Insight Meditation Awareness_Part III

Two Kinds of Meditation: Mindfulness and Concentration

The complete term for insight meditation is "vipassanā-bhāvanā." "Bhāvanā" means a system of mental training that cultivates wisdom or concentration.

All meditation techniques can be classified into two types: insight meditation (vipassanā-bhāvanā), and tranquility meditation, or concentration (samatha-bhāvanā). In tranquility practice you fix the attention on a single object until the mind enters a deep, trance-like stillness. You develop enough concentration to quiet the mind and suppress mental impurities such as anger. When you stop meditating, however, the negative emotions eventually return.

The practice of insight, on the other hand, cultivates wisdom. The student develops systematic mindfulness in order to see the real characteristics of existence: unsatisfactoriness, impermanence, and impersonality. All the activities of daily life can be objects of mindfulness: bodily actions, feelings, thoughts and emotions— even painful ones. Nothing is suppressed.

In mindfulness practice, a meditator notes and lets go of different objects as they appear and pass away, instead of keeping the mind fixed on one thing exclusively. Although some concentration is needed for vipassanā practice, it is only the level called "momentary concentration," which is weaker than that required for deep tranquility-states (jhāna).

The path of concentration results in short-term calmness, bliss, and, when fully perfected, psychic powers. The path of insight, on the other hand, leads to wisdom and permanent freedom from suffering. This freedom is called "Nibbāna," the deathless.

We practice vipassanā meditation in order to see the mind, to know it rather than control it, as Bhikkhu Sopako Bodhi says. To see your own mind clearly is to see ultimate reality.

Many of us find excuses to avoid cultivating the mind. There is the familiar objection, "I don't have enough concentration to meditate." But strong concentration, as we said, is not a requirement for insight meditation.

Ask yourself this: does a sick person need a special aptitude to take penicillin? No— he takes it because he is ill. Like medicine, meditation is not something for which one needs an aptitude, but a prescription for illness; and the worse it tastes, the more it's likely needed. The Buddha said that all of us suffer from the mental sickness of desire, aversion and delusion. But anyone— repeat, anyone— can achieve mental health and happiness by "taking" vipassanā.

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PURIFYING ONE’S MIND

The following Four Divine Abodes should be known and developed:

(1) Loving-kindness (metta), (2) compassion (karuṇā), (3) altruistic or sympathetic joy on gladness (muditā), and (4) equaminity (upekkhā).

Loving-kindness is love without any element of possessiveness. It is a selfless, universal, all-expansive love. And also, it does not distinguish between one’s own welfare and that of others.

Compassion is sympathy for all beings in their sufferings, with no sense of superiority over them. It has the characteristic of promoting the removal suffering in others. And also, it does not distinguish between one’s own suffering and that of others.

Sympathetic joy or gladness is an altruistic joy in the success or welfare of others.

Equanimity is an attitude of seeing things without partiality, calmly and with an even mind.

Loving-kindness is a kind of love without attachment; it is also love and good-will to all beings without any kind of discrimination.

A meditator who wants to develop loving-kindness should think of the evil of hate and the advantage of patience because he has to abandon hate and attain patience by developing it.

Loving-kindness is a kind of love, i.e., love without attachment, craving or lust. It is a whole-some and genuine desire for the well-being of all beings including ourselves.

So, when you practice loving-kindness and wish for your own happiness, saying, “May I be well, happy, and peaceful,” this should not be interpreted as selfishness because, in order to send out thoughts of loving-kindness to others, we have to generate these thoughts first in ourselves.

Also, when you send thoughts to yourself, you can take yourself as an example.

That means, when you say, “May I be well, happy, and peaceful,” you think, “Just as I want to be well, happy, and peaceful, so do all other beings.

So, may they also be well, happy, and peaceful.” To be able to practice loving-kindness towards other beings, you first have to practice loving-kindness towards yourself.

Then you send your thoughts to other beings.

You can send these thoughts in different ways. You can send thoughts to all beings by location. You can send loving-kindness to all beings in this house.

By “all beings” we mean not only human beings, but also animals, insects, etc.

Then you send loving-kindness to all beings in this area, in this city, in this county, in this state, in this country, in this world, in this universe, and last, to all beings in general.

When you say the sentences to yourself, please, mean them and try to see and visualize the beings you mention as really well, happy, and peaceful, and your thoughts of loving-kindness reaching them, touching them, embracing them and making them really well, happy, and peaceful.

It will take about fifteen minutes.

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Development of the Analytical Knowledge of Mind and Matter

It can be known and concluded personally that two stages of knowledge in the series of insight have been attained on being able to note the intention to bend and intention to straighten-up.

The intention to bend and the intention to straighten-up are conscious of the object and so are of the nature of mind.

The bodily action of bending and the bodily action of straightening-up are not conscious of the object and so are of the nature of matter.

Bending and straightening-up processes are done by the pair, the nature of mind and the nature of matter.

There is no “I” but only mind and matter, the pair, exist.

Thus, perceiving by discerning the nature of mind and matter constitutes the Analytical Knowledge of Mind and Matter (Nama-rupa-pariccheda-nana)

Sayadaw

Saddammaramsi Meditation Centre

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Mindfulness Meditation (Satipatthana)

(Vipassana or Insight Meditation)

Mindfulness is the way to the Deathless

(Nibbana), Unmindfulness is the way to Death”.

The purpose or goal of the practice of mindfulness meditation is to gain liberation from the round of existences (Samsara). Practice is based on purity of morality or moral conduct and purity of mind or concentration.

By cultivation and repeated practice of mindfulness one perceives the impermanence, the unsatistactoriness (dukkha) and the non-self (anatta) nature of the khandhas (mind and body).

This meditation is also called Vipassana meditation or Insight meditation Vipassana, which literally means seeing clearly, i.e seeing penetratingly with insight wisdom, the above three characteristics of the khandha aggregates.

In the Mahasatipatthana Sutta, the Buddha has given comprehensive instructions on the practice of Mindfulness meditation.

He began the discourse with this significant preamble: “Bhikkhus, this is the one and only way for the purification of the mind of beings for overcoming sorrow and lamentation; for the complete destruction of (physical) pain and (mental) distress; for the attainment of ariya magga and for the realization of Nibbana.

That only way is the practice of the four methods of steadfast mindfulness Satipatthana”. By this, we are to understand that it is only through Satipatthana that one can be liberated from Samsara and realize Nibbana.

The four Satipatthanas are mindfulness of the body (Kayanupassana), mindfulness of sensation (Vedananupassana), mindfulness of consciousness (Cittanupassana) and mindfulness of the dhamma (Dhammanupassana).

Mindfulness of the body is keeping one’s mind steadfastly on the body so as to perceive its true nature.

It consists of mindfulness of in-breathing and out-breathing (ana;ana), mindfulness of body movements and postures; having clear comprehension in one’s own actions (in eating, drinking, walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking, speaking, keeping silent, defacating and urinating: consideration of repulsiveness of the primary elements which constitute the body; and contemplation of nine kinds of corpses.

Mindfulness of sensation is keeping one’s mind steadfastly on sensation, which can be pleasant or unpleasant or neither pleasant nor unpleasant.

Mindfulness of consciousness is keeping one’s mind steadfastly on consciousness and its concomitants. Thus, the meditator should mindfully note the states of consciousness (or mind); whether it is accompanied by passion (raga) or not, whether it is accompanied by anger (dosa) or not, whether it is indolent, distracted, etc.

Mindfulness of the dhamma is keeping one’s mind steadfastly on dhamma, mental and physical phenomena.

By keeping one’s mind on the mental and physical phenomena one perceives that they are just phenomena without any entity or atta or soul.

Thus, should one meditate on the hindrances (nivaranas), the five aggregates, the seven factors of Englightenment (bojjhangas), and the Four Ariya Truths.

One who practices mindfulness meditation should observe, at least, the five moral precepts; he may also observe the eight precepts if he wishes.

In the meditation centers in Myanmar, the meditators are required to observe the eight precepts.

Besides, the yogi’s mind should not be too tense: it should be relaxed, having no ill feeling towards anyone.

When one decides to practice meditation, one should find a quiet, secluded place so that one’s mind might not be distracted.

It can be in a deep forest or under the foot of a tree or in a room in one’s own house or a meditation hall in the meditation center.

One should also choose the time for meditation, the time which will fit in with one’s work, the time when there will be the least possible disturbance or interference.

Night time, when the day’s work is done, is good time. A good meditation retreat is the best place for a beginner as he will be under close guidance of the instructor, in a place which is quiet and peaceful.

There, he will have much more time for meditation: both in the day and in the night.

Just a few words about meditation postures.

The Buddha allows four kinds of postures, walking, standing, sitting and lying down.

Sitting meditation is the most well-known and most common.

In doing this meditation one sits down cross-legged, keeping the body erect.

Then closing the eyes, the meditator sets up mindfulness, directing his mind towards the object of concentration.

One may practice all the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, kaya, vedana, citta and dhamma, in this posture.

Walking meditation is often practiced, alternately with sitting meditation: for example, walking preceding sitting or vice versa.

In this case, one cannot keep one’s eyes closed, but one keeps them half-closed.

One does not look straight, but also, do not bend too low; and look about four or five feet ahead.

Meditation can also be done while standing or lying down, depending on the decision of the instructor or of the meditator; the main thing is for the meditator to note mindfully all the time.

In practicing mindfulness, one needs to be diligent, comprehending and steadfastly mindful so that one may attain deep concentration which would lead one to Insight development.

In the Mahasatipatthana sutta we are told that the bhikkhu who keeps his mind steadfastly on the body, on sensation, on the mind and on the dhamma with diligence, comprehension and mindfulness perceives their impermanent, unsatisfactory and non-self-nature and thus keeps away covetousness and distress (domanasa) which would appear if he is not mindful.

When his concentration becomes stronger and deeper, he perceives the cause and actual appearance. The cause and actual dissolution of the physical aggregates, of sensation, of the mind or of the dhamma.

He now realizes that there is only the aggregates, of sensation, of the mind or of the dhamma.

He now realizes that there is only the aggregate of physical phenomena (without soul or atta), only sensation (without soul or atta); only the mind (without soul or atta).

Further, it becomes clear to him that mindfulness gives rise to the development of vipassana insights and to further mindfulness stage by stage.

He is not attached to anything with craving and wrong view, he no longer clings to any of the khandhas, that are continuously deteriorating.

Thus, the bhikkhu practices the four Methods of Mindfulness.

It may here be noted that towards the end of his discourse, the “Mahasatipatthana Sutta” the Buddha has said to this effect, that – “Whosoever practices these four methods of mindfulness in this manner for seven years,… for six years,… for five years,… for four years,… for three years,… for two years,… for one year… or, whosoever practices these four methods of mindfulness in this manner for seven months,… for six months,… for five months,… for four months,… for three months, … for two months,… for one month, … for half a month … or whosoever practices these four methods of mindfulness in this manner even only for seven days, one of two results is to be certainly expected in him: arahatship in this very existence, or if there were any trace of clinging left, the state of an Anagami, Non returner to the world of sense-existence.”

In conclusion, the Buddha says: “Because of these beneficial results, I have declared (at the beginning) thus: “Bhikkhus, this is the one and only way for the purification (of the mind) of beings for overvoming sorrow and lamentation, for the complete destruction of (physical) pain and (mental) distrers, for attainment of the Ariya Magga and for the realization of Nibbana.

That only way is the practice of the four methods of steadfast Mindfulness, Satipatthana.”

Thus, the Buddha points out to us the way to liberation from the Round of Rebirths.

