dhamma as skillful kamma

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Dhamma a Skillful KammaArticle

Ajahn Sucitto(Pot Ajahn Sucitto)

Winter 2008

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There i a rather humorou text in the Middle Length Dicoure called the

Kukkuravatika Sutta, or The Dog-dut Acetic (M 57). In the uddha’ time, the o-

called piritual cene wa full of people who did extreme acetic practice. In thitext, we’re told of an acetic who like to practice like he’ a dog. He walk around

on all four, traiping in and out of puddle, and will onl eat food that i thrown on

the ground. And he ha an acetic friend who like to practice like he’ an ox. Thi

one tand around and lie down in traw. The oth have een doing their acetic

practice for man ear.

The come acro the uddha and the dog-dut acetic ak him omething like,

“What i the reult of m practice a a dog acetic? Have I urned off a lot of ad

kamma [action]?” And the uddha a “Don’t ak me.” The dog acetic a, “No,

tell me.” And the uddha a, “Don’t ak me.” Thi goe on for three time, until the

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uddha finall a, “Oka, ou’ve aked me three time. Having een aked three

time, I cannot refue, o I’ll tell ou. Since ou’ve een practicing like a dog, and

have developed the dog-mind full and without interruption, our detin i to e

either reorn a a dog if ou’ve done it well, or to e reorn in hell if ou have

meed up.” Mae the uddha i eing lightl humorou here, ut he a that

rather than do all thee ill thing and think ou’re wearing out kamma, there’ aetter wa to do it.

Four Kind of mm

At thi point the uddha goe into a rief expoition on four kind of kamma. The

firt of thee kamma i called “dark action with dark reult,” which i to a it i

negative action producing negative reult. Here one take life, aue living eing,

take intoxicant, and o forth. The reult of thoe action are dark and negative—

one i heir to one’ action. It eem appropriate to call it “dark” rather than ad,

ecaue it i more like a feeling tone, the mind feel dark when it doe thee thing,

and it lead to darker feeling in the future.

mm

m

The language of the utta ma eem unnecearil cluttered here ut it a, “one

generate an afflictive odil formation.” What it mean i that in an action ou’re

creating a aṅ

khāra, an intention, volition, or formation. It ma eem like jut onemoment’ lip—ou’ve had a naught thought and it i gone—ut there’ actuall

more to it than that. Thee formation add up over time and create a kammic

tendenc, a kind of haitual track down which one’ mind will run. Thi will

determine the ort of peron ou ecome. If ou keep doing the ame thing over and

over again, then ou are creating a current or a kammic pathwa. ver time ou go

down that track ou generate an afflictive formation, an afflictive aṅkhāra. Thi

kamma then come ack to ou ecaue ou have created a channel through odil

action for certain action to lead to certain reult. The ame thing happen with

action of peech and with action of the mind. If ou think in certain wa, ou

foter particular emotion, and ou then get programmed into particular hait and





tendencie, like jealouie or grudge or thing of thi nature.

The econd kind of kamma i called “right action with right reult.” Here one

generate an unafflictive odil aṅkhāra through a killful action, uch a

ataining from taking life, generoit, harmlene, or an unafflictive veral or

mental aṅkhāra. Thi lead to a right detination or reult, in the ene that

wholeome thing will reult from wholeome action.

The third kind of kamma i when it i mixed. There’ a it of a muddle here: a it of

dark and a it of right. Perhap ou’re running out in order to do omeone a favor

ut kick the dog that’ getting in our wa—ome good, ome ad.

The lat kind of kamma i neither dark nor right action, with neither dark nor

right reult, and thi i the idea the uddha i introducing to the dog acetic. It i a

kind of action that lead to the detruction of action, ecaue it i the action

undertaken with an attitude of letting go, of detachment, of dipaion. When one

aandon the volition of acting to otain particular kammic reult, there i no

haitual track, no program to follow, no ecoming a eing, no contructing a elf.

Action to nd Action

The action that lead to further kamma proceed from an inherent experience of

“me,” a eing, an identit. And thee action give reult in another me, another

identit. The action that lead to the end of action doe not proceed from a ene of me, and it doen’t give rie to the ene of me. Thi i the action of inight, if ou

will. It i thi movement of inight that allow ou to come out of the program, to

come out of the conditioning, to come out of eing a elf. Thi i the movement of

the dhamma.

In thi movement, there i no “I.” It i not “I” who am concentrating, for example,

during a meditation eion. Rather, concentration come ecaue it i dependent

on the caual condition of rapture and eae; rapture depend on the caualcondition of jo, gladne, and freedom from remore. So it i not me that’ doing

it; I am not producing a reult. It i jut that certain caue and condition fill up and

flood the tem, and the generate other caue and condition. The proce of

dhamma involve a tranperonal caualit of condition. It i not me doing it.

There ma well e a ene of me doing it, or of claiming ownerhip of what i

happening, ut thi i not the ame thing.

