A Path without Ownership

Introduction

In 1983 I was browsing a local library and picked up a short book about zen. I read most of it while standing there and found it riveting. After that I read everything I could about Buddhism and soon after went on an insight meditation retreat taught by an American who had studied a Burmese method. I learned as much as I could but was never entirely happy with the techniques. Eventually I could see that anatta was the heart of what the Buddha taught, and based on this could ask enough pointed questions of various teachers, and detect what was written in books, to see who seemed to be going the right way. I made my way to Thailand in 1989 and spent almost three months at a center in Chonburi and was pleased with what I had learned as the teacher had a direct way of explaining anatta. After meeting Sujin Boriharnwanaket I found she taught even more directly and clearly. That is the short version, but of course getting comfortable with the truth of anicca, dukkha and anatta took time.

Personal Reflection on Anatta

When I first started to see that all elements arose and ceased, that there were only conditions with no self, no one controlling thinking or anything else, I found it unsettling, even frightening. I worried, ‘If I am not in control, maybe I might start doing bad things’. And ‘How can I be sure to attain if I can’t even control the next moment’. But this is simply the way things truly are, whether we understand it or not. Courage gradually builds alongside understanding of this truth, and with it comes a natural detachment from the wrong view of a self. There emerges a glimpse that there is no one who can make things happen, no one who can stop things from happening. This gradually brings a serenity based on letting go of wrong ideas about life—there is less struggle and more acquiescence to whatever comes.

Sometimes I would think, ‘Yes, I will just sit back and observe this,’ but that is still a subtle wrong path. There is not someone who can observe—understanding and awareness are themselves conditioned, and they are often absent. This too has to be known and accepted, the path is non-attachment all the way.

It should be noted that although the self is an illusion, there are still causes and effects and these are elucidated with great precision in the texts. It would be a grievous misinterpretation if we thought that anatta exempted us from the law of kamma. In fact the teaching on anatta and conditionality are intertwined, and so insight comes with knowledge that whatever is done, whether good or bad will bring its appropriate results.

Someone looking at Buddhism superficially might think that the emphasis on anicca, dukkha and anatta is a negative outlook on life. Actually the more we look into this, and the more obvious dukkha becomes, the more content we become. The more we see that right effort is a conditioned phenomena, anatta, the more vigor there is because we are not wasting energy trying to have what can’t yet be had: interest shifts to what can be known now, the present moment.

Ups and downs are all part of the process. Understanding comes with confidence and trust in the way things are. It also brings an interest in understanding more. This doesn’t mean that sense desire evaporates, but something additional emerges that is also compelling—understanding life itself.

The Book

The Buddha’s teachings are ehi passiko, ‘come and see’: their very nature is open and experiential and as one delves deeper the investigation comes with continuing interest. This short book of discussion and reflections comes from years of Buddhist study. I first met Sujin Boriharnwanaket in 1991 and had exchanged letters with Nina van Gorkom before that. These extraordinary women point to the Dhamma as revealed in the texts and also as it is right now. There is nothing more valuable in any world.

The first chapters of this book were inspired by the book Dhamma in Cambodia (2000) by Nina van Gorkom and I include excerpts from Dhamma discussions held in Cambodia in August 2024. I also add sections of English discussions at the hotel where Ajarn Sujin was staying (where I was also staying with my family) as well as other talks in Nepal, India, and Thailand in 2024, where I met with Sujin. There are comments and quotes from the texts as well as discussions with other friends around the same time and I recount some other trips with my family. Later chapters include discussions on the development of satipatthana and some that look at common misunderstandings regarding points of Dhamma. There are many Pali words because these have a precision that the English translation sometimes obscure.

I include conversations with my children to show the diversity of Buddhist life and that while we may be attached to family and career there is still the possibility of progress. Also to establish that all ages can connect (or reconnect) with the Dhamma.

Chapter 1Buddhist Life

In 1986 I spent two months traveling in Asia. That trip turned out to be disappointing because I couldn’t find a teacher who could help me understand anatta, the principle of not-self. However, I did manage to buy several useful English language Theravāda books from the Mahamakut Bookstore near Wat Bowonnivet in Bangkok. Still, I felt unable to find a clear path toward understanding the Dhamma. Most of the teachers I encountered, and even the books I read seemed to stress that one could control the mind through striving and concentration. But that conflicted with what I was coming to see: that the very heart of the Buddha’s teaching is anatta, no self, no being, no person in the ultimate sense, no director who is in control.

In 1989, I returned to Thailand for three more months and went to Wat Boongunjanaram, an Ajarn Naeb (1897-1983) center, hoping to better understand anatta and the way of vipassana. The teachers welcomed me warmly and they were understanding of the dangers of desire for results masquerading as dhammachanda (wholesome interest). I then flew to Sri Lanka and spent several weeks staying at a relaxed center set in a beautiful hill-top tea plantation. The teacher was Godwin Samararatne (1932 - 2000) and we had several discussions about modern day practices. He told me of Buddhists who had developed psychiatric problems after doing retreats at what he called ‘concentration camps’. He spent some of his time every year visiting hospitals trying to help them.

While in Kandy I was able to meet Venerable bhikkhu Bodhi, the great Pali translator of our age, at the Buddhist Publication Society and collected copies of The All Embracing Net of Views, The Great Discourse on Causation, The Discourse on the Root of Existence and The Discourse on the Fruits of Recluseship, which are his translations of sutta, commentary and sub-commentary, along with his brilliantly articulated introductions. These were of great help in getting to the depth of Dhamma. I also bought a second-hand book, Abhidhamma in Daily Life by Nina van Gorkom. I later learned that Jonothan Abbott (who runs Dhammastudygroup.org with Sarah Abbott) had sent many copies of the book to Sri Lanka.

I wrote to Nina and she encouraged me to visit Sujin Boriharnwanaket in Bangkok. So I planned a return trip, first to the Chonburi center, and on the same trip to meet Sujin. Nina responded with a second letter, 16 handwritten pages, answering many of my questions that arrived days before I left (parts of it were later published in the book, Letters on Vipassanā). After two weeks at Wat Boongunjanaram I went to Bangkok and had the opportunity to discuss the Dhamma with Ajarn Sujin. After several meetings with Sujin I returned to the Ajarn Naeb center, but it was becoming clear to me that dhammas could be understood at any moment, that there was no need to do something special or to setup situations to make them appear. I said this to the main teacher: that dhammas are arising at all times. He said his experiences of insight came outside any formal meditation also, but he thought the practice still had use. About ten days later I went back to Bangkok and continued to meet with Ajarn Sujin.

From that point onward, I returned to Thailand most years to continue those discussions. I also accompanied Sujin to other locations, often with her younger sister and Khun Duangduen, and had many opportunities to ask questions and gradually accumulate understanding of Dhamma. When not in Thailand I would send letters with questions to Nina and a few weeks later would receive her thoughtful and detailed handwritten replies. I also bought the complete English edition of the Tipiṭaka from the Pali Text Society for study and reference.

The days when Nina’s letters arrived were very meaningful and I would use them to reflect on the Dhamma she explained so well. Often I would drive into the forest, walk, sit, and consider what Nina had written. Sometimes I went to a large cemetery over 200 acres in size, to find a quiet place to sit and contemplate the insights Nina had shared. Many times we discussed passages like this from the Majjhima Nikāya 149:

The Great Sixfold Base: Bhikkhus, when one does not know and see the eye as it actually is, when one does not know and see forms as they actually are, when one does not know and see eye-consciousness as it actually is[...] one’s bodily and mental troubles increase, one’s bodily and mental torments increase, one’s bodily and mental fevers increase. Middle Length Sayings

On one of my trips to Thailand: Khun Sujin arranged for me to stay at Kurunoi, owned by Khun Thanit. This center has Dhamma students living there and I spent 6 weeks in a 8ft by 6ft wooden hut, sleeping on the floor and getting up at 5 a.m., eating the simple, healthy food. A past visitor from Japan had donated the entire English set of the Pali Text Society so I had a nice resource to read over. In the weekends people come to discuss Dhamma.

Via a translator Thanit told me his story. He was an assistant meditation teacher in a large Thai organization and had his own group of 20 or 30 students who followed the technique they taught. Once he was staying at the main temple where the founding monk resided and heard him listening to a talk on the radio. He asked the monk who was speaking but the monk said that this was advanced Dhamma and Thanit didn’t need to learn it. Still after he got home he was able to find the station and so he started listening to Sujin. After a few months of listening he announced to his small group that he no longer followed the technique. Chuteeman - a Thai woman - who was part of the original group said it was a shock, but they started to learn Abhidhamma and became interested in learning more.

Thus my life is like any story of life. A series of apparent coincidences, experiences and adventures. In fact our coming into contact with Dhamma and our interest in it is all by conditions. Each life is truly its own, no two people are alike, because we have different accumulations from many lives, and we have made different kamma over many lives. What we share are fleeting moments of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking, each arising and falling away; simply dhammas, not a ‘self’. There is old kamma and new kamma. And all those in the past who attained were also on a long path.

From the Therigatha Commentary:

The Theri Sukkha heard the Buddha Vipassi. She gained faith, went forth, was one of great learning, expert in the doctrine and possessed of intelligence. Similarly at the time of the Blessed one Sikhi and the Blessed one Vessabhu she observed virtuous conduct and was one of great learning and one expert in the Dhamma. Similarly she went forth in the teaching of Kakusandha, Konagama and Kassapa Buddha’s, and she was one of pure virtuous conduct, one of great learning, and one who preached the Doctrine..Commentary on the Verses of the Theris, Pali Text Society

In this Buddha era she went forth under Dhammadina and finally became arahat.

Chapter 2In Sri Lanka

In late December 2023 to January 2, 2024 I went with my family to Sri Lanka. First on our agenda was visiting the International Institute of Theravada in order to meet Venerable Subhuti and Venerable Maggavihari. It is an impressive vihara — not because of the facilities, which were good, but because of the reverence the bhikkhus have for Dhamma and Vinaya. I listened to a talk on the Abhidhamma by Venerable Maggavihari in English where he explained kalapas with examples from daily life. It was good to see the audience of bhikkhus following up with pertinent questions. On a youtube video Venerable Maggavihari said ‘the most important way [to develop paññā] is listening to good doctrines, studying them, listening to good Dhamma talks, questioning the Dhamma, clarifying the doubtful point, and also studying certain deep spiritual doctrines’.

After the talk, while I was with Venerable Subhuti a young bhikkhu asked me about anatta and said he wondered if some elements could be controllable to some extent (I paraphrase). In fact all elements are anatta and what we might think of as ‘us’ doing things and planning things are conditioned processes of nama and rupa. This is so hard to see, it seems ‘we’ are doing, ‘we’ are choosing. The actions that are under our control in the conventional sense, like sitting up or lying down, moving our attention to this or that object, when investigated are actually many moments of conditioned mentality and materiality.

Visuddhimagga

The absence of interestedness on the part of ignorance, such as ‘Formations [sankhara ] must be made to occur by me, or on the part of formations, such as ‘vinnana must be made to occur by us’. One who sees this rightly abandons self view by understanding the absence of a maker. xvii 312

As we were walking around Venerable Subhuti explained different aspects of Vinaya including the rules around the requisites such as robes and showed me the vihara storeroom which is all arranged according to Vinaya. There is also an extensive Buddhist library. The vihara has a knowledgeable senior bhikkhu, Venerable Devananda, and any bhikkhus wanting to stay there must follow the Vinaya in all details. I had a brief discussion with Venerables Subhuti and Devananda about the two ways of sukkhavipassaka and the jhana labhi, and then Venerable Devananda gave my children the precepts. Now Anna sometimes reminds her siblings that lying is bad, ‘the monk said that’.

With Venerable Devananda

After the visit to IIT we were in a van on the way to Anuradhapura and I joined a zoom discussion with Sujin, Nina van Gorkom (just a few days before her death), Sarah and Jon Abbott, Sukinder and many others. I mentioned the vihara and there were questions about the understanding there. I said that what I had heard was all useful, and more than mere lists which is sometimes the way Abhidhamma is taught. On zoom Sujin spoke about what is arising now and the characteristics of dhammas. It is happening right at this moment and by understanding more about this there will be the right conditions for direct understanding.

It was great to be in Sri Lanka where there is such history of and reverence for Dhamma. We circumambulated the wonderful Ruwanvelisaya stupa and then the Mahabodhi tree in the Mahamevnāwa park, a very special area with masses of devout pilgrims. Nearby is a statue of the great bhikkhuni Sanghamitta, the arahat who carried the sapling from the original Bodhi tree in India. In the Mahavamsa it states about the time when Mahinda first brought the Dhamma to Sri Lanka:

But the Queen Anulā, who had come with five hundred women to greet the theras, attained to the second stage of salvation. And the queen Anulā with her five hundred women said to the king: “We would fain receive the pabbajjā-ordination, your Majesty.”

The king said to the thera, “Bestow on them the pabbajja!” But the thera made answer to the king: “It is not allowed to us. O great king, to bestow the pabbajjā on women. But in Pataliputta there lives a bhikkhunī, my younger sister, known by the name Saṅghamittā. She, who is ripe in experience, shall come hither bringing with her the southern branch of the great Bodhi-tree of the king of samaṇas, O king of men, and (bringing) also bhikkhunīs renowned (for holiness); to this end send a message to the king my father. When this therī is here she will confer the pabbajjā upon these women.” Mahāvaṃsa ch. XV

Thinking of the times Nina van Gorkom was in Sri Lanka I found this passage in The Perfections Developed in Daily Life (1980).

Mindfulness may not often arise and our understanding may be weak, but we should not be misled as to the true goal of our life. In all sincerity we should scrutinize ourselves: do we cling to an image of ourselves, wanting to be full of kusala, with a great deal of sati, and to be very peaceful, or do we want to know ourselves as we really are, our defilements included?

Here is another from Nina’s Pilgrimage to Sri Lanka (1977)

Ajarn Sujin [said] that right understanding is not a matter of catching the moment a particular reality appears. If we believe that there is a particular order in the appearing of realities, we think of concepts instead of being aware of whatever presents itself. Sometimes the object of mindfulness is seeing, sometimes thinking, sometimes visible object. There is no rule with regard to the object sati will be aware of.

Venerable Dhammadharo asked, “Who is trying?” and I [Nina] answered, “Self wants to know” [‘self’ meaning subtle self view]. He replied that people usually give the correct answer, but, do they realize the truth?

We forget to be mindful of clinging when it appears. When we keep on thinking of seeing instead of being mindful of seeing which appears now, seeing cannot be known as it is. When we have doubt about characteristics, or when we are discouraged about our lack of sati, these moments should also be studied. Any reality can be the object of mindfulness, no matter whether we like that object or not. She [Sujin] reminded us to be mindful of only one reality at a time, as it appears through one of the six doors. [...] “When a reality appears, it does so only through one doorway. Leave the other doorways alone.”

When they were near the Ruvanvelisaya Stupa:

Ajarn Sujin remarked, “If sati is not accumulated now, it is not possible to attain enlightenment. Enlightenment can be attained. In the Buddha’s time many attained it. The development of sati is very natural; it is not too difficult if we are not forgetful. But when sati does not arise, we should not have regret. When regret appears there can be mindfulness even of regret.”

Nina: While one walks around the stupa and different realities are “studied”, the past time when arahats walked here and taught satipatthåna seems very near.

On the road to Sigiriya

Later we stayed at a resort near Sigiriya Rock. Ryan saw a large scorpion on the path near our cabin, wild peacocks were nearby and at dusk a troop of monkeys raided the mango trees. We were impressed by how well Sri Lanka has managed to preserve the wilderness including large jungles where elephants still roam.

Chapter 3In Varanasi and Bodhgaya (2024)

On May 27th my family flew to Varanasi to meet with Ajarn Sujin and others. She had been in Lucknow speaking to a large group and arrived in Varanasi the day before us. My longtime Dhamma friend Sukinder Narula was translating the Thai to Hindi for the audience. We met her briefly that evening and arranged to meet the next morning for a Dhamma discussion in English.

At 5 a.m. my family left the hotel in a rickshaw that we waved down, to go to the Ganges river at an area where open cremations take place. There were five of us crammed in but it was still comfortable. The rickshaw navigated hordes of people, sadhus (holy men with matted hair and loin cloths), numerous cows and other animals. Ryan (age 11) sat next to me and said “India is wild!”. It was not new to me and I enjoyed the sight and sounds. Ryan’s attention was drawn to the things he hadn’t seen before. His thoughts were a little different to mine and that is the way it always is as everyone has different accumulations. Nevertheless, after the sense door processes the mind door processes (where thinking occurs) always follow a sequence no matter for the adult or child, wise or foolish.

Anna (age 4) had a competition with her sister Nina (age 8, named after Nina van Gorkom) to see who could count the most cows. Then her attention was drawn to some people who had put mats on the ground and had little trinkets and beads and for sale. Desire (tanha) was controlling her interest in these simple items but also for all of us desire is very often arising — although it may search out more impressive objects. I had spoken to my wife and the children about the nature of life, that actually there are only conditioned elements.

It is like it says in the simile of the puppet:

Saṁyutta Nikāya 5.9. Sela. Mara: “By whom has this puppet been created? Where is the maker of the puppet? Where has the puppet arisen? Where does the puppet cease?”

Then the bhikkhuni Sela, having understood, “This is Mara the Evil One,” replied to him in verses: “This puppet is not made by itself, Nor is this misery made by another. It has come to be dependent on a cause; With the cause’s breakup it will cease.” Connected Discourses with Bhikkhunis

We are fooled by the khandhas (aggregates) but all elements are conditioned, and thus what we like or dislike and the objects experienced all arise due to manifold conditions that are themselves conditioned. No one but a Buddha could comprehend this and then explain it so that we can also gradually understand.

Guide to Conditional Relations (Narada, Pali Text Society): If one considers the teaching of Abhidhamma starting with Dhammasangani, and ending with Patthana, it will be seen that aggregates, bases, elements and so on are expounded in them. This shows that the realities, with which Abhidhamma deals, consist of aggregates, bases and elements that behave according to their own natures and, therefore, are not dependent on one’s wishes. In other words, the realities behave according to the principle of anatta. (xii, Preface)

From time to time I remind the children about how desire works. Ryan plays an online game called Roblox and occasionally asks me to buy some items that give him an advantage when playing. One of my responses is to refuse and tell him to do homework instead, but I also use it as an example of desire and conditions working their way. There is no self in this process but usually we are ignorant of the processes: we should take the opportunity to learn about them as they occur.

Gamblers feel happy when they are winning and dejected when they lose. When thinking about their losses unpleasant feelings arise in conjunction with aversion but when they are thinking of other things there may be happy feeling, and then they may again think about the loss. The serious gamblers try to replicate the pleasant times when they won. It is all showing the truth that the Buddha taught.

At the Ganges river

The Ganges

When we arrived at the Ganges river we walked until arriving at a place where for millennia the bodies of the dead are burned on piles of timber. The poor have basic and limited amount of wood on the pyre and the wealthy have large amounts of expensive varieties of timber attractively arranged. But all have come to death, as we will too. We might think ‘ah, seeing a dead body, that is a good object for mind development’. And it may be a reminder but actually whether by the Ganges or anywhere there are only seeing, color, hearing, sound and the other ayatanas arising and ceasing. Thus every moment, whatever the object is there is the possibility of understanding growing. It was the hot season and we didn’t see western tourists but there were groups of friendly Indian pilgrims and some of them wanted selfies with my children. Anna saw another shop (mat laid on the ground) and I let her buy some items.

Anna shopping by the Ganges

First steps first

Someone reading this might wonder ‘if Buddhists are often aware of the different moments which are only colour and seeing and the other doors, doesn’t that take the fun out of life. It makes everything the same?’ The Buddha’s teaching does lead to a sober assessment of the various joys that we are used to, but only the anagami and arahats have given up all sense desire. Thus we, whether laypeople or bhikkhu, lead the life that is appropriate to our station.

Question: but don’t we have to give up everything?

Eventually, but we need to be realistic. The first type of clinging to be given up is wrong view.

Visuddhimagga: And here [false-] view clinging, etc., are abandoned first because they are eliminated by the path of stream-entry. Sense-desire clinging is abandoned later because it is eliminated by the path of Arahantship. This is the order of their abandoning. xvii 245

Here I would like to add a point about sense desire clinging. It is clear even to the non-Buddhist that sense desires rule our lives.

Visuddhimagga: Sense-desire clinging, however, is taught first among them because of the breadth of its objective field and because of its obviousness. For it has a broad objective field because it is associated with eight kinds of consciousness. The others have a narrow objective field because they are associated with four kinds of consciousness. [...] And self-doctrine clinging is taught last because of its subtlety. xvii 246

Hence we read many suttas rightly extolling the dangers of sense desire. And the new Buddhist quickly sees the truth in that. They may then feel they should first stamp down on sense desire. This can lead to problems. If they have some apparent success then they feel they can control the mind by dint of will. Or if they don’t succeed they feel they are failing. Or they go through a cycle of winning and losing in this regard. But what is prime is eliminating wrong view.

