Namas and rupas appear one at a time through the six doors. They have different characteristics and these characteristics should be known. Characteristic was another term people asked us to explain.

Each reality has its own specific characteristic by which it can be distinguished from other realities. Visible object has characteristic which is different form sound. Visible object is experienced through the eyesense, it cannot be experienced through the earsense. Sound is
experienced through the earsense, it cannot be experienced through the eyesense. Visible object is rupa; it does not know anything, it cannot see. Seeing sees; it is not visible, it cannot be seen. We are inclined to 'join' seeing and visible object into a 'whole', instead of being mindful of their different characteristics, as they appear one at a time.

First the specific characteristics (visesa lakkhana) of nama and rupa should be known more clearly. Nama should be known as nama and rupa as rupa. When panna is more developed the 'general characteristics' of nama and rupa can be realized, that is, the characteristics of impermanence, dukkha and anatta (tilakkhana, or the three characteristics).

Sati and right understanding are accumulated little by little. 'Accumulation' was another term people requested us to define. Someone found it difficult to understand how a tendency such as lobha can be accumulated.

Each citta which arises falls away completely, how then can a tendency be accumulated? Each citta falls away completely, but it conditions the next citta. That is the reason why good tendencies and bad tendencies are carried on from moment to moment. When we are fast asleep and not dreaming there is no lobha. When we wake up lobha arises again. Where does it come from? It must have conditions for its arising. It can arise because the lobha has been accumulated and it is carried on from moment to moment. Our attachment today is conditioned by attachment in the past, and attachment today conditions in its turn attachment in the future.

We have accumulated many defilements such as attachment, aversion, ignorance, jealousy and stinginess. We have also accumulated good tendencies. Today we take an interest in the Dhamma, we like to listen to the Dhamma. Where does this interest come from? It must have conditions, we must have been listening to the Dhamma in the past. Everything we learn is never lost. If there is a moment of mindfulness now, it conditions the arising of mindfulness later on.

Each citta carries the potentials in itself for good deeds and bad deeds. Defilements can arise very easily, because we have accumulated so many defilements. It is easy to have attachment, and it is difficult to have mindfulness. We should not be surprised about this. Mindfulness did not often arise in the past and therefore how could it often arise today? But it can be accumulated now, at this very moment.

One of our friends remarked that he used to think that only kammas, good deeds and bad deeds, could be accumulated. He did not think that tendencies which do not have the intensity of deeds could be accumulated. It is true that good deeds and bad deeds are accumulated. When we commit a bad deed such as killing, the akusala citta has the intensity of akusala kamma. The intention (kamma) which motivates the deed falls away together with the citta. But since each citta conditions the next citta, kamma is carried on from moment to moment. That is why deeds can produce their appropriate results later on. A bad deed can produce an unpleasant results , which may be an unhappy rebirth, or an unpleasant experience through one of the senses in the course of life. Good deeds which are accumulated bring pleasant results. Thus, kamma is accumulated and it can produce its result later on. Kamma which produces its result is one type of  condition: kamma- condition (kamma paccaya). Kamma-condition is not the only type of condition; there are twenty-four types of conditions. The working of the different types of conditions is very intricate. But we can prove to ourselves that not only kammas, but also all our good and bad tendencies which do not have the intensity of kamma are accumulated from moment to moment. They condition the arising of kusala citta and akusala citta later on, and this type of condition is different from kamma-condition.

In Anuradhapura we had discussions about kamma and vipaka. Someone remarked that he found it unjust that a deed committed in a former life can cause suffering in this life. The person who suffers today is not the same person any more as the being in the past who committed the bad deed which produces an unpleasant result. Why then do we have to suffer today for deeds we have not done?

Kamma produces vipaka. Each cause produces its appropriate result. This is the law of cause and effect which takes place, no matter whether we like it  or not. When we have a pain it is a result of kamma. We may be inclined to think: 'Why does this have to happen to me?' But why do we think of 'me'? There was no being in a former life who committed deeds, neither is there a being in this life who experiences results. There are only realities, namas and rupas, arising and falling away.

