Chapter 8
(Tape 15 / Ps: 1-35)
The next meditation is mindfulness of death.
Death is defined as the interruption of the life faculty included within the
limits of a single becoming or a single existence. It is one life - a human
life, an animal life or whatever.
‘Interruption’ really means cessation or
being cut off. So it is stoppage or cessation of the life faculty. You are
familiar with the life faculty. It is jÊvita. It is something which keeps our
bodies alive and also there is life faculty of mind. So there are two life
faculties - physical and mental.
The first definition is what is meant here.
There are other kinds of death. “But death as termination (cutting off), in
other words, the Arahant’s termination of the suffering of the round, is not
intended here.” When an Arahant dies, he dies and there is no more rebirth for
him. That kind of death is not meant here.
“Nor is momentary death” - that means at
every moment there is death. There is one moment of thought and then it dies
and then there is another moment of thought and so on. We are dying and being
reborn every moment. That kind of death is called ‘momentary death’.
“In other words, the momentary dissolution
of formations, nor the ‘death’ of conventional (metaphorical) usage in such
expressions as ‘dead tree’, ‘dead metal’ and so on (is not meant here).”
In the Visuddhi Magga it actually says “the iron is dead”, not metal. It should
be dead iron.
There is alchemy in the East as well as in
the West. These people tried to do something to metal to make it beneficial for
people. There is a saying in Burmese “If you can kill the iron, you can feed
the whole country.” I don’t know what that means. There is another saying “If
you can kill the iron, you can turn lead into gold.” It is also said that you
can cure diseases. They tried to burn these metals and make them into ashes.
Then they would mix them with honey and so on and treat people. Many people
believe such ashes can treat many kinds of diseases. So when we say ‘The iron
is dead; the copper is dead.”, we are using conventional usage. That kind of
death is not meant here. What is meant here is just the end of one life.
“As intended here it is of two kinds, that
is to say, timely death and untimely death. Herein, timely death comes about
with the exhaustion of merit, or with the exhaustion of a life span, or with
both. Untimely death comes about through kamma that interrupts [other,
life-producing] kamma.”
‘Death through the exhaustion of merit’ -
that means death through the exhaustion of the force of kamma. Let us suppose
that the life span is now one hundred years. However a person whose kamma
cannot give him one hundred years may die before he reaches that age. He may
die at the age of fifty, forty, or even younger. When he dies in that way, he
is said to die through the exhaustion of merit or through the exhaustion of the
force of kamma. That is why many people die now before reaching the end of the
life span.
Sometimes people have very strong kamma.
Their kamma could make them live for one thousand years, many hundreds of
years. If they live at a time when humans only live for one hundred years, then
they will die at the end of that life span. They may have kamma which can make
them live for more than one hundred years, but since they are reborn at a time
when people live for only one hundred years, they have to die at the age of one
hundred years. That is called ‘exhaustion of a life span’.
The death through the exhaustion of both is
when a person has a kamma which will cause him to live for one hundred years,
and he is reborn at a time when people live for one hundred years, and he dies
at the age of one hundred years. That is death through both.
The last one is untimely death. That is
mostly tragic death. “Untimely death is a term for the death of those whose
continuity is interrupted by kamma capable of causing them to fall (cÈvana)
from their place at that very moment, as in the case of D|si-MÈra, KalÈburÈjÈ,
etc., or for the death of those whose [life’s] continuity is interrupted by
assaults with weapons, etc., due to previous kamma.”
Sometimes people do a very heinous offense
or crime like killing an Arahant. Such people sometimes die immediately. Here
the example of D|si-MÈra is given. He tried to kill Venerable SÈriputta. One
day Venerable SÈriputta shaved his head. So his head was very smooth and
shining. D|si-MÈra wanted to hit him. He hit him on the head. Venerable
SÈriputta was in jhÈna, in samÈpatti. Nothing happened to Venerable SÈriputta.
Because of that kamma D|si-MÈra died immediately.
KalÈburÈjÈ was a king who killed a sage who
practiced patience. There was a sage named Khantivara. He was very famous and
once he came to the city and sat in the garden or pleasure grove of the king.
The king was asleep. So his queens and concubines went to the hermit in order
to listen to the Dhamma. When the king woke up, he did not see his wives. So he
looked around. When he reached the hermit, he asked “What are you?” The sage
replied “I am a hermit.” The king asked “What do you practice?” The sage
replied “I practice patience.” The king asked “What is patience?” The hermit
said that it was having forbearance with regard to whatever people may do to
you. Then the king said “Let us see your patience.” He called his executioners
and had them cut off the hands of that sage. Then he asked him “Are you still
patient?” The sage replied “Patience does not lie in the hands.” Then the king
had the feet of the sage cut off and questioned him again. The sage said he was
not angry with him and that he was not upset. He said that patience was here.
The king kicked him and went away. When the king went away, a general heard
about what happened. He rushed to the sage and asked him to be angry with the
king. He said “Please be angry with the king because if you get angry with the
king you will suffer less.” The sage said “People like me do not get angry. Let
him live long.” Because of that offense the king was swallowed by the earth. He
was consumed by the earth. Such death is called ‘untimely death’. They have
past kamma and they have life span, but their crime is so bad that they have to
die. Sometimes they die in accidents. These are called ‘untimely death’.
Student:
About not getting angry, how would his kamma be less because somebody got
angry?
Teacher:
It is like with regard to wholesome acts sewing seeds in a field which is
fertile and in a field which is not fertile. The effect or result of killing
differs with the being who is killed. If the being that is killed is virtuous, there
is more akusala. If the being that is killed is larger, then there is more
akusala and so on. There are variations in degree of offense with regard to the
virtue of the person being killed and also whether there is more effort needed
to kill. Killing an ant and killing an elephant are not the same; they do not
have the same degree of akusala or unwholesomeness. To kill an elephant you
have to make much effort. The more effort there is, the more akusala there is.
Student:
So what you are saying is the general misunderstood about this thing.
Teacher:
No. The general did not misunderstand. The general wanted to make the offense
less damaging for the king. If the hermit becomes angry, he will be less
virtuous.
Student:
This is a funny example. This is different from MahÈyana. The MahÈyana approach
might be to convince and help the king. The sage should get angry. That is in a
sense a play for virtue. If he wants the king’s punishment not to be so bad, he
might get ‘angry’, but it would not be out of actual anger. I don’t know.
Teacher:
But when he gets angry, it will amount to breaking some vows or something. He
might have made the vow “I will be patient whatever people do to me.” So he
kept it until his death.
Student:
You mentioned that some people may have the kamma to live for one thousand
years, but the life span is only a hundred years. With the nine hundred years
remaining do you have some kind of credit?
Teacher: I
wish we could. No. In order for kamma to ripen and give results we need
different conditions - the time for the ripening of the kamma, the place for
the ripening of the kamma, the condition of the ripening of the kamma and so
on. When kamma gives results, it depends on these conditions.
Mahasi SayÈdaw in one of hi talks said “I am
afraid that many Burmese people will be reborn in the
Student:
Is it possible when a person dies young, that it is ever taken as a sign of
good kamma? He might have a more favorable rebirth having died young.
Teacher:
To die young is the result of not so good kamma.
Student:
Let us say their life is miserable. They are born in the ghetto, have disease,
never have contact with the Dharma, and they die young. Then they might have a
better chance in another environment.
Teacher:
People are reborn as human beings as the result of wholesome kamma. This
wholesome kamma has different capabilities, different abilities, different
power. Some wholesome kamma can only give ten years. Other wholesome kamma may
give twenty years, thirty years and so on. Whenever a person is reborn as a
human being, he is said to be reborn as the result of good kamma. But that good
kamma varies. That person does not die as the result of bad kamma, but as the
result of good kamma that is not strong enough to make him live longer.
Student:
In other words children that die young do not have as much good kamma as
someone who lives to be eighty five or ninety?
Teacher:
That’s right. The recollection on death I think is not so difficult. The
Visuddhi Magga tells us how to reflect on death in different ways.
In paragraph 7 “When some exercise it merely
in this way (That means death will take place, death will come, I will die one
day.), their hindrances get suppressed, their mindfulness becomes established
with death as its object, and the meditation subject reaches access.” Those are
gifted people.
“But one who finds that it does not get so
far should do his recollecting of death in eight ways, that is to say: (1) as
having the appearance of a murderer, (2) as the ruin of success” - not
the ‘ruin of success’ but success and failure - “(3) by comparison, (4) as to
sharing the body with many (That means we have to share our body with worms,
insects, germs and all these things.) (5) as to the frailty of life, (6) as
signless, (7) as to limitedness of the extent, (8) as to the shortness of the
moment.” We can reflect on death in different ways.
Towards the end of the recollection of death
there is a large footnote discussing paÒÒatti. We will discuss it next week.
There are many examples given and we cannot
go to every reference. In footnote 6 many references are given - MahÈsammata,
MandhÈtu, MahÈsudassana, DaÄhanemi, Nimi, Jotika, JaÔila, Ugga and so on. Some
of the persons mentioned are found mostly in JÈtaka tales and also in the
Suttas. Then in paragraph 19 VÈsudeva, Baladeva, and so on are mostly taken
from Hindu books. There is some kind of relationship between Hindu stories and
Buddhist stories. Some Hindu stories are told as Buddhist stories in the
JÈtakas. VÈsudeva, Baladeva, BhÊmasena, YuddhiÔÔhila and CÈÓura are mentioned
in the JÈtakas, but I think they originally came from Hindu sources.
The main point here is that persons who are
of great merit, who are of great strength, who possess supernormal powers and
even the Buddha had to die. There is no point in saying we will not die.
Comparing ourselves with these persons, we reflect on death, that death will
come to us one day.
This recollection has to be done with
wisdom, has to be done with understanding. Paragraph 5 “If he exercises his
attention unwisely in recollecting the [possible] death of an agreeable person,
sorrow arises, as in a mother on recollecting the death of her beloved child
she bore; and gladness arises in recollecting the death of a disagreeable
person, as in enemies on recollecting the death of their enemies; and no sense
of urgency arises on recollecting the death of a neutral person, as happens in
a corpse-burner on seeing a dead body; and anxiety arises on recollecting one’s
own death, as happens in a timid person on seeing a murderer with a poised
dagger.”
“In all that there is neither mindfulness
nor sense of urgency nor knowledge. So he should look here and there at beings
that have been killed or have died, and advert to the death of beings already
dead but formerly seen enjoying good things, doing so with mindfulness, with a
sense of urgency and with knowledge, after which he can exercise his attention
in the way beginning '‘Death will take place'.” So when you practice this kind
of meditation, you have to be very careful.
It is amazing that thinking of death makes
you less afraid of death. Also the recollection on death can reduce to a very
great degree your pride or attachment.
You may have experienced being very sick or
very ill. You may have thought that you were going to die. In that case you
don’t have any attachment, or any anger or whatever. You do not have any pride
in yourself. You are very humble. You are like an Arahant at that time because
you don’t want anything. You are not attached to anything at that time. So
recollection on death is a very good weapon in fighting against attachment, hatred,
pride and others.
And when death really comes, you will be
able to face it with more calmness than those who do not practice this kind of
meditation. That is why the Buddha said that monks must practice this
meditation. Everyday monks must practice recollection of the Buddha,
loving-kindness meditation, foulness of the body meditation and recollection of
death.
One thing I want to say in paragraph 35 it
says “As to the limitedness of the extent: the extent of human life is short
now. One who lives long lives a hundred years, more or less.” What the
Buddha meant here is “One who lives long lives a hundred years, or a little
more.” It is not ‘more or less’. That means he may live to be 120 years, 150
years, 160 years, not ‘more or less’. So “One who lives long lives a hundred
years, or a little more.” There are two sentences like that.
We will discuss paÒÒatti next week and go
into the section on mindfulness of the body - up to page 270, not many pages.
SÈdhu! SÈdhu! SÈdhu!
(Tape
16 / Ps: 36 -60)
Last week
we came to the end of the section on the recollection of death: There is
a footnote in The Path of purification giving information about concept or paÒÒatti.
It is in connection with the verses in paragraph 39. The last verse reads:
“ No [world is ] born if[ consciousness is ] not
Produced; when that is present, then it
lives;
When consciousness dissolves, the world is
dead:
The highest sense this concept will allow,”
Actually the last line means that here concept is virtually reality in the ultimate
sense or in the highest sense. The PÈÄi words for this line is paÒÒatti
paramatthiyÈ. That means here paÒÒatti is paramattha. That is because when we
say someone lives or someone dies we
really are talking about consciousness arising and disappearing. When we talk
about consciousness, we are talking about an ultimate reality. Here concept is
virtually ultimate reality.
In
connection with that the translator gives information about paÒÒatti or
concept. He took this information from
the commentary on the PuggalapaÒÒatti one of the books in Abhidhamma. There are
7 books in Abhidhamma. This PuggalapaÒÒatti is one of them. It is the one book
in Abhidhamma that does not look like Abhidhamma. It is in fact taken from
Sutta PiÔaka because it describes different types of beings, different types of
human beings. The book is called PuggalapaÒÒatti (Concept of Persons).
The word ‘paÒÒatti in PÈÄi has two meanings.
The first meaning is that which makes known or that which designates. That
which makes known or that which designates is called ‘nÈma paÒÒatti’. We will
call it ‘name-concept’. That means the words which denote the things. The words
denoting the things or the names we give to different things are called ‘nÈma
paÒÒatti’. This is because they make things known. When I say “table”, you know
the thing, a table. When I say “man”, you know the being, man. The names or the
words are called ‘paÒÒatti’ here.
The second meaning is that which is made
known, that which is designated. That is called ‘attha paÒÒatti’, thing
concept. So there are two kinds of concepts - name-concept and thing-concept.
The word or the name ‘man’ is the name-concept. The person, the man himself, is
thing-concept. The being, man, is designated by or made known by the word or
the name ‘man’. We can think of many examples of this. When we say ‘car’, the
word ‘car’ is name-concept and the thing which we call a car is thing-concept.
Mostly today we are going to learn about name-concepts. In that book of
Abhidhamma first the six kinds of concepts or designations are given.
The notes I have given you are the same as
the small print in this book. It is difficult to read the small print in this
book. In order to facilitate reading I made these notes. They are not new.
There are concept of aggregates, concept of
bases, concept of elements, concept of truths, concept of faculties and concept
of persons. These are the six kinds of concepts dealt with in that book of
Abhidhamma, PuggalapaÒÒattii.
The examples for concept of aggregates would
be aggregate of matter, or aggregate of feeling, aggregate of perception and so
on. Examples for concept of bases would be eye-base, ear-base and so on.
Examples of concept of elements are eye-element, ear-element and so on. Concept
of Truth is Noble Truth of Suffering, Noble Truth of Origin of Suffering and so
on. Concept of faculties are exemplified by eye faculty, ear faculty and so on.
For the concept of persons there are many kinds of persons mentioned in that
book. One who is ‘free from defilements at appropriate times’ is only one of
them. There are different kinds of persons mentioned in that book of
Abhidhamma. These are the concepts according to the Texts.
Apart from the concepts mentioned in the
Texts there are other kinds of concepts mentioned in the Commentaries. They are
‘concept of the existent’, ‘concept of the non-existent’, ‘concept of the
non-existent by the existent’, ‘concept of the existent by the non-existent’,
‘concept of the existent by the existent’ and ‘concept of the non-existent by the non-existent’. These six are
important. These six are also mentioned in The Manual of Abhidhamma. In the
eighth chapter of The Manual of Abhidhamma these six are given.
Here ‘existent’ means something which has
three phases of existence - arising, continuing and disappearing or
dissolution. These three phases or these three submoments are called the common
characteristics of all conditioned phenomena. Anything that is conditioned must
have these three characteristics - arising, continuing for some time, and then
disappearing. Anything that has these three phases of existence is called
‘existent’. Anything that does not have these three phases is called
‘non-existent’.
According to the teachings of Abhidhamma
only those that are mentioned in Abhidhamma like consciousness, mental states,
material properties and NibbÈna are existent. The others are non-existent. So
paÒÒatti is actually non-existent. Only the ultimate truths are existent.
So the concept of the existent is the name
of something which is said to be existent. Kusala or akusala, these are the
terms for wholesome or unwholesome conscioousness. These names are the concepts
of the existent.
The concept of the non-existent means names
given to things or beings that are non-existent according to Abhidhamma. A man,
a woman, a house, a table, or whatever is supposed to be non-existent according
to the ultimate sense. This is because there is no woman apart from the
aggregates, no man apart from the aggregates, no house apart from the different
parts like roof, walls, doors and so on. Therefore they are called
‘non-existent’. The name ‘woman’, or the name ‘man’, or the name ‘house’ are
the names of non-existent beings or the name of a non-existent thing.
Sometimes we combine these two, existent and
non-existent. Then we get four more of these concepts.
The third is ‘the concept of the
non-existent by the existent’, concept of the non-existent by or with what is
existent. ‘One with the three clear visions’ is an example. You must understand
the PÈÄi word ‘tivijjÈ’. Here ‘one’ is non-existent. The person is
non-existent. ‘The three clear visions’ means knowledge, in PÈÄi abhiÒÒÈ. The
three clear visions are existent because they are ÒÈÓa, one of the 52 mental
states. This is a concept or designation of the non-existent by the existent.
The next one is the designation of the
existent by the non-existent. ‘Form of a female’ is the example. ‘Form’ means
r|pa here, not a shape or something. R|pa is existent because it has its own
three phases of existence - arising, continuing and disappearing. ‘Female’ or
‘woman’ is non-existent. Therefore ‘form of a female’, this name, this
designation is a designation of the existent by the non-existent.
The next one is the concept of the existent
by the existent. Both must be found in the Abhidhamma. Eye-contact is the
example. ‘Eye’ here means the eye sensitivity. It is among the 28 material
properties. It is existent. Contact (phassa) is one of the 52 mental states. So
it is existent. Eye-contact is a concept of the existent by the existent.
The last one is the concept of the
non-existent by the non-existent. Both must be non-existent according to
ultimate reality. A banker’s sone is the example. A son is non-existent and a
banker is also non-existent. This is the designation of the non-existent by the
non-existent. These are the six kinds of concepts mentioned in the Commentaries.
You can give other examples following these.
For the non-existent there are a car, a house, a lamp, a kettle. For the
non-existent by the existent there are one with clear vision, one with
attachment, one with anger. For the existent by the non-existent we have form
of a female. The first must be existent and the last non-existent.
Student: A
cup of tea.
Teacher:
No.
Student: A
monk’s kusala
Teacher:
Right. A monk’s kusala, a monk’s akusala, a monk’s voice you could say. Voice
is one of the 28 material properties. For the next one, eye-contact you can
substitute some other thing like eye-consciousness. Eye is existent and
consciousness is also existent. The last one, banker’s son is non-existent by
non-existent.
Student:
(inaudible) Bumper-sticker.
Teacher:
Right. This is the set of six concepts mentioned in the Commentaries. Other
lists of concepts are also given. There are concepts according to teachers.
They are not even found in the Commentaries, but they are mentioned by
teachers. There are two sets with six in each set.
One is derivative concept. That means
depending upon something a name is given. For example the name ‘being’ is given
depending upon the combination of five aggregates. The name ‘chariot’ is given
depending upon the combination of various parts. Such concepts are called
derivative concepts.
The second one is appositional concept. It
has sub-divisions. They are given at the end of the list. We will go to them
later. ‘Second’ and ‘third’ are the examples. When we say that this is second,
then the other is third. When we say that this other is third, then the next
one is fourth and so on. That is the appositional concept.
Then we have collective concept. Examples
are ‘eight-footed’, ‘pile of riches’. These are the names of collective things.
The fourth one is additive concept. That
means adding one more. The example ‘two, three, four’ is given. There should be
no ‘one’ in the footnote because there is nothing added there. From two onward
we have adding, so two, three, four. In the Commentary also it is given as
‘two, three, four’.
Then there is verisimilar concept. That
means the names of those things that are taught in Abhidhamma. Such things as
earth-element, water-element, consciousness, mental factors are all examples of
the verisimilar concept.
The sixth one is continuity concept. That is
the name given depending upon the continuity of a being. Examples are
octagenerarian and nonagenerarian (an eighty year old man, a ninety year old
man) and so on.
There is another set of six according to
teachers. There are two sets of concepts according to teachers.
The first one of the second set is concept
according to function. Examples of preacher and Dhamma teacher are given. They
are names given depending upon the function done by that person.
The next one is concept according to shape
or form. Such things as thin man, round man, stout man and so on are examples.
The next one is concept according to gender.
A man, a woman are concepts according to gender.
The fourth one is concept according to
location. That is of sense-sphere. This citta belongs to kÈmÈvacara
sense-sphere. This citta belongs to r|pÈvacara sense-sphere. Or we have
‘Kosalan’. Kosalan is a native of Kosala. Kosala is the name of a place. So we
can put here ‘American’.
Then there is concept as Proper name. That
is one’s own name. The examples are all names in PÈÄi - Tissa, NÈma, Sumana. So
you can put any name you like, your own name there.
The last one is the concept of the unconditioned.
That is the name of things that are not conditioned. Examples are cessation and
NibbÈna.
The appositional concept is sub-divided into
eight. Maybe we can add many more. The first one is apposition of reference.
That is like with reference to the second the other is called the third. Then
we have long and short. That means for example that one foot is long compared
to six inches. One foot is short compared to two feet and so on. This is called
apposition of reference.
The second one is apposition of what is in
the hand. If you have an umbrella in the hand, you are called ‘ the man with
umbrella-in-hand’. If you have a kettle
in your hand, then you are ‘the person with the kettle-in-your-hand’ and so on.
Then there is apposition of association. The
example is ‘earring-wearer’ or jacket-wearer. You can say anything.
Then there is apposition proximity with the
example of ‘
Next there is apposition of comparison.
‘Comparison’ really means similarity here. The example is ‘gold colored’. ‘Gold colored’ means with color similar to
that of gold.
Then there is apposition of majority. We
have the example of lotus pond. There may be some other flowers in the pond.
Since most of them are lotus, we say lotus pond. We say “the
Finally we have apposition of distinction.
That means something special about that thing. Ruby bracelet is the example. In
the book it says “diamond ring”, but the PÈÄi word means bracelet, not a ring.
So ‘ruby bracelet’ is correct.
In the notes in footnote 11 there is some
problem with the translation. For apposition of majority the example of
These are the different kinds of concepts
taught in the Texts, Commentaries and also taught by the teachers. According to
the teachings of Abhidhamma concepts do not have the three phases of existence.
We cannot say that a concept has time. It has no existence or no reality. It
exists only in our minds.
It might be similar to chemists saying that
there is no such thing as water apart from the two elements combined together.
In the sense of chemistry there is no water but just oxygen and hydrogen. So
water is a concept. Hydrogen and oxygen are ultimate realities according to
chemistry. According to chemistry water has no existence of its own. It is just
a combination of two elements. In the same way a man or a woman has no real
existence. They exist only in the minds of people.
In footnote 12 it says “A concept is a
dhamma without individual essence.” We cannot say that a concept has this
individual essence, this characteristic, or that individual essence, that
characteristic. They are just concepts. They just exist in our minds. They are
not ultimate reality. These are the concepts.
We have to understand two kinds of truths -
conventional truth and the ultimate truth. On the conventional level we use
words denoting concepts like man, woman, table, house. On the ultimate level we
use words like consciousness, contact, feeling and so on. There are these two
kinds of truth, conventional truth and ultimate truth. ‘Conventional truth’ is
called paÒÒatti in PÈÄi. It has many divisions. Name-concept and thing-concept
are the primary divisions. Everything we see around us, including ourselves, is
concept. The things with which we and other things are composed, the things
with which we are made, are the ultimate truths. The five aggregates are
ultimate truth, but a man or a woman is not ultimate reality, but conventional
truth. These are the different kinds of concepts taught in Abhidhamma.
Student:
How many more concepts of the unconditioned could there be? There aren’t very
many more are there?
Teacher:
Cessation, NibbÈna, deathless - anything which denotes NibbÈna. We have to
understand that unconditioned and the supramundane are different. There are
types of consciousness belonging to the supramundane level such as Path
consciousness and Fruition consciousness. Although they are supramundane, they
are still conditioned. They need conditions to arise. They are not
unconditioned although they take the unconditioned as object, the unconditioned
which is NibbÈna as object. So if we want to give some more examples, we have
to find some more names for NibbÈna, things like extinction of suffering,
destruction of cankers, things like that.
Now we go to the next section, mindfulness
occupied with the body. It begins with a quotation from the Suttas where Buddha
praised the practice of mindfulness occupied with the body or mindfulness of
the body. “Bhikkhus, when one thing is developed and repeatedly practiced, it
leads to a supreme sense of urgency, to supreme benefit, to supreme surcease of
bondage, to supreme mindfulness and full-awareness, to acquisition of knowledge
and vision, to a happy life here and now, to realization of the Fruit of clear
vision and deliverance. What is that one thing? It is mindfulness occupied with
the body.”
Then there is a quote from another Sutta.
“Bhikkhus, they savor the deathless who savor mindfulness occupied with the
body; they do not savor the deathless who do not savor mindfulness occupied
with the body.”
