Gain the Strength of Dhamma
- by S. N. Goenka
(The following is a condensed and edited version of a discourse given by Goenkaji on the concluding day of the Satipaṭṭhāna course.)
When you join a Satipaṭṭhāna course, the technique remains the same. You have been participating in a number of courses, practising the same technique: observing eight precepts, developing your samādhiṃ,
bahujana-hitāya, bahujana-sukhāya,
lokānukampāya…
Go forth, O bhikkhus,
for the good of many, for the happiness of many,
out of compassion for the world…
The purity of the tradition was maintained from generation to generation. After five centuries it was lost in the country of its origin, though other countries maintained it for a longer time. Fortunately the neighbouring country of Myanmar maintained it for twenty five centuries. This is why you have it now. So a feeling of gratitude naturally arises.
Some students come and express their feeling of gratitude towards their guide. But the only way to express one”s gratitude is to get established in Dhamma, to get ripened in Dhamma. There cannot be a better way to express the feeling of gratitude. A father or a mother becomes happy and proud if their child surpasses them. In the same way, your Dhamma guide feels happy and satisfied when he finds: “These people who have taken Dhamma from me are developing so well. May they surpass my ability!”
So get established in Dhamma. It will be so good for you and good for so many others. Many others will take inspiration from your life. The revival of Dhamma has just started. You are fortunate to be born in a period when the Dhamma has arisen again, and is spreading around the world. May you become an instrument for the spread of Dhamma, for the good of so many, for your own good and also for the good of so many!
You are fortunate to get a human life. You have come in contact with Dhamma and have started practising Dhamma. All these factors are very fortunate. Now grow in Dhamma, glow in Dhamma, get ripened in Dhamma so that more and more people get inspiration and start walking on the path of Dhamma; more and more people come out of their misery and enjoy real peace, real harmony, real happiness.
May all of you grow in Dhamma, may all of you glow in Dhamma. May all of you live a Dhamma life, good for you and good for others; beneficial for you and beneficial for others. with the awareness of respiration, and then developing your paññā with the awareness of the sensations and equanimity with the sensations—that means equanimity at the deepest level of the mind. This is what you had been practising in all your courses and this is what you have practised now.
The only difference—and a very important difference—is that in this course you are working with the direct words of the Buddha. You were able to listen to those words and to understand those words at the intellectual level—and also at the actual level because you were practising. One gets more inspiration, one gets more confidence, and one works more diligently, more seriously.
This is the advantage of coming to a course like this: The essence of Dhamma becomes clear.
The more one practises, understanding the teaching properly at the intellectual level and at the level of paññā, wisdom—the clearer the essence of Dhamma becomes. There is no confusion about it. One starts giving importance to the essence of Dhamma and starts applying it in life.
Merely coming to a course doesn”t help if you don”t apply it in your life. It is applied Dhamma which gives all the fruits, all the benefits. Coming to a course is certainly not an escape from the responsibilities of life. One goes to a hospital to regain one”s health. One does not stay in the hospit…
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