How can we get
away from and become completely independent of things,
all of which and transient, unsatisfactory, and devoid
of selfhood? The answer is that we have to find out what
is the cause of our desiring those things and clinging
to them. Knowing that cause, we shall be in a position
to eliminate clinging completely. Buddhists recognize
four different kinds of clinging or attachment.
1) Sensual attachment (Kamupanana) is
clinging to attractive and desirable sense objects. It
is the attachment that we naturally develop for things
we like and find satisfaction in: colors and shapes,
sounds, occurs, tastes, tactile objects, or mental
images, objects past, present, or future that arise in
the mind, and either correspond to material objects in
the world outside or within the body, or are just
imaginings. We instinctively find pleasure, enchantment
delight in these six kinds of sense objects. They induce
delight and enchantment in the mind perceiving them.
As soon as an individual is born, he comes to
know the taste of these six sense objects, and clings to
them, and as time passes he becomes more and more firmly
attached to them. Ordinary people are incapable of
withdrawing from them, so they present a major problem.
It is necessary to have a proper knowledge and
understanding of these sense objects and to act
appropriately with respect to them, otherwise clinging
to them may load to complete and utter dereliction. If
we examine the case history of any person who has sunk
into dereliction, we always find that it has come about
through his clinging fast to some desirable sense
object. Actually every single thing a human being does
has its origin in sensuality. Whether we love, became
angry, hate, feel envious murder, or commit suicide, the
ultimate cause must be some sense object. If we
investigate what is it that drives human beings to work
energetically, or to do anything at all for that matter,
we find it a all desire to get things of one kind or
another. People arrive, study, and earn what money they
can, and then go off in search of pleasure - in the form
of colors and shapes, sounds, odors, tastes, and tactile
objects - which is what keeps them going. Even merit
making in order to go to heaven has its origins simply
in a wish based on sensuality. Taken together, all the
trouble and chaos in the world has its origin in
sensuality.
The danger of sensuality lies in the power of
sensual attachment. For this reason the Buddha reckoned
clinging to sensuality as the primary form of
attachment. It is a real world problem. Whether the
world is to be completely destroyed, or whatever is to
happen, is bound to depend on this very sensual
clinging. It behooves us to examine ourselves to find
out in what ways we are attached to sensuality and how
firmly, and whether it is not perhaps within our power
to give it up. Speaking in worldly terms, attachment to
sensuality is a very good thing. It conduces family
love, to diligence and energy in the search for wealth
and fame, and so on. But if looked at from the spiritual
point of view, it is seen to be the secret entrance for
suffering and torment. Spiritually speaking, attachment
to sensuality is something to be kept under control. And
if all suffering is to be eliminated, sensual attachment
has to be done away with completely.
2) Attachment to opinions (Ditthupadana).
Clinging to views and opinions is not difficult to
detect and identity once we do a little introspection.
Ever since we were born into the world, we have been
receiving instruction and training, which has given rise
to ideas and opinions. In speaking here of opinions,
what we have in mind is the kind of ideas one hangs on
to and refuses to let go of. To cling to one's own ideas
and opinions is quite natural and is not normally
condemned or disapproved of. But it is no less grave a
danger than attachment to attractive and desirable
objects. It can happen that preconceived ideas and
opinions to which we had always clung obstinately come
to be destroyed. For this reason it is necessary that we
continually amend our views, making them progressively
more correct, better, higher higher, changing false
views into views that are closer and closer to the
truth, and ultimately into the kind of views that
incorporate the Four Noble Truths.
Obstinate and stubborn opinions have various
origins, but in the main they are bound up with customs,
traditions, ceremonies and religious doctrines. Stubborn
personal convictions are not a matter of great
importance. They are far less numerous than convictions
stemming from long held popular traditions and
ceremonies. Adherence to views is based on ignorance.
Lacking knowledge, we develop our own personal views on
things, based on our own original stupidity. For
instance, we are convinced that things are desirable and
worth clinging to, that they really endure, are
worthwhile and are selves, instead of perceiving that
they are just a delusion and a deception, transient,
worthless, and devoid of selfhood. Once we have come to
have certain ideas about something, we naturally don't
like to admit later on that we were mistaken. Even
though we may occasionally see that we are wrong, we
simply refuse to admit it. Obstinacy of this sort is to
be considered a major obstacle to progress, rendering us
incapable of changing for the better, incapable of
modifying false religious convictions and other
longstanding beliefs. This is likely to be a problem for
people who hold to naive doctrine. Even though they may
later come to see them as naive, they refuse to change
on the grounds that their parents, grandparents, and
ancestors all hold those same views. Or if they are not
really interested in correcting and improving
themselves, they may simply brush away any arguments
against their old ideas with the remark that this is
what they have always believed. For these very reasons,
attachment to opinions is to be considered a dangerous
defilement, a major danger, which, if we are to better
ourselves at all, we ought to make all efforts to
eliminate.
3) Attachment to rites and rituals
(Silabbatupadana). This refers to clinging to
meaningless traditional practices that have been
thoughtlessly handed down, practices which people choose
to regard as sacred and not to be changed under any
circumstances. In Thailand there is no less of this sort
of thing than in other places. There are beliefs
involving amulets, magical artifacts, and all manner of
secret procedures. There exist, for instance, the belief
that on rising from sleep one must pronounce a mystical
formula over water and then wash one's face in it, that
before relieving nature one must turn and face this and
that point of the compass , and that before one partakes
of food or goes to sleep there have to be other rituals.
