Buddhist Path and Practice

I have heard that at one time the Honored One was staying at Vesali, in the Peaked Roof Hall in the Great Forest.

Then Mahapajapati Gotami went to the Honored One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, stood to one side and spoke: "It would be good, Sir, if the Honored One would teach me the Dhamma in brief; then, having heard the Dhamma from the Honored One, I might dwell alone, secluded, mindful, ardent, & determined."

"Gotami, consider qualities of which you know, 'These qualities lead to passion, not to dispassion; to being bound, not to being free; to acquiring more, not to living with less; to pride, not to modesty; to discontent, not to contentment; to needing others, not to being comfortable in solitude; to laziness, not to energetic persistence; to being evasive, not to being forthright'. Regarding those qualities, you may be certain, 'This is not the Dhamma, this is not the Vinaya, this is not the Teacher's instruction.'

"As for the qualities of which you know, 'These qualities lead to dispassion, not to passion; to being free, not to being bound; to living with less, not to acquiring more; to modesty, not to pride; to contentment, not to discontent; to comfort in solitude, not to needing others; to energetic persistence, not to laziness; to being forthright, not to being evasive': of those qualities, you may be certain, 'This is the Dhamma, this is the Vinaya, this is the Teacher's instruction.'"

That is what the Honored One said. Gratified, Mahapajapati Gotami delighted at his words.

Notes:

Dhamma. This term refers, in different contexts, to a number of different, but related things: to the full body of the Buddha's teachings regarding our human condition; to the "Natural Law" of the universe, the set of laws and principles that keeps everything in order, all happening as it must; and to the Noble Path that, properly cultivated and integrated into one's life, leads to an end to suffering—it's a Path with eight factors: Right Understanding, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. In this context, Gotami is probably using Dhamma to refer to the Buddhadhamma, the particular teachings of the Buddha.

Vinaya. This term refers to the practices of meditation, concentration, renunciation, and mindful living, that allow one to come to a full appreciation of the meaning of the Dhamma and to create for oneself a life marked by the eight factors of the Noble Path. It is also used to refer to the rules set down for the behavior of the Buddha's followers and the governance of their, known as the Sangha.

When Gotami asked the Buddha to teach her the Dhamma "in brief", she wasn't asking for an epigram, or a Cliff's Notes version of the Four Noble Truths. Rather, she was planning to go on a retreat, where she would find a secluded place (the Buddha recommended, in a number of places in the teachings, "an empty hut or the root of a tree"), where she would spend the better part of each day in solitary meditation. And she was asking the Buddha to give her something that would be proper to meditate upon: something brief enough that she could remember it, yet rich enough in meaning that contemplating it would lead her to a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of the Dhamma:

• that all experience is dukkha (pain, frustration, dissatisfaction, anguish, dismay, unreliability—no single English word can translate dukkha)
• that the cause of dukkha is craving, craving for permanence in an impermanent world, craving an unchanging Essence in a world that is fundamentally contingent and in constant flux
• that dukkha will cease to the extent that we are able to abandon craving
• and that the way to abandon craving was to embody eight ennobling qualities in our lives—qualities of penetrating understanding, of ethical action, and of constant and unflinching awareness.

What the Buddha gave her was not, in fact, quite what she'd asked for. It is not "the Dhamma in brief", but rather a set of characteristics by which Gotami might recognize the Dhamma when she heard it in other contexts: from advice she received from other members of the Sangha, from gossip she heard around the well in the villages she visited in her wandering, from teachers of other sects when she listened in on the discourses they delivered to their followers, from doctrine taught by Brahmin priests, from the folk wisdom of village headmen or their wives, from warnings or calls to action that came in the form of news carried by travelers on the road, from teaching stories passed on, often with heavy foreign accents, from merchants delivering goods from distant lands. Everything Gotami heard that passed for wisdom or good advice had to be scrutinized to determine its accordance with the Buddha's Dhamma; subjecting it to such scrutiny would not only help Gotami decide whether or not to accept that wisdom or advice, but would also help her understand more deeply and more profoundly the nature of the Dhamma to which she'd committed her life. What the Buddha gave Gotami, in this teaching, was eight specific characteristics which she could use as scrutinizing tools.

The instructions that the Buddha gave to Gotami can do the same thing for us that it did for her, that is, help us be aware of what we're being taught through the advice we get from our friends, relatives, co-workers; through the news we see on television or read in the papers; through the pronouncements of pundits, columnists, commentators, and experts of one sort or another; through politicians and party spokespersons; through ads and PR releases from corporations, unions, PACs, or human services agencies; through the sermons preached in church on Sunday, or in temple on Saturday, or in the mosque on Friday; through statements declaring themselves as "what everybody knows", or "what people think", or "results from the most recent polls". In fact, almost every communication we receive in the course of a day presents itself, implicitly or explicitly, as Dhamma—a truthful version of how things are, how things got this way, and what we should do about it.

