lacking in //sati// 
 for half an hour we will be crazy for half an hour. However much our 
 mind is lacking in //sati//, that's how crazy we are. That's why 
 it's especially important to pay attention when listening to the 
 Dhamma.
    
    All creatures in this world are plagued by nothing other than 
 suffering. There is only suffering disturbing the mind. Studying the 
 Dhamma is for the purpose of utterly destroying this suffering. If 
 suffering arises it's because we don't really know it. No matter how 
 much we try to control it through will power, or through wealth and 
 possessions, it is impossible. If we don't thoroughly understand 
 suffering and its cause, no matter how much we try to "trade it off" 
 with our deeds, thoughts or worldly riches, there's no way we can do 
 so. Only through clear knowledge and awareness, through knowing the 
 truth of it, can suffering disappear. And this applies not only to 
 homeless ones, the monks and novices, but also to householders: for 
 anybody who knows the truth of things, suffering automatically 
 ceases.
    
    Now the states of good and evil are constant truths. Dhamma means 
 that which is constant, which maintains itself. Turmoil maintains 
 its turmoil, serenity maintains its serenity. Good and evil maintain 
 their respective conditions -- like hot water: it maintains its 
 hotness, it doesn't change for anybody. Whether a young person or an 
 old person drink it, it's hot. It's hot for every nationality of 
 people. So Dhamma is defined as that which maintains its condition. 
 In our practice we must know heat and coolness, right and wrong, 
 good and evil. Knowing evil, for example, we will not create the 
 causes for evil, and evil will not arise.
    
    Dhamma practicers should know the source of the various 
 //dhammas//. By quelling the cause of heat, heat cannot arise. The 
 same with evil: it arises from a cause. If we practice the Dhamma 
 till we know the Dhamma, we will know the source of things, their 
 causes. If we extinguish the cause of evil, evil is also 
 extinguished, we don't have to go running after evil to put it out.
    
    This is the practice of Dhamma. But many are those who study the 
 Dhamma, learn it, even practice it, but who are not yet with the 
 Dhamma, and who have not yet quenched the cause of evil and turmoil 
 within their own hearts. As long as the cause of heat is still 
 present, we can't possibly prevent heat from being there. In the 
 same way, as long as the cause of confusion is within our minds, we 
 cannot possibly prevent confusion from being there, because it 
 arises from this source. As long as the source is not quenched, 
 confusion will arise again. 
    
    Whenever we create good actions goodness arises in the mind. It 
 arises from its cause. This is called //kusala//. [*] If we 
 understand causes in this way, we can create those causes and the 
 results will naturally follow.
 
 * [//Kusala//: wholesome or skillful actions or mental states].
 
    
    But people don't usually create the right causes. They want 
 goodness so much, and yet they don't work to bring it about. All 
 they get are bad results, embroiling the mind in suffering. All 
 people want these days is money. They think that is they just get 
 enough money everything will be alright; so they spend all their 
 time looking for money, they don't look for goodness. This is like 
 wanting meat, but not wanting salt to preserve it: you just leave 
 the meat around the house to rot. Those who want money should know 
 not only how to find it, but also how to look after it. If you want 
 meat, you can't expect to buy it and then just leave it laying 
 around in the house. It'll just go rotten. This kind of thinking is 
 wrong. The result of wrong thinking is turmoil and confusion. The 
 Buddha taught the Dhamma so that people would put it into practice, 
 in order to know it and see it, and to be one with it, to make the 
 mind Dhamma. When the mind is Dhamma it will attain happiness and 
 contentment. The restlessness of //samsara// is in this world, and 
 the cessation of suffering is also in this world.
    
    The practice of Dhamma is therefore for leading the mind to the 
 transcendence of suffering. The body can't transcend suffering -- 
 having been born it must experience pain and sickness, aging and 
 death. Only the mind can transcend clinging and grasping. All the 
 teachings of the Buddha, which we call //pariyatti//, [*] are a 
 skillful means to this end. For instance, the Buddha taught about 
 //upadinnakasankhara// and //anupadinnakasankhara// -- mind-attended 
 conditions and non-mind- attended conditions. Non-mind-attended 
 conditions are usually defined as such things as trees, mountains, 
 rivers and so on -- inanimate things. Mind-attended conditions are 
 defined as animate things -- animals, human beings and so on. Most 
 students of Dhamma take this definition for granted, but if you 
 consider the matter deeply, how the human mind gets so caught up in 
 sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings, and mental states, you 
 might see that really there isn't anything which is not 
 mind-attended. As long as there is craving in the mind everything 
 becomes mind-attended.
 
