Chapter 20
(Tape 40 / Ps: 1-19)
Next is the chapter on what is the path and what is not the path. “The knowledge established by getting to know the path and the not-path thus ‘This is the path, this is not the path’ is called ‘Purification by knowledge and vision of what is the path and what is not the path’.”
When a person practices meditation and he advances, there are different stages of development. He reaches a certain stage where there arises a certain kind of illumination, or he feels elation. His practice of meditation is very good. This will be explained later. When these states arise, the meditator takes them to be enlightenment. If he takes them to be enlightenment, he will not practice anymore. And so he will not gain enlightenment at all. These are called ‘impediments’.
These impediments are a block to the meditator’s progress or to his enlightenment. If he takes them to be the way, to be the path to enlightenment, then he is wrong. He will not get enlightenment at all. He must understand these are not the path to enlightenment. The path to enlightenment is to go further and to see the impermanency, suffering and soulless nature of things. A yogi must be able to see ‘This is correct and this is incorrect’ or ‘This is the path to enlightenment and this is not the path to enlightenment’. This chapter deals with this.
Before coming to these impediments he must do some
contemplation. Different kinds of contemplation are mentioned in this chapter.
“One who desires to accomplish this should first of all apply himself to the
inductive insight called ‘comprehension by groups’.” That means comprehending
not in detail one by one, but taking as a group, for example taking materiality
as a group and contemplating on it. It is called ‘inductive insight’ or ‘comprehension
by groups’. These two names are used in
That is what is said in the Commentary. You have the
footnote down there. “This, it seems is the term used by the inhabitants of
JambudÊpa (
Why does he have to do comprehension by groups or inductive insight? “Because knowledge of what is the path and what is not the path appears in connection with the appearance of illumination, etc. (That will be explained later.), in one who has begun insight. For it is after illumination, etc., have appeared in one who has already begun insight that there comes to be knowledge of what is the path and what is not the path.” He must be able to decide that these are not the path and these will not lead to enlightenment.
“Comprehension of groups is the beginning of insight.” This is the first knowledge in the list of the vipassanÈ knowledges. Before that we are not in vipassanÈ proper. At first we try to be mindful of whatever is at the present moment. Later on we will come to see mind and matter clearly. Then we see the cases and conditions of mind and matter. While we are doing this we are not in the domain of vipassanÈ proper. We have not yet gone into vipassanÈ proper. Only when we come to the comprehension by groups do we enter into the real vipassanÈ.
“Comprehension by groups is the beginning of insight. That is why it is set forth next to the Overcoming of Doubt. Besides, knowledge of what is the path, and what is not the path arises when Full Understanding as Investigation is occurring, and Full Understanding as Investigation comes next to Full Understanding as the Known. So this is also a reason why one who desires to accomplish this purification by knowledge and vision of what is the path and what is not the path should first of all apply himself to comprehension by groups.” He is explaining why a yogi has to do this inductive insight or comprehension by groups.
There are three kinds of full understanding. In paragraph 3 they are full understanding as the known, full understanding as investigating, and full understanding as abandoning. These are the three kinds of full understanding.
“Herein, the understanding that occurs by observing the specific characteristic of such and such states thus, ‘materiality (r|pa) has the characteristic of being molested’, ‘feeling has the characteristic of being felt’, is called ‘full understanding as the known’.” Full understanding as the known is understanding the specific characteristics of things we observe. There are two kinds of characteristics, the common or general characteristics and the specific characteristics of everything we observe. When we see the specific characteristics of the things we observe, then we are said to have this understanding of the known. NÈma has the characteristic of bending toward the object. R|pa has the characteristic of being molested and so on. This is their specific characteristic. They do not share this characteristic with others. Since r|pa does not share the characteristic of being molested with nÈma and nÈma does not share the characteristic of bending towards the object with r|pa, these are considered their specific characteristics. However all conditioned things in the world do have common characteristics. They are impermanency, suffering and soullessness. When we see the specific characteristic of things, then we have the full understanding of the known.
“The understanding consisting in insight with the general characteristics as its object that occurs in attributing a general characteristic to those same states in the way beginning ‘Materiality is impermanent, feeling is impermanent’ is called ‘full understanding as investigating’.” When we see the general characteristics of things, when we see impermanency, suffering and soulless nature of things, we are said to have ‘full understanding as investigating’.
The next one is: “The understanding consisting in insight with the characteristics as its object that occurs as the abandoning of the perception of permanence, etc., in those same states is called ‘full understanding as abandoning’.” When we see, when we understand that something is impermanent, we abandon the notion of permanence. When we see something as dukkha (suffering), then we abandon the notion of sukha and so on. That is full understanding as abandoning. They have different aspects.
“Herein, the plane of full understanding as the known extends from the Delimitation of Formations (That means discriminating mind and matter or seeing mind and matter clearly.) up to the Discernment of conditions (Chapter 19); for in this interval the penetration of the specific characteristics of states predominates.” ‘Plane’ here means domain, so it should be ‘the domain of full understanding as known’.
“The domain of full understanding as investigation extends from Comprehension by Groups up to Contemplation of Rise and Fall (Chapter 21); for in this interval the penetration of the general characteristics predominates.” During these stages a yogi sees the general characteristics of things, that they are impermanent and so on.
“The domain of full understanding as abandoning extends from Contemplation of Dissolution onwards.” After seeing rising and falling the yogi will see the dissolution. “For from there onwards the Seven Contemplations that effect the abandoning of the perception of permanence, etc., predominate thus.” These are the seven kinds of contemplation: 1. Contemplating [formations] as impermanent, a man abandons the perception of permanence and so on. These three kinds of full understanding we should know. Up to the last chapter a yogi has achieved the full understanding as the known. After the full understanding as known there must come full understanding as investigating. For that purpose the yogi has to do inductive insight or the comprehension as groups.
Now we have comprehension by groups paragraph 6. “How is it that understanding of defining past, future and present states by summarization is knowledge of comprehension?” This is a quotation taken from the PaÔisambhidÈmagga.
Whenever matter and the mental things are described the Buddha described them as belonging to past, present, future, as being internal and external, as being subtle and gross, as being far and near and so on. By taking all materiality whether past, present or future and so on and then contemplating on that materiality as impermanent, this is one kind of comprehension. “He defines it as painful.” That is another kind of comprehension. “He defines it as not self.” That is another kind of comprehension.
Paragraph 9 “Herein, the abbreviation ‘the eye..(etc.).. is aging and death’ should be understood to represent the following sets of things elided” and so on. In the previous quotation we see mentality-materiality, feelings, perceptions and so on. What is not directly included in this quotation is given in paragraph 9. Herein, the abbreviation should be understood to represent the following sets of things elided. They are not mentioned in the quotation, but they should be understood as being included. These are the states that occur in the doors and so on.
One thing important is in paragraph 12, the second part. “And as regards those that are amenable to comprehension a beginning should be made by comprehending those among them that are obvious to and easily discernible by the individual [meditator].” That is very important. When we meditate, we must comprehend or we must be mindful of what is obvious, what is prominent and what is easy to see. We don’t have to look for what is difficult to see. Simply we cannot do that. This statement is very important. When we practice vipassanÈ meditation, we take the object that is easy to see at that moment, what is obvious, what is prominent at that moment. That is why although we are concentrating on the breath, if there is a noise that is loud enough, we pay attention to that too. That is because at that moment it is more obvious than the breath. So we have to be mindful of that. It is following the advice given in the Visuddhi Magga.
Then we have comprehension by groups. I hope you have read all this. Even one materiality can be comprehended in different ways. It is impermanent in the sense of destruction. It is painful in the sense of terror. It is not self in the sense of having no core. This is how we contemplate the impermanent nature, suffering nature, and soulless nature of things. You may take any materiality - past, present, future, internal, external and so on. Then you define or try to see that this is impermanent in the sense of destruction. That means it is destroyed, it is dissolved after coming into existence and so it is impermanent and so on. It is impermanent in the sense of destruction. It is painful (dukkha) in the sense of terror because it is fearful. When it is painful, it is fearful. And it is not self in the sense of having no core, having no inner core. When you contemplate that r|pa is impermanent in the sense of destruction, this is one kind of comprehension. If you take r|pa in different aspects, such as r|pa in the past was impermanent in the sense of destruction, r|pa in the present is impermanent in the sense of destruction, r|pa in the future is impermanent in the sense of destruction and so on, in that way you can contemplate in eleven ways on one r|pa. You may contemplate past, present, future, internal, external, subtle, gross, inferior, superior, far, near. In this way you may contemplate in one way or in eleven ways. You may contemplate in the same way painful in the sense of terror and not self in the sense of having no core in the same way.
In paragraph 16 we have to make some changes in about the middle of the paragraph. “For what is impermanent is painful, and it is impossible to escape the impermanence or the rise and fall and oppression, of self, so how could it have the state of a doer and so on?” Here he misunderstood two words. The correct translation should be “For that which is impermanent and painful is incapable of preventing even its own impermanence, or oppression by rise and fall.” So when you contemplate on the no self nature of things, then you say that there is no self, no doer, no experiencer and so on. Also you contemplate like this: What is impermanent is painful. Right? Whatever is impermanent is painful. And whatever is impermanent and painful is no self. It is incapable of preventing its own impermanence and being oppressed by rising and falling. That is the meaning here.
He misunderstood the PÈÄi word ‘udayabbhayapÊÄana’. He takes udaya to mean one thing, bhaya to mean one thing and pÊÄana to mean one thing. But here the meaning is that first you see the arising and disappearing of things. Something arises and disappears. When you see the arising and disappearing of things, you see the impermanence of things. When it is impermanent, it is oppressed by rising and falling. So you see that it is suffering or that it is unsatisfactory. That is the explanation of it being dukkha. It is dukkha because it is oppressed. Oppressed by what? Oppressed by rising and falling. When you practice meditation and just see things coming and going, coming and going, you clearly see the dukkha nature of things. So it is not ‘rise’, ‘fall’ and ‘oppression’, but oppression by rise and fall. That means being oppressed by rising and falling. When you see things arising and disappearing, arising and disappearing, you see this nature of suffering or being painful. “For that which is impermanent and painful is incapable of preventing even its own impermanence or oppression by rise and fall.” And so it is no self.
The word ‘anatta’ has different meanings. The direct meaning is no self. Right? It implies that it cannot exercise any authority over things. Insusceptibility to the exercise of authority over things is also included in the meaning of the word ‘anatta’. When you want to see the anatta nature of things, you do this way: This is impermanent. This is painful. That which is painful and impermanent is no self. That means it cannot prevent itself from being impermanent. There is no way of exercising authority. Don’t become impermanent, don’t become painful - there is incapability of exercising authority over these things. It is incapable of preventing its own impermanence and its own oppression. That is contemplation of not self.
The same contemplation used for r|pa is applied to feeling and so on. Then there is the explanation of strengthening of comprehension of impermanence etc. In forty ways you try to see the mental and physical phenomena as impermanent, painful, as a boil, a dart, a calamity and so on. In paragraph 18 the list is given and in paragraph 19 the meaning of the word is given, one by one.
In paragraph 19 about a third of the way down “As a disaster because of bringing unforeseen and plentiful adversity, and because of” - instead of ‘and’ there should be ‘as terror’. It should be “As terror because of being the basis for all kinds of terror.” Otherwise you do not get forty.
