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In the beginning, kayaviveka (physical seclusion) is very important. It”s good to reflect on the Venerable Sariputta”s teaching that kayaviveka is the cause for the arising of cittaviveka (mental seclusion) and cittaviveka is the cause for the arising of upattiviveka (seclusion from the defilements or Nibbana). Some people say that it”s not important and that if you are peaceful, you can live anywhere. That”s true, but in the early stages of your practice, you should see kayaviveka as really necessary. One day you should try going to stay in a lonely cremation ground, miles away from anyone, or go up and meditate on some really desolate and scary place. Make the practice challenging the whole night through, so you know what it truly feels like.
In my early years, I also used to think kayaviveka was not so important. It was just an opinion I held, which didn”t actually come from experience. Once I started to practice, I actually began to apply the Buddha”s teaching to my meditation and realized how at first kayaviveka gives rise to cittaviveka. When you are still a householder, what kind of kayaviveka do you get
As soon as you step inside the front door there”s confusion and complications, because there”s no physical seclusion. If you leave the house and go to a secluded place, then the atmosphere for practice is totally different.
You must understand for yourself the importance of kayaviveka when you begin to practice. Once you gain kayaviveka, you start to practice and gain knowledge of the Dhamma. Once you start to practice, you need a teacher to give teaching and advice in areas where you still misunderstand, because in actual fact it”s where you misunderstand that you think you understand correctly. If you have a skilful teacher, he can advise you until you see where you have gone wrong. It”s usually in the very place where you thought you were correct, because your misunderstanding covers over all your thinking.
Some of the scholar monks have studied a great deal and investigated the texts thoroughly, but I recommend people to give themselves to the practice. When it”s time to study, it”s all right to open the books and learn the conventional theory and form, but when it”s time to fight with the defilements, you have to go beyond the theory and conventions. If you try fighting following the textbook model too closely, you won”t be able to defeat your opponents. If you truly want to get to grips with the defilements, you have to go beyond the books. This is the way the practice has to be in reality. The textbooks were only compiled with the intention of providing teachings in the form of examples. If you attach too firmly to the books they could even cause you to lose your mindfulness, because they were written on the basis of the sanna and sankhara of the writers, who didn”t necessarily understand that all sankhara do is condition the mind. Before you know it, they”re off down into the distant depths of the earth meeting with magical serpents (nagas), and when they come back up again they start speaking serpent language and nobody knows what they are talking about. It”s just crazy.
The forest Masters didn”t teach to practice like that. You might imagine the things in the books to be exciting and interesting, but it isn”t like that. Our teachers showed us the way to give up defilements and root out our views, conceit and sense of self. It”s a practice which involves dealing with the flesh and blood of the defilements. However difficult it seems, you shouldn”t be too quick to throw out what you have inherited from these teachers of the forest tradition. It can be possible to get quite deeply deluded about the mind and the practice of samadhi, because in th…
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