Advancing on the Path of Freedom and Happiness 

An Excerpt from The Essential Buddhadhamma
The Teachings and Practice of Theravada Buddhism
By Bhikkhu P. A. Payutto
Translated by Bruce Evans

About This Title

An abridged translation of one of the most important books on Theravada Buddhism in recent history—authored by the esteemed Thai monk P. A. Payutto.

First published in Thailand in 1971 and since then expanded and revised multiple times, Bhikkhu P. A. Payutto’s Buddhadhamma is widely considered to be one of the most significant scholarly works on the Buddhism of the Pali canon produced in the last century. In this abridged translation, Bruce Evans presents the core of Ven. Payutto’s monumental scholarship, creating an ideal manual for anyone walking or studying the Theravada Buddhist path. Within are discussions of unparalleled sophistication on such foundational Buddhist teachings as the five khandhas, dependent arising, kamma, the noble eightfold path, spiritual friendship, wise attention, the four noble truths, the nature of enlightenment, and more.

Replete with passages from the ancient Pali suttas, Payutto frames Buddhist teachings in terms of broad existential questions that all of us face, such as “What is life?” and “How should life be lived?” Payutto’s illuminating expertise shows Theravada Buddhism to be a thorough explication of how reality unfolds according to natural processes—as well as a way of life that can yield the highest form of happiness.

Advancing on the Path of Freedom and Happiness
From Chapter 1, page 53-57

Practical Value

In terms of kusala and akusala, good and evil, the sense bases are the beginning, and the crucial point of divergence between them. One path leads to heedlessness, intoxication, bad deeds, and infatuation in the world; the other to understanding, good deeds, and liberation.

The important point here is that without any training to develop an understanding of the sense bases and deal with them correctly, most people will usually be seduced into leading lives aimed at consuming the world, going around doing things purely for the sake of seeking pleasant forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangibles, and various kinds of pleasures and entertainment to feed their eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mental desires, accumulating greed, hatred, and delusion and creating confusion and trouble for themselves and others.

It is not difficult to see that the ever-increasing exploitation, conflict, oppression, and social problems in the world are mostly a result of people allowing themselves to be seduced into the path of habitual, ever-more sensual gratification. Many people have never stopped to reflect on the meaning of their actions and the nature of the senses they are so busily feeding, and have never taken on any practices for training or restraining their sense bases or sense faculties, so they are left with ever-increasing delusion and indulgence.

The practical solution lies partly in creating an understanding of the meaning of the sense bases and the things contingent on them to appreciate their true role and importance in our lives. Another part of the solution lies in training according to a method for controlling, restraining, using, and serving the senses in a way that is of real benefit to one’s own life and to society.

The sense bases are the source of both happiness and suffering, which in turn become the rationale for the way life is generally conducted, and almost all striving in the tasks of the ordinary person: in the case of happiness, there is seeking; in the case of suffering, there is avoidance. Apart from their connection in regard to the problem of good and evil conduct, happiness and suffering are also problematic in themselves, in terms of their value, their substantiality, and their capacity to be real refuges in life.

Many people, having thrown the time and energy of their lives into running after happiness through worldly pleasures, meet with disappointment—from not getting what they want, from finding that the sweet taste is mixed with bitterness (sometimes the more the happiness attained, the more intense the sorrow and pain that follow), from finding that the price they have paid to attain their happiness is greater than what they have received, from attaining what they want but finding it does not give them the joy they expected, or, having attained their goal, finding that happiness runs further off away from them and they never seem to catch up with it. Some finish their lives still running, never having found real or sufficient happiness.

Studying the sense bases is for the objective of knowing the truth of things and practicing with a proper attitude that does not lead to excessive harm for ourselves or for others. In addition to being careful in the methods we use to seek happiness, we also understand the limitations and different levels of happiness, and then know how to attain happiness on the subtler levels. When we practice correctly in relation to happiness and suffering and progress to subtler levels of happiness, this is progress in morality.

In terms of cultivating wisdom, the sense bases involve ethics from the outset, because if we practice wrongly at the first arising of awareness our cognition will be impure. It will instead become a cognitive process in service of enjoying the world, or a component in the process of “winding” (saṁsāravaṭṭa, the wheel of rebirth). It leads to knowledge that is distorted, partial, or prejudiced, not in accordance with the truth or with the real state of things.

A practice that is of help in this regard is the technique of maintaining the mind in equanimity (upekkhā), keeping the mind even, so that it is not overpowered by defilements such as like and dislike.

In terms of general practice, there are many methods that either directly or indirectly concern the six sense bases. Some are specifically for particular stages, depending on where the problem tends to arise, or the point at which suffering or evil tend to find their ways through. However, emphasis is usually placed on the method of guarding against or preventing defilements right from the very first, which is when contact is made through the sense bases. This will mean that problems do not arise at all, making it the safest of all methods. If problems have arisen and evil, unwholesome states have already found their way in, they are often difficult to correct. For example, if we allow cognitive objects to stir up and fashion the mind so that lust (rāga), or greed, hatred, and delusion arise, even though we know what is right and what is wrong, and we have a sense of conscience, we cannot resist the allurement, and give in to the force of defilements and create bad kamma.

For this reason, the emphasis is on the method of guarding and securing the senses from the outset. An important tool for guarding at the earliest point of awareness is mindfulness (sati), which is what holds the mind to its base of normalcy, like a rope for holding the mind down. The use of sati for guarding the sense bases occurs in the teaching known as restraint of the sense faculties (indriya-saṁvara). It is also called control of the sense doors. It means being armed with mindfulness when becoming aware of an object through a sense faculty—such as seeing a form with the eye—and not allow-ing the mind to apprehend that object by means of such features that would be the cause for the arising of attachment or aversion, like or dislike, so that the mind gets overwhelmed by unwholesome states. This practice helps in preventing the arising of unskillful, harmful thoughts, preventing suffering, and preventing the creation of distorted and prejudiced knowledge and ideas.

However, it is not possible to utilize this teaching at will, because in order for sati to be firm and constantly ready for action, training is essential. Thus, restraint of the faculties needs constant application. The training of the faculties is called indriyabhāvanā (usually translated as “cultivation of the faculties”). One who has trained or developed the faculties is safe from evil, unwholesome conditions, suffering, and prejudiced and distorted knowledge, because one has set up a protection before they can arise. Even if like and dislike do manage to slip through, one is able to speedily subdue or abandon them. Restraint of the sense faculties is a factor of morality (sīla), but its main component factor, sati, is classified as part of the concentration (samādhi) group, because it leads to use of mental effort and constant control of the mind. Thus it is also a training in samādhi.

Wise attention (yoniso-manasikāra), which is a wisdom method, is another principle recommended for practice in this regard, seeing or examining in such a way as to derive knowledge from cognitive objects, seeing the truth or seeing in a way the leads to benefit, such as reflecting on the benefits and drawbacks, merits and defects, together with the state of freedom and security, in which there is happiness without any need to rely on cognitive objects. Some of these practices have been touched on in the Buddhavacana above, and some will be dealt with later, so I have here treated them only in brief.

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