35. Deceptive Things
By Luang Pu Thate Desaraṅsī
August 30, 1985
Things that are not real are called deceptive things. Today I will give a Dhamma talk on "Deceptive Things" for you to listen to. Everything in this world is not real — not a single thing is real.
Therefore, the Buddha said: Sabbe dhammā anattā — all phenomena are not-self. This means that all worldly matters are anattā (not-self). Whatever we understand as belonging to ourselves, whatever we understand as "this is mine" or "that is his" — that is simply clinging. In reality, there isn't a single thing. Look into it: our own body, everyone respects it. Every person respects themselves and others. But in truth, when we investigate and analyze it into its components, it reduces to the elements of water, earth, wind, and fire. It becomes merely the nature of elements — nothing remains.
Who owns those elements? No one. Those elements arise and then cease, arise and cease — that is their natural state, continuously happening. Therefore, they are not self, not belonging to us. Yet we remain deluded and infatuated, thinking they are ours.
Once we are deluded about what is ours, then we become deluded about others' things as well. The eye sees forms and becomes deluded by forms. The ear hears sounds and becomes deluded by sounds. The nose encounters smells, the tongue encounters tastes, the body touches tangible objects — and we understand them as belonging to ourselves. In reality, all these things are merely contact. They contact, we know, and then they disappear. Contact, know, and disappear — for example, the eye seeing a form. Seeing is just seeing. There is contact, a feeling of seeing arises, and then that which feels the seeing disappears.
Then what remains is saññā (memory). Memory remembers that form was like that, that sound was like that. So it remembers. Then saṅkhāra (mental formations) concoct further, leading all the way to the defilements. Defilements arise precisely from that concoction — because we see "we see" and think it is ours. But it is not ours. It is the one who sees. The one who sees sees it, and then merely clings to it. If there is no clinging to the seeing, it simply disappears.
That clinging itself is what determines and fixes. That determining and fixing concocts all sorts of things — beautiful forms, ugly forms, repulsive forms, forms of all kinds — changing and transforming in various ways. But those forms do not follow our opinions. No matter how much we think and change them, their nature remains as it was. Whatever shifting and changing may occur, it is our thoughts that shift and change, while the form remains stable, following its own course. This is called form as the cause. The eye sees form, and it deceives us. It deludes us into infatuation.
People in the world are deluded in this way endlessly. Everyone remains deluded like this all the time. From birth onward, and even when they die, they still consider things as belonging to themselves. Even when things deteriorate and decay, changing in various ways, they still consider them as belonging to themselves. That holding-on is constant, all the time. Thus this world continues to exist.
That holding-on itself is the root cause of the world. This world arises from holding-on. When we no longer hold on, everything is annihilated. Nothing remains in one's own mind and heart. This is called annihilation — no grasping, no clinging. Those things are not self, not belonging to us. Therefore, seeing is just seeing, knowing is just knowing, hearing is just hearing — it does not become an ongoing story.
The Buddha said: Vissaye mārassa yerattā — this is the domain of Māra, the realm of delusion. He said that these matters are all the domain of Māra. These defilements are the domain of Māra. We follow along attached to these things, continuously, without ever knowing. In whatever birth or realm we are born, we continue like that. It deceives us endlessly, without end.
If one comes to know and understand as explained here, that is called knowing the matter, understanding it according to its nature and condition. Then we can live at ease and happily. If we do not know and remain deluded like this, we will continue to suffer. When will suffering ever disappear? When will we ever learn our lesson? If we are deluded by this, we remain like this forever — throughout lifetimes and realms, deluded at all times.
But if we know and understand, then we let go according to its nature. The world continues as the world, while Dhamma is something else entirely. We abide in Dhamma; we do not follow the world. Then we are at ease and happy.