We have come into this
world at a remarkable time, one of those brief periods
when the teachings of a Buddha are readily available.
There is his Noble Eightfold Path of wisdom, morality
and concentration and specifically the technique of
vipassana meditation by means of which we can train our
minds to see the ultimate nature of all phenomena of the
world, their transience, unsatisfactoriness and
essencelessness. With the development of this detached
wisdom, our minds gradually lose their tensions, anguish
and lust, and so real peace and happiness can develop.
This article is written
in all humility by one who has just begun to walk on the
Path, in the spirit of "ehipassiko," the characteristic
of the Dhamma that invites all to come and see and try
it. There is yet a long way to travel, but there is no
doubt whatsoever that the Path leads to the Goal and so
this article is an expression of the mind's wish to
encourage and urge others to undertake for themselves
this profoundly beneficial task of eliminating ignorance
and craving and so end all suffering.
Susan Elbaum Jootla
Dalhousie
All the teachings of the
Buddha had one goal -- the elimination of all suffering,
all grief, misery, pain and anguish. All the kinds of
meditation he explained were designed to train the mind
of the student to become detached from all the phenomena
of the world, within and outside of himself. This is the
aim of Buddhist meditation because detachment is the
opposite of tanha or craving and it is this
tanha that is the source of all the sorts of
suffering experienced by sentient beings. This desire is
very deeply ingrained in our minds because of our
ignorance about the real nature of the phenomena of the
world. So, vipassana, insight-meditation techniques of
the Buddha, are designed to enable us to penetrate our
illusions about the nature of reality which are
perpetuated by our inaccurate perception of the world
and ourselves. Insight has to be gained into the
impermanent, unsatisfactory and essenceless nature of
all conditioned phenomena, of everything mental and
physical, all of which is the effect of certain causes.
Insight is often conceived of as a magical experience
suddenly just happening and instantly making all things
clear. But, by and large, insight develops slowly and
gradually through the careful process of observation,
investigation and analysis of phenomena until the
ultimate nature that lies behind their apparent,
conventional truth is distinctly and indubitably
perceived. It is this process known in Pali as
dhammavicaya (Investigation of Dhamma) and also the
closely related one of yoniso-manasikara
(systematic attention) which will be examined here. Ledi
Sayadaw in his Bodhipakkhiya Dipani[1]
defines dhammavicaya as identical with paņņa
(wisdom) and Samma Ditthi (Right Understanding of
View) and then describes the investigative process with
the simile: "Just as cotton seeds are milled, carded,
etc., so as to produce cotton wool, the process of
repeatedly viewing the five khandhas (our personal
aggregates of body, perception, feeling, volitions and
consciousness) with the functions of insight
knowledge (vipassana ņana) is called
dhammavicaya." First the subjects to be
investigated, or the contents of the investigation for
insight leading to liberation, will be examined. Then
the role of dhammavicaya specifically as a part
of vipassana meditation will be discussed. Then will
come the role of systematic attention in preventing the
arising of the mental hindrances which can block
progress in meditation and as one of the basic factors
conducive to the growth of wisdom. Finally the way to
use investigation of Dhamma with the other Factors of
Enlightenment and then with the elements of the Noble
Eightfold Path are shown. A well-trained,
well-controlled mind is a powerful tool capable of
rationally thinking through and continually
comprehending the ultimate truths of existence. By
developing the mind's ability to penetratingly and
objectively investigate, we are working to free
ourselves of all ignorance, and thus of all craving and
its resultant suffering.
Investigation of Dhamma
is one of the key factors, the development of which can
lead us to liberation from all suffering. The Buddha
defines this dhammavicaya as "searching,
investigation, scrutinizing, for insight into one's own
personal conditions... and... externals."
dhammavicaya is one of the Seven Bojjhangas or
Factors of Enlightenment and usually translated[2]
as "Investigation of Dhamma." The word "Dhamma" has two
quite distinct uses and so investigation of it implies
both analysis of the Dhamma -- the essential
truths of existence as taught by the Buddha, and
analysis of dhammas -- all things whatsoever.
Investigation of the Dhamma must include careful thought
leading to a thorough understanding of at least these
teachings: the Four Noble Truths, the Three Salient
Characteristics of Existence, and the Doctrine of
Dependent Origination, and some idea of the workings of
kamma. When we study the dhammas, we are primarily
concerned with determining for ourselves the ultimate
nature of our own Five Aggregates, the mind-and-matter
phenomenon, with its six sense organs and of the six
respective classes of sense objects which are the basis
of all consciousness, contact, feeling, perception and
mental activities.
When we investigate the
Dhamma, we are trying to thoroughly understand and grasp
the significance of the Teachings of the Buddha. These
truths are things which he discovered for himself and
therefore knew with total certainty. For us to just
accept them on faith alone will not be of too much
benefit. In the well-known discourse the Buddha gave to
the Kalamas, he said, "Be ye not misled by report or
tradition or hearsay... Nor out of respect of the
recluse (who holds it). But Kalamas, when you know for
yourselves: 'These things are unprofitable, these things
are blameworthy,'... then indeed do ye reject them...
But if at any time ye know for yourselves: 'These
things... when performed and undertaken conduce to
profit and happiness,' -- then Kalamas, do ye, having
undertaken them, abide therein."[3]
And he intended that the Kalamas treat his words just
like those of any other teacher. We must explore the
teachings of the Buddha thoroughly, carefully and
rationally for ourselves by taking the Four Noble
Truths, the Three Salient Characteristics, and the
Doctrine of Dependent Origination (including Kamma) as
working hypotheses which are to be understood and
demonstrated to the satisfaction of our own minds. Even
if on first contact with these ideas we cannot
understand them, we must not for that reason alone
reject them out of hand -- this kind of attitude will
block and prevent all our progress on the Path. After
all, it is quite reasonable to assume that there have
been people in the world wiser than ourselves and that
the Buddha was one of them. Once we have worked even a
little on the Path and gained some benefit from it, we
know that the Buddha was far wiser than we are as it was
he who first taught this means of liberation. So we
willingly keep our minds open to explore what he says
even if it does not initially make much sense to our
limited way of thinking. On the basis of full
comprehension of these Truths gained by this balance
between an open mind and confidence, liberating wisdom
automatically must grow.
The first aspect of the
Dhamma to deal with is the Four Noble Truths: Suffering,
its Origin, its Cessation and the way leading to the
Cessation of Suffering, the central teaching of the
Buddha, because "It is through not understanding, not
penetrating the Four Ariyan truths that we have run on,
wandered on, this long, long road" of Samsara, (K.S., V,
p. 365).
We must carefully
consider the nature of life to determine for ourselves
whether it is essentially happy or unhappy, satisfactory
or unsatisfactory, full of joy or woe. No matter what we
look at -- our body, our mind, the external world -- if
we penetrate the apparent superficial truth of it, we
are bound to find that dukkha (suffering)
predominates vastly over sukha (happiness)
because all the seemingly pleasant experiences and
aspects of life are doomed to fade away and leave behind
them the same state of unsatisfiedness that was there
before the momentary respite given by the sensual
pleasure. If we think about the nature of the body,
obviously it has to grow old, get sick and
ultimately die and at almost no moment from the time of
birth do we find ourselves in perfect health; and from
then on it is all a downhill battle since death is the
only possible outcome of life. If we keep this in mind,
how can we say there is lasting satisfaction or
happiness in life? Ledi Sayadaw puts it this way in the
magganga Dipanii[4]
"From the time of conception there is not a single
moment... when there is no liability to destruction.
When actual destruction comes, manifold is the suffering
that is experienced." If we examine our minds, there,
too, we see that the vast majority of the time they are
in some unhappy state -- ranging from mild
dissatisfaction through anxiety to downright despair.
Only rarely are there moments of joy and to these we
react by attempting to cling to them, and that state of
desiring, too, is dukkha. If we look to the
external world that we learn about through our senses
and realize how many people are in agony with dread
disease, how many sentient beings are preying on one
another for food, for sport, for power, how many are
dying lonely and helpless -- at this very moment -- we
cannot doubt that dukkha predominates. The Buddha
summarizes the First Noble Truth saying, "Birth is
suffering, death is suffering, sorrow is suffering; not
to get what one desires is suffering; in short all the
Five groups of existence are suffering." (Digha Nikaya
22). We have to investigate and see just how it is that
all existence is dukkha, and one way to do this
is to ponder over the "sights" of suffering seen by the
Buddha before his Enlightenment, which caused him to
leave home and seek the ultimate liberation for
Suffering. We would do well to consider an old being, a
seriously ill person, and a corpse. Such attention to
these will teach us a great deal about both internal and
external dukkha.
In order to find our way
out of all this suffering, we have to be very clear
about its cause, and as the Buddha saw it, tanha
(clinging, craving, desire, lust, etc.) is the basic
cause of dukkha. "From craving springs grief, from
craving springs fear," from all kinds of craving
unhappiness comes; from endearment, affection,
attachment, lust (as well as from the negative side of
it: hatred, aversion, ill-will) (Dhp. v. 216). Craving
is in itself dukkha, and it inevitably leads to
more ill in this and in future existences. To realize
how this is true, so that we are convinced of the
necessity of giving up absolutely all craving, we have
to examine the workings of our own mind thoroughly. We
must observe how our mind is virtually always engaged in
some form of craving or desire -- either positively
reaching out for some object or obversely trying to push
something away -- whether the object is gross or subtle.
