Contents
· Introduction
· Setting Rolling the Wheel of Truth
· The Not-self Characteristic
· The Fire Sermon
· Notes:
· First Sutta
· Second Sutta
· Third Sutta
· The Three Suttas and Their Relationship
· Questions
Introduction
Not doing any kind of evil,
Perfecting profitable skill,
And purifying one's own heart:
This is the Buddha's dispensation.
-- Dhammapada 183
The message of the Awakened Ones, so stated as it is in the Dhammapada in the
plain terms of good and evil, upholds the same values that every great compassionate
religion shares. But the seed of good has to grow in the soil of truth; and
how the tree grows depends upon the nature of the soil in which it is planted,
and whence it draws nourishment. With men as the custodians of the true, the
fulfillment of the good depends upon how truth is conceived by men to be. By
their acts they verify it.
A monk called Gotama, it seems, a son of the Sakyans, who went forth into homelessness
from a Sakyan clan, has come... Now a good report of Master Gotama has been
spread to this effect: "That Blessed One is such since he is accomplished
and fully awakened, perfect in true knowledge and conduct, sublime, knower of
worlds, incomparable leader of men to be tamed, teacher of gods and men, awakened
and blessed... He teaches a True Idea that is good in the beginning, good in
the middle, and good in the end, with its own special meaning and phrasing;
he exhibits a holy life that is utterly perfect and pure." Now it is good
to see such Accomplished Ones.
-- MN 41
So it was said of him at the time. But what, then, was the fundamental ground
of that teaching? Of the many ways that such a question might be answered, perhaps
the simplest and best is this: "He expounded the teaching that is peculiar
to Buddhas: suffering, origination, cessation and a path" (MN 56). These
four are known as the Four Noble Truths. This, with the cognate teaching of
No Self, may be said to constitute the fundamental ground of the teaching of
Buddhas; this is what marks them, sets them apart and entitles them to the unique
epithet "Buddha."
The three discourses here presented display precisely, in all its incomparably
serene simplicity, without assumptions, that special fundamental teaching, from
which all Buddhism branches, and to which it all points back. The first discourse
displays this fourfold Truth as something to be realized and verified for oneself
here and now; the second discloses the contradictions which infect all "self"
conceits; the third echoes the second from another angle.
The circumstances that lead up to the discovery of these four Truths, and to
the delivery of these discourses, were briefly as follows. The Bodhisatta --
as he then was, before his awakening -- was twenty nine when he left the house
life, where he enjoyed the extreme of luxury. He went into "exile"
in order to find not a palliative but the true and incontrovertible way out
of suffering.
This world has surely happened upon woe, since it is born and ages and dies
but to fall from one kind of existence and reappear in another. Yet it knows
no escape from this suffering, from aging and death; surely there is an escape
from this suffering, from aging and death?
-- SN XII 65
He studied and practiced under two of the foremost teachers of Samadhi (concentration,
or quiet), and reached the highest meditative attainments possible thereby.
But that was not enough ("I was not satisfied with that as a True Idea;
I left it and went away." -- MN 36) He then spent the best part of the
next six years in the practice of asceticism, trying every sort of extreme self-mortification.
During this time he was waited on by five ascetics, who hoped that if he discovered
the "deathless state" he would be able to communicate his discovery
to them. This too failed.
By this grueling penance I have attained no distinction higher than the human
ideal worthy of a noble one's knowing and seeing. Might there be another way
to awakening.
-- MN 36
He decided to try once more the path of concentration, attained through mindfulness
of breathing, though this time not pushed to the extremity of quiet, but guided
instead by ordered consideration.
I thought: "While my Sakyan father was busy and I (as a child) was sitting
in the shade of the a rose apple tree, then quite secluded from sensual desires,
secluded from unprofitable ideas, I had direct acquaintance of entering upon
and abiding in the first jhana- meditation, which is accompanied by thinking
and exploring, with happiness and pleasure born of seclusion. Might that be
the way to enlightenment?" And following that memory came the recognition:
"That is the only way to enlightenment."
-- MN 36
He now gave up self-mortification and took normal food again in order to restore
to his emaciated body strength sufficient for his purpose. Then the five ascetics
left him in disgust, judging that he had failed, and was merely reverting to
what he had forsaken. But now in solitude, his new balanced effort in the harmony
of virtue, unified in concentration, and guided by the ordered consideration
of insight with mindfulness, at length brought success in discovery of the way
to the goal he had sought for so long. ("So I too found the ancient path,
the ancient trail, traveled by the Awakened Ones of old." -- SN XII 65)
Five faculties in perfect balance had brought him to his goal: they were the
four, namely energy, mindfulness, concentration, and understanding, with faith
in the efficacy of the other four -- the five that "merge into the Deathless"
(SN XLVIII 57). According to tradition, the "Awakening" took place
on the night of Vesakha full moon in the fruitful month of May.
It was upon invitation that he resolved to communicate his discovery to others.
