The Task in Relation to Suffering
How we can learn to see things as they are—and, in the process, find freedom
By Ajahn Pramote | Translated by Bruce Evans
Part 2 of 2
Our task is to know suffering. Get it done, know suffering: Know the body as it is, know the mind as it is. This is the science of the Buddha. What do you get from it? First, the end of desire. This is called viraga. The end of suffering, liberation from suffering: This is called vimutti. There’s the end of mental struggle, which is called visankhara. When you reach nibbana, it’s santi, peace. These are all names for nibbana. We can experience nibbana, see nibbana, when we clearly see suffering. There is no other option. You must know suffering; you must know the body and the mind. Know them as they are.
How can we know the body and the mind as they are? The important tools are right mindfulness and right concentration. Mindfulness is not just the worldly kind of mindfulness. All skillful mental states contain mindfulness, but the mindfulness that enables us to attain the path and fruit is the four foundations of mindfulness: kayanupassana, or mindfulness of the body; vedananupassana, or mindfulness of the feelings, which is mindfulness of mentality; cittanupassana, or mindfulness of the mind (citta), which is mindfulness of mental volitional activities (sankhara); and dhammanupassana, or mindfulness of dhammas, which includes both physicality and mentality, both skillful (kusala) conditions and unskillful (akusala) conditions, and both causal and resultant conditions.
Try to learn your own body and mind. They have many, many forms. You don’t have to learn them all. Just do what you can do. For instance, if you are watching and being mindful of the body with out-breaths and in-breaths, you can use this breathing body to practice meditation. We observe the changes within the body through the breathing. The body that breathes out is one thing; the body that breathes in is another. The body that breathes out is impermanent; the body that breathes in is impermanent. The body that breathes out is merely a physical element; it is not our self. The body that breathes in is merely a physical element; it is not our self.
If you don’t like watching the breath, you could observe the bodily positions: standing, walking, sitting, and reclining. This is another kind of kayanupassana. The body standing is impermanent. The body that walks, sits, and reclines is impermanent. The body that stands, walks, sits, and reclines is merely a material object. This material object stands, walks, sits, and reclines. It is not our self that stands, walks, sits, and reclines. The body that stands is impermanent; the body that walks is impermanent; the body that sits is impermanent; the body that reclines is impermanent. Observe like this, and you will see that all physicality is impermanent.
So we know the body standing, walking, sitting, and reclining, the body breathing out and breathing in, full of impermanence, full of suffering, being oppressed, full of not-self, just a material object. It is a lump of elements. It is not ours; it belongs to the world. When you see this, you will be done with clinging to the body.
If you see the truth of physicality and mentality, you don’t cling. When you don’t cling, you don’t want. The mind does not delight in or despise happiness and suffering. It stops struggling. There is no wanting, no mental hunger. The mind is free of defilements and desire. It experiences a unique kind of happiness. When you want happiness, you struggle almost to death and don’t obtain it. You get it only for an instant, then it is lost. When you no longer desire happiness, when you just observe suffering, [seeing that] the body is suffering, the mind is suffering, when you let go of the body and mind, you obtain an incomparable kind of happiness. That’s the happiness of nibbana. It is a happiness that will cause tears to flow. “Oh, there is such a happiness like this?” It is a really powerful kind of happiness.
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