All-around Discernment

　　The Dhamma is in everyone. Whether or not you realize it, it”s there. Whether or not you study it, it”s there. It”s simply a matter of whether you know how to decipher it. Once you know the labels formulated by the Buddha, you can decipher yourself, in the same way that you learn how to read a book. Take a baby who doesn”t know anything: As soon as it”s born, it cries, "Wae!" That”s feeling. If it”s eating and comes across something it doesn”t like, it throws it away and goes for something better: That”s thought-formation. When it gets older, it can begin to remember things: That”s perception. So the Dhamma is in everyone.

　　So why do we study

　　 We study to learn the names for things, and then we eventually have to get rid of all perceptions, old, new, past, and future. That”s when we”ll reach nibbana. Policemen who don”t take off their uniforms and go around as plainclothesmen will have trouble uncovering the secrets of criminals. This is why we have to practice virtue, concentration, and discernment so that we can get on familiar terms with the five aggregates. That”s what”s meant by insight meditation.

　　Concentration is something you do. Insight meditation is letting go. You can”t "do" insight meditation. It”s a result. When virtue is the cause, concentration is the result. When concentration is the cause, discernment is the result. When discernment is the cause, release is the result.

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　　The skills of insight are things that can”t be taught. At most, you can teach people to do the meditation, but you can”t teach them to be insightful.

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　　You have to "do" before you can "know." You have to know before you can let go. You have to give rise to the causes, and then the results will come on their own.

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　　When people out in the sun keep running around, they don”t realize how hot the sun really is. If you want to know how hot it is, you have to sit out in the middle of a field when the sun is really strong for about five minutes. That”s when you”ll know what real heat is like. It”s the same with stress and pain. If the mind goes running around without stopping, it doesn”t really see stress and pain. It has to be still if it wants to see.

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　　Concentration is like a mirror for seeing ourselves clearly. Discernment is like a telescope, so that small things will appear large, and distant things near.

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　　You have to stop searching — in other words, the mind has to be still — before you can give rise to discernment. Searching is ignorance, or avijja.

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　　The understanding you gain from listening and reading (sutamaya-pañña) is like a person who has woken up but hasn”t yet opened his eyes. He doesn”t see any light, and so has to grope around uncertain, sometimes laying hold of the right things and sometimes laying hold of the wrong. The understanding you gain from thinking (cintamaya-pañña) is like a person who has woken up but hasn”t yet left the mosquito net and hasn”t yet washed the sleep out of his eyes. His vision is blurry and unclear. As for the understanding you gain from meditation (bhavanamaya-pañña), that”s like getting out of the mosquito net and washing your face so that you”re able to see things clearly. This is the highest kind of understanding. Try to develop it.

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　　To get full results from our meditation, the mind has to give the orders. Mindfulness is what does the work and assists in the progress of all our activities, while alertness is what observes the results of what we”ve done. To speak in terms of the frames of reference, these qualities are called mindfulness and alertness. To speak in terms of jhana, they”re called directed thought and evaluation. They”re the qualities that give rise to discernment.

　　Discernment comes from observing cau…

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