The Three-legged Stool
Knowledge alone is not enough
My energy has been low these past few days. There seem to be dark corners of the mind making their presence felt — the hindrances have been strong.
I keep going over what I know about the Dhamma so the ignorant parts of the mind can update their information about reality. It isn’t always easy.
One way to look at attachment is to see it as feeding. One feeds on something because they have an appetite for it. When one loses their appetite for something, one stops feeding.
In the same way, when craving goes cool, the clinging stops.
I have often been told to ‘just let go.’ But I do not find it easy to let go. Or I can fool myself into thinking I have let go when I haven’t. Why? I think it is because it is hard to let go of something if the yearning is still there. It is only when the thirst has gone, that one can let go.
I keep reflecting on the suffering that the I-making and mine-making causes, not just for myself, but for other beings. When I see how much suffering it causes, I feel dispassion towards it, and this helps me lose my appetite for it.
I am also learning that just knowing this is not enough. The mind needs training, the practice of virtue, meditation (samadhi), and wisdom need to be developed. The mind is complex, composed of many layers, like fractals. And not all of the mind has understood yet, and this is why the hindrances keep arising.
It is becoming clear to me how valuable samadhi (meditative absorption/deep stillness) is. When the mind comes together, whole-hearted and unified around one intention, it becomes very powerful and much easier to work with.
When the mind is collected together like this, it also means more of the mind is tuned in. The more unified and steady the mind is, the deeper knowledge and wisdom can penetrate it. If all the mind is tuned in when the flash of insight arises, one will fully awaken. If only a fraction of the mind is tuned in, one will partially awaken.
There is path and there is fruit.
The path is the training.
The fruit is the result of that training.
The training is gradual and can take some time, it may take a great deal of patience, as the path can be challenging; but the moment of fruition is said to be sudden like a flash of lightning, and one cannot predict where or when this will happen. After that, one is never the same again. One changes irreversibly. In a good way.
It is becoming clear to me that doing nothing, and just letting the mind do what it wants, is not working. The mind becomes lazy and doesn’t practise meditation. So it seems some willpower is also needed. Some doing. But not iron will. Not pushing myself, or comparing, or measuring. None of that. I think it is like the Buddha said in a Sutta (that I can’t remember the name of) ‘One crosses the flood by not straining and not halting.’ A bit of a riddle, but I think it is about tuning effort like a guitar string — it can’t make music if it is too tight, or too loose.
Knowledge alone can’t do it. The right skills need to be developed through the practice of the noble eightfold path.
It is a three-legged stool of virtue, meditation, and wisdom. All three legs are needed to support the stool, if one of the legs is missing, the stool won’t be able to support the Buddha’s weight and will collapse.
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