Ch. 7 - Reviewing Mentality, Part Two

Pride is at the Heart of Our Suffering

Our Goal is To Reveal the Cause of Our Suffering

The All Encompassing Net of Views

[This discourse was given on an introductory retreat and explains that we should not judge ourselves as we come to see how unwholesome our mind really is, as it is conditionally arisen, with ignorance as the fundamental cause.]

Pride is at the Heart of Our Suffering

There is a danger when we look in upon the less noble qualities that we might find within ourselves that it has a detrimental effect on us and leaves us with a sense of, “Oh my goodness, what a wretched person am I”. So we have to do this practice with real discernment, and the way we do it is we look to see not just, “What is the unwholesome that arises in me?” but, “What is its cause?” because when you see the cause for it then you can actually be with it.

It’s very difficult to be with the understanding that, “I’m just a very greedy person.” There’s likely to become some kind of judgement of self, and judgement of self is what we call pride. At the end of the day our pride is really at the heart of all of our suffering, it’s kind of the most insidious part of the ego, the insistence on comparing the ego to others in some way, whether we think we’re better or whether we think we’re not so good.

So, while we are doing this inventory we also have to see: “Why is it that these states arise? Why is it that jealousy arises? Why is it that conceit arises? Why is it that stinginess or avarice, this lack of generosity arises? Why is it that doubt arises?” This is really key.

The Buddha didn’t just show us what suffering was, he showed us what the cause of it is. And you can’t free yourself from suffering simply by seeing what suffering is, you free yourself from suffering by seeing what the causes of it are and removing them. We can’t just free ourselves of these negative states by not wanting them to be there. None of you like the idea of being slothful or restless. Maybe we like being arrogant, I don’t know? But we know we certainly don’t like being angry etc., but it still arises within us. We would prefer it not to, wouldn’t we, but it still arises. So we have to understand how these states arise in us, first of all. And then, we have to understand the cause for their arising.

So next we have to see why these unwholesome states arise, so we can really be with them without judgement. When we look at how we perceive things to be, it’s either rooted in what we call wise attention, which is seeing how things are, or unwise attention, which isn’t seeing how things are. And it’s because of unwise attention that we see pleasure in things that are not profitable and don’t see profit in those things that are. And that’s what we call ignorance, i.e. not seeing, ignoring how it is.

Now, it’s very important that we at least make some inroads into seeing that ignorance is actually the basis for the arising of these volitional formations, or kamma. Because that’s what we mean by kamma – that volition that prompts us to act is kamma, and it arises in us habitually.

We must really try. This is why I have spoken to you many times about restraint and virtue. The restraint that is necessary because of the continued tendency for the unwholesome to arise within us. If the unwholesome didn’t arise within us we wouldn’t need to exercise restraint, but we certainly do when we begin.

Our Goal is To Reveal the Cause of Our Suffering

So our goal is to unravel what is the ignorance, “What is it I’m not seeing that is the cause for the continued arising of these causes of suffering?” As I have explained earlier this is basically the beginning of Dependent Origination. Remember I said to you, I mentioned earlier, nothing arises without a cause?

Well, now we are starting to look, even if it’s just making the first inroads of the understanding, “What is that causal chain that brings things into being?” Assuming that things are innately there is ignorance. We don’t have to look long before we start to see, “Well hold on, they’re not really innately there, are they? They’re conditionally there.” And that’s the first peeling back of the ignorance, and that is the start of the process of unravelling our own enslavement to these conditioned processes that we’re defined by.

Already you start to see impermanence, “These things around me aren’t inevitably going to be there for ever.” And that changes your attitude. When you don’t reflect upon the impermanence of everything, when you try to pretend to yourself that things aren’t impermanent, you act as if they’re always going to be there and your behaviour is defined by that. When you start to reflect on the absolute inevitability that this isn’t always going to be there, it changes the way in which you approach things. So even at the beginning, the first peeling back of layers of ignorance starts to change our behaviour.

So, what are we not seeing that causes the unwholesome to arise? Well, I’ve sort of hinted we’re not seeing the truth of impermanence, ignorance is not seeing the truth. So if we’re not seeing the truth. What is the truth? What do we know to be true?

Q: Everything changes.

A: Yes, okay. The point is, we don’t know very much to be true. There it is. There’s just this moment. And when I try and understand it I formulate an idea about it, which I don’t know is true or not.

What could you stand on as an absolute certainty to be true? Impermanence, perhaps is the first truth that we can come to any certainty about. If we lived by that truth alone, how would it define us? Would we behave differently from how we behave now? Not living by the truth of impermanence is one of the causes for the way we have behaved until now. So impermanence is a truth, isn’t it?

Have you ever beheld anything that if you really looked at it with enough discernment you could say is permanent? No. So actually we could say that this is a truth, that we can know this, and it’s not about believing it or not. If you look enough you’ll see that things are not permanent.

