
                       OF MINDSETS AND MONKEYPOTS
  
                                   by
                            Petr Karel Ontl
                                          
                                          
                          Bodhi Leaves No. 131

              Copyright 1993 Buddhist Publication Society


                      BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
                      KANDY              SRI LANKA

                                 * * *

                         DharmaNet Edition 1995


             Transcribed directly from BPS Pagemaker files
                        Formatting: John Bullitt

        This electronic edition is offered for free distribution
            via DharmaNet by arrangement with the publisher.

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                       OF MINDSETS AND MONKEYPOTS
  
  
  In village India, so I am told, there are men who earn some extra 
  rupees by trapping and taming monkeys to be sold as pets. Over the 
  years, through trial and error, several ways have been devised to 
  capture these primates, but the simplest method is said to be the 
  monkeypot. In a clearing, the trapper fastens a short piece of cord or 
  thin chain to a stake or tree-stump. To the other end he attaches a 
  small pot, one with a rather narrow neck. Into this pot he drops 
  several nuts, and scatters a few more on the ground nearby. He then 
  goes a short distance away to wait out of sight.
  
    Soon a band of monkeys arrives and descends to feed. Before long, 
  one of them discovers the contents of the pot. He puts his hand in 
  easily enough, but, having grasped the enticing snack, he cannot pull 
  his clenched fist out through the narrow opening no matter how hard he 
  struggles. In fear and panic the trapped monkey creates quite a 
  ruckus, which brings the trapper running with net and cage. The 
  monkey's fate, for all his cleverness, is sealed.
    
    At first glance it would appear that the villager is the trapper, 
  the baited pot his trap, and the poor monkey his victim. No doubt the 
  villager sees things the same way, and the hapless simian, were he 
  able to speak, would likely agree. A closer look, however, shows a 
  different perspective. The villager is not the trapper, nor the pot a 
  trap, because there is nothing holding the monkey. He could very 
  easily remove his hand from the pot and rejoin his kin in the freedom 
  of the treetops if only he would let go of the nuts. //If he would 
  only let go!//
    
    The monkey in our anecdote does not suspect that he is being held 
  prisoner solely by his mind. He has found some nuts. Greed -- 
  unreasonable and unreasoning desire -- has arisen. Though the jungle 
  abounds with fruits and nuts and all kinds of foods, his conditioned 
  reaction dictates that he must have //these// as well. His narrow 
  mindset is the only thing that imprisons him, that prevents him from 
  letting go, from seeing the absurdity of his predicament as well as 
  the obvious way out of it.
    
    Now, before we make any smug comments about the monkey and his 
  intelligence, or the apparent lack thereof, and before we congratulate 
  ourselves on our vastly superior reasoning powers, let us see where we 
  ourselves stand.
    
    This business of letting go is so easy, and yet so hard, for monkey 
  and for human being alike. We are both caught up in the same 
  predicament. The details may be different, played out on higher levels 
  of sophistication or complexity, but the end result is the same: 
  enslavement by //concepts// and //conditioning//. While the monkey is 
  done in by its greed for a few nuts, we humans are done in by our 
  greed for wealth, fame, power, status, pleasure, and shiny trinkets 
  and toys which we believe we absolutely must have, and cannot live 
  without. Even more fundamentally, we become enslaved not so much by 
  the material objects themselves, but by our //attitudes// and 
  //feelings//  toward them.
    
    We endlessly seek gratification for the senses: pleasant things to 
  look at, to listen to, to touch, to taste, to smell. And more: we are 
  spurred on by thoughts or concepts created by our ego-driven minds. 
  These last can be the hardest to satisfy since we cannot just please 
  our senses and be content. Rather, we strive to fulfill fantasies of 
  outdoing our peers, of turning them green with envy by having the 
  Biggest, the Costliest, the Latest, the Shiniest. We are always caught 
  up in competition, in a game of one-up-manship.
    