For his first audience to whom to divulge it he chose the five ascetics who
had shared his self-mortification, but had later left him. They were now at
Benares -- India's "eternal city" -- and so in due course he went
there to rejoin them. Just two months after his awakening he preached his first
sermon -- the "Setting Rolling of the Wheel of Truth" or "Bringing
into Existence the Blessing of the True Ideal" -- with the five ascetics
for his hearers. The tradition says it was the evening of the Asalha full moon
in July, the day before the rainy season begins, and he began to speak at the
moment when the sun was dipping, and the full moon simultaneously rising.
This, his first sermon, made one of his listeners, the ascetic Kondañña,
a "stream-enterer," with his attainment of the first of the four progressive
stages of realization. The other four soon followed in his footsteps. The second
sermon, on the characteristic of Not-Self, was preached to the same five, and
it brought them to the fourth and final stage, that of arahatship: "and
then" as it is said, "there were six arahats in the world" (Vinaya
Mahavagga 1).
These are the first two discourses presented here, and they were the first two
sermons ever uttered by the Buddha. The third, the "Fire Sermon,"
was delivered some months later to an audience of a thousand ascetics converted
from the heaven-bent practice of fire-worship.
All three discourses deal only with understanding (pañña), among
the faculties mentioned above as required to be balanced. But understanding,
in order to reach perfection, has indeed to be aided by the others, or in other
words to be founded upon virtue ("habit without conflict"), and to
be fortified by concentration (though not necessarily developed to the fullness
of quietism). Thus and no otherwise can it reach its goal of unshakable liberation.
Now the hearers of all these three discourses were, like the Buddha himself,
all ascetics already expert in the techniques and refinements of both virtue
(sila) and concentration (samadhi). So the Buddha had thus no need to tell them
about what they already knew very well. Similarly he had no need to expound
the doctrine of action (kamma) and its ripening (vipaka), with which they were
thoroughly acquainted through the ancient teachings. What he had to do was first
to show how it is possible to go astray towards the opposite extremes of sensual
indulgence and self-torment; and second to describe the facts, to show how things
are, clearly and succinctly enough to stir his hearers to the additional spontaneous
movement of understanding essential and indispensable for the final discovery
of deliverance, each for himself. ("A 'Perfect One' is one who shows the
way." -- MN 70)
Now let the discourses speak for themselves. Their incalculable strength lies
in their simplicity, and in their actuality. The profound truth is there, discoverable
even through the misty medium of translation!
Setting Rolling the Wheel of Truth
(Dhamma-cakka-ppavattana-sutta)
Thus I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Benares in the Deer
Park at Isipatana (the Resort of Seers). There he addressed the bhikkhus of
the group of five.
"Bhikkhus, these two extremes ought not to be cultivated by one gone forth
from the house-life. What are the two? There is devotion to indulgence of pleasure
in the objects of sensual desire, which is inferior, low, vulgar, ignoble, and
leads to no good; and there is devotion to self-torment, which is painful, ignoble
and leads to no good.
"The middle way discovered by a Perfect One avoids both these extremes;
it gives vision, it gives knowledge, and it leads to peace, to direct acquaintance,
to discovery, to nibbana. And what is that middle way? It is simply the noble
eightfold path, that is to say, right view, right intention; right speech, right
action, right livelihood; right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.
That is the middle way discovered by a Perfect One, which gives vision, which
gives knowledge, and which leads to peace, to direct acquaintance, to discovery,
to nibbana.
"Suffering, as a noble truth, is this: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering,
sickness is suffering, death is suffering, sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief
and despair are suffering; association with the loathed is suffering, dissociation
from the loved is suffering, not to get what one wants is suffering -- in short,
suffering is the five categories of clinging objects.
"The origin of suffering, as a noble truth, is this: It is the craving
that produces renewal of being accompanied by enjoyment and lust, and enjoying
this and that; in other words, craving for sensual desires, craving for being,
craving for non-being.
"Cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, is this: It is remainderless
fading and ceasing, giving up, relinquishing, letting go and rejecting, of that
same craving.
"The way leading to cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, is this:
It is simply the noble eightfold path, that is to say, right view, right intention;
right speech, right action, right livelihood; right effort, right mindfulness,
right concentration.
"'Suffering, as a noble truth, is this.' Such was the vision, the knowledge,
the understanding, the finding, the light, that arose in regard to ideas not
heard by me before. 'This suffering, as a noble truth, can be diagnosed.' Such
was the vision, the knowledge, the understanding, the finding, the light, that
arose in regard to ideas not heard by me before. 'This suffering, as a noble
truth, has been diagnosed.' Such was the vision, the knowledge, the understanding,
the finding, the light, that arose in regard to ideas not heard by me before.
"'The origin of suffering, as a noble truth, is this.' Such was the vision...
'This origin of suffering, as a noble truth, can be abandoned.' Such was the
vision... 'This origin of suffering, as a noble truth, has been abandoned.'
Such was the vision... in regard to ideas not heard by me before.
"'Cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, is this.' Such was the vision...
'This cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, can be verified.' Such was the
vision... 'This cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, has been verified.'
Such was the vision... in regard to ideas not heard by me before.
"'The way leading to cessation of suffering, as a noble truth, is this.'
