Tape 39 - Visuddhi Magga

Chapter 18

(Tape 39 / Ps: 1-37)

This book, The Visuddhi Magga, is a handbook for meditating monks written by a monk for the use of monks in the practice of meditation. This book was written with a scheme of three steps of spiritual development. The first step is morality. The second step is concentration. The third step is wisdom. We have gone through the chapters on morality, concentration and some chapters on wisdom as well. The first and second chapters deal with morality. The other chapters through the thirteenth chapter deal with what is called concentration. In these chapters the forty subjects of samatha or tranquillity meditation are treated. With the fourteenth chapter we come to the realm of understanding or wisdom. These chapters 14-17 are in preparation for vipassanaÈ meditation. Before we practice vipassanaÈ meditation according to this book, we should understand something about the aggregates, sense bases, faculties, Noble Truths, and Dependent Origination. In order to go further we will have to be familiar with chapters 14-17. The subjects treated in those chapters will be brought to bear upon what will be said in these chapters.

With the eighteenth chapter begins the real vipassanÈ meditation. The preceding chapters are just for preparation like giving you information on the aggregates and so on which you will contemplate on or which you will see through the practice of vipassanÈ meditation. VipassanÈ meditation is described with reference to what is called ‘purities’, different stages of purity. There are seven stages of purity described here. If you look at paragraph 1, you see references to earlier chapters. There are two purities, purity of morals and purity of mind. ‘Purification of virtue’ means keeping precepts, not breaking them. ‘Purification of consciousness’ means the practice of samatha meditation until one gets neighborhood concentration and also absorption concentration. That is called ‘purification of consciousness’. Here ‘consciousness’ really means samÈdhi (concentration). These two purifications are called the ‘root purifications’ because they are like roots. On these two roots the other purifications will be built.

The other purifications are what? Paragraph 2 “Purification of View, Purification by Overcoming Doubt, Purification by Knowledge and Vision of What is the Path and What is not the Path, Purification by Knowledge and Vision of the Way, Purification by Knowledge and Vision.” These are called the ‘trunk purifications’. All together there are seven purifications. The first two purifications are dealt with in chapters 1-13. Chapters 14-17 are for preparation for vipassanÈ meditation. Now this chapter deals with Purification of View. This chapter is a description of Purification of View. ‘Purification of View’ really means having right view with regard to aggregates, bases and so on.

Let us say a person practices vipassanÈ meditation. If you follow the order in this book, first you will practice samatha meditation and get jhÈna. Or you may not practice samatha meditation at all and go direct to vipassanÈ. Here first we have defining of mentality and materiality. The defining of mentality and materiality is explained in this chapter. ‘Defining of mentality and materiality’ really means seeing during meditation mind and matter clearly. That is seeing mind not mixed with matter and matter not mixed with mind, seeing mind and matter clearly. That is called here ‘defining of mentality and materiality’. In order to understand or in order to define mentality and materiality, we need to understand what mind and matter is according to Buddha’s teachings. That has been described in the preceding chapters.

What is our mind? Consciousness and mental states or mental factors. Matter is as you know the physical properties in our bodies as well as in outside things like in tables, chairs, trees, and so on. Paragraph 3 and the following describe how a person whose vehicle is serenity or who practices samatha meditation first defines mentality and materiality or mind and matter. “One who wants to accomplish this, if, firstly, his vehicle is serenity (That means he practices samatha meditation first and gets jhÈnas,), should emerge from any fine material or immaterial jhÈna (You know there are eight jhÈnas, four material and four immaterial jhÈnas.) except the base consisting of neither perception nor non-perception.” That is the highest of the immaterial jhÈnas. It is so subtle that it is very difficult for one who defines mind and matter to define them clearly. So it is excepted. Therefore we have here all together seven jhÈnas. “And he should discern according to characteristic, function, etc., the jhÈna factors consisting of applied thought” and so on. First he enters into the jhÈnas that he has attained. Then he emerges from the jhÈna. He takes the factors of jhÈna like initial application, sustained application and so on as the object of vipassanÈ meditation. Or he may take the other mental factors that accompany the jhÈnas as the object of vipassanÈ meditation. He tries to see their characteristic, function, manifestation and so on.

Whenever we study things in Abhidhamma, we are to understand them with reference to four or three aspects. The first is the characteristic. The second is function. The third is manifestation or the mode of manifestation. The fourth is the proximate cause. So the meditator should contemplate on the factors of jhÈna or the other mental factors accompanying the factors of jhÈna with reference to their characteristic, function and mode of manifestation.

“When he has done so, all that should be defined as mentality in the sense of bending because of its bending onto the object.” He contemplates on or he makes himself aware of the jhÈna factors and the other mental states. He takes them maybe one by one trying to understand the characteristic and so on of these mental states. Then he finds that this is mentality. This belongs to mind. Then later on he will go to matter. So first he defines them as mental or as nÈma in PÈÄi. The PÈÄi word ‘nÈma’ means literally bending or bending toward. NÈma is that which bends towards the object. When you pay close attention to the object during meditation, you may come to be aware that the mind is like hitting the object or going toward the object. Let us say there is a noise outside. You take the noise as an object. Then you have some other thoughts. So your mind is going to that object, and then another object and to another object and so on. So mind is that which bends towards the object. That is why it is called ‘nÈma’ in PÈÄi.

