Uttamapurisa
Dīpanī
Namo Tassa
Bhagavato Arahato Sammāsambuddhassa
Homage
to the Exalted One, the Worthy One, The Supremely Enlightened Buddha
I shall answer concisely the nine
questions posed by Maung Thaw, Office Clerk of the Inspector of Schools,
Mandalay, according to the canonical texts and commentaries, giving my
conclusions on doctrinal points.
The petition
sent from Mandalay by Maung Thaw on the tenth waxing day of Tabaung, 1261
Burmese Era (9th March, 1900) contained nine questions. The first question was
about the perfections:
i. Regarding
the five aspirants: (i) a Perfectly Enlightened Buddha (sammāsambuddha) ,
(ii) a Solitary Buddha (paccekabuddha) , (iii) a Chief Disciple (aggasāvaka) , (iv) a
Great Disciple (mahāsāvaka) and,
(v) an Ordinary Disciple (pakatisāvaka), how does
the aspirant fulfil the perfections (pāramī) to achieve his
respective goal?
ii.
May I know the definition, nature, and
significance of the ten perfections, with particular reference to an aspirant
to Supreme Enlightenment?
In answer to the first question,
regarding the definition, nature, and signifi- cance of the perfections, there
are these ten perfections.
“Dānaṁ sīlañca nekkhammaṁ Paññā viriya khantīca Saccādhiṭṭhāna mettāca Upekkhā pāramī dasa.”
1) Giving (dāna), 2) morality (sīla), 3)
renunciation (nekkhamma), 4) wisdom (paññā), 5) energy (viriya), 6)
patience (khanti), 7) truthfulness (sacca), 8) resolve (adhiṭṭhāna), 9)
loving-kindness (mettā), 10) equanimity (upekkhā).
1
The Nature of the Perfections
The nature of
the perfections will be shown by their characteristic (lakkhaṇa), function
(rasa), manifestation (paccupaṭṭhāna), and
proximate cause (padaṭṭhāna). The ten
perfections are mentioned in the Cariyapiṭaka Commentary and the Sīlakkhandha
Subcommentary.
1. Pariccāgalakkhaṇaṁ dānaṁ, Deyyadhamma
lobhaviddhaṁsanarasaṁ. Anāsatta paccupaṭṭhānaṁ, Pariccajitabba
vatthu padaṭṭhānaṁ.
Dāna: It has the
characteristic of generosity; its function is to destroy attachment to things
by giving them away; it is manifested as non-attachment to things given away;
its proximate cause is something in hand that would serve as a gift.
2. Sīlanalakkhaṇaṁ sīlaṁ, Dussīlya viddhaṁsanarasaṁ.
Soceyya paccupaṭṭhānaṁ ,
Hirī-ottappa padaṭṭhānaṁ.
Sīla: It has the
characteristic of keeping good bodily and verbal actions; its function is to
destroy unwholesome or unruly bodily or verbal actions; it is manifested as
purity of verbal actions; its proximate causes are moral shame (hirī) and moral
dread (ottappa).
3. Kāmato
bhavatoca, nikkhamanalakkhaṇaṁ nekkhammaṁ. Kāmabhavādīnavavibhāvanarasaṁ, Tasseva
vimukhabhāva paccupaṭṭhānaṁ, Saṁvega padaṭṭhānaṁ.
Nekkhamma: Its
characteristic is renouncing sensuality and thereby gaining release from
becoming; its function is to purify and thus reveal the dangers of sensuality
and of existence; it is manifested as avoidance of sensual desires; its
proximate cause is a dread of sensuality through farsighted trepidation.
4.
Yathā sabhāva paṭivedhalakkhaṇā paññā, Visayobhāsanarasā. Asammoha
paccupaṭṭhānā, Samādhi padaṭṭhānā.
Paññā: It has the
characteristic of seeing things in their true nature; its function is to shed
light on all objects of sense; it is manifested as non-confusion; its proximate
cause is concentration.
5. Ussāhalakkhaṇaṁ viriyaṁ,
Upatthambhanarasaṁ. Asaṁsīdana paccupaṭṭhānaṁ, Saṁvega padaṭṭhānaṁ.
Viriya:
It has the characteristic of diligence; its function is to brace one up; it is
manifested as persistence; its proximate cause is a sense of urgency arising
from farsighted trepidation of birth, decay, sickness, death, and all attendant
ills.
6. Khamanalakkhaṇā khanti, Iṭṭhāniṭṭha sahanarasā. Adhivāsana paccupaṭṭhānā, Yathābhūtadassana padaṭṭhānā.
Khanti:
It has the characteristic of tolerance; its function is not to be moved by
likes or dislikes; it is manifested as forbearance in the face of the gravest
provocation; its proximate cause is seeing things as they really are.
7. Avisaṁvādanalakkhaṇaṁ saccaṁ, Yathāvavibhāvanarasaṁ. Sādhutā paccupaṭṭhānaṁ, Soracca padaṭṭhānaṁ.
Sacca:
It has the characteristic of not misleading others by one’s utterance; its
function is to discover the truth as one sees or knows; it is manifested as
sweet and agreeable speech; its proximate cause is a sympathetic tenderness
towards all.
8. Bodhisambhāresu avaṭṭhāna lakkhaṇaṁ adhiṭṭhānaṁ, Tesaṁ paṭipakkhābhibhavana rasaṁ. Tattha acalatā paccupaṭṭhānaṁ, Bodhisambhāra padaṭṭhānaṁ.
Adhiṭṭhāna: It has the
characteristic of resolve in undertaking meritorious deeds for fulfilling the
perfections; its function is to overcome all opposition and obstacles that lie
in one’s path; it is manifested as firmness in one’s stand; its proximate cause
lies in those very meritorious deeds, such as generosity, when one is
practising for perfections.
9. Hitākārappavatti
lakkhaṇā mettā, Hitūpasaṁhāra rasā. Sommābhāva paccupaṭṭhānā, Sattānaṁ manāpabhāva dassana padaṭṭhānā.
Mettā: It has the
characteristic of promoting the welfare of others; its function is being
solicitous of others’ welfare; it is manifested as a helpful attitude; its
proximate cause is seeing only the good of others.
10. Majjhattākārappavatti
lakkhaṇā upekkhā, Samabhāvadassana rasā. Paṭighānunaya vūpasama paccupaṭṭhānā, Kammassakatā paccavekkhaṇā padaṭṭhānā.
Upekkhā: It has the
characteristic of equanimity in the face of praise and blame; its function is
to neutralize one’s emotions; it is manifested as impartiali- ty; its proximate
cause is the reflective knowledge of one’s own past actions.
Dependent and Non-Dependent Perfections
The
ten perfections can be classed as either dependent or non-dependent. Dependent
perfections may be either dependent on craving or dependent on wrong views.
“Something
carried out with a desire for a glorious future existence is said to be done
dependent on craving. Something carried out in the mistaken belief that
purification of defilements is achieved through morality is said to be done
dependent on wrong views.”
(Visuddhimagga)
A deed of merit done with a desire for
existence in a higher plane or glorious existence is dependent on craving and
is not development of perfections. Here, wishing for human existence to fulfil
the perfections, as in the cases of the bodhisat- tas Campeyya and Saṅkhapāla, the two Nāga Kings, cannot
be called dependent.
Some people think, “The practices of
charity and morality, or merely taking up the life of an ascetic, are
sufficient in themselves for the removal of defilements; no further practice
exists.” They regard their view as perfect. They sometimes acquire merit, but
they totally disregard the need for insight knowledge leading to the path and
its fruition. Their merit is dependent on wrong views and does not count as a
fulfilment of perfections. Theirs is the type of merit sought after by fakirs.
These two kinds of dependent merit keep one trapped in the cycle of rebirth.
They are not called perfections.
Two Classes of
Non-Dependent Merits
There is such a
thing as supramundane merit, there is also
mundane merit
which serves as a seed for supramundane merit.
(Visuddhimagga)
Since Maung Thaw’s question relates to
merit that contributes to the perfections, supramundane merit need not be
discussed; only non-dependent mundane types of merit or mundane merit as the
basis for the supramundane need be discussed here.
Only
volitional activities such as giving, morality, renunciation, wisdom, energy,
patience, truthfulness, resolve, loving-kindness, and equanimity, carried out
with a pure mind and not bent towards a glorious existence hereafter, nor
inspired by mistaken views, but aimed squarely at the “yonder shore” of
enlightenment, as detached as the open sky, are merits that amount to
fulfilling the perfections.
These days it is quite common to hear
such prayers as: “May we attain nibbāna;
for such time as we might not have attained nibbāna, for that time may we be...” and so
on. Such are the prayers a donor makes at his or her offering ceremony,
aspiring for ever higher and more magnificent existences and a grand vista of
worldly attainments in words every bit as pompous as those the head of the Saṅgha uses when he
administers the prayers during the water-pouring ceremony. The result is that
the word “nibbāna” is heard as
a mere faint sound drowned by a welter of mundane wishes. Furthermore, it is
the mundane aspect of the prayers that seems to have the most appeal. For we
have such a splendid range of those wishing words, and what eloquence! In fact
it was to discourage that sort of cat-scratching merit that the emphatic
article eva (only) is used in the passage referred to above: tasseva = tassa +
eva (“that only is”). Only that kind of mundane merit is what the Buddha
approves of.
Q Would you regard those
deeds where the donor wishes for nibbāna, with other mundane attainments, as
meritorious deeds?
A Yes.
However, I would say that those types of merit do not help to quicken the time
to enlightenment.
Let
me illustrate with a few relevant examples.
In the dark ages
(i.e. when the Buddha’s teaching had fallen silent) before the coming of Vipassī Buddha there
lived two brothers who were sugarcane planters. The younger of them was to
become Jotika, the celebrated rich man. They offered sugarcane juice to a
Solitary Buddha. The elder brother, in making his wishes for the merit that
would accrue from the gift, said, “May I know the Dhamma that the Solitary
Buddha has known.” The younger brother also said the same thing, and something
more. He added his wishes for glorious existence
— two common mundane wishes. The
elder brother gained enlightenment at the earliest encounter with a Buddha, in
this case Buddha Vipassī. As
for the younger brother, because his desire was not “nibbāna specific” but
went off at a tangent, he missed his chance for enlightenment under the
teaching of Vipassī
Buddha. He attained release from existence only under the teaching of Gotama
Buddha, after having missed the teachings of six Buddhas.
The moral of the story is this: when you
are doing some meritorious deed, do not let craving for future well-being enter
your mind. If you allow it, your wishes are bound to become your shackles. For
the greater your well-being, the stronger your craving is likely to be, so that
you find yourself dilly-dallying when the opportunity for enlightenment comes.
If you aspire just for supramundane merit unencumbered by mundane wishes, then
you can probably forsake worldly glories when you hear the Dhamma. So, Maung
Thaw, you should remember that when you aspire for human existence it should be
only to fulfil the perfec- tions, which are required for enlightenment.
However, don’t ever let your wishes wander away to mundane attainments or
well-being.
There is also the story of Puṇṇa, a householder
servant of Meṇḍaka the rich
man, who had strong attachment to existence as his master’s trusted servant.
So, when he wished for the result of his offering to a Solitary Buddha, he
opted for service under his good master in his future existences! Of course his
wish was fulfilled — he became his master’s servant throughout their remaining
exist- ences together.
When Cūḷa Subhaddā, the consort of
the King of Elephants (the bodhisatta), wished for the result of offering
fruits to a Solitary Buddha, she sought revenge on her husband for an imagined
slight she had suffered. Her desire was fulfilled in her next existence as a
human queen when she successfully plotted the death of her husband of the
previous existence. This spiteful deed sent her down to hell.
Kusa, the
bodhisatta, and his consort, Pabhāvatī, both made
offerings to a Solitary Buddha in one of their past existences. They had to go
through a series of mishaps together because they made discordant wishes.
These
are only a few instances of the life stories of misdirected aspiration while doing
a deed of merit. Such stories abound in the Jātakas and in history and folklore. A lot
depends on one’s mentor too. In the life story of Vidhura, the wise counsellor,
we find that of four rich men who offered food to four recluses of supernormal
attainments in jhānic
powers, one became a Nāga
and one a Garuda, one became a great king and one became Sakka (king of Tāvatiṁ sa heaven).
This is because the first two were given bad counsel from their respec- tive
teachers. So, one must take great care in choosing a mentor; bad counsel can
bring bitter consequences for one’s actions quite undeservedly.
Low, Medium, and
Superior Grades of Merit
For each of the ten meritorious
practices such as giving, morality, renuncia- tion, etc., there can be three
grades: low, medium, or superior.
A
deed undertaken out of desire for fame is low. One undertaken with desire for
the fruits of merit is moderate. One undertaken with the clear understanding
that it is the custom of the Noble Ones is superior. (Visuddhimagga)
Of
the above three grades, the first is done for vanity, all for show. It hardly
brings any merit that could result in future well-being, let alone fulfil any
perfections. The second is motivated by desire for merit. Usually it is done
with discrimination since the donor selects the most worthy recipient whenever
possible to gain the greatest merit. This kind of deed brings ample results in
the mundane spheres, but still does not amount to fulfilling a perfection. The
third case is where one sets one’s mind on the deed alone, not on its
consequences. The donor is guided by a true sense of charity. In fact, one is
prepared to share any of one’s possessions with others, for one has no
attachment to them. One rightly follows the practice of the Noble Ones. One does
not choose to whom to give. Let anyone come, whether good, bad, or average, one
would make some kind of gift. This kind of giving is following the custom of
the Noble Ones. It is truly a practice for the perfection of giving. The same
spirit of considering the deed alone, and not its rewards, governs the
remaining perfections such as morality, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience,
truthfulness, etc.
Another way of classifying virtue
is as follows:
“Virtue observed out of craving for
glorious existences and material well-being is inferior; virtue observed for
one’s own release is moderate; virtue observed to liberate all beings, which is
the perfection of virtue, is superior.” (Visuddhimagga)
Release
from the cycle of birth and death, and release from the mundane attainments of
glorious existences, mean the same thing. The second grade is regarded as
inferior because it falls short of being a practice for perfections.
Observance for
the sake of one’s own release is the perfection practised by the Solitary
Buddhas and ordinary disciples. Observance for the liberation of all beings is
the perfection practised by Perfectly Enlightened Buddhas.
I shall now explain the meaning of each
of the ten perfections:
1. Dāna: Giving,
making a gift or offering. Sharing one’s wealth unstintingly with virtuous
disciples of the Buddha is called sharing, or the practice of common ownership.
The bodhisatta’s practice of making gifts to anyone, virtuous, unvirtu- ous, or
moderately virtuous, has already been mentioned. It means that anyone who calls
at one’s door for alms receives them. Herein, “virtuous disciples” means
special people who deserve the enjoyment of one’s wealth because they will
share the knowledge of the Dhamma. With respect to such good people, sharing
should take the form of respectful offerings after careful preparation.
2. Sīla: There are
two kinds of morality; avoidance of the three bodily misdeeds and the four
verbal misdeeds (vārittasīla); and
cultivating virtuous habits (cārittasīla). The latter
means paying respect (apacāyana)
to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha,
and to parents, teachers, and those senior in age, status, or morality; or
helping anyone with a meritorious deed as if it were one’s own undertaking
(veyyāvacca).
3. Nekkhamma:
Renunciation is undertaken with a strong volition of non-greed, therefore it is
a meritorious deed. Even if a householder strives to dispel greed by
contemplating the repulsiveness of the body or the loathsome- ness of food, it
amounts to renunciation, which is meritorious. If one can do more, one may go
to a solitary retreat for the same purpose. If one can go a step further, one
may become a recluse or, still better, a bhikkhu. Even better, one may take up
the practice of concentration and gain the first jhāna. Better than this, one may develop
insight to attain the path of non-returning. All these are the meritorious
deeds of renunciation.
4. Paññā: Wisdom is of
two kinds, mundane and supramundane. Learning the Tipiṭaka, and teaching it to others, undertaken
to fulfil the perfection of wisdom, is supramundane. Teaching others the
harmless sciences of astrology, incantations, recitation of verses, medicine,
science; or the arts, such as mechanics, mathematics, painting, sculpture,
metalwork, masonry, gold- smithery, ironmongery, etc., or honest ways of trade
and agriculture and all such blameless vocations, are mundane. All these three
categories, if imparted to others in a noble spirit as “perfection directed”
acts, are the practice of the perfection of wisdom.
5.
Viriya: Energy is supreme if it conforms to the four right efforts (sammappadāna). Besides
this, exerting one’s utmost strength with a pure motive to help others, whether
one is capable or not, also amounts to the perfection of energy.
6.
Khanti: Patience is tolerating others and bearing unpleasant experiences such
as cold and heat. The Buddha says, “Bearing the severity of cold, or bearing
the severity of heat, thus one has patience.” The Buddha goes on to explain
patience in various other ways. The underlying quality of patience is placidity
in the face of internal or external unpleasant experiences, coupled with
fortitude. A man of patience does not allow anyone or anything “to put the grit
in the machine.” “Come wind, come foul weather,” he goes about his meritorious
routine, not with hedonistic indifference, but with an imperturbable heart,
devoid of ill-will. The presence of such a tolerant frame of mind is patience.
7.
Sacca: Truthfulness means avoidance of untruth and falsehood under all circumstances.
8. Adhiṭṭhāna: Resolve is
the firmness of one’s stand after one has commit- ted oneself to something,
whether expressed or not.
9.
Mettā:
Loving-kindness means wishing others well, with a heart filled with goodwill
towards any being that one comes across.
10. Upekkhā: Equanimity is
the quality of being strictly impartial to both well-wishers and adversaries
alike. One does not behave partially towards one’s benefactors. Neither does
one harbour any resentment towards one’s detractors. This evenness of attitude
toward both the kind and the unkind is the essence of equanimity.
Here are a few similes to drive home the
significance of the perfections. Patience and equanimity are the mainstay for
the other perfections. Only when one has established these two can one expect
to fulfil the rest. Just as a newborn infant can only survive with the care of
its parents, the remaining eight perfec- tions can only be fulfilled under the
constant care of patience and equanimity. Patience may be likened to the mother
and equanimity to the father.
Ifpatienceandequanimityarepresent,andtheothergooddeedsareforthcom-
ing under their benign influence, if there is an absence of renunciation, these
good deeds will not properly become perfections. Lacking the guidance of
renunciation, one is liable to be overcome by attachment to the merit derived
from them and yearn for mundane benefits. Then the meritorious deeds merely
prolong rebirth because they are dependent on existence. They do not then
qualify as perfections. Therefore, if patience and equanimity are the parents,
renunciation should be called the family doctor who takes care of the child’s
health.
To
employ a different simile: all vegetation depends on soil and water for its
survival; both must be favourable. Similarly, patience provides the favourable
soil, and equanimity the favourable water, for the remaining perfections.
Equanimity in
the present context is slightly different from the equanimity of the four
divine abidings (brahmavihāra),
which signifies impartiality to the welfare of all beings (different from being
uninterested). Equanimity as perfec- tion is evenness of mind regarding one who
worships you and one who condemns or persecutes you and, further, being able to
seek the welfare of both.
How the Perfections
are Practised Together
In
one of the innumerable existences of the bodhisatta, he was born as a monkey
chieftain. A brahmin lost his way in the forest and fell into a chasm that was
as deep as the height of a hundred men. Seeing his plight, the bodhisatta took
pity on him and exerted himself to rescue him. Eventually, the brahmin was
carried up onto safe ground. The bodhisatta was, by then, quite exhausted, so
he fell asleep, unsuspectingly, on the brahmin’s lap. The brahmin thought to
himself, “I’ve earned nothing today. My wife is going to be upset when I get
home. What a delightful idea if I were to bring home monkey flesh. How pleased
my wife would be!” Satisfied with his “bright idea,” the brahmin took up a
stone lying nearby and dealt a blow to the monkey’s head. It was such a vicious
blow that blood gushed out of the wound in all directions. Stupefied and
covered in blood, the bodhisatta leapt up into a tree. He could not believe
that such a thing could happen! “Oh, there are such people in this world.” Then
the thought came to his mind how to lead the man home safely, for the forest
was full of leopards, tigers, and other dangerous animals. He said to the
brahmin, “Now you should be starting for home. I must show you the way out of
this forest, but I cannot trust you. You can follow the trail of my blood as I
jump from tree to tree.” So, in this way the brahmin got home safely.
In this Jātaka it will be
seen that loving-kindness was the first of the ten perfections that the
bodhisatta practised. When he saw the plight of the brahmin he took pity on him
as if he were his own son and started thinking of how to save him. Assessing
the situation and devising a plan to take the brahmin out from the chasm was
wisdom. Executing the plan at great risk to himself, and using all his
strength, was the practice of energy. In bearing the deadly injury that had
broken his skull, without getting angry, he exercised great patience. Without
it he would have left the ungrateful man, thereby rendering all his efforts
futile. Not allowing himself to be overcome by anger for such a wicked deed was
the practice of equanimity. Had he not been firm in the practice of equanimity,
he might have left off there, and the heartless brahmin would not have survived
long. Indeed the two principal perfections of patience and equanimity saw
through the whole undertaking.
Saving the brahmin from such a deep
chasm at the risk of his life amounted to sacrifice of his life or generosity.
Again, saving the brahmin’s life was the gift of life. Not even uttering a
curse, and never raising his hand to strike back, constituted morality. In
doing this noble deed the bodhisatta never thought about the merit he would
gain. That was renunciation, the ability to forsake all forms of existence. For
attachment to a better life hereafter is generally strong enough to spoil the
perfection of renunciation. By not going back on his word to save the brahmin,
the bodhisatta accomplished truthfulness — not very easy to keep under the
circumstances. Lastly, fulfilling his commitment without waver- ing in spite of
the brahmin’s shocking treatment, was resolve. This was how the bodhisatta
successfully practised the ten perfections in a single undertaking.
Regarding your
particular interest in the aspiration to Buddhahood, this is a fairly wide
subject. The detailed process of laying the foundation for the aspira- tion to,
and the fulfilment of, Perfect Enlightenment is dealt with in the scrip- tures
in fifteen catechisms. Only a brief account will be given here. For a wider
knowledge on it, please see the Cariyāpiṭaka Commentary
and the Sīlakkhandha
Subcommentary.
I shall now
outline the ten ordinary perfections, the ten higher perfections, and the ten
supreme perfections.
All external
objects such as a wife and children, animate and inanimate things, belonging to
a person, are the objects through which the ten ordinary perfections are
fulfilled. One’s own limbs or head or any organs of the body are the objects
through which the ten higher perfections are fulfilled. One’s own life (being
sacrificed) is the object through which the ten supreme perfections are
fulfilled.
Of those three
categories of objects, undertakings that forsake the first category are called
ordinary perfections. Undertakings that forsake the second are called higher
perfections. Those that forsake the third, i.e. one’s own life, are called
supreme perfections.
One who can fulfil only the first ten
attains the enlightenment of a Noble Disciple. One who can fulfil only the
first ten and the second ten attains the enlightenment of a Solitary Buddha.
One who can fulfil all thirty attains Su- preme Self-Enlightenment.
The Three Types of Disciples’ Enlightenment
There are three
classes of enlightenment of a Noble Disciple: (i) an Ordinary Noble Disciple’s,
(ii) a Great Disciple’s, and (iii) a Chief Disciple’s. By fulfilling the first
ten perfections for one aeon and a hundred thousand world cycles, one can
attain the enlightenment of a Chief Disciple. By the Chief Disciples are meant
the Buddha’s two principal Noble Disciples like the Venerables Sāriputta and
Moggallāna for Gotama
Buddha.
By fulfilling
the same perfections for a hundred thousand world cycles, one can attain the
enlightenment of a Great Disciple. By the Great Disciples are meant the
distinguished Noble Ones, numbering eighty for Buddha Gotama.
There is no mention of the duration for
the maturity of an ordinary Noble Disciple. One has to infer it from such
statements as are found in certain commentaries. In a commentary on the
Arahants’ supernormal power of recol- lecting former existences, an ordinary
Noble One is said to be able to recall existences from a hundred to a thousand
world cycles. This has generally been taken as the maturity period for an
ordinary Noble Disciple.
Once, a frog was accidentally killed
while listening with rapt attention to the mellifluous voice of the Buddha
preaching. He was reborn as a deva from the merit of listening attentively to
the Dhamma (even though he did not under- stand its meaning). Immediately, he
came to pay homage to the Buddha, listened to his discourse, and gained
stream-winning. In his next existence he became an Arahant. From this story we
can see that there are just a few forms of existence in which a disciple’s
enlightenment is attained.
Regarding the
Chief and Great Disciples, the periods for maturity stated earlier refer only
to the periods after these Noble Ones had received formal recognition by a
living Buddha. The Buddha predicts when, where, and under what circumstances he
will attain which type of enlightenment. This is called “receiving the word”
(vyākaraṇaṁ).
The scriptures are silent on the
duration for fulfilling the perfections before such recognition or assurance.
The interval between the arising of any two Buddhas is beyond reckoning. It may
be any number of world cycles. A Noble Disciple (as the term signifies) can
arise only when a Buddha arises or his teaching is extant. So it is important
to remember that those durations men- tioned above refer only to those Noble
Ones who encountered Gotama Buddha.
As to the Noble
Disciples: in the commentary on the Suttanipāta there are three types: (i) one who
depends on confidence for his enlightenment, (ii) one who depends on diligence,
and (iii) one who depends on wisdom.
The Three Types of Solitary Enlightenment
Similarly,
Solitary Enlightenment (paccekabodhi) is also of three types. The commentaries
say that the enlightenment of a Solitary Buddha is attained after fulfilling
the ten perfections and the ten higher perfections for two aeons and a hundred
thousand world cycles.
The Perfect Enlightenment of a Buddha is
also of these three types, which are also called:
(i) ugghātitaññūbodhi,
(ii) vipañcitaññūbodhi,
and
(iii) ñeyyabodhi
respectively.
A Buddha who
depends on wisdom for his enlightenment, after receiving the assurance, has to
fulfil the ten perfections, the ten higher perfections, and the ten supreme
perfections for four aeons and a hundred thousand world cycles.
A Buddha who
depends on diligence must fulfil the perfections for eight aeons and a hundred
thousand world cycles.
A Buddha who
depends on confidence must fulfil the perfections for sixteen aeons and a hundred
thousand world cycles.
This is what has been recorded in the
ancient commentaries. However, there are differing views regarding the maturity
periods for the three types of Buddhas. They are found in later works such as
the Apadāna Commentary
and in subcom- mentaries such as Sotattakī, Tathāgatuppatti, Mahāvaṁsaṭīkā, etc.
On this
controversial subject an analogy given by the commentator on the Suttanipāta is worth
noting. He says that trees and plants require a certain time before they can
flower or bear fruit. Trees like the tamarind or the jack-fruit tree will not
mature to blossom or bear fruit in one, two, or three years however carefully
one nurtures them, even by watering a hundred times a day. Similarly, with the
fulfilment of the prerequisites for Buddhahood. Let one give daily offerings on
the scale of King Vessantara to fulfil the
perfections, one cannot attain Buddhahood any sooner.
The
periods for maturity necessarily vary for each of the three types of Buddhas
(see the Suttanipāta
Commentary).
What is meant by
the Noblest Aspiration (mahābhinīhāra) should be
under- stood. The foundation (mūla),
condition (paccaya), and the root cause (hetu) of the Noblest Aspiration should
be understood. Mahābodhi
should be understood. Its foundation, condition, and root cause should be
understood.
What
is meant by “the Noblest Aspiration”? It is the verbal and mental undertaking
that the bodhisatta had made at some point of time aeons before taking up the
perfections.
It
was made in these terms:
“As a man who knows his own strength,
what use is there to get to ‘the yonder shore’ (nibbāna) alone? I will attain to Supreme
Knowl- edge and then convey men and devas to the yonder shore.”
That was the pledge that sent the ten
thousand universes reeling and echoing in applause. That was the bodhisatta’s
earnest wish. For he intensely aspired to Supreme Self-Enlightenment thus:
“Knowing the Truth, I will let others
know it. Freeing myself from the world, I will free others. Having crossed
over, I will enable others to cross.”
This
fervent and most daring aspiration is called “the Noblest Aspiration.”
Eight Factors Needed
for the Noblest Aspiration
For
the Noblest Aspiration to materialize, eight factors must be present:
“Manussattaṁ liṅgasampatti, hetu
satthāradassanaṁ. Pabbajjā guṇasampatti, adhikāroca chandatā. Aṭṭhadhammasamodhānā, abhinīhāro samijjhati.”
(Aṭṭhasālinī; Buddhavaṁsa.)
1
The aspirant must be a
human being (manussattaṁ).
2
He must be a man (liṅgasampatti).
3
His spiritual maturity
must be sufficient to attain Arahantship if he chose to (root-condition, hetu
).
