61. Method of Teaching Dhamma
By Luang Pu Thate Desaraṅsī
September 11, 1988
I will teach about "the method of teaching Dhamma" for the laypeople to hear, and also for the monks. Whether the laypeople are male or female lay disciples, or not yet, it doesn't matter. For the most part, they understand themselves to be Buddhists, but in truth, many are not yet fully there. If you teach them high-level Dhamma, they don't even properly understand the basics. If the foundation is poor, the latter part will also be poor. They want to hear high-level Dhamma, but they don't yet understand the basics, and they don't want to hear them.
I once taught at the district office in Phuket. After that one teaching, they didn't want to listen again, saying my teaching was too shallow. I wanted them to first understand the basic principles firmly, and only then listen to further Dhamma. But they didn't see it the same way. That is why people who follow a religion do not reach the core of true Buddhism.
What they say – "Buddhists" – is correct. They are Buddhists just as people are villagers or townsfolk. They follow Buddhism; they follow along with others. Even small children follow along. They are Buddhists, but they do not deeply understand true Buddhism, reaching its essence. The essence of Buddhism goes back to the time of the Buddha. People who were genuinely inspired with faith would then gradually approach Buddhism. He gave a Dhamma teaching to inspire genuine faith and then gradually taught the Dhamma in order.
These days, people are "Buddhists" – they follow it as a convention. Even monks and novices follow it, yet they do not truly reach the Buddha. We can see this in the way they pay respect. When paying respect, they take the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha as their refuge. There is nothing else besides the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. We say this constantly. This is true, but we do not truly practice it. We do not genuinely venerate them. We just bow down. Seeing a Buddha image, we bow. Sometimes, while bowing to a Buddha image, we don't even see the Buddha image again. It is no longer a refuge or recollection. We turn our eyes and faces elsewhere. Who knows what we are bowing to? We don't reach the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha at all. We bow until our knees are calloused, yet still do not reach the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.
We do it as a game, not genuinely. We say "Buddho, Dhammo, Sangho" but do not reach the Buddha. We do not recollect the Buddha. Who knows what we recollect? We just bow. We don't know what it's about. Sometimes we mumble while bowing. Sometimes we talk about other things while bowing. We don't understand Buddhism; we just go through the motions. So how can we truly take the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha as our refuge? When a time of need comes and we must rely on them, we cannot. We cannot rely on the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. When we are sick, unwell, or in pain, we recollect the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, but we do not recollect their virtues. We just blankly recollect, hoping that the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha will come to help us – hoping that the monks will come to help us. That is what is meant by "not reaching."
In truth, it is not like that. The Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha are in our own hearts. When we recollect and contemplate their virtues, that gradually sinks in and reaches the heart. Then all kinds of illnesses may be able to disappear. People all over the country only go as far as using the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha to help with sickness and pain, or to pray for good fortune and wealth. How could they give you good fortune and wealth? If we do not reach them, it is of no benefit. But if we genuinely recollect them, just as we recollect a living person or one who has passed away – our relatives, family, siblings, parents – we constantly recollect their kindness: that they gave us birth, gave us a livelihood, taught us a profession. Wherever we go, we recollect them constantly. Even thousands of miles away, we still recollect them. That is what is called "truly reaching."
The Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha are the same. To truly reach them, it must be like that. First, have faith – make that faith firm. Once faith is firmly established, then everything else will happen on its own. Morality (sīla), concentration (samādhi), wisdom (paññā) will come about. If faith is poor – that is, the beginning is poor – then the end, the final part, will also be corrupted. The Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha: if we have firm faith in them, we have a guarantee within ourselves.
