What is the Dharma?

This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video What is the Dharma ~ Diana Clark. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

The following talk was given by Diana Clark at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on August 20, 2023. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

What is the Dharma?

Introduction

So, I'll echo what Hillary said: it's such a joy to practice together. Maybe it's a practice to be together too, right? As some of you know, I'm Diana Clark, and I teach here on Monday nights, and it's a pleasure to be here on a Sunday morning while I think Gil is teaching a retreat.

Today, I thought I'd talk a little bit about this idea, sometimes we use this word Dharma. What is Dharma? What is it? What is a Dharma talk? And what is it like to follow the Dharma or be with the Dharma? What is that really? We have so many different ideas about it. Maybe each of us has our own idea. There's lots of room for interpretation.

Part of the reason why there's room for interpretation is because this word in Pali^[1] means so many different things, and it gets used in so many different ways. One way that isn't so common, but is kind of meaningful for me, is this idea that Dharma in Pali, this word comes from the root dhr^[2], which means to hold, to support. So the Dharma is something that can hold us and support us and prevent us from falling.

What does that mean to fall? Well, maybe each of us has our own idea of what it means to fall. To fall into despair, fall into hopelessness, or just fall into not caring. Whatever it might mean for us, the Dharma is something that is a support and can hold us.

And also, of course, the Dharma is so often understood as the Buddha's teachings. It's something that he shared with everybody. This was his life's work, to share the teachings. And people who sit in this seat, we are wanting to share the Dharma also.

But there's also a meaning of the Dharma that is kind of like the nature of reality. That's the way things are. Part of Dharma teachings and Dharma practice is to help us become sensitive to, or tuned into, this way things are, instead of the way that we often think they are, or the concepts, or the ideas that we might have, or the wishes we might have. How they actually are, we might say, is the Dharma. There's this quote from the suttas^[3] that includes this word Tathāgata^[4]. I like to even say this word. It's a word that the Buddha uses to refer to himself. It's a name that he calls himself. I won't go into exactly what it means, but Tathāgata.

So this is the Buddha speaking about the Dharma, and he says: "Whether there is an arising of a Tathāgata or no arising of a Tathāgata, whether there's a Buddha or not, that law of nature still persists. The stableness of the Dharma, the fixed course of the Dharma. A Tathāgata awakens to this and breaks through to it. And having done so, he explains it, teaches it, proclaims it, establishes it, discloses it, analyzes it, and elucidates it."

That's why there are like 40 years of the Buddha talking, right? He has a lot of other things to do here. But there's this idea, this concept that the Dharma is something that's already there, and the Buddha just notices it. So it's not something he made up; it's part of this law of nature that he discovered and then shares.

In my mind, it's kind of like gravity. Gravity is there, but maybe it took somebody like Sir Isaac Newton to get a little bit curious or to discover it. You know, we have the story of the apple falling, and Sir Isaac Newton getting curious like, "Wait, why does it do that?" and his understanding and his teaching. Gravity was always there. Maybe in the same way, the Dharma is already there, but it takes a Buddha to first break through to it, which is kind of the language, and then to share it. Maybe to highlight something that we already know, that we've already noticed.

And yet, maybe to bring our attention to it, or to analyze, elucidate—all these different words—to point it out in a way that we can go, "Oh yeah. Right, right, yeah."

I'll say for me, the first time I heard the Dharma was entirely by accident. I was trained as a research scientist. I spent years in a laboratory with a white lab coat, test tubes, the whole thing, right? That was what I thought I was going to do. And I got interested in yoga, which alone seemed to be like—I didn't dare tell my friends I was doing yoga. My science friends would not have thought that was okay, you know, this was back a few decades ago. I went to a yoga workshop that was over a weekend. I remember it was called—it just slips my mind the exact language, but it was something about Tibetan Heart Yoga. I thought, "Wow, Tibet, that seems pretty exotic and harsh. Okay, this is going to be great. I'm going to sign up for this."

