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begin with relatively short periods, as short as ten to
fifteen minutes a day.
When one s ability in this kind of meditation is
developed, it has two principal benefits. Firstly, it leads
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to mental and physical well-being, comfort, joy, calm,
tranquility. Secondly, it turns the mind into an
instrument capable of seeing things as they really are. It
prepares the mind to attain wisdom. When we talk about
seeing things as they really are, we liken the
development towards this ability to the development of
specialized instruments in science through which we
have been able to observe atomic particles and so forth.
Had it not been for the development of the radio
receiver we would not be aware of radio waves.
Similarly, if we do not develop our mind through the
cultivation of Right Effort and Right Mindfulness and
especially single-pointedness of the mind, our
understanding of the real state of things, of truth will
remain an intellectual knowledge. In order to turn our
understanding of the Four Noble Truths from book
knowledge into direct experience we have to achieve
one-pointedness of the mind. It is at this point that
mental development is ready to turn its attention to
wisdom. It is at this point that we see the role of
concentration in Buddhism. I touched upon this briefly
when I spoke of the Buddha s decision to leave the two
teachers Arada Kalama and Udraka Ramaputra and of
His combination of concentration or meditation with
penetrative insight on the night of His enlightenment.
So here too, single-pointedness of the mind is not
enough. It is similar to sharpening the pencil to write
with, or the sharpening of the axe which we use to cut
off the roots of greed, hatred and delusion. When we
achieve single-pointedness of the mind, we are then
ready to conjoin tranquility with penetrative under-
standing, meditation with wisdom.
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WISDOM
Today we are going to complete our survey of the
Noble Eightfold Path. In the last two weeks, we have
looked at good conduct and mental development.
Today, we have the third group to look at, and that is the
wisdom group. Here we have an interesting situation
which we attended to sometime ago when we discussed
the Four Noble Truths. When one sees the Noble
Eightfold Path listed in sequence, one begins with Right
Understanding and yet in the context of the three fold
division of good conduct, mental development and
wisdom, wisdom comes at the end. One tries to explain
this by using the analogy of climbing a mountain. When
one sets out to climb a mountain one has the summit in
view and it is the sight of the summit that gives
direction to one s path. In that sense, even when one
begins to climb the mountain, one has one s eyes on the
summit. As such, right understanding is necessary right
at the beginning of the path. Yet in practical terms one
has to climb the lower steps, scale the intermediate
ridges before one reaches the summit, the attainment of
wisdom. In practical terms, therefore, wisdom comes at
the end of one s practice of the path.
Wisdom is described as the understanding of the
Four Noble Truths, or the understanding of dependent
origination and so forth. What is meant by this is that
when we speak of the attainment of wisdom, we are
concerned with transforming these items of the doctrine
from simple intellectual facts to real personal facts. We
are interested in changing this knowledge from mere
book learning to real living experience. And the way
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this is done is through the cultivation of good conduct
and specifically through the cultivation of mental
development. Otherwise, anyone can read in a book the
explanation of the Four Noble Truths and so forth and
yet this is not the same as attaining wisdom. As the
Buddha Himself said, it is through failing to understand
the Four Noble Truths and dependent origination that
we have all run on in this cycle of birth and death.
Obviously when He said this, He meant something
deeper than simply failure to be acquainted intellect-
ually with these items of doctrine. Understanding here
has to be taken in the sense of Right Understanding,
direct understanding, in the sense of seeing. This is
perhaps why so frequently the language of seeing is
used to describe the attainment of wisdom. We speak in
terms of seeing the Truth, of seeing things as they really
are. Because the attainment of wisdom is not an intel-
lectual or academic exercise. It is seeing, understanding
these truths directly. When this kind of direct
understanding of the truth is gained, this is equivalent to
gaining enlightenment. This opens the door to freedom,
freedom from suffering and to Nirvana. Wisdom is the
key thing in Buddhism. In other religions, we find that
faith is paramount. In still other religions, we find that
meditation is supreme as for instance in Yoga. In
Buddhism, faith is preliminary, meditation is instru-
mental. The real heart of Buddhism is wisdom.
The two steps of the Noble Eightfold Path that are
included in wisdom are Right Understanding and Right
Thought. Right Understanding can be said to be seeing
things as they really are. Understanding the truth about
things rather than simply seeing them as they appear to
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be. What this means is insight, penetrative under-
standing, seeing beyond the surface of things. If we
want to explain this in doctrinal terms, we will have to
speak about the Four Noble Truths, dependent
origination, impermanence, not-self and so forth. But
for the moment let us just speak about the means of
gaining Right Understanding. Here we can again see the
scientific attitude of the teachings of the Buddha.
Because when we come to look at the means of
acquiring Right Understanding, we see that we begin
with objective observation of the situation and of
ourselves. We join objective observation with enquiry,
examination and consideration.
In acquiring Right Understanding, we find that
there are two types of understanding. One is the
understanding that we acquire by ourselves. The other is
the understanding that we acquire through others, that
we are shown by others. Ultimately, these two types of
understanding merge because in the final analysis real
understanding of Right Understanding has to be our
own. But in the meantime, one can distinguish between
Right Understanding that we achieve through obser-
vation of the environment and the Right Understanding
that we achieve through the study of the teachings. Just
as with regard to our situation, we are asked to observe
objectively what we see, what we experience and then
examine and consider its significance, so when we
approach the teachings of the Buddha we are asked to
study them, to listen to them and then to consider them,
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