You Can Do Better

As I mentioned the other day, there’s a sutta where the Buddha compares the noble eightfold path to a chariot, and the different factors of the path to different parts of a chariot. A lot of the comparisons don’t mean much to us because we don’t know much about chariots. We’re not familiar with them. But there are some ways in which chariots are like cars or trucks, and some of the parts of the chariots are like parts of a car or a truck. There the comparisons are really interesting.

As he noted then, mindfulness is the driver, watching over things, directing the chariot in the right direction.

Another interesting comparison is the horses, which can be compared to the engine of a car. There are two of them. One is conviction; the other is discernment. These are the things that pull your practice along.

It’s easy to see how conviction would play that role. Belief that the teachings are true pulls you to practice.

It’s interesting that discernment is also pulling you to practice. It’s the power that gets the whole thing going. In other words, you think about what the Buddha said about right view: that it is possible to put an end to suffering, and there’s a path that you can follow. He lays it out.

Those are not just interesting facts, like the moons of Jupiter or the structure of an atom. Those are facts you can do something with, and they contain an imperative. Remember, the four noble truths don’t just sit there. They have duties.

The duty with regard to suffering itself, if you really want to put an end to it, is to comprehend it, to see how the desire and passion of clinging, focused on the aggregates, is what actually constitutes suffering.

You want to comprehend that, because most of the times when we’re suffering, we’re not thinking in terms of, “Gee, I’m clinging to my aggregates.” You’re thinking about, “Why is this suffering attacking me? Why is that person doing that to me? Why are the conditions of the world like this?”

Even if we are upset about the conditions of the world—and they are pretty upsetting—our suffering has nothing to do with them. It has all to do with our clinging to aggregates. So, you want to see that. You want to comprehend how that’s the case.

Then there’s the origination of suffering. The word “origination” doesn’t mean just cause; it means a cause coming from within the mind. That’s to be abandoned.

Here again, it’s desire and passion, in other words, craving: craving for sensuality—your fascination with sensual thoughts, sensual fantasies; craving for becoming—wanting to take on an identity in a world of experience so that you can get something you want from within that world; and craving for non-becoming—the times when you’d prefer to be obliterated or that the world be obliterated. These things you want to abandon.

When you abandon them, that puts an end to suffering. You want to realize that, and you realize that by developing the path.

So, discernment does more than tell us that this is this and that is that, which a lot of times it seems to be. Especially when you get into the Abhidhamma, it seems to be all about identifying different mind states, being able to label things correctly. Discernment tells you more. It tells you what good things you can do with this or that. For instance, in the four noble truths, the Buddha is basically saying, “Here you’re suffering, but you don’t have to. There’s something better—and you can do better.”

That’s what pulls you along as you practice. Without that, the practice just sits there. You’ve got a chariot, but it doesn’t go anywhere.

But discernment tells you that “Yes, things can be better, and I can make myself better. I can do better.”

Your conviction then puts more oomph into that. Not only is there a better way to act, but you also feel that “Yes, I can do this. I have it within me, and it’s worth putting out that effort.” Those are the things that drive your practice along.

We see the active side of discernment in lots of different places, as in right resolve. After you’ve gotten a good sense of right view, you have the resolve that “I want to do the things that will put an end to suffering.”

So, instead of resolving on sensuality, you resolve on renunciation.

Renunciation doesn’t mean just giving up. It means making a trade. You’re going to find a happiness that doesn’t have to depend on sensuality. That’s what we’re doing as we meditate.

I was reading a while back someone complaining about the idea that we’re going to get a sense of physical pleasure out of concentration. He said that you have to be very careful because if it gets really strong, you’re going to get attached. He said the physical pleasure of concentration comes from tactile sensations, which means it’s a sensual pleasure. Wanting it is craving for sensuality.

Well, the pleasure of concentration is not sensual. It has to do with the form of the body as you feel it from within. It’s a higher type of pleasure. And unlike sensual pleasures, it’s not intoxicating. It can be very addictive—but as Ajaan Fuang said, that’s all to the good. Get crazy about your meditation. Get really stuck on your meditation, because only when you’re really into it can it take you someplace away from sensuality.

Then you can pry yourself loose from the concentration itself. But if you’re afraid to really get into it, really enjoy it, you’re never going to get anywhere.

So, resolve on finding your happiness in renouncing sensuality and exploring the sense of well-being you can develop here inside the body, starting with the way you breathe.

Then you resolve on what the Buddha says is non-ill will, which can mean everything from goodwill to equanimity.

Then you resolve on harmlessness, which is basically resolving on compassion.

So, there you’ve got all the brahmaviharas.

Basically, with right resolve, you’re setting yourself up for right concentration. You realize that if you really want to put an end to the suffering, this is where you’ve got to do it: getting the mind into concentration and keeping it there.

In that image of the chariot, concentration is the axle around which the wheels of right effort revolve.

So, discernment does have its active aspect. It’s pulling you someplace. Right view tries to shake you up and say, “Hey, the way you’ve been living your life is not satisfactory. There’s a much better happiness, and you can do better.” When you adopt that view through conviction and through your own discernment as you develop it in the practice, you can pull yourself in a much better direction.

Ajaan Suwat tells the story of when he was with Ajaan Funn. One day when they were in the sala, a woman who lived in a village nearby came and complained about how poor she was: “I’m just a poor person,” over and over and over again. Ajaan Funn said, “Well, you don’t have to be. There are things you can do to pull yourself out.” “No, I’m just a poor person,” she kept saying. And as Ajaan Suwat pointed out to me, he had been born a poor person too, but he didn’t stay that way.

This gives you a sense of what the forest tradition meant for the people of the Northeast: that they could make something better out of themselves. Think about Ajaan Lee. Orphaned at an early age, he wants to ordain, wants to get a little bit of merit, gets depressed on seeing that the monastery where he’s living doesn’t really abide by the Vinaya. When a forest monk comes through the area, he immediately latches on to this opportunity. This is what the Dhamma means: There’s something better, and here’s the opening.

So let that thought pull you along. You can do better. And it will be better when you do better. In other words, it’s worth all the effort that goes into it. The results will be good. That’s what drives our practice, what gives power to the practice, so that when your concentration isn’t good, you don’t just say, “Well, I guess this is as good as it can be. I can learn how to accept it and not get more worked up about it.” Instead, you tell yourself, “There must be something better. I must be missing something.” Usually it’s so obvious, once you see it, that you’d be embarrassed not to try to see it.

Let that thought pull you along. When you get stuck on concentration, and there’s a lazy part of the mind that says, “Well, this is good enough, I might as well just hang out here,” right view is there to tell you, “No, there’s something better.”

This is why those perceptions of inconstancy, stress, and not-self work. They’re basically saying, “This is not worth hanging on to, what you’ve got here. It’s got all these drawbacks.”

If you don’t believe that there is the third noble truth—i.e., the cessation of suffering, absolute cessation of suffering, that comes from letting go of craving—it’s all too easy to tell yourself, “Well, there’s nothing better than what I’ve got right now, so I might as well just accept it.” In a case like that, those perceptions don’t work.

But if you have the concept that “Yes, there is an end to suffering, and I’m suffering because I’m hanging on to these things when I don’t have to. How can I find a way not to hang on?” that thought drives you along.

So let conviction and discernment be your power train to make sure that your practice keeps getting better and better all the time.