SÈdhu! SÈdhu! SÈdhu!
(Tape 41 / Ps: 20 – 75)
When we practice vipassanÈ meditation, we try to be mindful of whatever is at the present moment. That ‘whatever’ is sometimes matter or r|pa ad sometimes mind or nÈma. Sometimes we are mindful of the breath or the movements. At that time we are taking matter as an object and when we are mindful of our thoughts or emotions, then we are mindful of the mind or the mental properties. In the beginning we just try to be mindful of mind or matter, whatever is at the present moment. After some time as the concentration gets better, we are able to see the individual characteristics of what we observe.
So there are two kinds of characteristics we have to understand with regard to vipassanÈ meditation. The first thing we will see is the individual characteristics of things. So when we concentrate on the mind, we will come to see that mind is that which inclines towards the object. So when we watch our mind or our consciousness, it seems to go to the object. It seems to incline towards the object. That inclination towards the object is the characteristic of mind. When we concentrate on matter, then we will come to see that matter has no cognizing power. It doesn’t cognize. That also we will come to see and that is a kind of characteristic of matter.
During the stages that we have just studied, during the stages of discerning mind and matter and during the stage of discerning the causes of mind and matter, a yogi sees the specific or the individual characteristics of things. From that stage in order to go to the next stage, a yogi needs to see the general characteristics or common characteristics of things. ‘Common characteristic’ means the impermanence, suffering and soulless nature of things. Impermanence and the others are common to all phenomena that is all mind and matter or formations. Actually during the stage of seeing the causes, a yogi comes to see the arising and disappearing of what he observes. When he observes let us say anger, then he knows that it has arisen and also when it has disappeared, he knows that it has disappeared. So he sees arising and falling.
That is direct seeing. From that direct seeing he infers the impermanence and so on of those that he does not observe. That is those of the past and those of the future. Chapter 20 deals with that kind of vipassanÈ, that kind of meditation. In the beginning of that chapter it says “One who desires to accomplish this should first of all apply himself to the inductive insight.” So it is called ‘inductive insight’. Actually it is inferential. It is not direct insight. Inferential insight can come only after direct insight. So if we do not have direct insight, there can be no inferential insight. First we must see the present thing as impermanent. Then we infer that just as this present matter is impermanent, so the past matter must be impermanent and also the future matter will be impermanent. From what we have seen directly, we infer what we do not see to be impermanent, suffering and so on. In order to develop that insight here, it is said that we must apply the inductive insight, what is called ‘comprehension by group’. The beginning part of this chapter deals with this insight, ‘comprehension by group’ or ‘inductive insight’. With regard to this insight the author mentions the three kinds of full understanding - full understanding as the known, full understanding as investigating, and full understanding as abandoning. Actually we have gone through these parts. So the full understanding as the known is when we see the individual characteristics of things. Now a yogi is to go to the second stage which is full understanding as investigating.
How does a yogi practice insight comprehension by group? Whenever matter or something is mentioned, the Buddha mentioned or described it as past, future, present, internal, external, gross and so on. There are eleven of these things. The aspects of whatever kind of materiality may be seen as past, future, present (3), internal, external (5), gross, subtle (7), inferior, superior ( 9), far, near(11). With regard to these eleven aspects the different kinds of materiality are described.
When a yogi does comprehension by group, he does not take each one of the material properties separately but just the materiality as a group as one. Then he sees materiality which belongs to the past as impermanent and materiality which belongs to the future as impermanent and so on. When he takes matter as a whole, not taking earth element, water element and so on separately, then he is said to be doing comprehension by groups. Actually ‘a group’ means just taking r|pa, I mean if it is r|pa, taking r|pa as a whole. So a person can practice meditation on r|pa as all r|pa is impermanent. That is one comprehension.
Or he can take r|pa with reference to the eleven aspects. So r|pa in the past is impermanent, r|pa in the present is impermanent, and r|pa in the future is impermanent, and then internal r|pa is impermanent, external r|pa is impermanent and so on. If he does that way, then he said to be doing in eleven different ways. So there can be one comprehension or there can be eleven comprehensions. They are described in the following paragraphs.
If you look at paragraph 13, it says there: “Here is the application of the directions dealing with the aggregates: ‘Any materiality whatever, whether past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near - he defines all materiality as impermanent: this is one kind of comprehension.”
One word is missing there or it is stated in brief or in an elliptical way. You see only two there. Right? Impermanent and not-self. What is missing? Dukkha or suffering is missing. So there must be something like painful. He defines as painful and then dots, and he defines as not-self. This is one kind of comprehension. So this is taking r|pa as a whole.
Then taking r|pa as a whole but with reference to past and so on, we get eleven kinds of contemplation. Towards the end of paragraph 14 it says: “And all this is impermanent in the sense of destruction. Accordingly there is one kind of comprehension in this way; but it is effected in eleven ways.” So it can be one kind of contemplation or eleven kinds of contemplation. If we take r|pa as a whole, then it is one kind of contemplation. If we take r|pa with reference to past, future, present and so on, then we get eleven ways of contemplating on matter or materiality.
Just as there is one or eleven contemplations with regard to impermanence, there is one or eleven with regard to suffering or painfulness in paragraph 15. The same is true with anatta (no self) in paragraph 16. So there is one contemplation or eleven contemplations. We have one meaning of the word ‘anatta’ in paragraph 16. That is what? “In the sense of having no core.” This is one meaning of anatta. The word ‘anatta’ has different meanings. So one meaning is that there is no core. That is why it is called ‘anatta’. When we say r|pa is anatta, we mean r|pa has no inner core, or substance, or whatever. This is one meaning or interpretation of the word ‘anatta’. We will meet another interpretation later.
After doing this also with regard to the other aggregates
such as feeling and so on, the yogi is instructed to view mind and matter in
forty different ways. That is discussed in paragraph 18 and so on,
‘Strengthening of Comprehension of Impermanence, etc., in
These end with the sound ‘to’ in PÈÄi and so we have
aniccato, dukkhato, rogato, gandato, and so on. In
As I said last week, we have to add or we have to make changes somewhere in paragraph 19. At the bottom of paragraph 19 if you come up two or three lines, you will see ‘adversity and because of being’. The word ‘and’ should be rubbed out and then ‘as terror’ should be put there. So it is ‘as terror because of being the basis for all kinds of terror’. And on page 712, about 15 lines down (in the fourth edition), the word ‘vain’ should be in italics. That is not so important, but it should be in italics. So we get all together forty different ways of contemplating on nÈma and r|pa actually.
Paragraph 20: these are grouped with regard to impermanence, suffering and not self.
“Now there are fifty kinds of Contemplation of Impermanence here by taking the following ten in the case of each aggregate: as impermanent, as disintegrating, as fickle” and so on. There are twenty-five kinds of Contemplation of Not-Self, and there are one hundred twenty-five kinds of Contemplation of Pain by taking the rest beginning with ‘as painful, as a disease’ and so on.
These forty are divided into three groups - impermanence, pain and not-self. After viewing mind and matter in this way, the yogi is instructed to sharpen his faculties. That is if he cannot bring this contemplation to success. If he does not succeed in contemplating in this way, then he should sharpen his faculties by the way stated in paragraph 21. That is: “(1) He sees the destruction of arisen formations; (2) and in that [occupation] he makes sure of working carefully” and so on. So he has to sharpen his faculties by these methods.
And then #8 says “wherein he overcomes pain by renunciation.” What does ‘overcome pain by renunciation’ mean? Here ‘renunciation’ simply means ‘effort’. The PÈÄi word ‘nekkhamma’ is sometimes misleading. ‘Nekkhamma’ means ‘to get out of’. So here it means ‘to get out of laziness’, which means viriya or effort. So ‘to overcome pain by renunciation’ really means ‘to overcome pain by effort, by making effort’.
“He should avoid the seven unsuitable things in the way stated in the Description of the Earth KasiÓa (They are explained before.), and cultivate the seven suitable things and he should comprehend the material at one time and the immaterial at another.” At one time he should contemplate on r|pa (matter) and at another time on nÈma or immaterial things.
Now we have ‘Contemplation of the Material’. “While comprehending materiality he should see how materiality is generated.” So he should see how it arises or its arising, its generation. That should be the object of his meditation at that time, “that is to say how this materiality is generated by four causes beginning with kamma.” There are four causes of matter. I think you have met them before in chapter 19, paragraph 9. Those are what? Kamma, consciousness, temperature, and nutriment.
“When materiality is being generated in any being, it is first generated from kamma.” So the first matter that arises at the beginning of a given life is generated by kamma or is the result of kamma. “For at the actual moment of rebirth-linking of a child in the womb, the first thirty instances of materiality (That means thirty material properties.) are generated in the triple continuity, in other words the decad of physical [heart] basis, body and sex.” So there are the decads of physical heart basis, the decad of body and the decad of sex. “Those are generated at the actual instance of rebirth-linking consciousness’ arising. And as at the instant of its arising, so too at the instant of its presence and at the instant of its dissolution.”
There are material properties generated by kamma and these material properties generated by kamma arise at the very first moment in one’s life. And each moment has three sub-moments. At every sub-moment also the matter generated by kamma arises. So at every moment the kamma-born-matter arises all through the life until very, very close to the moment of death. At all three sub-moments the kamma-born-matter is generated. So at the first moment, at the arising moment, there are thirty. These thirty will exist for seventeen thought moments. At the sub-moment of presence, static moment, another thirty are produced. So at that moment there are sixty - the first thirty and the new thirty, so there are sixty.
At the dissolution moment of relinking consciousness another thirty are produced. So at that moment there are ninety. And then at the next moment there are one hundred-twenty and so on through seventeen thought moments. After seventeen thought moments the number will be constant because thirty are produced and thirty disappear.
“Herein the cessation of materiality is slow and its transformation ponderous.” We should note this. This means that materiality or matter is slow in dissolution. That means the life of matter is longer than the life of consciousness. Matter exists seventeen times longer than a thought moment exists. When matter arises, it will exist for, it will last for, seventeen thought moments before it disappears. So cessation of materiality is slow. That means materiality has a longer life than a thought moment. “And its transformation ponderous, while the cessation of consciousness is swift and its transformation quick.” The arising and disappearing of thought moments are quick, just one moment or say just one big moment or three small moments.
It is said: “Bhikkhus, I see no other thing that is so quickly transformed as the mind. (That is the words of the Buddha.) For the life-continuum consciousness arises and ceases sixteen times while one material instance endures.” Those that are produced at the first moment of relinking will last until the seventeen thought moments. While sixteen thought moments come and go, they exist.
“With consciousness the instant of arising, instant of presence (That means static stage.) and instant of dissolution are equal (They are the same.).” I said that the life of a material property is seventeen thought moments. Right? So how many small moments are there? Fifty-one small moments. Right? In seventeen big moments there are fifty-one small moments. There is the instant of arising, the instant of presence and the instant of dissolution. With regard to consciousness these three instances are of equal duration. They are equal. They are the same. But with regard to a material property the instant of arising is one small moment or one sub-moment. The instant of dissolution is one sub-moment. The forty-nine sub-moments between (arising and dissolution) are one instant of presence for a material property.
