Aggregates

A Manual of the Excellent Man

Chapter Two

Maung Thaw’s second question relates to the following:

The definition, characteristics, and significance of the five aggregates;
The definition, characteristics, and significance of the four truths;
A description of the five aggregates in terms of the four truths;
The definition, characteristics, and significance of the Noble Eightfold Path, with its practical application leading to nibbāna.

Seven Aspects of Materiality to be Perceived

There are two approaches to the definition, characteristics, and significance of the five aggregates, namely, the Suttanta method and the Abhidhamma method.

The Suttanta method is the Buddha’s approach to the Dhamma for the ordinary person. The Buddha gave succinct discourses to show ordinary people practical ways to cultivate insight, and to attain the path and its fruition in this very life.

The Abhidhamma method, however, offers a profound and exhaustive analytical treatment of all aspects of the Dhamma, with no particular reference to the practice for insight development. The latter method is actually meant for the Noble Ones to sharpen their analytical knowledge (patisambhidā-ñāna). It is not suitable as insight training for the ordinary person because it is too subtle. For example, those who have small boats should only ply the river for their livelihood and should not venture out to the deep ocean. Only if they have ocean-going vessels should they make an ocean voyage.

These days, people take up the holy life not actually intent on gaining path knowledge, but merely to acquire merit, purported to gradually mature as perfections. Practice of insight meditation is not popular. Learning and teaching of scriptures to develop wisdom is the usual practice. So the Abhidhamma method is popular. In this treatise, however, I shall employ the Suttanta method only.

“Bhikkhus, a bhikkhu who earnestly wants to understand the true nature of materiality to eradicate the defilements, who habitually contemplates materiality from three approaches, who is proficient in the seven aspects of materiality is, in this Dhamma and Discipline, called accomplished, one who has lived the life, a perfect one or an excellent man.

“Bhikkhus, how is a bhikkhu proficient in the seven aspects? Bhikkhus, herein a bhikkhu discerns the true nature of materiality; he discerns the origin of materiality; he discerns the cessation of materiality; he discerns the practice leading to the cessation of materiality; he discerns the satisfaction in materiality; he discerns the danger in materiality; and he discerns the escape from materiality.

“Bhikkhus, what is materiality? Materiality includes the four primary elements: extension, cohesion, heat, and motion, and the [twenty-four] material qualities derived from them. This is called materiality. (1)

“As long as nutriment arises, materiality arises. Once nutriment is exhausted, materiality ceases. This is the origin and cessation of materiality. (2, 3)

“What is the practice leading to the cessation of materiality? It is the Noble Eightfold Path taught by me: right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. These eight constitute the path. (4)

“The pleasure and joy arising dependent on materiality constitute the satisfaction in materiality. (5)

“The transience, unsatisfactoriness, and instability of materiality constitute the danger in materiality. (6)

“The abandonment of desire and lust for materiality constitute the escape from materiality.” (7)

(Sattatthāna Sutta, Khandhavagga, Samyuttanikāya)

The True Nature of Materiality

The four essential material qualities are the primary elements of extension, cohesion, heat, and motion.
The five sense bases are the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, and the body.
The five sense objects are visible form, sound, smell, taste, and touch.
The two material qualities of sex are femininity and masculinity.
The material quality of vitality.
The material base of consciousness — the heart-base.
The material quality of nutrition.

These are the eighteen kinds of materiality.

1. The Four Primary Elements

The different degrees of hardness or softness are qualities of the element of extension, colloquially called the earth element.
Liquidity and cohesion are qualities of the element of cohesion, colloquially called the water element.
Temperature, hot or cold, is the quality of the element of heat, colloquially called the fire element.
Motion, swelling, inflation, pressure, and support are qualities of the element of motion, colloquially called the wind element.

Due to the collective concept people usually conceive the four primary elements as a composite whole rather than in their ultimate sense, which can only be discerned through insight knowledge. When insight arises, one sees that not the tiniest atom remains that is compact or solid.

The three elements of extension, motion, and heat can be felt by touch. Even children know whether a thing is soft or hard. However, they are not able to discern the ultimate sense of what they only superficially recognize as the earth element. They know whether a thing is cold or hot, but they cannot discern the ultimate sense of what they only recognize as the fire element. Similarly they know that something moves, or supports, or is pressed, or swells. However, they do not discern the element of motion there. If one can penetrate conceptions about the four primary elements and realize their ultimate nature, then one is said to be proficient in materiality, the first aspect of discernment.

2. The Five Sense Bases

The eye, ear, nose, and tongue are the sense bases through which the respective kinds of sense-consciousness arises. Body-sensitivity has for its basis the whole body externally and internally. These are the kamma-conditioned material qualities or internal sense bases.

3. The Five Sense Objects

The five sense objects should need no explanation. Only that of touch may be commented on as that pertaining to the primary elements of extension, heat, and motion. These three primary elements are the tangible sense objects.