Why One Should Seek Liberation

These are in short, the Buddha’s teaching on liberation. He teaches us why we, should and how we can get ourselves liberated from the round of rebirths (Samsara). All these teachings are to be found in the numerous discourses on liberation he had delivered throughout his lifetime ever since his attainment of Enlightenment.

First, he explained why we should seek liberation.

Why we should not be attached to and cling to our present existence and why we should not hanker after higher existences in the higher realms.

He shows us the undesireableness of all existences, all conditioned phenomena.

Soon after he gained Enlightement he breathed forth an exultant verse containing the words, “to be born again and again is dukkha”.

Again, in the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta delivered to the Group of Five Ascetics, he expounded the Four Ariya Truths.

Starting with the Truth of Dukkha (Suffering, unsatisfactoriness, ills-of-life, ect)

He says, “Rebirth (jati) is dukkha, and aging, sickness and death which invariably follow birth are also dukkha.

Life, indeed, is accompanied by grief, lamentation, pain, distress and despair.

In fact, all the aggregates which are the objects of clinging are dukkha, etc.

Besides, death itself is followed by new birth, aging and death, etc and thus, there is the prolongation of Samsara, and the vicious circle of suffering (dukkha).

In Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha strongly brings out the undesireableness of existences. He say to this effects: “Just as the tiniest bit of exereta, urine, saliva, pus or blood smells bad, so also is the shortest of existence bad; I have no praise for it, not even for that existence which only lasts for just a snapping of fingers”.

The Buddha further explains to us why existence is not to be desired. They are not desireable mainly because they are subject to impermanence, unsatisfactorness and are non-self. He has repeatedly made us see clearly these three characteristics in our khandha aggregates (mind-and-body), and in all conditioned things all around us.

He also enjoins us that the Truth of Dukkha must be fully comprehended. So, one should take heed of the Buddha’s words and try to see the Truth of Dukkha right now. Time will surely come when one may be rudely awakened to the reality of dukkha when faced with suffering and sorrow.

It may come to mind even with vengeance when an old man realizes that he is in extreme old age and close to death.

The Buddha has also shown us the Source or Origin of Dukkha in his exposition of the Ariya Truthe of the Origin of Dukkha (Dukkha Samudaya Ariya Sacca).

These same facts are also revealed in the Udana gath and in his exposition of the Theory of Dependent Origination, Paticcasamuppada and in several of his other discourses The factors that cause the arising of the mass of dukkha are none other than craving (tanha) and ignorance (avijja).

Unless these two factors are eliminated one will not be able to find the way to liberation.

So, one must eliminate them, or else, they will continue to generate further dukkha.

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Citta

The truth is different from what we always assumed. What we take for a person are only nāmas, mental phenomena, and rūpas, physical phenomena, that arise and fall away.

Nāma and rūpa are real in the ultimate sense, they are different from concepts such as person or animal.

Citta, consciousness, and cetasika, mental factor arising with the citta, are both nāma.

They experience different objects. It is not a self or a person who experiences something, it is citta that cognizes an object.

Citta experiences only one object and then it falls away to be succeeded by the next citta.

We may have thought that there is one consciousness that lasts, that can see, hear and think, but this is not so.

Only one citta arises at a time: at one moment a citta that sees arises, at another moment a citta that hears arises.

Each citta lasts only for an extremely short time and then it falls away.

The five senses and the mind are the doorways through which citta can cognize the different objects which present themselves.

Each citta experiences an object, in Pāli: ārammaṇa.

Knowing or experiencing an object does not necessarily mean thinking about it.

The citta which sees has what is visible as object; it is different from the cittas which arise afterwards, such as the cittas which know what it is that was perceived and which think about it.

The citta which hears (hearing-consciousness) has sound as its object.

Even when we are sound asleep and not dreaming, citta experiences an object.

There isn’t any citta without an object.

There are many different types of citta which can be classified in different ways.

Some cittas are kusala (wholesome), some are akusala (unwholesome).

Kusala cittas and akusala cittas are cittas which are cause; they can motivate wholesome or unwholesome deeds through body, speech or mind which are able to bring about their appropriate results.

Some cittas are the result of wholesome or unwholesome deeds, they are vipākacittas. Some cittas are neither cause nor result; they are kiriyacittas (sometimes translated as “inoperative”). Cittas can be classified by way of jāti (jāti literally means “birth” or “nature”). There are four jātis:

Kusala

Akusala

Vipāka

Kiriya

Both kusala vipāka (the result of a wholesome deed) and akusala vipāka (the result of an unwholesome deed) are one jāti, the jāti of vipāka. It is important to know which jāti a citta is.

We cannot develop wholesomeness in our life if we take akusala for kusala or if we take akusala for vipāka.

For instance, when someone speaks unpleasant words to us, the moment of experiencing the sound (hearing-consciousness) is akusala vipāka, the result of an unwholesome deed we performed ourselves.

The aversion which may arise very shortly afterwards is not vipāka, but it arises with akusala citta. Aversion or anger, dosa, can motivate unwholesome action or speech. We can learn to distinguish these moments from each other by realizing their different characteristics.

When we have understood that cittas both of ourselves and others arise because of conditions we shall be less inclined to dwell for a long time on someone else’s behavior.

In the ultimate sense there is no person to be blamed and no person who receives unpleasant results. In reality there are only citta, cetasika and rūpa that arise because of their own conditions.

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Citta and Cetasikas

Citta does not arise singly; it is always accompanied by cetasikas, mental factors.

Only one citta arises at a time and each citta is accompanied by several cetasikas.

Citta is the leader in cognizing an object and the accompanying cetasikas have each their own function while they assist citta in cognizing an object.

Citta may be of one of the four jātis of kusala, akusala, vipāka or kiriya. Cetasikas are of the same jāti as the citta they accompany.

Some cetasikas, such as feeling and remembrance or “perception” (saññā), accompany each citta, others do not.

Feeling, in Pāli: vedanā, is a cetasika which arises with every citta.

Citta only knows or experiences its object; it does not feel.

Feeling, vedanā, however, has the function of feeling.

Feeling is sometimes pleasant, sometimes unpleasant.

When we do not have a pleasant or an unpleasant feeling, there is still feeling: at that moment the feeling is neutral or indifferent.

Perception or remembrance, in Pāli: saññā, marks the object so that it can be recognized later on.

Whenever we remember something it is saññā, not self, which remembers.

It is saññā which, for example, remembers that this colour is red, that this is a house, or that this is the sound of a bird.

Contact, in Pāli: phassa, is another cetasika which arises with every citta; it “contacts” the object so that citta can experience it.

There are also types of cetasika which do not arise with every citta.

Unwholesome mental factors, akusala cetasikas, accompany only akusala cittas, whereas sobhana cetasikas, “beautiful” mental factors, accompany kusala cittas.

Among the cetasikas which can accompany akusala cittas or kusala cittas, some are roots, hetus.

A root or hetu is the foundation of the akusala citta or kusala citta, just as the roots are the foundation of a tree.

They give a firm support to the citta and cetasikas they arise together with.

There are three cetasikas which are unwholesome roots, akusala hetus: attachment (lobha), aversion (dosa) and ignorance (moha).

Akusala cittas may be rooted in moha and lobha, or in moha and dosa, or they may have moha as their only root.

Moha arises with each akusala citta. Moha is blindness, it does not know the danger of akusala; it is the root of all evil.

Akusala citta is impure and it leads to sorrow. At the moment of akusala citta there is no confidence in wholesomeness; one does not see that akusala citta is impure and harmful.

Whenever the citta is not intent on wholesomeness, we act, speak or think with akusala citta.

When the citta is kusala, there is confidence in wholesomeness. Confidence, or faith, saddhā, is a sobhana cetasika.

Each kusala citta is assisted by many sobhana cetasikas.

When we see the value of kusala, there are conditions for the arising of kusala citta.

Kusala citta is pure and it is capable of producing a pleasant result.

Defilements and wholesome qualities are cetasikas, they are non-self.

They are not listed just to be read and memorized, they are realities of daily life and they can be known as they are by being mindful of them.

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Rootless cittas

Each citta experiences an object. There is not only one type of citta, but there is a great diversity of cittas that experience objects.

If we want to know ourselves we should not merely know the moments of akusala cittas or kusala cittas but other moments as well.

Kusala cittas and akusala cittas are cittas that are cause, they can motivate good or evil deeds, and these deeds can produce their appropriate results later on.

Kusala cittas and akusala cittas are accompanied by cetasikas that are roots, hetus.

As we have seen, three of these hetus are akusala; they are: lobha (attachment), dosa (aversion) and moha (ignorance).

Three hetus are sobhana (beautiful); they are: alobha (greedlessness or generosity), adosa (non-hate or loving kindness) and amoha (paññā or wisdom).

The citta or cetasika which is accompanied by a hetu is sahetuka (“sa” means “with”).

For example, dosa-mūla-citta, citta rooted in dosa, is sahetuka; moha and dosa are the hetus which arise with dosa-mūla-citta.

There are also cittas that are rootless, ahetuka. There are many ahetuka cittas arising in a day. Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and the experience of tangible object through the bodysense are ahetuka vipākacittas.

Nobody can cause the arising of seeing, hearing or the other sense-cognitions; they are the results of kamma, a deed performed in the past.

An evil deed produces akusala vipākacitta and a good deed produces kusala vipākacitta.

Seeing that is akusala vipākacitta experiences an unpleasant object and seeing that is kusala vipākacitta experiences a pleasant object.

Of each of the five sense-cognitions (seeing, etc.) there are two kinds experiencing an object through one of the five sense-doors: one is ahetuka akusala vipāka and one is ahetuka kusala vipāka.

Thus, there are five pairs of ahetuka vipākacittas which arise depending on the five sense-doors. These five pairs are called in Pali: dvi-pañca-viññāṇa (two times five viññāṇa).

When a pleasant or an unpleasant object impinges on the eyesense, seeing-consciousness only experiences what appears through the eyes, there is no like or dislike yet of the object. Seeing-consciousness is an ahetuka vipākacitta.

Cittas which like or dislike the object arise later on; these are sahetuka cittas (arising with hetus).

Seeing is not the same as thinking of what is seen.

When one uses the word “seeing” one usually means: paying attention to the shape and form of something and knowing what it is, such as a person or a thing.

However, there must also be a kind of citta which merely sees visible object, and this citta does not know anything else.

What is seen we can call “visible object” or “colour”; what is meant is: what appears through the eyes.

Whenever we see, hear, smell, taste or experience tangible object through the bodysense, there are ahetuka vipākacittas before akusala cittas or kusala cittas arise.

The citta which dislikes the object may arise afterwards.

This citta is “sahetuka”, with hetus (roots); it is akusala citta rooted in dosa, aversion, and it is accompanied by unpleasant feeling.

Or the citta which likes the object may arise; this citta is also “sahetuka”, rooted in lobha, attachment, and it may be accompanied by pleasant feeling or by indifferent feeling.

We are inclined to think that the “five pairs” (dvi-pañca-viññāṇa), such as seeing or hearing, can occur at the same time as like or dislike of the object, but this is not so.

Different cittas arise at different moments and the feelings which accompany the cittas are different too; these realities arise each because of their own conditions and they are non-self.

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Feelings (part 1)

We think of ourselves as having happy feeling or unhappy feeling. We take feeling for something lasting and we take it for my feeling.

In reality feeling is a cetasika accompanying each and every citta. It arises with the citta it accompanies and then it falls away immediately.

Feeling experiences the same object as the citta it accompanies, but it is different from citta that is the leader in cognizing an object.

