57. Teach Yourself First
By Luang Pu Thate Desaraṅsī
July 14, 1988
The Rains Retreat is approaching. Any monk whose friends and companions share his temperament and invite him to spend the Rains Retreat in various places — that's up to him. I haven't made any arrangements for this Rains Retreat. If the other monks find it agreeable and compatible, they can go. Go and stay together. But if their temperaments are not compatible, then staying together is not good, not peaceful.
After the Rains Retreat, we go traveling to various places. We've traveled extensively, following our own inclinations. If we like somewhere, we go. Like to travel, like to enjoy ourselves, like to meditate — we do everything. Now, during the Rains Retreat, we must stay in one place, staying for the purpose of training ourselves, disciplining ourselves. As for other people, we can teach them later. The truth is, we must teach ourselves first, then teach others. How do we practice? What do we know? How do we understand? Teaching others is not about being bent on teaching only others. We practice and see what is good and right, what accords with Dhamma and Vinaya, what accords with the virtues of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha, what is Dhamma and Vinaya — that very thing we use to teach.
Teaching others is not difficult. If we can teach ourselves, it's not difficult. The only problem is when we don't teach ourselves. When we don't teach ourselves, we just stay idle, not knowing anything, just drifting along. We don't know ourselves, we don't know others — so how would we know what to teach?
When we see ourselves, understand ourselves well, teach ourselves to feel and see what is good and right — then we take that very thing to teach others. That way, there will be understanding. If we teach others and they don't understand, it's because we don't understand ourselves.
We have ordained in Buddhism. Our lives are connected with laypeople. When they are troubled and confused, we should help them. They revere Buddhism; they see its value and benefit, so that they may have even more faith and devotion. Buddhism is rather difficult to truly understand. Not to mention laypeople — even monks like us, to truly see the value of Buddhism, to see it as genuinely beneficial, capable of curing suffering and distress — that is very hard. There are many who have not yet reached the Dhamma. Even monks, because we haven't trained and practiced, haven't been taught and instructed about these matters enough, we still haven't reached it, haven't deeply appreciated the Dhamma.
The Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha — how are they good? They are the highest, most excellent things in the world, incomparable. But we still don't see them as excellent; we see them as something trivial, so we study and don't understand.
The fundamental origin of the Dhamma arises from the mind, from the heart. The mind-heart is the source of Buddhism. This world has been chaotic and turbulent for a long time. The Buddha arose in the mind. Buddhahood arises in the mind. When the mind reaches the Knower, it reaches Buddhahood. Buddhahood is the Knower, the Seer — seeing causes, seeing results, seeing various matters, seeing the environment of the mind. For example, seeing greed, anger, and delusion — they arise from the mind. When greed, anger, and delusion arise, the Buddha arises from those very things — seeing greed, anger, and delusion, and thereby becoming the Buddha. Defilements arise from there, not from anywhere else.
We practice and train following the Buddha. When we see the matter of the mind — the source of Buddhism, the Buddha's teaching — we can abandon greed, anger, and delusion. It's nothing. All defilements, sense spheres, the five aggregates — everything comes out from there. If there is no mind, there are no five aggregates to purify. The countless defilements arise from the one mind. Defilements arise at the mind. The Buddha pointed right at the mind. What he knew, he knew at the mind. When we know the mind, we know all defilements. So why would we grasp at anything else? Grasping at external things — ghosts, spirits, believing in magic spells and incantations — once it's understood that they arise from the mind, why grasp anything other than the mind? Seize the mind firmly, and then you will know.
But as it is, we don't know the mind, don't understand what it is. We search for it elsewhere and don't find it. We never see the mind itself. Not seeing the mind means not seeing Buddhism. Therefore, don't understand the Dhamma as being somewhere else. As for monks, novices, laymen, laywomen — if there were no mind, none of them would exist. Because there is a mind, it then dresses up into forms. Kamma dresses up into a female form, a male form, a monk form, a noble form — dresses up into monks and novices. Kamma dresses up into various things because the mind enters and possesses that form. When defilements overpower it, we don't see the mind. So we must clear the way to find the mind. When we see the mind, we see those things.
But where does the Dhamma reside? It resides in the mind. If there were no defilements, there would be no Buddha. Because defilements exist, the Buddha arises. Therefore, we should remove those defilements from the mind. The Buddha is born there. Buddhahood — the truth — is not a person. When Prince Siddhattha first had that arising of knowledge, he was called the Buddha. The world calls him Buddha, but there are many stories, many names — Lord of Victory, Sage of the Sakyas, the Supreme Teacher Gotama, and so on. The story of Prince Siddhattha then disappears because of that very awakening, which blossomed from the mind, and then various epithets were given. But the Buddha himself called himself "the Tathāgata" — he didn't call himself anything else according to the conventional designations the world used for him.
In truth, the Buddha arises at the mind, from the mind, because of practicing to remove various things from the mind, making it bright and pure, cleansing it completely. Therefore, the mind is the most important thing. Whenever you practice and reach the mind, then you will see the mind. That is when you become the Buddha. If you haven't reached the mind, you haven't reached Buddhahood. That's all.