4. The Material Qualities of Sex

The material quality of femininity, which governs a person’s whole body, distinguishing her as a woman or imparting the condition of being female.

The material quality of masculinity, which governs a person’s whole body, distinguishing him as a man or imparting the condition of being male.

5. Vitality

The vitality that gives a being its life, or the vitality of the kamma-originated materiality, that pervades the whole body.

6. The Material Base of Consciousness

The material base of consciousness or the mind is called the heart-base. It is the source from which kind thoughts or unkind thoughts flow.

7. The Material Quality of Nutrition

The material quality that nourishes the whole body, which may be called the sustenance of the four primary elements, is the element of nutrition. The principle underlying this element is the need of all beings born in the sensual realm to eat. It is just like an oil-lamp that needs constant replenishment to be kept alight.

Of the eighteen material qualities mentioned above, the four primary elements are like the roots, the trunk, the boughs, and the branches of a tree; the remaining fourteen are like the leaves, flowers, and fruits. When the impermanence of the four primary elements is perceived, the delusion of personality disappears. Derived materiality does not then obstruct perception. That, it should be noted, is why the Buddha speaks of the four great primaries but does not define them. These four primary elements are self-evident.

All materiality, whether animate or inanimate, can be reduced to atoms. On further analysis, they are included in one of the eighteen species of material qualities. Contemplate your own body to gain insight. If the ultimate materiality in the four primary elements is perceived clearly, the infinite materiality of the universe will be seen in the same light. Therefore, contemplate hard on the four primary elements.

Derived material phenomena are not so evident, for they are interrelated and subtle. Examine what is already evident; do not try to see what is imperceptible. It will only be a waste of effort. Focus your attention on only one of the four primary elements. Once any one of them is perceived clearly, the remaining three will also become clear.

This body is a composite of ultimate realities, i.e. of things having their individual essence. Just as a person with weak eyesight has to use glasses to read, use the Buddha’s teaching as an aid to see the ultimate truth that is clearly visible inside your body. Try to see the arising and vanishing that is constantly taking place within you. With sufficient zeal and concentration you can probably comprehend things quite vividly. I am impressing it on you in various ways because it is elusive.

This first aspect needs to be properly perceived whereby the primary elements become clear in their ultimate sense, without confusing them with the collective concept. One cannot stress this too strongly because the remaining aspects will not be discerned unless you have the first one well and truly within your grasp. So spare no pains to perceive it.

The Origin and Cessation of Materiality

These are the second and third aspects to be perceived. Constant arising is called “samudaya.” Cessation or vanishing, is called “nirodha.” Samudaya is used in two senses: first to refer to the constant arising of phenomena throughout a given existence; and second to refer to the arising of another existence when the present one ends.

Nirodha is also used in two senses: the constant cessation of phenomena throughout a given existence, and the final cessation of all phenomena when one attains parinibbāna, where there is no more fresh existence and one escapes from the cycle of rebirth. This is also called nibbāna nirodha.

Nutriment (āhāra) is the sustenance of existence. It is of two kinds: physical nutriment and mental nutriment. Physical nutriment is the material quality of nutrition. Mental nutriment means contact, volition, and consciousness.

“The past kamma that accompanies one throughout the cycle of rebirth is comparable to a field, rebirth-consciousness is like the seed-grain, the craving that accompanies kamma is like the fertility of the soil — Kammam khettam viññānam bījam tanhā sineho.”

In the above quotation, kamma is the mental nutriment of volition, rebirth-consciousness is the nutriment of consciousness, which provides the seed for a new existence at rebirth, leading to a new material aggregate, i.e. the body.

In lighting a candle, the light appears simultaneously with the flame. Similarly, at rebirth, materiality appears the instant that rebirth-consciousness arises. The earliest appearance of materiality is like the germination of the seed. Our full-grown bodies are the natural development from rebirth-consciousness like the seed that has germinated and grown into a tree. It should be understood that germination can occur only where there is rebirth-consciousness. If the rebirth-consciousness does not arise when a person dies with the exhaustion of the past kamma, there is no germination. That is what is meant by the Buddha’s words:

“When nutrition arises, materiality arises.When nutrition is exhausted, materiality ceases.”

This is the explanation of the second meaning of samudaya, the incessant rebirth of new aggregates of materiality. Similarly with nirodha, the cessation of rebirth, the total release from the cycle of rebirths. This second sense of arising and cessation is obvious. This is not vital for the development of insight. What is relevant here is to know the constant arising and cessation taking place every moment throughout one’s life.

Here is a simile:

Let us say a man-size flame is set alight and is meant to last a hundred years. Imagine how much fuel must be supplied every day and night. The life of the flame depends on the fuel. The flame can remain the size of a man only when the lamp is full. It becomes smaller as the fuel level falls. When the oil is used up, the flame goes out. Imagine how much fuel is consumed by the lamp each day from the first day it is lit. Visualize the daily refuelling. Then consider how the flame gets renewed because the fuel is replenished. See how the flame exhausts itself due to the exhaustion of the fuel that has kept it alight. Try to distinguish the rejuvenated flame, after refuelling, from the flame that has exhausted itself, having consumed all the fuel. Suppose that the new fuel is coloured, and that the flame takes on the same colour as the fuel. For a while, white fuel will produce a white flame. Then as the white fuel is used up, and red fuel is fed into the lamp, the colour of the flame will turn from white to red. Again, with yellow fuel, the flame turns yellow, and so on. Thus, compare the old and the new in the same flame.

