Arahattamagga Arahattaphala - The Path to Arahantship

Arahattamagga Arahattaphala
The Path to Arahantship

Contents

ARAHATTAMAGGA
The Direct Route to the End of All Suffering
A Compilation of Venerable Acariya Maha Bua's Dhamma Talks About the Development of His Meditation Practice:
At present, all that is left of Buddhism are the words of the Buddha. Only his teachings – the scriptures – remain. Please be aware of this. Due to the corruption caused by the defiling nature of the kilesas, true spiritual principles are no longer practiced in present-day Buddhism. As Buddhists, we constantly allow our minds to be agitated and confused, engulfed in mental defilements that assail us from every direction. They so overpower our minds that we never rise above these contaminating influences, no matter how hard we try. The vast majority of people are not even interested enough to try: They simply close their eyes and allow the onslaught to overwhelm them. They don't even attempt to put up the least amount of resistance. Since they lack the mindfulness needed to pay attention to the consequences of their thoughts, all their thinking and all they do and say are instances of the kilesas giving them a beating. They surrendered to the power of these ruinous forces such a long time ago that they now lack any motivation to restrain their wayward thoughts. When mindfulness is absent, the kilesas work with impunity, day and night, in every sphere of activity. In the process, they increasingly burden and oppress the hearts and minds of people everywhere with dukkha.
In the time of the Buddha, his direct disciples were true practitioners of the way of Buddhism. They renounced the world for the express purpose of transcending dukkha. Regardless of their social status, age or gender, when they ordained under the Buddha's guidance, they changed their habitual ways of thinking, acting, and speaking to the way of Dhamma. Casting the kilesas aside, the disciples ceased to follow their lead from that moment on. With earnest effort, they directed all their energy toward purifying their hearts and cleansing them of the contamination created by the kilesas.