After defining mentality the meditator defines materiality or matter. The fourth paragraph describes that. “Just as a man, by following a snake that he has seen in his house, finds its abode, so too this meditator scrutinizes that mentality, he seeks to find out what its occurrence is supported by and he sees that it is supported by the matter of the heart.” According to the teachings of Abhidhamma almost every type of consciousness must have a physical basis. Seeing consciousness has the eye as a physical basis. Hearing consciousness has the ear as a physical basis. First the meditator dwells on the mind. Then following the mind he discovers or seeks to find out by what the mind is supported. Then he comes to realize that the heart is the support of the factors of jhÈna and those factors concomitant with the factors of jhÈna.

“After that, he discerns as materiality the primary elements, which are the heart’s support, and the remaining, derived, kinds of materiality that have the elements as their support.” There is heart base. Heart base is a dependent kind of matter. Heart base depends upon the other great primaries. There are four great primaries or four great elements - earth element, water element, fire element and air element. The heart base, a very small particle of matter, depends upon the great elements. So he discovers these four great elements also. He defines all of that as materiality because it is molested by cold, etc. That means it is changed by heat, by cold, by hunger, by thirst, by bites of insects and so on. You see r|pa in paragraph 4. R|pa is so called because it is molested or it changes with climate. It changes with hunger. It changes with thirst and so on. So the meditator defines the base of that consciousness as r|pa, as matter. A person whose vehicle is samatha or serenity or tranquillity meditation defines first the mental things, the factors of jhÈna and its concomitants. Then he tries to find the base of these mental states. Then he defines the matter which is the base of these mental states. He defines it as r|pa. During meditation he first dwells on mental things. Then from those mental things he goes to the material things. He defines nÈma and then he defines r|pa. That is for the person who has serenity meditation as a vehicle. That is for the person who practices serenity meditation and gets jhÈna.

There are people who do not practice samatha meditation but just practice vipassanÈ meditation. Since they have no jhÈnas to dwell upon, there is another method. Paragraph 5 and the following describe this way of contemplating or defining mentality and materiality. Also a person whose vehicle is serenity can follow this method too. It is up to him whether he takes up mentality first and then materiality or materiality first and then mentality. For the person whose vehicle is vipassanaÈ, he must begin with materiality first and then go to mentality. That is because materiality is easier for him to see than the mental states or types of consciousness. “But one whose vehicle is pure insight, or that same aforesaid one whose vehicle is serenity, discerns the four elements in brief or in detail in one of the various ways given in the chapter on the Definition of the Four Elements.” You have to go back to chapter 11.

The method of defining mentality and materiality is described by way of four elements, by way of 18 elements, by way of 12 bases, by way of aggregates and then by way of very brief defining. Different ways are given here. The first way is by way of the four great elements. Actually the heading that we have above paragraph 3 ‘Definition Based on the Four Primaries’ should be here below paragraph 4. Only there does the definition of the four primaries begin.

Here he dwells on materiality and not on mind first. “When the elements have become clear in their correct essential characteristics, firstly, in the case of head hair originated by kamma there become plain ten instances of materiality with the body decad thus: the four elements, color, odor, flavor, nutritive essence, and life, and body sensitivity.” You need to be acquainted with the preceding chapters to fully understand this. The material properties are described as being caused by kamma, caused by consciousness, caused by temperature, caused by nutrition. These material properties are treated in groups - a group of eight, a group of nine, a group of ten and so on. These groups are not actually found in the Texts, but in the Commentaries we find these and also in The Manual of Abhidhamma we find the material properties treated in groups. The author is here explaining these groups. If you are not familiar with those groups, these passages may be difficult to understand or may be confusing.

Although it is said that it is according to the four great elements, we must understand that when the author is describing the defining of the four great elements, the author’s description is with reference to the 32 parts of the body. So we have to go back to the 32 parts of the body and remember which part is caused by which. There are 32 parts of the body - head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin and so on until urine which is water element. In the book it says head hair originated by kamma. Now head hair is originated by kamma, and also originated by consciousness, originated by temperature, and originated by nutrition. It is caused by all four causes.

“Firstly, in the case of head hair originated by kamma there become plain ten instances of materiality with the body decad thus: the four elements, color, odor, flavor, nutritive essence, and life, and body sensitivity. And because the sex decad is present there too, there are another ten, [that is the same nine with sex instead of body sensitivity]. And since the octad with nutritive essence as eighth, [that is the four elements, and color, odor, flavor, and nutritive essence], originated by nutriment, and that originated by temperature, and that originated by consciousness are present there too, there are another 24. So there is a total of 44 instances of materiality in the case of each of the 24 bodily parts of the fourfold origination.”

If you look at the causes at the bottom of the paragraph (gorge, pus, dung, urine), they are caused by temperature. Sweat, tears, spittle and snot are caused by temperature and consciousness. There are two causes for them. There are four kinds of fire element. The last one is the fire that digests what we eat, drink and so on. That fire is kamma-originated. If you have a good stomach, that means you have good kamma. In-breaths and out-breaths are consciousness-originated. Breathing only occurs in those beings that have consciousness. The remaining are of fourfold origination. They are caused by four causes.

