Working Hard Like A Horse

Dhammatalk

02 February 2014Prasadha Jinarakkhita

Jakarta, Indonesia

VenerableSayalay Susīlā

Let me chant something first,

Samantā cakka-vāḷesu atrāgacchantu devatā.Sad-dhammaṃ muni-rājassa suṇantu sagga-mokkha-daṃDhamma-ssavanakālo ayam bhadantā.Dhamma-ssavanakālo ayam bhadantā.Dhamma-ssavanakālo ayam bhadantā

Namo tassa Bhagavato arahato sammā-sambuddhassa.Namo tassa Bhagavato arahato sammā-sambuddhassa. Namo tassa Bhagavato arahato sammā-sambuddhassa.

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Sebelum saya bermula ceramah saya, biarkan saya mengucapkan selamat tahun baru cina. Happy new year.

This year 2014 is the year of horse, thus comes the question working hard l ike a horse. Working hard is a good quality, very good quality, highly recommended working hard l ike a Buddha. And working hard is the root of a l l success and it is one of the four Iddhipādā.

But for lay person work hard for their own purposes and for monastic l ike me and Ashin , we work hard for another purpose.Let me ta lk about the working hard for the lay person work hard l ike a horse

for whose happiness i guess as a lay person he works hard to accumulate wealth.

“Why you want to work hard to accumulate wea lth?”You should answer me f irst before I give my answer. Because you know better than me.Audience : “Just to fulf i l the need and what he needs in l i fe and satisfaction. Thank you.”

So I guess as a lay person, he works hard l ike a horse to accumulate wealth for few purposes.

First, to enjoy sensua l pleasure. Enjoy sensual pleasures, we especia l ly our six senses a lways long for external st imulate. The eyes wants to see beautiful thing, for man the eyes wants to see beautiful woman and for woman not only wants to see handsome boy but wants to see beautiful thing, due and so on. And our ears constant ly wants to hear the sweet sound, the praise from other, the music, rock and rol l and any music, any sound that can please you. And our nose same, we wants fragrance smel l, our tongue wants to taste delicious food. Some people can travel the world to f ind the best restaurant in the world, just want to satisfy the tongue. And a lso our body wants sof t touch, so we wear the good quality materia l l ike a si lk .

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And wants to sit in a very sof t comfortable bed, just to satisfy the body needs and comfort.

And our mind think of dif ferent fantasy just to make ourself happy, so in our l i fe it seems that the f irst aim to satisfy our needs for sensual pleasure.

However, enjoy sensual pleasure, while enjoy sensual pleasure, we a lways forget the danger in it . And why sensual pleasures can st imulate us to indoubt in its because there is a certain measurement of satisfaction come from pleasure while enjoying sensual pleasure.

Why we human beings spent our l i fe, spent our t ime, enjoy sensual pleasure? It is because sensual pleasure gives us the certain amount of satisfaction. That satisfaction come from pleasurable feeling, very pleasure feeling while enjoy sensual pleasure.

Let me give you an example, suppose you have sore, the wound, then you feel very itchy, then you scratch it but throught your experience you know was scratching the sore the wound wil l become worst, you know already, right? But can you control yourself not to scratch, yes or no?

Why? You want to scratch the wound, the sore. Although you a lready know, the more you scratch, the worst the wound would it be.So why?Tel l me why?

Audience : “Temporary relieve.”Sayalay : “I think others must have some other answers.”Audience : “Because when you scratch you feel very pleasureable.”Yes.

When you scratch you feel very satisfy. Then because of that pleasurable feeling, you disregard the wound, you don’t care because of that pleasurable feeling; because of that just one satisfaction that from pleasurable feeling.

So this is the danger in enjoying sensual pleasures. So while enjoying sensual pleasures it is no wrong while enjoy sensual pleasure through your wealth.

“You gain your wealth, then you use your money to enjoy sensual pleasure, there is nothing wrong. However there must be a limit while enjoying a sensual pleasure.”

For example, an ant is attracted by the sweet honey. So whenever the ant see the sweet honey then it wi l l goes to the sweet honey and take a sip. Sip the honey, but have you ever see any ant just take one sip then stop go away. Have you ever seen?

