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Buddhist Training Is Meant to End — Transcript

by Doug's Dharma · 3,025 words · 512 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00You've probably met someone who knows a
0:02whole lot but appears to have learned
0:04nothing from it. Someone knowledgeable,
0:07quick, articulate, widely read with a
0:09great memory, but someone you'd never go
0:12to for advice about your life. And it's
0:16an odd combination because we mostly
0:18assume that these two things go hand in
0:20hand, that enough smarts eventually
0:24matures into wisdom on its own.
0:27So the question for today's video is it
0:30possible to have all of the knowledge
0:32and yet be none the wiser for it. Now
0:35it's not at all a modern worry. The
0:38Buddha described the very type. In one
0:41early suta, a Brahman named Vasakara
0:44gives the Buddha four criteria for what
0:47make a person wise.
0:50Somebody who's learned, incisive, with a
0:52good memory, and tireless in their
0:54duties.
0:56It all sounds great. Vasakara's list
0:58sounds just like the sort of person we'd
1:00want on our team.
1:03And the Buddha doesn't exactly say that
1:05he's wrong. He simply substitutes his
1:08own four criteria built more around
1:11kindness and mental mastery.
1:14The upshot is that one can be extremely
1:17knowledgeable and able and yet not not
1:20really be wise in the Buddha's sense.
1:23It's a type that the Buddha recognized
1:25two and a half millennia ago.
1:28So, in this video, we'll ask about
1:30training in wisdom, why it turns out to
1:34be much more difficult than simply
1:36gaining information,
1:38and why the tradition has had to wrestle
1:40with this problem for millennia.
1:46Let's start with describing the Buddha's
1:48outlook on training in the early texts
1:50because it may not be quite what you'd
1:53expect from what I just said. It does
1:56indeed begin with doing things that
1:59we're told are skillful for us, such as
2:02being generous, which is where the
2:04Buddha typically began with newcomers.
2:08Then he recommended ethical conduct
2:10generally.
2:12Wisdom is something that has to wait its
2:14turn.
2:16But notice how even these early stages
2:18are taught.
2:21For example, in the Kalama Suta, where
2:24the Buddha gave a talk to a group of
2:26unaffiliated and confused lay people, he
2:29didn't just hand down some kind of
2:31ruling from on high about greed and
2:34hatred. Instead, he walked them through
2:37it and had them work out for themselves
2:40whether greed and hatred led to their
2:42welfare or harm or not.
2:46When he instructed his son Rahula on
2:49ethical conduct, equally the Buddha
2:52didn't just list a bunch of rules for
2:54him.
2:56Instead, he taught a kind of method and
2:58a mirror. Before you do something, ask
3:02yourself whether it's going to harm you
3:04or harm somebody else or harm both. Look
3:08and see.
3:10In both cases, the content of the path
3:13may indeed be gradual, but the mode is
3:17to see for yourself. And indeed, the
3:19whole thing is heading in a direction
3:22away from mere rule following.
3:25Whatever else he might have been doing,
3:27the Buddha was not trying to produce
3:29followers who couldn't think and see for
3:32themselves.
3:35And yet institutions built on his path
3:37have over and over produced deference
3:40instead. Hierarchical lineages,
3:43unquestioned teachers, students who may
3:47understand what leads to harm, but are
3:49unwilling or unable to act against those
3:51who create harm, such as those bad
3:55teachers, if there are any.
3:58So that's the puzzle. How is it that a
4:01path whose aim is to see for ourselves
4:04so often goes off the rails in the very
4:07stages that are meant to get us there.
4:11In essence, the problem isn't a moral
4:13failure nor a cultural quirk, although
4:16the those may play their roles.
4:20Instead, it's something more structural.
4:27Something remarkable in the early texts
4:29is how processoriented authority turns
4:32out to be.
4:34Famously, the early texts instruct monks
4:37even to investigate the Buddha himself
4:41for signs of greed, hatred, and delusion
4:44before extending their trust to him.
4:47Even the Buddha's own authority invites
4:49verification.
4:52The suta to the kalamas that we just
4:54mentioned is often glossed as something
4:57like be skeptical of any instruction.
5:00But I would read it differently. It
5:02describes a kind of capacity that we're
5:05trying to cultivate in ourselves. An
5:08ability to weigh any teaching on its
5:11merits.
5:13Then there's the famous simile of the
5:15raft.
5:17Once we cross the river of samsara, we
5:20set the raft down on the far shore. So
5:23it's not simply that the teacher's
5:25authority is provisional on our
5:27investigation,
5:29but that the teaching itself is
5:31eventually meant to be released.
