This Dhamma isn”t something distant. It”s right there in the barrel. You can do it at home. Try it. Can you empty a water barrel like that
Do it all day tomorrow and see what happens.
Sabba papassa akaranam/kusalassupa sampada/sacitta pariyodapanam (“Giving up all evil, practicing what is good, purifying the mind”): giving up wrongdoing first, we then start to develop the good. What is the good and meritorious
Where is it
It”s like fish in the water. If we scoop all the water out, we”ll get the fish—that”s a simple way to put it. If we scoop out and pour back in, the fish remain in the barrel. If we don”t remove all forms of wrongdoing, we won”t see merit, and we won”t see what is true and right. Scooping out and pouring back, scooping out and pouring back, we only remain as we were. Going back and forth like this, we are only wasting our time, and whatever we do is meaningless. Listening to teachings is meaningless. Making offerings is meaningless. All our efforts to practice are in vain. We don”t understand the principles of the Buddha”s way, and our actions don”t bear the desired fruit.
When the Buddha taught about practice, he wasn”t only talking about something for ordained people. He was talking about practicing well, practicing correctly. Supatipanno means those who practice well. Ujupatipanno means those who practice directly. Nyayapatipanno means those who practice for the realization of path, fruition, and Nibbana. Samicipatipanno are those who practice correctly (chorp jing: “with appreciation for the truth”
). It could be anyone. These are the Sangha of true disciples (savaka) of the Lord Buddha. Laywomen living at home can be savaka. Laymen can be savaka. Bringing these qualities to fulfillment is what makes one a savaka. One can be a true disciple of the Buddha and realize enlightenment.
Most of us in the Buddhist fold don”t have such complete understanding. Our knowledge doesn”t go this far. We do our various activities mostly thinking that we will get some kind of merit from them. We think that listening to teachings or making offerings is meritorious. That”s what we”re told. But someone who gives offerings to get merit is making bad karma.
You can”t quite understand this. Someone who gives in order to get merit has instantly accumulated bad karma. If you give in order to let go and free the mind, that brings you merit. If you do it to get something, that”s bad karma.
Listening to teachings to really understand the Buddha”s way is difficult. The Dhamma becomes hard to understand because the practice that people do, keeping precepts, sitting in meditation, giving, is for getting something in return. We want merit, we want something. Well, if something can be gotten, then who gets it
We get it. When that is lost, whose thing is it that”s lost
The person who doesn”t have something doesn”t lose anything. And when it”s lost, who suffers over it
Don”t you think that living your life to get things brings you suffering
Otherwise you can just go on as before, trying to get everything. And yet, if we make the mind empty, then we gain everything. Higher realms and Nibbana and all their accomplishments—we gain all of it. In making offerings, we don”t have any attachment or aim; the mind is empty and relaxed. We can let go and put down. It”s like carrying a log and complaining it”s heavy. If someone tells you to put it down, you”ll say, “If I put it down, I won”t have anything.” Well, now you do have something—you have heaviness. But you don”t have lightness. So do you want lightness, or do you want to keep carrying
One person says to put it down, the other says he”s afraid he won”t have anything. They”re talking past each other.
We want happiness, we want ease, we want tranquility and peace. It means we w…
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