Saṁyutta Nikāya 2.16 Vasudatta Sutta: Standing to one side, the young deva Vasudatta recited this verse in the presence of the Blessed One:

Deva: “As if smitten by a sword, As if his head were on fire, A bhikkhu should wander mindfully To abandon sensual lust.”

Buddha: “As if smitten by a sword, As if his head were on fire, A bhikkhu should wander mindfully to abandon identity view.” Connected Discourses

While walking and enjoying the many sights along the river I was also reflecting on how thoughts and all the other elements are conditioned to arise.

With Sujin

When we returned to the hotel it was time to meet with Ajarn Sujin. Ryan had a question related to anatta and conditions.

Ryan: If we are conditioned in every moment, are we robots?

Sujin: Can a robot think?

Ryan: No.

Sujin: Can a robot be bad or good?

Ryan: No.

Sujin: No, so what is it that cannot be good or bad at all? It is that which cannot experience anything. Like this [touches table] it cannot be good or bad, right? So we have to understand the truth of each reality.

Robert: Reading about the simile of the puppet, or thinking about Ryan’s questions on robots may vex us: ‘If there is no self, it seems it doesn’t matter if we try or don’t try as there is no self anyway, things just happen?’

Reflecting on the incalculable length of saṃsāra may offer perspective. Hearing the Dhamma, which itself is conditioned by moments that happened possibly many lives ago, can condition the energy to learn more. And thus there is a progression that includes continuing investigation, effort and understanding.

Question: And if we haven’t developed much understanding in past lives?

Then now is the time to develop so that conditions for understanding are nourished.

Nina had a question about the Pali phrase sabbe sankhara anicca which she had memorized.

Nina: So the Nina that was there a minute ago has gone or changed?

Sujin: There are only dhammas and they are already gone.

Sujin: It is amazing the children are so interested in Dhamma.

Robert: Sometimes they are, often they want to play or watch TV. It is the same with me.

Sujin: That is the way Dhamma is.

Robert: I was talking to someone about this. He wants to change himself to become like an arahat. I said Dhamma is not really about changing, it’s about understanding whatever is there, like we always talk about. But people find that hard to grasp. They want to know how to understand, but don’t understand what’s already there.

Sujin: Dhamma is so subtle. Even it’s there now, seeing, for example. After that moment, it’s not there anymore. And then a new moment. So very deep. But learn to understand that everything is Dhamma.

Sujin: At the Ganges river today what dhammas were there? Were they pleasant or unpleasant?

Ryan: It was noisy.

Sujin: We always want pleasant things. But when something unpleasant happens, why is that? If you hear a loud sound that you don’t like, why is that. What’s the reason for that?

Sujin: It’s kamma from the past. Can we change that sound?

Ryan: No.

Sujin: If you feel annoyed or unhappy, what’s that?

Ryan: Kamma.

Robert: New kamma [actually new kilesa - it may not be at the level of kamma].

Sujin: How did you feel when you saw the dead bodies by the river?

Nina: I felt sad for their loss.

Sujin: But everyone has to be like that one day, right?

Nina: If they did good deeds they will be reborn in a good place.

Robert: What’s more important. To do lots of good deeds or to have understanding of what the Buddha taught about reality?

Nina: Understanding.

Robert: Why?

Nina: So maybe you can have more understanding and do good deeds.

Robert: Acceptance of the moment by understanding it is actually the way to happiness. People want to change things, but if they can understand things are conditioned, then that takes away so much wrong thinking and reactions. Just understand whatever is present, it makes life much easier.

Nibbana

Another question the children bring up is where the Buddha is now?

Robert: Is there a Nina now in the ultimate sense.

Nina: No.

Robert: What is there?

Nina: Just conditions.

Robert: Yes. And what are the conditions for the continuation of these conditions?

Nina: I don’t know.

Robert: The main conditions are greed and ignorance. Did the Buddha have greed and ignorance at all?

Nina: Not at all.

Robert: A simile of life, of this mass of conditions, is a large fire. How does the fire keep burning?

Nina: It needs wood.

Robert: Right it needs wood or other fuel. And if no more fuel is added what happens to the fire?

Nina: It goes out.

Robert: And so it is for the conditions that make up what we call a human or any being. The arahats have stopped adding fuel to the fire called life.

In the evening I met with Sukinder and Sophanna Rith Chem and one of the topics was the way of natural development. They repeated what we learned that when there is any pushing or wishing for results it hinders seeing what has arisen now. Then again we can fall the other way and give up interest in development completely.

Street scene on the way to Bodhgaya

Bodhgaya

After Varanasi the Thai group were due to fly back to Bangkok. I arranged a van with driver to take my family to Bodhgaya. We were pleasantly surprised when the van arrived at the hotel as it had enough seating for 12 people, making for a comfortable time in the long trip with only five of us. Bodhgaya was more developed than when I last visited, so many hotels, markets and vehicles. Our hotel had a view of the MahaBodhi temple and early in the morning we took a taxi from our hotel to the site where the Bodhisatta became SammasamBuddha. The entrance procedure was well organised and we soon entered the Mahabodhi Temple garden. As we were walking around I started talking about the Abhidhamma and that we would soon find the place where the Buddha contemplated the Patthana, the book of conditions. My wife asked the children to listen carefully and they asked me about it. Nina van Gorkom wrote a beautiful introductory book to this most profound and important section of the Tipitaka, The Conditionality of Life. In the preface she writes:

The Buddha, during the fourth week after his enlightenment, sat in the ‘Jewel House’, in the north west direction, and contemplated the Abhidhamma.

She quotes from the Atthasalini (The Expositor, the Commentary to the Dhammasangani, the first book of the Abhidhamma):

And while he contemplated the contents of the ‘Dhammasangani’, his body did not emit rays; and similarly with the contemplation of the next five books. But when, coming to the ‘Great Book’, he began to contemplate the twenty-four universal causal relations of condition, of presentation, and so on, his omniscience certainly found its opportunity therein. For as the great fish Timiratipingala finds room only in the great ocean eighty-four thousand yojanas in depth, so his omniscience truly finds room only in the Great Book. Rays of six colours-indigo, golden, red, white, tawny, and dazzling-issued from the Teacher’s body, as he was contemplating the subtle and abstruse Dhamma by his omniscience which had found such opportunity.

We soon found the plaque showing this special area. I explained that for each moment many different conditions have to coincide. The Commentaries also often refer to the understanding expressed by the Buddha in the Patthana. Without the profound teaching of the SammasamBuddha we would always think that “I” am looking at this or that but the commentary to the Sammanaphala sutta (The Fruits of Recluseship, Bhikkhu Bodhi), talking about looking ahead or looking aside, breaks this down into various conditions as explained in the Patthana.

The eye is a support condition: forms are an object condition; adverting is a proximity, contiguity, decisive support, absence, and disappearance condition; light is a decisive support condition; feeling etc are conascence conditions. Thus looking ahead and looking aside are discerned in the assemblage of these conditions. Therein, who is it that looks ahead? Who looks aside? (p.118)

The Subcommentary adds:

Looking ahead and looking aside being discerned by way of the five aggregates, who is it, separate from those aggregates, that looks ahead? Who looks aside? The meaning is: there is no one who looks ahead, no one who looks aside.

The Satipatthana sutta commentary also explains looking:

Within, it is said, there certainly is no self or soul which looks straight on or looks away from the front. Still, at the arising of the thought ‘I shall look straight on,’ and with that thought the process of oscillation (vayo dhatu) originating from mind, [citta samutthana] bringing into being bodily expression [viññatti] arises. Thus owing to the diffusion of the process of oscillation born of mental activity, the lower eyelid goes down and the upper eyelid goes up. Surely there is no one who opens with a contrivance.

Thereupon, eye-consciousness arises fulfilling the function of sight, it is said. Clear comprehension of this kind here is indeed called the clear comprehension of non-delusion. Further, clear comprehension of non-delusion should be also understood, here, through accurate knowledge of the root, through the casual state and through the temporary state.

Learning and contemplating the 24 conditions explained in the Patthana help us begin to discard the wrong view of self. We might believe mindfulness is focusing attention on some object, but mindfulness at the level of satipatthana arise with panna and is a momentary arising of insight that understands to some degree the anattaness of a reality. This profound type of mindfulness is only possible during a Buddha Sasana, and only if there is enough accumulated understanding based on wise consideration of Dhamma. The commentary to the Satipatthana sutta:

The Section on the Modes of Deportment

The Buddha, after dealing in the aforesaid manner with body-contemplation in the form of respiration-meditation, in detail, said: ‘And further,’ in order to deal exhaustively with body-contemplation, here, according to the meditation on the modes of deportment ‘When he is going (a bhikkhu) understands: ‘I am going.

In this matter of going, readily do dogs, jackals and the like, know when they move on that they are moving. But this instruction on the modes of deportment was not given concerning similar awareness, because awareness of that sort belonging to animals does not shed the belief in a living being, does not knock out the percept of a soul, and neither becomes a subject of meditation nor the development of the Arousing of Mindfulness.

Going. The term is applicable both to the awareness of the fact of moving on and to the knowledge of the (true) characteristic qualities of moving on. The terms sitting, standing and lying down, too, are applicable in the general sense of awareness and in the particular sense of knowledge of the (true) characteristic qualities. Here (in this discourse) the particular and not the general sense of awareness is to be taken.

From the sort of mere awareness denoted by reference to canines and the like, proceeds the idea of a soul, the perverted perception, with the belief that there is a doer and an experiencer. One who does not uproot or remove that wrong perception owing to non-opposition to that perception and to absence of contemplative practice cannot be called one who develops anything like a subject of meditation. The Way of Mindfulness: The Satipatthana Sutta and Its Commentary, Soma

Chapter 4In Bangkok (June and July, 2024)

In June 2024 we met with Sujin at the Dhamma Study and Support Foundation in Bangkok. Along with my family came Ṭhānuttamo, the author of Magadhabhasa (Pāḷi) - A Compendious Grammar, who shortly after re-ordained as a bhikkhu and is now living in Sri Lanka. My Pali is very basic — I have a reasonable vocabulary, but trying to get the grammar of any phrase is time consuming and I admire those who have the patience and intellect to master it. It must be a great asset for studying the texts.

Here are a few quotes from the discussion:

Sujin: What is there is a reality, different ones, just conditioned to arise and falls away instantly right now. It’s that which is real, no matter what—sweetness at the moment of tasting. It’s real. It’s a dhamma.

So instead of talking about different names and different languages, the reality is there. It’s true for everyone, any moment, anywhere, anytime.

This last phrase about reality regardless of language, place or time is a truth we need to understand. Whether at the time of the Buddha, now or in the future seeing, visible object, hearing, sound, touch, hardness, thinking and so on are arising. Whether man or woman, Thai, Cambodian or American, deva, or animal these elements arise and cease. A moment of seeing is called in Pali cakkhu viññāṇa (eye-consciousness) In Thai it is จักษุวิญญาณ (chakkhu-winyan) so it is close in the way it is pronounced to the Pali. But in whichever language it is described its nature is the same.

I said to Sujin that I seemed to understand four of the khandhas, the aggregates. But I wondered about sanna khandha. She said ‘it is arising right at this moment’. And this is the only way we can really understand what we learn from the texts. The realities described in the Tipitaka, the dhatus, the khandhas, the ayatanas are not words to be merely memorised, they are to be known.

Sujin: The realization of the truth of reality is not in the book, it’s not that which has gone, or that which one tries so hard to have it arise. Impossible, as long as what is there now is not known yet.

That’s why, to understand what is there right now, has to be considered carefully.

We forget about each moment because there are conditions to think about other subjects or other moments instantly. For example, what is paticcasamuppada?

Not just the story or what is there in the book, but it’s real, it’s true. At the moment of what is real, what is that or what is there right now? If not known, [there is no real] understanding of Dhamma, just intellectual understanding.

Sujin: For example, at moment of seeing, there are many cetasikas [mental factors] arising together, performing the function, but they do not show up to be known.

So now, the reality which is there from birth, not just in this birth, years and years ago, arising from birth, on and on to death, what is seen is by that which arises to experience it, the chief of experiencing, the characteristic of what which appears, no matter it’s sound or sight or smell, even that is not known at all.

Many, many realities are hidden because of ignorance. Ignorance covers up the truth.

Understanding the subtlety of all kinds of realities is the way, the only way, letting go the idea of self.

When right understanding is there, less ignorance is there until right understanding develops to the degree that it can realize whatever is there as it is anatta. All dhammas are anatta.

Robert (to Ryan): This sounds very deep and difficult, right? But it’s what is real right now. It explains what is happening right now. Like the seeing, and the thinking, are they the same reality or are they different?

Ryan: Different.

Robert: Yes. And it’s conditioned. Every moment is conditioned. But usually we’re lost in this world of concepts, of table and people, and we’re not aware, there’s no awareness that citta is changing each moment. So Buddhism is not something unusual, it’s describing exactly what is real. Is it useful to know that?

Ryan: Yes.

Sujin: Nothing arises without the right conditions, yet no one truly knows this. For instance, there is seeing, but it is not yet understood. How can one recognize just one reality at a time?

Take the example of seeing. No matter how much is said about it, there is still the sense of ‘I’. Even the thought, I am sitting or I am seeing, arises—this is diṭṭhāsava [the influx of clinging to views].At that moment, asava lingers unknowingly, this is avijjāsava [ignorance].

Not knowing what is really there. So, what does avijjā (ignorance) fail to understand right now? It fails to see what truly exists. Avijjā is obscuring the truth. The idea of self is present because the truth is not recognized. Understanding is not just about words—it is about seeing the nature of reality. For instance, when we discuss seeing, we are not talking about thinking.

Reality arises and disappears instantly. It has been so for aeons. The world seems permanent when it does not appear as it is. But in reality, everything is breaking apart rapidly—each phenomenon conditioned to arise and immediately fall away.

We don’t need to study the 24 types of paccaya (conditions) in a strict order. Any moment, whatever can be understood, can be understood right now.

For instance, without the eye base (cakkhu-pasāda), there can be no seeing. So what is the condition (paccaya) for seeing? The eye base is one. But by what kind of paccaya?

Kamma is one condition. Without the eye base, seeing cannot arise. At birth, the mind (citta) is already conditioned by kamma—leading to different kinds of existence.

Kamma conditions only one birth moment. After that, seeing and thinking do not happen simultaneously. The vipāka (result) of past kamma conditions the birth-consciousness (paṭisandhi citta), which then falls away.

Yet, kamma continues to bear results—on and on, from the first moment onward. The continuity of life is maintained by bhavaṅga (life-continuum), which persists until death.

How many bhavaṅga moments have passed? They are uncountable, even right now.

By understanding the truth, ignorance (avijjā) and attachment (taṇhā) can gradually fade. The words in the Tipiṭaka point to what is real right now. But just understanding the concepts of Dhamma is not enough.

The path to realization requires wisdom. Otherwise, it is useless to merely talk about the truth. Yet, understanding, once developed, is not lost. Even if there is no current condition to think about it, the realization of truth remains.

Dhamma—what is it? It may be known conceptually, but it is not yet fully understood. That is why it must be developed moment by moment.

Many conditions arise throughout the day— thoughts of attachment or aversion—but it doesn’t matter at all because what is there is by condition. Strong and very firm understanding develops to condition moments of directly understanding hardness or of anything, right now.

One question was how long would it take to really understand?

Sujin: It depends on how much understanding is there right now. Right understanding is very truthful. It knows what level of understanding is right now about what is there, like seeing, hearing, and so on. Anything now is a test of the understanding. How well do we understand it? Very well or not very well?

Robert: And paññā (wisdom) can’t be conjured up. Paññā arises because of conditions.

Sujin: Among all conditions, paññā is the best, most precious.

Robert: But paññā doesn’t want to understand. Paññā just understands that’s its nature.

Sujin: Because its nature is not wanting. It’s just understanding. When it’s there, ignorance cannot be there.

Sophanna Rith was at the discussion and he asked Ryan about the benefits of kusala such as good future results. He said that studying the Dhamma was a type of kusala that leads to wisdom in this life and future lives.

Then there was a discussion about savaka Bodhisattas. There are three types of Bodhisatta, the one who will become a SammaSamBuddha, Omniscient Buddha, someone who will become a Pacceka Buddha, Silent Buddha, and the one who is a savaka Bodhisatta, who is a learner who becomes enlightened during a Buddha Sasana (see Cariyapitaka atthakatha, nidanakatha).

Nina van Gorkom wrote about this: Understanding Realities Now: Nina’s travelogues

We can become ‘learners’, savaka Bodhisattas, by continuing to develop understanding of what appears now with confidence and without expecting anything. We are beginners and what can be understood depends on conditions. Some people seek peacefulness but everything that arises now, also when it is not peaceful, should be known as not self.

“[...]

All that is real now in our life are citta, cetasika and rupa. Intellectual understanding of what is real can eventually lead to direct understanding, to satipatthana.

Gradually the true nature of the realities that appear can be penetrated. As we read, there has to be wise attention to the characteristics of impermanence, dukkha and anatta. However, first of all there have to be right awareness and direct understanding of the realities appearing through the six doors. Nama has to be known as nama and rupa as rupa. We read, consider and discuss Dhamma just in order to understand the reality of this moment.” p. 142-143

Cariyapitaka Atthakattha, translated by Bhikhu Bodhi in the All-Embracing Net of Views:

‘When there is patience, the mind becomes concentrated, all formations appear to reflection as impermanent and suffering; all dhammas as not-self, nibbana as unconditioned, deathless, peaceful, and sublime, and the Buddha-qualities as endowed with inconceivable and immeasurable potency. Then established in acquiescence in conformity, the groundlessness of all ‘I-making’ and ‘mine-making’ becomes evident to reflection thus: ‘Mere dhammas alone exist, devoid of self or of anything pertaining to a self. They arise and pass away in accordance with their conditions. They do not come from anywhere, they do not go anywhere, they are not established anywhere. There is no agency in anything whatsoever.’. p.271

July 2024

In July I was back in Bangkok and had a discussion with Ajarn Sujin and others. Here are some excerpts:

Sujin: It’s there and it can be known as it is, not as ‘I see’. “And when there is the understanding of seeing, there can be understanding of hearing, too. Just learn about what is there in life closer and closer to this moment. That before seeing, there’s no seeing. Seeing is not that which is seen. Does anyone make it arise, the seeing? Whatever now appears is conditioned to arise.

Robert (comment on this): The seeing process occurs an uncountable number of times in one day. Yet every brief moment of seeing an object arises because of complex conditions — no one can make it arise, but if the conditions are there it must arise. Likewise objects such as feeling, hardness, desire, aversion and the other objects listed in the Satipatthana sutta are arising very frequently. Whether one focuses or doesn’t focus, whether one sits under a tree, urinates, walks up and down, looks behind, looks in front, the objects are appearing. But just as color (the object of seeing) is beyond the ken of a blind man, so the real nature of each object is hidden without right view.

On the other hand if right view is firm then those same objects can begin to show their absolute nature, not because “I” want them to. Not because wisdom wants to know but because the eye of wisdom is starting to open and is not impaired. Just as if a blind man was healed and can now see various objects.

Sujin: Even it’s there, it’s not known at all because no attention to the nature, the reality, the characteristic of seeing.

Here I copy a transcript from another discussion:

Sujin: In Thailand some people spend their time going north, west, south, to look for dhamma. But when anyone understands what dhamma is, one doesn’t have to go anywhere, because any moment is dhamma. So it depends on understanding from hearing and considering as pariyatti [intellectual understanding], which can condition patipatti [direct understanding], which the Thai call doing patibat. Patipatti means that which reaches reality with right understanding from pariyatti.

Without hearing and considering as pariyatti, there are no conditions for direct awareness to begin to understand reality, which is so very deep. For example, who can think about that which is eye-base or eye-sense as ayatana, at moment of seeing. At this moment, what is seeing is ayatana, and seeing itself, the manayatana, and the pasada rupa is cakkhayatana and cetasikas which arises with the seeing is dhammayatana. All four have to be present at that moment. So people just read about ayatana and can remember the six and the twelve, but not knowing ayatanas right now, the living ones, the real ones, not the past ones. So by understanding ayatana at moment of experiencing anything, it is ayatana, right then. And not just one ayatana, not just only the inner and the outer, but citta cetasikas and rupas right then. All are conditioned just to condition one moment of seeing.

Back to the discussion in July:

Sujin: So just learn about the truth and then who realized the truth that we have heard, begin to understand what is meant by realization or enlightenment.

Carmen (from Holland): But isn’t it a bit of an endless road?

Sarah: It’s a long road. It’s a slow road. But this is the way to understand that life now, life in the past, life in the future, actually just consists of these different paramattha dhammas that we’re talking about, seeing and what is seen and so on.

We may not be pleased to hear that the path is gradual and long. However, we should accept the subtlety and depth of the teachings. We can rejoice that now is the time of a Buddha Sasana. All those myriad of disciples of the Buddha were like us before they attained.