5:33A training that one can never leave is
5:37different from a true path with a
5:39destination.
5:43Last and perhaps most importantly, the
5:45Buddha's deathbed.
5:47This is the moment we might expect him
5:49to name a successor and secure a
5:52lineage, but he does none of it. He says
5:56that he has no closed fist of hidden
5:58teachings. He tells the SA that he will
6:01not appoint a new leader and instructs
6:04them instead to be islands unto
6:07themselves with the dharma as their
6:09refuge.
6:11If the goal of training were simply to
6:14produce followers who did as they were
6:16told, it wouldn't make much sense on
6:19one's deathbed to forego naming a new
6:22mouthpiece who could tell people what to
6:24do in onestead.
6:27These examples give shape to the basic
6:30point which is that the training ends by
6:32making its own authority unnecessary.
6:36And that's going to be our basic
6:38takeaway.
6:39Wise judgment is the capacity to weigh
6:42an instruction and if it's unskillful to
6:46refuse it.
6:48Any training that succeeds only at
6:50producing followers who reliably do
6:52whatever they're told has to that degree
6:55failed to cultivate true wisdom.
6:58Or in other words, one cannot maximize
7:02both obedience and wisdom.
7:05Every training has to choose where to
7:07sit on that spectrum.
7:13Now this doesn't mean that rule
7:15following is all bad. It has its place
7:18too.
7:20One of my favorite simileies is in the
7:22early texts is that of the thoroughbred
7:24cult.
7:26There the Buddha compares the path of
7:28training to that which a horse undergoes
7:32in order to be ready for the king's
7:34service.
7:35Now the point that the Buddha is making
7:37is not one of submission to the
7:39authority of the whip. The point is that
7:42there is a method to training. It's a
7:45process with a gradual set of steps and
7:49skipping any of them isn't likely to to
7:51be a good idea if we want to get to that
7:53end goal.
7:55Now this cuts against two things at
7:58once. On the one hand, it cuts against
8:01an instruction like just sit and do
8:03nothing.
8:05But it also cuts against the modern
8:07western instinct just to find wisdom
8:09entirely on our own without any outside
8:12help or guidance.
8:14The three-fold training that the Buddha
8:17provides has an order for a reason.
8:21Ethics, then meditation, and last
8:24wisdom.
8:26We rulef follow ethical guidelines
8:28before we have the wisdom that would
8:30make those guidelines unnecessary for
8:33us. Trusting in our own judgment can be
8:36perilous. It can easily lead us down
8:39wrong pathways.
8:41Monastic rule books like the Buddhist
8:44vineia exist because even full-time
8:48professional practitioners all too often
8:51got things wrong when left to their own
8:53devices.
8:55There's a specific virtue that the
8:57Buddha praises when it comes to getting
8:59things wrong. The poly word for it is
9:02suva. That is being easy to admonish or
9:06easy to correct.
9:08Its opposite duba means stubbornness and
9:12is treated as a real problem in monastic
9:15life.
9:16One early suta discusses precisely the
9:19issue of admonishment.
9:22Mogulana discusses qualities that make
9:25one hard to correct, asking his monastic
9:29audience to check themselves for each
9:31one.
9:33A key consequence that he draws is that
9:36if we become difficult to correct, in
9:39time, our companions will give up trying
9:42and we're going to lose their trust.
9:45We're going to become isolated.
9:48The damapata puts it clearly, "Regard
9:51one who sees your faults as a guide to a
9:54hidden treasure."
9:57But notice what's being praised here.
10:00It's not simply a matter of doing
10:02whatever we're told. It's more a matter
10:05of not being defensive and stubborn when
10:08someone points out something about what
10:10we're doing that we couldn't see for
10:12ourselves.
10:14This is not meant to be mere compliance.
10:17It's the kind-hearted outside check that
10:20wisdom requires.
10:23Here's one way to understand it. Rule
10:26following is a kind of scaffolding that
10:28we put up that needs its own removal
10:31date. The problem is not the scaffolding
10:34itself. The scaffolding is necessary.
10:37The problem is knowing when to take it
10:39all down so it doesn't become like one
10:42of those sidewalk sheds in New York City
10:44that s stay up seemingly forever without
10:47any improvements being done to the
10:48buildings beside them.
10:54Here's the problem with setting a
10:56removal date. To take that scaffolding
10:58down, we have to know that wise judgment
11:02has already arrived in ourselves, in
11:06another person. How would we know? Well,
11:10I've argued that we can't settle it from
11:12the inside. Unfortunately, there's no
11:15inner vantage point that unairringly
11:18certifies itself.