While we are actually craving for some object -- be it
something as mundane as food or as lofty as rebirth
among the Brahma gods -- we are in a state of mind that
is unsatisfied, that is incomplete and longing for
completion -- this lack of satisfaction, of
completionness, is dukkha. Then, if we should
attain the object, our tanha does not disappear;
it is actually reinforced and more dukkha
results. Getting what we want may lead to a new object
for desire, or to modify the original one to avoid
boredom. But satisfying one craving does nothing
to eliminate the basic mental process of tanha;
in fact more fuel is simply added to its fires when we
obtain what is wanted. If the desired state, experience
or thing is unobtainable, then a more acute form of
dukkha results -- frustration. And if we consider
the feelings associated with the negative form of
tanha, aversion, they are always clearly unhappy,
dukkha. Thus we can determine for ourselves how
tanha causes all our suffering in this lifetime.
Craving (tanha)
is also the cause of rebirth, and once there is a new
life the whole chain of dukkha inevitably
culminating in death automatically comes into play. Most
of us, cannot know the phenomenon of rebirth directly
for ourselves as the Buddha did, but we certainly see
the logic in it. All kinds of craving, if looked at
carefully, turn out to be just different forms or
manifestations of the underlying desire to perpetuate
our existence. The great power of this force pushing for
life does not just vanish at the time of death, but
these urgings for renewed existence (bhava sankharas)
become the cause of rebirth in the appropriate place.
Most of these forces in sentient beings are not
wholesome, so when most beings die and the life continua
take a new form, it is in the Realms of Woe. Thus we can
see how tanha produces a new life with all the
dukkha that comes along with it. Seeing how much
suffering is experienced, all because of craving, surely
is strong motivation for us to figure out how to
eliminate this tanha.
The Third Noble Truth
says that there is a cessation of suffering; and
suffering will and must cease when the cause (tanha)
is eliminated. "For who is wholly free from craving
there is no grief, whence fear?" (Dhp. v. 216). Any
phenomena which arise due to causes and conditions have
to pass away when those causes cease to operate. So, if
we ponder on it, we must conclude that the vital task
for us is to root out all our tendencies to crave; all
our desires and aversions irrespective of their objects
must be given up if we are to be liberated of dukkha.
To become utterly detached from every thing, state of
mind or experience on any plane of existence, to see
that absolutely nothing is worth clinging to: this is
the wisdom that must be cultivated by investigating all
such phenomena. The insight thus gained will necessarily
eliminate all desires and so all dukkha.
The Noble Eightfold Path
was the means given by the Buddha to gain this
liberating wisdom. It is by clearly understanding and
following the steps of the Path that we gain the insight
that there is nothing worth craving for. As this insight
deepens through more and more thought on the subject,
tanha decreases and eventually must disappear, and
so we free ourselves of all suffering. The Path is
divided into three sections: morality (sila),
concentration (samadhi), and wisdom (paņņa).
It is through the practice of sila that
samadhi can develop and through samadhi,
paņņa. The eight steps of the Path are all actually
to be developed, not consecutively, but at any opportune
time as they feed into one another at every stage. (For
a detailed discussion of the Path, please see the final
section of this paper.) There is a well-known analogy
which describes the respective roles of morality,
concentration and wisdom, and if we examine the simile
carefully, we will come to understand how we must
proceed in order to eliminate our tanha. A
thirsty man comes to a pond overgrown with weeds and he
wishes to drink the water in the pool. If he pushes the
weeds aside with his hands and quickly gets a sip or two
from in between them, it is like practicing virtue
(sila), restraining the gross verbal and bodily
actions by very temporary means. If the man somehow
fences off a small area of the pond keeping all the
weeds outsides the fence, this is like meditative
concentration samadhi where even unwholesome
thoughts disappear for a time, but they are only
suppressed and can reappear if the fence breaks down.
But if the man uproots every single weed in the pond
leaving the water really pure and potable, this is like
wisdom (paņņa). It actually only through wisdom,
through constantly seeing things as they really are --
changing, unsatisfactory, essenceless -- that the
subconscious, latent tendencies to craving are totally
rooted out, never again to return. By means of careful
investigation we can thus understand how the Fourth
Noble Truth, the Noble Eight-Fold Path operates, how
"Right View, Right Aim, Right Speech, Right Action,
Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right
Concentration if cultivated and made much of, end in the
restraint of lust, ends in the restraint of hatred, ends
in the restraint of illusion" (K.S., V, p. 5). Having
thoroughly investigated, understood and penetrated these
Four Noble Truths, we are bound to eventually put an end
to our wanderings in Samsara and to all our
suffering.
Investigation of Dhamma
for full liberation also must include, in addition to
the Four Noble Truths, a study of the Three Universal
Characteristics or Signata of existence,
(ti-lakkhana): anicca -- impermanence,
dukkha -- suffering, and anatta --
essencelessness. Everything in the universe, mental or
physical, inside or outside of us, real or imaginary,
that comes into being due to causes and conditions, has
these three traits as its nature. And since there is
nothing that exists without depending on other things,
there is absolutely nothing which we can determine to be
permanent, full of happiness only, or having any real
substance. We must examine these three truths very
carefully to know how thoroughly and totally they apply
in all cases. Once there is this deep insight into the
nature of reality, detachment and thereby liberation
follow.
The first of these to be
investigated and in some ways the characteristic that
underlies the other two is anicca -- the utterly
transitory, ephemeral, unstable nature off all mental
and physical phenomena. On the level of the apparent
truth, we know quite well that things change but we have
to train ourselves to see how the process of change is
going on continually at every instant in everything. How
else could the gross conventional alterations like
maturing and aging actually come about? We have to
carefully examine all the evidence we can find to
comprehend the profundity of the anicca-nature of
existence. There is nothing which we can think of that
would be as we know it conventionally if things were
permanently stable. Change is synonymous with life --
our bodies could not exist, let alone function, if the
elements of which they are made remained constant or
unchanged for even a brief time. Our minds could neither
feel nor think nor perceive nor be conscious, if the
mind were unalterable in nature. Likewise in inanimate
objects, change is essential although sometimes less
apparent. We must thoroughly investigate this universal
trait so that we can get beyond the limited scope of our
usual perception which mistakenly takes apparent form
for ultimate reality. Because of the incredible rapidity
with which both mind and matter alter, we can only
occasionally notice that a particular change has come
about; we are never able to perceive the continual
ongoing process of change which actually makes up
existence. Everything is just in a state of flux, always
becoming something else, never really stopping to be
something; all nama (mind) and all rupa
(matter) are just a continual series of risings and
vanishings following very rapidly one after the other.
The ultimate reality of everything is just these
vibrations. The importance of really knowing anicca
is described by the Buddha with the simile of a farmer
plowing his field. "In the autumn season a plowman
plowing with a great plowshare, cuts through the
spreading roots as he plows, even so, brethren, the
perceiving of impermanence, if practiced and enlarged,
wears out all sensual lust, wears out all ignorance,
wears out, tears out all conceit of 'I am'... Just as,
brethren, in the autumn season (after the monsoon rains)
when the sky is opened up and cleared of clouds, the
sun, leaping forth up into the firmament, drives away
all darkness from the heavens, and shines and burns and
flashes forth; even so, brethren, the perceiving of
impermanence, if practiced and enlarged, wears out all
sensual lust, wears out all lust for the body, all
desire for rebirth all ignorance, wears out, tears out
all conceit of 'I am'" (K.S., III, p. 132-33).
The characteristic of
dukkha has been dealt with on the grosser level as
the First Noble Truth, in which the suffering of
illness, age, of separation from the desired and
association with the undesired, in our own minds and
bodies and in the external world were considered. But
there are many subtle ways in which we can see how life
is -- and must be -- unsatisfying. It has been seen how
life is inseparable from change, how without the
perpetual process of development and disintegration
there would and could be no existence at all. And yet
there is the very profound contradiction between this
anicca-nature of life and our constant desire and
wish for stability, for security, for lasting happiness.
If a situation is pleasant, we always hope that it will
last and try our utmost to make it do so; but all
experiences of life are doomed to pass away as
everything on which they are based is completely
impermanent, changing at every moment. So all our
desires (and we are almost never without some form of
tanha in our minds) are bound to be frustrated in
the long run; we can never find the durable satisfaction
we seek in this world of mind and matter. There is
nothing in this universe of anicca that has even
the potential capability of giving any real happiness
because each and every thing is so completely unstable.
We have to give careful attention to all the apparently
pleasant and happy experiences that come in through the
six sense doors (five physical ones and the mind as the
sixth), to see whether they really can bring us
satisfaction. The Buddha warns: "In him, brethren, who
contemplates the enjoyment that there is in all that
makes for grasping, (in all the sense pleasures) craving
grows... Such is the uprising of this entire mass of
ill." If we analyze how we ourselves develop strong
tanha -- and in inevitable consequence dukkha
-- when we think about and dwell on our pleasurable
experiences, we can come to see how this fearful irony
of pain caused by considering pleasure unwisely is all
too true. With this understanding, then, we will instead
contemplate dukkha in these same phenomena
because, "In him, brethren, who contemplates the misery
that there is in all that makes for grasping, craving
ceases... Such is the ceasing of this entire mass of
ill." (K.S., II, p. 59). As we are able to comprehend
this dukkha-nature of everything more and more,
naturally the mind will cease to long for that which it
knows cannot bring happiness. And so the mind grows
detached and moves toward liberation.
The third universal
characteristic, anatta -- essencelessness,
soullessness, egolessness -- is the teaching unique to
the Buddhas; it does not appear in any other religious
or philosophical tradition. A complete understanding of
anatta for and in oneself must be developed
before liberation is possible. The Buddha explained this
doctrine, so alien to our conventional way of thinking,
in many discourses beginning with the second discourse
after his Enlightenment.