Chapter 5Cambodia (August 2024)

In August we came to Cambodia where Sujin Boriharnwanaket was invited to speak. Over 500 laypeople, monks and nuns attended the sessions held at the Angkor-Kizuna Hall at the Royal University in Phnom Penh. During Ajarn Sujin’s first visit in 2000 the facilitator and translator from Thai to Khmer was the great Cambodian Dhamma teacher Buth Savong (Buth Sawong) and in 2024 again Buth Sawong helped with the translations along with the main organiser Sophanna Rith Chem. Sujin, now 98 years old (in 2025) was tireless in explaining Dhamma and replying to questions. A friend, Mean Sok, sat next to me and gave a real time translation.

I gave a short opening talk (which was translated into Khmer) at the hall in Phnom Penh and include a summary here:

Robert: In the Anguttara nikaya there is a discussion between Ananda and Sariputta which talks about how understanding grows:

Then, just as those [bhikkhus] learned and memorized it, [...] think about and consider the teaching in their heart, examining it with the mind [...]

From time to time they ask them questions: ‘Why, sir, does it say this? What does that mean?’ Those venerables clarify what is unclear, reveal what is obscure, and dispel doubt regarding the many doubtful matters.

“[...] And it’s how they come to understand what they haven’t understood before. Aṅguttara Nikāya, Dhammikavagga, Ānandasutta Thus now is the opportunity to hear and understand what hasn’t been understood. To ask questions and consider carefully the replies. The Abhidhamma is different from subjects we learned at school as Abhidhamma is happening now. It describes life as it truly is. Thus the investigation of Dhamma is not like a scholar studies but is studying life itself.

As a new Buddhist I was much interested in the results of satipatthana and I tried techniques that held out the promise of attainments. Later I learned that focusing and concentrating are different from sati. The path is one of non-attachment all the way. Panna (wisdom) can understand this but lobha (desire) can’t. However, lobha can be understood when it arises and so the right path can be discerned. And thus today and the following days we will learn much about satipatthana and what it means, that all is anatta, dhammas are not me, not mine, no self. So we, as Buddhist, are not searching for some special technique that suits us, some teacher who tells us what to do. Rather we take the Dhamma as our refuge and start to learn what satipatthana really is.

A senior Bhikkhu gave another introductory speech and then Ajarn Sujin started talking.

Sujin: If we do not understand the words that the Buddha has taught we will not know the Dhamma of the Sammasambuddha. Therefore, we should study every word with utmost respect. If we do not study the Dhamma of the Sammasambuddha how long will it take for us to understand the truth.

Sujin: I would like to ask the audience what is happening now?..... Now there is hearing and hearing is a Dhamma. Who is hearing?... The answer is there are only elements that are conditioned to arise and that cease, no self.

Questioner: Do we need to go to a special place to learn Dhamma?

Sujin: We don’t need to go any place to find Dhamma because dhammas are arising now. However do we really understand Dhamma now?

Questioner: No.

Sujin: That is correct.

She then spoke about sacca parami (the perfection of truthfulness) and that we need to be truthful about our understanding. The Dhamma is incredibly subtle and takes a long time to properly comprehend. Overestimating our level of understanding means we miss the profundity — and so will go wrong.

Next topic in the hall in Phnom Penh

Sujin spoke about citta, that it is the chief in experiencing. Normally there is immediate interest in the object of citta, or the cetasikas which arise together with citta (such as dosa or lobha). Thus citta, although arising every moment, is not known. However, there needs to be understanding of the nature of citta otherwise its ephemeral nature won’t be seen. Related to this on a zoom discussion in June 2024 Sujin answered a question by Sundara. Alan Weller (the publisher of Nina’s books) edited the reply and uploaded it on youtube as “How do we recognize the truth?”.

Here is an extract. I paraphrase some of the quotes to remove repetition and improve readability.

Sujin: No one can stop the arising of the element or the reality which is conditioned to arise and see and hear and think from birth to death. [ Vinnana, citta, never stops arising. It performs its function of experiencing an object and then falls away instantly to be replaced by a new citta with a new object.] Everything arises by conditions, and then gone. At the moment of seeing, it cannot think. At the moment of thinking, it cannot see.

Reality is just moments, forming, vanishing, never returning. What we take as ‘I’ is gone instantly, all the time. If ‘I see,’ then where is ‘I’ when seeing is gone? Understanding truth moment by moment loosens the grip of self. What is ‘I’? It’s an illusion. At the moment of seeing, no one is there at all, and yet it sees. Seeing sees. Hearing hears. Thinking thinks.

No one is making it happen.

Back to the hall:

Sujin: The SammasamBuddha said that everything that arises is anatta. But we must know what that means. [In the ultimate sense] there is nothing, no people, no tables, no chairs. Is that true? We should not be careless with what the Buddha taught so we must listen carefully and we should take every opportunity to understand. If you understand then the truth of anatta will become clear.

If we merely think about citta or vedana (feeling) or kaya (body) or khandhas but don’t know what sati and wisdom really are then we still don’t know the truth of the SammasamBuddha. If someone doesn’t know the teaching of the Buddha can they really respect him? So we show respect by learning the Dhamma. But just knowing the words is not enough, there must be understanding of sati (mindfulness), of what it really is. Step by step.

Trying to know what sati is, what patipatti is, is not the right way. Dhamma is very subtle. Because sati and all dhammas are anatta. The present moment arises, there is no one making it happen.

This life is very short. So the time we when are coming to understand is very valuable. Taking up Dhamma in the wrong way is useless. But Dhamma can be followed in the right way.

At the hotel

After the Dhamma talk we returned to the Onra hotel where Sujin and many Thai people were staying. Around 5 p.m. my daughter was looking down at the street from our room and saw a violent argument. We called the hotel reception to notify the police. A drug addict (as we found out in the news report the next day) was confronted by a police officer and the man stabbed the officer several times and then took the officer’s pistol and started walking up and down the street firing off occasional shots. We recorded video on phone in case it was needed but eventually a police swat team came and shot the perpetrator. The policeman was also deceased.

My children had questions about kamma and result and I made it an opportunity to learn more about Dhamma. Anna commented that the policeman had already being reborn and that the body was now only a body. She was much interested in also what would happen to the killer. I explained that beings depend on kamma and he would be reborn according to that. I said we can’t say for sure that he would go to a bad destination as perhaps he had done much good at other times and one of those kammas could condition the next birth.

In the lobby of the hotel that evening several Cambodian people came to meet Sujin for a discussion in English which my family attended, and we mentioned this event. She said to the children that even that is Dhamma and can be understood. I have heard Sujin say that so many times, in different situations, pleasant or unpleasant. And this is the way of Dhamma — there are only moments — the different jati (There are four jatis: akusala, kusala, vipaka, kiriya), all conditioned. When they arise they can be understood.

The discussion carried on with questions about the development of satipatthana. Someone wanted to know how to have satipatthana. It reminded me of when I was relatively new to Buddhism — the desire for results can be very strong and that hinders understanding. The way to develop has to start at the beginning, by learning and considering the teachings — no technique that can short cut this.

Dispeller of Delusion, Section on Satipatthana

|276| Furthermore, seven things lead to the arising of the investigation-of-states enlightenment factor: (1) asking questions, (2) the act of cleansing the basis, (3) imparting of evenness to the five faculties, (4) avoidance of persons of no understanding, (5) cultivation of persons of understanding, (6) reviewing the field for the exercise of profound knowledge, (7) being resolved thereon.

Herein, (1) ‘asking questions’ is repeated questioning about the meaning of the aggregates, elements, bases, faculties, powers, enlightenment factors, path factors, jhäna factors, tranquillity and insight.

Another wanted to have less aversion and this is a common question. However, it is not really the right attitude if we want to develop satipatthana only to have a more peaceful life. The aim is to learn what life really is and so to gradually eliminate the wrong view of self. Everyone knows when irritation or anger is present, but this sort of awareness is merely sanna (memory, perception), and usually with the belief that “I am angry”. When there is real understanding anger is known as merely a conditioned dhamma, it is not my anger. Thus it can be an object for satipatthana.

Saṁyutta Nikāya 45:177, Hindrances Bhikkhus, there are these five hindrances. What five? The hindrance of sensual desire, the hindrance of ill will, the hindrance of sloth and torpor, the hindrance of restlessness and remorse, the hindrance of doubt. These are the five hindrances.

This Noble Eightfold Path is to be developed for direct knowledge of these five hindrances, for the full understanding of them, for their utter destruction, for their abandoning. Connected Discourses In Phnom Penh with Ajarn Sujin, Anna and Roxanne

A Paradox

An issue that newcomers to Dhamma sometimes have is reconciling the truth about anatta that is a key teaching of the Buddha with the suttas that stress viriya — effort or energy. Because we make efforts in our usual endeavours it is natural to think that similar efforts will secure Dhammic success. But the viriya of the eightfold path arises with alobha, non-attachment. And all viriya, right or wrong is only a conditioned element. Thein Nyun explains in the forward to Dhatukatha (3rd book of the Abhidhamma) Pali Text Society, the Discourse on Elements.

But because the functions of the energies give rise to the concepts of continuity, collection and form the ideas arise of

(1) the initial effort that has to be exerted when a deed is about to be performed and

(2) the care that has to be taken while the deed is being performed to its completion. And this leads to the subsequent ideas (3) “I can perform” and (4) “I can feel”, ...

Thus these four imaginary characteristic functions of being have bought about a deep-rooted belief in their existence. But the elements have not the time or span of duration to carry out such function.

Understanding the details about conditions helps us to understand the momentary nature of viriya and assist in lessening the long held conviction in a self, a supervisor who is performing actions. Sujin stresses the importance of careful consideration of the Dhamma and that this can go along with awareness of what is arising at the six doors now. She encourages everyone to understand the Dhamma now, recognizing that each experience, whether seeing, hearing, or thinking, is an opportunity to understand the true nature of reality and reduce attachment to the wrong view of self. Then again she also stresses that there is no self who can make sati arise. Sati is anatta. This seeming conundrum is the way things are. There is no technique to make sati arise and no one can tell us exactly how to have sati. But if the understanding of the Dhamma is gradually growing at times wisdom and sati will arise. One of my turning points was gradually learning that because sanna (saññā) and vinnana (viññana) know the object and some of its characteristics it is easy to mistake simple awareness for something more. Hence it is critical to learn what satisampajanna is as it arises.

It was getting late and I suggested to Sujin that we should finish as there would be long sessions at the hall over the next days. She said she was happy to continue and so the discussion carried on. It is inspiring to observe how a life of Dhamma means she is always ready to help. It seems to me that her expression of Dhamma is even clearer than it was several decades ago. Perhaps we wish we could be this energetic when we are Sujin’s age. Or we feel we are not doing enough, not really striving in the manner suggested by the texts. But there is no point in comparing. In the Dhammadina sutta 500 merchants came to see the Buddha.

May the Buddha please advise and instruct us. It will be for our lasting welfare and happiness.

So, Dhammadinna, you should train like this: ‘From time to time we will undertake and dwell upon the discourses spoken by the Realized One that are deep, profound, transcendent, dealing with emptiness.’ That’s how you should train yourselves.

Sir, we live at home with our children, using sandalwood imported from Kāsi, wearing garlands, perfumes, and makeup, and accepting gold and money. It’s not easy for us to undertake and dwell from time to time upon the discourses spoken by the Realized One that are deep, profound, transcendent, dealing with emptiness.

As with these merchants I am usually distracted and immersed in the five strands of sense pleasures. However, there are opportunities to learn in my own circumstances. And in reality there are only different moments, some resultant, some kusala, some akusala, some indeterminate: learning to see this there can be a breaking down of even ideas about ‘my circumstances’.

It is fortunate that we are still able to study and consider the Dhamma. Even some of those who met the Buddha couldn’t do this. In the Dhammapada Commentary (verse 251) it talks about five men who came to listen to the Buddha. And as he taught the Dhamma only one listened attentively. The others were distracted: one fell asleep as he sat, another drew lines on the ground, a third tried to shake a tree, and the fourth gazed at the sky. Then again are we sometimes like the men. We have good intentions to do something but conditions are such that it is not carried out. No point in regretting this, much better to understand a little more about accumulations and other conditions.

Chapter 6Nepal (2024)

In the last week of November, 2024, we traveled to Kathmandu to meet with Sujin Boriharnwanaket and many Thai and Nepalese Buddhists. We stayed at the same hotel as the group traveling with Sujin and met in her room where the children asked questions about kamma. The next morning we all went to Koteshwor Multiple Campus where Sujin spoke in a hall and her talk was translated by a Nepalese Bhikkhu. As usual she encouraged questions from the audience. At this talk it was difficult to find someone to translate to English as the hall was packed and even seating was hard to find. So I later listened to a recording and had it translated.

Sujin: No one in the world, not just this world, but any world, the world of heaven, the world of gods, no one is able to know themselves if they do not know the teaching of Lord Buddha. The understanding of the Buddha that he attained over 2,500 years ago, is more than mere thinking and contemplating.

Sujin (question for audience): This is a very simple question. Does the Lord Buddha’s understanding still exist in this moment. Does it still exist in this moment, in the present? We are sitting here. Does that knowledge still exist at this moment?

Robert: The audience had different answers but it seems Sujin was looking to point to the present moment. It reminded me of the sutta with Vakkali:

Saṁyutta Nikāya 22.87. Vakkali

For a long time, venerable sir, I have wanted to come to see the Blessed One, but I haven’t been fit enough to do so.

Enough, Vakkali! Why do you want to see this foul body? One who sees the Dhamma sees me; one who sees me sees the Dhamma. For in seeing the Dhamma, Vakkali, one sees me; and in seeing me, one sees the Dhamma. Connected Discourses on the Aggregates

Sujin: Actually right now, in this moment, we can develop the knowledge that the Buddha understood. Whatever is heard, that is dhamma. Hearing is another dhamma, seeing is dhamma, whatever is seen is dhamma.

Some people in the audience asked about religion, what is good and what is bad religion. Apparently they had experiences with gurus who had been abusive. Sujin brought the topic back to the moment now. To see that that whether now or at any time there are only different elements that arise and pass away. It seemed that some people sitting near me had not heard Abhidhamma before and they were not expecting to hear about objects like seeing or colour, sound or hearing. It perhaps wasn’t what they thought Buddhism was. We too may be bored at times with such mundane objects: why not work on attaining jhanas instead. That may seem more productive because samatha bhavana, if truly developed, directly suppresses the defilements. There is a level of calm that is super normal and highly praised by the Buddha. However, understanding these common elements is needed because seeing, hearing, thinking etc. are taken as “my” seeing and hearing and thinking. They should gradually be understood as mere phenomena that arise due to conditions.

Saṁyutta Nikāya 35.27. Full Understanding (2)

Bhikkhus, without directly knowing and fully understanding the all, without developing dispassion towards it and abandoning it, one is incapable of destroying suffering.

And what, bhikkhus, is the all...?

The eye and forms and eye-consciousness and things to be cognized by eye-consciousness. The ear and sounds and ear-consciousness and things to be cognized by ear-consciousness.... The mind and mental phenomena and mind-consciousness and things to be cognized by mind-consciousness.

This, bhikkhus, is the all without directly knowing and fully understanding which, without developing dispassion towards which and abandoning which, one is incapable of destroying suffering. Connected Discourses on the Six Sense Bases

The present is what needs to be discerned to get to the basics of what the links of paticcasamuppada (dependent origination) really are. Without the Buddha’s teaching we live in a world of concepts, unaware of the actual phenomena behind the veil. The teachings show that the concepts we have of self and things that last is different from the way things really are, that each moment arises by conditions and then falls away. This is what the world actually is, it is all crumbling. The Abhidhamma and Commentaries are no different from the Sutta Pitaka in showing this — and they put a hard stamp on conditionality and the momentariness.

Hiking and then Lumbini

The next morning Sujin and the Thai groups flew to Lumbini. My family went to a tourist area in Thamel and found a guide to take us hiking. So early the next morning we took a Landrover to Nagarkot and enjoyed a day hike with views of the snow covered Himalayas. While walking and looking I was thinking over the nature of the moment: the animals we saw, the various people, but in reality just seeing, colour, sound, thinking and so on. The dog sees, and seeing is the same as for us, ‘seeing, cakkhu vinnana’. Thus only processes of mind and matter, whether human or animal, and so it is that Abhidhamma is exactly the way reality is. This can be known.

Later we flew to Lumbini and stayed at the hotel where the Thai group were. The hotel had a large hall and we could walk from our room to the place where the discussions were held. In between discussion we visited the site at Lumbini where the Bodhisatta took his final birth and many other Buddhist sites.

In Lumbini I impressed upon my family how rare a Buddha is and that we should take advantage of this time where we are still able to study and understand the Dhamma. Naturally any study, any striving is only really worthwhile when it is without lobha. If we are trying to get results then that shows attachment, and attachment cannot understand, it simply clings. We might have fear of future lives and want to be a sotapanna right now but wishing is not the condition for insight.

Near the Asoka pillar in Lumbini

Majjhima Nikāya 141

And what, friends, is ‘not to obtain what one wants is suffering’? To beings subject to birth there comes the wish: ‘Oh, that we were not subject to birth! That birth would not come to us!’ But this is not to be obtained by wishing, and not to obtain what one wants is suffering. To beings subject to ageing... subject to sickness... subject to death... subject to sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair, there comes the wish: ‘Oh, that we were not subject to sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair! That sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair would not come to us!’ But this is not to be obtained by wishing, and not to obtain what one wants is suffering.

Only the right conditions can give the right results and by studying the Dhamma wisely these conditions are laid down. Dhamma is subtle and it is different from worldly matters.

Saṁyutta Nikāya 1.1. Crossing the Flood

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was dwelling at Savatthi in Jeta’s Grove, Anathapiṇḍika’s Park. Then, when the night had advanced, a certain devatā of stunning beauty, illuminating the entire Jeta’s Grove, approached the Blessed One. Having approached, he paid homage to the Blessed One, stood to one side, and said to him:

“How, dear sir, did you cross the flood?”

“By not halting, friend, and by not straining I crossed the flood.”

“But how is it, dear sir, that by not halting and by not straining you crossed the flood?”

“When I came to a standstill, friend, then I sank; but when I struggled, then I got swept away. It is in this way, friend, that by not halting and by not straining I crossed the flood.”

Connected Discourses with Devatas Rural scene near Lumbini

We met with A. Sujin one evening with several friends for a discussion in English. One of the questions was about the nature of vipassana nanas. Sujin explained that without enough understanding based on study/listening/considering the Dhamma no vipassana can arise. She encouraged us to understand the present moment, whatever is appearing. But that there is no self who can make sati arise.

Sujin explained more about the vipassana nanas. It may seem that seeing and hearing are arising at the same time but they are different worlds actually and arise one at a time. There is seeing and visible object now but they are not distinguished. Mostly it is the visible object that is known - the sense door object covers the mind-door. But rupa is completely different from nama (mentality). Sujin explains that during true vipassana nana it is like it is reversed. The mind-door becomes apparent and the distinction between nama and rupa is known clearly, vividly. That is different from intellectual understanding where we understand that mind and matter are distinct but it is not seen directly. In reality the sense door process is exceedingly brief and then there are so many mind door processes. Color, visible object (rupayatana), seems to last but in actuality it is a very brief flash - the world is dark almost all the time. It doesn’t seem this way because the sense door, as it were, covers the mind-door.

Nina van Gorkom included a section on vipassana nanas in her book, Dhamma in Cambodia:

Buth Sawong: For people who develop Satipatthána it is natural that sometimes the sense-door process is hidden by the mind-door process and that one therefore cannot see realities as they are. How does that happen? I ask this to help people not to go the wrong way.

Sujin: At this moment realities are appearing, such as seeing arising in the eye-door process. However, people do not know the true nature of what appears, they take what they see for people and things. Therefore, the thinking on account of what was seen, thus, the thinking of people and things, hides the truth. One does not realize that Dhammas appear for an extremely short moment, that they arise and then fall away immediately. Thus, when there is thinking that arises in a mind-door process the truth of the experiences through the -sense-doors is not evident. At this moment it is not evident that what appears through the eyes falls away. It seems that one sees all the time, but in reality there are cittas of a mind-door process arising and falling away in succession in between the citta that sees and the citta that hears, and these cittas arise each in a different -sense-door process.

Sujin: When we speak about the eye-door, people understand, because they are seeing. When we speak about the ear-door, people understand because they are hearing. When we smell the fragrant odor of a flower, there is an experience through the nose-door. A delicious or an unsavory flavor is a rupa that appears through the tongue-door. At this moment heat, cold, softness or hardness appear through the body-sense. However, one does not know that when each of these -sense-door processes has fallen away, a mind-door process has to succeed that -sense-door process immediately, after there have been bhavanga cittas in between . Thus, at this moment it seems that there is seeing and then immediately hearing, and one does not know when the mind-door process arises. There are different -sense-door processes arising and falling away one after the other, and this can be known because there is a mind-door process in between. However, that does not mean that one realizes the characteristic of the mind-door process. One may merely know in theory that when a sense-door process does not arise and there are only cittas which are thinking, that there are at such moments cittas arising in a mind-door process.

