Independent of the World
August 28, 2024

There’s a Romantic idea that’s made its way into Buddhist circles that the root of evil is the sense of a separate, independent self; that somehow if we learn to appreciate our inter-connections, we’ll treat one another well.

But just because we’re interconnected doesn’t mean we’ll have compassion for one another. Interconnection can also include oppression, people abusing one another. And when you look at the world outside, you see that there are a lot of things in the world that you don’t want to be connected to.

The Buddha actually said that the essence of discernment is to see things as separate.

And it’s important to have a sense of your own separate independent goodness, your own determination that regardless of what the world is like, you’re going to do what’s skillful—which means you can’t let your goodness depend on the world.

Think of the Buddha’s instructions on how to deal with other people who are doing things that are unskillful. On the one hand, you’ll look for what they’re doing that’s skillful and you focus on that. For what reason? To make it easier to treat them well. If you find someone who has no good qualities at all, then the Buddha says to think of them as someone you find lying on the side of the road in the desert—sick, thirsty, hungry. No matter who that person is, no matter what their background, you have to feel sorry for them. So again, you have to learn to think in a way that maintains your own independent goodness.

Think of the Buddha himself: Who told him to become Buddha? It was his own aspiration, it was his own independent decision that that was what he wanted to do. He kept on developing his perfections regardless of what was going on around him. No matter how difficult it was, no matter how much other people tried to discourage him, he was able to maintain his determination.

So as we live in this world of ours—where everywhere you look, they’re planning war; they’re saying that health care and all the other services that we used to provide to people are a needless luxury; where people’s attitudes toward gratitude and goodness, in general, put goodness in quotes—you realize that if you want to survive, if you want your goodness to survive in this world, you have to have an independent source inside.

This is why we take refuge. We have the example of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. The word ‘refuge’—sarana—means not only something you take refuge in but also something you remember, something you keep in mind.

This is one of the lessons of your inner teacher: You keep in mind the perspective of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, that it is possible to live in this world in a way that’s wise, compassionate, and pure; and that you do that by being wise, compassionate, and pure in your pursuit of happiness.

You realize you’re going to have to depend on yourself in a lot of ways. We have their example. But what is their example? Their example is that you have to find inner resources—and when you find them, they can be developed.

The Buddha was not the sort of person to discourage you, telling you that you can’t do things on your own. As he said, if it weren’t possible for people to develop skillful qualities and abandon unskillful ones, he wouldn’t teach them to develop skillful qualities and abandon unskillful ones. But because we can do it, that’s why he taught.

Think of the verbs that the Canon uses to describe his style of teaching: There’s informing, but there’s also exhorting. There’s instructing and there’s also rousing, urging, and encouraging—basically, telling you: This is what you can to do to be skillful, that you can do it, and there are good reasons for wanting to do it. So try to develop your fighting spirit and learn to cultivate it from within.

Ajaan Fuang used to like to say, “Nobody hired us to practice.” So it’s up to us to decide that this is what we want to do—and we maintain the determination to stick with it.

Now, because we have many desires going in conflicting directions, we need to have an overriding desire: the desire for discernment, the desire for truth, the desire for relinquishment—in other words, letting go of whatever is holding us back—and the desire for calm.

Nibbana is supposed to embody those four qualities.

The discernment that frees you from your defilements is the highest noble discernment. Nibbana itself, which is totally undeceptive, is the highest noble truth. The discernment that allows you to let go of your greed, aversion, and delusion is the highest form of relinquishment. And, of course, the calm, the satisfaction, the sense of peace and security that come with attaining nibbana is the highest noble calm.

So we desire these things. But in desiring them, we don’t just wait for them to come at the end of the path. We try to cultivate these qualities as part of our practice all along the way.

The discernment that looks at things in the long term—it’s one of the main things your inner teacher has to teach you: that whatever you’re going to say and think, you’ve got to stop and think, “What are the long-term consequences of this going to be?”

Whether you like to do something or don’t like to do something is not the issue. The issue is: Will it lead to long-term welfare and happiness or long-term harm? That’s something you’ve to keep in mind all the time.