What
this actually means is that when people practice mindfulness occupied with the
body, they do not stop at just mindfulness occupied with the body. After
practicing mindfulness occupied with the body, they practice vipassanÈ. That is
why they are said to savor the deathless or NibbÈna.
“They have savored the deathless who have
savored mindfulness occupied with the body; they have not savored.. They have
neglected.. They have not neglected.. They have missed.. They have found the
deathless who have found mindfulness occupied with the body. And it has been
described in fourteen sections in the passage beginning ‘And how developed,
bhikkhu, how repeatedly practiced is mindfulness occupied with the body of
great fruit, of great benefit? Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu, gone to the
forest’..” and so on.
These are the utterances of the Buddha in
praise of mindfulness of the body. We are not to understand that only
mindfulness of the body is the best. There are different kinds of meditation.We
have come through many kinds of meditation. Any meditation if we practice
properly will lead to the attainment of the deathless or the attainment of
NibbÈna.
If we pick up only this statement, we may
want to say that only mindfulness of the body is the thing to practice, not
other kinds of meditation because here the Buddha said that those that savor
mindfulness of the body savor the deathless. In fact every kind of meditation,
even samatha meditation when made the basis for vipassanÈ, can help people get
enlightenment. Any kind of meditation is good for practice.
Mindfulness occupied with the body is
described in fourteen sections in the MahÈ SatipaÔÔhÈna Sutta. There are four
foundations of mindfulness. They are contemplation of the body, contemplation
of feeling, contemplation of consciousness, and contemplation of dhamma
objects.
Contemplation of the body is described in
fourteen sections in the MahÈ SatipaÔÔhÈna Sutta. All of them could be called
mindfulness occupied with the body. Some sections or some meditationss have
their own names. For example there is breathing meditation. This section of the
Sutta is called ‘breathing meditation’ or in PÈÄi ‘ÈnÈpÈnasati’ meditation. We
don’t call it ‘kÈyagÈtasati’ which is the original word for mindfulness
occupied with the body. Mindfulness of the body covers all these fourteen
sections - breathing, postures of the body, small activities of the body, 32
parts of the body (We are going to study them.), four elements, and nine
cemetery meditations. They are all described under the heading of mindfulness
of the body.
“And it has been described in fourteen
sections in the passage beginning ‘And how developed, bhikkhu, how repeatedly
practiced is mindfulness occupied with the body of great fruit, of great
benefit?’” The reference given is the Majjhima NikÈya (Middle Length Sayings).
The MahÈ SatipaÔÔhÈna Sutta can be found in two collections, in the Collection
of Long Suttas and in the Collection of Middle Length Suttas. The Great
Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness appeared twice in the TipiÔaka.
There are “that is to say, the sections on
breathing, on postures, on the four kinds of full-awareness, on attention
directed to repulsiveness (This is the 32 parts of the body.), on attention
directed to elements (four great elements), and on the nine charnel-ground
contemplations.”
“Herein, the three, that is to say, the
sections on postures, on the four kinds of full-awareness, and on attention
directed to elements, as they are stated [in that Sutta], deal with insight.”
They deal with vipassanÈ meditation, the section on postures, the section on
four kinds of full-awareness, and the section on attention to elements.
“Then the nine sections on that
charnel-ground contemplations, as stated there, deal with that particular phase
of insight knowledge called Contemplation of Danger.” Actually I would say
“Contemplation of Flaws or Faults”, not necessarily danger. When we practice
the charnel-ground meditation, we find fault with our bodies. We might have
thought of our bodies as beautiful, as pretty, as desirable. When we practice
this kind of meditation, we find fault with our bodies. The body is just a
group of filthy things that have come together. It is something like that. So
it deals with insight knowledge. In the beginning it may be samatha meditation,
but ultimately it becomes vipassanÈ.
“And any development of concentration in the
bloated,etc., that might be implied there has already been explained in the
Description of Foulness(Ch.VI). So there are only the two that is, the sections
on breathing and on directing attention to repulsiveness, that, as stated
there, deal with concentration (‘Concentration’ here means samatha
meditation.).” According to this the sections on breathing meditation and
repulsiveness meditation are samatha meditation. They are treated as samatha
meditation in the Visuddhi Magga. “Of these, two, the section on breathing is a
separate meditation subject, namely Mindfulness of Breathing.” This will come
later.
“What is intended here as Mindfulness
Occupied with the Body is the 32 aspects.” According to this meditation there
are 32 parts. We human beings are made up of 32 parts. When we practice this
meditation, we try to see these 32 parts as repulsive and so on. That is to get
rid of attachment to our bodies and to get rid of attachment to the bodies of
other people as well.
The 32 parts of the body are given here.
“Again, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu reviews this body, up from the soles of the feet
and down from the top of the hair and contained in the skin as full of many
kinds of filth thus: In this body there are head hairs, body hairs, nails,
teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, bone-marrow, kidney, heart, liver, midriff,
spleen, lights, bowels, entrails, gorge, dung, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat,
fat, tears, grease, spittle, snot, oil of the joints, and urine, the brain
being included in the bone-marrow in this version [with a total of only 31
aspects].” In the Texts only 31 parts are mentioned, not 32 as we are familiar
with. The one which is missing in the Texts is mentioned in a book which is
called PaÔisambhidÈmagga. That book is said to have been preached by Venerable
SÈriputta, not by the Buddha. It was taught by the Venerable SÈriputta.
In our countries they are included in our Canon.
They are treated as the Texts themselves. But Western people, Western critics,
wanted to keep those out of the PÈÄi Canon -
The Questions of Milinda, The PaÔisambhidÈmagga and there is another
book called MahÈ Niddesa. They are called post-Canonical books or scriptures.
But in our countries we just include them with the Texts because we believe
they were uttered during the time of the Buddha and that Buddha accepted them
as authentic. So they are as good as the words of the Buddha. We just regard them as belonging to the category of
Texts.
Student:
There are also 32 marks of the Buddha?
Teacher:
Yes.
Student:
They are not at all comparable to these things?
Teacher:
Oh, no. Those marks are the marks of an extraordinary man. By those marks the
soothsayers came to the conclusion that the child was going to be a Buddha or a
universal monarch. It is said that these marks were mentioned in the books long
before the Buddha came into the world. So they appeared in the books of
Brahmanism or even before that. They just took from the books and incorporated
into the Texts.
These parts are for foulness meditation.
They are different. So all the filthy parts of the body are given here - head
hairs, body hairs, and so on.
The brain is not mentioned by the Buddha
among the parts of the body. However it is mentioned in the PaÔisambhidÈmagga.
The Commentaries and teachers of old include it in the parts of the body. They
put the brain after dung and before bile. They put the brain between dung and
bile.
In some Suttas these 32 parts or 31 parts
are treated as elements. The first 20 through dung or brain are said to belong
to earth element. They have more earth element than other elements. The
remaining ones are said to belong to water element - bile, phlegm, pus and so
on. If we practice as element meditation, then we look at them as these
belonging to earth element and those belonging to water element.
Student:
What are ‘lights’?
Teacher:
It is difficult to say because these are something like anatomical terms. We
will come to it later. I don’t know. We will find out later. Other authors will
have a different translation of this. (Later we determmined they were the
lungs.) It is an internal part of the body. We take it as 32 parts of the body
although only 31 are mentioned in the Suttas. So let us accept 32 parts of the
body as a standard number.
Now let us look at the word commentary.
“This body: this filthy body constructed out of the four primary elements. Up
from the soles of the feet: from the soles of the feet upwards. Down from the
top of the hair: from the highest part of the hair downwards. Contained in the
skin: terminated all round by the skin. Reviews.. as full of many kinds of
filth: he sees that this body is packed with the filth of various kinds
beginning with head hairs. How? In this body there are head hairs” and so on.
This kind of meditation is taught at every monastery. The novices are taught to
recite these 32 parts again and again.
“Herein, there are means, there are found.
In this: in this, which is expressed thus ‘Up from the soles of the feet and
down from the top of the hair and contained in the skin, as full of many kinds
of filth: Body: the carcass; for it is the carcass that is called ‘body (kÈya)’
because it is a conglomeration of filth, because such vile (kucchita) things as the head hairs, etc., and the
hundred diseases beginning with eye disease, have it as their origin (Èya).”
‘Carcass, is it a dead body?
Student:
Usually, but not necessarily.
Teacher:
Here it does not mean a dead body. It is just a body here, not necessarily a
dead body.
Students:
It is something that a vulture or a bird of prey would eat. It could be just a
skeleton.
Teacher:
Here it is just the body. Maybe English has no other word for the body. In PÈÄi
the word is ‘kÈya’ and kÈya is defined by another word ‘sarÊra’. SarÊra is a
synonym for kÈya in PÈÄi. There may not be another word for body in English.
Although the word ‘carcass’ is used, we should understand that it is not a dead
body. We try to see in our living body head hairs, body hairs and so on. We try
to see the repulsiveness of these things because such vile things as the head
hairs, the hundred diseases beginning with eye disease have it as their origin.
The word ‘kÈya’ is explained as being a compound
word, ‘ku’ plus ‘Èya’. ‘Ku’ plus ‘Èya’ becomes kÈya according to PÈÄi grammar.
‘Ku’ here means vile or despicable. ‘Œya’ means place or here origin, the place
of head hairs, the hundred diseases and so on. That is why the body is called
‘kÈya’ in PÈÄi. This is the explanation of the word.
“No one who searches throughout the whole of
this fathom-long carcass, starting upwards from the soles of the feet, starting
downwards from the top of the head, and starting from the skin all around, ever
finds even the minutest atom at all beautiful in it, such as a pearl, or a gem,
or beryl, or aloes, or saffron, but the various malodorous, offensive,
drab-looking sort of filth consisting of head hairs, body hairs and the rest.”
When you want to practice this kind of
meditation, the first thing you have to do is recite. You must learn the
sevenfold skill in learning the meditation subject. They are 1. Verbal
recitation 2. Mental recitation 3. As to color 4. As to shape 5. As to
direction 6. As to location 7. As to delimitation. You must understand all
these with respect to the 32 parts..
First you learn these words - head hairs,
body hairs, nails, teeth, skin, sinews and so on by heart.
Student: I
found the definition of carcass here. The first definition is the dead body of
an animal. The second definition is the living body of a human being.
Teacher:
That is what we mean here, the second meaning..
So the first thing we have to do is recite.
“Even if one is master of the TipiÔaka, the verbal recitation should still be
done at the time of first giving it attention.” Even though you are well
familiar with the three PiÔakas, you must do the recitation.
“For the meditation subject only becomes
evident to some through recitation, as it did to the two elders who learned the
meditation subject from the Elder MahÈdeva of the Hill Country (
“Although they were familiar respectively
with two and three PiÔakas” - that means they know two PiÔakas and three
PiÔakas. So they are learned persons. But this monk, this elder, is telling
them to recite the 32 parts. Actually they must have already learned these 32
parts, but they accept his advice. “Although they were familiar respectively
with two and three PiÔakas, it was only at the end of four months recitation of
the meditation subject that they became Stream Enterers.” Actually it means
they became Stream Enterers just reciting the 32 parts.
They became Stream Enterers not just by
recitation. First they did the recitation. Then they review each part as foul
or loathsome. Then they develop vipassanÈ on it. Without vipassanÈ there can be
no Stream Entry. Although it would appear here that they just recite and become
SotÈpannas, that is not the case. For four months they recite this back and
forth, back and forth. Then they got the counterpart sign and so on. Then they
became SotÈpannas after practicing vipassanÈ on it. Without vipassanÈ there can
be no Stream Entry.
“With right apprehension [of the text]” -
that is not the translation of the PÈÄi word. The PÈÄi word is
padakkhiÓaggÈhitÈ. That means ‘since they take advice with respect’.
‘PadakkhiÓaggÈhitÈ means ‘taking with respect’. These two were learned monks.
But when the teacher told them “You recite the 32 parts for four months.”, they
did not say that they had already learned it or that they did not need to
recite it.They had too much respect for the teacher to refuse. So following
with respect the advice of the teacher, they recited for four months and during
that time they became Stream Enterers.” ‘With right apprehension [of the text]’
is not the right translation of the PÈÄi word.
“Now when he does the recitation, he should
divide it up into the ‘skin pentad’, etc., and do it forward and backwards.”
You may look at the notes. It took me one and a half hours to type these.
The first part is the 32 parts. Head hairs,
body hairs, nails, teeth and skin are the skin pentad, that is they are the
five ending with skin. The next one is flesh, sinews, bones, bone marrow and
kidney. That is the five ending with kidney. Then there are the five ending
with lungs. After that there are the five ending with the brain. And then there
are six ending with fat. The last is six ending with urine. The 32 parts are
divided into groups of five, five, five, five, six and six. Recitation should
be done this way.
There is another book, another Commentary
written by the same author. It is the Commentary on the second book of
Abhidhamma. In the second book of Abhidhamma there is mention of the four
foundations of mindfulness. These are mentioned there too.
The recitation I give on these notes are the
combination of the statements found in two Commentaries, in The Path of
Purification and the SammohavinosanÊ. In The Path of Purification there is no
mention of how many days you are to recite each group, not how to recite
forward and backwards, and so on. There in the other book the method is given.
So I combined these two into one.
It will take how many days? 165 days to
recite. So you have to spend five and a half months just reciting verbally.
This meditation will take a long time.
For the first one we say “Head hairs, body
hairs, nails, teeth, skin.” Forward this way you recite for five days. “Head
hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin” you say thousands and thousands of
times.
Then the next five days you go backwards.
You say “Skin, teeth, nails, body hairs, head hairs; skin, teeth, nails, body
hairs, head hairs.”
Student:
Just verbal recitation?
Teacher:
Yes, just verbal recitation. But when you recite the verbal recitation, you
also must know the meaning of the words. That meaning must soak into your mind.
Next will come mental recitation. The verbal recitation alone will take 165
days.
Then you must go forward and backwards. That
is you say “Head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin; skin, teeth, nails,
body hairs, head hairs.” You go back and forth , back and forth for five days.
The skin pentad will take 15 days.
Then the next pentad is the kidney pentad.
Then you say “Flesh, sinews, bones, bone marrow, kidney” forward for five days.
However when you say backwards, you say not only these five, but the previous
five as well. Backwards for the kidney pentad is “Kidney, bone marrow, bones,
sinews, flesh, skin, teeth, nails, body hairs, head hairs.” If you look at the
notes, I put numbers because it is very boring to type these words again and
again, even the numbers. The kidney pentad for the last five days is
“6,7,8,9,10, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”
Then after these two pentads you combine the
two pentads and recite them for 15 days. For the first five days you recite
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,,9,10. That is forward. For the second five days you recite
backwards 10,9,8,7,6,,4,3,2,1. For the last five days you recite forward and
backward 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10; 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1. That is 15 days.
Then the next pentad you recite
11,12,13,14,15 for the first five days. Then backward you go back to number
one. So for five days you recite 15.14,13,12,11,10, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1. For the
third five days you recite forward and backward.
After each pentad you combine with the
previous pentads. So you combine two pentads, three pentads, four pentads, five
groups together, and six groups together. If you do it this way, it will take
165 days.
Student:
You do this the whole day?
Teacher:
That is a good question. Most of the day. If you are a monk, you have to go out
for alms. Still you can do mental recitation. Monks are taught or instructed to
go with meditation when they go for alms in the village or in the city. If a
monk goes without meditation, he is not supposed to be a practicing monk. You
go to the village or the city with some kind of meditation. Sometimes you may
be practicing mindfulness and sometimes this kind of meditation. So you
practice almost the whole day because this is intense practice. It is not just
saying for a few minutes and then giving up.
This is how to do verbal recitation. “The
recitation should be done verbally in this way a hundred times, a thousand
times, even a hundred thousand times. For it is through verbal recitation that
the meditation subject becomes familiar (If you spend 165 days, it cannot but
become familiar.), and the mind being thus prevented from runnign here and
there , the parts become evident and seem like [the fingers of] a pair of
clasped hands, like a row of fence posts.”
“The mental recitation should be done just
as it is done verbally. For the verbal recitation is a condition for the mental
recitation, and the mental recitation is a condition for the penetration of the
characteristic [of foulness].” When you recite it again and again, the sign of
foulness will beee evident to your mind.
Thenou
have to review them as to color. “The color of the head hairs, etc., should be
defined.” They are black or in this country blond, brunette, and red also.
Student:
And lately green.
Teacher:
Yes, now you can get any color.
Then “As to shape: their shape should be
defined too.” They will be explained later in detail.
“As to direction: in this body, upwards from
the navel is the upward direction (upper part of the body), and downwards from
it is the downward direction (lower part of the body).” The navel is supposed
to be the middle of the body. “So the direction should be defined thus: This
part is in this direction.”
“As to location (That is their place.): the
location of this or that part should be defined thus: This part is
establishedin this location.”
“As to delimitation: there are two kinds of
delimitation, that is, delimitation of the similar and delimitation of the
dissimilar. Herein, delimitation of the similar should be understood in this
way: This part is delimited above and below and around by this.” This is called
‘delimitation of the similar’. It is like saying this cup is delimited by the
kettle on this side and it is delimited on the other side by the microphone. It
is something like that. That is called ‘delimitation of the similar’.
Delimitation of the dissimilar is as an example : This is head hair and not
body hair. And when you come to body hair: This is body hair, not head hair.
Delimiting in that way is called ‘delimitation of the dissimilar’.
‘Dissimilar’ here just means ‘not similar’.
It does not mean opposite. “Delimitation of the dissimilar should be understood
as non-intermixed-ness in this way: Head hairs are not body hairs, and body
hairs are not head hairs.”
“When the teacher tells the skill in
learning in seven ways thus, he should do so knowing that in certain Suttas
this meditation subject is expounded from the point of view of repusiveness and
in certain Suttas from the point of view
of elements. For in the MahÈ SatipaÔÔhÈna Sutta it is expounded only as
repulsiveness.” These 32 parts of the body meditation are given there to
develop the sense of repulsiveness.
“In the MahÈ Hatthipadopama Sutta (M.Sutta
28), in the MahÈ RÈhulovÈda Sutta (M.Suttµ), and the DhÈtuvibha~ga (M.Sutta,
also Vbh.82) it is expounded as elements.” They are divided into two elements
actually. The first twenty belong to the earth element and the remaining ones
belong to the water element. With regard to elements they are mentioned there.
“in the KÈyagatÈsati Sutta (M.Sutta 119),
however, four jhÈnas are expounded with reference to one to whom it has
appeared as a color [kasiÓa].” Now when you practice the 32 parts of the body
meditation, you cannot get second jhÈna and so on. You can get only first
jhÈna. But in the Sutta four jhÈnas are mentioned. Four jhÈnas are mentioned
because for that monk these parts appear as color, not as parts of the body.
When they appear to him as color, he picks up the color kasiÓa meditation.
Color kasiÓa meditation can lead to all four or five jhÈnas. That is why it is
said here “four jhÈnas are expounded with reference to one to whom it has
appeared as a color [kasiÓa].”
In some of the meditations it says you are
not to pay attention to color, right? If you pay attention to color, it becomes
color kasiÓa meditation.
“Herein, it is an insight meditation subject
that is expounded as elements and a serenity meditation subject that is
expounded as repulsiveness.” It is an insight meditation subject that is
expounded as elements; if we divide them into two kinds of elements and we try
to contemplate on those elements, it is insight meditation. It is a serenity
meditation that is expounded as repulsiveness. When you try to see the
repulsiveness of these things, it is samatha meditation.
“Consequently it is only the serenity
meditation subject [that is relevent] here.” In this part of the book only
samatha meditation is mentioned. We should understand the meditation here as
serenity or samatha meditation.
Next we have the tenfold skill in giving attention.
I think we will do it next week. We will go up to mindfulness of breathing.
Student:
In the Chinese tradition there are these gems that are found with the bodies
that have been cremated. Is there anything like that in TheravÈda? They are
often considered like relics or jewels. I don’t know much about it.
Teacher:
In
Student:
Sometimes in the ashes there is a hard gem-like substance.
Teacher:
In TheravÈda only the Arahants when they are cremated may leave relics. They
are like small rocks or seeds. It is said that the relics of Arahants are
bigger in size than the relics of the Buddha.The relics of the Buddha are in
three sizes - like mustard seeds, like broken rice, and the size of peas. These
are the sizes of the relics of the Buddha. The relics of the Arahants are said
to be larger in size than the relics of the Buddha.
SÈdhu! SÈdhu!
SÈdhu!
(Tape 17
/ Ps: 61 - 144)
Today we begin with the tenfold skill in
giving attention. The first set of instructions is recitation. First we are to
do verbal recitation and then mental recitation. Then we are to view them as to
color, as to shape, as to direction, as to location, as to delimitation. These
are called ‘the sevenfold skill in learning’. First we have to learn the
meditation subject.
Now comes the tenfold skill in giving
attention. The tenfold skill in giving attention is: 1. Following the order, 2.
Not too quickly, 3. Not too slowly, 4. Warding off distraction, 5. Surmounting
the concept, 6. Successive learning, 7. Absorption, 8-10. The three Discourses
or three Suttantas.
First following the order - “From the time
of beginning the recitation attention should be given following the serial
order without skipping.” You must go from 1 to 32 and then back from 32 to 1.
You are not to skip any one of them when you recite.
The second is that when you recite you are
not to do too quickly. When you do it too quickly, you will not remember them.
“For just as when a man sets out on a three-league journey, even if he has
already done the journey out and back a hundred times rapidly without taking
note of [turnings] to be taken and avoided, though he may finish his journey,
he still has to ask how to get there.” We may go to a place many times, but we
may not know how to go there especially when we are not driving. So you are not
to go too quickly so that you may remember all of them.
The third is to recite not too slowly. If
you do it too slowly, you will not come to the end of the recitation, just like
a man “who loiters along the way among trees, rocks, pools, etc., does not
finish the journey in a day. So too if the meditator gives his attention to the
meditation subject too slowly, he does not get to the end and it does not get
to the end and it does not become a condition for distinction.” ‘Condition for
distinction’ means condition for progress. ‘Distinction’ here means progress in
meditation including the realization of truth.
The PÈÄi word is ‘visesa’. This word is used
many times with regard to meditation. It means something new or something
special. That means when we practice meditation, we discover one thing after
another. These discoveries are called ‘visesa’ or special. Before we practiced
meditation, we did not know about breathing or the parts of the body. After we
practice meditation, we get samÈdhi or concentration. And so we begin to see
things differently from when we did not meditate. These things are called
‘distinctions’ or ‘special attainments’. This word will appear again and again
in this book. Here it is translated as distinction.
Then we have warding off distraction. “He
must ward off [temptation] to drop the meditation subject and to let his mind
get distracted among the variety of external objects.” So he must pay attention
to the parts of the body and not let his mind be distracted to other objects.
When the mind is often distracted, the meditator will not get to the stage of
realization. Here it is compared to a man going on a one-foot-wide cliff path.
He must be very careful and he must not be distracted because if he is
distracted, he will fall down from the cliff and he may die. “So he should give
his attention to warding off distraction.”
“As to surmounting the concept: this [name]
concept beginning with ‘head hairs, body hairs’ must be surmounted and
consciousness established on [the aspect] ‘repulsive’.” In the beginning we
cannot avoid concepts because we live in the conventional world. So we have to
use conventional terms like head hair, body hair and so on. In the beginning we
will be seeing the hair, nails, teeth, skin which are called ‘concepts’. But we
have to surmount, we have to go beyond the convention, beyond the concepts. If
we just see the head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin and so on, if we
just see the picture or the appearance of these parts, we will not get the
notion that the are repulsive. The purpose of this meditation is to arouse
repulsiveness of these parts. So we have to go beyond the concept of head
hairs, body hairs and so on. When a person begins to meditate and after some
time gets enough concentration, he will be able to surmount the concept and
establish his mind on the repulsiveness of these parts. We have to arrive at
the repulsiveness of these parts, not just stopping at the parts. It is not
merely learning these parts, but trying to see repulsiveness in these parts. It
is not like medical students.
Then the next one is successive leaving. “In
giving his attention he should eventually leave out any [parts] that do not
appear to him.” That means that do not appear to his mind clearly, that which
he does not see clearly in his mind. Although the meditator tries to see all of
them clearly, some parts may not be clear to him or he may not see clearly some
parts. In giving his attention he should eventually leave out any parts that do
not appear to him clearly.
“For when a beginner gives his attention to
head hairs, his attention then carries on until it arrives at the last part.”
Because he is familiar with these 32 parts (he recites and pays attention.),
then his mind goes to the end and then goes back and forth. But some parts may
not appear to his mind clearly. He should drop those which do not appear
clearly in his mind. He must take only those that are clear to him. This is
called ‘successive leaving’. So he leaves one after the other until he arrives
at the last one.
“As he persists in giving attention thus,
some parts appear to him and others do not. Then he should work on those that
have appeared till one out of any two appears the clearer.” He drops them, one
by one, until there are only two left which are the most clear for him. Then he
tries to find out which is clearer among these two. He should arouse absorption by again and
again giving attention to the one that has appeared thus.” Eventually he ends
with one part which is the most clear for him.