If Satipatthána does not arise, the nama and rupa of just a moment ago have fallen away, but people did not derive any benefit from them since they did not realize the true nature of those Dhammas. If Satipatthána does arise, it is not aware of anything else but the characteristic of the reality that is appearing at this moment through whatever doorway. When Satipatthána arising with maha-kusala citta in a mind-door process knows a characteristic of a reality appearing through one of the six doorways, it does not arise in the same process as that reality. When Satipatthána arising in a mind-door process investigates a characteristic of rupa, it realizes rupa that appears through one of the sense doors. If Satipatthána is aware of a nama dhamma, it knows a nama that arose and fell away. That nama arose and fell away, but that characteristic still appears, so that it can be studied and correctly understood as a characteristic of nama dhamma, different from rupa dhamma. The arising and falling away of realities is extremely rapid.

Who should we listen to?

In Lumbini I met again with Sophanna Rith, Alberto from Italy and other friends. One topic was how to know who is a sotapanna. Actually all that can be known is if someone is explaining Dhamma correctly. In the Milinda panha Venerable Nagasena was still a puthujjana bhikkhu, but he had mastered the Abhidhamma. He gave a talk to a laywoman and she attained, and he attained soon after while he reflected on the talk he had given.

Then the venerable Nagasena gave benedictive thanks to that important woman lay-follower by means of a profound talk on Abhidhamma that was supermundane and connected with (the concept of) emptiness. Then as that important woman lay-follower was sitting on that very seat, Dhamma-vision, dustless and stainless, arose to her: that whatever is of the nature to arise all that is of the nature to stop. And after he had given the benedictive thanks to that important woman lay-follower and was reflecting on the Dhamma he himself had taught (her), the venerable Nagasena aroused insight and was established in the fruit of stream-attainment as he was sitting on that very seat. Then the venerable Assagutta who was sitting in a pavilion knew that these had both acquired Dhamma vision,and he burst forth into applause: “It is good, it is good, Nagasena, that by one shot of an arrow two great persons are pierced.” (First section, giving the background of Nagasena, p.21 - 22, Horner’s translation)

Whoever attains does so by means of satipatthana leading to the stages of vipassana and onward to the experience of nibbana. Sariputta became a sotapanna during the time he listened to Assaji but he still went though each stage of vipassana, it can happen quickly for those with accumulated wisdom. The Commentary to the Satipatthana Sutta:

The Blessed One pointed out the teaching thus: “Bhikkhus, my Dispensation leads to Deliverance in this way,” closed the instruction that is crowned with arahantship in twenty-one places and uttered the following words: “This is the only way, o bhikkhus, for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the destruction of suffering and grief, for reaching the right path, for the attainment of Nibbana, namely the Four Arousings of Mindfulness.

The sutta:

O bhikkhus, let alone half-a-month. Should any person maintain these Four Arousings of Mindfulness in this manner for a week, then by him one of two fruitions is proper to be expected: Knowledge here and now; or, if some form of clinging is yet present, the state of nonreturning.

and the Commentary:

But concerning the person of keen intelligence it was stated as follows: Instructed in the morning, he will attain in the evening; instructed in the evening, he will attain in the morning.

We may hope that we can attain as quickly as possible but only by conditions can sati arise. In the time of the Buddha those with enough accumulations of merit, developed over many lives, could listen and penetrate the actual characteristics of nama and rupa while listening. We are not as wise as them but there can be a start in understanding the realities that are arising now.

Nina Van Gorkom, Dhamma in Cambodia:

People listened with understanding and they did not think of textbooks or different subjects written down in books. They heard about realities that were appearing, they could investigate and understand them immediately. Their study was based on listening and considering, they knew that what they heard concerned the reality appearing at that very moment.

In 1991 I met a well-known Thai Bhikkhu, Yantra Amaro (1951 - 2025). He wasn’t controversial in what he taught but his entourage took the chance to indicate to me he was already an arahat. He was likable and approachable but I didn’t have any thought that he had any special attainments. The next year when I returned to Thailand it seemed like every second taxi had his photo on the dashboard. It was interesting how quickly his fame grew. Not long after he was disrobed due to some sex scandals. The people who had worshiped him were disturbed but really it was their own attachment causing their problem. As understanding grows our inclination to look for outside confirmation or inspiration from others declines and we instead look to the Dhamma and see that the truths explained in the texts are there at every moment of life.

The Anguttara Nikaya explains that there are 4 types of people:

Aṅguttara Nikāya 4.133.14. Puggalavagga

Bhikkhus, there are these four kinds of persons found existing in the world. What four? One who understands quickly; one who understands through elaboration; one who needs to be guided; and one for whom the word is the maximum. These are the four kinds of persons found existing in the world.

Note 831 Bodhi: the four alternatives are: ugghaṭitaññū, vipacitaññū, neyyo, padaparamo.

(1) “The person of quick understanding is one for whom the breakthrough to the Dhamma (dhammābhisamaya) occurs together with an utterance. (Pp-a: Ugghaṭita means the opening up of knowledge (ñāṇugghāṭana); the meaning is that one knows as soon as knowledge opens up. Together with an utterance: as soon as [a statement on Dhamma] is uttered. The breakthrough occurs together with knowledge of the Dhamma of the four truths.)”

(2) “The person who understands through elaboration is one for whom the breakthrough to the Dhamma occurs when the meaning of what has been stated briefly is being analyzed in detail. (Pp-a: This is the person able to attain arahantship when, after a concise outline of the teaching has been set up, the meaning is being analyzed in detail.)”

(3) “The person to be guided is one for whom the breakthrough to the Dhamma occurs gradually, through instruction, questioning, careful attention, and reliance on good friends.”

(4) “One for whom the word is the maximum is one who—though hearing much, reciting much, retaining much in mind, and teaching much—does not reach the breakthrough to the Dhamma in that life.”

In these days there are only the last two, the neyya and the padaparama. The padaparama cannot attain in this life but he can acquire merit and understanding leading to attainment in a future life.

Giving thanks to everyone for their interest in Dhamma

Loss of faith?

One evening I had a discussion with a group of young Nepalese men who were helping with the arrangements for Ajarn Sujin’s talks. They had learned science at school and university, and had heard teachings from other religions: it seemed like a competition of different ideas. They asked how they could be sure that the Buddha’s teaching was true. If at times we should doubt the Triple Gem that is the way things are at that moment: doubt can be object for awareness. Even followers in the time of the Buddha could lose faith. Once 500 disciples of other faiths were friendly with Anathapindika and he took them to see the Buddha. They were taught by the Buddha (taken from Jataka Commentary to Apannaka Jataka) and gained confidence:

They, after hearing the Master’s discourse, rose up with hearts converted, and with due salutation to the Lord of Knowledge, burst asunder the other doctrines in which they had taken refuge, and betook themselves to the Buddha as their refuge. Thenceforth without ceasing they used to go with Anathapindika, carrying in their hands perfumes and garlands and the like, to hear the Truth in the Monastery; and they abounded in charity, kept the Commandments, and kept the weekly fast-day. Jataka Tales: Complete Collection of Buddhist Folklore by Bodhi Path Press

However, the Buddha left Savatthi and they lost faith:

Now the Blessed One went from Savatthi back to Rajagaha again. As soon as the Buddha had gone, they burst asunder their new faith, and returning to the other doctrines as their refuge, reverted to their original state.

Nevertheless the Buddha returned to Savatthi after several months and again taught the vacillating 500:

Thus did the Blessed One teach this lesson respecting Truth. And he went on to say: ‘What is called walking by truth, not only bestows the three happy endowments, the six heavens of the realms of sense, and the endowments of the higher Realm of Brahma, but finally is the giver of Arahatship ; whilst what is called walking by untruth entails rebirth in the four states of punishment or in the lowest castes of mankind.’ Further, the Master went on to expound in sixteen ways the Four Truths, at the close of which all those five hundred disciples were established in the Fruit of the First Path.

Chapter 7Dukkha

This is taken from Nina Van Gorkom’s book, Dhamma in Cambodia (2000) where she quotes from a talk Sujin Boriharnwanaket gave at the Unaloam Temple,in Phnom Penh.

“There are three kinds of dukkha: dukkha-dukkha (intrinsic suffering), viparināma dukkha (suffering in change) and sankhāra-dukkha (suffering inherent in conditioned realities). As regards dukkha-dukkha, this is bodily pain and mental affliction that everybody experiences. This does not mean that people who know these kinds of dukkha are already ariyans. Everybody knows these kinds of dukkha in daily life.

There is another kind of dukkha which is viparināma dukkha, dukkha because of change. This kind of dukkha occurs when happiness changes, when it does not last. Everybody looks for happiness and wants to experience happiness, but when one has acquired it, it changes again, it does not last. What causes happiness is susceptible to change and then one looks again for something else that can bring happiness. For example, people wish to acquire a particular thing, but when they have acquired it, it can only bring happiness for a moment, and therefore, they wish to acquire something else again that can bring happiness. Thus, happiness which changes and does not last is a kind of dukkha, suffering.

Everybody has to experience dukkha, each day, but one does not feel that there is dukkha because of the fact that everything arises and then falls away, that everything changes very rapidly. One does not realize thedukkha inherent in all conditioned dhammas, sankhara dhammas, which are impermanent.

The Buddha explained the characteristics of the three kinds of dukkha by way of feelings. As to dukkha-dukkha, this is bodily pain and unpleasant mental feeling, domanassa vedanā, which is mental pain. Thus, when dukkha-dukkha is classified by way of feelings, it includes the painful feeling which accompanies body-consciousness and the unpleasant mental feeling which accompanies the citta with aversion. Happy feeling, sukha vedanā, is a cause for suffering when it changes, and one looks for another object that can bring happiness; thus, it is suffering in change, viparināma dukkha. Indifferent feeling, feeling that is neither pleasant nor unpleasant, and also all other dhammas which arise and fall away, which are impermanent, are sankhāra dukkha. People may well know bodily suffering and mental suffering, and they may well realize that even pleasant feeling is suffering, since it is susceptible to change, but this does not mean that they are ariyans. They cannot become enlightened until they realize the kind of dukkha which is sankhāra-dukkha, dukkha inherent in all conditioned realities.

Is there anybody among you while you are sitting here who really knows to what extent there is dukkha? Everything arises and the falls away extremely rapidly. People who have studied the Dhamma know that a moment of seeing is different from a moment of hearing and that therefore seeing has to fall away before the reality of hearing can arise. Everybody can know through the study of Dhamma that the arising and falling away is dukkha, but this is understanding of the level of theoretical knowledge, pariyatti. This is different from the direct realization of the truth that the dhammas which arise and then fall away are dukkha.

We read in the Tipiṭaka that people of other beliefs asked the monks for what reason they were ordained in accordance with the Dhamma and the Vinaya. The monks answered that the reason was practicing with the purpose of realizing dukkha. Thus we see that the understanding of dukkha has several degrees. There is not merely the degree of knowledge stemming from listening.

People who have not developed panna, right understanding, may understand in theory, because they listened to the Dhamma, that the citta which sees falls away. However, they do not realize that the impermanence of realities is dukkha. As soon as one kind of citta falls away it is succeeded by another kind of citta which arises. One kind of dhamma arises and falls away and then another dhamma arises succeeding it, but they are not ready to see dukkha, that is, the arising and falling away of dhammas. The arising and falling away of dhammas occurs extremely rapidly and therefore people believe that these dhammas are a self who is there all the time. Therefore, they are not affected by the arising and falling away of the dhammas that see or hear. They take dhammas for permanent and self, until they know the true nature of the dhammas and do not take them for self any more.

The understanding which is the study of dhammas should be developed gradually, stage by stage. One cannot forego any stage of development, and therefore, it is not possible to realize immediately the arising and falling away of realities. It is necessary to know first the characteristic of nāma which is non-self, and the characteristic of rūpa which is non-self.

We have discussed this subject here only for a little while and therefore you may not be able to realize already the characteristic of nāma dhamma and of rūpa dhamma. We should continue to discuss this subject for a long time. Buddhism does not teach only about dukkha, it also teaches about the cause of the arising of dukkha, the dhamma which is the cessation of dukkha and the way of the development of panna that leads to the complete cessation of dukkha, so that it does not arise again.”

Chapter 8Overcoming wrong views

Saṁyutta Nikāya 35.229. The Ocean

This world with its devas, Mara, and Brahma, this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, its devas and humans, for the most part is submerged, become like a tangled skein, like a knotted ball of thread, like matted reeds and rushes, and cannot pass beyond the plane of misery, the bad destinations, the nether world, saṁsara.

Connected Discourses on the Six Sense Bases

When starting to learn the Dhamma we should accept that the mind is currently immersed in wrong view and the Dhamma cannot be properly understood until these views are sufficiently dismantled. This is why the development of understanding proceeds through three stages: pariyatti (intellectual understanding), paṭipatti (direct experience), and paṭivedha (penetration).

At the first stage, pariyatti, there should be careful reflection on what the Buddha taught, genuine investigation of his words, and repeated contemplation. The Commentaries, preserved and recorded by wise ancient bhikkhus, are also crucial in helping to chip away at cherished assumptions. These wrong views arise not only from our culture and education but from aeons of accumulated ignorance and misconceptions. It has always been thus.

Therefore even to rightly understand the Dhamma at an intellectual level is not a simple task and is much more than the mere gathering of information. Nevertheless, as understanding develops there will also be moments where there are glimpses of the actual nature of realities appearing now. These moments build more confidence and wisdom and so aid the understanding at the intellectual level, a virtuous circle. Thus wisdom can blossom, and today, the Tipiṭaka and Commentaries are readily available. Unfortunately, there are some who attempt to discourage the study of this essential guidance from the Commentaries. I appreciate what a former President of the Pali Text Society said in this regard...

The prime object of every Commentary is to make the meanings of the words and phrases in the canonical passages it is elucidating abundantly clear, definite, definitive even...This is to preserve the Teachings of the Buddha as nearly as possible in the sense intended, and as conveyed by the succession of teachers, acariyaparama. Always there were detractors, always there were and still are ‘improvers’ ready with their own notions. Through friends and enemies alike deleterious change and deterioration in the word of the Buddha might intervene for an indefinite length of time. The Commentaries are the armour and protection against such an eventuality. As they hold a unique position as preservers and interpreters of true Dhamma, it is essential not only to follow them carefully and adopt the meaning they ascribe to a word or phrase each time they comment on it. They are as closed now as is the Pali canon. No additions to their corpus or subtractions from it are to contemplated, and no commentary written in later days could be included in it.

Horner, pxiii Clarifier of the Sweet Meaning, Pali Text Society.

Anatta

Saṁyutta Nikāya 35.136. Delight in Forms

The noble ones have seen as happiness the ceasing of identity (sakkāyassa nirodhanaṁ) This view of those who clearly see runs counter to the entire world. What others speak of as happiness, That the noble ones say is suffering; What others speak of as suffering, That the noble ones know as bliss. Behold this Dhamma hard to comprehend: Here the foolish are bewildered. For those with blocked minds it is obscure, Sheer darkness for those who do not see.

But for the good it is disclosed, It is light here for those who see. The dullards unskilled in the Dhamma don’t understand it in its presence. Connected Discourses on the Six Sense Bases

The heart of the Dhamma is anatta and conditionality. This is also an area where people are often confused. The teaching on paticcasamuppada (dependent origination) is an exposition on anatta as it explains the conditioned nature of phenomena, giving the important links, and revealing that there is no self behind these links.

It is not surprising if at times we have resistance about anatta. Even the venerable Channa, who later became an arahat, knew the teaching about anatta but he shrunk back from it.

Saṁyutta Nikāya 22.90. Channa

The elder bhikkhus said to the Venerable Channa: “Form, friend Channa, is impermanent, feeling is impermanent, perception is impermanent, volitional formations are impermanent, consciousness is impermanent. Form is nonself, feeling is nonself, perception is nonself, volitional formations are nonself, consciousness is non-self. All formations are impermanent; all phenomena are nonself.”

Then it occurred to the Venerable Channa: “I too think in this way: ‘Form is impermanent ... consciousness is impermanent. Form is nonself ... consciousness is nonself. All formations are impermanent; all phenomena are non-self.’ But my mind does not launch out upon the stilling of all formations, the relinquishing of all acquisitions, the destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation, Nibbāna; nor does it acquire confidence, settle down, and resolve on it. Instead, agitation and clinging arise and the mind turns back, thinking: ‘But who is my self?’. But such does not happen to one who sees the Dhamma. So who can teach me the Dhamma in such a way that I might see the Dhamma?”

[...]

Then the Venerable Channa set his lodging in order, took his bowl and robe, and went to Ghosita’s Park in Kosambi, where he approached the Venerable Ānanda and exchanged greetings with him...”[...]

The Venerable Ānanda then said:

“In the presence of the Blessed One I have heard this, friend Channa, in his presence I have received the exhortation he spoke to the bhikkhu Kaccanagotta: “This world, Kaccana, for the most part relies upon a duality ... (the entire sutta 12:15 is cited here) ... Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.”

“So it is, friend Ānanda, for those venerable ones who have such compassionate and benevolent brothers in the holy life to admonish and instruct them. And now that I have heard this Dhamma teaching of the Venerable Ānanda, I have made the breakthrough to the Dhamma.”

Connected Discourses on the Aggregates

The Commentary:

This elder, without properly grasping conditionality began cultivating insight (vipassanā). That insight was weak and unable to dispel self-view. When emptiness in conditioned phenomena arose in perception, thoughts like ‘I will be annihilated, I will perish’ appeared—thus, the condition for both annihilationist view and fear arose. He saw himself as if falling into destruction, and said: ‘From fear arises clinging, the mind recoils, then who indeed is my self?’ ‘But for one who truly sees the Dhamma, it is not like this.’

Doubts and confusions are expected as only the sotapanna has eliminated doubt. The way to gradually decrease these is by study, discussion and questioning on these hard points — and by discerning how true the Dhamma is in daily life. What is more problematic than doubt is if one decides that there can’t not be a self, that somehow the teaching on anatta allows room to sneak it in somewhere. That is wrong view (miccha-ditthi) and because it always arises with lobha (attachment) if nurtured it can become very sticky indeed.

Who to listen to?

This is a tricky matter.

Aṅguttara Nikāya 5.9.9. Theravagga - Senior Mendicants 88. Therasutta

Mendicants, a senior mendicant who has five qualities is acting for the detriment and suffering of the people, against the people, for the harm, detriment, and suffering of of gods and humans. What five? They are senior and have long gone forth. They’re well-known, famous, with a large following that includes both laypeople and renunciates. They receive robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. They’re very learned, remembering and keeping what they’ve learned. These teachings are good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, meaningful and well-phrased, describing a spiritual practice that’s entirely full and pure. They are very learned in such teachings, remembering them, rehearsing them, mentally scrutinizing them, and comprehending them theoretically.

But they have wrong view and distorted perspective. They draw many people away from the true teaching and establish them in false teachings. The Numerical Discourses

So it is difficult to tell who has right view. Nevertheless a first step should be to check: does what such and such a teacher say align with Sutta (Sutta meaning the entire Tipitaka), does it agree with the ancients who resided at the Mahavihara in Sri Lanka and edited the original Commentaries. Or are there little alterations, or new ideas and practices introduced. One direct way to know if a teacher has right view is whether they understand anatta: the teaching unique to Buddha’s. Or do they think sati, for example, can be arranged at will. Do they really see that the elements are conditioned in diverse ways and fall away instantly. The world is sunnata, void of self, simply khandhas arising and ceasing, so we learn. I think that anyone who can grasp this correctly will find that their understanding of life gradually falls in line with the way things really are.

When I started out it was hard to find good resources in English and there was little discussion available on right and wrong paths. In this technical age Buddhist forums play their part in encouraging discussions on deep Dhamma and allow all of us to discuss different aspects of Dhamma. And we can listen to Dhamma on youtube or discuss it on zoom. But it is still difficult for newcomers to tell who is explaining correctly among all the mass of information out there.

Chapter 9Clinging to rules and rituals

An untaught, ordinary person ... abides with a mind enslaved by adherence to rules and observances [silabbata-paramasa- pariyutthitena cetasa viharati]. Majjima Nikaya 64

Unknowingly, many efforts we make in the spiritual realm are tied in with this fetter. The moment of knowing the object, if it is satipatthana is a moment with paññā (wisdom) and sati. However, even moments without paññā (i.e. with citta and sanna only) know the characteristic of an element. This is problematic because one can be learning a great deal (apparently) about feelings, and bodily sensations and so on, and mistake this new knowledge one gains by observing and concentrating, as something profound and think it indicates paññā is present.

However, the real way is not amenable to ones wishes and actions, paññā can only arise with the right conditions — and the prime conditions are right understanding at the level of pariyatti which leads to the arising of moments with paññā at the level of patipatti. Trying to force these moments is counterproductive and indicative of subtle wrong understanding, silabataparamasa (clinging to rules and rituals).