Such was the vision... 'This way leading to cessation of suffering, as a noble
truth, can be developed.' Such was the vision... 'This way leading to the cessation
of suffering, as a noble truth, has been developed.' Such was the vision...
in regard to ideas not heard by me before.
"As long as my knowing and seeing how things are, was not quite purified
in these twelve aspects, in these three phases of each of the four noble truths,
I did not claim in the world with its gods, its Maras and high divinities, in
this generation with its monks and brahmans, with its princes and men to have
discovered the full awakening that is supreme. But as soon as my knowing and
seeing how things are, was quite purified in these twelve aspects, in these
three phases of each of the four noble truths, then I claimed in the world with
its gods, its Maras and high divinities, in this generation with its monks and
brahmans, its princes and men to have discovered the full awakening that is
supreme. Knowing and seeing arose in me thus: 'My heart's deliverance is unassailable.
This is the last birth. Now there is no renewal of being.'"
That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus of the group of five were glad,
and they approved his words.
Now during this utterance, there arose in the venerable Kondañña
the spotless, immaculate vision of the True Idea: "Whatever is subject
to arising is all subject to cessation."
When the Wheel of Truth had thus been set rolling by the Blessed One the earthgods
raised the cry: "At Benares, in the Deer Park at Isipatana, the matchless
Wheel of truth has been set rolling by the Blessed One, not to be stopped by
monk or divine or god or death-angel or high divinity or anyone in the world."
On hearing the earth-gods' cry, all the gods in turn in the six paradises of
the sensual sphere took up the cry till it reached beyond the Retinue of High
Divinity in the sphere of pure form. And so indeed in that hour, at that moment,
the cry soared up to the World of High Divinity, and this ten-thousandfold world-element
shook and rocked and quaked, and a great measureless radiance surpassing the
very nature of the gods was displayed in the world.
Then the Blessed One uttered the exclamation: "Kondañña knows!
Kondañña knows!", and that is how that venerable one acquired
the name, Añña-Kondañña -- Kondañña
who knows.
-- SN LVI, 11
The Not-self Characteristic
(Anatta-lakkhana-sutta)
Thus I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Benares, in the
Deer Park at Isipatana (the Resort of Seers). There he addressed the bhikkhus
of the group of five: "Bhikkhus." -- "Venerable sir," they
replied. The Blessed One said this.
"Bhikkhus, form is not-self. Were form self, then this form would not lead
to affliction, and one could have it of form: 'Let my form be thus, let my form
be not thus.' And since form is not-self, so it leads to affliction, and none
can have it of form: 'Let my form be thus, let my form be not thus.'
"Bhikkhus, feeling is not-self...
"Bhikkhus, perception is not-self...
"Bhikkhus, determinations are not-self...
"Bhikkhus, consciousness is not self. Were consciousness self, then this
consciousness would not lead to affliction, and one could have it of consciousness:
'Let my consciousness be thus, let my consciousness be not thus.' And since
consciousness is not-self, so it leads to affliction, and none can have it of
consciousness: 'Let my consciousness be thus, let my consciousness be not thus.'
"Bhikkhus, how do you conceive it: is form permanent or impermanent?"
-- "Impermanent, venerable Sir." -- "Now is what is impermanent
painful or pleasant?" -- "Painful, venerable Sir." -- "Now
is what is impermanent, what is painful since subject to change, fit to be regarded
thus: 'This is mine, this is I, this is my self'"? -- "No, venerable
sir."
"Is feeling permanent or impermanent?...
"Is perception permanent or impermanent?...
"Are determinations permanent or impermanent?...
"Is consciousness permanent or impermanent?" -- "Impermanent,
venerable sir." -- "Now is what is impermanent pleasant or painful?"
-- "Painful, venerable sir." -- "Now is what is impermanent,
what is painful since subject to change, fit to be regarded thus: 'This is mine,
this is I, this is my self'"? -- "No, venerable sir."
"So, bhikkhus any kind of form whatever, whether past, future or presently
arisen, whether gross or subtle, whether in oneself or external, whether inferior
or superior, whether far or near, must with right understanding how it is, be
regarded thus: 'This is not mine, this is not I, this is not myself.'
"Any kind of feeling whatever...
"Any kind of perception whatever...
"Any kind of determination whatever...
"Any kind of consciousness whatever, whether past, future or presently
arisen, whether gross or subtle, whether in oneself or external, whether inferior
or superior, whether far or near must, with right understanding how it is, be
regarded thus: 'This is not mine, this is not I, this is not my self.'
"Bhikkhus, when a noble follower who has heard (the truth) sees thus, he
finds estrangement in form, he finds estrangement in feeling, he finds estrangement
in determinations, he finds estrangement in consciousness.
"When he finds estrangement, passion fades out. With the fading of passion,
he is liberated. When liberated, there is knowledge that he is liberated. He
understands: 'Birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived out, what can
be done is done, of this there is no more beyond.'"
That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were glad, and they approved
his words.
Now during this utterance, the hearts of the bhikkhus of the group of five were
liberated from taints through clinging no more.
-- SN XXII, 59
The Fire Sermon
(Aditta-pariyaya-sutta)
Thus I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Gaya, at Gayasisa,
together with a thousand bhikkhus. There he addressed the bhikkhus.