4
He must have met a
living Buddha (satthāradassanaṁ).
5
He must have taken up
the life of a recluse or a monk (pabbajjā).
6
He must have attained
supernormal powers through concentration
(guṇasampatti).
1
He must have made the
utmost homage (adhikāro) to the “Three Gems” while
aspiring to Buddhahood.
2
He must have a most
ardent will to become a Buddha (chandatā).
If
all eight factors are present the Noblest Aspiration materializes. Herein
“root-condition” means the four conditions (paccaya) and the four root causes
(hetu), which will be explained a little later.
Adhikāro means offerings, including his own
life.
Chanda means a
burning desire amounting to will or resolve, a preparedness for any
eventuality. For example, suppose the entire universe was covered with
sharp-pointed spikes, and suppose it was certain one could attain Buddhahood
only by crossing it, the bodhisatta would never hesitate to cross it. Or
suppose this universe was filled with glowing charcoal, the bodhisatta would
not have wavered.
These are the
illustrations given in the commentaries. In the commentary on the Khadiraṅgāra Jātaka, it is said
that if the bodhisatta tried to cross, those steel spikes would turn into a
vast stretch of rubies (in respectful recognition of his sincerity and
resolve). Likewise, the burning charcoal would turn into a sea of lotus
flowers.
Of those eight
opportune factors, the ardent wish of a Solitary Buddha is attended by three
factors: (i) meeting with a living Buddha, (ii) making the utmost reverence
while declaring the wish for Solitary Buddhahood, and
(iii)
the will to become a Solitary Buddha.
For
the enlightenment of a disciple three factors are needed: (i) meeting with a
Solitary Buddha or an Arahant, (ii) making the utmost reverence while making
the wish for the enlightenment of a disciple, and (iii) the will to become an
Arahant.
The Two Root-Conditions
Root-condition,
the third factor of the eight, means a bodhisatta aspiring to Buddhahood must
be spiritually mature. When aspiring for Buddhahood in the presence of the
Buddha, to receive the assurance he must have sufficient perfections to attain
Solitary Buddhahood or Arahantship. He must then possess two further
qualifications:
1. Karuṇāsampatti — great
compassion,
2. Upāyakosallasampatti
— skilful means.
Only when these
two are present will a bodhisatta be duly recognized by the Buddha from whom he
is to receive the assurance. By great compassion is meant great kindness and
compassion for others that takes precedence over his own life. “Skilful means”
is the genius that is equal to the task whenever he under- takes to help
others. Literally, it is the “attainment of special aptitude in strategy.”
These two are the conditions for the (now specific) undertaking of the
perfections that will suffice for the declaration of the Noblest Aspiration.
The Four Conditions
There are four
further conditions (paccaya), also called the four stages of maturity (Buddhabhūmi), necessary
to qualify as a bodhisatta: 1. ussāha — exceptional
energy;
2.
ummaṅga — a keen
intellect;
3. avaṭṭhāna —
steadfastness of purpose;
4.
hitacariyā — compassion,
loving-kindness for others, even outweighing one’s own welfare.
There are four
root causes: 1) attainment of sufficient
perfections (upanissayasampatti), 2)
attainment of compassion (karuṇajjhāsayasampatti), 3) attainment of fortitude (avihaññasampatti), and 4) attainment of good friendship (kalyāṇamittasampatti).
1
Attainment of
sufficient perfections means having sufficient perfections to attain
Arahantship or Solitary Buddhahood at the time of the assurance.
2
Attainment of
compassion is the endowment with a compassionate heart or universal
loving-kindness.
3
Attainment of fortitude
is a natural disposition for helping others. It is the abiding disposition that
never tires in fulfilling the perfections. A luxurious life in the celestial
realms is boring to a bodhisatta because it does not offer any opportu- nity to
fulfil the perfections, particularly in serving others. Literally, avihañña means “never being vexed.” It also implies spiritedness.
The duration necessary for the maturity of the perfections ranges from four
aeons and a hundred thousand world cycles to sixteen aeons and a hundred
thousand world cycles, yet the spirit of a bodhisatta is such that he feels he
is going to reach maturity the next day. In
otherwords,heisalreadyanticipatingBuddhahoodthatisforthcomingonlyatthe end of
such staggering periods. No duration is too long for him to wait.
4
Attainment of good
friendship is care and respect in attending to the wise in all his existences,
whether human or celestial.
The Natural Inclinations of a Bodhisatta
A bodhisatta is further endowed
with six natural inclinations:
1
inclination to
non-greed — a bodhisatta instinctively sees the danger in greed;
2
inclination to
non-hatred — a bodhisatta instinctively sees the danger in hatred or anger;
3
inclination to
non-delusion — a bodhisatta instinctively sees the danger in delusion;
4
inclination to
renunciation — a bodhisatta instinctively sees the danger in sensuality;
5
inclination to
seclusion — a bodhisatta instinctively sees the danger in socializing;
6
inclination to escape
from the cycle of rebirth — a bodhisatta instinctively sees the danger in
existence.
The Significance of the Natural
Inclinations
Just as the pith makes a tree durable,
the six inclinations make a bodhisatta durable or steadfast. One who has these
six inclinations, though living in the world, is like a water-container made of
a dried gourd, which has no mouth, immersed in deep water. A person lacking
them is like an earthen water pot with a wide mouth immersed in deep water.
Even among lay people there are those in whom these six inclinations are
present. They are like a water-gourd im- mersed in deep water. On the other
hand, even among bhikkhus, there are those who lack these six inclinations.
They are like a wide-mouthed water pot im- mersed in shallow water. The
sensuous world of lay people is like deep water; the favourable facilities that
the bhikkhus enjoy, such as secure monasteries, well- made furniture, fine
utensils, and nutritious food, etc., are like shallow water.
1
Those who have no
inclination to non-greed do not like to listen to talk on dispelling greed.
Even trifling possessions oppress them like a heavy moun- tain. To those having
a strong inclination to non-greed, the glories of a Universal Monarch are not
worth a straw.
2
Those who have no
inclination to non-hatred do not like to listen to advice on dispelling anger.
The slightest provocation will infuriate them, just like a spark falling on dry
grass or leaves. However, those firm in their inclination to non- hatred soon
dispel any anger, even if they are wronged by a gross injustice, just as a fire
brand that falls on a stack of green timber does not start a fire.
3
Those who have no
inclination to non-delusion do not like to listen to talk on wisdom. They never
see even a glimmer of the light of the Dhamma, which has a luminosity of
eighty-four thousand candlepower, so to speak. They are shrouded in dark
delusion regarding the real nature of the five aggregates. Living in darkness,
they die in the dark and let one existence after another go to waste. The
darkness of their delusion is just like congenital blindness. How could one
born blind ever see light even if eighty-four thousand suns were to shine forth
together?
4.
Those who have no inclination to renunciation do not like to listen to talk on
the advantages of renouncing worldly life. Their attachment to the fruit of
their meritorious deeds such as giving, virtue, or keeping the eight precepts,
prevents those deeds from becoming perfections. Attachment corrupts them just
as fungus spoils the
choicest seeds set apart for cultivation, or as viruses, locusts, and other
pests render a well-planted field infertile.
4
Those who have no
inclination to seclusion do not like to listen to advice on seeking a solitary
life in the forest. They are unable to tear themselves away from society for a
quiet moment alone. Desire for companionship always pulls them into shallow
friendships and ensures that they remain there, like a prisoner guarded by
jailors.
5
Those who have no
inclination to escape from the cycle of rebirth do not like to listen to advice
on the emptiness of worldly life. They are under the serfdom of attachment to
existence. That attachment does not allow them to aspire after the higher
practice of the Dhamma leading to path knowledge. Instead, it keeps them
satisfied with their parochial interests such as throwing lavish feasts,
building pagodas, or donating monasteries and rest-houses. They are content
with keeping the precepts, or remaining as devout laity, or as recluses or
bhikkhus with virtue, or with some shallow achievement like teach- ing the
Dhamma or writing books. These are only merits that hold them fast to the
world, the wholesome kamma that prolongs existence. It is like the British Raj,
which allowed their colonial subjects to enter freely into small businesses but
would not tolerate any dealing with weapons, for fear of rebellion.
Herein,
two kinds of attachment to existence should be known: yearning for some better
existence hereafter, and a fond attachment to the present existence. The
present existence offers a precious chance to attain nibbāna. The Tipiṭaka abounds in
practical instructions showing the way to nibbāna. It is only because so-called
Buddhists are enamoured of the present existence, and are pampering their
little bodies, that they fight shy of the stringent discipline demanded to gain
enlightenment. It is a pity they cannot gain even some concentration, which
recluses of ancient times gained without the benefit of the Buddha’s teaching.
I shall now deal
with the four special characteristics of a bodhisatta that distinguish him from
a future Solitary Buddha. They are glaringly obvious as if they were garlands
around his neck.
1. Indriya — the
five controlling faculties. Unshakable confidence (saddhā), indefatigable
diligence (viriya), unwavering mindfulness (sati), steadfast concen- tration
(samādhi), and
unerring wisdom (paññā) are
the first mark that distin- guishes a bodhisatta.
2. Paṭipatti — the
practice. A bodhisatta is always out to help others and places the welfare of
others before his own. He never expects any return for the efforts he makes for
others’ welfare. Nor will he care to mention them, whether in his beneficiary’s
presence or not. Even if the beneficiary “bites the hand that feeds,” a
bodhisatta never turns back from any good deed. This holds true even when his
life is in imminent danger. This is the bodhisatta’s sense of wishing well for
the present. Regarding merits accruing from his noble deeds in giving or in
cultivating virtue, etc., a bodhisatta sets his sights higher than the solitary
attainment of nibbāna.
He aims only at supreme enlightenment, by which he can show the way to nibbāna. This is a
bodhisatta’s practice for the hereafter. This twofold practice also
distinguishes a bodhisatta.
3. Kosalla —
proficiency. This is manifested in sound reasoning (cintāmayañāṇa) and presence
of mind (taṅkhaṇuppattiñāṇa) that never
fail him. Though the future disciples or Solitary Buddhas also have these two
intellectual qualities to a high degree, they are liable to err occasionally.
With the bodhi- satta, these two qualities are unerring. This is the
proficiency of a bodhisatta that makes him unique among other aspirants to
enlightenment.
4. Ajjhāsaya —
inclination. The texts treat this subject quite comprehen- sively concerning
the perfections, but I shall describe it only briefly. Regarding giving, for
example, a bodhisatta is very happy in making gifts. Whenever he has something
to offer as a gift and a recipient is not available, he feels frustrated.
Whenever he gives, he gives it with a light heart, and takes proper care in
doing so. No amount of giving would satisfy his zeal for charity. Whenever
anybody asks anything of him, he does not judge him by class or creed but
always complies gladly. In doing so, he never thinks of his own needs but gives
to satisfy the other’s needs only. Refer to the Buddhavaṁ sa on this,
particularly the passage beginning: “Yathāpi kumbho sampuṇṇo...”
In that passage,
which is from the chapter on the perfection of generosity, “inclination” is
described thus:
“As
when one overturns a large cooking pot filled with oil or buttermilk to empty
it, not a drop or even the dregs remain, but runs out of the pot, so also when
a bodhisatta makes an offering... Whether the beggar is a filthy blockhead of a
labourer with bovine instincts, or a drunkard, or better than them, a man who
has taken refuge in the Three Gems, or one who keeps the five precepts; or in
brief, whether he is good, average, or bad, let him come for alms at any time,
the bodhisatta never judges what type of fellow he is, or whether it is worth
giving him so much or anything at all; but never discriminating, never
hesitating, [he gives freely].”
Of
the different classes of beggars ranging from wretched to excellent, the
bodhisatta never bothers sizing up a person who calls at the door for some help
or alms. The amount he gives is also not dependent on the class of beggar. This
kind of completely indiscriminate offering is another characteristic of a
bodhisatta.
In
respect of the nine remaining perfections, this example on giving should be
applied with due alteration of details. Those not conversant with Pāḷi can get the
essence of what the text says from the passage quoted above.
These days there are some who wish for
Buddhahood, and wisdom-oriented Buddhahood at that, though their conduct barely
qualifies them to become ordinary disciples. What characterizes them is the
bold banner of craving-de- pendent deeds, which cry out for public recognition
right now and yearn for glorious results hereafter.
“Who
ever does something for nothing?” these people are apt to protest. “To expect
good results from a good deed is only natural.” But remember, a thing done
without expecting future rewards brings a greater reward than is imagined. More
significantly, it amounts to the real practice of the perfections essential for
enlightenment. A meritorious deed done with an ardent wish for good results
brings relatively limited results and does not amount to fulfilling the
perfections. Remember the example of fungus in seed-grain or pests in a
plantation.
Some
say that gradual maturity is the likely process, for enlightenment right now is
not possible. So why should one not store up merit for better existences and greater
prosperity? My reply is this:
Small
plants thrive just during the rainy season. Only one in a thousand or ten
thousand among them might survive the long, dry, hot months till the next rainy
season. Such a rare plant must be extraordinarily robust and hardy to have
struck its main root deep enough. Such rare plants obviously need not fear the
severity of the climate after having passed three or four rainy seasons.
By
the same analogy, to achieve budding perfections is only possible when the
Buddha’s teaching is still extant. Whatever little perfection one has achieved
during this opportune period has very little chance of surviving to be
developed in the time of the next Buddha. Those sham deeds of merit will
certainly lose their potential once the teaching has disappeared. Very few
could survive the uncertainties of the intervening dark ages. During those dark
ages, right view is lost to humanity and wrong views prevail. One who has
acquired only sham deeds of merit falls into wrong views, and so their little
potential of merit is soon gone. Imagine the fate of one who repeatedly falls
into wrong view for two, three, or more existences. This is the unstable nature
of the merits of a person who has not struck roots deep down, who has not
attained stability. Such perishing of budding merits is the rule with most
beings. Innumerable existences have already passed in which they acquired some
flimsy merits, only to be lost again by the next existence. This process of
acquisition and perishing goes on in perpetuity for the overwhelming majority
of beings. This is why the idea of “gradual maturity” does not hold. It would
be a great pity if one depends on such a mistaken idea and goes on hoping for
the perfections while actually longing for the inexorable cycle of rebirth.
The
four conditions, the four root causes, and the six inclinations are the factors
for declaring the Noblest Aspiration and for taking up the higher perfections.
On
declaring the Noblest Aspiration and receiving the assurance of future Buddhahood,
the bodhisatta at once becomes endowed with the five powers (bala), the four
special characteristics, the two qualifications of compassion (karuṇā) and skill in
strategy (upāyakosalla), the
four stages of maturity (bhūmi),
the six inclinations (ajjhāsaya),
etc. However, since what I have said so far should suffice to answer Maung
Thaw’s question I shall not deal with any further details.
Maung Thaw’s second question
relates to the following:
1
the definition,
characteristics, and significance of the five aggregates;
2
the definition,
characteristics, and significance of the four truths;
3
a description of the
five aggregates in terms of the four truths;
4
the definition,
characteristics, and significance of the Noble Eightfold Path, with its
practical application leading to nibbāna.
There are two
approaches to the definition, characteristics, and significance of the five
aggregates, namely, the Suttanta method and the Abhidhamma method.
The Suttanta
method is the Buddha’s approach to the Dhamma for the ordinary person. The
Buddha gave succinct discourses to show ordinary people practical ways to
cultivate insight, and to attain the path and its fruition in this very life.
The Abhidhamma method, however, offers a
profound and exhaustive ana- lytical treatment of all aspects of the Dhamma,
with no particular reference to the practice for insight development. The
latter method is actually meant for the Noble Ones to sharpen their analytical
knowledge (paṭisambhidā-ñāṇa). It is not
suitable as insight training for the ordinary person because it is too subtle.
For example, those who have small boats should only ply the river for their
liveli- hood and should not venture out to the deep ocean. Only if they have
ocean- going vessels should they make an ocean voyage.
These days, people take up the holy life
not actually intent on gaining path knowledge, but merely to acquire merit,
purported to gradually mature as perfec- tions. Practice of insight meditation is
not popular. Learning and teaching of scriptures to develop wisdom is the usual
practice. So the Abhidhamma method is popular. In this treatise, however, I
shall employ the Suttanta method only.
“Bhikkhus, a
bhikkhu who earnestly wants to understand the true nature of materiality to
eradicate the defilements, who habitually contemplates materiality from three
approaches, who is proficient in the seven aspects of materiality is, in this
Dhamma and Discipline, called accomplished, one who has lived the life, a
perfect one or an excellent man.
“Bhikkhus,
how is a bhikkhu proficient in the seven aspects? Bhikkhus, herein a bhikkhu
discerns the true nature of materiality; he discerns the origin of materiality;
he discerns the cessation of materiality; he discerns the practice leading to
the cessation of materiality; he discerns the satisfaction in materiality;
hediscernsthedangerinmateriality;andhediscernstheescapefrommateriality.
22
“Bhikkhus, what is materiality?
Materiality includes the four primary ele- ments: extension, cohesion, heat,
and motion, and the [twenty-four] material qualities derived from them. This is
called materiality. (1)
“As
long as nutriment arises, materiality arises. Once nutriment is exhausted,
materiality ceases. This is the origin and cessation of materiality. (2, 3)
“What
is the practice leading to the cessation of materiality? It is the Noble
Eightfold Path taught by me: right view, right thought, right speech, right
action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right
concentration. These eight constitute the path. (4)
“The
pleasure and joy arising dependent on materiality constitute the satis- faction
in materiality. (5)
“The
transience, unsatisfactoriness, and instability of materiality constitute the
danger in materiality. (6)
“The
abandonment of desire and lust for materiality constitute the escape from
materiality.” (7)
(Sattaṭṭhāna Sutta, Khandhavagga, Saṁ yuttanikāya)
The True Nature of
Materiality
1
The four essential
material qualities are the primary elements of exten- sion, cohesion, heat, and
motion.
2
The five sense bases
are the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, and the body.
3
The five sense objects
are visible form, sound, smell, taste, and touch.
4
The two material
qualities of sex are femininity and masculinity.
5
The material quality of
vitality.
6
The material base of
consciousness — the heart-base.
7
The material quality of
nutrition. These are the eighteen kinds of materiality.
1. The Four Primary Elements
i. The
different degrees of hardness or softness are qualities of the element of
extension, colloquially called the earth element.
ii.
Liquidity and cohesion are
qualities of the element of cohesion, collo- quially called the water element.
iii.
Temperature, hot or cold, is the
quality of the element of heat, colloquially called the fire element.
iv.
Motion, swelling, inflation, pressure,
and support are qualities of the element of motion, colloquially called the
wind element.
Due
to the collective concept people usually conceive the four primary elements as
a composite whole rather than in their ultimate sense, which can only be
discerned through insight knowledge. When insight arises, one sees that not the
tiniest atom remains that is compact or solid.
The three elements of extension, motion,
and heat can be felt by touch. Even children know whether a thing is soft or
hard. However, they are not able to discern the ultimate sense of what they
only superficially recognize as the earth element. They know whether a thing is
cold or hot, but they cannot discern the ultimate sense of what they only
recognize as the fire element. Similarly they know that something moves, or
supports, or is pressed, or swells. However, they do not discern the element of
motion there. If one can penetrate conceptions about the four primary elements
and realize their ultimate nature, then one is said to be proficient in
materiality, the first aspect of discernment.
2. The Five
Sense Bases
The eye, ear, nose, and tongue are the
sense bases through which the respective kinds of sense-consciousness arises.
Body-sensitivity has for its basis the whole body externally and internally.
These are the kamma-conditioned material qualities or internal sense bases.
3. The Five
Sense Objects
The five sense objects should need no
explanation. Only that of touch may be commented on as that pertaining to the
primary elements of extension, heat, and motion. 1 These
three primary elements are the tangible sense objects.
4. The Material
Qualities of Sex
i. The material quality of femininity, which
governs a person’s whole body,
distinguishingherasawomanorimpartingtheconditionofbeingfemale.
ii. The material quality of masculinity, which governs a person’s whole
body, distinguishing him as a man or imparting the condition of being male.
5. Vitality
The vitality that gives a being its
life, or the vitality of the kamma-originated materiality, that pervades the
whole body.
1 The element of
cohesion cannot be touched. If you put your hand in water, you can know it is
hot or cold, and you can feel its pressure. If you pick up a handful you can
feel its weight. If you hit the surface of water with your hand, you can feel
its hardness. However, you cannot feel its cohesion (ed.)
6. The Material
Base of Consciousness
The
material base of consciousness or the mind is called the heart-base. It is the
source from which kind thoughts or unkind thoughts flow.
7. The Material
Quality of Nutrition
The material
quality that nourishes the whole body, which may be called the sustenance of
the four primary elements, is the element of nutrition. The principle
underlying this element is the need of all beings born in the sensual realm to
eat.
1
It
is just like an oil-lamp that needs constant replenishment to be kept alight.
Of the eighteen material qualities
mentioned above, the four primary ele- ments are like the roots, the trunk, the
boughs, and the branches of a tree; the remaining fourteen are like the leaves,
flowers, and fruits. When the imperma- nence of the four primary elements is
perceived, the delusion of personality disappears. Derived materiality does not
then obstruct perception. That, it should be noted, is why the Buddha speaks of
the four great primaries but does not define them. These four primary elements
are self-evident.
All materiality,
whether animate or inanimate, can be reduced to atoms. On further analysis,
they are included in one of the eighteen species of material qualities.
Contemplate your own body to gain insight. If the ultimate materiality in the
four primary elements is perceived clearly, the infinite materiality of the
universe will be seen in the same light. Therefore, contemplate hard on the
four primary elements.
Derived material
phenomena are not so evident, for they are interrelated and subtle. Examine
what is already evident; do not try to see what is imperceptible. It will only
be a waste of effort. Focus your attention on only one of the four primary
elements. Once any one of them is perceived clearly, the remaining three will
also become clear.
This body is a
composite of ultimate realities, i.e. of things having their individual
essence. Just as a person with weak eyesight has to use glasses to read, use
the Buddha’s teaching as an aid to see the ultimate truth that is clearly
visible inside your body. Try to see the arising and vanishing that is
constantly taking place within you. With sufficient zeal and concentration you
can probably comprehend things quite vividly. I am impressing it on you in
various ways because it is elusive.
This
first aspect needs to be properly perceived whereby the primary elements become
clear in their ultimate sense, without confusing them with the collective
1 Pāḷi phraseology
makes heavy reading and usually fails to communicate, so I shall use everyday
Burmese to explain abstract matters. [Author’s Note]
concept. One
cannot stress this too strongly because the remaining aspects will not be
discerned unless you have the first one well and truly within your grasp. So
spare no pains to perceive it.
These are the
second and third aspects to be perceived. Constant arising is called
“samudaya.” Cessation or vanishing, is called “nirodha.” Samudaya is used in
two senses: first to refer to the constant arising of phenomena throughout a
given existence; and second to refer to the arising of another existence when
the present one ends.
Nirodha is also
used in two senses: the constant cessation of phenomena throughout a given
existence, and the final cessation of all phenomena when one attains parinibbāna, where there
is no more fresh existence and one escapes from the cycle of rebirth. This is
also called nibbāna
nirodha.
Nutriment
(āhāra) is the
sustenance of existence. It is of two kinds: physical nutriment and mental
nutriment. Physical nutriment is the material quality of nutrition. Mental
nutriment means contact, volition, and consciousness.
“The past kamma
that accompanies one throughout the cycle of rebirth is comparable to a field,
rebirth-consciousness is like the seed-grain, the craving that accompanies
kamma is like the fertility of the soil — Kammaṁ khettaṁ viññāṇaṁ bījaṁ taṇhā sineho.”
In the above
quotation, kamma is the mental nutriment of volition, rebirth-consciousness is
the nutriment of consciousness, which provides the seed for a new existence at
rebirth, leading to a new material aggregate, i.e. the body.
In lighting a
candle, the light appears simultaneously with the flame. Similar- ly, at
rebirth, materiality appears the instant that rebirth-consciousness arises. The
earliest appearance of materiality is like the germination of the seed. Our
full-grown bodies are the natural development from rebirth-consciousness like
the seed that has germinated and grown into a tree. It should be understood
that germination can occur only where there is rebirth-consciousness. If the
rebirth- consciousness does not arise when a person dies with the exhaustion of
the past kamma, there is no germination. That is what is meant by the Buddha’s
words:
“When
nutrition arises, materiality arises. When nutrition is exhausted, materiality
ceases.”
This is the explanation
of the second meaning of samudaya, the incessant rebirth of new aggregates of
materiality. Similarly with nirodha, the cessation of rebirth, the total
release from the cycle of rebirths. This second sense of arising and cessation
is obvious. This is not vital for the development of insight. What is relevant
here is to know the constant arising and cessation taking place every moment
throughout one’s life.
Here is a simile:
Let us say a
man-size flame is set alight and is meant to last a hundred years. Imagine how
much fuel must be supplied every day and night. The life of the flame depends
on the fuel. The flame can remain the size of a man only when the lamp is full.
It becomes smaller as the fuel level falls. When the oil is used up, the flame goes
out. Imagine how much fuel is consumed by the lamp each day from the first day
it is lit. Visualize the daily refuelling. Then consider how the flame gets
renewed because the fuel is replenished. See how the flame exhausts itself due
to theexhaustionofthefuelthathaskeptitalight.Trytodistinguishtherejuvenated
flame, after refuelling, from the flame that has exhausted itself, having
consumed all the fuel. Suppose that the new fuel is coloured, and that the
flame takes on the same colour as the fuel. For a while, white fuel will
produce a white flame. Then as the white fuel is used up, and red fuel is fed
into the lamp, the colour of the flame will turn from white to red. Again, with
yellow fuel, the flame turns yellow, and so on. Thus, compare the old and the
new in the same flame.
Preconceived
notions about what the eye sees obstruct perception. Expel these preconceptions
with insight. Even in an ordinary flame (not distinguished by colour) constant
change is observable if one looks closely. Every motion represents change —
change from the old to the new. As the new arises, the old vanishes. The
arising of the new must be understood as samudaya — the vanishing of the old is
nirodha.
The
temperature-originated materiality that is the body, which will remain when a
person dies, is just like the lamp and the wick in our simile. The
kamma-originated materiality, the consciousness-originated materiality, and the
nutriment-originated materiality, which combine to give the illusion of a
person, are like the man-size flame. The daily food intake is like the daily
refuelling.
Our body gets the calories it needs from
the food that we take. As the food gets assimilated, the fine materiality in
our body gets reduced. When food intake is discontinued and nutrition is exhausted,
the fine materiality and the kamma- originated materiality that constitute the
body cease to function. All the differ- ent physical phenomena that constitute
the body are totally dependent on nutrition. The exhaustion of nutrition from
the previous meal and the cessation of the older materiality go together, just
as they had arisen together. The arising of nutrition from a later meal and the
arising of the new materiality also coincide.
If
you contemplate the enormous struggle of all living beings to obtain food, you
will realize the startling rate at which materiality changes in all living
things. Then the manner in which one sustains oneself from the moment of birth,
seeking to extend one’s life with food, will become evident. As one can visualize
the changing colours of the flame after refuelling with different fuel, try to
visualize the
exhaustionofafreshmeal’snutrimentwiththeconsequentchangesinmateriality. Focus
on the changes that take place from moment to moment. The arising of fresh materiality
as you eat, and the feeling of well-being experienced, like the gathering of
clouds, is the appearance of a new lease of life, called samudaya. The gradual
dwindling away of vigour after five or six hours, when the nutriment has been
consumed, is called nirodha. So the Buddha said, “When nutrition arises,
materiality arises; when nutrition ceases, materiality ceases.”
The knowledge
that has perceived the first, second, and third aspects of materiality is
called mundane right view, which develops into supramundane right view or path
knowledge after application.
Right
thought, the indispensable associate of right view, is also of two types:
mundane right thought and right thought as path knowledge. In our example
above, the visualization of the process of change in the flame is the function
of right view. What brings forth this visualization is right thought. Only when
right thought prevails can right view occur. The meditator’s insight into the incessant
arising and vanishing of materiality is due to the presence of right view.
Bringing right view into focus is the function of right thought.
It focuses one’s attention on the
unsatisfactoriness of life. The immensity of the need for food in all living
things, the need for a regular food intake, not less than twice a day; how one
feels when one is full, when one begins to feel hungry, and when one starves.
It lets one imagine the hypothetical conse- quences of a great famine in this
continent of Asia — how soon this whole continent would be turned into a vast
graveyard. These kinds of reflections are called right thought.
If one
contemplates the constant changes taking place in one’s body, even during a
single sitting one may discern the arising and vanishing of physical phenomena.
At the start of a sitting, nothing in particular is felt, for the body is at
ease. After a while, slight heat is often felt either in the legs or another
part of the body, then you may feel the heat intensify; then you might feel
numb; then a tingling sensation, then discomfort in the legs, etc. Such
changes, which are bound to occur, can readily be observed.
