                                        
                                        
                                        
                                        
                          WHY ARE WE HERE?
    
    
    This Rains Retreat I don't have much strength, I'm not well, so 
 I've come up to this mountain here to get some fresh air. People 
 come to visit but I can't really receive them like I used to because 
 my voice is just about had it, my breath is just about gone. You can 
 count it a blessing that there is still this body sitting here for 
 you all to see now. This is a blessing in itself. Soon you won't see 
 it. The breath will be finished, the voice will be gone. They will 
 fare in accordance with supporting factors, like all compounded 
 things. The Lord Buddha called it //khaya vayam//, the decline and 
 dissolution of all conditioned phenomena.
    
    How do they decline? Consider a lump of ice. Originally it was 
 simply water...they freeze it and it becomes ice. But it doesn't 
 take long before it's melted. Take a big lump of ice, say as big as 
 this tape recorder here, and leave it out in the sun. You can see 
 how it declines, much the same as the body. It will gradually 
 disintegrate. In not many hours or minutes all that's left is a 
 puddle of water. This is called //khaya vayam//, the decline and 
 dissolution of all compounded things. It's been this way for a long 
 time now, ever since the beginning of time. When we are born we 
 bring this inherent nature into the world with us, we can't avoid 
 it. At birth we bring old age, sickness and death along with us.
    
    So this is why the Buddha said //khaya vayam//, the decline and 
 dissolution of all compounded things. All of us sitting here in this 
 hall now, monks, novices, laymen and laywomen, are without exception 
 "lumps of deterioration". Right now the lump is hard, just like the 
 lump of ice. It starts out as water, becomes ice for a while and 
 then melts again. Can you see this decline in yourself? Look at this 
 body. It's aging every day ... hair is aging, nails are 
 aging...everything is aging!
    
    You weren't like this before, were you? You were probably much 
 smaller than this. Now you've grown up and matured. From now on you 
 will decline, following the way of nature. The body declines just 
 like the lump of ice. Soon, just like the lump of ice, it's all 
 gone. All bodies are composed of the four elements of earth, water, 
 wind and fire. A body is the confluence of earth, water, wind, and 
 fire, which we proceed to call a person. Originally it's hard to say 
 what you could call it, but now we call it a "person". We get 
 infatuated with it, saying it's a male, a female, giving it names, 
 Mr., Mrs., and so on, so that we can identify each other more 
 easily. But actually there isn't anybody there. There's earth, 
 water, wind and fire. When they come together in this known form we 
 call the result a "person". Now don't get excited over it. If you 
 really look into it there isn't anyone there.
    
    That which is solid in the body, the flesh, skin, bones and so 
 on, are called the earth element. Those aspects of the body which 
 are liquid are the water element. The faculty of warmth in the body 
 is the fire element, while the winds coursing through the body are 
 the wind element.
    
    At Wat Ba Pong we have a body which is neither male or female. 
 It's the skeleton hanging in the main hall. Looking at it you don't 
 get the feeling that it's a man or a woman. People ask each other 
 whether it's a man or a woman and all they can do is look blankly at 
 each other. It's only a skeleton, all the skin and flesh are gone.
    
    People are ignorant of these things. Some go to Wat Ba Pong, into 
 the main hall, see the skeletons...and then come running right out 
 again! They can't bear to look. They're afraid, afraid of the 
 skeletons. I figure these people have never seen themselves before. 
 Afraid of the skeletons... they don't reflect on the great value of 
 a skeleton. To get to the monastery they had to ride in a car or 
 walk... if they didn't have bones how would they be? Would they be 
 able to walk about like that? But they ride their cars to Wat Ba 
 Pong, go into the main hall, see the skeletons and run straight back 
 out again! They've never seen such a thing before. They're born with 
 it and yet they've never seen it. It's very fortunate that they have 
 a chance to see it now. Even older people see the skeletons and get 
 scared... What's all the fuss about? This shows that they're not at 
 all in touch with themselves, they don't really know themselves. 
 Maybe they go home and still can't sleep for three or four days... 
 and yet they're sleeping with a skeleton! They get dressed with it, 
 eat food with it, do everything with it... and yet they're scared of 
 it.
    