My life was a little bit of a mess then, and I was just looking for something that would be hopeful. So, at this workshop, we did a lot of the postures, asana practice, what we typically think of when we think of yoga. In the description, it said there'd be some philosophy, and I thought, "Oh okay, philosophy is kind of interesting." After we had done all these postures, we had a little break, and then we were supposed to come back for the philosophy part. So we're all sitting on our yoga mats in our cute little yoga outfits, right?

And in walks this person, wearing Tibetan monastic robes—red and gold and this kind of shiny stuff. I'm like, "Oh my goodness, no, no, thank you. I did not sign up for this. I don't want any religion, thank you, no, no, no." But I was sitting as far as possible from the door, and it would have been really awkward for me to get up and walk out. Otherwise, honestly, I probably would have. That was just where I was in my life. I wasn't looking for answers and religion from some dude wearing these odd clothes.

But he took the stage, and he started to talk about the Four Noble Truths. This was the first time I'd ever heard anything like this: the truth of suffering, the truth of a cause of suffering, the truth of cessation—the ending of suffering—and a way to the ending of suffering.

Something in me resonated, and I found myself sitting there with tears going down my face. There was this recognition: "Oh yeah, there's something here. Something here."

Never did I imagine that a few decades later I'd be sitting here giving a Dharma talk, but that was how it started for me. Maybe this recognition of "Oh yeah, there's something there," maybe some of you have had a similar experience. Maybe some of you haven't, and that's okay, right? We all find our own way here.

The Story of Raṭṭhapāla

But today I'd like to share a story that comes from the Pali Canon^[5] about somebody who also heard the Dharma and felt really touched by it. He does something really unprecedented, maybe unheard of or radical, and everybody gets curious about it and asks, "Wow, why did you do that?" And then he gives his reasons. This is the story of Raṭṭhapāla^[6].

This story begins, as most stories in the Pali Canon do, with a description of where the Buddha is. So the Buddha is in this town Thullakoṭṭhita^[7] with a whole bunch of monastics. This is usually what happened; the Buddha would travel around and give talks. So he arrives in this town, Thullakoṭṭhita, and many people were excited and wanted to hear him. He had a good reputation, and so people were like, "Oh okay, this Gotama is here, let's go listen to him talk."

See what all the buzz is about. And so Raṭṭhapāla went to hear the Buddha talk. Raṭṭhapāla was the son of a very wealthy and influential family in this town, Thullakoṭṭhita. His family was maybe one of the most well-known and influential, and they had a relationship with the king. You know, this kind of a family.

So the son goes to hear the Buddha speak, and he was so inspired by what he heard the Buddha say that he decides, "This is going to be my life calling. This is what I'm going to do." After the speaking ends, he goes up to the Buddha and says, "I want to ordain. I want to become a monastic and devote my life to this. I was so touched by your teachings. There's something inside me that knows this is what I want to do."

The Buddha said, "Well, do you have your parents' permission?"

And he says, "No, but don't worry, I'll go get their permission, I'll come back, and then I'll ordain."

And the Buddha says, "Okay."

So Raṭṭhapāla goes back to his family and says, "I just heard this talk, and I'd like to ordain."

And his parents are like, "Nope. No, no." They gave him a number of reasons for this. The first one is, "You have been raised in comfort, brought up in comfort. You know nothing of suffering." In my mind, maybe Raṭṭhapāla had told them about the Four Noble Truths and how it really spoke to him. We don't actually know what the teaching was that the Buddha gave, but we can imagine his parents saying, "You can't handle it. You don't even know what suffering is. You've been sequestered in this comfortable life with a family so wealthy."

Then they also said to him, "You can be happy pursuing sensual pleasures. Just stay here. Anything you want, we can give to you." Raṭṭhapāla probably had been growing up with nothing but sensual pleasures and didn't think that was going to be the answer.