Preconceived notions about what the eye sees obstruct perception. Expel these preconceptions with insight. Even in an ordinary flame (not distinguished by colour) constant change is observable if one looks closely. Every motion represents change — change from the old to the new. As the new arises, the old vanishes. The arising of the new must be understood as samudaya — the vanishing of the old is nirodha.

The temperature-originated materiality that is the body, which will remain when a person dies, is just like the lamp and the wick in our simile. The kamma-originated materiality, the consciousness-originated materiality, and the nutriment-originated materiality, which combine to give the illusion of a person, are like the man-size flame. The daily food intake is like the daily refuelling.

Our body gets the calories it needs from the food that we take. As the food gets assimilated, the fine materiality in our body gets reduced. When food intake is discontinued and nutrition is exhausted, the fine materiality and the kamma-originated materiality that constitute the body cease to function. All the different physical phenomena that constitute the body are totally dependent on nutrition. The exhaustion of nutrition from the previous meal and the cessation of the older materiality go together, just as they had arisen together. The arising of nutrition from a later meal and the arising of the new materiality also coincide.

If you contemplate the enormous struggle of all living beings to obtain food, you will realize the startling rate at which materiality changes in all living things. Then the manner in which one sustains oneself from the moment of birth, seeking to extend one’s life with food, will become evident. As one can visualize the changing colours of the flame after refuelling with different fuel, try to visualize the exhaustion of a fresh meal’s nutriment with the consequent changes in materiality. Focus on the changes that take place from moment to moment. The arising of fresh materiality as you eat, and the feeling of well-being experienced, like the gathering of clouds, is the appearance of a new lease of life, called samudaya. The gradual dwindling away of vigour after five or six hours, when the nutriment has been consumed, is called nirodha. So the Buddha said, “When nutrition arises, materiality arises; when nutrition ceases, materiality ceases.”

The Practice Leading to the Cessation of Materiality

The knowledge that has perceived the first, second, and third aspects of materiality is called mundane right view, which develops into supramundane right view or path knowledge after application.

Right thought, the indispensable associate of right view, is also of two types: mundane right thought and right thought as path knowledge. In our example above, the visualization of the process of change in the flame is the function of right view. What brings forth this visualization is right thought. Only when right thought prevails can right view occur. The meditator’s insight into the incessant arising and vanishing of materiality is due to the presence of right view. Bringing right view into focus is the function of right thought.

How Does Right Thought Function?

It focuses one’s attention on the unsatisfactoriness of life. The immensity of the need for food in all living things, the need for a regular food intake, not less than twice a day; how one feels when one is full, when one begins to feel hungry, and when one starves. It lets one imagine the hypothetical consequences of a great famine in this continent of Asia — how soon this whole continent would be turned into a vast graveyard. These kinds of reflections are called right thought.

If one contemplates the constant changes taking place in one’s body, even during a single sitting one may discern the arising and vanishing of physical phenomena. At the start of a sitting, nothing in particular is felt, for the body is at ease. After a while, slight heat is often felt either in the legs or another part of the body, then you may feel the heat intensify; then you might feel numb; then a tingling sensation, then discomfort in the legs, etc. Such changes, which are bound to occur, can readily be observed.

By closely observing the phenomena within oneself, the continuous arising of new materiality is perceived, like the gathering of clouds. Then at once, the disappearance of those same phenomena is perceived, like clouds being wafted away by the wind. This is the function of right view. The focusing of attention on directly observable phenomena is the function of right thought. It is only with the appropriate application of right thought that right view can clearly discern the true nature of phenomena. In fact, such perception can occur in any posture for, whether you notice it or not, phenomena arise and vanish all the time.

Once right view and right thought are established as supramundane insight, three factors mature that can remove all bodily and verbal misconduct, for which the latent tendency has accumulated. These three factors are right speech, right action, and right livelihood. Then, right effort means zeal in one’s undertaking. It also goes by the name “ātappa,” which means “that which harasses the defilements.” Another name for right effort is sammappadhāna. It has three aspects: ārambha, nikkama, and parakkama. Ārambha is promptitude and exertion. Nikkama is alertness that does not tolerate sloth, torpor, and indolence. Parakkama is vigour that never allows one to slacken in one’s right efforts. It is due to the lack of this kind of effort that people do not attain to jhāna and path knowledge.

Right mindfulness means the constant awareness that does not allow the mind to stray from the object of contemplation even for a fraction of a second.

Right concentration is steadiness of the mind that does not slip off its object of contemplation.