Then a simile is given here with 32 palms, a
monkey and so on. Also another simile is given in paragraph 70. A monk goes on
almsround where there are 32 families or 32 houses. ‘Alms-food-eater’ simply
means a monk goes on almsround. Most monks in the olden days and even now go
for alms every morning. Such a monk here is called ‘alms-food-eater’. Actually
whether a monk eats food brought by his devotees at the monastery or if he goes
to the village and collects alms, he eats alms-food. Every monk is an
alms-food-eater. But here ‘alms-food-eater’ really means a monk who goes out
for alms.
I do not want to use the word ‘beg’ because
monks do not beg. The PÈÄi word ‘bhikkhu’ means one who begs. Here ‘begging’
means going round the village silently. Whatever is given to the monk, he just
accepts. He does not say “Please give me food.” or something like that. Monks
are not allowed to do that. So ‘alms-food-eater’ means a monk who goes for alms
in the village every day.
So he might go to a village with 32
families. He might pick up two lots of alms at the first house. So he will drop
one house. If he gets three lots at one house, then he will drop two houses and
so on. On the third day he got his bowl full at the first house. Therefore he
will not go any further. He will go to the sitting hall and eat. That is the
simile. In the same way the meditator must go through the 32 parts and drop one
by one the parts that are not clear to him.
In paragraph 71 we have the application of
this simile. “The 32 aspects are like the village with 32 families. The
meditator is like the alms-food-eater. The meditator’s preliminary work is like
the alms-food-eater’s going to live near the village.” Actually it should be
“living near the village” or “living depending on the village.”
How do you say that? I live in a monastery,
but I depend on this village for my food. How do you say that?
Student:
Relying?
Teacher:
Relying, yes. “Relying on the village for support.”
Then number 7 as to absorption. ‘Absorption’
means jhÈna. Absorption part by part, there are 32 parts. Taking one part and
practicing meditation on it, you can get jhÈna. “Then intention here is this:
it should be understood that absorption is brought about in each one of the
parts.” So you can get 32 kinds of jhÈna if you take one part at a time. Let us
say you take head hairs as the part. You practice on it and get jhÈna. Then you
can take body hairs as the object of meditation. Then you practice meditation
on it and you may get jhÈna. At the end of it we have the story of a monk who
gained jhÈna dwelling on all of the 32 parts.
And the three Suttantas - a yogi must study
these three Suttas, these three Discourses. They are from the Sutta PiÔaka,
namely those on higher consciousness (That is one Sutta.), on coolness (That is
another Sutta.), and on skill in the Enlightenment Factors (That is still
another Sutta.) which have as their purpose linking energy with concentration.
The first Sutta says: “Bhikkhus, there are
three signs that should be given attention from time to time by a bhikkhu
intent on higher consciousness.” ‘Higher consciousness’ here means both samatha
and vipassanÈ. A monk who is intent who is intent on higher consciousness -
that means a monk who is practicing samatha meditation or vipassanÈ meditation
should give attention from time to time to the three signs.
The first is the sign of concentration. ‘The
sign of concentration’ really means just concentration or the object of
concentration. In the Sub-Commentary it says that ‘the sign of concentration’
simply means concentration, paying attention to concentration, or the object of
concentration.
The same is true for the sign of exertion.
It is energy or the sign of effort and should be given attention from time to
time.
The sign of equanimity is also the same. It
is equanimity itself or the object of equanimity that should be given attention
from time to time.
“If a bhikkhu intent on higher consciousness
gives attention only to the sign of concentration, then his consciousness may
conduce to idleness.” Too much concentration causes idleness, or lethargy, or sometimes
sleepiness.
Student:
Is that for both samatha and vipassanÈ?
Teacher:
Yes, it is for both samatha and vipassanÈ. Too much concentration can cause
sleepiness. ‘Too much concentration’ means concentration in excess of exertion
or effort. When you get too much concentration, you simply lose exertion or
effort. Your exertion becomes less. In that case too much concentration leads
to idleness, leads to sleepiness or something similar. You feel lethargic. Too
much concentration is actually as bad as too little concentration because as we
have learned in the previous chapters, they must be balanced. The five
faculties must be balanced when we practice meditation. And especially
concentration must be balanced with effort.
Too much effort will cause what? Too much
effort will cause agitation. If effort or exertion is in excess of
concentration, agitation will come in. When there is too much energy, too much
viriya, there is agitation.
Student:
So an example of this would be Venerable Œnanda near his enlightenment.
Teacher:
Oh, yes. Venerable Œnanda was practicing meditation to become an Arahant. He
was too eager. So he put forth too much effort. He walked up and down
practicing meditation in order to become an Arahant. He could not achieve
anything by that practice. Later when he stopped and reviewed his practice, he
saw that he had too much effort. So he slowed down. Then he was able to attain
Arahantship. Too much effort also is not good.
“If a bhikkhu intent on higher consciousness
gives attention only to the sign of equanimity, then his consciousness may not
become rightly concentrated for the destruction of cankers.” It leads to
delusion, to not knowing, to ignorance. This is so because equanimity is close
to ignoring. When you ignore something, you become ignorant. But equanimity is
not ignoring actually. Equanimity takes the object, the thing, and is not
attached to it nor is it repulsed by it. That is what is called ‘equanimity’.
There is another thing which is wrongly
called equanimity. Actually it is not. Sometimes when you ignore something, you
may say that you have equanimity about that thing. That is not equanimity. That
is just ignoring. Too much equanimity can lead to ignoring. Then there can be
no more destruction of cankers or mental defilements. So a monk should pay
attention from time to time to the sign of concentration, to the sign of
exertion, and to the sign of equanimity.
Then there is the simile of a goldsmith. Let
us look at the second Sutta in paragraph 77. "Bhikkhus, when a bhikkhu
possesses six things, he is able to realize the supreme coolness (coolness of
mind). What six? Here, bhikkhus, when consciousness should be restrained, he
restrains it.” There are times when you have to restrain your mind. You are too
elated or too happy with your practice. If you are too elated or too happy, you
will lose concentration. At that time you must suppress or restrain your mind.
“When consciousness should be restrained, he
restrains it; when consciousness should be exerted, he exerts it; when
consciousness should be encouraged, he encourages it; when consciousness should
be looked upon with equanimity, he looks on at it with equanimity. He is
resolute on the superior [state to be attained], he delights in NibbÈna.
Possessing these six things a bhikkhu is able to realize the supreme coolness.”
So a person must know when to encourage his mind, when to suppress his mind,
when to exert his mind and all these things.
Then the third Sutta is called The Skill in
the Enlightenment Factors. It is already dealt with in the explanation of skill
in absorption, in chapter 4, paragraphs 51 & 57. “Bhikkhus, when the mind
is slack, that is not the time for developing the tranquillity enlightenment
factor.”
“So the meditator should make sure that he
has apprehended this sevenfold skill in learning well and has properly defined
this tenfold skill in giving attention, thus learning the meditation subject
properly with both kinds of skill.” Whenever something is described in this
book, it is described in detail, in a very serious manner. Before you practice
this meditation, first you have to learn the 32 parts by heart. Then you
recite. Then you have to learn these skills, skills in learning and skills in
practice.
There is a footnote here - “PM. Explains.”
Pm. means the Sub-Commentary of the Visuddhi Magga, the Paramattha-maÒj|sÈ.
“Paramattha-maÒj|sÈ explains ‘sati sati Èyatane’ (rendered here by ‘whenever
there is occasion’) with ‘tasmiÑ tasmiÑ pubbahetu-Èdi-kÈraÓe sati (when there
is this or that reason consisting in a previous cause etc.).” Actually it
should be “When there is this or that cause accumulated in previous lives.” It
is something like a pÈrami or pÈramitÈ.
Student:
PÈramitÈ?
Teacher:
We call it pÈramitÈ, the accumulated experience through previous lives.
Student:
Perfections?
Teacher:
Right. Now we come to the real practice.
“If it is convenient for him to live in the
same monastery as the teacher, then he need not get it explained in detail
thus, but as he applies himself to the meditation subject after he has made
quite sure about it he can have each successive stage explained as he reaches
each distinction.” As he reaches each stage, he may go to his teacher and ask
about the other aspect.
“One who wants to live elsewhere, however,
must get it explained to him in detail in the way already given, and he must
turn it over and over, getting all the difficulties solved. He should leave an
abode of an unsuitable kind as described in the Description of the Earth
KasiÓa, and go to live in a suitable one. Then he should sever the minor
impediments and set about the preliminary work for giving attention to
repulsiveness.” So he should prepare properly for the practice of meditation.
He should avoid the unsuitable monasteries and live in a monastery that is
suitable for meditation. He should sever minor impediments. If his hair is
long, he should cut his hair. If his nails are long, he should cut his nails.
If his robes are soiled or dirty, he should wash them, clean them. There should
not be even the lesser impediments to obstruct his practice of meditation.
“When he sets about it, he should first
apprehend the [learning] sign in head hairs. How? (Then comes the description
of the practice.) The color should be defined first by plucking out one or two
head hairs and placing them on the palm of the hand. He can also look at them
in the hair-cutting place (In the monastery we cut the hair of each other. The
cut hair may still be at that place. So he may go there and pick up a hair or
two and look at it.) or in a bowl of water or rice gruel. (Sometimes there may
be hair in the water or rice gruel. He may look at it.) If the ones he sees are
black when he sees them, they should be brought to mind as ‘black’; if white,
as ‘white’; if mixed, they should be brought to mind in accordance with those
most prevalent.” If there are more black, we say black. If there are more
white, we say white.
“And as in the case of head hairs, so too
the sign should be apprehended visually with the whole of the ‘skin pentad’.”
That is the first five parts of the body.
“Having apprehended the sign thus and [a]
defined all the other parts of the body by color, shape, direction, location,
and delimitation, he should then [b]
define repulsiveness in five ways, that is, by color, shape, odor, habitat, and
location.”
Now we come to the individual parts. The
first is head hairs. In the description of these 32 parts there are words which
are very difficult. Here the Commentator describes each part comparing with what
were familiar things for them in those days. Also there are names of trees and
flowers which we don’t know.
Let us look at head hairs. “Firstly head
hairs are black in their normal color.” So the normal color is black; maybe
because the author was an Indian and most Eastern people have black hair, he
said that the normal color of head hairs is black. It may be different in the
West. It is said that the hairs are “the color of fresh ariÔÔhaka seeds.” Maybe
we don’t know the name of the tree called ‘ariÔÔhaka’. We make beads from the
seeds of this tree. They are black.
“As to shape, they are the shape of long
round measuring rods. As to direction, they lie in the upper direction”
‘Direction’ means the part of the body. The navel is the middle of the body. So
‘upper direction’ means above the navel and ‘lower direction’ means below the
navel.
“As to location, their location is the wet
inner skin that envelops the skull; it is bounded on both sides by the roots of
the ears, in front by the forehead, and behind by the nape of the neck. As to
delimitation, they are bounded below by the surface of their own roots, which
are fixed by entering to the amount of the tip of a rice grain (just a bit)
into the inner skin that envelops the head. They are bounded above by space,
and all round by each other. There are no two hairs together. This is the
delimitation by the similar.
Head hairs are not body hairs, and body
hairs are not head hairs; being likewise not intermixed with the remaining 31
parts the head hairs are a separate part. This is their delimitation by the
dissimilar.” There are two kinds of delimitation, by similar and by dissimilar.
By dissimilar here means that head hairs are not body hairs and body hairs are
not head hairs. They are separate. They are different.
Then there is their definition as to
repulsiveness in five ways. “Head hairs are repulsive in color as well as in
shape, odor, habitat and location.” What is ‘habitat’? What is the difference
between habitat and location?
Student:
‘Habitat’ has to do with the inter-relationship of other factors within the
same area. ‘Location’ does not have that quality of inter-relatedness with
other factors within the same area.
Teacher:
In the Sub-Commentary ‘habitat’ or the PÈÄi word ‘Èsaya’ is explained as an
origin or cause. If you grow some plants, the plants grow on the earth. They
get nutrition from the earth. That is called ‘Èsaya’. We have to differentiate
Èsaya from location.
Let us read paragraph 85. “For on seeing the
color of a head hair in a bowl of inviting rice gruel or cooked rice people are
disgusted and say ‘This has got hairs in it. Take it away.’ So they are
repulsive in color. Also when people are eating at night, they are likewise
disgusted by the mere sensation of a hair-shaped akka-bark or makaci-barkfiber.
(They are the names of trees.) So they are repulsive in shape. And the odor of
head hairs, unless dressed with a smearing of oil, scented with flowers, etc.,
is most offensive. And it is still worse when they are put in the fire. Even if
head hairs are not directly repulsive in color and shape, still their odor is
directly repulsive. Just as a baby’s excitement, as to color is the color of
tumeric and, as to its shape, is the shape of a piece of tumeric root, and just
as the bloated carcass of a black dog thrown on a rubbish heap, as to its
color, is the color of ripe palmyra fruit, and, as to its shape, is the shape
of a [mandolin-shaped] drum left face down, and its fangs are like jasmine
buds, and so even if both these are not directly repulsive in color and shape,
still the odor is directly repulsive.”
Now instead of ‘but’ we can say ‘and’ or we
can just delete ‘but’. “Just as pot herbs that grow on village sewage in a
filthy place (This is a description with regard to habitat.) are disgusting to
civilized people and unusable, so also head hairs are disgusting since they
grow on the sewage of pus, blood, urine, dung, bile, phlegm, and the like.”
They grow out of them. “This is the repulsive aspect of the habitat.”
“And these head hairs grow on the heap of
the [other] 31 parts as fungus do on a dung hill. And owing to the filthy place
they grow in they are quite unappetizing as vegetables growing on a charnel
ground, on a midden etc., as lotuses or water lilies growing in drains and so
on. This is the repulsive aspect of their location.” Their location is
repulsive and also their habitat or origin is repulsive.
“And as in the case of head hairs, so also
the repulsiveness of all the parts should be defined in the same five ways by
color, shape, odor, habitat, and location.”
Here I want to leave out the word ‘however’.
We may say ‘moreover’ or ‘and’. “All, moreover, must be defined individually by
color, shape, direction, location and delimitation, as follows.”
Next
is body hairs. They are not difficult to understand. Nails are also easy to
understand.
And then teeth - “There are 32 teeth bones
in one whose teeth are complete.” Is that right? Are there 32 teeth?
Student:
Yes.
Teacher:
“They too are white in color. As to shape, they are of various shapes.” Then it
goes on to describe them. These descriptions are like a textbook on anatomy.
The next one is skin. Here ‘skin’ means the
inner skin, not the outer skin. “The inner skin envelops the whole body. Outside
is what is called the outer cuticle, which is black, brown or yellow in color,
and when that from the whole of the body is compressed together, it amounts to
only as much as a jujube-fruit kernel. (That is a small fruit.)” What is
outermost is not called ‘skin’. It is called ‘cuticle’. Under that there is
skin.
Sometimes we have a sore. Then that cuticle
may be removed and then there is skin.
Student:
It is like a pig. When a pig is killed, it is put into hot water. The outer
cuticle is removed and the skin is white.
Teacher:
Oh, I see.
Student:
They also say that another thing that is repulsive is that all the skin that we
see is dead. That is said in another Commentary.
Teacher:
“But as to color, the skin itself is white; and its whiteness becomes evident
when the outer cuticle is destroyed by contact with the flame of a fire or the
impact of a blow and so on.” When you cut yourself, you may see the white color
there.
In paragraph 94 about five lines down - “The
skin of the thighs is the shape of a long sack full of paddy.” ‘Paddy’ really
means uncooked rice without husks.
The next one is flesh. “There are nine
hundred pieces of flesh. As to color, it is all red, like kimsuka flowers. As
to shape, the flesh of the calves is the shape of cooked rice in a palm-leaf
bag.” And so on.
Then we have sinews. “There are nine hundred
sinews.” I don’t know how they count these things. Monks do not dissect bodies.
They may have learned this from physicians.
About the middle of paragraph 99 there is the
word ‘tendons’. Are tendons large sinews? The PÈÄi word here means the larger
sinews. Sinews are small. The larger sinews in PÈÄi are called ‘kaÓÉarÈ’. It is
tendons here. So tendons are bigger than sinews.
The next one is bones. “Excepting the 32 teeth
bones, these consist of the remaining (number of bones).” Did you add them up?
I did. There are 300. It is correct. There are 64 hand bones, 64 foot bones, 64
soft bones dependent on the flesh, 2 heel bones, then in each 2 ankle bones (So
they become 4.), 2 shin bones (4), 1 knee bone (2), one thigh bone (2). Then 2
hip bones, 18 spine bones.” Are there 18 segments in a spine? What do you call
them?
Student:
Vertebrae.
Teacher:
Are there 18? I am asking him because he is a doctor.
Student:
(Hard to understand the answer, seemed to partially agree.) The tips of the
bones are compacted together and they are regarded as only one bone.
Teacher:
They may be included here. So there are 2 hip bones, 18 spine bones, 24 rib
bones, 14 breast bones, 1 heart bone (sternum), 2 collar bones, 2 shoulder
blade bones, 2 upper-arm bones, 2 pairs of forearm bones, 7 neck bones, 2 jaw
bones, 1 nose bone, 2 eye bones, 2 ear bones, 1 frontal bone, 1 occiput bone, 9
sinciput bones. “So there are exactly 300 bones.” The PÈÄi does not mean
‘exactly 300’. It means ‘about’. We should say “There are about 300 bones.”
Please go back to paragraph 89 in chapter 6. “This is the body’s nature: it is
a collection of over 300 bones.” So there are more than 300 bones. So here the
word does not mean ‘exactly’ but ‘about’ 300 bones. Some bones are not
mentioned in the list. There are more than 300 bones in the body. The
Commentary explains the bones in detail.
The next one is bone marrow. “This is the
marrow inside the various bones. As to color, it is white.” and so on. It is
not difficult to understand.
The next one is kidney. “This is two pieces
of flesh with a single ligature. As to color, it is dull red, the color of
pÈlibhaddhaka seeds. As to shape, it is the shape of a pair of child’s play
balls; or it is the shape of mango fruits attached to a single stalk.” So it
looks like kidneys. “As to direction, it lies in the upper direction.”
That is what is bothering me. ‘Upper
direction’ means above the navel. Where are they located?
Student:
Yes.
Teacher:
Let us go on. “As to location, it is to be found on either side of the heart
flesh.” But the heart is here and the kidneys are down there.
Student:
Yes, but when you do an echogram or when you do a CAT scan, you can see its
real location as being raised at the back. The diaphragm is not flat. The
diaphragm is of curved nature because of the liver, because of the kidneys. The
nature of the diaphragm is such that a very special x-ray technique used when
you take an echogram. The kidneys are at the sides of the heart.
Teacher:
Oh. “As to location, it is to be found on either side of the heart flesh, being
fastened by a stout sinew that starts out with one root from the neck and
divides into two after going a short way.” So the translation ‘kidney’ is
acceptable?
Student: I
think it is acceptable. The heart is not in a
stationary position. The heart is pumping. When it is contracted, it is
shortened. Then it is above the level of the kidney. When it is expanded
receiving the inflow of blood, then the heart is enlarged and pushed downwards.
At that time the kidneys are at the sides of the heart. So it is dynamic.
Teacher:
So this description is fairly scientific. I wonder how they knew this. If you
cut a dead body, you cannot see direct like this.
Student:
No. When you cut a dead body, you cannot see direct like this. Only in living
nature can this be seen.
Teacher:
Maybe they knew with supernormal knowledge, abhiÒÒÈ.
The next one is heart. In Buddhist
Abhidhamma the heart is said to be the seat of many types of consciousness.
About the middle of the paragraph it talks about this. “Inside it there is a
hollow the size of a Poona seed’s bed where half a pasta (‘Pasta’ means a
handful.) of blood is kept, with which as their support the mind element and
mind consciousness element occur.” There are 89 types of consciousness. Out of
89 ten have their own location or their own base for arising. For example the
two types of seeing consciousness have the eyes as their base. Two types of
hearing consciousness have the ears as their base and so on for the five
senses. Almost all of the other types of consciousness depend upon the heart.
Here ‘mind element’ and ‘mind consciousness element’ mean types of
consciousness other than the ten - 2 seeing, 2 hearing, 2 smelling, 2 tasting,
and 2 touching. (The four ar|pÈvacara vipÈka are also excepted.) The heart or
actually the blood in the heart is the seat of consciousness according to
Abhidhamma.
“That in one of greedy temperament is red;
that in one of hating temperament is black; that in one of deluded temperament
is like water that meat has been washed in; that in one of speculative
temperament is like lentil soup in color; that in one of faithful temperament
is the color of [yellow] kanikÈra flowers; that in one of understanding
temperament is limpid, clear, unturbid, bright, pure, like a washed gem of pure
water, and it seems to shine.” This is the heart.
The next one is liver. About four lines down
- “In sluggish people it is single and large.” What is ‘sluggish’?
Students:
Lazy, torpid, slow.
Teacher:
Slow in understanding or slow in physical movement? If it means slow in
understanding, it is correct. Here it is mentioned in contrast with those
possessed of understanding. So it is contrasting those who are not intelligent
and those who are intelligent. ‘Sluggish’ here means those who are not
intelligent, who are maybe dull-witted. That is liver.
The next one we have difficulty. What is
‘midriff’? I look it up in the dictionary. Midriff is defined as a part of the
body, the diaphragm. I think that will do. The other meaning is that it is the
middle outer portion of the front of the human body extending roughly from just
below the breast to the waist-line. That is just outer. In Burmese it is translated
as ‘membrane’.
“This is the covering of the flesh, which is
of two kinds, namely, the concealed and the unconcealed. As to color, both
kinds are white, the color of duk|la (muslim) rags. As to shape, it is the
shape of its location. As to direction, the concealed midriff lies in the upper
direction, the other in both directions. As to location the concealed midriff
is to be found concealing the heart and kidney.” So it looks like diaphragm,
right?
Student:
Yes.
Teacher:
“The unconcealed is to be found covering the flesh under the inner skin
throughout the whole body.” Between the flesh and the skin this thing is
located.
Student:
The unconcealed is not the diaphragm. (Suggested something in Burmese that was
better than this.)
Teacher:
Venerable ©ÈÓaponika translates this as pleura.
Student:
Pleura is the covering of the lungs.
Teacher:
“It is either of the two membranous sets each of which lines one side of the
thoracic cavity and envelops the contiguous lungs reducing the friction of
respiratory movements.” So it also means the upper part of the body. The
concealed midriff could be the diaphragm. The unconcealed must have another
name.
The next one is the spleen. “This is the
flesh of the belly’s ‘tongue’. As to color, it is blue, the color of nigguÓÉi
flowers.” and so on.
The next one is lights. Now lights are
defined as lungs especially of an animal used for food. I think it is better to
translate it as lungs. ‘Lights’ is an obscure word. I did not know that it
meant lungs.
“The flesh of the lights (lungs) is divided
up into two or three pieces of flesh. As to color, it is red,” and so on.
The next one is bowel. “This is the bowel
tube; it is looped in 21 places, and in a man it is 32 hands long, and in a
woman, 28 hands.” How long is the intestine?
Student:
In feet it is 32 feet.
Teacher:
32 feet? It may mean feet. I don’t know. Is there a difference between the
length of a man’s intestine and the length of a woman’s intestine?
Student: I
don’t know.
Teacher:
There is a saying in Burmese. Please excuse me ladies. Since the intestine of
women is shorter, they are more jealous. It may not be true, but that is the
saying. According to this women have shorter intestines than men. It may not be
true.
The next one is entrails or mesentery. “This
is the fastening in the places where the bowel is coiled. As to color, it is
white, the color of dakasÊtalika (white edible water lily) roots. As to shape,
it is the shape of those roots too. As to direction, it lies in the two
directions. As to location, it is found inside the 21 coils of the bowel, like
the string to be found inside rope-rings for wiping the feet on, sewing them
together, and it fastens the bowels coils together so that they do not slip
down in those working with hoes, axes, etc., as the marionette-strings do the
marionette’s wooden [limbs] at the time of the marionette’s being pulled
along.”
‘Bowel’ means both large and small
intestines, right?
Student:
Yes.
Teacher:
For this one which is better ‘entrails’ or ‘mesentery’?
Student:
‘Mesentery’ is better.
Teacher: I
will read the description of the entrails. “The entrails are the internal
organs especially the intestines.” Mesentery is defined as “any of several
folds that connect the intestines to the dorsal abdominal wall.” So ‘mesentery’
is better.
Then we have gorge. That is food which has
been eaten which is in the stomach. “This is what has been eaten, drunk, chewed
and tasted, and is present in the stomach.”
Next there is a description of the stomach.
“What is called the ‘stomach’ is [a part of] the bowel-membrane, which is like
the swelling [of air] produced in the middle of a length of wet cloth when it
is being [twisted and] wrung out from two ends. It is smooth outside. Inside,
it is like a balloon of cloth soiled by wrapping up meat refuse.”
