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The World in the Buddhist Sense
From our childhood we are used to the idea that this world we areliving in with all the people around us is the real world. The Buddhataught that the world is composed of the objects which come to us throughthe senses of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and through the door ofthe mind. These are all fleeting phenomena which change withinsplitseconds. Seeing is there just for a moment and then it falls away.Visible object is there just for a moment and then it falls away. What weused to take for our solid world consists of impermanent elements. Ourworld crumbles away, there is the disintegration of our world and ofourselves.When the reader is in the first page of this book confronted with twodifferent kinds of truths, the conventional truth and the absolute truth,he may wonder whether there is a discrepancy here which makes itimpossible to practise Buddhism and at the same time to live oneÕs life inthe world. We have to do our work, to be with other people and we want toenjoy our possessions, all the things of this world. The Buddha did notdeny that there is the conventional truth we have to live with. However,it is a great blessing that he taught us the absolute truth, the truth ofmental phenomena, nŒma, and physical phenomena, rœpa. NŒma and rœpa areterms in PŒli, the language in which the Buddhist scriptures have beenwritten. We can develop understanding of the absolute truth, of nŒma andrœpa, while we live our daily life naturally. Absolute truth is not atruth which cannot be grasped, it is not something abstract, it is thetruth about daily realities. Understanding this truth will help us to beable to lead our life in the world in a more wholesome way and to facecontrarieties in our work, and in our relationships.How to develop understanding of nŒma and rœpa naturally, while we areeating, doing our daily tasks, doing everything we normally do? This wasthe topic of the letters I wrote while living in Tokyo to someone who waswondering how to develop right understanding of nŒma and rœpa in dailylife. The Buddha taught mindfulness, in PŒli: sati, of the nŒma and rœpaof our life, in order to acquire direct understanding of them. Wediscussed what sati is; it is difficult for all of us to understand thisreality which seems so elusive. Sati is different from thinking, but whatis it then? We have to accept that we cannot understand immediately whatsati is, we have to study carefully all the phen
omena of our life theBuddha taught. We need knowledge of them as a foundation. Gradually we canlearn to investigate the nŒmas and rœpas which appear in our life and thenthere can be conditions for direct awareness of them, for sati.The reader may wonder what the purpose is of the study of nŒma and rœpa. Why should one take so much trouble? It is important to have lessignorance about our life, about ourselves. The real cause of all ourtroubles is not the behaviour of other people or the situation we are in,but our own defilements. Our ignorance conditions many other defilements,such as selfishness, hatred, avarice and jealousy. Through the developmentof understanding there will be elimination of ignorance. When there isless ignorance it will be for the benefit of both ourselves and others.The development of understanding can only be very gradual. We need patience to investigate all phenomena which appear. At first we may
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