These latter six constituents of the path are also each of two types, mundane and supramundane. Here, we are concerned only with the supramundane factors.

These eight factors are the Truth of the Path. Of these eight, right speech, right action, and right livelihood appear automatically once a meditator has achieved insight. The aim of insight meditation is to perceive the real nature of one’s body in the ultimate sense, which dispels delusion. To develop insight, one needs right mindfulness, right effort, right concentration, and right thought. With these four factors as the locomotive, right view is ready for the inward journey. The right track for the journey is just a fathom in length: the height of an average human. This journey is the close observation of phenomena taking place within one’s body, from head to foot. Then, concept will gradually yield to perception. By doggedly pursuing this perception, one can, with sufficient diligence, knock at the door of nibbāna in seven days’ time. If not in seven days, it might take one month, or one year, or two, three, or up to seven years. This is explicitly mentioned at various places in the texts. Remember nirodha in its second meaning, i.e. the total cessation of the five aggregates and rebirth is nirodha, which is nibbāna. This is the supramundane nirodha.

The Satisfaction in Materiality

“The pleasure and joy arising dependent on materiality constitute the satisfaction (assāda) in materiality.”

In the fifth aspect requiring proficiency in materiality, by the term “assāda” the text means the pleasure one can enjoy in the favourable planes of existence: wealthy human existence, the six celestial realms, or the brahmā realms. It means the physical well-being, pleasure, and joy that can be experienced in those existences. Here, we shall confine the explanation to human existence.

When a pleasing visual object, such as a beautiful shape or colour, contacts the eye, seeing occurs and a pleasant feeling coupled with joy arises. Just as ants are very fond of honey or treacle, sentient beings are very fond of pleasure and joy. Just as moths are captivated by the light of a flame, beings are captivated by pleasure and joy. This is the pleasant aspect of materiality, i.e. the delight in the eye and a visual object.

In the same way, when a melodious sound contacts the ear, hearing occurs, and a pleasant feeling coupled with joy arises. When a delicious taste contacts the tongue, tasting occurs, and a pleasant feeling coupled with joy arises. When something agreeable to the touch contacts the body, every part of which is sensitive to touch, touching occurs, and a pleasant feeling coupled with joy arises.

The mind may be likened to the crystal-clear water that gushes up from a spring, for it manifests from the heart-base in pristine purity. It can take any of the six sense objects as its object. So when an agreeable sense object or mental object comes into its range, either apprehension or comprehension occurs, and a pleasant feeling coupled with joy arises. However, since we are currently discussing the aggregate of materiality, the mind will not be dealt with here.

The Danger in Materiality

“The transience, unsatisfactoriness, and instability of materiality constitute the danger (ādīnava) in materiality.”

In the sixth aspect requiring proficiency in materiality, the transient nature of materiality will be evident if one perceives the burden of seeking nutrition, the arising and cessation taking place in one’s body, as in the analogy of the man-sized flame. The daily struggle to earn a living, the constant care the body needs, the arduous acquisition of wealth, are burdensome, and these activities take place due to this body. When this truth is perceived by insight knowledge, that is right view.

Liability to disease and death, to all sorts of hazards such as fire, drowning, venomous snakes, wild beasts, evil spirits, or accidents that might cause injury or death, are all manifestations of the changeable nature of materiality. They are obvious to one with right view. This is the sixth aspect.

I shall now illustrate the fifth and sixth aspects. The British administrative authorities, in their campaign to get rid of stray dogs, used poisoned meat, which was thrown about wherever there were stray dogs. The dogs, being enticed by the flavour and rich taste of the bait, rushed for it, little suspecting any danger. The result is obvious. Herein, the enticing flavour and rich taste are the satisfaction in the poisoned meat, the hidden poison in the meat is its danger. This is an illustration of how pleasure lures the unwary and how danger besets them. Here the real culprits are the four external enemies: the colour, the smell, the taste, and the poison in the meat, and the four internal enemies: the eye, the nose, the tongue, and craving. Poison alone would not have caused the death of the dogs unless it was hidden in the meat. Poison hidden inside a lump of clay would be no danger because it lacks the attraction. If the dogs had no eye, no nose, no tongue, and no craving the attractive poison could not have endangered them either. It is only because the external and the internal agencies worked together that the dogs succumbed to them.

Let’s take another example, the example of the baited hook in fishing. You should understand on proper reflection that the materiality constituting yourself, your family, and all material objects such as food, shelter, and clothing, are in reality like baited hooks. The pleasure and joy arising from craving for all these things are just like the attractions of the bait. It is because you have lustfully snatched them and taken them to be your own property that you are subjected to the poisonous influence of those possessions, being harassed daily. In fact, those possessions are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and unstable materiality, fraught with evil consequences.

How does impermanence oppress you every day?
How does unsatisfactoriness oppress you every day?
How does instability oppress you every day?

