BIODATA OF BRO. TEOH KIAN KOON

Bro. Teoh graduated from University of Malaya in Civil Engineering in 1979. He had been a spiritual practitionercum‘Meditator’since 1971. Since his retirement in 2001 from his engineering career, he has been sharing his understanding and experiences with those who are keen in their search fortrue happiness, peaceand liberation from birth and death and all mental suffering to become a more virtuous, noble and wiser human being. He gives talks and holds meditationclasses & retreats and weekly Dharma classes at various meditation centers and places that invite him.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is the donors’ and Kalyāṇamittas’ intention that this Dhamma transcript notes be given free to all who are interested and as such we would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank andrejoice in the generosity and wholesomeness of all those donors and Dhammafriends who had donated and helped out in one way or another (in the transcripting, typing and printing of the scripts, typesetting, script formatting and enhancing, proof reading, etc.) to make this free distribution of Dhamma Dana possible.

Special thanks should be given to Sis. Mooi Khim who had so kindly and patiently helped to do the transcript and Sis. Siew Tee for her special role as coordinator and getting the initial drafts and final master copy updated and printed. Last but not least, to all theother Dhamma friends who had so sincerely and selflessly helped out and to Sis. Cindy Lim for her skill in doing up the typesetting, formatting, script paragraphing and enhancing works to make this transcript possible for a clearer and deeper understanding of the Law of Dependent Origination as taught by the Buddha.

PREFACE

This Dhamma discussion transcript was based on a recorded talk as given by Bro Teoh Kian Koon on the 8th September 2005 at the PJ Selangor Buddhist Vipassanā Meditation Society to a group of Dhamma friends on the central teaching of the Buddha:PaṭiccaSamuppāda – The Law of Dependent Origination.

“Paṭicca Samuppāda is a very profound teaching,” said the Buddha to Venerable Ananda – so profound in fact, that “most cultivators are not able to truly develop the penetrative understanding of the Law of Dependent Origination.” As per Buddhadasa Bhikkhu’s comment, “Paṭicca Samuppāda, which is the heart of the Buddha’s teaching is difficult to understand and even more difficult to ‘see’ clearly.” Except via the ‘direct seeing’ borne of a free and silentmind and thus Buddhadasa Bhikkhu had said “it has become the center of grave misunderstandings, distortions and misinterpretation.” According to Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, much of the Theravadian orthodoxy comes about due to its adherence to Venerable Buddhagosa’s explanation of the Paṭicca Samuppāda(PS) covering three (3) lifetimes – the past, present and future. Ignorance and volitional activity or karmic volition in a past life gives rise to this present life, in which the results of those past deeds are experienced. This process then conditions our present life defilements (craving and grasping), which in turn lead to birth and suffering in a future life. According to Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, this type of interpretation of the Paṭicca Samuppāda (PS) is not practical and is contradictory to the Buddha’s teaching on Anattā and the Dhamma being Sandiṭṭhiko. Not practical in the sense that the 3 periods of time or 3 lifetimes explanation is of not much use to practitioners because it (the PS) only occurs once over a span of 3 lifetimes. To teach the PS as occurring over 3 lifetimes also imply the existence of a permanent unchanging entity or being that passes from one life to the next, hence contradicting the Buddha’s teaching with regards to Anattā. And if the causes of suffering are in one lifetime and the result in another, then how are we to realizethe Dhammain the Here and the Now (Sandiṭṭhiko). Definitely, the Buddha will not teach this type of PS.

Hence the correct understanding of the PS as taught by the Buddha via the direct ‘seeing’ or experience is very important. For those who had developed a very stable daily mindfulness the PS links can be experienced every now and then via every moment of ‘their’ sense door consciousness or at every moment of mental activities or arising of the mind and it is linked to the Dhammānupassanā’s 2nd and 3rd categories of practices involving the mindfulness with regards to the 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind and the 6 internaland 6 external sense bases as taught by the Buddha via his Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta or Four Foundations of Mindfulness practices. It is in this light that Bro. Teoh sincerely hopes that Dhamma or spiritual practitioners, cultivators, seekers, friends and ‘meditators’ can make use of this Dhamma transcript notes to develop a better and true understanding of the PS as taught by theBuddha so that they may progress along the path of Dhammato become more virtuous, noble and wiser to benefit themselves and others.

With Metta always and may all beings be well and happy and may they too be free from all suffering soonest possible.

Metta

Brother Teoh Kian Koon

teohkiankoon@hotmail.com

For more details of Bro. Teoh’s dharma activities and his Kalyāṇamittaship grouping please login to his dharma website at: http://broteoh.com

INTRODUCTION

Today’s Dhamma discussion topic comes about because one of our Sisters in the Dhamma (who chose to be anonymous) wanted to understand this Law of Dependent Origination. She wanted to discuss this topic of Dependent Origination or the 12-links. How many of you have heard of this discourse before? Most of you must have heard of it before. In Pāḷi, I think two terms are used. One is Paṭicca Samuppāda, the other term is Idappaccayatā. The second term is less frequently used. I think the first one Paṭicca Samuppāda is more commonly used.

So, the PaṭiccaSamuppāda is usually translated as the 12-links or The Law of Dependent Origination because Dependent on certain things, arises certain things. And there are two cycles to it. One is the origination or arising cycle, where the full forward twelve links may come about. The other one is the cessation cycle. With the cessation of certain things, the rest will cease. Then, they will continue… that’s how the cessation of form and mind comes about. Ok, this particular Sutta, or this particular teaching that The Buddha taught, is very important. You see… have you heard of the “Conditioned Enlightened ones?” You’ve heard of Sound Hearers isn’t it? Those who heard the Sutta and got enlightened, i.e. after hearing the discourses or the Noble Truths as proclaimed by The Buddha. After they’ve heard it they awaken to it, they are called the Sound Hearers or Sravaka. Have you heard of this word ‘Sravaka’?

Haven’t heard of it? I think the Mahayanas always mentioned this... they call them the Sound Hearers, those who hear the sound, or hear the Suttas; and they got enlightened. So under the three (3)turnings of the Four Noble Truths that we had gone through earlier, you have the first turning, second turning and the third turning.

The first turning wisdom is actually tied to this one, Sutta MayaPanna. After hearing the Sutta, one can become enlightened through developing that kind of wisdom. So that particular one is what they call the Sound Hearers. It means you hear the Truth and you are awakened to the Way. But these Conditioned Enlightened ones are very different. They are what we call the Pacceka Buddhas. When the Buddhas are not around, when there is no Sāsana these cultivators of the Way became enlightened not via hearing the Four Noble Truths but instead, they cultivated the Noble Truths, through contemplating into this special law, the Law of Dependent Origination. They came to realize the Four Noble Truths through this. So, a lot of people couldn’t understand, how can the 12-links also equate to the Four Noble Truths. But if you really understand what this Paṭicca Samuppāda is, it is actually in essence the Four Noble Truths. This is also the reason why the Buddha said,

“Whoever sees Dependent Origination, sees the Dhamma or the Four Noble Truths; and whoever sees the Dhamma sees Dependent Origination.”

These Conditioned Enlightened ones are those who got enlightened through this type of awakening or what they called awaken based on the true understanding of the Law of Dependent Origination and they are very rare. This natural law is very, very important because this law actually covers 2 parts of the PañcaNiyāma (5 UniversalOrders). First is this KammaNiyāma. Have you heard of this Kamma Niyāma? It is a Natural law governing the behaviors of Kamma, meaning the moral causation laws that arise because of moral volitions or mental volitions. Moral means it involves the dualities and the morality; the good and the bad, the wholesome and the unwholesome. So the Law of Kamma recognizes this, although Ultimate Truth, it does not recognize this. The second one is CittaNiyāma. Citta Niyāma means the Natural Law that governs the working of the mind, with regards to our mind, the activities of our mind. So, if you check the 12-links, a lot of the links have got to do with the activities of mind. And because we have this Saṅkhāra, which they called by a lot of English terms, but the key thing inside the Saṅkhāra is Mental Volitions. These mental volitions are the cause of Kamma; Cause of Karmic activities. So because of that, it is important that we dwell into it.

I’ll just roughly run through what normally the Mahayanas would have called it the Ten Dharma Realms. This is not the 31 Planes of Existence. This one is what they called Dharma Realms of beings, enlightened and non-enlightened ones. They classified them into ten specific Dharma realms. First one is what they called the Dharma Realm of the Buddhas, where all the Buddhas “exist”, or whether they don’t exist, the term is not important. They call it the Realm of the Buddhas. The 2nd one is the Realm of the Bodhisattvas. The 3rd one is what we are going to cover under this Dhamma discussion topic; they called it the Conditioned Enlightened Ones. Those who are enlightened Dependent on conditions. Enlightened because they had understood what this Law of Dependent Origination is. They had actually awakened to it. So because of that wisdom, they are able to be free. They are able to realize the Four Noble Truths.

The 4th one is what they called the Sound Hearers those who got enlightened through hearing the Noble Truths or the Suttas (discourses of the Buddha). I think in Pāḷi, in the Theravada texts, the 3rd one, Conditioned Enlightened ones they are called the Pacceka Buddhas, or some call them the Silent Buddhas. Actually this word Silent Buddha has been quite misunderstood in certain ways. It’s not to say that the Pacceka Buddhas or the Silent Buddhas don’t know how to teach, they know how to teach, but they don’t have their Sāsana. They cannot teach like a SammāSambuddha. Even the Arahants, they know how to teach. Those Enlightened Ones, they know the Noble Truths already. But the only difference is they do not have the all-knowing knowledge like the SammāSambuddha. So, although they are silent, it doesn’t mean that they do not know how to teach. Sometimes, the text puts it that way, I do not know why. They call them the Silent Buddhas … maybe that is their understanding.

Then these Conditioned Enlightened Ones, within the 3rdDhamma Realm, they will have to contemplate into this Law of Dependent Origination, to develop the wisdom to actually awaken to the truths. Then the 4th realm, just now we mentioned, the Sound Hearers, they are what they called the Sravakas. For the Sravakas they become enlightened through hearing of the Suttas or hearing of the Noble Truths. Then after that, they have the Realms of the Devas. The 5th one is the Devas realm. After this Realm of the Devas, they have the Human realm, then after that, they have the other 4 woeful or Kama Dugati realms. Together they form the 10 Dhamma Realms. We will just stop there.

UNDERSTANDING THE LAW OF DEPENDENT ORIGINATION

What we need to focus on today is this Law of Dependent Origination or what they call in Pāḷi,Paṭicca Samuppāda. There’s another Pāḷi term they use, it is Idappaccayatā. Let’s open this out for discussion. What is your understanding of this Law of Dependent Origination? What is it that you all understand? Then from there, we can actually develop the understanding. Then I will add in whatever that needs to be elaborated on. What is your understanding? From what you all have studied, or from what you have understood through your cultivation. What is your understanding of this Law of Dependent Origination? In what way has it helped you to develop your wisdom and your cultivation? Is it just because it’s been taught and you have read about it, you’ve heard about it? Did you really contemplate into it and try to develop an understanding of it so that it will help you in your practice and your cultivation; so that the real wisdom can arise in you. Anybody wants to try? Just for sharing, don’t have to worry.

You have the cause and effect isn’t it? The cause leading to the effect just like the Buddha taught us under the 2nd Noble Truth. That is, the cause of the arising of Dukkha is due to what? The cause of arising of Dukkha, as we know, the Buddha proclaimed it very clearly. It’s due to your craving and attachment. Inside the 12-Links, they also have that link.

THE 12-LINKS

The 1st link is AvijjāPaccayaSaṅkhāra. Avijjā is Ignorance. Dependent on Ignorance arises Saṅkhāra. Saṅkhāra, I think we have already dealt with it in detail. This Saṅkhāra, I will go through it again afterwards. It’s a very important terminology.