Do you follow me? Matter lasts for fifty-one small moments of consciousness. So the arising, the presence and the dissolution of matter is different from the arising, the presence and the dissolution of consciousness. Right? The arising and the dissolution (moments) of both mind and matter are equal, just one sub-moment. The presence of consciousness is only one sub-moment, but the presence of matter is forty-nine sub-moments. “With consciousness the instant of arising, instant of presence, and instant of dissolution are equal; but with materiality only the instants of arising and dissolution are quick like those [of consciousness], while the instant of its presence is long and lasts while sixteen consciousnesses arise and cease.” That means after its arising there are sixteen consciousnesses.
Now paragraph 25, that is important. It says ‘the second life-continuum’, but the author has not mentioned the first life-continuum. Right? If you read it before you came to the class, I was wondering what you would understand by that. The actual meaning here is the life-continuum as a second consciousness arises. Relinking consciousness is the first consciousness and then life-continuum is the second consciousness. Here the translation should not be ‘second life-continuum’, but ‘life-continuum as a second consciousness arises’. The PÈÄi words that you are familiar with are ‘dutiyampi’, ‘tatiyampi’. Right? When you take refuge, you say “Dutiyampi BuddhaÑ saranaÑ gacchÈmi” and so on. From the word ‘dutiyampi’ if you take of ‘pi’, you get ‘dutiyam’. That word can be an adjective or an adverb. Here it is an adverb, not an adjective. So in the PÈÄi it is ‘dutiyaÑ bhava~gaÑ’. ‘Bhava~ga’ means life-continuum. ‘DutiyaÑ bhava~gaÑ’ does not mean ‘the second bhava~ga’, but it means ‘as a second consciousness, bhava~ga arises’.
“The life-continuum as second consciousness arises with the prenascent physical [heart] basis as its support, which has already reached presence and arose at the rebirth-linking consciousness’ instant of arising.” That is also not accurate. What is to be at the end he put in front. Here the translation should run like this: “The life-continuum as a second consciousness arises with the prenascent physical [heart] basis as its support, which arose at the rebirth-linking consciousness’ instant of arising and has already reached presence.” The sequence should be like that. We cannot change that sequence here because it must first arise and then it must reach the instant of presence. That means when life-continuum arises, the heart basis which arose at the moment of relinking has reached the instance of presence. Now here relinking consciousness is the first citta in the thought process and the second citta in the thought process is the life-continuum consciousness. The heart basis arose with relinking consciousness. At the moment of the first moment it is arising. But later on it has reached presence or the static stage. When it is in the static stage, the second consciousness or bhava~ga arises. That bhava~ga arises depending upon the heart basis. That is what the author is talking about here. The life-continuum arises with the prenascent physical heart basis as its support. That heart basis has already arisen and now it has reached the stage of presence and at that moment the life-continuum arises. So it arises taking the heart basis as its support. The life-continuum has the prenascent physical heart basis as its support which arose at the rebirth-linking consciousness’ instant of arising and has already reached presence.
Now the third life-continuum is the same. The life-continuum as a third consciousness arises. Now for your information, after relinking consciousness there are how many arisings of life-continuum? Sixteen. So there are sixteen life-continuum consciousnesses arising after relinking consciousness. Here ‘the third’ means not the third life-continuum because it is really the second life-continuum. So the life-continuum as the third consciousness arises with prenascent physical heart basis as its support and so on. So it goes that way . With the arising moment of first life-continuum, there arises heart basis. When the second life-continuum arises that heart has reached its present stage. And then it forms the basis for the second life-continuum. It is like this. The later consciousness takes support from the heart basis which arose at least one big moment before its arising. If you put #1, #2, #3, #4, let us say #2 consciousness arises taking heart basis which arose with #1 consciousness as its support. And then #3 consciousness arises taking heart basis which arose with #2 consciousness as its support and so on. It can go all through our life. It happens in this way throughout life.
“But in one who is facing death sixteen consciousnesses arise with a single prenascent physical [heart] basis as their support, which has already reached presence.” When a person is about to die, all kamma-born matter ceases to arise with the seventeenth consciousness reckoned backward from the death consciousness. Suppose there is death consciousness. We reckon backward taking death consciousness as #1, then #2 and so on through #17. With the dissolution of death consciousness, no more kamma-born matter is produced in that life. But what is produced at that moment will last until the moment of death. So there is only one heart basis at that time for these sixteen thought moments. “But in one who is facing death sixteen consciousnesses arise with a single prenascent physical heart basis as their support, which has already reached presence.” This is all Abhidhamma.
“The materiality that arose at the instant of arising of the rebirth-linking consciousness ceases along with the sixteenth consciousness after the rebirth-linking consciousness” and so on. If you understand that materials last for seventeen thought moments, then you can understand this.
The next is kamma-born materiality. This is all Abhidhamma. With regard to kamma-born materiality we are to understand how many? Six - “(1) kamma, (2) what is originated by kamma, (3) what has kamma as its condition, (4) what is originated by consciousness that has kamma as its condition, (5) what is originated by nutriment that has kamma as its condition, (6) what is originated by temperature that has kamma as its condition.” There are six kinds to be understood with regard to kamma-born matter.
Here kamma is profitable and unprofitable volition. That is very important. If we talk about kamma, we often say kamma is deeds or actions. Actions are called ‘kamma’. But technically speaking ‘kamma’ means volitions, profitable and unprofitable, or wholesome and unwholesome volitions, kusala and akusala, cetanÈ in PÈÄi.
“What is originated by kamma is the kamma-resultant aggregates and the seventy instances of materiality beginning with the eye decad” and so on. You have to take it from Abhidhamma. “What has kamma as its condition is the same [as the last] since kamma is the condition that upholds what is originated by kamma.”
“ What is originated by consciousness that has kamma as its condition is materiality originated by kamma-resultant consciousness.” Consciousness produces matter. Right? So the matter produced by resultant consciousness is called ‘what is originated by consciousness that has kamma as its condition’. “What is originated by nutriment that has kamma as its condition is so called since the nutritive-essence that has reached presence in the instances of materiality originated by kamma originates a further octad-with-nutritive-essence-as-eighth (That means the inseparable eight.), and the nutritive-essence there that has reached presence also originates a further one, and so it links up four or five occurrences of octads. What is originated by temperature that has kamma as its condition is so called since the kamma-born fire element that has reached presence originates an octad-with-nutritive-essence-as-eighth” and so on. With regard to kamma-born materiality we have to understand six things.
And with regard to consciousness-born materiality how many? Five - “(1) consciousness, (2) what is originated by consciousness, (3) what has consciousness as its condition, (4) what is originated by nutriment that has consciousness as its condition, (5) what is originated by temperature that has consciousness as its condition.”
“Herein, Consciousness is the 89 kinds of consciousness.” You take them from the chart at the end of the book or from The Manual of Abhidhamma.
“Consciousnesses thirty two,
And twenty six, and nineteen too,” and so on.
Among them there are some consciousnesses which produce not only matter but postures and intimation, some just postures and so on. Some types of consciousness can help us maintain a posture for a long time. That is why when you have good concentration, you can sit for two, three hours without feeling any discomfort, without feeling any weakness, or without feeling sleepy, or whatever. That happens to yogis when they reach to the higher stages of vipassanÈ meditation. Their meditation is very good and their concentration is strong. So they can sit for a long time. Sometimes they don’t sleep at all for one or two days, but they don’t feel any ill effects from lack of sleep. That is because some types of consciousness have the ability to maintain the postures or to keep our body in one posture for a long time. That is why when a person is in trance, we call it ‘samÈpatti’ or ‘jhÈna’, he can sit for seven days without changing his posture. So there are some types of consciousness which help to maintain postures. I think there are two groups. “Thirty two consciousnesses, namely, the eight profitable consciousnesses, the twelve unprofitable, the ten functional, excluding the mind element and the two direct knowledge consciousnesses as profitable and functional, give rise to materiality, to postures and to intimation (three kinds).” The next twenty six are javana moments of r|pÈvacara, ar|pÈvacara, and lokuttara. They give rise to materiality, to postures but not to intimation and so on.
Paragraph 32 “What is originated by consciousness is the three other immaterial aggregates (That is feeling, perception, and mental formations.) and the seventeenfold materiality, namely, the sound ennead, bodily intimation, verbal intimation” and so on. Now students of Abhidhamma do you find any discrepancy here with The Manual of Abhidhamma? In the Manual of Abhidhamma only fifteen are said to be born of consciousness. Right? Here they are given as seventeen. So growth and continuity are not included in those originated by consciousness in The Manual of Abhidhamma. But here they are also taken to be originated by consciousness. These two will be added to other groups too.
“What has consciousness as its condition is the materiality of fourfold origination stated thus: ‘Postnascent states of consciousness and consciousness-concomitants are a condition, as postnascence condition, for this prenascent body’ (Ptn 1.5).” This is from PaÔÔhÈna.
“What is originated by nutriment that has consciousness as its condition: the nutritive essence that has reached presence in consciousness-originated material instances originates a further octad-with-nutritive-essence-as-eighth, and thus links up two or three occurrences of octads.” These are all Abhidhamma. If you want to understand them, please read chapter 6 of The Manual of Abhidhamma. After reading chapter 6 when you come back here, then you will understand.
Nutriment-born materiality is the same - (1) nutriment, (2) what is originated by nutriment and so on. Here also in paragraph 36 what is originated by nutriment is stated as there are fourteen nutriment-born kinds of materiality, but in The Manual of Abhidhamma only twelve are mentioned. Growth and continuity are omitted.
And then in paragraph 37 one thing is worthy of notice. That is nutriment smeared on the body originates materiality. Normally we think that only food eaten through the mouth can originate materiality. But here it is said that also nutriment smeared on the body originates materiality. So sometimes it may be possible to smear some food on our body and the it will cause the nutriment-born-matter to arise.
Temperature-born-materiality is the same. In paragraph 40 what is originated by temperature? It is said that materiality is fifteenfold. In The Manual of Abhidhamma only thirteen are mentioned as growth and continuity are omitted.
And then “What is originated by nutriment that has temperature as its condition: the temperature-originated nutritive essence that has reached presence originates future octad-with-nutritive-essence-as-eighth” and so on. Did you wonder why that the words ‘that has reached presence’ are mentioned again and again? When consciousness or mind produces matter, it produces at the arising moment because it is said to be strong at the arising moment. But matter is strong only at the presence moment. That is why it is repeatedly said ‘that has reached presence, that has reached presence’. So matter can produce matter only when it reaches the stage of presence, not at the arising moment, nor at the dissolution moment, but only when it is present.
Now we have Comprehension of the Immaterial. So after comprehending or contemplating on r|pa, a yogi must contemplate on nÈma or what is immaterial. “Just as one who is comprehending the material should see the generation of the material (or the arising of the material) so too one who is comprehending the immaterial should see the generation of the immaterial and that is through the eighty one mundane arisings of consciousness, that is to say, it is kamma accumulated in a previous becoming that this immaterial [mentality] is generated” and so on. When the arising of mentality is observed, then it should be observed by way of eighty one mundane types of consciousness. There are eighty nine types of consciousness and eight belong to supramundane. And supramundane consciousnesses are not the object of vipassanÈ meditation. So only the mundane consciousnesses are given here.
“The modes in which it is generated should be understood according to the method given in the Description of the Dependent Origination.” So in that chapter how the mind arises is given. “That same [nineteenfold arising of consciousness is generated] as life-continuum as well” and so on. Among the eighty nine types of consciousness there are nineteen types of consciousness which arise as relinking, life-continuum, and death consciousness. So these nineteen are mentioned here.
