Truth

Tonight, we start our discussion of the second set of perfections, coming under the heading of truth. And we start with the perfection of truth itself.

We all desire truth, but we don’t start out with a disinterested desire for true information or truth in the abstract. Our desire for truth starts with our most basic response to pain, which, as the Buddha noted, is twofold: One, we’re bewildered as to why it’s happening. Two, we search for someone who might know how to put an end to the pain.

Think of a baby suffering from the sharp pains of indigestion. It has no idea what’s happening. All it knows is that it wants someone to come and help get rid of the pain. As we grow older, we gain more understanding, largely from what we’ve learned from other people, as to how to deal with pain. But our basic response is still the same: Why does there have to be pain to begin with? And is there anyone who can help us with the more complicated sufferings, not only of the body but also of the mind?

Our desire for truth comes from this combination of bewilderment and search. We’d like to find the reality of a true happiness, untainted by pain, a happiness that doesn’t disappoint us. From that desire, we search for people who are true in having done what it takes to gain genuine knowledge about how to put an end to pain, and who are willing to give us true information about what they’ve learned. As we mature, we want to be true in following the path set out by that true information. In other words, we turn our desire for truth into a determination to be true. This gives us three kinds of truth—the truth of a reality, the truth of perceptions and statements, and the truth of a person—all of which come under the perfection of truth.

This is reflected in the fact that the Pāli word for truth, sacca, has the same three meanings. First, there’s truth as a quality of the person. To begin with, a true person is someone who is honest and accountable: someone who realizes that actions have consequences, and is willing to take responsibility for what he or she has done. This was one of the qualities that the Buddha said he looked for in a student. As he said, “Bring me an observant person who is honest and no deceiver, and I will teach that person the Dhamma.” At the same time, a true person—motivated by the desire to put an end to suffering—will earnestly stick with the path to that goal, despite any hardships it may entail.

A person who is true in these ways will want to look for a teacher who is also true in these ways. If you’re earnest in wanting to put an end to suffering, you’ll want someone who has earnestly followed the path, and is truly reliable in judging the results of his or her own practice. People of integrity are most confident when they’re associating with other people of integrity.

This kind of truth—in which you are a true person: honest, reliable, accountable, and earnest—is a quality that is held to across the board throughout the practice.

The word “truth” can also apply to perceptions and to statements. In other words, you perceive Philippe as Philippe. That’s a true perception. You say, “Philippe is wearing a blue-grey jacket right now.” That, too, is also a truth: the truth of a statement.

Then there’s truth of a reality. For instance, whether or not we perceive this bowl as a bowl, it exists on its own and—at least for now—it has its own reality in existing as an object. In the Buddha’s teachings, this point particularly applies to nibbāna, which is a reality that’s always true.

So, there are three kinds of truth: the truth of a person, the truth of a perception or a statement, and the truth of a reality in and of itself.

The Buddha’s teachings contain a paradox around the issue of truth. On the one hand, truth is one of the perfections, and guarding the truth is one of the determinations. On the other hand, we’re sometimes told to learn how not to cling to our views of the truth. So, the question is: how to combine these two teachings in practice.

The paradox can be resolved when we note that these teachings apply to different aspects of truth. The issue of not clinging to truths applies primarily, one, to our perceptions and statements, and two, to the need to let go of all clingings, even clinging to the truth, in order to attain the truth of the ultimate fact of nibbāna at the end of the path.

With regard to perceptions and statements, you always try to make them true, but you have to realize that perceptions and statements have their limitations. Sometimes our perceptions can seem true when they’re not. Some statements may be true for some situations, but not for other situations. You always try to perceive and tell the truth, but there’s always the possibility that your perceptions—and the statements based on them—may be wrong. So, you have to realize that these truths have their limitations. This is why, when you decide to act on views you’ve formulated or picked up from others, you have to be careful to test them in your actions to see how true they actually are. In addition, you’ll find that there are some levels of the practice where one statement or set of instructions is true and useful, and another level of the practice where it’s no longer useful. On that level, you have to let that particular truth go.

As for letting go of all clinging to truth, regardless of the type, that comes only at the end of the practice. As long as there’s the slightest amount of clinging in the mind, it can’t reach the highest level of freedom. But to get to the point where we can let go of all truths, we have to deal skillfully with truths in the meantime.

To explain how we do that, the Buddha distinguishes truths in another way, based on the verb that’s appropriate for dealing with different kinds of truth: the truth

• as something you perceive;

• as something you tell;

• as something you guard;

• as something you awaken to and, in awakening to it, you go beyond it.