"Bhikkhus, all is burning. And what is the all that is burning?
"The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact
is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant
that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning.
Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with
the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with
sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.
"The ear is burning, sounds are burning...
"The nose is burning, odors are burning...
"The tongue is burning, flavors are burning...
"The body is burning, tangibles are burning...
"The mind is burning, ideas are burning, mind-consciousness is burning,
mind-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant
that arises with mind-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning.
Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with
the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with
sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.
"Bhikkhus, when a noble follower who has heard (the truth) sees thus, he
finds estrangement in the eye, finds estrangement in forms, finds estrangement
in eye-consciousness, finds estrangement in eye-contact, and whatever is felt
as pleasant or painful or neither-painful- nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact
for its indispensable condition, in that too he finds estrangement.
"He finds estrangement in the ear... in sounds...
"He finds estrangement in the nose... in odors...
"He finds estrangement in the tongue... in flavors...
"He finds estrangement in the body... in tangibles...
"He finds estrangement in the mind, finds estrangement in ideas, finds
estrangement in mind-consciousness, finds estrangement in mind-contact, and
whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that
arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, in that too he finds
estrangement.
"When he finds estrangement, passion fades out. With the fading of passion,
he is liberated. When liberated, there is knowledge that he is liberated. He
understands: 'Birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived out, what can
be done is done, of this there is no more beyond.'"
That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were glad, and they approved
his words.
Now during his utterance, the hearts of those thousand bhikkhus were liberated
from taints through clinging no more.
-- SN XXXV, 28
Notes
First Sutta
THUS I HEARD: Words spoken by Ananda Thera at the First Council when all the
Discourses were recited, three months after the Buddha's Parinibbana.
PERFECT ONE: The Pali word Tathagata has several alternative explanations, including
tatha agato ("thus come," i.e., by the way followed by all Buddhas)
tatha gato ("thus gone," i.e., to the discovery of the Four Truths),
and tathalakkhanam agato ("come to the characteristic of the 'real' or
the 'such,' namely the undeceptive truth").
NIBBANA: Pali nibbana, Sanskrit nirvana. The meaning is "extinction,"
that is, of the "fires" of lust, hate, and delusion, or, more briefly,
of craving and ignorance, and so nibbana is a name for the third Truth as liberation.
The word is made up of the prefix nir (not) and vana (effort of blowing; figuratively,
craving); probably the origin was a smith's fire, which goes out or becomes
extinguished (nibbayati) if no longer blown on by the bellows; but the simile
most used is that of a lamp's extinguishment (nibbana) through exhaustion of
wick and oil.
NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH: The members of the path are defined in the Maha-satipatthana
Sutta and elsewhere as follows:
Right View of the Four Truths;
Right Intention governed by renunciation (non-sensuality), non-ill-will, and
non-cruelty (harmlessness);
Right Speech in abstention from lying, slander, abuse and gossip;
Right Action in abstention from killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct;
Right Livelihood for bhikkhus as that allowed by the Rules of the Discipline,
and for laymen as avoidance of trading in weapons, living beings, meat, intoxicants,
and poisons (AN V);
Right Effort to avoid unarisen and to abandon arisen evil, and to arouse unarisen
and to develop arisen good;
Right Mindfulness of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as given in the Maha-satipatthana
Sutta -- that is, contemplation of the body as a body, of feelings as feelings,
of states of consciousness as states of consciousness, and of ideas as ideas;
Right Concentration as (any of) the four jhana -meditations.
Collectively the first two members are called Understanding (pañña),
the next three Virtue (sila), and the last three Concentration (samadhi). The
Noble Eightfold Path is developed in four progressive stages, namely those of
Stream-Entry (where wrong view ritualism and doubt are ended), Once-Return (where
sensuality and ill will are weakened), Non-Return (where these two are ended)
and Arahatship (where lust for form, lust for the formless, conceit, agitation
and ignorance are ended), this being the end of craving which causes suffering.
SUFFERING: the Pali word dukkha, made up of dur (bad, unsatisfactory) and kha
(state, "-ness") extends its meaning from the actual suffering present
in physical pain or mental grief to any unwelcome state of insecurity, no matter
how vague.
TRUTH: Pali sacca (compare Sanskrit satya), from the root sa (to be there to
be existent, to have reality, etc.) and so literally a "there-is-ness"
in the sense of a state that, unlike a mirage, does not deceive or disappoint.
The common sense use of truth is by no means consistent, and the word and the
notion must therefore be handled with some care, taking it here only as treated
by the Buddha.
As to individual philosophers' and divines' individual factional truths -- that
is to say, "The world is eternal" or "The world is not eternal";
or "The world is finite or the world is infinite"; "The soul
is what the body is" or "The soul is one, the body is another";
"After death a Perfect One is" or "After death a Perfect One
is not" or "After death a Perfect One both is and is not" or
"After death a Perfect One neither is nor is not" -- when a bhikkhu
has cast off all of these, has renounced and rejected, banished, abandoned,
and relinquished them all, he thus becomes one who has cast off all factional
truths.