 * [//Pariyatti//, the teachings as laid down in the scriptures, or 
 as passed down from one person to another in some form or another; 
 the "theoretical" aspect of Buddhism. "//Pariyatti//" is often 
 referred to in reference to two other aspects of Buddhism -- 
 //Patipatti//, the practice, and //Pativedhi//, the realization. 
 Thus: Study -- Practice -- Realization.]
 
    
    Studying the Dhamma without practicing it, we will be unaware of 
 its deeper meanings. For instance, we might think that the pillars 
 of this meeting hall, the tables, benches and all inanimate things 
 are "not mind-attended". We only look at one side of things. But 
 just try getting a hammer and smashing some of these things and 
 you'll see whether they're mind-attended or not!
    
    It's our own mind, clinging to the tables, chairs and all of our 
 possessions, which attends these things. Even when one little cup 
 breaks it hurts, because our mind is "attending" that cup. Be they 
 trees, mountains or whatever, whatever we feel to be ours, they have 
 a mind attending them -- if not their own then someone else's. These 
 are all "mind-attended conditions", not "non-mind-attended".
    
    It's the same for our body. Normally we would say that the body 
 is mind-attended. The "mind" which attends the body is none other 
 than //upadana//, clinging, latching onto the body and clinging to 
 it as being "me" and "mine".
    
    Just as a blind man cannot conceive of colors -- no matter where 
 he looks, no colors can be seen -- just so for the mind blocked by 
 craving and delusion, all objects of consciousness become 
 mind-attended. For the mind tainted with craving and obstructed by 
 delusion, everything becomes mind-attended... tables, chairs, 
 animals and everything else. If we understand that there is an 
 intrinsic self, the mind attaches to everything. All of nature 
 becomes mind-attended, there is always clinging and attachment.
    
    The Buddha talked about //sankhata dhammas// and //asankhata 
 dhammas -- conditioned and unconditioned things. Conditioned things 
 are innumerable -- material or immaterial, big or small -- if our 
 mind is under the influence of delusion, it will proliferate about 
 these things, dividing them up into good and bad, short and long, 
 coarse and refined. Why does the mind proliferate like this? Because 
 it doesn't know determined reality, [*] it doesn't see the Dhamma. 
 Not seeing the Dhamma, the mind is full of clinging. As long as the 
 mind is held down by clinging there can be no escape, there is 
 confusion, birth, old age, sickness and death, even in the thinking 
 processes. This kind of mind is called the //sankhata dhamma// 
 (conditioned mind). 
 
 * [//Sammutti sacca//, a difficult term to translate. It refers to 
 the dualistic, or nominal reality, the reality of names, 
 determinations. For instance, a cup is not intrinsically a cup, it 
 is only //determined// to be so.]
 
 
    //Asankhata dhamma//, the unconditioned, refers to the mind which 
 has seen the Dhamma, the truth, of the Five //Khandhas// as they are 
 -- as Transient, Imperfect and Ownerless. All ideas of "me" and 
 "them", "mine" and "theirs", belong to the determined reality. 
 Really they are all conditions. When we know the truth of 
 conditions, as neither ourselves nor belonging to us, we let go of 
 conditions and the determined. When we let go of conditions we 
 attain the Dhamma, we enter into and realize the Dhamma. When we 
 attain the Dhamma we know clearly. What do we know? We know that 
 there are only conditions and determinations, no being, no self, no 
 "us" nor "them". This is knowledge of the way things are.
    
    Seeing in this way the mind transcends things. The body may grow 
 old, get sick and die, but the mind transcends this state. When the 
 mind transcends conditions, it knows the unconditioned. the mind 
 becomes the unconditioned, the state which no longer contains 
 conditioning factors. The mind is no longer conditioned by the 
 concerns of the world, conditions no longer contaminate the mind. 
 Pleasure and pain no longer affect it. Nothing can affect the mind 
 or change it, the mind is assured, it has escaped all constructions. 
 Seeing the true nature of conditions and the determined, the mind 
 becomes free.
    