Then we take head hair. Since head hair is not in the above four groups, it is caused by four causes. For head hair caused by kamma there are a number of material properties. And for head hair caused by nutriment and temperature there are a number of material properties. All together there are how many? What does it say in the book? “So there is a total of 44 instances of materiality in the case of each of the 24 bodily parts of fourfold origination.” So there are all together 44.

“But in the case of the four, namely, sweat, tears, spittle, and snot, which are originated by temperature and by consciousness, there are 16 instances of materiality with the two octads with nutritive essence as eight in each.” There are what is called ‘inseparables’. You may remember that word ‘inseparables’. They are those material properties which cannot be physically separated. There are always these eight. Even in the smallest particle of an atom according to Abhidhamma, there are these eight material properties - earth element, water element, fire element, air element (the four great primaries), and then color, odor, flavor, and nutritive essence. These eight are called ‘octad with nutritive essence as eighth’. It is not so long in PÈÄi, but if you translate it into English, it becomes a long name, ‘octad with nutritive essence as eighth’. In PÈÄi it is suddhaÔÔhaka.

“In the case of the four, namely, gorge, dung, pus, and urine, which are originated by temperature, eight instances of materiality (Since they are caused by temperature there are only eight.) become plain in each with the octad with nutritive essence as eighth (the same eight inseparables). This in the first place is the method in the case of the 32 bodily aspects.”

“But there are ten more aspects that become clear when these 32 aspects have become clear. And as regards these, firstly, nine instances of materiality, that is, the octad with nutritive essence as eighth plus life, become plain in the case of the kamma-born part of heat that digests what is eaten, etc.” That is the fourth of the four fire elements. There are the eight inseparables and the life principle. There are nine there.

“And likewise nine [instances of materiality], that is, the octad with nutritive essence as eighth plus sound, in the case of the consciousness-born part [of air consisting] of in-breaths and out-breaths.” In the in-breaths and out-breaths there are nine material properties, the eight inseparables plus sound. “And 33 instances of materiality, that is, the [kamma-born] life ennead and the three octads with nutritive essence as eighth, in the case of each of the remaining eight [parts] that are of fourfold origination.” There we have eight inseparables plus life principle. That is called ‘life ennead’. And the three octads with nutritive essence, that is the eight inseparables. So one life ennead and three groups of eight inseparables is 9 plus 24 becomes 33. If you cannot count them don’t worry.

In actual practice you need not see them like they are mentioned here. It is very difficult even for those who have studied Abhidhamma. It is not so easy to see them clearly when we practice meditation. We may just see a few of them, not all of them. Here everything is mentioned in detail, but it does not mean that when you practice vipassanÈ meditation that you must see all that is mentioned here. What is important in real practice is to be able to see in your mind clearly what you observe. Let us say you are making notes or you are observing sometimes mental things and sometimes material things. For example when you are concentrating on the breath, then you are concentrating on matter. Breath is air and air is matter. When you are concentrating on your thoughts, then you are dwelling on the mind. You pay attention to them and you try to see them clearly - the breath as breath and your thoughts or mental states as mental states. When you can see them clearly without being mixed with other things, you are said to have got the knowledge of discerning mind and matter. So you need not go through all of these like taking head hair and trying to find out how many material properties there are in connection with the head hair and so on. If you can, it will be good for you to dwell on these and see them clearly. As I said the most important thing is to see them clearly and to know that mind is the one that goes to the object and that matter (r|pa) is the one that does not cognize. If you see just that, you are said to have got the knowledge of discerning or knowledge of discriminating mind and matter.

This knowledge of discerning mind and matter does not come at the beginning of your practice. Before you get to that stage, you have to get enough concentration. At the beginning what you are doing is trying to get concentration. After you get concentration, after your mind can be on the object without being disturbed by mental hindrances, then you begin to see things clearly. Sometimes meditators think that they can see clearly. They think that the moment they sit and watch they can see clearly. But later when they really come to see clearly they say “What I said I saw clearly was nothing. In reality it is only now that I see clearly.” So if you cannot follow all of these don’t worry.

First the meditator dwells on material things in different ways. After defining r|pa (matter), he tries to define mind or mentality. Paragraph 8 describes that. “Taking all these together under the characteristic of ‘being molested’, he sees them as ‘materiality’. When he has discerned materiality thus, the immaterial states become plain to him in accordance with the sense doors, that is to say, the 81 kinds of mundane consciousness” and so on. Here the different types of consciousness are mentioned. If you remember the chapters on consciousness, you will easily understand this. If you don’t remember, then don’t worry.

In practice sometimes you see something and you are aware of that seeing consciousness. Sometimes you hear something and you are aware of that hearing consciousness. When you are mindful of seeing consciousness, hearing consciousness, you are seeing mentality. Also you will not fail to see that consciousness is that which bends toward the object. That is what is called ‘nÈma’ in PÈÄi.

