Lecture at
Suan Mokkhabalarama, Chaiya
8 October 1966
Translated by Roderick Bucknell
FEMALE & MALE
Now, let us look at the words "female"
and "male". In everyday, worldly language, these words mean the two
sexes - the female sex and the male sex. In Dhamma language, however, they refer
to the distinguishing marks and signs of certain duties which Nature has
assigned to human beings: duties which must be performed co-operatively, in
partnership. Female and male have nothing to do with the exchange and
consumption of sexual flavors. Rather, they point to the fact that human being
must exist in the world and that the species must not become extinct. This means
that the human race must be preserved through the duty of reproduction for as
long a time as is necessary for humanity to realize the highest Dhamma - nibbana.
The duties called for by this necessity must be divided between the female and
male. Once the female and male exist, they help each other to lighten their
burdens by dividing their everyday responsibilities and work, which, when done
correctly, is Dhamma practice.
In Dhamma language, the signs of the duties which
Nature has stipulated in this way are known as "female" and
"male". This isn't the lowly meaning assumed in everyday language. We
shouldn't think of female and male solely in terms of an instinctual animal
activity. Rather, we ought to think of them as signs of the division of those
duties which can be carried out properly only in co-operation.
MARRIAGE
From this we'll move on to "marriage".
In everyday language, everyone understands this word to mean the ceremony that
joins a woman and man according to social customs. That's marriage in worldly
terms. However, in Pali, the language of Dhamma, the word "marriage"
is samarasa,which translates as "having equal (sama) flavor, taste, duty,
or function (rasa)" through Dhamma or in Dhamma. This means that two people
with correct wants and needs are united as one. Physical contact between them is
unnecessary, though there may be other forms of contact, such as letter writing.
Marriage is possible even though the skin and
flesh of the two partners never touch. This is because their wants are the same
and their responsibilities are equal. For example, both genuinely want to
transcend dukkha using the same principles of practice. Both persons are
satisfied in the unified Dhamma practice and in the fruits mutually desired.
This is what we call "having equal flavor" which is marriage in Dhamma
language and in Pali. The meanings of words in Dhamma language are always as
clean and pure as in this example.
FATHER & MOTHER
Now we come to the words "father"
and "mothers." In ordinary worldly language, these words refer to the
two people responsible for our having been born. But in the deeper language of
Dhamma, our "father" is ignorance (avijja) and our "mother"
is craving (tanha). They must be killed and gotten rid of completely. For
instance, the Buddha said:
"Matram pitram hantva
akatannusi brahmana."
"Be ungrateful. Kill the "father," kill the "mother",
and you will attain nibbana."
Our father, the one responsible for our birth, is
ignorance or not-knowing (avijja); our mother, the
other one responsible for our birth, is craving (tanha).
The words "father" and "mother" in Dhamma language were
given these higher meanings by the Buddha. So the "parents" - avijja
and tanha - have to be killed, destroyed
completely, for nibbana to be realized.
FRIEND
The word "friend" in worldly everyday
language refers to a companion, someone who does things that please one. But in
Dhamma language, "friend" or "companion" refers to the
Dhamma, and in particular to that aspect of the Dhamma that enables us to free
ourselves from dukkha. The Buddha specifically mentioned the Noble Eightfold
Path as humanity's supreme friend (kalyanamitta). In Dhamma language,
"friend" means the Noble Eightfold Path: right understanding, right
intention, and so on up to right concentration. This is what "friend"
means in Dhamma language.
ENEMY
An enemy in everyday language is someone whom we
hate and who is out to do us harm. But our enemy, as this word is understood in
Dhamma language, is our own misdirected mind. Our very own mind and the misuse
of it - that is our real enemy. The misdirected mind is our enemy, not someone
outside of ourselves. The enemy that the ordinary person has in mind is the
enemy of everyday worldly language. The enemy of Dhamma language is the
misdirected mind. The enemy exists any time that the mind is misdirected. It is
born in the mind and of the mind. With the mind well directed and fixed on
Dhamma, the enemy is absent and the friend is there instead.
PUTRIDNESS
Now, let us ask, what is "the putrid,
foul-smelling thing"? In everyday language it may be rotten fish or
something of the sort, but in Dhamma language it is something very different.
The Buddha referred to the mental defilements (kilesa)
as putrid, foul-smelling things. Excessive desire, self-centredness, and
obsession with the ideas of "me" and "mine" - these are
putrid, foul-smelling things.
All these words that we have considered are
nothing but perfectly ordinary words selected to demonstrate the difference
between everyday language and Dhamma language. If you think it over, you will
realize that this difference is the very reason that we fail to understand
Buddha-Dhamma. We don't understand this highest and most profound of teachings
simply because we don't know the language of Dhamma. We know only everyday
language and are unable to comprehend the language of the nobles ones (ariyans,
beings well advanced in the practice).
LAUGHTER
Consider, for example, laughter. The Buddha once
said, "Laughter is the behaviour of an infant in its cradle." Think
about it. We like to laugh heartily, even though it is the behaviour of an
infant in its cradle. It doesn't even embarrass us. We like it. We go right on
laughing heartily, guffawing loudly. Why did the Buddha say that "Laughter
is the behaviour of an infant in its cradle"? Think of an infant in its
cradle and the way it lies there gurgling and grinning at you.