"Body... feeling...
perception, the activities and consciousness (the five
aggregates that make up everything there is in a
'being') are not self. If consciousness etc., brethren,
were self the consciousness would not be involved in
sickness and one could say of consciousness, etc.: 'thus
let my consciousness be, thus let my consciousness not
be'; but inasmuch as consciousness is not the self, that
is why consciousness is involved in sickness. That is
why one cannot (so) say of consciousness.
"Now what think ye
brethren. Is body permanent or impermanent?"
"Impermanent, Lord."
"And what is
impermanent, is that weal or woe?"
"Woe, Lord."
"Then what is
impermanent, woeful, unstable by nature, is it fitting
to regard it thus: 'This is mine; I am this; this is the
self of me'?"
"Surely not, Lord."
"... Therefore,
brethren,... every consciousness, etc., what-ever it be,
past, future or present, be it inward or outward, gross
or subtle, low or high, far or near, -- every
consciousness, I say, must be regarded as it really is
by right insight: 'this is not mine; this I am not; this
is not the self of me.'
"So seeing, brethren,
the well-taught Ariyan disciple feels disgust for body,
etc. So feeling disgust he is repelled, being repelled
he is freed... so that he knows 'destroyed is rebirth...
done is my task.'"
-- K.S., III, p. 56-60
To develop insight in
order to fully comprehend the implications of anatta
takes a great deal of careful, systematic thought in
combination with direct meditative experience. We must
try and see that this thing we have habitually for an
immeasurably long time called "I" actually has no real
existence. This word can only be accurately used as a
term of reference for the Five Aggregates -- each of
which is constantly changing -- that go to make up this
so-called "being." Only by investigating all the Five
Khandhas in depth and finding them to be void of any
essence or substance at all which might correctly be
called one's "self" can we come to fully understand
anatta.
There are two main ways
to come to grips with this doctrine: via anicca
and via dukkha. These two signata are to some
extent manifest as apparent truths as well as being
ultimate realities, while anatta is the complete
opposite of the apparent truth. When we think of
ourselves and use "I" or "me" or "man" etc., there is
the inherent implication that these words refer to some
constant, ongoing being. But we have previously seen
that if we carefully investigate -- intellectually and
by direct observation in vipassana meditation -- all the
Five Groups that comprise what we customarily consider
"I" and all the physical and mental sense organs that
are taken as "mine," that there is no trace of anything
even slightly durable in any of them. Ledi Sayadaw
explains the relationship between anicca and
anatta by showing how people with untrained minds
assume that there is some on-going core or stable
essence somewhere in the Five Khandhas (and take this
substance to be their atta, their self or soul.
"Those beings who are not able to discern the momentary
arisings and dissolutions of the physical and mental
phenomena of the five constituent groups of existence
and thus are not able to realize the characteristic of
anicca maintain: 'the corporeality-group (or
sensation, perception, activities or
consciousness-group) is the essence and therefore the
atta of beings.'"[5]
If we wish to take any of these groups as our substance,
then we must admit that "I" "decay, die and am reborn
every moment"; but such an ephemeral "I" is very far
from our usual conception of ourselves. If we have
carefully considered anicca as it exists in
everything internal that could be considered "I," then
we must come to the conclusion that this "I" is nothing
but a mistaken idea that has grown from inaccurate
perception which has been habitually reinforced for a
long, long time. As the truth of anatta becomes
clearer, we gradually let go of this "I" and so are
closer and closer to Enlightenment, where not the
slightest shadow of a trace of this misconception can
remain.
If we discern all the
mental and physical dukkha we have to undergo in
life, we learn about anatta from a different
angle. This nama-rupa phenomenon is constantly
subject to this pain and that anguish, and yet we
foolishly insist on calling the body and mind "mine" and
assuming that they belong to "me." But the very idea of
possession means that the owner has control of the
property; so "I" should be able to keep my body and mind
as I want them to be, naturally healthy and happy. As
the Buddha stated in the quotation at the start of this
section, "Let my body be thus; let it not be thus." But
obviously and undeniably, suffering is felt and cannot
be prevented by mere exertion of will or wishing. So, in
reality, we have to come to the conclusion that there is
no "I" who controls this nama-rupa; mind and body
are in no way fit to be called "mine." "The arising of
the five constituent groups do not yield to the wishes
of anyone." (SDD, p. 93). Phenomena which are dependent
upon specific causes which operate strictly according to
their nature from moment to moment cannot be subject to
control by any "being" and as we explore it thoroughly,
we come to understand how this Five Aggregate phenomenon
which we wrongly tend to consider "I" is just such a
conditioned and dependent process. And suffering (or
pleasure, for that matter) likewise comes about because
of certain conditions, chief amongst them being
tanha. There is no "being" who controls what
ultimately happens to these five aggregates.
Being caught in
personality belief, (sakkaya ditthi) -- the
inability to comprehend anatta -- causes
tremendous dukkha to creatures on all the planes
of existence from the lowest hell to the highest brahma
worlds. This great source of suffering must be carefully
examined and its workings understood if we are to escape
from its powerful, deep-rooted grasp. "Ego-delusion is
the foremost of the unwholesome Kamma of old and
accompanies beings incessantly. As long as personality
belief exists these old unwholesome actions are fiery
and full of strength... those beings who harbor within
themselves this personality-belief are continually under
pressure to descend or directly fall towards the worlds
of woe."[6]
(A of A, p. 50). By thoroughly rooting out, seeing
through and letting go of this mistaken conception that
there is a real substantial "I," "all wrong views, evil
mental factors and evil Kammas which would lead... to
the Lower Worlds will disappear." (SDD, p. 87). Thus if
we can really know our anatta-nature totally,
there is no longer any possibility of the extreme
dukkha of rebirth in the lower realms of existence
and the life continuum will "always remain within the
fold of the Buddha's Dispensation wherever... reborn."
(A of A, p. 52). But if one does not understand the
impersonal nature of this five aggregate phenomenon, he
will "undoubtedly have to preserve his soul (or self) by
entertaining evil thoughts and evil actions as the
occasion arises." (SDD, p. 50) We can see that if we act
on the assumption that there is an "I" we are always in
the position of attempting to protect and preserve this
'self' and thus very much prone to commit unwholesome
thoughts, words and deeds in relation to other "beings."
"People are generally concerned with what they consider
to be themselves or their own... and their bodily,
verbal and mental acts are based on and are conditioned
by that concern. So the root of all vice for the foolish
concern is 'self' and one's 'own.'" Ledi Sayadaw
explains how the belief that there is an "I" causes this
continual rebirth with a strong downward tendency with
the analogy of a string of beads:
In a string of beads
where a great number of beads are strung together by a
strong silk thread, if one bead is pulled all the others
will follow the one that is pulled. But if the silk
thread is cut or removed, pulling one of the beads will
not disturb the other beads because there is no longer
any attachment between them.
Similarly, a being that
possesses personality-belief harbors a strong attachment
to the series of Aggregates arisen during past
existences... and transforms them into an ego... It is
thus that the innumerable unwholesome karmic actions of
the past existences which have not yet produced
resultants, will accompany that being wherever he may be
reborn. These unwholesome actions of the past resemble
beads that are strung and bound together by a strong
thread.
Beings, however, who
clearly perceive the characteristic of Not-self and have
rid themselves of personality-belief, will perceive that
the bodily and mental Aggregates that arise and
disappear even within the short period of one sitting,
do so as separate phenomena and not as a closely
interlinked continuum. The concept of 'my self' which is
like the thread, is no longer present. Those bodily and
mental processes appear to them like the beads from
which the thread has been removed."
-- A of A, pp. 53-54
Thus the dispelling of
personality belief removes all the mental factors which
might cause one to behave in such a way that would lead
to rebirth in the realms of woe as well as cutting off
the link of attachment to an "ego" that has kept us
connected to all our evil deeds of the past. Even in
this present life it is clear if we think about it that
Sakkaya Ditthi (personality-belief) causes us
great suffering and its elimination would be of great
benefit. For example, "When external or internal dangers
are encountered or disease and ailments occur, beings
attach themselves to them through such thoughts as, 'I
feel pain, I feel hurt,' thus taking a possessive
attitude towards them. This becomes an act of bondage
that later may obstruct beings from ridding themselves
of those diseases... though they are so greatly
oppressive" (A of A, p. 56).
However, understanding
that it is this erroneous personality-belief that keeps
us thinking that there is some ongoing essence or
substance in this five aggregate phenomena that can
rightly be called "I" will not immediately or
automatically prevent the thought of "I" from coming up
in the mind as it is a very deeply rooted Sankhara
that has been built up over a long period of time.
Whenever a thought related to "I" does appear, we must
mindfully apply the wisdom of anatta we have
already gained and realize that "I" is nothing but an
idea originating form an incorrect perception of
reality. Whenever we notice ourselves thinking of an "I"
as one of the aggregates or as related to one of them,
we have to consider carefully the thought and reinforce
our understanding that "Whatsoever material object...
whatsoever feeling, whatsoever perception, whatsoever
activities, whatsoever consciousness... (must be rightly
regarded as) 'This is not mine, this I am not; this is
not the self of me.'" This process of seeing the
ignorance arise and repeatedly applying the Right View
to it, gradually wears away even the thoughts of "I,"
"myself" and "mine." This total elimination of
"I"-consciousness which is nothing but a subtle form of
conceit, and of this concept of "mine" which is subtle
form of tanha, does not happen until Arhantship
is reached. But our task is to deepen the comprehension
and investigation of anatta to greater and
greater depths of insight by means of Vipassana
meditation.
