Path to Enlightenment
by Pra Pramote Pamotecho (Santinan)
translate by Hataitip Devakul
PREFACE
“Witee hang kuam roo jang”, or the Path to Enlightenment, in the teaching of Buddhism, is to develop mindfulness. There is no alternative, second path.
The development of mindfulness, or awareness, is the most direct way to lead us away from the world of illusion, or make-belief, which prevents us from understanding of the real Truth. Once one can detach oneself from the world of illusion, one’s mind will develop to a state in which it can understand the Absolute as it arises and falls, namely Mind and Matter which represent all mental factors and Material nature. Only when one’s mind has gained insight and is detached will one see this Absolute Truth.
The attainment of Ultimate Reality cannot be obtained through conditioning such as almsgiving, good conduct, or mental discipline, not to mention misguided conditioning driven by ignorance and greed. Some examples are: giving alms to reduce one’s avariciousness, abiding to the five precepts to prevent oneself from harming others because of one’s lustfulness and/or aversion, doing mental discipline to subdue one’s wandering thoughts, or analyzing a corpse to get rid of one’s desire for sensual pleasures. All these behaviors, even though they are beneficial and should be practiced, are like giving painkillers to a patient without determining the true cause of the illness.
To train one’s mind until it understands reality beyond conditioning, one must give up the world of thoughts and illusion and confront oneself with the ever-present Absolute Truth with an unbiased mind, without emotional attributes to all defilements, intense meditation, or absent-mindedly letting thought processes take control. Such is the way to minimize the flow of mental activities. And once this flow stops altogether, the real Truth will manifest itself.
This development of mindfulness is something that we are not accustomed to. All our lives we have not spent much time to really know ourselves and are lost in our own world of thoughts and dreams. Therefore it is essential to begin to study and understand this mind-conditioning and steadfastly train our minds.
This book is a collection of writings by a lay Buddhist named Mr. Pramote Santayakorn, who used the pen names “Santinan” and “Upasokniranam”. All four chapters have the same aim, which is to present a guideline for developing mindfulness, but vary in level of understanding. Chapter 1, “For You The Newcomer: A Simple And Ordinary Story of Dhamma” is for people who are new to Buddhism and are not familiar with Buddhist terminology. Chapter 2, “A Brief Guideline for Practicing Dhamma” is an in-depth explanation of the previous chapter. Chapter 3, “The Guide to Dhamma Practice by Pra Rajwutajarn (Luangpu Dule Atulo)” is a method for practicing Dhamma that Luangpu Dule taught one of his pupils. One point to note is Luangpu’s teaching varies according to each student’s character. Chapter 4, “The Study of Citta: Meaning, Method and Result of Dhamma Practice” gives an in-depth explanation so that both a Dhamma practitioner and a person studying the Scriptures have the same understanding.
May all true Buddhists understand the Path to Enlightenment, and let this true knowledge bring us all to follow the Lord Buddha’s footsteps.
(1 November 2001)
by Santinan, August 31, 1999/ 14:07:29
It is difficult for us to see that Dhamma is simple and very ordinary. This is because the portrayal of religion, or of Dhamma as we know it, is less than ordinary no matter how we look at it. To begin with, the language used is full of Pali words, with so much special terminology and technical terms. Just understanding these terms is already a challenge for anyone.
Once the terms are familiarized, there is another obstacle: there are so many volumes of the Lord Buddha’s Teaching, and an over-abundance of interpretations by His disciples.
Some people, once ready to start, are faced with yet another problem. There are so many of the meditation centers and all of them declare that their method conforms most accurately to the Buddha’s teaching on the Foundations of Mindfulness. Some places are even scornful of others, saying other places deviate from the actual Teachings.
All these problems are quite common, which lead me to question myself whether it is possible to study Dhamma with ease, without having to learn the Pali vocabulary, without having to read the scriptures, or without having to join a meditation center.
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Actually Dhamma as taught by our Lord Buddha is quite plain and simple, as we always read of His disciples in the scriptures exclaiming “So explicitly clear my Lord! Your Sermon is like turning the right side up of an inverted object”. This should not come as a surprise because we are all born with Dhamma, live with Dhamma, and will all die with Dhamma. We just don’t realize where Dhamma is until the Lord Buddha reveals to us with His Teachings, enabling us to follow them with ease.
Another point to note is that the Lord Buddha was a true genius. He could make the most complicated topic seem simple and easy to comprehend. He could expound from a simple phrase, without any language barrier, making His Teachings easily understood by His pupils.
On the contrary, many followers in later years tend to turn Dhamma which is omnipresent and ordinary into something so complicated, out of reach, impossible to comprehend, and cannot be applied as a tool to end suffering. Even the language used in their teaching is too difficult for an ordinary person to understand.
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The truth is that Dhamma is all around, so close to us that we can actually say it is about ourselves. And it’s scope is simple - how to be free from suffering.