There are beliefs in spirits and celestial beings, in
sacred trees and all manner of magical objects. This
sort of thing is completely irrational. People just
don't think rationally; they simply cling to the
established pattern. They have always done it that way
and they just refuse to change. Many people professing
to be Buddhists cling to these beliefs as well and so
have it both ways; and this even includes some who cal
themselves Bhikkhus, disciples of the Buddha. Religious
doctrines based on belief in God, angels, and sacred
objects are particularly prone to these kinds of views;
there is no reason why we Buddhists should not be
completely free of this sort of thing.
The reason we have to be free of such views is
that if we practice any aspect of Dhamma unaware of its
original purpose, unconscious of the rationale of it,
the result is bound to be the foolish, naive assumption
that it is something magical. Thus a find people taking
upon themselves the moral precepts or practicing Dhamma,
purely and simply to conform with the accepted pattern,
the traditions ceremony, just to follow the example that
has been handed down. They knew nothing of the rationale
of these things, doing them just out of force of habit.
Such firmly established clinging is hard to correct.
This is what is meant by thoughtless attachment so
traditional practices. Insight meditation or tranquility
meditation as practiced nowadays, if carried out without
any knowledge of the rhyme and reason and the real
objectives of it, is bound to be motivated by grasping
and clinging, misdirected, and just some kind of
foolishness. And even the taking of the Precepts, five,
eight, or ten, or however many, if done in the belief
that one will thereby become a magical, supernatural,
holy individual possessing psychic or other powers,
becomes just misdirected routine, motivated simply by
attachment to rite and ritual.
It is necessary, then, that we be very
cautious. Buddhist practice must have a sound foundation
in thought and understanding and desire to destroy the
defilements. Otherwise it will be just foolishness; it
will be misdirected, irrational and just a waste of
time.
4) Attachment to the idea of selfhood
(Attavadupadana). This belief in selfhood is
something important and also something extremely well
concealed. Any living creature is always bound to have
the wrong idea of "me and mine". This is the primal
instinct of living things and is the basis of all other
instincts. For example, the instinct to seek food, and
eat it, the instinct to avoid danger, the instinct to
procreate, and many others consist simply in the
creature's instinctive awareness of and belief in its
own selfhood. Convinced first of all of its own
selfhood, it will naturally desire to avoid death, to
search for food and nourish its body, to seek safety,
and to propagate the species. A belief in selfhood is,
then, universally present in all living things. If it
were not so, they could not continue to survive. At the
same time, however, it is what causes suffering in the
search for food and shelter, in the propagating of the
species, or in any activity whatsoever. This is one
reason why the Buddha taught that attachment to the
self-idea is the root cause of all suffering. He summed
it up very briefly by saying: "Things, if clung to, are
suffering, or are a source of suffering." This
attachment is the source and basis of life; at the same
time it is the source and basis of suffering in all its
forms. It was this very fact that the Buddha was
referring to when he said that life is suffering;
suffering is life. This means the body and mind (five
aggregates) which are clung to are suffering. Knowledge
of the source and basis of life and of suffering is to
be considered the most profound and most penetrating
knowledge, since it puts us in a position to eliminate
suffering completely This piece of knowledge can be
claimed to be unique to Buddhism. It is not to be found
in any other religion in the world.
The most efficacious way of dealing with
attachment is to recognize it whenever it is proven.
This applies most particularly to attachment to the idea
of selfhood, which is the very basis of life. It is
something that comes into existence of its own accord,
establishing itself in us without our needing to be
taught it. It is present as an instinct in children and
the small offspring of animals right from birth. Baby
animals such as kittens know how to assume a defensive
attitude, as we can see when we try to approach them.
There is always that something, the "self" present in
mind, and consequently this attachment is bound
manifest. The only thing to do is to rein it in as much
as possible until such time as one is well advanced in
spiritual knowledge; in other words, to employ Buddhist
principles until this instinct has been overcome and
completely eliminated. As long as one is still an
ordinary person, a worldling, this instinct remains
unconquered. Only the highest of the Aryans, the
Arahants, has succeeded in defeating it. We must
recognize this as a matter of no small importance; it is
a major problem common to all living creatures. If we
are to be real Buddhists, if we are to derive the full
benefits from the teaching, it is up to us to set about
overcoming this misconception. The suffering to which we
are subject will diminish accordingly.
To know the truth about these things, which are
of everyday concern to us, is to be regarded as one of
the greatest boons, one of the greatest skills. Do give
some thought to this matter of the four attachments,
bearing in mind that nothing whatever is worth clinging
to, that by the nature of things, nothing is worth
getting or being. That we are completely enslaved by
things is simply a result of these four kinds of
attachment. It rests with us to examine and become
thoroughly familiar with the highly dangerous and toxic
nature of things. Their harmful nature is not
immediately evident as is the case with a blazing fire,
weapons, or poison. They are well disguised as sweet,
tasty, fragrant, alluring tin things, beautiful things,
melodious things, Coming in these forms they are bound
to be difficult to recognize and deal with. Consequently
we have to make use of this knowledge the Buddha has
equipped us with. We have to control this unskillful
grasping and subdue it by the power of insight. Doing
this, we shall be in a position to organize our life in
such a way that it becomes free from suffering, free
from even the smallest trace of suffering. We shall be
capable of working and living peacefully in the world,
of being undefined, enlightened and tranquil.
Let us sum up. These four forms of attachment
are the only problem that Buddhists or people who wish
to know about Buddhism have to understand. The objective
of living a holy life (Brahmacariya) in Buddhism
is to enable the mind to give up unskillful grasping.
You can find this teaching in every discourse in the
texts which treat of the attainment of Arahantship. The
expression used is "the mind freed from attachment."
That is the ultimate. When the mind is free from
attachment, there is nothing to bind it and make it a
slave of the world. There is nothing to keep it spinning
on in the cycle of birth and death, so the whole process
comes to a stop, or rather, becomes world transcending,
free from the world. The giving up of unskillful
clinging is, then, the key to Buddhist practice.
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