BUDDHA: The Super-Scientist of Peace - by S. N. Goenka

The following is the concluding part of an address that was delivered by the great Vipassana meditation teacher, S. N. Goenka, at the United Nations on Vesākha, the full moon day of May, which is celebrated each year as the day marking the birth, the enlightenment and the passing away of Gotama the Buddha. Mr. Goenka explains the great discovery of the Buddha and the teaching's relevance in today's world.

To live the life of morality is the teaching of every religion. It is the quintessence, the inner core of every spiritual teaching. However, the Buddha was not interested in merely giving sermons to live a moral life. He taught us to take the next important step of "samādhi" – mastery over the mind. For this one needs an object of concentration.

There are many objects by which one can train the mind. The Buddha himself gave many objects, and of these, one of the most popular was one’s own respiration. He called this Ānāpānassati – developing the faculty of awareness of inhalation and exhalation. Respiration is common to all human beings belonging to any community. Nobody can have an objection to the practice of awareness of respiration. How can one label breath as Muslim or Hindu, Christian or Jewish, Buddhist or Jain, Sikh or Farsi, Caucasian or African or Asian, male or female? Ānāpānassati requires us to remain aware of the breath on the area below the nostrils and above the upper lip. It is one-pointed concentration at the middle of the upper lip – uttarotthassa vemajjhappadese. As the mind gets concentrated on this small area, it becomes more and more sharp, more and more sensitive. After just three days of practice, one starts feeling physical sensations on this part of the body.

And then, one turns to the next training of paññā, that is, wisdom or insight. One observes sensations throughout the physical structure, from the top of the head to the tips of the toes. In doing so, one notices that the sensations are closely related to what happens in the mind. It becomes clear that every time one performs an unwholesome action, one has to generate some impurity or other in the mind. Before one kills, one has to generate immense hatred. Before one steals, one generates greed. To indulge in sexual misconduct, one has to generate immense passion. One cannot do any harm to others without first harming oneself – Pubbe hanati attānan, pacchā hanati so pare. Negativities such as anger, hatred, greed, ill will, jealousy, egotism and fear make a person unhappy, miserable and violent. One becomes agitated. When one is agitated, one doesn’t keep this agitation to oneself: one starts distributing it to others, one starts harming others in society. One realizes this law of nature within the framework of one’s own mind and body.

Someone may seem outwardly happy while performing unwholesome actions but their real situation is like burning charcoal covered with a thick layer of ash – bhasmacchannova pāvako. One is burning inside because of the mental negativities, and yet one is totally ignorant of what is happening inside.This is avijjā, moha – ignorance. For the Buddha, ignorance is not lack of knowledge of some philosophical belief. It is lack of knowledge of what is happening within oneself. One doesn’t understand how one becomes miserable because of this veil of ignorance. No one wants to remain miserable and yet one continues to be miserable because one continues to generate tanhā – craving and aversion – all the time; one keeps on reacting to the sensations. When ignorance is removed, as one starts looking inside one realizes, “Look, I am generating misery for myself by generating tanhā in response to these sensations. When they are pleasant, I generate craving and when they are unpleasant, I generate aversion. Both make me miserable. And look, I have the solution now.

When I understand the impermanent nature of sensations and maintain equanimity, there is no tanhā, no craving and no aversion. The old habit pattern of the mind starts changing and I start coming out of misery.”This is vijjā or wisdom according to the Buddha. It has nothing to do with any philosophical or sectarian belief. It is the truth about one’s happiness and misery, which all people can experience within if they take steps on the path. The Four Noble Truths are not philosophical dogma. They are actual realities pertaining to myself that I start realizing within myself. They are Noble Truths only when one experiences them, and thus, starts becoming a noble person.

When one is working with sensations, one is working at the depth of the mind. Whatever arises in the mind is accompanied by sensations within the body – vedanā-samosaranā sabbe dhammā. Even the most transient thought that arises within the mind is accompanied by a sensation within the body – vedanā-samosaranā sankappavitakkā. This was a great discovery of the Buddha.

Another great discovery of the Buddha was that we generate tanhā in response to the sensations. This was not known to the other teachers before the time of the Buddha, at the time of Buddha or after the Buddha. The teachers before the Buddha and at the time of the Buddha kept advising people not to react to the sensory objects that come in contact with the sense doors-eyes with visual object, nose with smell, ears with sound, and so on. They taught, “When sensory objects come in contact with your senses, don’t react by judging them as good or bad; don’t react with craving or aversion.”