11:20That eureka of clarity sometimes
11:23misleads us, however convincing it may
11:26seem in the moment. I did a video about
11:29that recently, which I'll leave down
11:30below.
11:32There's a second way we might settle the
11:34removal date, but it's not the kind that
11:37we can just introspect.
11:39It shows up as our conduct over time
11:42under varied conditions as witnessed by
11:46those around us. that is it's
11:48intersubjective.
11:50We check from the outside
11:53and that does sound more promising. But
11:56here's the additional difficulty which
11:58may be the deepest one yet.
12:02A claim to have fully developed wisdom
12:05is not simply the claim that we are wise
12:08or calm or discerning today.
12:11Instead, it's the claim that greed,
12:13hatred, and delusion will never arise
12:16again under any pro future provocation
12:19in any circumstance ever. And that's a
12:23pretty big claim. It's a claim about a
12:26future of infinite possibilities, of
12:28infinite counterfactuals, that I would
12:31have done this if that had happened, and
12:32so on.
12:34No finite amount of observed behavior
12:37can ever fully verify a claim like that.
12:40Our data are always going to
12:42underdetermine the facts
12:45and nothing can close that gap for us.
12:49The Buddha expressed similar concerns in
12:52his story about Kali and Videa which I
12:55did a video about also. I'll leave a
12:57link to down below.
12:59Vidhika was famous throughout her city
13:02for her sweetness and patience right up
13:05until her maid colleague decided to test
13:08her and then things got pretty nasty.
13:12So the upshot is that present peace does
13:15not prove that an underlying tendency
13:17has gone away.
13:20May simply be that the right conditions
13:22haven't yet arrived to make it visible.
13:26The monastic rules talk about the
13:28dangers of overestimating one's
13:30attainment.
13:32They even had a word for it, adana, for
13:35when a monastic thought that they had
13:37attained something but later on realized
13:40that they had not in fact done so.
13:44Now the Buddha's reply to Ananda was
13:46that this kind of case was negligible.
13:50He treated sincere misjudgment as
13:53unremarkable in the SA, something that
13:55simply could happen.
13:58However, a monastic who declared even a
14:01genuine attainment to a lay person
14:03committed a real offense.
14:06Consider the implications.
14:08claims of attainment necessarily
14:10circulate only within the monastic sa
14:14assessed exclusively by peers who are
14:18subject subject to those very same
14:20uncertainties that we just discussed.
14:22It's a tight epistemic circle with no
14:25real external check. Although to be
14:28fair, it's been constructed for
14:31defensible reasons.
14:33That is, the Buddha did not want
14:36boastful monastics wandering around
14:38among the lay people talking about their
14:40attainments.
14:42But a tight circle like that has another
14:44problem as well. Those who are best
14:47placed to notice failures
14:50are often also those with the most to
14:54lose by calling them out.
15:01This begins to answer the puzzle that I
15:03raised earlier. What happens when those
15:06within a tradition begin to believe that
15:08they can't really verify their own
15:10graduates?
15:13Perhaps over time they stop graduating
15:16them. The scaffolding never really gets
15:19taken down.
15:21That's how I'd read some of the the
15:23friction in later Buddhist history.
15:25Although admittedly this is speculation
15:28on my part,
15:30the ideal begins to recede. The
15:33bodhicattva path stretches across
15:36incalculable eons. I did a video about
15:38that path. I'll leave a link to it down
15:40below.
15:42This is what a tradition begins to look
15:44like when it loses confidence or begins
15:46to lose confidence in its criteria for
15:49success.
15:51A good deal of contemporary Buddhist
15:54practice is built around the scaffolding
15:56of guru relationships
15:59and this is a different answer to the
16:01same basic problem. The authority
16:04structure remains and is guaranteed
16:07persistence through transmission.
16:10So the student is making a kind of
16:12bargain but it's a bargain that has a
16:14cost which the traditions are well aware
16:16of. Tantric literature instructs
16:19students to examine protective
16:22prospective gurus for up to 12 years
16:26before beginning a relationship.
16:29And the Dalai Lama has taught that
16:32students should refuse to follow guru
16:35instructions that they find unethical.
16:38He said,
16:40"If it is necessary to criticize a guru
16:43to save the Buddha Dharma or to benefit
16:46several hundred of their disciples, do
16:48not hesitate.
16:50Afterwards, you can go to that teacher
16:52and explain that you acted as you did
16:54with a pure motivation.
16:57If the guru gets angry, this is another
16:59indication of their shortcomings.