Perceiving, of course, relates to truths as perceptions. Telling relates to truths as statements. Guarding relates to how you recognize the sources and reasons for your perceptions and statements. But, as we’ll see, awakening to the truth involves all four kinds of truths—truths of a person, of perceptions, of statements, and the truths of facts or realities in and of themselves—before you let go of them all.

Let’s look in more detail at these four ways of relating to the truth.

• First, perceiving a truth: As a meditator, you try to make your perceptions as accurate as possible. This is especially important in mindfulness practice because you want to recognize what’s happening in the mind and in the body as it’s actually happening. For instance, you want to be able to recognize a hindrance as a hindrance. If something skillful arises in the mind, you want to perceive it as skillful. In that way, you can act appropriately with regard to such things as they happen. This is where truth as a perfection differs from truth as one of the virtues in the five precepts. When you’re telling the truth in line with the precepts, all you have to do is say, “This is how I perceive things.” If it turns out that the perception is wrong, you haven’t lied and you’ve maintained your virtue. But as you’re trying to develop the perfection of truth, you have to put your best effort to make sure your perceptions really are accurate.

• The second verb in your relationship to truth is that it’s something you tell. Here, the Buddha particularly emphasizes being accountable, in other words, truthful in how you report your own behavior, as when he was teaching his son Rāhula how to be observant and truthful. You may know the story. The Buddha comes to see Rāhula when the latter is a seven-year-old novice. Rāhula sets out a jar of water and a dipper, and the Buddha washes his feet with the water in the dipper. You get the impression that Rāhula may have told a lie that day, because that’s the very first thing the Buddha mentions to Rāhula: lying. He leaves a little bit of water in the dipper, shows it to Rāhula, and says, “Do you see how little water there is in this dipper?” Rāhula says, “Yes.” The Buddha says, “That’s how little goodness there is in a person who tells a deliberate lie and feels no shame.” Then the Buddha throws the water away and says, “Do you see how that water has been thrown away?” Rāhula says, “Yes.” The Buddha says, “That’s what happens to the goodness of a person who tells a deliberate lie with no sense of shame. It gets thrown away.” Then he shows him the dipper. “Do you see how empty this dipper is?” Rāhula says, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.” And the Buddha says, “That’s how empty you are of goodness if you tell a deliberate lie with no sense of shame.”

Then, after having established the importance of being truthful, the Buddha teaches the importance of being observant. In other words, he’s teaching Rāhula to be the ideal student: honest and observant. He says, “You should look at your actions as you would look at yourself in a mirror. Before you do something, ask yourself what you expect the consequences will be. If you foresee any harm, don’t do the action. If you don’t foresee any harm, go ahead and do it. While you’re doing the action, see what actual results are coming about. If you see that you’re causing harm, stop. If you don’t see any harm, go ahead and continue with the action. After the action is done, look at the long-term results of the action. If you see that you caused harm, go talk it over with someone who is more advanced on the path so that you can get some idea of what you might do the next time around to avoid causing harm. But if you don’t see that you caused any harm, you can take joy in the fact that your practice is improving, and continue on the path day and night.”

The important point here is that if you find that you’ve made a mistake, you talk it over with somebody, because this is how you learn. This is why we have the Saṅgha as a container for the practice, and why the Buddha said that having admirable friends is necessary for the practice. The only way you can take advantage of having that admirable friend is to be truthful in reporting your mistakes. If you hide your mistakes from other people, you start hiding them from yourself.

This is another aspect of truth—truth in telling statements—that the Buddha says to hold to, all the way along the path.

• The third verb that indicates how to relate to truth is that you should “guard” the truth. This has two meanings in the suttas.

In MN 140—the sutta that lists the four determinations—guarding the truth means attaining the truth of nibbāna and, by extension, everything you do along the path to reach that attainment. MN 95, however, breaks the path to nibbāna down into several steps related to the truth, with only the first step called “guarding the truth.” By that, it means that you’re very clear about where you get your perceptions and statements. As the Buddha said, sometimes we get our ideas simply from our own conviction or preferences. For example, you go online. If you like left-leaning cartoonists, you’ll go to the left-leaning cartoonists. If you like right-wing cartoonists, you’ll go to the right-wing cartoonists. You pick up their ideas because you like them. Sometimes you pick up an idea because you believe in a tradition; sometimes you reason through an idea and if it fits with things you already believe, you adopt it because it strikes you as reasonable.

