Chapter 11

(Tape 24 / Ps: 1-83)

 

   Today we come to chapter 11. In this chapter two kinds of meditation are treated. I’m afraid that the first one may not be popular with people in the West. It is the perception of repulsiveness in nutriment. We must understand that this meditation is not for not eating, not for refraining from eating. It is for eating without greed, for eating with non-attachment. Whether you are a lay person or a monk you have to eat enough to keep you healthy, to keep you in good shape. So this is for eating without attachment. In order to get rid of attachment we have to get the perception of repulsiveness in food.

   This book is meant for monks. So monks have to practice restraint in all areas. So with regard to eating too there should be restraint. Especially in the teachings of TheravÈda Buddhism what we eat is not so important as how we eat. The way that we eat is much more important than what we eat. When we eat we try to arouse this perception of repulsiveness in food so that we do not get too much attached to food.

   Now comes the description of the development of the perception of repulsiveness in nutriment. Actually I think we should translate this word as food although the PÈÄi word ‘ÈhÈra’ can mean nutriment as well as food. According to Abhidhamma ‘ÈhÈra’ means nutriment. In popular usage the word ‘ÈhÈra’ means food, so repulsiveness in food.

   “Now comes the description of the development of the perception of repulsiveness in food, which was listed as the ‘One Perception’ next to Immaterial States.” Then the author defines the PÈÄi word ‘ÈhÈra’. It nourishes, literally it brings on, thus it is nutriment (food).

   “That is of four kinds as physical nutriment, nutriment consisting of contact, nutriment consisting of mental volition and nutriment consisting of consciousness.” These four things are called by the name of ÈhÈra in PÈÄi, by the name of nutriment.

   The first one is physical nutriment. In fact it is not a direct translation of the PÈÄi word. The PÈÄi word is ‘kabali~kÈra’. You will find the word in footnote 2. So it is kabalali~kÈra ÈhÈra. In the word ‘kabalali~kÈra’ there is the word ‘kabala’. ‘Kabala’ means a handful. We do not say a mouthful, but we say a handful because we eat with our hands. When we monks eat, we pick up the food with our hands, make it into a ball and put it into the mouth. This handful is called a ‘kabala’ in PÈÄi. The word ‘kabalali~kÈra’ came to mean food in general. It is translated as physical nutriment here.

   According to Abhidhamma that which is ÈhÈra is not the whole food itself, but the oja (nutritive essence) that is contained in the food. That is what is called ‘ÈhÈra’ in Abhidhamma. Although physical nutriment or the PÈÄi word ‘kabalali~kÈrÈhÈra’ is stated, we must understand that it means the nutritive essence in the food. The first ÈhÈra is food.

   Nutriment consisting of contact - contact is also called food. Contact is a mental factor. That is also called food.

   The next is mental volition. So volition is called food.

   The last one is consciousness. In one of the Suttas Buddha said there are four kinds of food and these are mentioned. They are called food because they nourish something.

   Then the question is: Which nourishes what? I think the first line in paragraph 2 should say like that. “But which nourishes what?”, simply that.

   “Physical nutriment (kabali~kÈrÈhÈra) nourishes (brings on) the materiality of the octad that has nutritive essence as eighth.” You need some Abhidhamma to understand this. There are material particles, or material qualities, or material properties. There are said to be 28. These material properties arise in groups. Some groups have eight material properties, some have nine, some have ten, some have eleven and so on. The least number of material properties contained in a group is eight. It is said according to Abhidhamma that we may find these eight  material properties anywhere, in living beings or in outside things.

   Here the eighth is said to be “material of the octad that has nutritive essence as the eighth.” Do you remember the eight material qualities? The four primaries, color, smell, taste and this one ÈhÈra or oja. These are said to be found everywhere, where there is matter or material properties. These eight are the result of or, or are caused by sometimes kamma, sometimes citta (consciousness), sometimes utu (temperature or climate), and sometimes ÈhÈra (nutriment). Here that caused by nutriment is needed. The kabali~kÈrÈhÈra brings on or nourishes the eight material properties which are cause by it (ÈhÈra). That is why it is called nutritive essence or physical nutriment in PÈÄi language.

   The second one, contact as nutriment, nourishes the three kinds of feeling. When there is contact, there is feeling. In the twelve links of Dependent Origination feeling is conditioned by what? By contact. So contact is said to nourish or bring the three kinds of feeling - pleasant feeling, unpleasant feeling and neutral feeling. If there were no contact, there would be no feeling. So contact is said to be the condition of feeling.

   “Mental volition as nutriment nourishes (brings on) rebirth-linking in the three kinds of becoming.” ‘Mental volition’ means cetanÈ. Actually ‘mental volition’ means kamma or sa~khÈra in Dependent Origination, the second link (kamma formations). Mental volition is kamma formations. What does it bring? It brings paÔisandhi (rebirth-linking) in the three kinds of becoming. (That is sensuous becoming, fine material becoming and immaterial becoming.)

   “Consciousness as nutriment nourishes (brings on) mentality-materiality at the moment of rebirth-linking.” This also is to be understood with reference to Dependent Origination. Consciousness conditions mentality-materiality or mind and matter. At the moment of rebirth there is rebirth consciousness. Together with rebirth consciousness there are mental factors and also there are material properties caused by kamma in the past. What we call ‘rebirth’ is rebirth consciousness, its concomitants and kamma-born matter. Consciousness or here actually rebirth consciousness nourishes or is the condition for mind and matter. ‘Mind and matter’ here means the mental factors and the material properties. So it is called ‘ÈhÈra’ or in English nutriment.

   “Now when there is physical nutriment there is attachment, which brings peril.” That means the danger in physical nutriment is attachment. We are attached to food. When we eat food, we get attachment. So the danger in physical nutriment is attachment.

   “When there is nutriment as contact there is approaching (coming together) and that brings peril (or that is the danger).”

   “When there is nutriment as mental volition there is reappearance which brings peril.” ‘Reappearance’ means rebirth in different existences which brings peril. Rebirth is the danger in mental volition because it brings about rebirth. And when there is nutriment as consciousness there is rebirth-linking. That means mental volition gives rebirth. It is something like throwing down something. That is the function of mental volition. The rebirth consciousness itself is the danger in consciousness. So rebirth-linking is the danger in consciousness.

   “And to show how they bring fear thus, physical nutriment should be illustrated by the simile of the child’s flesh (S.2,98).” That is Kindred Sayings, Volume 2, page 68 and following pages. In that Sutta the Buddha said that food should be regarded as though one were eating the flesh of one’s own child. Contact should be regarded as a hideless cow. Mental volition should regarded as a pit of live coals. And consciousness should be regarded as a hundred spears. You have to read that Sutta to understand this.

   The first one is explained by a story, not an actual story, but a simile. Two people, a husband and wife, with a child go on a journey. They were going through a desert and lost everything. They were thirsty. They were hungry. So they decided to eat the flesh of their child just to get out of that wilderness. If they eat the flesh of the child, they will not feel happy. They may eat with tears and so on. In the same way food should be eaten with that kind of perception, as though you were eating the flesh of your own child. When you have to eat the flesh of your own child, there will be no attachment to that food. It is something like that.

   Contact as nutriment is shown by the simile of the hideless cow. A cow whose skin or hide has been taken off will be bitten by flies, mosquitoes and so on where ever it goes. Even if it goes into water there are those who will bite or sting it. In the same way where there is contact, there is always feeling. Feeling always accompanies contact. Feeling is compared to the biting of insects and so on.

Student: Unpleasant feeling?

Teacher: Unpleasant feeling, that’s right.

   And volition is compared to the simile of the pit of live coals. Nobody wants to fall into the pit of live coals. It brings suffering. In the same way mental volition throws us into a new existence. When we are reborn in a new existence we suffer the dukkha inherent in that life. So mental volition is to be regarded as a pit of live coals.

   The last one, consciousness as nutriment, is compared to the simile of the hundred spears. A thief is caught and sentenced to be executed. He is carried through the street and given a hundred blows here and a hundred blows there and so on.

   Out of these four kinds of nutriment or what is called ‘nutriment’ only one will be treated only the first one is relevant in this chapter or for this meditation. In the footnote the explanations are given and I hope that you have read it.

   About the middle of footnote 4 ‘approaching’ is explained as “meeting, coinciding, with unabandoned perversions [of perception] due to an object [being perceived as permanent, etc., when it is not].” I think that is a little incorrect. What is meant is that the ‘approaching’ is meeting, coinciding or coming into contact, not with unabandoned perversions, but for those whose perversions are as yet unabandoned.

    He misunderstood the PÈÄi compound word here. It is very difficult to decide what PÈÄi compounds mean. The same word may mean two different things. Here what is really meant is “for those whose perversions as of yet are unabounded meeting with an object.” That meeting with an object is perilous since it is not free from the three kinds of suffering. When there is meeting with the object, there is contact and feeling.

   “But of these four kinds of nutriment it is only physical nutriment, classed as what is eaten, drunk, chewed and tasted that is intended here as ‘nutriment’ in this sense.” So food is intended as nutriment or as ÈhÈra in this chapter. “The perception arisen as the apprehension of the repulsive aspect in that nutriment is ‘perception of repulsiveness in nutriment.”

   “One who wants to develop that perception of repulsiveness in nutriment should learn the meditation subject” and all these things. We should develop or arouse the perception of repulsiveness in ten ways. It is for monks. The ten ways are going for food, seeking food, ‘using’ which means eating food, secretions, receptacle, what is undigested, what is digested, result or fruit, outflow and smearing. All these are designed to help us get the sense of repulsiveness towards food.

   Nowadays people say  “Please enjoy food. Please enjoy food.” Here we don’t enjoy. If we eat, we eat with this kind of reflection, so that we don’t get attached to food.

