2. The Undying
Listening here to this Dhamma talk please make sure that you don”t allow the mind to wander away. Keep it within yourself rather than sending it out following after various moods and imaginings. Don”t look back and pine after past thoughts and conceptions, for here and now they can”t bring any benefit. At this time you should be trying to suffuse the heart with Dhamma, for it has become parched through its long deficiency.
It”s similar to a drought-ridden jungle lacking in moisture, where the dried out vegetation easily ignites. Both living and dead trees are then scorched and consumed. Forest fires during the rainy season are rare but the hot season, when the vegetation dries out, brings a danger of fire. This may happen even in a forest monastery when it is very dry. Bahn Tahd forest monastery has in fact caught on fire several times. This is due to its becoming dry and parched.
When the heart becomes parched through lack of Dhamma to cool and nourish it, the fire of the defilements can rapidly take hold. This will then scorch everything coming into experience. Fire brings damage, so when the defilements blaze within the heart how can the heart itself escape harm
Regardless of its value it will become tarnished and eventually worthless. Such is the way of the heart that has been constantly scorched and consumed by fire.
A fire will damage our possessions depending on its intensity and extent. Unless, of course, they happen to be stored in a safe-place like a security vault, which banks use to protect their valuables. But do we have a safety vault or safe place within our hearts
Or are we continually exposing ourselves to danger, always leaving ourselves vulnerable without any concern for our deserving heart
We can use this approach when considering our situation and learning a lesson.
The heart cannot find any happiness because it”s constantly being burnt. This fire is the blaze of greed, hatred and delusion that is described in the Fire Sermon.1 There”s nothing doubtful or uncertain about this. It”s a timeless truth. We need to take these Dhamma questions onto a personal level, carefully comparing and considering the correctness and truth of them there, and then we”ll at least be in a position to escape the heat. We will have found a breathing space, a safe, cool place and will no longer be always caught up in the conflagration.
Each of you has made the effort to come here to practice. You may consider it as a search for a safe-place for your riches — which are the virtue and skillfullness2 you have gathered, and their protection from the devastation of the three great fires.
Fighting ordinary outside fires is difficult enough; especially when the blaze has taken such a hold that even water can”t contain it. The (village) hoses always seem to clog up, and if that can”t be fixed then the house will soon be charred remains and ashes. Turning to extinguish the inner blaze, however, relies on the assiduous cultivation of virtue. The meditation on loving kindness3 for instance. The heart is then calmed and concentrated, cooled and strengthened so that it can quench the harmful fires within.
Fire, almost by definition, must be hot. Even sparks burn and sting if we”re in their way when they fly up. So if we go along allowing ourselves to be burnt, day after day after day — what”s going to be left
The heart will be burnt out. The body may remain but the heart will survive with a poor and indifferent sort of knowing, without wholesome aspect because it”s totally given over to the all-consuming defilements. It is a knowingness invested with suffering, not with comfort and ease. It lacks lucidity and wisdom and is completely overwhelmed in suffering. So much so that the heart seems worthless. It will need a su…
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