The Path Of Wisdom

Visakha Puja is the day in which we commemorate the birth, the enlightenment, and the passing away of the Lord Buddha.

Of those three, the enlightenment is the most vital for us to contemplate and to apply lessons to our daily life.

So the enlightenment of the Buddha was his realization of the way things are, and what I mean by that is the nature of human existence, specifically, human suffering and the cessation of human suffering.

So here, the Buddha is saying the primary concern, the fundamental concern of religion, is human suffering and what can be done about it.

Then the teaching, which he spread throughout North East India all of the forty-five years following his enlightenment, the teaching which summed up his insight, his understanding, the revelation of that night in the full moon of May in Bodh Gaya in North East India 2,567 years ago, the chief importance of that is human suffering is conditioned. It’s not imposed upon human beings from outside or from above. It’s not a test. It’s not a punishment. It’s not part of a plan.

But human suffering is conditioned by ignorance, a lack of understanding of the true nature of our life, of our body and mind, and of the world we live in.

So in Buddhism, the path, the journey that a Buddhist is encouraged to embark upon is the journey from ignorance to knowledge.

And so wisdom is the salient, the most important of the virtues, which are taught by the Buddha, through wisdom that we go beyond ignorance, and realize true knowledge.

So the Buddha says that we’re ignorant of the body, nature of the body, nature of the mind, nature of the world, and that together with, or arising together with, ignorance as a consequence of ignorance, are different kinds of desire, which we call tanhā.

And the Buddha contrasted this with the desire which comes from knowledge, which is given a different name in the Pali language, the language the Buddha himself used.

So Buddhism is not teaching that all desire is wrong or all desire is to be abandoned, but that the unwise ignorant desire is a cause of suffering and is to be abandoned. But that desire that comes from wisdom and understanding is to be cultivated.

To give a very simple example, the desire to get the results of something, to achieve the enjoyment at the end of certain endeavors, would be the suffering that arises from ignorance.

Whereas, the desire to do something good, something wholesome, something that increases the quality of one’s own life or the quality of the life of those around us, that kind of desire is not based on ignorance, and therefore, should not be abandoned, but should be cultivated.

So, to recap, human suffering is essentially conditioned by ignorance, and that ignorance manifests as desire for sensual pleasures, desire to become something, to be something, desire for power and fame, and all kinds of states of being, and the desire to get rid of or not to be.

So the Buddha says that in any situation, we have external factors, and these can be factors that affect us in a negative way, detrimental way to our physical health, or we might be in a situation where our country is overrun by war, where there is famine, where there is disease, all these things can cause physical suffering, and will usually also lead to mental suffering.

But the Buddha says that without ignorance, or conversely with the presence of wisdom, it’s possible for human beings to experience physical discomfort, physical pain, physical suffering, without mental suffering.

So the Buddha is not advocating a turning away from the world, and just trying to find some inner peace in a separate kind of realm of being, which shuts its eyes to the problems of the world.

But the Buddha is saying that when we take care of our minds, we look after our minds, we can deal with the various situations and various challenges in our lives in such a way that we can grow as human beings, and that we can be free of suffering, but we can also help to create and to promote happiness and welfare in those around us.

Now, this movement from ignorance and all the cravings that cause more and more suffering, and the understanding of the way things are and the state free from suffering and mental suffering and true happiness does not come about through ceremony or prayer.

But it comes about through a systematic development of our body, speech, and mind, our actions, our speech, our emotions, our thoughts. It’s a comprehensive profound education, and it’s this education system that’s called the Eightfold Path.

So the Buddha is saying suffering is primarily due to ignorance, and the cravings arise from ignorance. Cessation of suffering, true happiness, comes from the virtues which are developed in a systematic, holistic training of body, speech, and mind.

This is the core teaching of Buddhism which sprang from the mind of the Buddha following the enlightenment on Visakha Puja night.

So the Buddha encourages us to take these teachings and put them to the test of experience.

