From our childhood we are used to the idea that this world we are 

From our childhood we are used to the idea that the world we are living in with all the people around us is the real world. The Buddha 

taught that the world is composed of the objects which come to us 

through the senses of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and through 

the door of the mind. These are all fleeting phenomena which change 

within splitseconds. Seeing is there just for a moment and then it 

falls away. Visible object is there just for a moment and then it 

falls away. What we used to take for our solid world consists of 

impermanent elements. Our world crumbles away, there is the 

disintegration of our world and of ourselves.

When the reader is in the first page of this book confronted with two 

different kinds of truths, the conventional truth and the absolute 

truth, he may wonder whether there is a discrepancy here which makes 

it impossible to practise Buddhism and at the same time to live one's 

life in the world. We have to do our work, to be with other people and 

we want to enjoy our possessions, all the things of this world. The 

Buddha did not deny that there is the conventional truth we have to 

live with. However, it is a great blessing that he taught us the 

absolute truth, the truth of mental phenomena, nåma, and physical 

phenomena, rúpa. Nåma and rúpa are terms in Påli, the language in 

which the Buddhist scriptures have been written. We can develop 

understanding of the absolute truth, of nåma and rúpa, while we live 

our daily life naturally. Absolute truth is not a truth which cannot 

be grasped, it is not something abstract, it is the truth about daily 

realities. Understanding this truth will help us to be able to lead 

our life in the world in a more wholesome way and to face 

contrarieties in our work, and in our relationships.

How to develop understanding of nåma and rúpa naturally, while we are 

eating, doing our daily tasks, doing everything we normally do? This 

was the topic of the letters I wrote while living in Tokyo to someone 

who was wondering how to develop right understanding of nåma and rúpa 

in daily life. The Buddha taught mindfulness, in Påli: sati, of the 

nåma and rúpa of our life, in order to acquire direct understanding of 

them. We discussed what sati is; it is difficult for all of us to 

understand this reality which seems so elusive. Sati is different from 

thinking, but what is it then? We have to accept that we cannot 

understand immediately what sati is, we have to study carefully all 

the phenomena of our life the Buddha taught. We need knowledge of them 

as a foundation. Gradually we can learn to investigate the nåmas and 

rúpas which appear in our life and then there can be conditions for 

direct awareness of them, for sati.

The reader may wonder what the purpose is of the study of nåma and 

rúpa. Why should one take so much trouble? It is important to have 

less ignorance about our life, about ourselves. The real cause of all 

our troubles is not the behaviour of other people or the situation we 

are in, but our own defilements. Our ignorance conditions many other 

defilements, such as selfishness, hatred, avarice and jealousy. 

Through the development of understanding there will be elimination of 

ignorance. When there is less ignorance it will be for the benefit of 

both ourselves and others. The development of understanding can only 

be very gradual. We need patience to investigate all phenomena which 

appear. At first we may believe that we know already what phenomena 

such as seeing, hearing or thinking are, but gradually it will dawn on 

us how ignorant we are of the most common phenomena of our life. That 

is the right beginning. We are hearing sounds the whole day, but what 

do we know about hearing? We may have thought that we can hear and 

define the sound or recognize what we hear all at the same time. 

Hearing is one moment, and knowing the meaning of what we hear such as 

the meaning of words are other moments. The reader may wonder why it 

is important to know this. It is important, because defilements arise 

immediately on account of what we experience through the senses. We 

ought to learn more about our defilements and the way they are 

conditioned. We hear pleasant and unpleasant sounds and after that, 

when we know the meaning and think about what was heard, we 

immediately react to it either in a negative way, or in a positive 

way. There may be unwholesome moments of clinging or aversion, or 

there may be wholesome moments of patience and wisdom. All this 

happens so quickly, within splitseconds, it is actually beyond 

control. When we investigate such processes in our life we can 

experience ourselves that there are many different nåmas which are 

beyond control. We cannot create our own hearing, nor can we direct 

the way we react, it has happened already when we realize it. The 

Buddha taught that nåma and rúpa arise because of their own 

conditioning factors. For example, when one reacts with patience to 

harsh sounds one can do so because it is in one's character to react 

in that way. Such inclination has already been accumulated. This is an 

example which illustrates that there is not one mind, but many 

different mental phenomena which change all the time.

We may wonder why we also have to learn about physical phenomena, 

rúpas. Is it necessary to learn so many details? Rúpas affect us very 

much all the time. We cling to pleasant rúpas and we dislike 

unpleasant rúpas. Through the ears the rúpa which is sound is 

experienced by hearing-consciousness. When we hear harsh words it is 

only sound which is heard, only the rúpa which impinges on the 

earsense. However, we think with anger or sadness about an unkind 

person who spoke harsh words, we think in a negative, unwholesome way 

and this happens most of the time. In the absolute sense there is no 

person who speaks unkind words. The moments of consciousness which 

motivated his speaking are only fleeting moments, they have fallen 

away but we keep thinking about his unkindness. There is no person, no 

self who hears, hearing arises only for a moment and then it falls 

away. The sound which is heard is only a kind of rúpa which does not 

last. Right understanding of the objects we experience through the six 

doors will eventually lead to more patience. The effect will be that 

we are less inclined to feel hurt by what others say to us and that we 

will be able to forgive more easily.

The Buddha taught the impermanence of the phenomena of our life. We 

may believe that we know already that our body is subject to decay and 

that our thoughts and feelings change. We can think of impermanence 

but this is not the same as the direct knowledge of the changes from 

moment to moment of nåma and rúpa. A very precise knowledge of nåma 

and rúpa has to be developed so that later on their arising and 

falling away, their impermanence, can be directly experienced. When 

one has come to that stage there will be less enslavement to the 

objects one experiences. However, this is a learning process which has 

to continue for a long time, even longer than this life. There is no 

quick result, no shortcut.

