First Stanza
The four kinds of ignorance (avijjā) that
conceal four kinds of truth. These four kinds of ignorance are
called “darkness without any light.” In other words
truth cannot be realised because the darkness of ignorance
conceals it.
The four kinds of truth are as
follows:
- The five aggregates of materiality and mentality are
the truth of suffering;
- Greed or craving is the truth of the cause of
suffering;
- The peace of nibbāna is the truth of the end of
suffering, and
- The eightfold noble path starting from right view is
the truth of the way to the end of suffering,
nibbāna.
There are four kinds of ignorance that hide the
aforesaid four kinds of truth. There are also four kinds of
wisdom or knowledge (vijjā) that reveal
them.
The “deathless” is nibbāna, which is free from
death. Moreover, nibbāna is not associated with the condition
things (sankhārā) so it is called deathless. Nibbāna is
also called “the upper land” because it is attained by
struggling against the current of samsāra, the eternal cycle
of birth and death.
“In time, you can’t struggle on in any way”
means Kinwun Mingyi is not able to practise the noble path to
attain nibbāna.
“This bay” means the flood of
samsāra.
“Whirlpool” means a vicious circle
(vatta) spinning around in samsāra without being
liberated. There are three kinds of vicious circles relating
to good existences:
- Desire for pleasant sights, sounds, smells, tastes,
sensations, and thoughts
(kilesa-vatta).
- The volitional activities of donation, morality,
mental development, etc.,
(kamma-vatta).
- The resultant of life as a human, or celestial being
(vipāka-vatta).
The circulation of these three cycles is the whirlpool
of samsara. Kamma, the volitional activities such as donation
arises due to defilements such as ignorance.
Volitional activities like donation gives rise to
resultants such as human existence, which again give rise to
defilements including ignorance. Due to defilements, kamma
produces resultants, which gives rise to defilements. So it is
endless like the orbit of a spinning-wheel. That is why
vatta is called “the
whirlpool.”
Third
Stanza
“Causes of grief and despair.” Not only the
present affairs but also the deeds of charity and morality for
the future achievement of good existences and wealth are
causes of defilements. Therefore, they are called causes of
grief and despair. They are also causes of worry and
suffering. Various achievements are the causes of failure or
destruction. Those affairs are prolonging samsāra. The cause
of suffering, craving, is the cause of grief. The truth of
suffering is the cause of despair. These two truths are the
important parts of samsāra. Their affairs seem to be
important.
The cycle of defilements (kilesa-vatta), which
includes ignorance, craving and attachment, is the cause of
grief. The cycle of volitional activities
(kamma-vatta), consisting of ten wholesome deeds and
ten unwholesome deeds, arises due to the cycle of defilements.
They are important. The cycle of resultants
(vipāka-vatta), existences obtained due to volitional
activities, is destined to destruction and decay, so it is the
cause of despair.
The eye, the faculty of seeing, is the slave of the
defilements and cause of grief. Being the fuel of the fire of
aging and death, it is the cause of despair. It is just a part
of the building of the mundane imperialists, craving, conceit,
and wrong view. Similarly, the ear, nose, tongue, body, and
mind are also the slaves of the defilements and causes of
grief. As they are the fuels of aging-fire and death-fire they
are causes of despair. They are the assets of craving,
conceit, and wrong view, the three mundane
imperialists.
“Unseen starting-point of life” means the
starting point of existence cannot be seen or known. That is
called the beginningless round of rebirth. “In perpetual
hunger” means you always want to have, to be, to see, to
hear, etc. Without eradicating craving, you will never be
satisfied. Even if you become a universal monarch or Sakka,
the king of gods, you will still suffer from the hunger of
desire. You will still be in perpetual hunger like a hungry
ghost (peta).
“Without quenching the thirst of desire” is
craving for pleasing forms, sounds, fragrances, flavours,
touches, and thoughts.
“They’re just a pile of ash
in fragility” means the eleven kinds of fire are scorching
the bodies of humans, devas, and brahmās. Those bodies are
only piles of ash. There is no hard core and they are fragile.