The laughter of the noble ones is different. They
laugh at all compounded things (sankhara), which are impermanent and changing,
unsatisfactory (dukkha), and not-self. Because they know, they can laugh at
compounded things and at craving, which henceforth can do them no harm. This is
the right kind of laughter, the kind that has meaning and worth.
SINGING
Now consider singing. Singing, such as we hear on
the radio, is just like someone weeping. The ariyans put singing in the same
category as weeping. In singing, the actions of mouth, throat, vocal chords, and
tongue are just the same as they are in weeping. But if it is a real song, the
song of the noble ones, then it is a paean of joy at having seen the Dhamma. It
proclaims the Dhamma and it proclaims satisfaction in the Dhamma. The song of
the ariyans is a paean of joy proclaiming the Dhamma. This is true singing.
DANCING
Next, consider dancing, which is so popular.
People make a special effort to learn how to do it, and they get their sons and
daughters to learn it too. They spend a lot of money on it. The ariyans,
however, regard dancing as the antics of madmen. You can see for yourself how
closely dancing resembles the antics of madmen, if you just compare them. No
sane person would ever get up and dance! It has been calculated that a peson has
to be at least 15% mad in order to overcome his sense of shame to get up and
dance. So dancing is the antics of madmen.
The dancing of the ariyans is dhammanandi. They
"dance" and jeer at the defilements, proclaiming their liberation.
They are no longer bound hand and foot, arm and leg. Their limbs are free. They
can "dance" because they are not bound down by attachment. This is how
the noble ones dance.
BLINDNESS
Think it over. If we know only the language of
common people, we can't possibly understand this kind of talk. The wise person
says: "The birds see not the sky," and the foolish person doesn't
believe it. Why don't birds see the sky? Because they are flying in the sky. The
wise person says: "The fish see not the water," and again the foolish
person doesn't believe it. It never occurs to such people that fish living in
water cannot see the water because the fish are in such close contact with it.
They know nothing about water. Likewise, earthworms always burrowing in the
earth never see the earth. And the worms that live in a dung heap, that are born
and die in a dung heap, never see that dung heap.
Lastly, "humanity sees not the world."
People living and moving about in the world still do not see the world. If they
really saw the world, they certainly wouldn't stay stuck in it. They would be
sure to get free to the world and dwell with the Dhamma. People who are bogged
down in the world, like worms in a dung heap, know only worldly everyday
language. They don't know Dhamma language. The reason they don't know Dhamma
language is that they are stuck fast in the world like the worms in their dung
heap, the earthworms in the ground, the fish in the water, and the birds in the
sky. People don't know Dhamma language. Not knowing Dhamma language, they cannot
comprehend Dhamma.
WALKING NOWHERE
Here is a good example of Dhamma language:
"Walking, walking, and never arriving." The average person will not
grasp the meaning. Here "walking" refers to wanting something and
going off in search of it. "Never arriving" refers to peace, to
nibbana, which remains unattainable. Nibbana is attained by not wanting, not
desiring, not hoping, not yearning. So there is no need to walk at all; by not
walking, nibbana will be realized. Walking, walking, and never arriving.
Wanting, wanting, and never attaining. The more we want anything - want to get
this or that, want to be this or that - the more inaccessible it becomes. All we
must do is to give up wanting something and we get it in full, straight away.
SILENCE
In Dhamma language, it is said, "Talk is not
loud; silence is loud." This means that when the mind is well concentrated,
still and quiet, the voice of Dhamma will be heard. Again it is said,
"These things that can be talked about are not the real Dhamma; about the
real Dhamma nothing can be said." Everything that I have been saying in
this talk is still not really Dhamma, it is still not the actual thing. My words
are nothing more than an attempt to explain how to arrive at and understand the
real thing. The real thing cannot be discussed. The more we say about Dhamma,
the further it recedes from us. We can talk about only the method which will
guide us along, which will tell us what to do in order to arrive at the real
thing, the genuine Dhamma. So we must stop talking.
This being the case, we shall leave off our
comparison of everyday language and Dhamma language. I suggest you think it over
and decide whether or not you agree with me concerning our failure to understand
Dhamma. Some of us have been listening to sermons and lectures and expositions
of Dhamma for ten years, twenty years, thirty years, and more. Why is it, then,
that we still don't understand Dhamma, see Dhamma, penetrate Dhamma? The reason
we don't understand is simply that we don't listen in the right way. And why
don't we listen in the right way? Because we are familiar only with everyday
language and have no acquaintance with Dhamma language. We hear Dhamma language
and take it as being everyday language. We are just like those foolish people
who always take the word "emptiness" in its everyday sense, completely
miss the Dhamma sense, and then make all sorts of ridiculous assertions about
it.
Such are the unhappy consequences of not being
familiar with both everyday language and Dhamma language. People in this portion
have not got their wits about them. They lack discernment, the quality the
Buddha was referring to when he said:
Appamatto ubho atthe adhiganhati
pandito,
Ditthe dhamme ca yo attho, yo ca'ttho samparayiko.
Atthabhisamayadhiro pandito ti pavuccati.
The wise and heedful person is familiar with both
modes of speaking: the meaning seen by ordinary people and the meaning which
they can't understand. One who is fluent in the various modes of speaking is a
wise person.