Feeling experiences the object in its own way, it experiences the flavour of the object.

There is no moment without feeling. Feelings are manifold and they can be classified in different ways. When there is not pleasant feeling or unpleasant feeling, there is indifferent feeling.

When mental feelings and bodily feelings are taken into account, feelings can be classified as fivefold:

pleasant bodily feeling (sukha)

painful bodily feeling (dukkha)

happy feeling (somanassa)

unhappy feeling (domanassa)

indifferent feeling (upekkhā)

Feeling is different as it accompanies cittas of the four jātis (classes) of kusala, akusala, vipāka or kiriya. Somanassa, happy feeling, can arise with cittas of all four jatis: with kusala citta, akusala citta, vipākacitta and kiriyacitta.

It is important to know of which jāti feeling is, otherwise we are misled by our feelings. When we have happy feeling, we may believe that this is kusala, but most of the time it accompanies akuala citta rooted in lobha, attachment.

When somanassa accompanies lobha-mūla-citta (citta rooted in attachment), somanassa is also akusala. There can be pleasant feeling when one likes a pleasant visible object, a beautiful sound, a fragrant odour, a delicious taste, a soft touch or an agreeable thought.

When we enjoy delicious food with pleasant feeling, that feeling is different from pleasant feeling arising when we appreciate someone else’s kusala.

In the latter case it is more refined and calm. There are many sobhana cetasikas accompanying kusala citta: calm, evenmindedness, confidence in kusala, mindfulness.

They all condition the pleasant feeling that is kusala.

Somanassa can accompany kusala citta, but it does not accompany each kusala citta.

When we perform dāna (generosity), observe sīla (morality) or apply ourselves to mental development, there can be somanassa or upekkhā, indifferent feeling, with the kusala citta.

When we give a present to someone else with pleasant feeling, we may think that there is one kind of feeling which lasts, but in reality, there are different moments of feeling accompanying different cittas.

There can be a moment of pure generosity accompanied by pleasant feeling, but many moments of attachment are bound to arise after the kusala cittas have fallen away.

We may be attached to the person we give to or to the thing we give, or we may expect something in return; we want to be liked by the person who receives our gift.

Such moments of attachment may be accompanied by somanassa. Somanassa which is kusala and somanassa which accompanies lobha are different kinds of somanassa arising closely one after the other, and it is difficult to distinguish one from the other.

It seems that there is one kind of somanassa and that it lasts. In reality there are many different moments of somanassa.

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Feelings (part 2)

Domanassa, unhappy feeling, arises only with cittas of the jāti which is akusala; it always arises with dosa-mūla-citta, citta rooted in aversion, and it does not arise with lobha-mū la-citta, citta rooted in attachment, nor with moha-mūla-citta, citta rooted in ignorance.

When we see someone else suffer, we have compassion and want to help him.

However, kusala cittas and akusala cittas arise closely one after the other.

We may be sad because of someone else’s suffering and then akusala citta rooted in dosa, aversion, arises. This is accompanied by unhappy feeling.

At such a moment there is no compassion, but we may not notice this.

Upekkhā, indifferent feeling, is different from somanassa and from domanassa; it is neither happy nor unhappy.

Upekkhā can arise with cittas of all four jātis, but it does not arise with every citta. Indifferent feeling can accompany lobha-mūla-citta.

When we walk or when we get hold of different things we use in our daily life, such as a pen or a book, there is bound to be clinging even when we do not feel particularly glad.

We cling to life and we want to go on living and receiving sense-impressions. Seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting which are vipākacittas experiencing a pleasant or unpleasant object, are always accompanied by indifferent feeling.

Often it is not known whether the object experienced by these cittas was pleasant or unpleasant, they fall away immediately.

When a pleasant or unpleasant tangible object is experienced through the bodysense, the body-consciousness, which is vipākacitta, is not accompanied by indifferent feeling but by pleasant bodily feeling or by painful bodily feeling.

The impact of tangible object on the bodysense is more intense than the impact of the other sense objects on the corresponding senses.

Pleasant bodily feeling and painful bodily feeling are nāma.

We can call them “bodily feeling” because they are conditioned by impact on the bodysense.

When, for example, temperature which is just the right amount of heat or cold impinges on the bodysense the body-consciousness which experiences it is accompanied by pleasant bodiIy feeling.

Body-consciousness is vipākacitta and in this case kusala vipākacitta.

When it experiences a pleasant object, it is the result of kusala kamma, a wholesome deed, and when it experiences an unpleasant object, it is the result of akusala kamma, an unwholesome deed.

We attach great importance to feeling, we let ourselves be carried away by the feelings which arise on account of pleasant or unpleasant objects we experience through the senses.

The Buddha classified feeling as a separate khandha because people cling very much to feeling.

We are enslaved to our feelings, but they are only realities which arise because of the appropriate conditions and do not last.

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The Seven Books of the Abhidhamma

The Abhidhamma consists of the following seven books:

Dhammasangaṇī (translated as “Buddhist Psychological Ethics”)

Vibhaṅga (translated as “ Book of Analysis”)

Dhātukathā (Translated as “Discourse on Elements”)

Puggalapaññatti (Translated as “A Designation of Human Types”)

Kathā vatthu (Translated as “Points of Controversy”)

Yamaka (the Book of Pairs, not translated into English)

Paṭṭhāna (Translated in part as “Conditional Relations” )

The Dhammasaṅganī begins with the Mātika, a table of contents or matrix, which is an introduction. It is more extensive than a table of contents. It is a survey of the contents of the first book and can even serve as an introduction to all seven books.

The Mātikā begins with: kusala dhammā, akusala dhammā, avyākata dhammā. In these three terms all that is real has been contained.

In avyākata dhammā, indeterminate dhammas, are included all realities that are not kusala or akusala, namely: vipākacittas, kiriyacittas, rūpas and nibbāna.

The whole Tipiṭaka is directed towards the liberation from the cycle of birth and death through insight. This appears also in the Mātika.

The Dhammasaṅganī, the first Book of the Abhidhamma

The Dhammasaṅganī, begins, after the Mātika, with a description of mahā-kusala citta accompanied by paññā.

It enumerates all the sobhana cetasikas assisting this citta while they accompany it just for a moment.

It refers to mahā-kusala citta experiencing an object, be it visible object, sound, odour, flavour, tangible object or dhamma object.

This points to daily life. Time and again citta experiences an object through one of the six doors.

The mahā-kusala citta is accompanied by the cetasikas that always accompany citta, the “universals”, such as contact, feeling or remembrance, saññā, as well as by the “particulars”, pakinnakas, cetasikas that accompany many cittas but not all.

Then follows a list of all the sobhana cetasikas necessary for the arising of even one moment of kusala citta of the sense sphere.

For example, the cetasika confidence or faith, saddhā, always has to accompany kusala citta. If there is no confidence in kusala, kusala citta could not arise. There have to be non-attachment and non-aversion.

When we perform dāna or observe sīla we are not selfish, we are not thinking of our own pleasure and comfort. There is calm with each kusala citta, at such a moment there is no agitation. There has to be sati which is non-forgetful of kusala.

Sobhana cetasikas are necessary so that mahā-kusala citta with paññā can arise just for one extremely brief moment and perform its function, and then citta and cetasikas fall away together.

The cetasikas condition the citta by way of conascence-condition and by several other conditions. Thus, we cannot make kusala arise at will, it has no possessor; there is no one who can direct its arising. It arises when the right conditions are present and then it falls away immediately; nobody can cause it to last.

All the sobhana cetasikas that fall away are accumulated from moment to moment so that there are conditions for the arising again of kusala citta. We shall see that several cetasikas are listed more than once under different aspects, such as understanding as faculty, or as power.

The list ends with: sampajañña (sati and pañña), samatha, vipassanā, paggāha (grasp, which is the faculty of energy), avikkhepa (balance, self-collectedness, another word for ekaggata cetasika, one-pointedness or concentration). Thus we see that these lists are not a mere summing up, but that they point to the development of right understanding of realities.

The Vibhaṅga, the Second Book of the Abhidhamma

The second book of the Abhidhamma is the Vibhaṅga, the Book of Analysis, and its commentary is the “Sammoha Vinodanī” , translated as the “Dispeller of Delusion”.

The Vibhaṅga gives an explanation of the khandhas (aggregates), āyatanas (sense bases), dhātus (elements), and several other subjects.

It gives explanations according to the Suttanta method, by way of conventional terms, and the Abhidhamma method, by way of ultimate realities.

It also has sections of interrogation. The aim is, as is the case of the whole of the Abhidhamma, to develop right understanding of nāma and rūpa as they appear in daily life.

The Dhātu-Kathā, the Third Book

The third book of the Abhidhamma is the Discourse on Elements, Dhātu-Kathā.

This book deals with all realities, classified with reference to the khandhas, the āyatanas (translated as bases) and the dhātus, elements.

It deals with realities that are ‘included’ (sangahita), or not included (asangahita), and this pertains to the different classifications of dhammas.

It deals with dhammas that are associated (sampayutta) or dissociated (vippayutta). Only nāma can be associated with another nāma, such as citta and cetasikas.

Rūpa does not have such a close association with nāma. The charts added by the translator makes the reading of these classifications easier. But we should not forget that all these classifications pertain to the reality appearing at this moment.

The khandhas are citta, cetasika and rūpa arising and falling away at this moment.

When seeing arises, there is the khandha of consciousness, viññāṇakkhandha, and there are the accompanying cetasikas: the khandha of feeling, vedanākkhandha, saññā khandha, saṅkhārakkhandha (including other cetasikas apart from feeling and saññā), and there is eyesense which is rūpakkhandha.

As to the āyatanas, there are six internal āyatanas and six external ā yatanas.

The internal āyatanas are the five senses and mind-base, manāyatana, which includes all cittas. The external āyatanas are the five sense objects and dammāyatana, which includes cetasikas, subtle rūpas and nibbāna.

When we see, hear or think we believe that a self-experiences different objects, but in reality there is the association of the internal āyatana and the external āyatana, the objects “outside”.

As to the elements, these can be classified in different ways, and in this book they are classified as eighteen: the five senses, the five sense objects, the “five pairs” of sense-cognitions experiencing the five sense-objects (one of each pair being kusala vipākacitta and one akusala vipākacitta), and in addition: mind-element (mano-dhātu), dhamma-dhātu and mind-consciousness- element (mano-viññāṇa-dhātu).

Mind-element and mind-consciousness-element comprise cittas other than the sense-cognitions. Dhamma-dhātu comprises cetasikas, the subtle rū pas (sukhuma rūpas) and nibbāna.

In all these classifications concepts such as person or thing have not been included. Only paramattha dhammas have been included. We may think of concepts, but these are not real in the ultimate sense. Thinking itself is citta, it is a reality.

If there is no understanding of realities as just elements, we shall continue to cling to the wrong view of self who sees, hears or thinks. Seeing is a dhātu that experiences an object, it is nāma. Visible object is rūpa, it is included in rūpakkhandha. Visible object or colour does not know anything, it is dissociated (vippayutta) from nāma, it is completely different from seeing.

Dhātus are not mere names, they have characteristics that can be directly experienced when they appear. We are reminded by the Dhātukathā that the teaching on elements pertains to realities appearing at this moment which are anattā, devoid of a self.

Puggalapaññatti, the fourth Book

The fourth book of the Abhidhamma is the Puggalapaññatti (Translated as “A Designation of Human Types”).

This book deals with the cittas and the different accumulated tendencies of individuals. Some people are easily inclined to anger, whereas others are full of mettā.