Now, none of these approaches are adequate bases for knowing whether something is really true or not. This is one of the areas where you have to learn how not to be attached to your views. When you hold a particular view as a basis for your actions, you have to ask yourself, “Where did I get this view? Why did I accept it?” As you examine this issue, you begin to realize that many of the things you thought you knew are actually based on liking or belief. So, as you practice, it’s always important to keep this fact in mind, because you have to remember that there are a lot of things you don’t know about in the practice and in the world.

This doesn’t mean that you should take no position on things you don’t fully know. After all, to practice, you need to make assumptions and adopt working hypotheses about the nature and power of action in order to motivate yourself and to direct your practice, even though you don’t yet fully know the nature and power of action. You have to ask yourself, “What views are useful to adopt, and for what reason? And how can I train myself to develop true knowledge about these issues? Where do I start?”

One place to start is to learn how to observe the impact on your mind of adopting a particular view: what it will lead you to do. But here there’s a problem, because all too often we’re not very familiar even with our own minds. This is why we have to meditate: to learn how to observe when the mind is creating suffering and when it’s not. You look for the truth of suffering and all the other noble truths as facts in and of themselves. That’s how you move from guarding the truth to awakening to the truth.

• In MN 95, the Buddha describes many stages in the process of how you awaken to the truth.

You start by entering into what we would call a true relationship. You have to find a true person to be your teacher. How do you find a true person? You observe the person closely and ask yourself three questions: First, does this person have the sort of greed, aversion, or delusion that would make him claim to know something he doesn’t know? Second, does this person ever tell someone else to do something that would not be in that other person’s best interest? Third, is the Dhamma taught by this person the type that would require an observant person to realize it?

To find someone who passes that test requires, of course, that you have some truth in yourself, because as the Buddha says, true people can recognize true people, but a person who is not true can’t tell who’s true and who’s not. This places a lot of responsibility on you.

In this way, awakening to the truth starts with being a true person and looking for another true person to teach you.

Once you believe you’ve found such a person, then you enter into a true relationship with him or her. Listen to the Dhamma that that person teaches—using perceptions and statements—and then think it over until you decide that it seems beneficial and makes sense. That will give rise to a desire to practice. This is the desire you nurture to develop all the perfections, and this is how it’s nurtured: By finding an honest person whose Dhamma seems beneficial and makes sense.

The actual practice starts with your looking at your behavior and comparing it to the Dhamma. Wherever your behavior does not measure up, you try to bring it up to standard. This is a principle that the Buddha calls practicing the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma. In other words, you change your behavior to fit in with the Dhamma instead of trying to change the Dhamma to fit your preferences. This moves from the truth of statements and perceptions to the truth of a person.

Being true in this way will often require doing some things that you don’t like doing, and also relinquishing some things that you’d prefer to hold on to. As a true person, when you see that something needs to be done, you really do it. If something needs to be given up, you really give it up.

This is something that the Buddha himself said was one of his own characteristics: Once he’d given something up, he really gave it up and would never pick it up again. You probably know the story. The Buddha left many hints for Ven. Ānanda to invite him to continue living for a longer time, but Ānanda kept missing the hints, until finally the Buddha decided, “Okay, I’m going to give up my will to live longer.” There was an earthquake, so Ānanda came to see the Buddha and asked, “Why the earthquake?” And the Buddha informed him, “I’ve given up my will to live longer.” Ānanda said, “Could you please change your mind and decide to live longer?” The Buddha replied, “If there’s something I’ve given up, I’ve really given it up. I can’t take it back.”

So, you awaken to the truth by being true in giving up the things that need to be given up, and in doing the things that need to be done. You follow the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma, and in that way you arrive at the truth of the end of suffering.

At this point, the Dhamma you’ve attained is a reality. It’s no longer statements; it’s no longer perceptions. Nibbāna is a truth in and of itself. It’s a fact. Once you’ve arrived there, you can let go of all the right views and other things that you developed leading up to that point that got you there. In fact, you have to let them go. Otherwise, you can’t reach the full awakening that comes from having no clinging at all.

So, when we’re told not to be attached to views, it has two meanings. One is realizing that many of the statements and perceptions you assume to be true are based on your preferences and on information that may or may not be true. Those are areas where you have to maintain a measure of detachment from your views. Even with your right views, you have to realize that there may be things that you don’t yet really know—especially about when and how they should be applied. Your right views still have to be tested by trying to develop all the factors of the path until, by following them, you arrive at the reality of the end of suffering.

