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Dear Ones, Through many births I have wandered on and on, Searching for and never finding, The builder of this house. To be born again and again is suffering, House-builder you are seen! You will never build a house again! All the rafters are broken, The ridgepole destroyed; The mind, gone to the Unconstructed, Has reached the end of craving!
(Dhammapada, tr. Fronsdal)
As the rafters of a house, the Buddha said, depend on the roof beam, all unskillful qualities depend on ignorance.
When ignorance is demolished, all the rest of unskillful qualities go as well, in the same way as when the roof of a house is broken, the entire structure no longer stand. The Buddha uses this simile to describe his own awakening and freedom from subsequent rebirth. In the core teaching of the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha taught that there is a cause for the dissatisfaction and suffering we commonly experience. From ordinary discomfort to illness, mortality, the loss of loved ones and material things, the fleeting nature of life’s pleasures, the distress we feel is rooted in craving- wanting things differently than what they are. After the Buddha’s awakening, it is said to have spend several weeks near the Bodhi tree meditating and contemplating on this newfound knowledge. One of the subjects he contemplated at this time was Dependent Origination, which he praised as "deep, deep in implications.” The model is so central to the Buddhas teaching that he said: "One who see Dependent Origination sees the Dharma; one who sees Dharma sees Dependent Origination.” This fundamental insight depends on the natural law of cause and effect. Let us explore and practice together in the upcoming sessions what are the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination.
May the merit of our practice benefit all sentient beings!
~Ven. Bao Co
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