   The first one is going. A monk has to go out every day for alms in the morning. So this passage is for monks. “Even when a man has gone forth in so mighty a dispensation, still after he has perhaps spent all night reciting the Enlightened One’s word or doing the ascetic’s work (That means meditation.), after he has risen early to do the duties connected with the shrine terrace and the Enlightenment Tree terrace, set out water for drinking and washing, to sweep the grounds and to see to the needs of the body, after he has sat down on his seat and given attention to his meditation subject twenty or thirty times” - twenty or thirty times is not so clear. I think also the Sub-Commentary did not know exactly what is meant because you will see that in the footnote different opinions are given.

   “Here some say that the definition of the number of times is according to what is present-by-continuity.” That means one continuity after another. When you enter a cell from light, at first you cannot see clearly because you come from light into darkness. After some seconds or minutes you can see. This is called ‘one continuity’. If you go out from the dark into the light, the same thing will happen. You will not see clearly as you go out. You have to adapt to the difference of light. In this way the time should be taken as one continuity after another. That is the opinion of some. 

   “But others say that it is by way of ‘warming the seat’. If you sit for some time, the seat becomes warm. “For development that has not reached suppression of the hindrances does not remove the bodily discomfort in the act of sitting, because of the lack of pervading happiness.” Before you get good concentration, you will still want to move or want to change your position every now and then. One heating up of the position is what is meant by time here. That is what the authors say.

   What about twenty or thirty? “Then ‘twenty or thirty’ is taken as the number already observed by the time of setting out on the alms round.” In fact it means taken as a number by the formerly noted time of setting up. I will set out for alms at such a time. That is decided beforehand. According modern times let us say I will go out at 6:30am. Until 6:30am I will be practicing meditation. It is something like that.

Student: Venerable Buddhaghosa preferred the last one?

Teacher: No. Another one will come.

   “Or alternatively from ‘going’ up to ‘smearing’ is one turn (one time).” There are ten reflections to be made. From the first reflection to the tenth reflection you get one round, one turn, one time. That means the monk contemplating in these ten ways twenty or thirty times before he gets up and goes for alms. Actually it is not clear which is meant. We can take the last one.

Student: Perhaps one way to understand it is that if the meditation subject is the breath, it is twenty or thirty breaths?

Teacher: No. It could be that when you take the breath as an object and say “in one, out one, in two, out two, in three, out three” until ten and that would be one. Then again you say “in one, out one, in two, out two” until ten and that would be two and so on.

   In paragraph 7 line 3 what is a ‘gecko’?

Student: Geckos are little animals that sometimes eat cockroaches and insects. They are like a lizard.

Teacher: House lizards, right. They are small house lizards. We don’t see many of them in this country.

Student: Actually one time when we had a community and we were discussing the problem of cockroaches. Someone suggested that we obtain geckos. That’s how I know what a gecko is.

Teacher: paragraph 8 “In due course, after standing in the debating lodge” - I don’t know whether it can be called ‘debating’ because it is a place where a monk decides which way to go for alms round. Footnote 11 “in a lodge for thinking in the way beginning ‘Where must I go for alms today’?” Maybe there are two or three villages not far from the monastery. He may go to one village on one day and another village the next day. So he decides where to go or which village to go to standing in that lodge, standing in that place. That is translated as debating lodge. He may be debating internally which village he should go to. So he does all these things. This is the repulsiveness of food with regard to going.

   The next one is seeking. After going to the village a monk must go from one house to another. “When he has endured the repulsiveness of going in this way and has gone into the village, and is clothed in his cloak of patches, he has to wander in the village streets from house to house like a beggar with a dish in his hand” and so on. It may not be so bad nowadays and also in Buddhist countries. If not all of the people are Buddhist, some may just drive us away if we go and stand in front of their houses. So you see in paragraph 12 “Others treat him with harsh words such as ‘Go away, you bald-head’.” When we were in Sri Lanka, we did not know which houses were Buddhist and which were not. So sometimes we stood in front of a house that was Christian or Muslim. When Buddhists saw us, they would drag us to their house. They would say “Don’t stand there.” They may not drag us away, but it must have happened in the olden days when not all people were Buddhist. That is seeking.

   The third is how as to using. ‘How as to using’ is how as to eating. Sometimes to be literal may miss the real point. Here ‘using the food’ means eating. In eating too there is repulsiveness.

   India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar are troubled countries. When you have to go from your monastery to the village on your alms rounds, you may be sweating. So your hands may be smeared with sweat. That is why here it says “After he has sought the nutriment in this way and is sitting at ease in a comfortable place outside the village, then so long as he has not dipped his hand into it he would be able to invite a respected bhikkhu or a decent person, if he saw one, [to share it;] but as soon as he has dipped his hand into it out of desire to eat he would be ashamed to say ‘Take some’.” That is because now the food is smeared with his sweat.

   This is eating. The food is put in the mouth. The jaws function as a pestle. The teeth function as a mortar and so on. We have to contemplate on this when we eat. I do not know whether it would be good to eat thinking of this. You may even want to vomit.

   In footnote 13 it says “KummÈsa - jelly: usually rendered ‘junket’, but the Vinaya Commentaries give it as made of corn.” Yava is not corn. It is barley or wheat. I don’t know what ‘junket’ is.

Student: Junket is a custard. So it is a custard made out of barley or wheat.

Teacher: Yes, barley or wheat. It is something like rice, not necessarily jelly.

   Then we have as to secretions. “Buddhas and Pacceka Buddhas and Wheel-turning Monarchs have only one of the four secretions consisting of bile, phlegm, pus and blood.” I don’t know whether that is true. ‘Only’ is not needed here. Instead of ‘only’ I want to say ‘any’. I think we should say “Even Buddhas and Pacceka Buddhas and Wheel-turning Monarchs have any one of the four secretions consisting of bile, [phlegm, pus and blood, but those with weak merit have all four.”

   “So when [the food] has arrived at the stage of being eaten and] it enters inside, then in one whose secretion of bile is in excess it becomes as utterly nauseating as if smeared with thick madhuka oil.” ‘Madhuka’ is also difficult to translate. It is a kind of seed which gives thick oil.

   “In one whose secretion of phlegm is in excess it is as if smeared with the juice of nÈgabalÈ leaves.” Maybe you get a sticky substance from that kind of leaf.

   “In one whose secretion of pus is in excess it is as if smeared with rancid buttermilk; and in one whose secretion of blood is in excess it is as utterly nauseating as if smeared with dye. This is how repulsiveness should be reviewed as to secretion.”

   Then there is as to receptacle. “When it has gone inside the belly and is smeared with one of these secretions, then the receptacle it goes into is no gold dish or crystal or silver dish and so on.”

   Paragraph 19 as to what is undigested. ‘Uncooked’ here means what is undigested. We believe there is something like a fire in the stomach. That fire or that heat digests the food.

   The next one is what is cooked, what has been digested. “When it has been completely cooked there by the bodily fires, it does not turn into gold, silver, etc., as the ores of gold, silver, etc., do [through smelting]. Instead, giving off froth and  bubbles, it turns into excrement and fills the receptacle for digested food, like brown clay squeezed with a smoothing trowel and packed into a tube.” ‘Receptacle for digested food’ really means the later part of the intestines. “And it turns into urine and fills the bladder. This is how repulsiveness should be reviewed as to what is cooked.”

   “How as to fruit?” That means ‘How as to result’. “When it has been rightly cooked (That is well-digested.), it produces the various kinds of ordure consisting of head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth and the rest. When wrongly cooked (That means when it is not well-digested.), it produces the hundred diseases beginning with itch, ringworm, smallpox, leprosy, plague, consumption, coughs, flux, and so on. Such is its fruit. This is how repulsiveness should be reviewed as to fruit.”

   Then as to outflow. “On being swallowed, it enters by one door, after which it flows out by several doors in the way beginning ‘Eye-dirt from the eye, ear-dirt from the ear’. And on being swallowed it is swallowed even in the company of a large gathering. But on flowing out, now converted into excrement, urine, etc., it is excreted only in solitude. That is repulsiveness as to outflow.”

   Then there is as to smearing. “At the time of using it he smears his hands, lips, tongue and palate, and they become repulsive by being smeared with it. And even when washed, they have to be washed again and again in order to remove the smell.” That is very true. If you eat with your hands and the dishes may be smelly, the smell will remain for a long time.

   “And just as, when rice is being boiled, the husks, the red powder covering the grain, etc., rise up and smear the mouth, rim and lid of the cauldron so too, when eaten it rises up during the cooking and simmering by the bodily fire that pervades the whole body, it turns into tartar, which smears the teeth, and it turns into spittle, phlegm etc., which respectively smear the tongue, palate etc., and so on.”

   Towards the end of the paragraph it say “And after one has washed a certain one of these, the hand has to be washed again.” Then there is footnote 17. I think that number should be moved one line down. “And after one has washed a certain one of these” - then the footnote should be there after the second ‘after one has washed a certain one of these’. Here the first ‘one of these’ refers to the urinal orifice. The second ‘one of these’ means the anal orifice. This is according to smearing. So we have ten ways of developing the perception of repulsiveness.

   “As he reviews repulsiveness in this way in this way in ten aspects and strikes at it with thought and applied thought, physical nutriment becomes evident to him in its repulsive aspect. He cultivates that sign again and again.” That sign - in other meditations how many signs do we have? For example in kasiÓa meditation? Do you remember the signs? Two signs. What is the first sign? It is translated in this book as the learning sign. That means the grasped sign actually. The other one is the counterpart sign. In PÈÄi the first one is uggaha nimitta and the second one is paÔibhÈga nimitta.

   There are two kinds of sign. For example if you practice kasiÓa disk meditation, when you have memorized the disk and when with your eyes closed you can see the disk, then you are said to have got the first sign, the learning sign. Later on you concentrate on that sign again and again so that it becomes very refined. At that time you are said to have got the second kind of sign, the counterpart sign. So the counterpart sign is much more refined than the learning sign. So there are two signs.