The person who wrote to me wanted to create particular situations in 

order to have more mindfulness. He thought that concentration on 

breathing would help him to reach the goal sooner. In Letter 6 and 7, 

I deal with mindfulness of breathing. There are many misunderstandings 

about this subject. When one concentrates on breathing one may be able 

to eliminate worry for those moments, one cannot think of anything 

else when one thinks of breathing. However, there is right 

concentration and wrong concentration, as I tried to explain in these 

letters. When there is right concentration there is calm which is 

wholesome and when there is wrong concentration there is unwholesome 

consciousness. When one clings to a quick result there is wrong 

concentration. I deal with this subject and quote from the commentary, 

the Visuddhimagga, in order to show how complex this subject is. If 

one does not know precisely the way of development of mindfulness of 

breathing there is wrong concentration and this is useless. It is 

already a gain when one understands that mindfulness of breathing is 

not just sitting and trying to concentrate on breath without knowing 

anything.

The Buddha taught that nåma and rúpa are impermanent and not self. 

What we take for a person or a self are only fleeting elements. When 

we begin to develop understanding of nåma and rúpa we have not 

eliminated the idea of self. There is still another person who speaks 

harsh words to us, and there is still "self" who hears them and is 

angry. The fact that we think in this way is conditioned by 

remembrance of past experiences, we always thought in that way. Also 

thinking is a conditioned nåma, it is a reality. The person we think 

of is not an absolute reality but a conventional reality. We do not 

have to behave in an artificial way while we develop understanding of 

phenomena, but while we answer back to someone who speaks to us there 

can be a short moment in between of realising the truth that whatever 

we say or do is conditioned, that it is not "I". We are not used to 

such an approach, but gradually it can be learnt if we see its 

benefit. When we do not want to mislead ourselves about the fleeting 

phenomena of our life right understanding can begin to develop, it 

develops, there is no self who develops it. We may feel happy or sad, 

just as we used to, but in between understanding of such phenomena can 

very gradually be accumulated.

We can learn from our own experience the difference between the 

moments we are living in the world of conventional realities, the 

world of self, people and possessions, and the moments there is one 

nåma or rúpa appearing through one of the six doorways. We usually 

live with our illusions and dreams, we are led by the outward 

appearance of things and we are ignorant of what is really going on 

within us or around us. We look at our surroundings and at other 

people and we make our own mental pictures of what we observe. We are 

all different, with different inclinations, and this conditions the 

way we see the people and things around us. Each of us lives in his 

own world of thinking. We live most of the time in our own world of 

thinking, but through the study of the Buddha's teachings we begin to 

understand the difference between imaginations and realities.

The Buddha taught that there is no person, no self who can exert 

control over nåma and rúpa, they are beyond control. It may be 

difficult to accept this since we want to control our life. When there 

is seeing which experiences a pleasant visible object there is 

attachment to this object immediately. When there is seeing which 

experiences an unpleasant object there is aversion to this object 

immediately. The Buddha taught about realities in detail. A very 

precise knowledge of the different realities should be developed. Then 

we will find out that there are many more unwholesome moments, moments 

of attachment, aversion and ignorance, than we ever thought. These 

moments arise because of their own conditions but there can be the 

development of understanding of them. When understanding has been 

fully developed unwholesomeness can be eradicated, but that is a long 

way off. Even though the final goal is a long way off it is valuable 

to develop understanding. When there is a short moment of 

understanding we learn to see that there is only a nåma or only a 

rúpa, and consequently we will be less inclined to see them as very 

important. Understanding will condition more even-mindedness. 

Gradually we will learn to see nåma and rúpa as they are: impermanent 

and not self.

The reader may wonder why I use Påli terms. The Buddhist teachings are 

contained in the Tipiìaka, the three "Baskets" which are the Vinaya 

(the book of discipline for the monks), the Suttanta (discourses), and 

the Abhidhamma, which deals with absolute realities in detail. The 

Scriptures as they have come to us date from the Buddha's time, the 

sixth century B.C. and they are in the Påli language. I have also 

quoted from the Visuddhimagga which is a summary of the teachings 

written by Buddhaghosa in the beginning of the fifth century A.D. In 

different English translations of the texts the Påli terms have been 

rendered differently and thus confusion may arise as to which reality 

has been referred to by which term. The Buddha's teaching of realities 

is very precise and therefore it is useful to learn some of the Påli 

terms which represent these realities. In the back of this book is a 

glossary to help the reader. The reader should not be discouraged by 

the Påli terms. When one continues to study one will find that they 

are helpful for a more precise understanding of what the Buddha taught 

about all the different phenomena which occur right now.

The scriptures are deep in meaning and it is difficult to understand 

the application of the Buddha's teachings. Therefore I feel deep 

gratitude to Ms. Sujn in Thailand, who helped me to understand the 

Buddha's teachings and pointed to me the way to develop understanding 

of realities in daily life. Without such a good friend in Dhamma one 

will easily misunderstand the scriptures and apply them in the wrong 

way. I also wish to express my appreciation to the "Dhamma Study and 

Propagation Foundation" and to the publisher Alan Weller. Without 

their help the publication of this book would not have been possible. 

While we study we should not forget the purpose of our study. The 

purpose is not theoretical knowledge, but direct understanding of our 

own life, of all our wholesome moments and unwholesome moments, all 

the nåmas and rúpas occurring at this moment. When we learn more about 

the conditions for these phenomena we will begin to see that they are 

beyond control, not self. The Buddha's message to us is to investigate 

the truth and to prove the truth through developing direct 

understanding, and this understanding can eradicate ignorance and all 

other defilements. May the reader investigate the truth himself!