When watching or dwelling upon types of consciousness, you do not dwell upon the supramundane types of consciousness. Supramundane consciousness and the mental factors that accompany such types of consciousness are not the domain of vipassanÈ. In vipassanÈ you take only the mundane things as object. That is simply because you have not yourself experienced the supramundane states. If you have not experienced, you cannot see clearly. In vipassanÈ meditation we are concerned only with what is mundane and not the supramundane. So the supramundane types of consciousness are excluded from the types of consciousness which are the objects of vipassanÈ meditation.

All these types of consciousness and mental states are defined as mentality. You define materiality first and then you define mentality. You define materiality by way of the four great elements, actually with reference to the 42 kinds of elements.

Next we have in paragraph 9 the definition based on the 18 elements. First you have to understand the 18 elements from the previous chapters. They are element of the eye, element of the ear and so on. When we say the eye element, we do not mean the eyeball. What we mean is the sensitive part in the eye, the part of the eye where the image strikes. That sensitive area or sensitive part of the eye is what is called the ‘eye’ here. The eyeball is not the eye element here. “Instead of taking the piece of flesh variegated with white and black circles, having length and breath, and fastened in the eye socket with a string of sinew, which the world terms ‘an eye’, he defines as ‘eye element’ the eye sensitivity of the kind described among the kinds of derived materiality in the Description of Aggregates (chapter 14, paragraph 47).” He defines that as eye element, not the whole eyeball, but something in the eye, perhaps the retina, where the image strikes and through which we see things. “He does not define as ‘eye element’ the remaining instances of materiality, which total 53” and so on. I will not burden with finding out the 53, or 43, or 45.

Next is the definition based on the twelve bases. There are twelve sense bases. If you understand the 18 elements, the twelve bases you will also understand. It is another way of describing the realities. Whenever the Buddha taught, he taught in different ways. Sometimes he taught nÈma and r|pa in the 18 elements and sometimes in twelve bases, and sometimes in five aggregates and so on. Following these different ways of treating what we call ‘the ultimate realities, we have different methods here. We can use any of these methods to contemplate on mind and matter. Paragraph 12 is a definition based on the twelve bases. Here also there are eye base, ear base and so on. Eye base is the same as eye element. The eye sensitivity only is the eye base and not the eyeball and others. “He defines as ‘eye base’ the sensitivity only, leaving out the 53 remaining instances of materiality” and so on.

The next paragraph is the definition based on the aggregates. It is a little brief. We only have to deal with five aggregates instead of twelve bases or 18 elements described earlier. “Another defines it more briefly than that by means of the aggregates.” You know the five aggregates. What is the first of the five aggregates? R|pa (corporeality). That r|pa is divided into 27 or 28 material properties, the four primary elements and the 24 depending upon them. The dependent ones are color, odor and so on.

There are 28 material properties. Among them only the first 18 or here 17 are suitable for comprehension, that is suitable for meditating on. Among the 28 material properties the last ten are not suitable for comprehension, not suitable for meditation simply because they are just the modes or some aspects of the first 18. The first 18 are the real material properties. That is why they are called ‘r|pa-r|pa’, the real r|pa. In this book only 17 are mentioned. That is because it leaves out the heart base. The others are not suitable for contemplation. They are bodily intimation, verbal intimation, space element, lightness, malleability, wieldiness, growth, continuity, aging, and impermanence of materiality. They are mentioned in the chapter on aggregates. So if we take material properties as 27, then the first 17 and if 28 then the first 18 are suitable for comprehension and the last ten are not.

In paragraph 14 r|pa is defined on the basis of the four primaries. Here a meditator does not go one by one at a time, but by taking them all as one. “Any kind of materiality whatever all consists of the four primary elements and the materiality derived from the four primary elements, and he likewise discerns the mind base and a part of the mental data base as ‘mental’. Then he defines mentality-materiality in brief thus: ‘This is mentality and this is materiality are called “mentality-materiality”’.” In this method all material properties are matter and then mind base and dhamma base are called ‘nÈma’. So the meditator notes this is nÈma, this is r|pa.

Next is if the immaterial fails to become evident. This is important. Sometimes when you practice vipassanÈ, you see the material things clearly. I mean in your mind, not with your eyes. You see the material things clearly, but you don’t see yet mentality or the mental states clearly. If you do not see the mental states clearly, don’t try to see them clearly. Try to see the material states more clearly. As your seeing of matter gets better and better, then your seeing of mental states will become clearer and clearer. This is explained in paragraph 15. In this paragraph is one passage which was quoted by MahÈsÊ SayÈdaw in his book, The Progress of Insight. “For in proportion as materiality becomes quite definite, disentangled and quite clear to him, so the immaterial states that have that [materiality] as their object become plain of themselves too.” If you cannot see the mental factors clearly, don’t try to see them clearly. Go back to matter and try to see matter clearly. If you see matter clearly, then the mental states will become clear to you.

There is a simile given here. “Just as, when a man with eyes looks for the reflection of his face in a dirty looking-glass and sees no reflection he does not throw the looking-glass away because the reflection does not appear; on the contrary he polishes it again and again, and then the reflection becomes plain of itself when the looking-glass is clean.” So you try to see matter clearly, more and more clearly.