   But here there is no such sign. ‘Sign’ here simply means the object of meditation. The footnote also explains this, but it is very difficult to understand this in the footnote. It is a translation of the Sub-Commentary and it is not so understandable. ‘The sign’ here just means the object of meditation. The object of meditation here is nutriment. Although we call it ‘physical nutriment’, actually it is the nutritive essence in the food. Nutritive essence in the food is paramattha, ultimate reality. It is one of the 28 material properties. But the aspect of repulsiveness is concept. Through contemplating on the aspect of repulsiveness, you take the real thing as object. That real thing is called ‘sabhÈva dhamma’, dhamma that has individual essence. Dhammas that have individual essence are by nature difficult to understand, by nature profound. Since in this meditation the object is profound, there can be no jhÈna. SamÈdhi reaches only the access stage. So you cannot get jhÈna by practicing this kind of meditation. That is because the object belongs to the dhammas which have individual essence, or in other words the object belongs to paramattha, ultimate reality. So it is difficult to see. It is profound. The meditation cannot reach absorption. It can only reach the level of access.

   That is what is meant in footnote 18. He did not translate the whole passage. Here it is given as the translation of the whole passage, but some lines are omitted here, so it doesn't really seem connected. Further down there is an inaccuracy in the translation. The Sub-Commentary gives two reasons why the meditation cannot reach absorption with this object of meditation. The first is “the occurrence of development is contingent only an individual essence.” That is because this meditation has to take a dhamma with individual essence as an object. And the dhamma with individual essence is by nature profound, is by nature difficult to see. That is why the samÈdhi cannot reach to the jhÈna stage in this meditation.

   Generally we say that if you want to get jhÈnas, you practice samatha meditation or sometimes we say that the practice of samatha meditation leads to the attainment of jhÈnas. But not all kinds of samatha meditation lead to jhÈna. This is one kind of samatha meditation that does not lead to jhÈna. There are others that we have already studied that do not lead to jhÈna like recollection of the Buddha, recollection of the Dhamma and so on.

   “When a bhikkhu devotes himself to this perception of repulsiveness in nutriment, his mind retreats, retracts and recoils from craving for flavors. He nourishes himself with nutriment without vanity and only for the purpose of crossing over suffering, as one who seeks to cross over the desert eats his own dead child’s flesh. Then his greed for the five cords of sense-desire comes to be fully understood without difficulty through the means of the full understanding of the physical nutriment.”

   ‘Full understanding’ or ‘fully understood’ really means surmounting the desire. This word is used in the Suttas many times. The PÈÄi word is ‘pariÒÒa’. We will find it in the second part of the book, maybe towards the end of the book. There are three kinds of full understanding - clearly understanding, deciding that things are impermanent and so on, and then the third one is abandoning, getting rid of, or overcoming. In most cases that is what is meant when the PÈÄi word ‘pariÒÒa’ is used. So here ‘sense-desire comes to be fully understood’ means sense-desire comes to be overcome or abandoned. When you really understand food, you will not have attachment to food. You will be able to get rid of attachment to food when you understand this.

Student: The repulsiveness makes you understand the error of desire, but it isn’t repulsiveness itself that is being sought, but repulsiveness as an antidote to desire.

Teacher: That’s right. If we do not see repulsiveness, we will not be able to get rid of attachment.

   “He fully understands the materiality aggregate through the means of full understanding of the five cords of sense-desire.” ‘Full understanding’ should be understood in the sense of overcoming or abandoning.

   The next one is defining of the elements or breaking down into elements, four great elements here. “Herein, ‘defining (vavaÔÔhÈna)’ is determining by characterizing individual essences [the compound] ‘catudhÈtuvavaÔÔhÈna (four-element defining) is [resolvable into] ‘catunnaÑ dhÈt|naÑ vavaÔÔhÈnaÑ (defining the four elements)’.” These are the grammatical explanations of the formation of words. Although it is included in the translation, it is not so important.

   This meditation is given in two ways, in brief and in detail. It is given in brief in the MahÈ SatipaÔÔhÈna Sutta. That is Sutta #22 in The Long Discourses. It is given in detail in the MahÈ Hatthipad|pamÈ Sutta. It is the simile of the elephant’s footprint. That is in the Majjhima NikÈya, Sutta #28. It is also given in detail in the RÈhulovÈda Sutta. It is the advice of the Buddha given to his own son RÈhula. That is in the Majjhima NikÈya, Sutta #62. It is also given in detail in the DhÈtuvibha~ga Sutta. That is in Majjhima NikÈya, Sutta #140. In these Suttas the four elements are treated in more detail.

   Now we come to the Text and Commentary in brief. This Text is from the MahÈ SatipaÔÔhÈna, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Sutta. “Bhikkhus, just as though a skilled butcher or butcher’s apprentice had killed a cow and were seated at the cross-roads with it cut up into pieces, so too, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu reviews this body however placed, however disposed, as consisting of elements: In this body there are the earth element, the water element, the fire element, and the air element.” This is what is taught in the MahÈ SatipaÔÔhÈna Sutta. Then there are the word meanings.

   Paragraph 30 gives us more understanding or explanation of this simile. The simile in the Text is so short that without the help of this Commentary we will not understand the meaning intended there. This explanation is very important. Until the cow is cut up into pieces the person cannot get rid of the notion that it is a cow. The cow is led to the slaughtering place and it is slaughtered. Still a person has the notion of a being or a cow. He may think to himself “I am taking the cow to the slaughtering ground. I am slaughtering the cow” and so on. As soon as the cow has been cut into pieces, his notion of a cow disappears. Just the notion of pieces or just the notion of meat arises in him. After he will think “ I am selling meat” or “They are carrying away meat.”

   In the same way if we do not reduce ourselves to the four elements, then we will still have the notion of being. When we have broken ourselves down into four elements, then we lose the sense of being. This is the meaning intended in this simile.

   “In the MahÈ Hatthipad|pama Sutta, it is given in detail for one of not over-quick understanding”, not so quick understanding, not so intelligent. These people need a little explanation in detail. It is also given in the RÈhulovÈda and DhÈtuvibha~ga Suttas. In these three Suttas the passages and explanations are more or less the same.

   “What is the internal earth element, friends?”  There are two kinds of earth element, internal and external. Only internal is shown here. “ Whatever there is internally in oneself that is hard, harsh and clung to (acquired through kamma).” Sometimes we want to make the meaning clear, so we put some words that are not in the original. These very words if they are not correct lead us to misunderstanding. This is the case here. The PÈÄi word is ‘upÈdiÓÓa’. ‘UpÈdiÓÓa’ means grasped or clung to. Here it is not clung to through kamma, but clung to through attachment, by grasping. We should strike out ‘acquired through kamma’.

   “That is hard, harsh and clung to” - and ‘clung to’ really means existing in living beings, not existing in outside things such as rocks, trees and so on. That is because here the internal earth element is explained.

Student: There is internally in oneself something that is hard? Could you explain?

Teacher: Earth element is something in us which is hard, something which has the characteristic of hardness or softness. We will come to that later.

   the 32 parts of the body are divided into earth elements and water elements. We get the first 20 as earth elements. “That is to say, head hairs, body hairs” and so on until what? “Dung or whatever else there is internally in oneself that is hard, harsh and clung to - this is called the ‘earth element’.” This is the definition of the earth element inside the living beings.

   “And what is the internal water element, friends? Whatever there is internally in oneself that is water, watery, and clung to, that is to say, bile, phlegm” and so on.

   The next is the fire element. There are four kinds of fire element. “Whatever there is internally in oneself that is fire, fiery, clung to, that is to say, that whereby one is warmed, ages, and burns up, and whereby what is eaten, drunk, chewed and tasted gets completely digested, or whatever else there is internally in oneself that is fire, fiery, and clung to - this is called the internal fire element.” Do you get four kinds of fire elements in this passage? You will get it in paragraph 36.

   “here is the commentary on the words that are not clear. Internally in oneself (ajjhattaÑ paccattaÑ): both these words are terms for what is one’s own (niyaka), since what is one’s own is what is produced in one’s own self (attani jÈtaÑ)” and so on. There is an example taken from world speech, that is from the conversation of the people. “Just as in the world speech among women is called [speech] belonging to women (adhitthi)” - this is a kind of compound. Actually here is not speech among women or belonging to women, but speech about or concerning women. That is called ‘adhitthi’ in PÈÄi. Here also the PÈÄi word ‘ajjhatta’ is divided into ‘adhi’ and ‘attÈ’. ‘Adhi’ and ‘attÈ’ becomes ajjhatta according to PÈÄi grammatical rules. The Commentary is explaining this. The word ‘ajjhatta’ simply means internal. If you understand it to mean internal, that is enough.

   At the end of paragraph 33 “Clung to: taken firmly [by kamma]; the meaning is , firmly taken, seized, adhered to, as ‘I’, ‘mine’.” We should strike out ‘kamma’ and put some other words - by craving etc. “Clung to: taken firmly [by craving etc.]; the meaning is, firmly taken, seized, adhered to, as ‘I’, ‘mine’.”

   With regard to this word ‘upÈdiÓÓa’ it is important. Many people make mistakes with this word ‘upÈdiÓÓa’. In Abhidhamma terms ‘upÈdiÓÓa’ means the result of kamma or caused by kamma. If a material property, let us say, is called ‘upÈdiÓÓa’, it means that it is caused by kamma. There is ‘upÈdiÓÓa r|pa’ and ‘anupÈdiÓÓa r|pa’ in Abhidhamma. The word ‘upÈdiÓÓa’ normally means that which is taken or grasped by kamma and so it simply means caused by kamma. But here and in many other passages the word ‘upÈdiÓÓa’ means residing in the body. That means in living beings whether it is caused by kamma, or caused by consciousness, or whatever, it is called ‘upÈdiÓÓa’.

   In Vinaya this word is also used. For example monks are not supposed to touch women. What about touching a statue of a woman? A statue of a woman is not ‘upÈdiÓÓa’, while a living woman is ‘upÈdiÓÓa’. So monks are not to touch a living women. If they touch with sensual thoughts, they incur some kind of offense. What about touching a statue? Touching a statue with lustful thoughts also incurs an offense, but not so grave as touching a real woman. This is differentiated in Vinaya with the terms ‘upÈdiÓÓa’ and ‘anupÈdiÓÓa’, real living beings and non-living things.