There’s an example in the Canon. A man once came to see the Buddha and was very impressed. He went back and told a friend, “You know, that Buddha: He really is awakened.” The friend said, “Why do you think that?” And the man said, “Well, I see these people coming to argue with the Buddha, and even before they open their mouths they get converted. It’s like coming across large elephant footprints in a forest and knowing, ‘This must be a bull elephant.’” Impressed, the friend responded, “Gee, I’d really like to meet the Buddha some day.”

He goes to see the Buddha and tells him what the first man said. The Buddha says, “Actually, that’s not the right use of the elephant footprint simile.” Then he explained the proper use of the simile, saying, “Suppose an experienced elephant hunter goes into the forest. He wants a bull elephant because he needs a big bull elephant to do some heavy work. He sees some big elephant footprints, but because he’s an experienced hunter, he doesn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that these must be the footprints of a big bull elephant. Why is that? Because sometimes there are dwarf females with big feet. But the prints look likely, so he follows them. He sees some scratch marks up in the trees. But still he doesn’t jump to the conclusion that these must be scratch marks left by the tusks of a big bull elephant. Why is that? Sometimes there are tall females with tusks. Still, the marks look likely, so he follows them. Finally he comes across a big clearing, and there in the clearing is a big bull elephant. That’s when he knows he’s got the elephant he wants.”

“So,” the Buddha says, “in the same way, when you’re practicing and you gain the different levels of concentration, it’s like seeing the footprints of the elephant. Even if you gain different psychic powers, they’re like scratch marks on the trees. Only when you have a direct experience of the deathless do you know that you’ve got the bull elephant you want.” In other words, only when you gain your first taste of awakening do you know for sure that the Buddha was truly awakened, that awakening is really a fact, and that the perceptions and statements the Buddha employed to teach about awakening and how to get there are really true.

What this means is that, as we’re practicing, we’re going by the strength of our conviction. This conviction becomes knowledge only with awakening. So, as long as we’re still on the path, we should always be open to the fact that there is more to learn. As I said earlier, this is why right views are called right views, rather than right knowledge. We remember that they’re working hypotheses we adopt for the sake of the practice, but we don’t yet know them for sure. This is one way in which we’re not attached to our views. They seem to make sense and they’re worth putting into practice because of the good actions they inspire, but we realize that there’s always more to learn. We adopt them for the sake of our own happiness, so there’s no need for us to impose them on others.

Only when you’ve attained awakening do you have the reality. At that point, perceptions and statements don’t have that much importance to you, because you’ve found the true fact they were aiming at. And to fully experience that truth, you have to let go of the views that got you there. In fact, you have to be careful not to cling even to the reality of awakening if you want to fully attain it. You have to let go of everything. But don’t worry, you won’t be left adrift. The reality of awakening isn’t something that has to be fabricated or maintained. You don’t have to cling to it to keep it going. It’s there on its own, independent of conditions, to be experienced only when the mind is totally free of clinging. This is the second way in which you have to learn not to cling to the truth.

But as we practice, even though we should always be willing to admit that there’s more for us to learn, we have to work with a sense that there is a right and a wrong way of practicing, and a right and a wrong way of understanding the practice. In other words, you can’t say, “I’m just going to be beyond views and not have any opinions.” You have to remember that the Buddha’s truths have an attha, a purpose, and you need to use each truth for the purpose for which it was intended if you want to get the most out of it.

In simple terms, this means you need to know how a truth is to be used in giving guidance in what is correct to do and what’s not correct to do. At the same time, you also have to be true in being willing to keep looking at the results of your actions and to learn from them, to admit a mistake when you’ve caused harm.

One way in which this is particularly important is that some truths may be useful for certain parts of the practice but not useful for others. For example, we may have heard that the teachings on the three characteristics talk about how things are inconstant, stressful, and not-self. First, though, it’s important to know that the Buddha never called these three “characteristics.” He called them “perceptions,” and the important point about them as perceptions is knowing when to apply them and when not.