So they give him a third reason and say, "You are our only child, dear and beloved. When you die, we will lose you against our wishes. So how can we allow you to go forth while you're still alive?" "To go forth" is an expression meaning to ordain.

To ordain means that he would go and follow the Buddha. He would leave his family. You have a completely different relationship with your family once you become a monastic. And they're like, "You're our only son, how can you do that?"

No, something inside of him felt like, "Nope, this is what I want to do. That's what I want to do with my life. It's meaningful for me." His parents said no, but he really wanted to, so he went on a hunger strike. "I'm not going to eat until you let me ordain."

In my mind, the parents are going like, "Okay, we'll just wait him out. He's so used to having fantastic food and anything he wants, he's not going to—we'll see. Give him a little taste of this suffering." But of course, it doesn't work, and he's getting weaker and weaker. So Raṭṭhapāla's parents go to Raṭṭhapāla's friends and say, "Can you talk some sense into him?"

So Raṭṭhapāla's friends go to talk to him and say, "Well, you don't need to ordain. Why? Just stay with your family, with this life that you have."

Raṭṭhapāla says, "Nope, this is what I want to do. This is what's meaningful for my life. This just makes sense for me."

So Raṭṭhapāla's friends go back to his parents and say, "Well, maybe you can let him ordain. He can come back, and you can still see him. It's not like you'll lose him completely. But if he continues not eating, he's going to die, and you will lose him completely. And maybe he won't enjoy being a monastic. Maybe he'll ordain and discover how difficult it is, and then come back and just get it out of his system. Or maybe he won't. Those are the two main reasons: you can see him afterwards, and he might not enjoy it, so just let him ordain."

So Raṭṭhapāla ordains, and he follows the Buddha, and he does the Buddha's teachings. Not long after, he becomes awakened. Happily ever after, right? But that's not the end of the story.

Because at one time, the Buddha and his monastics come back to this town, Thullakoṭṭhita. A number of things happened, but I'm going to focus on one portion of this. The king hears that the Buddha is back in town, and that Raṭṭhapāla is there as one of the monastics. The king had heard this story that the only son of one of the most prominent people in town had chosen to ordain, and the king was kind of curious. Why? Why would this young man who had everything ordain? The king wants to know.

The king gets notified that Raṭṭhapāla is out meditating in a park. This was common at that time, sitting under a tree or something like this in a protected area. So the king goes up to him, and the king offers to Raṭṭhapāla, "Here's a sitting mat. Would you like to sit on this?"

Raṭṭhapāla says, "No, I'm actually comfortable. Would you like to join me? You can sit with me."

This is pretty unheard of, that the king is showing respect to Raṭṭhapāla, this young man. But this king had such respect for the monastics and really wanted to talk to Raṭṭhapāla. So he speaks to him with such respect, and Raṭṭhapāla also offers him respect, saying, "Why don't you sit with me?" So here are these two people sitting.

And the king says to him, to Raṭṭhapāla, "What did you know or see or hear that made you ordain?" He just flat out asks him.

Raṭṭhapāla replies, "Great King, the Blessed One"—"Blessed One" is how a monastic addresses the Buddha, how they refer to the Buddha—"so, Great King, the Blessed One who knows and sees, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha, has taught four summaries of the Dharma. And it was after knowing and seeing and hearing these that I went forth from the lay life to homelessness." That expression, "from lay life to homelessness," means to ordain.

So Raṭṭhapāla is saying he heard four summaries of the Dharma, and that's what touched him so much and inspired him to go forth—to forsake his family, abandon everything, and go ordain. So, you can naturally imagine what the king asks: "Well, what are these four summaries of the Dharma?"