Now here in Burmese it is not translated as
‘like a balloon of cloth’ but like ‘a tassel of cloth’. The inside of the
stomach is something like the surface of a towel. It is a little rough and then
there is something hanging down. The inside of the stomach is something like a
tassel, not a balloon of cloth. Venerable ©ÈÓamoli took the PÈÄi word
‘pupphaka’ to mean balloon. ‘Puppukhaka’ really means something that resembles
a flower. Towels have these things. I don’t know the names of these things. So
I asked a student and she said they could be called tassels. I looked it up in
the dictionary and I think that is correct.
You know in Myanmar people eat meat and the
stomach is also eaten. The stomach when it is prepared for food in Myanmar is
called ‘rough cloth’. In Burmese it is called rough cloth. It is rough inside.
If you have seen some of these things, you know that.
The next one is dung. That is excrement. It
is one of the parts of the body, but actually it is not part of the body. It is
the refuse of the body.
The next one is the brain. Brain is not
supposed to be the seat of consciousness. The description of the brain is very
short here. “As to location it is to be found inside the skull, like four lumps
of dough put together to correspond with the [skull’s] four sutured sections.”
Then we have bile. “There are two kinds of
bile: local (stationary) bile and free (mobile) bile. Herein, as to color, the
local bile is the color of thick madhuka oil; the free bile is the color of
faded ÈkulÊ flowers,” and so on. There are two kinds of bile. “As to location,
the free bile spreads, like a drop of oil on water all over the body except for
the fleshless parts of the head hairs, body hairs, teeth, nails and the hard
dry skin. When it is disturbed, the eyes become yellow and twitch, and there is
shivering and itching of the body. (That is when the free bile is disturbed,
when the free bile is not in good order.) The local bile (That is the real
bile.) is situated near the flesh of the liver between the heart and the lights
(lungs). It is found in the bile container (gall bladder), which is like a
large kosÈtakÊ (loofah) ground pip. When it is disturbed, beings go crazy and
demented, they throw off conscience and shame and do the undoable, speak the
unspeakable, and think the unthinkable.” When people go mad, we say his bile is
disturbed or something like that.
The next one is phlegm. It is described as
something located in the stomach over what we have eaten.
Then we have pus. “Pus is produced by
decaying blood.” That is not difficult to understand.
Then there is blood. “There are two kinds of
blood: stored blood and mobile blood. Herein, as to color, stored blood is the
color of cooked and thickened lac solution; mobile blood is the color of clear
lac solution.”
Some lines down - “The mobile blood
permeates the whole of the clung-to (kammically-acquired) body.” It is the
direct translation of the PÈÄi word ‘upÈdiÓÓaka’. It simply means the living
body. ‘Clung-to, kammically-acquired body’ simply means the living body.
Student:
‘Clung to’ means grasped?
Teacher:
‘Clung-to’ really means the result of kamma here. You know the literal meaning
of the word ‘upÈdiÓÓa’ is clung-to. It is clung to by kamma. That means the
result of kamma. There are four kinds of material properties - those caused by
kamma, those caused by consciousness, those caused by food, those caused by
temperature or climate. It simply means here a living body, not a dead body, or
things like trees, rocks and others.
Then there is sweat. Sweat is not difficult
to understand.
The next one is fat. ‘Fat’ here means solid
fat. There are two kinds of fat. This one is solid, a thick unguent.
The next one is tears. Their location is in
the eyes.
Next there is grease. That is melted
unguent. In Burmese we say clear oil. The other one, fat, is thick oil, thick
unguent. This one is thin oil. “As to location, it is to be found mostly on the
palms of the hands, backs of the hands, soles of the feet, backs of the feet,
tip of the nose, forehead, and points of the shoulders.” It is something like
sweat, but it is not sweat. Sometimes your hands are wet. That is what is
called ‘grease’ here. When you put on shoes, you have that kind of grease
there.
Then there is spittle or saliva. The next
one is snot. Does mucus in the nose come from the brain? It may not be. Here it
says “This is impurity that trickles out from the brain.”
Student
There is a long explanation of this, but it is true. The brain has its own fluid.
It has spinal fluid. It has its own canals. The formations of these brain
fluids are somewhat screened and filtered, like the kidneys filter and screen
our blood to form urine. The mucus is the screened product of the brain. Urine
is the screened product of the kidneys.
Teacher:
So this is correct that it oozes or trickles out of the brain.
Student:
It is somewhat correct.
Teacher:
The next one is oil of the joints. It is oil that stays in the joints. It is
translated by Venerable ©ÈÓaponika as synovial fluid. I looked that word up in
the dictionary. It said synovia is a clear, viscid, lubricating fluid secreted
by membranes in joint cavities, sheets of tendons, and bursas. It is called
synovial fluid.
Student:
Particularly in the knee joints when you get older, the fluid is somewhat
reduced. When you sit and stand up, you can hear creaking.
Teacher:
Yes. It is mentioned here. When a man gets up or sits down, moves forward or
backward, bends or stretches, then his bones creak. When I walk there is a
creak in the ankle.
The last one is urine. There is one thing. I
am not happy with the description of the bladder here. About five lines down it
say “While the urinary secretion from the body enters the bladder, its way of
entry is not evident.” There are two pipes going into the bladder from the
kidneys, right?
Student:
Yes.
Teacher:
Here it says that its way of entry is not evident, but it is very clear that
urine enters the bladder from the kidneys by way of these pipes.
Student:
It may mean that its way of entry is not evident. Actually it is difficult to
explain. It is not evident. If it is evident there will be reflux. The nature
is so arranged that the entry is not visible. The entry is not evident. If it
were evident, the urine from the bladder can reflux back when it is full. The
mechanism is so arranged that it is not evident.
Teacher:
So it is not like water dripping from a pipe?
Student:
No. Because if the bladder is full the urine will be refluxed back to the
kidney. It never happens in a normal person. Only when the entrance is ruined
or damaged is there a reflux.
Teacher:
There is something like a valve.
Student:
Yes. There is something very, very complicated. It may mean that the entry is
not evident.
Teacher:
We are fortunate today because we have a doctor here.
Then there is the arising of absorption.
Only first jhÈna can arise through the practice of this meditation, not the
second, third and fourth jhÈnas.
The learning and the counterpart signs are
described in paragraph 141. “Then, as he gives his attention to them again and
again as ‘repulsive, repulsive’, emphasizing the process of ‘successive
leaving’, etc., eventually absorption arises in him. Herein, the appearance of
head hairs, etc., as to color, shape, direction, location and delimitation, is
the learning sign; their appearance as repulsive in all aspects is the
counterpart sign.” There are two kind of signs - learning sign and counterpart
sign. He gets only the first jhÈna.
Then there is the very short story of the
Elder Mallaka. “That Elder, it seems, took the Elder Abhaya, the DÊgha Reciter,
by the hand, and after saying ‘Friend Abhaya, first learn this matter’, he went
on ‘The Elder Mallaka is an obtainer of 32 jhÈnas in the 32 parts. If he enters upon one by night and one by
day, he goes on entering upon them for over a fortnight; but if he enters upon
one each day, he goes on entering upon them for over a month.”
Then there are the benefits of this
meditation. “And the bhikkhu who is devoted to this mindfulness occupied with
the body is a conqueror of boredom and delight, and boredom does not conquer
him; he dwells transcending boredom as it arises. He is a conqueror of fear and
dread, and fear and dread do not conquer him; he dwells transcending fear and
dread as they arise. He is the one who bears cold and heat.. who endures..
arisen bodily feelings that are menacing to life” and so on. This Sutta comes
from the Majjhima NikÈya (Middle Length Sayings)
“He becomes an obtainer of the four jhÈnas
based on the color of the head hairs, etc.” Although a person cannot get
second, third and fourth jhÈnas by practicing this kind of meditation, yet he
can get the four jhÈnas, if he concentrates on the color aspect of these parts,
not on the repulsiveness. For example when you look at hair, you concentrate on the color of the hair as
black, or dark, or something. In that case you can get all four kinds of
jhÈnas. That is why it is mentioned here. “He becomes an obtainer of the four
jhÈnas based on the color aspect of the head hairs, etc., and he comes to
penetrate the six kinds of direct knowledge.” That is supernormal knowledge.
“So let a man, if he is
wise,
Untiringly devote his days
To mindfulness of body
which
Rewards him in so many ways.
This is the section dealing with mindfulness
occupied with the body in the detailed treatise.”
Student:
So this treatise is saying that we have to go through the 32 parts in order to
obtain the first jhÈna.
Teacher:
No. There are other subjects of meditation. If you practice this meditation,
you will only get the first jhÈna. There are other kinds of meditation like
kasiÓa meditation by which you can get all four jhÈnas. This meditation can
give you only the first jhÈna because it is so gross. It is so gross that you
need initial application (vitakka) for your mind to be on the object, just as
you need a pole to keep a boat in a swift current. That is why you cannot get
second, third and fourth jhÈnas with this meditation.
If you concentrate on the color aspect, you
can get the other jhÈnas. For example if you concentrate on the blood, you
don’t say ‘blood, blood, blood’, but you say ‘red, red, red.’ That becomes
color kasiÓa meditation. When it becomes color kasiÓa meditation, then you can
get the four jhÈnas.
Next week we will study up to paragraph 185.
Student:
The 32 parts of the body is very interesting with regard to the groupings
5,5,5,5,6,6. The first set is the outgrowth from the same tissue. These five
things emerge from the same tissue in the fetus.*
SÈdhu! SÈdhu! SÈdhu!
(Tape 18 / Ps: 145 -185)
Today’s section on mindfulness of breathing
is interesting. The mindfulness of
breathing meditation has become very popular in Myanmar as well as in
other countries. Those who practice vipassanÈ meditation actually begin with
some kind of mindfulness on breathing meditation. One begins with keeping the
mind on the breath. Or as a variation of keeping the mind on the breath one
keeps the mind on the rising and falling movements of the abdomen. That is also
breathing meditation.
However in this book, The Path of
Purification, mindfulness of the breath is treated as tranquillity or serenity meditation
(samatha meditation) and not as vipassanÈ meditation. So the description that
follows, most of the description, is for tranquillity meditation.
The breathing meditation is taught in
different Suttas in the Sutta PiÔaka or the Basket of Discourses. The author
took a passage from one of the Suttas and commented on it.
“Now comes the description of the
development of mindfulness of breathing as a meditation subject. It has been
recommended by the Blessed One thus: ‘And, bhikkhus, this concentration through
mindfulness of breathing, when developed and practiced much, is both peaceful
and sublime, it is an unadulterated blissful abiding, and it banishes at once
and stills evil unprofitable thoughts as soon as they arise’.” That is from one
Sutta.
Now let us read the next one. “It has been
described by the Blessed One as having 16 bases thus (or 16 methods mentioned
in the Sutta): ‘And how developed, bhikkhus, how practiced much is
concentration through mindfulness of breathing both peaceful and sublime, an
unadulterated blissful abiding, banishing at once and stilling evil
unprofitable thoughts as soon as they arise’?” We will examine the translation
later.
“Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu, gone to the
forest or to the root of a tree or to an empty place, sits down; having folded
his legs crosswise, sets his body erect, established mindfulness in front of
him (Actually it is ‘established mindfulness towards the meditation
object’.), ever mindful, he breathes in; mindful he breathes out.” Here also we
should say ‘ever’ - “ever mindful he breathes in; ever mindful he breathes
out.” This is the basic practice.
Then come the 16 methods. “(1) Breathing in
long, he knows, ‘I breathe in long’; or breathing out long, he knows, ‘I
breathe out long’. (That is the first method.)
(2) Breathing in short, he knows, ‘I breathe in short’; or breathing out
short, he knows, ‘I breathe out short’. (3) He trains thus ‘I shall breathe in
experiencing the whole body’; he trains thus ‘I shall breathe out experiencing
the whole body’. (4) He trains thus ‘I shall breathe in tranquilizing the
bodily formation’; he trains thus ‘I
shall breathe out tranquilizing the bodily formation’.” These are the four
basic methods for mindfulness on breathing meditation.
There are three more sets with four methods
in each set. They deal with the three remaining kinds of foundations of
mindfulness. There are four foundations of mindfulness - contemplation on the
body, contemplation on the feelings, contemplation on consciousness, contemplation
on dhamma objects. The first four have to do with contemplation on the body.
The second four deal with feelings. The third four is contemplation on
consciousness and the fourth four is contemplation on dhamma objects. We will
come to them later.
The
first four methods are the most important for a beginner. For one who wants to
practice mindfulness meditation these four methods are treated or explained in
detail in this book, The Visuddhi Magga as well as in other Commentaries.
“The description [of development] is
complete in all respects, however, only if it is given in due course after a
commentary on the text. So it is given here introduced by a commentary on the
[first part of the] text.” First the Commentary explains the words. It gives the
meaning of the words and the explanations pertaining to the meanings. Later,
not today, next week we will come to the method of development.
First the Commentator commented on the text
itself and then described how to practice mindfulness of breathing meditation
as a tranquillity or serenity meditation. Now we will be doing the word
commentary.
“And how developed, bhikkhus, how practiced
much, is concentration through mindfulness of breathing: here in the first
place ‘how’ is a question showing desire to explain in detail the development
of concentration through mindfulness of breathing in its various forms.
Developed, bhikkhus, .. is concentration through mindfulness of breathing: this
shows the thing that is being asked about out of desire to explain it in
various forms.” Buddha would put forth a question. This question is not
expecting an answer from the listeners. He wanted to give the answer himself.
So first he would ask the question and then he would give the answer.
“ ‘Developed’ means aroused or increased.”
That means practice, practice again and again. “Concentration through
mindfulness of breathing [literally, breathing-mindfulness concentration] (In
PÈÄi it is ÈnÈpÈÓasati samÈdhi. ‘ŒnÈpÈÓa’ means breathing. ‘Sati’ means
mindfulness. And ‘samÈdhi’ means concentration.
“It is either concentration associated with
mindfulness that discerns breathing, or it is concentration on mindfulness of
breathing.” Actually they mean the same thing.
Concentration is a mental factor or mental
state. It is associated with another mental state which is mindfulness. So we
have concentration, mindfulness and there is consciousness. When you practice
meditation and your meditation is good, your consciousness is accompanied by
concentration and mindfulness. “It is concentration on mindfulness of
breathing.” That is the same thing.
“Practiced much: practiced again and again.”
These are word explanations. Sometimes it is strange in a translation. The
translator has to repeat the word because there is no word, no synonym for the
original PÈÄi words. PÈÄi is rich in synonyms in some respects. So one synonym
after another is given when something is explained. It is difficult to
translate them into another language.
“Both peaceful and sublime (santo
c’eva paÓÊto ca)” - I think ‘both’ is not correct here. There is the word
‘eva’. ‘Eva’ means only. He translated eva as ‘quite’ in another place - ‘quite
secluded from sensual pleasures, quite secluded from sense objects’ and so on.
Here also we should say ‘quite peaceful and quite sublime’. So it is “peaceful
only and sublime only”; that is what is meant here. It is peaceful only, not
unpeaceful, sublime only, not unsublime. Sometimes the word ‘eva’ is used just
for emphasis.
Student:
Could it be ‘very peaceful’ and ‘very sublime’?
Teacher:
‘Very’, no. You want to emphasize it. It is really peaceful and not unpeaceful.
“The two words should be understood as governed by the word ‘quite’ (eva).” not
‘both’.We should correct or change it to the word ‘quite’ instead of ‘both’.
‘Quite peaceful’ and ‘quite sublime means peaceful only and sublime only.
“What is meant? Unlike foulness which as a
meditation subject is peaceful and sublime only by penetration” - that means
you practice foulness meditation and when you get jhÈna or attainments, that is
peaceful and sublime. At the attainment level it is peaceful and sublime. The
object of the foulness meditation is not peaceful nor sublime because it is a
dead body or a corpse which is gross.
“Unlike foulness, which as a meditation
subject is peaceful and sublime only by penetration, but is neither peaceful
nor sublime in its object since its object [in the learning stage] is gross,
and [after that] its object is repulsiveness - unlike that, this is not
unpeaceful or unsublime in any way but on the contrary it is peaceful, stilled
and quiet both on account of the peacefulness of its object and on account of
the peacefulness of that one of its factors called penetration.” That means the
object itself is peaceful and the attainment also is peaceful. This is because
it is the breath which is not gross. It is peaceful. The breath itself is
peaceful and sublime and when you get attainment, that also is peaceful and
sublime.
“And it is sublime, something one cannot
have enough of.” That is the meaning of the PÈÄi word ‘paÓÊta’. You see the
word ‘paÓÊto’ above at the beginning of paragraph 148. The word paÓÊto is
usually translated as sublime, but the literal meaning is ‘something which we
cannot have enough of’. That means we want to practice again and again and we
are not satiated with it. That is what is meant here.
“It
is an unadulterated blissful abiding: it has no adulteration, thus it is
unadulterated. It is unalloyed, unmixed, particular, special. Here it is not a
question of peacefulness to be reached through preliminary work [as with the
kasiÓas] or through access [as with foulness, for instance].” To get
peacefulness with kasiÓa meditation or foulness meditation you have to do some
work before you get peacefulness. With kasiÓa meditation you have to prepare a
kasiÓa and then go to a place and sit and meditate. With foulness meditation
also you have to look at a corpse and so on. Only after that do you get
unification of mind and then you get peacefulness. Breathing meditation is not
like that. “It is peaceful and sublime in its own individual essence too
starting with the very first attention given to it.” The moment you sit down
and practice meditation on breathing, you are peaceful.
“But some say that it is ‘unadulterated’
because it is unalloyed, possessed of nutritive value and sweet in its
individual essence too. So it should be understood to be ‘unadulterated’ and a
‘blissful abiding’ since it leads to the obtaining of bodily and mental bliss
(That means bodily and mental peacefulness.) with every moment of absorption.”
There is a footnote. “ ‘Some’ is said with
reference to the inmates of the Uttara (Northern) monastery [in AnurÈdhapura].”
Historically the Commentaries we now use were written at a monastery called
‘The Great Monastery’, in AnurÈdhapura which is in Sri Lanka. At one time some
monks went away from The Great Monastery which was the central place of
learning for monks at that time. They divided themselves from The Great
Monastery. They founded two monasteries. One was to the north of The Great
Monastery and one I think was to the east of The Great Monastery. The large
stupas can still be seen in AnurÈdhapura. ‘Uttara Monastery’ here means the
monastery called ‘Abhayagiri’. It is not known as Northern Monastery actually.
Northern Monastery is not the name. Since that monastery is located to the
north of The Great Monastery, it is referred to here in the Sub-Commentary as
the Northern Monastery. Actually it is Abhayagiri. They have different opinions
about some teachings in some cases. They do not conform to the tradition handed
down or accepted at The Great Monastery. Those who lived in Abhayagiri or the
Northern Monastery thought in this way, just a little difference, not too much.
In paragraph 150 we have “as soon as they
arise.” The PÈÄi word here is like saying ‘each and every one that arises’. In
PÈÄi the word is repeated. That means something that arises and arises. It is
something like that. So here “each and every thought that arises”. Here ‘arise’
does not mean that it really arises, but it is in a latent state. There is a
potential for these unwholesome or unprofitable thoughts to arise. And so it is
explained by “whenever they are not suppressed”.
There are three kinds of abandonment of
unwholesome mental states. The first one is by substitution. That means you
substitute something wholesome for something unwholesome. When you have
wholesome thoughts, you do not have unwholesome thoughts. That is abandoning by
substitution. We say it is momentary abandoning. Just for one moment you may
abandon the unwholesome thought. The next one is abandoning by suppression or
temporary abandoning. In that case the abandoning lasts longer than in the
first one. The last one is total cutting off, total eradication. That is the
last abandonment. So there are three kinds of abandoning. Here what is meant is
the second abandoning, abandoning by suppression. Here the meditation can
abandon or banish the unprofitable thoughts as they arise. That means not that
they really arise, but that they have the potential to arise. By the practice
of meditation their arising is blocked. They are not given chance to arise.
That is what is meant here. When unwholesome thoughts have arisen in us, then
it has arisen and we cannot do anything about that. Before arising we do not
let it arise. That is what is meant here although the word ‘arise’ is used.
“It banishes at once: it banishes,
suppresses, at that very moment. Stills: it thoroughly calms; or else, when
eventually brought to fulfillment by the Noble Path, it cuts off, because of
partaking of penetration; it tranquilizes, is what is meant.” This or else in
the following mean the total cutting off or abandonment. Here a person reaches
the Noble Path. At the moment of Noble Path he is able to eradicate, cut off,
mental defilements or unprofitable thoughts all together. Here it is the total
cutting off.
“In brief, however, the meaning due here is
this: Bhikkhus in what way, in what manner, by what system, is concentration
through mindfulness of breathing developed, in what way is it practiced much,
that it is quite.. as soon as they arise?”
“Herein, here bhikkhus, a bhikkhu means,
bhikkhu, in this dispensation, a bhikkhu (a monk).” In this book, in The Path
of Purification, the commentator did not say anything more about the word
‘bhikkhu’. In another Commentary, the Commentary to the MahÈ SatipaÔÔhÈna Sutta
(The Sutta on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness), it is stated that ‘bhikkhu’
here does not necessarily mean an ordained monk, but anybody who practices
mindfulness meditation, anybody who follows the advice of the Buddha, anybody
who practices the teachings of the Buddha can be called a ‘bhikkhu’. So in that
case a bhikkhu does not necessarily mean an ordained monk. Anybody who
practices meditation can be called a ‘bhikkhu’. But since this book is for
bhikkhus, for monks, the commentator does not say anything about this.
Nowadays when people read Suttas and the
Buddha always addresses monks, they feel left out. They are not satisfied with
that. They do not like that. The Buddha speaks to monks and not to lay people
they think. You know, the Buddha lived with monks. So when he talked, he talked
mostly to monks. That does not mean that lay people are left out. “Herein, here
bhikkhus, a bhikkhu means, bhikkhus, in this dispensation, a bhikkhu.” So here
it is a monk, but anybody who practices meditation, who follows the teachings
of the Buddha, can be called a monk.
“For this word ‘here’ signifies the
[Buddha’s] dispensation as the prerequisite for a person to produce
concentration through mindfulness of breathing in all its modes” and so on.
‘Here’ means this dispensation that is in Buddhism. It is said that only in
Buddhism can be found the four foundations of mindfulness and also the four
Persons who are enlightened.
“For this is said: ‘Bhikkhus, only here is
there an ascetic, here a second ascetic, here a third ascetic, here a fourth
ascetic.” They mean the Stream Winner, the Once-Returner, the Non-Returner and
the Arahant.
“Other dispensations are devoid of
ascetics.” That means there are no enlightened persons in other dispensations.
“That is why it was said above ‘in this dispensation a bhikkhu’.”
“Gone to a forest or to an empty place” -
this passage shows a suitable or an appropriate place for meditation.
Then a monk’s mind is described as unruly
and wild. A simile is given of a calf tied with a rope to a strong post. In the
same way we tie our mind to the strong post of breathing with the rope of
mindfulness. So mindfulness is like a rope. Breathing in and out is like a
post. Our mind is like the calf. We try to keep our mind on the object by
mindfulness.
In paragraph 155 “Or alternatively, the
mindfulness of breathing as a meditation subject - which is foremost among the
various meditation subjects of all Buddhas, [some] Pacceka Buddhas and [some]
Buddhas’ disciples” - the word ‘some’ in brackets is taken from the
Sub-Commentary. It is said that all Buddhas practice mindfulness of breathing meditation.
They all practice mindfulness of breathing and get jhÈnas. Then they change
over to vipassanÈ after attaining jhÈna. But for the Pacceka Buddhas and the
other disciples it may not be breathing meditation. For some it may be
breathing meditation, but for others it may not be breathing meditation. There
are other kinds of meditation too. It is said in the books that all Buddhas
practice breathing meditation.
If you read some Suttas in The Middle Length
Sayings, you will find the Buddha relating his practice to a prince. In that
Sutta he said that first he practiced breathing meditation. Then he got first
jhÈna, second jhÈna, third jhÈna, fourth jhÈna. After that he got the
supernormal knowledge of remembering past lives; then he saw people dying in
one life and being reborn in another life. Only after that did he dwell on
Dependent Origination, practicing vipassanÈ on each of the twelve links. Then
he gained enlightenment. It is said that all Buddhas practice breathing
meditation but not all Pacceka Buddhas or Buddhas’ disciples.
‘As a basis for attaining distinction’ means
enlightenment. “It is not easy to develop without leaving the neighborhood of
villages, which resound with the noises of women, men, elephants, horses, etc.”
We need to go to a place where we do not have such noises. “Noise being a thorn
to jhÈna” - actually it is a thorn to first jhÈna. “Whereas in the forest away
from a village a meditator can at his ease set about discerning this meditation
subject.” A forest is a suitable place for meditation. This meditation is
difficult to practice and so we need quietness.
Then the author explains with a simile, “For
the Blessed One is like a master of the art of building sites” and so on. These
passages are not difficult to understand.
Paragraph 158 “Herein, gone to the forest is
gone to any kind of forest possessing the bliss of seclusion among the kind of
forest characterized thus ‘Having gone out beyond the boundary post, all that
is forest’.” When we say ‘forest’, there are at least two definitions, one
given in Abhidhamma and one given in Vinaya.
