Three Points to Check

The Buddha said there are three points to check before we do something: ‘This is for my welfare’, ‘This for the welfare of others’ and ‘It leads to nibbāna, [Majjhima Nikāya 19]’, which means it leads to letting go, to release, to non-compulsiveness; it leads to the mind’s becoming less feverish or gripped and finally towards peace, towards ceasing of this inner compulsiveness – however you want to define nibbāna.

When something is for my welfare, it brings up skilful states in me; I feel respect for myself; I feel a sense of kindness, strength or calm in myself. If all these three checkpoints are present then you can recognize that’s as good as you can get it. But if it’s for your welfare and nobody else’s, you want to check that one out. Alternatively, when this is for everyone else’s welfare but not for your own, you want to check that one out too. And if it doesn’t lead to nibbāna, if it leads to becoming more and more involved, and you keep on wanting more and more of it, if it doesn’t lead to the ceasing, the quietening of the mind and it leads to the mind’s ongoing compulsiveness or fixations, then you don’t want to follow it.

So there is this checklist: ‘my welfare’, ‘others’ welfare’ and ‘leads to nibbāna’.

You need to make any kind of resolution with that theme in mind, so it’s not a blind doggedness: ‘I’ll do this no matter what!’ This is where it’s skilful because in religious life – and I guess in any walk of life – people take up these incredible resolutions like standing on one leg for fourteen years or beating themselves with whips. Yeah … but does this do you any good? Does it do anybody else any good? Does it lead to any release? Well, maybe it does for some people, but you have to keep checking it out because often you get this sense of fixation upon a practice. It’s one of the forms of things we get fixated on.

The Buddha talked about four areas in which we fundamentally get fixated. [38. Saṁyutta Nikāya 45.171, 45.172 and 45.173.]

The first one is the sense world: the pleasure in seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching (kāma). We are obsessed with it, always wanting more of it. Then we also get fixated upon what’s called ‘becoming’ (bhava): wanting to be in on everything, building up our identity, becoming more of a person, more and more involved – or the vibhava: get less and less involved. The third area in which we get fixated is structural systems, standards, techniques, customs and views (diṭṭhi) – the ways we have of doing things. The fourth one is ignorance (avijjā) or the sense of self – that’s subtle.

When you’re making resolutions, you recognize that these four basic areas are the kinds of things that can come up. You want to work with them.

This reflection by Ajahn Sucitto is from the book, The Most Precious Gift, (pdf) pp. 230-231.