The 2nd Link is SaṅkhāraPaccayaViññāṇaṃ. Dependent on Saṅkhāra arises what they call Consciousness or Viññāṇaṃ. But in the text, they tend to use the word Re-linking Consciousness. They talk about the 3 period of times; past, present and the future. That’s how they link it. But I will go through both of it because the more relevant one is the second one which is the one that continuouslyarise in your form and your mind, within your own nature and not the one that is over the 3 period of times.

The 3rd Link is ViññāṇaPaccaya NamaRūpaṃ. NamaRūpa is Form and Mind, the Five Aggregates of Form and Mind. Then Dependent on NamaRūpa is what they called arises Salayatana. Do you know what Salayatana is? It’s your Six Sense Bases. Do you know what your six senses are? You have your eyes; your nose, your tongue, your ears, your body (tactile) then you have got your thinking mind, which is your 6th sense door. Dependent on these 6 sense bases, according to the Law of Dependent Origination, it can cause Contact or Phassa to arise. When Contact arises; then dependent on contact or Phassa, arises Vedanā, which is Feeling. Then Dependent on Feeling arises what they call Craving or Taṇhā. Then Dependent on Taṇhā arises Upādāna. Upādāna is Grasping. Then Dependent on Grasping arises Becoming. Becoming is Bhavo. Then Dependent on Becoming, you take birth or in Pāḷi it is called Jati. Dependent on birth arises the whole mass of Suffering. That is Birth, old age, sickness and death leading to sorrow, lamentation, grief, anxiety and all those negativities. Hence the whole mass of Suffering arises already.

This 12-Link is very, very important. You will have to actually ask yourselves why it is so important. Just now our brother there mentioned one link. He talks about Cause and Effect. Cause of suffering leading to Dukkha. You can see it’s somewhere there. Anything else you can understand from this Dependent Origination? How does it help you after you have understood that Dependent on this that arises?.... “If you can stop the causes, then the effect

ceases” Ah! Correct, I think that is the important part because when you see and understand this Natural Law; how they condition things to arise in you. After you have noted that this is the Natural Law, if you do not develop the wisdom to cut it off, it will continue to torment you; it will continue to cause all these arising in you. That’s why it’s called the Law of Dependent Origination. Dependent on certain things, it will cause certain things to arise.

IGNORANCE - NOT UNDERSTANDING THE TRUTH

The most critical link is the 1st one. AvijjāPaccayaSaṅkhāra. Do you know what Avijjā is? Yes! Ignorance. What is ignorant? What is this word Ignorance all about...? There’s another word, Moha. Moha is not used here, here they always use Avijjā. Moha is translated as delusion. You are deluded. But this one is real ignorance. You really don’t understand. Ignorant of what? The Four Noble Truths is one of them. What else? Yes! The Law of Kamma and the Law of Cause and Effect. These 3 are tied to the Right View under the Noble Eight Fold Path. That’s why these 3 right views are very important. If you have cultivated the right understanding with regards to these 3 Truths, the Law of Kamma, The Four Noble Truths and the Law of Cause and Effect, then you will have the wisdom to cut this 1st link off. So when your Ignorance is gone… with the cessation of Ignorance, Saṅkhāra cannot arise. When Saṅkhāra does not arise, your Form and Mind cannot arise. If your Form and Mind does not arise, ‘you’ or the 5 aggregates of form and mind will cease to be. When you cease to be, that is the 3rd Noble Truth. That is what Enlightenment is all about… Cessation of Dukkha or Nibbāna. Can you all understand?

So that’s the reason why, all along, when we discussed The Noble Eight Fold Path earlier on, we always emphasized on the cultivation of the 1st path factor of right Understanding or Right View (SammāDiṭṭhi) first because it is very, very important. In fact, I went into it for 2 sessions. If you can remember, or if you can get hold of the tapes and listen to them again. I think more than 40-50% of the time I was elaborating and talking about this Sammā Diṭṭhi only.

THE 5 AGGREGATES OF FORM AND MIND - SAKKĀYADIṬṬHI (SELF DELUSION) ASPECT

With regards to the right views concerning these 3 Natural Laws; The Law of Kamma, the Four Noble Truths and the Law of Cause and Effect; the Law of Cause and Effect is the one that is tied to or linked to this Law of Dependent Origination. This is where we can develop the Right View, or Right Understanding, with regards to what this 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind of ours is all about.

Why did the Buddha say “it is not you” – the 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind? That it is not a permanent unchanging entity. That’s why the Sakkāya Diṭṭhi will never go, unless you develop that wisdom or right understanding to realize and penetrate that Truth. That’s why this Law of Dependent Origination will enable you to penetrate and realize this truth to cut off Sakkāya Diṭṭhi. This is also one of the Laws of Cause and Effect or conditions arising.

Remember in our earlier Dhamma discussion sessions when we talked about the 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind? We always said it’s not real. You all know why? Because it’s conditioned arising; its causal phenomenal and dependent on conditions it arises. Where there are supporting conditions for it to exist, it will continue to exist. That’s why we talk about the 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind, the phenomena world and all those things. When the condition ceased to be, that phenomenon also ceases to be. Likewise, the 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind continuously arise in us because of our Kammic conditioning and because of Kamma, you are born with this body that comes with this mind trapped inside. So this Form and Mind that we have already studied, there are 2 aspects to it.

The first aspect as a human being, you have the 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind. This one you must get it very clear. If you do not understand this clearly, it will be very difficult for you to follow. What is the first aspect? The first aspect is as a human being; you have this physical body, the Kaya, which is your form or Rūpa aggregate. Then you have the Mind, the mental part, which has the other 4 Aggregates of Mind. These two combined and you have the 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind; or NamaRūpa, which is what you are and it arises already. But at every moment of sense door Consciousness, there is also this NamaRūpa or 5 aggregates within the mental part. That is the second aspect.

This second aspect, you will have to ask yourself, how come within the Mind, there can be a Rūpa, a Form? How does the formaggregate enter the mind? Through your sense Perception isn’t it? Because your mind has this power of perception (orsaññā), which is the 2nd Aggregate of Mind and it, is this saññā or power of Perception that brings the external form or externalRūpa, into themind. Because whatever you perceive, that is the form born of external, taken into your mind. That’s why it’s conditioned arising. Through, the mental perception, you receive the Form and its all causal phenomenon and condition arising. Externally, the Form, we already went through… Like the bullock cart analogy that I’ve given to you all earlier on. External forms, the Rūpa, can be anything….

the bullock cart can be one of them. If you can understand the bullock cart analogy, then you will be able to understand all the other forms because they also come about through conditions. When the parts come together for the case of the bullock cart or the conditions are there for the other forms to arise, then these things will arise. So are they real? They are not so real isn’t it? - Because they are conditions arising. When conditions cease to be, just like the bullock cart, all the parts you take them apart, where is the bullock cart? It’s totally not there, isn’t it? That’s why, real andunreal, exist and non-exist, it’s all in the mind. It’s all created by the mind. When the conditions are there, the mind perceives it, and then you call it real or exist. Anything perceivable by the mind is aphenomenon. If your mind perceives it, you say it’s real. We have gone through this analogy a few times, but I will repeat it. This will help you because by now, you all should be ready to receive and understand this Truth more easily.

Do you remember the sound analogy that I’ve given you all? When a passing car passes by, if it is within the distance for your ear to pick it up, this hearing consciousness will arise isn’t it? So, is this sound real? Is it real? Why is it not real? Because to you, if it is within your hearing range, you can hear it isn’t it? The hearing of it, this condition arising aspect is very important. The hearing is born of conditions. Hearing consciousness arises because you have the mind, you have the organ, and it is working and functioning, and the sense data in the form of vibration and all these 3 coming intocontact. These 3 conditions upon contact of the mind can trigger off the hearing consciousness because you are nearby. To another person further down, if he cannot receive the sense data, to him the sound doesn’t exist because he does not have the conditions to hear it. The other way of looking at it is, after this car has passed by, beyond your frequency and hearing range, that sound is gone. The hearing consciousness is gone. But to a person further down, he will be able to pick up the vibration, and again it exists. So real andunreal, it’s all in the mind. Always remember that. Real and unreal is always in the mind. As ‘real’ as it can be (in term ofconventionaltruth) it ‘exists’ only at the moment of its arising and when your mind can have the conditions to perceive it.

The human being developed this duality or you differentiate between real and unreal through your 5 physical sense faculties, which are your sense organs, together with your 6th, which is your mental faculty or ‘organ’. This 6th, if you are not careful, will create, through sense consciousness, all the various types of delusions to delude you via the seeing consciousness, the hearing consciousness, the smell, taste, touch or tactile and the thinking or thought consciousness. This part, I just want to re-emphasize, before we go further into it.

This 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind, you will have to actually understand it very, very clearly, so that it will tie up with this Law of Dependent Origination, which will give you the actual Right View with regards to this Law of Cause and Effect. To really understand, you have to see clearly how the 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind arise because of Cause and Effect, and to see their Dependent Origination clearly. That’s why, when you look at the 1st three links, Avijjā Paccaya Saṅkhāra, Saṅkhāra Paccaya Viññāṇaṃ, Viññāṇa Paccaya Nama Rūpaṃ. This is how your 5 mental Aggregates of Form and Mind or NamaRūpa comes about. Dependent on Ignorance arises mental activities, or Saṅkhāra, which is your mental activities. Some call this mental volitions or kammic volitions or activities. Then, Dependent on that arises Consciousness. Then when Consciousness arises, the content of Consciousness will follow to arise the 5 aggregates of form and mind. This is what your mental5 Aggregates of Form and Mind orNamaRūpais all about.

1ST CHARACTERISTIC OF NATURE - IMPERMANENCY

We have to come back to the 1st link, Avijjā, Ignorant which we had just covered. Apart from the Ignorance of the 3 Natural Laws; Kamma, Four Noble Truths and the Laws of Cause and Effect what else? This one is not covered under the Sammā Diṭṭhi but it is in the Buddha’s teaching and it has something to do with the characteristic of nature. What is the 1st characteristic of nature? Yes, Impermanence, or Anicca. If you have delusion, what do you think? Do you believe in Impermanence? No! Because people who are deluded they take the impermanent as something very permanent. They thought life is very real. They thought a lot of things they own are very real and it’s going to exist as if forever. That’s why they look for immortality.

All the emperors in the past, they looked for something that can make them immortal, to live forever. They try to look for permanency in a lot of things that pleases them, make them very, very happy. They want to own all those things. So, when you have this Ignorance, the Mind does not believe there is Anicca, or Impermanence. They will have this ignorance with regards to phenomena and sense experiences. These two are the most important. Because at the moment of sense experience, if you know they are not real, they arise due to conditions, they are conditions arising, they come and they go and uninvited they come, uninvited they go then you will not be deluded by it. And when consciousness arises, the content of consciousness will have all those things (mental aggregates of perceptions, feelings, Saṅkhāra, etc). Then the very next moment, this consciousness will be gone, and then the next one arises. Then the next one will follow. When you see this very clearly, you will clearly understand why the Buddha said, “SabbeSaṅkhāraAnicca”.