    It cannot even be said that we are materialistic: We don't know how 
  to be! We don't genuinely enjoy and appreciate the material things we 
  have, much less life itself. We don't even know how to relax. 
  Aggressive competitiveness and acquisition become so obsessive, so 
  compulsive, so ingrained, that everything we do, right down to the 
  simplest recreational activity, is turned into a contest, a race, a 
  struggle to outdo others, ourselves, a clock, or a calendar. 
  Everything becomes a contest for money, trophies, prestige, or some 
  other form of recognition.
    
    The //ironic// part of all this is that while we are frantically 
  making more money, getting a bigger house, and another pricey car, 
  hoarding more and better playthings, and trying to impress the dickens 
  out of the neighbors, we have less and less time to enjoy the very 
  things we are slaving for. The //tragic// part is that in the same 
  feverish process of acquisition of material things, we so very often 
  lose our families, our health, our self-respect, and our peace of 
  mind. Rush, rush, rush! Tempers flare, ulcers growl, blood pressure 
  soars. Millions of us die from stress-related illnesses. Millions more 
  try to find relief from their misery in alcohol and drugs. In the end, 
  all we manage to do is to rush into an early grave. Though we may rise 
  to an ever higher and higher "standard of living," at the same time 
  our society is falling apart before our very eyes. The prize is not 
  what we expected, is it?
    
    All this misery in the name of what? $UCCE$$? Are we really that 
  different from that poor monkey? We do not know how or when to let go 
  either. Or what to let go //of//. Who is to say that we are not even 
  worse off than our furry little friend?
    
    Craving is a normal, basic part of our conditioned nature. There 
  are certain things that are necessary for our physical survival and 
  mental well-being, and others that are detrimental. The mind of every 
  sentient being discriminates, putting these things into convenient 
  categories, labeling them "good," "bad," and "indifferent" according 
  to how it perceives them. And there are, of course, gradations within 
  those categories.
    
    According to the needs of the living organism, itself an extremely 
  complex psycho-biological process, a complicated psycho-biological 
  //sub//-process causes a desire to arise in the consciousness, 
  alerting the organism to seek or avoid certain objects or conditions 
  to ensure its proper functioning or survival. So far, so good. This is 
  a necessary strategy evolved to maintain and protect the sentient 
  being, be it man or microbe, as it goes about its business in the 
  conditioned world.
    
    When this survival mechanism gets out of hand, and instead of 
  serving, takes over as master, it plunges us into a fog of cravings 
  and longings. This vague, objectless wanting leaves us perpetually 
  dissatisfied and unfulfilled. It leaves us feeling empty, driven to 
  search endlessly and compulsively for an elusive "something" that we 
  hope might quench the craving. But we do not know //what// we want, or 
  even //why// we want it.
    
    Like the monkey drawn to the baited pot, we grasp at all sorts of 
  things -- and ideas -- with essentially the same results. We get 
  trapped, if not in the literal, physical sense, then certainly 
  psychologically, which makes the suffering even more damaging and 
  prolonged. And the emptiness persists.
    
    But there is a solution, and it is rather simple. Simple, now, 
  though not necessarily easy. Rather than give in and blindly obey 
  these impulses to grasp more, to acquire more, to hoard more, we need 
  to confront and analyze them. Where do they arise, and why? The 
  answers may surprise us: Behind this acquisitiveness is the 
  ego-concept, which necessarily gives rise to insecurity and fear in 
  myriad forms. These in turn cause us, consciously or subconsciously, 
  to seek all sorts of things with which to defend the apparent solidity 
  of the ego, to embellish and adorn it, and to build a protective wall 
  around it: power, status, fame, attention, and material possessions. 
  We are even driven to exaggerate the basic requisites of food, 
  clothing, shelter, and medicine to rather outlandish proportions.
    
    To put it simply, due to ignorance of the nature of the ego, we 
  fail to make the distinction between "This is needed" and "I WANT." 
  Through ego-motivated thinking we create a great deal of unnecessary 
  suffering for ourselves, and we sacrifice much, even most of the 
  quality of our lives.
    