Student: Can you have internal cetanÈ?:

Teacher: Actually cetanÈ is always internal.

Student: Craving is not cetanÈ. Craving is -

Teacher: Craving is attachment.

Student: CetanÈ is -

Teacher: CetanÈ is kamma, volition. Here kamma is not meant because the four elements are said to be caused by all four causes. There are four causes of matter - kamma, citta (consciousness), utu (climate or let us say temperature.), and ÈhÈra (food). These are the four causes of matter taught in Abhidhamma. The four elements are caused by all four causes, not by kamma only. Therefore here the PÈÄi word ‘upÈdiÓÓa’ cannot mean kamma because they are caused by all four causes.

   At the end of paragraph 34 “Or whatever else: the earth element included in the remaining three portions.” ‘In the remaining three portions’ means the water, fire and air elements, not the remaining parts of the body but the remaining elements.

   In paragraph 35 there is the explanation of the word ‘Èpo’. At the end of the paragraph “What is that? It is what has the water elements characteristic of cohesion.” When we say for example ‘the earth element’ we do not necessarily mean the earth. We mean the characteristic of earth. That means we mean some quality inherent in earth which is hardness or softness. When we say ‘earth element’, we mean hardness or softness. If we say ‘water element’, we mean cohesion or flowing. The characteristic is itself the element. That is why  we do not need the word ‘what has’ here. “What is that? It is the water element’s characteristic of cohesion.” Cohesion is the water element. The characteristic and something which has that characteristic are not differentiated in this case. The characteristic itself is the element.

Student: Can we go back? Could we say that the characteristic of the earth element is texture?

Teacher: Texture? I don’t know. Maybe not. Since we take the hardness or softness as the earth element, earth element is existent in water also, in fire also. There is hardness or softness in water. So hardness or softness does not reside in the earth only. In everything there is this hardness or softness, cohesion, temperature and distension. These four elements are found everywhere. “What is that? It is the water element’s characteristic of cohesion.” Or simply put it is cohesion. Cohesion is water element. Water element is cohesion.

   “Fire (tejo) [is definable] as heating.. What is that? It is the characteristic of heat.” Strike out the two words ‘what has’. “Whereby: by means of which fire element, when excited” - ‘excited’ really means when it is disturbed when it becomes abnormal - “this body is warmed, becomes heated by the state of one day fever” and so on. You have fever lasting for one day and then disappearing and then appearing the next day and so on.

   “Ages: whereby this body grows old, reaches the decline of faculties, loss of strength, wrinkles, grayness, and so on. Burns up: when excited, it causes this body to burn, and the person cries out ‘I am burning, I am burning!” That means when you have a high fever. When you have a high fever, you think that you are burning inside. Such a person “longs for ghee a hundred times washed and for gosÊsa sandalwood ointment, etc.” Sandalwood ointment is said to be cold. That is why especially women use the sandalwood ointment on their body.

   “And whereby what is eaten, drunk, chewed and tasted gets completely digested: whereby the boiled rice, etc., that is eaten or the beverage, etc., that is drunk, or the hard food consisting of flour biscuits, etc., that is chewed, the mango fruit” - it should be ripe mango fruit, not just mango fruit - “honey, molasses, etc., that is tasted.” I think I have told you about this word in PÈÄi. Actually it is not just tasting. Here ‘tasting’ means licking with your tongue and enjoying the taste. When we eat honey or molasses, we put it in our mouth on our tongue and let it dissolve slowly. That is how we eat honey or molasses and maybe also ripe mango fruit. Ripe mango fruit is very soft. So you put a piece of ripe mango fruit on your tongue and it will dissolve by itself. So there are four kinds of food that we eat - that which is eaten, that which is drunk (That means liquids.), what is chewed (hard food) and what is tasted or what is licked. These are the four kinds of food.

   “Gets its juice, etc., extracted, is the meaning.” Sometimes you need to have a knowledge of Ayuveda to understand some of the explanations in the Commentaries. In the Indian medicine books it is stated that if food is properly digested, it becomes seven kinds of elements in the body. The PÈÄi word ‘rasa’ is one of the seven elements. Here that is translated as ‘its juice, gets its juice extracted’. Actually there are seven kinds of these in our body - blood, flesh, fat, bone, bone marrow, semen and then the other one is called ‘rasa’. It is chyle. Please look it up in the dictionary. The first one, ‘rasa’, is translated as juice here. It is translated as chyle in one Sanskrit-English dictionary. It is some kind of juice or liquid which is produced in the body when food is well-digested. When the food is well-digested by the body, the food we eat becomes the seven kinds of things in our body.

   “And here the first three kinds of fire element, [that is to say, ‘is warmed’, ‘ages’, and ‘burns up’,] are fourfold origin (That is caused by four causes.), while the last is only kamma - originated.” The last one we call ‘digestion fire’ and it is said to be caused by kamma. Not everybody has the same digestion. Some have good digestion and some have bad digestion. That is caused by kamma. The others are caused by all four causes. The four kinds of fire element are the element by which the body is warmed, by which the body ages, by which the body burns up and by which what is eaten and so on gets completely digested. There are four kinds of fire element.

   The air element - there are six kinds of air element. “What is that? It is what has the characteristic of distension.” There are six kinds of air element - up-going winds, down-going winds (They are in the body.), winds in the belly, winds in the bowels, winds that course through all the limbs and then in-breath and out-breath. How many? There are seven, but in-breath and out-breath are taken as one. So there are six kinds of wind element.

   The method of development in brief that is the head hairs are the earth element, the body hairs are the earth element and so on. You practice this meditation along with the meditation on the 32 parts of the body.

   “Suppose two bhikkhus are reciting a Text with many elided repetitions” and so on - that is the explanation of how one method of development appears to one monk as redundant and the same thing appears to the other as not enough. When we recite Suttas, there are many repetitions. When we do not want to say the repetitions, we use what is called ‘peyyÈla’, elided repetitions. Suppose we want to say “Itipi so BhagavÈ arahaÑ sammÈsambuddho vijjÈcaraÓasampanno” - the last word is ‘bhagavÈ’. If we have to say it again and again, we avoid saying it again and again by just saying “Itipi so pe bhagavÈ”. The word put in between is something like three dots in English. So in this example it is “Itipi so pe bhagavÈ”.

Student”: In The Heart Sutra we say ‘until’ every morning instead of repeating the whole list.

Teacher: That is unusual in The Heart Sutra. In PÈÄi Suttas we use the word ‘pe’ instead of ‘until’.

   “After which he goes on doing the recital with only the two end parts of the elisions.” ‘Two end parts’ means the beginning and the end. One end is the beginning and the other end is the end. You just say the beginning and the end.

   The others are not difficult to understand. With constituents in brief - “In twenty of the parts what has the stiffened mode (That is hardness.) is the earth element.” So with regard to head hairs we would say the hardness element in head hairs  is the earth element. The cohesiveness in head hairs is the water element and so on.

   “In four parts what matures is the fire element.” ‘In four parts’ means the four kinds of fire element. “In what has the mode of distending is the air element.” ‘In six parts’ means the six kinds of wind element.

   With constituents by analysis - “The bhikkhu should carry out all the directions given for the thirty-two-fold aspect in the Description of Mindfulness Occupied with the Body as a meditation subject.” So he must practice as described in that chapter and then at the end he must add something. “The only difference is this: there after giving attention to the head hairs, etc., as to color, shape, direction, location and delimitation, the mind had to be fixed by means of repulsiveness.” That means he must try to get the notion of repulsiveness there and he stops there. The head hairs, body hairs are repulsive by way of location, by way of shape and so on. Here in this meditation you do not stop there, but at the end of each part after giving attention to head hairs, etc., by way of beginning with color, etc., attention should be given as follows. That means here that the head hairs grow on the outer skin of the head. The skin doesn’t know that the head hairs are growing on me and the head hairs don’t know that we are growing on the skin and so on. You have to contemplate in that way. That is the defining of the four element meditation. If you stop at just repulsiveness, then you are doing the contemplation on the parts of the body. You do that and go on saying that they don’t know each other. You go through all the 32 parts that way. They are not difficult to understand.

   In paragraph 69 at the end “So what is called bile is a particular component of this body, without thought, indeterminate, void, not a living being, liquid (There should be a comma.), (Strike out the ‘in’.) “the mode of cohesion”. So it reads as “void, not a living being, liquid, water element, the mode of cohesion.” Water element and the mode of cohesion are the same. This sentence recurs in other paragraphs too. So you have to correct.

   In paragraph 81 “That whereby one is warmed - this is a particular component of this body, without thought, indeterminate, void, not a living being (There should be a comma.), (Strike out ‘it is’.) fire element, (Strike out ‘in’.) the mode of maturing (ripening).” The same is repeated at the end of paragraph 81 and should be changed in the same way.

   In paragraph 82 in the middle of the paragraph “without thought, indeterminate, void, not a living being (comma), (Strike out ‘it is’.) air element (comma), (Strike out ‘in’.) the mode of distending.” Change the end of the paragraph in the same way.

   ‘Indeterminate’ means neither kusala nor akusala. That is because the four elements belong to r|pa and r|pa is abyÈkata, neither kusala nor akusala. In the first chapter of Abhidhamma the dhammas are classified as kusala, akusala and neither kusala nor akusala. ‘Kusala’ means kusala cittas and their concomitants. ‘Akusala’ means akusala cittas and their concomitants. ‘AbyÈkata’ which is neither kusala nor akusala covers all the remaining dhammas - resultant cittas, functional cittas, r|pa and NibbÈna. When its says indeterminate here, it means that it is neither kusala nor akusala.

   Next week we will study up to paragraph 48 in chapter 12.