For example, when you’re practicing the precepts, you don’t say, “Oh, my actions are inconstant, stressful, and not-self, so I don’t have to be responsible.” You have to hold on to the precepts. You apply the perceptions of inconstancy, stress, and not-self to the things that would induce you to break the precepts. Similarly, when you practice concentration: You’re trying to give rise to a state of mind that’s constant, easeful, and is under your control, which means that you’re actually fighting against the three perceptions. You apply the three perceptions only to things that would pull you out of concentration, things like sensual desire and ill will. Only after you’ve totally developed the path do you apply these perceptions to everything, to let go of everything—including the three perceptions themselves.

This fits in with what the Buddha said about his own statements, which is that they would always be true. However, even if something was true but not beneficial, he wouldn’t talk about it. And even if it was true and beneficial but it was not the right time, he wouldn’t talk about it. In the same way, when we’re applying his teachings, we have to ask, “Is this true? Is it beneficial for me? And is this the right time for me?” If you apply these standards to the teachings, that’s one of the ways in which you guard the truth and develop the perfection of truth at the same time. That will help you to awaken to the truth, which is not about perceptions, not about words, but is an independent reality in and of itself.

Now, that reality is always there, regardless of whether we find it or not. Similarly, the statements and perceptions have their truth regardless of how clearly we realize that truth. Where we make a difference is in always telling the truth, always trying to perceive the truth, and in always being true: earnest and accountable. The more true we are in applying ourselves to the practice and observing the results, adjusting our actions to make them more and more harmless, the closer we come to understanding the truth of the Buddha’s perceptions and statements, and the closer we come to the reality we want: unconditioned happiness. If we don’t want to be true in our actions and in observing their results, we won’t know who else is true, we won’t be able to test the truth of their statements—and we may be content to let them lie to us when they tell us that the path to true happiness doesn’t require effort, honesty, or strong powers of self-observation. Remember that in testing the teachings, you’re also testing yourself. And the more true you are with yourself, the more likely you are to find the truth in the teaching.

To summarize, of all the forms of truth, the most important ones to hold on to are to tell the truth and to be true. Those forms of truth will enable us to know the other forms of truth, and to reach the genuine reality of unconditioned happiness. When we find that happiness—and only then—our desire for truth will be fully satisfied.

Questions

Q: Your teaching says in a simple way that I need to develop good qualities so as to be able to recognize bad qualities in an instructor or someone else, with which I totally agree. On the other side, I’ve heard that if I identify bad qualities in other people, it means that I must have these bad qualities in myself and I should work on that, with which I partially agree.

A: That’s not always the case. If you used to kill and then you stop killing, you can still identify who’s killing, and the same applies to other qualities in the mind. It’s not the case that we’re not allowed to judge people. We have to be able to pass some judgment on whom we can trust and whom we cannot trust. We’re not passing final judgment on the person, but we do have to judge whether this is a person we can trust or not. As the Buddha said, the most important external factor in making progress in the Dhamma is admirable friendship, so you have to be able to judge who’s an admirable friend and who’s not. There’s an article called “The Power of Judgment” on the website dhammatalks.org that deals with this issue in detail.

Q: The last words of the teaching on sacca, or truth, lead me back to a question I often have, which is: The choices I make about my spiritual path, the strategies I apply—are they appropriate? Are they judicious? Since the truth can be valid on some levels and not valid on other levels of the path, am I simply following my preferences? Of course, it depends on discernment, but are there also other qualities? It’s been mentioned that one has to know where one is on the path in order to practice in accordance with that level, but it’s not so easy to be clear on this subject. As Ajaan Chah would say, “It is sure but not certain.” Of course, it has to do with the views that we have about ourselves and the profound intentions concerning others. It seems to me that on such a matter, a mistaken evaluation can have heavy consequences.

A: There are two qualities that help protect you on the path, and those are the two qualities that, as I said, the Buddha looked for in any student: one, that you be observant; and two, that you be honest. Now, this also includes being honest with yourself. And as I mentioned in the discussion of the Buddha’s teachings to Rāhula, what’s important is that you test any teaching by putting it into practice. You look at your intentions for adopting the teaching, and then you also look at the results that come about when you put it into practice. As long as you’re operating on what you see as good intentions and you apply this training in being more honest with looking at your intentions and at the results of your actions, that will help keep you on the path.

Think of Ajaan Mun as an example. He was off in the forest alone. Sometimes, while meditating, he would have visions of devas coming to him with teachings. If he had believed everything they said, he would have gone crazy. As he told his students, no matter who or what the teaching comes from, what matters is: If you put it to the test, what happens as a result? That way of testing the teachings was what got him on the right path and kept him there. So, your own honesty about your intentions and the results of your actions is what protects you.