    The Buddha taught that as conditioned beings living in a 
  conditioned existence (Samsara) we can never be completely free of all 
  sorts of unpleasantness, stress, and suffering. All conditioned 
  phenomena are flawed, and that inevitably gives rise to 
  unsatisfactoriness. This is the First Noble Truth of the Buddha's 
  teaching, and far from being a vague philosophical speculation, it is 
  something that each of us experiences first hand for him-or-herself in 
  daily life. While true and permanent freedom (Nibbana) comes about as 
  a result of the insight gained through Vipassana meditation, we can 
  eliminate a great deal of unnecessary suffering in the meantime by 
  applying the principle of renunciation.
    
    Unfortunately, the very word "renunciation" has a strange medieval 
  ring to it in this modern, Western-dominated, supposedly hedonistic 
  age. For most, it carries the smell of sack-cloth and ashes, an image 
  of penance, self-denial, self-deprivation, even self-torture. It is 
  thought of as a negative, dejected turning away from the world, a 
  gloomy giving up on life, the last refuge of spurned lovers and aging 
  old maids.
    
    It is none of those things. Genuine renunciation, as the Buddha 
  teaches it, is akin to throwing open the windows of the mind to 
  morning sunshine and crisp, cool air. Renunciation is "cleaning 
  house," getting rid of trash and useless clutter, both figurative and 
  literal. It is recognizing that when we become attached to things, we 
  do not own them, instead //they own us//. It is putting things in 
  //proper perspective//, simplifying our lives, and being satisfied 
  with "enough."
  
  
                   //In short, it is COMMON SENSE//.
                          No need to say more.
                    You're smarter than the monkey.
                  You can figure it all out from here.
                                          
                                          
                                 * * *
                                          
  
  
  
                    DOES THE DHAMMA STILL HOLD TRUE?
                                          
                                          
  On occasion the question is brought up whether the Dhamma is still 
  valid in our time. Some people seem to think that while the Dhamma may 
  have been well suited for the Asia of twenty-five hundred years ago, 
  it has no place in a twentieth century world dominated by fast-paced, 
  aggressive, increasingly amoral Western technology and materialism, 
  and therefore it should be retired to a museum, to rest amid the musty 
  relics of a vanished Golden Age. In other words, it is as if an 
  age-old system of treatment were no longer useful because the diseases 
  of today are different.
  
    Others approach the problem from another perspective. The efficacy 
  and appropriateness of the Dhamma are not questioned. Instead, they 
  feel that people today do not have the necessary time and opportunity 
  for effective application and practice of the Dhamma. The medicine is 
  right for the disease, but the patient is not able to take advantage 
  of the treatment.
    
    Let us examine both of these views. It is true that the ancient 
  world was a different place from ours. Certainly life must have been 
  considerably slower-paced, as it is even today in agricultural village 
  societies. In short, the 20th century Rat-Race, the technology that 
  created it, and all that they imply, both good and bad, did not exist.
    
    It is very tempting for us to look back longingly to some gentler 
  and quieter Golden-Age Utopia-That-Never-Was. Yes, the ancient world 
  surely was a very different place, perhaps more so than we realize, or 
  even are capable of realizing. But in no way can that be taken to mean 
  that it was a better place! These differences are really only 
  superficial and cosmetic.
    
    The underlying problem, the basic problem of the world, remains the 
  same no matter how much the exterior trappings may change. And that 
  problem is that the world is a place of suffering.
    
    The world is a place of suffering, but the suffering is not in the 
  world. It is in the mind. It is in your mind, and it is in my mind, 
  and it is in the mind of every sentient being in existence. That is, 
  of course, the kind of statement that brings out the critics who 
  insist that Buddhism is pessimistic. Not so. Buddhism impartially 
  states what everyone can see and verify independently for himself or 
  herself.
    
    Let us define suffering. In his first sermon given after his 
  Enlightenment the Buddha said as follows:
    
       Birth is accompanied by pain; disease is painful; death is 
       painful. Sorrow, lamentation, grief, and despair are suffering. 
       Enduring the unpleasant is suffering, and separation from the 
       pleasant is suffering. Not getting what one wants is suffering. 
       Indeed, all the five aggregates which arise from craving and 
       attachment are suffering.
  
    
    Who can possibly argue with that statement? Suffering is physical, 
  mental, and emotional. And none of us is exempt or immune.
    