The first one is from Abhidhamma. In
Abhidhamma it is said “having gone out beyond the boundary post”. There are
gateposts outside the villages. That which is outside the gateposts is forest.
It may be very close to the village. Still it is called a ‘forest’.
There is another definition in Vinaya. “A
forest abode is five hundred bow lengths distant.” We should have ‘at least’
there. He left out a word. “A forest abode is at least five hundred bow
lengths distant.’
One bow length is said to be four cubits.
That is about six feet. So five hundred multiplied by six is three thousand. In
order for a place to be called a ‘forest’ it must be about three thousand feet
away from human villages, towns or cities. So there is a difference between the
forest explained in Abhidhamma and Vinaya. We came across this in the second
chapter.
Student: I
was thinking about this. It is about ten football fields.
Teacher:
Ten football fields! Oh.
“To
the root of a tree: gone to the vicinity of a tree. To an empty place, gone to
an ‘empty place’ if he has gone to any of the remaining seven kinds of abode
(resting place)” - they are given in the footnote.
Now the sitting position is dealt with. “Then
he sits down, etc., indicating a posture that is peaceful and tends neither to
idleness nor to agitation.” So sitting position is the best for the practice of
meditation.
“Then
he said having folded his legs crosswise, etc., to show firmness in the
sitting position, easy occurrence of the in-breaths and out-breaths, and the
means for discerning the object.” When your breathing is going smoothly, then
you can concentrate on it easily.
“Herein, crosswise in the sitting position
with the thighs fully locked” - it does not say in the lotus position, but I
think it means the lotus position because your ‘thighs fully locked’ means the
lotus position. Most of the Buddha images that you see are in the full lotus
position. It may mean the full lotus position here.
“Folded: having locked. Set his body erect:
having placed the upper part of the body erect with the 18 backbones resting
end to end. (That means one over the other.) For when he is seated like this,
his skin, flesh and sinews are not twisted, and so feelings (‘Feelings’ means
painful feelings.) that would arise moment by moment if they were twisted do
not arise. That being so, his mind becomes unified,” and so on. Sitting
position is recommended and said to be the best for meditation.
“Established mindfulness in front of him” -
‘in front of him’ means towards the object, so “established mindfulness towards
the object.” It is not ‘in front of him’ actually. So “having placed
mindfulness towards the meditation subject” is correct.
“Or alternatively, the meaning can be
treated here too according to the method of explanation given in the
PaÔisambhidÈ.” This book, the PaÔisambhidÈ, will be quoted many times in the
Visuddhi Magga. This book is said to have been preached by the Venerable SÈriputta.
It is included in the Sutta PiÔaka. Although it is included as among the words
of the Buddha, it actually was taught by Venerable SÈriputta.
Student:
So it is not in the Abhidhamma PiÔaka.
Teacher:
Oh, no. It is included in Sutta PiÔaka. I just read about this today in one
book, PÈÄi Literature and Language. There the author said that it is more like
Abhidhamma than Sutta. That is not quite so. It looks like Sutta PiÔaka, but
its language is different. The usage is a little different than in the Commentaries,
although it is treated as a Commentary on some of the Buddha’s teachings.
Venerable Buddhaghosa, the author of The Path of Purification, had great
respect for this book. So he always quoted from this book whenever there is a
quotation to be made.
Student:
Is it translated into English?
Teacher:
Yes. I think recently a translation has come out.
According to that book the phrase here means
‘making mindfulness thoroughly controlled’ and ‘getting out of opposition’.
Here the translation says ‘outlet’. What is ‘outlet’? ‘Outlet’ means some hole
or some door you go through. Here it does not mean ‘outlet’, but outgoing or
getting out of. Mindfulness is described here. Mindfulness must be
well-controlled and it must be getting out of opposition. ‘Opposition’ here
means forgetfulness. Mindfulness must be strong and it must get out of
forgetfulness. So “making mindfulness thoroughly controlled and getting out of
opposition” is what is meant here.
Then we have breathing in long and breathing
out long. “Word Commentary Continued - First Tetrad” - this is the first set of
the four methods of breathing meditation. Here breathing long and breathing
short can be understood by way of extent. Those who have long or big bodies,
for such beings, the breathing in and out may be long. For small animals or
insects it may be very short. With regard to human beings we can understand by
way of time. Sometimes our breathing is long and sometimes our breathing is
short, long and short in time, because human beings are more or less of the
same size. So we cannot say there is a difference in the extent of breathing in
and out between human beings.
In paragraph 164 “ ‘AssÈsa is the wind
issuing out; passÈsa is the wind entering in’ is said in the Vinaya Commentary.
But in the Suttanta Commentaries it is given in the opposite sense’.” In Vinaya
Commentary assÈsa is out-breath and passÈsa is in-breath. But in Suttanta
Commentaries assÈsa is in-breath and passÈsa is out-breath.
“Herein, when any infant comes out from the
mother’s womb, first the wind from within goes out and subsequently the wind
from without enters in with fine dust, strikes the palate and is extinguished
[with the infant’s sneezing].” Do infants sneeze after being born? I don’t
know. It’s OK.
The Commentary continues without telling us
which is to be preferred. Should we take assÈsa as out-breath or in-breath?
There is what I call familiarity with the tradition or the manner of
Commentators. Whenever a Commentator gives two or more opinions, the one he puts
last is the one he preferred. We must
understand that. If he doesn’t say anything, we must take it that he prefers
the last one.
There is another proof of assÈsa being
in-breath and passÈsa being out-breath. That we will find in paragraph 167.
“Now this bhikkhu knows ‘I breathe in, I breathe out, long while breathing in
and breathing out long in nine ways. And the development of the Foundations of
Mindfulness consisting in Contemplation of the Body should be understood to be
perfected in one aspect in him who knows thus, according as it is said in the
PaÔisambhidÈ.”
Whenever I see footnotes in small print, I
am afraid because these are from the Sub-Commentaries. The Sub-Commentaries are
more difficult to understand. I was afraid that he might make some mistakes in
translating and he did make mistakes. I cannot go into details about this. In
footnote 46 about eight lines from the bottom appears the phrase ‘but some
say’. That should be in front of “The mind turns away; and then “the mind turns
away from the breaths” and so on. ‘But some say’ should be there. “But some say
the mind turns away from the breaths, which have reached the point at which
their manifestation needs investigating owing to their gradually increasing
subtlety.” That is what the other people say. But the truth is “when the
in-breaths and out-breaths have reached a subtler state owing to the influence
of the meditation and the counterpart sign; for when that has arisen, the mind
turns away from the normal breaths.” I don’t know why he made that mistake.
‘But some say’ should be in front. Then there is a long quotation from the
PaÔisambhidÈ.
In paragraph 171 “He trains thus ‘I shall
breathe in..I shall breathe out experiencing the whole body’: he trains thus, I
shall breathe in making known, making plain, the beginning, middle and end of
the entire in-breath body. I shall breathe out making known, making plain, the
beginning, middle and the end of the entire out-breath body, thus he trains.
Making them known, making them plain, in this way he both breathes in and
breathes out with consciousness associated with knowledge (or understanding).
That is why it is said ‘He trains thus “I shall breathe in.. I shall breathe
out..”’
The English translation is ‘experiencing the
whole body’ but the explanation given in the Commentary is not experiencing but
making clear’, making known, making plain. That means trying to see the breath
clearly. The PÈÄi word ‘paÔisaÓvedeti’ can mean to experience but here it is
explained to make clear, to make evident. So it should be ‘making clear or
making plain the whole breath body’.
Now we come to the ‘breath body’. The PÈÄi
word is just ‘kÈya’. ‘KÈya’ just means body. The Commentary explains it as
breath body. ‘Body’ here does not mean the whole body but just the breath. The
breath here is called ‘body’. The PÈÄi word ‘kÈya’ means group. Our body is a
group of different parts. The breath also is a group of particles, small
particles of matter. So the breath is also called ‘kÈya’. So the word ‘kÈya’
here means the breath body not the whole body. The Commentary explains in this
way. And the Commentary is based on the PaÔisambhidÈmagga just mentioned. In
the PaÔisambhidÈmagga it is also explained as meaning breath body.
Now there are people who say that it must
mean the whole body. They sweep the body or look all over the body for
sensations. Observing the sensations in the body is not against vipassanÈ, not
against the teachings of the Buddha. But if you say that observing sensations
going all through the body is according to this passage, then you are wrong.
This passage has to do with breathing meditation. ‘Breathing meditation’ means
meditation taking breathing as an object. If you look for sensations, if you
observe sensations, you are no longer watching the breath. So it is no longer
mindfulness of breathing meditation. It becomes another kind of contemplation
on the body or it may be contemplation on feeling. So in practice you can do
the sweeping of the body if you have attained a certain degree of concentration.
You can watch sensations in the body. It is not against vipassanÈ, but it is
not according to this passage. This passage is shown with regard to breathing
meditation.
Student:
This passage is for samatha meditation?
Teacher:
Yes.
Student: I
find it hard to think of breathing meditation as samatha and not vipassanÈ
because the object is changing.
Teacher:
No. In breathing meditation as samatha meditation the object does not change.
You keep the mind at the tip of the nose and the object of the meditation is
the breath, the in-breath and out-breath. You don’t pay attention to other
objects. You try to keep your mind on the object. Next week we will see how you
may count in one, out one, in two, out two and so on (in order to keep the mind
on the breath). So you take the breath as object only. It is samatha
meditation.
Student:
If you are aware of the body at all, it would have to be vipassanÈ.
Teacher:
That’s right.
Student:
When you divided it at the beginning as the four foundations of mindfulness,
the first was the breath and the second was feeling?
Teacher:
Feeling, yes.
Student:
So this has something to do with this passage when you talk about the body?
Teacher:
Yes. When we talk about the body, we are talking about the breath body, not the
whole body. Also here seeing or being aware of the beginning, middle and end of
the breath, that means keeping your mind here and when it goes in and goes out
past this point, you try to see this as the beginning, middle and end of the
breath. It is like that. We cannot say that his passage means the whole body,
that in this passage ‘kÈya’ means the whole body.
To one only the beginning may be clear. To
another only the middle may be clear or the end may be clear. To yet another
all stages may be clear. We should be like that last person. That is what is
explained in paragraph 172.
Now paragraph 173 “herein, he trains: he
strives, he endeavors in this way. Or else the restraint here in one such as
this is training in the higher virtue, his concentration (not consciousness) is
training in the higher consciousness, his understanding is training in the
higher understanding. So he trains in, repeats, develops, repeatedly practices,
these three kinds of training, on that object, by means of that mindfulness, by
means of that attention. This is how the meaning should be regarded here.”
You know the three trainings. They are
morality, concentration and wisdom. They are called ‘the three trainings’. Here
they are called ‘the three higher trainings’. Here PÈtimokkha restraint is
called the restraint in higher virtue, the training in higher virtue. The
jhÈnas are called the training in higher consciousness. Enlightenment is called
the training in higher understanding. So ‘training in higher consciousness’
means attainment of jhÈnas and other samÈpattis.
“Herein, in the first part of the system (#1
& #2) he should only breathe in and breathe out and not do anything else at
all, and it is only afterwards that he should apply himself to the arousing of
knowledge, and so on. Consequently the present tense is used here in the text:
He knows ‘I breathe in’..he knows ‘I breathe out’” He is just to know that he
is breathing in and breathing out, breathing in and breathing out. Just that.
But in this method he must apply himself or he must train himself. He must make
effort, special effort to make clear the beginning, middle and end of each
in-breath and out-breath. That is why the future tense is used - “I shall
breathe in, I shall breathe out.” That means there is some effort involved
here, not just being mindful of in-breaths and out-breaths. In addition to
being mindful of in-breaths and out-breaths he has to know, to clearly see the
beginning, middle and the end.
In paragraph 175 “He trains thus ‘I shall
breathe in.. shall breathe out tranquilizing the bodily formations’.”
‘Tranquilizing the bodily formations’ does not mean that you must deliberately
make the breath subtle. Actually you cannot do that. What is meant is just to
pay attention to the breath. When your mind calms down, the breath will become
more and more subtle. That is what is meant here. You cannot make them subtle
by breathing softly or something like that. That will come with practice. You
don’t have to do it.
The word ‘bodily formation’ is used here. Do
you know what that means? What is ‘bodily formation’? The breath here is called ‘bodily formation’.
That is why it is difficult to correctly understand in some places. The same
word is used and has different meanings. The PÈÄi word is ‘kÈya sa~khÈra’. I
think you are familiar with the word ‘sa~khÈra’. ‘KÈya sa~khÈra’ is translated
as bodily formation. I don’t know what ‘formation’ means. Is it the act of
forming or something which is formed? Or both?
Student:
Something that is formed.
Teacher:
Oh, something that is formed. Here it means something that is formed. ‘Bodily
formation’ means bodily formed. That means the breath is said to be caused by
mind. There are four causes of material properties - kamma, mind, climate and
food. So mind is one of the causes of material properties. Breathing in and
breathing out is said to be caused by mind. Although breathing in and breathing
out is caused by mind, it needs the physical body to arise. If there is no
body, there can be no breathing at all. So it is described as formed by the
body. That means formed with the help of the body.
So in the footnote “ ‘Bodily formation’: the
in-breath and out-breath. For although it is consciousness-originated (although
it is caused by consciousness, mind), it is nevertheless called ‘bodily
formation’ since its existence is bound up with the kamma-born
body.” It is not ‘kamma-born body. It is bound up with the physical body, not
necessarily kamma-born. So “with the physical body and it is formed with that
as the means.” If there is no physical body, there can be no breath at all. It
is said to be formed by, or made by, or maybe conditioned by the physical body.
So it is called ‘bodily formation’.
Student:
Is there any kind of body that is not kamma-born?
Teacher:
There are material properties which are caused by kamma, for example the
sensitivity in the eye, sensitivity in the ear. They are caused by kamma. Voice
is caused by consciousness or mind as well as by some other causes. When a rock
hits against something, there is also noise. That is not caused by mind, but
when I speak, my voice is caused by mind. There are four causes of material
properties. Since breath is a material property, it must have a cause.
According to Abhidhamma it is caused by consciousness or is consciousness-originated.
Although it is caused by consciousness, it is not called ‘consciousness
formation’ here, but it is called ‘bodily formation’ because it has to depend
upon the physical body for its arising. It is not necessarily kamma-born body,
but it is physical body.
Before we practice meditation or if we do
not practice meditation, our breathing is said to be gross. But when we sit
down and practice meditation and try to discern the breathing, then it becomes
more and more subtle. It will become so subtle the meditator has to investigate
whether it exists or not. Sometimes yogis are alarmed or afraid because they
say they that have stopped breathing. They are not sure that they are alive or
living at all.
The breathing is different from the other
objects of meditation like the kasiÓas, the kasiÓa disks, dead bodies and so
on. Other objects become clearer with the development of concentration. The
better your concentration becomes the clearer these objects or the images of
these objects become. It is the opposite with the breath. The better your
concentration, the more subtle the breath becomes and the more difficult it is
to see. You have to apply effort and understanding so that you do not lose it.
It will become so subtle that you will wonder whether you are breathing at all
or whether you have stopped breathing. It will reach such a state.
“Why is that? Because previously at the time
when he has still not discerned (That means when he did not practice
meditation.) there is no concern in him, no reaction (‘No reaction’ means no
adverting, no thinking of that.) , no attention, no reviewing, to the effect
that ‘I am [progressively] tranquilizing each grosser bodily formation’. But
when he has discerned, there is. So his bodily formation at the time when he
has discerned is subtle in comparison with that at the time when he has not.”
So the breathing becomes subtle, more and more subtle with the growth of
concentration. You do not have to make them subtle. You actually cannot make
them subtle, but you just keep your mind on the breath and try to discern it
thoroughly, to see clearly the beginning, the middle and the end of it. When
you reach the next stage, it will become very subtle. You do not make them
subtle, but they will become subtle. So you have to train yourself “I shall
breathe in tranquilizing the bodily formation”, but not really tranquilizing.
They just become tranquil. They just become subtle.
In paragraph 179 the relative subtlety is
given. “In discerning [the meditation subject the formation] is gross, and it
is subtle [by comparison] in the first jhÈna access.” That means when you first
practice meditation, the breath is gross. When you reach to access
concentration, it becomes subtle. Then by comparison it is gross at that stage of
access concentration, but it is subtle at the stage of first jhÈna. Then in the
first jhÈna and the second jhÈna access it is gross and in the second jhÈna it
is subtle and so on. Grossness and subtlety are here compared with jhÈna and
neighborhood of jhÈna and next jhÈna. So in the beginning it is gross. When you
reach the neighborhood concentration, it is subtle. Then at the neighborhood
concentration it is gross, and at the first jhÈna it is subtle. Then at the first jhÈna it is gross and it is subtle at
the neighborhood of second jhÈna. Then it is subtler in the second jhÈna and so
on. Subtleness is described with the development of meditation and
concentration.
There are two pinions. The first one is the
opinion of the DÊgha and SaÑyutta reciters. The second one is the opinion of
the Majjhima reciters. There is just a little difference. You know there are
NikÈya or Collections - Collection of Long Suttas, Collection of Medium Suttas,
Collection of Miscellaneous or Kindred Suttas. There were monks who made
special study of one Collection. They may have some opinions that may be
different from those who specialize in another Collection. So there is
difference between these teachers or these reciters. So DÊgha and SaÑyutta
reciters think this way and Majjhima reciters think the other way. This was in
the case of Samatha meditation.
“But in the case of insight, the bodily
formation occurring at the time of not discerning is gross, and in discerning
the primary elements it is [by comparison] subtle;” and so on. This paragraph
describes the development in vipassanÈ meditation. It is gross in the preceding
states and subtle in the succeeding states.
Then there is a long quotation from the
PaÔisambhidÈmagga. We have come to the end of the first four methods. Do you
remember the first four methods? What is the first one? You know when you
breathe in long that you breathe in long. You know when you breathe out long
that you breathe out long. There are long breaths and short breaths. Then what?
Making clear the whole breath body. And then? Tranquilizing the breath body.
These four methods pertain to samatha samatha meditation. They will be
explained later.
The other groups of four have to do with
jhÈnas and also with the other foundations of mindfulness. They will be
explained later.
Student:
The other three are still samatha meditation?
Teacher:
They can be samatha and they can be vipassanÈ depending on how you practice.
You practice on the breath and you get jhÈna. Then you dwell on happiness or
pÊti there. If you observe pÊti as impermanent, then you practice vipassanÈ. It
will be described later.
For the bodily formations meaning breathing
in and breathing out, please see paragraph 181. There the text from the
PaÔisambhidÈmagga is quoted. In the text “I shall breathe in.. shall breathe
out tranquilizing the bodily formations? What are the bodily formations? Long
in-breaths..out-breaths [experiencing the whole body] belong to the body; these
things being bound up with the body are bodily formations.” This is the
explanation. They are called ‘bodily formations’ because they are bound up with
the body. They belong to the body. Without a body they cannot arise. So ‘bodily
formations’ mean in-breaths and out-breaths.
Did you read the footnotes? Some of them are
difficult to understand. I cannot go through them in detail. But in footnote 47
it says “What is meant is this: the contemplation of the body as an
in-breath-and-out-breath body” and so on. It is very difficult to understand
that translation. I made a new translation. I think it is a little better.
SÈdhu! SÈdhu! SÈdhu!
We offer
this transcription of a Dhamma class with Venerable U SÊlÈnanda with the hope
that it will be beneficial for your understanding of the Buddha’s teachings.
This transcription has not been edited. It is the record of spontaneous
exchanges between the teacher and students. Therefore it is possible that there
are some errors. We are certain that such errors are infrequent and minimal.
SayÈdaw is a meticulous and careful teacher and offers these teachings in this
manner out of compassion for people interested in the serious study and
practice of meditation and Buddhism.
(Tape 19 / 186 -230)
Now we come to the real practice of
breathing meditation. Beginning with paragraph 186 we have the method of
development. Out of 16 methods 4 methods have been described in detail with
regard to the Texts. Now come the explanations for real development.
“The first tetrad is set forth as a
meditation subject for a beginner (That is a beginner in samatha meditation.);
but the other three tetrads are [respectively] set forth, as the contemplation
of feeling, of [the manner of] consciousness, and of mental objects, for one
who has already attained jhÈna in this tetrad.” So there are four sets of four
methods each. The first set is for beginners in the practice of mindfulness of
breathing meditation as a tranquillity meditation or serenity meditation. The other
three are concerned with contemplation on feeling, contemplation on
consciousness, and contemplation on mental objects. You know there are four
foundations of mindfulness -contemplation on the body, contemplation on
feeling, contemplation on consciousness, and contemplation on mental objects
or I would prefer to call them ‘dhamma objects’.
Student:
Sometimes we talk about mind and objects of mind. Would ‘objects of mind’ be
dhamma objects?
Teacher: I
think that also is not so good, not correct because everything is the object of
mind. Sight is object of mind. Sound is object of mind. Sight, sound, smell,
taste and touch are not called ‘dhamma objects’.
“If a clansman who is a beginner wants to
develop this meditation subject, and through insight based on the fourth jhÈna
produced in breathing, to reach Arahantship together with the discrimination
(That means special achievements like psychic powers, reading other peoples’
minds and so on.), he should first do all the work connected with the purification
of virtue, etc., (That means before practicing meditation one must purify one’s
virtue, one’s moral conduct as described in the first chapter.), in the way
already described, after which he should learn the meditation subject in five
stages from a teacher of the kind already described.” He should go to a teacher
and learn the meditation subject.
“Herein, the five stages: learning,
questioning, establishing, absorption, characteristic.” Although they are
called ‘stages’, maybe they are not real stages. Perhaps points or
five-membered-learning is better.
“ ‘Learning’ is learning the meditation
subject. ‘Questioning’ is questioning about the meditation subject.
‘Establishing’ is establishing the meditation subject.” Here ‘establishing’
really means the appearance of signs after you have practiced this meditation
for some time. We will come to the appearance of signs later. Before practicing
one must learn what kind of signs can appear.
“ ‘Absorption’ is the absorption of the
meditation subject.” That means getting jhÈna through this meditation.
Sometimes the word ‘appanÈ’ in PÈÄi means something like finishing something or
culminating something. The same word is used for jhÈna and also attainment. In
the Visuddhi Magga sometimes appanÈ is used in the sense of culmination.
Student:
AppanÈ come s from the root ‘paÒÒÈ’?
Teacher:
This word is derived from the word ‘ar’. Then a suffix is put between the root
and the suffix. There are two kinds of suffixes. There is ‘ar’ and there is
‘na’. And then there is a suffix which has a causal meaning, that is having
someone make something. That suffix is put between the root and the verbal
suffix. In Sanskrit it becomes ‘arpaÓa’. ‘R’ is changed to ‘P’ in PÈÄi and so
we have the word ‘appanÈ’.That is sending to the finish or bringing to the
finish - appanÈ. So the word can mean reaching the expected stage of jhÈna. So
“ ‘absorption’ is the absorption of the meditation subject” means getting to
the end of meditation, the attainment of jhÈna. This meditation is described as
a serenity meditation, the objective of which is the attainment of jhÈna.
“ ‘Characteristic’ is the characteristic of
the meditation subject; what is meant is that it is the ascertaining of the
meditation subject’s individual essence thus ‘This meditation subject has such
a characteristic’. Learning the meditation subject in the five stages in this
way, he neither tires himself nor worries the teacher.”
“So in giving this meditation subject
consisting in mindfulness of breathing attention he can live either with the
teacher or elsewhere in an abode of the kind already described.” So he may live
with the teacher in the same place in the same monastery or he may live away
from his teacher.
“Learning the meditation subject in the five
stages thus, getting a little expounded at a time and taking a long time over
reciting it, he should sever the minor impediments. After finishing the work
connected with the meal and getting rid of any dizziness due to the meal he
should seat himself comfortably.” That is why in
“Then, making sure he is not confused about
even a single word of what he has learned from the teacher, he should cheer his
mind by recollecting the special qualities of the Three Jewels.” That is just
preparing to go to the real practice of mindfulness of breathing.
Then there are seven stages described here
in the practice of mindfulness of breathing meditation. At first glance we
might expect that these stages are practiced one after the other, but that is
not so. We will find out about that
later. There may be a little confusion here.
The first one is counting. When we first
practice breathing meditation, the first thing we do is to count. When you do
counting, you should not stop short of five or go beyond ten, or make any break
in the series. Counting should be at least five and at most ten. There should
be no break in the series.
“By stopping short of five his thoughts get
excited in the cramped space, like a herd of cattle shut in a cramped pen.” It
is too little if you say “in one, out one, in two, out two” and again “in one,
out one, in two, out two”.
“By going beyond ten his thoughts take the
number [rather than the breaths] for their support.” That means you are
concerned about numbers - in one, out one..in one hundred, out one hundred.
Numbers become the object of meditation rather than the breaths.
“By making a break in the series he wonders
if the meditation subject has reached completion or not.” ‘By making a break in
the series’ the Sub-Commentary explained that it is counting one, three, five,
seven and so on. It may be like counting in one, out one and then you do not
count the second pair. So in three, out three and then you let go of the next
pair. Then you count in five, out five and so on. That is making a break in the
series. So if you make a break in the series, you will wonder if the meditation
has reached completion or not.