 

                                  SÈdhu!          SÈdhu!              SÈdhu!

                                               (Tape 25 / Ps: 84 -126)                                                

 

Today we begin in chapter 11 paragraph 84. We have not yet come to contemplation on the four great elements or the four great essentials.

 

“But if his meditation is still not successful when he gives his attention to it in this way, then he should develop it with characteristics in brief. How? In the twenty components” - you must remember the 32 or 42 components. There are the 32 parts of the body, four elements of fire, sic elements of air. Here the contemplation is to be done in brief. Among the 32 parts the first 20 are said to be characteristic of solidity. They have the characteristic of stiffenedness or solidity. In this method the yogi takes these 20 components as a whole. In these 20 components the characteristic of stiffenedness is the earth element. The characteristic of cohesion is the water element. The characteristic of maturing or ripening is the fire element. The characteristic of distension is the air element. In this way we define the four elements in these 20 components.

 

In the remaining 12 components the characteristic of cohesion is the water element. The characteristic of maturing is the fire element. The characteristic of distension is the air element. And the characteristic of stiffenedness is the earth element.

 

He defines all four elements in these components, but he does not take the components one by one in this method. In the next method he will take them one by one.

 

“In the four components (That is of the fire element.) the characteristic of maturing (ripening) should be defined as the fire element, the characteristic of distension unresolvable (inseparable) from it is the air element, the characteristic of stiffenedness is the earth element and the characteristic of cohesion is the water element.”

 

“In the six components (That is the six kinds of air element.) the characteristic of distension should be defined as the air element, the characteristic of stiffenedness there too is the earth element, the characteristic of cohesion is the water element, and the characteristic of maturing (ripening) is the fire element.”

 

These elements are in everything, in living beings and outside things. The meditator defines or tries to see these four elements in everything, taking them as a whole.

 

“As he defines them in this way the elements become evident to him. As he adverts to them and gives attention to them again and again access concentration arises in him in the way already stated.” There is only access concentration. There is no absorption.

 

The next method is characteristics by analysis. That means going into detail. “After discerning head hairs, etc., in the way already described the characteristic of stiffenedness in head hairs should be defined as the earth element, the characteristic of cohesion there too is the water element, the characteristic of maturing (ripening) is the fire element, and the characteristic of distension is the air element.’ Here the meditator takes the components one by one and tries to define these four elements in each component - head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin and so on.

 

“As he defines them in this way the elements become evident to him. As he adverts and gives attention to them again and again access concentration arises in him in the way already described.” There can only be access concentration with this type of meditation, no jhÈna or absorption concentration.

 

Now we have additional ways of giving attention. “In addition, attention should be given to the elements in the following ways: (1) as to word meaning, (2) by groups, (3) by particles, (4) by characteristic, etc., (5) as to how originated, (6) as to variety and unity, (7) as to resolution (separability) and non-resolution (inseparability), (8) as to the similar and the dissimilar, (9) as to distinction between internal and external, (10) as to inclusion, (11) as to condition, (12) as to lack of conscious reaction, (13) as to analysis of conditions.” In these 13 ways we give attention to the four elements.

 

The first is the meaning of the PÈÄi words. The PÈÄi words are paÔhavi, Èpo, tejo, and vÈyo. They are explained in paragraph 87. “It is earth (paÔhavi) because it is spread out (patthaÔa).” The word ‘paÔhavi’ is defined as something spread out. “It flows (appoti) or it glides (Èpiyati) or it satisfies (appÈyati), thus it is water (Èpo); it heats (tejati), thus it is fire (tejo); it blows (vÈyati), thus it is air (vÈyo).” They are just the word explanations.

 

“But without differentiation (That means in general.) they are elements (dhÈtu).” That means all of them are called dhÈtus or elements. Each one is called by its individual name (paÔhavi, Èpo, tejo, vÈyo). Generally or collectively they are called dhÈtus or elements.

 

The word ‘dhÈtu’ is made to mean here because of bearing their own characteristics, because of holding their own characteristics, and because of grasping suffering, and because of sorting out suffering. Here we are not sure about the correct reading of the text in the original book. The first word you see is ÈdÈna. Some teachers think that word is not necessary, or not needed here, or that it may be a wrong reading. Some teachers say that the correct reading is ÈdhÈna. The Sub-Commentary comments about this, but it is not quite clear. So the word ‘dhÈtu’ is explained as something which bears its own characteristic, or which grasps suffering, or which sorts out suffering. ‘Sort out suffering’ here actually means to create suffering or to produce suffering. I don’t know what ‘sorting out’ means. Can it mean ‘to produce’ or ‘to make’?

 

Student: I think so.

 

Teacher: So they are called elements. Actually there are many other elements in Abhidhamma. Consciousness is also called an element. There are other elements like dhammadhÈtu. It is a famous name in this country.

 

“By groups: there is the earth element described under the 20 aspects (modes) beginning with head hairs, body hairs, and also the water element described under the 12 aspects (modes) beginning with bile, phlegm. Now as to these,

     Color, odor, taste, and nutritive

     Essence, and the four elements -

     From combination of these eight

     There comes the common usage head hairs;

     And separately from these eight

     There is no common usage head hairs.”

These eight are the basic unit of matter. You may reduce matter to the smallest particle. Let us say it is an atom. Even the atom contains these or is a combination of these eight material particles. That is what Abhidhamma teaches us. Everything which we call matter is composed of these eight material properties - color, odor, taste, nutritive essence and these four elements.

 

“Consequently head hairs are only a mere group of eight states. Likewise body hairs and the rest.” When you define head hair, you define as this head hair is nothing but the eight material properties and these eight are color, odor and so on. They are inseparable material properties. You cannot separate them. You can separate them only in your mind, only with your wisdom, but they cannot be physically separated. If with your mind you separate these eight elements one by one, you lose the usage head hair. There is no head hair. It is like when you take the parts of a cow one by one. You lose the sense of a cow. In the same way when you take these eight material properties apart, there is no head hair, body hair, or whatever. ‘By group’ here means by the group of material properties, here the group of eight material properties.

 

Footnote 29 “ ‘Because of bearing their own characteristics’: these are not like the Primordial Essence (pakati or in Sanskrit prakrti) and the Self (attÈ) imagined by the theorists, which are non-existent as to individual essence.” Whenever they had an occasion they rejected the idea of other sects, other teachers, other people. This was the characteristic of books written when there was much debate among the different sects. As Buddhists we do not accept the Primordial Essence (prakrti). That is in the Samkhya system of Hindu philosophy and Self is also not accepted. They always say this is just imagination in their mind. They do not have existence or individual essence. However the four primary elements have individual essence and they are real things unlike those which are not real. “On the contrary these do bear their own characteristics, which is why they are elements.”

 

Student: I think this is where MahÈyÈna and TheravÈda traditions differ. In the PrajnapÈramitÈ Sutra I think one of the points is that even the elements do not have a self or are not real. So this is an apparent contradiction. I can see it as a useful description but not that it would be real itself from the MahÈyÈna perspective. What about TheravÈda?

 

Teacher: No. TheravÈda accepts these elements as real. They have their own essence or they have their own existence. ‘Existence’ means having the three phases of existence - arising, staying for some time, and disappearing. Whatever has these three is supposed to be existent. TheravÈda Buddhism takes them as existent, takes them as real, as ultimate reality.

 

In MahÈyÈna nothing has its own existence. Everything is void, suÒÒa. That is the difference.

 

Footnote 30 “ ‘From resolution of these eight’: the eight dhammas beginning with color, when resolved by means of understanding (wisdom), are apprehendable in the ultimate sense through mutual negation.” That means earth is not water, water is not earth. That is an example of mutual negation. A is not B, B is not A.

 

“But head hairs are not apprehendable in the ultimate sense through negation of color and so on.” You cannot say color is different from hair and hair is different from color because hair has color inherent in it. So you understand this by separating them in your mind one from the other, but not one from color and so on.

 

“Consequently the term of common usage ‘head hairs’ is applied to these dhammas in their co-arisen state.” When these eight properties arise together, the designation for it is head hair, body hair and so on.

 

“The meaning is that it is a mere conventional term. ‘Only a mere group of eight states’ is said, taking the color, etc., which are real, as a unity by means of the concept ‘a head hair’, not only because they are merely the eight states.” There is something I want to correct. ‘Only a mere group of eight states’ - this is mentioned in the Visuddhi Magga. It is said there “taking the color, etc., which are the basis for the concept head hair as one.” It is not “real, as a unity by means of concept”. This is a wrong understanding of the word there. What it really means is the eight states, the eight material properties are a basis for head hairs, body hairs and so on. Here the eight material properties are taken as one.

 

So “Which are a basis for the concept head hairs, etc., which are taken as one, and not because (I have stricken out the word ‘only’.) they are only the eight states.” ‘Only’ should go there instead of ‘merely’. ‘Not because they are only eight states’ means that you look at a head hair and in the head hair there are thousands and thousands of particles of matter. There are not just eight particles of matter, but there are thousands and thousands of material properties. However there are just eight kinds of material properties. A hair consists of thousands and thousands of material properties, but if you divide them into kinds , you get only eight kinds of material properties.

 

“A component here that is kamma-originated is a group of ten states, [that is to say, the former eight] together with the life faculty and sex.” So it is kamma-originated. That means if it is in living beings, we may add the life faculty and sex (male or female). In this way we get ten material properties.

 

“But it is on account of respective prominence [of stiffenedness or cohesion] that it comes to be styled ‘earth element’ or ‘water element’.” In the hair all four elements are present, but when we divide them into elements, we say that head hairs belong to earth element. It does not mean that there is only earth element in the hair, but that that element is prominent in the hair. That is why it is called earth element. In fact all four elements are present everywhere.