This is why we work on mindfulness—the ability to remember things that are valuable. It’s so easy in this world of short-term gain, short-term, short sighted goals to forget the long term. So we have to rely on ourselves to keep remembering the long term. Remember, also, that for the Buddha, the long-term is quite long.

I was listening to a Dhamma teacher—quote-unquote—saying the other day that there are a lot of ways you can abuse the teaching on rebirth, so it’s best not to adopt it. But then there are many more ways you can abuse the teaching that there is no rebirth. It’s very easy to say, “Well, I’ll just do anything to get by. I’m going to die and be annihilated anyhow, so I’ll grab what I can while I can.” There’s a lot of that kind of thinking in the world. The world is very short-sighted—so you have to be long-sighted.

As for truth, make it a point of honor that you have good values and you’re going to stick with them, no matter what, no matter what the temptation is to abandon them.

Relinquishment: We live in a world where they say whoever dies with the most toys wins. Well, what do you win? As you accumulate, pile things up, what qualities of mind are you developing? The mind is a lot stronger when it doesn’t have to depend on things outside being a certain way. That means learning to let go of the things that are not necessary. The lighter you are inside, the better off you are. The wealthier the mind will be in terms of its good qualities inside.

Think of Ven. Bhaddiya, the former king, sitting under a tree, now that he was a monk, saying, “What bliss! What bliss!” The other monks were concerned—maybe he was thinking back about the days when he was a king. So they went to see the Buddha.

I’m sure the Buddha knew what Bhaddiya was thinking and he wanted to give him a chance to say it out loud, in front of the community. So he called him in and said, “What were you thinking when you said. ‘What bliss! What bliss!’?”

Bhaddiya replied, “Back when I was a king, with all the wealth and power I had, still I couldn’t sleep at night. Even though I had guards inside the palace and out, inside the capital city and out, inside the countryside and out, I couldn’t sleep comfortably at night. But now I live off gifts from other people, what other people voluntarily give. And my mind is free like a wild deer.”

So learn to see that relinquishment is a good thing. Giving up is a good thing. It’s a form of wealth.

And finally, calm: As the Buddha said, “There really is no happiness other than peace.” Of course, he’s talking about the happiness of the mind, the peace of the mind. When you find something that doesn’t change, that doesn’t disappoint, that’s not going to let you down—that’s when the mind can finally let go, put down the burden of its efforts and simply enjoy the reward.

You can see these determinations don’t necessarily fall in line with the values of the world.

The Dhamma looks for the long-term consequences and sees the long-term consequences being defined by the quality of your intentions—the intentions that you act on. The world goes for the short-term, the quick fix.

As for truthfulness, well, look around: How much truthfulness are you going to find in the media? How much truthfulness are you going to find in most of our institutions? Very little. People who do good are criticized. People who do all sorts of bad things are praised.

As for relinquishment: The world’s attitude is, “The more you gain, the better.” But the Buddha says, “The more you’re able to let go, the wealthier you are.”

And the world is certainly not interested in calm. It keeps looking for new excitements, new distractions all the time.

So you’re going to have to develop values that go against the values of the world. This is what your inner teacher has to keep reminding you. So try to develop that voice inside.

Listening to the Dhamma, thinking about the Dhamma, putting the Dhamma into practice: That’s how your teacher gets trained, particularly by putting the Dhamma into practice. You can think about the Dhamma and listen to it, but if it doesn’t show its benefits in your life, it’s just going to be words.

Ajaan Lee compares it to a recipe for medicine. If it’s written on a little piece of paper and if you haven’t actually tried the medicine to see what diseases it can cure, it just becomes an old scrap of paper—something very easy to throw away.

But if you’ve tried the medicine, learned that it works, you’re going to treasure that little piece of paper and make sure it doesn’t get lost.

So strengthen your mindfulness—your inner teacher—through the practice of alertness and ardency, trying to do what’s skillful. And then be mindful to keep in mind the lessons you’ve learned—realizing that the values of the world are one thing, but the values that lead to your true well-being are something totally other.

You have to develop them independently. There are people who will help, but you’re the one who has to do the work.

And for all of us, as we do the work, when we meet with the results, they’re entirely inward, entirely personal, in a place where no one else can touch—which is why they’re secure.

So develop a strong independent self, a wise independent self—and that’s how you’ll truly survive.