By closely
observing the phenomena within oneself, the continuous arising of new materiality
is perceived, like the gathering of clouds. Then at once, the disappearance of
those same phenomena is perceived, like clouds being wafted away by the wind.
This is the function of right view. The focusing of attention on directly
observable phenomena is the function of right thought. It is only with the
appropriate application of right thought that right view can clearly discern
the true nature of phenomena. In fact, such perception can occur in any posture
for, whether you notice it or not, phenomena arise and vanish all the time.
Once right view and right thought are
established as supramundane insight, three factors mature that can remove all
bodily and verbal misconduct, for which the latent tendency has accumulated.
These three factors are right speech, right action, and right livelihood. Then,
right effort means zeal in one’s undertaking. It also goes by the name “ātappa,” which
means “that which harasses the defile- ments.” Another name for right effort is
sammappadhāna. It has three
aspects: ārambha,nikkama,
and parakkama.Ārambha
ispromptitudeandexertion. Nikkama is alertness that does not tolerate sloth,
torpor, and indolence. Parakkama isvigour that never allows one to slacken in
one’s right efforts. It is due to the lack of this kind of effort that people
do not attain to jhāna
and path knowledge.
Right
mindfulness means the constant awareness that does not allow the mind to stray
from the object of contemplation even for a fraction of a second.
Right
concentration is steadiness of the mind that does not slip off its object of
contemplation.
These latter six
constituents of the path are also each of two types, mundane andsupramundane.
Here, we are concerned only with the supramundane factors.
These eight
factors are the Truth of the Path. Of these eight, right speech, right action,
and right livelihood appear automatically once a meditator has achieved insight.
The aim of insight meditation is to perceive the real nature of one’s body in
the ultimate sense, which dispels delusion. To develop insight, one needs right
mindfulness, right effort, right concentration, and right thought. With these
four factors as the locomotive, right view is ready for the inward journey. The
right track for the journey is just a fathom in length: the height of an
average human. This journey is the close observation of phenomena taking place
within one’s body, from head to foot. Then, concept will gradually yield to
perception. By doggedly pursuing this perception, one can, with sufficient
dili- gence, knock at the door of nibbāna in
seven days’ time. If not in seven days, it might take one month, or one year,
or two, three, or up to seven years. This is explicitly mentioned at various
places in the texts. Remember nirodha in its second meaning, i.e. the total
cessation of the five aggregates and rebirth is nirodha, which is nibbāna. This is the
supramundane nirodha.
“The
pleasure and joy arising dependent on materiality constitute the satis- faction
(assāda) in
materiality.”
In
the fifth aspect requiring proficiency in materiality, by the term “assāda” the text
means the pleasure one can enjoy in the favourable planes of existence: wealthy
human existence, the six celestial realms, or the brahmā realms. It means the physical
well-being, pleasure, and joy that can be experienced in those existences.
Here, we shall confine the explanation to human existence.
When
a pleasing visual object, such as a beautiful shape or colour,contacts the eye,
seeing occurs and a pleasant feeling coupled with joy arises. Just as ants are
very fond of honey or treacle, sentient beings are very fond of pleasure and
joy. Just as moths are captivated by the light of aflame,beings are captivated
by pleasure and joy.This is the pleasant aspect of materiality, i.e. the
delight in the eye and a visual object.
In
the same way, when a melodious sound contacts the ear, hearing occurs, and a
pleasant feeling coupled with joy arises. When a delicious taste contacts the
tongue, tasting occurs, and a pleasant feeling coupled with joy arises. When
something agreeable to the touch contacts the body, every part of which is
sensitive to touch,touching occurs, and a pleasant feeling coupled with joy
arises.
The mind may be likened to the
crystal-clear water that gushes up from a spring, for it manifests from the
heart-base in pristine purity. It can take any of the six sense objects as its
object. So when an agreeable sense object or mental object comes into its
range, either apprehension or comprehension occurs, and a pleasant feeling
coupled with joy arises. However, since we are currently discussing the
aggregate of materiality, the mind will not be dealt with here.
“The
transience, unsatisfactoriness, and instability of materiality constitute the
danger (ādīnava) in
materiality.”
In
the sixth aspect requiring proficiency in materiality, the transient nature of
materiality will be evident if one perceives the burden of seeking nutrition,
the arising and cessation taking place in one’s body, as in the analogy of the
man-sized flame. The daily struggle to earn a living, the constant care the
body needs, the arduous acquisition of wealth, are burdensome, and these
activities take place due to this body. When this truth is perceived by insight
knowledge, that is right view.
Liability to
disease and death, to all sorts of hazards such as fire, drowning, venomous
snakes, wild beasts, evil spirits, or accidents that might cause injury or
death, are all manifestations of the changeable nature of materiality. They are
obvious to one with right view. This is the sixth aspect.
I shall now illustrate the fifth and
sixth aspects. The British administrative authorities, in their campaign to get
rid of stray dogs, used poisoned meat, which was thrown about wherever there were
stray dogs. The dogs, being enticed by the flavour and rich taste of the bait,
rushed for it, little suspecting any danger. The result is obvious. Herein, the
enticing flavour and rich taste are the satisfac- tion in the poisoned meat,
the hidden poison in the meat is its danger. This is an illustration of how
pleasure lures the unwary and how danger besets them. Here the real culprits
are the four external enemies: the colour, the smell, the taste, and the poison
in the meat, and the four internal enemies: the eye, the nose, the tongue, and
craving. Poison alone would not have caused the death of the dogs unless it was
hidden in the meat. Poison hidden inside a lump of clay would be no danger
because it lacks the attraction. If the dogs had no eye, no nose, no tongue,
and no craving the attractive poison could not have endangered them either. It
is only because the external and the internal agencies worked together that the
dogs succumbed to them.
Let’s take another example, the example
of the baited hook in fishing. You should understand on proper reflection that
the materiality constituting your- self, your family, and all material objects
such as food, shelter, and clothing, are in reality like baited hooks. The
pleasure and joy arising from craving for all these things are just like the
attractions of the bait. It is because you have lustfully snatched them and
taken them to be your own property that you are subjected to the poisonous
influence of those possessions, being harassed daily. In fact, those
possessions are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and unstable materi- ality,
fraught with evil consequences.
How does impermanence oppress you every
day?
How does unsatisfactoriness
oppress you every day?
How does instability oppress you every
day?
Impermanence is the accomplice of death.
It is an ogre or a forest fire that devours everything. It consumes one’s food
from one’s mother’s milk until the last drop of water on one’s deathbed. It
also consumes the fresh cells and all forms of materiality, namely
kamma-originated materiality and con- sciousness-originated materiality that
are sustained by regular feeding. The ogre of impermanence devours everything
taken into our body, leaving nothing. It is just like feeding a huge flame with
oil. Try to perceive how, for instance, the nutrition that sustains the eye is
fully consumed by the ogre that works in the eye. Likewise try to perceive this
with respect to the other organs.
To
give a further example:
A certain man has a spendthrift wife. He
works hard and hands over all his earnings to her while she stays at home
squandering it. Give her a hundred, she makes short shrift of it; give her a
thousand, ten thousand, any amount — her desire for spending is never satiated.
Just imagine how a man would feel with such a wife who enslaves him and causes
his ruin. Likewise, the ogre of impermanence that lurks within us oppresses us
everywhere. Unsatisfactoriness also oppresses us in the same way. The way that
instability oppresses us is only too evident.
“The
abandonment of desire and lust for materiality constitutes the escape (nissaraṇa) from
materiality.”
In
the seventh aspect requiring proficiency in materiality, the Buddha points to
the escape, right now, from the clutches of materiality. When right view arises
in one who perceives the pleasures and dangers of materiality, that is the
escape from materiality. Those twin accomplices have been oppressing us
incessantly throughout the infinite cycle of rebirth.
The
truth of the origin of suffering is craving, which is manifested in desire and
attachment to the body. How do desire and attachment cling to one’s body? One
believes, “This is my body; this is my hand, my leg, my head, my eye, and so
on.” Furthermore, when the eye sees something, one believes, “I see it.”
Likewise one believes, “I hear it,” “I smell it,” “I taste it,” or “I touch
it.” The cessation of craving, which is the origin of all suffering, is the
escape from materiality.
It is only when craving is present that
new aggregates of materiality arise after one’s death. If craving is
extinguished right now, no fresh materiality will arise after death. This will
then be the last death, for there is no materiality or no “body” to suffer
another death. That is how one escapes from materiality. This should now be
quite clear.
The
remaining aggregates will be explained only in brief.
The True Nature of
Feeling
“O
bhikkhus, there are six kinds of feeling: feeling originating in eye-contact,
feeling originating in ear-contact, feeling originating in nose-contact,
feeling originating in tongue-contact, feeling originating in body-contact,
feeling origi- nating in mind-contact. When, on seeing a visible object, one
feels sad, neutral, or joyous, this is called feeling originating in
eye-contact. Similarly, on hearing a sound ... smelling an odour ... savouring
a taste ... touching some tangible object ... thinking some thought, when the
contact is felt in the mind and one feels sad, neutral, or joyous, that feeling
is called feeling originating in mind-contact.”
If something causes a pleasant feeling,
you call it “good”; if it causes an unpleasant feeling, you call it “bad.”
These are the criteria by which the world judges things, animate or inanimate,
and you value those things accordingly. So we set a value on visible objects
depending on how much pleasure they give to the eye. The greater the pleasure,
the higher the value. Similarly with the other sense objects. Remember the
great fondness of ants for honey or treacle that we illustrated in our
discussion on the aggregate of materiality.
The Origin and
Cessation of Feeling
When
some visible object, such as a shape or colour, contacts the eye, a continuous
stream of feelings caused by the contact arises. These feelings are called
“feelings originating in eye-contact.” When the visible object disappears, the
feelings cease immediately. The arising of the feelings in the eye is called
the origin of the feeling originating in eye-contact. The ceasing of those
feelings is called the cessation of the feeling originating in eye-contact. If
you want to experience the feeling again, you have to look at the object again.
The moment the contact between the object and eye is re-established, the
feelings in the eye
ariseagain.Themomenttheeyeceasestofocusontheobject,thosefeelingscease.
Likewise,
when some sound is produced and contacts the ear, a continuous stream of
feelings arises in the ear, called “feelings originating in ear-contact.” When
the sound disappears, those feelings cease at once. If the feeling is to arise
again, the sound must be repeated.
The
same with a smell: when it is produced and contacts the nose, “feelings
originating in nose-contact” arise in the nose. When the smell disappears, the
feelings cease.
Again,
if sweet or sour food is placed on the tongue, “feelings originating in
tongue-contact” arise at the tongue. The moment those tastes disappear, the
feelings cease.
When hard or soft, hot or cold, stiff or
flaccid objects contact the body, whether internally or externally, “feelings
originating in body-contact” arise, wherever the contact is made. When the
contact disappears, the feeling ceases totally. When some idea arises in the
mind, “feelings originating in mind-con- tact” arise. When the mind stops
thinking of the idea, the feelings cease at once.
The above six kinds of feeling are
always being experienced at their respec- tive sense bases. However, those
lacking in right view take them not just as feelings, but as “I see it,” “I
hear it,” etc. This is the tenacious, mistaken view called “personality view”
or “ego-belief” (sakkāyadiṭṭhi). When
pleasant feelings arise, the average deluded person thinks, “I feel fine.” When
unpleasant feelings arise, they think, “I feel depressed.” Thus the ego is
always assumed to exist with respect to all feelings that arise and vanish at
the six sense bases.
Just as the
microbes infesting a sore can only be observed through a micro- scope, so only
through insight knowledge can one observe the six kinds of feeling rapidly
arising and vanishing at their respective sense bases. All the six kinds of
feelings arise due to contact.
From Contact Arises Feeling
When a sense
object meets its corresponding sense base, the mind adverts to the external
sense object. That is what is meant by contact. Only when the mind adverts well
does apprehension arise, and only when the sense object is appre- hended does
feeling arises. Since the feeling arises only from contact, it is called
“feeling originating in contact.” It is like saying “Jack, son of Richard” for
clearer identification. Since feeling has contact as its origin, when contact
disappears, feeling ceases.
What
has been said about the fourth aspect concerning materiality applies here too.
Herein, right view means insight into the aggregate of feeling. It also means
penetrating knowledge of the aggregate of materiality.
The Satisfaction and Danger in Feeling
It was said
above that the pleasant feeling, which causes pleasure and joy, is the
satisfaction in materiality. With materiality, feeling is the agency that
brings pleasure and joy. With feeling itself, now as both the principal and the
agent, the satisfaction has double significance. Hence, the danger that lurks
in feeling is also far greater than with materiality, as it has a more
immediate effect.
The
feeling of enjoyment of an object occurs at its relevant sense base only while
the object and the sense base are in contact. With the disappearance of the
object at its relevant door, the feeling vanishes instantly. So we feel a
pleasant taste only while it is on the tongue or palate, and the moment we
swallow it, the feeling is no more. In fact, the feeling is lost even at the
upper end of the tongue itself. This transience is observable in the feelings
connected with all six senses. Therefore, contemplate hard to perceive the
constant oppression of feeling caused by its transience, instability, and
unsatisfactoriness.
The Escape from Feeling
The
means of escape is within you. The feelings that arise in you can never be
dangerous if you are not captivated by them. When the craving for feeling
ceases, the danger is simply not there at all. To one who does not care for
gold or silver, the dangers associated with them do not arise. In other words,
a penniless man need have no fear of thieves. It is only if one is highly
pleased with one’s property, that the dangers to that property cause worry. If
one does not cling to the property but is quite detached from it, the property
is not dangerous. Detachment from the feelings as they arise is the escape from
feeling.
The text for the
aggregate of perception does not differ much from that for the aggregate of
feeling, in most places; one has only to substitute the word saññā for vedanā. In the
definition it goes as: perception of a visual object, perception of sound,
perception of smell, perception of taste, perception of touch, and perception
of ideas.
From early infancy, one has learnt to
recognize and memorize things. Begin- ning from “That’s Mum,” “That’s Dad,”
“That’s Teddy,” to all the things that a child takes notice of — the time of
day, the directions, etc. — the process of noting and remembering things with
their names is what is meant by perception. Perceptions, of course, go with the
six sense objects. A visual object can only be recognized and memorized by the
eye, a sound only by the ear, and so on. Perception then widens to abstract
ideas, skills, knowledge, beliefs, etc., accord- ing to one’s upbringing, race,
tradition, culture, and the plane of one’s existence. The first five kinds of
perception should need no further explanation.
Dhamma saññā is the conception that perceives the
eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body (as the sense base), the mind (i.e.
concepts of good or bad, etc.); the sensations or feelings, concepts or
perceptions, volitions or will, applied thought, sustained thought, effort,
desire; greed, anger, pride, or conceit; confi-
dence,wisdom;killingasmisconduct,stealingasmisconduct,lyingasmisconduct; giving
as meritorious deed, virtue as meritorious deed, wisdom or attainment of
proficiency in insight training; and so forth. These, and a myriad other
percep- tions, are recognized and remembered. They are not taught, but learnt
from one’s natural environment and imbued by culture and tradition. One born in
a virtuous
familyislikelytoacquireperceptionsaboutvirtuousthings.Oneborninthefamily of a
hunter or fisherman is likely to acquire perceptions about wicked things. Thus
perceptions can have an infinite range. Contemplate diligently to gain insight
into perception as a separate element within yourself and in others.
When a person says, “I remember” or “I
know,” these are usually just instances of a deluded belief in the existence of
a person or a self when, in fact, there is no such thing. The truth is that
there are only phenomena, which arise and vanish due to relevant conditions.
For example, a leper can never see the carrier germs infecting the sores on his
body. With the aid of a microscope a doctor can let him see the germs, ever
arising and decaying. Then he should realize, perhaps to his consternation,
that the sores are not his, but the habitat of the germs only. Similarly, when
you gain insight, you can see empirically that there is no self but just
perceptions originating at the six sense bases. Only then do you perceive
rightly, which is insight knowledge. What you have all along recognized and
remembered as “my eye” is merely the material quality of sense cognition. What
you thought was “I see” is just feeling originating in eye- contact. What you
thought was “my seeing” is but the perception of form or colour. Try to realize
the truth of the other perceptions likewise. Then you will see that it is just
a play of the six perceptions on your mind, which is deluded by your own
ignorant bias into thinking and believing firmly that they are your acts of
knowing and remembering.
The
remaining six aspects in the aggregate of perception will be discussed later in
the discussion on the aggregate of consciousness.
Rūpasañcetanā means the
volition behind the function of seeing visual forms. So for the six mental
formations associated with the six sense objects we have six volitions. The
Buddha mentions volition in this context because it is the leading factor,
though there are many other mental formations such as: contact (phassa),
one-pointedness (ekaggatā),
attention (manasikāra),
initial application (vitakka), sustained application (vicāra), energy
(viriya), joy (pīti),
will (chanda), greed (lobha), hatred (dosa), delusion (moha), wrong view (diṭṭhi), pride (māna), envy (issā), meanness
(macchariya), worry (kukkucca), sloth (thina), torpor (middha), doubt
(vicikicchā), confidence
(saddhā), mindfulness
(sati), moral shame (hirī),
moral dread (ottappa), and wisdom (paññā).
The Analogy of the Train
In a locomotive,
the steam motivates the engine whose constituent parts function together and
drive the locomotive. The engine starts functioning due to steam-power and it
goes on working due to the presence of steam-power. All the parts of the engine
are motivated simultaneously so that they work in harmony, with the capacity to
pull the train at a good speed for long distances.
This body is like the train. The
heart-base is like the boiler of the engine. Volition is like the steam-power,
which motivates the moving parts of the engine. As volition arises, it
motivates the various parts of the body through the material quality that is
the element of motion. This motivating power is aston- ishingly powerful; it
acts very rapidly, and motivates all the limbs in the required manner of
movement. It is just like the train being pulled along the track by
steam-power. This is how volition drives bodily actions.
The volition
working behind speech may be compared to the whistle that the boiler
occasionally produces. The volition working in the mind may be likened to the
steam generated by the boiler.
Volition associated with greed directs
its motivating force onto the bodily, verbal, and mental functioning of the
body so that actions arise, which manifest greed. In the same way, volition
associated with hatred or anger motivates the functioning of the body, so that
bodily and verbal expressions and a mental attitude of anger are the result.
Other volitions, such as initial application, sus- tained application, or
energy, also motivate the bodily, verbal, and mental func- tions. They result
in applying the mind to an object (vitakka), or fixing the mind onto an object
(vicāra), or putting
effort into a task (viriya). Similarly, it should be understood that all
wholesome or unwholesome deeds, speech, and thoughts have the corresponding
volitions activating them. For instance, an act of faith is motivated by saddhā; when one is
mindful, sati is the underlying force, and so on.
Those who do not
understand the element of volition have conceit due to personality view.
Self-view is firmly entrenched in them. All their bodily move- ments are taken
as their own actions: “I sit,” “I stand,” “I speak,” “I do this,” etc. All
mental activities are taken as their own: “I think,” “I have an idea,” “I
remember,” “I know,” etc. The truth is that all our activities are just
expressions of their underlying volitions. Each is actuated by an appropriate
volition like the steam-power that motivates the locomotive. That is why, in
the aggregate of mental formations, the element of volition is singled out by
the Buddha from the other mental concomitants.
Some Examples of how Attachment to
Personality View Works
“I touch it” is a delusion about phassa.
“I feel happy,”
“I feel miserable,” “I am delighted,” “I feel sorry” are delusions about vedanā.
“I know,” “I remember” are
delusions about saññā.
“I have concentration” is
delusion about ekaggatā.
“I am paying attention to it” is
delusion about manasikāra.
“I apply my mind to such and
such” is delusion about vitakka.
“I keep my mind steadfastly on
it” is delusion about vicāra.
“I make an effort” is delusion
about viriya.
“I feel joyful” is delusion about
pīti.
“I want to do
this, to see this, to hear this, to go there, to come, to say, to know, to get,
to take” are delusions about chanda.
“I love her,” “I
like him,” “I adore them,” “I want it,” “I am very fond of that” are delusions
about lobha.
“I hate it,” “I
can’t bear that person,” “I am angry,” “I resent it,” “I am disappointed” are
delusions about dosa.
“I do not understand,” “I am confused”
are delusions about moha.
“I hold the wrong view” is delusion
about diṭṭhi.
“I won’t give
in,” “I wish to excel,” “I am superior to him,” “I am equal to him” are
delusions about māna.
“I envy him” is delusion about issā.
“I don’t want to share this” is
delusion about macchariya.
“I feel lazy” is delusion about
thina-middha.
“I can’t decide” is delusion
about vicikicchā.
“I revere him,” “I believe its
truth” are delusions about saddhā.
“I am not being forgetful” is
delusion about sati.
“I understand” is delusion about
paññā.
“I am ashamed to do evil,” “I
dread it” are delusions about hirī and
ottappa.
“I kill” is delusion about
self-view in the volition of killing.
“I steal” is delusion about self-view in
the volition of stealing.
“I make an
offering,” “I give a gift” are delusions about the volition behind giving charity.
Allthosedeeds,words,andthoughtsareegocentric.Apparentlygoodorbad,the
delusion of a self in them renders them all unwholesome. They are the
underwriters for a passage to hell. They are stumbling blocks to insight. They
are detrimental to the realization of nibbāna. They belong to this side of the
ocean of rebirths. Release from those beliefs means nibbāna, the yonder
shore of saṁ sāra. Attachment
to the deluded “I” in all actions is what draws you into the floods of saṁ sāra. Abandon-
ment of attachment to personality view means to cross the great ocean of saṁ sāra.
This is just a
random list of ways in which personality view, the darkest type of wrong view,
deludes the average person.
Since volition
is the key factor behind any action, if one can discard attach- ment to the
nonexistent self in respect of volition, personality view becomes extinct. If
personality view in volition can be eradicated from one’s psyche, the other
mental factors can never again be associated with the deluded self. That is why
the Buddha highlighted volition in describing the aggregate of mental forma-
tions. The remaining mental formations should be understood in the same way.
The True Nature of Consciousness
When someone wishes to see the moon, he
focuses his eyes on the moon. The moon’s image is then reflected onto a
sensitive material quality, which is the eye-base. The same principle holds in
respect of other clear, smooth surfaces like glass or water where the image of
the moon is reflected. The occurrence of the reflection at the eye-base has a
terrific impact comparable to a bolt of lightning. This impact on the
sensitivity of the eye arouses an instantaneous succession of units of
consciousness at the eye-base called “eye-consciousness.” When the viewer turns
away from the moon, the image disappears, and with it the eye- consciousness
also disappears. Then the viewer says he does not see the moon. What is called
“seeing” is, in truth, just the eye-consciousness. “Not seeing” is just the
disappearance of this eye-consciousness. Although images are reflected onto
clear, smooth surfaces like glass or water, no consciousness arises because the
materiality there is of the type originating in physical change. It is merely a
base that can receive the image called an “appearance-base.”
When you look into a mirror, your face
appears in the mirror; when you turn away, the image is no longer there. You
simply say you saw it there, and now you don’t see it there. However, you are
unlikely to realize that it is only eye- consciousness arising and vanishing.
This is the exposition of eye-consciousness.
By the same principle, when a sound
contacts the ear-base, a tremendous impact like a clap of thunder is felt on
the sensitive ear-base. At that instant, a rapid succession of units of
ear-consciousness arises at the ear-base. The moment the sound disappears,
consciousness ceases. You would simply say that you heard it, and now you don’t
hear it, but the truth about the phenomenon of ear- consciousness is rarely
realized.
When a smell contacts the nose, the
sensitive base for smell, nose-cons- ciousness arises incessantly. When the
smell disappears, the consciousness also instantly disappears. People say, “I
smelled it,” “I cannot smell it now.” Little do they realize that it is only
the phenomenon of nose-consciousness.
When
some tasty morsel is placed on the tongue, tongue-consciousness arises at the
tongue-base. When the object of taste leaves the tongue-base, the consciousness
disappears. “I tasted it,” “I don’t taste it now,” people would say, oblivious
of the arising and vanishing of tongue-consciousness.
When
the element of extension, heat, or motion contacts the body,
tactile-consciousness arises at the point. When the external object disappears,
tactile-consciousness disappears. If some cold water or a cool breeze touches
one’s back, the whole back becomes the sense base and tactile-consciousness
arises there. We then say, “My back feels cold.” When the water or breeze
disappears, the consciousness ceases, and we say there is no cold feeling
there. We do not realize that it is the arising and cessation of
tactile-consciousness. When we stay in the sun we feel hot and stuffy
throughout our body, but we rarely recognize it as the arising of tactile-consciousness.
Bodily feelings are also felt from time to time in the head, chest, stomach,
and so on. We know it aches when there is a sensation of stiffness; we know it
tingles when a limb is numb, we know it is painful, hot, tired, and so on. However,
more likely than not, we do not recognize those feelings as the arising of
tactile-consciousness. Remember here, too, the analogy of using a microscope to
examine a leprous sore.
There
is an ever-present process called “the element of apprehension” (manodhātu) depending on
the heart-base, which is so pure as to be lustrous. The mind-base is a
functional state of subconsciousness (bhavaṅga). When a visible object contacts the
eye, the impact is simultaneously felt at the mind-base. So when one is looking
at the moon, the image of the moon appears at both the eye-base and the
mind-base simultaneously. When the viewer turns away from the moon, the image
on the eye disappears instantly, but the image on the mind-base disappears
ratherslowly.Sotoo,whensoundsappearattheear-base,theysimultaneouslymake an
impact on the mind-base too. Similarly, smells, tastes and tactile-objects,
while impacting on their respective sense bases, also make impressions on the
mind.
Imagine
a piece of glass the shape and size of a man. Imagine a crystal ball, set
inside the human-shaped glass block. All sorts of external objects — houses and
trees, mountains and woods, men and animals, the sun, the moon, and the stars —
will be reflected onto the glass block and the crystal ball inside
simultaneously. You could see, for instance, the image of the sun on the glass
block and also on the crystal ball. This simile is to help you visualize the
phenomenon of the mind-base.
The
above is the detailed explanation of how the five sense objects appear at the
respective sense bases, while making their impressions on the mind-base
simultaneously.
Apart from those five sense objects
entering through the five sense bases, the mind-base can also generate an
infinite variety of mental objects just by applica- tion of thought. These
objects are purely mental. Whereas the five sense objects must present
themselves at their respective sense doors to make their impres- sions, the
mind-objects need not actually exist. Whatever has been seen, heard, felt, or
experienced can make its impression on the mind at the mind-base. The mind-base
has an infinite range of capacities differing from one being to another. So the
mind-bases of a Buddha, a Solitary Buddha, a Chief Disciple, a Senior Disciple,
or an Ordinary Disciple vary widely in their range. So too, for beings born
with three wholesome roots, with two wholesome roots, or without whole- some
roots; human beings, earthbound devas, Catumahārāja devas, the Tāvatiṁsa devas, the higher devas and the brahmās; the purity
and capacities vary enormously between each abode.
The
mind-base of the Buddha is incomparably pure and radiant. It can be conscious
of anything in the infinite universe, an infinite range of kammic forces, an
infinite number of beings, or an infinite range of conditioned phenomena. The
sublime Dhamma of the Four Noble Truths can arise as a mental object only in
those born with three wholesome roots, which implies a certain maturity by way
of perfections.
The Origin and Cessation of the Four Mental Aggregates
I shall now give
a brief exposition on the four mental aggregates: feeling, perception, mental
formations, and consciousness.
The Buddha
declared that the first three of those aggregates originate from contact. The
aggregate of consciousness originates from psychophysical phe- nomena. The
significance of this will be explained here. Although the aggregate of
consciousness is mentioned last in the Buddha’s exposition on the five
aggregates, in many ways it is the most important of the four mental
aggregates. The Buddha said:
“All
mental states have mind as their forerunner. Mind is their chief and they are
mind-made.”
Again, he said:
“Mind is the
lord of the six sense doors.”
So consciousness
is the premier among the four, or in other words, it is the leader of the other
three, the lord of those three. When we say a sense object appears on the sense
base, this appearance is caused by consciousness only.
Let us give an
analogy here. Suppose there is a sense object in the form of a juice-bearing
root. The root is first received by consciousness. Contact crushes it and
strains it. When the juice is produced and strained, feeling savours it,
feeling pleasant or unpleasant, and perception notes how it tastes — sweet or
sour. Then, on getting that information, volition starts motivating the
respective organs of the body to function. It expresses itself in bodily and
verbal action and in framing the mind, thus leading to mental formation’s part
in the mental process.