They are in fragility as they have no essence. A lunatic
chooses and picks up things he likes from a rubbish heap
abandoned outside the village gate. He finds many things that
he thinks are good and enjoyable, collecting them with
pleasure. Similarly, the luxury and wealth of men, devas, and
brahmas are only a pile of ash or rubbish forsaken by the
Noble Ones.
“A villager’s swine in sty.” The fatter a pig
becomes due to abundant food, the more the villager thinks to
sell it for slaughter. The pig does not know that it will be
displayed on the butcher’s stall in the market tomorrow, so it
enjoys happiness for the moment as the leader of a brood of
pigs. Similarly, the achievement of wealth and social status
are prone to destruction, but you cannot see the reality,
though you will definitely be on the stall of the cemetery
market for the dinner of death before your hundredth birthday.
That is why you can enjoy official status and society without
any anxiety until now. You are like General Bandoola, who
could not see the weapon aimed at him from a tree. You do not
see the destructive weapon of death aimed at you because you
are screened by friends and enjoyable property. Being tied to
a post, you think it is better to die with your face covered,
so that you cannot see the weapon aimed at you. Likewise,
people fear to face the weapon of death aimed at them, and
think it better to die without noticing, so they cover their
faces.
Giving no chance for mindful trepidation
(samvega) to arise, they collect and enjoy sensual
objects and companions, concealing their fear with them. The
screen is so good that they are not alarmed by the impending
repeated deaths. They are not afraid of death in the present
life. They meekly accept it as a natural solace. Since they
are not afraid of death, there is no chance for them to be
free from samsara. If the fear of death is only slight due to
the good screen they do not think of final liberation. This is
the meaning of “screened.”
“The truth or reality” is the true nature of
death and destruction.
“Society” is association with relatives,
friends, and society. “Pride, society and glory” are
the various forms of delusion that cover and conceal the
truth. “Custom” means the polite manners and customs in
society, which also conceal the truth or reality.
A powerful deva can see five signs of death a week in
advance. Then, he is shaken and afraid, so the other devas
take him to the Nandavana garden, which is so pleasant that
the frightened deva forgets his fear and anxiety. The screens
for devas and brahmas are very good and powerful.
“The total loss” means that in the endless
round of rebirth, sentient beings try their best to get the
best screens. The screen is to forget the good deeds.
Forgetful of doing good deeds, they do not dare to think of
final liberation from death. The duration of seeking screens
for each portion of a day, month, year, or life-span is
“total loss at last.”
“To mingle with common ash and earth” means the
bodies of beings in the eleven sensual realms and sixteen
realms of form are like earth. The bodies of devas and brahmās
are composed of subtle earth elements and the heat guarding
them is very powerful. The body of a deva or brahmā disappears
totally at death like an extinguished flame with the
expiration of the earth elements produced by consciousness and
nutrition. There is no corpse after death. The devas and
brahmās are beings of spontaneous birth and death. There is no
chance of treatment — they expire suddenly as if vaporised.
However, the bodies of men and animals remain after death and
the disappearance of earth elements generated by kamma. Their
dead bodies add to the earth and ash in the cemetery. Thus,
the living bodies of men are going “to mingle with common
ash and earth.” |
|
Second Stanza
“Five rare attainments” refers to:
- The very rare appearance of a Buddha and his
teaching (buddhuppada dullabha).
- The very rare and precious human rebirth
(manussatta dullabha).
- The very rare opportunity to be a Buddhist monk or
novice (pabbajjita dullabha).
- The very rare attainment of faith or confidence in
Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, and the law of kamma
(saddhāsampatti dullabha).
- The very rare opportunity of hearing the Dhamma
leading to nibbāna (saddhammassavana
dullabha).
“They aren’t worthy or essential” refers to
worldly or political affairs, which are not concerned with
morality, concentration, and insight. It means that Kinwun
Mingyi was fully occupied with those unimportant affairs until
his old age, so his life was in vain. He was preoccupied with
futile anxiety, delusion, and restlessness.