We read about an angry person: ‘What sort of person is angry? What then is anger? That which is anger, and the state of being angry, hatred, hating, hatefulness, malice, the act of being malicious, maliciousness, hostility, enmity, rudeness, abruptness, resentment of heart- this is called anger.

He who has not got rid of this anger is said to be an angry person.”

In this definition we read about the “state of being angry”, and this teaches us that anger is not a person, that it is a dhamma which is conditioned.

We think of an angry person, but anger, after it has arisen, is gone completely, it does not last. The contents of this book are the evil and good qualities of individuals, but actually, these are cetasikas, mental factors arising because of conditions.

Thus, we are constantly reminded that these are not persons, they are impermanent and not self.

We read about a person who is guarded as to the sense-doors. There is no person who is guarding the sense-doors, but the realities of sati and paññā are guarding the sense-doors.

When there is mindfulness and understanding of visible object appearing through the eye-door, of sound appearing through the ear-door, of the other sense objects appearing through the other sense-doors, one is not enslaved by these objects but one learns to see these realities as they are: impermanent and non-self. At such moments there is no opportunity for akusala cittas rooted in lobha, dosa and moha. Some persons are able to attain jhāna, others do not.

Kathāvatthu, the Fifth Book

The Fifth book of the Abhidhamma is the Kathāvatthu (Translated as “Points of Controversy”).

Its commentary has been translated as “The Debates Commentary”. In the teachings the term person is used in figurative speech, in conventional sense, but in the ultimate sense there is no person.

We read about speculative questions with regard to the Dependent Origination, the four Truths, kamma and result, emancipation, arahats, the future and the present, destinies, impermanence, jhāna attainments, insight and many other subjects.

Yamaka, the Sixth Book of the Abhidhamma

The Sixth Book of the Abhidhamma is the ’Yamaka’, the Book of Pairs. This book consists of questions and answers about subjects such as the roots (mūla), the khandhas, the āyatanas, the dhātus, the four noble truths, the conditions and the anusayas, latent tendencies.

These questions and answers can correct misunderstandings that may arise about the terms used in the scriptures. For instance, one may think that with regard to the first noble Truth, the Truth of dukkha, dukkha is the same as unhappy feeling.

Dukkha is often translated as sorrow and this is misleading. We learn that the Truth of dukkha does not only refer to painful feeling but to all phenomena that arise because of conditions and fall away.

Since they are impermanent, they cannot be of any refuge and are therefore dukkha. It can also take as object the feelings that accompany kusala citta, vipākacitta and kiriyacitta of the sense-sphere.” in the commentary:

The Paṭṭhāna, the seventh book of the Abhidhamma. The “Paṭṭhāna” describes in detail all possible relations between phenomena. There are twenty-four classes of conditions.

Each reality in our life can only occur because of a concurrence of different conditions which operate in a very intricate way. These conditions are not abstractions; they operate now, in our daily life.

What we take for our mind and our body are mere elements which arise because of their appropriate conditions and are devoid of self. We should consider the conditions for the bodily phenomena which arise and fall away all the time.

At the first moment of our life kamma produced the heart-base and other rūpas together with the rebirth-consciousness, and throughout our life kamma continues to produce the heartbase and the sense-bases.

Not only kamma, but also citta, heat and nutrition produce rūpas of the body.

The cittas which arise are dependent on many different conditions. We tend to forget that seeing is only a conditioned reality and that visible object is only a conditioned reality, and therefore we are easily carried away by sense impressions.

Each citta experiences an object, be it a sense object or a mental object, and the object conditions citta by object-condition, ārammaṇa-paccaya. It is beneficial to remember that seeing, hearing and the other sense-cognitions are vipā kacittas, cittas which are results of kamma. They arise at their appropriate bases, vatthus, which are also produced by kamma. Hearing is conditioned by sound which impinges on the earsense.

Both sound and ear sense are rūpas which also arise because of their own conditions and fall away. Thus, hearing, the reality which they condition, cannot last either; it also has to fall away. Each conditioned reality can exist just for an extremely short moment.

When we understand this it will be easier to see that there is no self who can exert control over realities. How could we control what falls away immediately? When we move our hands, when we walk, when we laugh or cry, when we are attached or worried, there are conditions for such moments.

Cittas succeed one another without any interval. The citta that has just fallen away conditions the succeeding citta and this is by way of proximity-condition, anantara-paccaya.

Seeing arises time and again and after seeing has fallen away akusala cittas usually arise.

In each process of cittas there are, after the sense-cognitions have fallen away, several moments of kusala cittas or akusala cittas, called javana-cittas.

These experience the object in a wholesome way or unwholesome way. There are usually seven javana-cittas and each preceding javana-citta conditions the following one by way of repetition-condition, āsevana-paccaya.

We cling to visible object, or we have wrong view about it, taking it for a being or a person that really exists. Defilements arise because they have been accumulated and they are carried on, from moment to moment, from life to life.

They are a natural decisive support-condition, pakatūpanissaya-paccaya, for akusala citta arising at this moment.

The study of conditions helps us to have more understanding of the “Dependent Origination”, the conditional arising of phenomena which keep beings in the cycle of birth and death.

Each link of the Dependent Origination conditions the following one by way of several types of conditions. It is necessary to know which conditioning factors are conascent with the dhamma they condition and which are not.

The “Paṭṭhāna” helps us to understand the deep underlying motives for our behaviour and the conditions for our defilements. It explains, for example, that kusala, wholesomeness, can be the object of akusala citta, unwholesome citta.

On account of generosity which is wholesome, attachment, wrong view or conceit, which are unwholesome realities, can arise.

The “Paṭṭhāna” also explains that akusala can be the object of kusala, for example, when akusala is considered with insight. This is an essential point which is often overlooked.

If one thinks that akusala cannot be object of awareness and right understanding, the eightfold Path cannot be developed.

Conclusion

All the texts of the Tipiṭaka , including the Abhidhamma, are not meant merely for intellectual study or memorizing, they are directed to the practice, the development of vipassanā.

All the classifications of cittas, cetasikas and rūpas are terse reminders of the truth, they are an exhortation to develop understanding of what appears at this moment.

This is the development of the eightfold Path leading to the eradication of all defilements.

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Dependent Origination (Paticcasamuppāda)

The Law of Dependent Origination is one of the most important teachings of the Buddha, and it is also very profound. The Buddha has often expressed His experience of Enlightenment in one of two ways, either in terms of having understood the Four Noble Truths, or in terms of having understood the nature of the dependent origination. However, more people have heard about the Four Noble Truths and can discuss it than the Law of Dependent Origination, which is just as important.

The fundamental principle at work in dependent origination is that of cause and effect. In dependent origination, what actually takes place in the causal process is described in detail.

In the Dhamma, we are interested to know how the principle of dependent origination is applied to the problem of suffering and rebirth. The issue is how dependent origination can explain why we are still going round in Samsara, or explains the problem of suffering and how we can be free from suffering. Studying (DO) is to find a key crossroad of criss-crossing routes (DO) to complete cessation of all human sufferings.

Dependent Origination (Paticcasamuppāda) is a central doctrine of Buddhism. A proper understanding of Dependent Origination (DO) is essential. It is an integral part of a good and through Knowledge of Theravada Buddhism.

All embryos Buddha, on the night of their Supreme Enlightenment, first investigate into DO and thereafter, practice meditation of mindfulness on five aggregates that are object of all clinging and attain their Supreme Enlightenment. After their attainment of Buddha hood, all Buddha engage themselves in the reflection on DO and the contemplation of Fruition. This clearly illustrates the importance of DO.

DO is indeed very deep and profound. Even the Exquisitor (Commentator) Ashin Maha Buddhaghosa expressed his feeling of inadequacy and trepidation when he came to dealing with the difficult subject of DO in his book “Path of Purity”. He says: “In writing a commentary on DO, I feel like a man who has stepped into the deep ocean. It is far too deep for me”, Venerable Ashin Ananda was also admonished by Lord Buddha, because Ashin Ananda said that DO seemed to be rather shallow to him.

In this DO route there are two orders as the Normal Order which is going round and round in rebirths (saṃsāra) and the Reverse Order that is cutting off the vicious circle (Enlightenment).

Its forward order concerns the first two noble truths, the nature of a living being and rebirth, while its reverse order encompasses the other two truths.

Dependent Origination (DO) in the reverse order:

1. Complete cessation of ignorance, ceases Kamma actions;

2. cessation of Kamma actions, ceases rebirth-linking consciousness;

3. cessation of rebirth-linking consciousness, cease mind and body;

4. cessation of mind and body, cease six sense bases;

5. cessation of six sense bases, ceases contact;

6. cessation of contact, ceases feeling;

7. cessation of feeling, cease craving;

8. cessation of craving, ceases clingings;

9. cessation of clingings, ceases rebirth-producing Kamma (Kamma Bhava);

10. cessation of rebirth-producing Kamma, ceases rebirth;

11. cessation of rebirth, cease old age, death, sorrow, mourning, bodily pain, grief and despair.

In this way the entire mass of suffering ceases by attainment of Path and Fruition Knowledge.

Lord Buddha analyses D.O from different perspectives. In other words, Lord Buddha employs different methods of analyzing. D.O. Basically, there are 7 ways:

(1) 2 roots/ origins

(2) 12 features/ factors/ links

(3) 3 time spans

(4) 20 incidents

(5) 3 connections

(6) 4 layers; and

(7) 3 rounds in DO routes.

To begin with, and very briefly, I will go through each of the twelve factors of dependent origination to give an overall picture of what it is about.

The 12 factors of Dependent Origination namely are

1. Ignorance (Avijjā)

2. Kammic action (Saṅkhāra)

3. Rebirth linking consciousness (Viññāna)

4. Mind and body (Nāmarupa)

5. 6 bases (Saḷayatana)

6. contact (Phassa)

7. feeling (Vedanā)

8. craving (Taṇhā)

9. clinging (Upādāna)

10. Rebirth producing kamma or becoming (Kammabhava)

11. Rebirth (Jāti)

12. Old age/ death (Jarā/ maraṇa)

Two main roots are ignorance (avijjā) and craving (tanhā). By the destruction of these roots, the round ceases. The explanations about twelve factors and are divided into three periods of time (past, present, future) and linked each other.

Its forward order concerns the first two noble truths, the nature of a living being and rebirth, while its reverse order encompasses the other two truths.

According to the Lord Buddha, Ignorance means Ignorance or not realizing the four Noble Truths. At the mundane level, it means not knowing truths and not knowing sense objects and things as they are.

There is one statement by Lord Buddha that ignorance is a starting point of DO. There is the cause to beget ignorance. Four maladies (Four āsavas) are a cause and even a chain of causes that beget ignorance.

Lord Buddha expounded that ignorance has a chain of causes and its origin.

The origin of ignorance is five hindrances in Suttanta Pitaka. Lord Buddha lists 5 hindrances, but in Abhidhamma Pitaka, Lord Buddha lists 6 hindrances, the sixth hindrances being “ignorance” i.e.

(i) craving for sensual pleasures;

(ii) hatred;

(iii) sloth and torpor;

(iv) distraction and remorse;

(v) doubt;

(vi) ignorance.

The origin of five hindrances is threefold sinful action.

The origin of threefold sinful action is not guarding at the six sense doors.

The origin of not guarding at the six sense doors is non-practising of mindfulness and reasoning.

The origin of non-practising of mindfulness and reasoning is inappropriate (wrongful) consideration.

The origin of inappropriate consideration is the lack of confidence.

The origin of the lack of confidence is not listening to sermons and counsel of respectable persons of high morality and wisdom.