One teacher of old in
So counting should not be below five nor
above ten and there should be no break in the middle. “So he should do his
counting without those faults.”
“When counting, he should at first do it
slowly, [that is late].” I don’t know where he got ‘that is late’. It is put in
the square brackets so it is supposed to be from the Sub-Commentary. Maybe it
is Venerable ©ÈÓamoli’s addition.
Student:
Could it mean slowly or late in the sense that you are behind the count or you
are slightly anticipating the count? Sometimes people do that, getting into the
counting rather than the breath.
Teacher: I
think that just ‘slowly’ makes sense here, rather than the word ‘late’ because
here is shown a grain measurer’s counting. When a grain measurer having filled
his measure says “one” and empties it and then refills it, he goes on saying
“one, one, one”. And there may be some rubbish or something and he has to pick
it up and throw it away, and while so doing, he may be saying “one, one” until
he reaches the second one. The same is true for two and so on. He may have to
do something and he may be saying “two, two, two” until he comes to the third.
“So taking the in-breath or the out-breath,
whichever appears [most plainly], he should begin with ‘one,one’ and count up
to ‘ten,ten’, noting each as it occurs.” So the counting should be done: in one,
out one, in two, out two, in three, out three and so on.
“As he does his counting in this way the
in-breaths and out-breaths become evident to him as they enter in and issue
out.” When they go in and come out, they become evident. They become clearer.
“Then he can leave off counting slowly, like
a grain measurer, and he can count quickly, as a cowherd does. For a skilled
cowherd takes pebbles his pocket and goes to the cow pen in the morning, whip
in hand” and so on. What do you think of the counting of the cowherd here? I
think that in the beginning the breath only seems to be one. You say “in, out,
in, out.” There seems to be only one breath. But when you have practiced for
some time, one breath may appear to you as a series of short breaths. That is
because one breath is a combination of small breaths. There are many breaths in
what is formerly known as one breath. In one in-breath you may count one, two,
three, four, five or something like that. I think that is what is meant here.
Otherwise the simile of the cowherd counting cows that go out of the pen at the
gate in groups, two at a time, three at a time - he may say three - but
breathing in and breathing out does not come in and go out in exactly the same
way as the cows. What is meant here I think is that formerly it seemed one
breath, but now it appears to you as many breaths. So you count in one, two,
three, four, five and going out one, two, three, four, five.
“So he counts quickly ‘three,four,five’ and
so up to ten. In this way the in-breaths, and out-breaths, which has already
become evident to him while he counted them in the former way, now keep moving
along quickly.” ‘In the former way’ is explained in the Sub-Commentary as ‘in
the quick way’, but that is not correct. In another Commentary it is explained
that ‘in the former way’ means in the slow way. So ‘in the former way’ means in
the slow way, counting like a grain measurer does.
“Then knowing that they keep moving along
quickly, not apprehending them either inside or outside [the body], but
apprehending them just as they reach the [nostril] door,” - that is
important.You do not go into the body or outside the body with the breaths, but
apprehend them just as they reach the nostril door.
“He can do his counting quickly: ‘one,two,
three, four, five; one, two, three, four, five,
six..seven;..eight..nine;..ten’.” Here also one may think it means that you
count one to five, then one to six, then one to seven, but I do not think that
is the case here. You may count one breath as one, two, three, four, five; or
one, two, three, four, five, six; or one, two, three, four, five, six, seven;
or as many as you can be aware of.
“For as long as the meditation subject is
connected with counting, it is with the help of that very counting that the
mind becomes unified.” So counting is just to keep your mind on the breath and
to make it one-pointed or unified - “ just as a boat in a swift current is
steadied with the help of a rudder (or with the help of a pole).”
“When he counts quickly, the meditation
subject becomes apparent to him as an uninterrupted process.” At this
stage the meditation has not reached the jhÈna stage. Before reaching the jhÈna
stage there are interruptions. Interruptions are unavoidable. In Abhidhamma we
learn that one thought process is followed by some moments of life-continuum
(bhava~ga). Then there is another thought process. So thought processes arise
and disappear in quick succession, but they are buffered by the arisings of
bhava~ga or life continuum. So it cannot be called ‘uninterrupted’. It can be
uninterrupted only during the period of jhÈna attainment. So it should say that
it appears to him as though it were an uninterrupted process. It is very close
to the uninterrupted stage.
“Then, knowing that it is proceeding
uninterruptedly, he can count quickly in the way just described, not discerning
the wind either inside or outside [the body]. For by bringing his consciousness inside along with
the incoming breath it seems as if it were buffeted by the wind inside or
filled with fat.’ That means his appears to be soiling or something like that.
“By taking his consciousness outside along
with the outgoing breath it gets distracted by the multiplicity of objects
outside.” That is why we have to keep the mind at the entrance of the nostrils
and not let it go into the body or outside the body.
“However, his development is successful when
he fixes his mindfulness on the place touched [ by the breaths] (That means the
tip of the nose or the upper lip.). That is why it was said above ‘He can count
quickly in the way just described, not discerning the wind either inside or
outside’.” Strictly speaking in-breath and out-breath are said to be caused by
mind. In-breath and out-breath are the air element. The air element is caused
by kamma, caused by citta (mind), caused by climate (heat or cold), and caused
by food.The breath is said to be caused by mind. It is mind-generated.
Mind-generated material properties can only be found, only exist inside the
body and not outside. Here is the breath. When you exhale, you may feel that
the air goes out of the nose outside the body. As soon as it reaches outside
the body, it becomes generated by climate and not generated by mind. In order
to watch breathing in and breathing out closely our mind has to be here at the
tip of the nose or at the entrance of the nostril where they are really
mind-generated. After the out-breath leaves the tip of the nose, then it
becomes generated by climate or temperature. That is why the attention has to
be at the tip of the nose.
“But how long is he to go on counting?” Let
us say a monk is practicing counting -
in one, out one, in two, out two and so on. “Until, without counting
mindfulness remains settled on the in-breaths and out-breaths as its object.”
So he is to count until he can concentrate on breathing only without counting.
“For counting is simply a device for
settling mindfulness on the in-breaths and out-breaths as object by cutting off
the external dissipation of applied thoughts.” That is vitakka. We call it
‘initial application’. Initial application or applied thought has the tendency
to take mind out. In order to cut the distractions by applied thought one has
to keep the mind on the breath, on the object. This is the first stage. In the
first stage you do counting. You do this counting until you can concentrate
fully on the breaths without counting. It may take days, weeks, or maybe
months.
Now the second one. It is called
‘connection’, but I think ‘connection’ is not so accurate. It is following. The
PÈÄi word means following. That is also
a little misleading because ‘following’ does not mean to follow the breath into
the body or outside the body, but just to be mindful of the breath. Still it is
called ‘following’ in PÈÄi.
“Connection (anugamana) is the uninterrupted
following of the in-breaths and out-breaths with mindfulness after counting has
been given up.” So when you can be on the breaths without counting, you give up
counting. At that moment you begin the second stage, connection or following.
“And that is not following after the
beginning, the middle and the end.” It is just repeatedly keeping your
attention or your mindfulness on the breaths at the entrance of the nostrils.
“The navel is the beginning of the wind
issuing out, the heart is the middle, and the nose-tip is its end.” The
beginning, the middle and the end of the out-breath and in-breath are described
here. For the out-breath the navel is the beginning, the heart is the middle,
and the tip of the nose is the end. For the in-breath the tip of the nose is
the beginning, the heart is its middle, and the navel is its end.
“And if he follows after that, his mind is
distracted by disquiet and perturbation, according as it is said.” This is a
quotation from the PaÔisambhidÈmagga. This quotation is important because with
the help of this quotation we decide which is meant by assÈsa and passÈsa in
PÈÄi. Last week we found that the PÈli words ‘assÈsa’ and ‘passÈsa’ are
interpreted differently by different Commentators.
Here is the quotation from that book by the
Venerable SÈriputta. It is as authorative as the words of the Buddha.
"When he goes in with mindfulness after the beginning, middle and end of
the in-breath, his mind being distracted internally” - this word
‘internally’ shows that the word used here means in-breath and not out-breath.
So it is correctly translated here. There is no problem here. But if you read
the PÈÄi, then you may be doubtful as to whether the word ‘assÈsa’ means the
in-breath or the out-breath. When you read this passage, you come to the
conclusion that ‘assÈsa’ must mean in-breath. It says after the beginning,
middle and end of let us say ‘A’, his mind being distracted internally - when
you say the word ‘internally’, the ‘A’ must mean in-breath. It cannot mean
out-breath. This is the quotation.
Now it says 3-4. Actually it is not with
3-4. Here comes the overlapping or combination of two or three stages at the
same moment. “So when he gives attention to it by connection, he should do so
not by the beginning, middle and end (That means not following after the
beginning, middle and end) but rather by touching and fixing.”
“There is no attention to be given to it by
touching separate from fixing as there is by counting separate from
connection.” So when we do counting and connection, there are two separate
(modes) of attention - attention to counting and attention to the breath. But
with regard to touching and fixing there are no separate (modes) of attention
apart from counting and from connection.
“But when he is counting the breaths in the
place touched by each, he is giving attention to them by counting and
touching.” When you are counting, you are doing two stages at the same time -
counting and touching. ‘Touching’ here means keeping your mind at the place
where the breath touches, where you feel the breath.
“When he has given up counting and is
connecting them by means of absorption, then he is said to be giving his
attention to them by connection, touching and fixing.”So you give up counting
and are just mindful of the breaths as they come and go. At that moment there
can be connection and touching. When you reach the stage of neighborhood
concentration and jhÈna concentration, then you are doing three at the same time
- connection, touching and fixing. So these two stages are not to be separated
from counting and connection.
“And the meaning of this may be understood
through the simile of the man who cannot walk and the gate-keeper given in the
Commentaries, and through the simile of the saw given in the PaÔisambhidÈ.”
“Here is the simile of the man who cannot
walk: just as a man unable to walk, who is rocking a swing for the amusement of
his children and their mother, sits at the foot of the swing post and sees both
ends and the middle of the swing plank successively coming and going yet does
not move from his place in order to see both ends and the middle, so too, when
a bhikkhu places himself with mindfulness, as it were, at the foot of the post
for anchoring [mindfulness] and rocks the swing of the in-breaths and
out-breaths; he sits down with mindfulness on the sign at that same place, and
follows with mindfulness the beginning, middle and end of the in-breaths and
out-breaths at the place touched by them as they come and go; keeping his mind
fixed there, he then sees them without moving from his place in order to see
them. This is the simile of the man who cannot walk.” He is aware of the
beginning, middle and end of the in-breaths and out-breaths, but his attention
is on the breaths and not the beginning, middle and end. He cannot help but be
aware of the beginning, middle and end, but he does not pay attention to them.
The next simile is the same, the
gate-keeper. The gate-keeper is only interested in people who are at the gate
and not those who have gone inside the city or who have gone outside the city.
He is interested only in those people who are at the gate. “So too, the
incoming breaths that have gone inside and the outgoing breaths that have gone
outside are not this bhikkhu’s concern, but they are his concern each time they
arrive at the [nostril] gate itself.” So only when they reach the nostril gate,
do they become the object of his mindfulness. This is the simile of the
gate-keeper.
Next is the simile of the saw. It is more
evident in this simile that he pays attention to or keeps his attention at the
entrance of the nostrils. He pays attention to the breaths only when they reach
that place, that entrance, not going with the breath inside the body or outside
the body.
In paragraph 202 near the beginning of the
second paragraph “ The man’s mindfulness is established by the saw’s teeth
where they touch the tree trunk without his giving attention to the saw’s teeth
as they approach and recede.” Actually that means the saw’s teeth that
have come and have gone. The saw’s teeth are not the point where they touch the
log. They have gone this way or that way. That is what is meant. It is not ‘as
they approach and recede’, but it is the saw’s teeth that are not at the point
of touching the log or those that have gone the other way. “Though they are not
unknown to him as they do so; and he manifests effort, carries out a task and
achieves an effect.”
“So too the bhikkhu sits, having established
mindfulness at the nose tip or on the upper lip, without giving attention to
the in-breaths and out-breaths that have come and gone.” It is not ‘as they
approach and recede’ because he must pay attention as they approach and recede,
as they come and go. But he is not to pay attention to those that have gone
into the body or to those that have gone out of the body. “Though they are not
unknown to him as they do so” - that is he is not unaware of them as they do
so.
“And he manifests effort, carries out a task
and achieves an effect.” Then there is an explanation of effort and so on. They
are used in a different sense here. “ ‘Effort’: what is effort? The body and
mind of one who is energetic becomes wieldy - this is effort.” The mind and
body becoming wieldy is said to be effort here.
“What is he task? Imperfections come to be
abandoned in one who is energetic, and his applied thoughts are stilled - this
is the task. What is the effect? Fetters come to be abandoned in one who is
energetic, and his inherent tendencies come to be done away with - this is the
effect.”
“So these three things are not the object of
a single consciousness, and they are nevertheless not unknown, and the mind
does not become distracted, and he manifests effort, carries out a task, and
achieves an effect.” This is the simile of the saw.
When we practice vipassanÈ (mindfulness)
meditation we use this method also. Even when you practice vipassanÈ, you try
to keep the mind at the entrance of the nostrils and try to be mindful of the
breaths coming in and going out.
“After someone has given his attention to
counting, then just as when a body that is disturbed sits down on a bed or
chair” and so on - at the beginning the body is not settled, is not cooled
down. You move a lot. There is squeaking of the bed or chair and so on. But
when your mind gets stilled, then your body also gets stilled and your breath
becomes subtle. “Both the body and the mind become light. The physical body is
as though it were ready to leap up into the air.” You feel lightness in the
body and mind.
“When his gross in-breaths and out-breaths
have ceased, his consciousness occurs with the sign of the subtle in-breaths
and out-breaths as its object.” The breaths become subtle. So they become the
object of his meditation. “And when that has ceased, it goes on occurring with
the successively subtler signs as its object.” The breaths become more and more
subtle as he makes progress in the mindfulness of breathing meditation.
The mindfulness of breathing meditation is
different from the other objects of meditation. For the other objects of
meditation, they become clearer at each higher stage. Let us suppose you
practice kasiÓa meditation. The sign of the kasiÓa becomes clearer and clearer
as you make progress. But the breath becomes less clear when you make progress.
It becomes subtle and it is more difficult to see. Paragraph 208 “It becomes
more subtle for him at each higher stage, and it even comes to the point at
which it is no longer manifest.” The breath is there, but it is so subtle that
you are not aware of the breath. You may even think that you have stopped
breathing all together or that you may have died.
“However, when it becomes unmanifest in this
way, the bhikkhu should not get up from his seat, shake out his leather mat,
and go away.” He must not go away saying, “I have lost my object of
meditation.”
“What should be done? He should not get up
with the idea ‘Shall I ask the teacher?’ (That means I will ask the teacher.)
or ‘Is my meditation subject lost?’; for by going away, and so disturbing his
posture, the meditation subject has to be started anew.” By changing postures
the meditation subject has to be started anew. That is why we try to instruct
meditators to keep still as much as they can, not to make many movements or not
to make movements too often. When you make movements, you have to be mindful of
these movements. Even if it can be done with mindfulness, it is still a
distraction from the main object. It is better to keep still as much as and as
long as you can.
“So he should go on sitting as he was and
[temporarily] substitute the place.” That means he should not give up, but go
on sitting keeping his mind at the place. Now at this moment the breath has
become so subtle that he is not aware of the breath. Let us say that he has
lost the breath. But he must catch the breath at the place where he formerly
caught the breaths. Instead of leaving the place, you stay stuck to the place
and let the breaths become clear again. That is what is meant here.
“These are the means for doing it.” When you
think you have lost the breaths there are some things to do. “ ‘Where do these
in-breaths and out-breaths exist? Where do they not? In whom do they exist? In
whom not?’ Then, as he considers thus, he finds that they do not exist in one
inside the mother’s womb.” This is what is believed in those days. There are
seven kinds of people that do not breathe - the child in the mother’s womb,
those drowned in water (those who have drowned), or likewise in unconscious
beings (those who have become unconscious), or it can mean those who are reborn
as mindless beings (It is explained in both ways in the Sub-Commentary.), in
the dead (Dead people don’t breathe.), or in those who attain to fourth jhÈna
(When a person attains the fourth jhÈna, there is no breathing.) , or in those
born into a fine material or immaterial existence (That is those reborn as
brahmas. Brahmas do not breathe.) , or to those attained to cessation of
perception and feeling. There is an attainment called ‘attainment of
cessation’. Actually it is cessation of mind. During that attainment the mental
activities are temporarily stopped or they are suspended as long the person
wishes. It may be one day, two days, or at most seven days. So there are these
seven kinds of beings who have no breath.
So he should review this “So he should
apostrophize himself thus: ‘You with all your wisdom are certainly not inside a
mother’s womb or drowned in water.” You are not any one of those seven persons.
There must be breath. So you are not without breath. “Those in-breaths and
out-breaths are actually existent in you, only you are not able to discern them
because your understanding is dull.” Actually your understanding is sharp at
that time, but since you cannot be aware of the breath, your wisdom or paÒÒÈ is
said to be dull at that moment.
“Then, fixing his mind on the place normally
touched [by the breaths], he should proceed to give his attention to that.”
When you have lost the breath, you go to the same place where you have caught
it before and try to wait for it there.
“These in-breaths and out-breaths occur
striking the tip of the nose in a long-nosed man.” So if you have a long nose,
they strike at the tip of the nose. If you have a short nose, the breath
strikes at the upper lip of a short-nosed man.
“So he should fix the sign thus: ‘This is
the place where they strike’. This was why the Blessed One said: ‘Bhikkhus, I
do not say of one who is forgetful, who is not fully aware, [that he practices]
development of mindfulness of breathing’.” That means if you are forgetful, if
you do not have good mindfulness, you cannot practice mindfulness of breathing
meditation. Your understanding has to be sharp. Here the Buddha said if you are
forgetful, if you are not fully aware, you cannot practice mindfulness
meditation, mindfulness of breathing meditation.
But the Commentator said: “Although any
meditation subject, no matter what, is successful only in one who is mindful
and fully aware, yet any meditation subject other than this one gets more
evident as he goes on giving it his attention. But this mindfulness of
breathing is difficult, difficult to develop, a field in which only the minds
of Buddhas, Pacceka Buddhas and Buddhas’ sons are at home. It is no trivial
matter, nor can it be cultivated by trivial persons. In proportion as continued
attention is given to it, it becomes more peaceful and subtle. So strong
mindfulness and understanding are necessary here.” Stronger mindfulness and
understanding are needed in the practice of mindfulness of breathing meditation
than in the practice of other kinds of meditation.
“Just as when doing needlework on a piece of
fine cloth a fine needle is needed, and a still finer instrument for boring the
needle’s eye, so too, when developing this meditation subject, which resembles
fine cloth, both mindfulness, which is the counterpart of the needle, and the
understanding associated with it, which is the counterpart of the instrument
for boring the needle’s eye, need to be strong. A bhikkhu must have the
necessary mindfulness and understanding and must look for the in-breaths and
out-breaths nowhere else than the place normally touched by them.” By just
keeping the mind at the place where they touched before, he waits for the
breathing to become evident again. Then there is a simile of a ploughman. Let
us skip that.
Paragraph 214 “When he does so in this way,
the sign soon appears to him.” He perseveres in keeping the mind at the tip of
the nose, and so the breathing becomes evident to him again. Then he dwells on
that sign or that breathing continuously, and so soon appears the sign of
different kinds. “But it is not the same for all.” The sign does not appear in
the same way for all. For one person one kind of sign will appear and for the
other person another sign will appear. There is not one sign, but many forms of
the sign.
“But it is not the same for all; on the
contrary, some say that when it appears it does so to certain people producing
a light touch like cotton or silk-cotton or a draught. But this is the
exposition given in the commentaries: it appears to some like a star or a
cluster of gems or a cluster of pearls, to others with a rough touch like that
of silk-cotton seeds or a peg made of heartwood.” That is what some meditators
feel. They feel like something is put in the nostrils. It may even feel
difficult to breathe. “To others (it seems) like a long braid string or a
wreath of flowers or a puff of smoke, to others like a stretched-out cobweb or
a film of cloud or a lotus flower or a chariot wheel or the moon’s disk or the
sun’s disk.” Any kind of sign can appear to a person. When my father practiced
this meditation, he said the sign was like a sheet of silver. Any one of those
mentioned here or those not mentioned here may appear to a meditator. Anything
can appear as the sign of this meditation.
“In fact this resembles an occasion when a
number of bhikkhus are sitting together reciting a Suttanta. When a bhikkhu
asks ‘What does this Sutta appear like to you?’, one says ‘It appears to me
like a great mountain torrent’, another ‘To me it is like a line of forest
trees’.” and so on. Depending on different persons there can be multiplicity or
great variety of these signs.
“Similarly this single meditation subject
appears differently because of difference in perception. It is born of
perception, its source is perception, it is produced by perception. Therefore
it should be understood that when it appears differently it is because of
difference in perception.” People have different outlooks or different notions,
so the sign appears differently to different people.
“And here, the consciousness that has
in-breath as its object is one, the consciousness that has out-breath as its
object is another, and the consciousness that has the sign as its object is
another.” This you know from Abhidhamma. Consciousness can only take one object
at a time. Consciousness that takes in-breath as object is one. And then
consciousness that takes the out-breath is another. So they are different.
“And the consciousness that has the sign as
its object is another. For the meditation subject reaches neither absorption
nor even access in one who has not got these three things [clear] (who does not
see clearly the in-breath, the out-breath, and the sign). But it reaches access
and also absorption in one who has got these three things [clear].”
When the sign appears in this way, what must
the meditator do? “The bhikkhu should go to the teacher and tell him ‘Venerable
sir, such and such has appeared to me’. But [say the DÊgha Reciters] the
teacher should say neither ‘This is the sign’ nor ‘This is not the sign’; after
saying ‘It happens like this, friend’.” The teacher should just say that it
happens like this. The teacher should not say that this is the sign or that
this is not the sign. That is what the DÊgha Reciters think.
“He should tell him ‘Go on giving it
attention again and again’; for if he were told “It is the sign’, he might
[become complacent and] stop short at that.” That means the sign is difficult
to get. If the teacher says that he has the sign, the student might think “Oh,
I’ve got what s difficult to get and so I may slow down a little. I can
practice any time I like.” He may think something like that. “And if he were
told ‘It is not the sign’, he might get discouraged and give up; so he should
encourage him to keep giving it his attention without saying either. So the
DÊgha Reciters say, firstly.”
‘DÊgha reciters’ means the reciters of the
Long Discourses. You know there are Collections of Long Discourses, Middle
Length Discourses, Kindred Discourses and The Gradual Sayings. There are monks
who do special study of the Long Discourses. Other monks make special study of
the Middle Length Discourses and so on. The DÊgha Reciters say like this.
“But the Majjhima Reciters (those who make
special study of The Middle Length Sayings) say that he should be told ‘This is
the sign, friend. Well done. Keep giving attention to it again and again’.”
They thought there is no reason for a meditator to be discouraged or to be
complacent when he knows that he has got the sign. He practices meditation just
to attain to the jhÈna stage and later on for the attainment of enlightenment.
When the teacher says “It is the sign”, then he must be encouraged. So it is
good according to the Majjhima Reciters to tell the student that it is the
sign.
Student:
And it is also Venerable Buddhaghosa’s opinion because it is the second one?
Teacher:
That’s right. You remembered. That’s very good.
“Then he should fix his mind on the same
sign; and so from now on, his development proceeds by way of fixing.” We come
now to the fourth stage, fixing.
“So as soon as the sign appears, his
hindrances are suppressed, his defilements subside, his mindfulness is
established, and his consciousness is concentrated in access concentration.”
Then after access concentration comes jhÈna concentration.
“Then he should not give attention to the
sign as to its color, or review it as to its [specific] characteristic.” This
is because if he gives attention to its color, it will become a color
meditation and not breathing meditation. If he reviews it as to its
characteristic, it will become another kind of meditation rather than
mindfulness of breathing meditation. He should not pay attention to its color
or its characteristic.
“He should guard it as carefully as a king’s
chief queen guards the child in her womb due to become a Wheel-turning
Monarch.” That means a Universal Monarch. He should guard it.
“Then guarding it thus, he should make it
grow and improve with repeated attention.” He should pay attention to it, dwell
on it for a long time.
“And he should practice the tenfold skill in
absorption (Ch.4,42) and bring about evenness of energy.” That means evenness
or balance of energy and concentration.
“As he strives thus, fourfold and fivefold
jhÈna is achieved by him on that same sign in the same way as described under
the earth kasiÓa.” So jhÈna arises in him. Then from first jhÈna he would go to
second, third, fourth and fifth jhÈnas. During the moments of jhÈna the mind is
very fixed, very still. This is the fourth stage, fixing.
After fixing comes what? After fixing comes
observing. What is observing? Observing is insight is what is explained there.
So now he will change to vipassanÈ meditation. Until this point he practiced
mindfulness of breathing meditation as a samatha meditation. He got to the
jhÈna stage. After that it will become vipassanaÈ meditation.