    This freed mind is called the Unconditioned, that which is beyond 
 the power of constructing influences. If the mind doesn't really 
 know conditions and determinations, it is moved by them. 
 Encountering good, bad, pleasure, or pain, it proliferates about 
 them. Why does it proliferate? Because there is still a cause. What 
 is the cause? The cause is the understanding that the body is one's 
 self or belongs to the self; that feelings are self or belonging to 
 self; that perception is self or belonging to self; that conceptual 
 thought is self or belonging to self; that consciousness is self or 
 belonging to self. The tendency to conceive things in terms of self 
 is the source of happiness, suffering, birth, old age, sickness and 
 death. This is the worldly mind, spinning around and changing at the 
 directives of worldly conditions. This is the conditioned mind.
    
    If we receive some windfall our mind is conditioned by it. That 
 object influences our mind into a feeling of pleasure, but when it 
 disappears, our mind is conditioned by it into suffering. The mind 
 becomes a slave of conditions, a slave of desire. No matter what the 
 world presents to it, the mind is moved accordingly. This mind has 
 no refuge, it is not yet assured of itself, not yet free. It is 
 still lacking a firm base. This mind doesn't yet know the truth of 
 conditions. Such is the conditioned mind.
    
    All of you listening to the Dhamma here, reflect for a 
 while...even a child can make you get angry, isn't that so? Even a 
 child can trick you. He could trick you into crying, laughing -- he 
 could trick you into all sorts of things. Even old people get duped 
 by these things. For a deluded person who doesn't know the truth of 
 conditions, they are always shaping the mind into countless 
 reactions, such as love, hate, pleasure and pain. They shape our 
 minds like this because we are enslaved by them. We are slaves of 
 //tanha//, craving. Craving gives all the orders, and we simply 
 obey.
    
    I hear people complaining..."Oh, I'm so miserable. Night and day 
 I have to go to the fields, I have no time at home. In the middle of 
 the day I have to work in the hot sun with no shade. No matter how 
 cold it is I can't stay at home, I have to go to work. I'm so 
 oppressed."
    
    If I ask them, "Why don't you just leave home and become a 
 monk?", they say, "I can't leave, I have responsibilities." 
 //Tanha// pulls them back. Sometimes when you're doing the plowing 
 you might be bursting to urinate so much you just have to do it 
 while you're plowing, like the buffaloes! This is how much craving 
 enslaves them.
    
    When I ask, "How are you going? Haven't you got time to come to 
 the monastery?", they say, "Oh, I'm really in deep." I don't know 
 what it is they're stuck in so deeply! These are just conditions, 
 concoctions. The Buddha taught to see appearances as such, to see 
 conditions as they are. This is seeing the Dhamma, seeing things as 
 they really are. If you really see these two things then you must 
 throw them out, let them go.
    
    No matter what you may receive it has no real substance. At first 
 it may seem good, but it will eventually go bad. It will make you 
 love and make you hate, make you laugh and cry, make you go 
 whichever way it pulls you. Why is this? Because the mind is 
 undeveloped. Conditions become conditioning factors of the mind, 
 making it big and small, happy and sad.
    
    In the time of our forefathers, when a person died they would 
 invite the monks to go and recite the recollections on impermanence: 
 //Anicca vata sankhara / Uppadavaya dhammino / Uppajjitva 
 nirujjhan'ti / Tesam vupasamo sukho// [*] -- All conditions are 
 impermanent. The body and the mind are both impermanent. They are 
 impermanent because they do not remain fixed and unchanging. All 
 things that are born must necessarily change, they are transient -- 
 especially our body. What is there that doesn't change within this 
 body? Hair, nails, teeth, skin... are they still the same as they 
 used to be? The condition of the body is constantly changing, so it 
 is impermanent. Is the body stable? Is the mind stable? Think about 
 it. How many times is there arising and ceasing even in one day? 
 Both body and mind are constantly arising and ceasing, conditions 
 are in a state of constant turmoil.
 
 * [Impermanent are all conditioned things, / Of the nature to arise 
 and pass away / Having been born, they all must perish / The 
 cessation of conditions is true happiness.]
 