Do you know what Sabbe SaṅkhāraAnicca is? All of Saṅkhāra are impermanent. Why did the Buddha say that? What is Saṅkhāra? Everything that your mind can do is Saṅkhāra i.e. your thinking, your various mental planning, scheming, mental states, the mental activities, mental volitions, etc. which we have gone through, that is including your mental formations, and all the other things that the mind can do, they are all Saṅkhāra. That’s why, I always said, “it’s only your thought, only your thinking, only your activities of mind and they come and they go”. They arise and they disappear. Then every moment of sense consciousness there will be a lot of Saṅkhāra within your consciousness. Without Saṅkhāra this 5 aggregates of form and mind does not arise but because of Saṅkhāra and consciousness the 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind are very active inside there. So you will have to see this important truth of Impermanence clearly. That is what Avijjā is all about. If you cannot understand this, it will continue to delude you. That’s why you will take all external forms and all sense experiences as very, very real. Then you think they are permanent. Something you can hold on to, something you can cling on to; something you can actually desire for or own. If you know their characteristics, like what the Buddha said, the analogy of the Feeling is like a bubble. “Pop” gone. Another one arises, gone. Another one arises, gone. That is Feeling comes and goes. You cannot cling to Feeling because if you cling or attach to Feelings, it will lead to Craving; in accordance to the Law of Dependent Origination. If you were to attach to Feelings, Craving will arise because you do not have the wisdom to see that Feeling is impermanent and that Feeling is not a reality. It’s conditioned arising within the mind, created to delude you, to cause delusion in you, so that you will develop all the craving, all the attachment, all the desires.

2ND CHARACTERISTIC OF NATURE – DUKKHA

What other things, apart from Impermanence? What is the 2nd characteristic of nature? Dukkha. Why did the Buddha say you are Ignorant? You are ignorant means that you do not have the understanding of the 1st Noble Truth.

What is the 1st Noble Truth? In the first turning, the Buddha proclaimed the Noble Truth of Dukkha. He proclaimed the Truth; what Dukkha is all about. Birth, old age, sickness and death, is Dukkha. To be separated from your loved ones is also Dukkha. To be with people whom you do not like is also Dukkha. Not able to get what one desires is also Dukkha. But the 8th one is the most important. He said, “in short, it is this attachment to the 5 grasping Aggregates of Form and Mind, that I called Dukkha.”

If you know this Noble Truth, under the 2nd turning, the Buddha advised, “This Noble Truth of Dukkha is to be understood”. You have to understand it. If you have already understood it, your Right View with regards to this characteristic of nature which is Dukkha will be there then whenever that clinging or craving or attachment arise, if you do not have the Wisdom, you then look at the Law of Dependent Origination and ask ultimately what happens? Suffering!

... Dukkha! will arise isn’t it? Because this 1st Noble Truth is very It already proclaimed to you what Dukkha is. And its final summary as the “attachment or the clinging to the 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind”…. You look at the Clinging link. Dependent on Feeling arises Craving. If you do not have the wisdom, Craving will immediately arise. Then Dependent on Craving arises Grasping or clinging. This is how Grasping and clinging can lead you to Dukkha. Then grasping will condition Becoming, leading to Birth followed by the whole mass of Suffering. That’s why, this 1st Noble Truth is very important.

In the 1st Noble Truth’s 2nd turning, you must know what Dukkha is all about. And then followed by the cause of arising of Dukkha which is your Attachment, your Clinging, and your Grasping. When you have that understanding, straightening of your views to develop the appropriate wisdom is relatively simpler. When you have the Right View in place, cultivation is very, very simple. The whole Noble Eight Fold Path and the Four Noble Truths will be very simple. But it is very difficult to cultivate this Right View. The emphasis is on the cultivation part. Because the 4th Noble Truth, the Buddha turned it 3 times also. He proclaimed this 4th Noble Truth, the path that leads to the cessation of Dukkha, which is the Noble Eight Fold Path. Under the 2nd Turning, He said that this 4th Noble Truth, the path that leads to the cessation of Dukkha, is to be cultivated. The key word is “cultivate”. You have to cultivate that, and you must make sure you always check that you have developed the cultivation, especially the 1st Noble Path factor of the Noble Eight Fold Path, which is Right View with regards to the Four Noble Truths.

3RD CHARACTERISTIC OF NATURE – NON-SELF

After having gone through Dukkha, what is the last characteristic? Anattā! This is the main one. This is the most important one that can cause a lot of confusion. Anattā means Non-Self. If you do not have the wisdom to see clearly, that your 5 Aggregate of Form and Mind is not you, what will happen? It will arise the ignorance or Sakkāya Diṭṭhi (self-delusion) of the “I”, the Me and the “Mine”. I think Bro. Wong got it. This “I”, Me and “Mine” or the EGO arise because of your Ignorance. Sakkāya Diṭṭhi or self-delusion, they called it. Do you know what Sakkāya Diṭṭhi or Self-Delusion is? Because you do not have the wisdom, you take the non-self as theself. When you take the non-self as the self, what will happen? You think there is a person that exists, a person to see, hear, taste,smell, feel and think etc. You think this 5 Aggregate of Form and Mind is real. Then you will associate with this so-called “Self” orEGO (the Egoic mind) that you had created in your mind. Then from there, when this EGOIC mind arises, what will happen? Because there is a personality already, then you will associate everything you see, you hear, you taste, you smell, you touch and you think, or you feel; you think there is a person to see, a person who hears, a person who smells, a person who tastes, touches, feels and thinks and to enjoy.Because of that, it arises the Craving in you. There are3 types of cravings.

What are the three types of cravings? The 1st one is Craving for Sensual Desires or craving for sensual pleasure. This one is the most difficult one to deal. Because of this one, the living beings are mostly trapped by it because most living beings always look for the pleasurable. Look for something that is very pleasant, very nice, especially in the world of high sensuality. Our modern world is able to give you a very high level of sensuality. The sensual world can really bring about a lot of very, very … I should say, beautiful states, where your senses can be lured via delusion to enjoy and develop the craving and attachment for them.

You see, the key thing about this is, not to say you cannot have all these good and nice sense experiences. You can have them, but you must have the wisdom not to cling, and not to attach. You must know them for what they are. How they arise, the conditions behind their arising. You do not have to reject or become unduly worried about it. Don’t go to the other extreme like a lot of people who do not understand. They thought that if you are a cultivator of the Way, and you have developed this Dhamma understanding, you couldn’t have nice sense experiences. Everything you must throw away. Everything you must not try to even experience it or what. Don’t be the other extreme. Sense experiences are very natural phenomenon they will come okay? But when they come and if you have the wisdom, this wisdom will take care of it. You will not develop the craving, the attachment and the clinging. It is part of life, part of nature. Good and bad, it’s just your mind’s discrimination. Because when your mind arises that discrimination develops and it will divide. Divide into good and bad, wholesome and unwholesome. Then the duality arises. It is because of this duality that you arise all the aversion and the clinging. These two, your reactions to your sense experience, will give rise to this Greed and Hatred. This duality will always trap you. So that’s why you will have to develop the wisdom and the understanding, thereby enabling you to have a mind born of the Right View, to enable you to have the wise attention at every moment of sense experiences, or what they called, “YonisoManasikāra”. You can remember that term? What is that term? It is YonisoManasikāra or wise attention. This wise attention is very important. This wise attention is born of the Right View. Born of proper cultivation of this Right View. When you have this cultivation, when you have this Right View very clearly in you, your wisdom will arise. Then when it arises, the moment of sense experience is very important. Then when you have this wise attention, YonisoManasikāra, supported by the Right View, with the Right Mindfulness, it will enable you to free. Then Feelings will remain as pure Feelings. It will not cause the link to carry on, like what is stated in the Law of Dependent Origination; that is it will not lead you to Craving. It will not lead you to Grasping. It will not cause attachment. Then, it will not lead to becoming and birth.

I just want to go through this first, because the emphasis is on Ignorance. Ignorant of what? Just to summarize again the 3 things. Develop the Right Understanding of Kamma, Four Noble Truths and the Law of Cause and Effect followed by the 3 characteristics. Make sure you understand the characteristics of Anicca,DukkhaandAnattā clearly so that you do not take the Impermanence as permanent. Do not take the suffering state as something pleasurable, or something that is pleasant. Then the third one is do not give rise to the wrong view with regards to the personality, the ego self. Don’t take the Non-self as the self. This part is very difficult to understand. But if you have cultivated the Right View in the proper manner, then this fetter (Sakkāya Diṭṭhi), you can overcome. You can actually cut it off. But with the understanding of this Law of Dependent Origination, it will be a lot easier.

According to the Law of Dependent Origination’s 1st three link (AvijjāPaccaya Saṅkhāra; Saṅkhāra Paccaya Viññāṇaṃ), dependent on ignorance arises Saṅkhāra then dependent on Saṅkhāra arises the mind door or mental consciousness. This is just a consciousness – no one to see or to perceive it (i.e. objective seeing). As the truesati or mindfulness is without the "observer" (there is only an awareness of the phenomena or the impersonal process of Dependent Origination arising from the "Pure Awareness" or the "Essence of mind" which is the unconditioned and without the thought (which is part of the Egoic mind), as per what the Lord Buddha had said, "In the seeing there is only the seeingconsciousness and there is no one to see or observe" - because they are all condition arising (naturally) and causal phenomena and this is the true understanding of Anattā within the DependentOrigination borne of Right view, hence no more Sakkāya Diṭṭhi.

Arising Cycle

Now we go to the first link. Now that you know what this Ignorance is all about. Why did the Buddha say AvijjāPaccayaSaṅkhāra. Dependent on Ignorance arises Saṅkhāra; mental activities or mental volitions? Why? Why because we have Ignorance, activities of mind arise? Have you ever thought about it? Enquire into it? But if you can contemplate it out of your own understanding, it will help you a lot. Try to think. Why as a living being, before you have the wisdom, you’ve got so much of this mental activities or Saṅkhāra. So much of this thinking continuously arises in ‘you’. And the Buddha said it’s due to Ignorance. “Because volition is the cause ofeverything” Ok, that’s one of the answers. What Sis Lye said is that volition is the cause of everything, that’s correct because it’s Kammic, Kammic volitions. Cause and Effect, it will condition things to arise.

Your past will condition your present. Present again you create mental volitions, then, you will create conditioning again. So this is the arising cycle. But you have to understand why it arises. It’s because you do not have the wisdom, you think it is real, that’s why you want to think, isn’t it? But the key is, because you are deluded, because you do not have the wisdom, you still don’t understand, isn’t it? Because you do not understand, you want to arise the thinking isn’t it? So, Ignorance is not knowing the Truth.

Every time you do not understand, you try to think, you try to develop the understanding. That’s why in school also you think isn’t it, at home also you think isn’t it? That why, if you listen to my earlier tape, I said, “even in your sleep also you never stop and your thinking continuously arise.” That’s why you have a lot of dreams. A lot of activities of mind, the unsettled and unresolved mental activities will continue to ‘move’ within you. And a lot of these are conditioned by your attachment, by your ignorance because you do not have the wisdom, you hold on to a lot of things in life. Your attachment can be anything that arises in life especially your problems of life and your reactions to life situations. Sometimes it arises after you have heard of some bad news, or sometimes maybe after you have recalled certain experiences that are rather traumatic that makes you like totally disturbed. And these things will continue to dwell within your sub-conscious to haunt you. That’s why a lot of these fearful things born of childhood experiences, which are not so pleasant, can affect a lot of people. Then certain people go through life… they actually have very bad experience with regards to life. You’ll read about these in the newspaper sometimes and nowadays it is more common, cases like child abuse, rape cases and all those things like death of very close relative or loved ones. All these can bring about a lot of suffering, sorrow, lamentation, grief and depression etc. It will torment the living beings.

