Venerable Ajahn Tiradhammo -
Joy in Spiritual Practice
The following teaching has been adapted from a
talk given by Venerable Tiradhammo on the seventh day of a ten day
retreat in Switzerland, in May 1988. The 'Seven Factors of
Enlightenment' referred to in the talk are mindfulness,
investigation, energy, joy, relaxation, concentration and
equanimity.
When there is joy, we are ready to discover new
things. ...If we have already decided 'Life is suffering,' then we
won't look any further.
We can sometimes make the mistake in practice of
thinking that the religious life means some sort of
self-flagellation. Or, we tend to believe that spiritual practice
should result in some special kind of purity. With this idea we
look at ourselves and, of course, all we see is impurity; having
developed a concept of enlightenment, we examine our own minds and
see just the opposite - confusion and conflict.
But the point is, these ideas we have about
practice are just ideas. Thinking: 'I’m here and Nibbana is over
there; I'm just a confused idiot and Nibbana is all purity and
profundity,' is merely projecting onto concepts. When it comes down
to real practice, enlightenment means actually being aware of
confusion itself. Wisdom is that which is aware of ignorance. It's
not a matter of knowing our wisdom, but of using wisdom to know
ignorance!
The whole practice of mindfulness is about
realizing the true nature of this being right here. We're not
trying to plug into some kind of 'Nibbanic Wisdom' that's floating
around in space or waiting for wisdom to fall into our laps. We are
being aware of the nature of the human condition as it is. Once we
really understand life as it is, then we can begin to transcend it.
If we try to transcend it before we actually know it, we're merely
caught up in illusion.
Ajahn Chah used to say: 'First we have to pick
things up before we can realize how heavy they are.' When we see
how heavy they are, then that's seeing 'dukkha'. Having seen
dukkha, we let go. When we've let go of things then we realize how
light it actually is. ' Ah! What a relief.' And this is where joy
comes in - or piti as it's called in the 'Factors of
Enlightenment'.
There are various translations of this term
piti. As there are various kinds of joy. We were talking yesterday
about how, having been motivated by dukkha to seek the 'Way', we
arrive at trust - and this trust in turn conditions joy.
So we have these various kinds of joy arising in
practice from different causes, and, personally I've found
reflecting upon them very useful. The point of joy and its function
often seems to be missed when talking about spiritual
training.
Now piti is not just the pleasure of having a
good time. But it's the kind of experience that leads to opening up
to life - to awakening. When there is joy, we are ready to discover
new things. On the other hand, if we have already decided 'Life is
suffering', and judged it as 'miserable', then we won't look any
further.
Consider children: notice how they observe and
want to find out - the fascination they have about things. Sadly,
as adults, we've become too sophisticated to go around looking into
flowers and little things. We function on a much more conceptual
level.
When we see a flower we think 'flower'. And
then, 'Yes, I know all about flowers. I've seen flowers all my life
and this is just another flower.' Actually, each flower is a unique
flower: it is here, at this moment, this time, this place, this
flower.
If we can truly listen, for instance, to a bird
singing; there is just sound. And that's quite different from
thinking, 'Oh, another bird singing.' If we really listen, there is
simply sound happening right in this moment, in this place, in this
situation; and there is a knowing of that -there's hearing. And
that's a completely different reality from thinking 'bird
singing'.
If we are always falling back into concepts,
then the internal dialogue goes chattering on: 'Bird singing.
Flower over there. This person talking. I wish they'd be quiet.
Candle burning. ..' and so on. And we think we know all about life!
We continually juggle these concepts around in our heads and all
they ever do is move from one side of the brain to the other - out
of the memory to be verbalized, then back again. If we live with
only concepts of life, it can get pretty boring -it's the same old
words -'flower, bird, tree'.
While it's natural that we learn and understand
through language, and express our understanding through language,
many of us have become prisoners of language. With meditation we
have the opportunity now to bring about a profound change in our
Western civilization. We are trying to understand on a 'non -
conceptual' level. In meditation we are realizing the nature of
experience directly.
People who are completely identified with words
may find this threatening, but we're not talking about bypassing
words altogether; we still have to express ourselves; we still need
to communicate. But we should recognize that the words we use in
communication are not the same as the experience we are attempting
to convey.
Such little space is given in our society to
silence. Words have become so loud and so powerful these days that
sometimes that is all we hear. But it is the very space of silence
that gives us access to, and nurtures, another way of relating. How
wonderful to be like a child again and not be limited by
words!
In the beginning, children don't have a word for
a flower. 'What is this?' they enquire. And we tell them: 'It's a
flower.' So okay, they have to learn to communicate, but maybe we
should try saying, 'Well, it's called a flower, but that's not what
it really is. It has its own perfect nature which is
just-the-way-it-is.' To know this 'just- the-way-it-is' is to know
joy. And knowing joy means we can bring back to life many of those
beautiful qualities that have become drained out of us. We have a
secret key now that will help free us from our habits.
The quality of joy can also be developed
further. Beyond piti or spiritual joy there is a much more stable
quality known as sukha. Generally, this term sukha is translated
merely as happiness - the opposite of dukkha - but that's not
enough. Momentary happiness is like a butterfly that flitters
around. It's certainly 0. K., but it's not the profound quality of
well-being that is meant by sukha. Through having lived so much in
concepts, our life has become boring, and fleeting excitement has
come to appear as important to us.
Sukha, on the other hand, means: 'Everything is
just fine.' It's a sense of calm and well-being which pervades our
whole body and mind. It makes the mind peaceful and collected,
providing a firm foundation for samadhi - concentration.
But coming back to joy: joy is spontaneous. You
can't preconceive it. You can't make it. It just arises in the
moment. When there is true joy, you are in the moment. And joy in
this way becomes a valuable reference point for us: if there is
true joy, then we know we're in the moment, and if we are really in
the moment, then there is true joy.
So try to discover where joy comes from. See
what supports it and what causes it to pass away. When we are doing
this, we are beginning to cultivate joy as one of the 'Factors of
Enlightenment'. It becomes one of the qualities that lead us to
awakening.