A group of monks once
questioned the Venerable Khemaka about anatta and
inquired whether he had attained Arhantship. He replied
that he was not yet fully liberated because he still had
subtle remnants of "I am" in his mind. He said to them:
I see that in these five
grasping groups I have got the idea of "I am" yet I do
not think that I am this "I am." Though (one is a
nonreturner)... yet there remains in him a subtle
remnant of the I-conceit, of the I am-desire, of the
lurking tendency to think "I am" still not removed from
him. Later on he lives contemplating the rise and fall
of the five grasping groups seeing thus: "Such is the
body, such is the arising of body, such is the ceasing
of it. Such is feeling... perception... the
activities... consciousness."
In this way... the
subtle remnant of the I am-conceit, of the I am-desire,
that lurking tendency to think "I am" which was still
not removed from him -- that is now removed.
-- K.S., III,
p. 110
This explanation of
Khemaka's was so clear and profound that as a direct
result of his discourse, all the monks who listened to
it and Khemaka himself as well, were fully liberated --
with no remnants of "I am" remaining. So we would do
well to carefully study what this wise monk said about
the development of anatta so that we can come to
understand how by means of this process of carefully
observing, clearly experiencing, and thoroughly
investigating the rise and fall of the five khandhas we
gradually eliminate the gross layers of Sakkaya
Ditthi and by the same means, more and more refined,
ultimately root out even the latent, subconscious
tendency to think "I am."
Investigation into the
Three Universal Characteristics -- anicca,
dukkha, and anatta -- is a fundamental
requirement for the growth of liberating insight. Once
we have thoroughly analyzed our own nama-rupa and
also the phenomena of the external world, and completely
understood how everything we can conceive of -- real or
imaginary, mental or physical, internal or external --
is totally unstable, incapable of bringing real durable
happiness and without any actual substance, detachment
must follow and with it freedom from the dukkha
of existence. The process of gradually overcoming
ignorance with wisdom comes through the direct bodily
experience of the unsatisfactoriness and essencelessness
of this nama-rupa in vipassana meditation,
combined with careful thought, so that these
"experiences" have their full impact on the mind. Once
again, it is by investigation in meditation that
detachment from the "all" is won -- and so too the
ultimate peace free from all desire.
The doctrine of
Dependent Origination (Paticcasamuppada) is one of the
most profound and far-reaching teachings of the Buddha
and as such this law of causality requires very thorough
investigation and comprehension by anyone seeking
liberation. Without clearly knowing the causal law, the
Three Signata and the Four Noble Truths cannot be fully
understood with the full insight that leads to
dispassion, to Nibbana. All of these are included within
Paticcasamuppada which demonstrates their
relation with each other. The Buddha himself pointed out
the great significance of this teaching to Ananda when
Ananda said that he found the causal law quite plain.
The Buddha admonished him saying, "Say not so, Ananda,
say not so! Deep indeed is this causal law, and deep
indeed it appears. It is through not knowing, not
understanding, not penetrating, that doctrine, that this
generation has become entangled like a ball of string...
unable to overpass the doom of the Waste, the Woeful
Way, the Downfall, the Constant Faring on." (K.S., II,
p.64) And elsewhere Sariputta quotes the Exalted One as
saying, " Whoever sees conditional genesis sees the
Dhamma, whoever see the Dhamma sees conditioned
genesis." (M., I, p. 237)
The general
all-encompassing form of the law of Dependent
Origination is a very simple statement of cause and
effect but is something to which the meditator must give
"his mind thoroughly and systematically"; succinctly it
states "this being that comes to be; from the arising of
this, that arises; from the ceasing of this that
ceases." (K.S., II, p.45) This is really just another
more abstract formulation of the Second and Third Noble
Truths -- the cause of and the cessation of suffering.
The full twelve-link formula of the Paticcasamuppada
is an expansion of these two middle Truths, a full
explanation of the process by which suffering is
generated and how by the removal of the causes,
suffering also comes to cease. Thus in order to
understand completely the Four Noble Truths, one must
have contemplated on and gained insight into dependent
origination as well. Another very important aspect of
this doctrine to be understood is how its description of
the process of life, the process of becoming, clearly
demonstrates how it is totally impersonal manifestation
of certain causes, with no "I" or 'being' in any way
involved in or related to it, anatta. Finally,
this doctrine enables us to discern just how kamma
operates in generating the causes of rebirth.
The list of twelve links
in direct order explaining the arising of suffering, is
usually described as beginning with the past life, going
on to the present life and then to future life (or
potential lives.) Avijja-paccaya sankhara --
ignorance conditions mental volitions. It is due to the
root cause of ignorance (about the ultimate nature of
reality) that the mind generates desires, sankharas,
kamma. Sankhara-paccaya viņņanam -- these mental
volitions, this kamma of the past, gives rise to the
rebirth-linking consciousness which is the first mind
moment of the new (present) birth. Note there is no
"thing" transmigrating from one life to another, only a
process of cause and effect goes on: Viņņana-paccaya
nama-rupam -- the mind and matter phenomenon (five
aggregates) of the present life come to be due to the
existence of this rebirth-linking consciousness.
Conception has taken place and this nama-rupa
phenomenon continues its processes until death
intervenes. Nama-rupa-paccaya salayatanam --
through mind and matter, the six sense bases are
conditioned; with this very start of the new life the
five physical sense organs and mind as the sixth come
into being. Salayatana-paccaya phasso --
throughout the life these six senses are the condition
for the arising of contact (with their appropriate
objects) which occur from moment to moment.
Phassa-paccaya vedana -- feeling (pleasant,
unpleasant or neutral) is conditioned by sense
impression and this feeling rises in relation to
contacts at first through one then another sense door,
ad infinitum. Vedana-paccaya tanha -- craving
arises based on feeling. In terms of practice, this is
the most important step of the Paticcasamuppada
as it is at this point that we can learn to turn around
the whole process and make it lead to the cessation of
suffering.
The other (unnamed)
factor which conditions craving along with feeling is
ignorance (the same as the first factor) -- the
inability to see that in reality there is nothing worth
craving for, nothing that can actually be held, and no
ongoing being truly capable of having its desires
satisfied. At this link volition can alter the old
habitual sequences and the feeling part of the mind by
means of training in the Noble Eightfold Path can be
made to condition the arising of wisdom, and paņņa
will forestall the arising of tanha (and the
whole mass of suffering that is conditioned by this
craving). Tanha-paccaya upadanam -- craving gives
rise to clinging, tenacious desire. Actually, for most
of us, the application of wisdom and mindfulness is very
rarely such that it can totally prevent the deep habits
of tanha from surfacing after feeling, but what
we can do is prevent either of the next two links --
upadana and bhava -- from developing out of
the initial spurt of desire. Upadana-paccaya bhavo
-- conditioned by clinging, becoming arises. Due to the
power of the accumulation of sankharas, of kamma
(tanha, upadana and bhava being
simply mental volitions of increasing strength), the
very strong kamma which is responsible for the process
of becoming arises and it is these bhava-sankharas
that generate the momentum for a new birth at the
appropriate moment. Bhava-paccaya jati --
becoming conditions birth in a future life at the
dissolution of this present five aggregate phenomenon.
If we seriously consider the matter, we can perceive
that all desires are just particular manifestations of
the will to exist or to continue; and all such craving
and clinging are future directed energies whose function
is the seeking of fulfillment. This force of kammic
energy does not cease with death. Becoming is just the
very strong form of desire and it contains sufficient
momentum behind it that at the time of death it is the
force that makes for a new birth. This energy manifests
and a new nama-rupa begins. Thus once again the
start of life is shown to be a completely impersonal,
conditioned process working totally irrespective of
anyone's wishes, hopes or desires, leading to a
phenomena with no essence of "I." This link repeats the
second one in the series just in different words.
Jati-paccaya jaramaranam -- once there is birth
there automatically comes to be old age and death and
all the other manifold forms of suffering encountered in
life -- the First Noble Truth. And thus the cycle
beginning with our inherited ignorance leads inexorably
towards more and more suffering in the future.
The inverse form of the
cycle is stated alongside the form above. It is the
inverse that demonstrates the Third Noble Truth, how
with the cessation of the cause, the effect must cease;
so avijja nirodha, sankhara nirodho etc., -- when
ignorance ceases, no more sankharas are generated and
carried through all the intervening links, the way of
ending all suffering is thus shown.
This is but a very rough
sketch of the workings of the Paticcasamuppada
that must be wisely considered and thoroughly elaborated
on and then incorporated into the meditator's own
thought processes for it to serve him as a means to
liberation. Each link has to be investigated in terms of
the Four Noble Truths -- to understand the factor
itself, its arising, its ceasing and the way leading to
its cessation (always the Fourth Noble Truth -- the
Path). The Buddha has Sariputta explain to him the way
the meditator in training who is still a learner,
considers things. Sariputta states: "'This has come to
be,' Lord -- thus by right insight he sees as it really
is; and seeing it in this way he practices revulsion
from it, and that it may fade away and cease. From the
ceasing of a certain sustenance that which has come to
be is liable to cease -- so he sees by right insight as
it really is. And seeing that in this way he practices
revulsion from that which is liable to cease that it may
fade away and cease." The revulsion to be practiced in
relation to all conditioned phenomena, to all
things that have arisen dependent on causes, is closely
akin to detachment and dispassion. Unlike aversion,
revulsion is based on wisdom and developed in relation
to all pleasant, unpleasant or neutral experiences. The
arahant makes the same observations about the unstable
nature of conditioned phenomena, but for him the stage
of practicing has passed, and when by right insight, the
fully liberated one sees "This has come to be," then
"because of revulsion at that which has come to be,
because of its fading away and ceasing he becomes free,
grasping at nothing..." (K.S., II, p. 36-37) So the
lesson to be learned from the Doctrine of Dependent
Origination -- as from all the Dhamma -- is that nothing
that arises due to causes and conditions can possibly
provide secure happiness due to its inherent
changeability and instability; so there is absolutely
nothing on any plane of existence worth developing the
slightest interest in or attachment to as all such
involvement can only lead to suffering. So detachment
and revulsion are the result of a complete understanding
of the workings of the causal law -- and this is
liberation.