-- AN IV, 38
But how is truth to be found which is not factional?
There are five ideas that ripen here and now in two ways. What five? Faith,
preference, hearsay-learning, arguing upon evidence, and liking through pondering
a view. Now something may have faith well placed in it and yet be hollow, empty,
and false; and again something may have no faith placed in it and yet be factual,
true, and no other than it seems; and so with preference and the rest. If a
man has faith, then he guards truth when he says, "My faith is thus,"
but on that account draws no unreserved conclusion, "Only this is true,
the other is wrong." In this way he guards the truth; but there is as yet
no discovery of truth. And so with preference and the rest.
How is truth discovered? Here a bhikkhu lives near some village or town. Then
a householder or his son goes to him in order to test him in three kinds of
ideas, in ideas provocative of greed, of hate, and of delusion, wondering, "Are
there in this venerable one any such ideas, whereby his mind being obsessed
he might not knowing, say 'I know,' unseeing, say 'I see,' or to get others
to do likewise, which would be long for their harm and suffering?" While
thus testing him he comes to find that there are no such ideas in him, and he
finds that, "The bodily and verbal behavior of that venerable one are not
those of one affected by lust or hate or delusion. But the True Idea that this
venerable one teaches is profound, hard to see and discover; yet it is the most
peaceful and superior of all, out of reach of logical ratiocination, subtle,
for the wise to experience; such a True Idea cannot be taught by one affected
by lust or hate or delusion."
It is as soon as by testing him, he comes to see that he is purified from ideas
provocative of lust, hate, and delusion, that he then plants his faith in him.
When he visits him he respects him, when he respects him he gives ear, one who
gives ear hears the True Idea, he remembers it, he investigates the meaning
of the ideas remembered. When he does that he acquires a preference by pondering
the ideas. That produces interest. One interested is actively committed. So
committed he makes a judgment. According to his judgment he exerts himself.
When he exerts himself he comes to realize with the body the ultimate truth,
and he sees it by the penetrating of it with understanding. That is how there
is discovery of truth. But there is as yet no final arrival at truth. How is
truth finally arrived at? Final arrival at truth is the repetition, the keeping
in being, the development, of those same ideas. That is how there is final arrival
at truth."
-- MN 95 (abbreviated)
This undeceptive truth so arrived at is the Four Noble Truths, of which it is
said:
These four noble truths are what is real, not unreal, not other (than they seem),
that is why they are called Noble Truths.
-- Sacca-Samyutta
Besides this essential static unity of the four truths as undeceptiveness, the
dynamic structure of the transfiguration which they operate in combination is
expressed as follows:
Who sees suffering sees also the origin of suffering and the cessation of suffering
and the way leading to cessation of suffering (and whichever of the four truths
he sees, he sees the three therewith)
-- Sacca Samyutta
and:
Of these four noble truths, there is noble truth to be diagnosed, there is noble
truth to be abandoned, there is noble truth to be verified, and there is noble
truth to be developed (kept in being).
-- Sacca Samyutta
CATEGORIES: this represents the Pali word kandha (Sanskrit skandha), which is
often rendered by "aggregate." The five are as given in the second
Discourse. They are headings that comprise all that can be said to arise and
that form the object of clinging. "The clinging is neither the same of
these five categories which are its objects, nor is it something apart from
them; it is will and lust in regard to these five categories of clinging's objects
that is the clinging there." (MN 109) The five are respectively compared
to a lump of froth, a bubble, a mirage, a coreless plantain-stem, and a conjuring
trick.
CLINGING: an unsatisfactory and inadequate, but accepted rendering for the Pali
upadana. The word means literally "taking up" (upa plus adana; compare
the Latin assumere from ad plus sumere.) By first metaphor it is used for the
assumption and consumption that satisfies craving and produces existence. As
such it is the condition sine qua non for being. What is consumed (or assumed)
is the categories (q.v.). The word "clinging" has to represent this
meaning. Clinging's ending is nibbana.
CRAVING: though the word tanha doubtless once meant "thirst" (compare
Sanskrit trsna) it is never used in Pali in that sense. With ignorance it is
regarded as a basic factor in the continuity of existence. Craving draws creatures
on through greed, and drives them on through hate, while ignorance prevents
their seeing the truth of how things are or where they are going. Denial is
as much an activity of craving as assertion is. Denial maintains the denied.
CESSATION: nirodha, meaning the cessation of suffering through the cessation
of craving, is regardable as the removal of a poison, the curing of a disease,
not as the mere denial of it opposed to the assertion of it, or the obstruction
(pativirodha) of it in conflict with the favoring (anurodha) of it (see under
Craving), since both assertion and denial confirm and maintain alike the basic
idea or state that is required to be cured. Cessation, therefore, is not to
be confounded with mere negativism or nihilism. "Any pleasure and joy that
arise in dependence on the world is gratification that the world is impermanent,
pain-haunted and inseparable from the idea of change is the disappointment in
the world; the removal of desire and lust is the cure (the escape) in the world."
(AN III) The cure or escape is Cessation: the Buddha would not claim awakening
till he had diagnosed how these three things came to be.