“In the course of existence, eye consciousness, together with its associated states, supported by light and caused by attention is generated because the eye is intact and because visible data have come into focus.” In paragraph 44 we get the four conditions for the seeing consciousness to arise. “In the course of existence (That is after relinking), eye consciousness together with its associated states (That means together with mental factors.) supported by light (So there must be light.) and caused by attention (There must be attention.) is generated because the eye is intact (There must be the eye.) and because visible data have come into focus (There must be visible data.).” Only when these four conditions are fulfilled, can seeing consciousness arise. So we must have the eye, there must be something to see, there must be light, and there must be attention.
And there is an explanation of something like a thought process. “Next to arise is the functional mind element with that same object accomplishing the function of adverting.” This is the explanation of a thought process.
At the bottom of the page we have some corrections to make. “Kinds of consciousness belonging to the sense sphere, either as consciousness accompanied by equanimity and without root-cause or as five or seven impulsions” - even the text in the Visuddhi Magga is misleading, a little misleading, difficult to understand. What is meant is : “Next it is generated either as one from among the profitable, unprofitable, or functional kinds of consciousness belonging to the sense sphere as five or seven impulsions.” We should put ‘five or seven impulsions’ there. After the word ‘sphere’ we should say ‘as five or seven impulsions’. And then the word ‘either should be deleted. Instead of it we should say ‘or’. “Or as consciousness accompanied by equanimity and without root-cause”, just that. The other words to be deleted are ‘or as five or seven impulsions’.
You know five or seven impulsions. Normally seven javanas arise. But in some cases when a person has fainted or something, there are five moments of javana. So there are sometimes five javanas, but most of the time there are seven javana (seven impulsions). Sometimes the object is so weak that it cannot be a condition for javanas to arise. That is also called a thought process. So there are thought processes without the arising of javanas. When it says ‘consciousness accompanied by equanimity and without root-cause’, the author means that. That is why in the footnote it is said that ‘This refers to determining’. In a thought process there is accepting, receiving, investigating, determining, and javanas. Right? The author is referring to that when he says ‘consciousness accompanied by equanimity and without root-cause’. That means manodvÈrÈvajjana and votthapana (determining). So not all, not every thought process contains javanas. There can be thought processes without javanas.
Paragraph 45 “This is how one meditator accomplishes the development of understanding, progressing gradually by comprehending at one time the material and at another time the immaterial, by attributing the three characteristics to them.” So he should always attribute the three characteristics (impermanence, painfulness and not self) to what he observes.
“Another comprehends formations by attributing the three characteristics to them through the medium of the Material Septad and the Immaterial Septad.” That is viewing matter in seven different ways and viewing mind in seven different ways.
Viewing matter in seven ways is given in paragraph 46: “(1) Taking up and putting down, (2) as disappearance of what grows old in each stage, (3) as arising from nutriment, (4) as arising from temperature, (5) as kamma-born, (6) as consciousness-originated, and (7) as natural materiality. Hence the Ancients said: (1) ‘Taking up is rebirth-linking. Putting down is death’.” So ‘as taking up and putting down’ means the beginning and the end of one’s life, taking one life as a unit. When he comprehends according to this method, he comprehends all formations in a life, all nÈma and r|pa between relinking and death. So he contemplates on nÈma and r|pa from the moment of relinking to death as impermanent. Why? “Because of occurrence of rise and fall, because of change, because of temporariness, and because of preclusion of permanence.” Please note these explanations. These are the reasons for taking something as impermanent. These r|pas are impermanent because of the occurrence of rise and fall, because they have arising and disappearing, because of change, because they change, because of temporariness, so they are just temporary, they don’t last long, and because of preclusion of permanence, that means rejection of permanence, they are not permanent.
“But since arisen formations have arrived at presence and when present are afflicted by aging, and on arriving at aging are bound to dissolve, they therefore are painful because of continual oppression, because of being hard to bear, because of being the basis of suffering, and because of precluding pleasure.” These are the four reasons why something is called ‘suffering’, or ‘pain’, or ‘dukkha’. So what is the first one? Because of continual oppression, oppression by arising and disappearing. And then because of being hard to bear (Something painful is hard to bear.), because of being the basis of suffering (Sometimes it is the basis for another suffering.), and because of precluding pleasure (That means rejection of sukha. It is saying that it is not sukha, it is dukkha).
“Since no one has any power over arisen formations in the three instances, ‘Let them not reach presence’, ‘Let those that have reached presence not age’, and ‘Let those that have reached aging not dissolve’, and they are void of the possibility of any power being exercised over them, they are therefore not self because void, because ownerless, because unsusceptible to the wielding of power, and because of precluding a self.” These are the four reasons for being anatta. Now the first one is what? Void, because it is void, void because it is ownerless (‘Ownerless’ really means lordless, no overlord). The PÈÄi word ‘samika’ has two meanings, the owner of property or a lord. I think it is better to say ‘lord’ here than ‘owner’. So there is no overlord. Because of being unsusceptible to the wielding of power, this also is one of the explanations given with regard to the word ‘anatta’. We met one explanation before. What? No core. That is one explanation. And another explanation is that we cannot exercise any power over it. So that is another explanation of anatta. Things happen as they like and we have no power over them. That is the meaning. ‘Because of precluding a self’ means rejecting a self.
Oh! Let me see on the previous page 720, in the last line there is something. “And since no one has any power over arisen formations (not arisen, just formations) in the three instances, ‘Let them not reach presence'.” Actually it is: “Let the formations that have arisen not reach presence”, something like that. “Let those that have reached presence not age”, and “Let those that have reached aging not dissolve” and so on. For example I want to be young; I want to be always young. I don’t want to be sixty years of age or seventy years of age. But I have no power over myself. I will go on aging day by day. There is no possibility of exercising power over it.
So in footnote 20 “No one, not even the Blessed One, has such mastery; for it is impossible for anyone to alter the three characteristics.” Please rub out ‘three’. It is just ‘the characteristics’, not ‘three’. “the province of supernormal power is simply the alteration of a state.” What it means is that even the Buddha cannot change the characteristic of something. Mind has the characteristic of bending towards an object. Right? Even the Buddha cannot change that characteristic of mind. If it is mind, it will always have this characteristic. Then what about when somebody performs supernormal powers and does something which is not usual or real? It is the alteration of a state and not the alteration of a characteristic. That means he may make himself many persons or he may create likenesses of himself. The alteration of a state can be done by supernormal power, but the change of characteristic cannot be done by any power or any person at all. Not even the Blessed One has such mastery. That means if something has the characteristic of aging, the Buddha cannot make it not age, not get old.
“ ‘Because of precluding a self’ means because of precluding the self conceived by those outside the Dispensation (That means those other than the Buddhists.); for the non-existence in dhammas of any self as conceived by outsiders is stated by the words ‘because void, etc.’” Please add etc. There are void, ownerless, not susceptible to the wielding of power. “But by this expression (That means the last one, ‘precluding self’.) [it is stated] that they (not ‘there’) are not self because they have no such nature.” The word ‘anatta’ here has two meanings: There is no attÈ in them. When we say r|pa is anatta, that means there is no attÈ in r|pa. That is one meaning. The other meaning is r|pa is not attÈ. The first meaning is there is no attÈ in it. The second meaning is that it is not attÈ. So the translation should be “But by this expression [it is stated] that they are not self because they have no such nature.”
Paragraph 48 “Having attributed the three characteristics to materiality allotted one hundred years for the ‘taking up’ and ‘putting down’ thus, he next attributed them according to disappearance of what grows old in each stage. Herein, ‘disappearance of what grows old in each stage’ is a name for the disappearance of the materiality that has grown old during a stage [of life]. The meaning is that he attributes the three characteristics by means of that.” He tries to see all of them as impermanent, painful, and as no self.
The first one is dividing a life of 100 years into three stages, the first 33 years, the second 34 years, the third 33 years. Then the yogi tries to see the impermanence and others of materiality in these three stages. “The materiality occurring in the first stage ceased there without reaching the middle stage: therefore it is impermanent; what is impermanent is painful; what is painful is not self. Also the materiality occurring in the middle stage ceased there without reaching the last stage: therefore it too is impermanent (‘Too’ should be added after ‘it’.), and painful, and not self. Also there is no materiality occurring in the 33 years of the last stage that is capable of outlasting death: therefore that too is impermanent, painful, and not self.” The meditator comprehends in that way, dividing the life into thirds. The life span is taken to be 100 years. That is why it is divided into these groups this way.
In a little more subtle way the life span is divided into ten stages. In paragraph 50 the ten stages are what? “The tender decade, the sport decade, the beauty decade, the strength decade, the understanding decade, the decline decade, the stooping decade, the bent decade, the dotage decade, and the prone decade.” You can find out which decade you are in. What is the meaning of the word ‘prone’?
Student: Lying down.
Teacher: Lying with face downward, or face up, or just lying down?
Student: Just lying down.
Teacher: When you are more than 90 years old, you want to be in bed all the time. So it is called ‘the prone decade’. The materiality of one decade does not go on to another decade. That is how the yogi comprehends.
What is ‘dotage’? Becoming like a child? It may include that here. The PÈÄi word is ‘mom|ha’. That means a deluded state. He forgets what he has done and so on.
In paragraph 53 the same 100 years is divided into 20 parts of 5 years each. Materiality in the first 5 years ceases there and does not reach to the second 5 years and so on. This is groups of 5 years each.
Next is groups of what? 4 years. There are 25 parts. 100 is divided into 20 parts, 25 parts and then 33 parts of 3 years each, 50 parts of 2 years each, 100 parts taking 1 year each. It becomes smaller.
Then he reviews according to the three seasons. “The
materiality occurring in the four months of the Rains ceases there without reaching
the winter.” Now in
Next is dividing the month into two parts, bright half and
dark half in paragraph 58. In paragraph 59 there is dividing the 24 hours into
night and day. In paragraph 60 we have dividing a day into six parts. What are
they? Morning,
And then in paragraph 61 we have attributing “the three characteristics to that same materiality by means of moving forward and moving backward, looking toward and looking away, bending and stretching thus.” These words are mentioned in the MahÈ SatipaÔÔhÈna Sutta in the section on clear comprehension. “The materiality occurring in the moving forward ceases there without reaching the moving backward” and so on.
Paragraph 62 deals with six stages in one step. I didn’t ask you to be mindful of six steps in one step because it is too many. But here six stages are mentioned. They are ‘lifting up’, ‘shifting forward’, ‘shifting sideways’, ‘lowering down’, ‘placing down’, and ‘fixing down’. “ ‘Lifting up is raising the foot from the ground. ‘Shifting forward’ is shifting it to the front. (That means moving it to the front.) ‘Shifting sideways’ is moving the foot to one side or the other on seeing a thorn, stump, snake, and so on. (It may not happen in every step.) ‘Lowering down’ is letting the foot down. ‘Placing down’ is putting the foot on the ground. ‘Fixing down’ is pressing the foot on the ground while the other foot is being lifted up.” When you want to lift up the other foot, you press the remaining foot more firmly into the ground. That is called ‘fixing down’. There are six stages.