 

The next is by particles. “In this body the earth element taken as reduced to fine dust and powdered to the size of the smallest atom might amount to an average doÓa measure full.” It is difficult to ascertain this measure. Let us say a pound of dust. “That is held together by the water element measuring half as much. Being maintained by the fire element (so that it does not decay). And distended by the air element, it does not get scattered or dissipated. Instead of getting scattered or dissipated, it arrives at the alternative states of female and male sex, etc., and manifests smallness, bigness, length, shortness, toughness, rigidity, and so on.” These particles are to be contemplated on in this way. The earth element is taken or reduced to fine dust.

 

“The liquid water element that is the mode of cohesion, being founded on earth, maintained by fire, and distended by air, does not trickle or run away.” It is supported by the other three elements. That is why they stay together.

 

“And here the fire element that cooks what is eaten, drunk, etc., and is the mode of warming and has the characteristic of heat, being established on earth, held together by water, and distended by air, maintains this body and ensures its proper appearance. And this body, being maintained by it, shows no putrefaction.” If we lose fire element all together, our body will decompose. It is this fire element in the body that keeps it from putrefaction.

 

“The air element that courses through all the limbs and has the characteristic of moving and distending, being founded upon earth, held together by water, and maintained by fire, distends this body. And this body, being distended by the latter kind of air, does not collapse, but stands erect.” Everything that stands erect is supported by the air element. If we take away air element all together, it would fall.

 

“Being propelled by the other [motile] air, it shows intimation and it flexes and extends and it wriggles the hands and feet, doing so in the postures comprising walking, standing, sitting and lying down. So this mechanism of elements carries on like a magic trick, deceiving foolish people with the male and female sex and so on.” These deceive us into thinking that this is a man, this is a woman, this is an animal, this is a human being and so on. But if you can see through them, through the appearance of beings, you will arrive at the four elements.

 

As to characteristics - this passage is important. “The earth element - what are its characteristic, function, manifestation? The earth element has the characteristic of hardness.” In fact when we say hardness we also mean softness. Softness is just a degree of hardness. Hardness is reduced little by little and we get softness. Hardness and softness are pretty much the same. The characteristic of earth element is hardness. “Its function is to act as foundation. It is manifested as receiving.”

 

“The water element has the characteristic of trickling. Its function is to intensify. It is manifested as holding together. The fire element has the characteristic of heat. Its function is to mature (maintain). It is manifested as a continued supply of softness.” When there is heat, when we put something on fire, it becomes soft. So it is the continued supply of softness.

 

“The air element has the characteristic of distending. Its function is to cause motion. (That means to push.) It is manifested as conveying (taking something to some place). This is how they should be given attention by characteristic, and so on.”

 

These can be seen during meditation practice. Especially the air element is evident when you practice walking meditation. You walk with full awareness of the lifting, moving, putting and so on. In that case you see the air element at work there. First you have the intention to lift your foot. There is intention which is mental. This mental state causes some material properties to arise in your foot. There are many moments of consciousness going on when you have intention to move. Each moment of consciousness causes some material properties to arise. What we call lifting is just the arising of material properties at adjacent locations. According to Abhidhamma nothing moves to another place. When I move my finger, I think that I move my finger, but according to Abhidhamma there is nothing that moves. Caused by my mind this movement occurs. ‘Movement’ really means arising of material properties at different moments or at different locations.

 

It may be like a picture in movie film. On one frame there is one picture. On the next frame there is a picture with a very slight difference. In the same way or similarly what happens when there is movement really is arising of material properties at successive locations or at adjacent locations. That is also explained somewhat in footnote 37 - desantaruppatti.

 

Student: So there is no continuity. There is closeness.

 

Teacher: There is no one thing moving from one place to another or from one moment to another. Whatever arises at this moment disappears at this moment. It does not go to the next moment. At the next moment another thing is created. Another thing arises.

 

Student: Which is close -

 

Teacher: Which may be identical with the one that has just disappeared. When you practice walking meditation, you may be able to see some of these characteristics and functions. When you pay very close attention, sometimes you feel that something is pushing you from behind or something is pushing your foot from behind. That is the function of causing motion. The air element is something that takes your foot from the position on the ground up or to move forward. That is conveying. So these characteristics and others can be seen through direct experience during intense practice of meditation.

 

“As to how originated: among the 42 components beginning with head hairs shown in the detailed treatment of the earth element, etc., the four consisting of gorge, dung, pus, and urine, are temperature-originated only.” Later on I think we will get the four causes of matter. In paragraph 111 the four causes of matter are given - kamma, consciousness, nutrition and temperature. Now he is talking about that.

 

“The four consisting of gorge, dung, pus and urine are temperature-originated only.” That means they are caused by temperature or climate. “the four consisting of tears, sweat, spittle and snot are temperature-originated and consciousness-originated only; the fire that cooks what is eaten, etc., is kamma-originated only.” We call it stomach fire. That element is said to be caused by kamma only. Those who have good kamma will have good digestion. If you don’t have good digestion, blame your kamma.

 

“In-breath and out-breath are consciousness-originated only; all the rest are of fourfold origination. (they are caused by all four causes.) This how they should be given attention as to how originated.”

 

As to variety and unity - that means as to difference and similarity. “There is variety in the specific characteristics, etc.,  of all the elements; for the characteristic, function and manifestation of the earth element is one, and those of water element, etc., are different.” According to characteristic they are different. Earth element is different from water element. Water element is different from fire element and so on. “But there is unity in them as materiality.” Although they are different as earth, water, fire and air, they are all material properties. In that way they are the same.

 

There is unity in them as materiality, or they are called great primaries, or they are called elements, or they are called states, and all of them are described as impermanent and so on, “not withstanding the fact that they are various according to [specific] characteristic, etc., and according to origination by kamma and so on.” There is variety as well as unity among these elements. ‘Variety’ means one is different from the other. Unity is that they are all r|pas, they are all great primaries, they are all elements and so on.

 

“All of these elements are ‘instances of materiality’ because they do not exceed the characteristic of ‘being molested’.” ‘Being molested’ is the definition of the word ‘r|pa’. Something which is molested by heat, cold, etc., is called r|pa in PÈÄi. The word ‘r|pa’ is defined as something which is molested by heat, cold, hunger, thirst and so on.

 

They are called great primaries because they are the basis for the other material properties depending upon them. “They are great primaries (mahÈ bh|ta) by reason of great manifestation and so on. By reason of great manifestation and so on, means that these elements are called great primaries for the following reasons, namely, a. manifestation of greatness, b. likeness to great creatures, c. great maintenance, d. great alteration, and e. because they are great and because they are entities.” This may be useful for Abhidhamma students. In the chapter on material properties there is the word

 ‘mahÈ bh|ta’. So you may study this and understand the word.

 

The first one is manifestation of greatness. They manifest greatness, therefore they are called great primaries. “They are manifested as great both in the continuity that is not clung to (acquired through kamma).” Now we will have to strike out ‘acquired through kamma’. Here ‘continuity that is not clung to’ means in outside things, in inanimate things. ‘Continuity that is clung to’ means living beings. ‘Acquired through kamma’ is not correct. I have told you about this PÈÄi word ‘upÈdiÓÓa’.

 

“For their manifestation of greatness in a continuity that is not clung to is given in the Description of the Recollection of the Buddha in the way beginning:

     ‘Two times a hundred thousand [leagues]

      And then four nahutas as well;

      This earth, this Bearer of all wealth,

      Has that much thickness as they tell’.”

This is the dimension of the earth. The earth is said to be 200,000 and four nahutas in depth.

 

Student: How much is that?

Teacher: So the earth is said to be 240,000 leagues deep. “And they are manifested on a great scale also in a continuity that is clung to, for instance, in the bodies of fishes, turtles, deities, DÈnava demons, and so on. For this is said: ‘Bhikkhus, there are individual creatures of a hundred leagues in the great ocean and so on’.” In the great ocean there are creatures that have very big bodies.

 

Next is likeness to great creatures. Here great creatures are those that are called great because they have magic power. So magicians are called great creatures here. “Just as a magician turns water that is not crystal into crystal, and turns a clod that is not gold into gold, and shows them, and being himself neither a spirit or a bird, shows himself as a spirit or a bird so too, being themselves not blue-black, they turn themselves into blue-black materiality and so on.” These elements are not blue, nor black, nor red, but they make us  believe they are blue, or black, or red and so on. They deceive us into believing what is not real is real.

 

Student: It seems to me what you have just said is the MahÈyÈna point of view that the great primaries deceive us into thinking that they are real. I don’t see the difference.

 

Teacher: They themselves are not blue-black, but we take them to have shape, to have form.

 

Student: To be real.

 

Teacher: To be real in the conventional sense. But according to Abhidhamma what is real is just the elements and the particles of matter mentioned in the books. So according to Abhidhamma a cup is not reality. Those particles which are contained in the cup are real. They have their own existence. A cup has no existence of its own because it is just a concept. So here ‘great creatures’ are magicians. They can make us believe that they can turn things into other things.

 

The word ‘mahÈ bh|ta’ - there is something like word play in footnote 38. The word ‘abh|ta’ means not real. And ‘abh|ta’ means something wonderful or a miracle. The word ‘mahÈ bh|ta’ is taken to have these two meanings. So a magician is a man who has so many unreal things and he is a man who has wonderful things. He is a man who create wonders.

 

In about the middle of the footnote “The deception lies in causing the apparent individual essences of blue-black, etc., though they themselves  have no such individual essences of blue-black, etc., and it lies in causing the appearance of what has the aspect of woman and man, etc., though they themselves have no such individual essences of woman, man and so on. Likewise their undemonstrability, since they are not found inside or outside each other though they rely upon each other for support. For if these elements were found inside each other, they would not each perform their particular functions, owing to mutual frustration. And if they were found outside each other, they would be already resolved (separate), and that being so, any description of them as unresolved (inseparable) would be meaningless. So although their standing place is undemonstrable, still each one assists the other by its particular function, the functions of establishing, etc., whereby each becomes a condition for the others as conascence condition and so on.”  ‘Conascence condition’ means helping together while arising together. These conditions are from the 24 causal conditions taught in the last book of Abhidhamma.