The origin of not listening to sermons and counsel of respectable persons of high morality and wisdom is non-association with such persons.

There one thing that it is not because ignorance has no cause. It does have a chain of causes. It is only that ignorance is the first in the sequential order because it is the key crossroad; it is the turning point that if you follow the right route leads you to the exit or can, if you choose the wrong route, send you back into the tangled network of the maze. That is why ignorance is placed find on the requested order.

Kammic action means all moral and immoral action performed by us. The term includes all 29 types of consciousness (12 immoral consciousnesses + 8 Great moral consciousnesses + 5 Fine Material moral consciousnesses + 4 Immaterial moral consciousnesses) complete with 52 mental factors.

Rebirth linking consciousness means resultant consciousness that can perform as Rebirth linking consciousness. The term includes 19 types of resultant consciousness (8 Great resultant consciousnesses + 5 Fine Material resultant consciousnesses + 4 Immaterial resultant consciousnesses + 2 inquiring consciousnesses accompanied by indifferent feeling.

By extended calculation method, rebirth-linking consciousness (Viññāna) includes all 89 types of consciousness. This is what Lord Buddha expounds in the Book of Discourse on Elements (Dhātukathā).

Mind and body means mind and body at the time of conception. Consciousness produces mind and matter. Therefore, with the arising of rebirth-consciousness, mind and matter also arise.

Dependent upon mind and matter the six sense bases arises: eye base, ear base, nose base, tongue base, body base, and mind base. These sense-bases are the doors through which the processes of consciousness occur.

We will now deal with contact, which is conditioned by the six senses. Contact occurs between 6 sense bases and 6 types of external sense objects. The contact between a sense organ and the corresponding sense-objects is called phassa.

Feeling means enjoying the 6 types of external sense objects. The impact on the sense-organs leads to feelings, which may be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral according to the nature of the sense-object.

If the object is beautiful, pleasant feeling arises. If is ugly, we have unpleasant feeling. The feeling is neutral if the object is ordinary. Neutral feeling does not cause any comment, whether favourable or unfavourable. It is not even recognized as a feeling, though it is accepted by the ego. In fact, feelings have nothing to do with the ego or self, but are aspects of the mental process stemming from sense-contact.

Craving means lust or greed on enjoying the sense objects. Because of pleasant or unpleasant feeling, craving (Taṇhā) arises. It craves for sensual objects that one lacks or for more of the objects that one has already.

For the six sense-objects there are six kinds of craving. These six cravings may mean just craving for sensual pleasures (kamataṇhā), or may be associated with craving for existence (bhavataṇhā), which implies eternalism. Craving is also linked with desire for non-existence (vibhavataṇhā).

So, for each of the six sense objects, there are three kinds of craving (kamataṇhā, bhavataṇhā and vibhavataṇhā). These can be summarized in just three groups: craving for sensuality, craving for existence and craving for non-existence.

Craving for sensual pleasure, is focused on sensual objects and sensual realm. Craving for existence is based on the eternity-belief. It assumes the permanence of living beings. Craving for non-existence means the desire for the cessation of the life-stream after death.

Each of these three craving stems from the failure to realize impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self through the introspection of feelings.

Dependent on craving, clinging (attachment) (Upādāna) arises. The term upādāna is a compound of upā = intense, extreme, and adāna = grasp, take. Thus it means to grasp firmly, or intense, obsessive craving.

There are four kinds of clinging, namely,

1. Clinging to sensual pleasure;

2. Clinging to wrong view;

3. Clinging to wrong practices of purification; and

4. Clinging to the notions of the existence of self (worng view of the existence of self).

All these attachments (clinging) are undoubtedly stemmed from craving. Hence the Buddha’s expounds “Dependent on craving, attachment arises,” So, craving is the cause and attachment is the effect.

Attachment leads to becoming (bhāva), of which there are two kinds: kammabhava and upapattibhava. Kammabhava means the kamma that leads to rebirth. In short, kammabhava is the wholesome or unwholesome volition that leads to rebirth.

Upapattibhava means the aggregates of existence that result from kamma. It comprises consciousness, mind and matter, sense-bases, contact, and feeling.

Rebirth occurs in the human, celestial or lower realms because of wholesome or unwholesome kamma. Rebirth producing kamma has as it were, kammic code numbers like genetic code numbers.

Aging, disease, and death are inevitable as long as rebirth takes place. Because of old age /death occurs sorrow (soka), lamentation (parideva), bodily pain (dukkha), grief (domanassa) and despair (upāyāsa) as its consequential effects.

I would like to stress here that (DO) is very much like a maze and how to find a key crossroad, such a key crossroad will be a fork of two routes, one route leading to the exit of the maze and another route, if you go in the wrong direction, sending you back into the tangled network of maze.

It is like difficult to find a way out of the maze. It is much, much more difficult to find an escape route from the maze of (DO).

Insight (cessation of ignorance) is the key crossroad and likes also a right route for a group of people who have lost their way in a wild jungle. At long last, one very intelligent man finds the key crossroad and the route that will take them out of the dangerous jungle to the Golden City of wealth and happiness, which is their destination.

The leader shows his followers the way out of the jungle to the Golden City. Lord Buddha may be likened to the leader in this parable and the beings are his followers. The wild jungle with a large complicated network of criss-crossing routes is D.O

Our experience with the phenomenal world is very much like a dream.

When dreaming, one is experiencing happy moments and unhappy moments.

Then, one gradually awakens. One may be half awakened and half dreaming. Finally, one is fully awakened. He is now a man, enjoying full peace of mind, entirely liberated and free from all illusion.

In this analogy, not realizing that one is dreaming is ignorance of 4 Noble Truths. Consequently, he gets himself involved in the dream, and does certain actions (Kammic actions).

So long as he is involved or so long as he is drifting in the dream, the dream will continue.

His such involvement in the dream and the continuation of the dream clearly explain Kammic actions (saṅkhāra) and the arising of rebirth-linking consciousness (viññāna) (the First Connection).

As the dream goes on, other links will also arise accordingly.

As he drifts through the dream, he enjoys and develops a liking or attachment for the dreaming experience. This will prolong the dream, and take him into a new dream story. Such enjoyment or liking or attachment is similar to the clinging.

The prolongation of the dream or beginning of a new dream story is similar to the arising of rebirth-producing kamma and rebirth (Third Connection.)

Dependent Origination encompasses two life-cycles, the anterior life-cycle and the posterior life-cycle. The anterior cycle begins with ignorance as its main source and end with feeling, while the posterior cycle begins with craving and ends with aging and death.

In the anterior cycle, ignorance and mental formations is the past life lead to rebirth, while in the posterior cycle, craving, attachment, and becoming cause rebirth in the future.

The two cycles show how a person’s lives are linked through cause and effect.

Again, ignorance and mental formations are two links in the past life, the links from consciousness to becoming concern the present life, while birth, aging, and death are the links in the future. Thus the doctrine refers to three periods.

There also twenty factors are involved in the psychophysical process: five causes in the past, five effects in the present, five causes in the present and five effects in the future.

There are four groups of factors are involved in the chain of causation: the first group of causes in the past, the second group of effects in the present, the third group of cause in the present, and the fourth group of effects in the future. They may also be translated as layers.

These four groups have three connections.

(1) The connection between the past cause and the present effect, with mental formations as the cause and consciousness as the effect.

(2) The connection between the present cause and the present effect, with feeling as the cause and craving as the effect.

(3) The connection between the present cause and the future effect, with becoming as the cause and birth as the effect.

The doctrine of Dependent Origination deals with three cycles or rounds (vaṭṭas): defilements, kamma, and resultants.

- The first cycle comprises ignorance, desire, and attachment;

- The second comprises mental formations and becoming; and

- The third comprises consciousness, mind and matter, sense-bases, contact, and feeling.

- Third cycle leads again to the cycle of defilements, which gives rise to the cycle of kamma, and so on without end.

The three cycles drive the saṃsāric round of suffering. Saṃsāra means the continuum of the psychophysical process occurring in a cause-effect relationship.

If we wish to stop the threefold cycle, we must remove its cause – the cycle of defilements. Defilements originate with seeing, hearing, etc., and so we must practice mindfulness to prevent them from arising.

So, you should try to overcome defilements through mindfulness of psychophysical processes arising at the six sense-doors.

In this way you can destroy the spokes of the wheel of life and keep your mind always pure. Eventually you may become arahants and earn the glorious title of Araham.

In conclusion, Understanding the Law of Dependent Origination, how because of one thing something else arises, we can begin to break the chain of conditioning. When pleasant things arise, we don’t cling. When unpleasant things arise, we don’t condemn. And when neutral things arise, we’re not forgetful.

The Buddha said that the way of forgetfulness is the way of death. And that the way of wisdom and awareness is the path to the deathless. We are free to break this chain, to free ourselves from conditioned reactions. It takes a powerful mindfulness in every moment not to allow feelings to generate desire.

When there’s ignorance in the mind, feeling conditions desire. If there’s something pleasant, we want it; something unpleasant, we desire to get rid of it. But if instead of ignorance in the mind there is wisdom and awareness, then we experience feeling but don’t compulsively or habitually grasp or push away. If the feelings are pleasant, we experience them mindfully without clinging.

If unpleasant, we experience them mindfully without condemning. No longer do feelings condition desire; instead, there is mindfulness, detachment, letting go. When there is no desire, there’s no grasping; without grasping, there’s no volitional activity of becoming. If we are not generating that energy, there’s no rebirth, no disease, no old age, no death. We become free. No longer driven on by ignorance and desire, the whole mass of suffering is brought to an end.

Every moment of awareness is a hammer stroke on this chain of conditioning. Striking it with the force of wisdom and awareness, the chain gets weaker and weaker until it breaks. What we are doing here is penetrating into the truth of the Law of Dependent Origination, and freeing our minds from it.

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Explanation about the Four Noble Truths

The four Noble Truths also known as the Wheel of Law (Dhamma cakka), which forms the central theme of the title is closely connected with the world system or the Universe.

In the concluding part of the Discourse on the Wheel of Law (Dhamma cakkapavattana Sutta), it is mentioned that, upon the completion of the exposition of the Discourse on the Wheel of Law, there appeared light throughout many world systems and that those world systems trembled.

It is true that the first sermon or Discourse on the Wheel of Law has illuminated with the light of the Lord Buddha teachings this world shrouded in darkness prior to the proclamations of the first sermon. Hence, the title is named as the Light of the Universe.

Lord Buddha expounds his doctrines is so systematic and well organized, it is quite easy to summarize and take out the essence from them, thanks to then amazing methods. All teachings of Lord Buddha can be summarized into a single sermon, a single stanza and a single word.

A single sermon that epitomizes all the teachings of Lord Buddha is the First Sermon (the Wheel of Law – Dhammacakkapavattana suttanta)

A single stanza that epitomizes all the teachings of Lord Buddha is:

“To refrain from all evils;

to perform all meritorious deeds and

to purify one’s mind,

these are the teachings of all Buddhas.”

This is one of the brief expositions of the noble practice (Pātimok) by Lord Buddha.

The last words, uttered by Lord Buddha just before He entered Pārinibbana, were;

“All conditioned states (subject to the law of change) are of the nature of passing away. Exercise Mindfulness and carry on until you accomplish your ultimate objectives”.

In these last words of his, Lord Buddha summarizes all teachings of his.

These last words of Lord Buddha, in effect, boil down to a single word “Mindfulness” or “Right Mindfulness”.

A single word, Right mindfulness encompasses all important directives.

Hence, its name is the wheel of Law.