Raṭṭhapāla was a really skilled teacher, and so he spoke to the king in a way that the king could understand and relate to. He doesn't give the king a lecture; he speaks to the king using examples that are relevant to the king's life. He asks questions of the king, so it's more like a dialogue that they're having rather than, "Here, let me preach to you." We can imagine that this is something that a king would appreciate. I'll say in the Buddhist teachings, in the Pali Canon, practitioners like us are often referred to as royalty also. There's some dignity or some royalty within us. I appreciate this recognition that all of us have our own dignity. Whomever we are, whatever our life is, there's some part of us that's royalty as well. So I like to imagine that as Raṭṭhapāla is talking to this king, maybe he's talking to us.

The Four Summaries of the Dharma

So Raṭṭhapāla gives the first summary of the Dharma: "The world is unstable and swept away."

The king asks for clarification: "What does that mean, the world is unstable and swept away?"

Here is Raṭṭhapāla's response: "What do you think, Great King? When you were 20 or 25 years of age, were you proficient at riding elephants, horses, and chariots, and at archery? Were you strong and capable?"

"I was, Master Raṭṭhapāla. Sometimes it seems as if I had superpowers then. I don't see anyone who could have equaled me in strength."

"Well, what do you think, Great King? These days, are you just as strong and capable?"

"No, Master Raṭṭhapāla, for now I am old, elderly, and senior. Sometimes I intend to step in one place, but my foot goes somewhere else."

"This is what the Buddha was referring to when he said the world is unstable and swept away."

Raṭṭhapāla is pointing out what the king already knows: that aging happens, and some proficiencies, capabilities, and strengths that we had when we were younger go away. We all know this. I'm sure the king recognized that, but maybe he hadn't thought about it before: things are unstable. I like how the king gives this example that's explicitly about being unstable, right? He intends his foot to step one way, but it goes another, maybe even trips or slips or something.

The second summary Raṭṭhapāla gives says: "The world has no shelter and no savior."

The king asks for clarification: "What does that mean?" The king says to Raṭṭhapāla: "In this Royal Court, you can find divisions of elephants, cavalry, chariots, and infantry"—that was their entire military—"and they will serve to defend us from any threats. Yet you said there is no shelter and no savior. How should I understand the meaning of this?"

Raṭṭhapāla responds: "What do you think, Great King? Do you have any chronic ailments?"

"Yes. Sometimes my friends and colleagues, relatives, and family members surround me, thinking the king's going to die."

Raṭṭhapāla says, "Well, what do you think, Great King? Can you get your friends and colleagues, relatives, and family members to help? Can you say to them, 'Please, my dear friends and colleagues, relatives, and family members, all of you, can you share my pain? Can you take some of it so that I don't feel it, these chronic ailments?'"

"No, I can't get my friends to share my pain. Rather, I alone must feel it."

Raṭṭhapāla says, "Well, this is what the Buddha is referring to when he said the world has no shelter and no savior."

So often we have this idea that something out there is going to make us feel better—other people, other things. But this is pointing out that no, there are difficulties that we cannot run away from. There are difficulties that nobody can take away from us, that we alone have to be with. Even though we want them to, and there are industries trying to say, "Oh, as long as you just do this, or buy that, or do this other thing, then somehow all your difficulties will go away." The king surrounded himself with these tools of warfare thinking that that would protect him. In the modern day, what do we surround ourselves with that we think is going to protect us from experiencing difficulties, feeling difficulties? Some of these things actually can't go away.

There's this whole industry like, "Oh no, you can feel younger, just take this. You can look younger, just do this." Right? That's some of what we hear. But there's nobody that can protect us from sicknesses completely, aging completely, chronic ailments completely. They just happen. That was the second summary of the Dharma.

The third summary of the Dharma Raṭṭhapāla shares is: "The world has no owner; you must leave it all behind and pass on."

The king asked for clarification: "What do you mean? In this Royal Court, you can find abundant gold, coin, and bullion stored in dungeons and towers. And yet you said the world has no owner; you must leave it all behind and pass on. How should I understand that?"