KNOWING AND SEEING HOW THINGS ARE: the force of the Pali word yathabhuta, (literally
how (it has) come to be, how (it) is, how (things) exist lies in the direct
allusion to the absolutely relative conditionedness of all being. It is given
specially thus: "Seeing 'such is form, such its origin, such its going
out,'" and so with the other four categories.
THE VENERABLE KONDAÑÑA: one of the five bhikkhus. See Introduction.
* * *
Second Sutta
FORM: Pali rupa (what appears, appearance). As the first of five categories
(q.v.) it is defined in terms of the four Great entities, namely earth (hardness),
water (cohesion), fire (temperature), and air (distension and motion), along
with the negative aspect of space (what does not appear), from all of which
are derived the secondary phenomena such as persons, features, shapes, etc.:
these are regarded as secondary because while form can appear without any of
them they cannot appear without form. It is also defined as "that which
is being worn away" (ruppati), thus underlining its general characteristics
of instability.
NOT-SELF: Together with the four truths, this is taught only by Buddhas. Anatta
(not-self) is shown as a general characteristic without exception.
The characteristic of impermanence does not become apparent because, when rise
and fall are not given attention, it is concealed by continuity; the characteristic
of pain does not become apparent because, when continuous oppression is not
given attention, it is concealed by the postures (changing from one posture
to another, waking and sleeping); the characteristic of not-self does not become
apparent because, when resolution into the various elements (that compose whatever
is) is not given attention, it is concealed by compactness.
-- Visuddhimagga Ch. XXI
Self-identification and hunger for permanence and bliss form the principal manifestations
of craving, guided by view that is wrong because it is not in conformity with
undeceptive truth. When confronted with the contradictions and the impossibility
of self-identification with any of the five Categories of Clinging's objects
(q.v.) craving seeks to satisfy this need by imagining a soul (individual or
universal); but since no such soul, however conceived, can escape falling within
the five Categories of Clinging's objects, this solution is always foredoomed
to failure. Similarly any attempt to identify self with nibbana must always
fail for the same reason. Nibbana conceived as identical (with self) or (self)
as apart from it (emanence) or inside it (immanence), or nibbana conceived as
"mine" is misconceived. (MN 1). This does not prevent a Perfect One
from using the speech that is current in the world in order to communicate,
though he does so without misapprehending it it, as is shown in the Dhammapada:
Self is savior of self;
what other savior could there be?
For only with (one-) self well tamed
one finds the savior, hard to find.
Only by self is evil done,
self born and given being by self,
oppressing him who knowledge lacks
as grinding diamond does the stone.
-- Dhammapada Verses 160-1
Similarly with the expression "in oneself" (ajjhattam) in the Second
Discourse, this is simply a convenient convention for the focus of the individual
viewpoint, not to be misapprehended. A bhikkhu heard the Buddha saying, as in
the Second Discourse here, that the five Categories are "not mine,"
etc., and he wondered; "So it seems form is not-self; feeling, perception,
determinations, and consciousness are not-self. What self, then, will the action
done by the not-self affect?" He was severely rebuked by the Buddha for
forgetting the conditionedness of all arisen things. (MN 109) "It is impossible
that anyone with right view should see any idea as self." (MN 115) and
"Whatever philosophers and divines see self in its various forms, they
see only the five Categories, or one or other of them." (SN XXII, 47)
FEELING: (vedana) this is always confined strictly to the affective feelings
of (bodily or mental) pleasure and pain with the normally ignored neutral feeling
of "neither-pain-nor pleasure." These can be subdivided in various
ways.
PERCEPTION: (sañña) means simply recognition.
DETERMINATIONS: a great many different renderings of this term are current,
the next best of which is certainly "formations." The Pali word sankhara
(Sanskrit samskasa) means literally "a construction," and is derived
from the prefix sam (con) plus the verb karoti (to do, to make); compare the
Latin conficere from con plus facere (to do), which gives the French confection
(a construction). The Sanskrit means ritual acts with the purpose of bringing
about good rebirth. As used in Pali by the Buddha it covers any aspects having
to do with action, willing, making, planning, using, choice, etc. (anything
teleological); and contact (q.v.) is often placed at the head of lists defining
it. Otherwise defined as bodily, verbal, and mental action.
CONSCIOUSNESS: (viññana) is here the bare "being conscious"
left for consideration when the other four categories have been dealt with.
It is only describable in individual plurality in terms of the other four Categories,
as fire is individualized only by the fuel it burns (see MN 38 & 109). Otherwise
it is regardable as an infiniteness (MN 111) dependent upon the contemplation
of it as such. It is only impermanent, etc., because however it arises, it can
only do so in dependence on the other Categories, that is, on conditions themselves
impermanent, painful and not-self. It never arises unless accompanied by co-nascent
perception (q.v.) and feeling (q.v.). It has six "doors" (see under
Eye and Mind) for cognizing its objective fields, but no more.