Furthermore, his non-abandonment of that ignorance about the four truths in particular prevents him from recognising as suffering the suffering called the fruit of merit which is fraught with the many dangers beginning with birth, ageing, disease and death,and so he initiates the formation of merit classed as bodily, verbal and mental formation in order to attain that [very suffering], like one desiring celestial nymphs [who jumps over] a mountain cliff. Also, not seeing how that fruit of merit reckoned as pleasure eventually produces great distress owing to the suffering in change, and that it gives no satisfaction, he initiates the formation of merit of the kinds aforesaid which is the condition for that [suffering], like a moth falling into a lamp’s flame, and like one who wants the drop of honey licking the honey-smeared knife-edge. Also, not seeing the danger in the indulgence of sense desire, etc. and the results thereof, through [wrongly] perceiving pleasure and being overcome by defilements, he initiates the formation of demerit occurring in the three doors, like a child who plays with filth and like one who wants to die and eats poison. Also, not aware of the suffering in change [and suffering] in formations [present] in immaterial results, through the perversion of [perceiving them as] eternal, etc., he initiates the formation of the imperturbable which is the mental formation, like one who has lost his way and takes the road to a goblin city. Dispeller of Delusion volume 1, 662

And

Visuddhimagga xvii 267. Another [thinks] through rules-and-vows clinging, “This rite and ritual leads him who perfects it to perfect bliss in becoming in the fortunate states of the sense sphere or in the fine-material or immaterial kinds of becoming,” and he performs kamma to achieve that. That kamma of his is kamma-process becoming. The aggregates generated by the kamma are rebirth-process becoming. But the percipient, etc., kinds of becoming are included in that, too. So rules-and- vows clinging is a condition for all three, namely, the sense-desire, fine-material and immaterial kinds of becoming with their analysis and their synthesis.

Thus even the highest mundane jhanas are considered as wrong path (if taken as being the path to nibbana). However, the jhana factors can be insighted after exiting jhana. And as jhana is a very high level of kusala it can also be a supporting condition for insight. Thus it is a topic that needs careful consideration.

Question: About silabbata paramasa, can we say that any practice that has nothing to do with the Noble Eightfold Path is silabbata paramasa?

Yes, if by practices we mean those that are for spiritual advancement. However if we are, say, doing yoga for exercise but with no idea that the exercise is part of the path then that is merely attachment, not wrong practice. Silabbata paramasa is an expression of wrong view, subtle or gross, showing as some wrong path. Nevertheless, even the subtle clinging will stop the path if it is not seen when it is present. Without the Dhamma we are always immersed in a world of concepts, things that seem to last.

Venerable Dhammadharo wrote to Nina in 1980:

I believe that our preoccupation with trying to ensure the very best conditions for the development of sati reflects the lack of true appreciation of the value of being aware of what has already appeared now, by conditions, as well as revealing rather a strong attachment, more often than not, to that old ‘self’ who has now entrenched himself firmly in our lives as ‘the Dhamma student and practitioner’. [...]The old woes and worries may have eased, but now we are oppressed by the frustration we feel when there are insufficient signs of progress. The condition for awareness to arise is not an intention to be aware, but the right understanding. If we would like to change conditions, we can do so in our thinking, but in reality we cannot.

The subtlety of the path is shown by this sutta:

Numerical Discourses 130 (8) Anuruddha

Then the Venerable Anuruddha approached the Venerable Sāriputta and exchanged greetings with him. When they had concluded their greetings and cordial talk, he sat down to one side and said to the Venerable Sāriputta:

“Here, friend Sāriputta, with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, I survey a thousandfold world system. Energy is aroused in me without slackening; my mindfulness is established without confusion; my body is tranquil without disturbance; my mind is concentrated and one-pointed. Yet my mind is still not liberated from the taints through non-clinging.”

[The Venerable Sāriputta said:] (1) “Friend Anuruddha, when you think: ‘With the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, I survey a thousandfold world system,’ this is your conceit.

(2) “And when you think: ‘Energy is aroused in me without slackening; my mindfulness is established without confusion; my body is tranquil without disturbance; my mind is concentrated and one-pointed,’ this is your restlessness.

(3) “And when you think: ‘Yet my mind is still not liberated from the taints through non-clinging,’ this is your remorse.

In 1977 Sujin was invited to speak in Sri Lanka. Nina van Gorkom, Venerable Dhammadharo, Sarah Abbott and many others were present. In a discussion someone thought if he stayed at a meditation centre which was only a dozen miles from where they were he would be able to clearly focus on the ayatanas (the sense fields).

Ven Dhammadharo: The Meditation Centre is here—ayatana [sense field/meeting point]—12 ayatanas, internal ayatanas, external ayatanas. Not one ayatana 12 miles out of Colombo—that’s just an idea in your head. At the moment that you think there is a Meditation Centre twelve miles away from here, there is a citta which thinks about that idea. That’s your ayatana at that moment, that is the centre of activity. That thinking, without that idea, there’s nothing else going on at all for you except that thinking about that meditation centre somewhere. If there can be awareness of that citta, you’re meditating, or shall we say sati and panna are meditating, but only for a moment.

We don’t know what will happen next. Perhaps there will be a mango falling on the roof and then will you be calm or will you jump? Now maybe two or three people here will be very calm but perhaps feel very pleased about it too, compare themselves with the man next to them who jumps, and think, ‘well, I’m calmer than you are’, and then at that moment where are your ayatanas?

Well, there is conceit at that moment, if you are comparing yourself with another and thinking how much calmer you are than the next man. The citta that arises at that moment is one of our ayatanas. When we hear the sound of the mango or whatever we call it, more ayatanas, more meditation centres. Centres for meditation, objects for meditation, because the sound, you can call it anything you like—a mango or a rock—but they’re only more ideas. It’s only a sound. It arises and falls away very fast, faster than we can imagine. There is hearing, another ayatana—so many different ayatanas, one after the other. Different centres—all of them here and now, one at a time. There’s our Meditation Centre wherever we go—with us.

Chapter 10Accumulations

The factors of enlightenment depend on conditions that arise now and by conditions from the past. Even hearing Dhamma is to some extent a matter of vipaka conditioned by kamma, a past factor. How fast and how deep one understands what one hears is largely conditioned by pubbekata punnata (merit done in the past). After we have studied Dhamma for some time there may be growing appreciation that hearing and considering it leads to more understanding and detachment. This then conditions effort to hear more, consider more and ‘let go’ more and these are new conditions arising in the present, but built on past ones.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t always work that way; why does one person progress and another doesn’t. Venerable Sunnakhata was the Buddha’s attendant before Ananda. He listened to Dhamma and attained Jhana, even to the degree of having special powers of hearing. But he eventually left the Buddha, and spoke badly of the Dhamma. Why, when he had all this going for him? The commentary says he had lived 500 consecutive past lives as an ascetic and had accumulated wrong view and thus wrong practice. Even the Buddha’s teaching couldn’t overcome them. And so we see how dependent past factors are in conditioning behaviour. Sunnakhata made choices, he had conventional control over what he did but what he couldn’t see was that ditthi (wrong view) and attachment were underlying his choices; such a hard delusion to see through.

The causes for wisdom

Master Gotama, what is the cause and condition why human beings are seen to be inferior and superior? For people are seen to be short-lived and long-lived, sickly and healthy, ugly and beautiful, uninfluential and influential, poor and wealthy, low-born and high-born, stupid and wise. What is the cause and condition, Master Gotama, why human beings are seen to be inferior and superior?

Student, beings are owners of their actions, heirs of their actions; they originate from their actions, are bound to their actions, have their actions as their refuge. It is action that distinguishes beings as inferior and superior. [...]

But here, student, some man or woman visits a recluse or a brahmin and asks: ‘Venerable sir, what is wholesome?...What kind of action will lead to my welfare and happiness for a long time? Because of performing and undertaking such action...he reappears in a happy destination...But if instead he comes back to the human state, then wherever he is reborn he is wise. This is the way, student, that leads to wisdom, namely, one visits a recluse or brahmin and asks such questions. Majjhima Nikaya 135

Stored somewhere?

Nina Van Gorkom was asked if accumulations were stored somewhere:

Nina: No storage, there cannot be an additional citta that stores, and there cannot be anything lasting. That would be eternalism. One citta falls away, but it is succeeded by the following one. If there would be no connection between past and present there would be annihilation belief. The middle way has to be kept! If we only speak about the present life, I find it obvious that we are accumulating tendencies, new things we learn. We do not know our past life, but the Buddha explained about kamma of the past that can produce result in the form of rebirth and sense impressions in the course of life. How else could this occur if the force of kamma was not accumulated from citta to citta, from life to life. Not only kamma is accumulated, also good and bad tendencies. If we try to find out how the process of accumulation exactly operates it is useless. It does not help us in the development of insight just now.

Time

I mentioned in the introduction that I have been learning Dhamma for decades. That may seem a long time but that is only in this life. It takes many lives to accumulate enough understanding to penetrate the nature of this world, of this moment. As we learn more the depth of the Dhamma shows and the tendency to look for fast progress or latch onto supposed shortcuts is lessened. Patience is imperative.

Some don’t like to hear that every moment is conditioned in various ways and that there is no self: ‘oh, but if I can’t choose to become enlightened then I am lost’. But have faith in conditions — specifically the powerful conditions evoked when learning Dhamma. When there is increasing confidence in anatta this leads away from trying to manage outcomes. There is the growth of non-attachment that is based on insight and not easily dislodged.

Nina (my daughter): why is it that the people while listening to the Buddha attained stages of enlightenment but we listen and we don’t?

Robert: they had accumulated wisdom over many lives and thus when they heard deep Dhamma they could penetrate it quickly. When we listen to Dhamma, think over it and apply it, we are making similar accumulations. Once Venerable Nandaka gave a talk to the Bhikkhunis:

MN 146. Advice from Nandaka

“Sisters, what do you think? Is the eye permanent or impermanent?” —“Impermanent, venerable sir.”—“Is what is impermanent suffering or happiness?”—“Suffering, venerable sir.”—“Is what is impermanent, suffering, and subject to change fit to be regarded thus: ‘This is mine, this I am, this is my self’?”—“No, venerable sir.” Middle Length Sayings

The bhikkhuni were inspired by this talk and the Buddha asked Nandaka to return and repeat the same talk the next morning. He did so and the Buddha noted that upon hearing the talk a second time all those 500 nuns attained at least the stage of sotapanna.

Chapter 11Bhavana in Daily life

As long as a man is vague about the world, About its origin, about its ceasing, About the means that lead to its cessation, So long he cannot recognize the truths.

Visuddhimagga XVI.85

There are 2 kinds of bhavana (“meditation”) in the dispensation (sasana). Lakkhaṇūpanijjhāna is what is sometimes called insight meditation, seeing phenomena as they are as anicca, dukkha and anatta. And ārammaṇūpanijjhāna is samatha, serenity meditation. Notice that jhana is the suffix of both – but the object of concentration is quite different. Eventually even the one skilled in samatha must turn towards the lakkhana if they are to really benefit from the teachings.

As one interested in the way of the sukkhavipassakā (dry insight worker) the way this plays out in daily life is varied but talking about the ayatana, the sense fields. Firstly without enough wise consideration of Dhamma related to them no development can occur. Think of a moment of seeing now — there are the colors that are sensed, the eyebase and the cakkhu-viññana (seeing consciousness). These three are each conditioned in various ways and yet they manage to come together briefly. No manager arranging this. It is happening now. Even at this intellectual level there is some understanding of the difference between concept and reality. Because there is a gradual shift in focus to the realities which underlie the conceptual world the complications in life are not taken quite as seriously as before. An analogy is watching a movie—fear, joy, excitement, anticipation, boredom— all these emotions may arise when sitting in front of the TV but we know it is just a show.

A friend wrote to me:

Hi Robert, could you explain in a little more detail what should be done on a daily basis? Is it just a matter of recognition, as in ‘This is feeling...now this is intention...’, etc?

I mentioned the value of contemplation of the Dhamma and this is really the main part of what I do on a daily basis. There is some examination of what is appearing in the present moment, but it is very unmethodical. We might think contemplating (as in thinking) is a second rate practice and want to go directly to experiencing realities: And it is true that the intellectual understanding should eventually lead to direct awareness of whatever element is appearing. However, we should not underestimate the importance of reflecting on the teachings and comparing the Dhamma with what is arising here and now. It is a gradual process and even after satipatthana arises there is needed more and more consideration of the teachings, and that supports more understanding, leading to more direct insight, a virtuous circle. This type of thinking comes with some degree of understanding and confidence and these mental factors can gradually grow, although it may still be, by and large, at the level of pariyatti.

Returning to what I said about the ‘unmethodical’ examining of objects. Take an example: at the 5 sense doors there are only colour, sound, tangible object (hardness, heat etc), smell, taste (like sweet or sour) and when we reflect on these as they arise we may begin to see their ultimately insignificant nature. Instead of craving for something, there may be reflection that the object of seeing is only colour, nothing of substance; thus there is a start in differentiating reality from concept. Another example: if irritation with someone/something arises we might remember that this is simply dosa, a conditioned element. If we have studied Abhidhamma there are different thoughts that might arise along with this: ‘There was seeing and visible object, hearing and sound and then there were the many mind door processes. None of them are self’. While thinking in this way dosa has already fallen away and is replaced by an interest in the process itself... But there are many other trains of thought related to Dhamma that might also occur. Thus not rote recitation, it will to some extent depend on what aspect of Dhamma we have been reading or thinking about. It is the nature of the mind to do this— to contemplate what we have heard. Simple in a way but because it pertains to the understanding of reality, to namas and rupas, it is so deep. Sometimes it stops at mere remembering or it may go further to condition investigation of the present moment in relation to what has been remembered. It is all natural—ordinary even. Or there may be no wise reflection at all — ignorance, aversion and greed may dominate for long periods simply because they are conditioned to arise. We may go for long periods without any contemplation, engrossed in the conceptual world, and that is the nature of the busy layman’s life.

The texts speak about deeper levels where the objects arising at the sense doors are apprehended as being six different worlds.

Nina van Gorkom: Those who develop vipassana will know what the world really is; they will know that there are “six worlds”: the world of visible object, of sound, of odour, of flavour, of tangible objects and of mental objects. They will know that these worlds are impermanent. Buddhism in Daily Life

Acceptance

Another aspect of developing vipassana is acceptance of the moment as it is. From the satipatthana sutta we see that any reality is viable as an object for understanding. It doesn’t matter if greed arises or anger, confusion or great insight, pleasant feeling, unpleasant feeling, heat or cold, whether we are in the toilet, looking left or right, keeping silent or talking.

And how, O bhikkhus, does a bhikkhu live contemplating consciousness in consciousness?

Here, O bhikkhus, a bhikkhu understands the consciousness with lust, as with lust; the consciousness without lust, as without lust; the consciousness with hate, as with hate; the consciousness without hate, as without hate. Satipatthana sutta

This interest in the present moment is very subtle. The slightest wish for a ‘better’ object moves us away from the present moment. Perhaps we unknowingly desire more clarity or think ‘the consciousness with lust’ is shameful; and if so we are no longer understanding the moment as it really is. If satipatthana develops there is growing acceptance of whatever arises, it comes with a special type of calm.

Understanding of the four jati- vipaka citta, kiriya citta, akusala citta and kusala citta - also helps. Vipaka citta such as seeing or hearing are the result of kamma from the past. Body consciousness (another type of vipaka) experiences tangible object such as heat or hardness and the accompanying feeling can be pleasant or painful. However, this is separate from any attachment or aversion (these are the jati of akusala) that arises so quickly afterwards. Those moments of vipaka arising at the 5 sense doors can be thought of as passive - vitakka (translated as ‘thinking’) does not accompany the five pairs which are seeing, hearing, etc. Thus so different from the moments of kusala and akusala citta.

Two types of worldling

There are two types of putthujjjana (worlding), the andhaputthujjana and the kalyanaputthujjana. The kalyanaputthujjana is working towards deeper understanding.

The Enlightened One, the kinsman of the sun, Speaks of the worldling in a twofold way: One is the worldling blinded by darkness, The other the worldling noble and good. The blind worldling (andhaputhujjana) is the worldling who has not studied, interrogated, learned, memorized, and reviewed the teachings on the aggregates, elements, sense bases, etc. The worldling who has done so is the good worldling (kalyāṇaputhujjana). Commentary to the Brahmajala sutta, translation Bodhi, All Embracing Net of Views, p.111

Also Commentary to Mulapariyaya sutta (translated by bhikkhu Bodhi as Discourse on the Root of Existence).

The ‘uninstructed worldling’ needs to be taught, because he possesses neither learning (agama) nor achievement. For he who possesses neither the learning running counter to the activity of conceiving because he has neglected to study, question, and discriminate the aggregates (khandhas), elements, sense bases (ayatanas) truths, law of conditionality and foundations of mindfulness etc, nor spiritual achievement because he has failed to achieve what should be achieved by practice is said to be ‘uninstructed’. (p.40)

It is a gradual process that begins with study and reflection on the teachings.

From the Satipatthana sutta:

The Four Kinds of Clear Comprehension

And further, O bhikkhus, a bhikkhu, in going forwards (and) in going backwards, is a person practicing clear comprehension; in looking straight on (and) in looking away from the front, is a person practicing clear comprehension; in bending and in stretching, is a person practicing clear comprehension; in wearing the shoulder-cloak, the (other two) robes (and) the bowl, is a person practicing clear comprehension; in regard to what is eaten, drunk, chewed and savored, is a person practicing clear comprehension; in defecating and in urinating, is a person practicing clear comprehension; in walking, in standing (in a place), in sitting (in some position), in sleeping, in waking, in speaking and in keeping silence, is a person practicing clear comprehension.

The Satipatthana sutta commentary gives an example of this:

The Elder Tipitaka Maha Siva indeed said: Who, after walking or exercising long in the ambulatory, stands and reflects: ‘The bodily and mental things which existed during the time of exercises on the ambulatory ended just there on the ambulatory,’ is called a doer of clear comprehension in walking.

And:

He who whilst speaking thinks: ‘This sound arises dependent on the lips, teeth, tongue, palate, and the act of the mind that accords to that sound,’ speaks, mindful and clearly comprehending.

Question: Studying the Dhamma seems to be within my sphere of control. I believe you said that we are lucky enough to find the Dhamma due to our past interest and progress in previous lives. If so, wasn’t that activity somehow efficacious in bringing about a favourable result?

That interest and resultant activity is all by various conditions -without any need to posit a self. It is not that one day one is filled with wrong view and next some Damascus moment and all wrong view disappears. It is incremental, cira kala bhavana, long time development. And that is the way it is; better to be going slowly in the right direction than fast in the wrong.

Udana 5.5

In the same way in this teaching and training the penetration to enlightenment comes from gradual training, progress, and practice, not abruptly.

So what should be done assuming one has studied and begun to understand the meaning of the teachings:

Sariputta my friend, which things should a virtuous monk attend to in an appropriate way?

A virtuous monk, Kotthita my friend, should attend in an appropriate way to the five clinging-aggregates as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a dissolution, an emptiness, not-self. Which five? Form as a clinging-aggregate, feeling... perception... fabrications... consciousness as a clinging-aggregate. A virtuous monk should attend in an appropriate way to these five clinging-aggregates as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a dissolution, an emptiness, not-self. For it is possible that a virtuous monk, attending in an appropriate way to these five clinging-aggregates as inconstant... not-self, would realize the fruit of stream-entry.

Then which things should an arahant attend to in an appropriate way?

An arahant [also] should attend in an appropriate way to these five clinging-aggregates as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a dissolution, an emptiness, not-self. Saṁyutta Nikāya 22.122 Silavant Sutta

Further:

And what is the development of concentration that leads to the destruction of the taints? Here, a bhikkhu dwells contemplating arising and vanishing in the five aggregates subject to clinging: ‘Such is form, such its origin, such its passing away; such is feeling ... such is perception ... such are volitional activities ... such is consciousness, such its origin, such its passing away.’ Numerical Sayings 41(1)

This advanced level of understanding where the rise and fall is directly known can’t occur unless there has been enough prior understanding, firstly at the level of pariyatti, the intellectual understanding. With regard to understanding the usual distinctions are pariyatti, patipatti and pativedha. A similar classification is saccā-ñāṇa (sacca-nana), kicca-ñāṇa and kata-ñāṇa. Sacca-nana is a level of understanding where the pariyatti (intellectual level) is very firm (in some contexts it has a wider meaning). One has real conviction of the noble truths and so on. This level is a foundation for higher understanding.

The application of Dhamma is to learn to study the khandhas, the ayatanas, the dhatus. So satipatthana is about learning to see wisely that there are only conditioned moments of materiality and mentality: seeing is arising now, thinking is arising now, feeling, hardness, softness, heat, interest, sound, colour, boredom, happiness and so on. All of these moments arising now have their own nature but they also all cease instantly and new ones replace them. This can be seen to some degree, sometimes, and it concurs exactly with what is said in the texts. Thus there is a breaking down of what we took as ‘something’ into what is really present. And what is present is merely these elements.

Motivation and lost drive

Someone wrote: Since learning about Buddhism I have lost much of what little drive I had before to have a career, family or even friendships as they usually involve idle chatter and drinking intoxicants.

Actually family, friendships and career improve with right understanding. For example, if there is some understanding about conditionality there must be more patience with children, wife and friends. There will be more understanding of the difference between attachment and metta. As far as career goes, it is not really unbridled ambition that leads to success but instead taking on the tasks that need to be done and doing them carefully and willingly—and that attitude is supported by Dhamma insights. Of course it takes time to understand what anatta really means but correctly/wisely seeing that all dhammas are not self, sabbe dhamma anatta, is highly beneficial. It makes life easier because it shines light everywhere.