The three fundamental desires of all living beings including human beings are the desires of seek;

1. The eternal, permanent, ever-lasting and changeless realities (in contrast to ever-lasting states in this mundane phenomenal world)

2. Sublime, tranquil bliss or well beings (in contrast to crude, vulgar sensual pleasures) and

3. The ultimate realities (in contract to shadowy, illusory conditioned states in this mundane phenomenal world).

All living beings are striking to fulfill their fundamental desires of theirs. But, in so doing, they have lost their way because they are misled by the three deceptions. They are

(1) Deception of conception,

(2) Deception of consciousness, and

(3) Deception of wrong view

The three deceptions are like coloured spectacles. Worldly beings under the influence of three deceptions are like those persons wearing the spectacles of green, blue and yellow colours, respectively.

The actual scenery in the outside world may look hot and dry, hostile and unappealing, ugly and disgusting.

But a person, wearing the green colour spectacles, will think that the scenery is last and green.

A person, wearing the blue colour spectacles, will think that the scenery is pleasant and peaceful.

A person, wearing the golden colour spectacles, will think that the scenery looks golden and attractive.

In the same way, we worldly beings (puttujjanas), looking through the coloured spectacles of deceptions (vippallāsas), see things in this phenomenal world differently, but not as they really are.

Because we are misled by the three types of deceptions, we develop the following misconceptions:-

(1) misconception that takes impermanent phenomena to be permanent;

(2) misconception that takes suffering to be happiness;

(3) misconception that takes non-self to be self; and

(4) misconception that takes unbeautiful, disgusting things to be beautiful.

These three types of deceptions or 12 types of deceptions by extended calculation ( 3 deceptions multiplied by 4 misconceptions) are deceiving us.

In other words, we are the victims, inflicted by the aforementioned twelve types of deceptions.

We are like the travelers of Saṃsāra (cycle of rebirths).

Our intended destination is the Golden City of Tranquility, Peace and Happiness.

We are misled by the twelve types of deceptions, and we have lost our way in the dangerous wilderness.

In order to reach our intended destination, we must cure ourselves of three deceptions, and then find the right path that will lead us to our destination.

Only when we are taking the right path, shall we be able to reach our desired destination of the Golden City.

The right path here indeed refers to the Eightfold Noble Path.

It is imperative that we realize the Four Noble Truths though the completion of the execution of the Eightfold Noble Path.

For this reason, I should like to explain here about the Four Noble Truths beginning with an in-depth analysis of the fundamental principles that underlie the Four Noble Truths.

The first sermon (The Wheel of law) delivered by Lord Buddha after his attainment of Buddhahood.

It is not that Gotama Buddha alone has done this. As a matter of fact, all Buddhas invariably deliver as there first sermon the Discourse on the Wheel of Law which is indeed the epitome of all the teachings of Buddhas.

The Discourse the Wheel of Law is indeed the Four Noble Truths.

The Four Noble Truths can be compared to the hub of a wheel.

In fact, the Four Noble Truths is nothing but a problem-solving methodology in its most advanced, sophisticated and subtle form.

It is also an expose of the four fundamental ethical principles.

All conscious and purposive actions of all living beings are governed by the four fundamental principles of problem solving:-

(1) identification or awareness of the problem;

(2) finding out the cause of the problem;

(3) knowing the solution to the problem; and

(4) executing the solution to the problem.

Perhaps, Lord Buddha is very much like to the best physician. The Four Noble Truth is very much like to the physician’s diagnosis and prescription of the remedy for the patient.

Firstly – to diagnose the disease.

Secondly – to find out the cause of the disease.

Thirdly – to remove the cause of the disease.

Fourthly – the remedy to the patient.

Knowing the truth of suffering is like the physician to disease.

Investigating the truth of origin is like examine the origin of disease.

Truth of cessation of suffering is like decision by physician to remove the cause of the disease.

Path leading to the Cessation of suffering is like the remedy.

Truth of Suffering

In order to take this ultimate question, one must turn one’ investigation deep into the one’s mind and body, one’s very life, one’s very existence, this phenomenal world itself.

Visible symptoms – birth, old age, disease, death, association with those one does not like and separation from those one loves – tell us that something is seriously wrong with our lives and that our lives i.e. the five aggregates or mind and body in short, are fatally flawed, diseased and undesirable. This is the first step in our quest for the Four Noble Truths.

The next step is the meditation of mindfulness to gain an insight into the true characteristics of mental and material states.

Mental and material events are indeed in a constant state of flux. They are impermanent. One will then realizes that one’s very life and this phenomenal world are unreal and impermanent. Therefore, they are unsatisfactory, undesirable and are not cling on it. This is the Truth of Suffering.

Truth of the Origin (or Cause) of Suffering

Through meditation, one realizes that our own craving for various things lie us dawn to the rounds of struggle and suffering connected with these things. These craving can be grouped into three categories:-

1. Craving for sensual pleasures,

2. Craving for one’s existence and

3. Craving for termination of one’s existence

By practicing meditation, one realize that mental and material events, arising and passing away are unsolids, non-concrete and unreal. If one has that cravings (at least one of them), can be caught up to the circle of rebirth. This is the cause of suffering, Origin Truth.

Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

Through meditation, one realizes that, by relinquishing cravings for anything, one attains sublime peace of mind and spiritual well-being which is, in fact, much superior to the enjoyment of the crude sensual pleasures.

It is not so easy for an average person to recognize that not craving for anything is better than craving for something and getting it.

Only the Enlightened ones realize this.

They prefer sublime peace of mind and spiritual well beings to crude sensual pleasures. Relinquishing the craving in anything is the same as the cessation of suffering.

Path Leading to the Cessation of Suffering (Truth of Path)

As one’s meditation of mindfulness advances, one’s faculties and factors also develop. At the time of Enlightenment, Eightfold path arises in one, resulting in a change in one’s out-look of the world and in one’s personality.

In fact, Enlightenment or Magga or Path consciousness constitutes the path leading to the Cessation of Suffering. The Eight fold path leading to the Cessation of Suffering is the key for realization of the Four Noble Truth.

The Eightfold Noble Path

The Eightfold Noble Path can be divided into two categories, namely;

(1) mundane eightfold path and

(2) supramundane eightfold path

Mundane constituents of Path (Maggaṅgas) occur in our consciousness whenever we perform moral and immoral actions.

In a particular mundane moral consciousness, not all the 8 moral Maggaṅgas take place.

Moral and immoral Maggaṅgas occur in mundane moral consciousnesses and immoral consciousnesses in different combinations, depending on the types of consciousness in the mental factors involve.

Constituents of path or maggaṅgas steer our mental phenomena one way or another.

Moral Maggins steer us to moral or good result producing paths.

Immoral maggaṅgas steer us onto immoral or evil, bad result-producing paths.

Therefore, we may perform moral maggaṅgas and to refrain to committing immoral maggaṅgas.

Because the eightfold path is of paramount important, I should like to explain about it in details.

The followings are eightfold Noble Path.

1. Right view (Sammā ditthi) = insight, pañña mental factor

2. Right thinking (Sammā Sankappa) = applied thought mental factor

3. Right speech (Sammā vāca)

4. Right action (Sammā kamanta)

5. Right livelihood (Sammā ājiva)

6. Right effort (Sammā vāyama) effort mental factor

7. Right mindfulness (Sammā sati) mental factor

8. Right concentration (Sammā Samādhi) tranquility mental factor

The eightfold Noble path expounded by Lord Buddha is the most important in daily life and is the key for the attainment of Four Noble Truth.

In whatever moral actions we may perform, moral maggins are involved.

1. Right view (Right Look)

The first pre-requisite in any important under-taking is the right view. Without right view, we cannot have right thinking.

2. Right thinking

It is important to have right thinking. Without right thinking, we cannot have right speech.

3. Right speech

Only if we have the right speech, we have good moral character. A right, elegant and effective speech is also essential to our success in our social and business and our professional career.

4. Right action

Work is on a main measure of the value of the man. Therefore it is an important Maggins 1 to 3 will contribute to the performance of right action.

5. Right livelihood

As everyone must have a livelihood, it is also essential to have right livelihood Maggins 1 to 4 will contribute to the practice of right livelihood.

6. Right effort

Effort is an integral component in any under-taking on task. Right effort is therefore essential.

7. Right mindfulness

Right mindfulness is the one of the most important maggins. Only right mindfulness leads us to the enlightenment. So right mindfulness places a crucial role for the attainment of Four Noble Truth.

8. Right concentration

In whatever we do, we cannot effective without proper and sustained concentration. We may have the enlightenment with a such powerful concentration.

The Noble eightfold path invented by Lord Buddha is the most appropriate, most valuable and most useful directive in life.

The Supramundane Noble Eightfold Path

The eightfold noble path is related three practices (morality, concentration and insight).

Right view and right thinking constitute the practicing of insight. (paññā Sikkā)

Right speech, right action and right livelihood constitute the practicing of morality (Sila Sikkā)

Right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration constitute the practicing of concentration (Samadhi Sikkā)

Therefore, the Noble Eightfold Path and threefold practice coincide with each other.

Thirty-Seven Factors of Enlightenment are indispensible to the development of intellectual prowess, the arising of Path Consciousness and enlightenment. The thirty-seven factors of Enlightenment operate within the scope of the Noble Eightfold Path.

Thirty-eight steps to self-improvement (38 Maṅgalas) is indeed a “roadmap” for our life, as they contribute to improvements and successes in our professional and personal life.

Thirty-eight maṅgalas is the most comprehensive discourse on art of livings that includes the ethical practice and moral conduct, beginning with basic education in childhood and culminating in the highest level of Enlightenment and Arahathood.

The art of living and ethical practice, laid down in thirty-eight Maṅgalas, also operate within the scope of the Noble Eightfold Path.

All moral actions, including ten moral deed and ten meritorious deeds, operates within the scope of the Noble Eightfold Path.

We can classify consciousnesses, mental factors into 3 categories and moral practices at 3 levels; -

(1) Consciousnesses, mental factors and matter in sensual sphere, in other words, moral immoral consciousnesses, resultant and merely functioning consciousnesses and matter in the sensual sphere; lofty/ sublime states

(2) Fine material world, immaterial world Jhana consciousnesses and mental factors in the fine material and immaterial spheres;

(3) Supramundane Consciousnesses, mental factors and Nibbāna.

All moral actions are at the aforementioned three levels, i.e.

(1) Moral consciousnesses in the sensual sphere,

(2) Jhana moral consciousnesses

(3) Suprmundane moral consciousnesses

All these states culminate in supramundane Eightfold Path.

These 8 moral Path factors already explained above. Then 4 immoral path factors are i.e. (1) wrong view, (2) wrong thinking, (3) wrong effort and (4) wrong concentration.

In practicing insight meditation of mindfulness, we actually exercise only five path (right view, right thinking, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration).

At the arising of enlightenment, all 8 Path factors take place in combination at the same time.

At that moment, 3 abstinence mental factors, namely (right speech, right action and right livelihood) are invariably, join other Path factors to form a complete combination of 8 Path factors.

This is because the path consciousness purified the mind and eradicates defilements at the time of enlightenment.

It automatically accomplish the purity of morality at that moment. We may say that it is the case of morality (sῑla) being purified by insight (paññā).

Ariya’s (purified one’s) morality is unshakable and unrelapsible.

On numerous occasions, Lord Buddha stressed the importance of these two factors and used there two words as a duo: mindfulness and reasoning (satisampajjañña).

Mostly importantly, Lord Buddha uses these two Path factors as a duo in expounding the Discourse on the Four types of Insight Meditation of Mindfulness.

