Lecture to
foreign meditators at Suan Mokkhabalarama
7 May 1986
Translated by Santikaro Bhikkhu
"THE BEST"
When you arrive at this stage, you ought to be
familiar with what we call "the good" or "the best." You all
have ideas about "the best" and think that you deserve to get and have
"the best." Your hunger only goes as far as "the best.!! Whatever
you identify as "the best"_whether a day on the beach or five minutes
of rest from the turmoil in your head _ is where your hunger grasps. Even while
basking in God's radiance, the hunger for the best doesn't stop. We desire one
kind of "the best," but as soon as we get it our hunger reaches after
a better "the best." This has no end as long as there's a self that
wants "the best." "The best" has no end point; we can't take
it as our final goal. We continuously talk about "the best" or about
the summum bonum, but our meanings are so very different: the best of children,
of teenagers, of adults, of old folks; the best of the world and of religion.
Yet each of these visions of "the best" make us "the
hungriest" _ hungry in refined, profound, subtle ways. We can never stop
and rest in any "the best," for they are all lokiya-sukha.
"The best" cannot stand alone. It
doesn't go anywhere without its mate "the worst." Through our grasping
at "the best" we're burdened also with "the worst." Thus,
our fixation on "the best" is merely self-perpetuating hunger. There's
only one way out. If we keep searching for sukha in the world, we'll never find
it. We must turn in the other direction, toward lokuttara-sukha.
Hunger must end, even hunger for "the best." Evil is one kind of busy
trouble. Good is just another kind of trouble. To be free of all dukkha,
the mind must be beyond good and evil, above the best and worst_ that is, it
must dwell in voidness. This is the opposite of worldly happiness. It's the lokuttara-sukha
of freedom from the self that hungers. There's no other way out of dukkha
than from evil to good and then from good to voidness. In voidness hunger stops
and there is true happiness.
THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL
Those of you who are Christians or who have read
the Bible will be familiar with the story of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil that appears at the beginning of Genesis. It tells how God forbade Adam
and Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He
warned them that they would die if they did not obey. If you understand the
meaning of this passage, you will understand the core of Buddhism. When there is
no knowledge of good and evil, we can't attach to them, we're void and free of dukkha.
Once we know about good and evil, we attach to them and must suffer dukkha.
The fruit of that tree is this attachment to good and evil. This causes dukkha
and dukkha is death, spiritual death.
Adam's children, down through the ages to us,
carry this burnden of knowing good and evil, the burden of the self that
attaches to good and evil and suffers spiritual death. We identify things as
good and attach to them. We identify things as bad and detach from them. We are
trapped in worldly condition by our dualistic obsession with good and bad. This
is the death of which God warned. Will you heed his warning?
Now what are we who have inherited this problem
going to do about it? To continue running after the satisfaction of our hunger
for "the best" is simply to perpetuate this cycle of birth and death.
Thus, Buddhism isn't interested in any of the realm of lokiya-sukha, of good,
better, and best. The Buddhist solution is to be above good and evil _ to be
void.
Please understand that "the best" is not
the highest thing. If you talk about God as the "supreme good,"
Buddhists won't be able to accept your words. To say that God, the highest thing
in the universe, is the collection of everything good or the perfection of good
is to limit God, The Supreme Thing, within dualistic conditions. Buddhists
cannot accept this. The God of the Bible himself said that if we know good and
evil we must die.
If you say, however, that God _ if we choose to
use this word_ is beyond good and evil, then Buddhists can agree. In Buddhism,
the goal is to transcend both good and evil, and realize voidness_ to be void of
"I", "me," "mine," and "myself." If we
don't know good and evil, we can't attach to them and there is no dukkha.
Or, if we know good and evil but still don't attach to them, then there is no dukkha
just the same. Thus, the highest point for humanity is beyond good.
ABOVE & BEYOND GOOD
Beyond good there is nothing to hunger for and no
one to hunger. Hunger stops. The "I" who hungers and all its desires
disappear in voidness_ the emptiness of self and
soul. This voidness is the
purpose of the practice of Dhamma. It is the way to transcend the endless cycles
of hunger and worldly happiness. It is the Supreme Thing, the final goal of
Buddhism.
The thing to observe in this matter is that it is
impossible to attach to good and evil when there's no knowledge of good and
evil. When there's no attachment, there's no dukkha
and no problem. Once the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
What happens then? If we lack the wisdom(panna)
to know that we shouldn't attach to good and evil, we'll go and attach to the
good and evil of common sentient beings. Thus, there is dukkha,
which brings with it all the problems of life. These are the results of eating
that fruit: attachment, dukkha, and death.
Once there is this knowledge, there is no going
back to a state of innocence in which good and evil aren't known. After this
knowledge arises, after the fruit has been eaten, we must go on to know fully
that good and evil cannot be attached to. It is our duty and responsibility to
learn this. Don't attach to good and evil because they are impermanent (anicca),
unsatisfactory(dukkha), and not-self(anatta).
Good and evil are anicca, dukkha,
anatta. When there's this correct knowledge
of good and evil, there's no attachment. Then there's no death, just as with
Adam and Eve before they ate the fruit. We've all eaten that fruit; we all know
about good and evil. There's no going back to a state of innocence for us.
Instead, we have the duty to know that good and evil should not be attach to.
They must not be attached to. Please understand this matter wisely.
Don't attach to good and evil. Know them so
thoroughly that you will never attach to them. This is the heart of Buddhism and
the essence of Christianity. Both religions teach this same thing, although
people may interpret it in quite different ways. If you understand this, you
will have the key to the genuine happiness of freedom from hunger.
You can see that if we grasp and cling to
"good," we are hungry for good. If we have something better, we hunger
for what is better. If we have what is the best, we hunger for the best. No
matter how "best" something is, it still causes hunger. We hunger for
the best best. Inevitably, this hunger is the problem that leads to dukkha. No
matter what the degree of hunger, it will still cause some sort of dukkha.
Coarse hunger afflicts us in a crude way, while even the most subtle hunger _ so
refined that it can't be seen or understood _ harms us in a way too subtle to be
seen. If there is hunger, there will be dukkha. Life will be troubled and
disturbed, making perfect peace and perfect happiness impossible.
VOIDNESS
This is why Buddhism teaches voidness (sunnata) -
the voidness of "I" and "mine" that transcends the best. If
we have knowledge of beyond the best, of the voidness that is neither good nor
evil, there's no problem. In sunnata there's no hunger. Even the most subtle
levels of hunger disappear. Therein dukkha is quenched and true spiritual peace
remains. This is the final goal. As long as there is the slightest hunger, it
prevents the final goal. As soon as all hunger has been extinguished, and with
it all problems and all dukkha, genuine emancipation is evident. Emancipation in
Buddhism is this freedom from hunger that comes with the realization of sunnata(voidness).
Please study this matter until your life is totally free of hunger.