 

In fact the sentences of the footnote beginning with “Likewise their undemonstrability” and so on pertain to the next paragraph, paragraph 99. There in the Visuddhi Magga it says “They have no standing place either inside him or outside him and yet they have no standing place either inside him or outside him and yet they have no standing independently of him, so too, these elements are not found to stand either inside or outside each other yet they have no standing independently of one another.” These are really separated. One does not stand or exist in the other, but they have no standing independently of one another because they depend upon one another. So there is dependence upon one another but they are not used so that there may be no distinction of one from the other.

 

“Thus they are also great primaries (mahÈ bh|ta) in being equal to the great creatures (mahÈ bh|ta) such as the spirits because they have no thinkable standing place [relative to each other].”

 

“And just as the great creatures known as female spirits (yakkhinÊ) conceal their own fearfulness with a pleasing color, shape, and gesture to deceive beings, so too, these elements, conceal each their own characteristic and function classed as hardness, etc., by means of a pleasing skin color of women’s and men’s bodies, etc., and pleasing shapes of limbs and pleasing gestures of fingers, toes and eyebrows, and they deceive simple people by concealing their own functions and characteristics beginning with hardness and do not allow their individual essences to be seen.” If we do not concentrate, if we do not really meditate on these elements, we will not know or we will not see their true characteristics and so on. So long as we do not see their characteristics we will always be deceived by them into believing this is a man, this is a woman and so on.

 

Student: What does it mean ‘conceal their own fearfulness’ (with regard to the yakkhinÊ) ?

 

Teacher: The female spirits or ghosts may assume another form so that they do not look fearful. There are stories in the JÈtakas where female spirits entice people and then eat them. Although the female spirits or yakkhinÊ are supposed to be of very fearful appearance, they may change their form. They may change to a beautiful girl in order to entice you and then they will eat you.

 

“Great maintenance: this is because they have to be sustained by Great Requisites. For these elements are great primaries (mahÈ bh|ta) since they have become (bh|ta),  have occurred, through the means of the food, clothing, etc., which are great (mahant) [in importance] because they have to be found every day. Or alternatively, they are great primaries (mahÈ bh|ta) since they are primaries whose maintenance is great.”

 

‘Great alteration’ means great change. The sentence (in paragraph 102) should read: “Whether they are un-clung-to or clung-to they are the Great Alterations.” That means whether they belong to outside things or whether they belong to living beings, they are great alterations, they are great changes.

 

“Herein, the great alteration of the unclung-to (That means outside things.) evidences itself in the emergence of an eon.” This word appears in another context also. He made the same translation. In chapter nine paragraph 32 it says “He was sprinkled with medicinal charms resembling the fire that ushers in the end of an eon.” Here also it should be the end of an eon, not emergence. The PÈÄi word here is deceptive. At the time of the destruction of the world you see this change very clearly. Everything is destroyed.”  The great alteration of the un-clung-to (lifeless things) evidences itself in the end of an eon and that of the clung-to in the disturbances of the elements [in the body].

 

We believe that these four elements should be well balanced. If there is too much of the earth element, or water element and so on, you get sick. In Myanmar there is a native medical practice which makes the elements the basis of their practice. They always explain with reference to these elements. If you eat food that is sticky, it will cause constipation for example. They say this food has the earth element as its prominent property. If you eat something which is bitter, you will get a lot of wind element. It promotes wind element. So they base their medical practice on these four elements. They divide food into those which have earth element as prominent property or water element as prominent property. They treat patients by giving them food appropriate for the disease. They always say food is medicine and medicine is food.

 

The verses are the explanation of the destruction of the world. We will come to that later too in the next chapter. Then there are four verses that describe the alteration in living beings.

     “The bite of Wooden-mouths can make

       The body stiff; to all intent,

       When roused is its earth element,

        It might be gripped by such a snake.”

They believe that there are snakes whose bite can cause your body to be stiffened. Also there are some kinds of snakes that can make your body like water element and so on. So when you are bitten by such a snake there is disturbance of the elements in your body. And so your body alters. They are great primaries because they have become the basis of great alterations.

 

Paragraph 103 “Because they are great and because they are entities: great (mahant) because they need great effort to discern them, and entities (bh|ta) because they are existent; thus they are great primaries (mahÈ bh|ta) because they are great (mahÈ) and because they are entities (bh|ta).”

 

“Again, they are elements (dhÈtu) because of bearing (dhÈraÓa) their own characteristics, because of grasping (ÈdÈna) suffering and because of sorting out (producing) (ÈdhÈna) suffering and because none of them are exempt from the characteristic of being elements. They are states (dhammas) owing to bearing (dhÈraÓa) their own characteristics and owing to their so bearing (dhÈraÓa) for the length of the moment appropriate to them.” The Sub-Commentary explains the word ‘dhÈraÓa’ as not bearing but just as existence, so existing for the length of the moment appropriate to them. Citta is called an element and r|pa is called an element. Citta exists for only one moment. R|pa has 17 moments of life. That is why it says “for the length of the moment appropriate to them.” If it is citta or cetasikas, it has only one moment of life, one moment of existence. If it is r|pa, it has 17 moments of life.

 

Then we have as to resolution (separability) and non-resolution (inseparability). “They are positionally unresolvable (inseparable) since they always arise together in every single minimal material group consisting of the bare octad and others.” ‘Bare octad’ means those mentioned in this chapter, paragraph 88, color, odor, taste, nutritive essence and the four elements. They are called the bare octad. “But they are resolvable (separable) by characteristic.” They are different according to characteristic. “This is how they how they should be given attention ‘as to resolution (separability) and non-resolution (inseparability).”

 

“As to the similar and dissimilar: and although they are unresolved (inseparable) in this way, yet the first two are similar for heaviness, and so are the last two in lightness.” Earth and water are heavy and fire and air are light. “The first two are dissimilar to the last two and the last two to the first two. This is how they should be given attention ‘as to the similar and dissimilar’.”

 

“As to distinction between internal and external: the internal elements are the [material] support for the physical bases of consciousness (That means eyes, ears and so on.), for the kinds of intimation and for the material faculties. They are associated with postures, and they are of fourfold origination (That means caused by four things.) The external elements are of the opposite kind.” The external elements are not caused by all four causes but just by one, temperature. They are not associated with posture. They are not basis for consciousness and so on.

 

“As to inclusion: kamma-originated earth element is included together with the other kamma-originated elements because there is no difference in their origination.” They are similar in being kamma-originated. “Likewise the consciousness-originated is included together with other consciousness-originated elements.” They are grouped together.

 

“As to condition: the earth element, which is held together by water, maintained by fire and distended by air, is a condition for the other three great primaries by acting as their foundation” and so on. So they help each other and they do their own functions. So they are conditions for each other.

 

As to lack of conscious reaction - that means that they have no consciousness, no understanding of their own. “Here too the earth element does not know ‘I am the earth element’ or ‘I am a condition by acting as foundation for the three great primaries’. And the other three do not know ‘The earth element is a condition for us by acting as our foundation’. And similarly in each instance. This is how they should be given attention ‘as to lack of conscious reaction’.” They are non-cognizing things. They do not have consciousness. They do not have thinking.

 

“As to analysis of conditions: there are four conditions for the elements.” This is important. There are four conditions or four causes for the elements or the material properties. They are kamma, consciousness, nutriment and temperature.

 

“Herein kamma alone is a condition for what is kamma-originated, not consciousness and the rest. And consciousness, etc., alone are the respective conditions for what is consciousness-originated, etc., not the others. And kamma is the producing condition for what is kamma-originated; it is indirectly decisive support condition for the rest.” You will have to use the knowledge of PaÔÔhÈna to understand this. In PaÔÔhÈna there are 24 conditions mentioned. ‘The producing condition’ means that which produces. There is no producing condition among the 24 conditions mentioned in PaÔÔhÈna. In footnote 40 “The term ‘producing condition’ refers to causing origination, though as a condition it is actually kamma condition.” Among the 24 conditions mentioned in PaÔÔhÈna it is kamma condition. Here it is said to be producing condition. They are the same.

 

“For this is said ‘Profitable and unprofitable volition is a condition, as kamma condition, for the resultant aggregates and for materiality due to kamma performed.”

 

It is indirectly decisive support condition for the rest. Decisive support condition has the widest application of the 24 conditions. If you cannot explain a certain thing by the other conditions, you may point to the decisive support condition. It is very wide, so you can include everything in that. Strictly speaking decisive support only applies to those that are mental, to cittas and cetasikas, not r|pa. So here we cannot have direct decisive support. That is why it says indirect decisive support. That means decisive support condition not mentioned in PaÔÔhÈna but decisive support that is mentioned in some of the Suttas.

 

The Sub-Commentary gives some of the passages from some of the Suttas, but those Suttas cannot be traced. That’s why there are blanks between the parentheses. Until this time nobody has been able to trace those quotations in the Sub-Commentary. “ ‘With a person as decisive support’ (   ) and ‘With a grove as decisive support’ (   ) in the Suttas the decisive support condition can be directly understood according to the Suttas in the sense of ‘absence without’.” That means not arising without. Without it something does not arise. That is the condition for that. If I cannot exist without you, you are my decisive support condition. It is something like that, so not arising without. The others are also explained in that way. The knowledge of PaÔÔhÈna is needed. So I think I will skip this.

 

“And when these elements have been made to occur through the influence of the conascence, etc., conditions,

     With three in four ways to one due,

     And likewise with one due to three;

     With two in six ways due to two -

     Thus their occurrence comes to be.”

Please have in mind the four elements - one, two, three, four. What it is explaining here is that one is dependent upon the other three. Let us say one is dependent upon two, three and four. Two is dependent upon one, three and four. Three is dependent upon one, two and four. Four is dependent upon one, two and three. It is like that. And then two, three and four depend upon one. One, three and four depend upon two. One, two and four depend upon three. One two and three depend upon four. There is mutual dependency. That is explained here. Then you take one and two and they are dependent upon three and four. Three and four are dependent upon one and two. So you get all these things.

