Is it beneficial to know ultimate truth?

Do we know the difference between nama and rupa? We cling to an idea of a unity of mind and body, we cling to an idea of “my body that is alive”. But, when there is pain, what are the realities? It is not rupa which feels the pain but nama. When we think of our body as a corpse we can understand that it does not feel anything. But also the body which is alive consists of rupas which do not experience anything. When we have an idea of a “whole” or a unity of mind and body we cling to the concept of self. When we touch what we think is our body, hardness or heat may appear, rupas that are tangible object. We touch objects all day long but we are usually absorbed in thinking of concepts.

In the beginning it is very difficult to know one reality at a time. One of our friends said that she could not help seeing figures all day, she saw figures coming towards her. It seemed that she was looking at a world full of people. We think that we see many different things in a room: a table, a chair, and further away a picture and a window, or the trees outside. However, there are not all the time moments of defining what was seen, moments of paying attention to shape and form. There must also be the experience of what appears through the eyesense, visible object, otherwise we could not think of concepts. Right understanding of the difference between ultimate truth and conventional truth can condition the arising of right awareness of one reality at a time. There is no self who can cause the arising of sati, but if there are conditions for its arising understanding of paramattha dhammas can grow.

Is it beneficial to know ultimate truth? We may wonder whether it is necessary to develop more understanding of such realities as seeing and hearing. It is most beneficial to develop right understanding of all realities of our daily life. On account of what we experience through the six doors many defilements arise: we are attached, we have aversion, we are stingy or jealous, we may even commit ill deeds and at such moments there are no loving kindness and compassion, we do not think of other people’s happiness. It is necessary to know our many defilements so that we shall have less ignorance. We should not only know our good and bad qualities, but also seeing, visible object, hearing, sound and all the other realities which appear through the six doors. We should know when we are living in the world of concepts, when we are daydreaming and quite absorbed in the objects we experience. Right understanding of the realities of our life is the only way to be less enslaved to our dreams.