49. The Practice of Dhamma Has an End
By Luang Pu Thate Desaraṅsī
February 17, 1988
We who are practitioners should practice properly and systematically. The practice has an end. You cannot practice in a vague, drifting way without boundaries. Everything in this world that is done without an end—that is a worldly matter. But having an end is a matter of Dhamma.
Observe your mind: is it Dhamma or is it worldly? Does your mind keep gathering in? Does it keep narrowing down? Or does it keep expanding outward? Observe to know, to be aware. There's no need to talk about the Path, its Fruition, or Nibbāna, levels like that. Just focus right here: see whether your mind each day is expanding or contracting. That which expands outward has no boundaries and no mindfulness. It indulges freely in whatever it likes, thinking and rethinking old stories endlessly. Just consider: from the day we were born until now, we keep circling around in old stories, never knowing an end.
When we contemplate Dhamma, we should contemplate it so that it gathers inward, so that it contracts down to body, speech, and mind. Contract it further so that it settles on aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. It doesn't go outside of that territory. That is called the mind having boundaries. If our mind is within boundaries, as we contemplate it will settle on aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. It doesn't go beyond aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. That is called gathering inward, drawing closer.
When we contemplate aniccā, dukkhā, anattā, we are contemplating the khandhas, the sense bases (āyatanas), the four elements. It doesn't go anywhere else; it stays right within this circle. When we contemplate Dhamma, no matter where we contemplate, it settles on the four elements. No matter where we contemplate, it stays within the five khandhas. That is called being within the boundaries of Dhamma. Don't let it be vague and scattered. When it goes outward, it goes out into the six sense bases—sending out through the eyes, through the ears, through the nose, tongue, body, mind. It sends out and doesn't come back. You don't know where it's gone or where it is. You must gather it inward right here in order to see the end. The Buddhist teaching is to have an end.
Contemplate the six sense bases. Contemplate as much as you like. Seeing: the eye is the seer, ever since birth. Hearing: the ear is the hearer. Smelling, tasting, tactile contact—these are all sense bases. The mind cannot go out beyond these things. Once it has gone out from them, gather it back in. Gather it inward to this point. Bring it to this point. Don't let it go outside this point. Let it gather inward and settle on aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā—then it's over. All kinds of mental concoctions and fabrications are fabricated from these six sense bases. They have no boundaries, no end.
Look at our worldly affairs—science and everything else. All of it goes out from these things. It all goes out from the six sense bases. But it has no boundaries, no end. Another hundred years, a thousand years, and it still won't end, because it goes outward, outside of ourselves. Science studies things that are real, but they are not real within the mind. If they were real within the mind, it wouldn't go outward. It would settle on aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā, and that would be the end of it all. It wouldn't go anywhere else; it would stay right here. But because it cannot gather inward, the mind becomes distracted. The mind is unsteady. The mind flares up and rebels. It goes outward through these six sense bases.
See the point where it thinks and conceives. There must be a point. Look further inward into that. It thinks, conceives, fabricates, and concocts. Know who is the one thinking, the one conceiving. Who is the one fabricating, the one concocting? There is a person who does this fabricating and concocting. Catch hold of that person. If you only catch hold of the fabrications and concoctions themselves, there is no end. But if you catch hold of the fabricator, the concoctor, then all fabrications and concoctions are abandoned. Catch hold of the one who thinks, fabricates, and concocts. Don't catch hold of the actions of fabricating and concocting. Then it ends right there. That is the method the Buddha taught for having an end. He taught that very point. When you catch hold of the fabricator and concoctor, it can come to an end. There is discernment within that. There is self-awareness within that.
When defilements, cravings, views, and conceit arise, practice right here, close in. Have boundaries. Only then will there gradually be an end. Otherwise, practice for a hundred years, a thousand years, and there will still be no end. You'll practice Dhamma and get nothing out of it. But when you can catch hold of that point, no matter where you contemplate, it settles on aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā—which is Dhamma that has an end.
All worldly affairs also have an end, but they are not an end for the practitioner. For example, when a farmer does rice farming, there is an end: after he harvests and stores it in the barn, that is the end. Fruits and vegetables, gardening, whatever it may be—finally, after harvesting, that is the end. But for the person who has no end, they keep thinking, fabricating, and concocting. That's why it doesn't become Dhamma. It becomes worldly. Come, practice Dhamma so that it becomes Dhamma, so that you see Dhamma, so that you know the truth of Dhamma.