"Have you heard that Dhamma is about teaching what is true, and when you know the truth, delusion disappears?
Now, do you see the monk? Yes. As long as you see 'the monk', wrong view won't be eliminated. Let's investigate:
When you touch, is it 'monk' or is it head? Though you think it's a monk, what do you actually find? Just a head.
Is it monk or face?
Is it monk or cheeks?
Is it monk or nose?
Is it monk or ears?
[continues with body parts]
You don't find any 'monk'! When we teach Dhamma, we teach what is true. When truth is known, delusion disappears. Do you find a monk or do you find parts of the body? You find the parts - this is conventional truth (sammuti-sacca).
With wisdom, we see ultimate truth. When you think 'head' and touch it, do you find 'head' or do you find hardness? When you touch what you think is forehead, do you find 'forehead' or hardness?
From head to toe, examining carefully, you find only hardness and softness. Do you still find parts? Do you find parts or just hardness and softness?
You don't find parts, you don't find a monk. If you can't find a monk, can you find a person? A deva? A brahma? Why can't you find them? Because they don't exist!
How can you cling to what doesn't exist? This is removing attachment. Didn't we say when truth is known, delusion disappears? Now you know the truth.
What you find is hardness and softness. The knowing of hardness and softness - is it self or is it body-consciousness (kāyaviññāṇa)? Can consciousness arise without conditions? No."
When you touch, is it 'monk' or is it head? Though you think it's a monk, what do you actually find? Just a head.
Is it monk or face?
Is it monk or cheeks?
Is it monk or nose?
Is it monk or ears?
[continues with body parts]
You don't find any 'monk'! When we teach Dhamma, we teach what is true. When truth is known, delusion disappears. Do you find a monk or do you find parts of the body? You find the parts - this is conventional truth (sammuti-sacca).
With wisdom, we see ultimate truth. When you think 'head' and touch it, do you find 'head' or do you find hardness? When you touch what you think is forehead, do you find 'forehead' or hardness?
From head to toe, examining carefully, you find only hardness and softness. Do you still find parts? Do you find parts or just hardness and softness?
You don't find parts, you don't find a monk. If you can't find a monk, can you find a person? A deva? A brahma? Why can't you find them? Because they don't exist!
How can you cling to what doesn't exist? This is removing attachment. Didn't we say when truth is known, delusion disappears? Now you know the truth.
What you find is hardness and softness. The knowing of hardness and softness - is it self or is it body-consciousness (kāyaviññāṇa)? Can consciousness arise without conditions? No."
"Aren't there accompanying feeling (vedanā), perception (saññā), and volition (cetanā)? When experiencing hardness or softness, is it a person, or is it just feeling? Is it a deva? No, just feeling. Is it a brahma? No, just feeling. There's no person, deva, or brahma - only feeling is found.
Is the recognition of hardness and softness a self? No, it's just perception (saññā). The driving force that enables feeling and perception - is that a self? No, it's just volition (cetanā).
When these three - feeling, perception, and volition - combine with consciousness, don't we have the four mental aggregates (nāmakkhandha)? When these four are complete, doesn't cognition arise? Is it person, deva, or brahma, or just four mental aggregates?
Is the body-sensitivity (kāya-pasāda) a person? Is hardness and softness a person? When we analyze, don't we find the physical aggregate (rūpakkhandha)? Combined with the four mental aggregates.
This is what we find in our own body.
When you lose the Dhamma, look in your body. When you look in your body, you find the Dhamma. Do you find a person, or five aggregates? A deva, or five aggregates? A brahma, or five aggregates? Do you find 32 body parts or five aggregates?
Simplify the five aggregates and you get just mind and matter (nāma-rūpa). Now you know the truth. This requires faith.
Faith is needed when you know the truth. You find only aggregates - simplified to mind and matter. No person, no deva, no brahma, no 32 body parts.
Why don't you find them?
Don't you need faith that they don't exist?
If you have this faith, will greed, hatred, and delusion arise?
No, they won't."
Is the recognition of hardness and softness a self? No, it's just perception (saññā). The driving force that enables feeling and perception - is that a self? No, it's just volition (cetanā).