So most ant when they take one sip of honey, he is very satisfy because to satisfy this satisfaction, he wants more

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He takes the second sip, third sip, four sip, finally died in the sweet honey.

Therefore there is a danger in enjoying sensual pleasures. You can enjoy sensual pleasure using your wealth, your money, but there must be a limit.

Buddha compare sensual pleasure is like a man holding a blessing crush torch then run against the wind. So the fire sure will burnt him. So how can he free from the burn of fire. How? How? Throw away the fire. But to throw it away is not easy thing. Definitely not easy.

Therefore this enjoy sensual pleasure is come from kamma tanha. It is the origin of all suffering.

It is the origin the cause according the four noble truth, this kamma-tanha is the cause origin of the truth of suffering.

And because we want to enjoy more and more sensual pleasure then we long for life, life after life then it become bhava-tanha. And this kamma-tanha and bhava-tanha is so difficult to cross over.

We can see what is happening in Indonesia. Indonesia has high population, very crowded country and how many monks?

Why so high population and so few monks? Because the lay person find it is difficult to renounce the sensual pleasure.

Only the wise know the danger of sensual pleasure and willing to let go and become to monastic.

In one of Bodhisatva’s past time, his past life, he was very very rich, inheritage the property, the wealth from seven generations.

So one day he saw his wealth, all my parents have accumulate so much wealth, but past away already, my grandmother had accumulated so much wealth and had past away already, my grand grand parents up to seven generations all had pass away already but left behind so much wealth.

Then he talks to himself. I would not behave like my parents. Like my grand parents. My grand grand parents.I’m going to give away all my wealth as a dāna generosity to those who needs and I would become monastic.

Because he understand with all this wealth is negligence and this wealth will bring him more harm rather than good.

So this is the first purpose why the lay person work hard like a horse in order to accumulate wealth.

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• Sayalay Susīlā , Dhammatalk at Prasadha Jinarakkhita, Jakarta - Indonesia

And the second purpose is when we accumulate wealth we feel secure.

There was a time when I was in USA, I ask my student, why you need so much money. I ask him. Then he said that when I have money I feel secure. But later on he told me again, now I have enough money already, I have more than enough, I have so many houses, but I still do not feel secure. This is because he misunderstood the security come from wealth.Security come from where? Sīla. Very good.

In Anguttara Nikaya, Buddha said, when the lay person is endow with morality (Sīla), he will not feel insecure. However one of my other student

when she told me that I also keep my Sīla very well, but I still feel insecure.Then I answer her, because you cling to the ego. You cling to the ‘aku’, you cling to the ‘self ’ atta.

Because all the fear come from the self.

When there is no self, where does the fear come from? The real security come from Sīla and ‘tanpa aku’, as a conclusion.

One day when I was in aeroplane to Europe, Germany and inside the aeroplane that one passenger sat beside me. Then he ask me: “Are you a monk?” I said: “I am not a monk, I am a nun.”

Then he told me that you look very happy. You look very light and

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very happy. He said: “I am Iraneese, I have so much wealth, so rich but I have so much worry.”

This show that wealth does not provide you real security. So when you have wealth, you afraid to be robe by other people, you afraid the house to be robe, you afraid of a lot property and so on. But for me whenever I go I never afraid people will robe me. Therefore the real security does not come from the wealth.

The third purpose why we work hard like a horse, to accumulate wealth, is to support our family especially our wife, our husband, our son and daughter.

But the way we educate our son and daughter, very different from western culture.

We, i think in my opinion, we give our son and daughter enough education up to university then after that let them be independent, we don’t have to support them anymore, we don’t have to give all our money to them. If we give all our money to them, then this discourage him to work hard, because he has all the property, the money, get it so easily,so how can he work hard.

Living Buddha’s time, there was a couple, that was born in very rich family and his parents think that I was so rich, I don’t have to give any skill to my son and daughter.

With my wealth, they can spent through all his life, without any hardship. So he didn’t educate his son and daughter with proper education.

So when his parents pass away and this couple associate with bad company. Asscociate with bad friends, then he starts to gamble. So gradually they squander away all the property.

