A Single Handful
Buddhadasa
Bhikkhu tricycle
To call something
“a fundamental principle of Buddhism” is correct
only if, first, it is a principle that aims at the quenching of
dukkha (suffering) and, second, it has a logic that one
can see for oneself without having to believe others.
The Buddha refused to deal with those things that
don’t lead to the extinction of dukkha. He didn’t discuss them.
Take the question of whether or not there is rebirth after death.
What is reborn? How is it reborn? What is its “karmic inheritance”?
These questions don’t aim at the extinction of dukkha. That being
so, they are not the Buddha’s teaching nor are they connected with
it. They don’t lie within the range of Buddhism. Also, the one who
asks about such matters has no choice but to believe
indiscriminately any answer that’s given, because the one who
answers won’t be able to produce any proofs and will just be
speaking according to his own memory and feeling. The listener
can’t see for himself and consequently must blindly believe the
other’s words. Little by little the subject strays from dharma
until it becomes something else altogether, unconnected with the
extinction of dukkha.
Now, if we don’t raise those sorts of issues, we can
ask instead, “Is there dukkha?” and “How can dukkha be
extinguished?” The Buddha agreed to answer these questions. The
listener can recognize the truth of every word of the answers
without having to believe them blindly and can see the truth more
and more clearly until he understands for himself.
There aren’t that many fundamental, or root,
principles of dharma. The Buddha said that his teaching is “a
single handful.” A passage in the Samyutta-nikaya makes
that clear. While walking through the forest, the Buddha picked up
a handful of fallen leaves and asked the monks who were present to
decide which was of the greater amount, the leaves in his hand or
all the leaves in the forest. Of course, they all said that there
were more leaves in the forest, that the difference was beyond
comparison. Try to imagine the truth of this scene; clearly see how
huge the difference is. The Buddha then said that, similarly, those
things that he had realized were a great amount, equal to all the
leaves in the forest. However, that which was necessary to know,
those things that should be taught and practiced, were equal to the
number of leaves in his hand.
From this it can be seen that, compared to all the
myriad things in the world, the root principles to be practiced for
the complete extinction of dukkha amount to a single handful. We
must appreciate that this single handful is not a huge amount; it’s
not something beyond our capabilities to reach and understand. This
is the first important point that we must grasp if we want to lay
the foundation for a correct understanding of the Buddha’s
teachings.
The saying of the Buddha that deals with the
practice regarding shunyata (voidness) is the saying that
is the heart of Buddhism. It requires our careful attention.
"Nothing whatsoever should be clung to as 'I' or 'mine.'"
(Sabbe dhamma nalam abhinivesaya.) The Buddha himself
declared that this is the summation of all the Tathagata’s
[Buddha’s] teaching. He said that to have heard the phrase “Sabbe
dhamma nalam abhinivesaya” is to have heard everything; to have put
it into practice is to have practiced everything; and to have
reaped its fruits is to have reaped every fruit. So we need not be
afraid that there is too much to understand. When the Buddha
compared the things that he had realized, which were as many as all
the leaves in the forest, with those that he taught his followers
to practice, which were a single handful, the single handful he
referred to was just this principle of not grasping at or clinging
to anything as being self or as belonging to self.
“To hear this phrase is to hear everything,” because
all subjects are contained within it. Of all the things the Buddha
taught, there wasn’t one that didn’t deal with dukkha and the
elimination of dukkha. Grasping and clinging is the cause of
dukkha. When there is grasping and clinging, that is dukkha. When
there is no grasping and clinging—that is, being void of grasping
and clinging—there is no dukkha. The practice is to make the
non-arising of grasping and clinging absolute, final, and eternally
void, so that no grasping and clinging can ever return. Just that
is enough. There is nothing else to do.
“This practice is every practice.” Can you think
of anything that remains to be practiced? In a given moment, if a
person—whether Mr. Smith, Mrs. Jones, or anyone at all—has a mind
free of grasping and clinging, at that moment, what does the person
have? Please think it over. We can see that the person has attained
all the traditional practices: the Triple Refuge
(tisarana), giving (dana), virtuous conduct
(sila), meditation (samadhi), the discernment of
truth (panna), and even the path-realizations, their
fruits, and nirvana.
At that moment of non-grasping, one has certainly
attained the first practice, that of the Triple Refuge. One has
reached the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, for to have a heart
free of the mental defilements and dukkha is to be one with the
heart of the Triple Gem. One has reached them without having to
chant “Buddham saranam gacchami” [“I take refuge in the
Buddha”]. Crying out “Buddham saranam gacchami” and so on is just a
ritual, a ceremony of entrance, an external matter. It doesn’t
penetrate to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha in the heart. If at any
moment a person has a mind void of grasping at and clinging to “I”
and “mine,” even if only for an instant, the mind has realized
voidness. It is one and the same as the heart of the Buddha, the
Dhamma, and the Sangha.
The next practice is giving (dana). The
meaning of giving is to let go, to end all grasping at and clinging
to things as being “I” or “mine.” At the moment that one has a mind
void of ego-consciousness, then one has made the supreme offering,
for when even the self has been given up, what can there be left to
give? Thus, at any moment that a person has a mind truly void of
self, when even the self has been completely relinquished, he or
she has developed giving to its perfection.
To move on to virtuous conduct (sila), one
whose mind is void and free of grasping at and clinging to a self
or possession of self, is one whose bodily and verbal actions are
truly and perfectly virtuous. Any other sort of morality is just an
up-and-down affair. We may make resolutions to refrain from this
and abstain from that, but we can’t keep them. Whenever the mind is
void, even if it’s only for a moment, or a day, or a night, one has
true sila for all of that time.
As for concentration (samadhi), the void
mind has supreme samadhi, the superbly focused firmness of mind. A
strained and uneven sort of concentration isn’t the real thing.
Only the mind that is void of grasping at and clinging to “I” and
“mine” can have the true and perfect stability of correct
concentration. One who has a void mind always has correct
samadhi.
The next practice is panna (intuitive
wisdom). Here we can see most clearly that knowing sunnata,
realizing voidness—or being voidness itself—is the essence of
wisdom. At the moment that the mind is void, it is supremely keen
and discerning. When a mind is void of foolishness, void of “I” and
“mine,” there is perfect knowing, or panna. So the wise say that
sunnata and panna (mindfulness and wisdom) are one. Once the mind
is rid of delusion, it discovers its primal state, the true
original mind.
We can go on to the path-realizations, their fruits,
and nibbana. Here the progressively higher levels of voidness reach
their culmination in nibbana, which is called the supreme voidness
(parama-sunnata).
Now, you may see that from taking refuge and
progressing through giving, virtuous conduct, concentration, and
wisdom, there is nothing other than sunnata, or non-clinging to
self. Even in the path-realizations, their fruits, and nibbana,
there’s nothing more than voidness. In fact, they are its highest,
most supreme level.
Consequently, the Buddha declared that to have heard
this teaching is to have heard all teachings, to have put it into
practice is to have done all practices, and to have reaped the
fruits of that practice is to have reaped all fruits: Nothing
whatsoever should be clung to as “I” or “mine.” (Sabbe dhamma
nalam abhinivesaya.) You must strive to grasp the essence of
what this word “voidness” really means.