Right Concentration
I don’t know if you’ve noticed when we chant the sutta, “The Analysis of the Path,” as we did last night, that the longest section is the one describing right concentration. It’s the only section that talks about stages in the practice. And it gives a fairly detailed map of the different elements in each stage. The question is, how do we relate to the map? It’s tempting to say, well, there’s this ingredient, there’s that ingredient, and so you pull the different ingredients together and hope that what you’ve got is a state of jhana.
But it doesn’t really work that way. It’s like being told that durian tastes a little bit like garlic, a little bit like onions, a little bit like custard. It has a little bit of cyanide, a little bit of vitamin E. So you throw all those things together, thinking that you’re going to get durian, but what you get is an inedible mess. If you want to get durian, you have to plant the seed. Here the seed is the topic of the meditation. The topic, as the Buddha said, is the four establishings of mindfulness. For example, staying focused on the body in and of itself, ardent, alert, and mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world: That’s the process you focus on. Once you’ve planted the seed and keep watering the seed, the tree will grow. When it’s mature, the tree will start giving fruit. If you’ve planted the right seed, you’re going to get the right fruit. So you don’t have to go designing the fruit. You just have to be very careful to plant the right seed and care for it well.
So focus on the breath in and of itself. As you’re focusing on the breath, put aside any sensual passions. There’s the phrase in the description of jhana, “secluded from sensuality.” Some people interpret that as meaning totally cut off from any input from the physical senses. Some interpret it as meaning secluded from sensual pleasures, so that you have to meditate in a place that’s unpleasant or a place that’s very boring. But neither of those interpretations is what the Buddha means. Sensuality, in his sense of the word, is your passion for your sensual thoughts and plans: the extent to which you love to obsess about those things. So in being secluded from sensuality, you’re not trying to close off any contact with outside senses and you’re not trying to put yourself in a dull, boring place. You’re trying to develop a more internal seclusion: If you see any sensual passion coming up, you sidestep it. You put it aside.
Right here is where the analysis of the body into different parts comes in handy. If there’s anything in the body that’s got you lusting for it, you can think about all the other disgusting things right next to it in the body. If you’re feeling some greed for food, think about the whole process of getting and eating food: exactly how much work goes into preparing the food, how short a time it actually tastes good in the mouth, and then what it’s like as it goes through the digestive system and comes out the other end. In other words, you’re using some thinking here to protect yourself, to pull you away from unskillful thoughts, and in particular from sensual passion.
Another way of gaining seclusion from sensuality is to fully inhabit your sense of the body. This is what rupa, or form, means when you’re in jhana: the sense of the body as felt from within. You feel the inside of your hands, the inside of your feet, the inside of everything. The mind isn’t living out in the world with its thoughts about sights or sounds or smells or tastes or things that come and touch the body. You want to be on the level of form: the body in and of itself as it’s present to you right here from the inside right now. And as you’re alert and mindful, you’re ardent: You want to use your alertness and mindfulness in a skillful way.
In other words, notice how the breath feels and ask yourself: Is this the kind of breath sensation you could settle down and spend lots of time with? If it’s not, what can you do to change it? This is where evaluation comes in. The classic image for the first jhana is of a bathman working water through his lump of bath powder and turning it into a kind of dough. Of the different images used for the jhanas, this is the only one with a conscious agent deliberately doing something and evaluating the results. You’re finding a sense of pleasure and fullness with the breath, and then you deliberately work it through the body as a whole, evaluating the results as you go along.
In doing so, you learn an awful lot about this sense of the form of the body and how the energy moves through it and around it: how the energy can move in a comfortable way and how, if you force it in the wrong way, it can get very uncomfortable. You have to observe and learn what works and what doesn’t. In this way you’re not only developing a nice place to be in the present moment, but also learning about how the different aggregates—such as the aggregate of feeling and the aggregate of form—interact; how your perception has an effect on these things. You’ll see how you come to the meditation with specific perceptions in mind, a particular idea of how the mind focuses itself, of how the breath works, of how the energy in one part of the body relates to the energy in another part of the body. As you meditate, you get a chance to test those perceptions. If they’re not working, try out other perceptions.