Impermanence is the accomplice of death. It is an ogre or a forest fire that devours everything. It consumes one’s food from one’s mother’s milk until the last drop of water on one’s deathbed. It also consumes the fresh cells and all forms of materiality, namely kamma-originated materiality and consciousness-originated materiality that are sustained by regular feeding. The ogre of impermanence devours everything taken into our body, leaving nothing. It is just like feeding a huge flame with oil. Try to perceive how, for instance, the nutrition that sustains the eye is fully consumed by the ogre that works in the eye. Likewise try to perceive this with respect to the other organs.

To give a further example:

A certain man has a spendthrift wife. He works hard and hands over all his earnings to her while she stays at home squandering it. Give her a hundred, she makes short shrift of it; give her a thousand, ten thousand, any amount — her desire for spending is never satiated. Just imagine how a man would feel with such a wife who enslaves him and causes his ruin. Likewise, the ogre of impermanence that lurks within us oppresses us everywhere. Unsatisfactoriness also oppresses us in the same way. The way that instability oppresses us is only too evident.

The Escape from Materiality

“The abandonment of desire and lust for materiality constitutes the escape (nissarama) from materiality.”

In the seventh aspect requiring proficiency in materiality, the Buddha points to the escape, right now, from the clutches of materiality. When right view arises in one who perceives the pleasures and dangers of materiality, that is the escape from materiality. Those twin accomplices have been oppressing us incessantly throughout the infinite cycle of rebirth.

The truth of the origin of suffering is craving, which is manifested in desire and attachment to the body. How do desire and attachment cling to one’s body? One believes, “This is my body; this is my hand, my leg, my head, my eye, and so on.” Furthermore, when the eye sees something, one believes, “I see it.” Likewise one believes, “I hear it,” “I smell it,” “I taste it,” or “I touch it.” The cessation of craving, which is the origin of all suffering, is the escape from materiality.

It is only when craving is present that new aggregates of materiality arise after one’s death. If craving is extinguished right now, no fresh materiality will arise after death. This will then be the last death, for there is no materiality or no “body” to suffer another death. That is how one escapes from materiality. This should now be quite clear.

Seven Aspects of Feeling to be Perceived

The remaining aggregates will be explained only in brief.

The True Nature of Feeling

“O bhikkhus, there are six kinds of feeling: feeling originating in eye-contact, feeling originating in ear-contact, feeling originating in nose-contact, feeling originating in tongue-contact, feeling originating in body-contact, feeling originating in mind-contact. When, on seeing a visible object, one feels sad, neutral, or joyous, this is called feeling originating in eye-contact. Similarly, on hearing a sound ... smelling an odour ... savouring a taste ... touching some tangible object ... thinking some thought, when the contact is felt in the mind and one feels sad, neutral, or joyous, that feeling is called feeling originating in mind-contact.”

If something causes a pleasant feeling, you call it “good”; if it causes an unpleasant feeling, you call it “bad.” These are the criteria by which the world judges things, animate or inanimate, and you value those things accordingly. So we set a value on visible objects depending on how much pleasure they give to the eye. The greater the pleasure, the higher the value. Similarly with the other sense objects. Remember the great fondness of ants for honey or treacle that we illustrated in our discussion on the aggregate of materiality.

The Origin and Cessation of Feeling

When some visible object, such as a shape or colour, contacts the eye, a continuous stream of feelings caused by the contact arises. These feelings are called “feelings originating in eye-contact.” When the visible object disappears, the feelings cease immediately. The arising of the feelings in the eye is called the origin of the feeling originating in eye-contact. The ceasing of those feelings is called the cessation of the feeling originating in eye-contact. If you want to experience the feeling again, you have to look at the object again. The moment the contact between the object and eye is re-established, the feelings in the eye arise again. The moment the eye ceases to focus on the object, those feelings cease.

Likewise, when some sound is produced and contacts the ear, a continuous stream of feelings arises in the ear, called “feelings originating in ear-contact.” When the sound disappears, those feelings cease at once. If the feeling is to arise again, the sound must be repeated.

The same with a smell: when it is produced and contacts the nose, “feelings originating in nose-contact” arise in the nose. When the smell disappears, the feelings cease.

Again, if sweet or sour food is placed on the tongue, “feelings originating in tongue-contact” arise at the tongue. The moment those tastes disappear, the feelings cease.

When hard or soft, hot or cold, stiff or flaccid objects contact the body, whether internally or externally, “feelings originating in body-contact” arise, wherever the contact is made. When the contact disappears, the feeling ceases totally. When some idea arises in the mind, “feelings originating in mind-contact” arise. When the mind stops thinking of the idea, the feelings cease at once.

The above six kinds of feeling are always being experienced at their respective sense bases. However, those lacking in right view take them not just as feelings, but as “I see it,” “I hear it,” etc. This is the tenacious, mistaken view called “personality view” or “ego-belief” (sakkāyaditthi). When pleasant feelings arise, the average deluded person thinks, “I feel fine.” When unpleasant feelings arise, they think, “I feel depressed.” Thus the ego is always assumed to exist with respect to all feelings that arise and vanish at the six sense bases.