    This shows how out of touch people are with themselves. How 
 pitiful! They're always looking outwards, at trees, at other people, 
 at external objects, saying "this one is big", "that's small", 
 "that's short", "that's long". They're so busy looking at other 
 things they never see themselves. To be honest, people are really 
 pitiful. They have no refuge.
    
    In the ordination ceremonies the ordinees must learn the five 
 basic meditation themes: //kesa//, head hair; //loma//, body hair; 
 //nakha//, nails; //danta//, teeth; //taco//, skin. Some of the 
 students and educated people snigger to themselves when they hear 
 this part of the ordination ceremony..."What's the Ajahn trying to 
 teach us here? Teaching us about hair when we've had it for ages. He 
 doesn't have to teach us about this, we know it already. Why bother 
 teaching us something we already know?" Dim people are like this, 
 they think they can see the hair already. I tell them that when I 
 say to "see the hair" I mean to see it as it really is. See body 
 hair as it really is, see nails, teeth and skin as they really are. 
 That's what I call "seeing" -- not seeing in a superficial way, but 
 seeing in accordance with the truth. We wouldn't be so sunk up to 
 the ears in things if we could see things as they really are. Hair, 
 nails, teeth, skin ... what are they really like? Are they pretty? 
 Are they clean? Do they have any real substance? Are they stable? 
 No... there's nothing to them. They're not pretty but we imagine 
 them to be so. They're not substantial but we imagine them to be so.
    
    Hair, nails, teeth, skin... people are really hooked on these 
 things. The Buddha established these things as the basic themes for 
 meditation, he taught us to know these things. They are Transient, 
 Imperfect and Ownerless; they are not "me" or "them". We are born 
 with and deluded by these things, but really they are foul. Suppose 
 we didn't bathe for a week, could we bear to be close to each other? 
 We'd really smell bad. When people sweat a lot, such as when a lot 
 of people are working hard together, the smell is awful. We go back 
 home and rub ourselves down with soap and water and the smell abates 
 somewhat, the fragrance of the soap replaces it. Rubbing soap on the 
 body may make it seem fragrant, but actually the bad smell of the 
 body is still there, temporarily suppressed. When the smell of the 
 soap is gone the smell of the body comes back again.
    
    Now we tend to think these bodies are pretty, delightful, long 
 lasting and strong. We tend to think that we will never age, get 
 sick or die. We are charmed and fooled by the body, and so we are 
 ignorant of the true refuge within ourselves. The true place of 
 refuge is the mind. The mind is our true refuge. This hall here may 
 be pretty big but it can't be a true refuge. Pigeons take shelter 
 here, geckos take shelter here, lizards take shelter here...We may 
 think the hall belongs to us but it doesn't. We live here together 
 with everything else. This is only a temporary shelter, soon we must 
 leave it. People take these shelters for refuge.
    
    So the Buddha said to find your refuge. That means to find your 
 real heart. This heart is very important. People don't usually look 
 at important things, they spend most of their time looking at 
 unimportant things. For example, when they do the house cleaning 
 they may be bent on cleaning up the house, washing the dishes and so 
 on, but they fail to notice their own hearts. Their heart may be 
 rotten, they may be feeling angry, washing the dishes with a sour 
 expression on their face. That their own hearts are not very clean 
 they fail to see. This is what I call "taking a temporary shelter 
 for a refuge". They beautify house and home but they don't think of 
 beautifying their own hearts. They don't examine suffering. The 
 heart is the important thing. The Buddha taught to find a refuge 
 within your own heart: //Attahi attano natho// -- "Make yourself a 
 refuge unto yourself". Who else can be your refuge? The true refuge 
 is the heart, nothing else. You may try to depend on other things 
 but they aren't a sure thing. You can only really depend on other 
 things if you already have a refuge within yourself. You must have 
 your own refuge first before you can depend on anything else, be it 
 a teacher, family, friends or relatives.
    
    So all of you, both laypeople and homeless ones who have come to 
 visit today, please consider this teaching. Ask yourselves, "Who am 
 I? Why am I here?" Ask yourselves, "Why was I born?" Some people 
 don't know. They want to be happy but the suffering never stops. 
 Rich or poor, young or old, they suffer just the same. It's all 
 suffering. And why? Because they have no wisdom. The poor are 
 unhappy because they don't have enough, and the rich are unhappy 
 because they have too much to look after.
    