Okay, you could say that death is a truth, but that’s really only an expression of impermanence. And, do we live absolutely knowing and accepting that we are going to die one day? Often, we are living as if that wasn’t a truth and this can define the way in which we live. Accepting that, and we’re not talking about, “I’m going to die,” and living in terror and fear of it, we’re talking about accepting it as a truth, which is to not be in fear or terror of it, but to know that it is an inevitability so that this will define the way in which we behave.

Q: Is the past a truth?

It was when it was happening. Now it’s a figment of your imagination. You bring it into this moment, why? How does your past impinge upon now? Your past only appears now in the mind as an idea to which you cling. Actually there is NO truth in the past, it is nothing! - it’s gone without remainder, apart from that attachment that you have to it as an idea. Even tomorrow is a figment of your imagination. There will never be a tomorrow because by the time it comes round, what will it be? It will be now.

So, all of that is an illusion; clinging to that as if it’s real, when the only reality is this moment. So, that’s a truth isn’t it?

‘Now’ is all there is. But right now that may still be a concept to you, so I’m not asking you to behave according to concepts because it won’t cause you to change your behaviour. I could sit here and regurgitate insight knowledge to you but it’s not your insight knowledge. I’m asking you to reflect upon what you can see.

So, the fact that we can’t see that the past doesn’t exist, that comes in the category of ignorance. Look at it as it is. In truth, we behave as if the past does exist because we can’t yet see that as the truth. Now you can see how much it’s still conditioning you. When you see that it doesn’t exist you start to let go your clinging to it. You start to stop being defined by it.

But what is the one common factor that is always present in all of these things, in this ignorance, ignoring the truth. What is the one common factor that is the prompt to us ignoring the truth, even when it is pointed out to us?

Q: Self?

A: Yes. Attachment to the ideas of myself. If you weren’t attached to the idea of self you wouldn’t find it difficult to contemplate impermanence. So before you come to learn Dhamma you believe this life is merely a reflection of a process that just goes on seamlessly and it occurs to you that, “This is me and this life is what I’m experiencing,” and, “What have I got to do to make sure that what I feel I want happens and what I don’t want doesn’t happen to me?” So right at the heart of all of that is the very idea of myself, this attachment to an idea of ‘me’.

Attachment to self is the first wrong view. It doesn’t mean we should have disregard for self. That’s still attachment to self. The whole idea of yourself as the centre of your experience is the result of ignorance – not enough discernment, not enough mindfulness, and not turning up completely enough to see what actually goes on.

Q: So does all thinking shrink your experience?

A: Most of it does, until it becomes contemplation that is rooted in wise attention. But this is very different from blind thinking which is an entirely conditioned process rooted in attachment to self, and ideas.

Ananda asked the Buddha whether there was no point in reflecting upon things and no point in studying. And the Buddha answered that there is a point because sometimes it can elucidate things that aren’t clear, but it is not the same as seeing. It doesn’t have the capacity to free you from suffering. So, you know, to reflect upon things with discernment is a very useful capacity, but we tend, because of our pride, to think that our thinking capacity is the primal factor and that me thinking about it will bring a solution.

But it doesn’t, because we think about it from where we are, which is not seeing the truth. So the point is, it’s the tendency to think that brings us to views which we don’t know are right or not. If we can resist that tendency until we can see, we will come to less grief. Once we see, reflecting on the truth matures our insight.

So, in a way, thinking is the pinnacle of the human condition and at the same time its very undoing. It’s the one thing we can do that no other beings can do, but we don’t know how to use it properly. You know, when you watch your thinking with enough mindfulness eventually you will see what it is prompted by. When you see it’s prompted by any of those fourteen unwholesome mental states then the conclusions that you’re coming to should be rejected because they will not be for your well-being, even if we have found ways to convince ourselves that they are.

When you look at your thoughts and you really look through your conclusions and you find none of the unwholesome states present then it would be reasonable to at least stand by them for a moment, but don’t assume them to be correct. Because you still don’t know if they are.

The All Encompassing Net of Views

Remember, however convinced we may be by our own inner world of ideas, by our inner reality, we should never seek to impress it upon others because it is only our inner world, and it may have no real bearing on reality as it is. We tend to forget how much of our experience is subjective, and all of our subjective experience is conditioned. That is why the Buddha gave the discourse on the All Encompassing Net of Views. He wanted to show how these views that we cling to, the ideas we are so proud of, are nothing more than conditionally arising responses.

The person who assumes they know nothing but is willing to look makes the swiftest progress. The one who makes the painful progress is the one who assumes they already know. That’s why you should only act upon the insight that has matured in you, and that is – when you see impermanence, live by that. When you see no-self, live by that. Yes?

As the Buddha said himself, “Clinging to views is the cause for the mass of suffering that beings bring themselves to.” And thinking has the tendency to come to views.

“I don’t know what I don’t see.” That’s the truth. And at the end of the day when you do stop thinking about it you’re left just with the experience. And even if you don’t understand it, it’s just amazing that it is even happening, so just try to be with it. Try to let go the perceived need to add something to it with the mind.