    It is true that pleasure and happiness also exist. No one can deny 
  that, either. But pleasure and happiness are fragile and fleeting. 
  They depend on certain conditions being in accord with what we want 
  and expect. As soon as those conditions change (and change they 
  will!), as soon as we no longer have things our way, some degree of 
  unhappiness or suffering arises. Be it trivial or severe, it is 
  suffering nonetheless.
    
    We each create our own misery and unhappiness, and even determine 
  the degree to which we suffer by the expectations we set up, and by 
  the strength and inflexibility with which we hold those expectations.
    
    We have just restated the first and second of the Four Noble 
  Truths, and all we have said is just as true for us today as it was on 
  the day that the Buddha first uttered his Teaching. We see that the 
  ancient and contemporary worlds are alike in that both are filled with 
  sentient beings, all of whom experience suffering, and all of whom 
  seek relief.
    
    To this suffering the Buddha was no stranger. He saw it clearly all 
  around him, and he was sensitive to it. Out of his compassion he set 
  aside his own life of comfort and privilege in order to find, once and 
  for all time, full and permanent release from the suffering inherent 
  in all conditioned things, situations, and circumstances.
    
    After years of diligent searching, he succeeded in liberating 
  himself. After that attainment of Enlightenment, again out of his 
  great compassion, he spent the remaining forty-five years of his life 
  showing the way to liberation to any and all who would listen. The 
  Dhamma, the Teaching of the Buddha, is not his invention any more than 
  the laws of physics are the invention of Isaac Newton. Newton was 
  simply an observer who devoted himself to the investigation of certain 
  laws of nature which he studied, experimented with, described, and 
  brought to the attention of others for the benefit of society. Just so 
  did the Buddha devote himself to finding the cause for the arising of 
  suffering, and the means to its cessation.
    
    The Dhamma is a summary of the Buddha's search, discoveries, 
  applications, and results. It is a report of the way the laws of 
  nature and mind operate, and a set of instructions, a manual, as it 
  were, of how we each can most effectively use that information for our 
  own greatest benefit in all aspects of daily life, and ultimately for 
  liberation from suffering. It is eternally valid.
    
    The first two of the Four Noble Truths serve to identify the 
  problem and to reveal its cause. The Third Noble Truth identifies the 
  remedy and the Fourth Noble Truth is the actual application of the 
  treatment. It is now entirely up to each of us to take it from there. 
  The Buddha did all that he could do. No one could have done more. The 
  doctor can identify the disease and indicate the remedy. But he cannot 
  undergo the treatment on behalf of the patient. Similarly, the Buddha 
  shows us the path, and gives us a detailed map with comprehensive 
  instructions, but each of us must put forth the effort to travel that 
  path in order to reach the goal. No one can travel it for us.
    
    What does it mean to be a Buddhist? What does it entail to follow 
  the path that the Buddha mapped out for us? Can we do a good job of it 
  (here's that magic phrase again!) in today's world?
    
    To be a Buddhist in name only is very easy. It is also a colossal 
  waste of time, a disservice to all practicing Buddhists, and an insult 
  to the Buddha.
    
    To be a serious practicing Buddhist does take time and effort and 
  commitment. One has to take time to study the Dhamma, to be well 
  acquainted with the core of the Teaching. One must know the Precepts 
  not just well enough to repeat them, or to do the minimum to "get by," 
  but to understand in depth their ethical and moral basis. Once a 
  person has this knowledge and understanding and lives by it, one 
  realizes that it is not for the sake of one's spiritual benefit alone, 
  but that it orders and simplifies all of everyday life as well. This 
  includes family, business, and social relationships, child-rearing, in 
  short, all the aspects of lay householder life. And upon this solid 
  foundation, and only upon it, can one build one's meditative practice, 
  that is, the mental cultivation of insight that leads to 
  Enlightenment.
    
    Yes, it does take time and effort. But all worthwhile endeavors do. 
  And this is the most worthwhile endeavor of all, bar none! We find 
  time and energy for all sorts of draining, useless, even harmful 
  pursuits. Certainly we can make time for the application of the 
  Dhamma.
    
    One further point must be addressed. Many persons seem to feel that 
  in order to make significant progress, one needs to enter the monastic 
  life. That they cannot do so because of lay responsibilities, or 
  because they feel they are not suited for monastic life, appears to 
  them a great obstacle.
    