In one place, the Buddha
actually describes the series of causes leading to
liberation itself, beginning with suffering, thus: "What
is that which is the cause of liberation?
Passionlessness is the answer... and repulsion is
causally related to passionlessness...
knowledge-and-vision of things as they really are is
causally associated with repulsion... concentration is
causally associated with knowledge-and-vision...
happiness is causally associated with concentration...
serenity is causally associated with happiness...
rapture is causally associated with serenity... joy is
causally associated with rapture... faith is causally
associated with joy... And what is the cause of faith?
Suffering is the answer. Suffering is causally related
with faith." (K.S., II, p. 25-26) The Buddha then
continues with the origins of suffering back to
ignorance following the usual Paticcasamuppada
formulation backwards, thus showing the whole length of
the route -- the Path, the Fourth Noble Truth -- out of
the causal cycle. It is because of the experience of
suffering that beings seek a way out and put their faith
in the Buddha as a guide and in his teachings as the
true method to attain freedom from all ill. Thus the
causal cycle proceeds from dukkha, the end of the
usual twelve-link Dependent Origination formula, through
saddha (faith) and all the steps here named to
final and total emancipation.
Kamma is one of the
basic causes in the cycle of Dependent Origination (in
the past life it goes under name sankhara and in
the present life it encompasses tanha,
upadana, and bhava) and a deep investigation
of its significance and operation must be made, as,
after all, it is through our own wholesome and
unwholesome kamma that we are tied down to the infinite
cycle of rebirths and it is by means of good kamma that
we are able to transcend this universe of kamma, rebirth
and dukkha.
It is important to
remind ourselves and to discover how in our own minds,
at every moment we are creating new kammas. When we
investigate the thinking process carefully in our
meditation, we come to observe that all our thoughts are
related to some tanha, some desire or aversion,
some volition. And each moment the kamma we are creating
is either beneficial or harmful to us both in the
immediate and far distant future; there is not an
instant when we are not molding our future fate. And no
matter how good an act of body or speech may seem, it is
only a gross manifestation of a mental volition, and if
the thought behind it is impure, the kammic effects are
in the long run bound to be painful. Hence it is vital
to analyze our own minds and then cultivate the
beneficial volitions that aid us on the Path to
Liberation, otherwise the old habitual tendencies rooted
in ignorance are bound to take us to the unhappy realms
for rebirth, and once reborn there it is almost
impossible to be reborn on the human plane for an
extremely long period of time.
But we must also
consider that in the ultimate analysis, even good
volitions must be given up, as "That which we will,
brethren, and that which we intend to do, that
wherewithal we are occupied -- this becomes an object
for the persistence of consciousness," and so anything
we think about will become nourishment for a new birth
either in the lower or higher realms, depending on the
purity of the willing, the intention or the occupation
(K.S., II, p. 45). And ultimately in order to totally
eradicate all suffering (even the very subtle dukkha
that is inherent in the fact that the life span of even
the most long-lived Brahma is limited, finite), rebirth
must be eliminated -- and this means rooting out its
causes as explained in the cycle of Dependent
Origination.
Particularly for the
Western mind this infinite Samsaric cycle of rebirth has
to be thought about quite thoroughly before our
understanding of it can influence our behavior, making
us act on the basis of a very long-term view.
"Incalculable is the beginning, brethren, of this faring
on. The earliest point is not revealed of the running
on, the faring on of beings cloaked in ignorance, tied
to craving... For many a long day, brethren, have ye
experienced death of mother, of son, of daughter, have
ye experienced the ruin of kinfolk, the calamity of
disease. Greater is the flood of tears shed by you
crying and weeping of one and all these as ye fare on,
run on this many a long day, united with the
undesirable, sundered from the desirable, than are the
waters in the four seas. (Because) incalculable is the
beginning, brethren, of this faring on." (K.S., II, p.
120)
Ledi Sayadaw reminds us
that, "Lack of wholesome kamma will lead to the lower
worlds where one has to suffer grievously. Fearing such
suffering, one has to perform wholesome kamma which can
lead one to be reborn as man or deva in the existences
to come." (Manuals of Buddhism, p. 227, Magganga
Dipani). One important aspect of Right View which as to
be investigated relates to kamma. We have to know for
ourselves that "Only the wholesome and unwholesome
actions of beings are the origin of their wanderings in
many a becoming or world cycle"; and that only these
actions "are their real refuge wherever they may wander"
(Magganga Dipani, p. 221). There is nothing very strange
in this idea of kamma being the one thing that endures
(while always being influenced and altered by present
mental volitions), carrying over from one life to the
next. If we ponder over the matter, we see that just as
a moral cause and effect works within this life to only
some extent, the effects of many kammas can only show up
in future lives; so over an infinite span of lives
kusala (wholesome) kammas ultimately must bring good
results and akusala (unwholesome) kammas bring
unhappy states. As we study the cycle of Dependent
Origination it clearly shows that there is no entity or
ongoing being involved anywhere in all these births,
deaths and rebirths, but only past kamma manifesting in
a five aggregate phenomenon which changes every moment
and which in turn continues to generate new kamma
leading to new births, in a process that evolves
endlessly from moment to moment.
As seen above, it is of
vital importance to investigate thoroughly the causal
law and kamma in order for full insight into the nature
of existence to develop, for some causes lie behind the
arising of absolutely everything. "Whether any... mental
or physical phenomena arises, the arising of any thing
whatsoever is dependent on conditions, and without
condition, nothing can ever arise or enter into
existence."[7]
It is only through giving systematic thought to the
twelve factors and the connections between them in the
Paticcasamuppada cycle that we can introduce the
appropriate causes to make this law cease operating. And
only thus can we bring to an end the process of rebirth
and its attendant suffering, by substituting wisdom for
ignorance when feeling arises -- and so prevent the
development of tanha which would inexorably lead
to rebirth. Most important of all to train the mind in
wisdom is to understand clearly how completely
impersonally and automatically moment to moment every
link in the cycle operates; the sequence goes on
strictly as a matter of cause and effect with no room
for, no need for, any "I" to explain the continual rise
and fall of nama-rupa.
In this religion,
brethren, a pondering brother ponders: 'This diverse and
manifold ill that arises in the world as old age and
death -- what is this ill based on, how comes it to
pass?... What being there does old age-and-death come to
be? What not being there does old age-and-death not come
to be?' He pondering comes to know that this... is based
on birth... He comes to know old age-and-death, he comes
to know its arising, he comes to know its ceasing and he
comes to know the way going to its ceasing.
-- K.S., II, p. 56-57
He ponders similarly on
all the other factors in the Dependent Origination and
thus he is called a "brother who has wholly practiced
for the complete destroying of ill." Full comprehension
through very careful analysis of the Paticcasamuppada
must make us detached, must make us see that there is
nothing which really corresponds to the word "I," and
must make us learn to cease creating sankharas by
willing actions. Once we cease to create any more kamma
of any kind, the other links in the cycle must
automatically fall away. And the Buddha ends this
discourse emphatically referring to this process of
breaking the causal chain saying, "Believe me, brethren,
be convinced of this, be ye without doubt herein,
without hesitation just this is the end of Dukkha!"
Dhammavicaya
in addition to the definition used in the previous three
sections of investigation of the Dhamma, may also be
interpreted as meaning investigation of dhammas, of all
things, all phenomena, mental or physical, real or
imaginary, conditioned or unconditioned. In this
connection the most important things to be examined are
perhaps, first the five khandhas or aggregates that make
one life continuum, one nama-rupa, a "person":
and second the six sense doors -- five physical ones and
the mind, and their corresponding six categories of
sense objects.
We have to examine the
aggregate of body and four of the mind -- perception,
feeling, mental volitions and consciousness -- that in
combination make up this thing we have been calling "I,"
very thoroughly and deeply in order to see how
ultimately there is nothing lasting, satisfying or which
deserves to be considered "myself" in any of them; to
know how all that we associate with "me" is just
anicca, dukkha and anatta, and to
understand how these aggregates arise to pass away. The
khandhas are the basic components which make up what we
perceive of as an individual. But each of these
aggregates in itself has no essence; each is merely a
process of continual minute momentary risings and
fallings.
