Part 1: Seeking the Dhamma & The Teacher's Path
I have been sharing these Dhamma exhortations with you for three or four days now. Most of you have already heard and listened to these teachings. Various teachers have come and passed through your lives—this teacher, that teacher. Some of you have had the opportunity to travel to Thailand, and indeed, I still recognize many of your faces here today. You traveled there in search of merit, virtue, and spiritual goodness, wanting to hear the teachings, wanting a guide to speak the Dhamma to you.
In the past, I was just like you all. I went searching; wherever there was a teacher, I went to seek them out. When I first ordained, I didn't immediately become a teacher. I started as just a small monk, a novice—just like any of you starting on the path. The truly central principle is having unwavering faith and confidence in what the teachers expound to us, and then putting those teachings into actual practice.
Part 2: Pariyatti, Patipatti, and Pativedha (Study, Practice, and Realization)
Pariyatti is the theoretical study—reading from the scriptures and textbooks, or listening to instructions from your teachers. This is study. Once you have remembered the teachings, you must proceed to Patipatti, which is the actual practice. You practice according to what you have studied and heard. If you practice seriously and sincerely, the truth will reveal itself. At that point, it is no longer just a memory stored in your head; it becomes a living truth, a reality that arises directly within you.
What, then, is Pativedha? It is the realization, the direct fruit that comes from your practice. Our ultimate goal in practicing is this realization—to attain the Paths, their Fruits, and Nibbana. As long as we do not yet know and see the truth for ourselves, we will continue to hesitate and doubt. But once the truth reveals itself, it is no longer difficult. Right now, your mind is filled only with Sanna (memory and perception) and Sankhara (mental formations and thought proliferations)—mere intellectual concepts and recognition. What we have studied and learned is simply memory. But if you practice, the living truth arises. And when that truth reveals itself, all hesitation and doubt completely vanish.
Part 3: Overcoming Self-Doubt and Building Inner Parami
Everything within you is already fully prepared. Have faith—faith in the reality of rebirth, birth and death, and the Path and its Fruits. In the beginning, we must rely heavily on persistent effort. It is very heavy, everyone, very difficult indeed. It is like traveling through a place we have never passed, a place we have never been, never known, and never seen; we have only a map in our memory. But if you can make the mind gather into Samadhi (stillness and concentration) just once, everything becomes fully ready. Have deep confidence in the Path, its Fruits, and in the power of your own practice.
Do not ever think, "My merit is too little, my spiritual fortune is too weak, my Parami (perfections) are insufficient." If you know your merit is small, you can cultivate it to make it great. If you have none, you can build it. We are human beings; we are born equipped with everything we need. The only thing that can stop us is our own failure to practice. As long as we keep practicing, one day we will know and see the truth just the same. The Paths, Fruits, and Nibbana do not exclude anyone—whether you are a woman or a man, it is exactly the same. Whoever is worthy of the Path and its Fruits will attain them. Whether you are an ordained monk or a lay practitioner, it is exactly the same.
Therefore, do not feel dejected, thinking you have no opportunity. As long as you still have breath in your body, your opportunity is always there. So, let everyone be firmly determined. The future is born directly out of the present—from our actions right now. The Buddha and all the Arahants were human beings just like us. But they possessed truthfulness, diligent perseverance, unwavering faith, and firm confidence. This is what is highly important, everyone. Do not look elsewhere; look at your own mind. You are the most important factor in this practice.
Part 4: The Mind as the Master
Do not overlook yourself. You are highly important. This physical body is merely an instrument of the mind. When we come to bow, to pay respect, to practice meditation, to offer food, and to give charity—it is the physical body we use to perform these actions. But the actual merit, the wholesome goodness, is received directly by the mind. Whether that merit is great or small, it all resides right there in the mind.
I am very delighted for you all. Today I am here with you, but tomorrow I must go to have my meal elsewhere. I am so glad to have had the opportunity to come here and see the faith of you lay devotees. I truly want to talk to you, to expound the Dhamma for you to hear, but I cannot speak your language. What can I do? Deep down, I really want to talk to you, to explain these teachings to you in great detail. But perhaps receiving just this much is enough, yes?
Part 5: Inner Self-Reliance
The main principle is the mind. Do not overlook your own potential. I am merely the one who speaks and points the way, but the actual doing is something you must do yourselves. The fruits of that practice are yours alone to receive. I am not lying to you. The Paths, Fruits, and Nibbana exist in every single era. If they did not exist, I would have disrobed a long time ago! The very reason I have remained ordained to this point—for my entire life, from youth until old age, as you can see—is because they do exist. It is because we can know it, we can see it, and we have heard it. We believe, we have faith, and because of that faith, I have lived my life this way.
In the past, I used to think just like you: "Do they really exist—the Paths, Fruits, and Nibbana?" I was filled with hesitation and doubt, but I didn't dare show it. Whenever I heard the teachers speak of the Paths and Fruits, deep down, there was a kind of inner friction—a quiet resistance grinding against what I was hearing, even though I didn't dare express it out of fear of making bad kamma. But once the truth finally revealed itself, I could bow completely to everything. I could bow to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, and bow to my teachers with a truly sincere and devoted heart.
Therefore, everyone, do not be heedless. Traveling around to bow to holy places here and there will result in the exact same thing if you do not do the practice yourself. You must create the Path and its Fruits within your own mind. You don't need to go searching to bow to external things here and there; bow to the goodness within yourself; that is what is truly best. We can produce this goodness ourselves. If we don't have it within, we just go begging for it externally—asking for merit here, begging for precepts there. But if you produce it within your own heart, it never runs out. If you rely only on what others give you, it will soon run out. If you build it, produce it, and cultivate it yourself, no matter what happens, it is inexhaustible.
Do not feel dejected, thinking you have little merit or perfections. It is not little—we are human beings. We can do this. If human beings cannot do it, then who else can? Have deep confidence in yourself. I have spoken now for some time, and it seems to be an appropriate time to conclude.
(The assembly replies: "Sādhu, sādhu, sādhu.")