This teaching was already in existence. But the Buddha said that, actually, you are not reacting to these objects. He gave the example of a black bull and a white bull (one representing the sense doors and the other the sense objects) tied together with a rope. Neither the black nor the white bull is the bondage; the rope is the bondage. The Buddha said that the rope of tanhā is the bondage, and that one generates tanhā (craving or aversion) in response to vedanā (sensations) – vedanā paccayā tanhā. This was the great discovery of the Enlightened One. He became an enlightened person because of this discovery.There were many other people saying that one should not react to the objects of the senses. But they didn’t become Buddhas.

There were teachers who taught that one should not generate lobha (craving) and dosa (aversion). The Buddha explained that lobha and dosa would last as long as there was moha. He, therefore, advised us to come out of moha. And what is moha? Moha is ignorance. Moha is avijjā. You don’t know what is happening inside. You don’t know the real cause of lobha and dosa. You are ignorant.

How will you come out of ignorance? Strike at the root of the problem and come out of misery by working with sensations. As long as you are not aware of sensations, you keep fighting with outside objects, thinking, “This is ugly” or “This is not ugly.” You keep working on the surface. You are thinking of the black bull or the white bull as the cause of the bondage. In fact, the bondage is the craving and aversion that one generates in response to sensations. An alcoholic thinks that he is addicted to alcohol. He is actually addicted to the sensations he feels when he drinks alcohol.

When one observes sensations objectively, one starts coming out of ignorance. By understanding the impermanent nature of sensations, one generates paññā in response to vedanā. This is the law of nature. Dhamma niyāmatā is the law behind the natural order of phenomena. Whether there is a Buddha or no Buddha, Dhamma niyāmatā remains eternal. The Buddha said: “Uppādā vā tathāgatānam anuppādā vā tathāgatānam, thitāva sā dhātu dhammatthitatā dhammaniyāmatā idappaccayatā. Tam tathāgato abhisambujjhati abhisameti. Abhisambujjhitvā abhisametvā ācikkhati deseti paññāpeti patthapeti vivarati vibhajati uttānīkaroti. ‘Passathā’ti cāha.” He said, “I have experienced this law of nature, the Law of Dependent Origination, within myself; and having experienced and understood it I declare it, teach it, clarify it, establish it and show it to others. Only after having seen it for myself, I declare it.” This is the bold declaration of a supreme scientist. Just as whether there is a Newton or no Newton, the law of gravity remains true. Newton discovered it and explained it to the world. Similarly, Galileo or no Galileo, the fact that the earth revolves around the sun remains true.

The feeling of sensation is the crucial junction from where one can take two paths going in opposite directions. If one keeps on reacting blindly to pleasant and unpleasant sensations, one multiplies one’s misery. If one learns to maintain equanimity in the face of pleasant and unpleasant sensations, one starts changing the habit pattern at the deepest level and starts coming out of misery. The sensations are the root. As long as one neglects the root, the poisonous tree will grow again even if the trunk is cut. The Buddha said: “Yathāpi mūle anupaddave dalhe, chinnopi rukkho punareva rūhati. Evampi tanhānusaye anūhate, nibbattati dukkhamidam punappunam.” – “Just as a tree with roots intact and secure, though cut down, sprouts again; even so, while latent craving is not rooted out, misery springs up again and again.”Thus, this super-scientist discovered that to become fully liberated from mental defilements, one has to work at the root of the mind. Each individual must cut asunder the roots of tanhānusaya. When the entire forest is withered, each tree has to be nurtured, its roots cleared of disease, and then watered. Then, the entire forest will bloom again.

Similarly, for the betterment of society, each individual has to improve. For society to become peaceful, each individual has to become peaceful. The individual is the key. For the world to become peaceful, each country or society has to become peaceful. Here, I would again like to quote a very important exhortation from the Buddha to the Vajjian republic of Licchavis.

The Buddha gave the following practical instructions, which would make the Licchavis unassailable:

*As long as they maintain their unity and meet regularly, they will remain invincible.

*As long as they meet together in unity, rise in unity and perform their duties in unity, they will remain invincible.

• As long as they do not transgress their ancient principles of good governance and their system of justice, they will remain invincible.

• As long as they revere, respect, venerate, and honor their elders and pay regard to their words, they will remain invincible.

• As long as they protect their women and children, they will remain invincible.

• As long as they venerate the objects of worship inside and outside their republic, and maintain monetary support for them, they will remain invincible.

Wisdom lies in keeping all people happy and satisfied. They should not be subjected to harassment, which compels them to become enemies of the state. Their places of worship should receive adequate protection and respect. As long as the rulers provide protection and support to saintly people, they will remain invincible.