17:02If a teacher gives instructions that
17:05contradict the path, you should not
17:07follow them.
17:10Note that the Dalai Lama here uses the
17:13teacher's reaction as diagnostic
17:16evidence as to their fitness much as the
17:19Buddha himself suggested that we should
17:22do.
17:23The problems arise when these kinds of
17:26safeguards get skipped.
17:32So back to our opening question, is it
17:35possible to have all the knowledge and
17:38yet be none the wiser for it? Yes,
17:42Vasakara gave the Buddha an example of
17:44just such a person. And we all know the
17:46type, somebody who's smart, capable, and
17:49yet poorly self-directed.
17:53But we've also surfaced a more pointed
17:55example.
17:57That is somebody who has done the
17:59training, who perhaps can speak
18:02eloquently of benefit and harm, but who
18:05still isn't really able to stand up when
18:07someone in power over them is doing real
18:10damage.
18:12This is not a simple lack of
18:13information. It's something that goes
18:15deeper and it runs in two directions at
18:19once.
18:21First, the student scaffolding never
18:24really came down.
18:26They seem never really to have come to
18:28understand themselves as able to
18:31graduate into their own judgment and
18:34perhaps nobody ever expected them to be
18:36able to do so.
18:38On this on the other hand, the teacher
18:40scaffolding seems to have come down far
18:43too early.
18:45They were treated as finished as wise
18:48because of an institutional structure
18:50that was itself fallible.
18:54So the scaffolding was removed and the
18:57bricks started to fall off the facade
18:59and hit some people below.
19:02That's what we would come to expect when
19:04the wisdom that's promised through
19:07graduation cannot be really fully
19:09tested.
19:11Something else has to stand in for the
19:13missing test. And often what stands in
19:16are more visible proxies like seniority,
19:19like rank, or simply like being
19:22articulate and charismatic.
19:25That's more or less Vasakara's list all
19:27over again.
19:29But none of these is evidence for the
19:31thing that we need to know, which is
19:33wisdom.
19:35And note that once authority has been
19:38conferred on the basis of perceived
19:41wisdom, it becomes institutionally very
19:44difficult to withdraw that authority.
19:48Now, none of this means that no one's
19:50ever truly wise or that the training can
19:54never work. What it means is that all of
19:58this is underdetermined for us on the
20:00outside. We can never really know
20:04because even when everything sounds
20:06good, it's still possible that things
20:09were witnessed and suppressed.
20:12But for all that, there certainly seemed
20:15to have been some wise people in the
20:16past. We can talk of the Buddha, maybe
20:19Socrates, more recently, somebody like a
20:22John Cha or Ticknot Han. You probably
20:25have your own private list.
20:28Now, I've never spent any time with any
20:31of these people, so I I can't really
20:33know. And that caveat is kind of the
20:37point.
20:38That is the reason that those people
20:40seem plausibly wise to us is that we've
20:43heard something about their decades of
20:46conduct, about having been watched by
20:49many other people under varied
20:50conditions.
20:52That's how transmission is supposed to
20:55work.
20:56And done properly, it's probably about
20:59as good as we could get. Many years of
21:02close attention from a seasoned teacher.
21:06But that's all we can say. Working at
21:08the very limits of our ability to see
21:10and know may give us some confidence,
21:13but never real certainty.
21:16So two questions to sit with. First,
21:20when you say that you want to find a
21:22wise teacher, what are you really
21:24looking for? Are you looking for
21:27agreement? Well, that's not going to be
21:29a very useful target unless you're
21:31already so wise that you don't need a
21:34teacher.
21:36Second, in your own practice, where are
21:39you trying to build judgment?
21:41And where are you only doing what you're
21:44being told to do or where you're
21:47believing only what you're being told to
21:48believe?
21:50Doing as you're told, asserting what
21:53you're told to assert can feel like
21:56diligence when all that it's leaning on
21:59is that scaffolding that's got to come
22:01down one day.
22:03And the scaffolding may be necessary for
22:07a while, but it's not going to be
22:08forever.
22:10Indeed, more than that, as we get
22:14further along the path, we may come to a
22:17different view about that scaffolding.
22:21That is, it's not so much for building
22:24up buildings as it is for taking them
22:27down.
22:28As the Buddha said in the damapatada,
22:32I've seen you house builder. You won't
22:34build a house again. Your rafters are
22:37all broken. Your roof peak demolished.
22:40The mind set on demolition has reached
22:43the end of cravings.
22:47Thanks so much for watching. I hope to
22:49catch you all in the next video. And
22:50meanwhile, please all of you be

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