“And just as, when a man needing oil puts sesamum flour in a basin and wets it with water and no oil comes out with only one or two pressings he does not throw sesamum flour away” and so on. Now in the Commentary to the Visuddhi Magga it also says it is sesamum flour or sesamum powder. Actually when you want to get oil, you do not crush sesamum seeds into flour and get oil from that. You just put the sesamum seeds into a bowl and press them with something. You put some hot water and grind with a pestle and squeeze out the oil. It is strange that sesamum flour is mentioned.

“But on the contrary he wets it again and again with hot water and squeezes and presses it, and as he does so clear sesamum oil comes out - or just as, when a man wanting to clarify water has taken a katuka (It should be kataka, not katuka.) nut and puts his hand inside the pot and rubbed it once or twice the water does not come clear, he does not throw the kataka nut away; on the contrary he rubs it again and again, and as he does so the fine mud subsides and the water becomes transparent and clear.” Kataka cannot be translated into English. It is explained in one PÈÄi dictionary, not PTS, as a nut plant, the seed of which is used to clarify water. It is a kind of nut. We use it to clarify water. Its botanical name is given in that book. It is strychnos potatorum. In a Sanskrit-English dictionary also the same Latin name is given, the clearing nut plant, its seeds wrapped around the insides of water jars precipitate the earthy particles in the water. It is a kind of nut.

“For in proportion as materiality becomes quite definite, disentangled, and quite clear to him, so the defilements that are opposing him subside, his consciousness becomes clear like the water above the [precipitated] mud, and the immaterial states that have that [materiality] as their object become plain of themselves too.” You deal with matter again and again until you see matter very clearly. As it becomes clearer and clearer, your seeing of mental states will also become clearer and clearer.

When these mental states become clear to you, they become evident to you in three ways, that is through contact, through feeling, and through consciousness. In fact it is difficult to see these during meditation. Let us look at seeing the object through contact. Let us say you dwell upon the earth element. When you concentrate on the earth element, it is the object and there is consciousness. When you take earth element as object, your mind comes into contact with that earth element. That contact becomes evident to you as the first conjunction, with the first meeting with the object. Sometimes you may see that during meditation something striking the object, something going together with the object. “Then feeling associated with that as the feeling aggregate” - there is feeling with whatever object that you take. There is the awareness of the object and there is always feeling as well, sometimes pleasurable, sometimes painful, sometimes neutral. This also you will see. “The associated perception as the perception aggregate” - sometimes you may see perception. “The associated volition together with the aforesaid contact as the formations aggregate, and the associated consciousness as the consciousness aggregate” - sometimes consciousness or awareness of the object is more evident to you. Sometimes perception is evident to you. Sometimes feeling, sometimes contact with the object becomes evident to you. That you see through meditation. In this way through contact, through feeling, through consciousness the mental states become evident to the meditator.

Paragraph 23 is important. “Now it is only when he has become quite sure about discerning materiality in this way that immaterial states become quite evident to him in the three aspects. Therefore he should only undertake the task of discerning the immaterial states after he has completed that , not otherwise. If he leaves off discerning materiality when, say one or two material states have become evident in order to begin discerning the immaterial, then he falls from his meditation subject like the mountain cow already described under the Development of the Earth KasiÓa. But if he undertakes the task of discerning materiality thus, then his meditation subject comes to growth, increase and perfection.” For those who practice vipassanÈ meditation alone it is imperative that they discern matter clearly first and then later on mentality. Otherwise as it is said here he will fall from his meditation.

After seeing mind and matter clearly or after defining mentality and materiality clearly, then one comes to see there are only mentality and materiality at any given moment. There is nothing over and above these two, mind and matter. This is the correct view of things. This correct view is described in the following paragraphs. There is no being apart from mere mentality-materiality. There is only mentality-materiality, at any moment. When you take the breath as an object and you see the breath clearly, you also see the awareness of the breath clearly. You see that there are only these two things going on at that moment, the objects which is the breath and the mind which is aware of this object. There are only these two going on. There is no thing which we can call ‘a person’, ‘a being’, ‘a self’, or whatever. This view or this understanding comes only after you see mind and matter clearly or after you have defined mentality-materiality through meditation practice.

The rest of this chapter is not difficult to understand actually. The similes are very easy to understand.

“As with the assembly of parts

The word ‘chariot’ is countenanced,

So, when the aggregates are present,

‘A being’ is said in common usage.”

What we call ‘a being, ‘a person’, ‘a man’ or ‘a woman’ is just a common usage, just a convenience for the usage in communication. If we analyze it, all we will find is mind and matter. Mind and matter put together we call ‘a man’ or ‘a woman’ and so on. It is just like when we put together various parts, we may call something a chariot, or a house, or a fist, a lute, an army, a city, a tree. These are described in paragraphs 25-28.

