..续本文上一页ha, is not the full potential of the Buddha. A lot of joy can come with this level of practice, but that is not enough. The happiness of a relatively calm mind is not complete freedom. This is still just another experience. It”s still caught in ”So what!”
The complete freedom of the Buddha comes from the work of investigation - dhammavicaya. It is completely putting an end to all conflict and tension. No matter where we are in life, there are no more problems. It”s called ”the unshakable deliverance of the heart” - complete freedom within any experience.
One of the wonderful things about this Way is that it can be applied in all situations. We don”t have to be in a monastery, or even to have a happy feeling, to contemplate Dhamma. We can contemplate Dhamma within misery. We often find that it is when people are suffering that they start coming to the monastery. When they”re happy and successful it probably wouldn”t occur to them. But if their partner leaves home, or they lose their job, get cancer, or something, then they say, ”Oh, what do I do now
”
So for many of us, the Buddha”s teaching begins with the experience of suffering - dukkha. This is what we start contemplating. Later on we find that we also need to contemplate happiness - sukha. But people don”t begin by going to the Ajahn, saying: ”Oh Venerable Sir, I”m so happy! Help me out of this happiness.”
Usually we begin when life says: ”This hurts.” Maybe it”s just boredom; for me it was the contemplation of death - this ”So what
” Maybe it”s alienation at work. In the West we have what”s called ”the middle-age crisis”. Men around the age of forty-five or fifty start to think: ”I”ve got it all,” or, ”1 haven”t got it all, so what
” ”Big deal.” Something awakens and we begin to question life. And since everybody experiences dukkha, in its gross and refined aspects, it”s beautiful that the Teaching begins here - the Buddha says, ”There is dukkha.” No one can deny that. This is what the Buddhist teaching is based upon - actually observing these experiences we have - observing life.
Now the worldly way of operating with dukkha is to try to get rid of it. Often we use our intelligence to try and maximize sukha and minimize dukkha. We are always trying to figure out how to make things more convenient. I remember a discourse that Luang Por once gave about this.
In the monastery we used to all join in hauling water from the well. There would be two cans of water on a long bamboo pole, and a bhikkhu at each end to carry them. So Ajahn Chah said: ”Why do you always carry water with the monk that you like
You should carry water with the monk you dislike!” This was true. I was a very speedy novice and would always try to avoid carrying water with a slow old bhikkhu in front. It drove me crazy. Sometimes I”d get stuck behind one of them, and be pushing away.
So having to carry water with a monk I disliked was dukkha. And, as Ajahn Chah said, I would always try to figure out how to have things the way I wanted. That”s using intelligence to try to maximize sukha and minimize dukkha. But of course even if we do get what we want, we still have dukkha; because the pleasure of gratification is not permanent -it is anicca. Imagine eating something really delicious; in the beginning it would feel pleasurable. But if you had to eat that for four hours! It would be awful.
So what do we do with dukkha
The Buddhist teaching says: use intelligence to really look at it. That”s why we put ourselves in a retreat situation like this with the Eight Precepts. We”re actually looking at dukkha rather than just trying to maximize sukha. Monastic life is based on this also; we”re trapped in these robes.
But then we have an incredible freedom to look at suffering - rather than just ignorant…
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