All of this is evaluation. When you’ve got the right focal point, you’re evaluating it properly, and you’re keeping a specific topic in mind as continually as you can, you’ve got all the causal factors needed to get you into right concentration. Then you don’t have to think about anything else. You don’t have to ask yourself, “Do I need to add a little bit more rapture, a little bit more pleasure?” If you’ve got the causes right, the results will come on their own. The rapture and pleasure are results. If you aren’t getting the right results, focus back on the causes, which are directed thought, evaluation, and singleness of preoccupation. When these are right, the pleasure will come as a sense of ease, whereas the rapture can come in many different forms. In some cases it’s simply a sense of refreshment, of lightness or fullness in the body. Other times it’s more intense: a sense of thrill running through the body, or your hair standing on end. Again, your main concern is to stick with the causes. You don’t want to go out redesigning the fruit, painting the fruit, squeezing the fruit, or pulling on it. Focus on the causes, and the fruit will mature on its own.
Then there’s always the question: How do you know you’ve hit the first jhana? You can’t really know at first. It doesn’t come with a sign that says, “Now entering jhana, Population One.” When you find the mind in a state that feels really good, really comfortable, with a sense of coming home, then when you leave it, put a post-it note on it: This might be something important. In other words, you apply a label to it, but at the same time you realize you’re not yet really familiar with the territory, so you don’t want to be too quick to incise the label in marble.
The only level of jhana with a really definite signpost is the fourth, which is where the in-and-out breathing stops. There’s a sense of awareness filling the body and it’s all very still. The mind is still, the body is still, and everything’s perfectly balanced. All the breath-energy channels in the body are connected, so they nourish one another. There’s no need to breathe in and out, so there’s no in-and-out breathing at all. At that point you know you’ve hit the fourth jhana and you can put a more confident note there. Then you can look back at the various stages you’ve been through, and you might have to rearrange the notes a little bit. Or you find that you’ve taken more than four steps coming in. There are passages in the Canon that talk about five stages in jhana practice, others that talk about three. So it’s possible that your path into the fourth jhana might not have the same number of steps as somebody else’s.
I noticed that when Ajaan Fuang was teaching his students, different people would have all sorts of different experiences in the meditation until they got to the point where everything was very still in the body. The in-and-out breathing finally stopped. Breath energy was filling the body, awareness was filling the body, everything felt very connected, balanced, and very bright: not necessarily with a light, but with a sense of real clarity. Then from that point on everyone seemed to go through the same stages.
But the process of getting into that point is going to be a very individual thing. The important factor is that you find a meditation topic you really like. There’s got to be an element of delight here because you’re trying to develop a state of becoming, a healthy state of becoming, an alternative to the unhealthy and unskillful states of becoming you’ve been engaged in before. And an important component in becoming is delight. With right concentration, you have to develop a strong sense of ease and wellbeing. That’s the only way to pull yourself away from the temptation to keep falling back to the sensual delight that feeds your old sensual indulgences.
The Buddha once said that even though you may have a right understanding about the drawbacks of sensuality, if you don’t have access to the kind of pleasure and rapture that jhana can provide, you’re always going to be tempted to go back. So mere insight on its own isn’t enough to pull you away from those temptations. You need something else—something stronger and more visceral—to provide the mind with a sense of wellbeing. This is what right concentration provides.
There’s a nice sutta in which the Buddha talks about a bull elephant who wants to go down to the river and bathe alone. When he lives with an elephant herd and goes down to the river, the she elephants and baby elephants bump into him. He wants to drink clear water and of course they’ve muddied up the river. So he decides to go off on his own. Then, as he’s living alone, when he goes down to the river, the water is clear. Nobody is bumping into him as he bathes. He comes out, breaks a twig off the tree, and scratches himself with the twig. He finds satisfaction. He allays his itch.
The Buddha said that it’s the same when you practice right concentration. You gain a sense of seclusion, and then the pleasure, the rapture, and the sense of equanimity are like scratching yourself with the twig. It feels good. It allays your itch. And that’s an important part of the practice. Without that sense of ease and wellbeing, everything gets very dry. At the same time, once the mind is satisfied in this way, you get to see the activities of the mind really clearly, you get to see the body really clearly, because you’re right here. Very consistently here. Alert. Mindful.
Then you begin to see your body and mind in terms of the aggregates in action. You see form, i.e., the form you’re inhabiting. You see feelings, the feelings that come from the different ways the breath energy moves through the body. You see your perceptions in action, your fabrications in action. For instance, when you move from the first to the second jhana, you let go of verbal fabrication, and your relationship to the breath changes. Singleness of preoccupation is a factor of all the levels of jhana, but when you get into the second jhana, the Buddha uses a new term: unification. In unification, it feels as if your awareness and the breath become one. You no longer feel like you’re sitting outside of the breath kneading it through the body; you’re immersed in a lake with the cool water of a spring welling up inside. You’re actually one with the breath. You don’t have to adjust it anymore; you don’t have to evaluate it anymore. Things begin to meld together, merge together, with a sense of oneness. That oneness remains as a factor of your concentration all the way up through the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness. This is what happens when you let go of the verbal fabrications of directed thought and evaluation. When you get to the third jhana, you let go of one aspect of mental fabrication—the sense of rapture—because it starts feeling gross. When you get to the fourth jhana, you let go of bodily fabrication. In other words, the in-and-out breath actually stops.