Raṭṭhapāla says, "Well, what do you think, Great King? These days, you amuse yourself, supplied and provided with the five kinds of sensual stimulation—seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. But is there any way to ensure that in the next life, after death, you will continue to amuse yourself in the same way? Can you guarantee that after death you will still be able to have whatever makes you feel good? Or will others make use of everything?" All this gold and bullion, all these things that you think are going to make you feel good—after you die, you're not necessarily going to feel good. Others are going to have that. They're going to have whatever the objects were, or whatever the equivalent of gold bullion is for us today.

He'll have to leave behind all his possessions. Not only possessions, but in the next life, will we be able to amuse ourselves with seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling^[8]? We don't know. Nobody knows.

So the king maybe was doing all this hoarding, right? He talked about how much gold he had in the dungeons and towers. There's a way in which we kind of accumulate things, thinking that this is going to protect us or make us happy, but there's a part of us that knows that's not the case.

Then, the fourth summary of the Dharma: "The world is wanting, insatiable, the slave of craving."

When the king asked for clarification, "How should I understand the meaning of this?"

Raṭṭhapāla responds, "Well, what do you think, Great King? Do you dwell in the prosperous land of Kuru^[9]?"—that was the country in which they were.

"I do."

"So what do you think? Suppose a trustworthy and reliable person were to come from the east. They would approach you and say, 'Dear sir, you should know this. I come from the east, and there is this large country that is successful and prosperous and full of people, and they have many elephants, cavalry, chariots, and infantry. There's lots of money and grain, and you could easily conquer it. And you should conquer it.' What would you do if somebody said that to you?"

And the king replies, "I would go and conquer it, and get all their warfare, and their people, and their grain, and wealth."

And then Raṭṭhapāla continues, "Well, suppose a trustworthy and reliable person were to come from the west and were to say to you, 'There's this large country that is successful and has all this army and people and wealth, and you could easily conquer it.' What would you do?"

The king says, "Well, I would go to the west and conquer that too."

And you know where this story is going, right? Somebody comes from the north and says this: "Oh, I would conquer that too." Somebody comes from the south and says this: "Oh, I'd conquer that too." So it's pointing to how the king just wants anything and everything that he feels like he can get.

And then Raṭṭhapāla says, "Well, this is what the Buddha was referring to when he said the world is insatiable, the slave of craving. Insatiable. And it was after knowing and seeing and hearing this that I went forth from the lay life to homelessness. It was after understanding these four things that I ordained."

And the king says, "Wow, it's incredible, Master Raṭṭhapāla. It's amazing how well said this was by the Buddha. For indeed, the world is wanting, insatiable, the slave of craving."

And then the king simply got up and left. He didn't show respect to Raṭṭhapāla, didn't show his appreciation. But in my mind, we can see that he's a little bit troubled, like, "Oh, this is not what I expected," and just goes off to think about this. In other versions of this story that are preserved in the Agamas^[10]—if that means anything to anybody—the king pays a lot of respect to Raṭṭhapāla and recognizes that there was some truth to what was being said.

Reflections

He's pointing out that none of the things that the king believes are going to be sources of lasting happiness actually are sources of lasting happiness. I would say for us, there's a way in which we know this, that we recognize this. These things that we keep on chasing and thinking are going to keep us safe, keep us happy—youth, beauty, wealth, objects, experiences—they aren't a protection from what life brings. They certainly enhance life, and by no means should we deny ourselves and say they're awful and never pursue them. But it's a trap if we think that that's what's going to make us happy, if that's what's going to make our life worthwhile, if that's what's going to bring meaning to our lives.

And maybe that's something, when we hear like there is suffering, there's a cause for suffering, there's an ending of suffering, and there's a path to the ending of suffering, maybe that's what's being pointed to. These four summaries of the Dharma: the changing nature of the world, the absence of any real shelter from what life brings us, the fact that all has to be left behind at death, and then this insatiability of craving. That is one way we might understand the Dharma, what is being pointed to with the Dharma.

So, thank you for your practice and for your attention. I'll stay up here if anybody has any questions. Thank you.