To study about Dhamma, we would just look directly into “where the suffering is, how it arises, and how it ends”. And the goal of this Dhamma study is to put an end to suffering. It is not about being well versed or skilled in the ability to explain Dhamma in great detail.
The truth is suffering that we all experience lies within our body and mind. The field of study on Dhamma is actually in us. Instead of searching for an outside source, we just need to look inward at our own selves. The procedure is simple, just observe our body and mind closely. To start with, let’s take note of our physical body carefully.
The first step is to relax. Do not be tense, or think that we are about to practice Dhamma, but just think that we are going to observe our own body. It does not matter how observant we are, just do it.
Once we are at ease, think of our whole body like we are watching a robot that can walk, move, talk and process food into the body, and excrete waste out of the body.
If we can observe this robot, which is called “us”, perform this and that task, with us merely being a neutral observer, we will eventually conclude that this body is not ours, but merely an object that never stays still and is unstable. Even the parts that make up this robot changes constantly, with substances moving in and out all the time. Some examples are: breathing in and breathing out, eating food and excreting waste. It is something that is not permanent. The incorrect belief that the body is “us” will eventually fade, and we will see that there is something else that understands this body, and is situated within this body.
Now that it is clear this body is just an element, impermanent and not ours, let’s examine the something else that is hiding inside our body. Let’s look in further detail at our selves.
This something that’s hidden within us can easily be discerned. They are feelings of happiness, unhappiness, or indifference. For example, when we observe this robot moving around, soon it will ache, it will be hungry or thirsty, or it will feel other pains coming at different intervals. Once the suffering passes, we will feel happy momentarily. An example would be when we are thirsty, we become unhappy. Once we drink water this suffering from thirst goes away. Another example would be when we sit too long, we feel aches and pains, and the feeling of unhappiness arises. Once we re-adjust our body the pain goes away, and the suffering goes away, and we become happy again.
Sometimes when we are sick, we can detect suffering for a longer period. For example when we have a toothache for several days, if we closely monitor the pain, we will discover that the discomfort arises from somewhere between the tooth and the gum, but that these objects themselves don’t give out pain. The body is like a robot which does not feel pain and suffering, but this discomfort appears to be from somewhere inside the body.
We will clearly see that these feelings of happiness, suffering, and neutrality are not part of the body, but something that can be felt and observed within the body, just like the body itself.
From that, let’s study in more detail about ourselves. Closely observe that when suffering arises, our mind also feels the discomfort. For example, when we are hungry we get upset more easily, when we are tired we get angry more easily, when we have fever we get agitated more easily, or when our desires are not fulfilled we get disturbed more easily. Let’s be readily aware of this anger that arises when we are faced with suffering.
On the other hand, when we see beautiful sights, hear pleasant sounds, smell wonderful flagrances, taste pleasing flavors, feel the touch of softness and the warmth of a perfect temperature, not too hot or cold, think of pleasant thoughts, we will love and be contented with such sights, sounds, fragrances, tastes, touches and thoughts. Our task is to be aware of these happy feelings that arise. Once we can detect anger, or affection, we can then understand other feelings as well. Some examples are doubtfulness, vengeance, torpor, jealousy, disdain, cheerfulness and tranquility of the mind, etc.
Once we study further these feelings we will begin to realize that actually all feelings are temporal. For example when we are angry, and conscious of this anger, we will detect that the intensity of this anger changes constantly, and eventually fades and disappears.
At this point we can clearly see that our body is like a robot, and happiness, suffering, and all other feelings are detached from it. The more we understand the workings of our minds, the more evident is the truth that suffering occurs only when there is a cause.
We will find that there is an impulse, or force, within our mind. For example when we see a beautiful woman, our mind develops a liking towards her. This will create an impelling force towards that woman. Our mind will in turn move forward towards that woman, and forget about our own selves.
(About our mind moving from one place to another, a person studying the scriptures may be a little perplexed. But if he (or she) actually starts analyzing accordingly, he will see that it can actually travel, exactly like what the Lord Buddha said about how the mind can travel far.)
Or when we have doubts about how to practice Dhamma, we feel this impulsion that will force us to find an answer. Our mind will move into the world of thoughts. That is when we forget to be mindful about our body. The robot is there, but we forget to think about it, as if it has disappeared from this world. There may be other feelings inside, but we don’t know because our mind is set on trying to find an answer to the problem at hand.
If we observe ourselves more and more, we will soon understand how suffering occurs, how to be free from it, or how it feels to be without suffering. Our mind will rectify itself, without having to think about meditation, wisdom, or the Path leading to the cessation of suffering.
We may not know much Buddhist vocabulary, or the Pali text, but our mind is free from suffering, or the suffering is minimized, and temporal.
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I wrote this story for all beginners who want to study Dhamma, to reaffirm that Dhamma is very ordinary because it’s about our selves. We can learn without much difficulty by ourselves. So do not hesitate when you hear others talk about Dhamma and you don’t fully understand what they are saying. In fact, you do not need to know anything, but just how to be free from suffering, as THAT is essentially the key for a person to understanding Buddhism.