 
    The reason you can't see these things in line with the truth is 
 because you keep believing the untrue. It's like being guided by a 
 blind man. How can you travel in safety? A blind man will only lead 
 you into forests and thickets. How could he lead you to safety when 
 he can't see? In the same way our mind is deluded by conditions, 
 creating suffering in the search for happiness, creating difficulty 
 in the search for ease. Such a mind only makes for difficulty and 
 suffering. Really we want to get rid of suffering and difficulty, 
 but instead we create those very things. All we can do is complain. 
 We create bad causes, and the reason we do is because we don't know 
 the truth of appearances and conditions.
    
    Conditions are impermanent, both the mind-attended ones and the 
 non-mind-attended. In practice, the non-mind-attended conditions are 
 non-existent. What is there that is not mind- attended? Even your 
 own toilet, which you would think would be non-mind-attended...try 
 letting someone smash it with a sledge hammer! He would probably 
 have to contend with the "authorities". The mind attends everything, 
 even feces and urine. Except for the person who sees clearly the way 
 things are, there are no such things as non-mind-attended 
 conditions.
    
    Appearances are determined into existence. Why must we determine 
 them? Because they don't intrinsically exist. For example, suppose 
 somebody wanted to make a marker. He would take a piece of wood or a 
 rock and place it on the ground, and then call it a marker. Actually 
 it's not a marker. There isn't any marker, that's why you must 
 determine it into existence. In the same way we "determine" cities, 
 people, cattle -- everything! Why must we determine these things? 
 Because originally they do not exist.
    
    Concepts such as "monk" and "layperson" are also 
 "determinations". We determine these things into existence because 
 intrinsically they aren't here. It's like having an empty dish -- 
 you can put anything you like into it because it's empty. This is 
 the nature of determined reality. Men and women are simply 
 determined concepts, as are all the things around us.
    
    If we know the truth of determinations clearly, we will know that 
 there are no beings, because "beings" are determined things. 
 Understanding that these things are simply determinations, you can 
 be at peace. But if you believe that the person, being, the "mine", 
 the "theirs", and so on are intrinsic qualities, then you must laugh 
 and cry over them. These are the proliferation of conditioning 
 factors. If we take such things to be ours there will always be 
 suffering. This is //micchaditthi//, Wrong View. Names are not 
 intrinsic realities, they are provisional truths. Only after we are 
 born do we obtain names, isn't that so? Or did you have your name 
 already when you were born? The name comes afterwards, right? Why 
 must we determine these names? Because intrinsically they aren't 
 there.
    
    We should clearly understand these determinations. Good, evil, 
 high, low, black and white are all determinations. We are all lost 
 in determinations. This is why at the funeral ceremonies the monks 
 chant, //Anicca vata sankhara//... Conditions are impermanent, they 
 arise and pass way. That's the truth. What is there that, having 
 arisen, doesn't cease? Good moods arise and then cease. Have you 
 ever seen anybody cry for three or four years? At the most, you may 
 see people crying a whole night, and then the tears dry up. Having 
 arisen, they cease...
    
    //Tesam vupasamo sukho//... [*] If we understand //sankharas//, 
 proliferations, and thereby subdue them, this is the greatest 
 happiness. This is true merit, to be calmed of proliferations, 
 calmed of "being", calmed of individuality, of the burden of self. 
 Transcending these things one sees the Unconditioned. This means 
 that no matter what happens, the mind doesn't proliferate around it. 
 There's nothing that can throw the mind off its natural balance. 
 What else could you want? This is the end, the finish.
 
 * ["Cessation is true happiness," or "the calming of conditions is 
 true happiness."]
 
 
    The Buddha taught the way things are. Our making offerings and 
 listening to Dhamma talks and so on is in order to search for and 
 realize this. If we realize this, we don't have to go and study 
 //vipassana// (insight meditation), it will happen of itself. Both 
 //samatha// (calm) and //vipassana// are determined into being, just 
 like other determinations. The mind which knows, which is beyond 
 such things, is the culmination of the practice.
    
    Our practice, our inquiry, is in order to transcend suffering. 
 When clinging is finished with, states of being are finished with. 
 When states of being are finished with, there is no more birth or 
 death. When things are going badly, the mind does not rejoice, and 
 when things are going badly, the mind does not grieve. The mind is 
 not dragged all over the place by the tribulations of the world, and 
 so the practice is finished. This is the basic principle for which 
 the Buddha gave the teaching. 
    
