The teachings in this blog are excerpts, translated from Thai, of discourses given by Venerable Luang Por Phosrisuriya Kemarato at the Rombodhidharma temple in Loei, Thailand.
More information about the temple and Luang Por Phosrisuriya's teachings can be found on the Rombodhidharma International facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/rombodhidharma.inter

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Stop Messing

ค่อยๆผ่อนจากไอ้ตัวคอยรู้นั่นแหละ ไอ้ตัวหลงรู้นั่นแหละ ไม่ต้องไปกำหนดซ้ำซ้อนอีก ให้ของมันเอง ของมันเอง รู้ไม่รู้ของมันเอง ไม่ต้องไปหลงคอยร่ำรี่่ร่ำไร ซ้ำซ้อนรู้ ซ้ำซ้อนตัวลักษณะคอยรู้อีก มันจะได้วาง วางไอ้ตัวยุ่งซะที

ถ้ามันยังตัวคอยยุ่งอยู่ ยังตัวในรู้อยู่ ก็ยังยุ่งอยู่ มันจะไม่วางตัวมันเอง ไม่วาง ไม่คลาย ในสิ่งที่เป็นต้นเหตุทั้งหมด ก็จะลำบาก มันจะเป็นสภาพที่ไม่จบไม่สิ้นอยู่ตลอด สภาพที่วกวน สภาพที่ไม่จบไม่สิ้น จบไม่เป็นไอ้ตัวคอยรู้นั่นแหละ ค่อยๆผ่อนให้ของมันเอง ของมันเอง ไม่ต้องซ้อนไม่ต้องแทรก ไม่ต้องเอาไอ้ตรงที่รู้ ไม่รู้ มาเป็นประมาณ ไม่ต้องเอา แล้วมันจะจบเรื่อง วิชชา เรื่องอวิชชา เป็น จบเรื่องของความหลงรู้ หลงไม่รู้เป็น จบหมดอะ จบทั้งโคตรทั้งเหง้า ของความเป็นปุถุชนแหละ


Without effort, ease out of trying to be aware and away from being attached to the knowing. There is no need to concentrate on knowing or to give it any more focus than what it is.
Just let it be.

Whether it knows or it does not know, let it be.
Don’t hold on to the knowing.
There is no need for you to try to be aware of it more than what it is.
That is you letting it be. That is you stopping your messing around with it.

If there is still you and you still try to mess around with the knowing, the mess will always be there and it will not let go of itself. It will not end by itself. 

As long as you are still not letting go of the trying, which is the origin of all the suffering, of all the mess, you will always be in a difficult situation - the situation that will never end by itself.  It will keep on happening again and again and will not end until you let go of the knowing.

Ease out from it gradually, and let it be without any interference from you.
Stop taking into account whether it knows or it does not know.
Then all delusions and all attachments to knowing and not knowing will end.
The cause of the very existence of you as a human being will end.
___________________________________________________________________

Commentary on this excerpt: (by Karnjana Opaspakornkij)

You don't have to try to be anything or try to change the condition of your emotions or condition of the mind.  If you feel heavy just ignore it.  If you happen to be aware of any condition of the mind, whatever it is, let it be, let it come and pass without giving it any meaning or trying to make it go away.  Don't try to have a clear mind or light mind.  The fact is everything in this world is always changing, so good, bad, light, heavy - it all comes and goes if you let it.  Don't fight it.  

We always want 'good' and hate 'bad.' When our minds are good, we are not just aware of them lightly and then let them go.  Instead we dwell on them, keep them, don't let them pass because we enjoy them too much.  That is how we practice our mind to be slow, focused and fixated on things.  We don't let things be, don't let things change or pass through as they are supposed to.  We try to cage them in because we want to linger on them. (That is the case when things are good.)

Once we train our mind that way -slow and focused -when the mind is aware of something it is really aware with focus, with intensity.  When bad conditions happen in our minds, our minds are aware of them so vividly and intensely and that make us feel so strongly about the bad minds.  Then we try to reject them, try to get rid of them because we feel strongly effected by them (i.e the bad minds.)  

By trying to do something to the bad minds, we expand the effect of the bad minds by emphasizing this effect; this makes the effect stay longer so we keep on feeling like rejecting it.  The effect stays on, longer than it originally would have because of our interference.

If we let things go quickly, as quickly as we can, good or bad, our minds will get used to not taking things in, not being intense about anything coming in and out through us.  That way, things will flow without obstruction, coming through us without any blocking and not staying.

If you happen to feel heavy and know that you have been taking in a lot, it's OK. Don't feel bad on top of the heavy mind. Let it be.  It will pass if you don't care about it, if you don't feel like trying to stop it, or like changing the state of your mind.  When you stop fighint it, it will go.  It is like if you try to change it, you are fighting the condition. There are then two opponents fighting until one party gives up, ignores the other one, and lets it do whatever it wants.  The fight will be over right there and then, because there is only one party left, no one to fight with.

