Amatha Gavesi

19. Consciousness and Suffering By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: 1994 Venerable Bhikkhus, brothers and sisters, the subject of the discourse today is; Consciousness is Dukkha, suffering.  Consciousness is the cause of suffering. Cessation of consciousness is the cessation of suffering. And the path leading to the cessation of suffering is the path leading to the cessation of consciousness. You are aware having learned Dhamma up to now, that the formation of activities committed by the 6 sense bases are by creation of thoughts. In the creation of a thought, you are aware though the sense base and the object that has attract the sense base get together, the third part that appears is the consciousness. From there onwards, the entire operation in the way of seeing or hearing or smelling or tasting or contacting or thinking, the 6 functions perform by the 6 sense bases are all done as a result of  a thought created by the consciousness. It is the thought created in you that you are able to see. It is as a result of a thought created in you that you are able to hear. It is a result of a thought created in you that you are able to smell. It’s a thought created in you that you are able to taste things. It’s a thought…

18. Karma By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: 1994 Venerable Bhikkhus, brothers and sisters, the subject of the discourse is Karma. Buddha defines karma as ‘cetanāham bhikkhave kammam vadāmi’, as a volition one create before the act of karma is created. That is your state of mind that make you to commit the act. That is important in karma and that state of mind is called Volition. Volition can be weak can be strong. Volition becomes weak when it is mixed up with adverse feelings like anger or attachment, even ignorance. Therefore if you commit a good karma, very effective forceful karma, the 3 qualities such karma should possess are; volition is pure, there is no aversion to any person as such in the commission of that act, there is no attachment to anything, it’s a pure volitional act. Such an act gives you very forceful result. There are 5 types of karma which are heinous so to say, acts committed for which you have to subject yourself to suffering in that birth itself. Those 5 acts are; causing a bleeding injury on Buddha, killing an Arahat, killing your father and mother and cause a dissension among the bhikkhu order. These 5 acts are supposed to be classified as heinous crime which if one commits will have to suffer in that…

17. Five Grasping Groups By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: 1994 Venerable Bhikkhus, brothers and sisters, the subject to the discourse today – the 5 aggregates.  In another word  – the 5 grasping groups. This is a difficult subject for one to understand.  No clear definition of the 5 grasping groups have been given anywhere to cover the entire subject, but there are certain references.  And one such reference appears in the Maha-hatthipadopama Sutta, The Big Footprint of the Elephant, in the main discourses. We have to have proper understanding how a thought is created, if one is going to have a clear understanding of the 5 grasping groups.  Because these 5 groups are closely associated with the thought created.  Thoughts are created at 6 places or connected with 6 things sure to say.  They are, the visual object that attract the eyes; then of course experience noises of sound through the ear; smells through the nose; taste through the tongue; contact through the body and mental objects through the mind.  These are the 6 places connected which the thoughts are created.  The creation of a thought and the various factors that contribute to create the thought has a part to play in the 5 grasping groups. Therefore one has to have a very clear notion how a thought is created. …

15. The All and Desire By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: 1994 Venerable Bhikkhus, brothers and sisters, Buddha said, this is everything. What is everything?  Your eyes, your ears, your nose, your tongue, your body and your mind, this is everything.  And Buddha further said if there is any person who says that there is more than these in this world, he said it is just careless use of words only. Because there is nothing beyond this in the world, that is your eyes, your nose, your ears, your tongue, your body and mind. I think we have explained the part played by these 6 sense bases to you earlier. The experience you go through them in the way of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, contacting and thinking are all that you can do.  And if I ask a question, is there anything more than that in this world? Anything more than what you see? Anything more than what you hear? Anything more than what you smell? Anything more than what you taste? Anything more than what you contact through your body? And anything more than thinking? There is nothing more than that in this world. If you say there is something else in this world, well it should be something that your eyes and other sense bases should observe. If there…

14. Nirodha and Desire By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: 1994 Venerable Bikkhus, brothers and sisters, Buddha refers to 2 ways of achievement, 2 ways of overcoming your defilements and attaining Nibbana. One way is called the ceto-vimutti and the other way is called the paññā-vimutti. Ceto-vimutti is, develop your mind to higher states of samadhi, your absorptions. And live in those states, as a results of prolong living in those states, your mind gain the freedom or mind get rid of the defilements and gain its freedom. In the paññā-vimutti, the 2nd way of development, after you gain your absorptions, 1st absorption, 2nd absorption, 3rd absorption, then we divert you to the practice of Vipassana, insight knowledge. And step by step we direct you to overcome the defilements which if you overcome, will reach the stage of Stream Entry, and the other defilements which you overcome you will reach the stage of Once Returner. And if you overcome some other defilements, you will reach the stage of Non-Returner and finally, we guide you to get rid of “I”, “mine”, and “soul”, believe in the continuity of your mind in the nature of a soul in you, and you get rid of that too and you finally attain your Nibbana. These are the 2 which Buddha has referred to in his…