Now I believe, (and you may do so too, at least partly, if you've read this far) that the body of the Buddha's teachings present a Dhamma that is, as the teachings themselves proclaim, "good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end", a Dhamma that shows us how to bring peace to our own lives, despite the suffering we encounter along the way, and how to spread peace in a suffering world. If that is the case, then it's vitally important to recognize what passes for Dhamma in the communications we receive through our lives and evaluate that against the Buddhadhamma. The teachings in the Gotami Sutta help us with both of those tasks—the need to identify the Dhamma implicit in the news we read, the entertainment we find, the advice we receive; and the need to evaluate that Dhamma for its truthfulness and value to us in the task we've undertaken, to move our lives, and the world with which those lives are entangled toward an end to dukkha.

The Buddha identifies eight qualities, each with its inverse:

1. Passion, or infatuation with things of the world; vs. dispassion, the absence of desire for such things
2. Getting caught up in things—events, belief systems, trends—feeling trapped in your life; vs. severing your connection to such events and freeing yourself.
3. Constantly acquiring more and more; vs. making do with less and less
4. Putting on airs, or wishing to be noticed and respecting for your accomplishments; vs. being unassuming, lacking all pretension or pride
5. Never being satisfied with how things are, but wanting them different; vs. being content, able to manage events as they come your way, ready to play the hand you're dealt
6. Needing to have people around at all times; vs. being comfortable in solitude
7. Being lazy, not willing to make the effort that a difficult task requires, enjoying idleness; vs. maintaining a high level of energy and being willing to tackle even big jobs with all you've got.
8. Being evasive, perhaps a little sneaky, somewhat resentful of others and not revealing that; vs. being forthright and open.

I've expanded the telegraphic delivery of the sutta in making that list, and I'd encourage each of you to do the same for yourself. When the Buddha gave a list like the one he gave Gotami, the words he chose were deliberately evocative of a wide range of connected ideas and conditions. The list itself was designed to be easy to memorize, and I'd encourage you to do that as well. Just remember, what you're memorizing is a set of pointers, which will point to something in your life that's different from what those same words might point to in someone else's life.

So, the first step in applying the Buddha's lesson to your own life is to consider the pairs of terms and examine the range of meaning they might have in the circumstances in which you find yourself. What do the contrasting ideas of passion and dispassion, bondage and freedom, content and discontent, etc., mean to you? Not really what do they mean, but what range of meanings could they have that resonate with your life?

The next step is to apply those meanings to the messages you receive in the course of each day—the Dhamma that's conveyed in the gossip around the office water cooler, the newspaper headlines you notice on your way to the subway, the poem your lover read to you last night, the pronouncements of Oprah's most recent guest, the self-help book at the top of the Times' Best-Seller list, the sermon you heard in church, the advice your mother gave you when you called to tell her what Lizzie or Josh had done at school. You get the point.

Just get in the habit of seeing all of that as versions of the Dhamma. Once you can see that, you can then begin to ask yourself, "If I take this to heart, will it lead me to want something I don't have now, or can never have, or will it help me accept the reality of my life?" And if it's the latter, will that acceptance come with a sigh of resignation, a feeling of bitterness and defeat, or will this Dhamma help me attain a level of equanimity that maintains my good will, my sense of humor, my appreciation of irony? That kind of questioning is what the Buddha called "scrutiny", and it is a major factor in the path to Enlightenment. And you can do it with each of the pairs in the list the Buddha gave to Gotami. In fact, you must do it with each of those qualities; you must scrutinize each new Dhamma you're given in the world, if you are to know which of those Dhammas will help you create the Buddha's noble Path in your life.

I assume that you have something like a meditation practice (if not, there's a link at the end of this lens to several books and videos that can help you develop such a practice). If it's like the meditation practice I've experienced at very many of the Buddhist sanghas I've visited, it's a type of meditation designed to increase your mindfulness, a practice that teaches you to watch your breath, to notice the perceptions that come in from the outside world and the thoughts that arise in your mind, and to allow those to pass without letting yourself get wrapped up in them. That's a good practice, and a good beginning.

What I'd suggest, though, is that you add something to your practice, following on the advice that the Buddha gave to Gotami. Start like you always start, by watching your breath and cultivating mindfulness. But prepare yourself, before you sit down to meditate, by considering just one of the pairs of conditions that the Buddha gave to Gotami as criteria for evaluating the Dhamma she heard from the world. Now, prepare yourself to scrutinize the Dhamma teachings you've heard, in one form or another, through the course of the last couple of days, in light of Gotami's list. Play back each experience, recognize what there was in it that presumed to present an understanding of the world or of our human condition, how that condition was explained, and what course of action was presented, either explicity or by implication, as the right course to follow. In each case, did the Dhamma you heard lead you toward the Buddhadhamma or did it lead in the opposite direction? And given the results of your scrutiny, what course should you follow with regard to the Dhamma you heard and with regard to the source of that Dhamma?