“However, when a bhikkhu has achieved the
fourfold and fivefold jhÈna and wants to reach purity by developing the
meditation subject through observing and through turning away, he should make
that jhÈna familiar by attaining mastery in it in the five ways and then embark
upon insight by defining mentality-materiality. How?”
Since he has jhÈna, he makes the jhÈna the
basis for his vipassanÈ meditation. He enters into jhÈna. Then after emerging
from jhÈna, he concentrates on the jhÈna. First he embarks on insight by
defining mentality and materiality - defining this is mind, this is matter.
“On emerging from the attainment, he sees
that the in-breaths and out-breaths have the physical body and the mind as
their origin (because they are caused by mind); and that just as, when a blacksmith’s
bellows are being blown, the wind moves owing to the bag and to the man’s
appropriate effort, so too, in-breaths and out-breaths are due to the body and
the mind.”
“Next, he defines the in-breaths and
out-breaths and the body as ‘materiality’, and the consciousness and the states
associated with the consciousness as the ‘immaterial’ [mind].” Do you know why
it is stated here, why it is given here? Because real vipassanÈ begins with
discerning mind and matter clearly. One must be able to see, not just guess, to
see clearly mind and matter through meditation. First we need concentration.
Then after concentration of mind comes the discerning of mind and matter. This
is the actual beginning of vipassanÈ meditation.
“Having defined mentality-materiality in
this way, he seeks its condition.” From the stage of discerning mentality and
materiality he progresses to the stage of seeing their conditions, or seeing
that they are conditioned, seeing their causes.
“With search he finds it and so overcomes his
doubts about the way of mentality-materiality’s occurrence in the three
divisions of time.” That means the breath and the body are materiality, and
mindfulness and others are mentality. They are not uncaused or they are not
unconditioned. The breath is conditioned by mind. The consciousness and mental
factors are conditioned by each other and are also conditioned by the material
base and so on. The next stage is seeing the conditionality of things actually,
seeing the conditions of mind and matter.
“His doubts being overcome, he attributes
the three characteristics [beginning
with that of suffering to mentality and materiality], comprehending [them] by
groups; he abandons the ten imperfections of insight beginning with
illumination, which arise in the first stages of the Contemplation of Rise and
Fall, and he defines as ‘the path’ the knowledge of the way that is free from
these imperfections.” This is a very brief description of the stages of
vipassanÈ meditation. They will be treated in detail in succeeding chapter.
After discerning conditions he discerns
what? The three characteristics - impermanence, suffering and insubstantiality.
So these three characteristics he comes to see.
“He reaches Contemplation of Dissolution by
abandoning [attention to] arising.” At the early stage of seeing arising and
falling the impediments come in, the impediments to the progress of vipassanÈ -
seeing lights, feeling very happy and so on. When they arise, a yogi may think
that he has attained enlightenment. If he thinks in this way, he will not make
effort to reach higher stages. He must understand that these are not the way to
enlightenment. They are just obstacles. He has to overcome these obstacles.
When he has overcome these obstacles, he reaches the higher stages of
discerning rising and falling. So there are two stages in the discernment of
rising and falling, the lower stage and the higher stage. After reaching the
lower stage the ten impediments occur in the yogi. After conquering these ten
impediments he reaches the higher stage of discerning rise and fall.
From there he reaches another stage where he
sees only the falling, only the dissolution, only the disappearing of things.
Only the dissolution of things appears to him clearly. That is the contemplation
of dissolution.
“He reaches Contemplation of Dissolution by
abandoning [attention to] arising. When all formations have appeared as terror
owing to the contemplation of their incessant dissolution.” After that he sees
them as dangerous, as dangers. He is not afraid of them; he does not fear them.
Still he sees them as dangerous. It is different. Sometimes you are not afraid
of something, but you recognize it as dangerous. Here a yogi does not get
afraid of them. If he gets afraid of them, then he has akusala in him and not
meditation. When he sees things just disappearing, disappearing, disappearing,
he comes to see danger in disappearing.
After that he becomes dispassionate towards
them. When you see something is dangerous, you are not attached to it. You want
to get away from it. So he becomes dispassionate towards them. “His greed for
them fades away, and he is liberated from them.” ‘Liberated from them’ means he
has gotten rid of attachment, anger and delusion and has become enlightened.
“After he has [thus] reached the Four Noble
Paths in due succession and has become established in the Fruition of
Arahantship, he at last attains to the 19 kinds of Reviewing Knowledge.” After
the attainment of each stage of enlightenment there is what we call ‘reviewing’
- reviewing the Path, reviewing Fruit, reviewing NibbÈna, reviewing the mental
defilements that have been eradicated and reviewing the mental defilements
which remain. There are five kinds of reviewing after the first stage, second
stage and third stage. But at the fourth stage, after becoming an Arahant,
there are only four kinds of reviewing.There are no mental defilements
remaining. For the Arahants there are only four kinds of reviewing - reviewing
of Path, Fruit, NibbÈna and defilements eradicated. So all together we have 19
kinds of reviewing knowledge.
“And he becomes fit to receive the highest
gifts from the world with its deities.” A
person first practices mindfulness of breathing meditation as samatha
meditation and gets jhÈna. Then making that jhÈna the basis for vipassanÈ
meditation, he practices vipassanÈ meditation and gradually reaches the stage
of Arahant.
“At this point his development of
concentration through mindfulness of breathing, beginning with counting and
ending with looking back is completed.”
In the stages ‘observing’ means vipassanÈ.
‘Turning away’ means attainment of Path or attainment of enlightenment.
‘Looking back’ means reviewing. All eight stages are complete now. “This is the
commentary on the first tetrad in all aspects.”
Do you remember the first four methods?
Long, short, whole breath body and tranquilizing the breath. These are the
four.
“Now since there is no separate method for
developing the meditation subject in the case of the other tetrads, their
meaning therefore needs only to be understood according to the word
commentary.” There is no special method of practicing the other sets of four.
This is because the other sets of four are to be practiced after a person
reaches the jhÈna stage by practicing the first four methods. There are no
special for he other tetrads.
In the second tetrad “He trains thus ‘I
shall breathe in.. shall breathe out experiencing happiness’ (pÊti).” That
means he clearly sees, or clearly experiences, or clearly knows pÊti.
“Herein, the happiness is experienced in two
ways: (a) with the object (That means by way of the object), and (b) with
(by way of) non-confusion.” I think ‘with’ does not mean by way of. I think it
is better to say ‘by way of’.
“How is the happiness experienced with the
object? He attains the jhÈnas in which happiness is present. At the time when
he has actually entered upon them the happiness is experienced with the object
owing to the obtaining of jhÈna, because of the experiencing of the object.”
When a person obtains the first or second jhÈna, what is the object of that
jhÈna? The sign, the counterpart sign. At the moment of jhÈna the actual object
is the counterpart sign and not happiness. But here it said he is experiencing,
he is knowing happiness, he is knowing pÊti at that moment. So that means at
the time of reaching jhÈna happiness or pÊti is said to be known clearly by way
of the object. That means because the object is clearly known at that time,
because the object is known, pÊti is also known. It is not that pÊti becomes
the object of jhÈna. By way of the object itself we can say that pÊti is also
known.
Footnote 62 “ ‘With the object’: under the
heading of the object. The happiness included in the jhÈna that has the object
is experienced ‘because of the experiencing of the object’. What is meant? Just
as, when a man who is looking for a snake discovers its abode, the snake is, as
it were, already discovered and caught, owing to the ease with which he will
then be able to catch it with charms and spells.” He has not yet caught the
snake, but it is as good as having caught it.
“So too, when the object, which is the abode of happiness, is experienced, then
the happiness itself is experienced too, owing to the ease with which it will
be apprehended in its specific and general characteristics.” ‘Specific
characteristic’ means its characteristic which is not shared by other mental
states. ‘General characteristic’ means its characteristic of impermanence,
suffering and no-soul nature. So when the object is clearly seen, pÊti is also
said to be clearly seen. That is what is meant here.
“How with non-confusion? When, after
entering upon and emerging from one of the two jhÈnas accompanied by happiness,
he comprehends with insight that happiness associated with the jhÈna as liable
to destruction and to fall, then at the actual time of the insight the
happiness is experienced with (by way of) non-confusion owing to the
penetration of its characteristics.” That is when he practices vipassanÈ
meditation on it. First he enters into the first or second jhÈna. He emerges
from it. Then he takes the happiness of the jhÈna factors as an object of
meditation and contemplates on it as impermanent, suffering and soulless. At
that moment he really clearly sees the happiness. ‘Non-confusion’ means he sees
it as it is - as impermanent, as suffering, as soulless and not otherwise.
Then there is a quotation from the
PaÔisambhidÈmagga. We can skip it.
Paragraph 229 “The remaining [three] clauses
should be understood in the same way as to meaning; but there is this
difference here. The experiencing of bliss (sukha) must be to be through three
jhÈnas.” Sukha is present in first jhÈna, second jhÈna and third jhÈna. So here
it says “through three jhÈnas and that of mental formations through four.” What
is ‘mental formation’ here? We don’t have to ask because it is explained. “The
mental formation consists of the two aggregates of feeling and perception.”
Here ‘mental formation’ means feeling and perception. So feeling and perception
are called ‘mental formation’ or ‘citta sa~khÈra’ because they arise only when
consciousness arises. They depend upon consciousness for their arising. They
are said to be conditioned by citta, by consciousness or mind. ‘Mental formation’
really means mind-formed, or formed by, or conditioned by consciousness. Here
‘conditioned by consciousness’ is made to mean feeling and perception.
‘Experiencing the mental formation’ means experiencing feeling and perception.
“And in the case of the clause, experiencing
bliss, it is said in the PaÔisambhidÈ in order to show the plane of insight
here [as well]: ‘Bliss, there are two kinds of bliss, bodily bliss and mental
bliss’. Tranquilizing the mental formation: tranquilizing the gross mental
formation; stopping it, is the meaning.” So there is experiencing bliss and
tranquilizing formations. In the first jhÈna, second jhÈna, third jhÈna there
is sukha. During those jhÈnas a person is said to experience bliss.
‘Tranquilizing the gross mental formation’ means tranquilizing the gross
feeling and perception.
“Here, moreover in the ‘happiness’ clause
feeling [which is actually being contemplated in this tetrad] is stated under
the heading of ‘happiness’ [which is a formation] but in the ‘bliss’ clause
feeling is stated in its own form.” The PÈÄi words are ‘pÊtispatisamvedi’ and
‘sukhapatisamvedi’. In the clause pÊtipatisamvedi, that is experiencing
happiness feeling is stated under the heading of happiness. Although it is says
‘happiness’, we are to understand it to mean feeling. Do you know why he is
saying this here? Because this second tetrad has to do with contemplation on
feeling. Although it says ‘experiencing happiness’, the real thing is clearly
understanding or clearly knowing feeling. Feeling is described here under the
heading of happiness (pÊtÙ).
The real
word that is used is ‘happiness’ (pÊti), but what we have to understand is
feeling.
In the clause experiencing bliss it is
stated in its own form. That means sukhapatisamvedi. Sukha belongs to feeling.
So here feeling is stated directly. So we do not have to go round here. So
‘experiencing bliss’ means experiencing the feeling. ‘’Experiencing happiness’
(pÊti) also means experiencing feeling. Experiencing bliss (sukha) is stated in
its own form, not under any other thing.
“In the two mental-formation clauses the
feeling is that [necessarily] associated with perception because of the words
‘perception’ and ‘feeling’ belong to the mind, these things being bound up with
the mind are mental formations.” The third clause, tranquilizing the mental
formations - although ‘mental formation’ means feeling and perception, here it
is made to mean feeling accompanied by perception. Actually it is the same
thing. It is feeling accompanied by or associated with perception. That is why
this tetrad has to do with contemplation on feeling.
The Commentator is explaining this to us
because we may ask about the second and
clause where it is said that he is aware of pÊti which is not feeling, but it
is included in the feeling contemplation. So he explained that although the
word ‘pÊti’ is mentioned, but we must understand feeling, not pÊti. The second
tetrad has to do with the contemplation on feelings. This second tetrad can
only be practiced after one gets jhÈnas. In order to understand this you have
to understand that the first jhÈna, second jhÈna are accompanied by pÊti and
the third jhÈna is accompanied by sukha. The fourth jhÈna also is accompanied
by sukha. The fifth jhÈna is accompanied by upekkhÈ. This is the end of the
second tetrad. The third tetrad and so on we will finish next week.
SÈdhu! SÈdhu! SÈdhu!
We offer
this transcription of a Dhamma class with Venerable U SÊlÈnanda with the hope
that it will be beneficial for your understanding of the Buddha’s teachings.
This transcription has not been edited. It is the record of spontaneous
exchanges between the teacher and students. Therefore it is possible that there
are some errors. We are certain that such errors are infrequent and minimal.
SayÈdaw is a meticulous and careful teacher and offers these teachings in this
manner out of compassion for people interested in the serious study and
practice of meditation and Buddhism.
(Tape 20 / Ps: 231
– 251)
Today we come to the third tetrad. The third
tetrad has to do with consciousness. “In the third tetrad the experience of the
[manner of] consciousness must be understood through four jhÈnas.” Here
I do not know where he got the words ‘manner of’. I don’t find them in the
Sub-Commentary. We don’t need to say ‘experiencing the manner of
consciousness’. We may say ‘experiencing consciousness’. That means clearly
seeing consciousness. So I would leave out the words ‘manner of’.
The next is: “Gladdening the consciousness:
he trains thus, making the mind glad, instilling gladness into it, cheering it,
rejoicing it, I shall breathe in, shall breathe out. Herein, there is
gladdening in two ways, through concentration and through insight.” So through
samatha and vipassanÈ.
“How through concentration? He attains the
two jhÈnas in which happiness (pÊti) is present.” The two jhÈnas mean what?
According to the fourfold method it means the first and second jhÈnas. If it is
according to the fivefold method, it is first, second and third jhÈnas. Mostly
the fourfold method is used in the book, so it says two jhÈnas, the first and
the second according to the fourfold method.
“At the time when he has actually entered
upon them he inspires the mind with gladness, instills gladness into it, by
means of the happiness associated with the jhÈna.” When he is in the first
jhÈna or the second jhÈna, there is pÊti arising together with jhÈna. When
there is pÊti or happiness, his mind is gladdened. He experiences that at the
moment of jhÈna attainment.
“How through insight? After entering upon
and emerging from one of the two jhÈnas accompanied by happiness he comprehends
with insight and happiness associated with the jhÈna as liable to destruction
and to fall, thus at the actual time of insight he inspires the mind with
gladness, instills gladness into it by making the happiness associated with
jhÈna the object.” The person who is practicing vipassanÈ here has obtained
jhÈna before. So he enters into jhÈna first and emerges from the jhÈna. Then he
contemplates on the pÊti associated with jhÈna, contemplates on pÊti as liable
to destruction, liable to fall because if you practice vipassanÈ, you must see
the impermanence, suffering and soulless nature of things. Therefore he
contemplates on pÊti as liable to fall, liable to destruction.
Student:
Bhante, is pÊti vedanÈ or not?
Teacher:
PÊti is not vedanÈ.
Student:
This is pÊti?
Teacher:
Yes, this is actual pÊti.
“It is of one progressing in this way that
the words ‘He trains thus: I shall breathe in..shall breathe out gladdening the
consciousness’, are said.” In this method the meditator enters into jhÈna
first, emerges from the jhÈna and contemplates here on pÊti as liable to
destruction and so on. He inspires his mind, he gladdens his mind thus.
“ ‘Concentrating the consciousness’ means
evenly placing the mind.” We have the PÈÄi word ‘samÈdahaÑ’. ‘SamaÑ’ means
evenly. ‘Œdahanto’ means putting or placing. So the PÈÄi word ‘samÈdahaÑ’ means
evenly placing. It is a synonym for samÈdhi. SamÈdhi is that mental state which
keeps the mind evenly on the object. The mind is collected, not scattered, not
only the mind but the other concomitants as well. The mind and the other
concomitants are collected and kept on the object without being
distracted. This is the function of
samÈdhi.
“Evenly placing the mind, evenly putting it
on its object by means of the first jhÈna and so on” - since samÈdhi is
mentioned, we take any jhÈna. That is because there is samÈdhi in any jhÈna.
The first jhÈna has how many factors? Five
factors. The fifth one is what? EkaggatÈ.
That is
one-pointedness of mind or unification of mind which is a synonym for samÈdhi.
SamÈdhi in a very strong form is present in all jhÈnas - first, second, third
and fourth.
“Or alternatively when, having entered upon
those jhÈnas and emerged from them, he comprehends with insight the
consciousness associated with the jhÈna as liable to destruction and to fall.”
Here he enters into jhÈna, emerges from jhÈna, and concentrates on jhÈna
consciousness.
You know what jhÈna is. Technically speaking
‘jhÈna’ means the collection of the five factors, or four factors, or three
factors, or two factors. JhÈna consciousness is consciousness accompanied by
jhÈna factors. There are other concomitants arising together with the jhÈna
factors and with the jhÈna consciousness. Here the meditator takes
consciousness as the object of vipassanÈ. In the previous method he takes pÊti
as the object of vipassanÈ. Here he takes consciousness as the object of
vipassanÈ.
“At the actual time of insight momentary
unification of the mind arises.” This is important, this momentary unification.
In PÈÄi it is called ‘khaÓika samÈdhi’. I think you should be familiar with the
PÈÄi words ‘khaÓika samÈdhi’. ‘KhaÓika’ means lasting for a moment. ‘KhaÓa’
means a moment. ‘SamÈdhi’ means samÈdhi. So khaÓika samÈdhi is momentary
concentration, momentary unification of the mind. It is explained in the
Sub-Commentary. The translation is given in the footnotes. What is needed in
vipassanÈ meditation is this khaÓika samÈdhi, this momentary samÈdhi.
There are two kinds of samÈdhi in samatha
meditation. They are mentioned at the beginning, I think, of the third chapter.
One is neighborhood or access samÈdhi. The second one is absorption samÈdhi.
There are two kinds of samÈdhi, neighborhood samÈdhi and absorption samÈdhi.
When you practice samatha meditation, first you get neighborhood concentration.
From neighborhood concentration you progress to jhÈna concentration.
In vipassanÈ there can be no neighborhood
concentration because neighborhood implies there is jhÈna. Whose neighbor? It
is the neighbor of jhÈna. But in vipassanÈ there is no jhÈna. So there can be
no neighborhood or access concentration in vipassanÈ. Instead of neighborhood
concentration there is this momentary concentration. This is as good as the
neighborhood concentration. Concentration lasting for only a moment, that is
the word meaning of momentary concentration.
“For that too, when it occurs
uninterruptedly on its object in a single mode and is not overcome by
opposition, fixes the mind immovably, as if in absorption.” The momentary
concentration can keep the mind on the object and not let it be distracted.
That is what we call ‘momentary concentration’.
When a person practices vipassanÈ, in the
beginning he may have wandering of mind, going out here and there. He has to
bring it back to the main object again and again. Then a time will come with
practice when this wandering comes less frequently until it will not come at
all. The mind will not be distracted at all. Or even when there is distraction
the meditator will catch it right away. He will not be carried away by the
wandering or stray thoughts for ten seconds, twenty seconds and so on. That is
the time when the meditator is said to have gained the momentary concentration.
That means the mind is on the main object for a long time. And even if there is
wandering mind the meditator is able to catch it, is able to be mindful of it
as soon as it goes out. Sometimes you will be able to stop it before it goes
out. The moment it is about to go out, you are aware. So you can stop it before
it goes out. Such a time is called the time that a person has reached momentary
concentration. Momentary concentration is important in vipassanÈ meditation. It
is the counterpart of neighborhood or access concentration in samatha
meditation. With that concentration mind is concentrated. It arises through the
penetration of the characteristics of impermanence and so on. The mind is on
mind and matter and on their impermanent nature and others.
The next one is liberating the
consciousness, freeing the consciousness. ‘Liberation’ here can mean different
things with different jhÈnas. Since it has to do with jhÈnas, jhÈnas are
mentioned here. The first jhÈna liberates the mind from what? The first jhÈna
liberates the mind from hindrances. That is because if there are hindrances in
your mind, you cannot get the first jhÈna. So first jhÈna frees your mind from
mental hindrances. The second jhÈna frees your mind from what? Initial
application (vitakka) and sustained application (vicÈra). And the third jhÈna
frees your mind from pÊti and so on.
“Or alternatively, when having entered upon
those jhÈnas and emerged from them, he comprehends with insight the
consciousness associated with the jhÈna as liable to destruction and to fall.”
First he enters into jhÈna and emerges from jhÈna. Then he comprehends the
consciousness associated with the jhÈna as liable to destruction and so on.
“Then at the actual time of insight he
delivers, liberates, the mind from the perception of permanence by means of the
contemplation of impermanence.” If he contemplates on impermanence, he
liberates the mind from the conception of permanence. “From the perception of
pleasure by means of the contemplation of pain” - if he contemplates on dukkha,
then he will be able to free his mind from the perception of sukha. “From the
perception of self by means of the contemplation of not self” - if he
contemplates on not self, he will be able to get rid of the perception of self.
“From delight by means of the contemplation of dispassion” - so when you
contemplate on dispassion, delight will be gotten rid of. “From greed by means
of contemplation of fading away” - ‘fading away’ really means Magga. “From
arousing by means of the contemplation of cessation” - when you contemplate on
cessation, you do not arouse anything, you do not cause anything to arise.
“From grasping by means of the contemplation of relinquishment” - when you
contemplate relinquishment, then you abandon grasping. These are those
liberated by different stages of vipassanÈ meditation. This also pertains to
both samatha and vipassanÈ.
This tetrad should be understood as dealing
with contemplation of mind. The first is what?
Experiencing or making clear the mind consciousness. The second is
gladdening consciousness. The third is concentrating consciousness. The fourth
is liberating consciousness. This tetrad has to do with the contemplation of
mind, the third of the four foundations of mindfulness.
I told you once that whenever I come to
small print, I am afraid to read it. You know the Sub-Commentaries are actually
more difficult than the Commentaries. Venerable ©ÈÓamoli used the
Sub-Commentary for his explanation here. Sometimes he misunderstood a word or a
whole sentence.
“At the actual time of insight: at the time
of contemplation of dissolution. For dissolution is the furthest extreme of
impermanence.” ‘At the time of actual insight’ means at the time of
contemplation on dissolution. Contemplation on dissolution comes a little later
in vipassanÈ. The first knowledge you gain in vipassanÈ is defining mind and
matter. After getting the momentary concentration, you come to see mind and
matter clearly. After getting the momentary concentration, you come to see mind
and matter clearly. Then you see the relationship between mind and matter or
the relationship between what makes notes and what is noted as cause and
effect. Then you come to see the impermanence of things. The next stage is
seeing the arising and disappearing. Then the next stage is seeing dissolution.
First you see arising and dissolution clearly. Later on you see dissolution
more clearly, or dissolution becomes more prominent than arising. That is the
statement here. ‘The actual time of insight’ means at the time of the
contemplation of dissolution. “Dissolution is the furthest extreme of
impermanence.” It is the highest stage of impermanence because after
dissolution there will be nothing. Arising, going towards dissolution and
dissolution itself - they are the three phases of existence. After dissolution
the thing is gone. So “Dissolution is the furthest extreme of impermanence.”
When you see dissolution, you will not fail to see impermanence.
“So the meditator who is contemplating
dissolution by its means sees under the heading of consciousness (He is
watching consciousness and he sees) the whole field of formations as
impermanent, not as permanent.” Here ‘formations’ means everything in the
world. When we say ‘kamma formations’, we mean kamma or volition. But when we
say ‘formations’, we mean everything in the world. Everything which is formed,
everything which is conditioned is called ‘formation’ here. The PÈÄi word is
sa~khÈra. The meaning of sa~khÈra is made by causes or produced by causes.
“It is this contemplation of impermanence,
etc., is called relinquishment as giving up and relinquishment as entering into
because it gives up defilements along with aggregate producing kamma formations
and because by seeing the flaws in what is formed and by inclining toward the
opposite of what is formed, namely NibbÈna, it enters into that NibbÈna.
Consequently the meditator who has that contemplation gives up defilements and
enters into NibbÈna in the way stated.” Relinquishment will be treated later.
There are two kinds of relinquishment. We will come to that later.
“Herein, the contemplation of what is
impermanent as only impermanent is ‘contemplation of impermanence’.” Do you see
that sentence? There is something wrong here. The contemplation of impermanence
is explained in two ways in the Sub-Commentary. Contemplation of what is
impermanent is contemplation of impermanence and contemplation of something as
impermanent is also called ‘contemplation of impermanence’. The PÈÄi word,
following the sequence in PÈÄi, is impermanence contemplation. ‘Impermanence
contemplation’ means contemplation of what is impermanent and contemplation on
something as impermanent. In fact they mean the same thing, but it is how words
are explained in the Commentary.