Like today, I received a phone call from my schoolteacher. I think he called me from Alor Star. He said he has a friend, a very close friend; they are Christians actually. The wife is also a Christian. Recently the mother-in-law passed away. Because of attachment, then the wife also has some form of sickness. Her condition was so bad, and her husband is a GM or something and he has a career to take care. But because of what happened, the wife was so disturbed. The suffering was so severe. So he called me, to find out how he can help. Because even the mother’s funeral, she cannot stay to witness the funeral. I think I was told she left the funeral, 2 days before that. And emotionally she was very, very disturbed; very traumatized. He also pitied her; he didn’t know what to do. So he asked me. Do you know what I told him? I said, you have to understand what Law of Kamma is all about. Not to say you don’t help. You can help. But you look at your own limitation. What can you do? Unless you really know the wife and the wife still can listen to you under that type of emotional state; apart from that, it is better for you to radiate whatever loving kindness that you have and you just wish them well. Then talk to the husband nicely. I gave them an analogy. Have you all seen the show, “Tuesday with Morris?” How many of you have seen that show? One sister told me she read that book, “Tuesday with Morris”. You haven’t heard of this? This one is a very good example, because it can help you overcome all these problems. Because in life; I think there are a lot of such problems. So that is why you can also link back to this Law of Dependent Origination to help you.

What happen was there was this Professor Morris; he is a professor I think, in one of the very prestigious universities. I forgot which university; I think it’s an American University. When he was young, he went through life, quite tough. The mother passed away when he was quite young. He himself mentioned this. He said, when he was young, he did not appreciate what the mother has done for him, the love and all those. It was only after the mother had died, that he started to regret and he looked forward to having the mother’s love. He was only six years old then and he couldn’t get that love. And during that time, the father was also so emotionally upset anddisturbed, and he said that was the time he needed the father the most. He looked out of the window and he saw that his father’s sorrow was worst than his. He was telling himself, “It is at this point in time that I needed my father’s love the most, yet I couldn’t get from him” And out of pity for his father, he said, “I would like to know what my father was actually thinking.” But he couldn’t. So, never mind, that phase passed. After that, he became very determined, and he had very strong resolved and he wanted to excel in life. So that’s how he became very successful. But when the father wanted to remarry, that was the time it hit him again. It hit him quite traumatically again. He had heard a lot about stepmother’s story. So he was very against it. But later on, the father talked to him. Then he finally agreed. Then he was very surprised. Whatever that he couldn’t get… the true motherly love that he missed; the stepmother was able to give it to him. And he was so grateful for that. And because of that, his life changed. But there was one point in time he couldn’t forgive his father. Do you know why? He kept that hatred so deeply inside him for so many years. That’s why, if you have the wisdom with you, these Greed, Hatred and Delusion… the three evil roots, under the 2nd Noble Truth, the 2nd turning; the cause of arising of Dukkha, which is your craving, your greed, and your attachment etc… all these you have to abandon them, you have to cut them off. But this professor, he kept it for so long, until a few years before his death. But he regretted it. His father actually forbids him from even talking about her mother after his father’s remarriage. And because of that, he said he couldn’t forgive his father. “How could he be so selfish?”, he said. After his father remarried, the father wanted the son to totally cut off the motherly relationship with the real mother. This was the first phase of his life.

After that he grew up and he became very successful and very famous. He was able to do a lot of great things. He could even do skating and dancing. Do you know what happened after that? When he was about fifty-something or sixty years old; he got an injury. He was paralyzed from the waist down. And you know what happened to him? For three to six months, he was totally like a ‘dead’ person. I think maybe worse than a ‘dead’ person. At least as a dead person, he died already so nothing can happen to him anymore. His misery was so strong, he was so emotionally affected, and he couldn’t accept the reality of those moments. He always questioned himself. “Why me? Why is God so unfair?” All these things came out from his thoughts. Then he went & drink, he drank, he smoked, and he actually suffered a lot. And because of that, the wife also suffered, the children also suffered. Everybody that is linked to him, that had care and concern for him suffered together. Then after six months, do you know what happened? Somebody talked to him. He said “ifyou continue like that, not only you are ruining your life; you even ruin the lives of your wife, your children, and all those that are related to you. Is this what you want to do? Is this what you want to have in life? Why can’t you accept what has already happened? Then, learn to live on, learn to understand life better.” After he thought about it, just within one day, after thinking deep into it… he happened to use this word he said “detached”. He told the reporter, because the reporter was covering his story. He told the reporter from that day onwards he decides he is not going to live that kind of life anymore. He said “DETACHED” which means he accepted thereality of what had already happened that is his paralysis. And he wants to regain back his life. He wanted his life back and he wantsto move on with his life. Because by doing that, not only he regained back his life, his wife will also be happy, his children will also be happy; and all those around him will also be happy. And you know what happened? After that, he realized that life was evenmore beautiful than before he got his injury or paralysis.

He was so happy. Then he told the reporter “you must know how todie before you know how to live”. He used this word, “you must know how to die before you know how to live”. That means die from all those attachments, or what we called defilements that are responsible for all the miseries and suffering. “If you do not know how to die, you do not know how to live,” he said. So, because of that, he told the reporter, that was the most beautiful part of his life. And because of that, later on he was able to make so many people happy. A lot of people came to see him. That’s why the reporter was sent to cover his story on how he became what he was.

So when you have heard of such experiences and had developed the understanding already and your friends or loved ones have such similar life problems or situations, and if you relate to them this type of story, I think they will listen, because you hold the key toyour own destiny. To be happy, or to be miserable, is entirely up to your own decision. Correct or not? You hold the key to your own destiny, isn’t it? To be happy or to be miserable is entirely your choice, your decision, so why not chose wisely and choose to be happy.

If you want to hold on to the attachment, the clinging, then according to the Law of Dependent Origination you will develop all the grasping, becoming and birth leading to old age, sickness and death, hence the whole mass of suffering… sorrow, lamentation, grieve etc… as stated in the Dependent Origination. Is that what youwant? Is that the life that you are looking for? Because you have attachment; you attach and you cling to something that you are good at and then you cannot accept what happened when something unpleasant happened. Because he clings to his body… and he is very strong, very active, can do a lot of stances and movements and other great and beautiful things. He is a skater, he can dance very well, and he has a lot of romantic life. He has a family. But because of the paralysis, all those things he cannot do already. So his delusion comes from attachment to the body. Wanting that body to be forever young, forever able to do the things that he wants to do. Not knowing that the natural laws are such; when conditions cease to be, then certain things can happen, like the paralysis. And when it happens, if you do not have the wisdom, or the right understanding or the right view to accept and come to term with that reality of the moment, to accept things as they are and continue to live your life with wisdom, with virtue, with love and kindness etc following the Noble Eight fold Path, then you will surely suffer.

His gratitude, love and compassion for his wife and the children actually helped him because he feels for them later on. He realized that he couldn’t be so selfish as to cause them all the miseries because of him. If he continues to be what he is, let’s say becomes so sorrowful, refuse to actually face anybody; that time even the wife he didn’t want to see; he just want to be alone, to drink, to smoke and he shut himself off. I think it was a very traumatic experience for him (those three to six months). But just because of one word, “detached” he said. And the reporter asked him, “Just that one word detached?” He said, “Yes, just that word, detached.” After that, his life changed, totally changed. So, if you understand that, when you go through life, if it is somebody that you know, wait for the right condition or appropriate moment to talk to them nicely, I think they will accept your advice. But if instead you try to talk about religion straight away, then it may be more difficult.

Because that friend of mine asked me, “what should I do? Should I tell him the Four Noble Truth, and all those things?” I said, “Forget about it!” Because, first, he is a Christian, he is of a different faith. Even if he is a Buddhist, he is not likely to be in the mood to listen to the Four Noble Truths. It has to be something that can make him feels good first. Tell him that by doing so, what will be the result. Let him see for himself, what the result will be like if he continues to live his life that way, ok? If only you are able to accept the reality,and learn to let go of the attachment and the clinging, then your life will become so much better and more beautiful. That’s how from these, you’ll see how the Buddha put it so clearly and sonicely, that if you do not have the wisdom… i.e. Dependent on ignorant arises Saṅkhāra, …etc. all these will lead to Suffering orDukkha. And this Dukkha can be very real. This is what we call the problems of life remember? Can you remember what the problems of life are? Maybe you all should tell me the things that you all had gone through or heard about, those problems of life. How, miseries of life come about. What are the problems of life that you all normally heard of?

Yes! Financial problems can lead to a lot of miseries, isn’t it? Some more? Ah, family problems, sometimes because of financial problems, family problems also arise, ok? Sometime, too much money also family problems arise, because they will go and do the other way when they have too much money. Then, you have careerproblems. Because each and every one of us before we retire, we have a certain kind of career. Then you have relationship problems. You have relationship with your loved ones, your children, your in-laws, your parents, your neighbours etc. Relationship is a very wide topic, even in your office, your colleagues you have relationship with them. Even in the service industry the people that you meet up with; your customers and your consultants. Even when you go and see a doctor, all these people have relationship with you. Even when you walked in the street or you come for this Dhamma session, you interact with people, you meet up with people. So, if you do not know how to carry yourself in terms of speech, actionand livelihood and thought, which is what our Noble Eight Fold Path is all about; if you do not have this Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood, the way you interact with people can be very problematic and miserable. It can lead to a lot of Suffering, or what they call the problems in life. Not only it arises because of ego, the ego is very strong. Because if your ego is very strong, you will react to everything that people say. Only you are right, the rest are all-wrong. Especially if you are in the service industry, if you do not have a very nice way to carry yourself in your speeches, like the way you answer the calls, the way you treat your customers, a lot of argument and unpleasant misunderstanding can arise. But if you have this pleasant speech, gentle speech, verynice speech, born of Love and Compassion, then everybody who talks to you will be able to feel the goodness. They will feel very nice. Then they will have a very cordial atmosphere that leads to harmony, understanding and peace. Then they can put forth some form of wisdom or understanding to bring about more and more goodness to all. Then their lives will change and they will become more happy and peaceful. So, you look at all these, they are very important. What else apart from relationship problem? We have not come to the serious ones yet. Health problem especially those involving your loved ones’ or your own. Some more? Ah! Socialproblem is one of them. Your children going out into society to do all those things that may not be proper. You know nowadays, all the teenagers, they are not easy to train. Then social problem can involve a lot of things, like drugs, theft, police cases and all those things. All these are social problems, even like rape cases, looting or whatever. If you look at the papers, almost everyday you can see a few. Like today, if you have read the papers, there is this father, about sixty over years old, his son has got 8As in SPM, and it came out in the Star newspaper, in Alor Star I think. The school is Keat Hwa. Because I’m also from Alor Star, I know. I pity that person. His youngest son who was studying Form six, he was riding a motorbike trying to overtake a bicycle, and then he lost balance and fell. Then the bus coming from behind and he was killed. So in life, there are a lot of these things.

Then earlier on there is another case; I think this one was in Putrajaya. I think it was a Malay lady. It was during the rain and she was driving back. Then suddenly, she hit something in the rain. She didn’t know what it was and she just drove back. Actually that was her son. She killed her son. When she reached home, she didn’t know. She wanted to make a police report. Then suddenly a call came to inform her that her son had died. When she was told where a car, at the location where she did it, knocked the child. She was shocked! And it is not easy to go through this type of traumaticexperience, if you do not have the right view and the wisdom to accept this reality, to accept Kamma. So you see how wisdom can actually help you to overcome all these problems. I want to dwellmore on this because this can help you in life to develop the wisdom to let go. After all, it’s not so real. The Five Aggregates of Form and Mind is not so real. But because the living beings are deluded, they cling to it. They thought this body is theirs. They thought the mind is theirs. They thought all the feelings; the sensations that they experience in life are real. That’s why they have this attachment and craving.