What is faith that has a guarantee? It is believing in kamma and the results of kamma. Doing good brings good; doing evil brings evil. We ourselves do it, we ourselves receive the result. That is what is meant by believing in kamma and its results. It is not that someone else or something else receives it for us, or that someone else gives it. We ourselves are the givers, and we ourselves are the receivers. We are firm in heart as explained earlier. We are confident in our own body and mind. We believe in kamma and its results: doing good brings good, doing evil brings evil. Then morality (sīla) enters us automatically. Evil is a violation of sīla; goodness is having sīla. That is believing in kamma and its results. It naturally leads to sīla. All the rules of sīla – we cannot transgress them. Once it is firm, when we act with body, speech, or mind in various ways, that confidence prevents us from violating those precepts. For the five precepts, the eight precepts – we don't need to undertake them formally. Even if we undertake them every day, if sīla does not reach the heart, it's useless. But if it reaches the heart, we don't need to undertake it; sīla is already there. Undertaking formally is good; it shows unity and harmony. If we don't undertake together with the group, it might feel awkward and incomplete. But in our heart, we must reach it as described.
The same applies to the ten precepts for novices. If they have a sense of shame and fear of wrongdoing (hiri-ottappa) as a support, that support prevents them from violating those precepts. For a bhikkhu's precepts, even without formal undertaking, if he believes in kamma and its results and has hiri-ottappa, the 227 precepts – or even more – are restrained. A bhikkhu's precepts are not only 227; there are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands not listed in the Pātimokkha. How could one practice them without reaching the heart as described? With this belief in kamma and its results, one can refrain from all kinds of evil. A bhikkhu does not undertake the precepts; they arise spontaneously. After the motion (ñatti) is recited, he is assumed to be a bhikkhu, and then he attains the path, fruition, and Nibbāna.
In the past, the Buddha said "Ehi bhikkhu" – when faith was sufficient, he simply said, "Come, monk, be a bhikkhu in this teaching. Practice the Dhamma well proclaimed by me." If one truly believed in one's heart, one became a bhikkhu and could attain the path, fruition, and Nibbāna. Here, sīla automatically fills the heart of that bhikkhu completely, without deficiency. Sīla is not a self or an entity; it is the very act of refraining that is sīla. When sīla becomes a self or an entity, it would fill the entire chest – how could one bear it? As a bhikkhu, having sīla filling the whole body – because it is not a self or entity, sīla becomes light. Whoever is complete and perfect in it becomes light in body and self – light in everything: body, speech, and mind.
One who is established in sīla, steadfast in sīla, constantly contemplating one's own sīla, with a mind that is steadfast – that is concentration meditation, called sīlānussati (recollection of virtue). It is the constant recollection of sīla, as a continuous recitation. All perceptions arise from recollection and contemplation – contemplating both external and internal things, both what one has done and what one is doing. Contemplating kamma and its results, starting from evil kamma, leads to wisdom. It is not wisdom from elsewhere. Wisdom arises from concentration – it arises right here. All things whatsoever: when we contemplate and investigate, seeing drawbacks and benefits, seeing benefits brings joy and rapture, seeing drawbacks brings remorse and the willingness to let go. That is wisdom arising from concentration.
Insight wisdom (vipassanā-ñāṇa) arises at another stage. Insight wisdom is another kind that contemplates and investigates, seeing causes and effects, seeing impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anattā). Seeing that all things are like that, arise like that. We go and cling, grasping them as self and as entity, and thus they become self and entity. That very clinging is what makes them self and entity. When we release, relinquish, and let go, they return to their original state. Clinging is like that, not clinging is also like that. Then insight wisdom arises – that is wisdom that sees things according to their true nature and reality.
It extends all the way, from the Triple Gem refuge, from faith, all the way to the path, fruition, and Nibbāna. Some teachers have said that whoever takes firm refuge in the Triple Gem, believes in kamma and its results, does not perform merit outside of Buddhism, does not believe in spirits, ghosts, amulets, or magical charms – if one follows Buddhism, there are no monks who still believe in magical charms. There is no Buddhism in them at all. Whoever is still attached to magical charms has not yet reached the religion. They say that when one truly reaches Buddhism, then one can become a stream-enterer (sotāpanna). It can truly happen as described here. When sīla is firm and unshakable, willing to sacrifice everything, seeing sīla as more valuable than anything else – that is "diamond faith." Enough.