This wise counsel of the Buddha is also applicable today to maintain peace and harmony in the world. We cannot ignore issues related to religion if we are to be successful in bringing peace to the world. It is the duty of every government to protect its people from external attacks, to do everything possible to make its people and territory secure. While this is done, it must be borne in mind that such measures give only short-term benefits. Goodwill and compassion alone can remove the hatred that lies at the root of all such acts performed by anyone belonging to any sect. In India, the United States and other countries where Vipassana courses are held in prisons, we already see how people change. The roots of terrorism lie in the minds of terrorists.

We have seen how some hardened, violent criminals have been transformed in our prison courses. Anger, fear, vengefulness and hatred start dissolving, creating a peaceful and compassionate mind. We first ask some members of the prison staff to learn Vipassana and only then give courses for the inmates. This gives wonderful results.

In the Buddha’s teaching, we will find a bridge that can connect various sects. The three fundamental divisions of the Buddha’s teachings – morality, concentration of mind and purification of mind – are the essence of every religion and spiritual path. Sīla, samādhi and paññā are the common denominators of all religions. There can be no conflict over these three basic factors necessary for living a beneficial life. The whole emphasis of the Buddha’s teaching is on the practice of these three in order to apply Dhamma in real life. This is the inner core of every religion. Instead of giving importance to this core, we keep on quarreling about the outer shell, which may be different in different religions.

History has proved that whenever the universal, non-sectarian teaching of the Buddha has gone to any place or community, it has never clashed with the traditional culture. Instead, like sugar dissolving in milk, the teachings have been gently assimilated to sweeten and enhance society. We all know how much the sweetness of peace and tranquillity is needed in the bitter world today. May the teaching of the Enlightened One bring peace and happiness to more and more individuals, thus making more and more societies around the world peaceful and happy.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be peaceful.

May all beings be liberated.

California Vipassana Center
P.O. Box 1167North Fork, CA 93643
Phone: 559.877.4386
Fax: 559.877.4387

Suffering: Understanding Gets at the Root of The Problem

Suffering: Understanding Gets at the Root of The Problem

In order to become free from suffering we must first have some understanding of its causes. Suffering exists from the very beginning of life. We have no conscious recollection of existence within the confines of the womb, but the common experience is that we emerge from it crying. Birth is a great trauma.

Having started life, we are all bound to encounter sufferings of sickness and old age. Yet no matter how sick we may be, no matter how decayed and decrepit, none of us wants to die, because death is a great misery.

Every living creature must face all these sufferings. And as we pass through life, we are bound to encounter other sufferings, various types of physical or mental pain. We become involved with the unpleasant and separated from the pleasant. We fail to get what we want; instead we get what we do not want. All these situations are suffering.

These instances of suffering are readily apparent to anyone who thinks about it. But if we look at a very deep level, we will see that suffering is the inordinate attachment that each one of us has developed toward this body and toward this mind, with its cognition, perceptions, sensations, and reactions. People cling strongly to their identity—their mental and physical being—when ultimately there are only evolving processes. Clinging to an unreal idea of oneself, to something that is, in fact constantly changing, is suffering.

Attachment
There are several types of attachment. First there is the attachment to the habit of seeking sensual gratification. An addict takes a drug because he or she wishes to experience the pleasurable sensation that the drug produces, even though he or she knows that by taking the drug it reinforces the addiction. In the same way we are addicted to the condition of craving. As soon as a desire is satisfied, we generate another. The object is secondary; the fact is that we seek to maintain the state of craving continually, because this very craving produces in us a pleasurable sensation that we wish to prolong. Craving becomes a habit that we cannot break, an addiction. And just as an addict gradually develops tolerance toward the chosen drug and requires ever larger doses in order to achieve intoxication, our cravings steadily become stronger the more we seek to fulfill them. In this way we can never come to the end of craving. And so long as we crave, we can never be happy.

Another great attachment is to the “I,” the ego, the image we have of ourselves. For each of us, the “I” is the most important person in the world. We behave like a magnet surrounded by iron fillings: it will automatically arrange the filings in a pattern centered on itself, and with just as little reflection we all instinctively try to arrange the world according to our liking, seeking to attract the pleasant and to repel the unpleasant. But none of us is alone in the world; one “I” is bound to come into conflict with another. The pattern each seeks to create is disturbed by the magnetic fields of others, and we ourselves become subject to attraction or repulsion. The result can only be unhappiness, suffering.