LETTING GO OF DESIRE, CRAVING AND ATTACHMENT

The other thing that you need to understand is that this problem of life… the last time I had already given you the analogy, can you all remember? It is like a red-hot iron ball. If you hold on to it, thatmeans you cling on to this problem, just like your problems of life like your financial problem, etc; let’s say you cannot accept it. Youdo not know how to resolve it. You cling on to the problem, because you would say this is my problem, I have to deal with it, and I have to resolve it. And because of that, you cling on to the red-hot iron ball. When you hold on to that, what will happen? It will burn you and torment you, isn’t it? It will continue to hurt and inflict the pain and the misery in you, causing the fear, the worry and the anxiety, all the sorrow and lamentation, etc do you see that? It is exactly the same. Actually it is a real analogy. It is not something that is fictitious, it’s because you do not understand. So just like the Buddha said, “Let go! Let go! And do not cling.” This craving and attachment, under the Second Noble Truth, the Second Turning, is to be abandoned, remember? You have to cut it off, you have to abandon it. Abandoning it means dropping it off. Totally cut it off, do not allow the attachment and craving to arise in you. This impliestotal acceptance of What Is! Or the Reality of Life or the way things are! That is you come to term with the Reality of the Moment! So no reactions or blaming and from there you act via applying the Noble Eight Fold Path to free oneself. When you do that, what happens? The red-hot iron ball is dropped. Your hand is relieved. The burning sensation and all the pains are gone. How do you dropit? – Via your Right View with regards to Law of Kamma, which is very important. If you accept the Law of Kamma, you accept the Reality of Existence or what IS! That is each and every one of us has our own Kamma, hence there are causes and conditions behind the arising of all these so called problems of life, or Life situations, ok?

The other thing about this Right View with regards to this Law of Kamma is, after you have that cultivated in you, you not only understand that Kamma is the thing that causes all these, you also become very careful with your Kamma. Because you know via your 5 daily contemplations as recommended by the Buddha, - the 5th contemplation: “you are born of yourKarma, heir to yourKarma,conditioned and supported by your Karma and you are what you are because of your Karma”, as such if you are not careful with your Thought, Speech, Action and Livelihood…..etc - all these can cause the 3 evil roots of Greed, Hatred and Delusion or mental and physical negativities to arise. They will then condition your negative Karma and create conditions for all thoseDukkhaor suffering to arise in you via Dhammapada verse 1. Then you will have a lot of problems. That’s why if you have this Right View cultivated, you will be very careful with your Kamma and you will take care of yourKamma. You will develop all the Noble Eight Fold Path factors. The Right View leading to the Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, then the Right Meditation to free yourself from all Dukkha via the 4th Noble Truth, ok? This part is very important.

The 2ndRight View is with regards to the Four Noble Truths. The most important one is the First Noble Truth. You must know what Dukkha is. And in summary, it is the attachment and clinging to the Five Aggregates of Form and Mind. When you have that understanding, then it is very easy to deal with suffering already. Then the Second Noble Truth is the next most important one. The Buddha said, “This Craving and Attachment is to be abandoned.”You have to abandon it. The reason why I repeat this is because I know it has not sunk into you as yet. The living beings never see this because they have not contemplated deep enough. With this condition, you should go back and develop the understanding and contemplate into it more deeply. If you don’t believe, after you have contemplated and developed this cultivation, the next time when things happened, you check, you are totally different. You are not like a normal human being anymore. Your emotion is different. Your understanding is different. The way you look at things isdifferent. And your Love and Compassion will flow regardless of whatever happens…. It’s just like during the Buddha’s time, those

Jataka stories…. Have you all heard about all those Jataka stories

with regards to the Bodhisattva before he became the Buddha? There were many instances where his son or loved ones died. Remember? The Bodhisattva, his son actually died, and he didn’t even cry. There was one case where the serpent or the snake, I think, killed the son. Remember? Anyone of you read about that? That story was very beautiful. He was actually out somewhere with his two sons. They burned some hays, and there was a snake inside. And because the snake was disturbed, it came out and attacked one of the sons and killed the son. And do you know what happened after that? He didn’t even get upset, he didn’t evencry, and hedidn’t even lament. He just did what he had to do. He just prepared the body and the fire to burn. Then he saw somebody passing by to go back. He just said, “If you do not mind, please tell my wife,today bring lunch for only two instead of three. Bring some perfume and flowers.” With that, the wife already knew that the son was dead. And the wife came and brought all those things. Then the King happened to be around there, he saw all those things and was about to burn. Then the King asked, “What is it that you are doing?” He said, “Somebody died”. Then the King said, “It must be somebody you do not know.” “Oh no, it’s my son”, he said. “How can it be your son? You didn’t even cry!” the King said, “You just do as if nothing has happened.”

Do you know what the Bodhisattva answered? His answer was very beautiful. He said “Whatever that is of the natureto arise, is alsoof the nature to cease or pass away. And when it has ceased or gone, why do you lament? For no amount of sorrow or lamentation can bring back the dead!” He said, because it is something very natural. It’s all conditionarising, causalphenomenon, ok? Then not only that… after that the King asked the wife, “What about you? Why don’t you cry? I believe the son must be someone who had no filial piety.” That means, this son doesn’t listen to you, doesn’t obey you. Do you know what the wife said? “No, he is a very, very good son. Very obedient” “Then why don’t you cry?” the King asked. She answered exactly like what the Bodhisattva said. Just in the same manner.

UNDERSTANDING THE 12-LINK

That’s why, for those who have this wisdom and understanding, they never lament, they never cry, and they never grieve. Understand or not? They are able to accept the reality of thesituation. And He continued to work; He continued to do the things that He was supposed to do. He was still like a normal person, theBodhisattva, helping and all that. This is how you should face or confront all these Life situations. Because death is not so real, it’s just the separation of the Consciousness from the Form. The Five Aggregates of Form and Mind just got separated because of conditions. Then when they take birth, another body will arise, together with a new Consciousness, the Re-linking Consciousness. Okay now we come back to this…The first link is, “AvijjāPaccayaSaṅkhāra”. Dependent on Ignorance (ignorant of those things that we have talked about), arises Mental Activities. How does it arise? Because you do not understand and you want to know, that’s why you created all the thinking activities. Wanting to know, wanting to experience, you give rise to Saṅkhāra. “SaṅkhāraPaccayaViññāṇaṃ”. What is this Viññāṇaṃ? What is it? Consciousness isn’t it? It’s written there on the board. You can see the word? Why did the Buddha say that? Dependent on Saṅkhāra arises Consciousness. This link is very important. Actually, if you understand… what the text tried to describe is that they tried to break the 12-links into three periods.

The 1st link Ignorant creates Mental Volitions, which means mental volition or karmic activities. And because of that, it creates the re-linking consciousness, which means you take birth. This Re-linking Consciousness is what the Buddha wanted you to understand. Because there is no soul, no permanent entity that transmigrate upon death, understand or not? The wrong view in India at that time was, they believe in a soul, a permanent unchanging entity. Upon death, this soul leaves the body and go take over another one. The Buddha said no, there is no such thing. It is because of Kamma, condition arising. This KarmicVipāka, born of natural law, we call it a KammaNiyāma, will create a new arising of this Five Aggregates of Form and Mind. That’s why depending on your last Thought Moment and your karmic past, it will cause birth to arise. And when it arise, this Re-linking Consciousness will link to whatever new body that you are supposed to have. Then the two will come together and form the Five Aggregates of Form and Mind again. So because of that link, “AvijjāPaccayaSaṅkhāra”, Saṅkhāra or karmic formation conditions re-linking consciousness. This re-linking consciousness, with it come the Form and the Mind because like we explained earlier on, for Consciousness to arise, it must have its content. Those who study Abhidhamma will know. How many of you studied Abhidhamma? One, two, a few, ok. Never mind, even if you have not studied Abhidhamma, it’s not important. What is more important is that you must know this: “for Consciousness to arise there must be a content of consciousness; because these two arise simultaneously. Now you listen carefully! When Consciousness arises, within this Content of Consciousness, under the Abhidhamma, they have come out with what they called the Seven Universals. You know what is this Seven Universal? Siew Tee, you know? It’s common to all consciousness. Every consciousness must have these seven mental cetasikas. That’s why they are called the Universals. You know what are they? K.C. you can remember? “Feeling, Perception, Contact, Attention, Intention …” Very good, you have five, almost all already. Ok, I will just run it through for you. You listen carefully, because this one is very important. It links to the whole Dependent Origination and will make you understand a lot of things, ok?

First, there is this mental factor of Contact. There must be Contact or “Phassa”. This is the First Universal. Then together with that, there must be Feeling or “Vedanā”. Together with that, there must be Perception, like what K.C. said, ok? Then there is also this Mental Volition or intention, or what they called “Saṅkhāra”. Then there must be what they called Psychic Life, something that has energy, Psychic Life. I think in Pāḷi, it’s called “Jivitindriyam”, something like that. I cannot remember the Pāḷi term. You go and check the text; I’m not very sure about this. Then you have what we called “Manasikāra” or Attention, like what K.C. said. There is this Attention, also inside there. This Manasikāra is also there. Then they have “Ekaggatā”. You know what is Ekaggatā? It’s One-Pointedness. If you do not have all these Seven, Consciousness cannot arise. And all consciousness, whether wholesome, unwholesome or whatever, must have these Seven, ok?

These Seven are the key to the arising of sense consciousness. Do you remember during the early days I taught you all the FiveAggregates of Form and Mind? We always said, upon Contact, what happen? …When there is a mind, there is a sense organ, and when there is this corresponding sense data; when the three comestogether upon contact, what happens? Arises what? …Perception? Feeling? Both also correct, but the main thing is Consciousness arisefirst. Remember the experiment I told you all... the bulb, the battery and the switch. When you switched it on, what happens? Light appears isn’t it? That is equivalent Consciousness. And within it the content of consciousness, they simultaneously arise. That’s why both the answers are correct. Perception is also there, Feeling is also there. But you need contact, correct or not? That’s why they are Universal. Within these Universal, upon Contact, it arises Consciousness. Within the content of Consciousness, you have this Phassa, which is Contact, Feeling, which is Vedanā, then Sanna, like our uncle said is Perception. Not only that, you have Mental Volition. There must be Mental volition or Intention before sense consciousness can arise, ok? Then you have the One-Pointedness, the Psychic Life, and then also like what we said just now, Ekaggatā or one-pointedness. Anyway, these Seven have to be there. Oh no! Attention, I missed out Attention, Attention or Manasikāra must also be there. So this Attention, if it is unwise, what will happen? “AyonisoManasikāra”. If you do not have the Wisdom and the Right View, Unwise Attention will arise and upon contact, it will lead to Craving because you do not understand. So that’s how sensual desire or the hindrances of mind arises.

Upon Contact, Feeling arises. When Feeling arise, and if you do not have the Wise Attention, if there is no YonisoManasikāra, or WiseAttention, born of Right View and Right Understanding, it will carry through to Craving. Feeling will not remain as pure Feeling, understand or not? That’s how the link continues. Then it leads you to the whole mass of Suffering finally. Always remember, that it will finally lead you to the whole mass of Suffering, unless you understand with wisdom, and is able to cut or break from any of these intermediate links. If you continuously allow yourself to be deluded, not understanding what is going on within your Form and your Mind, then these Twelve Links will continuously operate in you, especially the Feeling link that conditioned your craving to react to sense experiences. Because during every moment of sense experience… you know what is sense experience isn’t it? Your sense door can arise consciousness isn’t it? When consciousness arises, you experience that consciousness isn’t it? That’s why you call it sense experiences; your seeing, your hearing, your smell, your taste, your touch or tactile and your thought. All these, especially yourthought consciousness… that one is very active and if you do not have the wisdom, it will continuously arise all the thinking and mental activities within you, and the mental volition or intention as well and that’s the reason why, Thoughts condition Feeling. And Feeling condition craving and emotions, and if there is no wisdom at the moment of feeling, craving will arise to condition more and more Mental reactions and Volitions, which leads to more and morenegativities or unwholesome states and negative Kamma via your delusion of wanting things your way. You can follow that? That part is very important, ok?