A chariot is nothing but a combination of parts. I always use the example of a car instead of a chariot. If you take the car apart, you lose the designation of car. There is no car at all apart from the parts. If we put these parts back again in their correct places, then it becomes a car. So in the ultimate analysis there is no car at all. There are just the different parts that are put together. In the same way there is no house. There are only walls, floors, roof and so on. If these are taken away one by one, we lose the designation house. Also the fist, when you bend your fingers a certain way, there is a fist. Actually they are just fingers and not a fist. Then there is a lute with body and strings. Let us say a lute or a harp. There are strings and the body. If we take the strings and body, there is no lute, no guitar, no harp or whatever. Then we have an army. In the olden days an army was said to consist of four parts. Those parts were the elephants, the horses, the infantry and the chariots. These are called the four component parts of an army. If it is an army there must be these four things. These four things are called ‘an army’. There is no army apart from elephants, horses and so on. Also we have a city. A city is surrounding walls, houses, streets. We call this a city. There is no city apart from these houses, streets and so on. Then there is a tree. A tree consists of roots, branches, trunk, leaves. All of these put together we call ‘a tree’. If they are taken apart one by one, we lose the designation tree. Also what we think to be a person, a human being, or an animal, or a man, or a woman is just the combination of mind and matter. Mind depends upon matter and matter depends upon mind. That will be described later. They depend upon each other and then function as a being, as a man or a woman and so on. This is the correct vision.

“But when a man rejects this correct vision and assumes that a [permanent] being exists, he has to conclude either that it comes to be annihilated or that it does not.” When we take there to be a being, or a permanent entity, or a self, or a soul, then we have to conclude that it is permanent or that it is annihilated at death. There are these two conclusions and we cannot avoid one of these two conclusions if we do not have correct vision. “If he concludes that it does not come to be annihilated, he falls into the eternity [view] (because according to him it continues to exist). If he concludes that it does come to be annihilated, he falls into the annihilation [view]. Why? Because [the assumption] precludes any gradual change like that of milk into curd.” He is paraphrasing the PÈÄi sentence. The direct translation of the PÈÄi sentence is something like this: “Because of the non-existence of some other thing which follows it or which is its result unlike curd which exists following the milk.” Curd is made from milk. When it becomes curd, there is no milk. The milk disappears and the result of milk exists as curd. If you take the being to be annihilated at death, then it is not correct. A being is a combination of mind and matter. In the mind there are mental factors, especially kamma. So long as there is kamma, the results of kamma will appear in the future. So there will always be rebirth unless or until the mental defilements are eradicated. If we take the being to be annihilated at death, then it is not in accordance with this. It is difficult to explain the gradual change, like that of milk into curd. It can be explained against the view of permanency too. If you take things to be permanent, then milk will not become curd. It will remain milk all the time because you take things to be permanent. Then if you take things to be annihilated at death or whatever, with the disappearance of milk there will be nothing, no curd coming out of milk, as a result of milk. You may fall into either one of these extremes. “So he either holds back, concluding that the assumed being is eternal, or he overreaches, concluding that it comes to be annihilated.” ‘Holding back’ and ‘overreaching’ are the words used in the Sutta. If you take things to be permanent, it is like holding back. If you take things to be annihilated, it is overreaching. That means going beyond the view that so long as there are mental defilements and kamma there will always be results in the future or there will always be rebirths in the future. If you don’t accept that, then you are going beyond that view, and so it is stated here as overreaching. Then the Commentator quotes the Sutta. It is from the Itivuttaka. There is holding back and overreaching and there is neither holding back nor overreaching. Then the end of the Sutta is quoted. “And how do those with eyes see? Here a bhikkhu sees what is become as become.” ‘Become’ here means those that have become. That means the five aggregates. The monk sees the five aggregates as the five aggregates. That means he sees their individual essence and their common essence. ‘Individual essence’ means taking things one by one and trying to see their characteristics. The common characteristics are common to all phenomena.

For example we are all assembled here. Each one of us is different. I am Burmese. You are an American. Others may be Vietnamese. We are different individually, but as human beings, we are the same. All of us are human beings. So being human beings is the common characteristic of all of us here. I being Burmese, you being American is the individual essence. ‘A bhikkhu sees what is become as become’ means a bhikkhu sees the five aggregates according to reality, their characteristic or nature and their common characteristics, which are actually impermanency, suffering, and soullessness. When he sees this, he sees that with the fading away or with the eradication of mental defilements there will be no more rebirth. But so long as there are mental defilements and there is kamma, there is rebirth. This is the correct view.

Paragraph 32 and so on deal with the interdependence of mentality and materiality. Mind depends on matter and matter depends on mind. They are not independent of each other. One depends upon the other for its existence. This is described in different ways with different similes. These are very good observations of mind and matter being dependent upon each other.

One is the simile of a blind man and a cripple. That is in paragraph 35. “But for the purpose of explaining this meaning they gave this simile as an example: a man born blind and a stool-crawling cripple wanted to go somewhere.” ‘Stool-crawling’ is the direct translation of the PÈÄi word. In PÈÄi a cripple is called ‘a stool-crawling man or woman’. Since the person is a cripple, he has to walk with the aid of a chair or a bench or whatever. “The blind man said to the cripple ‘Look, I can do what should be done by legs, but I have no eyes with which to see what is rough and smooth’. The cripple said ‘Look, I can do what should be done by eyes, but I have no legs with which to go and come’. The blind man was delighted, and he made the cripple climb up on his shoulder. Sitting on the blind man’s shoulder the cripple spoke thus ‘Leave the left, take the right; leave the right, take the left’.” This is the balance of mind and matter. Mind alone cannot exist in human beings and in lower celestial beings. Mind needs a material basis for its existence. Material base alone cannot function. It has no cognition. It has no desires and so on. When these two come together, then they can function together as a whole. There are other similes like a marionette or like two sheaves of reeds put together and so on.