“They seem to be important or real” means that
Kinwun Mingyi was sincerely trying his best for those affairs,
but they were in vain.
“Your view-point is neither clear nor right”
means that you cannot see the true nature of the five
aggregates of materiality and mentality. If you think that
they are not your own, it is a right view. If you regard them
as yours, that view is not right. Right view means seeing
things as they really are (yathābhūta). Wrong view is
personality view (sakkāya-ditthi) or belief in a soul
(atta-ditthi).
You do not try to follow the right way so you are
going astray. That is why there is no chance for your
accumulated perfections (pāramī) to appear. They are
hidden like embers covered with wet mud. Therefore, your
viewpoint is neither clear nor right.
“At dark cloudy midnight.” In your younger
days, you had few detrimental affairs. When you heard of the
Buddha, Dhamma, or Sangha your confidence could shine. With
the growth of wealth and property, your detrimental works are
increasing day by day. You are not a stranger to the Buddha,
Dhamma, and Sangha, but your confidence is fading with age.
Despite the repeated echoes of the noble qualities of Buddha,
Dhamma, and Sangha, your confidence is no longer radiant. You
perform good deeds in the traditional way merely to gain the
high regard of others. So you are at dark cloudy
midnight.
“In charcoal-room” refers to the worldly
affairs to support your family that encourage you to darken
your view.
“You perform good actions occasionally according to
your whims, traditionally.” Now that you have reached a
mature age, you have fallen into the charcoal-room of worldly
affairs for the welfare of your family, and cannot get out of
it. Then you put the blame on your lack of accumulated
perfections. With weak confidence and wisdom, you occasionally
accomplish the traditional meritorious deeds of charity and
meditation. However, you take solace in meditation with weak
expectations. You sometimes contemplate impermanence,
unsatisfactoriness, and not-self, or the noble qualities of
the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, but your insight and
confidence are far from clear. You only carry out these noble
deeds with the hope of cultivating a good habit.
“Time” is a being’s life-span for meditation on
death. If a being is expected to live for a hundred years the
life-span is a hundred years. According to the Burmese way of
calculation, it is six hundred seasons or 2,400 lunar
fortnights. When a train is moving, trees and bushes are left
behind as if they were in a circle beside the railway. In the
course of a life-span, hours and days are left behind in the
same way. Therefore, “time is passing steadily without
stopping.”
The “executioner” means death. Sentient beings
are wandering in the innumerable universes of infinite
samsara, the starting-point of which cannot be seen. All these
existences are only the “various foods” of death. They
are waiting for the time of death to collect the “fee.”
They are waiting with healthy bodies, houses, land, furniture,
and family. Therefore, “you are waiting to die with
satisfaction enjoying the worldly assumed
perfection.”
“You are waiting to die with satisfaction” means you
are feeding or trying to satisfy the defilements until the
arrival of death. You are treating defilements with various
objects so they never become wearied. Thus, you are waiting
for death. The duty for death is to be alive before its
advent. The responsibility for the defilements is endless. The
defilements must be served with better and better objects.
Blind worldlings are passing life after life, carrying out
these duties and responsibilities, which are not for their own
benefit. Ignoring the responsibility for defilements and being
dutiful to death, the good worldlings try their best to be
free from death.
Fourth
Stanza
“The empire of ‘I’ is very large” means that
there is the wide sphere where the conceptual ‘I’ wanders.
That concept is the banner of craving, the true cause of
suffering. It is like saying “there’s no smoke without fire.”
The aggregates of the eleven planes of desire are created and
governed by sensual craving. The aggregates of the sixteen
planes of form are made and governed by craving for form.
Similarly, the aggregates of the four formless planes are
created and governed by the craving for formlessness.
If you tease or test someone the word ‘I’ will always
arise. A king or government will not tolerate any insult or
invasion by another because of that egocentric pride.