Then one day, because all the wealth been squander away, they became beggar. And while begging food, they met Buddha. And Buddha smile.

And ânanda ask Buddha, “Bhante, why you smile?” and Buddha said, this couple if they can meet with Buddha Sāsana , the teaching of buddha, and they try hard when they are young, the husband can become Arahant. And the wife can become Anāgāmi.

But their time had passed. Now they become middle age. When they meet Buddha age, they can encounter the teaching of the Buddha and if they strive hard in meditation then the husband can become Anāgāmi, the wife can become Sakadāgāmi.

But now the middle age had passed. Now they become old. The old age. Even now I want to teach dhamma to them, their capability has come weak.The receive ability dhamma is very weak. So they are unable to understand my teaching and they have no energy to live to strive hard. So what the waste.

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Therefore we give proper education to our children. Then we ourself so have to work for our own spiritual life. Not only we spent our life time just for our family, neglecting our own spritual. Because these parents they didn’t give proper education to the son and daughter. And son and daughter end up in suffering.

So we have to think the proper way to educate our children; not to give them all the wealth. But to give them the proper education how to become a good person, how to be independent, how to work hard for his own happiness. So when we work hard like a horse and accumulate wealth, we should also understand this wealth is temporary. It doesn’t belong to us life after life. So as a good investor I believe that most of chinese are business man. So business man must know how to invest the property.

What is the best way to invest your money? For happiness in this life and for the happiness next life and for the happiness life after life.

So what type of investment?

Dāna. Yes, dāna is the best investment, if you are a smart investor you must know how to invest your money, not all the money, half for your family, for your own need but the rest you should invest in dāna.

Because if you do dāna in this present life , you give the dāna give you a lot happiness. And also when dead approached while in dead moment, most people afraid of dead. Why?

Sayalay : “Are you afraid of dead?”Audience : “Yes.”Sayalay : “Why? Tell me why?”Audience : “doesn’t know what happened after died?”Sayalay : “exactly”

Because we don’t know after dead where we go after it. If I know after dead, I will reborn in heaven I hope I can die now. Therefore, if you invest your money in dāna, you have insurance in next life.

During dying moment if you use to do dāna perform charity, doing dāna, dying moment, if you can recall, ask your daughter to help you to recall all the dāna you have perform then when you think of that, all the happiness comes and when you die at that moment you are sure to reborn in heaven.

Living in Buddha’s time, there was a dayaka called damika. He use to perform dāna generosity and he encourage his son and daughter to perform generosity. During his dying moment, he saw the gati-nimitta, six types of deva comes from six heaven realms to invite him born into heaven. So damika got the permanent insurance already.

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Therefore the wealth we acquire not only for our own family, we also must invest in dāna for the happiness for next life, because next life is very important. And as a buddhist we understand we had next life to go.

In according to the working of kamma, the dāna we invest not only bring happiness in this life, happiness in next life and also indefinite kamma.Indefinitely kamma means whatever good deed even you do one time.

Whatever good deed you perform when this karma ripen you are bear the result again and again until you become Arahant. Therefore it is worth to invest or not. “Memang bagus.”

So we work hard to accumulate wealth, to support our family and to gain security which is not the real security but all this are mundane happiness.We also must work for supermundane happiness.

“I work hard more than a horse. For my spiritual happiness.”

I will tell you my story, when I first attended Retreat at Malaysia Buddhist Meditation Center, my first retreat there take for 40 days. In during this 40 days, become the all the yogis you must concentrate on your own object. Cannot see right, cannot see left. Cannot see up, you should only crush down your eyes four feets in front of you.

And my another yogis who slept beside me for 40 days. Slept with me40 days beside me and I don’t know how she looks like.

And everytime doing walking meditation I only crush down my eyes and I only know the lower part of her body.The upper part I never know how she looks like.

During this 40 days they silent retreat, so there is no talking, interview also not conducted everyday. So after 40 days, I have to make a phone call. So when I take up the telephone, the sound cannot come out. No sound.