“And just as men depend upon

A boat for traversing the sea,

So does the mental body need

The matter-body for occurrence

And as the boat depends upon

The men for traversing the sea,

So does the matter-body need

The mental body for occurrence.

Depending each upon the other

The boat and men go on the sea

And so do mind and matter both

Depend the one upon the other.”

First we see mind and matter clearly. Then we see that there are only mind and matter and nothing else. This mind and matter depend upon each other to function and to support each other. When we see this, we are said to have gained the defining of mentality-materiality or the delimitation of formations, or just the purification of the right or correct view.

Student: For the Arahant somebody described it as like blowing out a candle. Is that what it is? It is where he no longer needs matter?

Teacher: No. That is different. Here it is just a meditator seeing mind and matter as they really are through the practice of vipassanÈ meditation. You can read a book and you can sit and think about this. You can tell other people that there is only mind and matter. Mind has the characteristic of bending towards the object. Matter is that which does not cognize and so on. Here what is meant is not knowledge gained from reading or listening to others, but knowledge gained from your own experience, your own practice of vipassanÈ meditation. We try to get stillness of mind. We try to clear our minds of hindrances. As the hindrances subside, our minds become still or tranquil and concentrated. When mind becomes concentrated, we will not fail to see what is going on at the present moment. When we see that there is only mind and matter and we cannot find any other thing through experience, then we are said to have defined mind and matter clearly. We see that there is nothing over and above mind and matter, no being, no man or woman, no self and so on. We see that mind and matter depend upon each other. Mind cannot exist by itself and be functional. Matter also cannot exist by itself and function. Mind depends upon matter and matter depends upon mind. When we have this view, we are said to have the purification of view or we are said to have reached this stage of this purification.

Chapter 19

The next chapter is on overcoming doubt. Overcoming doubt comes after the meditator sees cause and effect, the cause-effect relationship between things. “Knowledge established by overcoming doubt about the three divisions of time (That is past, present and future.) by means of discerning the conditions of that same mentality-materiality is called ‘Purification by Overcoming Doubt’.” In order to get to this stage we must first see mentalitÿ-materiality clearly. Then we will see or we must find out the conditions for mind and for matter. When we can see the conditions or the causes for mind and matter, then we will be able to overcome doubts about whether we have been in the past, or what we have been in the past, things like that. We will come to that later.

This chapter deals with the Purification by Overcoming Doubt. That means trying to find the causes or the conditions for mind and matter. I think you will need a little knowledge of Abhidhamma to understand this. “To begin wit, he considers thus: ‘Firstly, this mentality-materiality is not causeless, because if that were so, it would follow that, [having no causes to differentiate it], it would be identical everywhere always and for all.” If mentality and materiality have no cause, it would be identical everywhere. They would always be the same. For all beings would be the same.

“It has no Overlord, etc., because of the non-existence of any Overlord, etc., over and above mentality-materiality. And because, if people then argue that mentality-materiality itself is its Overlord, etc., then it follows that their mentality-materiality, which they call the Overlord, etc., would itself be causeless.” If they say that mentality-materiality itself is Overlord, then mentality-materiality should be without cause, but mentality-materiality are found to be with causes. So it is not correct to take it that mentality-materiality itself is Overlord. “Consequently, there must be a cause and a condition for it. What are they?”

“Having thus directed his attention to mentality-materiality’s cause and condition, he first discerns the cause and condition for the material body in this way: ‘When this body is born, it is not born inside a blue, red or white lotus or water-lily, etc., or inside a store of jewels or pearls, etc.; on the contrary, like a worm in a rotting fish, in a rotting corpse, in rotting dough, in a drain, in a cesspool, etc., it is born in between the receptacle for undigested food and the receptacle for the digested food (This is for human beings.), behind the belly lining, in front of the backbone.” Do you know what that means? The real meaning is that the fetus lies in the womb with its back to the belly lining of the mother and facing the backbone. That is what is described here. I don’t know if that is really true. Does the fetus in the mother face the back of the mother? We need a doctor. I think instead of saying ‘behind the belly lining’, we should say ‘with its back to the belly lining’. Instead of saying ‘in front’, we should say ‘keeping the backbone in front of itself’.

