The Buddha's teachings are deep, profound and hard to understand. This is clear from what The Buddha says in the `Ariyapariyesana Sutta' of the Majjhima Nikàya, where He repeats the thoughts He had when He was a newly enlightened Buddha:

Enough with teaching the Dhamma
That even I found hard to reach:
For it will never be perceived
By those who live in lust and hate.

Those dyed in lust, wrapped in darkness
Will never discern this abstruse Dhamma;
Which goes against the worldly stream:
Subtle, deep, and difficult to see.

Not only are the Four Noble Truths very difficult to understand; the second Noble Truth alone, dependent-origination, is very difficult to understand. That is why, in the `Mahànidàna Sutta' of the Dãgha Nikàya, The Buddha says to the Venerable ânanda:

ânanda, this dependent-origination is deep and appears deep.
Owing to not realizing dependent-origination
with the Knowledge of Understanding (anubodha ¤àõa) and
the Knowledge of Penetration (pativedha ¤àõa),
beings are entangled in the round of rebirths like a knotted ball of thread, like a weaver-bird's nest, like a tangled grass foot-mat where the beginning and end of the grass cannot be found, and
they cannot escape from the woeful states.

The Dhamma is so deep and profound that even a wise person like a Paccekabuddha cannot teach it. But we can teach the Dhamma because we have The Buddha's teachings. We must never forget that the teachings are The Buddha's. They are not our teachings, because we have not ourselves discovered the deep and profound Dhamma. That is why we can say that what we teach and discuss is not according to a method of our own; it is according to The Buddha's teachings as they are set down in the Pàëi Texts and Commentaries.
As a bhikkhu, a humble disciple of The Buddha, I can teach only what The Buddha taught: I cannot teach a method of my own. Compared to The Buddha and His eighty great disciples, we am just an insignificant bhikkhu. How could we teach a method of our own?
We should learn from The Buddha's great disciples; they were all very humble. When asked by other bhikkhus to explain something taught by The Buddha, many great disciples would say with modesty:

Friends, it is as though a man needing heartwood, seeking heartwood, wandering in search of heartwood, thought that heartwood should be sought for among the branches and leaves of a great tree standing possessed of heartwood, after he had passed over the root and the trunk.
And so it is with you, Venerable Ones, that you think that I should be asked about the meaning of this, after you passed the Blessed One by, when you were face to face with the Teacher.

When even the eighty great disciples were so humble, how can we fail to be humble too?
It is, therefore, very important that we have the right attitude when learning and discussing the Dhamma. In the `Alagaddåpama Sutta' of the Majjhima Nikàya, The Buddha describes the wrong way and right way to learning the Dhamma. He uses the simile of a snake:

Here, bhikkhus, some misguided men learn the Dhamma (discourses, stanstanzas, expositions, verses, exclamations, sayings, birth stories, marvels, and answers to questions) but having learned the Dhamma, they do not examine the meaning of those teachings with wisdom.
Not examining the meaning of those teachings with wisdom, they do not gain a reflective acceptance of them.
Instead they learn the Dhamma only for the sake of criticizing others and for winning in debates, and they do not experience the good for the sake of which they learned the Dhamma.
Those teachings, being wrongly grasped by them, conduce to their harm and suffering for a long time.
Suppose a man needing a snake, seeking a snake, wandering in search of a snake, saw a large snake and grasped its coils or its tail. It would turn back on him and bite his hand or his arm or one of his limbs, and because of that he would come to death or deadly suffering.
Why is that? Because of his wrong grasp of the snake. So too, here some misguided men learn the Dhamma only for the sake of criticizing others . . . .
Those teachings, being wrongly grasped by them, conduce to their harm and suffering for a long time.
Here, bhikkhus, some clansmen learn the Dhamma (discourses, stanzas, expositions, verses, exclamations, sayings, birth stories, marvels, and answers to questions), and having learned the Dhamma, they examine the meaning of those teachings with wisdom.
Examining the meaning of those teachings with wisdom, they gain a reflective acceptance of them.
They do not learn the Dhamma for the sake of criticizing others and for winning in debates, and they experience the good for the sake of which they learned the Dhamma.
Those teachings, being rightly grasped by them, conduce to their welfare and happiness for a long time.
Suppose a man needing a snake, seeking a snake, wandering in search of a snake, saw a large snake and caught it rightly with a cleft stick, and having done so, grasped it rightly by the neck. Then although the snake might wrap its coils round his hand or his arm or his limbs, still he would not come to death or deadly suffering because of that.
Why is that? Because of his right grasp of the snake. So too, here some clansmen learn the Dhamma . . . Those teachings, being rightly grasped by them, conduce to their welfare and happiness for a long time.

When we discuss the Dhamma, we should speak according to the Pàëi Texts and Commentaries, and do so with the sole aim to liberate ourselves from the suffering of the round of rebirths. We should just speak the truth: exactly as when we discuss the Vinaya rules, we speak according to what has been formulated by The Buddha, and never speak merely to criticize those bhikkhus who do not keep the Vinaya rules properly. If, whenever we discussed the Vinaya rules, our intention were only to criticize, then there would be no Vinaya discussion and nobody would be able to learn the Vinaya. Likewise, we discuss the Dhamma not for criticism, but for the destruction of our defilements and the realization of Nibbàna. The Buddha makes this very clear in the `Mahàsatipatthàna Sutta':

Bhikkhus, this is the single way
for the purification of beings,
for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation,
for the disappearance of pain and grief,
for the attainment of the true way, and
for the realization of Nibbàna, namely,
the four foundations of mindfulness.

I hope all of us will always bear the ultimate goal in mind and tread on the right path towards it without deviation.
I conclude this preface by thanking those who have contributed towards making this book. Thank you to Bhikkhu Bodhi of Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, for allowing me to quote extensively from their The Way of Mindfulness, an English translation of the `Mahàsatipatthana Sutta' and its Commentary and Subcommentary, by the Venerable Soma Thera. Thank you to those of my disciples who helped me edit the original English texts, and then translated them into Chinese. Thank you to Hong Shih Buddhist College and the Penang Buddhist Association for providing facilities such as computers, printers, and paper. And thank you too to the generous donors who are going to print the book for the benefit of many.
Lastly, the most humble merit we have acquired from giving the talks and answers to questions recorded in this book, we should like to share it equally with all beings.
May they attain Nibbana at the earliest.


Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw,

Penang Buddhist Association
Penang, Malaysia