ESTRANGEMENT: the Pali noun nibbida and its verb nibbindati are made up of the
prefix nir in its negative sense of "out," and the root vid (to find,
to feel, to know intimately). Nibbada is thus a finding out. What is thus found
out is the intimate hidden contradictoriness in any kind of self-identification
based in any way on these things (and there is no way of determining self-identification
apart from them -- see under NOT-SELF). Elsewhere the Buddha says:
Whatever there is there of form, feeling, perception, determinations, or consciousness,
such ideas he sees as impermanent, as subject to pain, as a sickness, as a tumor,
as a barb, as a calamity, as an affliction, as an alienation, as a disintegration,
as a void, as not-self. He averts his heart from those ideas, and for the most
peaceful, the supreme goal, he turns his heart to the deathless element, that
is to say, the stilling of all determinations, the relinquishment of all substance,
the exhaustion of craving, the fading of passion, cessation, extinction.
-- MN 64
The "stuff" of life can also be seen thus. Normally the discovery
of a contradiction is for the unliberated mind a disagreeable one. Several courses
are then open. It can refuse to face it, pretending to itself to the point of
full persuasion and belief that no contradiction is there; or one side of the
contradiction may be unilaterally affirmed and the other repressed and forgotten;
or a temporary compromise may be found (all of which expedients are haunted
by insecurity); or else the contradiction may be faced in its truth and made
the basis for a movement towards liberation. So too, on finding estrangement
thus, two main courses are open: either the search, leaving "craving for
self-identification" intact, can be continued for sops to allay the symptoms
of the sickness; or else a movement can be started in the direction of a cure
for the underlying sickness of craving, and liberation from the everlasting
hunt for palliatives, whether for oneself or others. In this sense alone, "Self
protection is the protection of others, and protection of others self-protection"
(Satipatthana Samyutta).
* * *
Third Sutta
EYE, etc.: the six, beginning with the eye and ending with the mind (q.v.),
are called the six "Bases for Contact (see Contact) in oneself," and
are also known as the six "Doors" of perception. Their corresponding
objects are called "external bases," ("sense-organ" is both
too material and too objective), since the emphasis here is on the subjective
faculty of seeing, etc., not the associated piece of flesh seen in someone else
or in the looking-glass, which, in so far as it is visible, is not "seeing"
but "form" as the "external" object of the seeing "eye
in oneself," and insofar as it is tangible is the object of the body-base
in oneself, and insofar as it is apprehended as a "bodily feature"
is the object of the mind-base in oneself. Here the eye should be taken simply
as the perspective-pointing-inward-to-a-center in the otherwise uncoordinated
visual field consisting of colors, which makes them cognizable by eye-consciousness,
and which is misconceivable as "I". The six Bases in Oneself are compared
to an empty village, and the six External Bases to village-raiding robbers.
FORMS: the first of the six External Bases, respective objective fields or objects
of the six Bases in Oneself (see EYE). The Pali word rupa is used for the eye's
object as for the first of the five Categories, but here in the plural. Colors,
the basis for the visual perspective of the eye (q.v), are intended, primarily
(see also under FORM above.
CONTACT: the Pali word phassa comes from the verb phusati (to touch, sometimes
used in the sense of to arrive at, or to realize), from which also comes the
word photthabba (tangible, the object of the Fifth Base in oneself, namely,
body-sensitivity). But here it is generalized to mean contact in the sense of
presence of object to subject, or presence of cognized to consciousness, in
all forms of consciousness. It is defined as follows: "Eye-consciousness
arises dependent on eye and on forms; the coincidence of the three is contact
(presence), and likewise in the cases of the ear, nose, tongue, body and mind.
Failing it, no knowledge, no consciousness of any sort whatever, can arise at
all." This fundamental idea is sometimes placed at the head of lists of
things defining Determinations (q.v.).
BODY: the Pali word kaya is used both for the physical body and for any group,
as the English word "body" is. In Pali it is also used in the sense
(a) for the physical frame, namely "this body with its consciousness"
in a general sense, sometimes called "old action," and then it forms
the subject of body contemplation as set forth in the Satipatthana Sutta, the
aim of which is to analyze this "conglomeration" into its motley constituents.
Or else it is used in a strict sense, as here, namely (b) that "door"
of the subjective body-sensitivity or tactile sense, the perspective-pointing-inwards-to-a-center
in the otherwise uncoordinated tactile field of tangibles consisting of the
hard, the hot-or-cold, and the distended-and-movable (see also under EYE).
MIND: the Pali word mano belongs to the root meaning to measure, compare, coordinate.
Here it is intended as that special "door" in which the five kinds
of consciousness arising in the other five doors (see under EYE), combine themselves
with their objective fields into a unitive perspective-pointing-inwards-to-a-center,
together with certain objects apprehendable in this mind-door, such as infiniteness
of space, etc. (and names, fictions, etc.). Whatever is cognized in this door
(see under Consciousness) is cognized as an idea (q.v.). And in the presence
(with the contact) of ignorance (of the four truths) it is misconceived as "I".
It is thus the fusing of this heterogeneous stuff of experience into a coherent
pattern, when it also has the function of giving temporal succession and flow
to that pattern by its presenting all ideas for cognition as "preceded."