    The good news is that the lay person can make a great deal of 
  progress right where he is, in his present situation. The Suttas 
  abound with accounts of lay women and men who rose to great spiritual 
  heights, even attained Nibbana. And all the while they managed 
  households, raised families, earned livings, took care of personal 
  affairs, and operated businesses. To the casual observer they were 
  living very ordinary, normal lives. And this is no less true today.
    
    The Dhamma is unique, a complete training system, unmatched and 
  unsurpassed by any other. It is not difficult to follow. One starts 
  precisely where one is and proceeds at one's own proper pace. At the 
  very least, adherence to Buddhist ethics will greatly simplify life, 
  bring peace of mind, and allow one to live a blameless existence. It 
  will also assure a wholesome rebirth in which one may again have the 
  opportunity to continue making progress towards liberation from 
  Samsara, should one fall short of liberation in this life.
    
    The Dhamma is fully as potent now as it ever was. And once we make 
  up our minds to apply its principles to our lives, we shall see that 
  all that needs to be done is well within our capabilities, even in 
  today's hostile, whirlwind world.
  
  
                                 * * *
                                          
                                          
                                          
                                          
                         IN SEARCH OF HAPPINESS
                                          
                                          
  All of us seek, each in his or her own way, that strangely elusive 
  state called happiness, but very few of us can describe or define just 
  what we think will give us that happiness. Most of us are looking for 
  something, but we don't quite know what. At best we may have only some 
  vague, nebulous hunches. Not very much to go on! It is as if we have 
  undertaken a journey without a clear idea of where we are going, or 
  how we are to get there. Is it any wonder that we repeatedly fail in 
  spite of all our efforts?
  
    All things change, and our notions of happiness are no exception. 
  It is clear that, if it is formed at all, the concept of happiness is 
  extremely subjective and personal, open not only to wide individual 
  interpretation, but to the vagaries of social, cultural, and even 
  economic conditioning as well.
    
    In simpler, bygone days, it appears that happiness was generally 
  taken to be a tranquil, anxiety-free state of contentment brought 
  about by the fulfillment of certain conditions necessary for survival. 
  One who was properly sheltered, adequately clothed, well fed, free 
  from serious illness and pain, and was not in danger of harm from 
  enemies, was deemed to be happy. For what more could one ask? Fragile 
  though it was, such a basic state of security was deemed to be a 
  blessing, and grounds for great happiness.
    
    In our time, however, it seems that happiness is more than ever 
  held to be somehow linked with the experience of //pleasure//, and 
  with "//getting// and //having// things." Some seek it in the direct 
  agitation and gratification of the senses. Others, in the accumulation 
  of material objects, and in the attainment of fame, status, power, and 
  wealth. And many think it lies in the rather hazy concept of "being 
  free," which today has taken on the extreme connotation of freedom 
  from discipline, morals, social conventions, and even good taste! (In 
  other times this was known as //license//.)
    
    Unhappiness (suffering, or //dukkha//) is much easier to define, 
  possibly because we experience so much more of it. But either way, 
  whether we are scrutinizing happiness or suffering, we are dealing 
  with unstable, impermanent states of mind and impermanent external 
  conditions being in accord, or at odds, with what we want and expect. 
  As soon as we no longer have things going our way, happiness wanes and 
  some degree of unhappiness or suffering arises. It may be trivial or 
  severe, but it is nonetheless suffering. Suffering is simply wanting, 
  endless wanting. It is dissatisfaction with things being the way they 
  are.
    
    The Buddha identifies wanting (desiring, craving, //tanha//) as the 
  basis of all our suffering, and in the same breath he adds that it is 
  the causative factor of rebirth. The Buddha points out that there is 
  //no lasting, inherent pleasure or happiness to be derived from having 
  satisfied a desire//. Any desire. The pleasure occurs only during the 
  peak moment of releasing the frustration, the anticipation, the 
  tension of the wanting itself. Once the desired object is secured, 
  once the discomfort of wanting has been relieved, gratification 
  dwindles to an afterglow, and soon ceases. As soon as the novelty 
  wears off, our attention rather quickly moves to the next item that 
  catches our eye. It is a never-ending process.
    
