Once upon a time, there was a
traveler who would like to go to a city. Because of time constraints, he
decided to take a shortcut. In this way he needed to cross a forest. When he
reached the middle of the forest, he saw a tiger. The tiger saw him too, and
started to chase him. Knowing this, he ran as fast as he could. He realized
that if he kept running, he would get caught by the tiger because tiger could
run faster.
While running, he kept thinking how
he should avoid this tiger. He also dropped all his provisions in order to move
quickly and nimbly. He saw a well, not far, in front of him. He decided to jump
to the well thinking that the tiger would not follow him. Thus, he jumped and
luckily there was a big root of a tree that came out from the wall of the well.
He quickly held and hung-on to it, so he did not fall to the bottom of the
well. He was right, the tiger did not follow him to jump but it kept waiting by
staying near the well.
He felt a big relief from being free
from the tiger. When he took a look to the bottom of the well, he saw three
cobra snakes making hissing sound. Again, he felt so much relief because he
could avoid another deadly situation. He told to himself that he was a very
lucky man.
Not only being tired after running
to avoid the tiger, but he also felt very hungry. Thus, he decided to take a
rest on the tree root for awhile. He noticed two rats (black & white)
biting the part of the root, where he was resting, which close to the wall of
the well. However, because he was feeling tired he did not care much that those
rats could break the root.
After a while, a strong wind blew
through the big tree where he stayed on its root. The bee hive that hung-on to
tree branch which was on the top of the well broke, causing its honey to drip
down onto him. How lucky he was! First, he had escaped from two deadly situations.
And now, when he was very hungry and tired, delicious honey was dripping onto
him.
Soon after he started eating the
honey, he heard the sound of gunfire (bang! bang! bang!). He thought that a
hunter had probably shot the tiger. Not wanting to waste any time, he started
to yell (help! help! help!) hoping that the hunter would hear his calls. The
hunter, tracking the tiger, approached the well and heard the traveler’s
shouts. The hunter told him that he had chased the tiger away and then helped
him by dropping a rope-ladder down the inside of the well. Grateful to the
hunter, the traveler said, “Thank you so much, I will always remember your
kindness.”
However, out of greediness and
ignorance, the traveler continued enjoying the delicious honey drops, not
thinking to hold the rope-ladder first. As the time went by, and the rats
continued biting the tree root, the tree root weakened and broke. The traveler fell
to the bottom of the well without had a chance to grab the rope-ladder. He was
bitten by the cobras and died.
The
moral of this story:
We, ordinary people (puthujjana),
always run in the round of rebirths (saṁsāra) in order to get what we want
(mostly trying to satisfy our greed of sensual pleasure). Not only do we not
know the fault of saṁsāra, but we also are not aware that death (the tiger) is always
chasing us. Every time the sun goes down, we are one day older. It means that Every
day brings us closer to death.
Due to of ignorance (moha), we can’t
see the law of nature. We think impermanence (anicca) as permanence (nicca),
suffering/dissatisfaction (dukkha) as happiness (sukha), and not-self (anattā)
as self (attā). Although we try to hide (jump to the well) from death, we can’t
escape it. The law of impermanence (anicca) will bring us to death eventually (venomous
snake bites).
Forms of suffering, such as old age
(with its gray hair, wrinkled-skin, poor eyesight, and toothlessness), sickness,
pain, etc., attack us constantly, day or night, just like the two rats chewing
on the tree root. Despite all of those evils, because of greed (lobha) we
always crave (taṇhā) for sensual pleasure (honey drops) although we know it
could drag us to lower realms (animal, hungry ghost/peta, demon/asura, and
hell).
As
we all know, a Buddha very rarely appears in this world. It is also a rare
opportunity to encounter the teachings of the Buddha (Buddha sāsanā). It is
also very difficult to born as human being. It is very difficult to be alive
and especially to have a good life and good health. However, due to craving for
sensual pleasure (honey drops), we tend to forget to take the vipassanā
practice (the rope-ladder) that was given by Lord Buddha (hunter) in order to free
us from the suffering of saṁsāra.
We
always say that we don’t have time to take the vipassanā practice. We say, I
will practice “when I finish my education” or “after I have a stable job” or
“after I have a family” or “after I have children” or “after my children get
married” or “next week, next month, next year,” etc. The right time will never
come if we don’t give ourselves a chance.
Nobody else can give us the right time either.
That’s
true that it is very difficult to avoid sensual pleasure, let alone to be free
from it totally. However, now we have a very rare opportunity to do that. Don’t
let this opportunity slip away, or it will bring us remorse. At least, we
should take vipassanā meditation (hold the rope-ladder) to the level that will
free us from falling to lower realms (falling to the bottom of the well), while
at the same time we still can enjoy some sensual pleasure (honey drops).
If
there is NO Buddha, NO vipassanā, then NO one would know how to be free from saṁsāra.
Thus, we all should practice
vipassanā while we have this very rare opportunity.
After
reading this vipassanā dhamma, may all of you realize the importance of
vipassanā meditation. May all of you be able to practice with ease and realize
the Noble Dhamma (Magga, Phala, and Nibbāna) in this very life. Sadhu! Sadhu!
Sadhu!
The 15th of October, 2010
ITBMU, Yangon, Myanmar
Much Mettā,
Ashin Sikkhānanda
ITBMU, Yangon, Myanmar
Much Mettā,
Ashin Sikkhānanda
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