So contact is
the key factor for feeling, perception, and mental formations. However, it is
not the key factor for consciousness, which is the leader of them all. Yet
consciousness cannot function without feeling, perception, and mental
formations. That is why the Buddha says that the arising and cessation of
consciousness is dependent on mental properties. If consciousness is likened to
a flame, then feeling, perception, and mental formations are like the light of the
flame. When the flame goes out, the three die a natural death, instantly. If
the flame arises again, the three reappear together. If the arising and
cessation of consciousness can be understood, the arising and cessation of the
trio can readily be understood. Hence the arising and cessation of
consciousness will be ex- plained further.
The Origin and Cessation of
Subconsciousness
When a person is
asleep, the mind is in a state of subconsciousness (bhavaṅga). This very
subtle state of mind is always present in a living being, hovering around the
heart-base like clear water oozing from a spring. It is an inert state of mind
below the threshold of consciousness. So it cannot motivate the sense organs to
function, either in bodily, verbal, or mental action. It cannot advert to
mental objects. The heart-base is an offshoot of the four primary elements. Its
vitality and health depend totally on the vitality and health of materiality,
because the four primary elements are themselves dependent on the nutriment of
the body. Subconsciousness persists as long as the heart-base lasts. When the
heart-base ceases, subconsciousness also ceases.
For example, a
rainbow is seen due to the presence of rain clouds. Once the rain clouds are
wafted away by the wind, the rainbow cannot remain. To give another example, a
powerful deva, by his magical power, creates a string of highly combustible
material as he runs along, letting the string burn as he runs. The fireworks
would last only as long as the combustible string lasts, no longer.
If you reckon
how long it lasts, say, for an hour, in that time trillions of material
phenomena would have perished. Just as the deva’s string is made to appear
afresh along with him, while fresh materiality continues to arise in the
heart-base, subconsciousness also arises from it. Just as the string is
consumed by the fire, so also the heart-base is decaying all the time and with
it the subcon- sciousness too is decaying. The arising of fresh
subconsciousness is called the arising of consciousness. Its cessation is
called the cessation of consciousness.
The arising and
vanishing of subconsciousness can be perceived when con- templation is
exercised along with the materiality of the heart-base. It is too subtle to
discern by consciousness alone. Lacking practical means of observing it, one is
apt to rationalize, referring to this or that text, but rationalizing is not
conducive to insight knowledge. It is not called training in insight at all.
The Origin and Cessation of
Consciousness
I shall now
explain how the process of consciousness arises in the six sense bases.
When we look at
the moon, the image of the moon appears simultaneously at the eye-base and the
heart-base. The sense object, which is the image of the moon, rudely invades
the eye-base with terrific force. It is like the sparking when the steel hammer
strikes the flint in a lighter. The image of the moon makes its impact there,
like a bolt of lightning. Eye-consciousness arises in the eye at that instant.
Similarly, the terrific impression of the image of the moon appears at the
heart-base, and mind-consciousness is stirred up with dazzling intensity. It is
not unlike the lightning that flashes in rain clouds. When consciousness
arises, subconsciousness disappears. Eye-consciousness taking place at the
eye-base, and the flashes of mind-consciousness reacting to the contact at the
heart-base, thereby complete the function of receiving the impression of the
moon. This goes on for as long as the contact between the eye and the moon lasts.
When the viewer turns away, all those units of consciousness disappear. The
ignorant person thinks that he or she sees the moon. However, it is only the
occurrence of flashes of consciousness in the eye and the mind that take place.
Personality view clings to a delusive “I” based on the occurrence of
consciousness.
Just as darkness reasserts itself when a
flash of lighting disappears, con- sciousness ceases and subconsciousness
reasserts itself at the heart-base the moment the moon gets out of the eye. The
“not seeing” is noticed by the average deluded person who thinks, “I don’t see
the moon now.” Personality view makes him or her think so, of course. For had
there been a “person” who had seen the moon earlier, that person should have
died along with the cessation of “seeing.” This is the delusion dominating an
ignorant person.
The Noble Ones, being possessed of right
view, see the truth as it is. As contact occurs between the eye and the moon,
transient moments of conscious- ness occur that cognize the material object
called the moon. This transient consciousness occurs with dazzling flashes
inside the body, like flashes of light- ning. These conscious moments are as
fleeting as flashes of lightning in their disappearance too. This is how the
undeluded ones see it.
In the example of lightning, clouds are
not lightning, nor is lightning the clouds. Cloud is cloud, and lightning is
lightning. With a clashing of clouds, lightning occurs for just that fleeting
moment. The lightning thus produced does not go back into the clouds. Nor does
it go anywhere. It simply disappears. Try to extend this analogy to understand
consciousness of all the six kinds.
“Like the occurrence of lightning in the
sky, all things, whether mind or matter, occur in flashes as conditions arise
for such occur- rence. Quick as lightning, they are gone.” (Visuddhimagga)
During
a momentary blinking of the eye, seeing is momentarily interrupted. This is a
practical example showing the discontinuity of eye-consciousness. Seeing and
not seeing are quite evident. Just remember the analogy: lightning is
lightning, cloud is cloud. Regard consciousness as similar to the phenomenon of
lightning. Try to understand the instant of its arising, and the instant of its
cessation.
By
day, visible objects are everywhere within the awareness of the eye-base, so we
are easily deluded into thinking that we see them continuously. However, if you
are attentive, you can probably recognize the cessation of consciousness in
seeing one object as your attention is turned to another. The same process of
sense cognition takes place at the ear-base, the nose-base, the tongue-base,
and the body-base too.
While
various sounds come within the range of the ear, their impact is felt at the
ear-base and the heart-base. There, flashes of consciousness arise, only to
stop altogether the moment the sound vanishes. Then the transient flashes of
consciousness vanish and die. This process of arising and cessation constitutes
ear-consciousness.
Except during sleep, sense contacts are
always occurring at the five sense bases. None of them makes its impression
concurrently with another. At any given moment, the dominant sense prevails to
arouse consciousness. Not one remains even for a moment — each one that has
arisen ceases instantly. This characteristic of consciousness will become clear
if you contemplate properly.
The
Origin and Cessation of Mind-Consciousness
The
subject of volitional mind-consciousness is very profound. The flashes of
consciousness are highly transient, and arise independent of the five sense
organs. Here, only the basics will be explained. When aroused by external sense
objects through the five sense doors, consciousness flashes onto the mind,
which merely takes cognizance of it. Those flashes of consciousness function
like flashes of lightning that let one momentarily see the lay of the land in
the dark. So too with the sense-consciousness that arises from contact between
sense objects and the sense bases. They are merely recognized as such and such,
that is all. By themselves, they cannot activate the body, but merely let the
mind know that a certain thing is of this shape or colour, or this kind of
sound, smell, taste, or touch, and so on.
It
is only mind-consciousness, arising at the heart-base, that can motivate the
bodily organs and the mind itself, with the tremendous force of a storm or a
clap of thunder. It activates the parts of the body to produce bodily actions,
speech, or the appropriate frame of mind. Then the mind can dwell on a myriad
of mind-objects in the abstract. This is generally called “thinking.”
Volition is the power that causes every action like the steam
in a locomotive, steamer, or electricity-generating station. The heart-base is
the power-station from where arteries and veins branch out over the whole body.
Just as a power-station transmits electricity throughout the country along a
network of cables, the heart-base generates material qualities of motion in the
body when- ever the impulsion arises. The organs respond to the impulse immediately.
Whenever a fingertip or a small toe is hurt, the heart-base “knows” it at once.
These
similes are just aids to visualizing the complex psychophysical process. The
underlying principle is the main point. If one sees materiality, but the
principle of elements occurring from conditions is missed, one is apt to cling
to a delusive personality view, which will then predominate.
You
should reject personality view in the light of the truth. Do not let yourself
be deluded by the wrong view that there is such a thing as a person, and that
“I” exist; that such and such are my concerns, such are my doings, etc. See the
fact of psychophysical phenomena in everything within and around you. Try to
visualize the interplay of psychophysical phenomena whenever any action takes
place in you, from the slightest blinking to explosions of fury (if this ever
happens!). If you are vigilant, you can perceive the amazing events that are
just the incessant, conditioned occurrence of phenomena, quite independently of
you or your wishes.
Apparently,
this body seems quite solid, substantial, and unchanging. Its instability
escapes our attention. We are apt to think a thing is not changing under two
circumstances: when change is so rapid that we cannot normally notice it, or when
the thing does not change by its very nature. When you look at the blackness of
space, you never think it undergoes any change at all, because it is not a
changeable phenomenon.
All
psychophysical phenomena change billions of times within a blink of the eyes.
Yet we barely notice that whole period of one blink, for it seems so rapid to
us. This body changes at a staggering rate beyond normal comprehension. This
rapidity creates the illusion of continuity, an inborn notion strengthened by
nature. If sustained right thinking can be focused on the arising and cessation
of phenomena in and around you, you will come to understand the changeable
nature of all phenomena.
Let
me illustrate. Imagine a water tank the size of a man, filled with water and
placed upright. Think about the mass of still water in the tank. Imagine
pulling the tank towards you just slightly, say, for half an inch at the top.
You will see the water being disturbed and the whole mass of it being inclined
towards you. Next, imagine pushing the tank in the opposite direction, when the
water will incline away from you. Even if you just shake the tank very lightly
or tap it, you would notice that the water is disturbed. There is no solidity,
no unchangeable mass of water at all. Apply this illustration to the
psychophysical phenomena that make up your body, and understand their
changeability.
So,
psychophysical phenomena are mere processes; there is no substance at all in
them, not the tiniest atom that is solid or stable. That is why they are liable
to change like the water in the tank. This illustrates the transient nature of
things and the rapidity of change.
Now
I will illustrate the rapidity of action or motion. As you rise from bed, your
conscious mind impels your whole body to move through the element of motion,
which originates in the mind. Once that element arises due to your impulsion,
the previous posture of lying, which is temporary, ceases instantly. The sinews
and muscles of that lying posture die out there and then.
Try to visualize the change from the
lying posture to the newly-arisen sitting posture. The change is too rapid for
the undeveloped mind to comprehend — not to speak of seeing it with the eye. It
is only through insight that it can be compre- hended. Even with insight you
cannot catch up with the rapidity of the change of
phenomena,notevenonethousandthofitsspeed.Theordinaryhumanfacultiesare only
rapid enough to enable us to move about through the functioning of the element
of motion, which controls bodily movement. They cannot enable us to fly.
The
volition of one possessed of supernormal powers is so rapid as to master the
forces of the element of motion that can keep the body in the air. One who has
attained to uplifting joy (ubbegā pīti) can also
float in the air like a piece of fluff or a cloud. In both cases, volition has
attained supernormal dimensions. By supernormal dimensions is meant the power
that can “will” the forces of the element of motion to come into play. Of the
four primary elements, only the elements of extension and cohesion have weight.
In a human body, these two elements together weigh about fifty or sixty kilos.
When impulsion arises through the supernormal faculty or attainment of
uplifting joy, the element of motion lifts the whole body so that a state of
virtual weightlessness is achieved without effort. The body can float away as
lightly as a balloon takes to the air. However, a balloon’s flight is very slow
compared to jhānic flight. This
is mentioned here to show the power of impulsion, the inherent quality of the
element of motion, and the rapid change in material phenomena.
“Through the
pervasion of impulsion, which is the element of motion originating in the mind,
this body goes, stands or sits.”
The
element of motion may be compared to the blast of air exploding from the barrel
when a gun is fired. It pervades the various organs of the body when volition
to execute a certain action impels the mind. The material quality of motion
arises at those parts of the body and the desired movements occur. It may also
be compared to the steam that rushes out of the boiler in a steam engine,
providing the motive power to the pistons and crankshaft.
Impulsion and its Functions
I shall now explain the function of
impulsion (javana). The boiler of a locomo- tive is like the heart-base, the
steam-power is like impulsion, but whereas the steam-power pushes once at a
stroke, impulsion functions in seven successive moments. Impulsion is a
conscious process of tremendous rapidity. Its seven
strokesagitatematerialphenomenainthebodylikeamineexplodinginthewater. However,
unlike the water being agitated violently, impulsion is under the control of
volition, helped by the specific material qualities of expression (viññatti-rūpa). Therefore
the movements of the body organs are deliberate, co-ordinated, and orderly.
Impulsion occurs billions of times within a blinking of the eyes. There are
various kinds of elements of motion involved in any bodily movement. Take
walking, for instance. As a man walks, at each step various elements of motion
function throughout the body. It is impulsion that gives the necessary impetus
to these various elements of motion. It is through its amazing swiftness that such
initiation and co-ordination of all bodily functions are effected.
When impulsion
sends the message to lift the head, the previous materiality in the head dies
out to give way to the new materiality. For example, a firework explodes when
ignited. At that instant, the previously cool materiality of the firework is
replaced by fiery materiality. The actual process of change from cold to fierce
heat starts from the spot where ignition occurs and spreads throughout the
firework. When the element of heat undergoes change, all material qualities in
association with it change too. So, the elements of extension and motion
change, with all other material qualities of colour, smell, taste, and
nutritive essence that perish when the cold element perishes. In the ultimate
sense, the fiery hot material element and the whole materiality in the firework
arise afresh where the cold materiality has ceased.
People say that a person dies when the
notion of continuity ceases, i.e. their physical death is observable. In the ultimate
sense, however, new psychophysical phenomena arise only after the old phenomena
have perished, which is death. This constant perishing of phenomena is also
called cessation (nirodha) or dissolution (bhaṅga). It is only when one discerns the
ultimate truth of this cessation of phenomena that one gains insight. Though
one has mastered the seven books of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, or is a teacher on the ultimate
truths for one’s whole life, if one has not gained discernment through insight
one is just a learned man, not a wise man yet, for one has not empirically
understood the Abhidhamma. Unless one has understood the perishing and
cessation of phe- nomena through direct knowledge, a lifelong habit of teaching
about imperma- nence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self is futile.
I will now explain the arising and
cessation of consciousness flashing around the heart-base and activating the
whole body. Here again, the analogy of the train is useful. The incessant puffing
of the steam engine, its pushing and its exhaustion, stroke after stroke, is
evident on listening to it working. So it is helpful in visualizing the process
of the arising and cessation of phenomena. Lightning is another useful example.
The heart-base is like the clouds, con- sciousness is like the flashes of
lightning that occur in series of threes, or fours, and then disappear
instantly.
The steam engine analogy particularly
helps us to visualize the bodily move- ments, down to the slightest movement of
the eyelids, and the activating of consciousness that is constantly arising and
ceasing. Not only bodily movement, but verbal and mental activities also come
within its scope.
The example of
lightning helps us to visualize the sparks of consciousness that clarify
cognition at the six sense bases. The intensity of these sparks inside the
body, their arising and cessation, are comparable to lightning. The seven
strokes of impulsion are inconceivably rapid, so instead of following the text
literally, for practical purposes, we can assume that impulsion occurs only
once for a blink of the eye. This would be easier to comprehend.
With lightning,
both its arising and cessation are evident to the eye. Howev- er, the arising
and cessation of impulsion, with intervening moments of subcon- sciousness, is
not self-evident. One thinks that the sparks are uninterrupted, because the
arising and cessation of consciousness take place so rapidly. Actual- ly, the
arising of the impulsions is interrupted by inert moments of subconscious- ness
when the impulsion ceases. No practical example is available to illustrate this
intermittent phenomenon. One has to infer it from the appearance of different
mental objects at (supposedly) the same moment. Even while taking a step, various
things come to mind. As each new idea enters the mind, the previous object of
our attention is dead and gone. Each object is co-existent only with its
impulsion. So when we consider the diverse thoughts that our mind wanders to
while walking, we can see that the fleeting diversions represent moments of
interrupted impulsion. Consider also the process of speaking. With each
syllable uttered, there arises (at least) one impulsion that ceases with the
uttering of the next syllable. Similarly, with the consciousness at the
mind-base, each thought arises only on the cessation of the previous one.
The Origin and Cessation of Feeling,
Perception, and Mental Formations
At each step we take, or on seeing or
hearing something, pleasure or displeas- ure arises in us, which is feeling.
Each feeling arises and ceases, and a fresh feeling arises and ceases. Then
also the perceptions of “this is what is seen,” or “that is what is heard,” and
so on, arise and cease. Then fresh perceptions arise and cease again. What is
perceived at the left step vanishes with the advancing of the right step, and
so on.
Bodily, verbal,
or mental activities are taking place all the time, denoting the arising and
cessation of different volitions at each moment:
the arising and cessation of applied
thoughts;
the arising and cessation of
effort;
the arising and cessation of
pleasure and smiles;
the arising and cessation of
desire to do something;
the arising and cessation of lust
or passion;
the arising and cessation of
anger or hatred;
the arising and cessation of
conceit;
the arising and cessation of confidence,
etc.
Such volitions
are always observable. Without right view, however, the observation leads only
to false inferences of personality view. With the insight of right view, every
observation enhances the knowledge gained already. The arising of those
phenomena is called samudaya, and their cessation nirodha.
As
for the practice leading to the cessation of these aggregates, what has been
said with respect to materiality applies here too.
The Satisfaction and Danger in the Four Mental Aggregates
I shall now
explain the satisfaction and danger in the four mental aggregates.
The Satisfaction and Danger in Feeling
In getting what one wants, or in finding
what one is looking for, or in experiencing what one longs for, one is pleased.
The pleasure and joy derived from such experience is the satisfaction in
feeling. The impermanence, the unpleasantness or unsatisfactoriness, and the
instability of all four mental aggre- gates are its danger.
The example of the poisoned meat given
to illustrate the satisfaction and danger in materiality is relevant here too.
From the viewpoint of the precious opportunity of the Buddhasāsana, the
carefree attitude of the multitude who are missing the chance even to escape
from the four lower realms is a common instance of the satisfaction and danger
in the four mental aggregates. Imprisoned in the filthy confines of sensuality,
those ignorant people are constantly op- pressed by their own greed, ill-will,
and delusion. They have a stubborn attach- ment to personality view, and have
thus booked their passage to the remotest depths of hell.
The dangers of the aggregates of
materiality and mentality are both charac- terized by transience,
unsatisfactoriness, and instability, but the transience of mentality is far
more rapid. This should be clear from our discussions above on the arising and
cessation of these phenomena.
I shall now
explain the oppression caused by the transience of feeling. All people have, at
some time, been born in the human and celestial realms, and also in the brahmā realms. There
they enjoyed the best of sensual pleasures and the glory of the brahmā realms.
However, being subject to death, which ruthlessly consumes every conditioned
existence without leaving any trace, none can ever recollect those previous
enjoyments. Such is the transient character of feeling. In the present
existence, too, they are forever pursuing sensual pleasures, which cause them
only suffering. This yearning for pleasant feeling is only too likely to
continue for innumerable rebirths. Thus they are enslaving themselves to the
transience of those pleasures. This is how people are forever oppressed by the
transient character of feeling.
How, then, does the aggregate of feeling
oppress sentient beings with suffer- ing? Herein, suffering has these aspects: 1. dukkha dukkha — the suffering of physical and
mental pain;
2. saṅkhāra dukkha — the
suffering of conditioned states;
3.
vipariṇāma dukkha — the
suffering of changeability or instability.
The first aspect is too obvious
to need elucidation.
Whatever pleasant feeling one may be
enjoying now is not obtained as a favour from any external power. It is only
because one has taken the trouble to acquire merit through giving, virtue, or
concentration that pleasant results are enjoyed in this existence. Those
meritorious deeds in previous lives have condi- tioned the present state of
well-being. Even when favourable circumstances prevail in the present life, the
enjoyment of pleasure still has to be contrived, for pleasure is not built into
your system. All too often, pleasurable feeling eludes you even while you are
supposed to be having some fun. This is because you can actually feel the
pleasant feelings only when they contact your six sense bases. So, pleasurable
feelings are highly ephemeral, and therefore unsatisfactory. This is the
suffering of conditioned states.
Again, to what
extent can you keep your wealth intact? Its nature is to diminish. It can be
destroyed in no time if circumstances so conspire. Even if your wealth stays
with you, what about your health and ability to enjoy it? If you should go
blind now, what use to you is the greatest show on earth? It is the same with
all your senses. Anyway, you are going to leave all your wealth behind when you
die, so you wish for continued enjoyment in future existences. You try to
perpetuate pleasure by acquir- ing merit. You do acts of merit — giving
charity, keeping precepts, cultivating
concentrationforcalm.Alloftheseactionsareeffortsaimedatmaintainingpleasure in
perpetuity. So even a bhikkhu makes efforts just to perpetuate the suffering of
rebirth, not to speak of a lay person keeping the precepts. Making a living is
also full of trouble. Hankering after the heart’s desire is full of trouble.
The trouble is compounded if one uses improper means to get what one wants.
Misdeeds open the gates of hell for one who resorts to them. These are the hazards
of feeling.
The Satisfaction and Danger in
Perception
The satisfaction in perception is
particularly great. How is it great? Percep- tion bestows one with certain
aptitudes and propensities. It may enable one to become highly skilled, even to
become a genius, but this accomplishment may be one’s undoing because one is
apt to be highly conceited. Perception fills one with preconceived ideas and
biases. Puffed up with success, one is led into believing that one possesses
the world when, in fact, one is possessed by the world. The satisfaction in
perception pushes one down into the quagmire of sensuality, from where one
sinks to the depths of hell.
The
danger of perception lies in its transience. It is only when some agreeable
thing is happening that the perception of well-being can be felt. Otherwise,
the perception of enjoyment is not available. Sense objects are never stable.
They do not please one constantly. Therein lies the danger of perception. For
detailed arguments, what has been said about feeling applies here too.
The Satisfaction and Danger in Mental
Formations
Whenyouseeavisibleobject,itmaybeeitheragreeableordisagreeabletoyou.
This is “feeling originating in eye-contact.” When you hear a sound, it may be
either agreeable or disagreeable to you. This is “feeling originating in
ear-contact.” Similarly, smell causes “feeling originating in nose-contact,”
taste causes “feeling originating in tongue-contact,” touch causes “feeling
originating in body-contact,” and thought causes “feeling originating in
mind-contact.” Personality view takes
allthosephenomenaas“I,”butrightviewrealizesthattheyaremerelyphenomena.
It is only when
same agreeable object contacts one of the six sense bases that pleasant feeling
can arise. Only then can pleasant perception arise. The moment contact is
broken, the pleasant feeling and the pleasant perception cease and perish. It
is quite observable how you feel pleasure or displeasure through a certain
contact at any of the sense bases. Observe them then, and you can probably understand
their pleasant aspect and their dangers.
So,
ultimately, everyone is hankering after some contact for which they have a
fancy, some agreeable contact at the six sense bases, which they regard as
pleasant. The world includes humans and also animals.
The Analogy of the Robot
Let me illustrate the arising and
cessation of the aggregate of mental forma- tions. Imagine a robot the size of
man contrived by the supernormal powers of a man who has, through
concentration, mastered the supernormal knowledge regarding phenomena. By means
of his powers he has given his robot six sensitive bases that respond to six
mirrors, one for each sense door. So when the mirror for the eye is focused
onto the eyes of the robot, the robot’s sensitivity at its eye-door and at its
heart-base react to it simultaneously. The mechanism that controls the parts
responds in harmony. In this way the robot stands, sits, or walks like a man.
When the special mirror is withdrawn, the motion of the robot stops abruptly.
For the motive force within the robot, available only through contact with the
mirror that is outside the robot, is dead when the necessary contact is broken.
The robot is now a piece of hardware only. The same experiment with the
remaining five sense doors can be imagined.
From
the analogy of the robot we should understand these facts. If the mirror were
focused on the robot for the whole day, the robot would keep moving like a
manthewholeday.Therobothasnolife,andneitherhasthemirror.Thereaction aroused
within the robot’s body, on contact with the mirror at the appropriate sense
base, is a distinct, separate phenomenon. It does not belong to the robot, nor
does it belong to the mirror. The robot’s eye-door cannot produce the
sensitivity by itself, neither can the mirror. Both are dead things with
certain qualities only. The mechanical contrivance of the robot is like the
material phenomena in us. The mirrors are like the six external sense objects.
The sensitivity that is being activated within the robot is like the four
mental aggregates.
In cultivating insight for right view,
forget the person, or even the human shape. Concentrate only on the phenomena
that rise and fall. Focus on the elements that find expression in the body.
Phenomena
arise and cease due to a given set of conditions.
When
those conditions cease, the arising of the particular
phenomenon
ceases.
Whenconditionsprevailforthearisingofdesire,desirearisesattheheart-base.
This replaces all the previous physical phenomena in the body. All mental and
physical phenomena including the materiality originating in kamma, temperature,
nutriment, and consciousness undergo a change from the arising of desire.
Imagine
a mine exploding in a pond and the violent impact caused to the water. Apply
the underlying principle of the explosion and the water, when some strong
emotion arises. Doing it fruitfully is not easy, but that is the way. Strive
hard. Success depends on three factors: the example has to be appropriate, the
mental and physical phenomena must be observed as they really are (unbiased by
perceptions of personality or shape), and the experience must be strong enough
to be observed. For instance, when strong passion arises, its arising may be
observed from a detached observer’s view, and the example of the mine explosion
brought to bear upon it.
As greed arises,
the expression on a person’s face can be noticed by a careful observer. The
expression is the manifestation of the new materiality that has arisen in that
person. In other words, the mental phenomenon of greed can be inferred from the
physical expression. If one reflects on one’s own mind, the arising of a new
frame of mind caused by some emotion, like greed for instance, is only too
evident. When the object of greed has been enjoyed (say, a delicious meal has
been eaten), or when it disappears, or if one reflects on its disgusting
aspect, the greed vanishes like the ebbing of the tide in a narrow creek. The
vanishing of the volition of greed is quite evident. This is how greed, a
mental formation, sometimes arises within a person and how it ceases.
A warning here:
do not confuse the phenomena with the personality. Focus on greed as a distinct
phenomenon, not as belonging to a person. When one volition is seen through,
the other volitions can be understood. All volitions arise and cease in much
the same way — conceit, malice, covetousness, for instance — as and when the
necessary conditions prevail. It is observable when one’s spirits rise and one
is ready to exert. One sees the arising of the volition of effort, and the
cessation later. Likewise with the arising and cessation of delight, or the
desire to do something, such as, “I want to go, but not now,” or “I want to do
this, but not just yet,” etc. The pure volitions like confidence, generosity,
or mindfulness, and the acts of charity, virtue, or meditation expressing those
volitions, can also be observed.
Whenever the arising and cessation of
one distinct volition is closely ob- served within oneself, contemplate on the
fresh arisings and cessations of the aggregate of materiality.
Remember the
tank of water. Also, remember the explosion in the pond. The analogies must be
clear to you. The process of arising and cessation taking place in all
phenomena must be clear too. The cessation of a certain element is called its
impermanence. When the psychophysical phenomena in the body undergo a change,
it is cessation and death. Try to visualize that death taking place in you
every moment. Never despair if you have not been successful in your effort. You
have to strive until you gain the right view.
As
for the practice leading to the cessation of the four mental aggregates, the
approach does not differ much from what was said regarding materiality. One
contemplates the aggregate of materiality to gain right view about physical
phenomena. One should contemplate the mental aggregates to gain right view
regarding mental phenomena. The remaining factors of the Eightfold Path pave
the way for right view, which is crucial.
The Danger of Impermanence in the Five Aggregates
The satisfaction and danger that lie in
the aggregates of materiality, feeling, and perception have been discussed
above. The danger characterized by impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and
instability is crucial for a clear under- standing. Skill in the two aspects of
the arising and cessation of phenomena is the proper way to understand the
dangers lurking in all the aggregates of existence. Of the three forms of
danger, that of impermanence is the key because once that is grasped the other
two will become evident. So I shall dwell further on impermanence, which
underlies the truth of the cessation of all conditioned phenomena.
Among the eleven fires 1 that constantly
burn all mental and physical phenom- ena, the fire of death, which is the
abiding danger of death, is subtle. It is not seen with the physical eye. Its
heat is not tangible. Yet it burns inexorably within us and consumes all mental
and physical phenomena, which is obvious. This fire is far more pervasive and
greater than any conflagration on earth. It extends as far as the infinite
universe and it endures as long as the endless cycle of rebirths.
I shall expand
on the analogy of the flame and the fuel. The flame in the shape of the human
body is a composite of eight kinds of inseparable material qualities (aṭṭhakalāpa). However,
not all the eight can be called fire. Visible form characterized by colour is
the material element called vaṇṇa,
but it is not fire. The primary element of extension provides the basis for the
fire, but it is not fire. What holds materiality together is the element of
cohesion, but it is not fire. The motion of the flame is the element of motion,
but it is not fire. The smell of any object is the quality of odour (gandha),
but it is not fire. The taste of any object is the quality of taste (rasa), but
it is not fire. The nutrition in any object is the quality of nutritive essence
(oja), but it is not fire. The element of fire is a separate phenomenon, which
can be felt by touch. Most Buddhists are familiar with the above eight material
elements. However, very few understand that each is a distinct phenomenon.