Views

If we find ourselves thinking that any of the khandhas can last, or we think there is a self then that is wrong view showing itself there and then. Or maybe we think that there is no rebirth. We can know that is not what the Buddha taught. Perhaps before we started to study Dhamma we didn’t think giving was particularly meritorious. Or we were disrespectful to our parents. So we start to see what is meant by ditthujukamma, straightening of views. This level of right understanding is not yet satipatthana but it is a prerequisite for the direct understanding. And of course this becomes more and more refined. Or it doesn’t—one might resist what the Buddha taught, or read into it other ideas.

Saṁyutta Nikāya, Salayatana Samyutta 55 (3) Uprooting the Fetters

Venerable sir, how should one know, how should one see, for the fetters to be uprooted?

Bhikkhu, when one knows and sees the eye as nonself, the fetters are uprooted. When one knows and sees forms as nonself ... (all as above) ... When one knows and sees thus, bhikkhu, the fetters are uprooted. Connected Discourses

Samatha bhavana and Vipassana bhavana

Aṅguttara Nikāya 11.12.2. Recollection with Mahānāma

Mahānāma, you should develop this recollection of the Buddha while walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. You should develop it while engaged in work and while living at home in a house full of children [repeats for other recollections].

Mahanama had already reached a stage of enlightenment and thus his recollections of the six objects would be easily fruitful. But anyone who has confidence in the Dhamma can also benefit. And it doesn’t need to be especially systematic (which can morph into ‘tedious’). When we are considering aspects of the Dhamma that can be also Dhammānussati (Dhammanusati) as there is appreciation of the Dhamma. Another sutta mentions that many laypeople still enjoying sense pleasures can develop deep insight.

The Greater Discourse to Vacchagotta ‘’Vaccha, not one, not one hundred, not two hundred, not three hundred, not four hundred, not five hundred. There are many more female lay disciples of mine wearing white clothes lead the holy life, while partaking sensual pleasures, doing the work in the dispensation have dispelled doubts. Have become confident of what should and should not be done. They do not need a teacher any more in the dispensation of the Teacher.” MN 73 Mahavacchagotta Sutta

Thus we read in the suttas of bhikkhus, bhikkhunis, laymen and laywomen attaining stages of enlightenment. Some bhikkhus frequented secluded forests, others recited, discussed and contemplated in busy monastic centers. There were laymen and women who were celibate, living lives of simplicity; and others who were married and indulging in sense pleasures.

Today I was listening to a translation of a sutta about dependent origination (paṭiccasamuppāda) while watching my children swimming. At different times I was in admiration of the Dhamma, of the Buddha who discovered it, and the Sangha who preserved it. We should be aware though that simply bringing to mind one of the recollections (Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, our virtue, our generosity, and virtues of the devas) is not a guarantee of kusala citta. Regarding the development of satipatthana, this depends on correct intellectual understanding of Dhamma. There should be understanding of the void nature of the world (suññata), that everything is ceasing immediately. We may make effort to see the present moment but with the idea of a person who is doing so, unaware that what we are trying to be aware of is already past. Right effort arises with panna (wisdom) and with detachment—it is not merely a matter of bringing attention to an object. Kusala citta can’t be forced to arise.

Difference between samatha and vipassana

The Visuddhimagga explains that one intent on development of samatha:

should sever any of the ten impediments that he may have. A dwelling, family, and gain, A class, and building too as fifth, And travel, kin, affliction, books, and supernormal powers: ten. Vism. III 29.

[...] Iddhi, here, means the supernormal powers of a worldling. It is difficult to manage—like a child lying on its back or like tender young crops. It can be broken even by a small thing. However, it is an obstacle to vipassanā (insight), though not to samādhi (concentration), because it is something attainable after attaining concentration.

Therefore, for one intent on insight, the obstruction of supernormal powers should be removed; for the other [i.e., one aiming at concentration], it may be left as it is.

Vism. iii 56

This can help us see the different ways of insight and samatha. For those who develop samatha superpowers are not an impediment as iddhi are a result of samatha. But all the other nine: the ‘dwelling, family, and gain, a class, and building too as fifth, And travel, kin, affliction, books’ are impediments. [Note, that as I mentioned earlier the six recollections can be developed in a busy daily life]. However, for the one who is developing vipassana it is reversed, as the way of insight can be developed even in the midst of all these nine. Why is it indicated that only the iddhi are impediments to vipassana? It is because of their fragility that one would have to be so careful to maintain them, it distracts from the main goal.

You say that vipassana can be developed in daily life. My job is demanding and when I am trying to solve the issues at work I am not thinking about Dhamma at all.

When we are fully preoccupied with worldly matters, as we often are, at those times there is not development of intellectual understanding (pariyatti). This is the way things are. Nevertheless, there may be opportunities that can arise naturally to reflect on Dhamma or even have direct insight, if only for a few moments. There may be some understanding of hardness or that thinking goes on naturally by itself. These moments can come unexpectedly.

Shouldn’t we set aside quiet periods to devote to bhavana, insight meditation.

Anytime we spend contemplating the Dhamma is beneficial. I certainly appreciate those minutes and hours when I can read a section of the Tipitaka or ponder at leisure the teachings. We need to be careful though that we are not closing off the possibility of understanding arising at other times. Also we should be awake to the possibility of self-deception. If we don’t have enough understanding at the level of pariyatti then what we are calling ‘insight meditation’ might not qualify. And even if we are well versed in the texts we should be patient and place the principles of anatta to the fore: sati and wisdom don’t arise at anyone’s will.

The right attitude when studying the Dhamma

One who Dwells in the Dhamma 74(4): It is said, Bhante, ‘one who dwells in the Dhamma, one who dwells in the Dhamma.’ In what way is a bhikkhu one who dwells in the Dhamma?

(1) Here, bhikkhu, a bhikkhu learns the Dhamma—the discourses, mixed prose and verse, expositions, verses, inspired utterances, quotations, birth stories, amazing accounts, and questions-and-answers—but he does not go further and understand its meaning with wisdom. This is called a bhikkhu who is absorbed in learning, not one who dwells in the Dhamma.

(2) Again, a bhikkhu teaches the Dhamma to others in detail as he has heard and learned it, but he does not go further and understand its meaning with wisdom. This is called a bhikkhu who is absorbed in communication, not one who dwells in the Dhamma.

(3) Again, a bhikkhu recites the Dhamma in detail as he has heard it and learned it, but he does not go further and understand its meaning with wisdom. This is called a bhikkhu who is absorbed in recitation, not one who dwells in the Dhamma.

(4) Again, a bhikkhu ponders, examines, and mentally inspects the Dhamma as he has heard it and learned it, but he does not go further and understand its meaning with wisdom. This is called a bhikkhu who is absorbed in thought, not one who dwells in the Dhamma.

(5) Here, a bhikkhu learns the Dhamma—the discourses, mixed prose and verse, expositions, verses, inspired utterances, quotations, birth stories, amazing accounts, and questions-and-answers—but he goes further and understands its meaning with wisdom. It is in this way that a bhikkhu is one who dwells in the Dhamma. The Numerical Discourses.

The Commentary to this sutta notes that the one who ‘goes further and understands its meaning with wisdom’ refers to attainment of the paths with insight. The sutta shows that only learning Dhamma is not enough. There needs to be further effort to penetrate the meaning.

Question: when I read the Abhidhamma or suttas talking about aggregates and sense bases and dependent origination it seems overly complicated. I think it is easier to choose a technique and follow that.

It may seem easier but is it leading in the right direction. The Dhamma is profound and not easily grasped. If it were a matter of following a technique then that would have been the main focus of what the Buddha taught for all those years.

More on ‘Method’

Connected Discourses 153 (8) Is There a Method? “Is there a method of exposition, bhikkhus, by means of which a bhikkhu—apart from faith, apart from personal preference, apart from oral tradition, apart from reasoned reflection, apart from acceptance of a view after pondering it can declare final knowledge thus: ‘Destroyed is birth, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more for this state of being’? [...] There is a method of exposition by means of which a bhikkhu— apart from faith ... apart from acceptance of a view after pondering it—can declare final knowledge thus: ‘Destroyed is birth ... there is no more for this state of being.’ And what is that method of exposition? Here, bhikkhus, having seen a form with the eye, if there is lust, hatred, or delusion internally, a bhikkhu understands: ‘There is lust, hatred, or delusion internally’; or, if there is no lust, hatred, or delusion internally, he understands: ‘There is no lust, hatred, or delusion internally.’ Since this is so, are these things to be understood by faith, or by personal preference, or by oral tradition, or by reasoned reflection, or by acceptance of a view after pondering it? No, venerable sir.

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Chapter 12Vañcaka (Cheating) Dhammas

They have the appearance of kusala (wholesomeness) but are subtle types of akusala. They are explained in the Commentary to the Nettipakarana. Here are some examples:

• One feels aversion to the daily grind but thinks this is a sign of genuine renunciation. (Renunciation as a mental factor always comes with either pleasant of neutral feeling, never unpleasant).
• One has desire for progress and doesn’t see the lobha (tanha) that is there. This is just spinning the wheel of dependent origination all the faster.
• Or one does nothing at all - and thinks this is wholesome ‘patience’.
• One has dislike for some people (akusala) and avoids meeting them. This looks like kusala in the sense that also seclusion can be kusala.
• Or one dislikes working but thinks he is being virtuous by avoiding work so that he can ‘do Dhamma’.
• One disputes with others but thinks that that is kusala because he is ‘teaching them real Dhamma’.
• One has doubts about Dhamma. But it can masquerade as ‘reflection’ as he turns it around in his mind, and gets enamored with it.
• Or one disagrees with aspects of the teaching and searches for other teachings that are more amenable - they think this is Dhamma-vicaya. (It can be done rightly if the teaching they prefer is more suited to their nature without rejecting the other aspects).
• Or one knows sila or generosity or respect are important so they focus on only these (neglecting other areas) but with a subtle idea that ‘this is the path’. Or he neglects sila and dana because ‘panna is more important’.
• One has strong attachment to some teacher and thinks this is saddha in the Dhamma.
• One memorizes deep teachings like sabbe sankhara anicca. They think it is the pariyatti level of understanding. But this can be mere sanna, concentration and citta without any real intellectual understanding, so it is not yet pariyatti.

These outward actions can also be done with genuine kusala, so they can be hard to detect even by the person engaging in them.

Chapter 13Viññanam anidassanam

There is no consciousness that is permanent, stable, eternal, not subject to change, and that will remain the same just like eternity itself.

Connected Discourses on the Aggregates 22:96

The rather rare phrase, viññanam anidassanam, gained some prominence in recent years. The reason to add this chapter is that some of the explanations about it are serious deviations from Theravada. First there is a example of this misinterpretation followed with quotes from several Pali scholars who explain the correct understanding.

Thanissaro writes: Consciousness without surface (vinnanam anidassanam): This term appears to be related to the following image from SN 12.64:

“Just as if there were a roofed house or a roofed hall having windows on the north, the south, or the east.

When the sun rises, and a ray has entered by way of the window, where does it land?”

“On the western wall, lord.”

“And if there is no western wall, where does it land?”

“On the ground, lord.”

“And if there is no ground, where does it land?”

“On the water, lord.”

“And if there is no water, where does it land?”

“It does not land, lord.”

“In the same way, where there is no passion for the nutriment of physical food ... contact ... intellectual intention ... consciousness, where there is no delight, no craving, then consciousness does not land there or grow. Where consciousness does not land or grow, name-&-form does not alight. Where name-&-form does not alight, there is no growth of fabrications. Where there is no growth of fabrications, there is no production of renewed becoming in the future. Where there is no production of renewed becoming in the future, there is no future birth, aging, & death. That, I tell you, has no sorrow, affliction, or despair.”

In other words, normal sensory consciousness is experienced because it has a “surface” against which it lands: the sense organs and their objects, which constitute the “all.” For instance, we experience visual consciousness because of the eye and forms of which we are conscious. Consciousness without surface, however, is directly known, without intermediary, free from any dependence on conditions at all.

This consciousness thus differs from the consciousness factor in dependent co-arising, which is defined in terms of the six sense media. Lying outside of time and space, it would also not come under the consciousness-aggregate, which covers all consciousness near and far; past, present, and future. And, as SN 35.23 notes, the word “all” in the Buddha’s teaching covers only the six sense media, which is another reason for not including this consciousness under the aggregates. However, the fact that it is outside of time and space — in a dimension where there is no here, there, or in between (Ud I.10), no coming, no going, or staying (Ud VIII.1) — means that it cannot be described as permanent or omnipresent, terms that have meaning only within space and time.

Some have objected to the equation of this consciousness with nibbana, on the grounds that nibbana is nowhere else in the Canon described as a form of consciousness.(accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn. 049.than.html)

In short Thanissaro argues that nibbana is a special unconditioned consciousness. This view is clearly at odds with the Theravada. In contrast the phrase viññanam anidassanam has been explained by the Pali Atthakatha (commentary) and tika. Suan Lu Zwa, translates the Atthakatha:

Tattha viññatabbanti ‘Viññanam’ nibbanassetam na-mam,...

There, to be known specially, so (it is) ‘Viññanam’. This is the name of nibbana.

And Kevatta Sutta Tika further explains the phrase ‘viññatabbanti’ as follows:

Viññatabbanti visitthena ñatabbam, ñanuttamena ariyamaggañanena paccakkhato janitabbanti attho, tenaha nibbanassetam namamti.

(To be known specially) means to be extraordinarily known. The meaning is ‘to be known in the sense of realization by ultimate wisdom, by noble path wisdom’. Therefore, (the commentator) stated that ‘This is the name of nibbana’. Therefore, the term ‘Viññanam’ in the line of the original Pali verse ‘Viññanam anidassanam, anantam sabbatopabham ...’ does not refer to consciousness, the usual meaning of viññanam.

In fact, the same verse includes the following two lines Ettha namañca rupañca, asesam uparujjhati.

Viññanassa nirodhena, etthetam uparujjhati’ti. Here (in nibbana), nama as well as rupa ceases without remainder. By ceasing of consciousness, nama as well as rupa ceases here.

Nibbana does not become a sort of consciousness just because one of its Pali names happens to be Viññanam. In English language, the term ‘object’ can have different meanings. For example, the term ‘object’ in visual object has no relation to the term ‘object’ in my object of studying Pali.

The venerable Dhammanando wrote to someone who follows Thanissaro’s unusual position:

Dhammanando:

In the Mahāvihāra’s understanding viññāṇaṃdoes not mean consciousness in this context. Instead, it is defined as viññātabbaṃ, a verbal derivative that can be taken as a noun (‘that which must be cognized’) or an adjective (‘to be cognized’, ‘must be cognized’). If we take it as a noun, then the famous line viññāṇaṃanidassanaṃ, anantaṃsabbatopabhaṃwill be translated, ‘the thing that must be cognized, that is unseeable, without end, all-illuminating’. Taking it as an adjective qualifying anidassana (well-attested in the Suttas as a synonym of nibbāna), we get, The Unseeable that must be cognized, that is without end, that is all-illuminating.

Either way, there seems to be no reason to doubt that the four terms in this passage are being used exactly as they are used elsewhere in the Suttas, i.e., as designations for nibbāna. The unlikelihood of the viññāṇaṃ in viññāṇaṃanidassanaṃreferring to consciousness is evident from the last two lines of the same verse:

ettha nāmañca rūpañca, asesaṃuparujjhati

viññāṇassa nirodhena, etthetaṃuparujjhatī ti

Here (in nibbana), name and matter cease without remainder;

Through the cessation of consciousness, these [name and matter] cease here.

One is of course at liberty to discard the Mahāvihārins’ interpretation and substitute one’s own pet theory, as numerous other modern scholars have done with this much remarked phrase. However, given the extreme rarity of the phrase, and the fact that it occurs only in verse (where it’s normal for there to be more flexibility, liberality and ambiguity in the use of language), it would be rash to claim that it offers strong evidence that early Buddhism held nibbāna to be some kind of consciousness. One would need to consider first whether such a view would accord with the Buddha’s general teaching on consciousness as attested in many hundreds of prose Suttas.

On another post Dhammanando wrote to a translator who had this.

Other translator: viññāṇaṃnibbānassetaṃnāmaṃ

Consciousness is a term for Nibbana.

Dhammanando: I don’t agree with your translation. The whole sentence reads:

Tattha viññātabban’ti viññāṇaṃnibbānassetaṃ nāmaṃ.

If Buddhaghosa wanted to identify nibbāna as a species of consciousness, then we should expect him to use the familiar gloss vijānanaṃ. But his substitution of the unusual gloss viññātabbaṃ seems aimed precisely at ruling out the idea that nibbāna might be a consciousness.

Dhammanando: I would translate: In this context, because it has to be cognized, therefore it is called viññāṇaṃ; this is a term for nibbāna.

Sub-commentary

Viññātabbanti visiṭṭhena ñātabbaṃ, ñāṇuttamena ariyamaggañāṇena paccakkhato jānitabbanti attho, tenāha ‘‘nibbānassetaṃnāman’’ ti.

It has to be cognized means it has to be known in a special way: It must be privately known by means of the highest insight, the noble path insight” is the meaning.

And on this account they say: It is a term for nibbāna.

Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote to me on a point about Nibbana. Here is the section where he mentioned this term:

Venerable Bodhi: Dear Robert,

[...]On Ven. Thanissaro’s interpretation of nibbāna [...]I disagree with his view that this reality can be characterized as a type of consciousness. His arguments rest on obscure verses and metaphors, to which he ascribes meanings that are not necessarily entailed by the texts themselves. In contrast, there are many simple, straightforward prose passages in the Nikāyas that speak of the attainment of final nibbāna as the complete cessation of consciousness. I do not know of any texts that qualify such assertions or distinguish between two types of consciousness—phenomenal and transcendental, conditioned and unconditioned. Rather, they assert unequivocally that consciousness arises in dependence on conditions; that it is impermanent, dukkha, and subject to change. And they say that with the attainment of final nibbāna, consciousness ceases without remainder.

In summary Nibbana is not some eternal type of consciousness, it is not consciousness at all. It is void of all mentality and materiality.

Chapter 14Heart base

Afriend wrote to me that the reason they have little confidence in the Atthakattha (Commentaries) is because they say the heart is the base for consciousness. They wrote:

Buddhaghosa says in the Visuddimagga that the seat of the Mind is Heart. Now we know, this cannot be possible, through lots of knowledge we have gained on the functions of the heart and the brain and the associated central nervous system. If the heart is the seat of the consciousness, what happens during open heart surgeries where the heart is kept inactive for hours before activating by an electric shock at the end of the operation. On the other hand, what consciousness a person will have who receives a new heart from another dead person?

Robert: All of us are much conditioned by an age where scientific discoveries seem so testable and provable. It is natural that doubts arise on this matter. The Visuddhimagga (viii, 111) about hadaya-vatthu (heart basis): they describe the heart and then note that inside the heart ‘there is hollow the size of a punnaga seeds bed where half a pastata measure of blood is kept, with which as their support the mind element and mind-consciousness element occur.’ Note that it is not the heart itself that is the hadaya-vatthu nor is it the blood inside the heart but rather as the Paramatthamanjusa (see Visuddhimagga xiii, note 5 ) says ‘the heart basis occurs with this blood as its support’. The actual hadaya-vatthu is incredibly sublime – in scientific measure it wouldn’t even amount to a tiny fraction of a gram. It might be so refined as to be unmeasurable by scientific instruments.

This applies also to the other sense organs (pasada rupa). The Atthasalini remarks that the very purpose of using the term pasada is to dismiss the popular misconception of what we think an eye or an ear is. The actual sensitive matter in the eye and ear is very refined. If someone dies then the ear-sense and eye sense (sota-pasada and cakkhu-pasada ) are immediately no longer produced (they are produced by kamma only) yet one would not notice much outward change looking at the eye and ear (at least for the first few minutes before decomposition sets in). The same applies to the heart – the blood in the heart would have the same volume after death and yet the hadaya-vatthu is no longer present.

I think you accept that consciousness arises soon after conception. The fetus at that stage is so tiny as to be invisible to all but the most trained eye (if even that large). Yet consciousness is arising and passing away dependent on some matter (rupa) somewhere. There is certainly no brain yet but according to the commentaries the heart basis (hadaya-vattu ), that extremely subtle rupa, is already present – conditioned by kamma. This shows how extraordinarily tiny this type of rupa is. I think one can see how heart transplants etc. make no difference to the arising and passing of this subtle conditioned rupa.

What does the brain do then? It does something, it is like wiring center needed for functioning of the body mind. Sure if you pull out a few wires , just as with a computer, things aren’t going to work so well. No doubt someone ignorant of the processor in a computer could play around with the mass of wirings and see how the computer stopped working or had some malfunction- they might think that is ‘brain’ of the computer. Not knowing that the tiny chip is really where the processing is done.

Thus it is essential to realise that hadaya-vatthu (heartbase) is not the heart nor is it the blood in the heart that we can see. It is a special type of rupa that is conditioned only by kamma and it arises in association with some of the blood in the heart. In the space of a flash of lightning more than a billion moments of hadaya-vatthu have arisen and fallen away. If we think of heart in conventional terms (and mistake this for hadaya-vatthu) we will not understand the deep meaning in the Visuddhimagga.

