[Alexander]

TIME SHOULD NOT BE MISUSED


DHAMMA DISCOURSE BY THE MOST VENERABLE MAHASI SAYADAW

TRANSLATED BY SAYADAW U SUNANDA



After reading this treatise, if you are still having that precious opportunity, how are you going to use it? Is it befitting to be complacent just by preaching whatever knowledge you have gained? Or, is it proper to heedlessly waste time and energy in hankering after the endless sensuous affairs?

In actual fact, is it not time for you to strive not to be helpless, but to have ready at hand the dependable dhamma, when lying on the final death-bed, without recovery? For timely exertion before-hand, the Buddha personally gave constant admonishment as follows:­

Ajjeva Licca ma tappam,

Ko janna maranam suve.

Na hi no sangaram te na,

Maha sanena maccuna.

(Uparipan Bhaddekanatta Sutta 226)

The meaning of this Pali verse is:­

Who knows by tomorrow, one may still be living or dead.

Thus reflecting, without procrastinating tomorrow or the day after,

One should incessantly exert right away on this very day.

This is because the Lord of Death and his battalions of soldiers are armed with diversity of lethal weapons such as water, fire, poison, ammunition, diseases, etc. With such formidable Lord of Death, we have no truce for peace, no compromise to exempt, no bribery to defer the appointment, nor are we fortified ourselves to resist. So who can be sure of our being alive or dead tomorrow?

Not having exerted at opportune time, when one becomes infirm, sick and laid up on death-bed or fallen to the four apaya (woeful) realms, one can be greatly oppressed by remorse for "mistakes of failure to exert before".

To avoid such kind of repentance, the Buddha's following exhortation should be obeyed :­

Jayatha bhikkhave ma pama dattha.

Ma paccha vippatisarino ahuvattha.

Ayam vo amhakam anusasani. (Ma 1-167)

The Pali stanza means:­

0 monks! Be diligent.

Strenuously exert on tranquillity or insight meditation.

Do not be idle and heedless.

May you not repent afterwards the mistake of not exerting
And missing the opportune chance of contemplation.

This warning is my repeated admonishment to you all.

http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/Books/Ma..._BE_MISUSED.htm

Regards,
Alexander

[Alexander]

There is always "I" who would like to practice this, to accomplish this. In reality, the Buddha taught that there is not "I". There is citta, cetasika, and rupa which is caught up with the nama.