There are two ways you can observe the mind in the course of practicing jhana. One is as it’s in a particular state of jhana. In fact, all the way up through the dimension of nothingness, you can observe each state while you’re in it. It’s like having your hand in a glove. It can be fully in the glove, partly in the glove, or totally removed. When you’re fully in the higher jhanas you can’t observe them, but when you’re partly in them, you can. You pull the mind slightly above its full absorption—but not totally out—so that you can observe what’s going on in that particular state. Another way to observe it is, as you move from one level to the next, to see different fabrications, different perceptions, just peeling away.
So you’re beginning to see exactly what the Buddha is talking about when he talks about the five aggregates. You see them in action—for they are actions. You see the distinctions among them.
You also see how they interact, which means that you’re not only in a really nice shady place with a branch that you can use to scratch yourself anywhere you itch. You’re also in an ideal place to watch what’s going on right here in the present moment in terms of the aggregates. This allows you to start looking at things in and of themselves as they come into being right here, right now.
This is why right concentration is the heart of the path. It’s the first element of the path that the Buddha discovered. You probably know the story. He’d gone to the extreme end of self-affliction through the various austerities he had forced himself to undergo, and after six years he realized that this wasn’t working. In spite of all his investment in that particular path, he had the good sense and the humility to realize that there must be another way. So at that point he hearkened back to the time when he was a child and had entered the first jhana while sitting under a tree. The question arose in his mind: “Could this be the path?” And he said, “Yes, this is the path.” So right concentration is the factor that he first realized was part of the path. From that point on, as he worked with it, he began to realize that other factors had to support it as well. But right concentration is the central one, the one you can’t do without. And the time spent on developing right concentration is very well spent: both because it’s a good place to stay and because it’s an ideal place to start seeing the process of becoming in terms of the five aggregates.
So you keep it in the back of your mind that this is what you want in the practice, this is where you’re headed as an interim goal on the path. But as with every aspect of the path, you have to combine your desire for a particular goal with an understanding of the steps that will take you there. As the Canon says, desire for awakening is a good thing. But it’s a good thing only when it gets you to focus on the actual steps that will take you to awakening. And the same principle applies to jhana. You know in the back of your mind that this is where you’re headed but you can’t be obsessed with what’s written on the map. You have to be more obsessed with the causes that will get you there. You seclude the mind from sensuality. And where do you do that? By focusing on the four establishings of mindfulness.
The Buddha says that this is your territory as a meditator. If you wander off your territory, it’s like the quail who wandered away from the plowed field where he could hide from the hawk. He suddenly finds himself out in an open meadow where a hawk swoops down and catches him. As the hawk carries him off, he laments his bad fate, “Ah, I shouldn’t have left my safe field. If I hadn’t, this hawk would have been no match for me!” The hawk says, “Okay, I’ll let you go there, but even there you won’t escape me.” He lets the quail go. The quail goes and stands on top of a stone turned up by the plow and shouts to the hawk, “Okay, come and get me, you hawk. Come and get me, you hawk.” And the hawk, without bragging, just folds his wings and dives down. The quail sees that the hawk is coming at him full speed and so jumps behind the stone. The hawk crashes into the stone and dies.
This is the analogy for when you wander off into sensual passions: You’re out where the hawk can get you. But when you’re here in the body—ardent, alert, and mindful—you’re in your safe territory. Just keep inhabiting the body as you go through the day. Whether you’re in jhana or not doesn’t matter. As long as you have this sense of fully inhabiting the body, being in touch with the breath energy in the body, you’re in the right location, you’re in the proper territory. As for the map of the different stages, keep that in the back of your mind. If you look at the map while you’re driving, you’ll drive off the road. Use the map after you’ve come out of meditation to reflect on what you experienced, what happened in the course of the meditation. Over time you’ll arrive at your own more complete map of the different stages the mind goes through, the different ways it settles down, the different types of concentration you can get into. But all this comes from having a proper sense of cause and effect.
