Re: anatta and cetana (will, intention): Kamma negated?
Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 12:27 pm
Dear all,
An extract from discussions with AS:
An extract from discussions with AS:
Question: How to practice right understanding?
Achaan: Who is practicing and what is practicing?
Ans: The mind or nama is practicing
Achaan: Is seeing nama?
Ans: Yes, it belongs to nama.
Achaan: Not belong to, it is nama. So is seeing nama? Can seeing practice anything?
Ans: No, it can not.
Achaan: So what can? What do you mean by “practice”?
Ans: citta.
Achaan: Where is it?
Ans: At the six-sense doors
Achaan: Now? Once at a time.
Ans: Seeing, hearing etc…
Achaan: Can they practice?
Ans: No, cannot.
Achan: So what can?
Ans: panna.
Achaan: right. What does it mean, panna? What is it? Again, if we have a question, we have an answer. Where can we find panna? Can we have it right now? Without hearing, considering, can there be right understanding by your self, by your own thoughts?
Ans: No
Achaan: So, since we are just the listeners or the learners of the teaching of the Buddha, we should know how far apart is from the ordinary person to the Buddha him-self. It doesn’t mean that anyone can read and understand the teaching directly without considering carefully. So the Buddha taught about whatever appears now: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, thinking, hardness and visible object and sound. Is seeing real now? (Ans-yes), do we have to say it’s a dhamma or it’s a dhamma even if we don’t call it a dhamma?
Ans: No, no need to name it
Achaan: So now, you understand what dhamma is. Otherwise, one calls it dhamma dhamma, but doesn’t know what it is. And this is the difference between thinking by your self about dhamma, and studying it. So now, when anyone talks about dhamma, you know that that person understands dhamma or not. If he doesn’t talk about whatever is real and appears right now, he doesn’t talk about dhamma at all. And, what can be known and understood, not the one which has passed, or the one which hasn’t come yet, only what appears now. Are there many people in this room? (Ans: yes). What is seen now?
Ans: Intellectual understanding: visible object!
Achaan: Intellectual understanding is a step to direct understanding. Without understanding intellectually, there can not be direct understanding of realities as they are at all.