Thirty-one existences, the sensual plane, the plane of form
and the formless plane are included in the empire of
“I”.
“That won’t leave even a tiny atom” — Billions
of universes from the past no longer exist. Not even a tiny
atom remains from the insentient oceans, rivers, forests, and
mountains, or the sentient devas, human beings and animals.
Contemplate each portion of a year, month, day, or hour that
is consumed. Nothing remains forever. Contemplate the
impermanent things that you have met during your
lifetime.
“Perpetual” means that if you point your finger
in any direction there will be countless dying beings there.
“Only fuel” — Throughout the thirty-one planes
of existence in the three eras of the past, present, and
future, sentient and insentient aggregates are only fuel for
the eleven kinds of fire. These eleven fires are the fires of
greed, hatred, delusion, birth, aging, death, grief,
lamentation, pain, sorrow, and despair.
The sentient aggregates are divided into the three
cycles of defilements, volitional activities, and resultants.
Ignorance, craving, and attachment are included in
defilements. Volitional activities includes mental formations
(sankhārā), which are past activities, and becoming
(kammabhava), which are present volitional activities
or becoming for future existences. The five resultants are:
rebirth-consciousness, psychophysical phenomena, six senses,
contact, and feeling.
Because of ignorance, craving, and attachment, there
are mental formations and becoming — good and bad actions that
create resultants in the next existence as a human being or
deva, which again produces defilements. Thoughts such as: “It
is me,” “It is mine,” “I am,” “This is my soul,” “I am a
king,” “I am a brahmin,” “I am rich,” “I am Sakka,” I am
Brahma,” “I am a woman,” I am a man,” etc., appear in the
minds of blind worldlings because of craving and attachment.
Defilements cause kamma, which produces the resultant of
another existence, which leads to more defilements. That
vicious circle, called “vatta,” will continue eternally until
the realisation of things as they really are.
“Appearance and disappearance.” Beings, and
things in all universes are always permeated by appearance and
disappearance.
“Death is the only monarch” means that although
conditioned things and beings may be increasing, they cannot
overcome death. Hence death is the universal monarch that
cannot be conquered by any of them. Those conditional things
and beings are destined to end in destruction, and none can
remain forever.
“In cycles of world after world” means that at
every cycle of the world system, conditioned things are seen
to be only the fuel of death, which will consume them all, not
leaving a single atom.
“You can’t have the knowledge of reality” — A
king thought that an ogress was the most beautiful princess
and took her to the royal palace, appointing her as his chief
queen. The king was tricked and dominated by the pretentious
princess until he got the power of clairvoyance that helped
him to see the ugly and fearful appearance of the ogress. When
he saw the truth he executed her and regained his
power.
Similarly, beings will be deceived and controlled by
conditioned things as long as they cannot see things as they
really are. Psychophysical phenomena are not a person, a
being, a man, or a woman. They beguile beings who regard them
as persons, beings, men, or women. Blind worldlings love and
adore the pretty, beautiful, and handsome persons because of
attachment. Love and adoration are the strong iron fetters and
chains of Māra and the king of hell. Worldlings cannot escape
from the clutches of Māra and the king of hell because they
are tightly bound by those fetters. Thus they are dominated
and controlled by conditioned things.
When knowledge of things as they really are is
attained by virtuous worldlings and lesser Stream-winners,
they begin to escape from the control of conditioned things,
which they can contemplate as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and
not-self. They can realise that psychophysical phenomena are
not a person, a being, a man or a woman. The defect, harm, and
danger of psychophysical phenomena can be known by seeing
things as they truly are. This is the victory of virtuous
worldlings and lesser Stream-winners over psychophysical
phenomena. However, Kinwun Mingyi has not found the escape
from bondage by gaining that knowledge.
“When will you be able to extinguish the fire?”
refers to the fire of death and the other ten kinds of
fire that are consuming all the planes of existences. When and
in which Buddha’s dispensation will Kinwun Mingyi gain final
liberation from
samsāra? |
