17. Final words

So we have been practicing the noble eightfold path. We have practiced it in the moment. This is the only place we can practice it. If we don’t practice now, when are we going to practice? This is the only chance we have to see things as they are. Now! Now is the time we need to activate our awareness in the present moment. We are practicing the path. Even in the action of hearing. When hearing occurs, there is right view when we haven’t gone into the story of ‘I am listening to something’. When we’re back and ‘there is hearing’. Two very different circumstances. Physically it’s the same thing going on. Sound is vibrating on the ear drum. ‘I am listening’ takes place. But if we are aware and present in the moment ‘there is hearing’ taking place. Two sides of a coin. One of them leads to dukkha. One of them leads to release. One of them is a manifestation of being in the sense perception process. The other one is a manifestation of freedom in the present moment. So we practice in this way. We notice what is there in the present moment, we know what’s there, we step away from it. This is our right view. And right view comes first. We understand that this is just nature. «There is …». That will be the phrase that will be very helpful to you. Whenever you find yourself being attacked by something, sadness or grief or anger or aversion, «there is …». Feel it for yourself! Observe it! Note it! Don’t get sucked into it. Don’t get playing in the content of your mind. Step back and see the structure, 283 so the content can be let go of. We don’t hold on to it.

We know that objects are just objects. Nature is just nature. We know that experiences are just experiences. They are not happening to anyone. It’s just experience. There is no experiencer. There’s nobody here. We have the right attitude and the right intention. We are letting go and renouncing things. Our effort is in the present. Our awareness is in the present. We have been able to stabilize the mind so that we can note and know continuously. So our concentration is there. These five factors of the path are developed in a single moment of noting, knowing and letting go. We have previously already established right speech, right action and right livelihood. So the noble eightfold path is practiced in the present. It arises in the present. Dhamma is ever present. There is dhamma-talk everywhere. You don’t have to listen to me to realize or listen to the dhamma. It’s talking to us all around us. Nature is teaching us but we are often unable to hear. We are not paying attention to the present. We have been distracted by the past, future or our iPhones. We can’t know or see dhamma because of the defilements in the mind. If we can think and see nature as it really is, then the mind is free. Free from the defilements and there is nature everywhere. We are free in the present moment. All we need to do is extend that moment out, make it regular, make it arise often. Bring yourself into that moment as much as you can. We are training the mind to be in that moment. To be in that mode of observation. It’s one thing to get into it on a retreat. It’s another practice to keep it up. Keep opening your heart. Keep opening your mind, your awareness, your wisdom in the present and seeing what’s there not being upset. Accepting. We are accepting! We have to accept! We are trying to think in the right way and we’re trying to be aware. We’re not complaining about what is happening. It is as it is. Karma is unfolding. Acceptance is very important. If we don’t have right view and we don’t have right intention, we won’t be able to accepting whatever is happening in the present moment. When we don’t accept, we start to react. When we start to react, we start to dukkher ourselves. So we need to accept things. Acceptance is important. If we can’t accept then we can’t learn. If we can’t learn, we can’t let go.

We are not trying to change the experience. We’re trying to change our attention to the experience. Whatever is happening is happening. We are 284 changing the way we’re experiencing it in the moment. Instead of blindly reacting to it, from a place of ignorance, we are pulling our mind into the present so that we see things as they are. Letting go happens very naturally. Especially when the mind is properly trained. When we have gone to the efforts of training ourselves, then we’ll find it easier and easier when we do get confronted to pull ourselves out of it. We’re not trying to change the process.

We’re not complaining about what is happening. Everything is experience. Whatever is happening is happening through cause and effect. If our experience is good, we get really happy about it. If our experience is bad, we get upset about it. This means we don’t see things clearly. We have been a reactor reacting to good and bad. A judgement! A judgement formed on the back of a feeling. Pleasantness or unpleasantness. It’s amazing how all the good things in life are associated with pleasantness and all the bad things in life are associated with unpleasantness. Why is that? The good is not pleasant. The pleasant, if unseen properly, makes things good. The unpleasant, if not seen properly, makes things bad. Good and bad are our reaction to pleasant and unpleasant. That’s all! It’s just a judgment in our mind. Just a judgment. It’s not truth! There’s no reality. Judgment just passed away. Where is it gone? It doesn’t exist anymore. That’s how fleeting the mind is, how rapidly it changes.

So we have to understand that nature is nature and the objects are objects. And our mind’s reaction is our mind’s reaction. We won’t be able to undo our old karma, but we can change our reactions to things. We can develop awareness in the present moment so that we don’t react so negatively to things. And this is what we do in our daily life practice. Just making sure that we’re not getting triggered. Making sure we’re not triggering others. Making sure our behavior is acceptable and suitable. If others are being triggered, of course, that’s their problem, but we shouldn’t contribute knowingly to another person’s dukkha. We are trying to appreciate how the mind is working. We are just checking our awareness in the present. We’re not trying to achieve, to get or to become someone. We are just chilling in the present moment watching things arise and pass away without reaction. It’s very, very peaceful and becomes very blissful once the technique is mastered.

285 So dhamma is there all the time. It’s everywhere. We just need to take the time to have a look at it.