 

Paragraph 115 “At the time of moving forward and moving backward, the earth element among these is a condition for pressing (pushing). That, seconded by the water element, is a condition for establishing on a foundation. But the water element seconded by the earth element is a condition for lowering down.” When you are lowering down, there is the prominence of water element. “The fire element seconded by the air element is a condition for lifting up.” When you lift your foot up, the fire element and air element are prominent at that time. When the foot is going down, the heaviness or something like that is prominent. When you lift your body or your foot up, there is lightness. You see the prominence of a given element when you raise your foot or when you put it down.

 

“As he gives his attention to them ‘as to word meaning’, etc., in this way the elements become evident to him under each heading. As he again and again adverts and gives attention to them access concentration arises in the way already described.” Only access concentration, no absorption is attained with this meditation subject. “And this concentration too is called ‘definition of the four elements’ because it arises in one who defines the four elements owing to the influence of his knowledge.”

 

Next are the benefits of this meditation. What are the benefits you will get from the development of concentration - these benefits are given in detail from paragraph 120 onwards. The first benefit is what? A blissful abiding here and now. That is the first one. “For the development of absorption concentration provides the benefit of a blissful abiding here and now for the Arahants with cankers destroyed who develop concentration, thinking ‘We shall attain and dwell with unified mind for a whole day’.” The Arahants and Noble Ones enter into jhÈna to enjoy happiness. That happiness is called ‘happiness here and now’. The absorption concentration has this benefit.

 

The next one is what? “When ordinary people and Trainers develop it, thinking ‘After emerging we shall exercise insight with concentrated consciousness’, the development of absorption provides them with the benefit of insight.” They make the jhÈna the basis of insight. So it gives the benefit of insight or it has insight as benefit.

 

“So too does access concentration as a method of arriving at wide open [conditions] in crowded [circumstances].” That means in this saÑsÈra (SaÑsÈra is explained as being a very crowded place.) you get some wide place when you get the access concentration. That means you get a little happiness, some peacefulness when you get concentration. You get a good chance there. In footnote 45 “The process of existence in the round of rebirths, which is a very cramped place, is crowded by the defilements of craving and so on.” This is what is meant here. You get some moments that are free from the mental defilements such as craving and so on.

 

The next paragraph, paragraph 122, is a little complicated. The development of concentration has direct knowledge as benefit. The development of absorption concentration can give the benefits of direct knowledge. When a person has attained all eight attainments (That means the eight jhÈnas.), he may want to get the direct knowledge. If he wants to get the direct knowledge, what must he do? He enters into the eight attainments. Then he makes one of them, actually the fourth jhÈna, the basis of direct knowledge. He enters into that jhÈna and then emerges from that jhÈna. After emerging from that jhÈna he wishes that he get some miracle power. Here it says “Having been one, he becomes many.” That means I am one, but I want to be many. So he can create many resemblances of himself like C|Äa Panthaka did. The meditator may wish for that kind of power. Then he practices meditation and then he gets the direct knowledge. That is what is explained in this paragraph, but it is difficult to understand. That is the meaning. After getting all eight attainments (jhÈnas) if he wants the direct knowledge, he enters into one jhÈna as the basis for direct knowledge. That jhÈna is the fourth jhÈna. Emerging from that jhÈna he makes a wish such as “having been one, may I become many.” And as a result of his meditation he will get the direct knowledge. ‘Direct knowledge’ means in this case the ability to make himself into many persons. The other abhiÒÒas may be attained depending upon his wish.

 

“When ordinary people have not lost their jhÈna, and they aspire to rebirth in the BrahmÈ World thus ‘Let us be reborn in the BrahmÈ World’, or even though they do not make the actual aspiration, then the development of absorption concentration provides them with the benefits of an improved form of existence since it ensures that for them.” That means development of concentration can lead you to get a better existence, to be reborn in a better existence as brahmÈs and so on. So it has this benefit.

 

The last one in paragraph 124 is that development of concentration has the attainment of cessation as benefit. Those who have attained to the third stage of enlightenment and Arahants can enter into the attainment of cessation. During this attainment of cessation all mental activities are suspended for as long as the person wishes. The maximum period for human beings is seven days. For seven days or one day this meditator is like a statue. There is no mental activity. That state of being without mental activity is said to be very peaceful. It is the highest form of happiness in this world. The development of concentration can give this benefit too. We come to the end of this chapter.

 

 

                                                Chapter 12

 

Chapter 12 deals with the supernormal powers, direct knowledge. We have a glimpse of direct knowledge in the previous chapter. In this chapter the different kinds of direct knowledge are explained. In this chapter there are a lot of stories. What we should note is that there are five kinds of direct knowledge. In paragraph 2 they are listed as 1. Performing some kinds of miracles, 2. The knowledge of the Divine Ear (That means hearing sounds far away, hearing sounds that cannot normally be heard.), 3. The knowledge of Penetration of Minds (That means reading other people’s minds.), 4. The knowledge of Recollection of Past  Lives, 5. The knowledge of Passing  Away and Reappearance of Beings. These are called direct knowledge.

 

If the meditator wants to achieve the supernormal powers, he must achieve the eight attainments (the eight jhÈnas) on each of the eight kasiÓas ending with the white kasiÓa. That is the first eight kasiÓas and the last two are left out. What are the last two?  Space and light. Space is left out because it cannot be the basis for attaining immaterial jhÈnas. The Sub-Commentary explains that the light kasiÓa is to be taken as the same as white kasiÓa. In the Visuddhi Magga only eight kasiÓas are mentioned. The sub-Commentary says that we can also take the light kasiÓa, that it is included in the white kasiÓa.

 

You have to make yourself very familiar with the kasiÓas and the jhÈnas. There are 14 ways to make yourself familiar with these jhÈnas. That is in the order of the kasiÓas, in the reverse order of the kasiÓas and so on. So you enter into jhÈna on this kasiÓa, and then the next jhÈna on this kasiÓa, and the next jhÈna on this kasiÓa. Then again you enter into first jhÈna on this kasiÓa and then first jhÈna on another kasiÓa and so on. It is in order to make you very familiar with the jhÈnas and the kasiÓas that you have to go in many different ways.

 

At the end of paragraph 10 the GiribhaÓÉavahana offering is mentioned and there is a footnote. In PÈÄi the word for an island and a lamp is the same. It is the word ‘dÊpa’. He took dÊpap|jÈ to mean island offering. It is a light offering. During that festival lights are offered at different places “starting with the Cetiyagiri and extending over the whole island and up to a league in the sea.” That is light offering festival, not island offering.

 

There are many stories in this chapter. Some of the stories have been given already in the chapters that we have read. Many may be new to you. I want to give you the page numbers of some stories if you want to read in more detail. At the end of paragraph 28 a reference is given for the Dhammapada Commentary. If you have the book Buddhist Legends, you may read part 2, page 238. At the end of paragraph 29 no reference is given, but I have the reference. Please read Buddhist Legends, part 3, page 179. Then at the end of paragraph 32 you may read Middle Length Sayings, first volume, page 396. At the end of paragraph 33 the reference may be found in Buddhist Legends, part 2, page 246. For the next paragraph the reference can be found in Buddhist Legends, part 3, page 103. For paragraph 35 the story may be found in Buddhist Legends, part 1, page 286. Paragraph 41 the first reference can be found in Buddhist Legends, part 3, page 319. The second reference is in Buddhist Legends, part 3, page 327. The third reference in this paragraph may be found in Buddhist Legends, part 1, page 256. The last reference in this paragraph may be found in Buddhist legends, part 3, page 130. Then at the end of paragraph 42 you may find that reference in Buddhist legends, part 2, page 59. these are the references.

 

At the end of paragraph 41 it says “made of the seven gems.” Actually it is made of the seven precious things. The seven precious things are gold, silver and other jewels.

 

In the part that we have covered the ten kinds of success power (iddhi) are given. All of them are interesting. So if you have time please study it again. There is one thing that is very interesting. In paragraph 26 “A distinction brought about by the influence of knowledge either before the arising of the knowledge or after it or at that moment is called success by intervention of knowledge.” If a person is going to become an Arahant in that life, he will not die without becoming an Arahant. The  knowledge of Arahantship which he is going to acquire in that life protects him from being killed even though an attempt is made on his life. That is a very strange thing. If you are going to become an Arahant, you will not die without becoming an Arahant. Nothing can cause you to be killed.

 

The first story is of Venerable Bakkula. In this story he was swallowed by a fish. His mother was bathing him in the river and he was swallowed by a fish. The fish was caught by a fisherman and sold to a lady. The lady wanted to cook the fish, so she cut it open and found the child still alive there. So he did not die in the stomach of the fish because he was destined to reach enlightenment in that life. That’s why he was not killed. Normally he would not survive being swallowed by a fish.

 

The next story is about Venerable Sa~kicca. While he was in the womb, his mother died. As was the custom in those days they tried to cremate the body. When they cremate the body, they use sticks. One stick hit the child. He made a noise. When they heard the noise, they cut open the belly of the woman and got the child. He was named Sa~kicca because he was injured by the stick which is called in PÈÄi sa~ku. That is why he was called Sa~kicca.

 

So many stories are given. There is also the story of Bh|tapÈla. Also those who are in attainment cannot be harmed. Such stories begin in paragraph 30. Venerable SÈriputta was in attainment and so no harm could come to him. It is a similar case with Venerable SaÒjÊva and so on. I think we had reference to the devotee Uttara some weeks back and also to SammÈvati. They are to us miracles.

 

These miracles are caused by the intervention of concentration or the intervention of knowledge and so on. These are interesting stories. Some are not caused by any concentration or any meditation. The fact that birds can fly is also called a success or miracle. They got that ability just by birth, just by being born as a bird. So they can fly and we cannot. So these ten kinds of success are mentioned in the first part of this chapter. OK.

 

                                        SÈdhu!          SÈdhu!           SÈdhu!