    The Buddha taught the Dhamma for use in our lives. Even when we 
 die there is the teaching //Tesam vupasamo sukho//...but we don't 
 subdue these conditions, we only carry them around, as if the monks 
 were telling us to do so. We carry them around and cry over them. 
 This is getting lost in conditions. Heaven, Hell and //nibbana// are 
 all to be found at this point.
    
    Practicing the Dhamma is in order to transcend suffering in the 
 mind. If we know the truth of things as I've explained here we will 
 automatically know the Four Noble Truths -- Suffering, the Cause of 
 Suffering, the Cessation of Suffering and the Way leading to the 
 Cessation of Suffering.
    
    People are generally ignorant when it comes to determinations, 
 they think they all exist of themselves. When the books tell us that 
 trees, mountains and rivers are non-mind-attended conditions, this 
 is simplifying things. This is just the superficial teaching, 
 there's no reference to suffering, as if there was no suffering in 
 the world. This is just the shell of Dhamma. If we were to explain 
 things in terms of ultimate truth, we would see that it's people who 
 go and tie all these things down with their attachments. How can you 
 say that things have no power to shape events, that they are not 
 mind-attended, when people will beat their children even over one 
 tiny needle? One single plate or cup, a plank of wood... the mind 
 attends all these things. Just watch what happens if someone goes 
 and smashes one of them up and you'll find out. Everything is 
 capable of influencing us in this way. Knowing these things fully is 
 our practice, examining those things which are conditioned, 
 unconditioned, mind-attended, and non-mind-attended.
    
    This is part of the "external teaching", as the Buddha once 
 referred to them. At one time the Buddha was staying in a forest. 
 Taking a handful of leaves, He asked the bhikkhus, "Bhikkhus, which 
 is the greater number, the leaves I hold in my hand or the leaves 
 scattered over the forest floor?"
    
    The bhikkhus answered, "The leaves in the Blessed One's hand are 
 few, the leaves scattered around the forest floor are by far the 
 greater number."
    
    "In the same way, bhikkhus, the whole of the Buddha's teaching is 
 vast, but these are not the essence of things, they are not directly 
 related to the way out of suffering. There are so many aspects to 
 the Teaching, but what the Tathagata really wants you to do is to 
 transcend suffering, to inquire into things and abandon clinging and 
 attachment to form, feeling, perception, volition and 
 consciousness." [*] Stop clinging to these things and you will 
 transcend suffering. These teachings are like the leaves in the 
 Buddha's hand. You don't need so much, just a little is enough. As 
 for the rest of the Teaching, you needn't worry yourselves over it. 
 It is just like the vast earth, abundant with grasses, soil, 
 mountains, forests. There's no shortage of rocks and pebbles, but 
 all those rocks are not as valuable as one single jewel. The Dhamma 
 of the Buddha is like this, you don't need a lot.
 
 * [The Five Khandhas]
 
 
    So whether you are talking about the Dhamma or listening to it, 
 you should know the Dhamma. You needn't wonder where the Dhamma is, 
 it's right here. No matter where you go to study the Dhamma, it is 
 really in the mind. The mind is the one who clings, the mind is the 
 one who speculates, the mind is the one who transcends, who lets go. 
 All this external study is really about the mind. No matter if you 
 study the Tipitaka, [*] the Abhidhamma  [**] or whatever, don't 
 forget where it came from.
 
 * [The Buddhist Pali Canon]
 
 ** [The third of the "Three Baskets," the Tipitaka, being the 
 section on the higher philosophy of Buddhism.]
 
 
    When it comes to the practice, the only things you really need to 
 make a start are honesty and integrity, you don't need to make a lot 
 of trouble for yourself. None of you laypeople have studied the 
 Tipitaka, but you are still capable of greed, anger and delusion, 
 aren't you? Where did you learn about these things from? Did you 
 have to read the Tipitaka or the Abhidhamma to have greed, hatred 
 and delusion? Those things are already there in your mind, you don't 
 have to study books to have them. But the Teachings are for 
 inquiring into and abandoning these things.
    
    Let the knowing spread from within you and you will be practicing 
 rightly. If you want to see a train, just go the central station, 
 you don't have to go traveling all the way up the Northern line, the 
 Southern Line, the Eastern Line and the Western Line to see all the 
 trains. If you want to see trains, every single one of them, you'd 
 be better off waiting at Grand Central Station, that's where they 
 all terminate.
    