In the Abhidhamma, but not in the Suttas, "the (material) form which is
the support for the mind" is mentioned (implying perhaps the whole "body
with its consciousness"), but not further specified. This would place mind
on a somewhat similar basis to the eye-seeing, as meant here in its relation
to the objective piece of flesh (see under EYE). Later notions coupled it with
the heart. Now fashion identifies it with the brain; but such identifications
are not easy to justify unilaterally; and if they in any way depend upon a prior
and always philosophically questionable assumption of a separate body-substance
and a mind-substance, they will find no footing in the Buddha's teaching where
substances are not assumed.
MIND-CONSCIOUSNESS: if it is remarked that each of the six pairs of Bases, the
five consisting of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body, being coordinated by mind,
are open to any one's self-inspection; and that consciousness is considered
here as arising dependently upon each of these six pairs of Bases and in no
other way whatsoever (since no other description rejecting all six is possible
without self-contradiction); then this notion of mind-consciousness should present
no special difficulty.
IDEA: the word dhamma is gerundive from the verb dharati (to carry, to remember),
thus it means literally a "carryable, a rememberable." In this context
of the six pairs of Bases it means the rememberables which form the mind's special
object; as distinct from the forms seen only with the eye, the sounds heard
with the ear, the odors smelt with the nose, the flavors tasted with the tongue,
and the tangibles touched with the body, ideas are what are apprehended through
the mind-door (see under Eye, Forms and Mind, and also Contact). These six cover
all that can be known. But while the first (see FORMS) are uncoordinated between
themselves and have no direct access to each other, in the mind-door the five
find a common denominator and are given a coordinating perspective, together
with the mind's own special objects. So the idea as a rememberable, is the aspect
of the known apprehended by the mind, whether coordinating the five kinds of
consciousness, or apprehending the ideas peculiar to it (see Mind), or whether
apprehending its own special objects. This must include all the many other meanings
of the word dhamma (Sanskrit dharma). Nibbana, in so far as it is knowable --
describable -- is an object of the mind, and is thus an idea. "All ideas
are not-self." What is inherently unknowable has no place in the Teaching.
* * *
The Three Suttas and Their Relationship
The first of these three discourses sets out the vision of the truth peculiar
to Buddhas, with its foundation of Suffering ("I teach only suffering,
and the liberation from suffering"). The second then takes the five Categories
given in the definition of Suffering in the first, and it shows how, in this
comprehensive analysis every component can be diagnosed rightly, that is to
say in conformity with truth. It is this treatment that elicits the characteristic
of Not-self. The two characteristics of Impermanence and Suffering in the world
were well recognized in ancient indian philosophies and have never been peculiar
to Buddhism. This exposure of the inherent contradiction in the very nature
of the idea of self-identity, to which craving cleaves with the would-be self-preserving
stranglehold of a drowning man upon his rescuer, is here made the very basis
for the movement to liberation. Craving is cured through coming to understand
how things are while truth is being guarded (see under TRUTH above). The consequent
fading of lust is brought about by this discovery of truth, and the understanding
that there is no more of this beyond is the result of the final arrival at Truth
by keeping it in being through development. In the third discourse the very
same ground is gone over but described in different terms. The comprehensive
analysis in terms of the five categories with their general rather than individual
emphasis, is replaced by the equally comprehensive and complementary analysis
in terms of the six pairs of Bases, which analyze the individual viewpoint,
without which no consciousness can arise. And instead of the dispassionate term
"Not-self," everything that could possibly be identified as self is,
without mentioning the term, presented to the same effect in the colors of a
conflagration of passion behind a mirage of deception. Only a Buddha "whose
heart is cooled by compassion" can have the courage to venture so far in
the search for truth and discover thereby the true state of peace.
* * *
Questions
Is not seeking one's own salvation a selfish aim?
If the aim prescribed were a heavenly personal existence forever with self-preservation
(whether through selfishness as such, or disguised as altruism), then the answer
could hardly but be, "Yes." But with the aim as the removal of self-insistence
in every form (not excluding ultimately self-denial, which like any negation,
is just another affirmation of the basic idea so strenuously denied) -- the
cure of the infectious sickness that leads to untold suffering -- does the question
arise at all? But even granting that it did, would not the Arahat disciple display,
after the Buddha, the highest altruism by showing how the aspiration to health
is not a deception, since by his success he bears witness that it can be achieved
and that no one is forever excluded from following his example?
*
But this description in terms of suffering, is it not pessimistic?
Is it not rather the very reverse? For true optimism is surely shown by having
the courage and energy to see how things are, and where liberation lies; and
would it not be true pessimism to be satisfied to try and make existence out
to be pleasanter or safer, and liberation easier, than is in conformity with
the truth? Must not true liberation lie beyond the dialectic of pessimism and
optimism, beyond alternatives of selfishness and altruism, as Truth (not factional
truths) lies beyond that of being and non-being?
*
Does not the teaching of "Not-self" imply that there is in fact no
action; that, for instance, there are no living beings to kill?
The answer is certainly, "No." The reasons would be too lengthy to
go into here in detail. But it is said by the Buddha:
The Buddhas in the past, accomplished and fully awakened, those the Blessed
Ones maintained the efficacy of action and of certain action to be done, and
so will those do in the future, and so do I now.
-- AN III, 136
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