“This is a name for insight that occurs by
taking formations of the three [mundane] planes [and leaving aside the
supramundane] as impermanent.” VipassanÈ meditation never takes the
supramundane as object or it cannot take the supramundane as object. That is
because vipassanÈ must see the impermanent nature and others of things. So it
can only take mundane things as object.
“ ‘From the perception of permanence’: from
the wrong perception that occurs perceiving formed things as permanent,
eternal; also the various views” - here I have to correct
something. Strike out the words ‘the’ and ‘various’. “Also consciousness and
wrong view should be regarded as included under the heading of perception.” In
the Commentary it is stated as ‘from the perception of permanence’. ‘From the
perception of permanence’ really means from the perception of consciousness and
from the wrong views of permanence. The other two are included under the
heading of perception.
“Likewise with the perception of pleasure
and so on. ‘By means of the contemplation of dispassion’: by means of
contemplation that occurs in the mode of dispassion for formations.” The others
are not difficult to understand.
Let us go to the last tetrad paragraph 234.
Here contemplating impermanence - in connection with this phrase the author
gives us what it is that is impermanent, what is impermanence, what is the
contemplation of impermanence, and what is the one who contemplates
impermanence. There are four things differentiated here. The first is the
impermanent. What is the impermanent? The answer is the five aggregates. The five
aggregates are those that are impermanent because their essence is rise and
fall, and change. Their essence or their nature is to rise, to fall and to
change.
“Impermanence is the rise and fall and
change in those same aggregates.” Why do we say that the aggregates are
impermanent? Because these aggregates arise, disappear and they change.
Arising, disappearing and change is something by which we know that they are
impermanent. That is why they are called ‘impermanent’ here. They rise, and
fall, and change.
“Or it is their non-existence after having
been.” That means disappearing after coming into being. Everything comes into
being and then disappears.
“The meaning is, it is the break-up of
produced aggregates through their momentary dissolution since they do not
remain in the same mode.” I am a little concerned about the word ‘momentary’. I
looked it up in the dictionary. It has at least two meanings. The first one,
the first meaning is just for a moment. The other meaning of momentary is at every
moment or moment to moment. Here moment to moment is meant. But when we say
‘momentary unification of mind’ we mean for a short time. So there is a
difference between the ‘momentary’ used in one sentence and the ‘momentary’
used in the other sentence. So in the expression ‘momentary unification of
mind’ we mean lasting only for a moment. But here ‘momentary dissolution’ means
moment to moment dissolution, dissolving at every moment.
“Contemplation of impermanence is
contemplation of materiality, etc., as ‘impermanent’ in virtue of that
impermanence. One contemplating impermanence possesses that contemplation. So
it is when one such as this is breathing in and breathing out that it can be
understood of him ‘He trains thus: I shall breathe in..shall breathe out
contemplating impermanence’.” The person is the one who possesses contemplation
of impermanence. So the impermanent, impermanence, contemplation of
impermanence, and the one who possesses contemplation of impermanence - four
things are differentiated here.
Footnote 65 “What is called ‘permanent’ is
what is lasting, eternal, like NibbÈna. What is called ‘impermanent’ is what is
not permanent, and is possessed of rise and fall. He said ‘the five aggregates
are impermanent’, signifying that they are formed dhammas as to meaning.”
It should be ‘formed dhammas as to reality’, not meaning. According to reality
they are formed dhammas, they are conditioned dhammas.
The PÈÄi word ‘attha’ has many meanings. The
obvious meaning of it is meaning. The meaning of a word is called ‘attha’. It
has other meanings as well like substance, reality or thing. Here the PÈÄi word
‘atthato’ means in reality. So “they are formed dhammas as to reality or in
reality”, not as to meaning.
“Why? Because their essence is rise and fall
and change; the meaning is that their individual essences have rise and fall
and change. Herein, formed dhammas arising owing to cause and condition, their
coming to be after non-existence, their acquisition of an individual self
(‘Individual self’ means just something like identity. It is not self with a
capital S.), is ‘rise’. Their momentary cessation when arisen is ‘fall’. Their
changedness due to aging is ‘change’.” This is the explanation of the words.
“For just as when the occasion of arising
dissolves and the occasion of dissolution [succeeds it] there is no break
in the object (vatthu), so also there is no break in object on the occasion facing dissolution (That
means going toward dissolution. That means the middle phase of existence.), in
other words, presence, which is what the term of common usage ‘aging’ refers
to.”
Do you understand this? You don’t? What is
‘break in the object’? When one misunderstands one word, then one does not
understand the whole sentence. He misunderstood the PÈÄi word ‘bheda’. ‘Bheda’
can mean dissolution or break. It can also mean difference. What is meant here
is difference, difference in the thing. There are three submoments for one big
moment - the arising, going towards dissolution, and dissolution. There are
three submoments. During these three submoments one dhamma is said to be
existing. The third submoment is different from the first submoment. At the
third submoment which is different from the first submoment there is no
difference in the thing. The thing is still existing. A given thing, a given
dhamma must exist for these three submoments. At the first submoment or at the
last submoment the thing is the same. There is no difference in the thing. In
the same way there is no difference in the thing at the middle stage. This is
what the Sub-Commentary is telling us.
“For just as when the occasion of arising
dissolves and the occasion of dissolution [succeeds it] there is no break
in the object” - no, this is not correct. “Just as at the dissolution moment
which is different from the arising moment there is no difference of the thing,
so also there is no difference at the moment of aging or at the moment of
presence, the middle moment.”
“So it is proper that the aging of a single
dhamma is meant, which is called ‘momentary aging’. And without any reservation
there must be no break (It should be difference.) in the object between
the occasions of arising and dissolution, otherwise it follows that one thing
arises and another dissolves.” One thing exists for three submoments. The third
submoment is different from the first submoment. And the second submoment is
also different from the first submoment and the third submoment. Although the
submoments are different the thing is the same because it is existing for these
three submoments. There should be no difference of object between the moments
of arising, aging and disappearing. This is what the Sub-Commentary is telling
us.
Student:
So this is a theoretical construct about how you analyze moments.
Teacher:
Yes, and how we explain moment to moment dissolution. According to Abhidhamma
that which has three submoments of existence is real. Otherwise it is not real.
So concepts are said not to possess these three phases of existence. We do not
know when they come into being and when they dissolve. So they have no essence
of their own, no existence of their own. Concept exists only in our minds, but
not in reality. What is real according to Abhidhamma is that which has three
phases of existence. That is why consciousness is real, mental states are real,
and material properties are real. NibbÈna is real also. NibbÈna is real, but it
has no beginning or end. So it is different from the other three.
Paragraph 235 “Contemplating fading away:
there are two kinds of fading away, that is, fading away as destruction, and
absolute fading away. Herein, fading away as destruction is the momentary
dissolution of formations.” Moment to moment dissolution of formations is
called ‘fading away as destruction’ or ‘dissolution’.
“ ‘Absolute fading away’ is NibbÈna.
Contemplation of fading away is insight and it is the Path (So both insight and
Path are meant here.), which occur as the seeing of these two.” So
contemplating of fading away can be at
the vipassanÈ moments as well as at the Path moment.
“The same method of explanation applies to
the clause, contemplating cessation.” So cessation and fading away here are
used synonymously.
“Contemplating relinquishment:
relinquishment is of two kinds too, that is to say, relinquishment as giving
up, and relinquishment as entering into.” This word has two meanings - giving
up and entering into.
“Relinquishment itself as [a way of]
contemplation is ‘contemplation of relinquishment’. (This is the word
explanation.) For insight is called both ‘relinquishment as giving up’ and
‘relinquishment as entering into’ since [firstly] through substitution of
opposite qualities it gives up defilements.” Now here there is a little
inaccuracy. He gives up defilements together with resultant aggregates and the
aggregate producing kamma formations. There are three things - defilements,
resultant aggregates and aggregate producing kamma formations. These three
things are abandoned, relinquished. It is through substitution of opposites. Sometimes
people want to be literal when translating and that makes it a little more
difficult to understand. ‘substitution of opposite qualities’ simply means
momentary abandonment.
At this moment you don’t have attachment in
your mind or you don’t have anger in your mind. You are substituting wholesome
states for unwholesome states. So long as the wholesome states are in your
mind, there will be no unwholesome states. This kind of abandonment is called
‘substitution of opposites’. In fact it is what is popularly known as momentary
abandonment.
There are three kinds of abandonment -
momentary, temporary, and absolute. Temporary abandonment comes when we get
jhÈnas. During jhÈnas the mental defilements can be put away for some time.
Their abandonment remains longer than the momentary abandonment. Since the
jhÈnas cannot abandon the defilements absolutely or all together, they come
back when there are conditions for them. The third kind of abandonment occurs
at the moment of enlightenment, at the moment of Magga. That is the total
destruction of defilements so that they will not come back again.
Here the first one is meant through the
substitution of opposite qualities. We say that vipassanÈ abandons mental
defilements. VipassanÈ abandons mental defilements by the first way. It is just
momentary abandonment.
“[Firstly] through substitution of opposite
qualities it gives up defilements together with resultant aggregates with their
aggregate producing kamma formations, and [secondly], through seeing the
wretchedness of what is formed, it also enters into NibbÈna by inclining
towards NibbÈna, which is the opposite of the formed.” VipassanÈ is here called
‘giving up’ and ‘entering into’ let us say. ‘Giving up’ means momentarily
giving up defilements, their resultant aggregates, and then aggregate producing
kamma formations. Then it is said to enter into NibbÈna. You know that
vipassanÈ cannot take NibbÈna as object. VipassanÈ takes formations as object.
So here what we are to understand is “through seeing the wretchedness of what
is formed” - actually vipassanÈ sees the wretchedness of formations. “It also
enters into NibbÈna by inclining towards NibbÈna.” So when you see the
wretchedness of formations, you want to go to the other thing which is
unformed, which has no wretchedness of any kind. VipassanÈ is said to enter
NibbÈna, but not actually. VipassanÈ cannot take NibbÈna as object.
“Also the Path is called both relinquishment
as giving up defilements and relinquishment as entering into since it gives up
defilements together with resultant aggregates with their aggregate producing
kamma formations by cutting them off (That means by abandoning them all
together.), and it enters into NibbÈna by it its object.” When Magga arises it
takes NibbÈna as its object. The Path or Magga is called both ‘giving up’ and
‘entering into’.
“Also both [insight and Path knowledge] are
called contemplation (anupassanÈ) because of their re-seeing successively (anu
anu passanÈ).” ‘Anu’ means again and again. ‘PassanÈ’ means seeing. So seeing
again and again and again.
We come to the end of the fourth tetrad.
This fourth tetrad deals only with pure insight while the previous three deal
with serenity and insight.
Student:
In Chinese meditation texts especially in early Zen writings there is something
called ‘stopping and seeing’. (First side of the tape ended so that the rest of
the student’s comments were not recorded.)
Teacher:
Many people interpreted that to be samatha and vipassanÈ, right? ‘Stopping’
they explain as keeping the mind still on the object. ‘Seeing’ is explained as
seeing the three characteristics and the individual essence of things.
If it means relinquishing, then vipassanÈ
can also be called relinquishing. Then we have no samatha in this case because
this last tetrad deals with pure vipassanÈ, not samatha. The four tetrads - the
first one deals with what? Samatha meditation. The Commentary explains the four
attainments of jhÈna, and only after that one can change over to vipassanÈ. The
second tetrad and third tetrad deal with what? Both samatha and vipassanÈ. The
fourth deals with vipassanÈ only. There is no jhÈna. This fourth tetrad deals
with what? The fourth of the four foundations of mindfulness, dhammÈnupassanÈ.
The first tetrad deals with contemplation of the body. The second tetrad deals
with feelings. The third tetrad deals with consciousness. And the fourth tetrad
deals with dhammas. This fourth tetrad deals with pure insight, vipassanÈ only.
The other three deal with both samatha and vipassanÈ.
Student:
It is not necessary to go through jhÈna, right?
Teacher:
Yes, that’s right. It is not necessary to go through jhÈnas. Many modern
authors tend to de-emphasize jhÈnas. One author says that since the jhÈnas are
not mentioned in the ŒnÈpÈÓasati Sutta, they are not important. But when we
study a Sutta, we have to follow the tradition. The tradition or the
Commentaries explain these four tetrads as dealing with samatha and vipassanÈ,
with jhÈna and vipassanÈ. Four jhÈnas are mentioned in the MahÈ SatipaÔÔhÈna
Sutta although they are not mentioned in the ŒnÈpÈÓasati Sutta. There are two
Suttas in the whole PÈÄi Canon that deal with breathing meditation and
mindfulness meditation. In the ŒnÈpÈÓasati Sutta no jhÈnas are mentioned. These
passages are from that Sutta. These passages however are explained with
reference to jhÈnas and vipassanÈ in the ancient Commentaries. So you cannot
say that you do not find jhÈnas in these two Suttas. In the ŒnÈpÈÓasati Sutta
jhÈnas are not mentioned explicitly, but they are implied. In the MahÈ
SatipaÔÔhÈna Sutta jhÈnas are mentioned when the Buddha defined the Noble
Eightfold Path. So we cannot say that jhÈnas were put into the Canon later. We
have no proof of that. We may carelessly say that anything we do not like is an
interpolation, or is added by monks, or something like that. There can be no
definite proof that a portion of the Sutta was put in later. Who knows? So it
is important to study such Suttas with the help of the ancient Commentaries. It
is safe to follow them rather than going away from them and interpreting in the
way one likes and not following the ancient tradition.
Now let us look at the conclusion. First we
need to look at footnote 67. There is some explanation about abandonment or
relinquishment or giving up. “And the giving up in this way is in the form of
inducing non-occurrence.” When we say that Path (Magga) eradicates defilements,
we do not really mean that it eradicates defilements. What is meant is that it
does not allow defilements to come up again, so non-occurrence. The present
defilements cannot be destroyed because they are already in our minds. And the
past defilements are already past, so we don’t have to do anything about them.
They are already gone. The future things are not yet come. The Path or Magga
does not eradicate the present, nor the past, nor the future defilements, but
the arising of Magga renders them inoperative. They will not arise again. It is
like destroying the potential of things. It talks about this here. This subject
will be talked about later towards the end of the book.
In paragraph 239 in the second line we have
the words ‘clear vision’ and ‘deliverance’. Here ‘clear vision’ means Path
(Magga). ‘Deliverance’ means Fruition (Phala).
Then the benefits of this meditation are
given. All of them come from the ŒnÈpÈÓasati Sutta. Then there is the story of
a monk who was an Arahant and who practiced the mindfulness of breathing
meditation. He knew when he would die. He asked his companions if they had seen
how an Arahant attained NibbÈna. Some said in the sitting posture. Then he said
I will show you. He was going to die. He knew the very moment that he was going
to die. So he said that he would die or he would enter NibbÈna walking. He made
a line in the ambulatory. Then he said “I will go to the end of the space. When
I come back and cross the line, I will die then.” He did die as he said. So
those who practice ÈnÈpÈÓasati meditation can even know when their life force
will be stopped or when they are going to die. This is also a benefit of
ÈnÈpÈÓasati meditation.
In paragraph 241 there is the explanation of
three kinds of finals - final in becoming, final in jhÈna, and final in death.
With regard to final in death there is a saying that those that arise along
with the 16th consciousness preceding the death consciousness cease
together with the death consciousness. There are four kinds of material
properties or four kinds of matter - those caused by kamma, those caused by
citta or mind, those caused by climate, and those caused by food. Those caused
by kamma must disappear at the same moment as death consciousness. At the last
submoment of death consciousness they must also disappear. This is because the
material properties caused by mind cannot live after the moment of death. What
we call life or what is translated as vital principle (jÊvita) or vital life
means that kamma-born quality in the material properties. That kamma-born
quality in the material properties must die with death consciousness or must
disappear with death consciousness. The life of material properties is 17 times
that of consciousness. Consciousness lasts for only one big moment or for three
submoments. So the material properties last for 17 big moments or 17 thought
moments. Since the vital principle must dissolve or disappear at the last
submoment of death consciousness, it must have arisen how many moments before?
16 moments before, 16 moments plus the death moment. At the end of the 17th
moment the life principle must disappear. That’s why here it says the 16th
consciousness preceding the death consciousness. If you want to read more about
when the different material properties disappear in a life, you can read the
sixth chapter of The Manual of Abhidhamma.
Now we go to the Recollection of Peace.
‘Recollection of Peace’ really means Recollection of NibbÈna. “one who wants to
develop the Recollection of Peace mentioned next to mindfulness of breathing
should go into solitary retreat and recollect the special qualities of NibbÈna,
in other words, the stilling of all suffering as follows: ‘Bhikkhus, in so far
as there are dhammas, whether formed or unformed (That means conditioned or
unconditioned.) fading away is pronounced the best of them, that is to say, the
disillusionment of vanity, the elimination of thirst, the abolition of
reliance, the termination of the round, the destruction of craving, fading
away, cessation, NibbÈna.” These words will be explained.
“Herein, in so far as. Dhammas [means]
individual essences.” There is a long footnote here about dhammas. Footnotes
give me a headache because first I have to find the passages in the
Commentaries and then check the translation with them. The way they are written
makes it very difficult to translate them. Another problem is that English is not
my mother tongue. So it is not easy.
Dhamma comes from the root ‘dhar’. ‘Dhar’
means to hold. “In such passages as ‘Dhammas that are concepts’ even a
non-entity is thus called a ‘dhamma’.” ‘Dhamma’ can mean anything in the world.
Even the concepts are called ‘dhammas’. Why are they called ‘dhammas’? Because
they are born and affirmed by knowledge. They are carried or upheld, dhar. That
kind of dhamma is excluded by saying here “ ‘Dhammas’ mean individual
essences.” When it is said that dhammas mean individual essences, then the
author wanted to exclude concepts from being called ‘dhammas’ here. Here
‘dhammas’ mean those that have individual essences and not concepts. “That kind
of dhamma is excluded by his saying ‘Dhammas [mean] individual essences’,”
“The
act of becoming which constitutes existingness in the ultimate sense, is
essence; it is with essence, thus it is an individual essence.” The PÈÄi word
‘sabhÈva’, this word is also an important word. First bhÈva is defined. ‘BhÈva’
means becoming. The act of becoming is bhÈva. Something which is with the act
of becoming is called ‘sabhÈva’. The ‘act of becoming’ means existingness in
the ultimate sense. That means having three moments of existence - arising,
aging and disappearing. Such things are called ‘sabhÈva’ because they are with
bhÈva. So in this word ‘sa’ means with and ‘bhÈva’ means the act of becoming or
let us say existence. So things which have their own existence are called
‘sabhÈva’.
In other places or in the footnote itself
sabhÈva is explained in another way. There ‘sa’ means one’s own and ‘bhÈva’
means essence or something like that. So ‘sabhÈva’ means one’s own essence or
one’s own nature. Or it means common essence or common nature. So ‘sabhÈva’ can
mean different things in different contexts. If it is used as a substantive,
then it means something that has its own becoming or something that has
existence in the ultimate sense. In other places it may mean one’s own
individual nature or one’s own individual essence or common essence or common
nature.
There are two kinds of nature, individual
and common. I am Burmese. So being Burmese is my individual essence. I am a
human being. This is my common essence, common with other beings. So ‘sabhÈva’
can mean these things.
So here we should not translate as
individual essences, but as some things which have individual essence. What is
‘essence’? This is an abstract noun, right? It doesn’t mean a substantive
thing. Some thing which has an individual essence or some things which have individual
essences are called ‘dhammas’ here.
Here (footnote 68) it is a long footnote.
“The individual essence consisting in, say, hardness as that of earth, or
touching as that of contact, is not common to all dhammas. The generality is
the individual essence common to all consisting in impermanence, etc.” Let us
suppose we have earth element. Earth element has individual essence and general
or common essence. Its individual essence is hardness or softness. Hardness or
softness is the individual essence of earth element, not shared by other
elements or dhammas. The earth element is impermanent. Its impermanence is the
common or general essence of it. In this way we can have the specific or
individual essence and the general essence.
With regard to time Venerable ©ÈÓamoli
quotes the M|la ®ÊkÈ in the footnote. “Though time is determined by the kind of
consciousness [e.g. as specified in the first paragraph of the DhammasanganÊ]
and is non-existent as to individual essence, yet as the non-entity
before and after the moment in which those [conascent and co-present] dhammas
occur, it is called the ‘container-adhÊkarana’; it is perceived (symbolized)
only as the state of a receptacle (ÈdhÈra-bhÈva).” I wonder if he understood
it.
First we have to have a little knowledge of
Abhidhamma. In Abhidhamma it is said that on such an occasion at such a time
that, let us say, the first kusala citta arises. ‘At such a time’, the words
‘at such a time’ in English (In PÈÄi it is one word) are put in the locative
case. ‘At’, ‘on, or ‘in’ are in the locative case. The PÈÄi word used here is
samaya. ‘Samaya’ can mean time or it can mean occasion. Let us say it means
time. Why is time the location of consciousness? He is going to explain this.
‘Receptacle’ and ‘container just mean location. Time is non-existent according
to Abhidhamma.
“Though time is determined by the kind of
consciousness and is non-existent as to individual essence” - so according to
reality time has no existence. So time is non-existent, but time is determined
by citta. That means the time when a given citta arises. It is determined by
the citta. So why can time be the location of citta? Time is non-existent. How
can it be the location of citta? The answer is when a consciousness arises
(Before it arises there is nothing and after it dissolves there is nothing.)
during the three phases of existence it is called existent. At that time
consciousness is in existence. So time is said to be the location or receptacle
of the consciousness. Actually there is no time. Time is not existent or not
existing according to ultimate reality. Although it is non-existent, it is said
to be the location of citta. Before the arising of citta there is no citta and
after the dissolution of citta there is no citta. That is why time is said to
be the location of citta. Therefore the Buddha said “At such a time the first
kusala citta arises” and so on.
Student:
Would the same hold true for space?
Teacher:
Space is also mentioned here. Space and time are said to be non-existent according
to Abhidhamma. So the translation itself is not correct here. You know you need
to be very familiar with the language because it looks the same but it has to
be understood differently. We have the words ‘bhÈva’ and abhÈva’. AbhÈva is
misunderstood here. He translated abhÈva as non-entity, but what it means is
non-existent. So time can be the location or receptacle of citta because before
the arising and after the dissolution of citta and its concomitants they do not
exist. So it is like a reference, the citta arises at this time or that time.
Now in the text itself the explanation of
different words - fading away, disillusionment of vanity, and then ‘on coming
to it’ are used. ‘On coming to it’ they are relinquished, they fade away and
son on. ‘On coming to it’ really means on account of it or on taking it as
object.
‘Fading away’ is not NibbÈna, but NibbÈna is
described with the words which can mean fading away. The PÈÄi word ‘virÈga’ is
used here and other words as well. VirÈga is simply translated as fading away,
but the act of fading away is not NibbÈna. NibbÈna is not fading away. NibbÈna
is something. Although NibbÈna has no existence, it is . NibbÈna is something.
When Magga Citta arises, it eradicates mental defilements. It makes mental defilements
fade away. Magga Citta only arises when it takes NibbÈna as object. If it does
not take NibbÈna as object, it cannot arise. So NibbÈna is a condition for
Magga Citta (Path Consciousness) to arise. NibbÈna is said to be instrumental
in making mental defilements fade away by Path (Magga). All these words are to
be understood in this way. Fading away, termination of the round, extinction,
whatever it says, it means NibbÈna is instrumental in the extinction of
suffering. They are to be understood in this sense. It is not that fading away
is NibbÈna, but NibbÈna is something instrumental in making defilements fade
away by Magga.
In the middle of the footnote there are the
words change-of-lineage. What the author of the Sub-Commentary was saying was that
change-of-lineage immediately precedes the moment of Path. That citta is called
‘change-of-lineage’. That citta takes NibbÈna as object. NibbÈna which has to
be realized by or which has to be seen by the moment of change-of-lineage must
be one that has the profundity surpassing the nature of belonging to the three
periods of time. NibbÈna is timeless. NibbÈna does not belong to the present,
the past, or the future. In order for NibbÈna to be realized by
change-of-lineage it must not belong to any of the three periods. That is what
is meant there.
OK. Now we come to the end of upasamasati.
There are other descriptions of NibbÈna. You will find them in paragraph 248.
“Bhikkhus, I shall teach you the unformed..the truth..the hard-to-see..the
undecaying..the lasting..the undiversified..the deathless..the auspicious..the
safe..the marvellous..the intact..the unaffected..the purity..the island..the
shelter’.” There are more in the SaÑyutta NikÈya. You can pick up some positive
words from this and say that NibbÈna is a positive state.
Then the benefits of the contemplation on
NibbÈna or the contemplation on peace are given. We have come to the end of
this chapter.
SÈdhu! SÈdhu! SÈdhu!
We offer this
transcription of a Dhamma class with Venerable U SÊlÈnanda with the hope that
it will be beneficial for your understanding of the Buddha’s teachings. This
transcription has not been edited. It is the record of spontaneous exchanges
between the teacher and students. Therefore it is possible that there are some
errors. We are certain that such errors are infrequent and minimal. SayÈdaw is
a meticulous and careful teacher and offers these teachings in this manner out
of compassion for those people who are interested in the serious study and
practice of meditation and Buddhism.