    Now some people tell me, "I want to practice but I don't know 
 how. I'm not up to studying the scriptures, I'm getting old now, my 
 memory's not good..." Just look right here, at "Central Station". 
 Greed arises here, anger arises here, delusion arises here. Just sit 
 here and you can watch as all these things arise. Practice right 
 here, because right here is where you're stuck. Right here is where 
 the determined arises, where conventions arise, and right here is 
 where the Dhamma will arise.
    
    Therefore the practice of Dhamma doesn't distinguish between 
 class or race, all it asks is that we look into, see and understand. 
 At first, we train the body and speech to be free of taints, which 
 is //sila//. Some people think that to have //sila// you must 
 memorize Pali phrases and chant all day and all night, but really 
 all you have to do is make your body and speech blameless, and 
 that's //sila//. It's not so difficult to understand, just like 
 cooking food... put in a little bit of this and a little bit of 
 that, till it's just right...and it's delicious! You don't have to 
 add anything else to make it delicious, it's delicious already, if 
 only you add the right ingredients. In the same way, taking care 
 that our actions and speech are proper will give us //sila//.
    
    Dhamma practice can be done anywhere. In the past I traveled all 
 over looking for a teacher because I didn't know how to practice. I 
 was always afraid that I was practicing wrongly. I'd be constantly 
 going from one mountain to another, from one place to another, until 
 I stopped and reflected on it. Now I understand. In the past I must 
 have been quite stupid, I went all over the place looking for places 
 to practice meditation -- I didn't realize it was already there, in 
 my heart. All the meditation you want is right there inside you. 
 There is birth, old age, sickness, death right here within you. 
 that's why the Buddha said //Paccatam veditabbo vinnuhi//: The wise 
 must know for themselves. I'd said the words before but I still 
 didn't know their meaning. I traveled all over looking for it until 
 I was ready to drop dead from exhaustion -- only then, when I 
 stopped, did I find what I was looking for, inside of me. So now I 
 can tell you about it.
    
    So in your practice of //sila//, just practice as I've explained 
 here. Don't doubt the practice. Even though some people may say you 
 can't practice at home, that there are too many obstacles...if 
 that's the case then even eating and drinking are going to be 
 obstacles. If these things are obstacles to practice then don't eat! 
 If you stand on a thorn, is that good? Isn't not standing on a thorn 
 better? Dhamma practice brings benefit to all people, irrespective 
 of class. However much you practice, that's how much you will know 
 the truth.
    
    Some people say they can't practice as a lay person, the 
 environment is too crowded. If you live in a crowded place, then 
 look into crowdedness, make it open and wide. The mind has been 
 deluded by crowdedness, train it to know the truth of crowdedness. 
 The more you neglect the practice, the more you neglect going to the 
 monastery and listening to the teaching, the more your mind will 
 sink down into the bog, like a frog going into a hole. Someone comes 
 along with a hook and the frog's done for, he doesn't have a chance. 
 All he can do is stretch out his neck and offer it to them. So watch 
 out you don't work yourself into a tiny corner -- someone may just 
 come along with a hook and scoop you up. At home, being pestered by 
 your children and grandchildren, you are even worse off than the 
 frog! You don't know how to detach from these things. When old age, 
 sickness and death come along, what will you do? This is the hook 
 that's going to get you. Which way will you turn?
    
    This is the predicament our minds are in. Engrossed in the 
 children, the relatives, the possessions...and you don't know how to 
 let them go. Without morality or understanding to free things up 
 there is no way out for you. When feeling, perception, volition and 
 consciousness produce suffering you always get caught up in it. Why 
 is there this suffering? If you don't investigate you won't know. If 
 happiness arises you simply get caught up in happiness, delighting 
 in it. You don't ask yourself, "where does this happiness come 
 from?'
    
    So change your understanding. You can practice anywhere because 
 the mind is with you everywhere. If you think good thoughts while 
 sitting, you can be aware of them; if you think bad thoughts you can 
 be aware of them also. These things are with you. While lying down, 
 if you think good thoughts or bad thoughts, you can know them also, 
 because the place to practice is in the mind. Some people think you 
 have to go to the monastery every single day. That's not necessary, 
 just look at your own mind. If you know where the practice is you'll 
 be assured.
    