Understanding them as such is important.
So, of the eight
inseparable material qualities, only one is the phenomenon called fire, the
other seven are its fuel. The fire is sustained by those seven kinds of fuel.
As one contemplates hard on physical phenomena, the startlingly rapid
succession of fresh materiality that appears is the phenomenon called arising.
Wherever new materiality arises, the old materiality has been con- sumed. Thus
all materiality that has arisen a moment ago vanishes. This vanishing is the
phenomenon of death, which must not be confused with the phenomenon of burning.
It is the function of fire to burn, but the function of death is to vanish
after having arisen. The primary element of heat, which has the specific
quality of burning, consumes or burns up the other seven material qualities,
which always occur together. The “fire of death” (metaphorically) consumes not
only its conascent seven material qualities, but also consumes the primary
element of heat. The element of heat has the “burning” quality, as
1 The eleven fires
are: (i) lust (rāga),
(ii) hatred, anger, or ill-will (dosa) , (iii) delusion (moha) , (iv) birth (jāti), (v) aging
or decay (jarā), (vi) death
(maraṇa), (vii) grief
(soka),
(viii) lamentation
(parideva), (ix) physical pain (dukkha), (x) sorrow or mental pain (domanassa),
and (xi) despair (upāyāsa).
distinct from
the phenomenon of death, which has the “vanishing” quality. This distinction is
stressed here.
An Illustration
The human body is like the flame. All
material elements from the smallest atom to the great earth itself are flames.
All living things from the tiniest flea to the Akaniṭṭha Brahmā are flames. The flames are governed by
the element of heat. All objects, animate or inanimate, are governed by the
phenomenon of death, or the “fire” of death. In the flame (whether big or
small) seven of the eight kinds of materiality are the fuel that is constantly
being consumed by the element of fire, the eighth quality. All materiality,
animate or inanimate, is fuel to the fire of death. The bodies of all beings,
all vegetation, all material objects, are like burning cinders, blazing flames,
or furnaces of the fire of death. All of them are the fires of the heat element
too, one of the four factors that sustain materiality. However, the element of
heat has the quality of variation in temper- ature. So this quality is the
underlying phenomenon in all changes in tempera- ture. The whole body is both
cold and hot inside. The cold is conducive to cold materiality; the heat is
conducive to hot materiality. The nutrition derived from our daily meals is the
fuel for the element of heat inside our body. While there is nutriment in the
stomach, the element of heat is kept burning inside the body, causing fresh
materiality to arise.
Bodily movement causes a faster arising
of fresh materiality. If one observes mindfully (a prerequisite for knowledge)
as one walks, one can perceive the materiality within the whole body being
powerfully agitated (like lightning or an explosion) and the fresh materiality
arising with startling rapidity. No sooner has fresh materiality arisen than
its cessation follows. This arising and cessation can be felt if one focuses
attention on the body while walking. These successive fresh elements of
materiality are ephemeral — they arise while walking is taking place. Focus
your attention on the moving body to realize the phenomena at the point of
arising and vanishing. Fresh materiality arises only when the previous materi-
ality has vanished. In other bodily movements and postures the same phenom- ena
can be observed. What people describe as, “My back is stiff,” or “My legs are
tired,” etc., are the manifestations of rapidly changing materiality. Old
material- ity is constantly perishing where fresh materiality is arising.
Changes in the
body due to food, change of season, illness, or cuts and bruises, are
superficially noticed by everybody, but lacking insight, most people just
think, “My body hurts,” or “I feel ill,” etc. The personal identification of
phenomena with a vague sense of “I” always predominates for the average person.
This persistent belief has the dire potential of pushing one down to the lower realms
of existence.
It is only by gaining right view that
this liability to fall into the lower realms can be prevented. Right view must
be cultivated because personality view is inherent in most people. It is, so to
speak, built into their very system. It can, however, be uprooted with due
diligence. When a house is on fire, the owner of the house will be careful to
see that every flame is put out. He will not rest until he has extinguished the
last trace of fire, since even an ember can flare up at any time and consume
the house. Similarly, if you want to be safe from the lower realms, you need to
be diligent, constantly checking that personality view does not linger in you
regarding the physical or mental phenomena occurring within you. Through
repeated moments of right view, insight will develop, which is the only
effective weapon against personality view.
The
Analogy of the Fire-Worshipper
Personality
view is not just ordinary wrong view, but the gravest wrong view. There is, for
instance, the wrong view of fire-worship. When a child is born, the
fire-worshipper’s parents kindle a fire for the child. For sixteen years the
parents keep the fire alive by refuelling it regularly with ghee or butter.
When he is sixteen, the parents ask their son whether he will remain as a
layman or become a recluse and take up the practice that will lead him to the
brahmā realm. If the
boy chooses to become a recluse, the parents hand over the sacrificial fire to
him. The recluse then takes upon himself the duty of feeding the fire with the
best ghee or butter. The purer the fuel, the more meritorious is the
fire-sacrifice. He takes the sacrificial fire wherever he goes. He keeps the
flame alight constantly throughout his life. By this dutiful sacrifice he earns
merit said to lead to rebirth in the brahmā world. This fire-worshipper is
virtually a slave to his sacrificial fire. For as long as he lives, maybe a
hundred years or more, his servitude persists. For as long as his wrong belief
in the virtue of the fire sacrifice persists, he will serve the fire dutifully.
This is, of course, a case of saṅkhāra dukkha, the
tyranny of conditioned states. It is the nature of fire to consume whatever
fuel it can lay hold of. Searching for fuel to keep the fire alive is therefore
never-ending serfdom, eternal suffering.
The
analogy of the fire-worshipper is this: All beings who have strong attachment
to “self,” which is but the five aggregates, exhaust themselves to maintain
their lives, but they are only feeding the fire that consumes from within. The
fire of death is kept alive, consuming fresh materiality and mentality, being
sustained by regular feeding.
All Beings are Fuel to the Fire of Death
Human existence
is fuel for the fire of human death. A deva’s existence is fuel for the fire of
a deva’s death. A brahmā’s
existence is fuel for the fire of a brahmā’s death. Almsgiving done to acquire
merit for these forms of existence is merely trouble taken to feed the fires of
these existences. It virtually means cultivating the fields where these fires
are to thrive. Keeping the precepts to acquire merit
— whether five, eight, or ten precepts
— is merely cultivating the field to reap a good crop of fires. Similarly,
developing concentration or the four divine abidings is merely cultivating the
field of fires. In the beginningless cycle of rebirths, every being has done
infinite deeds of giving, and has reaped the results of infinite existences as
human beings or as devas. All of those existences have been consumed by the
fire of death. Not a particle of ash remains. In each of these existences, the
nurturing of one’s life, from the time one could look after oneself until
death, is just feeding the fire of death. Nothing remains at the time of death.
There is no fundamental difference between such subsistence and maintaining the
sacrificial fire of the fire-worshipping recluse.
This
analogy is given to drive home the truth of the impermanence of all
materiality, the danger that besets all living beings.
Try to Understand the Phenomenon of
Death
In spite of the
inevitability of death, most people usually ignore it. You should meditate to realize
the omnipresence of death. Try to visualize the ceaseless burning
ofthefireofdeathinallthefourpostures:standing,sitting,walking,andlyingdown.
All
the merits acquired in the past through giving, virtue, or meditation for calm,
if they were aimed at prolonging existence, are futile. The acquisition of
merit now aimed at prolonging existence in the future will lead to the same
fate. The burdensome tasks that one undertakes to support one’s present
existence are no different either. All these efforts merely serve as fuel for
the fire of death. This is to impress upon you the futility of all human
efforts, however meritorious, aimed at the continuation of existence.
The Five Aggregates and the Four Noble Truths
The five aggregates, being truly
impermanent, are unsatisfactory. This is the Noble Truth of Suffering.
Attachment to the five aggregates as one’s own proper- ty, or one’s own self,
and the craving for existence and rebirth, is the origin of suffering. This is
the Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering. The liberation from craving, which
is the same as the escape from the five aggregates, is the Noble Truth of the
Cessation of Suffering. The Noble Eightfold Path beginning with right view is
the Noble Truth of the Path Leading to the Cessation of Suffering.
The third question relates to nibbāna — its nature,
the zeal, happiness, and peace that its attainment holds, and the development
of the recollection of the tranquillity of nibbāna (upasamānussati).
Regarding
your request about the recollection of nibbāna, it is an exercise that properly
belongs to the Noble Ones only, who have realized nibbāna and experienced its peace. So it is
not a relevant meditation practice for you, Maung Thaw. You have not realized
nibbāna yourself and
the peace of nibbāna is
understood only on its realization. What it would mean to those who have
realized it is therefore conjecture, and conjecture is not mental development.
I believe you have some degree of peace pertaining to nibbāna, but it is
only temporary; it is not yet a distinct element to be reflected on by way of
mental development. It is shrouded by defilements both before and after it.
However, a recollection on the peace of nibbāna, even conjecturally, is highly worthwhile,
so I will give a reply that should help you to think on the right lines.
We
have seen how realization of the dangers in the five aggregates brings about
the cessation of craving, which is the origin of all ill. That is the nature of
peace (santi), which is nibbāna.
It is also the escape from the five aggregates of existence.
The analogy of the fire-worshipper
illustrates the folly of ignorant people who fail to grasp the dangers of
impermanence and death — the two great fires that consume all forms of
existence. There is such a thing as the quelling of those two fires, which is
peace. If you fail to see death as a distinct phenomenon, it is impossible to
understand what is meant by escape from existence, the element of deliverance.
It is only when sufficient insight is gained into the real nature of death as a
phenomenon, that the significance of deliverance may be realized.
In the endless
round of rebirth there is never such a thing as a
person
or a self; there are only elements and their phenomena.
Ifyouwatchthewatersofariverandcontemplatewell,youwillunderstandhow
the cold element (which is only an aspect of the element of heat) merges with
other
materialqualitiesandflowson,alwayschanging.Intheeternalcycleofrebirththere is
only an endless stream of phenomena, the five aggregates of existence,
incessantly flowing like the waters of a river, and no person or self ever
exists. If the fertile element of craving, the origin of all existence,
prevails in the five aggregates, this cycle of rebirth will go on without end,
and no escape is in sight.
59
When right view
arises and realizes the true nature of existence, supra- mundane insight
knowledge extinguishes craving instantly. This extinction of craving is the
element of deliverance. Distinguish between death and deliver- ance. Death is
the voracious fire that consumes all materiality and mentality. Deliverance is
the coolness, the calm, the peace, that allays and quenches the fire of death.
This element of deliverance is unique since it is not dependent on, or associated
with, any other element for its existence. Just as the sky cannot be burnt by
fire, washed away by water, or destroyed by any other means, so too the element
of deliverance, being extremely subtle, is not affected by the fires of birth,
decay, death, lust, hatred, or delusion. It is the fire-exit or escape from the
eleven fires that constantly burn all beings who have not realized it. Since it
has no birth, there is no beginning to it. It cannot be identified or counted.
Being deathless, there is no end to it.
“This phenomenon
of release is intelligible only by supramundane insight, it is indefinable, it
is infinite: its luminosity surpasses the sun at its brightest.” 1
In the above
quotation, “intelligible only by supramundane insight” connotes the peace
perceived through attainment to supramundane knowledge. The reality of the fire
of death and other fires such as lust, hatred, delusion, birth and aging, has
to be properly understood, and the moment it is understood, its antithesis of
calm, tranquillity, or peace is realized.
“Indefinable” means that it cannot be
said when it began or when it will end, or when it arises or does not arise. It
cannot be said where it exists, or at which point it is present. It cannot be
identified as, “This is the peace of such and such a Buddha, of such and such a
Solitary Buddha, of such and such an Arahant.” It cannot be classified as
superior or inferior, such as, “The peace of a Buddha excels that of other
Arahants,” etc. Put in another way, the peace of the Buddha and that of
Khujjuttarā the maid who
became an Arahant cannot be distin- guished.
“Infinite” means
the peace realized by the Arahants throughout saṁ sāra cannot be arranged in chronological
order.
“Luminous”
means that in all the three mundane realms mentioned above, the fire of death
glows fiercely. Throughout saṁ sāra, countless
existences have been devoured by this fire, and it is still burning
voraciously. For the indefinite future too, this fire will go on burning,
consuming all phenomena that arise. The fear of death is universal. Such is the
intensity of the fire of death. In the
1 Brahmanimantana
Sutta, Mūlapaṇṇāsa, Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta 49.
supramundane
sphere, the Dhamma shines that is called the element of deliver- ance or
release. Remember the radiant peace attained to by innumerable Bud- dhas,
Solitary Buddhas, Chief Disciples, and Disciples.
This is a brief
attempt at describing nibbāna
which defies description.
Regarding
your query about how a person attaining nibbāna finds peace, the answer is that nibbāna is not found
by any person. This is simply because nibbāna is, whereas a person or a self is
not.
Only phenomena,
and no being or soul exists.
In discussing
nibbāna it is vital
not to confuse actuality with concept. The average person, i.e. one who has not
gained insight, is full of preconceived notions, ideas, and ideologies, and is
apt to be led astray by them. One’s own ideas of peace usually dominate. For
instance, there is the solidity of the body. If one fails to see the material
quality of extension, which is manifested as solidity or support, one will
simply think that it is the solidity of one’s own body. So one is still an
ignorant person. One is unable to understand real peace, for real peace does
not belong to a person. It is never one’s own peace or the peace that one
enjoys. Similarly, the elements of cohesion, heat, motion, greed, anger, etc.,
need to be understood in the ultimate sense, if one is to comprehend nibbāna.
Aging and death are common to all. If
one thinks that one has grown old, or that one must die one day, that is just
common mundane knowledge. Because of the dreadful, false “I” concept, one
loathes aging as happening to one’s person. One fears death only because one
holds tenaciously onto existence, which one calls one’s life. Overwhelmed by
this craving for existence, one fails to under- stand death as a distinct
phenomenon. Unless one knows it as such, one is an ignorant person incapable of
understanding nibbāna.
One can talk accurately about nibbāna
only when one has discarded personality view and gained the right view into
elements and phenomena.
The flux of phenomena, ever perpetuating
the cycle of rebirth, is just a series of arising and cessation, births and
deaths, that occur thousands of times within a blink of the eyes. The process
is incessant and inexorable. Since the twin root causes of ignorance and
craving are present, this incessant perishing of gross phenomena takes place,
consumed by the eleven fires within oneself. At death, the process continues as
a fresh existence in one of the three realms, accompa- nied by the eleven
fires. When ignorance and craving are extinguished, then the mental and
physical aggregates in that existence do not continue as a fresh existence. The
extinction of the eleven fires is the escape from the clutches of death.
Whereas the compounded existence of elements is conventionally called a being,
when the “being” has realized the element of deliverance or peace, that element
itself might be called the one who has attained nibbāna (parinibbāna).
Just because saṁ sāra is
beginningless and endless, one should not have any concept of time regarding
nibbāna. Again, just
because innumerable Buddhas, Solitary Buddhas, and Noble Disciples have entered
parinibbāna, one should
not associate nibbāna
with numbers.
The idea of the endless cycle of rebirth
pertains only to mental and material phenomena that are subject to the process
of arising and cessation, or momen- tary births and deaths. Don’t let that
lengthy process linger in your mind when you consider nibbāna. For nibbāna is real,
whereas time is a concept. Saṁ sāra is infinite,
but nibbāna cannot be
said to have any beginning at all. One is apt to get confused since nibbāna is the very
antithesis of saṁ sāra. Saṁ sāra is an endless
process that defies measurement. Nibbāna
exists in the ultimate sense, whereas the existences of beings are always
changing and do not remain for a moment. Do not think of nibbāna with any
reference to the transient world. Do not wonder about the present location of
the former Noble Ones. For example, as a train moves along, trees at a distance
seem to be moving along with it, but in fact the trees are stationary.
Similarly, saṁ sāra moves on like
the train, but nibbāna is
motionless like the distant trees. The reflection of the moon at its zenith
would appear in every tray of water, if trays were placed in every house in
Asia. The number of moons reflected in the trays has nothing to do with the
actual moon. The reflections are like those who have passed on to nibbāna, and nibbāna is like the
moon.
This, then, is a short explanation about
nibbāna or
deliverance, with partic- ular emphasis on the fact that nibbāna is not for
any “person” to enter. This is the answer to the third question. Plenty of
treatises on nibbāna
have been written by learned scholars. Here, only a résumé has been given on
this vast subject.
The fourth question asks about the way that would lead a
blind worldling
(andhaputhujjana)
on to the level of a wise and virtuous ordinary person
(kalyāṇaputhujjana).
“The Buddha, the kinsman of the sun,
speaks of two types of ordinary person: the blind worldling and the wise and
virtuous ordinary person.” (Paṭisambhidāmagga
Commentary)
“One who has no scriptural learning,
being without knowledge of the aggregates, the elements, the twelve sense
bases, dependent origination, the foundations of mindfulness, etc., or the
interpreta- tion and discrimination thereof that can prevent the arising of
personality view, is a blind worldling.” (Mūlapaṇṇāsa Commentary)
“One who is learned regarding the five
aggregates, the twelve sense bases, the eighteen elements, in the original Pāḷi, can interpret
it correctly, and can discriminate each item by means of examples,
illustrations, anecdotes, etc., and has therefore gained a thorough knowledge
of those teachings is a wise and virtuous ordinary person.” (ibid.)
“Likewise, one who has gained a thorough
knowledge of the twelve links in the chain of dependent origination, the four
foundations of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases of success,
the five controlling faculties, the five powers, the seven factors of
enlightenment, and the eight factors of the Noble Path, is called a wise or
virtuous ordinary person. Such knowledge is a character- istic of a virtuous
ordinary person.” (ibid.)
63
One who lacks
this eye of the Dhamma, even a ruler of the celestial worlds with the divine
eye, is called a blind worldling. One who is proficient in the seven aspects in
the five aggregates qualifies as a wise person. How?
Proficiency in
the first aspect is thorough knowledge of the four primary elements, the five
aggregates, and the twelve sense bases.
Proficiency in
the second and third aspects — the arising and cessation of phenomena, thus,
“Owing to the arising of nutriment, materiality arises; owing to the cessation
or exhaustion of nutriment, materiality ceases. Owing to the arising of
contact, feeling arises; owing to the cessation of contact, feeling ceases”
covers part of the law of dependent origination.
Proficiency in
the fourth aspect, i.e., the Noble Eightfold Path, covers the thirty-seven
factors of enlightenment, the threefold training of higher virtue, higher
concentration, and higher understanding, the ten perfections, and the Four
Noble Truths. Of the eight factors of the Noble Path, right view and right
thought are called higher understanding; right speech, right action, and right
livelihood are called higher virtue; right effort, right mindfulness, and right
concentration are called higher concentration.
As for the ten perfections: giving,
virtue, patience, and truthfulness consti- tute higher virtue; renunciation is
the right thought as to the dangerous and disgusting nature of sensuality, loving-kindness
is right thought as non-malice; resolve and equanimity are in full accord with
right concentration; wisdom means right view, and energy is right effort. This
is how the ten perfections are included in the virtuous person’s knowledge. A
wise and virtuous ordinary person is also called a lesser stream-winner (cūḷa-sotāpanna).
If
the virtuous ordinary person can develop knowledge to the supramundane level by
gaining insight into the seven aspects, he or she is bound to become a
fully-fledged stream-winner. One can then advance in the attainment of the path
knowledges until one becomes an Arahant. All these are possible right now.
“Bhikkhus, a bhikkhu who
earnestly wants to understand the true nature of materiality to eradicate the
defilements, who habitually contemplates materiality from three approaches, who
is proficient in the seven aspects of materiality is, in this Dhamma and Disci-
pline, called accomplished, one who has lived the life, a perfect one or an
excellent man.”
The fifth
request is a question of assimilation. “The Buddha said that nothing falls
outside the scope of the Four Noble Truths, and that nothing cannot be employed
as a fruitful subject for contemplation. Would the Venerable Sayādaw kindly give
us a guide to the practical application of the Dhamma so that, when we do any meritorious
deed, we can be mindful of the Four Noble Truths and the
threecharacteristicsofimpermanence,unsatisfactoriness,andnot-self,thusfulfill-
ing the threefold training, cultivating the ten perfections and simultaneously
bearinginminddependentorigination,andthetwenty-fourconditionalrelations?”
I shall now
explain briefly how a single utterance of “Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi — I go to the Buddha as my refuge,”
is an act of merit that encompasses the Four Noble Truths, the three
characteristics of existence, the fulfilment of the threefold training, and the
cultivation of the ten perfections, done while one is mindful of dependent
origination and the twenty-four conditional relations.
In uttering the words “Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi,” by the time
you have uttered the last syllable, a great moral consciousness, accompanied by
joy and connected with knowledge, has arisen. This impulsion is good kamma of
the highest class accompanied by three wholesome roots: non-greed, non-hatred,
and non-delusion. The impulsion lasts for seven thought-moments. Each of the
seven thought-moments 1 comprises
the four mental aggregates: feeling, percep- tion, mental formations, and
consciousness. The impulsion from that produces material quality of sound
audible to the ear as “Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi.” Thus we see
how the five aggregates arise. There is also the material phenomena present at
the heart-base, the source of the impulsive mental activities pervading the
whole body.
As to mindfulness of the Four Noble
Truths: By the time the last syllable has been uttered, the five aggregates are
being consumed by the ever-present fire of death, which is the truth of
suffering. Remember the danger in the five aggre- gates: “The transience,
unsatisfactoriness, and instability of materiality, consti- tute the danger in
materiality ( see p.30 ).
The nutriment that has been producing the aggregate of materiality
during the utterance is the truth of the origin of materiality. The contact
arisen from the mental object of the Buddha’s noble attributes is the origin of
the arising of
1 A process of sense cognition consists of seventeen
thought-moments, of which seven arise at the stage of impulsion (javana).
65
feeling, perception, and mental formations — the truth of the
cause in respect of the mental aggregates. The three mental aggregates and the
heart-base are the truth of the origin of consciousness. As soon as the
recollection of the Buddha arises in your mind, the three basic evils of greed,
hatred and delusion are destroyed, which is the truth of cessation, or
momentary bliss. 1 The five factors of the Noble Eightfold
Path involved in impulsion, namely, right view, right thought, right effort,
right mindfulness, and right concentration, are mindfulness of the Noble
Eightfold Path. This is how the Four Noble Truths are realized in a single
utterance while recollecting the Buddha.
Remember our previous example of the robot. Herein, the
mind-object, the Buddha’s attributes, is like the mirror. This mirror is
focused on the heart-base of the robot, which instantly receives the mental
object and apperceives it. Seven thought-moments of impulsion flash out from
the heart-base — seven highly-charged mental activities that cause verbal
action to arise through its motive power, comparable to the agitated waters
when a mine explodes in a pond or like the whistling of the steamer.
The example of the agitated
water is analogous to materiality being agitated. However, impulsion is so
inconceivably rapid that no adequate example can be given. The power of
impulsion over all materiality in your body must be per- ceived in every
activity. If this is not clearly perceived, the danger of hell remains. If you
really dread the fires of hell, it is well to cultivate insight to perceive the
change of materiality caused by impulsion.
The example of the water tank best illustrates the rapidity of
change in physical phenomena as impulsion arises. The transience of
materiality, the decaying and the fresh arising within the whole body, may not
be vivid enough even by means of that analogy.
So let’s take another
example. Imagine a life-size doll made of cotton-wool. Soak it in spirit and
burn it. Observe how quickly the cotton-wool changes from one end to the other.
The changes within the body may not be as clearly noticeable as in the burning
doll, being many times faster. Don’t despair, though. When a flame is kindled
in a dark room, the darkness in the entire room vanishes the instant that light
arises, and the light fills the whole room at once. In this example, light is
new materiality originating in the flame. It arises so swiftly that one cannot
follow it with the eye. You only know its arising by seeing
1 Of the two sets of samudaya and nirodha mentioned above ( p.26 ), it is the samudaya and nirodha of the present existence that is
relevant here.
the lighted room. So too, you cannot actually observe the
cessation of darkness, but you can know that it has ceased. The change of
materiality within your body is the same. Its rapidity need not be a barrier to
your understanding. The fact of change is inescapable to your vigilant
consciousness and can be known. That is the nature of insight. The rapidity of
the change of psychophysical phenomena is not even known by the Noble Disciples.
Only the Buddhas can trace it. As for disciples, the abandonment of personality
view through insight into imperma- nence is sufficient for enlightenment.
As
soon as the utterance of “Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi” has ended, the flashes of impulsion vanish in the heart-base
so that all materiality actuated by that impulsion ceases, just as when a flame
is extinguished in a dark room all the light suddenly disappears. When the
thought of the Buddha vanishes with its concomitant mental activities, other
forms of consciousness, depending on the mind-object, take over. This is also
observable.
The
knowledge that understands the cessation of the four mental aggregates and the
materiality dependent on them is called knowledge of impermanence. The
cessation of phenomena must be discerned. Merely saying “impermanent,
impermanent” is not insight, nor is it mental development. Once the truth of
impermanence is grasped, the painful fact that all mental and physical phenom-
ena merely feed the fires of death will be clearly realized. Then the relevance
of the analogy of the fire-worshipper will be fully appreciated. When the
perpetual arising and cessation of all phenomena within oneself is clearly
perceived, the illusion of “I” will fall away. You will then understand that
the phenomena are never you or your self. The characteristic of anatta is
discerned only in this manner. If lack of a self is not perceived, all talk of
anatta is fruitless. It is not knowledge, it is not insight, it is not practice
for mental development.
Of the threefold training, the volition that impels a person to
utter the words, “Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi,” belongs to higher virtue because it is a virtuous act motivated
by a conscious undertaking to abstain from the four kinds of immoral speech.
That volition comprises right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration
— the three factors of higher concentration. Right view and right thought in
uttering the words constitute higher understanding.
Understand
the practice of the perfections in the manner of the Noble Eightfold Path
discussed above.
Regarding Dependent
Origination
The second aspect discussed
concerning the virtuous person is, in essence, dependent origination. Nutriment
arising, materiality arises; contact arising, feeling arises; perception
arising, mental formations arise; psychophysical phe- nomena arising,
consciousness arises. Tracing the cause in this way by analysing the results is
the Buddha’s method of teaching called dependent origination.
As
to the twenty-four types of conditional relations, I shall not give a reply
here for these reasons: (i) it is probably too abstract for you, Maung Thaw;
(ii) it is not useful for insight training; (iii) it is purely for the finer
discriminations to be exercised by those who have attained to path knowledge.
When you have digested the present answers, you may ask for it later.
The
sixth request pertains to the Buddha’s victory over the five māras; the definition, characteristics and significance of the five
māras; and the difference between the body of Prince Siddhattha, the
bodhisatta, and that of the Buddha. Here are my answers:
1. Māra Devaputta, the celestial villain of the sixth devaloka, the
“Tempter”
and
the embodiment of evil. 2. Kilesas, the
ten defilements. 3. Abhisaṅkhāra, kamma or
volitional action. 4. Khandha,
continued existence. 5. Maccu, death.
By “māra” is meant
“the killer.” The world is ravaged by five killers. The first
one is the evil deva
whose abode is in Paranimittavasavattī Devaloka. His hordes arenotonly
inhiscelestialabode,butspreadallover,includingthehumanabode.
Many people adhere to wrong
beliefs. To escape from such a perverse world one has to face opposition from
such people. Seeing the bodhisatta seated on the throne of victory, firmly
resolved to remain until he won enlightenment, Māra could not leave him
unopposed. He had to try to foil him, for he had often failed. He mustered all
his forces and attacked the bodhisatta. He roused storms that toppled mountain
tops. He employed all his means of destruction but without success. His forces
spent, he approached the Buddha and made false claims on the throne of victory,
not really wanting it but merely to harass the Buddha.
The
Buddha told him that the throne of victory arose from the accumulation of his
perfections fulfilled, but what perfections had Māra practised? Māra referred to his followers in witness of his right. The Buddha
was alone then, since all the celestial beings had fled. So the Buddha touched
the earth to bear witness to the deeds of giving he had practised when he had
poured the ceremonial water onto the earth. At that instant the great earth
trembled and the skies rumbled, sending Māra and his impressive army
helter-skelter. Then Māra accepted defeat and returned to his celestial abode. This, in
brief, is the Buddha’s victory over Māra Devaputta.
69
On
attaining the path knowledge of Arahantship the Buddha gained a victory over
all the defilements. The volitional actions that manifest only in association
with the defilements also died a natural death. Volitional actions, good or
bad, are called abhisaṅkhāra, one of the five “killers.” These actions do not germinate as
fresh becoming when deprived of craving, for once the craving for existence is
gone, kamma loses its potential to reproduce, just like boiled grains. With the
exhaustion of greed, hatred, and delusion, all immoral actions cease
absolutely. All moral actions do not have kammic force in them and remain
inoperative (kiriya). This is how victory over defilements and volitional
action was won by the Buddha.
