Transcending the World

Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto (phrasuchart.com); Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

People are born with physical form and [formless] mind. In the beginning these things are born [arise], in the middle they change [are altered, decay, crumble], and in the end they vanish.

This is ordinary; this is their nature. We can not do much to alter these facts. We train our minds as we can, and when the time comes, we have to let go of it all.

It is beyond the ability of humans to change this or get beyond it. The Dharma that the Buddha taught is something to be applied while we are here, for making deeds, words, and thoughts [collectively called our karma or our "actions"] correct and proper.

The Buddha or the "Enlightened One" was teaching the minds/hearts of people so that they would not be deluded in regard to nature, conventional reality, and supposition. This unparalleled teacher instructed us to see the world [directly and free of distortion].

His Dharma is a teaching that is above and beyond the world. We are in the world. We were born into this world. He taught us to transcend the world rather than being a prisoner of worldly ways and habits.

It is like a diamond that falls into the mud. No matter how much dirt and filth covers it, that [mud] does not destroy its radiance, its hues, and its value. Even though mud is stuck to it, the diamond does not lose anything. It is just as it originally was.

There are two separate things. So the Buddha taught us to rise above the world, which means knowing the world clearly. By "the world" he did not mean so much this earth and sky and the elements, but rather the mind, the wheel of rebirth (saṃsāra), within the hearts of people.

He meant this wheel, this world [this endless wandering on in search of satisfaction -- clouded in ignorance, baited by sensual and other desires for fulfillment through objects that cannot fulfill us, and motivated by aversion and frustration by things we don't like].

This is the world the Buddha knew clearly; when we talk about knowing the world clearly, we are talking about these things.

If it were otherwise, the Buddha would have had to be flying everywhere to "know the world clearly." It is not like that. It is a single point.

All things (dhammas, phenomena) come down to one single point. For instance people -- which means males and females -- if we observe one man and one woman, we know the nature of all people in the universe. They are not that different.