Alternatively, although it might be a little more difficult, at least in the beginning, is to prepare yourself, before the meditation, to consider just one event you've experienced recently—a movie you saw, a book you read, a TV show you watched, a conversation you had—and, in scrutinizing that experience in the calm reflective condition into which the mindfulness meditation has put you, look for how that experience bears on what the Buddha presented as qualities that mark his teachings. So, what did that movie have to teach you about passion vs. dispassion, discontent vs. contentment, acquisition vs. simplicity, etc.?

If you follow the practice I've recommended, I think you'll be surprised to realize how many events present themselves as sources, in one way or another, of the Dhamma. And I think you'll be doubly surprised at how many of those presentations of the Dhamma lead to ways of understanding and paths of action that are contrary to the Buddhadhamma as that's presented in the noble Eightfold Path.

If something is pressing wrong view upon you—something that you do regularly, time and again, in the course of your normal life—that poses problems. Even if you recognize the wrong view, continual exposure to it can wear you down. And if, as many of us believe, wrong view leads to craving, out of which dukkha emerges, then steps must be taken to prevent yourself from being infected by the wrong view to which you're exposed.

Obviously, one step is to avoid exposure. Be more cautious about the movies you choose to see; stop watching that particular TV show; close the book as soon as you recognize where it's heading and return it to the library; stay away from the water cooler when the woman who speaks so foolishly or maliciously is there. But considering the ubiquitous nature of wrong view, it's difficult to avoid exposure to it completely. Consider these other steps:

• Increase the time you give to this meditation practice. Put the focus of your practice, not only on identifying how the experience you contemplate presents false Dhamma, but on how and why it's false, and how you might expose it and counter the advice it offers in discussion. When you next encounter that particular experience, be prepared to watch for the expression of wrong view and call it out, at least mentally. Make the experience one, not of absorbing an experience, but of conducting a dialogue with it, offering what you understand as true Dhamma to the false Dhamma proposed by the experience.
• Speak out. Let other people with whom you share that experience, people you care for, know what you see in the experience: what false lessons it presents, what wrong attitudes and behavior it promotes, and what, under such conditions, constitute right attitudes and right behavior. If the situation calls for it, write a letter to the editor or to your congressperson; make an appointment to question your pastor about that misleading sermon; tell your friend, as gently and lovingly as you can, where and why you disagree with what she said, and what you believe to be true about the situation you were discussing and what you believe to be the right response to that situation, given your understanding of it—work to find common ground.
• Work to develop what the Buddha called "skillful means" of teaching the Dhamma. When you're in a position to counter false Dhamma, don't do so in a spirit of hostility and open argument. Rather, recognize that those with whom you are discussing the situation are well-meaning and, very likely, want the same kind of world that you want and the same things for themselves and their children as you want for yourself and yours. Help them see how the conditions that exist bring about the emergence of the situation that they understand wrongly, and how the situation would change if the conditions were to change. When you alter the focus of the discussion from "what is" to "how it got this way", you open the way for the kind of analysis that the Buddha delivered so skillfully, an analysis in accord with the true Dhamma. For help in developing skillful means, read the teachings, especially those in the Pali Canon, and watch how the Buddha responds to questioners who come to him with false views.
• And finally, re-evaluate your own habits to see if it might, indeed, be possible to give up the kind of experience that exposes you to false views and, very likely, raises your blood pressure. Stop watching the worst of the TV shows; stop going to the blockbuster movies; don't watch Oprah; don't spend so much time at the water cooler. And use the time you save to improve your understanding of the true Dhamma; read good books about Buddhism (again, some of those are listed below); visit Buddhist sanghas that you haven't been to or haven't visited recently, and work to make friends with the people who are members of those sanghas. Talk with them about this exercise and see if it jibes with their experience; work with them to develop effective responses to the bad Dhamma and wrong views that our culture exposes us to (and not only us, but our children and our friends).

Whatever you choose to do, do it! Do it mindfully, do it with energetic persistence, do it, to use Gotami's word, ardently. I don't know anyone who doesn't feel that our society—indeed, our civilization and perhaps even our species—is in peril. And I don't know anything more worth doing than spreading the Buddhadhamma, the the Buddha's Path of clear understanding, ethical action, and constant awareness. The Path certainly helps each of us deal with the anxiety and fear and anger evoked by our perilous condition. If enough people come to know it and practice it, it may even work to reduce the general level of peril. The first step in spreading the true Dhamma is to recognize, call out, and reject the false Dhamma, so widely spread, that encourages greed, anger, and wishful thinking. The Buddha's advice to Gotami gives us a way to do that.

I hope this little excursion (which has gotten way bigger than I'd originally planned) feels right to you, and, if so, that you'll consider adapting its recommendations to your practice. If you do, I'd be most interested to hear how it works for you.