Viņņana
is consciousness, just the process or faculty of
knowing, or awareness, that arises immediately upon the
coming together of any sense organ and its respective
object. Saņņa is perception or recognition of the
object, defining it by associating it with past
memories. Vedana is the feeling that arises as an
immediate result of contact when the internal and
external sense bases get together and the appropriate
consciousness comes into being. Vedana can be
pleasant, unpleasant or neutral feeling of body or of
mind. Sankhara is mental volitions or activities;
the thinking process of the mind is the facet of nama
governed by this khandha. The past mind-moment with its
consciousness, feeling, perception and volition is the
condition for the arising of the next, but there is
nothing of any of those four mental components (nor
anything outside of them) that continues over from one
instant to the next. The body aggregate, too, is utterly
impermanent and insubstantial, just like any form of
matter, living or inorganic. All matter is made up of
the infinitely small kalapas (sub-atomic
particles or vibrations) which come to be and vanish at
only a slightly slower rate than the mind, but still so
extremely quickly that we get the illusion of
continuity, unity and substance where these do not
actually exist.
The Buddha tells the
monks the importance of such examination of the
aggregates thus: "So soon, brethren, as beings
thoroughly understand, as they really are the
satisfaction as such, the misery as such, the way of
escape as such in these five factors of grasping (the
aggregates) then, brethren, beings do remain aloof,
detached... with barriers of the mind done away with."
(K.S., III, p. 30) Once we intellectually realize that
none of the khandhas can rightly be called "mine," then
we are faced with the urgent task of rooting out,
eliminating this aspect of personality belief from our
minds, of becoming truly aloof and detached. The Buddha
described this work thus: "What is not of you, brethren,
put it away. Putting it away will be for your profit and
welfare. And what, brethren, is not of you? Body...
feeling... perception... the activities, consciousness
is not of you. Put it away." (K.S., III, p. 231-2).
Putting away or giving up or letting go of what we
incorrectly think of as "mine" is a gradual and long
term process. In fact, not only is this process of
investigating and giving systematic attention to the
anicca, dukkha, anatta nature of the
aggregates the work of the beginner, the same thing is
done by beings at any stage along the way, even by the
fully-liberated ones. "The grasping groups, friend
Kotthita," says the great disciple of the Buddha,
Sariputta, "are the conditions which should be pondered
with method by a virtuous brother, as being impermanent,
sick, as a boil, as a dart, as pain, as ill-health, as
alien, as transitory, empty and soulless... It is
possible for a virtuous brother so pondering with
method... to realize the fruits of stream winning... of
once returning... of never returning... of
arahantship... For the arahant, friend, there is nothing
further to be done... Nevertheless, these things, if
practiced and enlarged conduce to a happy existence and
self-possession even in this present life" for him.
(K.S., III, p. 143)
Very frequently the
Buddha refers to the five aggregates or groups of
existence as the upadanakkhandha or grasped-at
groups, aggregates (as objects) of clinging, etc. It is
worthwhile to contemplate why he considered these
components of life so inseparable from tanha and
upadana that he actually called them
clinging-aggregates. First of all, these aggregates only
come into being because of tanha; through craving
and clinging the past sankharas gave rise to the present
birth, the current namarupa which is precisely
the same as these five grasped-at groups. What has its
cause in clinging must have clinging as its very core.
Secondly, these aggregates are the means by which we are
conscious of and perceive through the six
sense doors; an impression is then felt and as a
result of this process the input leads to mental
volitions as well as to actions of body
directed by some tanha to gain, grasp at, cling
to something. Thirdly, and most important, it is just
these five constituent groups that we tend to cling to
most tenaciously, convinced that they are "I" and
"mine." We have already looked into this misperception
of reality and by means of a strong simile the Buddha
illustrated the danger in such clinging to any of the
aggregates or seeing in them any security:
Suppose... a mountain
torrent... rising from afar, swift-flowing, and on both
its banks are growing grasses overhanging the stream;...
and a man is swept away by that stream and clutches at
the grasses, but they might break away and owing to that
he might come by his destruction.
Even so, brethren, the
untaught manyfolk... regard the body as the self, or the
self as having body, or the body as being in the self,
or the self as being in the body. Then the body breaks
away, and owing to that they come by their destruction.
And so with feeling,
perception, the activities... consciousness.
-- K.S., III, p. 116
We also subject
ourselves to tremendous suffering because we "are
possessed by this idea" that the body belongs to "me"
for, when the body or any of the aggregates "alters and
changes, owing to the unstable nature of the body, then
sorrow and grief, woe, lamentation and despair arise" if
these changes are not what we wanted (K.S., III, p. 3).
Only by completely
investigating the ultimate reality of these five
aggregates will we see that they are incapable of giving
satisfaction and so not worth grasping at, that actually
they are so unstable that holding onto them is
impossible, and there is no one who can cling anyhow (as
the 'self' arises and vanishes every moment and so
cannot possibly continue to possess anything for any
period of time). So, in order to attain liberation, one
must attain insight into these five aggregates so that
the necessary dispassion arises, for "by not thoroughly
knowing, by not understanding, by not being detached
from, by not renouncing body (and the other khandhas)
one is unfit for the destruction of suffering... But,
brethren, by thoroughly knowing (them)... one is fit for
the destruction of suffering" (K.S., III, p. 26).
The investigative
process also must be applied to the internal and
external sense bases (ayatana), so that the
pleasure and misery in them, their cause and cessation,
and their anicca, dukkha and anatta
nature is fully comprehended. Only with this insight are
we able to let go of our attachments to, desire for, and
clinging to, the eye and visible objects, the ear and
sounds, the nose and smells, the tongue and tastes, the
body and things tangible, the mind and mental objects.
One must especially learn how the mind operates as just
another sense organ, whose field is all the perceptions
and thoughts that have occurred in the past, in order to
dissociate the workings of the mind from the "I" notion.
In his third sermon, the Buddha stated, "The all is on
fire" and the nature of this conflagration must be seen
and understood before it can be extinguished and freedom
gained from it. "The eye, brethren, is on fire, objects
are on fire, eye-consciousness... eye contact... that
weal or woe or neutral state experienced, which arises
owing to eye-contact (vedana, feeling);... that
also is on fire... On fire with the blaze of lust, the
blaze of ill-will, the blaze of infatuation, the blaze
of birth, decay and death, sorrow... ," (K.S., IV, p.
10) and so are tongue and mind-related phenomena -- and
by extrapolation those coming from the other senses as
well.
The six internal sense
organs (salayatana) and their corresponding
objects have a crucial role in the present lifetime
phase of the Paticcasamuppada. Consciousness,
viņņana, is not permanent or abiding; instead it
arises and ceases every moment, and it is the coming
together of one of the sense organs and its respective
object that causes the arising of a moment of
consciousness. Thus every consciousness is
eye-consciousness, or ear-consciousness, or nose- or
tongue- or body- or mind-consciousness, depending on
which sense organ at that instant has met its object.
The cycle of causality continues on from there: "Owing
to eye and objects arises eye-consciousness. The coming
together of the three is contact. Dependent on contact
is feeling. Dependent on feeling is craving...
grasping... becoming. Dependent on becoming is rebirth,
decay and death, sorrow and grief... This is the arising
of the world." (K.S., IV, p. 53) From thus analyzing the
genesis of existence (the "world") and of dukkha
(as it is more often formulated) we can understand the
absolutely impersonal nature of the arising of
consciousness, as well as the germinal role in creating
sankharas played by the internal and external sense
bases.
Consciousness, or mind,
is analogous to the proverbial monkey constantly on the
move high up in the trees in the jungle, always grasping
at something or the other. Similarly with the mind, at
each and every mind-moment when awake, consciousness
must be connected with one or another of the sense
doors; there is no underlying substratum of
consciousness that endures through time, but only
momentary clutching after sights, grabbing for sounds,
clinging to smells, holding on to tastes, attachment to
tangibles or (and often most predominantly) hanging onto
mind objects. It is because the sense organs and their
objects inherently contain the danger of tempting us to
create craving (tanha) and an urge to renewed
existence (bhava-sankhara) that the Buddha
frequently warned the monks about keeping the sense
doors well guarded, since the external objects cannot be
eliminated. By means of ongoing mindfulness, rooted in
insight into the true nature of all the phenomena that
appear at the sense doors, it is necessary to observe
how craving starts to rear its head (as it inevitably
will, due to the old completely automatic mental
conditioning) once contact and feeling have taken place,
and not allow the desire to take over the mind and
becomes a strong rebirth producing force. If we do not
keep watch over our senses and reactions attentively, we
are like the fish attracted by the well-baited hook on
the line held by the fisherman. "Just as a fisherman,
brethren, casts a baited hook in some deep pool of
water, and some fish greedy for the bait, gulps it down
and thus... comes to destruction, -- even so, brethren,
there are these six hooks in the world, to the sorrow of
beings... objects cognizable by the eye inciting to
lust... If a brother delights therein, persists in
clinging to them, such a one is called
'hook-swallower'... is come to destruction." (K.S., IV,
p. 99) And of course the other hooks to be wary of in
the world are alluring sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles
and mental objects. If we give careful, systematic
attention to these external sense objects as we meet
them, we cannot help but realize that the pain of
swallowing the hooks by clinging to the sense objects
far outweighs the possible momentary pleasure of tasting
the bait.
The basic aim of
investigating the sense organs is the same as for the
aggregates -- to see how thoroughly they are anicca
and Dukkha and so to cease to cling to them as
"I" and "mine." "A brother beholds no trace of the self
nor what pertains to the self in the six-fold sense
sphere. so beholding, he is attached to nothing in the
world. Unattached he is not troubled. Untroubled he is
of himself utterly set free" (K.S., IV, p. 104).