In practicing the insight meditation of mindfulness, we have to exercise these five factors. Work on them. Base on them. The remaining Path factors will come along automatically at the right moment, which is right speech (sammā vācā), right action (sammā kammanta) and right livelihood (sammā ajῑva) will automatically come in.

In this way at the moment of Path consciousness and Enlightenment, there appear 8 Path factors all right in the Path consciousness.

The Noblest and highest bliss that completely fulfills these desires is nothing but the ultimate reality of Nibbāna (paramattha Nabbāna).

Lord Buddha lays down the Eighth-fold Noble Path – also known as the Optimum Middle Way, conjoined with three-fold practice.

He expounds different discourses base on the 8 fold Path, depending on the occasion, place and the temperament of the individual in question.

In actual practice, we have to practice the mundane eight-fold path and thereafter, the supramundane Eight-fold Path by exercising two most important moral mental factors, namely, mindfulness and reasoning – sati and sampajjana (right mindfulness and right view).

The repeated and sustained exercise of such a practice will lead us, at the moment the five powers and the five faculties are fully developed, to the realization of the noblest, tranquil bliss or wells being.

In conclusion, I would like to tender with my best wishes and loving kindness (mettā) and may free from the struggles and all sufferings. All of religions may fulfill well-being.

Credit to: UNIVERSITY OF ABHIDHAMMA

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The Story of Patacara

Patacara was the daughter of a banker in the town of Savatthi. When she was grown up, she fell in love with one of her family’s servant. Of course, her family wanted her to marry someone of her own rank. But when they tried, she ran away with her lover. They married and settled in a hamlet.

When she was expecting a child, she told her husband she wanted to return to her parents.

Since her husband was afraid, so he kept finding reasons not to go.

Finally, one day when she was alone, she left word with the neighbours and set out for her parents’ house by herself.

When her husband found out, he ran after her. Before she reached Savatthi, she gave birth to a son, so they all returned home to their hamlet together.

When her second child was due, she once again asked her husband to go with her to her parent, but again she finally set out on her own. Her husband soon followed.

On the way, the second child was born.

Soon after the birth a great storm came. Patacara’s husband went to cut sticks and grass to make a shelter. While he was in the jungle, a snake bit him and he died.

Patacara spent the night alone, tired and wet, lying on the ground hugging her two sons.

In the morning she found her husband’s dead body. Filled with sadness, she decided to go to her parents’ house. She came to a flooded river, and because she was weak and tired, could not carry both children across together.

So, she put the newborn on a pile of leaves on the bank, and carried the older son across.

In midstream, she looked back just in time to see a huge hawk swooping down to take her newborn. In her shock, she dropped the older boy, who was carried away by the flood.

Feeling on grief, she decided to continue on to her parents’ house. When she got to Savatthi, she learned that a fire had broken out in the night, burning the house and its occupants to the ground.

Patacara lost her mind, and wandering around in circles, near naked. People drove her from their doors, until one day she arrived in Jetavana, where the Buddha was preaching the dhamma.

The people around him tried to stop her from coming close, but the Buddha called her to him and talked to her. With the power of his gentleness and compassion, she got her mind back, and sat and listened to the Buddha.

A man threw her his robe, and she put it on and drew closer to the Buddha. She worshipped at his feet, and told the Buddha how she had lost her sons, her husband, her brothers and her parents.

She begged for his help. He consoled her, and made her see that death comes to everyone. Then he taught her the highest truths of his teaching.

The Buddha said to her,

"Patacara, have no fear; you have now come to one who can protect you and guide you. Throughout this round of existences (samsara), the amount of tears you have shed on account of the death of your sons, husbands, parents and brothers is voluminous; it is even more than the waters of the four oceans."

Thus, the Buddha expounded to her the Anamatagga Sutta, which dealt with countless existences, and she felt relieved.

Then, the Buddha added that one should not think too much about those who were gone, but that one should purify oneself and strive to realize Nibbana. On hearing this exhortation from the Buddha, Patacara attained Sotapatti Fruition.

Then, Patacara became a bhikkhuni.

One day, she was cleaning her feet with water from a water-pot.

As she poured the water for the first time, it flowed only a short distance and disappeared; then she poured for the second time and the water went a little farther, but the water she poured for the third time went the farthest.

As she looked at the flow and the disappearance of water poured cut successively for three times, she came to perceive clearly the three stages in the life of beings.

The Buddha seeing her through supernormal power from the Jetavana monastery sent forth his radiance and appeared to her in person.

He then said to her, "Patacara, you are now on the right track, and you now have the true perception of the aggregates (khandhas). One who does not perceive the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and insubstantiality of the aggregates is useless, even if he were to live for a hundred years”.

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

Verse 113: Better than a hundred years in the life of a person who does not perceive the arising and the dissolving of the five aggregates (khandhas), is a day in the life of one who perceives the arising and dissolving of the five aggregates.

At the end of the discourse, Patacara attained arahatship.

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Kamma in This Live: How It Arises and Gives Its Result (Part I)

Venerable Sayadaw - Dr. Nandamālābhivaṃsa

Day in and day out, we non-stop perform all kinds of actions through the three doors i.e., body, speech or mind. So like a tree that is bearing fruit endlessly, we are accumulating a large amount of kamma.

In addition, there is an immense reserve of it due to our innumerable past lives.

According to the Buddha, this is connected to the mental state of motivation (cetanā) – through its stimulation; a lot of kammas are collected.

They cannot disappear or get lost.

The acts we commit at one time or another will return to us as a consequence in the process of cause and effect.

This is the law of action and reaction or dependent origination: if this exists, then that will come to exist.

Hence, according to the act carried out, the result corresponding to it will arise.

Also, a type of kamma will only give a result related to its type.

Put in another way, having performed a kammic act, you will receive its result in a similar form or quality in this life or another.

The kamma niyāma or the law of nature where good produces good, and bad produces bad.

There is never a case where good kamma gives a bad effect and vice-versa.

The law of nature is never wrong.

Thus, one out of the many kammas in store is ready to produce its result.

Having accumulated full power, it will give its result.

There is no such thing as not having to experience its effect. Nor can we get rid of it so that it cannot produce its effect.

As long as there is life in the body, it will continue to give its effect.

Indeed, the Buddha taught that any act of kamma based on greed, hatred and delusion (lobha, dosa and moha) can produce its result even in this present life, or the next, or for as long as saṃsāra remains. (Nidāna Sutta, Aṅguttara Nikāya)

The Buddha also taught that we owe our existence in this life to kamma, the producing cause.

Kamma decided whether we would be good-looking or ugly, have sharp eye-sight or some congenital defect like blindness.

Through kamma we are unique: differing from one another in our lifespan, looks, intelligence, state of health, status and so on, even within the family.

According to the Commentary, simply reflects what the Buddha taught about kamma, that is: kammassakatā sammā diṭṭhi.

This is to say that the kamma we perform is our property. Whether that kamma is kusala or akusala, we have to receive its result.

It is the only property that we can inherit. So it concerns the doer in whom it occurs and nobody else.

The Buddha taught an enormous amount about kamma, not only in the suttas but also in Abhidhamma.

What I am teaching at present is only a gist – just to give you some understanding of the subject. It is possible to speak in much greater detail and at great length about it.

Since kamma takes place in our mind and body, we should study and find out how it arises in the nāma-rūpa, where it collects, how it ripens and gives its result during our lifetime and in saṃsāra.

By studying and understanding the Buddha’s teachings on the subject, we can try to make an end to kamma.

This is by, first of all, refraining from performing akusala kamma, and by doing only wholesome deeds.

For those unwholesome kammas already committed, instead of regretting, we should find ways to avoid committing more.

We do this by creating a lot of good kammas.

Also, by working to put an end to our mental defilements, in the end we can free ourselves from kamma.

We obtain the cessation of kamma itself, that is, kammakkhaya.

We need to know it meaning in Pāli “kamma” literally means “action”.

It is said in the Commentary that if you were to throw a stone at a jackal, it will bite the stone, not the thrower. If the stone is thrown at a lion, it will come and bite you – not the stone. The lion knows that the stone is just the effect; more important is the thrower.

If a doctor gives treatment, he will search for the cause of the disease, and not just treat the symptoms. The Buddha is the same like them, always searching for the cause.

So, in Buddhism – mere action alone is not kamma.

Action appears because of motivation.

There are so many actions: even while asleep you can still talk, move or even hit someone near you. The cause that produces action is more important to understand.

We can look at it this way: kamma is the cause of an action. Or it can be put in another way: kamma as action is the effect of the cause, that is, the motivation.

This action can be classified into three: mental, verbal and physical action.

The first type is just in the mind.

A Verbal or physical action begins in the mind and then appears as speech or is performed by the body respectively.

This is to say that verbal and physical actions occur with the mind.

However, action done without intention is not kamma.

For example, while walking on the road, we crush some insects unknowingly. No kamma is done unless we stepped on them deliberately.

So, of the three kinds of action mental action is most important, being the cause of the other two actions.The Buddha declared that kamma is motivation or stimulation (cetanā). Though cetanā was stated by the Buddha to be kamma, there are other mental states associated with it which are considered to be kamma too.

According to Abhidhamma, not all mental states (cetasikās) arising in the mind can be call mano-kamma – except for 21 including cetanā.

Let us take covetousness or abhijjhā as a start. Covetousness is an aspect of greed or lobha. It wants to own others’ property. This is not simple craving as abhijjhā covets other people’s possessions. Many people are attached to their property – that is simple craving. It cannot be called abhijjhā, not all kinds of craving become mano-kamma – only the type that desires to own what belongs to others.

Then all kinds of hatred (byāpāda) are mentioned as mental actions. Byāpāda is the wish to hit or kill another or to wish ill of others: “It’s better that person dies” or “May she not be well off”. So, any hatred arising becomes mano-kamma.

Another type of mental action is wrong view (micchā diṭṭhi). What makes a view wrong? It is one that is devoid of the Dhamma, not according to the Dhamma, and which is its opposite. Three types are especially significant.

One type rejects kamma-result by denying that effect exists, for instance of performing dāna.

Another type is the non-acceptance of both kamma and its result, good and bad.

Then the third is the view of causelessness.

By arising in the mind these three akusala mental states become kamma.

Kamma on the good side

Regarding the kusala aspect, there are the three counterparts of covetousness, hatred and wrong view: non-covetousness (anabhijjhā), non-hatred (abhāpāda) and right view (sammā diṭṭhi).

Besides these, there are the seven factors of enlightenment (bojjhaṅga) and the eight factors of the Noble Path (maggaṅga).

However, in other religions these are not regarded as kamma. Why did the Buddha consider them as kamma?

It is because these factors can destroy kilesas or mental defilements, leading to the cessation of kamma.

As very powerful kammas themselves, they never produce rebirth. Instead, they lead to Nibbāna in making an end to kamma in saṃsāra.

You should note that these cetasikās associated with wholesomeness are not kamma. The Buddha never taught that. Only when they are associated with bojjhaṅga and maggaṅga are they kamma.

For example, not all kinds of pīti (rapture) are kamma, only when it is a factor of enlightenment. This is to say these mental states can lead to Nibbāna only at the higher level.

Thus, to have better understanding of kamma, it is necessary to know about the workings of the mind where kamma originates.

Translated and compiled by ven Sayalay Vimalañāṇī

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Kamma in This Live: How It Arises and Gives Its Result (Part II)

Venerable Sayadaw - Dr. Nandamālābhivaṃsa

The Buddha declared that cetanā was kamma (“Cetanāhaṁ bhikkave kammaṁ vadāmi”. Nibbedha Bhagiya Sutta, Aṅguttara Nikāya.).