After this arising of the consciousness, the Five Aggregate of Form and Mind, the NamaRūpa, is actually the Content of Consciousness. Understand or not? Because within this content of consciousness is what the Saṅkhāra is all about. You have within your mind, the Four Aggregates. What are they? Can you remember? Feeling… some more? Perception, Saṅkhāra and Viññāṇaṃ. Viññāṇa, we already know so left with the three, Feeling, Perception and Saṅkhāra. These three are actually one. Because Feeling and Perception are part of Saṅkhāra, understand or not? So that’s why, the whole Content of Consciousness is actually Saṅkhāra. Now you follow? Ok?

That’s why, AvijjāPaccayaSaṅkhāra is correct. Actually it’s upon contact… Ignorance contact arises consciousness together with its content. But the Buddha used Saṅkhāra first, it’s because this one has karmic activities or Mental Volitions that leads to Kamma. Then only it links back to the re-linking consciousness. That’s why they put it in this order. This is the first way of explaining the Dependent Origination, ok? Dependent on Ignorance, arises Saṅkhāra or Mental Volitions or Karmic Activities, ok? From there it conditions

the re-linking consciousness. This Re-linking Consciousness will give rise to the NamaRūpaṃ or the Form and Mind, which is the new ‘birth’ that one takes. And dependent on that, it arises the sense bases within the being, the newborn being. And from the sense bases, it can arise Contact. Then when there is Contact, Feeling will arise. And when there is Feeling, if you do not have the wisdom, it will lead to Craving. Craving will lead to Grasping or Attachment. Then after that, you will become that already which is “becoming”, understand or not?

Becoming is, you have become that thing already. Like anger, or lustfulness, you become that thing already. Because when you grasp at something that you cannot get, you become that lustful thing already. Then after that, you take birth already. There are two meaning to birth here. One is physical birth or next birth. The text always use this because they find it very difficult to explain this Twelve Link if they do not use the past, present and future, if they do not call that consciousness the re-linking consciousness. It’s like there is no other way for them to reconcile, but if you understand, and you have the mindfulness in you, and if you have the training inyou, you will know how this Twelve Link actually operates; and it is totally different from what the text explains. The first version is it clear? Using what the text explains.

Dependent on Ignorance arises Saṅkhāra or mental volitions or intentions, or Cetana, which leads to karmic activities. These karmic activities will cause the re-linking consciousness to arise. You then take birth. Then from there, when you take birth, Kamma will condition the physical body for you, unless you take birth in the Formless Realm. Then this body will come together with this re-linking consciousness to form the Five Aggregates of Form and Mind. And this re-linking consciousness will create the new-born being to take over whatever it’s supposed to take over. Then from there, this karmic nature will continue to support these Five Aggregates of Form and Mind. Then every moment ofconsciousness within that being, with the physical organs - upon contact will arise sense consciousness again, that leads to sense experience. This one is more important. This one is what the Buddha wants you to understand, not that of the three-period of time; past, present and future. Because that will only happen upon death, when you die, it happens once only in one’s life span. But throughout your life, if you live to the age of seventy-five, or eighty or hundred, this twelve links continuously arise within your form and your mind. Sometimes the twelve links may not complete its full 12-links cycle. Most of the time, it is only very active at the first few links. AvijjāPaccayaSaṅkhārais very fast. Then Saṅkhāra and Viññāṇa and the Nama Rūpaṃ, as you know, arise together or they simultaneously arising because upon Contact, arises Consciousness and its contents simultaneously. That is the reason why, if you check this link… why did the Buddha say “upon Contact arises Feeling”? Feeling is just a content of Consciousness (1 of the 7 Universals) isn’t it? So like what we have explained… if you’ve experienced it within you, you will know because upon Contact… with every moment ofsense experience, upon contact you will experience it. That’s why if you can develop the right view and the right mindfulness to astability that is so established, then you will be able to develop the

Upekkhā mind that translates into the moment-to-moment Samadhi or they sometimes called it the Khaṇika or moment-to-moment Samadhi. This Continuous Samadhi is a very different one. It is very beautiful. Because this Continuous Mindfulness born ofWisdom, supported by Right View that leads to this Upekkhā Mind, is the one that actually investigate into all these links. It can be at the moment of arising of sense consciousness, at the moment of Feeling, at the moment of Perception, moment of Saṅkhāra, or even moment of whatever that the Mind wants to know or be aware of. Because of that, it’s the Unwavering Mind, the Unshakeable Mind, born of continuous mindfulness leading to the Sammā Samadhi. This is the Sammā Samadhi, a dynamic one that actually investigates into all sense experiences, investigates into allphenomena and Truth, and sees reality as it is without the thought. So, when this is understood, then you will come to know how the twelve links operates within you. At the moment of sense experience, at the moment of attention, you will know, whetherthere is delusion or not and whether it has carried through to craving or not. Also whether there is thisYonisoManasikāra within you or not. Do you all Understand?

ARISING OF RIGHT VIEW THROUGH THE CULTIVATION OF THE 4 FOUNDATIONS OF MINDFULNESS

That’s why during our session on the Four Foundation of Mindfulness, the SatipaṭṭhānaSutta, if you remember… what did the Buddha teach? The first foundation is very clear-cut, Kāyānupassanā. When they come to Vedanā, Citta and Dhammānupassanā… these three are very important. That’s why He always teaches you, when there is this Feeling… when Feeling arise, most of the time there can be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral feelings. What must you do under the Satipaṭṭhāna practices? “Aware”.... Yes! “Aware”, but aware of what? What did the Buddha teach you? This is very important. If you do not understand this, then you are wasting your time in meditation. Because the Buddha said you must be aware of whatever states that arise. If it is unpleasant, you must know it is unpleasant. If you have a pleasant feeling, you must know you have pleasant feeling. If it is a neutral feeling, you must know it is a neutral feeling. Why did He ask you to develop this mindfulness? Because if you do not have the Sati or Mindfulness to know, what will happen? The Twelve-Link, the Dependent Origination will arise very fast. Immediately upon Contact, arises this Feeling. When Feeling arises, and you do not have the Sati or Mindfulness to deal with it, what will happen to the next link? Ah!..ha…Craving will arise. That’s how you have your likes and dislikes. Neutral isMoha or Delusion or indifference okay. All these are hindrances of the mind. Understand? When there is pleasant feeling and you are attached to it and you develop the craving for it, what will happen? Sensual desire arises already, Correct or not? How does sensual desire arise? Because you thinkit’s permanent, you think it’s enjoyable, you don’t see the impermanence and the suffering state. You are deluded; you don’t have the Right View. You can’t see. Now do you follow?

Because of Avijjā, because you lack Wisdom, you lack Right View and because of all these, you will not have the Right or wise Attention and YonisoManasikāra cannot arise because you lackmindfulness, the continuous mindfulness that develops into Sammā Samadhi, you don’t have that. That’s the reason why the living being cannot handle life. This Dependent Origination links continuously arise and create Craving in you via your Delusion and causes all the miseries. Can you follow?

Then when it comes to Cittānupassanā it’s still the same. When the Citta or consciousness has Greed, you must know that there is Greed. When it is without greed you must also know it. All these are telling you that you must have the Right View and Wisdom to understand all these so that you will develop the Mindfulness to understand them. When you have the mindfulness supported by the Right View; I always use this word “supported by Right View”, leading to the Right Wisdom, then only you can have Right or wise Attention or YonisoManasikāra. Then only you can handle this Dependent Origination links. Then only you can cut at the point of Feeling. When Feeling arises, there is this Sati or mindfulness thatis aware and understands the moment of Feeling.

Initially you have to cultivate it (the sati) until it becomes very clear to you, until it becomes a part of you. Then only the Wisdom will arise until it’s so clear. One day that understanding will arise byitself via your direct seeing with your silent mind in Sati. And when the Wisdom arises, automatically it uproots what they called the latent tendencies. That’s why they said, Wisdom leading to Emergence or Insight leading to Emergence. Emerging or Liberate from the Delusion or Ignorance, and you become Enlightened. Without that it is very difficult, very, very difficult. That’s why I’ve been emphasizing all along the Noble Eight Fold Path on how to develop this 1st path factor of Right View. This Right View is very,very important. To arise the Right View that leads to the Right Wisdom that enables you to have this YonisoManasikāra. Then the daily Mindfulness, the SammāSati, you have to develop it, until it’svery stable, until it’s more or less continuous throughout the day. Without that, the real Samadhi cannot come about. Can follow?

Thus far we had only discussed the first aspect of the 12 links (spreading over the 3 periods of times) as normally explained by the text. However there is another aspect that is more relevant and more practical. This second aspect is regarding the Dependent Origination links occurring within‘you’ or within your mind. Every moment of sense consciousness… whatever that arises within your Five Aggregates of Form and Mind including all your sense experiences, you must check what actually happens. You must try to investigate into it. Then you see whether you can see the Twelve-Link happening within you? You will see how the Law of Cause and Effect or Dependent Origination operates within your Form and your Mind. You will start to see the relationship of how mental intentions condition your thought, your speech, your action, and the way you live your life. All these will come to you and you will witness them.

Not only mental intention. You will also see how feeling creates all the cravings and desires in you. That’s how you get attached to all those things. Then, because of your lack of wisdom, how it deludes you to cause you to react, to cling and grasp to all those things to bring about the whole mass of sufferings following the 12 links. Yourreactions come about because you cannot accept things as they are. Even after… let’s say, initially… you missed out the feeling link, (because that one is not easy to do) and you allow it to develop into craving, your desire comes out and you have this sensual desire already, or the negative ones (your negative reactions) you have it in you already. Then it leads to what? What is the next link? Grasping, isn’t it? Craving is not so strong as yet. After craving had arisen, you desire that thing already so you grasped onto it. That means you really latch-on to it already. The desire becomes so strong, all the lusts or aversion is there and this lust or anger had become so strong already. Then what will happen? The next thing is you become that isn’t it? Then you take birth isn’t it? Then it torments you isn’t it? It leads to the whole mass of suffering. Because when you take ‘birth’ as a human being (physically) and have this body, you are subject to birth, old age, sickness and death. Then the mental ‘birth’ of the 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind will arise leading to all the sorrow, lamentation and grief, etc that come with it, born of Ignorance, born of Delusion, born of your Craving and your Attachment, will cause you to be miserable hence the mental suffering or SaṅkhāraDukkhata.

So that’s why when you look at the First Noble Truth, the final summary part is very important. Because you attach or cling on tothis Five Aggregates of Form and Mind (physical and mental aspects), that’s howDukkhacomes to be. What are the Five Aggregates? You have to contemplate into this, as I almost miss this one out again. Even earlier on when I discuss the Five Aggregates of Form and Mind, I always missed out this one. Now there is a condition to talk about it or go into it. Why did the Buddha say in the final summary of the 1st Noble Truth that: “it is the clinging to this Five Aggregates of Form and Mind that leads to Dukkha”. And what is this Five Aggregates of Form and Mind that the Buddha meant, including that clinging? First, it’s Rūpa, the 1st aggregate of form. What is Rūpa? Ok, Form. Is it only your body? Your body is one of the Forms isn’t it? What about other Forms? Ah! Externalforms that your mind takes in through your mind’s Perception. You must not attach or cling on to them; otherwise suffering will come to be.