    In the past, as a young novice, I gave a Dhamma discourse. I 
 talked about the happiness of wealth and possessions, having 
 servants and so on... A hundred male servants, a hundred female 
 servants, a hundred elephants, a hundred cows, a hundred 
 buffaloes...a hundred of everything! The laypeople really lapped it 
 up. But can you imagine looking after a hundred buffaloes? Or a 
 hundred cows, a hundred male and female servants...can you imagine 
 having to look after all of that? Would that be fun? People don't 
 consider this side of things. They have the desire to possess...to 
 have the cows, the buffaloes, the servants... hundreds of them. But 
 I say fifty buffaloes would be too much. Just twining the rope for 
 all those brutes would be too much already! But people don't 
 consider this, they only think of the pleasure of acquiring. They 
 don't consider the trouble involved.
    
    If we don't have wisdom everything round us will be a source of 
 suffering. If we are wise these things will lead us out of 
 suffering. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind...Eyes aren't 
 necessarily good things, you know. If you are in a bad mood just 
 seeing other people can make you angry and make you lose sleep. Or 
 you can fall in love with others. Love is suffering, too, if you 
 don't get what you want. Love and hate are both suffering, because 
 of desire. Wanting is suffering, wanting not to have is suffering. 
 Wanting to acquire things... even if you get them it's still 
 suffering because you're afraid you'll lose them. There's only 
 suffering. How are you going to live with that? You may have a 
 large, luxurious house, but if your heart isn't good it never really 
 works out as you expected.
    
    Therefore, you should all take a look at yourselves. Why were we 
 born? Do we ever really attain anything in this life? In the 
 countryside here people start planting rice right from childhood. 
 When they reach seventeen or eighteen they rush off and get married, 
 afraid they won't have enough time to make their fortunes. They 
 start working from an early age thinking they'll get rich that way. 
 They plant rice until they're seventy or eighty or even ninety years 
 old. I ask them. "From the day you were born you've been working. 
 Now it's almost time to go, what are you going to take with you?" 
 They don't know what to say. All they can say is, "Beats me!" We 
 have a saying in these parts, "Don't tarry picking berries along the 
 way ... before you know it, night falls." Just because of this 
 "Beats me!" They're neither here nor there, content with just a 
 "beats me"... sitting among the branches of the berry tree, gorging 
 themselves with berries... "Beats me, beats me..."
    
    When you're still young you think that being single is not so 
 good, you feel a bit lonely. So you find a partner to live with. Put 
 two together and there's friction! Living alone is too quiet, but 
 living with others there's friction.
    
    When children are small the parents think, "When they get bigger 
 we'll be better off." They raise their children, three, four, or 
 five of them, thinking that when the children are grown up their 
 burden will be lighter. But when the children grow up they get even 
 heavier. Like two pieces of wood, one big and one small. You throw 
 away the small one and take the bigger one, thinking it will be 
 lighter, but of course it's not. When children are small they don't 
 bother you very much, just a ball of rice and a banana now and then. 
 When they grow up they want a motorcycle or a car! Well, you love 
 your children, you can't refuse. So you try to give them what they 
 want. Problems...Sometimes the parents get into arguments over 
 it..."Don't go and buy him a car, we haven't got enough money!" But 
 when you love your children you've got to borrow the money from 
 somewhere. Maybe the parents even have to go without to get the 
 things their children want. Then there's education. "When they've 
 finished their studies, we'll be right." There's no end to the 
 studying! What are they going to finish? Only in the science of 
 Buddhism is there a point of completion, all the other sciences just 
 go round in circles. In the end it's real headache. If there's a 
 house with four or five children in it the parents argue every day.
    
    The suffering that is waiting in the future we fail to see, we 
 think it will never happen. When it happens, then we know. that kind 
 of suffering, the suffering inherent in our bodies, is hard to 
 foresee. When I was a child minding the buffaloes I'd take charcoal 
 and rub it on my teeth to make them white. I'd go back home and look 
 in the mirror and see them so nice and white...I was getting fooled 
 by my own bones, that's all. When I reached fifty or sixty my teeth 
 started to get loose. When the teeth start falling out it hurts so 
 much, when you eat it feels as if you've been kicked in the mouth. 
 It really hurts. I've been through this one already. So I just got 
 the dentist to take them all out. Now I've got false teeth. My real 
 teeth were giving me so much trouble I just had them all taken out, 
 sixteen in one go. The dentist was reluctant to take out sixteen 
 teeth at once, but I said to him, "Just take them out, I'll take the 
 consequences." So he took them all out at once. Some were still 
 good, too, at least five of them. Took them all out. But it was 
 really touch and go. After having them out I couldn't eat any food 
 for two or three days.
    
