Abhidharma in Daily Life
In
this last chapter I would like to focus on some of the ideas considered in Chapters
30 through 40, relating them to daily life and to our practice of the Buddha's
teaching. I have discussed the Abhidharma extensively, and some of the material
is rather technical. Although it may not be possible to make complete use of what
we have learned, I hope it will remain in the corner of your mind, and that you
will be able to return to it and use it as time goes by.
I would like to begin
by drawing your attention to the fundamental orientation of the Buddha and Buddhism
toward the whole question of spiritual progress. You will recall that the majority
of the thirty-seven factors conducive to enlightenment (see Chapter 40) relate
to effort and to the mind. The emphasis in Buddhism has always been on these two
aspects, in marked contrast to other religious traditions, where the most frequent
answers to the question of spiritual progress refer to fate or grace--in other
words, to some power outside us (whether an impersonal, unseen power, like fate,
or a personal power, like God) that determines our progress and destiny. Fate
and grace were typical answers given by other traditions in the Buddha's time,
and they remain so today. Such approaches have one thing in common: they rely
on something outside us, over which we have little or no control.
The Buddha,
however, taught that it is one's own mind and effort that determine one's progress
and destiny. Mind and effort are the keys to self-development, as is clearly reflected
in the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment. This is why it has often been said
that the mind is the most valuable thing we have. The mind has sometimes been
likened to a wish-fulfilling gem, in that it can grant rebirth in fortunate or
unfortunate states. It is on the basis of mind that one crosses the threshold
of conditioned existence and enters the supramundane states of the noble ones.
It is the mind which determines this, and it does so through intentional action,
or karma--the expressed will of the mind, which results in the particular conditions
in which we find ourselves.
We can also see the importance of the mind reflected
in the four roads to power (see Chapter 40), which are mental factors that can
affect and control matter. What we need to do is intensify, cultivate, and elevate
the mind. We can see this clearly when we look at the five factors of absorption
or intensification (jhananga) and the five hindrances (nivarana), two aspects
of our ordinary, mundane consciousness (see Chapter 34). The five hindrances are
typical of very low levels of conscious development, such as the consciousness
of animals, which is saturated with these factors. The presence of these hindrances
means that one's mind is totally conditioned and manipulated by various stimuli.
In
opposition to these five hindrances are the five factors of absorption, which
are also present even in the consciousness of animals. The five absorptions counter
and eventually eliminate the five hindrances. Thus we can reduce the controlling
power of the hindrances to whatever extent we can cultivate the absorptions.
In
a sense, we are standing at a crossroads. All ten factors, hindrances and absorptions,
are present in our minds, and it is a question of whether we allow the hindrances
to dominate or develop the factors of intensification so that they begin to dominate
our minds. This is a very important battle because as long as the hindrances predominate
we are very likely to see the results in this life and in the next life, in the
form of rebirth in unfavorable or miserable states. But if our minds are raised
by cultivating the five factors of absorption, we reach a higher level of development
in both this life and the next.
Once we have intensified and elevated the
power of our minds by developing the five factors of absorption, we can motivate
and direct our minds in a particular direction. This is done through the five
controlling faculties: faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom (see
Chapter 40). It has been said that, to practice the Dharma, two things are essential:
(1) faith and (2) wisdom. Wisdom is the main thing, while faith is the prerequisite.
In some non-Buddhist traditions, faith means blind adherence, but in the Buddhist
tradition, faith means confidence in the possibility of success. In other words,
if we do not believe we can succeed, there will be no chance of achieving success
no matter what we try to do. In this sense spiritual practice without faith is
like a burned seed that will never put forth the seedling of spiritual progress,
no matter how rich the soil or how carefully we tend it.
Faith and wisdom are
the first and last of the five controlling faculties. Together with the remaining
three faculties of energy, mindfulness, and concentration, they are present in
the Noble Eightfold Path (see Chapters 5, 6, and 7). Energy, mindfulness, and
concentration correspond to the three factors of right effort, right mindfulness,
and right concentration of the mental development group of the Eightfold Path.
Faith is related to the morality group of the Eightfold Path because it is
faith, after all, which compels us to observe the rules of good conduct and believe
in the law of karma at the beginning of our practice. Unless and until we have
achieved supernormal levels of consciousness (like the Buddha and his foremost
disciples, who were able to directly perceive the effects of wholesome and unwholesome
actions), we must rely on faith to create the foundation of our practice of morality.
Wisdom corresponds exactly to the wisdom group of the Eightfold Path. In the
five controlling faculties, therefore, we have in germinal form the eight steps
of the Noble Eightfold Path. To summarize, to progress toward our goal of enlightenment,
we need to intensify, elevate, and motivate our minds. The way we can do this
is (1) to cultivate the five factors of absorption to reduce the influence of
the five hindrances, and then (2) to develop the five controlling faculties and
connect them to our practice of the Noble Eightfold Path. When the five controlling
faculties become unshakable, they develop into the five powers (see Chapter 40),
which bring with them the supramundane states of the noble ones.
Wisdom, which
is the last group of practice in the Noble Eightfold Path, is particularly relevant
to the Abhidharmic studies we have undertaken because wisdom is the understanding
of ultimate reality, and the Abhidharma is concerned with the presentation of
ultimate reality. When we speak of wisdom, we have two components principally
in mind: (1) not-self and (2) emptiness.
We have discussed the analytical
and relational approaches to the analysis of personal experience in the teaching
of not-self and in the teaching of dependent origination, respectively. When we
consider not-self, we need to think of the self in relation to the five aggregates.
Just as the erroneous idea of a snake exists dependent on and in relation to the
rope and darkness, so when we look for the self in relation to the aggregates,
we find that it does not exist in any way. The self cannot be found in any of
the aggregates of consciousness, feeling, perception, volition, and form. The
self cannot possess the aggregates in the way we might own a car. The self does
not control the aggregates. It does not control the mind, nor does it control
the body. The self is not in any way ascertainable within or without the aggregates.
Having
arrived at this understanding of not-self, we might look for a moment at the aggregates.
At this point, we move from an analysis of personal experience in terms of the
five aggregates to an analysis of the five aggregates in terms of dependent origination.
The five aggregates do not originate by chance, nor do they originate without
any cause. They originate dependently--dependent on the afflictions (ignorance,
craving, and clinging) and on karma, volition, and becoming.
It has been said
that interdependent origination is the greatest treasure of the Buddha's teaching.
Understanding interdependent origination is the key to undoing the knot that has
kept us bound for so long in samsara. The Buddha himself said that he who sees
interdependent origination sees the Dharma, and that he who sees the Dharma sees
the Buddha. This is a very encouraging remark, for if we can begin to see our
daily experience in terms of interdependent origination--in terms of the conditioned,
relative, and empty nature of the factors of experience--then we will see the
Dharma, and through seeing the Dharma, we will see the Buddha. It will then no
longer be true to say that we cannot see the Buddha, that the Buddha is not present
here and now.
I hope that this study of the Abhidharma will not remain an
intellectual exercise but will be applied to our daily lives, however slightly.
Although it may be difficult to apply everything covered in the course of these
last twelve chapters, I think all of us who have studied the Abhidharma will no
longer make the mistake of thinking of reality in terms of a unitary, independent,
and permanent self and the essential, substantial objects around us. Insofar as
we have moved toward a new way of understanding reality in terms of factors and
functions that are interdependent and relative, we have moved some way toward
seeing the Dharma and the Buddha.
by Peter Della Santina