Nor do we limit attachment to the “I”: we extend it to “mine,” whatever belongs to us. We each develop great attachment to what we posses, because it is associated with us, it supports the image of “I.” This attachment would cause no problem if what one called “mine” were eternal, and the “I” remained to enjoy it eternally. But the fact is that sooner or later the “I” is separated from the “mine.” The parting time is bound to come. When it arrives, the greater the clinging to “mine,” the greater the suffering will be.

And attachment extends still further—to our views and our beliefs. No matter what their actual content may be, no matter whether they are right or wrong, if we are attached to them they will certainly make us unhappy. We are each convinced that our own views and traditions are the best and become very upset whenever we hear them criticized. If we try to explain our views and others do not accept them, again we become upset. We fail to recognize that each person has his or her own beliefs. It is futile to argue about which view is correct; more beneficial would be to set aside any preconceived notions and to try to see reality. But our attachment to views prevents us from doing so, keeping us unhappy.

Finally, for most people there is attachment to religious forms and ceremonies. We tend to emphasize the external expressions of religion more than their underlying meaning and to feel that anyone who does not perform such ceremonies cannot be a truly religious person. We forget that without its essence, the formal aspect of religion is an empty shell. Piety in reciting prayers or performing ceremonies is valueless if the mind remains filled with anger, passion, and ill will. To be truly religious we must develop the religious attitude: purity of heart, love, and compassion for all. But our attachment to the external forms of religion leads us to give more importance to the letter of it than to the spirit of it. We miss the essence of religion and therefore remain miserable.
All our sufferings, whatever they may be, are connected to one or another of these attachments. Attachment and suffering are always found together.

Conditioned Arising: The Chain of Cause and Effect by Which Suffering Originates
What causes attachment? How does it arise? Analyzing our own nature will show us that it develops because of the momentary mental reactions liking and disliking. The brief, unconscious reactions of the mind are repeated and intensified moment after moment, growing into powerful attractions and repulsions, into all our attachments. Attachment is merely a developed form of the fleeting reaction. This is the immediate cause of suffering.

What causes reactions of liking and disliking? Looking deeper within ourselves we will see that they occur because of sensation. We feel a pleasant sensation and start liking it; we feel an unpleasant sensation and start disliking it.

Now why these sensations? What causes them? Examining still further within our selves we see that they arise because of contact: contact of the eye with a vision, contact of the ear with a sound, contact of the nose with an odor, contact of the tongue with a taste, contact of the body with something tangible, contact of the mind with any thought, emotion, idea, imagination, or memory. Through the five physical senses and the mind we experience the world. Whenever an object or phenomenon contacts any of these six bases of experience, a sensation is produced, pleasant or unpleasant.

These six sensory bases are essential aspects of the flow of mind and matter. These processes arise because of consciousness, the act of cognition which separates the world into the knower and the known, subject and object, “I” and “other.” From this separation results identity. Every moment consciousness arises and assumes a specific mental and physical form. In the next moment, again, consciousness takes a slightly different form. Throughout one’s existence, consciousness flows and changes.

Then what causes this flow of consciousness? Consciousness arises because of reaction. The mind is constantly reacting, and every reaction gives impetus to the flow of consciousness so that it continues to the next moment. The stronger a reaction, the greater the impetus that it gives. The slight reaction of one moment sustains the flow of consciousness only for a moment. But if that momentary reaction of liking and disliking intensifies into craving or aversion, it gains in strength and sustains the flow of consciousness for many moments, for minutes, for hours. And if the reaction of craving and aversion intensifies still further, it sustains the flow for days, for months, perhaps for years or a lifetime.

And what causes these reactions? Observing at the deepest level of reality, we begin to understand that reaction occurs because of ignorance. We are unaware of the fact that we react, and unaware of the real nature of what we react to. We are ignorant of the impermanent, impersonal nature of our existence and ignorant that attachment to it brings nothing but suffering. Not knowing our real nature, we react blindly. Not even knowing that we have reacted, we persist in our blind reactions and allow them to intensify. Thus we become imprisoned in the habit of reacting, because of ignorance.

By this chain of cause and effect—conditioned arising—we have been brought into our present state of existence and face a future of suffering.

The truth is clear: suffering begins with ignorance about the reality of our true nature, about the phenomenon labeled “I.” And the next cause of suffering is the mental habit of reaction. Blinded by ignorance, we generate reactions of craving and aversions, which develop into attachment, leading to all types of unhappiness. The habit of reacting is the karma, the shaper of our future. And the reaction arises only because of ignorance about our real nature. Ignorance, craving, and aversion are the three roots from which grows all our suffering in life.