    Before, as a young child minding the buffaloes, I used to think 
 that polishing the teeth was a great thing to do. I loved my teeth, 
 I thought they were good things. But in the end they had to go. The 
 pain almost killed me. I suffered from toothache for months, years. 
 Sometimes both my gums were swollen at once.
    
    Some of you may get a chance to experience this for yourselves 
 someday. If your teeth are still good and you're brushing them 
 everyday to keep them nice and white...watch out! They may start 
 playing tricks with you later on.
    
    Now I'm just letting you know about these things...the suffering 
 that arises from within, that arises within our own bodies. There's 
 nothing within the body you can depend on. It's not too bad when 
 you're still young, but as you get older things begin to break down. 
 Everything begins to fall apart. Conditions go their natural way. 
 Whether we laugh or cry over them they just go on their way. It 
 makes no difference how we live or die, makes no difference to them. 
 And there's no knowledge or science which can prevent this natural 
 course of things. You may get a dentist to look at your teeth, but 
 even if he can fix them they still eventually go their natural way. 
 Eventually even the dentist has the same trouble. Everything falls 
 apart in the end.
    
    These are things which we should contemplate while we still have 
 some vigor, we should practice while we're young. If you want to 
 make merit then hurry up and do so, don't just leave it up to the 
 oldies. Most people just wait until they get old before they will go 
 to a monastery and try to practice Dhamma. Women and men say the 
 same thing..."Wait till I get old first." I don't know why they say 
 that, does an old person have much vigor? Let them try racing with a 
 young person and see what the difference is. Why do they leave it 
 till they get old? Just like they're never going to die. When they 
 get to fifty or sixty years old or more..."Hey, Grandma! Let's go to 
 the monastery!" "You go ahead, my ears aren't so good any more." You 
 see what I mean? When her ears were good what was she listening to? 
 "Beats me!" ... just dallying with the berries. Finally when her 
 ears are gone she goes to the temple. It's hopeless. She listens to 
 the sermon but she hasn't got a clue what they're saying. People 
 wait till they're all used up before they'll think of practicing the 
 Dhamma.
    
    Today's talk may be useful for those of you who can understand 
 it. These are things which you should begin to observe, they are our 
 inheritance. They will gradually get heavier and heavier, a burden 
 for each of us to bear. In the past my legs were strong, I could 
 run. Now just walking around they feel heavy. Before, my legs 
 carried me. Now, I have to carry them. When I was a child I'd see 
 old people getting up from their seat..."Oh!" Getting up they groan, 
 "Oh!" There's always this "Oh!" But they don't know what it is that 
 makes them groan like that. 
    
    Even when it gets to this extent people don't see the bane of the 
 body. You never know when you're going to be parted from it. what's 
 causing all the pain is simply conditions going about their natural 
 way. People call it arthritis, rheumatism, gout and so on, the 
 doctor prescribes medicines, but it never completely heals. In the 
 end it falls apart, even the doctor! This is conditions faring along 
 their natural course. This is their way, their nature.
    
    Now take a look at this. If you see it in advance you'll be 
 better off, like seeing a poisonous snake on the path ahead of you. 
 If you see it there you can get out of its way and not get bitten. 
 If you don't see it you may keep on walking and step on it. And then 
 it bites.
    
    If suffering arises people don't know what to do. Where to go to 
 treat it? They want to avoid suffering, they want to be free of it 
 but they don't know how to treat it when it arises. And they live on 
 like this until they get old...and sick...and die...
    
    In olden times it was said that if someone was mortally ill one 
 of the next of kin should whisper //"Bud-dho, Bud-dho"// in their 
 ear. What are they going to do with Buddho? what good is Buddho 
 going to be for them when they're almost on the funeral pyre? Why 
 didn't they learn Buddho when they were young and healthy? Now with 
 the breaths coming fitfully you go up and say, "Mother...Buddho, 
 Buddho!" Why waste your time? You'll only confuse her, let her go 
 peacefully.
    