But if you still want to change the condition, still want to get rid of the heavy mind, you are fighting the condition, your opponent.  You get on into the ring with the condition and if you keep on trying to make it go away the fight goes on. When you are tired and accidentally forget about it, you will find out that the bad condition will go on its own without your attempt.  So relax and accept the fact that sometimes it's good.  Sometimes it's bad.  Good comes and goes.  Let it go.   Bad comes and goes, let it go.  It is not our job to change anything. It changes by itself. Always.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Stop Practicing and Let Go

We have to admit that all this time all we have done, all we have tried, involved some kind of actions, some kind of practices. 

That is why there has not been a fruitful result in terms of spiritual liberation - liberation from sufferings.

It has been futile because all we have done was practicing: Practicing our bodies and minds, practicing meditation, practicing Vipassana.

We have gotten into practicing instead of letting go.

It was wrong from the beginning.  It was attachment from the start. It was a problem from the start. 

So drop it.   Just drop it right there and then.

Whatever condition your mind is in.  Just drop it.  Let it go.
Whether it is a good mind or a bad mind, let it go.

This way, it ends before any attachment happens, before any desire or action starts imposing itself over body and mind.

Whether you see or you don’t see, let it be. 
Whether you know or you don’t know, let it be.

End it.
 
End all actions over body and mind.


Then a sudden liberation arises. A self-liberation-as-it-is arises right there and then.

Surrender, 2nd Excerpt

ไม่ใช่พยายามนะ คำว่า ยอม เนี่ยะ
ยอม ก็คือ ยอม นะลูก
ไม่ใช่พยายามที่จะเอาชนะ
เมื่อพยายามที่จะเอาชนะ
ก็เอาตัณหาไปสร้างกับดักอีก สร้างเงื่อนไขอีก เอาตัณหาไปสร้างเยื่อใยอีก
คอยจะอย่างนั้น คอยจะอย่างนี้ ต้องอย่างนั้น ต้องอย่างนี้เนี่ยะ
ตัณหาไปหลงสร้างเงื่อนไข สร้างกลไก สร้างเยื่อใยขึ้นมาให้พะรุงพะรังมากขึ้นไปกว่าเดิมอีก

มันไม่เกี่ยวกับความพยายามลูก มันไม่เกี่ยวกับตัณหา โดยที่ยอมนั่นแหละลูก
การที่มันทรงอยู่ ดำรงอยู่ทั้งหลายทั้งปวงในสภาวะจิิตนั้น
จะเอกสภาวะหรือสภาวะอันหลากหลายก็ตามที ก็จะค่อยๆ คลายไปเรื่อยๆ

นั่นแหละ ที่มัน ไม่ต้อง ไม่ตั้ง อยู่แล้ว
นั่นแหละลูก ดั้งเดิมแท้ของความไม่ยึดติดแหละ
ดั้งเดิมแท้ที่มันไม่ต้องเรื่องมาก เรื่องน้อยอะไรทั้งหมดทั้งสิ้น


Surrender does not have anything to do with trying.

Surrender is surrender.

And it is not trying to overcome something.

To try is to have desire:
  • Desire that creates traps, creates conditions and creates obligations.
  • Desire that makes you want to do this, want to do that. 
  • Desire that makes you believe it has to be this way or that way.
  • Desire that is deluded into creating conditions, mechanisms, and obligations that make things even more complicated

Surrender does not have anything to do with trying. 
It has nothing to do with desire.

Surrender.
Then whatever states of mind you are trying to maintain, whether it is one single fixed state of mind or a series of multiple states of mind, all will start to unwind themselves bit by bit, little by little.

That is liberation-as-it-is, non-attachment in its original state.


Things are as they are - neither complicated nor simple.

Surrender, 1st excerpt

It has to be a ‘total surrender’ from within, a total surrender to come down from the state you are in, from the state you are trying to maintain.

Surrender and know when to stop with the knowing, the seeing. 

Know when to let go of the knowing, the seeing.
Know when to come out of the state you are trying to maintain.

Surrender.  Then everything will unwind itself.

Whatever state your mind is in, let it go.

That way, everything will flow without any obstruction as it originally does; it will be according to the Truth of Things—Nirvana as it originally is.

Nirvana is not something you can think of as being ‘high’ or ‘low.’ Nor is it something ‘to gain,’ ‘to lose,’ ‘to have,’ ‘to be’ or to have anything to do with in any way whatsoever.

So don’t make any effort to gain it. Don’t.
It is non-attaching as it is.

It is the Truth that is fundamental for all things, ultimate in itself.

It is the Truth that doesn’t need to be interpreted or searched for.