This is why the Buddha put right view at the very beginning of the path: seeing the practice of meditation as a type of kamma, something you do to get the results that you want, with the realization that the results have to come from causes. If you focus on the causes, with the sense of where you want to go kept in the back of the mind, the causes will take you there. In this case, it’s not done by focusing on your memory of what was stated in the texts about jhana. It’s done by focusing on the breath, getting to know the breath by evaluating it, adjusting it, settling in. That’s where you’ll see right concentration.
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希修
< Right Concentration/Jhana/선정 >
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(이하의 내용은 '호흡 명상'이라는 제목의 포스팅 아래에도 댓글로 달아 두었습니다.)
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- Right concentration의 요건:
(i) unskillful 요소가 없을 때 ;
(ii) discernment에 의해 인도된 팔정도의 1번~7번 요소들이 바탕이 되었을 때;
(iii) concentration이 1~7번 요소들의 심화/발전에도 도움을 줄 때.
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- Cause & effect( = 업 = 12연기)를 실험하고 체험하는 작업. Deliberate하고 proactive한 작업이지 수동적으로 관조만 하는 것이 아님. 멍때리기는 더더욱 아님.
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- "한 30분쯤 명상한 줄 알았는데 눈떠 보니 3시간이 지나 있더라!"거나
"명상 중 무슨 일이 있었는지를 어떻게 말로 하느냐?
이성으로 이해하거나 말로 표현할 수 있는 경지를 넘어선 경험!" 등의 얘기는,
그 명상에 mindfulness의 alertness요소가 없었음을 의미.
=> 잠들지 않았어도 수면과 거의 다름없는 상태였다는 얘기.
의도한 시각에 선정에 들어 예정한 시각에 정확히 눈을 뜨는 등의 '내공'을 보인다 해도
여전히 wrong concentration, wrong jhana.
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- Right jhana를 이루면 깨달음의 4단계들 중의 하나로 들어가게 됨.
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- [출처] SN 54:1, SN 14:11, AN 6:73~74, AN 6:72, MN 20, AN 3:100, MN 137, "The Wings to Awakening" (by Venerable Ṭhānissaro), etc..
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1. Form Jhanas
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1.1. 1st Jhana
- Mindfulness of body에 의해 성취되는 lowest 단계. Mindfulness of body만으로 cessation of perception and feeling까지 갈 수도 있음.
- Directed thought, evaluation, singleness of attention, rapture, pleasure.
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1.2. 2nd Jhana
- Directed thought & evaluation (verbal fabrication)을 멈춤으로써 성취되는 단계.
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1.3. 3rd Jhana
- Rapture를 내려놓음으로써 성취되는 단계.
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1.4. 4th Jhana
- Pleasure를 내려놓아 equanimity를 얻음으로써 성취되는 단계.
- 호흡 (bodily fabrication)이 멈춤.
- Light or radiance (pure bright awareness) fills the entire body.
- 'Beautiful'이라는 perception.
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2. Formless Jhanas
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2.1. Infinite Space
- Form에 대한 perception을 놓고 form 이외의 space에 집중함으로써 성취되는 단계.
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2.2. Infinite Consciousness
- Infinite space에 대한 perception을 놓음으로써 성취되는 단계.
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2.3. Nothingness
- Infinite consciousness에 대한 perception을 놓음으로써 성취되는 단계.
- 여기까지를 perception attainments라고 부름.
- 空/無는 대승불교와 도교에서 절대시하는 개념. 초기불교에서는 空/無조차 그저 거쳐가는 명상 단계들 중의 하나일 뿐, 부처님은 이걸 reality나 본질이라고 보지 않으셨음.
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2.4. Neither Perception Nor Non-Perception
- Nothingness에 대한 perception을 놓음으로써 성취되는 단계.
- Perception이라는 마음 작용이 극도로 미세해짐.
- Remnant-of-fabrication attainment라고 부름.
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2.5. Cessation of Perception & Feeling
- Perception과 feeling 등의 모든 mental fabrication까지도 멈춤으로써 성취되는 단계.
- Cessation attainment라고 부름.
- 2.1~2.4 단계를 거치지 않고 4th jhana에서 곧장 이 단계로 올 수도 있음.
- 고통을 낳는 것은 의식/말/행동의 fabrication이고, fabrication을 낳는 것은 ignorance라는 것이 12연기의 내용.
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* 12연기:
- ignorance =>
- fabrications =>
- consciousness =>
- name-&-form =>
- six sense media =>
- contact =>
- feeling =>
- craving =>
- clinging/sustenance =>
- becoming =>
- birth =>
- aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair.