What remained was the five
aggregates, which were the result of kamma done before the defilements were
extinguished, and psychophysical phenomena due to the four causes 1 before enlightenment, but free from defilements since then. The
existence of the five aggregates presupposes the results of past actions, both
whole- some and unwholesome. This occurrence of results continued until the
moment of the Buddha’s passing away. Since the five aggregates still existed
after his enlighten- ment,theeffectsofpastkammawerefelt.Inotherwords,becausethekammicforces
of the past still remained, the five aggregates persisted. The existence of the
Buddha’s five aggregates allowed the release of the multitude from suffering.
This
is stated in different ways for fear that you might make a wrong interpre-
tation regarding the exhaustion of kammic forces.
The Buddha’s aggregate of psychophysical phenomena is called the
Buddha’s aggregates (khandha). His parinibbāna or moment of decease is
called death (maccu). These two “killers” are overcome only while abiding in
nibbāna or at the moment of parinibbāna. This is according to the
commentaries: “On the throne of victory under the bodhi tree, only the three māras were vanquished.”
The author of the
subcommentary on the Dhātukathā has a different inter- pretation. He says that all the five māras were vanquished on attainment of enlightenment. His
explanation runs as follows:
On the first three māras, no explanation is needed. On the aggregates and death he
says, “If craving, the cause of the five aggregates, is present, fresh arising
of the aggregates is bound to follow. Once the truth of the cause has been 1 Kamma, consciousness, temperature, and nutriment.
realized and craving extinguished, all future existences die out
automatically. Along with the extinction of future existences, the liability to
death also van- ishes altogether.” This final extinction of all future
aggregates and of the accom- panying deaths, the author contends, amounts to
victory over the aggregates and death, which took place on the Buddha’s
attaining the Eye of the Dhamma.
With respect to the present aggregates and the present death, the
Buddha had vanquished them there and then because, whereas the aggregates had
previously been seen as a person — thereby leading to the unfortunate cycle of
rebirth — on attaining enlightenment this delusion was gone, so the aggregates
could no longer oppress or “kill” him. The phenomenon of death was also
understood and so death lost its sting. Thereafter no fear of death remained.
No fuel remained for it to consume. Thus death was vanquished too.
Let us make an illustration. A wicked demoness who liked to feed
on excrement and putridity possessed a good man. She drove him out of his
senses so that the poor man was subject to her will, and he roamed about in
cemeteries and such places to feed on excrement and putrefied corpses. After
years of subjugation, the man was cured of the curse by a magician who brought
him back to his senses. With the help of the magician’s powers, i.e. by making
use of the divine eye in a magic formula, he saw the demoness within him. He
could now clearly assess the situation. He had conquered the demoness, but
after many years of co-existence he could not drive her out at once. Besides,
he saw some benefit of her presence; he could put her to his use. The
extraordinary physical powers she had would be useful for his own purposes. He
could perform miracles, harnessing her powers in the service of humanity.
The analogy is this. The demoness is like the five aggregates. The
proper sense of the man is like the non-causative type of good deeds.
Cemeteries and such places are like the three realms of existence. The divine
eye, the magician’s formula, is the Eye of the Dhamma. Continued upkeep of the
demoness within is like the continued existence of the Buddha, which could not
cease at once because it was his long-cherished wish to help the multitude in
their struggle for release from suffering. In fact, the Buddha and the Noble
Ones, after attaining Arahantship, live on only for the good of others.
This is how the
subcommentary explains the Buddha’s victories over the aggregates and death
even at the time of his enlightenment.
1. Māra Devaputta: explained above. 2. Kilesa: The basic defilements are greed, hatred, and delusion.
3. Abhisaṅkhāra: The ten moral kammas and the ten immoral kammas. It
also includes all
volitional actions that are dependent on the cycle of
rebirth such as
giving, virtue, meditation, reverence, sharing one’s merits,
rejoicing in the
merits of others, etc.
4. Khandha: The five aggregates manifested in the existences as
humans,
devas, brahmās, etc.
5. Maccu: Death, the phenomenon of mortality.
The
word “māra” means “killer” or “destroyer.” It destroys life in the
physical sense, and also in the moral sense. Life means and includes:
1
the life-faculty (jīvitindriya);
2
pure or virtuous qualities such as
confidence, morality, etc.;
3
non-causative or non-kammic merits or
practice of the ten perfections such as giving, virtue, etc.
The
life-faculty means the ability to sustain an existence as water sustains the
lotus. The life-faculty sustains the aggregates in each existence. When the
life- faculty is destroyed, the aggregates break up and the existence ends,
which we call the death of a being. Virtue is the “life” of a good person. When
one’s virtue is broken, one’s “life” is destroyed. Although one is physically
alive one is morally dead. Non-causative or non-kammic merit is the very life
of a bodhisatta. Until an aspirant to Buddhahood receives formal recognition
and assurance from a living Buddha, the aspiration is still in danger. For the
aspirant is still susceptible to wrong views, which are the antithesis of
enlightenment. One’s life as a bodhisatta is thereby destroyed, and so one
reverts to being an ordinary person.
Māra, the Wicked One, is the
destroyer of what is virtuous in living beings. Any higher aspirations to
supramundane merits are his prime objects of destruc- tion. Therefore he is
called Māra, the “destroyer.”
The
phenomenon of death is the destroyer of the life-faculty. It destroys all
living beings, hence its name — maccu.
Defilements such as greed, hatred, delusion, conceit, wrong view,
etc., destroy virtue and the aspiration for non-kammic action. Kammic actions
such as almsgiving, virtue, etc., that have causative merit, inevitably cause
new existences. The aggregates of existence thus produced have death as an
inherent factor. Not only is the fire of death inherent, so too are the
defilements, the “destroyers.” That is why merits and demerits are called
abhisaṅkhāra, the “destroyers.” The five aggregates, being subject to decay,
destroy the life-faculty. By harbouring the defilements, they cause the
destruction of virtue and the aspiration to non-causative merit. This is how
the five māras destroy.
To
put it in a different way, take greed, for instance. Greed in a bhikkhu
destroys his precepts, his dignified training, his nobility. Greed in a layman
destroys his morality, his dignity, and his reputation. Again, greed in a
bhikkhu destroys the real well-being of a bhikkhu that lies in forsaking
worldly interests and possessions. It destroys the attainments in concentration
and spiritual powers. Greed in a layman causes undue loss of property, and even
loss of life, limbs or sense organs, or premature death. All these evils befall
one who succumbs to greed. It is similar with hatred or anger.
In
another sense, greed destroys generosity, hatred destroys kindness, delu- sion
destroys wisdom. All the generosity practised over aeons of previous exist-
ences can be brought to nothing when one is overwhelmed by greed. Hatred and
other defilements are the same. In the present existence too, occasional purity
of the mind due to hearing (or reading) the Dhamma is destroyed in no time by
greed. It is just like the darkness of night that nullifies all lightning
flashes, however frequently they might occur. Understand the evils of hatred
and other defilements likewise. This is how the defilements destroy all that is
pure and virtuous in living beings.
The
destructive nature of the five aggregates should be observed within oneself.
Try to visualize the destruction of one of the four primary elements that you
call your head. Similarly, observe your eye, ear, nose, cheek, teeth, tongue,
mouth and throat, then down into your lungs and heart, etc.
Contemplate
the deaths that occur due to seeking for the pleasures of desirable visible
objects. Similarly, consider the deaths caused by the lure of
somepleasantsound,scent,taste,ortouch. Allthesearehowmateriality destroys.
Consider
the deaths originating in one’s pursuit of pleasant sensations born of
eye-contact ... pleasant sensations born of mind-contact. All these are how
feeling destroys.
Consider
the deaths due to pursuit of some perception regarding visible forms ... some
perception regarding mind-objects. These are how perception destroys.
Death
resulting from pursuing one’s faith is the destruction wrought by faith. Death
resulting from keeping virtue is the destruction through virtue. Similarly,
learning the Dhamma, liberality, acquisition of knowledge, and meditation are
all moral volitions that can destroy. As for immoral volitions such as greed,
hatred, etc., their destructiveness is obvious. All these are how mental
formations destroy.
Death
due to yearning for eye-consciousness is how eye-consciousness de- stroys ...
death due to yearning for mind-consciousness is how mind-conscious- ness
destroys. All these are how consciousness destroys. This is a brief explanation
of how the four mental aggregates destroy.
Consider
this, “How many of my heads have perished over the innumerable round of
existences? How many eyes? How many ears? How many noses? How many tongues? How
many hearts and lungs? All of them were materiality that formed the essential
part of my existences.”
Consider,
“How many kilograms of food and drink have I so far consumed in my present
existence. How many kilograms of matter that makes up my head have been
consumed during my existence? All that was sustained by nutriment only. How
much of the matter that makes up my eyes, my ears, my nose, my tongue, my
heart, and my lungs have so far been consumed by death?”
With
respect to mental phenomena, consider how many mental phenomena have perished
that had arisen at the eye-base? ... that had arisen at the mind- base? In
pondering thus, concentrate on the phenomenon of death, and don’t let any
personality view creep in. Don’t associate your false “self” with either the
phenomena of “the consumer” or “the consumed” (the five aggregates).
I
shall illustrate the swiftness of change taking place in the five aggregates.
Let us say there is a charm in the form of a pill. The pills are coloured
white, red, black, etc. On throwing one — say, a white one — accompanied by the
appropriate incantation, an apparition the size and weight of a man suddenly
appears. It is completely white. Then, another pill — this time a red one —
accompanied by the appropriate incantation, is thrown into the heart-base of
the apparition. Suddenly the red colour permeates the whole body of the
apparition, beginning from the heart. Wherever red takes over, the previous
white vanishes, and no white can be seen. The apparition is now completely red.
The colour distinction is to help visualize the change that takes place.
Concentrate on the merging of the red colour into the white and how the former
white disappears even before your mind’s eye. This disappearance or
disintegration is what is constantly happening within us.
“Though one should live a hundred years not seeing the sublime
Dhamma, better is a single day lived by one who sees the sublime Dhamma.” (Dhp.
v 115.)
This
is an explanation of how death relentlessly destroys the life-sustaining
materiality from the moment each new existence comes into being. If you
understand what has been said on the dangerous aspect of the aggregates, you
should find no difficulty in understanding the destructiveness that is the
aggregates and death.
As to the difference in the
aggregates of the Buddha before and after enlight- enment: before enlightenment
the five aggregates of the bodhisatta contained stains of defilements and
putridity of kammic actions, while after enlightenment no trace of these stains
and putridity remained. The body of one who is still training to become an
Arahant, having gained the three earlier stages of enlight- enment, decomposes
and putrefies after death. The bodies of the Buddha and Arahants do not
decompose or putrefy after their parinibbāna. The difference exists
even while they are still living.
Although both the Buddha and the Arahant eat the same kind of food
as non-Arahants, the purity of the aggregates of mind in the former produce
materiality born of pure consciousness, which is as pure and clear as
sterilized cotton-wool.
The Analogy of the
Wish-Fulfilling Gem of the Universal Monarch
When
the wish-fulfilling gem of the Universal Monarch is placed in a turbid pool,
the waters instantly turn crystal-clear. Similarly, because the impulsions of
the Buddha and the Arahants are always pure and clean, the aggregates of their
bodies are perfectly pure and clean. No foul smell could arise from such
materiality.
A
king’s palace is not worthy of worshipping while it is being occupied by a king.
However, were it to be converted into a temple it would be well worthy of
worship, and might be a place from which one could ascend to heaven or attain
nibbāna.
The
body of the bodhisatta is like the king’s palace. The body of the Buddha is
like the temple where the Buddha is staying. The body before enlightenment only
supported the mind of Prince Siddhattha. The body since he renounced the palace
to practise meditation is worth worshipping. Therefore his robes were taken and
kept in Dussacetī by Suddhāvāsa Brahmā. Don’t follow the wrong view that says the body is not the
Buddha, only great wisdom is the Buddha.
The seventh question was, “I
would like to know the method of taking refuge in the Three Gems.”
I am not going to describe the Three Gems in detail because they
have been well explained in such books as the Saraṇādivinicchaya. Only
the main points will be shown here.
People often think, “If I worship this teaching, it will free me
from the lower realms.” If these meditations have the merit needed to avoid the
lower realms, then they may be called refuges. Some believe that meditating on
this or that teaching will bring enough merit to avoid the lower realms. This
kind of worship cannot bring such merit. It is useless. Those who believe in
those teachings are not a refuge and are not worthy of respect. They are also
not able to find a refuge. You must understand this while taking refuge.
To give a simile: the purified attributes of virtue, concentration,
and wisdom are like fertile soil; the Noble Ones possessing those attributes
are like a fertile field. Worshipping them is like sowing seed in that field.
Here, the volition to worship is the seed. One who is without virtue,
concentration, or wisdom, and therefore thinks only immoral thoughts, is like
dry, rocky land. Worshipping one like that is just like sowing seed on barren
land. The worshipper’s act (however reverential) is futile and brings no merit.
Nevertheless, there are sure ways of earning merit and demerit,
modes of conduct that are moral or immoral, and happy destinies or unhappy
destinies understood down the ages by the wise (whether bhikkhus, laymen, or
recluses). Wrong believers disregard all these merits and demerits and declare
that what is meritorious is demeritorious, or that what is demeritorious is
meritorious. One with such perverted views is like a burning rock. One who
worships such a teacher is like one who sows seed on a burning rock. Instead of
gaining merit, the worshipper will be burned.
Taking refuge is of two kinds: by hearsay and by direct knowledge.
Taking refuge through blind faith in the noble attributes of the Buddha, the
Dhamma, and the Saṅgha, but without right view, is by hearsay. It is so called
because the act of taking refuge is not complete in so far as the worshipper
has not actually “seen” the Buddha,theDhamma,ortheSaṅgha;hehasnotperceivedtheteaching;hehasnot
beenincontactwiththeteaching.Incommonparlance,hehasnotgotthemessage.
Consider the Buddha’s
admonition to Vakkali, the devoted bhikkhu who spent all his time in worshipful
admiration of the Buddha, “Vakkali, he who does
76
not see the Dhamma does not see me.” That is why taking refuge in
the Three Gems without empirical knowledge of the Dhamma, i.e. insight into the
arising and passing away of phenomena, relies on hearsay only. It is not taking
refuge with direct knowledge.
Taking refuge with direct
knowledge means imbibing the Buddha’s teaching with right view by perceiving
the aggregates, the sense bases, and the elements, and their arising and
cessation, which alone will destroy the delusion about a “self” and doubts
about the Four Noble Truths. This kind of going for refuge is the real refuge,
for the worshipper is actually in contact with the Three Gems.
“One understands suffering,
its origin, its cessation and the Noble Eightfold Path leading to the end of
suffering. This, indeed, is a secure refuge, this is the supreme refuge. Taking
refuge in this, one gains release from the cycle of existences.” (Dhp. vv.191-192.)
The above stanzas refer to taking refuge with direct knowledge. As
for the seven aspects in the five aggregates discussed earlier, each aspect
includes taking refuge based on hearsay and taking refuge with direct
knowledge, thus making seven pairs.
Let me illustrate the difference between the two. Suppose there
are two lepers at advanced stages of the disease. There is also a competent
physician who can cure leprosy. One leper lives a hundred days’ journey from
the physician. He has never seen the physician, but takes his medicine brought
to him by travellers. By taking the medicine faithfully and correctly,
eventually he is completely cured of leprosy. The other leper lives in the
physician’s house as a dependent. He does not take the medicine because he
finds its smell and taste unpleasant. He only enjoys the good food that is
plentiful at the master’s table. The result is obvious; his disease worsens day
by day. Of the two lepers, only the one who was cured knows, by direct knowledge,
the efficacy of the medicine and the true worth of the physician. The other
does not know the real worth of the physician or the medicine he administers.
He has only knowledge based on hearsay about the greatness of the physician and
the powerful medicine he dispenses. The analogy is clear enough.
So, one who is training to acquire the proficiency in the seven
aspects referred to above does not need to utter the words of taking refuge in
the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha. He does not need to go to a pagoda for worship, for these are
mere formalities, and not essential, as he or she well understands. It is only
for those who fail to practise what the Buddha taught that the utterances and
the acts of worship are so important. These “hearsay” worshippers may be
Buddhists today, but they may change their religion tomorrow. Those who worship
with direct knowledge would rather give up their lives than convert to another
religion.
The eighth question deals with the fundamentals that govern the
case of a non-Buddhist who becomes a Buddhist. What beliefs must one abandon to
follow the Buddha’s teaching?
One
is called a Buddhist if one has the right view about one’s volitional actions
being one’s own real possession that one cannot disown. More specifi- cally,
this understanding covers the following ten matters:
1
That giving alms is wholesome kamma.
2
That making offerings is wholesome
kamma.
3
That giving even trifling gifts and presents
is wholesome kamma.
4
That there are definite and appropriate
results from wholesome and unwholesome actions.
5
That there is wholesome kamma in looking
after one’s mother, and unwholesome kamma in treating her badly.
6
That there is wholesome kamma in looking
after one’s father, and un- wholesome kamma in treating him badly.
7
That there is this human world.
8
That there are also other worlds such as
the hell realms and the celestial worlds of devas and brahmās.
9
That there are beings born
spontaneously.
10
That there are recluses and brahmins in
the world with genuine attain- ments through right practice, who, having
realized through direct knowl- edge the truth regarding this world and the
other worlds, make it known to others.
These
ten matters are clearly understood by all wise men as within the scope of their
mundane knowledge. Such right view, commonly attainable (even without
encountering the Buddha or his teaching), is the basic attainment in one who
calls himself a Buddhist.
In the world, any wrong view can be dispelled by a knowledge of
dependent origination. One is liable to fall into a false view only due to lack
of this knowledge. It is vital that Buddhists understand dependent origination
and the significance of the factors contained in the discourse on it. One who
understands dependent origination may be called a Buddhist of the medium
attainments. One who has gained insight into the seven aspects of the five
aggregates is a Buddhist of the higher attainments, since this right view is
based on insight.
78
One is a true Buddhist
however, only when one has realized the Four Noble Truths. Such a Noble One is
a “stream-winner.” Why is only a stream-winner called a true Buddhist? It is
because taking refuge in the Buddha becomes inseparable from consciousness. In
other words, there is no danger of a stream- winner falling into wrong views.
Compare this superior attainment with the attainments of the higher or the
medium classes, whose absolute confidence in the Three Gems is assured only for
the present existence. As for one with only the basic attainment, their faith
in the Buddha’s teaching cannot be called stable because they might change to
another religion tomorrow, if the right circum- stances arise.
A stream-winner may be born into a non-Buddhist family but will
not be led into professing another religion even on pain of instant death. He
or she would rather be burnt alive than forsake his or her firm confidence in
the Buddha’s teaching. This confidence never falters, but grows until he or she
attains nibbāna. That firmness of conviction is referred to by the Buddha as
follows:
“Bhikkhus,
there is no possibility for one who has attained right view to indicate another
teacher as his or her teacher.”
There
is another passage that describes a Buddhist:
“One
is a satisfactory Buddhist, if one becomes indignant at being called an
adherent of another religion, and is pleased to be called a Buddhist.”
In
other words, one is pleased to hear the Buddha’s teaching extolled and
displeased to hear another religion commended.
The ninth question asks me to provide a definitive stand that a
Buddhist should take when confronted by non-Buddhists, i.e. what are the main
aspects of the Buddha’s teaching that a Buddhist needs to understand and practise?
I
have mentioned the main aspects of Buddhism in reply to your fourth question,
namely: the five aggregates, the six senses, the elements, dependent
origination, the four foundations of mindfulness, etc. These teachings are
found only in Buddhism, so a Buddhist worth his salt should be proficient in
them.
Other meritorious deeds such
as giving, keeping the precepts, meditation for concentration using devices
(kasiṇas), meditation on the boundless states of loving- kindness, etc.,
are usually found in other religions. These teachings or practices are always
prevalent in civilized societies. They are universal in the sense that they are
practised in all eras, whether or not it is the era of a Buddha. They glorify
the civilized
world,buttheyareonlymundane.Inotherworldcyclestoo,suchgoodpracticeswere known.
They are practised in universes other than ours. There are human beings and
celestial beings in the present world and in innumerable other worlds, where
there are also recluses, monks, and brahmins. Gotama the Buddha arose in the
world cycle of a hundred-yearlife-span when the good deeds common even
onon-Buddhistswereon the wane. In this world cycle, the average person is so polluted with defilements that the Buddha
had to dwell at great length on the ordinary deeds of merit.
Only
during the time of a Buddha’s teaching is there the special advantage of taking
refuge in the Three Gems. Only then can giving to the fertile field of the Saṅgha be practised. As for the teaching, it is only when a Buddha’s
teaching is still extant that the teachings on the aggregates, etc., can be
heard. That is why a good Buddhist ought to know them well. The seven aspects
referred to earlier, if understood well, make a sound Buddhist.
The firm stand that a Buddhist can take and thus meet any
criticism in the present existence is the law of dependent origination. The
main knowledge that is the safeguard against any other religion either here or
hereafter, until one attains nibbāna, is that of the Four Noble Truths.
80
I shall now explain the law of dependent origination. Please
commit the twelve links to memory:
Ignorance (avijjā), mental formations (saṅkhārā), consciousness (viññāṇa), psychophysical phenomena (nāmarūpa), the six senses (saḷāyatana), contact (phassa), feeling
(vedanā), craving (taṇhā), attachment (upādāna), becoming (bhava), birth (jāti), aging and death (jarā-maraṇa).
Ignorance
is the opposite of knowledge. It is synonymous with delusion (moha). The mind
is like the sun or the moon; knowledge is like sunlight or moonlight. Ignorance
is like an eclipse. When the sun is eclipsed there is no sunlight. When the
moon is eclipsed there is no moonlight. Likewise, when the mind is shrouded by
ignorance, no knowledge can arise.
Ignoranceisalsolikeacataractthatmakestheeyeopaqueandeventuallycauses
blindness. Sensual pleasures aggravate the darkness of delusion in just the
same way as a wrong diet or strong, pungent smells aggravate a cataract. Ardent
practice for proficiency in the seven aspects is like the medicine that can
remove the cataract.
Four Kinds of Ignorance
There are four kinds of ignorance: the ignorance that blinds one
to the truth of suffering; the ignorance that blinds one to the truth of the
cause of suffering; the ignorance that blinds one to the truth of the cessation
of suffering; and the ignorance that blinds one to the truth of the path.
Seven Kinds of Ignorance
The ignorance that blinds
one to the first aspect in the five aggregates ... the ignorance that blinds
one to the seventh aspect of the five aggregates. Of the five aggregates that
constitute a being, the material aggregate is most obvious. In the material
aggregate, the element of extension is most obvious. You should first try to
distinguish the element of extension within your body. At first, a man blinded
by a cataract cannot see even such a bright object as the sun or the moon.
Similarly, at first you may not see the earth element, but with sustained
effort the darkness shrouding the mind gradually gives way. As the darkness of
delu- sion slowly recedes, the mind regains its ability to see. Remember,
delusion is not a total stranger, it is your mind in its negative character.
The luminous quality of your mind is the original phenomenon, which, in a
normal sensuous environ- ment, is usually dominated by darkness. Light means
vision or knowledge — when ignorance has been removed you can see the element
of extension in your mind’s eye just as plainly as a man with normal eyes can
see the sun or the moon.
Having
seen the element of extension within your body, proceed to examine the other
elements that make up the material aggregate. Having thus under- stood
materiality in its true nature, proceed to understand the four mental
aggregates. In this way, the five aggregates will be understood, which means
that you are skilful or proficient in the five aggregates, the first aspect.
Ignorance has then given way to knowledge. As you rightly discern the remaining
six aspects, observe how the light of knowledge dawns on the mind, and how the
veil of ignorance is lifted. After the seven kinds of ignorance have been
dispelled, and knowledge of the seven aspects is gained, keep up the practice
steadfastly to gain the path knowledge that is right view. Once one is
established in path knowledge ignorance is absolutely dispelled, and when
ignorance disappears the remaining eleven factors of dependent origination also
become clear. The Four Noble Truths are then simultaneously realized.
How the Four Noble Truths
are Realized
Discerning the truth of
suffering (dukkha sacca) in the five aggregates, aban- doning the ignorance and
craving that are the roots of these ills (samudaya sacca), the direct experience
of the cessation of the twelve links of dependent origination (nirodha sacca),
the arising of insight with path knowledge (magga sacca) — all these four
realizations occur simultaneously. The three trainings reach maturity, the
thirty-seven factors of enlightenment are fulfilled, taking refuge in the Three
Gems is well established, and the five māras are vanquished. Māra, the evil deva of the Paranimmitavasavattī realm, the great destroyer and “Tempter,” cannot confound such a
Noble One. Even if confronted by thousands of non-Buddhist teachers, a Noble
One will never be in doubt about the truth.
This is an exposition to underline the crucial importance of
ignorance, the principal factor in the law of dependent origination. Although
the whole chain of dependent origination is finally broken with the conquest of
ignorance, the remaining factors will also be dealt with to understand them
more clearly.
All
physical, verbal, and mental kammas done with a desire to attain a good life,
now and in future existences, are called mental formations. “All kammas”
includes the ten moral kammas and the ten immoral kammas. Immoral kammas are
committed out of attachment to the present existence, because of ignorance
regarding the true nature of the five aggregates. Moral kammas are committed
out of desire for future existence, because of ignorance regarding the same
five aggregates.
The Buddha and the Arahants, too, perform wholesome actions with
even greater diligence than ignorant persons, but having attained path
knowledge, they have no attachment to the aggregates that form their existence
(which is their last). Therefore, none of their actions, whether physical,
verbal, or mental, carry any merit, and are not called saṅkhāras because the necessary volitional activity that clings to
present well-being or to future existence is absent. The fact that all mental
formations spring from ignorance of the truth is so obvious that even
non-Buddhists can probably comprehend it.
Consciousness
here means rebirth-consciousness, the consciousness that links the previous
existence to the present one. The kammic force of previous volitional effort
must result in the initial consciousness of the present. How the present
existence arises from previous kamma can be known only by super- normal
knowledge (abhiññā). It is unfathomable to one of normal
intellect. There are certain recluses, monks, and devas who know where a being
was before the present existence, but even they do not understand the law that
underlies kamma. They think it is due to the transmigration of a soul, and it
is exactly on this point that they go wrong. Among the ten aspects of right
view, the tenth refers to this supernormal knowledge:
“There
are recluses and brahmins in the world with genuine attain- ments through right
practice, who, having realized through direct knowledge the truth regarding
this world and the other worlds, make it known to others.”
Those
who lack this right view hold false views on rebirth. Westerners usually lack
this right view. Wrong beliefs of various descriptions began to arise in the
world aeons ago when monks and recluses who had acquired the jhānas and attained supernormal knowledge began to disappear. These
wrong beliefs have been spreading since the times when the human life-span was
a thousand years, as is said in the Cakkavattī Sutta of the Dīgha Nikāya.
Nowadays, modern surgeons and scientists, lacking right view,
depend on what the eye can see, and putting sole reliance on phenomena visible
with the aid of microscopes, propound theories about life and reproduction.
Those possessed of right view, however, though the subject is not within their
province, do not fall into error because they practise along the right path to
understand the subject as well as they can. This is true even outside the
Buddha’s teaching. When the Buddha arose, they learned the Buddha’s teaching
and gained right view of a higher order.
Right view at the
elementary level is bound up with personality
view. It is only
through advanced insight training that person-
ality
view can be discarded.
This is a note of warning that rebirth, or rebirth-consciousness,
is a really abstruse subject full of pitfalls.
The Relationship of the
Aggregates throughout Saṁ sāra
The relationship
between the material and mental aggregates may be summa- rized here. Regard the
paths of the material and mental aggregates as belonging to separate courses in
a given being, each taking its own path of development. In the endless round of
rebirths, the material aggregate breaks up on the death of a being, but the
mental aggregates never break up until the final passing away of an Arahant
(parinibbāna). The material aggregate has no sense-faculties, nor can it
think about or comprehend things, which are the functions of the mental
aggregates. The mental aggregates do not have any form or substance, not even
the tiniest atom, which is the property of the material aggregate.
The Course of the Material
Aggregate
Let
us see the course that the material aggregate takes. We shall consider two
cases, the flow of a river and the path of a storm.