    The Buddha's teaching tells us to watch ourselves, not to run 
 after fads and superstitious. That's why he said, //Silena sugatim 
 yanti, Silena bhogasampada, Silena nibbutim yanti, Tasma silam 
 visodhaye//: [*] //Sila// refers to our actions. Good actions bring 
 good results, bad actions bring bad results. Don't expect the gods 
 to do things for you, or the angels and guardian deities to protect 
 you, or the auspicious days to help you. These things aren't true, 
 don't believe in them. If you believe in them you will suffer. 
 You'll always be waiting for the right day, the right month, the 
 right year, the angels and guardian deities...you'll suffer that 
 way. Look into your own actions and speech, into your own //kamma//. 
 Doing good you inherit goodness, doing bad you inherit badness.
 
 * ["Moral rectitude leads to well being, leads to wealth, leads to 
 nibbana. Therefore, maintain your precepts purely" -- a Pali phrase 
 said at the end the traditional giving of the precepts.]
 
 
    If you understand that good and bad, right and wrong all lie 
 within you, then you won't have to go looking for those things 
 somewhere else. Just look for these things where they arise. If you 
 lose something here, you must look for it here. Even if you don't 
 find it at first, keep looking where you dropped it. But usually, we 
 lose it here then go looking over there. When will you ever find it? 
 Good and bad actions lie within you. One day you're bound to see it, 
 just keep looking right there.
    
    All beings fare according to their //kamma//. What is //kamma//? 
 People are too gullible. If you do bad actions, they say Yama, the 
 King of the Underworld, will write it all down in a book. When you 
 go there he takes out his accounts and looks you up...You're all 
 afraid of the Yama in the after-life, but you don't know the Yama 
 within your own minds. If you do bad actions, even if you sneak off 
 and do it by yourself, this Yama will write it all down. Among you 
 people sitting here and there are probably many who have secretly 
 done bad things, not letting anyone else see. But you see it don't 
 you? This Yama sees it all. Can you see it for yourself? All of you, 
 think for a while... Yama has written it all down, hasn't he? 
 There's no way you can escape it. Whether you do it alone or in a 
 group, in a field or wherever...
    
    Is there anybody here who has ever stolen something? There are 
 probably a few of us who are ex-thieves. Even if you don't steal 
 other people's things you still may steal your own. I myself have 
 that tendency, that's why I reckon some of you may be the same. 
 Maybe you have secretly done bad things in the past, not letting 
 anyone else know about it. But even if you don't tell anyone else 
 about it, you must know about it. This is the Yama who watches over 
 you and writes it all down. Wherever you go he writes it all down in 
 his account book. We know our own intention. When you do bad actions 
 badness is there, if you do good actions, goodness is there. There's 
 nowhere you can go to hide. Even if others don't see you, you must 
 see yourself. Even if you go into a deep hole you'll still find 
 yourself. Even if you go into a deep hole you'll still find yourself 
 there. There's no way you can commit bad actions and get away with 
 it. In the same way, why shouldn't you see your own purity? You see 
 it all -- the peaceful, the agitated, the liberation or the bondage 
 -- we see all these for ourselves.
    
    In this Buddhist religion you must be aware of all your actions. 
 We don't act like the Brahmins, who go into your house and say, "May 
 you be well and strong, may you live long." The Buddha doesn't talk 
 like that. How will the disease go away with just talk? The Buddha's 
 way of treating the sick was to say, "Before you were sick what 
 happened? What led up to your sickness?" Then you tell him how it 
 came about. "Oh, it's like that, is it? Take this medicine and try 
 it out." If it's not the right medicine he tries another one. If 
 it's right for the illness, then that's the right one. This way is 
 scientifically sound. As for the Brahmins, they just tie a string 
 around your wrist and say, "Okay, be well, be strong, when I leave 
 this place you just get right on up and eat a hearty meal and be 
 well." No matter how much you pay them, your illness won't go away, 
 because their way has no scientific basis. But this is what people 
 like to believe.
    
    The Buddha didn't want us to put too much store in these things, 
 he wanted us to practice with reason. Buddhism has been around for 
 thousands of years now, and most people have continued to practice 
 as their teachers have taught them, regardless of whether it's right 
 or wrong. That's stupid. They simply follow the example of their 
 forebears.
    