So the dhamma that lead to the end of kamma i not me getting rid of m kamma

ecaue that intention and action to get rid of kamma would e kamma! Let’ a

there i ome negativit in me, and I think, “I’ve got to get rid of m ad hait.”





That’ not going to do it. It might e a nice idea from which to tart, ut it i not

going to do it, ecaue that would e me tring to do it. All that happen i we get a

ene of negativit toward ourelve to “Stop eing thi wa, top eing that wa.”

Thi doe not take u ver far.

A more effective approach involve touching into the good, attuning to the good,

letting the good well up and move. That’ the proce of dhamma, which ha two

apect: calming (amatha) and inight (vipaanā). Calming the mind and od

give rie to a good feeling. It i a good feeling not jut ecaue it feel good, ut

ecaue it make the mind expanive, tead, intelligent, and intuitive. And then

there i inight, looking into caue and condition and undertanding the nature of

what i happening. From thee two working together, the proce of lieration





unfold. When one ee, “Well, that’ not necear, that’ jut painful,” one top

doing it. Thi i the aandonment of action.

The ceaing of kamma, of haitual action and reaction, alwa depend upon a

killful ai.

We work on two front. One i in etting up the program, the condition, the

aṅkhāra that will keep the relative ene of me in touch with what i health and

in a good place. That can e mae 80% of our practice, and it i a wide practice, not

aed jut in meditation. From that ai we can egin to look into how it can all e

aandoned, how the ene of me that i o often generated can e een through and

even relinquihed.

Calming

The firt apect of thi proce of dhamma, the calming apect, i perhap the motea to talk aout. Recollecting the ten parāmī i one of the eaiet thing we can do

to get on the calming track: generoit (dāna), of od, peech and mind; virtue

(īla), or eing aware of ehavior through od, peech and mind; renunciation

(nekkhamma), attuning to need rather than want in od, peech and mind;

dicernment (panñña) or widom; peritence (viria) or energ; patience

(khanti); truthfulne (acca); determination (adhitthāna) or reolution; loving

kindne (mettā) and equanimit (upekkhā). Thee are wa in which the good cane claified or roken up into ten piece. Thi mean that throughout a da ou’ve

got omething ou can ear in mind: “I can e more patient, I can develop thi

qualit; I can do it.” We do a little it each time. It give ou omething to tune in to

and recollect. And at the end of the da, for example, when ou get into our

meditation, ou feel it from where the goodne i, which i where we hould ideall

egin our practice in the caual proce of dhamma.

m

Turning Toward Inight

The primar otacle to inight i deep ignorance, in which are rooted all ort of





tainted emotion, mitaken view, and haitual action. The econd utta of the

Majjhima Nikāa (the Saāava Sutta) outline a numer of trategie for temming

the outflow (āava) of thee taint. You tackle the whole lot of it temming the

flow—putting out a lock here, an otacle here—o that it doen’t flow out o

freel and ou have le tuff to have to repair. The uddha preent even avenue

for attending to the outflow of unhealth tate in thi text, and the offer anacceile wa to move from calming into inight.

1. Seeing. The firt approach i called eeing, and ha to do with learning

appropriate attention ( onio manaikāra). Thi i a aṅkhāra, a formation, and it

refer to the kill of the defining mind, the thinking mind, or the mind that can

conceive. It i not the feeling mind, ut the mind that define “What i thi?

What i a killful wa to look at it?” It determine what to give attention to and

what not to attend to. There’ a road range here. If ou give a lot of attention towhere greed, hatred and deluion arie, that’ called inappropriate. If ou give

attention to where the uide, that’ appropriate, that’ killful.

So ou might examine how ou look at televiion. What do ou watch? How much

do ou watch? How good i it? I it killful? I it ueful? I it appropriate, and when i

it appropriate? When i it not appropriate? Thee are not hard-line judgment ut

jut a wa of knowing our own mind, to know what’ happening for ou: what oulook at, what ou give ear to, what ou attend to.

The uddha talk in ome detail aout thi. If ou keep attending in term of “Wa I?

What wa I? How wa I? What will I e? Having een, what will I e? Am I? Am I not?

What am I? How am I?” and o forth, then thi kind of attending to thoe idea i

food for the outflow of ecoming. “ecoming” i that which alwa form an

identit. So if ou keep aing “Who, who, who,” ou’re actuall timulating that

tendenc to ecome or e omeone. You will trengthen the tendenc to create lightand dark action that lead to light and dark reult.

Thu, variou kind of view can arie. “I have a elf. I have no-elf. M ig Self

perceive m mall elf. M not-elf perceive m elf,” and o forth. Thi i called a

thicket of view, and we can go round and round and get reall caught up in all that.

It i quite a ride, and it can e intereting at time. ut thi i not conducive to

inight. Intead, ou can attend to experience in le peronal term, uch a

“Where i the tre, where i the uffering now? What doe it originate from?Where doe it top? What help it to top?” That i wie attention.

