The Living Computer
Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C01250
“Is it correct to think that genuine true wisdom and happiness can only be found in Buddhism?”
~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
One needs know the understanding of what dukkha is. The understanding of the way to end dukkha will depend on the different inclinations, experiences, and understanding of people. In short, different people will have different understandings of what dukkha is, and about the way to make an end to dukkha. They will find ways to discover the end to dukkha according to their particular understanding of what dukkha is. So depending on what each person or group considers to be the problem, the solution to the problem will be according to that, and will be within the context of their understanding of the problem. In Buddhism, the way we look at it is that dukkha comes from attachment – that because of attachment to self, to ‘me,’ there is dukkha. And then the way to end dukkha is to remove attachment, to eliminate attachment. So this is how we see the problem and its solution. If we look at it from the most neutral dhammic perspective – if we really have a Dhamma perspective – it’s neutral, it’s unbiased, it’s natural. Then we must ask, ‘What dukkha is there which is higher or more basic that the dukkha of attachment? What dukkha is there more significant than the dukkha of attachment?’ and then ‘What quenching or ending of dukkha is more complete and more total than the removal and quenching of attachment?’ Please don’t use this in order to compare different schools, sects, and religions. This is not at all our purpose. We’re not trying to compare because that would just lead to attā and attaniya. If we compare, then there will be just, ‘Well I am like this, and my way is like this’ and this would just create more dukkha. Our goal is not to make any comparisons, our goal is simply to eliminate all dukkha, and therefore to eliminate, to quench all attachments. And from our understanding, the best way to do that is through the understanding of not-self.
If they don’t have the wisdom or intelligence to understand this way of quenching dukkha, well then they won’t be able to apply it, they won’t be able to use it. If their understanding is that dukkha comes from heavenly beings, from angels or whatever, or that dukkha comes from God, well then they must solve their dukkha by praying or bribing or whatever these heavenly beings or God to take away the dukkha. If that’s their understanding, then they must use the approach appropriate to that understanding. Or even on a more crude level, if they think that dukkha comes from spirits and things, then they must give offerings and bribes to the spirits so that the spirits will not create any dukkha for them. So one shouldn’t be asking which way is better, because that can’t be answered absolutely or unequivocally. One should just say which way is appropriate for whom, which way of quenching dukkha is appropriate for each person, which way of understanding is appropriate for our level of intelligence, for the degree that our mindfulness and wisdom has been developed.
(From the retreat “The Living Computer,” as translated from the Thai by Santikaro)
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Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu in 1990-1991 to foreign meditators attending Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage courses.
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