For the bhikkhu who proceeds with striving energy (viriya) to conquer the resolution of realizing nibbāna in this life itself, vatta―‘duties of a monastic’―are like a magical tree that grants his every wish. Duties of a monastic don’t denote such things as building kuṭīs, digging gutters, erecting buildings or growing flowers done with tanhā for the forest hermitage or with conceit (māna) that ‘the forest hermitage is mine’ or ‘I belong to the forest hermitage’. If the bhikkhu is earnest in abiding by paṭipatti―’putting the Dhamma into practice’, the lay benefactors will duly fulfil those tasks. If it doesn’t happen so, the bhikkhu is supposed to be content with what is received. And if the lay benefactors evade fulfilling their responsibilities, by turning that too into an object for contemplation, by regarding it as an intrinsic nature of the world, the bhikkhu must escape from the world, break free from it. For the bhikkhu to subsist at the utmost level, all he needs is the three robes, the alms-bowl and the kuṭī facility. The bounds of the path to enlightenment, too, lie within this bare minimum. The bounds of the path to ‘becoming’ (bhava) are so much broader than this.

In a forest hermitage, there are plenty of duties a bhikkhu should perform. One must perform the following without fail: sweeping the compound, cleaning the kuṭīs, chores in the refectory, nursing the bhikkhus who are sick, activities relating to the offerings in the shrine, and tending to elders and bhikkhus who are guests. Duties of a monastic are immensely helpful for sustaining the forest hermitage, for its cleanliness, and for getting rid of defilements such as conceit that exist in oneself. Anyone who has conceit, pride and arrogance cannot get results from meditation. Such people will think to exceed the correct advice provided by a teacher or a kalyāna-mitta who has cultivated the path, or to always be the teacher themselves. They won’t like to listen to others. In the journey we make to attain extinguishment, in whatever thing regardless of whether it is high or low, rich or poor, big or small, if there is something to learn, we have to be skilful to learn it. But the conceited one cannot do that. Vatta, the duties of a monastic, is the medicine for all this.

When you are cleaning the toilet, you shouldn’t think that it is the toilet you are cleaning. How you should be thinking instead is that it is your mind you are cleaning. When you are sweeping the compound, you shouldn’t think that you are sweeping the compound. How you should be thinking instead is that it is the dirt in your mind you are sweeping. This is how the mind should be cleaned for the path to emancipation. Māra’s nature is to lure you into giving yourself credit and good name. What you ought to give credit to, however, is not Māra but your path to enlightenment.

How you should be thinking is that it’s for your own good the toilet has not been cleaned by anyone; …the compound has not been swept by anyone. You must make the most of that opportunity. You must understand that when you are evading such duties, on a daily basis your mind gets filled with such defilements as dirt and excrement. The mind filled with dirt is good fertile ground for Māra. You should not be reluctant to be the one bhikkhu who cleans spittoons the most at the hermitage at all times.

The bhikkhu who trains in the path to nibbāna must always remain at the height of humility. Even if someone washes his hand over your head, thinking that that is his nature, you must remain within your own nature without resenting. You should stand behind everyone else, being the last in the queue. Although you know so many things, you should behave in front of the crowd as though you’re someone who knows nothing. Without being a complete mute, you should be someone who answers what is being asked. You shouldn’t hesitate at all to thusly proceed behind everyone else [as the last in the queue]. The one who goes last is always able to learn something by looking at those who go in front. It is he who goes last who can observe the good and bad, the form of behaviour and movements, and the diversity, of everyone who goes in front. You must discard both their good and bad. You must behold that it is nothing but the diversity of formations (saṅkhāra) that is present in all of them. You make the most of the opportunity you got by being the last one. See that, by being the last one, you being able to see everyone else and those who go in front being unable to see you is a blessing bestowed upon you. When you are innocently making the foremost journey a human being in this world system can ever make, the venerable elders will pose such questions to you as thus: “Friend, although you ordained, you don’t [seem to] know anything. Are you planning on disrobing?” In instances such as these, continue to give the impression that you don’t know. If you try to state that you know, what grows thus is nothing but conceit (māna). It is Māra who makes that statement. Do not panic! Humbly listen to what those venerables say to you. Since all these activities are not things that belong to you, you let go! Don’t make others’ things ‘yours’. This ‘letting go’ of yours should not be known by anyone else but you. If you let a second person know about it, then what operates thus is Māra, the evil one. Extinguishment is a journey you must undertake all by yourself. Eventually, even yourself will slip away from you―you will have let go of yourself. The moment yourself slips away from you is the moment the journey of ‘becoming’ (bhava) comes to an end. You should know straight away, without a second thought, that it is the ‘duties of a monastic’ that provide the ‘travel expenses’ for the purpose of this victory. Travel expenses denote humility. The height of humility is the extinguishment of conceit.

Do not forget that in a spittoon stained by betel leaf spittle, in a toilet discoloured by urine stains, in a cobwebbed refectory, lies ingredients needed for extinguishment. Only when you reach the apogee of humility can you truly experience the extinguishment of conceit, the cessation of conceit.