The Truth Given by Life

In the diagram, circle number (1) represents the present body, and circle (2) shows the result of the present body. Therefore, the so-called person or being, the five aggregates, are merely effects that arise due to causes. Among the causal factors, avijjā (ignorance) is a defilement, thus it is the kilesa vatta (round of defilements). Saṅkhāra (volitional formations) is kamma, thus it is the kamma vatta (round of kamma). The present five aggregates are the resultant phenomena that arise due to these two rounds, hence they are the vipāka vatta (round of results). According to the teaching, it should also be understood from the perspective of the three rounds that the round of defilements gives rise to the round of kamma, and the round of kamma gives rise to the round of results. As long as the wisdom that realizes the Truth has not arisen, avijjā (ignorance) is the leader. As long as ignorance leads, all actions become kamma. As long as there is kamma, the resulting phenomena will undoubtedly arise. The leading defilements are ignorance (avijjā) and craving (taṇhā). In past existences, ignorance was the leader, and in the present existence, craving is the leader. In the past, ignorance led and craving followed. In the present, craving leads and ignorance follows. Sabbe saṅkhārā dukkhā – All conditioned things are suffering. It is called suffering because every arisen phenomenon must cease. It is not called suffering merely because it is painful or troublesome; it is called suffering because it possesses the nature of arising and passing away. Some accuse Buddhism of being pessimistic. In truth, it is not pessimism, but realism. Everything that comes into being ends in destruction. Everything that is new ends in decay. Everything that appears ends in disappearance. Every meeting ends in separation. Human desires cannot be fulfilled by devas, nor by Sakka, nor even by the Buddha. Sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā – All things are impermanent because they arise and cease. Human beings strive as much as they can to make impermanent things permanent and stable. If one gets a good position, they strive to make that position last. If one gets a good job, they strive to avoid losing that job. One also wishes that their possessions, like cars and machines, would always remain in good condition. However, sometimes things go according to one's wishes, and sometimes they do not. In the end, they ultimately end in destruction, contrary to one's wishes, following their own nature. This venerable one still remembers the joys of childhood. Living among parents, siblings, and relatives, there was no worry about food or clothing. From personal hygiene onwards, mother took care, elder sisters took care. There was no need to comb one's own hair. They carefully arranged clothes to be neat and tidy. One didn't even think of those tasks as one's own responsibility. One would even get annoyed if a desired shirt wasn't washed yet. According to one's wishes, they would wash it. Living thus within the nest of parents, siblings, and family, bound by full family affection, one never even thought that this life would one day break apart like a scattered nest. This can be said to be the obscuration of avijjā (ignorance), which adheres to the subconscious, preventing one from seeing the truth. Obscured by ignorance, taṇhā (craving) deludes one into mistakenly believing that living together as a complete family is enjoyable. Under the trickery of craving, one lives on in ignorant bliss. When the time came, and a second elder sister got married and followed her husband, a hollow feeling arose in the heart. It was a moment of insight, a thought: "Is the nest of life beginning to break apart?" In the subconscious of childhood, one had mistaken the impermanent (anicca) for the permanent (nicca). One had not foreseen that one day, one way or another, we would all be separated. Because expectation and reality diverged, a sudden insight struck the heart for the first time. A few years later, when this venerable one was eight years old, he witnessed with his own eyes the passing of his father. It was the first time he directly encountered death. He watched helplessly as his father suffered from severe illness, gasping for breath, feeling only pity but unable to do anything. He had heard of others dying, had seen it, but never looked closely. But when his own father was about to die, he was present and saw it clearly. Knowing that he was truly about to die, he was left with no refuge. When the breathing stopped and he became still and motionless, an insight arose right then: "Oh, dying is not peaceful at all." Although he cannot list exactly the deaths in other families, he still remembers the members of his own family passing away one after another. One month after his father passed, his mother also died. Three days after his mother's death, his elder sister, Ma Mya Lin, also died at the age of fifteen. Although he did not yet know the word anicca (impermanence), an awareness was clearly impressed upon him like a wound: "All who are born must die like this." Then, a year later, a grandfather who loved, valued, and relied on him very much also passed away. "Oh, the young die, and the old die too," he thought—a sense of spiritual urgency (saṃvega) arose in him, though he didn't know the term for it. After that, for a considerable number of years, deaths in this venerable one's family seemed to pause. In 1995, after this venerable one had been ordained and obtained the Dhammacariya degree from the Mandalay State Pariyatti Sāsana University, celebrating the success, the very next day his eldest married sister, Daw Me Nyo, passed away. Then, in 1998, his youngest brother, Venerable Vimala, at the age of 22 and in his second year of monkhood, passed away before his eyes, suffering from the affliction of both kidneys failing. In 1999, his middle brother died in a car accident. In 2008, another sister also died. These records of death are the real records of what happened in this venerable one's family. This is the truth being practically demonstrated by family life. As long as avijjā prevents knowledge of the Truth, the bonds of life, the family attachments (saṃyojana) clung to through taṇhā, are indeed defilements (kilesā). These defilements will burn more fiercely the more one is unaware. The fires of these defilements can only be extinguished, and relief found, when wisdom arises that sees the truth of impermanence (anicca). Without the ability to reflect with that wisdom, one will only be severely battered by feelings of helplessness and loss. Knowing that this is the inevitable path for all who have a body, only by escaping the round of defilements (kilesa vatta) and the round of kamma (kamma vatta) can one be liberated from the suffering of the aggregates (khandha dukkha), which is the round of results (vipāka vatta), and from the suffering of the cycle of existence (saṃsāra dukkha). Therefore, I must say that the path to such liberation exists only in the practice of diligently reflecting on arising and passing away until the Path Knowledge (magga) is attained. There is no other way. Ven. Dr. Ashin Pāramī