13. The Four Noble Truths Are Within & Desire By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: Year 1994 Venerable Bhikkhus, Brothers and Sisters, the subject of the discourse today is in the phantom of body you possess and the consciousness there lies suffering. In the phantom of body and consciousness you possess, there lies the cause of suffering. In the phantom of body and consciousness you possess there lies the cessation of suffering. In the phantom of the body and consciousness you possess, there lies the path leading to the cessation of suffering. This clearly indicate, Brothers and Sisters, that you need not go anywhere, to find out the cause of your suffering, the exact suffering the cause of suffering and how one should end the suffering and the path leading to the suffering, all that is in you. When we speak of Dhamma, listen to Dhamma, they think that Dhamma is away from us, out of us. But all that, we are struggling to achieve is within us. That is why I always say that you are undoing what you have done to yourself. You have done wrong to yourself. As a result you are suffering, as a result you are subject to births, birth after birth, the cycle of births. Why? Because you have not conducted yourself in a manner…

12. Path to Once Returner & Non Returner By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: Year 1994 Venerable Bhikkus, Brothers and Sisters, the next subject in Vipassana is to deal with the balance 2 fetters, that is attachment and aversion. In regard to your analyzing body and mind, the activity clearly and also how all activities are done by cause and effect and you finally practice arising and passing away. Once you have completed these 3 exercises, if you have done it correctly, if you have understood the moment very carefully as not done by anybody but as something that occurs with the mind and the body working together. There is no being as such within you who perform these acts but you automatically perform them with the mind directing the body. If you have developed your knowledge sufficiently, you must be able to achieve the first stage of development and that is Stream Entry. Once that exercise is over, when watching the rising and passing away carefully, there should be a rise of your concentration vertically upwards. It rises with the realisation of the impermanence of things and along with the fruition Samadhi must take place. Fruition Samadhi realising the impermanence in the first instance, the first stage of your development, it’s not fully realised but realised to achieve the fruition…

11. Ten Fetters and Stream Entry By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: Year 1994 Venerable Bhikkhus, brothers and sisters, subject of the discourse today is how one with his development within gives up the fetters which tie him down to the life of births and deaths.        These fetters are divided into 2 groups according to their activities. The first 5 fetters are known as “orambhagiya-samyojana” which means that the first 5 fetters push you down, press you down to a worldly life. And those 5 fetters are: believe in a being in you “Sakkayaditti”, Doubt, and the pursuit of practices to the extremes, and also you have the 2 very strong fetters: Attachment and Aversion. These 5 fetters tie you down to the earth, fix you down to the earth. There are the 5 upper fetters which push you towards the Pure Abodes. And they are, belief or attachment to the form world or formless world, there is Ego, there is restlessness in the mind and ignorance. When I say ego, is tendency to compare yourself with another and then the way we are  equal or below another or above another that sort of things. More ego than anything else. These are 5 fetters which drive you to the five Pure Abodes. An explanation is necessary here. There is where…

10. Five Hindrances By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: Year 1994 Venerable Bhikkhu, Brothers & Sisters, the discourse today also will deal with the general subject.  After that I intend giving you instructions in regard to various defilements you will have to overcome by Insight Knowledge in practicing certain aspects of meditation.  For example, to give up the idea that there is a being in you, i.e. Sakkayaditti – a personality feeling that you have.  You have to differentiate between mind and matter.  I shall give you instructions as to how you should do that.  Likewise, to confirm that feeling further, that there is no being in you, you will be practicing cause and effect, how you commit activities and that two descriptions will be given to you for your knowledge.  Then, in practicing “Nama-Rupa”, differentiating between mind and matter, also arising and passing away.  Likewise to every stage of development you will be aspiring to, I will give you instructions how you should practice your Insight Knowledge to overcome defilements.  That will be useful to you.  Will be useful to you in time to come, when you are sufficiently developed for you to perform the task of instructing others.  Because details will be available to you as to how you should instruct the beginner about his manner of finding out…