Just as the microbes infesting a sore can only be observed through a microscope, so only through insight knowledge can one observe the six kinds of feeling rapidly arising and vanishing at their respective sense bases. All the six kinds of feelings arise due to contact.

From Contact Arises Feeling

When a sense object meets its corresponding sense base, the mind adverts to the external sense object. That is what is meant by contact. Only when the mind adverts well does apprehension arise, and only when the sense object is apprehended does feeling arises. Since the feeling arises only from contact, it is called “feeling originating in contact.” It is like saying “Jack, son of Richard” for clearer identification. Since feeling has contact as its origin, when contact disappears, feeling ceases.

The Practice Leading to the Cessation of Feeling

What has been said about the fourth aspect concerning materiality applies here too. Herein, right view means insight into the aggregate of feeling. It also means penetrating knowledge of the aggregate of materiality.

The Satisfaction and Danger in Feeling

It was said above that the pleasant feeling, which causes pleasure and joy, is the satisfaction in materiality. With materiality, feeling is the agency that brings pleasure and joy. With feeling itself, now as both the principal and the agent, the satisfaction has double significance. Hence, the danger that lurks in feeling is also far greater than with materiality, as it has a more immediate effect.

The feeling of enjoyment of an object occurs at its relevant sense base only while the object and the sense base are in contact. With the disappearance of the object at its relevant door, the feeling vanishes instantly. So we feel a pleasant taste only while it is on the tongue or palate, and the moment we swallow it, the feeling is no more. In fact, the feeling is lost even at the upper end of the tongue itself. This transience is observable in the feelings connected with all six senses. Therefore, contemplate hard to perceive the constant oppression of feeling caused by its transience, instability, and unsatisfactoriness.

The Escape from Feeling

The means of escape is within you. The feelings that arise in you can never be dangerous if you are not captivated by them. When the craving for feeling ceases, the danger is simply not there at all. To one who does not care for gold or silver, the dangers associated with them do not arise. In other words, a penniless man need have no fear of thieves. It is only if one is highly pleased with one’s property, that the dangers to that property cause worry. If one does not cling to the property but is quite detached from it, the property is not dangerous. Detachment from the feelings as they arise is the escape from feeling.

Seven Aspects of Perception to be Perceived

The text for the aggregate of perception does not differ much from that for the aggregate of feeling, in most places; one has only to substitute the word saññā for vedanā. In the definition it goes as: perception of a visual object, perception of sound, perception of smell, perception of taste, perception of touch, and perception of ideas.

From early infancy, one has learnt to recognize and memorize things. Beginning from “That’s Mum,” “That’s Dad,” “That’s Teddy,” to all the things that a child takes notice of — the time of day, the directions, etc. — the process of noting and remembering things with their names is what is meant by perception. Perceptions, of course, go with the six sense objects. A visual object can only be recognized and memorized by the eye, a sound only by the ear, and so on. Perception then widens to abstract ideas, skills, knowledge, beliefs, etc., according to one’s upbringing, race, tradition, culture, and the plane of one’s existence. The first five kinds of perception should need no further explanation.

Dhamma saññā is the conception that perceives the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body (as the sense base), the mind (i.e. concepts of good or bad, etc.); the sensations or feelings, concepts or perceptions, volitions or will, applied thought, sustained thought, effort, desire; greed, anger, pride, or conceit; confidence, wisdom; killing as misconduct, stealing as misconduct, lying as misconduct; giving as meritorious deed, virtue as meritorious deed, wisdom or attainment of proficiency in insight training; and so forth. These, and a myriad other perceptions, are recognized and remembered. They are not taught, but learnt from one’s natural environment and imbued by culture and tradition. One born in a virtuous family is likely to acquire perceptions about virtuous things. One born in the family of a hunter or fisherman is likely to acquire perceptions about wicked things. Thus perceptions can have an infinite range. Contemplate diligently to gain insight into perception as a separate element within yourself and in others.

When a person says, “I remember” or “I know,” these are usually just instances of a deluded belief in the existence of a person or a self when, in fact, there is no such thing. The truth is that there are only phenomena, which arise and vanish due to relevant conditions. For example, a leper can never see the carrier germs infecting the sores on his body. With the aid of a microscope a doctor can let him see the germs, ever arising and decaying. Then he should realize, perhaps to his consternation, that the sores are not his, but the habitat of the germs only. Similarly, when you gain insight, you can see empirically that there is no self but just perceptions originating at the six sense bases. Only then do you perceive rightly, which is insight knowledge. What you have all along recognized and remembered as “my eye” is merely the material quality of sense cognition. What you thought was “I see” is just feeling originating in eye-contact. What you thought was “my seeing” is but the perception of form or colour. Try to realize the truth of the other perceptions likewise. Then you will see that it is just a play of the six perceptions on your mind, which is deluded by your own ignorant bias into thinking and believing firmly that they are your acts of knowing and remembering.