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希修
Author Admin
< Four Uses of Right Concentration/Jhana >
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1. Pleasant abiding
a. nourishing food and rest for the mind.
b. 마음의 well-being 없이 자신을 정직하게 분석할 수 없음.
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2. Developing psychic powers
a. 높은 경지의 right concentration/jhana를 성취한 모든 사람이 신통력을 얻는 것은 아님. => 신통력은 선정의 경지나 의식의 측정 수단이 될 수 없음.
b. 해탈에 꼭 필요하지도 않음.
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3. Developing mindfulness and alertness regarding how physical and mental phenomena arise and pass away.
a. 모든 현상의 일어남과 사라짐을 보다 정확하게 관찰하고 인과를 직접 체험할 수 있음.
b. 분별력/지혜가 있어야 바른 선정에 이를 수 있지만, 바른 선정은 그 분별력/지혜를 더욱 날카롭게 벼림.
c. 선정이 깊어지는 과정은 스트레스 요소를 하나씩 버려 가는 과정이며, aggregates는 서로 상호작용.
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4. Putting an end to the mental effluents of sensuality, becoming, and ignorance.
a. “There's no jhana for one with no discernment; no discernment for one with no jhana. But one with both jhana & discernment: he's on the verge of Unbinding." -- Dhammapada 372.
b. 해탈: 물리적, 감각적, 정신적 ‘음식’이 필요없는 영원한 자유, 완전한 행복.
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[참고] ‘불교에 대한 오해 #9. 집착 않는다는 건 판단 기준마저 버린다는 뜻’
https://www.facebook.com/keepsurfinglife/posts/1370018730036873
< 불교에 대한 오해 #9. 집착 않는다는 건 판단 기준마저 버린다는 뜻 >
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해탈은 10단계 프로세스다 (사진 #8, 9. MN 78, MN 117, AN 10:103, AN 10:108).
팔정도의 8요소를 순서대로 계발하여 만랩을 이루면, 부처님이 하신 말씀이 사실임을 깨닫게 된다.
비유하자면, 10대나 20대에 잘 생긴 이성을 보고 반할 때는 "배우자 외모는 안 중요하다"는 어른들의 얘기가 잘 실감이 안 가므로 무조건 어른들 얘기를 믿거나 아니면 '그럴 수도 있겠네.'하고 짐작을 할 뿐이다.
그러나 결혼하고 나서 몇 년 살고 나면 배우자 외모가 안 중요함이 체감되며, 직접 체험한 '사실'은 더이상은 '믿음'의 대일 필요도 없다.
이렇게 부처님의 말씀이 모두 사실 자체임을 확인하는 것이 바로 '깨달음'이고 'Right Knowledge'이며 9단계. (초기경전에선 “directly knowing and realizing it for himself”라는 표현을 사용한다.)
직접 체험 후에는 집착이라는 것을 하지 않게 된다 (사진 #5). 그렇기에 모든 것 ('나'라는 관념과 모든 의식적인 노력까지도 포함)을 놓는 것이 바로 '해탈'이고 'Right Release'이며 10단계. 윤회의 강 건너편에 도달해 뗏목에서 내려 두 발로 땅을 딛고 서는 것이다. (초기경전에선 “birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, and the task done”이라고 기술한다.)
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그런데 문제는, 뗏목이 아직 강 한가운데에 있는데도 불구하고 배에서 내려 익사하는 사람들도 있고, 강의 건너편에 도달하기는 커녕 뗏목에 오르지조차 않은 채 아직도 강의 이쪽에 있으면서 자신은 강을 건넜다는 망상에 빠져 탐진치가 오히려 더욱 악화만 되었는데도 자신은 '영적'이라고 착각하는 사람들도 존재한다는 사실이다. 이 모두가, 10단계인 해탈 프로세스에서 1~9단계를 전부 건너뛴 채 처음부터 무조건 "생각 말고 분별 말고 그저 내려놓기만 하면 된다"는 과잉단순화의 오류 탓. (“암수술이라는 게 결국 배를 갈라 암세포가 퍼진 부위를 제거하고 다시 배를 덮는 일”이라는 기술에 ‘틀린’ 부분은 없지만, 그렇다고 의사 면허조차 없는 일반인도 아무나 암수술 집도할 수 있는 것도 아니다. ‘틀리지 않음’과 ‘목적하는 결과를 실제로 성취함’ 사이에는 때로 무한대의 거리가 존재할 수도 있다.)
