Freedom From Addiction

　　- by S. N. Goenka

　　(The following is the closing address by Sayagyi S. N. Goenka at the Seminar on Vipassana for Relief from Addictions & Better Health, Dhamma Giri, 1989.)

　　Friends, you have all participated in this ten-day Dhamma seminar. This is the paṭipatti, the practical side of Dhamma. Without this experience of the practical side of Dhamma, the theoretical aspect will not be clear. Of course, it is not expected that in ten days you will have grasped the deeper aspects of Dhamma, but you should have gained at least a rough outline of what the path is, a rough outline of what the law of nature is.

　　I keep repeating that Dhamma does not mean Buddhist Dhamma, or Hindu Dhamma, or Jain Dhamma, or Muslim or Christian or Parsi Dhamma. Dhamma is Dhamma. And also Buddha is Buddha. Not just one person has become a Buddha. Anyone who gets fully enlightened is a Buddha.

　　And what is full enlightenment

　　 It is the realisation of truth at the ultimate level by direct experience. When someone becomes fully enlightened, that person does not establish a particular sect or a particular religion. He just explains the truth that he has realised himself, the truth that can be realised by one and all, the truth which liberates one from all the misery.

　　Universal Dhamma the law of cause and effect. Yo paṭicca samuppādaṃ jānāti so dhammaṃ jānāti; yo dhammaṃ jānāti, so paṭicca samuppādaṃ jānāti. The Buddha proclaimed so clearly that one who understands the law of cause and effect, understands Dhamma, and one who understands Dhamma, understands the law of cause and effect. The law of cause and effect is never sectarian. It is not applicable only to a particular community, a particular caste, people of a particular colour, of a particular country, or of a particular time or era. The law is universal: it does not differentiate, it does not discriminate. The law of nature is such that the moment you generate negativity in the mind, the mind influences matter, and this reaction which starts within your material structure makes you feel very agitated, makes you feel very unhappy, very miserable.

　　You may call yourself a Hindu, or a Muslim, or a Christian, or a Jain, or a Buddhist. You may call yourself an Indian, or a Pakistani, or a Sri Lankan, or a Burmese, or an American, or a Russian. But the moment you generate negativity in the mind, the law of nature is such that you are bound to become miserable. Nobody can save you from your misery. If you do not generate negativity in your mind, however, you will notice that you are not miserable. A mind that is free of defilements, a pure mind, is again by nature full of love, full of compassion, full of sympathetic joy and full of equanimity.

　　If there is a practice, if there is a technique, if there is a path that can change the habit pattern of the mind, and the mind can be made pure by washing away the negativities, the defilements; then one who follows it naturally comes out of misery. One may keep calling oneself by any name, it makes no difference. The law is the law: it is universal.

　　This is the enlightenment of the Buddha and this is what he taught. The Buddha was never interested in a particular philosophy. Most of the time a philosophy is created by people who play games of imagination, of intellectualisation. Philosophies are also created by people who may have experienced just a few steps on the path, and with whatever experience they have gained, they form a philosophy which becomes a blind belief for their followers. And this is how sects are established: based on beliefs which are imaginary, or beliefs which are created by intellectual games, or beliefs which are created by partial experience of the truth. An enlightened pe…

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