The
waters of a river, in flowing from its source to the great ocean, comprise the
primary elements of heat and motion. The water undergoes constant changes in
temperature. The cold in the previous material element of the water causes the
element of cold to arise; the heat in the previous material element causes the
material element of heat to arise. The element of cohesion has the property of
weight so that it causes the water level to go down the gradient. The primary
element of motion is constantly pushing away the material elements of the water
as the fresh cold or hot material elements arise. These can arise only at some
distance (not visible to the physical eye) from the parent material qualities.
Being subject to the element of cohesion, the new material elements can arise
only at some lower level. This is what we call the flow of the waters in a
river (which is in reality the material aggregate with its constituent four
primary elements taking their own course under a given set of circumstances).
Now
consider a storm. The element of cohesion is not the dominant force as with the
river. The element of cohesion only has the power of holding the material
phenomena together. Since the storm is not being weighed down like the river
water, it does not flow downwards. The element of motion is dominant here. So
whether occurring over the ocean or on the land, the motive force can push it
at great speeds over the vast area where it occurs. The fresh material
phenomena that
arisetakeplaceonlyatacertaindistancefromtheparentmaterialphenomena,they do not
break away from the old. The new arises only dependent upon the old.
The same principle of fresh material phenomena arising at some
distance from the old material phenomena applies with lightning. Here the
distance between fresh material phenomena, i.e. the flash of lightning from the
sky above and the earth below, is much greater than that in a storm or in a
river’s current. It all depends on the constituent element of motion: the
stronger the element, the greater the distance. This is the way that the
material aggregate occurs.
The Course of the Mental
Aggregates
When
the mental aggregates arise dependent upon the material aggregate, they do not
occur apart from it. Since they do not break up, their occurrence cannot take
place away from the material aggregate until the moment when the latter breaks
up (at the death of a given being). Among the mental aggregates, volition plays
the key role, not unlike the element of heat in the material aggregate. From
the viewpoint of conditional relations, it is called “kamma- relation.” Beliefs
such as wrong and right view and the other mental properties are comparable to
the primary element of motion in the material aggregate. This is called “the
relationship of means” (magga paccaya). Each existence is the result of a
volition that has a given effect. The element of heat, for example, has its
effects on the proximate material phenomena in a series. This effect can last
only as long as the five aggregates of a being last. As for volition, once the
resultant consciousness has arisen, its effects can occur for innumerable
existences. However, the kammic force may remain dormant for innumerable world
cycles until favourable conditions occur. The results of one’s kamma remain as
poten- tial both in the mental aggregates and in the material aggregate. 1 Technically these kammas form the “residual” type of kamma or kaṭattā-kamma. It therefore follows that the continuity of mental
aggregates is uninterrupted. So one can say,
1 Kaṭattā rūpānaṁ: when the residual kamma ripens, co-existent material phenomena
at rebirth are due to deeds done in a former birth (kaṭattā = having been done.)
[Though the fruits of a tree are not literally “stored” in the tree, the tree
is a potential source of fruits in due season (ed.)]
conventionally
speaking, that “the same” mental aggregates prevail, though hundreds of
thousands of world cycles may pass.
This
is a fundamental difference between the material and mental aggregates. No
parallel exists in the material aggregate. Only the roughest comparison can be
made. Even in the present existence the two are noticeably different. Try to
observe this within yourself.
At the breaking up of the
existing material aggregate, the mental aggregates take rebirth with a fresh
material aggregate elsewhere. How far away from the old body can consciousness
take its rebirth? It depends on the volition (com- parable to the element of
heat) and the other mental concomitants such as right or wrong views, which are
comparable to the functioning of motion (i.e. the relation of means). The text
calls them “the mental formations that have the power of casting out (khipanaka
saṅkhārānaṁ).” When the relation of means is strong enough,
rebirth-consciousness may arise in the highest brahmā realm called nevasaññā-nāsaññā. At the other extreme, it may arise in
the deepest hell (Avīci). Consciousness of the mind-base can apprehend things
unhindered by any physical barrier. Mental phenomena are therefore incomparably
more pow- erful than material phenomena.
Being
ignorant of the power of mental phenomena, modern thinkers reason based on the
material phenomena that they can observe, and deduce theories of life based on
such observations. All these theories are nothing but futile exer- cises in
wrong thinking. This is impressed upon you because rebirth-conscious- ness
offers a ready ground for confrontation by other religions. When one discusses
Buddhism with others, one ought to be sure of what one is saying. One should
speak out of conviction acquired by direct knowledge. Reliance on shallow
knowledge or texts learnt by rote will only bring discredit to Buddhism.
By nāma the three mental aggregates of feeling, perception, and mental
formations are meant, which are mental concomitants. The mental aggregate of
consciousness is supreme in the ultimate sense. Its supremacy has been men-
tioned earlier ( p.41 ).
It is the leader (jeṭṭha), the chief (seṭṭha), pre-eminent (padhāna), the principal (pamukha) without which no mental phenomena can
exist, the lord (rāja) of all the six senses.
How Body and Mind Arise
When a person is reborn in Tāvatiṁ sa due to the acquisition
of powerful merits, the celestial mansion for a deva of that realm is at once
present. By the same analogy, whenever consciousness arises, feeling,
perception, contact, voli- tion, etc., arise simultaneously. The body including
the four elements also arises. Since rebirth-consciousness is the dominant
factor in the process, it is said that body and mind have consciousness as
their origin. In the case of rebirth in the womb, the initial arising of
material phenomena is invisible to the naked eye. Just as a tiny seed of the
banyan tree grows into a magnificent tree, from the moment of conception an
embryo develops gradually into a living being (such as human being, etc.) as
follows:
i. in the first seven
days, as embryonic liquid (invisible at first);
ii. in the second
seven days, as a foamy substance;
iii. in the third
seven days, as a clot of blood;
iv.
in the fourth seven days, as a tiny lump of flesh.
Then
at the end of the eleventh week, the head and limbs take shape when the four
sense bases of eye, ear, nose, and tongue are formed. The two sense bases of
body and mind arise at conception. This is (roughly) how materiality arises.
Scientific knowledge is limited primarily to what the microscope
can reveal. It is therefore beyond the ability of modern scientists to observe
the subtle material phenomena. Based on physiological findings alone, they can
only define animal and human faculties.
The
six senses — the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind — are called saḷāyatana. The first five are included in the material aggregate. The
sixth, the mind, is nothing but consciousness. Although the six senses are
included in psychophysical phenomena, they are repeated as the fifth link of
dependent origination due to their importance. They are the six main doors in a
being like the main gates of a city. They may also be called the six head
offices, the six warehouses, the six ports, or the six railway terminals.
It
is through these six ports that the six kinds of steamships travel to the
various destinations — the heavenly realms or the realms of misery. Similarly,
it is through these six railway terminals that the six trains set out on their
journeys in saṁ sāra.
The
Buddha said, “What, monks, is the arising of the world? Because of the eye and
visible object, eye-consciousness arises. The meeting of the three — the eye,
the visible object, and eye-consciousness — is contact. Because of contact,
feeling arises. Because of feeling ... Thus arises this whole mass of
suffering. This, monks, is called the arising of the world.”
In the above discourse, the
Buddha expounds how the six senses condition the aggregates and their attendant
suffering. If the inhabitants of hell were grouped according to their mode of
descent, there would be six groups as follows:
1
those who travelled there by the
eye-base;
2
those who travelled there by the
ear-base;
3
those who travelled there by the
nose-base;
4
those who travelled there by the
tongue-base;
5
those who travelled there by the
body-base;
6
those who travelled there by the
mind-base.
To extend the metaphor: they travelled from those six main
terminals, or they set out from those six ports.
The arising of the mental aggregates is quite different from that
of the material aggregate. As for the material aggregate, a tiny seedling from
a banyan tree can grow into a big tree, and from the seeds produced by that
tree during its lifetime, thousands of banyan trees can be propagated. As for
the mental aggregate of mental formations, each kamma produces only one
existence at a time. Even within one sitting, six volitions can arise out of
the six senses, all of which will produce a result sometime if not during one’s
present lifetime. In the next existence, too, since only one of them is going
to give its fruit, the rest are delayed until favourable opportunities prevail.
They may be likened to trains standing in a station with their engines running,
waiting for a green light. That green light may take aeons to appear, but
eventually it will appear, as will the result of mental formations unless one
becomes a stream-winner. As for a blind worldling submerged in immorality,
trains to carry him or her to the hell realms are being made ready every day.
How is one destined for such miserable existences? It depends upon
the stimulation of the sense bases. Take the eye-base for instance. Some
enticing form that belongs to someone else appears to view, and the eye-base
contacts it, so eye-consciousness arises. It is like the spark that occurs when
the hammer strikes the flint in a cigarette lighter. Due to the presence of
three factors — visible object, the eye, and eye-consciousness — contact
arises. Contact is like the hand that grasps the visible object. The moment it
grasps it, feeling arises. Here, feeling is like a withered lotus coming into
contact with cool water. Feeling is enjoyed as pleasant. This causes craving or
attachment to arise. Attachment does not let go of that pleasant feeling. No
craving arises in the Buddha and the Arahants, although they know that a thing
can evoke pleasure, since they see the danger of being attached to pleasant
feeling.
For example, when an unwary
person finds a poisonous fruit which looks like the choicest mango, and smells
and tastes like it too, he will be enticed by the appearance, smell, and taste.
However, someone who knows that the fruit is poisonous, far from being enticed,
will laugh at it and scorn it in fear. This is how, on seeing some desirable
thing, different reactions arise in one who has defile- ments and one who is
free from defilements.
Pleasant feeling or attachment may be likened to the sticky
substance used by hunters to trap monkeys. When one is pleased with the object,
craving for the pleasant feeling grows, intensifies, and becomes rooted in the
sense object. The roots extend deeper and take a firm hold like the roots of a
banyan tree clinging to and creeping into decaying brickwork. (How this process
of attachment arises will be dealt with later.) The attachment that arises from
craving is called “sensual attachment” (kāmupādāna).
Attachment arises immediately in one who is in the habit of
falling into lust. If the object of attachment is one’s own property, it holds
him fast to the round of existences but does not pull him down to hell. If the
object of attachment is the property of another, and one does not covet it, the
attachment may not send one down to the hell realms. When, however, one covets
another’s property, this attachment is unwholesome kamma. Scheming to take
another’s property is an evil volition that amounts to a mental act of
covetousness (abhijjhā). It has the potential to push one down to hell. It, too, is like
a train that will carry one to the realms of torture.
Further, if one bears malice against the owner of the property
that one covets, it is the evil volition of ill-will (vyāpāda). This also has the potential to send one down to hell. Again,
if one believes that harbouring malice is not a serious evil, and that those
recluses and wise men who say it is are wrong; that there is no such thing as
kamma; that malicious thoughts produce no result; that the worse that could
happen is that anger would arise in the owner if he comes to know of the
ill-will directed against him — that amounts to the evil volition of wrong
view. This is another train to take one down to hell. Beginning from feasting one’s
eyes on another’s property, a string of other immoral deeds may also be
perpetrated, such as killing, stealing, adultery, lying, backbiting, abusive
speech, gossiping, or idle chatter — all of which provide sure transport to the
realms of torture. These immoral volitions that cause one to commit the ten
immoral deeds are what is meant by: “Because of attachment, becoming arises.”
This is how, from the eye-base alone, one of the six “railway
terminals,” trains depart daily for the fiery realms bearing the unwary,
ignorant people. The same should be understood in respect of the other five
bases and the other five terminals.
It is from the very same
terminals that the six trains to the fortunate planes of existence depart.
Herein, since I am confining myself to using everyday examples only, the more
abstruse matters regarding the consequences that birth entails are not touched
upon. From such sense bases (terminals in our example), ten trains leave for
the four lower planes of existence due to the ten immoral actions. Ten trains
leave for the fortunate planes of existence due to the ten moral actions. The
fortunate realms are the human, deva, and brahmā planes. This is why the six
senses are taught as a separate factor though they are already included in consciousness
and psychophysical phenomena.
6–8. Contact, Feeling,
and Craving
These factors have already
been examined in our discussion on how the ten moral and immoral deeds are
based at the six senses using the analogy of the six trains.
The significance of attachment (upādāna) will now be explained.
To one who fails to understand things in their true nature, the twelve factors
of dependent origination seem inadequate to describe life. It is said, by the
poet, “The world is too much with us.” However, in truth, one has to see the
world only in the light of these twelve factors. Failure to do so allows a
persistent state of craving to prevail that naturally inclines one to harbour
wrong views and personality view.
All the existences of beings in the human world, or the higher
worlds of the devas and the brahmās, or the lower worlds of the four realms of misery, arise due to
the causal factors of consciousness and psychophysical phenomena. This fact
must be understood. These two factors bring about what is tangible.
The six senses, contact, and feeling are the three factors that
manipulate and adorn the tangible bodies of beings. Craving and attachment are
the bold banners of the ordinary person signifying the manipulation and
adornment (by the three manipulators) on the body. Regarding the banner of
attachment there are four kinds:
i. sensual attachment (kāmupādāna);
ii. attachment to wrong view (diṭṭhupādāna);
iii. attachment to futile practices or rituals (sīlabbatupādāna );
iv. attachment to personality view (attāvādupādāna).
i. Kāmupadāna means tenacious attachment to magnificent existence as a man,
deva, or Sakka, the celestial lord of the Tāvatiṁ sa realm, just as the roots
of the banyan tree cling to the crevices in brickwork. It is, in essence,
craving. It is comparable to Balavamukha — the awesome whirlpool in the great
oceans, the dread of all seafarers. If sucked into the whirlpool of sensual
attachment, one is dragged down directly to hell. Most beings are spun around
by the powerful whirlpool of sensuality so that even when a Buddha arises in
the world, they miss the rare opportunity to comprehend the Dhamma because they
cling to exist- ence so desperately. They cannot hear the teaching even now,
though it is still loud and clear.
Craving,
which takes pleasure in the six senses and their objects, may be likened to the
peripheral currents of the great whirlpool, from which one could, with mindful
determination, extricate oneself, However, if one advances too far into the
currents, the whirlpool will drag one down. All seafarers, once caught in it,
are sucked down into the ocean’s depths. Similarly, once attachment has
established itself in one’s mind, one is inextricably drawn into the saṁ sāric current and cast down to the depths of hell.
ii.
Diṭṭhupādāna means the sixty-two confirmed wrong views 1 and the three gross wrong views (visamahetu diṭṭhi). 2
iii.
Sīlabbatupādāna means futile practices and rites held to with religious fervour.
An example of the worst type is to believe that if one models one’s life on
that of an ox or a dog one attains eternal bliss.
iv. Attavādupādāna is personality view, attachment to a sense of “self,” which we
have discussed earlier.
Becoming is understood as a process of kamma as the active side
(kammabhava), which determines the passive side (upapattibhava) of the next
existence. The ten moral kammas and the ten immoral kammas are the active side.
Moral kammas result in fortunate existences as a wealthy human, deva, or brahmā. Immoral kammas result in rebirth in the four lower realms: the
hell realm, the animal realm, hungry ghosts (petas), and fallen gods (asurakāyas). These existences, both high and low, are the passive side of
existence (upapattibhava).
1 The sixty-two kinds of wrong views (micchā-diṭṭhi) include eighteen
kinds relating to the past and forty-four relating to the future. All are based
on personality view. Again, seven views hold that the soul is annihilated after
death (uccheda-diṭṭhi) and fifty-five hold that the soul is
eternal (sassata-diṭṭhi). See the Brahmajāla Sutta, Dīgha Nikāya. 2 (i) The belief that all is the result of
previous kamma (pubbekatahetu-diṭṭhi), (ii) the belief that all is due to
the will of Almighty God (issaranimmānahetu-diṭṭhi), (iii) the belief that all is
without any cause (akiriyahetu-diṭṭhi). They are gross because they either
disregard or distort the principle of kamma. See Sammādiṭṭhi Dīpanī by Ledi Sayādaw in Manuals of Buddhism, Rangoon 1981.
11–12. Birth, Aging, and
Death
Birth means rebirth or continued existences in the future, as a
new set of the five aggregates.
Aging means the constant
decay of phenomena manifested as senility. After arising, the five aggregates
decay and perish incessantly. Decay is called aging; perishing is called death.
The first two factors —
ignorance and mental formations — are the past causes that lie at the root of
the present existence. In other words, our previous deluded actions have “created”
our present existence. Who creates all beings? Ignorance and mental formations
create them all. There is no other Creator. (Ignorance and mental formations
have already been explained above.)
What
happens after death? Rebirth follows death. Rebirth is a fresh becom- ing. The
eight intermediate factors from viññāṇa to bhava belong to the present. That
is what is generally called “life” or “the world.” The cycle of rebirth is
without beginning. In that beginningless cycle, when you consider the present
existence, it is just a manifestation of your previous ignorance and mental
formations. As soon as the present life ceases, a fresh rebirth arises. That
fresh birth is also another “present” existence. In other words, one existence
after another is arising, so there is always a “present” existence as long as
ignorance and craving remain. This is the eternal cycle of existence called saṁ sāra.
The Buddha taught
about ignorance and mental formations to show that there is no other Creator.
He taught about birth to show that as long as craving and attachment are
present, there is no end to the round of births.
Ignorance
and mental formations cannot arise by themselves. They can arise only when the
eight factors such as consciousness are present. So whenever there are
ignorance and mental formations, the eight factors must be in existence. The
eight also are only a creation of the previous ignorance and mental formations.
Thus the beginning of saṁ sāra cannot be known. This shows that it is a mistake to think that
there must be a first cause of a being. It also does away with another wrong
view — the theory of transmigration of a soul, i.e. that the same being is
reborn after death. A fresh birth must always arise if craving and attachment
are present. By birth is meant the eight factors such as consciousness that are
present right now — generally called the present birth or the present life.
The
round of births therefore ends only when craving and attachment are
extinguished. Otherwise there is no end to existence on some plane or another.
Craving and attachment do not die out unless one contemplates thoroughly on the
seven aspects in the five aggregates. It is only when right view is attained through
insight that craving ceases. When craving is extinct, attachment is
automatically dead and gone.
The Buddha taught a way that an ordinary person can follow. How
does seawater taste? If one tastes a drop of seawater at the seashore one knows
that it is salty. One need not taste water from the middle of all the great
oceans to know this. In much the same way, the Buddha explains how the eight
factors of dependent origination arise through previous ignorance and mental
formations. This shows that dependent origination and the eight factors are
knowable. It is enough to understand their past arising. To ask when previous
ignorance began is as futile as tasting water from all the great oceans to know
whether seawater is salty. The previous ignorance and mental formations arose
just because there were those eight factors present in a previous existence. So
to trace back all the previous existences would be an endless search. More
importantly, it serves no purpose and is not conducive to attaining nibbāna. This is the reason for saying that saṁ sāra is without any beginning.
The
Dangers of Aging and Death
In all the realms of existence, aging and death are the real
dangers. All animate or inanimate things that one thinks one possesses
(including the body and the mind) contain the elements of aging and death.
Therefore, one is subject to the dangers of fire, water, disease, poisonous or
ferocious animals, evil spirits, and so on. One who has epilepsy is in constant
danger of having a fit on hearing exciting music. Similarly, the constant
danger of aging and death is inherent in all beings. Life-spans are spoken of
because death is a sure thing. So we say, for instance, that the Cātumaharājikā devaloka has a five-hundred year life-span or that the Tāvatiṁ sa devaloka has a thousand-year life-span, etc.
It is due to the element of aging and death that we have to busy
ourselves with the daily chores of maintaining our existence, or on a spiritual
level, with onerous meritorious deeds such as giving, virtue, training and
cultivating the mind, and so on.
In all the planes of
existence, aging and death are the only real dangers. They are the only fires
in the ultimate sense. All the activities of each living being are undertaken
just to serve the fires of aging and death. Every existence ends in decay and
death. (A proper presentation of this point should convince any non-Buddhist of
these facts.)
Q Where do aging and death originate?
A They
originate in birth.
Birth implies decay and
death. Where there is no birth, decay and death cannot arise. This is a plain
fact with which non-Buddhists can readily agree. However, one needs to
understand birth in its ultimate sense. The arising of any sensation within us,
where it arises, how it feels, what sort of illness it is, what
sortofpain,etc.,are“births,”asarethevaryingframesofmindormentalfeelings.
Q Where does rebirth originate?
A It
originates in becoming, both wholesome and unwholesome.
No rebirth can arise unless there is the potential of one’s
previous deeds to be realized. There is no Creator who creates life other than
one’s own kammic force. This point is profound. It is no easy matter to explain
to the satisfaction of all. Even among traditional Buddhists, whatever right
view they have is only shallow
— direct insight into the elements and phenomena is still lacking.
So the way in which the material and mental aggregates function should be
clearly understood.
The question of birth is the
one over which one is most likely to fall into wrong views if one happens to
live outside Buddhist tradition and culture. That is why it is crucial to have
the right view regarding who can show the truth, having himself known it
through training and insight, the tenth subject in the ten aspects of mundane
right view ( see p.78 ).
Q Where does becoming
originate?
A It originates in attachment.
Q
Where does attachment originate?
A It originates in craving.
Q Where does craving originate?
A It arises
from feeling. These points should be clear to non-Buddhists as well.
Q How do pleasant and unpleasant feelings arise?
A They arise due to contact. This point will not be readily
acceptable to non-Buddhists.
It is a controversial question for them. Even among Buddhists,
some wrong beliefs can arise on this point. For there are many so-called
Buddhists who believe that all internal and external feelings, pleasant or
unpleasant, are due to previous kamma alone. “It is as fate (kamma) would have
it,” they would say, or “If luck is with us we may have something to eat,” or
“It is bad kamma that caused this
misfortune,”or“Itisthroughgoodkammaalonethatoneprospers,”andsoon.Such exclusive
dependence upon the power and effect of past kamma is not correct. It is
aformofwrongviewcalled “pubbekatahetu-diṭṭhi”
orthebeliefthatallisconditioned by past kamma. This is according to the Suttas
and also the Abhidhamma.
Kamma
is like seed-grain. Joy or sorrow (pleasant or unpleasant feeling) are like the
paddy, making an effort is like the fertility of the soil, knowledge or skill
are like the rain or irrigation water. The same seed-grain yields a good or
poor crop depending upon the fertility of the soil, the supply of water, and
most of all, effort exerted at the right time and in the right way. Indeed
kamma is highly dependent on present effort. The seed-grain is no more
significant than good soil and regular watering of a paddy field. Even the best
of seeds, such as the Abbhantara 1 fruit’s stone, will not thrive in poor
soil and in dry conditions. A successful birth can result only when proper
prenatal care is given and arrange- ments have been made for the birth. Again,
present results also depend on skill, discretion, and prompt effort.
Somepeoplelackknowledgeandskillbesideseffort.Theyfallonhardtimes,too.
Nowonder,then,thattheybecomepoor.Theyblamefateorpreviouskamma.They would point
to the exceptional cases of those lucky ones who prosper without skill or
effort. In fact their knowledge about kamma is scanty and shallow.
Because one’s previous kamma
has been deficient in wholesome deeds, one may be born ugly, physically
deformed, or handicapped. Such congenital defi- ciencies are the result of past
kamma, which one can do very little to alter. Once one has been born, the
matter of upbringing, personal care, working for a living, acquiring wealth and
merits, etc., are up to oneself. This is present kamma, which depends primarily
on one’s own wisdom and effort. One’s progress in the world depends very much
on present kamma.
Although kamma is related to pleasure and pain, it is not the
cause of feeling. As the Buddha said, “Because of contact, feeling arises.” He
did not say, “Because of kamma, feeling arises.” Certain other religions do not
recognize kamma, which is one extreme of wrong view. However, some Buddhists
place all their faith in kamma to the exclusion of effort and prudence. This is
the other extreme of wrong view called “pubbekatahetu-diṭṭhi.” Those who hold the latter wrong view maintain:
“Whatever
pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral feeling one experiences is due to a previous
cause.”
When a banyan tree seed is planted, its successful sprouting
depends on the soil, water supply, and seed-grain. Of these three, the
seed-grain is most vital; the soil and moisture are only supporting factors.
Once germination has taken place, the growth of the tree depends on the soil
and moisture only, for the seed-grain has discharged its function, and is no
longer needed. This is a practical example. The potential inherent in the genes
of the seed determines the size of the tree and its longevity, but this
potential can only be realized with the help of soil and water.
1 The legendary mango of divine taste, a very rare fruit said to
grow in the heart of the Himalayan mountains (Abbhantara = interior).
Only when this help
is available can the potential in the seed be realized to the full. Here, the
difference in the species of seeds must be understood. A tree’s size and
longevity depend on its species. It is the same for grasses and other types of
vegetation. In this example, the seed-grain is like kamma, the tree like our
body, the soil like our due efforts, and water like prudence.
The
kamma that one has accumulated from the beginningless past is a unique mixture
of good and bad. Skilful effort and prudence will be the dominant factors
contributing to progress. One is doing oneself a disservice if one blames kamma
for one’s failures in life; so too if one blames the lack of perfections for
failing to acquire learning, merit, and insight in one’s religious life. Ponder
on this well.
“Fromcontact,feelingarises”:Itiscoldinwinter,andcoldisunpleasant.Certain
teachers maintain that it is cold because God has willed the seasons. This is a
kind of wrong view called “issaranimmāna-diṭṭhi.” Those who believe this maintain:
“Whatever
pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral feeling one experiences is due to an Almighty
God.”
Certain teachers hold that there is no cause or condition for what
a person experiences. Those who believe this maintain:
“Whatever
pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral feeling one experiences is without cause.”
Certain
naked ascetics taught that pleasure and pain are the result of past kamma and
nothing else. This is also a wrong view called “pubbekatahetu-diṭṭhi.” This view is partly true, but it is still a wrong view
because it rules out causes and conditions other than kamma.
The
law of dependent origination says:
“Body
consciousness arises dependent on the body and a tactile object. The
coincidence of the three is contact, and feeling is conditioned by contact.”
Cold is felt in the
following way according to the Buddha’s teaching quoted above. There is the
body-base inside you. There is the material element of heat, which can become
cold (a quality of the heat element). This serves as the sense object, the
tangible kind that corresponds to the sensitive body-base. As the sense object
(cold) and the sense base (body) come into contact, tactile-con- sciousness
arises throughout the body. These three elements of cold, body-base, and
tactile-consciousness condition the mental factor called contact. This contact
causes feeling to arise. Here, it is the unpleasant feeling of cold, and one
might say, “Oh, it’s terribly cold.” When one approaches a fire, the cold feeling
vanishes, and a pleasant feeling of warmth arises in its place. How does this
new feeling come about? Is it God’s will? Or is it purely a matter of kamma?
Similarly,
when the external material quality of warmth contacts the sensitive body-base,
tactile-consciousness arises. Consciousness arises dependent on the body, so it
is called tactile-consciousness. This, in turn, causes feeling born of
body-contact (kāya-samphassajā-vedanā) to arise. The vanishing of the external cold material quality
leads to the vanishing of the tactile-consciousness and of the cold feeling
thus produced. When one moves away from the fireplace, the pleasant feeling of
warmth vanishes. The same causal law should be applied here too.
By
the same principle, when one feels hot and sweaty in summer one takes a cool
shower. The arising of the pleasant cool feeling should be understood in the
same way. These examples illustrate the arising of contact in the sensitive
body-base and the consequent arising of pleasant or unpleasant feelings.
Feelings arising through the other five sense bases should be understood in the
same way.
The causal law is
universally applicable. In our illustration, the change from unpleasant to
pleasant feeling is caused by one’s effort, which is merely present action,
though, to a certain extent, it is assignable to kamma. However, such a view
cannot help to dispel personality view and doubt. It is only when contact is
understood as the dependent factor on which feeling arises, that the vague
belief in a “self” and doubts about the Four Noble Truths will be dispelled.
Otherwise, the fires of hell burn relentlessly within. Previous kamma, of
course, has its role here, but it is just a remote cause like the seed that has
grown into a tree. What is most obvious is that the world is a thick forest of
desirable and undesirable sense objects. Since the six sense doors are always
open, how could any individ- ual prevent pleasant and unpleasant feelings or
sensations arising?
Present
activities may be motivated by greed, anger, or delusion; or they may be
inspired by confidence and knowledge. They include meritorious deeds such as
giving or virtue, which may be for one’s own benefit or for the benefit of
others. None of them are the effects of previous kamma; they result from
present effort and present undertakings only. From one’s own efforts, one
experiences all sorts of feelings. Whether doing a moral deed or an immoral
deed, when the necessary conditions prevail, an appropriate contact arises, and
dependent on that particular contact, feeling must arise.
This
question of pleasant or unpleasant feelings and how they originate is a thorny
problem that troubles followers of other religions. Even during the Buddha’s
time, wrong views on this question were prevalent. That is why it has been
given such comprehensive treatment.