9A. Five Stages of Giving Up The Sankharas (1) By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: Year 1994 Venerable Bhikkhus, Brothers and Sisters, in view of the departure tomorrow of several of you, I decided to deliver this Discourse so that those who have developed to higher states will be careful in maintaining those conditions with mindfulness. Even an Arahant is mindful, you will understand the importance of mindfulness even in those who have developed to a very high states. You can’t forget the fact that you are using equipment, which is meant for a Worldly Life. Even your very Body and Mind are not meant for Nibbana. They are meant for continuity in the World, you will be among worldlings who will not understand your temperament, who will not even accept that you have developed, because some of these people they bear peculiar notions of about the behavior and conduct of a person who has attained to a high degree. That you will be like a rock seated down, could not move about, that sort of thing. And sometimes, some of them in their ignorance expect for you to display your psychic powers and show your power resulting from your attainment. Such views are there among the ignorant masses, but then must bear in mind your attainment is not in the…

8. Five Factors By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: Year 1994 Venerable Bhikkhus, brothers & sisters, today I will deal with the five factors which promote your attainment. The five factors are your devotion, your effort, your mindfulness, your samadhi and your development of wisdom. These are general factors which helps you ride along the effort you made to reach the goal. This must be promoted in your mind, not that purposefully done but with the correct approach made to develop yourself along the path. These are roughly the outcome of that effort you are making. First thing is devotion, you must have faith in the Triple Gems. That faith does not arise merely because you have blind attachment to the Triple Gems. That should arise from within, when you realize the truth more and more. It is the truth that will create that devotion. The truth of the philosophy preached by Buddha. His philosophy is realistic, there’s nothing imaginary. His philosophy can be identified by you everywhere and every place in life. It is not something in the nature of a concealed thing. In fact, when you summarize his philosophy, one could say he has clearly shown us who we are. We have been living in a deception, and we have led life as worldlings up to this moment not…

7. The World is your 6 Sense Base By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: Year 1994 Venerable Bikkhus, brothers and sisters, Buddha said “I will not speak about Nibbana to a person who has not seen the end of the world.”  That is the subject of the discourse today. I repeat that statement again, “I will not speak to a person about Nibbana unless he has seen the end of the world.” In previous discourses, I have at length dwelt on this aspect of the world which each one of us are living in.  When we refer to a world, it is what we have created though we do not realize that it is so, we see a world around us.  One moment we do not give thought as to how this world around us has been created.  You are gifted with six sense bases.  This sense bases provide you with vision about objects outside, also you hear sounds outside, you also smell outside, you also experience taste with your tongue and you also experience contact with your body, and also you speak, you think about matter that arise in your mind.  These are 6 sense bases that perform their functions in creating things for you.  If you analyse the world  you live in, that world consist only of these experiences…

6. Samadhi in the Development of the Path By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: Year 1994 Venerable Bhikkus, brothers and sisters, the topic of my discourse today is Samadhi. What is Samadhi? Samadhi is concentration of the mind or bringing the mind to one pointedness. If that is the object of samadhi, what is the condition of the normal mind? The normal mind is a scattered mind, always busily engaged in while you are awake to catch objects that attract the sense bases and create a thought. If there are no sense object, at least it will create a thought by way of thinking, creating on his own thought of reference to a past incidence or something which you expect to perform in the future. In another words there is no period when the mind is at rest in a ordinary worldling. From the time he wake up in the morning, up to the time he goes to sleep, his mind is always in movement, scattered. Now when something is scattered like that, even if it is a force, like, let’s say water or air or fire or anything like that, when it is scattered, it doesn’t produce the strength it can produce when it is concentrated. When the force is concentrated, there is much force created there. When it is…

3. Formations By Venerable Amatha Gavesi Dated: 09/10/1994 Venerable bhikkhus, brothers & sisters, the subject of the discourse today is Formations.  Volitional of activity you call it, in other aspect. In the dependent origination, Buddha clearly analyses the wordling; in that analysis he has clearly indicated that if a worldling has been misled completely as a result of his ignorance of formation of volitional activities he commits.  That is the starting point of his cause for delusion. The dependent origination is “Avijja paccaya sankhara, Sankhara paccaya vinnanam, Vinnana paccaya namarupam, Namarupa paccaya salayatanam, Salayatana paccaya phasso, Phassa paccaya vedana, Vedana paccaya tanha, Tanha paccaya upadanam, Upadana paccaya bhavo, Bhavo paccaya jati, Jati paccaya jaramaranam soka parideva dukkha domanassu-payasa”, that is the Pali rendering of the dependent origination. This chain of events commences with Ignorance.  Because of ignorance, you commit sankhara.  The normal explanation given in the scriptures is that ignorance refers to non-attainment of the 4 Noble Truths, non-realization of the 4 Noble Truths.  If one realizes the 4 Noble Truths, one is supposed to be ignorant.  But this ignorance refers to a clear act committed by you. In ignorance you commit the formation of volitional activities. Ignorance of what, is the question.  And before we explain that, let me explain to you that, the formation of volitional activities we…