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우선은 팔정도의 8요소 하나 하나를 순서대로 직접 경작해야 하고, 그 재료들을 갖고서 뗏목을 튼튼하게 지어야 한다. (8요소 각각이 다른 요소들의 성장에 도움이 될 때만 'right'이라는 단어를 사용할 수 있다는 것이 타니사로 스님의 견해.) 그리고는 그 뗏목을 꼭 붙들고서 강을 건너야 한다 (사진 #1, 2). 뗏목을 붙잡는 것은 익사 예방을 위한 필수이지만, 모든 다른 종류의 집착들은 아다시피 고통의 원인이 되니 놓을 수 있으면 놓는 게 당연히 좋다. 그러나, 건강, 안전한 삶, 남들에게 인정은 못 받아도 존중은 받는 삶, 최소한 몇 명의 주위 사람들과는 화목하고 즐겁게 보내는 삶, 이런 것들에 대한 집착 (강한 소망)을, 깨닫지 못 한 이가 완전히 놓을 수 있을 리는 물론 만무하다. 그래서 딜레마이고, 그래서 나온 것이 12연기와 not self, no conceit 교리. 즉, "나는 이타적인 사람이 되어야지!"라는 생각조차 나에 대한 '자기중심적' 사고이고 윤회를 강화하므로, 그렇게 존재/주체 중심으로 생각하지 말고 인과의 관점에서 개개의 행위/사건 중심으로만 impersonally 사고함으로써 '나 집착'( =모든 집착의 근원)을 약화시켜 나가라는 것 (사진 #2, 3, 4).
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현실적으로, 팔정도의 8요소들을 만랩으로 완성하지 못 한 사람으로서 가능한 최대치는, 매사를 연기=인과의 관점에서 to take impersonally하는 not self, no conceit의 노력. Not self, no conceit의 실천 정도에 비례하여 탐진치가 떨어져 나갈 것이고, 그럴수록 해탈에 가까워지게 되며, ‘나 집착’의 대표적 증상인 자존심 때문에 자신의 오류를 인정 못 하고 계속 우기거나 책임 인정을 끝내 회피하는 일도 물론 없을 것이다.
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하나 주의할 점은, 해탈을 했어도 타고난 수명이 다 하는 날까지는 목숨이 붙어 있는데, 해탈 후 남은 삶은 '죄지을 내가 없으니 아무렇게나 막 산다!'가 전혀 아니라 완성된 팔정도 안에 여전히 머무르면서 보낸다는 것이다. “나는 깨달았으므로 세상의 비판에 아랑곳 않는다. ‘나’라는 것이 없는데 누가 죄를 짓고 누가 욕을 먹는단 말인가?” 류의 궤변을 늘어놓으며 '자유롭게'( =방탕하게) 사는 자칭 '도인'들이 가끔 있는데, 초기불교의 가르침에 비춰본다면 그건 천지분간도 못 하는 어리석음일 뿐. "Right View조차 고집 않고, 무엇이 right이고 무엇이 wrong인지 따지지 않으며, 모든 것을 무조건 긍정적으로 수용하는 태도가 바로 수행자의 자세"라는 식의 얘기는 그러므로 초기불교와는 무관한 것 (사진 #1, 2). 깨달았다고 해서 부처님의 가르침을 버리는 게 아니라 (해탈할 정도의 수준이 되면 부처님의 가르침이 세포 하나 하나 속에 녹아들어 완전히 체화되었다는 얘기인데 어떻게 버리겠나?) 여전히 그 안에 머물되 '나'라는 생각 없이 머물 뿐이라는 것이 타니사로 스님의 해석이다 (사진 #6, 7).
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뗏목에서 내리는 비유 때문에 부처님의 가르침을 떠난다는 식의 오해가 가능한데, 다음과 같이 생각하면 이해가 된다. 독약( =집착)을 알아보지 못 할 때는 전문가가 마시지 말라고 하면 그 말을 믿고 따를 수밖에 없지만, 스스로 독약 전문가가 되면 누가 마시지 말라 해서가 아니라 뻔히 보이고 뻔히 알기 때문에 안 마신다. 다른 전문가( =부처님)의 말에 의존하는 것은 아니어도 여전히 그 전문지식( =이미 체화된 부처님의 가르침) 안에 머무는 것. 그러나 'to take personally 않음'이기에 여전히 '집착 않음'인 것.
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사진들 출처: "The Shape of Suffering" by Venerable Ṭhānissaro. https://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html
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'무아와 윤회'
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