The remaining six aspects in the aggregate of perception will be discussed later in the discussion on the aggregate of consciousness.

Seven Aspects of Mental Formations to be Perceived

Rūpasañcetanā means the volition behind the function of seeing visual forms. So for the six mental formations associated with the six sense objects we have six volitions. The Buddha mentions volition in this context because it is the leading factor, though there are many other mental formations such as: contact (phassa), one-pointedness (ekaggatā), attention (manasikāra), initial application (vitakka), sustained application (vicāra), energy (viriya), joy (pīti), will (chanda), greed (lobha), hatred (dosa), delusion (moha), wrong view (ditthi), pride (māna), envy (issā), meanness (macchariya), worry (kukkucca), sloth (thina), torpor (middha), doubt (vicikicchā), confidence (saddhā), mindfulness (sati), moral shame (hirī), moral dread (ottappa), and wisdom (paññā).

The Analogy of the Locomotive

In a locomotive, the steam motivates the engine whose constituent parts function together and drive the locomotive. The engine starts functioning due to steam-power and it goes on working due to the presence of steam-power. All the parts of the engine are motivated simultaneously so that they work in harmony, with the capacity to pull the train at a good speed for long distances.

This body is like the train. The heart-base is like the boiler of the engine. Volition is like the steam-power, which motivates the moving parts of the engine. As volition arises, it motivates the various parts of the body through the material quality that is the element of motion. This motivating power is astonishingly powerful; it acts very rapidly, and motivates all the limbs in the required manner of movement. It is just like the train being pulled along the track by steam-power. This is how volition drives bodily actions.

The volition working behind speech may be compared to the whistle that the boiler occasionally produces. The volition working in the mind may be likened to the steam generated by the boiler.

Volition associated with greed directs its motivating force onto the bodily, verbal, and mental functioning of the body so that actions arise, which manifest greed. In the same way, volition associated with hatred or anger motivates the functioning of the body, so that bodily and verbal expressions and a mental attitude of anger are the result. Other volitions, such as initial application, sustained application, or energy, also motivate the bodily, verbal, and mental functions. They result in applying the mind to an object (vitakka), or fixing the mind onto an object (vicāra), or putting effort into a task (viriya). Similarly, it should be understood that all wholesome or unwholesome deeds, speech, and thoughts have the corresponding volitions activating them. For instance, an act of faith is motivated by saddhā; when one is mindful, sati is the underlying force, and so on.

Those who do not understand the element of volition have conceit due to personality view. Self-view is firmly entrenched in them. All their bodily movements are taken as their own actions: “I sit,” “I stand,” “I speak,” “I do this,” etc. All mental activities are taken as their own: “I think,” “I have an idea,” “I remember,” “I know,” etc. The truth is that all our activities are just expressions of their underlying volitions. Each is actuated by an appropriate volition like the steam-power that motivates the locomotive. That is why, in the aggregate of mental formations, the element of volition is singled out by the Buddha from the other mental concomitants.

Some Examples of how Attachment to Personality View Works

“I touch it” is a delusion about phassa.
“I feel happy,” “I feel miserable,” “I am delighted,” “I feel sorry” are delusions about vedanā.
“I know,” “I remember” are delusions about saññā.
“I have concentration” is delusion about ekaggatā.
“I am paying attention to it” is delusion about manasikāra.
“I apply my mind to such and such” is delusion about vitakka.
“I keep my mind steadfastly on it” is delusion about vicāra.
“I make an effort” is delusion about viriya.
“I feel joyful” is delusion about pīti.
“I want to do this, to see this, to hear this, to go there, to come, to say, to know, to get, to take” are delusions about chanda.
“I love her,” “I like him,” “I adore them,” “I want it,” “I am very fond of that” are delusions about lobha.
“I hate it,” “I can’t bear that person,” “I am angry,” “I resent it,” “I am disappointed” are delusions about dosa.
“I do not understand,” “I am confused” are delusions about moha.
“I hold the wrong view” is delusion about ditthi.
“I won’t give in,” “I wish to excel,” “I am superior to him,” “I am equal to him” are delusions about māna.
“I envy him” is delusion about issā.
“I don’t want to share this” is delusion about macchariya.
“I feel lazy” is delusion about thina-middha.
“I can’t decide” is delusion about vicikicchā.
“I revere him,” “I believe its truth” are delusions about saddhā.
“I am not being forgetful” is delusion about sati.
“I understand” is delusion about paññā.
“I am ashamed to do evil,” “I dread it” are delusions about hirī and ottappa.
“I kill” is delusion about self-view in the volition of killing.
“I steal” is delusion about self-view in the volition of stealing.
“I make an offering,” “I give a gift” are delusions about the volition behind giving charity.

