The Purpose of All Dharma Practice

The purpose of all Dharma practice is to swiftly attain Enlightenment for the welfare of all sentient beings. We meditate so that we may know the true nature of reality and remove what is false from our perceptions. Meditation is thus the backbone of Dharma practice.

When we meditate we do not try to halt our thoughts, or “think of nothing”, but rather we are trying to uproot the source of samsara itself. Samsara is ignorance, suffering. It is unawareness of the true nature of reality, and like a cage, this prevents us from having liberation.

Why do we not know the true nature of reality? Why do we suffer so? What is the cause of samsara? It is clinging to the ego and attachment to the false sense of self that is the source of all false perception. The sense of “I” implies by contrast the sense of “not I”. When we believe that the self exists and become attached, we in turn believe that external thing sexist and become attached. We thus give rise to samsara, and all of its false perceptions.

So it is the illusory, false sense of self that is the cause of samsara. We must investigate our very notion of “the self”, to find out, if it exists, how does it exist? Also, if the self exists, where does it exist?    The self is not the body, for the self should be single whole, but the body is multiple and fragmentary. Furthermore a “self” should endure overtime, but the body is changing at every instant. So what endures? Hence there is no self that is identical with the body. There is no self that is different from body either. The self is unreal. What is left over is pure illusion.

Meditating in this way, the self is understood to be non-existent. It is a conceptual construct and all appearances are like hallucination. Everything is impermanent. Nothing endures. Just like the ocean, constantly in flux, completely formless, things cannot stay still.  However we often feel as though things were solid, substantial and enduring. So we can gain some insight by meditating on the ocean and its waves.

We all wish to be happy. But how do we find lasting, unconditional happiness in a conditional world? As long as we seek happiness in samsara, we are bound to suffer eternal frustration. We must seek the liberation that is beyond causes and conditions, for there is nowhere else that true happiness can be found.

As long as we put off the pursuit of enlightenment, we are doomed to suffer in cyclic existence. The purpose of Dharma practice is to remove this false sense of self that prevents us from knowing the true nature of reality, as it is, and to deliver all sentient beings into the state of Nirvana. We must understand the urgency to practice in this very lifetime. We often feel that Enlightenment must be so distant from us that we constantly procrastinate, thinking, “I’ll never attain enlightenment in this lifetime.” But what more opportune time than now is there to practice Dharma? Liberation is available at every moment. Everything is Buddha Nature and each sentient being possesses the faculties for awakening. Hence, this human birth is a precious opportunity. We must know that there is nothing to cling to. When we die, we can take nothing with us but our karma. So rather than seeking happiness elsewhere, rather than seeking externally, we must look within ourselves.