And after that I went to Burma. Practice under the most strict teacher. And I sleep only four hours, ten o’clock I sleep. I get up at two o’clock and I went to walk to three o’clock. At three o’clock, I start sitting meditation, my teacher not yet wake up.

And this last for three years. Not one day. Sometimes my body was so tired. When I walked, I do not walk strict. So I work hard more than a horse.

And when I moved to Pa-uk center, the center is a forest and afflicted with malaria. But I didn’t knowPa-uk center is afflicted with malaria, but I use to get up at two o’clock so from my sleeping place to the meditation hall is very far and so dark. But is my habitual practice so two o’clock I get up and in the darkness, I walk to meditation hall

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and the door of meditation hall is not yet open. Because the door hasn’t open so I had to sit in front of the hall and yet because that place isafflicted by malaria so when one mosquitous bite you, you can get malaria; so I sit in front of the hall, being been biten by all mosquitous.

And because of Mahasi tradition, I do not use to talk, I always keep silent retreat and when I went to Pa-uk center, in Pa-uk center they do not keep silent, because they stay one year, two years, it is not possible to keep silent through all the year. But I just came from Mahasi t r a d i t i o n ,so i want to keep silent. But they do not know, they are way practice are very different with my practice way and they saw I was a foreigner nun in pa-uk, the first foreigner nun in pa-uk so they feel very excited, every body want to talk to me.

So I feel very disturbed. I start complain to the teacher. And second

day, wherever I walk there is no one talks to me anymore.

And I become surprised so I start to talk to people, why now nobody talk to me.

And the yogi reply, the teacher announce to the whole monastary, nobody should talk to Sayalay Susīlā. So this is why I work hard more than a horse for my spiritual happiness.

And first I work hard for my own happiness, for many-many years, more than ten years, now I work hard for the happiness of others.

So as a lay person I would like to advice you, you work hard like a horse, for your own happiness, for your family happiness and also

you should work hard for your spiritual happiness.

To work hard for spiritual happiness, we start with dāna first, follow by sīla then following by listening to talks or listen to sutta study or abhidhamma study. Listening to talk is one type of pariyatti.

• Sayalay SusīlāDhammatalk at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary, Penang, Malaysia

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Pariyatti is very important because it give us right view, pandangan benar, without pariyatti you strict go to paṭipatti , sometimes you may not know what the teacher talks it is correct or not.

Because now are very many teacher teaching different methods, different traditions, even in theravada, so many method, Mogok, Goenka. So on Pa-uk, Mahasi, so if you learn under one, that teacher will tell you there is the only way, there is no other way then you go to another tradition, that teacher will tell you there is the only way, there is no other way then you get very confused, which way is the correct, which way is the only way.

Therefore if you have pariyatti knowledge, you have learn all the kitab-kitab suci, and at least you have ‘pandangan benar’ the right view to know what the teacher said, it is accordanceto the Buddha’s teaching or not.

Therefore you have to spent time, you have to work hard, to spent the time to attend the talk, to listen to abhidhamma and to study on your own to the kitab suci.

Later on, you have to work hard also to learn ‘meditasi’. What we have learn from the ‘kitab suci’ has to be practice, has to be put into practice, other to realize if not the knowledge you have only remain theoritical knowledge.

Same the teaching of the Buddha, Buddha Sāsana still a live now and we are so lucky to be reborn as a human beings. Buddha say there are four things very rare in this world. First: To reborn as a human beings now we got it already, second is to listen to the dhamma, we got it already, so we got two reality in the world. If we do not work hard to attain the spiritual happiness and it is a waste of our human life.

So as a conclusion, we work hard like a horse, for two types of happiness, one is mundane happiness, another is supra-mundane happiness.

So I hope all of you be convince that working hard for mundane is nota good investment. But working hard for your spiritual happiness like dāna, sīla, bhavana, pariyatti, paṭipatti, and this can bring you happiness life after life.

And also the last thing I’d like to share is when we work hard for the spiritual happiness,we are also preserving, the long lasting of Buddha Sāsana. And this is my only aim to come to this world is just to preserve the true teaching of the Buddha.

Buddhasāsanam ciraṃ tiṭṭhatu.