Categories: Maintaining Mindfulness
May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you all!
Today, through our spiritual teachings, we hope to offer you a practical understanding of a matter central to your spiritual life. Through our series of discussions, many of you have already gained a significant understanding of developing the mind. This journey of mental cultivation, a core aspect of spiritual development, can be approached in two primary ways, which we have had the opportunity to teach you: the path of calm and the path of insight.
Through these teachings and your own practical application, you have begun to experience these truths for yourselves. You are experiencing them now, and as you continue to practice, your ability to witness these realities directly will only grow. When we undertake this spiritual development, whether through cultivating calm or insight, we begin to understand the inherent nature of our own minds. This understanding offers a profound release from our problems.
Imagine you are weighed down by immense financial troubles, trapped in a web of debt from many sources. Then, suddenly, you receive the exact amount of money needed to clear every single debt. Wouldn’t you feel an immense sense of relief? A deep joy in your heart? This feeling is universal. In the same way, when you explore your spiritual world and investigate your own mind, you seek answers to your deepest questions.
You already know that the answers must be found within the mind itself. As you journey inward and begin to understand the mind’s nature, the problems you faced begin to resolve. When this happens, you experience an astonishing sense of relief. This very relief can lead to a wonderful state of mental unification and concentration, a state of deep focus we call Samādhi. This is the unique happiness you experience through your own inner work and spiritual development.
A Deeper Happiness Beyond Material Wealth
This inner happiness is unlike anything you have experienced in the ordinary world. You might be a wealthy person, someone of average means, or someone facing poverty. Regardless of your financial status, you have likely pursued happiness in the material world, the world of sensory pleasures, known in Buddhism as the kāma loka.
At some point, you’ve probably spent what you could to find joy. All three groups of people do this, just at different levels. You may have sought happiness by spending as much money as possible on worldly comforts and pleasures.
So, whether you are young, middle-aged, or older, you have likely come to understand the nature of happiness in this sensory world. Yet, for those of you who have begun to investigate the mind, perhaps through our teachings on mindfulness, and started to cultivate it through both calm (Samatha) and insight (Vipassanā), a new understanding emerges. As you perceive the true nature of the mind, you begin to realize, little by little, that a profound peace and freedom already exist right here, within you.
This realization dawns through states of concentration (Samādhi), through the practice of mindfulness, and through the gradual reduction of mental defilements, specifically, the lessening of clinging and aversion. As you understand this, you might find yourself naturally developing a fondness, even a form of attachment, to your spiritual life. This is a very normal and common experience for anyone on a spiritual path, because you are building your own happiness from within.
Shifting Priorities: From Worldly Chase to Inner Peace
As this happens, something interesting occurs. The more you experience the joy of the spiritual world, the less you desire the things of the material world. Your interest in pursuing ordinary sensory pleasures begins to fade. For someone practicing insight meditation (Vipassanā) correctly, these things may start to feel completely unnecessary.
For someone developing states of meditative absorption (Jhāna) or psychic abilities through the path of calm (Samatha), moments will arise when they feel, ‘I don’t need this right now.’ Why does this happen? It occurs because the happiness derived from your spiritual development grows stronger.
Essentially, as the defilements of the sensory world are either suppressed through calm or completely uprooted through insight, your experience and understanding of the spiritual dimension deepens.
When this happens, a practitioner looks at the ordinary world and sees others chasing after money, buying beautiful cars, dreaming of lavish homes, indulging in fashion, going on holidays and foreign tours, and attending parties and clubs. They see people spending money on all kinds of entertainment, on sexual pleasure, and on romance.
If you were once a person who devoted time and money to these things, you will notice your involvement naturally decrease. If you once dreamed of starting ten businesses, as your inner peace grows, you might think, ‘I don’t need ten businesses to live. Two or three are plenty. Maybe even one is enough.’ A thought arises: ‘I have enough money. I don’t need to chase more at the cost of my spiritual well-being. Why should I let my meditation practice deteriorate by chasing endlessly after money?’
Balancing Spiritual and Worldly Life: A Path to True Success
You begin to realize, ‘I should arrange my life to have enough to live for the time I have, be it 70 or 80 years, with my spouse and children. Beyond that, I am cultivating my spiritual path.’ This understanding grows as your spiritual development deepens.
To put it simply, you no longer feel the urge to chase after immense wealth or to participate in the competitive rat race that others are running. You feel a desire to step out of that race and live your life differently. This is a gift that comes from experiencing the freedom of the mind.
Many people who chase endlessly after money are often living with great mental stress; they are not happy. They are constantly thinking about business. They can become addicted to their work, much like an addiction to drugs.
In some cases, their family lives and marriages fail because they have gone to one extreme, causing other essential parts of their lives to collapse. But this is not what happens with spiritual development. Your lay life does not fail.
The Highest Potential of a Lay Practitioner
We have previously explained that it is possible to achieve a certain level of advancement while living as a layperson. From the perspective of transcendent attainments, it is even possible to realize the state of an Arahat, a fully enlightened one, while in lay clothes.
This is mentioned in the Pali Canon. However, the Buddha taught that such a person will not remain in the lay life; they will naturally incline towards entering the monastic order. The venerable Rerukane Chandavimala Nayaka Thero has also clarified this point clearly in his books, a matter I have mentioned in previous teachings.
Even so, a layperson can live a household life up to the point of attaining the path and fruit of a Anāgāmī, or a ‘Non-Returner’. We need to understand this potential. Similarly, on the path of calm, one who lives a celibate life as a householder can achieve significant development, including the awakening of the ‘third eye’ and various other abilities.
Even for those not living a celibate life, it is possible to cultivate a deep spiritual life by observing the precept against sexual misconduct (Kāmesu micchācārā) and avoiding extreme sensual indulgence. Your household life does not deteriorate or get destroyed. In fact, if both partners practice correctly, your life can become far more harmonious and successful than that of ordinary worldlings (puthujjana).
Please keep this in mind as you continue your journey. For today, I will conclude this teaching. May the power and blessings of the Triple Gem, the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, grant you the ability to understand these matters well and to act upon them. May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you all!
We invite you to walk this path with us. Read our teachings, and most importantly, apply them practically in your own life. as you practice, questions will naturally arise. Please feel free to share your experiences and questions in the comments below, via email or contact form. I will do my best to offer guidance in future talks based on your progress. For now, begin this practice with an open heart and a mind free from expectation. Cultivate it correctly, and may you find the clarity and peace you seek.
Thank you for joining us. We hope this blog will be of great benefit to your spiritual journey.
May you all be well and happy.
May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you all!