“Herein, in the ‘lifting up’ two elements, the earth element and the water element are subordinate and sluggish while the other two are predominate and strong.” Among the elements the water element and the earth element are said to be heavy. Fire element and wind element are said to be light. When you move upward the earth element is sluggish, not predominate at that time. The wind element and fire element are predominant. When you ‘put down’, then the earth element is predominant, but not the fire element. It is like that. “Likewise in the ‘shifting forward’ and ‘shifting sideways’. In the ‘lowering down’ two elements, the fire element and the air element, are subordinate and sluggish while the other two are predominate and strong. Likewise in the ‘placing down’ and ‘fixing down’.”
“He attributes the three characteristics to materiality according to ‘disappearance of what grows old in each stage’ by means of these six parts into which he has thus divided it.” Materiality in one stage ceases and does not reach to the second stage and so on. He tries to see or here attribute the three characteristics to all material properties.
“When he sees formations stage by stage with insight, his comprehension of materiality has become subtle. Here is a simile for its subtlety.” A simile is given. The application of the simile in actual experience is explained in paragraph 67.
Then materiality arising from nutriment, arising from temperature, kamma-born, consciousness-originated are explained. In whatever a yogi contemplates, he contemplates on the impermanent nature, the suffering nature, and the no self nature of these things. He tries to see them as impermanent, as suffering, an as no self. So in many ways a yogi may see these during the practice of meditation. These are not direct seeing. These are all inferential vipassanÈ.
There may be a little thinking or something like that here. That is why Venerable MahÈsi SayÈdaw did not encourage this kind of practice. Just do it for awhile. Don’t spend much time with this type of observing or viewing of different physical or mental phenomena, attributing the three characteristics to them because it is something like a distraction. That is because when you are trying to see the impermanent nature and so on, you are not really practicing mindfulness. It is something like speculating or thinking. It will take a yogi away from the real object of meditation. Therefore it is not encouraged. Also a yogi cannot go through all the methods mentioned in this book. A yogi must have a good knowledge of Abhidhamma to go through all these. Even though he may have a good knowledge of Abhidhamma, he will not see all of them in his practice of meditation. That is because some can only be seen by the Buddha and persons of high intellectual nature. If during the practice of vipassanÈ you do not experience all of these, don’t bother. It is a book, so it has to explain everything during the practice in detail. In brief it is just applying the three characteristics to everything we observe, everything that we take as an object of meditation.
“When he discerns consciousness-originated materiality and attributes the three characteristics to it in this way, this meaning becomes evident to him.” Then we have verses.
“Life, person, pleasure, pain - just these alone
Join in one conscious moment that flicks by.”
The PÈÄi here really means that they are associated with one consciousness. ‘Join in one conscious moment’ means they are associated with only one moment of consciousness and that moment is very brief.
“Gods, though they live for four-and-eighty thousand
Eons, are not the same for two such moments.”
Here the original PÈÄi means: “These gods do not exist there associated with two consciousnesses at a time. That means however long they live, they live for one moment at a time. They cannot live for two moments at a time. That is what is meant here. It is not that they are ‘not the same for two such moments’, but they do not exist with two moments of consciousness. There is only one moment.
“Ceased aggregates of those dead or alive
Are all alike, gone never to return;
And those that break up meanwhile, and in future,
Have traits no different from those ceased before.”
They have the same characteristics, the same nature of impermanence and so on.
“No [world is] born if [consciousness is] not
Produced” - actually “No world is born with consciousness which is not produced.” When there is no consciousness, there is no world living.
“When that is present, then it lives.” So the world lives with the presence of consciousness.
“When consciousness dissolves, the world is dead:
The highest sense this concept will allow.”
‘When consciousness dissolves the world is dead’ means that we are dying at every moment. There is death at every moment because the moments of consciousness are very brief. So at every dissolution of a moment of consciousness we die. So we are always dying although we say that we are living. A man lives, a woman lives, you live, I live. In fact we are always dying with the dissolution of each brief moment of consciousness.
“When consciousness dissolves, the world is dead:
The highest sense this concept will allow.”
Do you know the meaning of that? It is stated in footnote 23. ‘Pm’ means the Sub-Commentary. “ ‘Pm’ and the Sinhalese translation have been taken as guides in rendering this rather difficult verse.” Yes, it is difficult. Now here ‘the highest concept this concept will allow’ means that when we say that he lives, I live and so on, it is just for convenience in speaking that he lives, you live, I live and so on. The real ultimate truth is that we are dying at every moment. When we say that I live, he lives, we are taking that as though it were the ultimate truth, but actually it is not. So although it is not ultimate truth, it is like ultimate truth. ‘The highest sense’ means ‘ultimate truth’. When we use the expression ‘I live’ or ‘he lives’, we are talking on the conventional level. We take that conventional level to be a real truth. Actually it is not.
“No store of broken states, no future stock.”
There are no states stored in the past and no future stock.
“Those born balance like seeds on needle points.”
Seeds put on needle points immediately fall.
“Break-up of states is foredoomed at their birth;
Those present decay, unmingled with those past.
They come from nowhere, break up, nowhere go.
Flash in and out, as lightning in the sky.”
Everything just arises and disappears. It does not last long.
“Having attributed the three characteristics to that arising from nutriment, etc., he again attributes the three characteristics to natural materiality.” ‘Natural materiality’ is what? “ ‘Natural materiality’ is a name for external materiality that is not bound up with faculties.” ‘That is not bound up with faculties’ means that it does not belong to living beings. “And arises with the eon of world expansion” - do you know that? Do you remember the beginning of the world cycle and the dissolution of the world cycle? There are four periods in the world. ‘World expansion’ means the formation stage of the world. The world disintegrates and then stays in that stage for another period. Then there is the arising period. That period here is called ‘ the eon of world expansion’. That means from the beginning of the world. You can go back to the thirteenth chapter, paragraph 38. They are outside things like iron, copper, tin, lead, gold, silver, pearl, and so on.
“That becomes evident to him by means of an asoka shoot. For that to begin with is pale pink; then in two or three days it becomes dense red” and so on. From one stage to another nothing is carried over or reaches to another stage. After the stage of becoming, it dissolves. “After it has become the color of dark green leaves, as it follows out the successive stages of such material continuity, it eventually becomes withered foliage, and at the end of the year it breaks loose from its stem and falls off.”
“Discerning that, he attributes the three characteristics to it thus: The materiality occurring when it is pale pink ceases there without reaching the time when it is dense red” and so on. This is how a yogi “comprehends the formations by attributing the three characteristics to them by means of the Material Septad.” In seven different ways he views matter or the material property as impermanent and so on.
In PÈÄi the word used for attributing is ‘putting on’. To see the individual characteristics is the real thing. To see the impermanent and so on is something we ‘put on’ the dhammas. That is why ‘putting on’ is said in the books.
On page 719 in footnote 18 it says “When the generation of materiality is seen its dissolution also is seen, and so he said ‘One who sees the generation of materiality thus is said to comprehend the material at one time’ because of the brevity of states’ occurrence.” That phrase should go after ‘seen’ at the end of the first line - “When the generation of materiality is seen its dissolution also is seen because of the brevity of states’ occurrence.” They arise and disappear so rapidly that when you see the arising, you will not fail to see the dissolution also. They are so brief. “For it is not the seeing of mere generation that is called ‘comprehension’ but there must be seeing of rise and fall besides. So too the apprehending of generation in the other instances.” Seeing of mere generation, mere arising is not called ‘comprehension’ here. In order to be called ‘comprehension’ there must be seeing of arising and disappearing or rise and fall.
SÈdhu! SÈdhu! SÈdhu!
(Tape 42 / Ps: 76 – 130)
In the practice of vipassanÈ a meditator goes from one stage of knowledge to another. The first stage of that knowledge is discerning mind and matter or defining mind and matter. That we have already done. After gaining what is called ‘momentary concentration’, a meditator comes to see mind and matter clearly. This is said to be the beginning of vipassanÈ knowledge. After seeing mind and matter clearly, he sees the causes of mind and matter or cause-effect relationship between mind and matter, between mind and mind. When he has seen the causes and the conditions of mind and matter, he is said to have reached the ‘Purity of Views’.
After discerning the causes and conditions of mind and matter, he goes further in the series of vipassanÈ knowledges. That is he tries to comprehend mind and matter clearly. At the beginning of chapter 20 it is said that “The knowledge established by getting to know the path and the not-path thus”, and then “One who desires to accomplish this should first of all apply himself to the inductive insight called ‘Comprehension by Groups’” and so on. So he applies the comprehension by groups or just the knowledge of comprehension of mind and matter. We are just in the middle of this knowledge. In order to comprehend mind and matter clearly and in order to practice comprehension by groups, we are made to understand the three kinds of full understanding, then how mind and matter are to be comprehended according to groups, and so on, and then how to comprehend matter in different ways, and then how to comprehend mind or mentality also in what is immaterial. So first r|pa (matter) should be comprehended in seven different ways. That is described in paragraph 46 and so on. That is called ‘Material Septad’, Seven Kinds of Comprehension of Mind and Matter.
Today we come to the Immaterial Septad. “He comprehends all natural materiality in this way. This is how, firstly, he comprehends formations by attributing the three characteristics to them by means of the Material Septad.” So he comprehends all formations (That means all mind and matter.) by attributing the three characteristics to them. That means seeing them as impermanent, as suffering, and as no-self.
Now the author gives the other seven methods. They are called ‘The Immaterial Septad’. “The headings of what was called above ‘The Immaterial Septad’ are these: (1) by groups, (2) by pairs, (3) by moments, (4) by series, (5) by removal of false view, (6) by abolition of conceit, (7) by ending of attachment.”
There are the seven ways to apply. So (1) ‘by group’ means the states belonging to the Contact Pentad. You don’t know what ‘Contact Pentad’ is, but please read footnote 24. ‘Contact Pentad’ means contact, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness. In this order they are mentioned in the first book of Abhidhamma, Dhammasa~gaÓÊ. That is why they are called ‘Contact Pentad’. So five things beginning with contact, they are contact, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness. “Here, ‘he comprehends by groups’ [means that] a bhikkhu considers thus: The states belonging to the contact pentad arising in the comprehending of head hairs as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’; the states belonging to the contact pentad arising in the comprehending of body hairs as in the contemplation of brain” and so on.
Now you see ‘brain’ here. In the so called ’32 parts of the body’ the brain is in the middle, not at the end of the list. Actually only 31 parts are mentioned in the Suttas, mentioned in the MahÈ SatipaÔÔhÈna Sutta and other Suttas. But in a book called ‘PaÔisambhidÈmagga’, which is ascribed to the Venerable SÈriputta, the brain is added. It is added at the end, not in the middle as we do, now as we practice meditation now. So ‘in the contemplation of brain’ means he has come to the end of the list. “ ‘Impermanent, painful, not self’; - all these states disintegrate section by section, term by term, like crackling sesame seeds put into a hot pan, each without reaching the next: therefore they are impermanent, painful, not self. This, firstly, is the method according to the Discourse on Purification.” This one way of doing contemplation by groups.
There is another way. “According to the Discourse on the Noble Ones’ Heritages, however, he is said ‘to comprehend by groups’ when by means of a subsequent consciousness he comprehends as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’ that consciousness which occurred [ comprehending] materiality as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’ in the seven instances of the Material Septad given above. As this method is more suitable we shall therefore confine ourselves to it explaining the rest.”
