Seeing is a good word to describe the dawning of insight. Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte and#8220;Seeing with Insightand#8221; is from the fourth talk in Padmavjaraand#8217;s wonderful series on the Dhammapada, the most popular of early Buddhist texts. All of the Buddhaand#8217;s core teachings are here and#8211; held in heart and mind thereand#8217;s more than enough in the Dhammapada to take us as far in our practice as we can imagine, and then on beyondand#8230;
This material is intended for use with the Dharma Training Course for Mitras (see our and#8216;Studyand#8217; section, year three).
Talk recorded at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2007
The full talk, also titled and#8220;Seeing with Insightand#8220;, is part of the series The Dhammapada and#8211; the Buddhaand#8217;s Way of Truth.
[music] Dharma Vites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you and happy listening. [music] And obviously we need to do this with the right attitude. On the basis of a well-developed mind, a concentrated, expanded mind, bright with positive emotion, with meta and awareness, we look with that attitude. And then we can really see with truth, with insight. As the text says, we see with insight, we see with insight. It's not ordinary seeing, we see with insight. The word is "panya" and also translated as it can be translated as wisdom. And insight seeing a good word in a way to describe what the dawn of wisdom is like. When we see, when we see something, it's direct, it's unmediated. It's right there before us. We don't need any kind of words. It's a direct apprehension and wisdom is like that. It's not ideas about impairments. It's not words about impairments. We've used words. We've used reflection. But in the end, it's a direct, right, straight, direct communication of that truth. So the metaphor of sight and insight of seeing is very good to get over that unmediated quality. And insight, of course, is the opposite of blindness. Blindness is a synonym for unknowing for ignorance in Buddhist tradition. And when we open our eyes, when we wake up from sleep, sleep is another synonym for unknowing, for not seeing. The dawning of wisdom is like coming out of a dream into reality. But we also have to remember that the language of seeing and insight has its limitations. When wisdom dawns, it's not you looking at something over there. It's not you separated off considering impairment at all. Everything is important. And you look a little over here and that's over there. The realization of impermanence, insight into impermanence, is in you and around you. It's burned into your being. It pervades all experience. That's what the wisdom of impermanence is like. The wisdom of impermanence is impermanence becoming familiar to you as breathing. Keats, I think this is the phrase he uses, uses this phrase. It's the experience of, you know, involved in writing poetry. It's felt on the pulses. It's felt on the pulses. So that's, you know, the wisdom of impermanence. It's felt on the pulses. This might dawn slowly over time. It probably will mostly be like that as we apply ourselves. Gradually. But there might be just sudden breakthroughs, sudden seeds, you know, the classic cases, in a millirepours pot breaking. And he just sees impermanence and hails his pot, as his teacher. The teacher of the impermanence of all things. Obviously, that can happen through his concentrated attention on that subject. And when this realization dawns, the effect, as the verse has it, is to make one weary of suffering, weary of suffering. The word weary is a translation of the party, nibidah, which can also mean turning away, turning away, turning away from suffering. We suffer so much because we regard the impermanent as permanent. You know, we just keep, we just haven't really got it, but the impermanent is impermanent. We project permanence onto the impermanent. And that causes so much suffering and pain. You know, however much we might tell ourselves that all is impermanent. Emotionally, we still believe that things and we ourselves are permanent. And we build a life thinking, believing, feeling that things are going to last forever. And we form not just connections with things and people, but deep attachments and clings become very dependent for our happiness and well-being and meaning from having these things with these people, that person, which are essentially impermanent. And when they go, when they're taken from us, or when we have to leave them, that causes so much suffering, so much pain, so much grief, so much sorrow. So we need to start seeing the impermanent as impermanent. It's not that we should stop connecting and stop loving and stop living, but we need to do so in full awareness of the truth of impermanence. We love and live better and more truthfully when the truth of impermanence is being taken in. When we realize the truth of impermanence, we realize as well that we can transform ourselves, that there is no impediment to transformation. The text says seeing the truth of impermanence is the way to purity, the way to purity. We don't get caught up in impurity in states like greed and craving and anger. They just don't stick, they just don't stick, we've seen through all that. Realizing impermanence, if we could just see impermanence fully and completely, we enter the stream. We become a stream entrant. We enter the stream that just flows towards Nirvana, towards enlightenment. So there's a kind of paradox here. We sort of gain impermanence in our life. Permanence in the sense of we are entering the stream that only goes to the Nirvana. It's permanent not in the sense of a fixed state. We gain impermanence in terms of spiritual development. Paradoxically, when we wake up to the impermanence of all things, the Dharma becomes firmly fixed in us when we see impermanence. So if we want impermanence, if we want something reliable, paradoxically, we have to wake up to and really take on impermanence. We hope you enjoyed the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. And thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]