When these three - feeling, perception, and volition - combine with consciousness, don't we have the four mental aggregates (nāmakkhandha)? When these four are complete, doesn't cognition arise? Is it person, deva, or brahma, or just four mental aggregates?
Is the body-sensitivity (kāya-pasāda) a person? Is hardness and softness a person? When we analyze, don't we find the physical aggregate (rūpakkhandha)? Combined with the four mental aggregates.
This is what we find in our own body.
When you lose the Dhamma, look in your body. When you look in your body, you find the Dhamma. Do you find a person, or five aggregates? A deva, or five aggregates? A brahma, or five aggregates? Do you find 32 body parts or five aggregates?
Simplify the five aggregates and you get just mind and matter (nāma-rūpa). Now you know the truth. This requires faith.
Faith is needed when you know the truth. You find only aggregates - simplified to mind and matter. No person, no deva, no brahma, no 32 body parts.
Why don't you find them?
Don't you need faith that they don't exist?
If you have this faith, will greed, hatred, and delusion arise?
No, they won't."
"Isn't it taught that one must have faith, health, straightforwardness of mind, strong effort, and insight into the arising and passing of mind and matter?
Didn't the Mogok Sayadaw teach in his recordings that one can attain in the evening from morning practice, or in the morning from evening practice? Within seven days.
Yes, seven days. But now some practice for a month and don't find it, a year and don't see it, three years and don't know it - because they lack faith. Listen - they lack faith. Think about this. This needs investigation.
Now wrong view is eliminated. Isn't it taught: know, then abandon? Now you know. You know the aggregates.
By knowing the aggregates, attachment to views of self as human, deva, or brahma falls away. Will one who has eliminated wrong view still commit unwholesome physical actions? Will they kill, steal, or engage in sexual misconduct?
Will one who has eliminated personality view engage in unwholesome speech - lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, or idle chatter?
Will one who has eliminated personality view engage in unwholesome mental actions - covetousness, ill-will, wrong view?
This is why the ancient teachers said: "Free from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and lying - remember, these mark a stream-enterer."
If one continues practicing, like Dhammadinnā and Visākhā, won't they progress from stream-enterer to once-returner, to non-returner, to completing the task of arahantship? How encouraging this is! Isn't this worth investigating? Study this well.
These are the essential points. What's needed? When direct knowledge matches reality, will your previous assumptions remain? Reality and knowledge must align.
Now do you find persons, devas, and brahmas, or just mind and matter? Is it because they don't exist that you don't find them? You find only mind and matter. This is knowledge of the known (ñāta-pariññā). Now you know the truth."
References:
- MN 44 - Dhammadinnā's teaching
Didn't the Mogok Sayadaw teach in his recordings that one can attain in the evening from morning practice, or in the morning from evening practice? Within seven days.
Yes, seven days. But now some practice for a month and don't find it, a year and don't see it, three years and don't know it - because they lack faith. Listen - they lack faith. Think about this. This needs investigation.
Now wrong view is eliminated. Isn't it taught: know, then abandon? Now you know. You know the aggregates.
By knowing the aggregates, attachment to views of self as human, deva, or brahma falls away. Will one who has eliminated wrong view still commit unwholesome physical actions? Will they kill, steal, or engage in sexual misconduct?
Will one who has eliminated personality view engage in unwholesome speech - lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, or idle chatter?
Will one who has eliminated personality view engage in unwholesome mental actions - covetousness, ill-will, wrong view?
This is why the ancient teachers said: "Free from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and lying - remember, these mark a stream-enterer."
If one continues practicing, like Dhammadinnā and Visākhā, won't they progress from stream-enterer to once-returner, to non-returner, to completing the task of arahantship? How encouraging this is! Isn't this worth investigating? Study this well.
These are the essential points. What's needed? When direct knowledge matches reality, will your previous assumptions remain? Reality and knowledge must align.
Now do you find persons, devas, and brahmas, or just mind and matter? Is it because they don't exist that you don't find them? You find only mind and matter. This is knowledge of the known (ñāta-pariññā). Now you know the truth."
References:
- MN 44 - Dhammadinnā's teaching
- SN 22.59 (Anattalakkhana Sutta) - On the characteristic of non-self