    Furthermore, the Buddha also points out that //no object or 
  situation can ever, in and of itself, be a source of pleasure or 
  displeasure//. Rather, these are constructs of the mind. In our minds 
  we form certain expectations, the way we want specific things, 
  situations, and persons to be. As long as these expectations happen to 
  be met, we experience a degree of satisfaction. When they are not met, 
  we experience displeasure, disappointment, anger, and other 
  unwholesome mind-states in direct proportion to our frustration.
    
    We cannot crave that which we already have, only that which is 
  still out of our reach. We can have an attachment to what is already 
  ours, but that is also a desire, a wanting for the future to be a 
  certain way. We want a guarantee that the object of our attachment 
  will continue to give us pleasure, that it will remain in our 
  possession, and that it will not change, break, or otherwise fail to 
  live up to our expectations. We still want something that is out of 
  reach: a firm guarantee that future circumstances will not alter.
    
    We deceive ourselves and each other into believing that happiness 
  is just one more step away, almost within our reach. If only we could 
  get rid of this, if only we could have that, if only we could change 
  the other, //then// for sure we would be really and truly happy 
  forever! We spend our lives "if-onlying," reaching and grasping, yet 
  we never manage to get hold of happiness. It always seems to slip 
  through our fingers. That is the story of our lives, life after life, 
  birth after birth.
    
    Yes, this constant reaching and grasping for "just one more thing," 
  this is the craving, the //tanha// about which the Buddha warns us. 
  This is the glue that binds us so firmly to the Wheel of Samsara, this 
  grim Merry-Go-Round of Misery that drags us endlessly from birth to 
  rebirth, from death to death again, and from suffering to more 
  suffering, relieved here and there by short-lived sparks of 
  gratification or pleasure.
    
    Ironically, the more we grasp at this thing called happiness, the 
  more we chase after it, the more certain it is that it will escape us. 
  We have misinterpreted, misunderstood both the cause and the nature of 
  happiness, and then we have compounded the error by looking for the 
  happiness in the wrong place, in the world, rather than within the 
  mind! Our efforts are doomed to failure from the very first.
    
    Happiness lies not in the ability to satisfy our every desire, but 
  rather in the ability to //refrain// from reacting compulsively to 
  every craving and prodding of the mind. It is the ability to observe 
  the mind dispassionately, to allow anything to manifest without our 
  "buying into it," without becoming enslaved by it.
    
    There is little that can be done about what occurs to us through 
  external circumstances. That is old, conditioned stuff, 
  //kammavipaka// surfacing. We need do nothing, except to observe 
  carefully its arising and its passing away. We do, however, need to be 
  very careful about how we react to it. That reaction, that mental, 
  emotional, and volitional response, creates our conditioning for the 
  future.
    
    The clear awareness of our feelings toward the arisen object or 
  thought, unaccompanied by an automatic, self-interested, reflex 
  reaction based in greed or aversion, begins to weaken the kammic bonds 
  that hold us to samsaric misery. And practiced regularly, it provides 
  insight into the workings of nature and of the mind. This insight, 
  this understanding of the impermanence, ultimate unsatisfactoriness, 
  and selfless nature of all conditioned phenomena (//anicca//, 
  //dukkha//, //anatta//), quickly breaks the kammic chains and leads to 
  liberation from Samsara. It is the very core of the Buddha's Teaching.
    
                            * * * * * * * *
                                          
                                          
                                          
                                          
                            ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  
  
  Petr Karel Ontl was born into a Bohemian-American family in Prague, 
  Czechoslovakia, in 1942, and emigrated to the United States in 1949. A 
  certified foreign language teacher, he has worked in the fields of 
  teaching, photography, care for the elderly, and translation. He has 
  been a Theravada Buddhist for the past twenty years and is affiliated 
  with the Bhavana Society in High View, West Virginia.
  
  
                            * * * * * * * *
  


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 TITLE OF WORK: Of Mindsets and Monkeypots (Bodhi Leaves #131)
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 AUTHOR: Petr Karel Ontl
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