Yet many people in Myanmar are mistaken about the meaning of cetanā.

Thinking it is wholesome, many say, “I’v the cetanā when it comes to doing merit,” or “I speak with cetanā”. But it is not good every time.

Myanmar people take this mental state to be only on the good side probably because on Dhamma occasions they often hear, “Oh, with ardent cetanā this offering is presented.”

When cetanā is associated with kusala, then it is wholesome. With akusala it becomes unwholesome. By itself it cannot be said to be good or bad, isn’t it?

Then when people talk about their good or bad kamma, many are probably unaware that it is cetanā they mean, as taught by the Buddha.

Cetanā has usually been translated as “volition”.

With my knowledge of English and with the help of a dictionary, I found that volition comes with a wish to do.

However, cetanā is not about wishing. Rather, it is motivation or stimulation.

It is better to follow the literal meaning, being closer to the sense of the word.

Why did the Buddha specify this mental state as kamma?

When we are thinking about something, it is through cetanā’s stimulation.

When speaking, it is through cetanā’s impulsion that we are able to do so.

As for our bodily actions, it is because of the motivation from cetanā that we can do so.

Verbal and physical action without intention is not kamma.

Only intentional action carries kamma with it.

For this reason, cetanā is very important and its function should be understood.

Cetanā is one of the seven universal mental factor (cetasika) found in all minds (citta and cetasika).

These seven inseparables form the most basic (and weakest) core of the mind.

Their function is just bare awareness of the object. The other six associated cetasikas in this group are phassa, which makes contact with the sense object; and feeling (vedanā) which experiences the sensation.

Then there is perception (saññā) to mark it for future reference.

With one-pointedness (ekaggatā) the mind has only one object.

The faculty of mental life (jīvitindriya) protects it, enabling the unit to continue.

Manasikāra is attention and keeps the mind directed to the object.

So, each mental factor has a different function, though all work together in harmony as an 8-in-1 (including the citta) unit.

Cetanā plays a double role. Firstly, it has the ability to assemble the others.

Nowadays we would compare it to an organizer or a manager who has to oversee his staff’s work while carrying out his own task.

By bringing the others together and through its encouragement, cetanā gets more word done. (For example, it pushes lobha to craving, dosa to anger and moha to confusion.) Only then is there energy in the whole.

This is due to cetanās other ability, which is to energise and accumulate energy. It collects and builds up the energy of all the associated dhammas while building up its own power.

In this way it will become kamma when its power is full.

Thus, it is able to produce its result. In doing so, what happens? Then thought (mano-kamma), speech (vāci-kamma) or bodily action (kaya-kamma) arises.

Without cetanā to bring the others together, there is no energy.

But once they are all together, the resulting force allows movement and action: mental, vocal and physical. This is Kamma.

However, although kamma actually means action, it is not solely the act but rather the motivation behind it.

In this way, we have the idea to go for a 10-day vipassanā retreat. Or a thief has the idea to carry out a theft.

Thus, cetanā stimulates action. So the cause is kamma and the deed is the effect. Who causes it? It is cetanā. That is why the Buddha declared it as kamma.

Who is it who prompts us into thinking, planning, speaking and doing something every day? It is cetanā through its stimulation. By giving the push to the other mental states, their energy increases.

Consequently, they function better. Depending on this, merit and demerit arise. Should lobha, dosa or moha for instance take the lead then unwholesome kamma comes into being.

If alobha, adosa or amoha is in control then good kamma arises. So two kinds of kamma can be distinguishes. Similarly, depending on the kind of consciousness it associates with, types of cetanā can be identified.

One type is nānākkhaṇika-cetanā (Nānā = different, khana = period. So nānākkhaṇika means “of a different period”.), that is, cetanā that is of a different period.

The ‘different’ refers to the moment when cetanā occurs as kamma, this is different from the moment that kamma produces its result.

The two moments are not the same as the kamma-result appears at a different moment.

Sometimes it can be right afterwards as in magga-phala: the first moment is magga; the second moment is phala (the effect).

At other times, it can be aeons apart. Let us say that in saṁsāra we committed a murder aeons ago. The kamma follows us; it causes sickness and even untimely death.

What if the effect is immediate? If akusala kamma would give an instant result, people would be afraid of wrongdoing.

For wholesome deeds, let us suppose there is a donor whose meritorious dāna can cause rebirth in the deity world.

At the time of offering, he would no longer be human, as he would have become a deity.

That is if cetanā were to give an instant result. It means that while you are observing sīla, at that moment you get to become a deity right there and then.

So nānākkhaṇika-cetanā or kamma gives its result at a different moment. It is this type of cetanā that associates with kusala or akusala.

As good and bad cetanās, they produce their effect once their power is completely built up. This is the kamma we mean when we talk about good and evil kamma being done.

This is the type that launched us from the previous life to our present existence.

The other variety is the ordinary universal cetanā found in every citta.

Unlike nānākkhaṇika-cetanā, it is not the one people refer to when they say, “Oh, it’s all according to kamma”.

Arising together with its associated mental states, it gathers them together.

With its power, it stimulates them with energy, while carrying out its own task of accumulating power.

Known as sahajāta-cetanā or sahajāta-kamma (Saha = together, jata = born; so sahajāta means “born together”), it is not the type that produces something as a result because it is associated with the other common cittas.

Which cetanā did the Buddha mean in his discourses about kamma?

When he declared that cetanā was kamma, he meant nānākkhaṇika-cetanā.

In the suttas, only the cetanā associated with kusala and akusala cittas is called kamma.

Thus, for example when the Buddha taught that kamma was one’s own property or only inheritance, the kamma refers to nānākkhaṇika-kamma.

Then if you to look at Paṭicca Samuppāda at the section “Saṅkhāra paccayā viññāṇa”, there saṅkhāra is nānākkhaṇika-kamma.

However, in Paṭṭhāna of the Abhidhamma, all cetanās are considered as kamma, regardless of their association with cittas – even with vipāka and kriya cittas.

So, sahajāta-cetanā is included as well.

This is so because they are of the same kind and sahajāta-cetanā has the potential to give a result too, just like nānākkhaṇika-cetanā.

Similar to a tree that perpetually bears fruit; we perform countless actions through thought, speech and the body.

Like fruit with many seeds, our actions bear seeds of kamma.

With the support of conditions, they can develop and sprout.

Where the reproductive energy does remains in a tree?

It is found only in the fruit and the seed.

Many different parts develop from the seed: such as the root, trunk, branches, leafs, flowers and fruit.

But the reproductive power does not lie in these parts except for the fruit and the seed.

Except for the dynamic mind (javana’s), all the different cittas taking part in the mental process (citta-vīthi) such as the five-door attending consciousness (pañcadvārāvajjana), eye-consciousness (cakkhu-viññāṇa) and receiving consciousness (sampaṭicchana) can be likened to the various parts of a tree, that is, the leaves, roots, trunk, and so on.

However, the reproductive power is found only in the seed and not in the other parts. Likewise, the reproductive kammic force gathers only in the cetanā of the javana’s.

The other cetanā in the other citta’s lack this kammic energy that can construct a new life.

For instance, the cetanā in pañcadvārāvajjana or cakkhu-viññāṇa cannot accumulate power, being sahajāta-kamma.

According to the Commentary, cetanā performs its accumulating function only when it associates with kusala and akusala citta’s and not when it associates with the other types, such as vipāka and kriya.

Only then it is called kamma because it is able to build up energy fully.

Thus, as cetanā with its strong thrust at the arising of the javana’s – it is here that kamma becomes formed.

Translated and compiled by ven Sayalay Vimalañāṇī

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Kamma in This Live: How It Arises and Gives Its Result (Part III)

Venerable Sayadaw - Dr. Nandamālābhivaṃsa

he Mind That Decides Our Life

Why does cetanā gather energy only with kusala and akusala citta’s? The Commentary gives no reason.

As most javana’s are either wholesome or unwholesome, that is where kamma can accumulate.

Every time we see an object, a thought process occurs. It is the same for hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, or thinking when objects invade through the six doors.

In the mental process that follows, bhavaṅga never works with any new object because it has its own already.

Pañcadvārānajjana, as gate-opener, is neither kamma nor its effect.

Looking to see who the visitor is, cakkhuviññāṇa is kamma-result.

The receiving consciousness or sampaṭicchana is also the result of kusala and akusala, just like santīraṇa, the investigating consciousness.

The determining consciousness or voṭṭhabbana is neither kusala nor akusala and not kamma-result either.

As it leaves, what citta comes to arise? It is Javana (I usually call it “dynamic consciousness” or “energetic mind”).

In the thought process, this is a very important stage.

The citta’s before it, that is pañcadvārānajjana, cakkhu-viññāṇa and so on, run naturally according to conditions – nothing can be done about them.

Only this dynamic consciousness experiences the object.

Being energetic, unlike the rest, the javana citta also makes the final decision about the object: that it is beautiful, ugly, etc. If it finds desirable, it says, “It’s so nice. I want it.”

Because they are capable of gaining power or momentum, javana’s are unlike the other citta’s.

According to Ledi Sayadaw, they are citta’s that can gain a driving force or impetus with regard to the object.

Consider what happens when the eye sees something it likes. Attachment or desire surges up. This is the impulsion of lobha javana’s.

For an undesirable object, there is a sudden rise of hatred or loathing of dosa javana’s. Depending on wise and unwise attention, wholesome or unwholesome energetic minds arise.

So, with unwise attention (ayoniso manasikāra) lobha javana can arise as greed, or dosa javana as hatred. Also, in not knowing the nature of the object, there is the delusion of moha javana.

The three roots of evil (greed, hatred and delusion) as well as the good roots of anti-greed, anti-hatred and anti-delusion, give great support because in their absence, energy cannot remain.

This is to say that they are root conditions.

For such reasons kammic energy can build up only in kusala and akusala javana’s.

However, it does not accumulate in vipāka and kriya javana’s even though alobha, adosa and amoha are found in mahāvipāka and mahākriya citta’s also.

So, cetanā cannot remain with kammic energy when it is associated with such citta’s.

The anti-greed, anti-hatred and anti-delusion in mahāvipāka and kriya citta’s are different from those of kusala and akusala javana’s. Why is it so?

With regard to mahāvipāka citta, this is because it is just the effect of mahākusala. So, it cannot be active, it is like a mirror image.

According to the Commentary, the mahāvipāka citta is quiet and passive. Like the reflection in the mirror, it cannot be changed. Even the cetanā associated with the citta’s three wholesome roots cannot accumulate kammic energy.

Then let’s consider the mahākusala citta. When it arises in us, it is mahākusala.

When it arises in arahants it is referred to as mahākriya citta.

Why can’t cetanā accumulate kammic force in mahākriya-javana?

The Commentary compares this citta to a flowering tree whose root has been cut off. If so, can the flowers develop into fruit? No, they cannot anymore. (If the root is intact, they can.)

In the same way within the arahants, the roots of lobha, dosa and moha have been cut off.

Their mahākriya-javana’s are like the flowers of a tree with severed roots.

Therefore, the cetanās of these citta’s cannot gather kammic energy.

This is what I think. The Commentary gives no explanation except that cetanā associated with kusala and akusala accumulates energy.

In us we have the roots of good and evil in our mental process. Unlike arahants, kammic power accumulates within us in the ever-continuing stream of javana’s.

Translated and compiled by ven Sayalay Vimalañāṇī

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Go to Insight Meditation Awareness_Part 4

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