Sayalay Bhadda Nyani

It is not easy to find oneself at a stage of practice where the path is still quite beginning, yet an understanding of Dhamma concepts is already arising. We learn about mindfulness, detachment, non-self, and ignorance. We begin to see the advantages and disadvantages of various states of mind and actions. We discover how inevitable our mistaken actions are, as they arise from habit, defilements, and not knowing.

And it seems that we have already touched the right understanding. But unfortunately, this often happens with attachment. Because of that, even correct concepts begin to be used wrongly, and what could have become wisdom turns into yet another form of clinging. Then the result of our actions is not less suffering, but the creation of more suffering.

Attaching to Dhamma concepts and to their importance, we begin to deny living experience when we insist too rigidly on the idea of non-self. We accuse others of ignorance, as if it were not a conditioned process but someone’s essence. We point to other people’s lack of mindfulness without noticing our own loss in theories, formulations, and correct words.

We resort to quoting Dhamma teachings without sufficient understanding and without truly applying their essence. In itself, the idea is good: to speak about Dhamma, to share Dhamma, to dedicate time in one’s life to Dhamma. But attachment to what is right, clinging to correct words, and excessive emphasis on the theoretical side are not wholesome. Where there is grasping, a subtle form of “I” has already appeared—an “I” that wants to know, explain, correct, and assert.

That is why my teacher, Sayadaw Ottamasara, teaches us always to be mindful with detachment. He explains the Middle Way as the ability simply to do and simply to use—without denial and without attachment. Then our actions do not become awkward, and knowledge does not become heavy or oppressive. Knowledge is simply available, and actions are simply beneficial.

The stage of special enthusiasm for Dhamma, when we want to share the newly discovered benefits with others as quickly as possible, is in some sense natural and almost inevitable for a practitioner. But that is precisely why it is important to recognize it in time and not miss the chance to adjust our attitude. Otherwise, even inspiration from Dhamma can quietly turn into self-assertion through Dhamma.

We should learn the Middle Way as early as possible: to remove our “self” from knowledge, from the desire to speak, from the urge to teach, correct, and assert. We need to learn to do-only and to use-only. This means not grasping, not seizing actions as our own, not building identity out of them, but merely remaining present in the process with mindfulness. Such application of Dhamma—without attachment and without rejection—brings the right results. It gradually leads to liberation from the defilements of the mind, when Dhamma itself begins to guide the process of awakening naturally, and practice becomes less and less based on ego effort and more and more grounded in wise seeing of things as they are.

Therefore, it is important not only to know Dhamma, but also to notice with what state of mind we approach it. The same correct word can either help liberation or become a new support for clinging. If mindfulness is joined with detachment, then Dhamma ceases to be something possessed and becomes a path to freedom.