Question: If the seat of the Vinnana (viññāṇa) is the hadaya-vatthu;

1. What would happen to the Vinnana during the time of an open heart surgery

where the heart is inactive for the function of pumping blood?

2. Does the Vinnana get changed from one heart tissue to another in case of the heart transplant?

3. Where does Vinnana reside during the period of tissue transition (several hours)?

4. In case of using an artificial heart, we can assume that engineers do not make any provision for the tiny heart hole’ as they are not aware of the requirement. But we know the person who carry the ‘heart pump’ live normally. In this case what happens to the Vinnana?

Robert: None of this can be surprising if we understand hadaya-vatthu. That special kammic matter will arise wherever there is the suitable conditions, including blood (or even a blood substitute). Although now, for us, it arises inside the body inside the heart, it can certainly arise in a pump, or anywhere suitable. Vinnana lasts even a shorter time than the heart base so there is no question of it going anywhere . Vinnana has no time to go anywhere— it can’t change from tissue to anywhere. It arises, performs its function (depending on the type of vinnana) and immediately falls away. But it conditions the next vinnana to arise. It is this continuity that deceives us into believing that things can last. Even if we think something lasts only for a split second we are still caught up in a subtle idea of permanence. It is all much more ephemeral than that and so only vipassana that insights (not us) can understand the difference between nama and rupa and so overcome doubt on these matters.

Question: Yes, the ‘pasada-rupa’ is not the organ itself. But I think it is the name given to the ability of the ‘rupa’ (organ) to receive an ‘arammana’ in a specific form and translate that into another form of ‘rupa’ to send the message to ‘Vinnana’(consciousness) which is constantly monitoring the ‘six sense doors’ for inputs.

Robert: The pasada rupa arises and performs its function which is to be the base and meeting point for cakkhu-vinnana to arise and contact the rupa which is visible object. The pasada is conditioned, the cakkhu vinnana is conditioned by different conditions, the rupa which is visible object (vanayatana or rupayatana) is conditioned by different conditions again. All of them ephemeral and yet they all arise and meet. That is all life is, through different doors. Because of ignorance we imagine that we can control this process. Seeing into this process is understanding paticcasamuppada.

Question: When a person die, all pasada rupas ‘appear’ to die immediately. But they don’t. What dies is the Mind so that it can no longer monitor the sense doors and receive arammanas. This happens immediately after the death. That is the reason for me to use the words “permanent separation of the Mind from the Matter” to describe the death. However, the ability of some of those sense organs to function normally remain intact for sometime. That is how the surgeons use the Eye tissue of a dead person to transplant into another person, giving the vision to the second one. Removal of the eye tissue can take place even an hour after the death. I am aware of a situations where a medical team has recovered eyes of a dead man few hours after his death as the man died at home and relatives did not call the nearest Eye Bank for hours.

Robert: Immediately after cuti citta (death consciousness) arises, not even a split second delay, there are no more of any of the sense bases. They are all produced by kamma and already patisandhi citta has arisen in a new existence, maybe in another plane far from here. But the conventional eyes, ears and so forth are still visible because they are not conditioned solely by kamma. And they can act as a support for new pasada rupa, conditioned by kamma. That is why transplants can work.

Chapter 15Abhidhamma

Vipassana and Abhidhamma

Vipassana is a term describing insight into the true nature of mind and matter. It is the path discovered by the Buddha and reveals the impermanence (anicca), non-self (anattā) and conditioned nature of all phenomena. In essence, the development of vipassana is applied Abhidhamma—an inquiry into the functioning of consciousness, mental factors, and the interplay of mind and matter. It cannot be reduced to a simple technique.

Since a clear understanding of the relationship between mind and matter is essential, any separation of vipassana from Abhidhamma is ultimately unworkable. The Abhidhamma explains the roots of experience: ignorance (avijjā), craving (taṇhā), and intentional action (kamma) give rise to the process of existence. Real insight grows through understanding paṭiccasamuppāda (dependent origination) and the 24 paccaya (conditions) taught in the Paṭṭhāna. Thus the Abhidhamma provides a foundation of precision and clarity. Its wisdom supports deeper insight and guides toward direct realization.

While studying Abhidhamma we should remember that its purpose is to assist us in understanding the present moment, in discerning concept from reality. There are dangers in becoming lost in metaphysical abstraction, in pride over theoretical knowledge, or in frustration when one attempts to realize what cannot yet be known. One might study Abhidhamma as an academic subject and not see it is arising right at the moment. For the wise though, Abhidhamma describes ultimate realities and by it one learns to see phenomena as they truly are: conditioned, impermanent, dukkha and non-self

Doubts

Some harbor doubts about the Abhidhamma. The only way to develop genuine confidence is to understand paramattha dhammas, ultimate realities, as they are. But incipient confidence can be damaged when one encounters dismissals of the Abhidhamma or the Commentaries.

In the Atthasālinī (Commentary to the Dhammasaṅgaṇī, the first book of the Abhidhamma), it is stated that at least part of the Commentaries was recited at the First Council:

The ancient commentary thereof was sung by the First Council, Mahākassapa their leader, and later again by seers. Mahinda brought it to the peerless isle, Ceylon.

On the Commentaries

Some question the value of the Commentaries. They point out that Buddhaghosa and his successor Dhammapāla laid the foundations of Theravāda thought, much like the founders of other Buddhist schools. Buddhaghosa was a compiler and translator of ancient material, not an originator. He clearly distinguished his opinions from inherited tradition. When citing differences among ancient teachers, he refrained from asserting his own view unless necessary, and even then, noted that it was the least reliable guide.

A teacher who knows the texts, guards the heritage, and protects the tradition will follow the elders’ opinion rather than his own. Visuddhimagga (III.64)

Was the Abhidhamma Recited at the First Council?

Some wonder whether the Abhidhamma was recited at the First Council, partly due to unfamiliarity with the classification methods of the Canon. The Atthasālinī (The Expositor, p. 32) explains:

Which is the Khuddaka Nikāya? The whole of the Vinaya-piṭaka, Abhidhamma-piṭaka, and the fifteen divisions excluding the four Nikāyas... Thus, as rehearsed at the Council, the Abhidhamma is a Piṭaka by Piṭaka classification, Khuddaka Nikāya by Nikāya classification, veyyākaraṇa by part-classification, and constitutes two or three thousand units of text by classification of textual units.

Ananda recited the Abhidhamma and Suttanta at the first council.

Further Support in the Suttanta

Mahāgosiṅga Sutta (MN): “The talk of two bhikkhus on the Abhidhamma, each asking and answering the other without faltering, is in accord with the Dhamma.”

Gulissāni Sutta (MN 69): “Friends, a forest-dwelling bhikkhu should apply himself to Abhidhamma and Abhivinaya.”

Vinaya Piṭaka (IV.344): “If without any intention of reviling the Vinaya, one were to say, ‘Study the Suttas or Gāthās or Abhidhamma first, then the Vinaya,’ there is no offense.”

The Expositor (pp. 16—17) also states that in the fourth week after his Enlightenment, the Buddha contemplated the Dhammasaṅgaṇī, and when he came to the Patthāna, his omniscience ‘found its opportunity therein’. The site near the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya is still marked by a marble tablet today. Those who glimpse the depth of the Patthāna might rightly feel that only a Buddha could have expounded such teaching.

Kathāvatthu

We might doubt whether the Kathāvatthu, the fifth book of the Abhidhamma, originated with the Buddha. It is commonly held that it was composed by Ven. Moggaliputtatissa during King Asoka’s reign. However, the Atthasālinī explains that the Buddha, foreseeing future disputes, ‘laid down a table of contents in a text not quite as long as one recital, to be adopted in all the discourses.’ Thus, while it was completed during the Third Council, its core structure was laid down by the Buddha.

Is the person known in the sense of real and ultimate fact? Nay, that cannot be. Acknowledge your refutation.

This pattern continues across several questions. It is not surprising that the Buddha laid the foundation, while only an arahat like Moggaliputtatissa could later expand it with such precision.

Historical Reverence

The Abhidhamma was long held in the highest esteem. King Kassapa V had the Abhidhamma Piṭaka inscribed on gold plates. King Vijayabāhu studied the Dhammasaṅgaṇī each morning and translated it into Sinhalese.

Much Abhidhamma already appears in the Suttas—in teachings on the aggregates (khandha), sense bases (āyatana), and elements (dhātu). The Abhidhamma explains these systematically, which helps clarify what is real and thus suitable for satipaṭṭhāna vipassanā. We live among concept, story, and self. Abhidhamma, if rightly understood, reveals another world, where only evanescent, conditioned dhammas arise and fall. This is the noble truth of dukkha. Its function is to destroy the illusion of self. Who but a Buddha could have taught such a doctrine? No one can prove the Abhidhamma is the Buddha’s word, nor can anyone definitively prove the same for the Suttas or Vinaya. But what we can do is test whether the Abhidhamma applies to present reality. If it does, questions about authorship become immaterial.

Iggelden writes:

It is all very well to say ‘I know what needs to be done to break the continuity of rebirth and death’. In fact very few people know of even the most elementary reasons for the continuity of process, let alone of breaking it. It is the detailed description, analysis and reasons given for this cyclic process that the scriptures spend so much care in putting before us.

It is all very well to say ‘What do I want to know all these definitions of terms for, it only clutters the mind?’ The question is, though, how many people when they seriously ask themselves as to the extent and range of some such apparently simple terms as greed, hatred and ignorance, can know their full and proper implications and manifestations within their own thoughts and actions...This the scriptures are at pains to make clear to even the dullest reader... Introduction to the Vibhanga of the Abhidhamma Pitaka, translated as the Book of Analysis (Pali Text Society).

Abhidhamma and the Present Moment

According to the Commentary on the Lomasakaṅgiyabhaddeka ratta Sutta (MN 134) while teaching Abhidhamma in the deva world, the Buddha intermittently introduced the Bhaddekaratta Sutta to induce saṁvega and mindfulness in both devas and humans. Thus, from the beginning the Buddha emphasized the connection between Abhidhamma and insight into the present moment.

Majjhima Nikāya 131 — Bhaddekaratta Sutta

Let not a person revive the past, or on the future build his hopes.

For the past has been left behind, and the future has not been reached.

Instead with insight let him see each presently arisen state.

Let him know that and be sure of it, invincibly, unshakeably.

Today the effort must be made; tomorrow death may come, who knows?

No bargain with mortality can keep him and his hordes away.

Abhidhamma without direct understanding is like memorizing lists. That is not a true refuge. In his final instruction, the Buddha said:

Dwell with yourselves as an island, with yourselves as a refuge, with no other refuge; with the Dhamma as an island, with the Dhamma as a refuge, with no other refuge.

And this is done through the development of satipaṭṭhāna, through understanding what is arising now, ‘with insight let him see each presently arisen state.’

Chapter 16Momentariness

Aquestion that comes up is how the Dhamma, which posits a universe that is radically momentary, can account for actual experience where things seem to last for seconds, minutes, days or years. The first step before direct understanding this is clear intellectual understanding, the foundation for anything deeper.

Visuddhimagga XV.3

The characteristic of impermanence does not become apparent because when rise and fall are not given attention it is concealed by continuity ...However when continuity is disrupted by discerning rise and fall the characteristic of impermanence becomes apparent in its true nature.

Because each element is immediately replaced by a new, and often very similar element (by conditions), this fact is obscured. Not only that, but moha (avijja, ignorance) and tanha, which we we all have plenty of, actively obscure the truth. It is why the path is difficult to see.

We can’t stop seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, feeling, knowing, thinking; these dhammas are not ours and they arise by conditions. Understanding this, there is detachment from the idea of a self who is doing anything — there is the gradual elimination of attasanna (self perception), the paticcasamupadda is being dismantled.

Question: When we have the type of similarity of successive moments which gives rise to the perception of persistence, what governs the similarity? Is there some kind of law which means that one moment of a particular type must give rise to the next, of a very similar type? For example, does one moment of hardness have to follow another very similar moment in order for us to perceive the continued qualities of a block of concrete?

What we call a block of concrete is actually a mass of trillions of kalapas (groups of matter), each with tiny spaces between them. And each of these kalapa arises and falls away instantly, but is replaced by new kalapas due to temperature (utu-samutthana).

All matter outside the body is only composed of eight types of rupa yet the intensities of these eight can vary enormously and so we see hugely differing substances — water, snow, wood, plastic, flower, and coffee etc. So there is a kind of law that as you suggest ‘one moment of a particular type must give rise to the next...’ But of course this is very dependent and all sorts of events can happen so that deterioration in the conventional sense occurs. Things like concrete or flower are said to be the shadow of what is really there (which is only evanescent rupas).

Bhikkhu Bodhi notes in his introduction to The Discourse on the Root of Existence: Mulapariyaya Sutta and Its Commentaries:

In the stage of full understanding of the known, the gross object is analysed into its constituent dhammas and each dhamma is delimited in its distinct characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause. This procedure rectifies the common sense assumption of simple substantial units, disclosing in its place a world of composite wholes brought temporarily together through a concatenation of conditions. (p.14)

Because we live in a world of situations and concepts we miss the real and momentary elements, which are fully conditioned and behave according to their own nature. It is a magicians trick. From the Sāratthappakāsinī, Commentary to the Samuyutta Nikaya, 95(3) Lump of Foam

Consciousness is like a magical illusion (māyā) in the sense that it is insubstantial and cannot be grasped. Consciousness is even more transient and fleeting than a magical illusion. For it gives the impression that a person comes and goes, stands and sits, with the same mind, but the mind is different in each of these activities. Consciousness deceives the multitude like a magical illusion. Note 194. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Connected Discourses

Question: How to explain the fact that if all things are subject to causes and conditions, why some of them appear to be more amenable than others? Raising my arm seems under my control.

Movements like raising the arm or standing up, sitting down, putting food in the mouth is simply materiality arising because of mental activity. In a day most activity is conditioned by lobha (tanha/desire). And that lobha is conditioned to arise by long accumulations of similar lobha. And so there is the belief that I am going to the refrigerator, I am choosing coffee or tea...But it is a chain of empty processes, devoid of self.

The Satipatthana Sutta Commentary

Within there is nothing called a soul that robes itself. According to the method of exposition adopted already, only by the diffusion of the process of oscillation born of mental activity does the act of robing take place. The robe has no power to think and the body too has not that power. The robe is not aware of the fact that it is draping the body, and the body too of itself does not think: ‘I am being draped round with the robe.’ Mere processes clothe a process-heap, in the same way that a modelled figure is covered with a piece of cloth.

Indeed all elements arise and cease.

Saṁyutta Nikāya 1.11. Nandana

Once in the past, bhikkhus, a certain devata of the Tavatiṃsa host was revelling in Nandana Grove, supplied and endowed with the five cords of celestial sensual pleasure, accompanied by a retinue of celestial nymphs. On that occasion he spoke this verse:

They do not know bliss Who have not seen Nandana, The abode of the glorious male devas Belonging to the host of Thirty.

When this was said, bhikkhus, a certain devata replied to that devata in verse:

Dont you know, you fool, That maxim of the arahants?

Impermanent are all formations; Their nature is to arise and vanish. Having arisen, they cease: Their appeasement is blissful. Connected Discourses with Devatas

In the Book of Causation (Nidaanavagga) VII The Great Subchapter 61 (1) Uninstructed (1) p. 595 Samyutta Nikaya Vol 1 (translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi):

But that which is called ‘mind’ and ‘mentality’ and ‘consciousness’ arises as one thing and ceases as another by day and by night. Just as a monkey roaming through a forest grabs hold of one branch, lets that go and grabs another, then lets that go and grabs still another, so too that which is called ‘mind’ and ‘mentality’ and ‘consciousness’ arises as one thing and ceases as another by day and by night. [note 157]

Note [from Commentary] 157: Spk: ‘The meaning is that (the mind) that arises and ceases during the day is other than (the mind) that arises and ceases during the night. The statement should not be taken to mean that one thing arises and some thing altogether different, which had not arisen, ceases. “Day and night” is said by way of continuity, taking a continuity of lesser duration than the previous one (i.e. the one stated for the body). But one citta is not able to endure for a whole day or a whole night. Even in the time of a fingersnap many hundred thousand kotis of cittas arise and cease (1 koti=10 million). Connected Discourses

For each occurrence of these momentary elements many conditions need to come together. And each of these conditions are equally brief and conditioned. It is actually amazing every time we see or hear something, a little miracle, considering the brevity and the confluence of conditions needed for them to arise.

Saṁyutta Nikāya 35.93. The Dyad (2)

Bhikkhus, consciousness comes to be in dependence on a dyad. And how, bhikkhus, does consciousness come to be in dependence on a dyad? In dependence on the eye and forms there arises eye-consciousness. The eye is impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise; forms are impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise. Thus this dyad is moving and tottering, impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise.

Eye-consciousness is impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise. The cause and condition for the arising of eye-consciousness is also impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise. When, bhikkhus, eye-consciousness has arisen in dependence on a condition that is impermanent, how could it be permanent?

The meeting, the encounter, the concurrence of these three things is called eye-contact. Eye-contact too is impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise. The cause and condition for the arising of eye-contact is also impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise. When, bhikkhus, eye-contact has arisen in dependence on a condition that is impermanent, how could it be permanent?

Contacted, bhikkhus, one feels, contacted one intends, contacted one perceives. Thus these things too are moving and tottering, impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise.

In dependence on the ear and sounds there arises ear-consciousness ... ... In dependence on the mind and mental phenomena there arises mind-consciousness. The mind is impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise; mental phenomena are impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise. Thus this dyad is moving and tottering, impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise.

Mind-consciousness is impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise. The cause and condition for the arising of mind-consciousness is also impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise. When, bhikkhus, mind-consciousness has arisen in dependence on a condition that is impermanent, how could it be permanent?

The meeting, the encounter, the concurrence of these three things is called mind-contact. Mind-contact too is impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise. The cause and condition for the arising of mind-contact is also impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise. When, bhikkhus, mind-contact has arisen in dependence on a condition that is impermanent, how could it be permanent? Contacted, bhikkhus, one feels, contacted one intends, contacted one perceives. Thus these things too are moving and tottering, impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise.

It is in such a way, bhikkhus, that consciousness comes to be in dependence on a dyad.

Connected Discourses on the Six Sense Bases

Chapter 17Anatta and Effort

One tries to abandon wrong view and to enter into right view: This is one’s right effort...

Majjhima Nikaya, 117

Wise men before the Buddha could attain even mundane jhanas, extraordinary states — and they still had the belief in self. So self view doesn’t necessarily hinder kusala deeds. One can give, be virtuous and develop samatha, all even without having heard the Buddha. Think of Christians, who are respected worldwide for all their service to the poor. And this can all be done believing in a self who does it all.

Viriya, energy or effort, is associated with every kusala and akusala citta. Sati only with kusala. Most of the day we have different types of akusala cittas and thus we are accustomed to viriya that is associated with akusala. The viriya that is associated with kusala citta (and sati) arises together with alobha, non-greed. There can be viriya of this type for example when we are helping someone or giving dana or learning Abhidhamma. It is only when we are talking about striving towards the summum bonum of what the Buddha taught that right view at its pinnacle is indispensable. So it takes effort, viriya to develop right view, and as the sutta quote suggests, this is where effort should focus. Yet this type of effort is profound, it comes with detachment and wisdom. The self who performs actions is imaginary. However, there is energy, there is intention, there is vedana, feeling. All of these elements are very real and the texts define and elucidate them so that they can be understood directly.

Question: is there anything that can be meaningfully be said to exist? Could one not conceive of effort as a phenomenon: one of those which “flows on”, despite there being no ontologically distinct thing to which it “belongs”?

As I said elements, including effort (although we need to define effort carefully) are real phenomena, but they are momentary, brought about by various conditions (which are listed precisely) and cease instantly. There is indeed a flow but it is comprised of moments, each moment falling away but assisting to condition the next. So in the ancient Buddhist view life is just a flow of ceaseless, conditioned arisings and falling away of mentality and materiality. We cling to self, to children, to wife, to wealth, to health: but this is because we don’t really see the actual nature of life. It is no surprise that it is hard to grasp the truth of anatta.

The Mahanidana sutta Commentary says that this is such a deep matter:

Its depth of penetration should be understood ... Deep is the meaning of consciousness as emptiness, absence of an agent. The Great Discourse on Causation, p.66, Bhikkhu Bodhi

The tika continues:

Consciousness’s meaning of emptiness is deep because consciousness is said to be the distinctive basis for the misapprehension of self. As it is said ‘for a long time the uninstructed worldling has been attached to this, appropriated it, and misapprehended it thus; ‘This is mine this I am, this is self’.