    The Buddha didn't encourage this sort of thing. He wanted us to 
 do things with reason. For example, at one time when he was teaching 
 the monks, he asked Venerable Sariputta, "Sariputta, do you believe 
 this teaching? Venerable Sariputta replied, "I don't yet believe 
 it." The Buddha praised his answer: "Very good, Sariputta. A wise 
 person doesn't believe too readily. He looks into things, into their 
 causes and conditions, and sees their true nature before believing 
 or disbelieving."
    
    But most teachers these days would say, "What?!!! You don't 
 believe me? Get out of here!" Most people are afraid of their 
 teachers. Whatever their teachers do they just blindly follow. The 
 Buddha taught to adhere to the truth. Listen to the teaching and 
 then consider it intelligently, inquire into it. It's the same with 
 my dhamma talks -- go and consider it. Is what I say right? Really 
 look into it, look within yourself.
    
    So it is said to guard your mind. Whoever guards his mind will 
 free himself from the shackles of Mara. It's just this mind which 
 goes and grabs onto things, know things, sees things, experiences 
 happiness and suffering... just this very mind. When we fully know 
 the truth of determinations and conditions we will naturally throw 
 off suffering.
    
    All things are just as they are. They don't cause suffering in 
 themselves, just like a thorn, a really sharp thorn. Does it make 
 you suffer? No, it's just a thorn, it doesn't bother anybody. But if 
 you go and stand on it, then you'll suffer. Why is there this 
 suffering? Because you stepped on the thorn. The thorn is just 
 minding its own business, it doesn't harm anybody. Only if you step 
 on the thorn will you suffer over it. It's because of we ourselves 
 that there's pain. Form, feeling, perception, volition, 
 consciousness... all things in this world are simply there as they 
 are. It's we who pick fights with them. And if we hit them they're 
 going to hit us back. If they're left on their own they won't bother 
 anybody, only the swaggering drunkard gives them trouble. All 
 conditions fare according to their nature. That's why the Buddha 
 said, //Tesam vupasamo sukho//: If we subdue conditions, seeing 
 determinations and conditions as they really are, as neither "me" 
 nor "mine", "us" nor "them", when we see that these beliefs are 
 simply //sakkayaditthi//, the conditions are freed of the 
 self-delusion.
    
    If you think "I'm good", "I'm bad", "I'm great", "I'm the best", 
 then you are thinking wrongly. If you see all these thoughts as 
 merely determinations and conditions, then when others say, "good" 
 or "bad" you can leave it be with them. As long as you still see it 
 as "me" and "you" it's like having three hornets nests -- as soon as 
 you say something the hornets come buzzing out to sting you. The 
 three hornets nests are //sakkayaditthi//, //viccikiccha//, and 
 //silabbataparamasa//. [*]
 
 * [Self view, doubt, and attachment to rites and practices.]
 
    
    Once you look into the true nature of determinations and 
 conditions, pride cannot prevail. Other people's fathers are just 
 like our father, their mothers are just like ours, their children 
 are just like ours. We see the happiness and suffering of other 
 beings as just like ours.
    
    If we see in this way we can come face to face with the future 
 Buddha, it's not so difficult. Everyone is in the same boat. Then 
 the world will be as smooth as a drumskin. If you want to wait 
 around to meet //Phra Sri Ariya Mettiya//, the future Buddha, then 
 just don't practice... you'll probably be around long enough to see 
 him. But He's not crazy that he'd take people like that for 
 disciples! Most people just doubt. If you no longer doubt about the 
 self, then no matter what people may say about you, you aren't 
 concerned, because your mind has let go, it is at peace. Conditions 
 become subdued. Grasping after the forms of practice... that teacher 
 is bad, that place is no good, this is right, that's wrong ... No. 
 There's none of these things. All this kind of thinking is all 
 smoothed over. You come face to face with the future Buddha. Those 
 who only hold up their hands and pray will never get there.
    
    So here is the practice. If I talked any more it would just be 
 more of the same. Another talk would just be the same as this. I've 
 brought you this far, now you think about it. I've brought you to 
 the path, whoever's going to go, it's there for you. Those who 
 aren't going can stay. The Buddha only sees you to the beginning of 
 the path. //Akkhataro Tathagata// -- the Tathagata only points the 
 way. For my practice he only taught this much. The rest was up to 
 me. Now I teach you, I can tell you just this much. I can bring you 
 only to the beginning of the path, whoever wants to go back can go 
 back, whoever wants to travel on can travel on. It's up to you, now.
    
                           * * * * * * * *