Everyone normally seeks safety, and strives for well-being. All
mundane activities are aimed at avoiding discomfort and enjoying pleasure in
some way or other. No one wants to get into trouble. No one knowingly tries to
hurt himself. Everyone wants to enjoy pleasure and is striving towards that
end. Although everyone wants pleasure and happiness and fears pain and sorrow,
few know what really ails the world, or what real happiness is.
The
main ill in the world is aging and death. The danger of death and how it
destroys all existences has already been discussed at length and illustrated by
the examples of the fire-worshippers and the spendthrift wife. Aging paves the
way for death. So whatever illustrations we have used concerning death also
apply to aging.
Wherever an ordinary person
is born, two hell fires are burning within. One is personality view and the
other is doubt (about the Four Noble Truths). Aging and death are the agents in
the service of the two fires.Theydestroyonewhoisattached to existence, as all
beings are. When they have completed their mission of destruc- tion and a being
breaks up into the constituent aggregates, the two fires of personal- ity view
and doubt cast that being down into hell. They can seize this opportunity only
at the breaking up of the five aggregates. The two fires burn within all
individ- uals, even if they are born in one of the six deva realms or in the
brahmā realms.
The
Buddha said, “Through not understanding this law of dependent origi- nation, Ānanda, these beings are all confused in their existences, like a
spoilt skein, or like a weaver bird’s nest, or like dried muñja grass. They cannot escape from falling into the realms of
misery, all in disarray.”
If
you ask someone, “Where will you be born after death?” the reply will probably
be, “I don’t know; it depends on my kamma.”
That
is true. Nobody can aim at a certain future existence: it depends on one’s
kamma. All have to resign themselves to their own kamma. It is just like
withered leaves scattered in a strong wind—no one knows where they are going to
fall. Not only are human beings subject to an uncertain destination after
death, but so too are the devas and brahmās, up to the Vehapphala
Brahmā realm. All ordinary persons are in the same situation. They fall
in disarray, quite unprepared, to wherever their kamma sends them at their
death. Individuals who have passed away from the four formless brahmā realms share the same fate. According to the Nakhasikhā Sutta (S. ii. 263.)
most of them fall into the four realms of misery.
Let us give an illustration.
Suppose there is a magnificent multi-storeyed mansion. On the first storey,
there are plenty of pleasures and the life-span is one month. The second storey
provides even more pleasures, and the life-span is two months. As we go up the
levels, the pleasures on offer are greater and the life-spans longer. Below the
great mansion are areas of scrub land full of thorns and sharp-edged rocks.
There are enormous holes filled with sewage and excre- ment. There are wide
areas where sharp spikes are standing. Deep crevices and hollows filled with
burning coals lie at the bottom of this place. None falling there could have
any chance of escape.
Around the great mansion
prevailing winds blow at every storey. The inhab- itants of the first storey
are swept away by the prevailing winds at the end of their one month life-span.
Many of them fall onto the thorny scrub land, many fall into the sewage-filled
holes, many drop helplessly onto the standing spikes, many fall down to the
fiery hollows. The inhabitants of the upper storeys of the grand mansion share
the same fate at the end of their life-span.
The
analogy is this: the multi-storeyed mansion is like the human, deva, and brahmā worlds. The terrible terrain below is like the four realms of
misery, the prevailing winds like aging and death.
During
life one is obsessed with enjoying whatever pleasures one can gain, quite
heedless of death; but when death comes, one loses one’s bearings. Through
attachment to the notion of a self, one is cast down by kamma and falls in
disarray. The same thing happens in the deva and brahmā realms as well, and this
has been happening since the dawn of time. This complete helplessness at death,
when one’s kamma usually casts one down into the four realms of misery, is
called “vinipāta.” This is the law of kamma that governs all ordinary persons.
This danger besets the multitude. Its danger and relentlessness
during one’s lifetime should be understood from the analogies of the
fire-worshipper and the spendthrift wife. Aging and death not only destroy, but
they also send one to hell because of one’s attachment to personality view. All
beings are subject to the misfortunes of decay and death, and all have the
fires of hell burning within them. That is why all existences are simply
dreadful — dukkha.
I
shall now explain the evils of decay and death to which one is subject during
one’s lifetime. Since one’s birth there has not been a single moment, not so
much as a single breath, when one was free from the danger of death. Death is
lurking from the time a being is born, and it has always been like this.
Mortality keeps beings in constant danger, for there are any number of ways to
die. For instance, food is not normally poisonous. However, food can cause an
allergic reaction. Though you choose some delicacy to pamper your palate, on
eating it you may suddenly become ill and die. Death has countless ways to
fulfil its mission. Why should good food turn deadly? Why should this happen to
anyone? It is simply because there is a disease in beings (aging, in the
ultimate sense) that is always faithfully aiding death. This is just one
example of how death can overtake us at any moment. If there was no danger of
death, one need not fear anything, not even a thunderbolt striking one’s head.
All
human endeavours such as earning a livelihood, living in organized society,
maintaining law and order, protecting oneself, one’s property, etc., are
primarily aimed at self-preservation. This, in simple terms, is an attempt to
ward off the dangers of death. The danger of death is also a motivating factor
in doing meritorious deeds such as giving or virtue. The religious life is also
taken up because of an awareness of death’s peril. This is an explanation of
the dangers of aging and death during one’s lifetime.
Of
all the ills to which people are subject, aging and death are paramount. There
is nothing in the world, whether human or celestial, animate or inani- mate,
that is free from these two agents of destruction. All material or mental
phenomena are fraught with aging and death. Knowing this, one may have done
innumerable acts of merit in innumerable previous existences as good humans,
devas, or brahmās, all aimed at escaping the fate of falling in disarray. Yet
nothing now remains to protect one from such an ignoble fate. One is still just
as vulnerable as ever. Those existences have come and gone. The present
existence is a fresh aggregate of the same type of suffering. What a waste! One
has to start from scratch again. Why have all your good works come to naught?
It is because you do not yet know what dukkha is. You have been serving the
fires of dukkha in doing good deeds hoping to escape from suffering. So you
have taken the trouble to perform the meritorious deeds such as giving, virtue,
mental develop- ment and training, diligence, concentration, insight, acquiring
skills repeatedly throughout saṁ sāra. Your present efforts and meritorious undertakings can also
become the fuel that feeds the fires of dukkha whose competent helpers are the
decay, aging, and death within you. This exhortation is to illustrate the
destruc- tive nature of dukkha.
Real
happiness is the freedom from the dangers of aging and death. I shall make this
clear. The highest form of human happiness is to be a Universal Monarch
(Cakkavattī), but the fires of aging and death burn in him too, as in any
other being. He is also enslaved by personality view, and is prone to doubts
about the Four Noble Truths. These fires are manifested as life-spans. When
aging burns up a human existence in ten years, it is said that ten years is the
life-span of man. Understand it in the same way for all life-spans. Life-spans
in the deva and brahmā realms are of the same nature. When the human life-span lasts a
hundred years a man’s youth is burnt up in thirty-three years; his middle age
in another thirty-three years and his old age in the last thirty-three years.
Or if the length of a human’s life is just thirty years, the first decade is
consumed by aging in just ten years, the second in the next ten years, and so
on.
In the three seasons of the year, the material elements that have
existed in the cold season are burnt up in four months; those of the rainy
season, in four months; and those of the hot season, in four months,
respectively. Of the twelve months in a year, the material elements of the
first month are burnt up in thirty days; those of the second month, in thirty
days; and so on. Contemplate on the burning of aging in you, in the same way,
down to the shortest time span you can imagine, down to the blinking of an eye.
From the most fleeting moment to world cycles or aeons, aging is
at work without interruption. Underlying it is the ultimate destroyer — death,
a more terrifying fire. Aging or decay is very powerful, so you need to
understand it. Unless you can perceive decay at work, you have not gained a
clear perception of the causal process. You must be able to pinpoint the
“culprit” of the whole scheme. So much for aging or decay. As for death and
personality view, I have already explained them above.
Vicikicchā or doubt is a close associate of ignorance or delusion. Doubt is
of two kinds: doubt relating to the Dhamma and doubt relating to the soul or
self.
The first kind of doubt springs from the ignorance that
misconceives things such as the aggregates, sense bases, and elements making up
a being. A traveller in unfamiliar terrain, having lost his bearings, thinks
that the right way is wrong. He is confused and cannot decide which is the
right way. Likewise, due to ignorance, one does not know the earth as the earth
element. Doubt makes one vacillate concerning the truth, it also dampens one’s
fervour to continue in the search for truth. This is doubt about the Dhamma.
The second kind of doubt arises from attachment to the notion of a
vague “self” or “soul.” One unskilled in dependent origination is upset when
faced with death. One is shocked at the prospect of losing the present life,
which one believes is one’s own. One who holds wrong views dreads that after
death his or her “self” may be lost for ever. One who holds right view (mundane
right view only) fears falling into one of the four lower realms. That feeling
arises from remorse for immoral deeds or having neglected to do meritorious
deeds, or both. It is this feeling that magnifies the fear of death at the
last, helpless moment. All this vexation and uncertainty about the future casts
beings down into the four realms of misery after death.
Personality view and doubt oppress a person on his or her deathbed
like a mountain tumbling down. The danger of falling in disarray worries the
Universal Monarch as it does other individuals. Even a Universal Monarch is not
really happy because he is prone to the same fears and anxieties as any other
being. It should be understood that the five aggregates of a deva’s existence,
Sakka’s existence, or a brahmā’s existence are all subject to the same fires of aging and death,
personality view, and doubt.
Enjoyment of life is fraught
with the dangers referred to above, so that at the time of death all the
glories of one’s existence become meaningless and useless. When the five
aggregates fall apart, what one has clung to as one’s own life perishes and
goes. Whether one is a human being, a deva, or a brahmā, one possesses nothing.
Rebirth may be as a lowly being such as a louse, a flea, a dog or a pig, an
earthworm or a leech. For instance, on seeing a pig that had been a brahmā in a certain previous existence, the Buddha remarked thus:
“When the roots of a tree
are undamaged, but only the trunk is cut off, the tree flourishes again. Even
so, when craving is not totally rooted out with its latent tendencies, this
suffering of rebirth, death, etc., arises repeatedly.” (Dhp. v.338)
That pig had been a bhikkhunī during the time of
Kakusandha Buddha. When she attained the first jhāna, she was reborn as a
brahmā. Then on her death as brahmā she became a human being.
When her human existence ended she was reborn as a pig. The significant thing
to note is that when she was reborn as a pig, it was only a pig’s existence
with no special attributes for having been a bhikkhunī or a brahmā in her previous existences.
No pleasure marred with the
inherent fire of death is real happiness. In truth it is only suffering. That
is why real happiness exists only when aging and death can arise no more. Then,
and only then, is happiness real and true. That happiness is called deliverance
or “escape” (nissaraṇa) — the seventh aspect we discussed above.
There are two highways. One highway leads to the truth of
suffering, the other leads to the truth of happiness.
Consider whether it is
knowledge or ignorance that governs the daily activi- ties of most beings. If
their activities are undertaken with right view according to the sevenfold
proficiency in the seven aspects discussed above, it depends on knowledge.
Knowledge consists of acquiring insight into the elements of exten- sion,
cohesion, heat, and motion. Ignorance consists in the inherent darkness in
one’s mind that has kept one from perceiving the true nature of the four
elements. It is the dense darkness that has been with all beings throughout the
beginningless cycle of saṁ sāra. All activities done under the spell of that dark- ness,
whether they are daily chores, the religious practices of a bhikkhu, deeds of
merit such as giving, haphazard mental development or learning the scriptures
— in short, all
undertakings, good or bad — are only acts dominated by ignorance. All actions
done with ignorance lead to suffering. They make up the high road to suffering,
which has been laid down under the supervision of aging and death since the
dawn of time.
Ignorance
is not something that needs to be cultivated. This veil of darkness has always
been inherent in living beings. Knowledge, on the other hand, is something that
has to be cultivated. This is possible only by following the Buddha’s teaching.
This is an uphill task since it entails eradicating ignorance. Knowledge is the
highway where aging and death are completely absent. It is the road taken by
the Buddhas, Solitary Buddhas, and all the Arahants who have ever attained
enlightenment. It is the road to deliverance.
This
is the exposition of the way leading to suffering and the way leading to
happiness — the two highways that lead in opposite directions.
Regarding
the way of knowledge: contemplating the five aggregates might seem rather
heavy-going for meditation practice. Penetrative awareness, direct knowledge,
or insight into just the five basic elements, namely the elements of extension,
cohesion, heat, motion, and mind, is sufficient.
Pakkusāti, the king of Taxila (now in Pakistan), won enlightenment by
under- standing those five elements plus the element of the void or space (ākāsa). The Buddha said, “This being, bhikkhus, is just (an
embodiment of) the six elements.”
Ākāsa means the element of space. The Buddha indicated the cavities
such as the mouth, the ears, and the throat to illustrate ākāsa. If one contemplates the five basic elements and the seven
aspects to gain insight into the nature of the body, it is quite possible that
insight leading to the truth of happiness is within one’s reach right now. This
is an exposition on the truth of suffering, the way to the truth of suffering,
the truth of happiness, and the way to the truth of happiness. This method of
exposition, which is the method of dependent origi- nation in forward and
reverse order, is most helpful for practice.
According to the method
taught by the Buddha in the Dhamma- cakkappavattana Sutta, the first sermon at
the Deer Park, the four truths are shown in this order: the truth of suffering,
the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering,
and the truth of the path. Suffering is, as we have seen, the real danger and
ill in all forms of existence, which are nothing but the five aggregates. The origin
of suffering is nothing but craving. The cessation of suffering is real
happiness, ultimate bliss or deathlessness. The Noble Eightfold Path is the
highway leading to insight knowledge that we have discussed above. The Noble
Eightfold Path has been explained in the section on the fourth aspect of the
aggregates. Ignorance and craving being co-existent, when one ceases, the other
automatically ceases.
For
meditation practice, ignorance, as the antitheses of knowledge, is shown
astheoriginofsuffering. This helps in giving one direct knowledge in
meditation.
Why is it such a great opportunity to be born as a human being? Is
it because as a human being one is free from the lower realms of misery? Is it
because human pleasures are really great? No, not at all. If sensual pleasures
are regarded as great opportunities, then human pleasures are nothing compared
to the celestial pleasures of the heavenly realms. If pleasure were to be the
criterion here, the Buddha would have mentioned birth in the heavenly realms as
great opportunities. The Buddha did not do so. It should therefore be
understood that by “a great opportunity” the Buddha did not mean an opportunity
to enjoy pleasure, but one for doing skilful actions or meritorious deeds.
I shall amplify this statement. Merit may be done in two ways: by
working for future well-being as a wealthy man or powerful deity, or by
cultivating the mind for enlightenment as one of the three classes of Bodhi
referred to in Chapter One. The first can be done only in the human world. The
second can also be done in the human world. Many aspirants to Buddhahood have,
even during the present world cycle, been reborn in the brahmā realms repeatedly. They did not, however, live out brahmā life-spans there, but willed to end their existences as brahmā s by what is called adhimutti death because they were eager to
fulfil the perfections in the human realm. When they were reborn as Universal
Monarchs too, they renounced the world and practised the perfections.
The point is that human existence is a glorious opportunity for
the wise because in one such existence innumerable good deeds can be done that
can fructify as good human existences, good deva existences, and good brahmā existences.
I shall explain this point.
In the human realm, the supreme glory is that of a Universal Monarch. If a
Universal Monarch were to enjoy this glory to his life’s end he would lose all
his glory at death and would have no merit to his credit. He would have thus
squandered his human existence. If he appreciates this great opportunity of
earning merit, he may renounce the world as soon as possible and acquire merit
by which he can be assured of many future existences as a Universal Monarch. He
can be assured of more glorious existences as a deva, or as Sakka, the Lord of
Tāvatiṁ sa, or as Mahā Brahmā, or as an Ābhassarā Brahmā with a life-span of eight mahākappas, or as a Subhakiṇṇa Brahmā with a life-span of sixty-four mahākappas, orasaVehapphalaBrahmāwithalife-spanoffive-hundred
106
mahākappas, or even as an Arūpa Brahmā of the “summit of existence” with a life-span of eighty-four
thousand mahākappas. These are the possibilities open to any wise person born
as a human being in one human existence.
If a Universal Monarch cannot renounce his worldly pomp and
splendour, he misses that glorious opportunity to earn the above future
well-being. So anyone born as a human being should be able to renounce present
worldly pleasures for the sake of future worldly pleasures, which may be far
greater than the present ones. If one forgoes the opportunity, one would be
just like the fool who barters a precious gem worth a kingdom for a meagre
meal. Such are the opportunities a person has in the human realm.
As for those really wise
individuals who aspire to any of the three classes of enlightenment, they would
be even more willing to forsake worldly pleasure. Human birth is the ideal
opportunity to gain real happiness. Only one’s wisdom and discretion is the
limit.
“That is why the wise man,
seeing clearly the benefits in maturing the perfections, and riding the high
tide of fortune leading to innumerable glorious future existences, should
forsake the meagre pleasures of the present.”
Why is it a great opportunity to be alive when a Buddha has
arisen, or while a Buddha’s teaching is still extant? Is it because it offers
one the opportunity of acquiring merit through giving, virtue, and mental
development for one’s future well-being? Or is it because it provides the
plinth on which the edifice of enlightenment is to be built?
Ordinary kammic merits are sought and won in all eras whether a
Buddha arises or not. In the dark ages of world cycles when no Buddha arises,
there are people of virtue doing meritorious deeds. Therefore, the world
abounds with devas and brahmās at those times too. However, the thirty-seven factors of
enlightenment are known only when the Buddha’s teaching is still extant. That
is why encountering a Buddha, or to be living while a Buddha’s teaching is
still extant, is the greatest of opportunities.
Much has been made of certain virtuous people born with a penchant
for knowledge, but such mundane wisdom is superficial. It does not develop into
supramundane wisdom. It cannot withstand the onslaught of non-Buddhist or wrong
beliefs once the Buddha’s teaching has disappeared. The once wise man then
reverts to being a great person, content to drift and sink in the ocean of saṁ sāra, ever seeking sensual existences like an old ghost wailing for
crumbs around a rubbish heap.
That is why the wise
man, seeing clearly the benefits in maturing the perfections, and recognizing
the precious opportu- nity that leads to enlightenment, should exert earnestly
after the essential teaching of the Buddha contained in the thirty-seven
factors of enlightenment.
There
are three types of renunciation for the life of a bhikkhu: renunciation through
wisdom (paññā pabbajjita), renunciation through confidence (saddhā pabbajjita) and renunciation through fear (bhayā pabbajjita). Of these, the first two require previous
accumulations of merit or perfections. The last means taking up the life of a
bhikkhu out of expediency: to seek political asylum, to recover from sickness,
to take refuge from an enemy, or to avoid the struggles of the worldly life. It
will be seen that the teaching of the all-knowing Buddha is the business of the
wise. Whether one is a bhikkhu or a layman, the teaching is cherished only
among the wise. As the saying goes, “Lions’ fat collects only in a gold cup.” I
shall enlarge on this.
The Buddha’s teaching is a
great opportunity for devas and brahmās to gain benefit. Hardly one human being among ten million
celestial beings would have benefited, not one among ten thousand of them is a
bhikkhu, the overwhelming majority are lay people. During the Buddha’s
lifetime, the city of Sāvatthī boasted millions of Noble Ones. Among them hardly a hundred
thousand might have been bhikkhus. “Being a bhikkhu is a great opportunity,” is
therefore a statement with reference only to renunciation through confidence or
wisdom. One who renounces through wisdom exerts for knowledge; one who
renounces through confidence exerts for the noble practice; one who renounces
through fear exerts for material possessions permissible for a bhikkhu, i.e.
the four requisites of alms-food, robes, monastic shelter, and medicine. These
character- istics testify to what type of bhikkhu one actually is.
Alternatively, there can be
four types of bhikkhu as follows: one who re- nounces through wisdom (paññā pabbajjita) exerts for knowledge, one who renounces through
confidence (saddhā pabbajjita) exerts for the noble practice, one who renounces
through greed (lobha pabbajjita) exerts for comfort, one who renounces through
delusion (moha pabbajjita) exerts for shallow things, lacking self-discipline,
due to a superficial regard for the teaching.
There
are four classes of confidence: 1) Pasāda Saddhā, 2) Okappana Saddhā, 3) Āgama Saddhā, and 4) Adhigama Saddhā.
1. Pasāda Saddhā is confidence in the Three Gems because the Buddha, the Dhamma,
and the Saṅgha are recognized as being worthy of reverence. It is based upon
a superficial high regard for the Three Gems and not on a deep conviction, so
it is not stable.
2. Okappana Saddhā is confidence inspired by the noble attributes of the Buddha, the
Dhamma, and the Saṅgha. It comes out of conviction and it endures for a lifetime, but
after one’s death it vanishes from one’s consciousness.
3. Āgama Saddhā is the type of confidence acquired by bodhisattas. After
receiving recognition and assurance of future Buddhahood, a bodhisatta has
unwavering confidence in the Three Gems, which implies an abiding confidence in
the merit of good deeds.
4. Adhigama Saddhā is the confidence nurtured by the Noble One who, having won the
fruits of path knowledge, has realized nibbāna.
Of
these four classes, even the first is a rare gift. Many who are born in Buddhist
countries do not have even this kind of confidence.
One
who has the second kind of confidence can revere a bhikkhu whose conduct is far
from being correct, knowing the nine attributes of the Ariya Saṅgha to which a bhikkhu belongs.
One
endowed with Āgama Saddhā cannot refrain from doing some sort of perfect merit even for a
day.
The
Noble Ones, who have won attainments in the path knowledges, are endowed with a
confidence that is a great attainment (adhigama). They have an abiding
confidence in the Three Gems, the upkeep of the five precepts, the performance
of the ten kinds of meritorious deeds, and the practice of the thirty-seven
factors of enlightenment.
Confidence is a key factor
that determines the extent of one’s realization of nibbāna. For example, an
epileptic has a fit when he hears exciting music. When he is cured of the
disease, no music, however exciting, can cause a fit. He remembers how, when he
had the affliction, he used to have fits on such occasions, how his heart would
throb uncontrollably, how he would lose con- sciousness. Now that he is
completely cured, he feels very glad. On seeing other epileptics suffer the
same painful experience at the sound of exciting music too, he would remember
his previous affliction and feel very glad in the knowledge that he is now free
from it. When he hears of any cases of fits suffered by other epileptics, he
feels very glad that he is free of the disease.
In
much the same way, the world is filled with occasions for passion to arise, or
for hatred, vanity, delusion, pride, etc., to arise. A Noble One, on coming
across such occasions, remembers how in the past, before realizing nibbāna, he or she had let passion or hatred arise, but knows now that
no kind of passion, hatred, or vanity can arise.
On
seeing or hearing of other people moved by passion, a Noble One remem- bers his
or her former foolishness and rejoices in the knowledge of being free from
passion. On seeing another epileptic having a fit, an epileptic is reminded of
the disease and is afraid of suffering like that some day too. A wise person is
also constantly alert to the possibility of some misfortune on seeing another person
suffering due to uncontrolled passion, because he or she knows that passion is
not yet eradicated. A Noble One has no such fears, based on the knowledge that
passion has been eradicated. Thus, a Noble One is glad when reflecting upon his
or her previous defiled state and on the awareness of freedom from passion.
“O how happy we are in maintaining our lives, Unafflicted by
defilements amidst those afflicted! Amidst people who are afflicted We live
unafflicted by defilements.” (Dhp. v.198)
On
seeing the multitude toiling at their daily chores, in fine weather or foul,
full of ego, blinded by ignorance of the true nature of the elements, and
merely feeding the fires of aging and death that burn within, a Noble One feels
glad to be free from such foolishness or vain endeavours. As for ordinary
persons, they emulate the active life around them.
Vain
endeavour or “foolishness” (balussukha saṅkhāra) is the sort of eagerness
shown by foolish people, who are so blinded by ignorance that they are unable
to recognize worthwhile and fruitful endeavours. Vain endeavour is activity
caused by ignorance. Again, it is becoming (kammabhava) or productive kamma
(i.e. producing continued existences) committed because of
attachment.
All kinds of futile activity can be seen anywhere, in big cities,
at railway terminals, at markets, at seaports, at airports, in busy streets,
etc., where the babble of voices makes a constant din. All this hubbub is
misdirected, but its futility is seen only by the wise and the Noble Ones — to
ignorant people it is seen as a sign of progress.
“O
how happy we are in maintaining our lives, Indifferent to sensual pleasures,
amidst those who strive for them. Amidst those striving for sensual pleasures,
We live without striving for them.” (Dhp. v.199)
On
seeing miserable people such as the blind, deaf, dumb, the insane, or wretched
beings such as animals; or on pondering over the worse miseries of the lower
realms, a wise person will feel worried at the thought that one of these days
he or she too might very well share that fate, for he or she has been carrying
on the same vain and fruitless activities prompted by the same defilements.
A Noble One, however, while
pitying the sufferers, will exult in the knowl- edge of being free from such a
fate. This kind of exultation must have been in the benign smile of Venerable
Moggallāna who saw a group of petas on Mount Gijjhakuṭa. This is how a person who has quelled the passions within feels
joy at the prospect of the dreary process of psychophysical phenomena soon
being extinguished.
This
great opportunity of living in the era of the Buddha’s teaching is the time for
quenching the fires within. This is the opportune moment to extinguish the
eleven fires that have been burning since time immemorial. It is the time to
leave behind human affairs and cares, and to devote oneself to the eradication
of ignorance. Human welfare has been enjoyed often enough throughout saṁ sāra; this life is not exceptional. Whether one is a billionaire or
an emperor, one’s riches and prestige are well worth forsaking in the quest for
enlightenment. Even if one is a deva or a brahmā, these exalted existences
are useless when the fires of aging and death are still burning within. All
forms of worldly pleasures, whether those of kings, devas, or brahmās, are sources of defilements that stimulate the process of
rebirth. As such, no pleasure is particularly worthwhile, as all are decaying,
crumbling, and perishing incessantly. The only worthwhile task to set oneself
is to root out the pernicious wrong view of personality, an illusion that does
not actually exist. This task must be taken up at the right time which is NOW.
Once the moment is past, the chance is lost!
On
seeing such precious time being squandered in the pursuit of the pleas- ures
that this shallow existence has to offer — still craving, still attached,
unsatiated, never satisfied with human or celestial glories — a wise person
feels remorse, “I too am still craving, still attached.” As for the Noble Ones,
they exult in the knowledge that they have freed themselves from the craving
and attach- ment that could drag them down to hell. This is the exposition on
how the Noble Ones view life, having realized nibbāna within.
Saddhamma
means sāsana or the Buddha’s teaching. The teaching has three main
aspects: training for higher virtue, training for higher concentration, and
training for higher knowledge or wisdom, as we have seen above. These are
referred to in the commentary as learning (pariyatti), practice (paṭipatti), and realization (paṭivedha).
“Since the beginningless round of saṁ sāra my two ears have been
filled with human voices and human speech, or deva voices and deva speech, or
brahmā voices and brahmā speech. All worldly talk only fans the flames of defilements
— craving, anger, delusion, personality view, aging and death —
burning within me. Never before have I heard this different kind of speech, which
is the teaching exhorting me to extinguish these fires and showing me the way
to do it. How opportune it is for me! From now on I will use my ears for
listening to this most precious and timely sound before it is too late.”
Thus should you ponder, Maung Thaw.
~
End of the Uttamapurisa Dīpanī ~
1262 B.E. the First Waxing Day of Kason 28th April, 1900 CE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
Editor’s Preface
................................................................................iii
Preface to the First Edition
...............................................................v
The Venerable
Ledi Sayādaw’s Reply
.............................................vi
Preamble............................................................................................1
Chapter
One The Perfections
Defined..........................................................1
The
Perfections
Explained........................................……...........................8
The
Noblest Aspiration..................................................…….....................13
Chapter
Two Seven Aspects of Materiality to be Perceived....................22
Seven
Aspects of Feeling to be
Perceived................................................32
Seven
Aspects of Perception to be
Perceived...........................................35
Seven
Aspects of Mental Formations to be Perceived.............................36
Seven
Aspects of Consciousness to be Perceived.....................................39
Chapter Three
The Element of Deliverance...........................................59
The True Peace
of Nibbāna......................................................................61
Chapter
Four Two Types of Ordinary Person.................................63
Chapter
Five How to be Mindful while Doing a Meritorious Deed...65
Chapter
Six The Five Māras.....…….............................................69
Chapter
Seven How to Practise the Three Refuges..........................76
Chapter
Eight The Four Types of Buddhists....................................78
Chapter
Nine The Four Noble Truths Need to be Understood................80
Dependent
Origination Needs to be Understood....................................81
Some
Difficult Points in Dependent Origination.....................................92
The
Four Noble Truths Explained...........................................................99
Chapter Ten An Exhortation
Regarding Great Opportunities................106