Viriya is indispensable. What can happen though, is that we take wrong effort for right effort... Right effort of the path arises with right view. Elements like effort and concentration are easy to have, the reason being that they arise with both kusala and akusala (wholesome and unwholesome mind states): Here is the description of viriya (effort) in the Abhidhamma:

We read from the Dhammasangani (376):

What at that time is the faculty of effort/energy/endea vor? That which is mental endeavor (viriyarhambo), riddance of lethargy, exerting harder and harder, endeavoring higher and higher, striving, painstaking zeal, utmost exertion, steadfastness, resoluteness, unfaltering endeavor, having sustained desire (chanda) to strive, not relinquishing the task, discharging the task well, effort (viriya) as the faculty of effort, power of effort, WRONG effort — this at that time is the faculty of endeavor.

Sounded nice until that last phrase. That is what wrong effort is. It repeats that same passage for right effort...

Insight

Even when we are doing nothing in the conventional sense the khandhas (five aggregates) are arising and ceasing; they are showing their nature, ready to be understood. So situation is not a determining factor in whether insight can arise. Monks were liberated while listening to the Buddha, while being eaten by tigers, while eating their meal. They became arahat even after cutting their throats. It was because insight arose to see the elements as they really are. No technique for this, it was by the gradual accumulation of wisdom. And there was viriya present too, along with concentration and right thought and the other factors. The Therigatha recounts the verses of the bhikkhuni Siha. She spent seven years as a nun but gained no satisfaction.

Thin, pale, and wan, I wandered for seven years. [Being] very pained, I did not find happiness by day or night. Then, taking a rope, I went into a wood, [thinking] “It is better to hang myself than to lead a low life again.” Therigatha 76

She attained at the very time the noose was around her neck. Thus even those who are desperate can develop understanding. However, we have to be clear. If we have the idea that ‘well I know insight is good. So I will do something to try to make it happen’, it may be a subtle idea of a self who can do that. All the same, if one can learn to be interested in the present moment then nothing is really inimical to the arising of insight, it all becomes food that potentially feeds the growing insight.

Question: How do we differentiate between sati, vitakka, vicara, viriya and ekagatta?

Vitakka and vicara are pakinnaka, they can arise with kusala and akusala, also vipaka and kiriya. But not every citta. Ekagatta (concentration) is sabbacittasadharana (universal) - it arises with each citta. It can be very weak or very strong. Sati is quite different from these as it only arises with sobhana cittas, kusala. Without understanding the nature of sati the person intent on bhavana is likely to go wrong. Sati arises with other sobhana cetasikas like alobha, non-attachment. And thus the citta arising at that time with ekkaggata (concentration) is not attached to the object.

Why is it easy to concentrate wrongly. Well because everything we do requires concentration — whether schoolwork, reading a book, programming a computer, driving or stealing money. Thus it is an almost ever present factor of life since we were born. Some people think they need sati to cross the road — but this can be done with ekaggata (concentration) and sanna — no need at all for sati. Or they think they can’t remember where they left their keys and this shows lack of sati. I heard a teacher claim that vipassana was about non-attachment whereas samatha bhavana was about attachment to the object — not true. So while it seems easy to concentrate on an object like breath this is no guarantee of kusala citta and sati. It is not so straightforward to understand sati and one reason for this is that it doesn’t arise often. There needs to be khanti, patience, to understand that sati arises because of various conditions, not because of trying to have it or concentrating.

When viriya and concentration and attachment are present, as they often are, but not really understood, one might think they are developing samatha or satipatthana but actually be going wrong. The texts explain that hearing/studying Dhamma is needed so that sati of satipatthana can arise. But we could study with a mindstate that sees study as something separate from real Dhamma. Then it is not much benefit. However, while studying and considering Dhamma there can be conditions for direct understanding: to see that what is said in Abhidhamma is exactly what life is right then and there. It can be known each by himself.

The Abhidhamma explanation for the conditions that give rise to sati

In Abhidhamma each moment can be analysed by way of object and the other paccaya (conditions) explained in the Patthana. For sati of satipatthana the prime condition is hearing and considering the Dhamma. However without pubbekatapunnata, merit from the past, one could hear/study Dhamma and it still wouldn’t be much productive.

Say we consider the sati that arises when giving - there might be the inclinations to give but no suitable object, such as a bhikkhu. And so that type of sati cannot arise at that moment. It is obviously a complex thing, this present moment. And so it is amazing that it could be understood; it shows the power of the SammasamBuddha. Reading this now, if sati were to arise at the level of having respect for the Buddha, that is conditioned by seeing, considering, accumulated wisdom etc. Another might read this and think, ‘what rubbish’ and that is conditioned too by seeing, unwise attention and other factors.

Gradually, if the right factors develop, the world, the five khandhas, is understood and there is no doubt about some hidden self making sati arise. The causes and conditions are seen and thus wrong view is erased little by little. It is the great benefit of learning Abhidhamma.

Samma-vayama, right effort/energy, is blocked by any forcing because that is rooted in the wrong view that elements can be controlled. There is not the patience to understand things exactly as they are at this moment. There is a subtle wish that phenomena were just a little different, a little clearer maybe. Thus there is not enough confidence that the path is one of seeing things as they are, no matter how ugly or beautiful. And if there is understanding of this then really any time, any place, any object is suitable for the development of insight.

Abhidhamma and Vinaya

A friend wondered about the 227 rules for monks (and 5 or 8 precepts for laypeople) and how this fits with the fact that every moment is conditioned and that there is no control in the absolute sense.

The Inception of Discipline and the Vinaya Nidana ,translation by Jayawickrama (Bahiranidana of Buddhaghosa’s Samantapasida, the Vinaya Commentary)

Likewise, the first is called the teaching necessitated by transgressions, wherein those beings who are given to many misdeeds are admonished in accordance with the nature of their offences; the second, that adapted to circumstances, wherein beings who are given to divers dispositions, latent tendencies, and traits of character are admonished in accordance with their adaptability; and the third, that set out in accordance with reality, wherein beings who conceive of an ego and what pertains to it, only in the presence of a pile of conditions, are instructed in terms of the absolute truth.

The first is the Vinaya, the 2nd the Suttanta and the 3rd the Abhidhamma.

So how does the Vinaya fit with the Abhidhamma? If I tell/plea d/bribe/demand my children to do their homework, hearing my words can be a condition for them to start doing it. Breaking it down, there are moments of hearing sounds, then mind door processes where the words are understood. They may still not do it though as each has their own accumulations, each reacts in different ways - really just a pile of conditions.

And the same with bhikkhus; some are able to follow the Vinaya without any resistance and with great respect; others readily transgress some of the rules. It is all showing their nature, revealing the latent tendencies. The one who respects the Vinaya and happily follows is a reflection of his accumulations of merit. When a monk ignores the Vinaya it is, when analysed actually akusala cittas conditioning the speech or movements that go against the rules. And those akusala cittas were conditioned to arise due to many conditions: what we call character are habits accumulated over so many lives. Thus the Abhidhamma and Vinaya and Suttanta are all in accord.

Chapter 18Kamma

Saṁyutta Nikāya 37 (7) Not Yours

At Sāvatthī. ‘Bhikkhus, this body is not yours, nor does it belong to others. It is old kamma, to be seen as generated and fashioned by volition, as something to be felt. Therein, bhikkhus, the instructed noble disciple attends carefully and closely to dependent origination itself thus: ‘When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises.’

Bhikhu Bodhi note 111: Spk[Commentary]: It is old kamma (purāṇam idaṃkammaṃ): This body is not actually old kamma, but because it is produced by old kamma it is spoken of in terms of its condition. It should be seen as generated, in that it is made by conditions; as fashioned by volition, in that it is based on volition, rooted in volition; and as something to be felt , in that it is a basis for what is to be felt [Spkpṭ: because it is a basis and object of feeling]. Connected Discourses

We are born in order to receive the results of past kamma. And then we make new kamma in a never ending cycle. Thus the three rounds: vipaka vatta, kilesa vatta and kamma vatta spin endlessly.

There is the round of defilements (kilesa-vaṭṭa),

the round of kamma (kamma-vaṭṭa),

and the round of results (vipāka-vaṭṭa).

And all without any self, simply processes of mentality and materiality.

Visuddhimagga

With triple round it spins forever: here formations and becoming are the round of kamma. Ignorance, craving and clinging are the round of defilements. Consciousness, mentality-materiality, the sixfold base, contact and feeling are the round of result. So this Wheel of Becoming, having a triple round with these three rounds, should be understood to spin, revolving again and again, forever, for the conditions are not cut off as long as the round of defilements is not cut off. XVII.298.4

It is good to breakdown all these elements in more details.

Saṁyutta Nikāya 35.146. Kamma

Bhikkhus, I will teach you new and old kamma, the cessation of kamma, and the way leading to the cessation of kamma. Listen to that and attend closely, I will speak.... And what, bhikkhus, is old kamma? The eye is old kamma, to be seen as generated and fashioned by volition, as something to be felt. The ear is old kamma... The mind is old kamma, to be seen as generated and fashioned by volition, as something to be felt. This is called old kamma. And what, bhikkhus is new kamma? Whatever action one does now by body, speech, or mind. This is called new kamma. Connected Discourses on the Six Sense Bases.

Nina van Gorkom (Questions and Answers about Kamma and its Fruit)

Nina: Everyone has accumulated both unwholesome deeds and wholesome deeds, therefore everyone will receive both akusala vipāka and kusala vipāka. However, we can develop understanding of cause and effect and this helps us to be patient, even under unpleasant conditions. For instance, when we understand what vipāka is we will be less inclined to feel sorry for ourselves or to blame other people when there is akusala vipāka. If we feel sorry for ourselves or blame other people, there is a new accumulation of unwholesomeness and this will bring us more sorrow in the future.

Question: But I cannot help disliking unpleasant vipāka. How can I change my attitude?

Nina: You can change your attitude by understanding what is vipāka and what is no longer vipāka. It is very important to know that the moment we feel dislike or regret is not the same as the moment of vipāka. People are inclined to think that the dislike which arises after the vipāka is still vipāka. When they say ‘This is just vipāka’, they do not distinguish unpleasant feelings from the moments of vipāka. If they do not really know what is vipāka and what is not vipāka but akusala citta, or akusala kamma, they accumulate unwholesomeness all through their lives. By ignorance, by not knowing when the citta is akusala, one accumulates unwholesomeness. Buddhist Publication Society, 1975.

Sivaka Sutta

Question: in the Sivaka Sutta it explains that not all experiences are because of kamma. But Abhidhamma says that vipaka like hardness experienced through the body sense is due to past kamma?

Master Gotama, there are some ascetics and brahmins who hold such a doctrine and view as this: ‘Whatever a person experiences, whether it be pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant, all that is caused by what was done in the past.’ What does Master Gotama say about this?

Some feelings, Sīvaka, arise here originating from bile disorders: that some feelings arise here originating from bile disorders one can know for oneself, and that is considered to be true in the world. Now when those ascetics and brahmins hold such a doctrine and view as this, ‘Whatever a person experiences, whether it be pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant, all that is caused by what was done in the past,’ they overshoot what one knows by oneself and they overshoot what is considered to be true in the world. Therefore I say that this is wrong on the part of those ascetics and brahmins.

Some feelings, Sīvaka, arise here originating from phlegm disorders ... originating from wind disorders ... originating from an imbalance of the three ... produced by change of climate ... produced by careless behaviour ... caused by assault ... produced as the result of kamma: that some feelings arise here produced as the result of kamma one can know for oneself, and that is considered to be true in the world. Now when those ascetics and brahmins hold such a doctrine and view as this, ‘Whatever a person experiences, whether it be pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant, all that is caused by what was done in the past,’ they overshoot what one knows by oneself and they overshoot what is considered to be true in the world. Therefore I say that this is wrong on the part of those ascetics and brahmins. Sivaka Sutta Connected Discourses on Feeling 36: 21

Robert: Reading this sutta some people overshoot in the opposite direction and decide that vipaka (resultant) is not conditioned by kamma. However, this needs to be clarified. One way the Abhidhamma classifies cittas is as jati: vipaka (result), kiriya , akusala and kusala. In a process of cittas that experiences an object such as sound only one moment is vipaka, result. The rest of the cittas in the process are of the other jatis (not the result of kamma). The vipaka is like a flash and then many more moments that are not vipaka. Now that very brief vipaka citta is certainly conditioned by kamma, that is by kamma done at an earlier time in the same life or in previous lives. However, even that vipaka is not conditioned solely by kamma. The Sammohavinodani, chapter on Paticcasamuppada notes that there is no single fruit from a single cause:

670. For here there is no single nor multiple fruit of any kind from a single cause, nor is there a single fruit from multiple causes, but only multiple fruit from multiple causes. BUT with one representative fruit and cause given thus “with ignorance as condition formations [arise], with formations as condition consciousness” has a meaning and it has a purpose. For the blessed one uses one representative cause and fruit when it is suitable for elegance in teaching and to suit the inclinations of those being taught. And he does so in some instances because it is a basic factor and in some instances because it is obvious and in some instances because of being not shared”[...] “he mentioned a single cause in the passage ‘diseases due to phlegm’ [in the Sivaka Sutta above] because of obviousness, for here it is phlegm that is obvious, not kamma and so on.” Dispeller of Delusion (vol I, p. 181, Pali Text Society)

Ittha and Anittha (desirable and undesirable ) results

Rupa that is experienced through the five sense doors is classified as: undesirable (anittha), moderately desirable (ittha) or extremely desirable (ati-ittha). The English translations of these Pali terms should not be confused with dosa or tanha (translated as aversion and desire).

It is merely showing that nature of the rupa - that it is because of past kusala or akusala kamma that one experiences it. Take the case of hearing the Buddha speak- the sound contacting the ear base is ati-ittha (it is inherently very ‘desirable’) but someone who doesn’t follow the Buddha might have dosa (aversion) in the mind door processes immediately following hearing the sounds...

From the Dispeller of Delusion (vol 1, p. 9-11):

Rupa sadda (visible data, sounds)...there are none which are disagreeable that are born of profitable kamma; all are agreeable only...But a disputatious speaker (vitandavadin) said ‘There is no intrinsic agreeable and disagreeable ‘It is according to the likings of these or those individuals.

The vitandavadin (sectarian of another school) goes on to give an example of how to people in some distant place worms are considered a delicacy whereas most people find them repulsive.

He should be asked ‘But how? Do you say that there is no distinguishing an object as intrinsically agreeable or disagreeable?’ ‘Yes: I say there is not?..

It continues a little more and then refutes the vitandavadin:

‘It is through perversion of perception that the same object is agreeable for one and disagreeable for another. But there is the distinguishing of an object as intrinsically agreeable or disagreeable’...the elder Tipitaka Cula-Abhaya said: ‘The agreeable and disagreeable are distinguishable according to vipaka [kamma result] only, not according to javana [impulsion that follows the vipaka]. But it is impulsion through perversion of perception [sannavipallasa] only that lusts for the agreeable and hates the same agreeable; that lusts for the disagreeable and hates the same agreeable. Only by way of vipaka however is it rightly distinguishable.

For resultant consciousness [vipaka citta] cannot be mistaken. If the object is agreeable it is profitable result that has arisen; if disagreeable, it is unprofitable result that has arisen. Although those of wrong view on seeing such exalted objects as the enlightened one shut their eyes and feel domanassa [unpleasant feeling] [arising during the javana stage] and on hearing the Dhamma they stop their ears nevertheless their eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness , etc are only profitable kamma result [vipaka]. Although dung eating pigs on smelling the odour of dung become joyful, thinking; ‘we shall get something to eat’ nevertheless their eye-consciousness [a vipaka] in the seeing of the dung, nose consciousness [a vipaka] in smelling its odour and tongue consciousness [a vipaka] in tasting its flavour is only unprofitable result.

Different vipaka are arising countless times in a day and it is true that often we cannot be sure whether the present vipaka is the result of kusala kamma or akusala kamma, whether it is ittha or anittha. And if we think in wholes and situation we cannot understand vipaka either. For instance, take the case of touching a warm dog feces and how we normally think this is entirely akusala. However, the commentary explains :

45. Furthermore, agreeableness and disagreeableness should also be understood by way of the doors (dvdra). For dung-mud which is pleasant to touch is disagreeable in the eye-door and nose-door, and is agreeable in the body-door (p.11).

Thus also in the case of the dog dung the vipaka through body sense is actually kusala vipaka (because soft and warm) while through the eye sense and nose sense akusala for obvious reasons. In a short moment these different vipakas alternate many times, but one might not be aware of how it is changing. In the above example someone might object and say ‘what if there were little hard bits in the feces; wouldn’t it be akusala through the body sense then?’ And, yes maybe it would in that case. But the examples are given to help us see these matters so we can study dhammas directly and see for ourselves, not to cover every possible hypothetical case.

Or take the example of someone wearing an expensive diamond ring. Through the body sense it is akusala vipaka (very hard) although it may be kusala vipaka through the eye sense. Usually we are so absorbed in the general idea, this beautiful ring on my finger, that there is no awareness at all of the actual realities.

Our life

We wish for pleasant things and try to avoid the undesirable but when we know more about the various elements which condition each moment we see the benefits of understanding the moment rather than clinging or having aversion. Sujin told me a Thai saying:

Why does it have to happen to me?

Because it has to happen to you.

But why does it have to happen now?

Because it has to happen now.

We believe we should try to arrange pleasant objects and react to objects that arise at the sense doors with desire or aversion or indifference; that is the way it has always been. But by understanding more about kamma and result our attitude can change and we understand that various vipaka (results) are conditioned to arise.

Chapter 19Glossary

Abhidhamma – The Buddha’s deep analysis of realities like consciousness, mental factors, and physical elements. Not just theory—Abhidhamma supports insight into what’s happening now.

Akusala - Unwholesome.

Anatta – Not-self. There’s no “I” behind experience. Seeing, hearing, thinking all happen by conditions—no manager behind the scenes.

Anicca – Impermanence. All dhammas arise and fall away instantly. Nothing lasts, not even for a second.

Ārammaṇa – Object.

Avijjā – Ignorance. Not understanding the true nature of reality. The root of all suffering.

Ayatana – Sense fields. Six internal (eye, ear, etc.) and six external (forms, sounds, etc.) bases for contact.

Bhavaṅga – Life-continuum. The flow of mind between active moments of experience.

Cakkhu-viññāṇa – Eye-consciousness. The moment of seeing.

Cetasika – Mental factors. Qualities that arise with consciousness—such as feeling, effort, mindfulness, or greed.

Chanda – Interest or wish. Can be wholesome or unwholesome depending on conditions.

Citta – A single moment of consciousness. Arises, experiences something, and then cease. Also called Mano,or Viññāṇa.

Dhamma – Reality or phenomenon. What actually arises— whether it’s mental or physical. Also used for the teachings.

Dhātu – Elements.

Dukkha – Unsatisfactoriness. Because all things are conditioned and impermanent, they can’t truly satisfy.

Kamma – Volitional action. Brings results (vipāka) later.

Khandha – Aggregate. The five groups that make up what we call a person: materiality, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness.

Kusala- wholesome

Lobha / Dosa / Moha – Greed, anger, and delusion. The roots of unwholesome mind moments.

Nāma-rūpa – Mind and matter. Mental and physical phenomena arising together.

Paṭiccasamuppāda – Dependent Origination. The chain of conditions that describe life and lives.

Patisandhi citta - Rebirth consciousness

Paññā – Wisdom. Clear understanding of the way things are—momentary, conditioned, and not-self.

Paccaya – Condition. Every moment arises depending on supporting causes. There are 24 described in the Patthana.

Rūpa – Materiality. Physical phenomena like visible object, temperature, hardness. Doesn’t include concepts like “chair” or “table.”

Sakkāya-diṭṭhi – Self-view. The wrong belief in a permanent “me” or soul.

Saṅkhāra – Formations. Mental activities or all conditioned phenomena, depending on context.

Saññā – Perception. Marks and remembers objects.

Sati – Mindfulness.

Satipaṭṭhāna – The four foundations of mindfulness: body, feeling, mind, and dhammas. The path to insight.

Satisampajanna - sati and understanding conjoined during moments of awareness.

Taṇhā – Craving. The desire for pleasure, existence, or nonexistence. Fuels rebirth and suffering.

Viññāṇa – Consciousness, same meaning as Citta and mano. It experiences an object.

Vipassanā – Insight. Seeing reality as it is: not-self, impermanent, and unsatisfactory. Not a technique, it is a level of wisdom.

Vipāka – Result. The fruit of past kamma. .

Yonisomanasikāra – Wise attention.

Chapter 20Final

Iused the translations by Bhikkhu Bodhi where possible: The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (Majjhima Nikaya) The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Samyutta Nikaya)

The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha (Anguttara Nikaya)

For the translations of the Visuddhimagga the Path Of Purification by Nanamoli.

For the translation of the SammohaVinodani (Commentary to the Vibhanga) and the Atthasalini (Commentary to the Dhammasangani) the Pali Text Society translations (Dispeller of Delusion, and The Expositor).

For the Commentary to the Satipatthana sutta, The Way of Mindfulness: The Satipatthana Sutta and Its Commentary, by Thera Soma.

Those who are interested in learning more or communicating directly are welcome to join ClassicalTheravada.org, a forum I co-run with an American Bhikkhu, Venerable Subhuti. Robert