In the absolute sense there is not 'my present life-span', because life exists only in one moment. There are different types of cittas which experience objects and each moment of citta falls away completely. Some cittas are cause: they can motivate good deeds and bad deeds which can produce their corresponding results. Some cittas are the results of good deeds and bad deeds, vipakacittas. The seeing or hearing which experience pleasant or unpleasant objects through the senses are vipakacittas which arise all through our life. Vipakacitta arises because of conditions and falls away immediately; there is no self which experiences a pleasant or unpleasant object. When there is pain it is only a short moment of experience the unpleasant object through the bodysense. It is unavoidable, because it is conditioned already. It falls away immediately. If we think of the pain with aversion, there is not only one citta with aversion, but seven. That is the order of the cittas which arise in a process of cittas.1 Thus, if we have aversion about pain we make it seven times worse. Pain is navoidable. Life is birth, old age, sickness and death.

The understanding of the Dhamma can change one's life. We met a businessman who complained about the nationalisation of property. He had lost many of his possessions. After he had studied the abhidhamma and pondered over it he worried less about his lost property and thought more of the cultivation of kusala. This showed that he had accumulated more right understanding.

We should remember the sutta about the 'marvel' of Dhamma. We read in the 'Gradual Sayings' (Book of the Fours, Ch. XIII, par. 8, Marvels):

Monks, on the manifestation of a Tathagata... four wonderful, marvellous things are manifested. What four?

Monks, folks take pleasure in the habitual (sense-pleasures) delight in the habitual, are excited thereby. But when Dhamma contrary to such is taught by a Tathagata, folks are ready to hear it, they lend an ear, they apply their minds thereto... Monks, folk take pleasure in pride... folks take pleasure in excitement...

Monks, folks are come to ignorance, are become blinded, overcast by ignorance. But when Dhamma controlling ignorance is taught by a Tathagata, they are ready to hear it, they lend an ear to it, they apply their minds thereto. This, monks, is the fourth wonderful, marvellous thing manifested when a Tathagata, Arahant, a Fully Enlightened One is manifested...

When sati arises, it is mindful of the present reality, appearing through one of the six doors. However, because of our ignorance we may easily mislead ourselves. We may think that there is awareness of the  present object when we are actually thinking about it with attachment, aversion, and ignorance. For example, there may be impact of hardness or softness on the bodysense. Instead of studying these characteristics I found myself thinking of the places where the impact occurred. This showed that there was no sati, only thinking about the body, about concepts. When there is mindfulness of hardness, there is only that characteristic and no other object is experienced at that moment. There is no 'place of impact' in the hardness, no body in the hardness. Our ignorance and clinging can be realised and then we can be reminded immediately to study the present reality, even if it is clinging.

I looked at the colourful saris the ladies were wearing and noticed that lobha arose as soon as I looked. Then there was watching 'my lobha'. Thinking about one's lobha is not mindfulness. Once, while I was eating and enjoying my food, Khun Sujin asked me whether there was mindfulness. I said: 'Lobha', without being mindful of its characteristic. Khun Sujin reminded me that lobha has its own characteristic and that it can be directly experienced when it appears. Thus it can be known as only an element, not self. There is no need to think about it or to name it.

Someone remarked that one should practise satipatthana methodically, otherwise there would not be any result.

If one tries to be mindful according to a certain method, who is trying? There is again a concept of self which tries to direct sati to a particular object of mindfulness. That is thinking, not mindfulness. We never know whether attachment, anger, seeing or doubt will arise, or what other reality. How can we then direct sati or follow a certain method?

Sati is not self, it arises only when there are the right conditions for its arising. 'If sati does not arise, nobody can be aware at that moment', Khun Sujin said. Do we still believe that we can control sati? If one tries very hard to have sati, one will become tense, it will not be of any help. One of the monks remarked that he found it such a relief that one does not have to try to make sati arise.

The present reality is here, now. It needs only study in order to know it. It is not too difficult, but we make it difficult if we think that we have to sit in a room and practise methodically. Inside the room and outside the room there are only seeing, hearing, hardness and other realities appearing one at a time through the six doors.

Khun Sujin said that at this moment of seeing, hearing or thinking we should have the courage to find out whether there is awareness of the present reality or not yet. Seeing is real, it sees. Visible object is real. It is different from seeing. These objects should be studied in our daily life, during our activities, so that they can be known as they are.