    People don't know how to solve problems within their own hearts, 
 they don't have a refuge. They get angry easily and have a lot of 
 desires. Why is this? Because they have no refuge.
    
    When people are newly married they can get on together all right, 
 but after age fifty or so they can't understand each other. Whatever 
 the wife says the husband finds intolerable. Whatever the husband 
 says the wife won't listen. They turn their backs on each other.
    
    Now I'm just talking because I've never had a family before. Why 
 haven't I had a family? Just looking at this word "household" [*] I 
 knew what it was all about. What is a "household"? This is a "hold": 
 If somebody were to get some rope and tie us up while we were 
 sitting here, what would that be like? That's called "being held". 
 Whatever that's like, "being held" is like that. There is a circle 
 of confinement. The man lives within his circle of confinement, and 
 the woman lives within her circle of confinement.
 
 *[There is a play on words in the Thai language here based on the 
 word for family -- //Krorp krua// -- which literally means 
 "kitchen-frame" or "roasting circle." In the English translation we 
 have opted for a corresponding English word rather than attempt a 
 literal translation of the Thai.] 
    
    
    When I read this word "household" ... this is a heavy one. This 
 word is no trifling matter, it's a real killer. The word "hold" is a 
 symbol of suffering. You can't go anywhere, you've got to stay 
 within your circle of confinement.
    
    Now we come to the word "house". This means "that which hassles". 
 Have you ever toasted chilies? The whole house chokes and sneezes. 
 This word "household" spells confusion, it's not worth the trouble. 
 Because of this word I was able to ordain and not disrobe. 
 "Household" is frightening. You're stuck and can't go anywhere. 
 Problems with the children, with money and all the rest. But where 
 can you go? You're tied down. There are sons and daughters, 
 arguments in profusion until your dying day, and there's nowhere 
 else to go to no matter how much suffering it is. The tears pour out 
 and they keep pouring. The tears will never be finished with his 
 "household", you know. If there's no household you might be able to 
 finish with the tears but not otherwise.
    
    Consider this matter. If you haven't come across it yet you may 
 later on. Some people have experienced it already to a certain 
 extent. Some are already at the end of their tether..."Will I stay 
 or will I go?" At Wat Ba Pong there are about seventy or eighty huts 
 (//kuti//). when they're almost full I tell the monk in charge to 
 keep a few empty, just in case somebody has an argument with their 
 spouse...Sure enough, in no long time a lady will arrive with her 
 bags..."I'm fed up with the world, Luang Por." "Whoa! Don't say 
 that. Those words are really heavy." Then the husband comes and says 
 he's fed up too. After two or three days in the monastery their 
 world-weariness disappears.
    
    They say they're fed up but they're just fooling themselves. When 
 they go off to a kuti and sit in the quiet by themselves, after a 
 while the thoughts come..."When's the wife going to come and ask me 
 to go home?" They don't really know what's going on. What is this 
 "world-weariness" of theirs? They get upset over something and come 
 running to the monastery. At home everything looked wrong...the 
 husband was wrong, the wife was wrong...after three days' quiet 
 thinking..."Hmmm, the wife was right after all, it was I who was 
 wrong". "Hubby was right, I shouldn't have got so upset." They 
 change sides. This is how it is, that's why I don't take the world 
 too seriously. I know its ins and outs already, that's why I've 
 chosen to live as a monk.
    
    I would like to present today's talk to all of you for homework. 
 Whether you're in the fields or working in the city, take these 
 words and consider them... "Why was I born? What can I take with 
 me?" Ask yourselves over and over. If you ask yourself these 
 questions often you'll become wise. If you don't reflect on these 
 things you will remain ignorant. Listening to today's talk, you may 
 get some understanding, if not now, then maybe when you get home. 
 Perhaps this evening. When you're listening to the talk everything 
 is subdued, but maybe things are waiting for you in the car. When 
 you get in the car it may get in with you. When you get home it may 
 all become clear..."Oh, that's what Luang Por meant. I couldn't see 
 it before."
    
    I think that's enough for today. If I talk too long this old body 
 gets tired.
    
    
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