The Buddha did not want blind faith in his teachings. He says “Does it make sense to you? When you react to something unpleasant with fear and anger and prejudice, do you suffer or not? Yes, you do.

If you can let go of the anger, the fear, the prejudice, and so on, that arises kind of knee-jerk reaction to unpleasant situations and inputs, then when the mind is free from those negative states, is it not more likely that you will respond to, you will deal with situations, in a more creative and a more effective means?

So these are the kinds of inquiries that we make as Buddhists.

The Buddha says that when we attach to things as being me and mine, then we suffer.

So we begin with the body. Is it true that this body is mine or our body? Well, how would you decide that? What decides ownership?

The criteria of ownership is you need power over. So, how much power over our physical body do we possess? And my teacher often said “can you tell your body not to be sick, or not to get old, not to die?” No, you can’t. The body just does what the body does. And you can prevent the illnesses from leading to death, and you can put off death for a while, but not for so long.

This body is of the nature to age, to sicken, and to die.

And once we understand that, and we treat our body wisely, look after it, we give it enough, sufficient rest, good food, exercise. We take care of it but we don’t identify with it as being who we really are. And then the fear of old age and sickness and death passes away, or it becomes much less intense.

And so the Buddha is saying if we look at the body clearly, without this craving to carry on living, or craving to be beautiful and to be young, and fear of old age, we can educate the way that we relate to our physical body, accepting the fundamental, inarguable truth of its eventual old age, sickness, and death. We will lead a much happier life.

And through the different elements of human life, in a very systematic way that he was famous for, look at the feelings, and the feeling tone of experience - pleasant, unpleasant, neutral - how much power or control over those do you have?

Can you say I’m not happy, I want to feel happy, I want a happy feeling right now, or I don’t want this unhappy feeling to go away? We can’t do that.

So this is a way of just looking at our life, not in a philosophical sense, but things that are just basic to our everyday existence. And looking at them afresh.

So what is the feeling tone of experience? Can we say that happiness or unhappiness are our possession? Does it belong to us or rather are they conditioned phenomena that arise and pass away according to conditions?

And similarly with memories and perceptions and emotions. We’re looking at our life. Many religions might consider this the work of psychology or philosophy. No, in Buddhism this is religious practice - understanding, rooting out these assumptions and confused thinking that we have about life by just looking at the raw data.

Does this sensual pleasure really make you happy? What are the pros and cons? What happens if you become addicted to a certain pleasure? What about the law of diminishing returns? To what extent does the enjoyment of the basic animal pleasures hinder you, prevent you from experiencing more subtle and elevated pleasures?

So, buddhist practice is not so much concerned with beliefs and forging a cast iron faith in dogmas but it’s saying these are the teachings, these are propositions about human life.

Do they make sense to you? Look at yourself. And you realize, well, actually your mind is not really capable of this kind of analysis. It’s just jumping all over the place like a monkey the whole time.

So, it’s important to develop mindfulness and attention span and focus. And this is where meditation practices come in in order to give the mind the stability and clarity and fundamental sense of well being, which is necessary for it to be able to understand the way things are clearly.

So, this is, I think, the great gift that the Buddha gave to the world. He gives us these tools, he gives us a map, for looking at the human condition, and learning about the human condition, and particularly through the lens of what creates suffering, what sustains suffering, what reduces suffering, what eliminates suffering, what hinders true happiness, what promotes true happiness.

And, it’s in the application of the Buddha’s teachings to everyday life, and putting them to the test, that we can really understand and appreciate the true profundity of the Buddha’s teachings, and the wondrous train of events that all began with the enlightenment of the Buddha, and led to the formulation of his teaching, and the transmission of his teaching right through the centuries until the present day.

Dhamma Teachings for Visakha Puja by Ajahn Jayasaro, Janamara Hermitage, Pak Chong, Nakhon Ratchasima, 22 May 2024

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