That’s why your loved ones your prized possessions, etc are the external forms; your wife, your children, your relatives, your in-laws, your house and your good friends, all these are external forms. Understand? All the living beings, all the trees, the cars, the T.V., all of nature’s creation too; whatever that your senses can perceive through your seeing consciousness, your hearing, smell, taste,touch or tactile and your thought consciousness, they are external forms that enter your mind to become mental forms via your aggregates of perceptions. All these consciousness, they have mental ‘Rūpa’, or ‘form’ within. You cannot cling, you cannot attach, understand or not? If you cling on to any of these, you’ll have problem, suffering will arise in you.

Even like your school, your physical form, your race, your gender (male and female); all these, if you hold on to it, you will develop all the attachment and the negativity. Then suffering will arise, understand or not? That’s why all these cannot be grasped on to, cannot be clung on to. The Five Aggregates of Form and Mind, the first Aggregate of form is already so powerful. That’s why I said, when I taught you all to see Form earlier on; you have to learn to see with Mindfulness; to see their conditions arising, thereby enabling you to know that Form is unreal. Understand or not?

Remember? There are two ways to see Form. One is the external form like the analogy of the bullock cart. How do you know that it is a bullock cart, or how do you know that it’s an external form? Through your mentalperception isn’t it? You take this external form in through your seeing consciousness, isn’t it? Or through your smell, taste, touch or your thought consciousness, isn’t it? It’s onlyyour mind. That’s why the Buddha said via Dhammapada verses 1 and 2: “Mind is the forerunner of all things, mind is chief andeverything arise from the mind….” That is when mind arises,

everything arise. The whole creation comes about already. Because of that creation, it’s conditions arisingisn’t it? Because you need a mind… and the eye as the organ, then together with the sense data to see, all these three as the requisite conditions mustcome together and make contact, only then can it arise that seeing consciousness. And within the content of that seeing consciousness you will have all those things (the 7 universals) that include the aggregate to perceive. And this Perception and the mental formation are the ones that cause the external form to arise as a mental form or mental image naturally within your mind. That’swhy I say Form is unreal. Externally it’s already unreal. When you bring it to mind, it’s just an image, it’s even more unreal. And when you know its unreal, why do you still want to cling on to it? Why do you still develop the attachment for it? You ask yourself, why? Why you still cannot overcome this so called attachment to your loved ones, your prized possessions, or whatever that you like, all the Rūpa or external/mental forms… The nice car, the nice house, all the other things that you think you can own and possess. Why? “It’s because of Sakkāya Diṭṭhi.” Yes! Our Brother Wan here is perfectly right. Because of this Sakkāya Diṭṭhior Self Delusion, you think youexist. You think there is a personality inside ‘you’; there is this ego self inside you. That’s why you can attach and cling. That’s why craving can arise, selfishness can arise. That’s why you must use this Right View and Wisdom to reverse your wrong understanding or wrong ‘seeing’ via understanding that you are not actually what you think you are i.e. NOT so ‘real’. That is the human being is just a condition arising phenomenon that last longer, hence appear less transient. But like any other External forms they are all condition arising, causal phenomena, hence impermanent and not you.

Your feeling is also the same. Do you remember the Feeling that we went through? Is the feeling really you? Why is it not you? For you feel and experience that feeling isn’t it? Then why do you say it’snot you? It is condition arising, isn’t it? The other more important one is, if feeling changes from a pleasant to unpleasant feeling, didyou die? You didn’t die, isn’t it? Because you did not die, so how can that feeling be you? Correct or not? If it is you, when it changes, you should die with it, isn’t it? Because you didn’t die, that’s whyit’s not you.

Perception is also the same. Every moment you perceive different things. Through your seeing, there is this visual perception. Hearingsound, there is this sound perception. Smell, taste, touch or tactile, your thought processes, all these perceptions are different. And did you die? When perception changes, you didn’t die, that’s why it’s never you. Ok?

Your activities of mind are also the same. One moment you think about this, one moment you have this mental state, one moment you have this mental volition. Every moment ofSaṅkhāra, mentalactivities continuously arise in you. Did you die? You didn’t die isn’t it? And sense consciousness continuously arises via contact with allyour physical sense organs and your mind ‘organ’; the eye ‘creates’ the seeing consciousness; after that it disappears, and then the hearing consciousness arise. The smell, the taste, the touch, the tactile and your thought consciousness; did you die? Consciousnesscomes and goes and you never die. Then definitely they are not you. But if they are not you, why do they arise in you? Ask yourself that. Then what are they? I’ve already mentioned these in the earlier recorded tape; the March 17th 2005 recorded tape. I don’t know why we are so lucky. I think Boon Chhai will know. The first tape came out too fast, totally cannot hear. Then the second tape was left with fifteen minutes and I talked about this. And the speedwent back to normal. I added it into the Samadhi tape. In the Sammā Samadhi Dhammatranscript you will see this. I think that night Sis Lye was also here and she asked about the Mahayana practices. You all should go through that, that one is very crucial.

That one explains what I’m trying to explain to you all now. Then your development of this understanding will come. Then it will prepare you for the condition to receive Truth in the future. You go back and contemplate into all these and develop the further understanding then you put it into your practice and cultivation. It will arise the conditions for you to receive Truth in the future very fast via any of the 3 turnings of the Four Noble Truths. Then at that time, maybe you do not have to do the Third Turning of the Four Noble Truths as yet. The Third Turning is BhāvanāMaya Panna, isn’t it? BhāvanāMaya Panna is the wisdom that arises due to the meditative discipline. With the type of earlier understanding borne of understanding what this 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind are, you can straighten your views and continue to develop the contemplative wisdom and understanding further via the 2nd turning; i.e. you enquire and reflect on it and contemplate into it further to develop the more refined wisdom. Then, anytime in the midst of your life, whatever that arise; sometimes it may be through hearing of any Truth or any phenomenon, it can trigger off theEnlightenment. Then sometimes when you are in the midst of a retreat or when you are contemplating something, the awakening can come by itself. Or when you are cultivating the Satipaṭṭhānapractices or the Noble Eight Fold Path, again conditions can just arise and trigger it off because you have already set the base to receive truth and you have created the condition that is conducive for Enlightenment to happen. And these conditions are what the Right View is all about - straightening of your view. When your view has been straightened more and more, do you know what will happen? You will have less and less Delusion, or Ignorance, correct or not? When you have a lot of Right View, your Delusion lessens. And then what will happen? You look at the first link, what will happen? Your Saṅkhārawill become less isn’t it? When you have the Right Understanding and Wisdom, you do not have so much Delusion hence Avijjā is less and less, causing your Saṅkhāra to become less and less, isn’t it? And whenSaṅkhārabecomes lessand less, your Sati becomes more and more because it is these activities of mind or your thinking, etc (which is your Saṅkhāra) that prevents you from being mindful; because you are most of the time lost in thoughts, you are distracted by thoughts. And when that happens, that is why I said, if you are on the right path, your cultivation will be very smooth and very fast. And because of that, your wisdom will arise very fast. And when you have that Right View that brings forth the support to enable you to have the wisdom to enable you to free, do you know what will happen? Initially your Ignorance will not be totally gone; unless you have become an Arahant or beyond, then the Ignorance will go. When Ignorance is totally eradicated and uprooted, what will happen? What happens to the first link? Now we are coming to the end, the cessation cycle. Just now it was the Dependent Origination cycle. Now it’s the Dependent Cessation cycle.

CESSATION OF SUFFERING

With the cessation of Avijjā, what happens? Saṅkhāra ceases, you see. With the cessation of Saṅkhāra, what will happen, Viññāṇaṃ ceases; because they arise simultaneously, understand or not? Because Viññāṇaṃ, together with its content, when you do the meditation you will know, they arise simultaneously. When one ceases, the other one also ceases. That’s how the cessation of Formand Mind or NamaRūpa comes about. And that is what the Third Noble Truth is all about. That is what Nirodha or Nibbāna is all about. Cessation of Dukkha is the cessation of Form and Mind. When your NamaRūpa does not arise, there is no more mundanemind, hence no psychological time; there is no Form and Mind, no more human being no more mental 5 aggregates and no more physical and mental ‘birth’. Ok? There is no more Kamma or karmic volition, there is no more human being, understand or not? That’s how it ceases. That’s why the way it’s been taught nowadays is so different isn’t it? I really don’t know why, I have to ask you.

Have you all heard how this Twelve-Link has been taught most of the time? I think it is totally different, isn’t it? Because when I read the book, it’s all-different they talk about the three periods of time. And it’s very difficult to develop the true wisdom and the penetrative understanding to really free or brings about real transformation.

This topic is a very complicated topic, very difficult. But I was able to somehow make it simple because in a way we are lucky. We went through this period that we prepare you all to have the initialunderstanding to receive this. If not, and if this is the first time you are listening to me, you totally will not understand what I am trying to tell you. Chances are you totally don’t understand. If I have not taught you all from the beginning on how to see Form, what arethese Five Aggregates of Form and Mind; if I have not repeated all those things; because a lot of you think I repeat… it’s because I know it has not sunk in, so I have to repeat. I have to continuously repeat until it goes in. Ok? We have another ten minutes. We open up for questions, any questions?

<Lady’s voice> “Just now you mentioned there are two types ofbirth, one type is physical, and the other one is it mental?”

<Answers by Bro Teoh> “Mental ‘birth’, yes; correct.” One is physical birth the other one is mental ‘birth’, ok? Like your lust, your desire, your anger, your craving or whatever; you become that, understand or not? The becoming makes you that. Then after that you take ‘birth’, meaning it comes out as action and speech. That’s what transgression is all about. You are ‘born’ already. That’s why the lustful people, they can go and rape, they can go and kill; it’s because they are ‘born’ into it already, ‘born’ into that lustful mindstate already. At first they become that, that lustful thing. But they have not taken birth; they have not put it into action, speech and all that. That’s how it comes about. That’s why this Anusaya, or what they call the latent tendencies, it’s very difficult to uproot because it’s very deep. When you are doing the so called concentration method, if you do not have the SammāSamadhi, the real one that the Buddha taught, born of continuous Mindfulness and Sati, the Khaṇika or moment to moment Samadhi, there is no way. You cannot uproot them.

When you are very calm, you develop all the Jhānas and all those things, if you have not got the Wisdom… if you have not insighted into the 3 universal characteristic of nature and understand all these, there is no way. These things (the Anusaya) are still inside. And when there are certain situations in life…. let’s say after a long time; because you cannot carry the Samadhi for life, even those who are very good and before they die, or when sometimes their bodies become very weak or they are sick, it will affect them because they are also condition arising. All these states of mind, the Samadhi or concentration, they don’t last. They come and theygo. But if you have developed it continuously like when you are training your games until you become very conversant with it or very skillful with it, you will most of the times have the ability to have those graceful strokes with you all the time. So those who develop that also same. Some can carry the Jhānas 24 hours; I think Ajahn Yantra tried that the last time. But he already had the understanding and he wanted to test, so he carried the Jhānas for 24 hours. Because there was one incident I remembered he told us. I think the disciple told us, sorry. He wanted to test whether if he jumps over a high cliff, very high cliff, without going into Jhāna, what will happen. He just jumped, …...chuump…. and do you know what happened? As he fell, his mind automatically enters into Jhāna. Then when he hit the ground, nothing happened. That was told by the disciple, I don’t know, anyway it’s not important.