Now in the first method a yogi takes head hairs as an object of meditation, then body hairs, the skin, teeth, and so on. But in this method he comprehends the consciousness itself which comprehends head hair as impermanent and so on. Here a yogi does not go to other objects. So he is not distracted. That is why it is said that it is more suitable. If you have to take the head hair, body hair and so on, then at every time there is new subject of meditation. But here you just take the consciousness which takes them as impermanent and so on. So a yogi is not described. That is why this method is said to be more suitable than the first one. Here 'comprehending by groups’ means actually comprehending the consciousness which comprehends head hairs and so on as impermanent and so on. So it is comprehending the comprehending consciousness.
“(2) By pairs: after the bhikkhu has comprehended as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’ the materiality of the ‘taking up and putting down’ (That really means from birth to death.), he comprehends that first consciousness [with which he was comprehending the materiality] too as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’ by means of a subsequent consciousness. (Here also by one consciousness he takes another consciousness as object of vipassanÈ meditation. And he takes that consciousness also to be ‘impermanent’ and so on.) After he has comprehended as impermanent, painful, not self the materiality of the ‘disappearance of what grows old in each stage’ (That means mind and matter in one stage does not reach to the next stage, and mind and matter in that stage also does not reach to succeeding stages and so on. They are mentioned previously in this chapter.) and that arising from ‘nutriment’, ‘arising from temperature’, ‘kamma-born’, ‘consciousness-originated’ and ‘natural’, he comprehends that consciousness too as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’ by means of a subsequent consciousness. In this way he is said to comprehend by pairs.”
First he comprehends matter as ‘impermanent’ and so on. Next he takes the consciousness that takes matter as impermanent and so on. So it is called ‘pairs’. In the first method, ‘by groups’, he does not comprehend in pairs; he just comprehends the consciousness which takes head hairs, body hairs and so on as ‘impermanent’. Here he takes let us say materiality as impermanent, and then he takes that consciousness which takes materiality as impermanent, as impermanent by another consciousness. It goes in pairs. That is why the second method is called ‘by pairs’.
The third method is ‘by moments’. “After the bhikkhu has comprehended as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’ the materiality of the ‘taking up and putting down (from birth to death)’, he comprehends that first consciousness [with which he was comprehending the materiality] as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’ by means of a second consciousness, and that second consciousness by means of a third, and the third by means of the fourth, and the fourth by means of a fifth.” So it is going in a series. We have to make corrections here. It should read “and the fourth by means of a fifth as that too is impermanent.” So we will rub out ‘and that too he comprehends’. We don’t need these five words. It should be “and the fourth by means of a fifth as that too is impermanent”. So by the fifth consciousness he comprehends the fourth consciousness. That fourth consciousness too is ‘impermanent, painful and not self’. Here he does not comprehend the fifth consciousness. He only comprehends the fourth consciousness by the fifth consciousness. So we should say “and the fourth by means of a fifth as that too is impermanent, painful, not self.”
“After he has comprehended as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’ the materiality of disappearance of what grows old in each stage’ and that ‘arising from nutriment’, ‘arising from temperature’, ‘kamma-born’, ‘consciousness-originated’ and ‘natural’, he comprehends that first consciousness as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’ by means of a second consciousness and that second consciousness by means of a third, and the third by means of a fourth, and the fourth by means of a fifth. Here also we should have ‘as that too is impermanent, painful, not self’. “Comprehending thus four [consciousnesses] from each discerning of materiality he said to comprehend by moments.” So this is said to be ‘comprehending by moments’. There are five consciousnesses. The first consciousness takes materiality as object. The second consciousness takes the first consciousness as object. The third consciousness takes the second consciousness as object. The fourth takes the third, and the fifth takes the forth. Then he stops there. That is ‘by moments’.
“(4) By series: after he has comprehended as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’, the materiality of the ‘taking up and putting down’, he comprehends that first consciousness as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’ by means of a second consciousness, and the second by means of a third, and the third by means of a fourth,.. and the tenth by means of the eleventh (Here we should strike out the words ‘and that too he comprehends’.) and the tenth by means of eleventh as that too is impermanent, painful, not self.” In the previous method he stops at comprehending the fourth consciousness by fifth consciousness. But here he ends by comprehending the tenth by the eleventh consciousness. He doesn’t go beyond comprehending the tenth.
“After he has comprehended as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’ the materiality of the disappearance of what grows old in each stage” and so on. “He comprehends that consciousness as ‘impermanent, painful, not self’ by means of a second consciousness, and the second by means of a third.. and the tenth by means of an eleventh as impermanent, painful, not self. It would be possible to go on comprehending it in this way with serial insight even or a whole day.” That means taking the tenth by the eleventh, taking the eleventh by the twelfth, taking the twelfth by the thirteenth and so on. So he could go on for the whole day.
“But both the material meditation subject and the immaterial meditation subject become familiar when the comprehending is taken as far as the tenth consciousness. (It is enough just to take up to the tenth consciousness.) That is why it is said that it can be (I think ‘should be’ is better, not ‘it can be’.) stopped at the tenth. (So a yogi must stop at the tenth. He must not go on beyond the tenth because that will make him distracted.) It is when he comprehends in this way that he is said to comprehend by series.” So that is ‘comprehension by series’. The first consciousness takes the materiality as object and the second takes the first consciousness as object and so on, until the eleventh consciousness takes the tenth as ‘impermanent’ and so on. Then he stops there.
“(5) By removal of false view, (6) by abolition of conceit, (7) by ending attachment: there is no individual method for any of these three. (There is no special method.) But when he has discerned this materiality as described above and this immateriality as described here, then he sees that there is no living being over and above the material and the immaterial” and so on. This is the description of removal of false view, abolition of conceit, and the ending of attachment. This is how he comes to this by discerning the mentality and materiality actually as impermanent, suffering and no-self.
Now paragraph 83 “But in the Discourse on the Noble Ones’ Heritages” - there are two kinds of discourses mentioned by the Visuddhi Magga. And the Sub-Commentary did not give us any information about these two methods, ‘Discourse of the Noble Ones’ Heritages’ and ‘Discourse on Purification’. There seem to have been two lines of instruction given at the time of Venerable Buddhaghosa.
“After setting forth the headings thus: ‘As removal of [false] view, as abolition of conceit, as ending of attachment’, the following method is set forth: ‘There is no removal of [false] view in one who takes it thus “I see with insight, my insight”; there is removal of [false] view in one who takes it thus “Only formations see formations with insight, comprehend, define, discern, and delimit them”.’” So when you say ‘I see’, then there is a kind of false view because you have not yet gotten rid of the view of ‘I’. Only when you see that there are only formations, when you see formations with insight, then there is the removal of false view.
“There is no abolition of conceit in one who takes it thus ‘I see thoroughly with insight, I see well with insight’.” So I can see this, maybe others cannot. “There is abolition of conceit in one who takes it thus ‘Only formations see formations with insight’,” and so on. “There is no ending of attachment in one who is pleased with insight thus ‘I am able to see with insight’.” Sometimes when people see this, they are attached to that seeing; they like it because this seeing is a result of the individual’s meditation. So there is attachment to this seeing. When one is attached to this seeing, then one cannot get rid of attachment. So ‘I am able to see with insight’ - there is no ending of attachment. But there is ending of attachment in one who takes it thus ‘Only formations see formations with insight, comprehend,’ and so on.
“There is removal of [false] view in one who sees thus ‘If formations were self, it would be right to take them as self; but being not-self they are taken as self. (They are taken to be ‘self’, although in fact they are ‘not-self’.) Therefore they are not self in the
sense of no power being exercisable over them; (They do not lend themselves to being ordered by some power or some beings.) they are impermanent in the sense of non-existence after having come to be; they are painful in the sense of oppression by rise and fall.” These are always explained with regard to being impermanent, painful, and not self. “They are not self in the sense of no power being exercisable over them.” That is the reason for their being anatta (not self). Non-existence after having come to be, this is the reason for impermanence. Oppression by rise and fall, this is the reason for being dukkha (suffering or painful). “There is abolition of conceit in one who takes it thus ‘If formations were permanent, it would be right to take them as permanent’ and so on.” These paragraphs explain how conceit and others are removed or not removed.
Paragraph 88 “This is how he comprehends formations by attributing the three characteristics to them by means of the Immaterial Septad.” These are seven ways of comprehending the immaterial to be impermanent and so on.” At this stage both material meditation subject and the immaterial meditation subject have become familiar to him.” He was very familiar with both matter and mind or mental things when he comes to this stage.
“Having thus become familiar with the material and immaterial meditation subjects, and so having penetrated here already a part of those 18 Principal Insights which are later on to be attained in all their aspects by means of Full-Understanding as Abandoning starting with Contemplation of Dissolution, he consequently abandons things opposed to what he has already penetrated.” Now 18 principal insights are given here. Some of them will be described in the section on Contemplation of Dissolution and others will be explained in the next chapter. So we can just leave them here. They are called ‘the 18 principal vipassanÈ’, 18 principal insights - contemplation of the impermanent, contemplation of pain, contemplation of not self, contemplation of dispassion and so on. We will come to them later.
Now we will go to the Knowledge of Contemplation of Rise and Fall in paragraph 93 and those following. By practicing comprehension by groups, comprehension of matter and comprehension of mind in various ways, the vipassanÈ knowledge in the yogi becomes strong. After that comprehending knowledge, the yogi goes to the knowledge of contemplation of rise and fall, contemplation of arising and disappearing. “Having purified his knowledge in this way by abandoning the perceptions of permanence, etc., which oppose the contemplations of impermanence, etc., he passes on from Comprehension Knowledge and begins the task of attaining that of Contemplation of Rise and Fall, which is expressed thus.” So from here we will from time to time look at the notes. I think it is like a guide for the following paragraphs. After this first comprehension knowledge he passes on to Contemplation of Rise and Fall.
“When he does so, he does it first in brief.” He does the contemplation of rise and fall first in brief and then he does it in detail by way of conditions and instances. So the first one is a brief method of contemplation. “When he does so, he does it first in brief. Here is the Text: ‘How is that understanding of contemplating present ‘states’ change is knowledge of contemplation of rise and fall? ‘Present materiality is born [materiality] (That means materiality that has been born is present.); the characteristic of its generation is rise, the characteristic of its change is fall, the contemplation is knowledge’.” The present materiality is born of materiality, which has been born, is present. Here ‘present materiality’ is called ‘born’. That means it is included in the trio of instants.
Please see footnote 30 on the next page. “Present materiality is called ‘born materiality’; it is included in the trio of instants [of arising, presence and dissolution] is what is meant.” ‘Materiality that has been born is present’ means materiality that is endowed with three instants - arising, dissolution and dissolution. That means the real present. “But that is hard to discern at the start, so the interpreting by insight should be done by means of presence according to continuity.” To really see the three instants (arising, present and dissolution) is difficult. So for the beginner it is almost impossible. Therefor the insight should be done by means of presence according to continuity. That means the matter in one condition does not go over to another condition. For example, when you are cold, you have certain kinds of material properties in your body. Those do not go over to the stage when you become warm and so on. This is called ‘presence according to continuity.
There are different kinds of presence (paccupanna or present). Do you remember that? Sometimes we call the present the whole life. We call it ‘present’. Right? Also sometimes we call ‘present’ that which lasts for some time, like the material properties lasting for the time when we are warm, when we are hot, and when we are cold. For all these different material properties arise. That is continuity present. And the instant present is the moment, the momentary present. That is actually the real present, which has the three sub-moments of arising, present and dissolution. There are three kinds of present.