The specific subjects in
the Dhamma that must be investigated for insight have in
this section been given initial exploration. The task is
to turn these thoughts and ideas into real wisdom, so
that the whole course of the life becomes oriented to
and aimed at liberation. We must learn to keep before us
at all the time the ultimate nature of all dhammas --
all phenomena of any conceivable kind that can enter
consciousness -- so that the gross perceptual illusion
or hallucination of the apparent truth loses its
strength and the ignorance it fosters vanishes and with
it all craving. We have to analyze completely this
body-and-mind and all the external phenomena that appear
from time to time at the six sense doors until the
pleasure and misery in them are understood, until the
causes of their arising and ceasing are comprehended,
until their ultimately impermanent, unsatisfactory,
conditioned and essenceless nature is clearly known.
This is done by means of careful investigation in
meditation of the Three Signata of Existence, and the
Doctrine of Dependent Origination. With this insight
fully developed there can be no clinging or craving, no
ill-will or aversion, and ultimately one becomes
"independent, unattached to anything in the world," and
so with all its causes uprooted, liberation from all
suffering is achieved.
There are a number of
other aspects of Dhamma Investigation that have to be
examined now that the contents of such exploration have
been discussed. The very basic and essential
relationship between investigative thinking and insight
meditation, how the two are required to support each
other and send the meditator's mind to its goal of
ending all possibility of dukkha, is the appropriate one
to deal with first.
For investigation of
Dhamma to lead to liberating insight it must be combined
with and done in the course of insight meditation. It is
just through investigation and wise consideration of
phenomena that insight into their ultimate nature
develops. At the time of the Buddha there were people
who became fully Enlightened in just a few moments of
time, but even for them some sort of thought process had
to go on. But these individuals had accumulated such a
vast store of paramis -- accumulated good acts
and mental dispositions of the past -- that the
liberating wisdom came with nearly instantaneous impact.
While just a Bodhisatta, the Buddha went back to the
first jhana, a deep absorption (after having mastered
seven still deeper, more profound concentrative states)
-- which includes thinking -- when he sat under the
Bodhi Tree with the final and total determination to
become fully liberated. "Before my enlightenment, while
I was still only an unenlightened Bodhisatta, I thought:
This world has fallen into a slough for it is born, ages
and dies, it passes away and reappears, and yet knows no
escape from this suffering. When will an escape from
this suffering be described? I thought: what is there
when aging and death come to be? What is their necessary
condition? Then with ordered attention I came to
understand... birth is a necessary condition for them."
And so as he exerted the utmost effort to become a
Buddha, a fully self-liberated being, he proceeded
carefully thinking through all the links of the cycle of
Dependent Origination in both directions. "I thought:
This is the path to enlightenment that I have now
reached... that is how there is a cessation to this
whole aggregate mass of suffering. 'The cessation, the
cessation' such was the insight, the knowledge, the
understanding, the vision, the light, that arose in me
about ideas no heard of before."[8]
Also to gain the full
understanding of the khandhas at this crucial juncture
of this life, the Bodhisatta used careful intellectual
consideration. "I thought: in the case of material form,
of feeling, of perception, of formations, of
consciousness what is the gratification, what is the
danger, what the escape? Then I thought: In the case of
each the bodily pleasure and mental joy that arise in
dependence on these things (the five categories) are the
gratification; the fact that these things are all
impermanent, painful and subject to change is the
danger; the disciplining and abandoning of desire and
lust for them is the escape."[9]
These quotations show
how vital wise investigative thinking was to the Buddha
himself in his meditations while moving towards his
Enlightenment and so must we, too, carefully combine the
thought process and meditation to liberate ourselves
from suffering.
The long quotation given
in the section on investigating the khandhas shows how
it is the process of pondering deeply on things that
brings us dispassion towards them all, and so to the
stages of Enlightenment. So insight, clarity of vision
into the ultimate nature of reality,
bhavana-maya-paņņa, (wisdom born of meditation) the
personal direct knowledge that bears concrete fruit in
our behavior in life, is really based on careful
thinking so that the apparent truths are seen through
and no longer allowed to delude us by coloring and
covering up the real nature of our minds and bodies and
of the external world.
This liberating insight
can, however, only develop if the investigating is done
by a person who meditates regularly. Meditation provides
us with the relatively concrete evidence of personal
experience to guarantee the validity of our more
abstract thinking. There are times when meditation
consists of just observing, in a very one-pointed
manner, the rise and fall of the sensations (vedana)
caused by the subtle biochemical changes going on in the
body. But there are other occasions either when thinking
is going on quite strongly or when there is a tendency
to sloth and torpor, and at these times it is very
beneficial to do Dhamma investigation. When the mind is
busy thinking, it is always involved in ignorance,
always full of clinging or aversion, always dwelling in
the past or future because this is the nature of the
conditioning that it has gotten from the past. By this
kind of thinking we are creating "heaps and heaps" of
unwholesome mental volitions, sankharas,
akusala kamma, which are bound to bear fruit in some
sort of dukkha in the future. If instead we apply
the mind in a systematic way to thinking about Dhamma,
trying to eliminate craving, trying to see through to
the ultimate realities of phenomena, we are creating
very powerful good kamma for ourselves which has to lead
us toward liberation. At the same time, this kind of
consideration clarifies in our minds the fundamental
truths of Buddha Dhamma that we have read or heard
previously so that they become fully comprehensible and
meaningful. Thus carefully directed thought, while
sitting in vipassana meditation, is a vital tool for the
rooting out of all our ignorance and for contrasting the
path to emancipation.
Also investigation is
important to practice strenuously when there is a
tendency to a daydreaming, lazy kind of meditation, when
the hindrances of sloth and torpor are attacking. The
Buddha told the monks, "... at such time, monks, as the
mind is sluggish, then is the season for cultivating the
limb of wisdom that is Norm-investigation, the season
for cultivating the limb of wisdom that is energy, the
season for cultivating the limb of wisdom that is zest.
Why so? Because, monks, the sluggish mind is easily
raised up by such conditions." (K.S., V, p. 96) By
energetically applying the mind to trying to understand
more thoroughly than before the Four Noble Truths or
another important aspect of Dhamma, the mind will be
directed and stimulated. When this happens, the tendency
of the mind to drift must disappear and zest for
meditation and the clarity of mind which is crucial to
real understanding return.
Thus to use
investigation in meditation is to apply Right Thought,
one of the factors of the Noble Eightfold Path.
Obviously, analytical thinking takes places in relation
to Dhamma outside of meditation as well -- when
listening to discourses or when doing Dhamma reading,
for example. But for the information gained from outside
to become truly meaningful to us, for it to become our
own "wisdom-born-of-meditation" (bhavana-maya-paņņa),
for this information to influence how we live our lives,
it must be thoroughly thought through while we are
actually sitting in meditation. At such times the mind
is much more concentrated and subtle than usual and as
the hindrances to concentration and insight (i.e.,
doubt, excitement and restlessness, sloth and torpor,
greed, and ill-will) are at a fairly low level, the mind
is much more pliable and fit to assimilate pure Dhamma
thoughts. As we increase our understanding and wisdom
through meditative investigation, we decrease our
ignorance, and as ignorance diminishes we are loosening
the bondage of our suffering and becoming more and more
free of craving (tanha).
Another important role
played by investigation is in preventing the arising of
all the hindrances that tend to block our progress now
and again. It is by means of analytical thought,
systematic attention, yoniso-manasikara, that we
can keep the hindrances under control. In this process
the two Enlightenment Factors of investigation and
mindfulness are employed, as it takes careful thought in
combination with continuous awareness to keep control of
the mind. "And what, monks, is no food for the arising
of sensual lust not yet arisen?" The Buddha answers his
own question saying that sensual lust is kept from
growing by "systematic attention" to "the repulsive
feature of things." To counter the hindrance of ill
will, systematic attention must be given to metta,
the quality of unbounded loving kindness. To deal with
sloth and torpor, systematic attention must be applied
to "the element of putting forth effort, the element of
exertion, the element of striving." Against excitement,
one must apply systematic attention to tranquillity of
mind. To still doubt, one must give systematic attention
to Dhamma, or in the Buddha's words, to "things good and
things bad, things blameworthy and things not
blameworthy, things mean and things exalted, things that
are constituent parts of darkness and light" (K.S. V, p.
88).
These five great
hindrances to concentration, to meditation, to living
the Dhamma life are all quite familiar habits to us. But
we can develop the tools to prevent their arising and to
control them when they do come up. And chief amongst
these is the application of systematic attention to the
external situations that stimulate the sensual lust, the
ill will, the sloth and torpor, the excitement and the
doubt that lie latent in our minds, and to the internal
negative tendencies themselves. Thus when it is seen
that with wisdom these inappropriate deep-rooted,
habitual mental reactions to impermanent, unsatisfactory
and essenceless phenomena, the hindrances must lose
strength and gradually disappear, leaving behind a pure
mind.
Investigation of Dhamma
is one of the four factors which the Buddha frequently
describes as conducing "to growth in wisdom, to
acquiring insight, to growth of insight, the increase of
insight." The four elements involved are: "Association
with good men (following after the good), hearing
Saddhamma (the Good Norm), thorough work of mind
(systematic attention to Dhamma), and behavior in
accordance with Dhamma (living in accordance with the
precepts of the Norm)." When the Buddha spoke, of
course, the good man to associate oneself with was
specifically the Tathagata himself and his arahant
disciples, all fully liberated beings. Today we do not
have this opportunity, but we certainly can choose our
associates from amongst those who are on the Path and
who are striving to gain wisdom. If we associate with
the foolish, we are wasting our time and tempting
ourselves unnecessarily, making our task of
self-purification all the more difficult. But if we
spend time with other strivers, we will reinforce our
own motivation and also perhaps get some direct help or
encouragement in times of need. As for the second
factor, only rarely do we get the opportunity to
actually "hear" the Dhamma and then of course not
directly from the Fully Enlightened One. But when we
take a meditation course, this purpose is served by the
teacher's discourses which are designed to inform us of
and elucidate to us the fundamentals of the Dhamma.
