In Context (outdoors)

One of the principles in practicing and learning the Dhamma is that we have to think it through. We don’t just accept things. We don’t leave paradoxes or inconsistencies unexplored.

I was reading about a Buddhist teacher recently who was responding to a student who had complained that the teacher’s teachings didn’t fit together, that they were inconsistent. The teacher said, “Well, that’s because the truth is paradoxical. If something is paradoxical, you know it’s true.” Which wasn’t what the Buddha said. He said that if you learn something new, you have to fit it in with what you already know of the Dhamma and see where it does and doesn’t fit in. If it doesn’t fit in with the basic principles of the Dhamma, you have to question your interpretation or just put the whole thing aside.

Case in point: We’re here practicing concentration, trying to get the mind to settle down, stay with one object, the breath. That requires thinking, it requires an intention, it requires a sense that you’re going to benefit from this—and also, a sense that you’re competent to do this. After all, concentration is something you do. The whole path is something you do.

But some people have complained. They say, “Thinking that you’re going to benefit from your doing something requires a sense of self. We’re told that having a sense of self makes you suffer, so if concentration requires a sense of self, a sense that you’re doing it and going to benefit from it, maybe you shouldn’t do it at all. Maybe let it happen if it does happen, but don’t try to force it to happen if it won’t.”

But that’s getting the basic principles mixed up. When you think about the Dhamma, you have to remember what comes first and what comes after. In this case, the Buddha’s very first teaching was about the noble eightfold path. And part of the path is the four noble truths. Each of those truths entails a duty.

The truth that suffering is clinging is something you should try to comprehend. Try to comprehend the suffering itself in the act of the clinging.

The cause of suffering, craving, is something you should try to abandon.

The cessation of suffering, which comes with the cessation of craving, is something you want to realize.

And the path is something to develop.

Those are the basic principles.

Then there’s the question of what they call the three characteristics or, more accurately, the three perceptions: the principle that everything that’s a product of intentions is inconstant and stressful, and all experiences in the six senses are not self.

But that teaching the Buddha never described as categorical. He did say that the four noble truths were categorical—in other words, true and beneficial across the board, everywhere, always. The implication there is that those are the basic truths that should form the context. Then the question with regard to those three perceptions is: Where do they fit in with the four noble truths?

The answer is they fit in with the duties of trying to comprehend suffering and abandon craving. You have to understand that the things you crave are not going to provide you with the satisfaction you want. To emphasize that point, you learn to see their aspect as being inconstant. In other words, they’re not dependable. They change up and down, in and out.

Because they’re so inconstant, they are stressful. If you try to find happiness there, it’s like trying to sit in a chair where the legs are not all strong. You have to tense up to make sure the chair doesn’t tip over.

And if something is inconstant and stressful, is it worth calling it yourself? You have the choice of creating a sense of self around that or not. You decide it’s not worth it. That’s a value judgment. That’s how you let go. That’s how you abandon the craving.

So the context is the four noble truths and the duties appropriate to them. The three perceptions fit into that context.

That means that if the duties of the truths require a sense of self to develop concentration, well you develop that sense of self. The Buddha talks about the self as its own mainstay, the self as a governing principle in your life—in other words, the sense that you really do love yourself. You came to this path because you wanted to put an end to suffering, so you don’t want to give up.

So sometimes it is good to create a sense of self. Eventually you let go of that sense of self when you’ve found the goal. After all, even not-self is a perception. When you let go of all perceptions, you have to let go of that, too. But in the meantime, you learn how to use these perceptions wisely in line with the proper time, the proper place.

So right now, as you’re trying to get the mind into concentration, you don’t just let it wander around wherever it wants to. You give it a topic, like the breath. As for any other thoughts that come up, you just tell yourself, “I don’t have to identify with those thoughts.” They can be not-self.

Kearn how to use these concepts in context. Learn to use them at the right time, the right place, and they won’t bite you.

The Buddha talks about the Dhamma as being like a snake. You want to catch the snake to get its venom to use as an anti-venom, yet you have to know how to catch it. If you catch it by the tail, it’ll turn around and bite you. But if you take a forked stick and pin the snake down right at its neck, then you can get the venom out of it as you like, and then let it go.

In the same way, you learn how to use the Dhamma at the right time, at the right place. That way you benefit. Then you can let it go.

This is why it’s good to think about the Dhamma. And when you’re thinking about the Dhamma, you have to remember, as the Buddha said, that all he taught was suffering and stress, dukkha, and then the end of suffering and stress.

So any other teaching you may run across, you ask yourself, “How does this fit into understanding suffering? How does it fit into developing the path to the end of suffering?” Use whatever concepts, whatever strategies, whatever techniques fit in with that main framework. That’s how you think about the Dhamma in the most productive way.