You can go to chapter 13, paragraph 111. “Present materiality is born materiality; the characteristic ‘of its generation is rise, the characteristic of its change is fall, the contemplation is knowledge’.” So arising is characteristic of its generation and falling is characteristic of its change. And contemplation is knowledge of present feeling, perception, formations, consciousness, eye, etc. ‘Present becoming is born’ - that means becoming that has been born is present. “The characteristic is rise, the characteristic of change is fall. The contemplation is knowledge.” It is taken from the PaÔisambhidÈmagga.
Did you notice that it stops with becoming? Because with respect to ‘etc.’ you have to understand many things. Where do you find ‘becoming’? In Dependent Origination. Right. After becoming what is there? Birth, old age and death. Right? So please read the end of footnote 30. “For the elision represented by ‘etc.’ see chapter 20, paragraph 9.” In this case, however, the last two members of the Dependent Origination are left out. Although stages possessed of (Please add ‘birth’ there.) birth, aging, and death are mentioned under the heading of birth and of aging and death in Comprehension by Groups, etc., nevertheless here in the description of Knowledge of Rise and Fall, if it were said ‘present birth is born; the characteristic of its generation is rise, the characteristic of its change is fall’, etc., it would be tantamount to an affirmation and approval of the proposition that birth and aging and death were possessed of birth and aging and death.” That is why they are left out. Birth, aging and death are one thing and those having birth, aging and death are another. Let us say ignorance as an example. Ignorance has arising, presence and dissolution. If the author does not stop at becoming, but goes on to birth, decay and death, then they themselves will have them or something like that. It is an absurd saying. Birth possesses birth, aging possesses aging, and death possesses death. That is why they are left out. So that Text ends with ‘becoming’ in order to avoid that. Birth is the arising of things. Right? And aging is the deterioration of things and then dissolution is the disappearing of things. So birth cannot have another birth although ignorance or formations can have birth, decay and death. But birth itself cannot have birth, decay and death because it itself is birth. That is why the last two links are left out here.
Paragraph 95 “In accordance with the method of this text he sees the characteristic of generation, the birth, the arising, the aspect of renewal, of born (‘Mentality’ is missing there.) mentality and materiality, as ‘rise’, and he sees their (not ‘its’) characteristic of change, their (not ‘its’) destruction, their (not ‘its’) dissolution, as ‘fall’. If you look at the passage in paragraph 94, there is materiality, and then there is mentioned feeling, there is perception, formations, and consciousness. And also there are eye, ear and so on. There are many things there. In accordance with this method in this text he sees the characteristic of generation or arising. The birth, the arising, the aspect of renewal of born mentality and materiality, that is both mind and matter, not only matter but also of mind he sees. So actually the arising of mind and matter as arising he sees. And he sees their characteristic of change, destruction and dissolution as fall.
“He understands thus: ‘There is no heap or store of unarisen mentality-materiality [existing] prior to its arising. When it arises, it does not come from any heap or store; and when it ceases, it does not go in any direction. There is nowhere any depository in the way of a heap or store or hoard of what has ceased” and so on. Then there is the simile. “It (sound) is brought into being owing to the lute, the lute’s neck, and the man’s appropriate effort, and having been, it vanishes - so too all material and immaterial states, not having been, are brought into being, and having been they vanish.”
Now ‘the lute’s neck’ - the PÈÄi word here normally means ‘the lute’s neck. But the Sub-Commentary explains it to mean not the lute’s neck. I think it is called ‘pick’. It is something used to play the string. They use something. Right? It should be ‘owing to the lute, the pick, and the man’s appropriate effort, and having been it vanishes’ and so on. The sound arise only when the lute is played. It is not stored anywhere before it comes into being. And it is not stored anywhere after it goes out of being. In the same way mind and matter just arise and before arising they are not stored anywhere, and after vanishing they are not stored anywhere. That is why at every moment there is new mind, new matter and so on.
“Having given attention to rise and fall in brief thus, he again [does so in detail].” Now it explains in detail. “He sees the rise of ‘the materiality aggregate in the sense of conditioned arising’ thus: With the arising of ignorance there is the arising of materiality.” Now what is meant here is that he sees the arising of materiality by way of its conditions or its causes. So instead of saying ‘in the sense of conditioned arising’, we should say ‘by the nature of arising of conditions’. With the arising of ignorance there is arising of materiality. That means because there is ignorance there is matter. So he sees the arising of matter by way of its cause. Because of the existence of ignorance there is arising. With the arising of ignorance there is the arising of materiality. With the arising of craving, with the arising of kamma there is the arising of materiality.
“(1) He sees the rise of ‘the materiality aggregate (again) by the nature of arising of conditions’ thus: With the arising of ignorance there is the arising of materiality.” So these four are one group and the fifth is a separate group. “(5) One who sees the rise of generation sees the rise of materiality aggregate. (Here he just sees the arising of material aggregate not by way of causes, not by way of the arising of its conditions. He just sees its arising.) One who ‘sees the rise of the materiality aggregate sees these five characteristics.” That means four by way of conditions, and one is called ‘by way of instant’. We will come to that later.
“ ‘He sees the fall of the materiality aggregate in the sense of conditioned cessation thus (Here also we should say ‘by the nature of cessation of conditions’.) With the cessation of ignorance there is the cessation of materiality. (When there is no ignorance, there is no materiality. So with the cessation of conditions he sees the cessation of materiality. Or depending on the cessation of causes or conditions, he sees the cessation of materiality.) With the cessation of craving.., with the cessation of kamma also.., he sees the fall of the materiality aggregate - again it should be - by the nature of cessation of conditions thus. With the cessation of nutriment there is the cessation of materiality and so on; then (5) one who sees the characteristic of change sees the fall of the materiality aggregate. (So when one sees change, one sees the fall of disappearance of materiality.) One who sees the fall of the materiality aggregate sees these five characteristics’.”
“Likewise: ‘He sees the rise of the feeling aggregate - the same thing again - by the nature of arising of conditions’. And then he sees the fall of feeling aggregates in the five ways. And as in the case of feeling aggregate, [that is substituting ‘contact’ for the ‘nutriment’ in the case of materiality,] so for the perception and formations aggregates. So also for the consciousness aggregate with this difference that for the phrases containing ‘contact’ there are substituted ‘with the arising of mentality-materiality’ and ‘with the cessation of mentality-materiality’.” That is because the fifth aggregate is consciousness aggregate. In the Dependent Origination depending on mind and matter consciousness arises.
“So there are fifty characteristics stated with the ten in the case of each aggregate by seeing rise and fall.” There are five ways of seeing rise and five ways of seeing fall. So all together there are ten in each aggregate. “By means of which he gives attention in detail according to condition and according to instant.” ‘According to condition’ means depending on arising or cessation of conditions, he sees the arising and cessation of five aggregates. ‘According to the moment’ means seeing the very arising and the falling of the aggregates. Here he does not see the arising or falling of conditions, but just the arising and falling of the aggregates themselves. That is mentioned here as according to instant or moment. “The rise of materiality is thus; its fall is thus; so it rises, so it falls. As he does so his knowledge becomes clearer thus: ‘So, it seems, these states, not having been, are brought into being; having been, they vanish’.”
“When he sees rise and fall in two ways: according to conditions and according to instants, the different Truths, aspects of Dependent Origination, Methods, and Characteristics, become evident to him.” Now in the book we should say ‘different Truths’ rather than ‘several Truths’. Then the author explains what is meant by ‘according to condition’ and what is meant by ‘according to instant’. That is in paragraph 99. And then with paragraph 100 and so on here he explains the different Truths, aspects of Dependent Origination and others.
“When he sees rise and fall in the two ways, according to condition and according to instant thus, the Truth of Origination becomes evident to him (‘The Truth of Origination’ means the Second Noble Truth, the Origin of Suffering.) through seeing rise according to condition owing to his discovery of the progenitor. (When he sees the rise and fall in two ways, according to condition and according to instants, then the Second Truth becomes evident to him.) The Truth of Suffering becomes evident to him through seeing rise and fall according to instant (now here according to instant) owing to his discovery of the suffering due to birth (We should say ‘which is birth’. Suffering and birth are the same here. It is not ‘due to’ birth.) The Truth of Cessation becomes evident to him through seeing fall according to condition owing to his discovery of the non-arising of things produced by conditions when their conditions do not arise. The Truth of Suffering becomes evident to him too through seeing fall according to instant owing to his discovery of the suffering which is death. And his seeing of rise and fall becomes evident to him as the Truth of Path thus: ‘This is the mundane path’ owing to abolition of confusion about it.” So all the Four Noble Truths become evident to him through seeing rise and fall of the aggregates in two ways: according to condition and according to instant.
“The Dependent Origination in forward order becomes evident to him through seeing rise according to condition owing to his discovery that ‘When this exists, that comes to be’. The Dependent Origination in reverse order becomes evident to him through seeing fall according to condition owing to his discovery that ‘When this does not exist that does not come to be’. Dependently arisen states become evident to him through seeing rise and fall according to instant owing to his discovery of the characteristic of the formed; for the things possessed of rise and fall are formed and conditionally arisen.” So seeing the five aggregates, things, the rise and fall of five aggregates in this way makes him understand more clearly the Dependent Origination in forward order and reverse order and also the states mentioned in the Dependent Origination which are called ‘dependently arisen states’. That means actually all that are mentioned in the Dependent Origination. Everything mentioned in the Dependent Origination arises from some other conditions. So they are all dependently arisen states.
“The Method of Identity becomes evident to him through seeing rise according to condition” and so on. Do you remember the four methods with which to understand the Dependent Origination? Go back to chapter 17, paragraph 309. There are four methods of treating the meaning. They are Method of Identity, the Method of Diversity, the Method of Uninterest, and the Method of Ineluctable Regularity. So these are the four methods by which we should understand Dependent Origination or understand things. These methods become evident to one who sees rise and fall of aggregates in two ways.
“The Method of Identity becomes evident to him through seeing rise according to condition owing to his discovery of unbroken continuity in the connection of cause with fruit.” There is connection of cause and fruition, causes and effect. So when one sees the arising according to condition, that means because there is this condition, there is the fruit; because this is condition, there is fruit of it and so on. When he sees it, he understands it by way of the Method of Identity. That means there is the continuation of cause and effect.
“Then he more thoroughly abandons the annihilation view.” When he sees this, he abandons the annihilation view; that means he abandons the view that a being is annihilated as death. Nothing arises after death. So he abandons this view when he sees arising according to condition. Because there is condition there is that which arises depending on that condition. So this condition and fruit condition and fruit connection goes on and on and on. So there is some kind of identity in this continuity.
“The Method of Diversity becomes evident to him through seeing rise according to instant (At every instant there is arising.), owing to his discovery that each [state] is new [as it arises].” Although there is some kind of continuity, each one is a new one. Since everything is new, new at every moment, there is no permanency in the states. When he sees rising according to instant, then he can abandon the eternity view that things are permanent. That is because at every moment there is a new thing arising, and an old thing is disappearing, and so there can be no permanency in those states. He sees that.
“The Method of Uninterestedness becomes evident to him through seeing rise and fall according to condition owing to his discovery of the inability of states to have mastery exercised over them. Then he more thoroughly abandons the self-view.” If it is to be called ‘self’, then it must be able to exercise its authority over it. But now they just rise and fall; the states just rise and fall, and nobody can exercise authority over them, saying to be permanent or whatever. When he sees rising and falling according to condition, then he is able to abandon the self-view, the view that there is permanent self.
