Honest, Observant, Ingenious

The Buddha once said, “Let someone who is honest and observant come, and I’ll teach that person the Dhamma to liberation.” Those are the qualities the Buddha looked for in a student: honesty and the ability to observe things. He particularly wanted you to be observant about what you’re doing and the results you’re getting from your actions.

It starts with his instructions to Rahula. Before you do something, ask yourself, What do you expect the results to be? If you see that they’re going to cause harm, you don’t do them. If you don’t foresee any harm, okay, go ahead and do it. But while you’re doing it, look for the results that are coming out. If they’re not coming out well, stop. If they are coming out well, finish it.

Then when you’re done, look at the long-term results. If you see that you actually caused harm without your anticipating it, that’s a lesson. Take that lesson to heart, and then go talk it over with someone else who’s more advanced on the path. See what other advice you can get so that you don’t repeat the mistake, and then you can continue training. If you don’t see that you’ve caused any harm, then take joy in that fact and continue training.

So that’s what the Buddha wants you to be observant about—your intentions, your actions, and their results. And, of course, he wants you to be honest when you’re reporting them to other people. This starts with being honest with yourself. Don’t cover things up. Don’t pretend that you did something, but the results were not your responsibility. Because these are the two qualities that you use to make the Dhamma your own. Otherwise, you just read the books and think about them, and you don’t learn any lessons on your own.

There’s a lot in the Canon that the Buddha doesn’t explain. He talks about breathing in a way that makes you sensitive to rapture, breathing in a way that makes you sensitive to pleasure. How are you going to be sensitive to those things? There are potentials in your mind and in your body for these feelings. How do you find them? He doesn’t say much. He just says that there are those potentials.

So you have to look for them. Use your ingenuity; use your imagination. And be observant as to what works and what doesn’t work. That adds one quality that Ajaan Fuang would talk a lot about, which is ingenuity—trying things out and then, if it doesn’t work, trying new things out—taking the basic principles and playing with them.

In this way, the Dhamma becomes your own, so that it’s not just something you’ve heard and have to decide whether you agree or not. It’s something you actually see in action.

So. Try to be as honest as you can about your actions. Be as observant as you can with your actions. This applies not only to things outside, but also to the meditation. In that way, you can find the Dhamma to liberation. It’s not something where you just follow the rules or do as you’re told. You have to go beyond what you’re told. And it’s the qualities of honesty and being observant that allow you to do that properly.