But what I mean is this; this Jhāna, you will have to be very careful. Because when you are in it, it is as if you are already enlightened. Because around your heart here, your chest area, with theabsorption, the stillness and calmness energy is very strong, as if nothing can disturb you. Then the bliss inside that is so blissful and intense, the Jhanic factor is so blissful that you do not want to come out of it. It’s so nice. Nothing in the world can compare. I think Ajahn Brahmavamso did mention once. I don’t know whether I heard it or I read it somewhere; I think when he was in the Holiday Villa seminar, I remembered. He used this word; it’s better than sexual gratification, or sexual orgasm; something like that. Do any of you remember? Did he mention that? I am not very sure. Anyway that type of gratification is very worldly, and very gross. All those sensuality can never compare to those of the Jhanic factors. The calmness, the blissfulness; born of Samadhi, born of the absorption concentration. Because your mind is without the Five Hindrances, they are all no more there. Your mind is very calm and all that calmness will bring about the Pīti and Sukkha leading to what they called, Samadhi or Concentration. And that Joy, that Tranquility and the blissfulness is very strong, in fact, as if you are already enlightened. That’s why you do not want to come out of it; you do not want to do anything about it. But when you are not in that state, when you come into society; when you try to interact with people who are not so friendly, then you will see that these things can still move inside of you. Then it can still arise, it can cause all the Anusaya or latent tendencies to arise because all these are the free state of mind (i.e. not suppressed) when you are in your normal consciousness, when you are not suppressing them (the Anusaya and the Five Hindrances) in your normal daily life. That’s why the daily mindfulness is very important. If you do not develop that, you cannot handle your daily life.

THREE TYPES OF PEACE

Have you heard of the three types of peace? It is explained that there are these three types of peace possible. The first type of peace is born of a tranquil setting. Means you need the environment to help you, to assist you. Like when you go to a quiet place, a resort, where everything is very peaceful and tranquil or when you go to a retreat when everybody is meditating and keeping to the precepts. These environments will cause you to be peaceful, you will feel calm. You’ll find that it is more conducive to cultivate. This is the first type of peace, but this type of peace is Dependent on the environment. If you come back to society or you come back to your home, all these will change because the environment is not there to support you anymore. So this type of peace is not lasting, it’s not something that you can depend on.

The second type of peace is what the Buddha said… all those who are in concentration they have it. They called that the inner peace. They meditate until they go back into the mind. They stay within - what they called Citta Viveka. Have you heard of Citta Viveka? Mental Renunciation, you renounce the external; you go inside. When you are inside, when you can do all the Samadhi and the Concentration, you are very peaceful within. That’s why they become hermits and they stay in the forest, they stay in the caves. But what the Buddha wanted you to develop is not this type of peace because this type of peace cannot allow you to live the normal life. He wanted you to develop the third type of peace.

The third type of peace that is born of wisdom and understanding. Do you know what that is? They call it the Upadhi Viveka, meaning peace born of wisdom or the total freedom, liberation. This one, inthe midst of life, anywhere, anyplace, anytime, the peace is always there. That’s why I remembered Ajahn Jagaro used to say, “In the midst of sound, there can be silence; In the midst of activities, there can be stillness” have you heard of these before? When you are in the town or in the city area, it is very noisy isn’t it? But he said, in the midst of sound, there can be silence. Not only physical silence. A lot of people say you don’t talk so ‘Noble’ silent already, but inside, the mind is still very ‘noisy’, still very busy running around, still creating a lot of mental chattering and ‘speeches’ etc. But if there is the mental silence, when you can have that which is born of wisdom and SammāSamadhi then in the midst of activity (mental activity of mind which continuously arise), you can still have peace or tranquility or stillness. This stillness is born of wisdom, borne of SammāSamadhi or the cessation of Form and Mind. When your Form and Mind ceases, all of Saṅkhāra also cease, then that stillness when it comes, it is very very still and very very peaceful. That’s why the Buddha called it “NibbānaParamam Sukham”; Nibbāna is the Highest Bliss, Highest Peace, actually. This is what I want you all to understand. The three types of peace are possible. But develop the last one; the last one is the most beautiful and the most important. We’ve got another three to four minutes.

<Lady’s voice> “So which means that this 12-links can happen within minutes or within split seconds?”

<Answers by Bro Teoh> “Split second, yes, and sometimes it does not carry through, because your sense door consciousness continuously arises”. Sometimes within your seeing, for a while only, your hearing takes over, depending on which sense object is stronger, understand or not? Then sometimes your thoughts, because you have attachment to certain things, even when all these sense consciousness continues to arise, your mind is so ‘lost’ because you have a lot of attachment, you still continue to think and is so engrossed or lost in thoughts. Unless something very loud, like somebody tries to hit you or shout at you, “Hey, what are you doing?” Understand or not?

Because a lot of people when they have a lot of problems and attachments, they actually lost themselves. They attach to the things, they become very sad, and they think about it, they couldn’t let go. Then a lot of fear, a lot of anxieties, a lot of sorrow and lamentation, then they keep it to themselves, understand? And they do not know what is happening. That’s why I say, if you cannot develop the Mindfulness and the Wisdom to understand all these, you cannot live or cope with life. That’s why we already went through the three period of time, past, present and future. We already know that the present moment is the only reality. So what must you do? The moment is the only reality, and that is the mostimportant in life, it’s the highest in life.

So moment-to-moment, life passes by; your sense consciousness continuously arises. What are you doing? You ask yourselves. That question is very important, that enquiry is very important. I have brought this up many times. So enquire into it. What are you doing, every moment? Are you mindful or heedful and are you cultivatingthe Noble Eight Fold Path? Do you have the Right Effort to arise the Right Thought in each and every moment of your conscious moment? Do you have the Sati in you to do the Heedfulness or Appamāda? The Buddha advised, “Heedfulness is the Path to the Deathless…. ” Remember? And always be mindful of the practice;

ever mindful of your cultivation. So that’s why you need Sati, that’s why every moment, if you really want to live life, you have to have the Sati or Mindfulness, because without it, you are lost in thoughts… totally LOST!.

That’s why the living beings are too busy thinking, planning and worrying about life. They think a lot, they worry a lot and they do a lot of planning throughout their days; so too busy thinking, planning and worrying about life, so much so that they totally miss out on life. To really live life is to be aware of the moment, to be with the moment or to be in the here and the now! That’s why the books always encourage you to be with the present moment, to be silent and peaceful. Moment to moment life passes by what are you doing. Each and every moment arise and past away or is gone, sowhy can’t you just be aware of the moment to live the Noble life that is free of the past and the future so that you do not have to arise the fear, the worry and the anxiety, understand or not? Just be aware. But you still have got to live life although they are not so real, because within life, they have their own reality. That’s whythe Law of Kamma and all these moments within existence still has their own ‘reality’. That’s why you still have the right duties; you still have to perform your duties. Do you know what your duties are? My Teacher Ajahn Yantra always advises that, I think it is very good. He always says, Right Duty is RightDhamma. Meaning, if you have this responsibility in you, you are performing this right duty in accordance with the laws of nature. Because there is this natural law that recognizes relationship, like Law of Kamma, understand or not? Do you know why Kamma recognizes relationship? A lot of people got it wrong. There are these Conventional Truth and Ultimate Truth; The common mistake is to assume that “oh, I’ve got the “wisdom” already via having the concept of ‘Ultimate Truth’ – i.e. everything is not so real and no one born, no one old, no one sick, no one dies, so why worry? But there are certain laws that recognize relationship. That’s why you better be careful. Law of Kamma, like what the Buddha said, what are the five heavy Kammas? Patricide & matricide isn’t it? What does that mean? It means this Law of Kamma recognizes relationship. Including killing of an Arahant, or hurting the Buddha, or causing schism, that’s why it recognizes relationship.

That’s why a lot of these, you have to be very careful. Because there are these nature’s laws, the order of the mind (CittaNiyāma and Karma Niyāma), the physical order or law (UtuNiyāma), the biological order or law (BijaNiyāma), then DhammaNiyāma together form the PañcaNiyāma (the 5 Universal laws that governs Nature or Existence). That’s why you have to understand that when you exist in life, there is another aspect that controls this life. That’s how wholesomeness of Kamma needs the Noble Eight Fold Path to develop. If you want to have good Kamma, take care of your thoughts; take care of your speech, action and livelihood. Checkevery moment how you live your life. Then you develop the Right View and Right Understanding. Then you develop all the virtues, all the goodness, these will carry you through.

The other thing that you have to understand is this… even though we say the moment is the highest in life, but in order to transcendlife, what must you do? You have to transcend even the moment, isn’t it? That’s why if you read the Mahayana scriptures, or the text, they always tell you the three periods of time are not real. The first time I heard it, I got a shock. How many of you know Mandarin here? So few? One only. The thing is something like that. I still remember this one… one of the monks mentioned this, “Kuang Ching Lau He San” I think. He said, “guo qu xin bu ke de”, meaning the mind of the past is already gone, hence not a reality. “wei lai xin bu ke de”, meaning the future mind also yet to arise hence alsonot a reality. Then he continued with the third saying, “xian zai xin yebu ke de”, meaning the mind of the moment is also not a reality, it does not last and it still exists in time or in thought. The first time I heard that, I said, “What is this? Why did he say that?” Later on Iunderstand because the moment is still in existence, its still life. Although it is the highest in life, but it is still within Samsara. Understand or not? To transcend life or birth and death, you have to transcend even the moment. That means your mind must not arise, the Five Aggregates of Form and Mind must cease. That’s why it’s Cessation of Form and Mind leading to Nibbāna. That’s why it’s the timeless, beyond thought, beyond time. Understand or not? Okay! Shall we end?

<Lady’s voice> “Just now you were saying, who are you? But you didn’t answer.”

<Bro Teoh> “Yes, ha! ha! Do you want to try to answer that? That will help.”

<Lady’s voice> “That’s what I’m waiting for, ha ha!”

<Bro Teoh> “Can… You must ask yourself, who gave you that name Cheng Hoon? Are you what you think you are? Is the body really you? Is the name that is given to you really you? Who are you? What are you? Are your thoughts really you? Is it really you? Answer first.” Because if you do not answer, and you just listen to me, you will just take things for granted, then you do not enquire and you never learn. You go back and reflect on this. Because it’s not easy, this topic is really tough. Considering her, she is very new. She is really new. She only started to learn the Dhamma, I think a few months only, since April 2005… we went to Japan together. That was the first time she heard about the Dhamma. I went to Japan with her and her husband and a group of fellow Buddhists. It was a very beautiful trip. Don’t worry Cheng Hoon, you have to enquire into it first, because it is not easy to answer, you need time. I will dwell with that maybe the next session….. 10.37pm shall we end?

We will do the usual sharing and transference of merits and making of the aspiration etc. after this. Okay?

****Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!****

APPENDIX 1 – TRINITY

APPENDIX 2 –DEPENDENT ORIGINATION CHART

NOTES TO APPENDIX 2’S CHART ON DEPENDENT ORIGINATION

Table of Contents

BIODATA OF BRO. TEOH KIAN KOON

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

UNDERSTANDING THE LAW OF DEPENDENT ORIGINATION

THE 12-LINKS

IGNORANCE - NOT UNDERSTANDING THE TRUTH

THE 5 AGGREGATES OF FORM AND MIND - SAKKĀYADIṬṬHI (SELF DELUSION) ASPECT

1ST CHARACTERISTIC OF NATURE - IMPERMANENCY

2ND CHARACTERISTIC OF NATURE – DUKKHA

3RD CHARACTERISTIC OF NATURE – NON-SELF

Arising Cycle

LETTING GO OF DESIRE, CRAVING AND ATTACHMENT

UNDERSTANDING THE 12-LINK

ARISING OF RIGHT VIEW THROUGH THE CULTIVATION OF THE 4 FOUNDATIONS OF MINDFULNESS

CESSATION OF SUFFERING

THREE TYPES OF PEACE

APPENDIX 1 – TRINITY

APPENDIX 2 –DEPENDENT ORIGINATION CHART

NOTES TO APPENDIX 2’S CHART ON DEPENDENT ORIGINATION