“(The fetus is ) surrounded by the bowel and the entrails, in a place that is stinking, disgusting, repulsive, and extremely cramped, being itself stinking, disgusting and repulsive. When it is born thus, its causes (root-causes) are the four things, namely, ignorance, craving, clinging and kamma.” Please do not confuse ‘root-causes’ with the causes in PaÔÔhÈna. You may remember the causal relations described in the chapter on Dependent Origination. Among the 24 conditions the first one of them is root-cause. There root-cause is the six roots (lobha, dosa, moha, alobha, adosa, and amoha). Here the PÈÄi word ‘hetu’ is used, but it is not the hetu of PaÔÔhÈna. We can dispense with root-causes’ here. “Its causes are the four things, namely, ignorance, craving, clinging, and kamma.” Ignorance is one of the roots. Craving is one of the roots. Clinging because it is craving is one of the roots. But kamma is different. These four things are the causes of the arising of the material body. “Since it is they that bring about its birth; and nutriment is its condition, since it is that that consolidates it.” So all together we get how many causes? Four causes (ignorance, craving, clinging, kamma) and one condition (nutriment). There are four causes and one condition. “So five things constitute its cause and condition. And of these, the three beginning with ignorance are the decisive support for this body, as the mother is for her infant, and kamma begets it, as the father does the child; and nutriment sustains it as the wet-nurse does the infant.” So kamma produces the physical body. It produces it with the help of, with the support of ignorance and clinging. After producing it, nutriment sustains it.

“After discerning the material body’s conditions in this way, he again discerns the mental body in the way beginning: ‘Due to eye and to visible object eye consciousness arises’.” When seeing consciousness arises, it is not without cause or condition. Due to the eye and to visible object eye consciousness arises. When we see something, there is seeing consciousness in us. But if we do not have the eye, we will not see. And if there is nothing to be seen, there will be no seeing consciousness. Seeing consciousness depends upon the eye and the visible object for its arising. Actually there are not only these two but some more. What are they? Light. If it is dark, we do not see anything. And then there must be attention. Even though sometimes something passes in front of us, still we don’t see. We don’t pay attention. Attention is also a condition for the arising of seeing consciousness, hearing consciousness and so on.

“When he has thus seen that the occurrence of mentality-materiality is due to conditions, then he sees that, as now, so in the past too its occurrence was due to conditions, and in the future too its occurrence will be due to conditions.” The conditions of the present, he sees directly, but the conditions of the past and for the future, he uses inference. He does not see directly, but by inference he concludes that the past and the future must have conditions also.

“When he sees in this way, all his uncertainty is abandoned.” There are 16 kinds of doubt or uncertainty described in the Discourses in many places. They are given here - five with regard to the past, five with regard to the future and six with regard to the present. They are the following: “1. Was I in the past? 2. Was I not in the past? 3. What was I in the past? 4. How was I in the past?” ‘How was I in the past’ means was I a king, or a brahmin, or an ordinary person or something like that. ‘What was I in the past’ means was I tall, was I short, was I black, was I fair or something like that. “ 5. Having been what, what was I in the past?” These are the five doubts with regard to past lives or past aggregates. He is just doubting. He does not come to any conclusion. If he says ‘I was I was in the past’, there is no doubt. But here he is not sure - was he in the past or was he not in the past and so on. It is similar for the future. “ 1. Shall I be in the future? 2. Shall I not be in the future? 3. What shall I be in the future? 4. How shall I be in the future? 5. Having been what shall I be in the future?” And also the six kinds of uncertainty about the present are stated thus: “ 1. Am I? 2. Am I not? 3. What am I? 4. How am I?” How am I is strange. Am I black/ Am I white? Am I tall? Am I short? Do you have any thoughts about your height or your color? No. The Sub-Commentary explains that it is with reference to attÈ that he doubts. Do I identify attÈ with myself? How is that attÈ? Is that attÈ tall or short, or black or white? It is not about one’s own height, or color, or whatever, but about one’s attÈ. “ 5. Whence will this being have come? 6. Whither will it be bound?” From where did I come? Where will I be born and where am I going? These are doubts about the present. There are 16 kinds of doubt. These are mentioned again and again in the Suttas.

When the meditator sees there is mind and matter only and that mind and matter have their own conditions for their arising, then doubts are abandoned or given up. “Another sees the condition for mentality as twofold, according to what is common to all and to what is not common to all, and that for materiality as fourfold, according to kamma and so on.”

“The condition for mentality is twofold, as that which is common to all and that which is not common to all. Herein, the six doors beginning with the eye and the six objects beginning with visible data are a condition common to all.” That mean they are common to all wholesome and unwholesome consciousness. Whether you have a wholesome or an unwholesome consciousness, they are always there. So they are common to all.

“But attention, etc., are not common to all; for wise attention, hearing the Good Dhamma, etc., are a condition only for the profitable (That is wholesome.), while the opposite kinds are a condition for the unprofitable.” Now you find wise attention and unwise attention as a condition for wholesome and unwholesome cittas. “Kamma, etc., are a condition for the resultant mentality; and the life-continuum, etc., are a condition for the functional.” In order to understand this you must understand-TAPE ENDS

SÈdhu! SÈdhu! SÈdhu!

We offer this transcription of a Dhamma class with Venerable U SÊlÈnanda with the hope that it will be beneficial for your understanding of the Buddha’s teachings. This transcription has not been edited. It is the record of spontaneous exchanges between the teacher and students. Therefore it is possible that there are some errors. We are certain that such errors are infrequent and minimal. SayÈdaw is a meticulous and careful teacher and offers these teachings in this manner out of compassion for those people interested in the serious study and practice of meditation and Buddhism.