2. Retraining. Retraint involve guarding or checking the ene. It mean that





we have ome reponiilit for our ee, our ear, and our other ene. Don’t

jut let an old thing gra our ee or ear. Thi could e ver helpful, I gue,

when ou’re going hopping ecaue everthing i out to gra our pacheck.

Then ou get home and think, “What did I u thi for?” We need to look at

what’ helpful and not at the thing that are going to trengthen the outflow of

greed, for example. When ou attend to guarding the ene, the outflow don’thave o much free rein.

3. Uing. A monk can reflect appropriatel on the four requiite of the monatic

life, ut even if ou’re not a monk it i a good thing to reflect upon. Thee four

requiite are the thing ou need: clothing, food, helter, and medicine. If ou

are getting thee, ou can ue them without oeing over them. The are there

to erve a particular purpoe. For la life, there are proal a few otherrequiite. A car i proal a requiite; wage are a requiite; inurance policie

ma e a requiite. ut jut how much and what tandard do ou reall need? It

can e een that need tend to tailize, wherea want do not. Want onl get

igger. And there i a lot of encouragement to foter more want and call them

need. The are reall jut want, which are reall kind of fair dut tuff. If ou

get a clear indication of what ou need and wh ou need it, then what ou get

erve what ou need. Thi help to top the outflow into ene form, where

ou identif with our car, our houe, or our pacheck.

m m m

m m

4. nduring. The next trateg i tolerating: patient enduring or the ailit to

endure painful feeling. Thi i omething to develop. Painful feeling will

inevital come to u, and it i good practice to learn to ear them, to develop

that capacit to tolerate, ince there i onl o much ou can ameliorate.

Someone wa aing eterda that a ou get older ou prett much get morediagreeale feeling. Mae ou can’t do much aout that; it i omething ou

have to ear with and not get depreed aout.





Don’t let the phical feeling tranlate into an emotional feeling: that’ the

point of tolerating. It doen’t mean eing uper-rave, ut jut pragmatic. You

don’t want thi tuff that get into the od to get into the heart and take over.

I know people who uffered extreme, long-term chronic pain. The have

ecome extremel erene and cheerful ecaue the don’t let their mind go

into complaining and truggling, ecaue the undertand that doing that jutmake it o much wore. If ou reinforce the approach of “Well, that’ that;

don’t go there,” the mind eventuall learn to not make a whole mental

reaction to the inevitale dicomfort we mut all face.

5. Avoiding. Avoiding dangerou thing i alo a ueful practice. The text give all

ort of analogie aout a wild ull, a tump, a ramle patch, poion iv and

dam and moquitoe, an open ewer. Then it goe into aociating with adfriend. Jut a ou would avoid a garage pit, avoid people who would tend to

draw ou into unkillful wa. We are flocking creature, o we tend to want to

flock and aociate with other. Thi i natural, ut it take a little it of

awarene and reilience to learn whom to flock with. A the uddha aid, if ou

can’t find uitale friend, etter to e alone.

6. Removing. Sometime omething i jut o unhealth i ha to e removed or

even detroed. Thi can e a difficult topic, dicued in ome detail in the

Vitakka-anthāna Sutta (M 20) which deal with how ou aandon, dipel and

wipe out unkillful thought. It doen’t mean necearil uing a ledgehammer.

There i a whole range of wa—from the utle to the inightful to the patient

—for not allowing negative mood to take over and dwell in the mind. If ou do

dwell, the mood will create program uch that our hait of repeatedl

thinking in certain wa create a channel down which our thinking move.

You can e acting in certain wa and not even e aware that a channel i eing

created.

A common example of thi i goiping. ecaue our flocking hait i o trong,

we get together and talk aout, ou know, o and o and o and o. “What he’

like” and “Have ou heard aout thi one?” And thi can get prett unkillful. It

i etter to have a program where we don’t do that. If omething reall need to

e aid, or if our opinion i aked for, ou a it, ut ou don’t go ad mouthing

other people for the ake of fun, for the ake of ocial contact. Sometime goip

contain nuance of pchological aue. Thu, goip i omething we can

refrain from.





7. Developing. Development i a topic in it own right, ut can e taken here to

refer to the gradual cultivation of the even factor of awakening. Developingmindfulne (ati) lead to interet in the invetigation of phenomena (dhamma-

vicaa), which give rie to energ (viria), leading to jo (pīti) which ettle into

tranquilit (paaddhi); manifeting a concentration (amādhi); and culminating

in equanimit (upekkhā). The cultivation and development of each of thee

qualitie lead naturall to the next, and a natural coure of progre unfold.

*

So thi i the inight proce. It egin with etalihing or allowing killful

qualitie to grow and develop turning toward the good and creating a ground of




h // b b dh / i l /dh killf l k / 10/10

well-eing and alance. The ten paramī (perfection), ued a killful kamma, et up

the caual condition for thi. Then through the cultivation of letting go, we

graduall aandon the project of ecoming the elf who create action and

experience their reult. All thi perhap give ou a ene of the readth of

Dhamma training. It i all conducive to lieration. It i all killful kamma that will

lead to the end of kamma.

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