Naturally this opportunity, too, is limited, and to
supplement live Dhamma teachings regularly, we have to
do some reading both of the direct words of the Buddha
as preserved in the translated Pali texts, and also of
what later meditators have written about him and his
teachings. Without this beneficial material for our
minds to thoroughly think about, to consider wisely, to
give systematic attention to, we are apt to find our
meditation getting into ruts which become so habitual as
to lose their impact on our minds -- and on how we live
our lives as well. On the other hand, reading Dhamma as
an intellectual pastime without combining it with
meditation and trying to make what we read our own
wisdom which can influence our life patterns, is a
complete waste of time. But if we are associating with a
Sangha (the community of those walking on the Noble
Eightfold Path), if we are learning the basics of Dhamma
and carefully and persistently applying our minds to it,
then our behavior cannot help but reflect the wisdom we
are so gaining. Thus these four factors must "if
cultivated and made much of, conduce to realising the
fruits of stream-winning... of once-returning, of
nonreturning and of arahantship" (K.S. V, p. 351).
Investigation of Dhamma,
dhammavicaya, usually the second in the list of
the seven Factors of Enlightenment, has a unique place
amongst these limbs of wisdom whose function is to
purify and train the mind and to "conduce to downright
revulsion, to dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to full
comprehension, to wisdom, to Nibbana." (K.S., V, p. 69)
Thinking over the Buddha's teachings is the very basis
for the development of these seven factors, as described
in the following quotation:
When a monk... remembers
and turns over in his mind that teaching of the Norm, it
is then that the limb of wisdom which is mindfulness is
established in that monk;... Thus, he, dwelling mindful,
with full recognition investigates and applies insight
to that teaching of the Norm and comes to close scrutiny
of it.
Now, monks, at such a
time as a monk, dwelling thus mindful, with full
recognition investigates and applies insight to that
teaching of the Norm, then it is that limb of wisdom
which is Norm-investigation that, as he comes to close
scrutiny of it, by his culture of it, it comes to
perfection.
-- K.S., V, p. 55
Clearly, from the
Buddha's description of the cultivation of the two limbs
of wisdom of mindfulness and investigation, they are
closely tied up with each other; certainly neither can
be perfected without the help of the other. But thinking
about the Norm is the most basic feature involved in the
development of these seven Bojjhangas because it is the
original motivator behind their development. That is why
the Buddha placed it at the very beginning of his
description of the seven as well as in its regular spot
as the second factor, dhammavicaya.
Mindfulness is a vital
skill to develop, for without mindfully observing one's
mind and body to see the defilements as they tend to
creep in, it is impossible to purify oneself. But
without some degree of understanding of the ultimate
facts of existence (anicca, dukkha and
anatta and the relationship between tanha and
dukkha particularly), the practice of "bare
attention" (sati) would probably be futile. Just
watching what is going on at the gross level of bodily
action is unlikely in and of itself to take us to that
deep insight that automatically begins to rid our minds
of greed, hatred and delusion, the roots of tanha
and hence of dukkha. Only if our minds are also
carefully at work to try and delve into the ultimate
realities is mindfulness, constant watchfulness,
guaranteed to bear fruit. The Buddha describes this when
he defines "the cultivation of a station of mindfulness.
Herein a monk dwells contemplating the rise of things in
body. He so dwells contemplating the fall of things in
body,... and also in feeling, mind and mind-states."
(K.S. V, p. 160) In other words, it is by the
consideration of the anicca (and by
extrapolation, the dukkha and anatta
nature as well) of the body, the feelings, the mind and
the mind-states that mindfulness is actually developed.
On the other hand,
investigation alone also tends to be sterile, a merely
intellectual knowledge. Only by continuing meditative
mindfulness and observation of whatever comes into the
mind via any of the six sense doors, can we put into
practice our understanding of Dhamma. The Pali phrase
"yoniso manasikara" combines the two factors of
mindfulness and investigation in itself, although the
stress seems to be on the latter. Yoniso manasikara
is translated as systematic attention or wise
consideration. Systematically, mindfully, with full
awareness, one considers the Dhamma; one thinks about
the matter at hand until its apparent nature has been
penetrated and the ultimate truth is clear. Once the
wisdom is gained and the mindfulness of the ultimate
reality of the body, feelings, mind and mental states
(the Four Stations of Mindfulness) is constant, then it
is only a matter of effort, of energy (the third
Enlightenment Factor) of just patiently and persistently
doing the work -- the results of these conditions
(detachment leading to liberation) must come about
automatically.
This energy is the
Enlightenment Factor which follows dhammavicaya.
"As with full recognition he investigates and applies
insight to that Norm-teaching, then unshaken energy is
established in him" (K.S., V, p. 56). On the basis of
understanding the utter suffering of existence we become
so convinced of the need to escape from the perpetual
rounds of Samsara, that we are completely willing to put
out all the effort needed to do so. Knowing that we are
doing what has to be done brings us piti, the
next limb of wisdom. Piti is pure joy or
pleasurable interest or zest -- it is the positive
feeling that arises from knowing we have the technique
for eliminating our suffering which sustains us further,
encouraging us to continue to apply that method
wholeheartedly. Tranquillity of mind and body, the next
limb, develops, with piti; with the elimination
of doubt a deep sense of peace of mind based on wisdom
comes about. When one has thought about life very
carefully and knows that there is nothing in the world
worth getting the least bit involved with or attached
to, then the mind runs after objects less and less and
tends to settle down and get well concentrated (the
sixth factor), as no possible phenomena at any of the
six sense doors appear worthwhile for it to try and
grasp onto. This pure concentration as it is rooted in
insight and allows insight to grow more and more, makes
the mind balanced and calm, and so equanimity (the final
limb of wisdom) grows. This is not bored, mundane
callousness, but an equanimity that is rooted in clear
thought and deep understanding which has made it
apparent that there can be absolutely nothing, mental or
physical, anywhere on any plane of existence, past,
present or future, worth reacting to or getting involved
with.
Thus it is that the
Buddha declared, "As a matter concerning one's own self,
monks, I see no other single factor so potent for the
arising of the seven limbs of wisdom as systematic
attention. Of a monk who is possessed of systematic
attention we may expect that he will cultivate, that he
will make much of the seven limbs of wisdom," and
developing these seven Enlightenment Factors is
precisely developing liberation from suffering (K.S., V,
pp. 84-5). Hence, careful investigation, persistently
pursued is the root cause of, as well as the route to,
wisdom in all its facets.
The Buddha states that
it is this same factor of systematic attention
(yoniso manasikara) that brings one onto the Noble
Eightfold Path, the Fourth Noble Truth, which leads to
the cessation of all suffering.
Just as the dawn, monks,
is the forerunner, the harbinger of the sun, even so
possession of systematic thought, monks, is, the
forerunner, the harbinger, of the arising of the Ariyan
Eightfold Way.
Of a monk who is
possessed of systematic thought, it may be expected that
he will cultivate, that he will make much of the Ariyan
Eightfold Way. And how monks, does a monk so possessed
make much of the Ariyan Eightfold Way?
Herein a monk cultivates
right view, that is based on seclusion, that is based on
dispassion, on cessation, that ends in self-surrender,
and he makes much of it... He cultivates right aim
(thought), right speech, right action, right living
(livelihood), right effort, right mindfulness, he
cultivates and makes much of right concentration that is
based on seclusion, on dispassion, on cessation, that
ends in self-surrender.
-- K.S., V, p. 27
The Noble Eightfold Path
is divided into three sections: the first is Paņņa
(wisdom) and includes the first two factors of
samma-ditthi (Right View or Understanding) and
samma-sankappa (Right Thought); second is sila
(morality) which includes samma-vaca (Right
Speech), samma-kammanta (Right Action) and
samma-ajiva (Right Livelihood); the third division
is samadhi (concentration) including the final
three elements of the Path -- samma-vayama (Right
Effort), samma-sati (Right Mindfulness) and
samma-samadhi (Right Concentration). Investigation
is important to each group. Although it is virtually
identical with the paņņa section of the Path, the
faculty of reasoned contemplation has significant role
to play in the development of both sila and
samadhi, and samadhi and sila in turn
both support investigation.
Careful investigation of
the apparent truth must enable us to break through the
barriers of our conditioned, colored and unclear
perception of things until we thoroughly penetrate and
clearly comprehend their ultimate truth. This is
vipassana -- insight; this is paņņa -- Right
Understanding and Right Thought, wisdom. As the Buddha
shows us in a simile, all perception is as unsubstantial
and essenceless as a mirage. "Just as if, brethren, in
the last month of the dry season at high noontide there
should be a mirage and a keen-sighted man should observe
it and look close into the nature of it, so observing it
he would find it to be without essence." (K.S., III, p.
119) If we accept the information we get about the world
both internal and external from our sense organs
automatically without carefully examining it, we are
bound to act on the basis of the mirage of ignorance as
all the past thinking that influences the perception --
and so the feeling and reaction which come along with it
-- was based on the inaccurate assumptions of
permanence, beauty, happiness and self. But once we
begin to develop Right View, we come to see gradually
how in actual fact nothing lasts, nothing can really be
called beautiful (since everything is always changing,
undergoing corruption and decay), nothing can really
bring us satisfaction and there is no essence in any of
the apparently sol |