“The Method of Ineluctable Regularity becomes evident to him through seeing rise according to condition owing to his discovery of the arising of the fruit when the suitable conditions are there. Then he more thoroughly abandons the moral-inefficacy-of-action view.” That means whatever you do does not amount to kamma. So he is able to abandon that view because he sees the arising of aggregates or arising of states according to conditions. Because of this condition there is this fruit. And this fruit is from this condition only, not from any other condition. So he is able to abandon the wrong view that even though you do something, it doesn’t amount to doing anything, any kamma or whatever. Now here we have finished the Four Methods with regard to Dependent Origination.
“The characteristic of not-self becomes evident to him through seeing rise according to condition owing to his discovery that states have no curiosity (‘The states that have no curiosity’ really means that they have no effort of their own.) and that their existence depends upon conditions.” In this paragraph there are two things that we should note. That is characteristic of individual essence and the characteristic of what is formed. I want you to understand these two, characteristic of individual essence and the characteristic of what is formed.
‘Characteristic of individual essence’ means characteristics that they do not share with any other states. Let us take as an example contact. Contact has the characteristic of impinging on the object. That characteristic is for contact only, not for feeling, and not for perception and so on. So they are called the individual characteristic or the individual essence.
‘The characteristic of what is formed’ means the impermanent, suffering and no-self nature. They are called the characteristic of what is formed. They are actually common characteristics of conditioned phenomena. Everything that is conditioned has these three characteristics (arising, present and dissolution).
A yogi comes to see both characteristic of individual essence and the characteristic of what is formed when he practices vipassanÈ meditation. These two become evident to him owing to his discovery of the non-existence of fall at the instant of rise and the non-existence of rise at the instant of fall. When there is rising, there is no falling. When there is falling, there is no rising. When he discovers this, then the characteristic of what is formed and the characteristic of individual essence become clear to him. Here only rise and fall are mentioned, not the intermediate stage. Right? So footnote 32 says “The inclusion of only rise and fall here is because this kind of knowledge occurs as seeing only rise and fall, not because of non-existence of the instant of presence.” That is because in vipassanÈ the yogis see the rising and falling. That is why rising and falling are mentioned here, not because the intermediate stage is non-existent. There is the intermediate stage that is called ‘present’. But in vipassanÈ meditation only rising and disappearing are seen by yogis. That is why these two only are mentioned.
“When the different truths, aspects of the Dependent Origination, methods, and characteristics, have become evident to him thus, then formations appear to him as perpetually renewed.” I want to say ‘always new’ instead of saying ‘perpetually renewed’ because they are not ‘renewed’. Actually at every moment there is a new phenomenon existing; it is not that something is renewed.
Student: Then how do things stay the same? Do you mean that all mind and matter, all states are new?
Teacher: In the place of the old one which has disappeared, a new one takes its place. It is of the same nature, of the same kind. Let us say something like not one glass, but many glasses as an example. So when one glass disappears, then you put another glass there. We can say the same in the sense that the one disappears, a glass disappears, and the one that is there now is also a glass. But they are different. The one is removed and the other is put in its place. In the same way one material property disappears and another takes its place, another of the same kind or similar kind.
“ ‘So these states, it seems, being previously unarisen, arise, and being arisen, they cease’. And they are not only always new (not ‘perpetually’), but they are also short-lived like dew-drops at sunrise, like a bubble on water, like a line drawn on water, like a mustard seed on an awl’s point, like a lightning flash. And they appear without core, like a conjuring trick, like a mirage, like a dream, like a circle of a whirling firebrand (Some of these similes are not mentioned in the discourses. We cannot trace them.), like a goblin city, like froth, like a plantain trunk, and so on.”
Now goblin city - do you know goblin city? It is lie a city created by goblins, or ghosts, or some spirits. Sometimes you find yourself in a house, in a big building. Then next morning you find yourself lying on the ground. Nothing of the house you experienced during the night can be seen. So that kind of experience happened to many people. I don’t know if they happen here too. So they are called ‘goblin cities’. That means just cities or whatever that are made to appear as real to human beings. Maybe in the movies you find some things like these. A person enters the house and he enjoys the food in the house or whatever. And in the morning he finds himself lying on the ground, something like that. That is called ‘goblin city’.
“At this point he has attained tender insight knowledge (It is still tender.) called ‘Contemplation of Rise and Fall’, which has become established by penetrating the fifty characteristics in this manner: ‘Only what is subject to fall arises; and to be arisen necessitates fall’.” I don’t think that is acceptable. “Only what is subject to fall arises and what has arisen naturally falls.” It should be something like that. “With the attainment of this he is known as a ‘beginner of insight’.” Only when you attain to this stage are you called a ‘beginner of insight’. Before that you are not an official beginner.
Now we have Imperfections of Insight or Impediments of Insight. “When a yogi reaches this stage, the ten imperfections or impurities of insight arise in him.” These are the obstacles to progress, obstacles to the attainment, obstacles to enlightenment. That is because if a yogi takes them to be enlightenment, then he would not practice any further and so he will not get to enlightenment. These are called ‘Imperfections of Insight’; in PÈÄi they are called the ‘Impurities of Insight’. There are ten of them. “They are: (1) illumination, (2) knowledge, (3) rapturous happiness (That means pÊti.), (4) tranquillity, (5) bliss, (6) resolution, (7) exertion, (8) assurance (I would say ‘establishment’.), (9) equanimity, (10) attachment.”
So these ten things happen or arise in a person who has reached this stage of contemplating rise and fall. These imperfections “do not arise either in a Noble Disciple who has reached penetration [of the Truths (That means in ones who have gained enlightenment.) or in persons erring in virtue, neglectful of their meditation subject and idlers.” They arise only in one who is practicing meditation, “who keeps the right course, devotes himself continuously to his meditation subject and is a beginner of insight.” So these ten will not arise in Noble Disciples and also will not arise in those who do not practice meditation. There are ten. And these ten are explained one by one.
So let’s go to illumination. “Illumination is illumination due to insight. When it arises, the meditator thinks ‘Such illumination never arose in me before. I have surely reached the Path, reached Fruition’, thus he takes what is not Path to be the Path and what is not fruition to be Fruition. When he takes what is not the Path to be the Path and what is not Fruition to be Fruition, the course of his insight is interrupted (because he will not practice any more). He drops his basic meditation subject and sits enjoying the illumination.”
“But this illumination arises in one bhikkhu illuminating only as much as the seat he is sitting on; in another, the interior of his room; in another, the exterior of his room; in another, the whole monastery; a quarter league.., a half league.., a league.., two leagues.., three leagues; in another bhikkhu it arises making a single light from the earth’s surface up to the BrahmÈ World. But in the Blessed One it arose illuminating the ten-thousand-fold-world-element.” And then there is a story.
Now please read footnote 34. “ ‘Illumination due to insight’ is the luminous materiality originated by insight consciousness, and that originated by temperature belonging to his own continuity (That means in his body.). Of these, that originated by insight consciousness is bright and is found only in the meditator’s body. The other kind is independent of his body.” I don’t want to say that. “The other kind leaves his body and spreads all round according to the power of his knowledge.” Here the translation is not so good. “And it is manifest to him only”, not ‘too’. I would say “It is manifest to him only and he sees anything material in the place touched by it.” So the illumination is manifest only to him. Others won’t see the illumination. And he sees anything material in the place touched by it. But he would see things illuminated by that bright light.
And then the Sub-Commentary raises a question. Does he see with eye consciousness or mind consciousness? Then it says it should be said to be seeing with mind consciousness. That means he does not see with his physical eyes, but with his mind he sees things touched by or illuminated by that bright light. And then there comes the story of two Elders.
Next is knowledge. “Knowledge is knowledge due to insight. As he is estimating and judging material and immaterial states perhaps knowledge that is unerring ( ‘Unerring’ means undeterred.), keen, incisive and very sharp arises in him, like a lightning flash.”
“Rapturous happiness (pÊti) due to insight. Perhaps at that time the five kinds of happiness, namely, minor happiness, momentary happiness, showering happiness, uplifting happiness, and pervading (rapturous) happiness, arise in him filling his whole body.” Do you remember the five mentioned in chapter 4, paragraph 94 and so on? Then there are tranquillity, bliss, resolution, exertion, and then assurance. Assurance is literally establishment. So ‘assurance’ really means mindfulness. His mindfulness is very strong at this point.
“Equanimity is both equanimity about insight and equanimity in adverting. For equanimity about insight, which is neutrality about formations, arises strongly in him at that time. So does equanimity in adverting in the mind door”, not ‘it is also’. That means equanimity in adverting in the mind door also arises strongly in him.
And then attachment, that is real attachment. Now paragraph 124 “Here illumination, etc., are called imperfections because they are the basis for imperfection, not because they are [kammically] unprofitable (not because they are akusala). But attachment is both an imperfection and the basis for imperfection.” So the last one is real akusala because it is lobha (attachment). The other nine are not akusala but they are grounds for akusala. They are conditions for akusala because when the yogi has illumination, then he will be attached to the illumination and so on.
“As basis only they amount to ten; but with the different ways of taking them they come to thirty.” By false view, by conceit, and by way of attachment, they become thirty. So each one can be taken by way of false view, by way of conceit, and by way of attachment. A skillful meditator is not deceived by these. So he sees that they are impermanent and so on and they are not the right path to attainment, to enlightenment. So he decides here that the illumination and so on are not the right path, but the practice of vipassanÈ only is the right path. He decides this. When he decides this and this knowledge is established in him, then he is said to have reached the knowledge and vision of what is the Path and what is not the Path. A person, a yogi, after reaching the contemplation of rise and fall will encounter these impediments. When he encounters these impediments, he must be able to see them as impediments and as signs of enlightenment and so on. If he takes them to be the signs of enlightenment, then he will stop here. He will not go any further. And so he will be deprived of progress in insight and enlightenment. And at this point the three truths are defined and so on.
This is the end of chapter 20. It is not the end of Contemplation of Rise and Fall. We have to go further with the Contemplation of Rise and Fall. But one Purity ends here, that is Purification by Knowledge and Vision of what is the Path and what is not the Path. Because the yogi is practicing contemplation on rise and fall and when he reaches to a certain level of the contemplation of rise and fall, these impediments come. When he is disturbed by this impediments, he could not see rise and fall really very clearly. So he has to practice again to see rise and fall clearly. So contemplation of rise and fall does not end here; it will go over to the next chapter. But the Purification of Knowledge and Vision of What is Path and What is not the Path ends here. There is overlapping of purity and vipassanÈ knowledge. If you look at the handout, you will see it clearly.
Student: Could you explain some way we could work with seeing rise and fall?
Teacher: At first you do not try to see the rising and falling; you try to get good concentration. So you try to be mindful of what is happening at the present moment. Later on the arising and disappearing of things you observe will become evident to you. So what is important is to get the necessary amount of concentration. As your concentration gets better, then you will come to see the rising and falling, rising and falling. First we have to see the things clearly. Right? After that, we see this is arising and this is falling or it is not arising and it is not falling. Before we see the real arising and falling, we have to see the thing itself.
SÈdhu! SÈdhu! SÈdhu!