All those deeds, words, and thoughts are egocentric. Apparently good or bad, the delusion of a self in them renders them all unwholesome. They are the underwriters for a passage to hell. They are stumbling blocks to insight. They are detrimental to the realization of nibbāna. They belong to this side of the ocean of rebirths. Release from those beliefs means nibbāna, the yonder shore of samsāra. Attachment to the deluded “I” in all actions is what draws you into the floods of samsāra. Abandonment of attachment to personality view means to cross the great ocean of samsāra.

This is just a random list of ways in which personality view, the darkest type of wrong view, deludes the average person.

Since volition is the key factor behind any action, if one can discard attachment to the nonexistent self in respect of volition, personality view becomes extinct. If personality view in volition can be eradicated from one’s psyche, the other mental factors can never again be associated with the deluded self. That is why the Buddha highlighted volition in describing the aggregate of mental formations. The remaining mental formations should be understood in the same way.

Seven Aspects of Consciousness to be Perceived

The True Nature of Consciousness

When someone wishes to see the moon, he focuses his eyes on the moon. The moon’s image is then reflected onto a sensitive material quality, which is the eye-base. The same principle holds in respect of other clear, smooth surfaces like glass or water where the image of the moon is reflected. The occurrence of the reflection at the eye-base has a terrific impact comparable to a bolt of lightning. This impact on the sensitivity of the eye arouses an instantaneous succession of units of consciousness at the eye-base called “eye-consciousness.” When the viewer turns away from the moon, the image disappears, and with it the eye-consciousness also disappears. Then the viewer says he does not see the moon. What is called “seeing” is, in truth, just the eye-consciousness. “Not seeing” is just the disappearance of this eye-consciousness. Although images are reflected onto clear, smooth surfaces like glass or water, no consciousness arises because the materiality there is of the type originating in physical change. It is merely a base that can receive the image called an “appearance-base.”

When you look into a mirror, your face appears in the mirror; when you turn away, the image is no longer there. You simply say you saw it there, and now you don’t see it there. However, you are unlikely to realize that it is only eye-consciousness arising and vanishing. This is the exposition of eye-consciousness.

By the same principle, when a sound contacts the ear-base, a tremendous impact like a clap of thunder is felt on the sensitive ear-base. At that instant, a rapid succession of units of ear-consciousness arises at the ear-base. The moment the sound disappears, consciousness ceases. You would simply say that you heard it, and now you don’t hear it, but the truth about the phenomenon of ear-consciousness is rarely realized.

When a smell contacts the nose, the sensitive base for smell, nose-consciousness arises incessantly. When the smell disappears, the consciousness also instantly disappears. People say, “I smelled it,” “I cannot smell it now.” Little do they realize that it is only the phenomenon of nose-consciousness.

When some tasty morsel is placed on the tongue, tongue-consciousness arises at the tongue-base. When the object of taste leaves the tongue-base, the consciousness disappears. “I tasted it,” “I don’t taste it now,” people would say, oblivious of the arising and vanishing of tongue-consciousness.

When the element of extension, heat, or motion contacts the body, tactile-consciousness arises at the point. When the external object disappears, tactile-consciousness disappears. If some cold water or a cool breeze touches one’s back, the whole back becomes the sense base and tactile-consciousness arises there. We then say, “My back feels cold.” When the water or breeze disappears, the consciousness ceases, and we say there is no cold feeling there. We do not realize that it is the arising and cessation of tactile-consciousness. When we stay in the sun we feel hot and stuffy throughout our body, but we rarely recognize it as the arising of tactile-consciousness. Bodily feelings are also felt from time to time in the head, chest, stomach, and so on. We know it aches when there is a sensation of stiffness; we know it tingles when a limb is numb, we know it is painful, hot, tired, and so on. However, more likely than not, we do not recognize those feelings as the arising of tactile-consciousness. Remember here, too, the analogy of using a microscope to examine a leprous sore.

There is an ever-present process called “the element of apprehension” (manodhātu) depending on the heart-base, which is so pure as to be lustrous. The mind-base is a functional state of subconsciousness (bhavaṅga). When a visible object contacts the eye, the impact is simultaneously felt at the mind-base. So when one is looking at the moon, the image of the moon appears at both the eye-base and the mind-base simultaneously. When the viewer turns away from the moon, the image on the eye disappears instantly, but the image on the mind-base disappears rather slowly. So too, when sounds appear at the ear-base, they simultaneously make an impact on the mind-base too. Similarly, smells, tastes and tactile-objects, while impacting on their respective sense bases, also make impressions on the mind.

Imagine a piece of glass the shape and size of a man. Imagine a crystal ball, set inside the human-shaped glass block. All sorts of external objects — houses and trees, mountains and woods, men and animals, the sun, the moon, and the stars — will be reflected onto the glass block and the crystal ball inside simultaneously. You could see, for instance, the image of the sun on the glass block and also on the crystal ball. This simile is to help you visualize the phenomenon of the mind-base.

The above is the detailed explanation of how the five sense objects appear at the respective sense bases, while making their impressions on the mind-base simultaneously.

Apart from those five sense objects entering through the five sense bases, the mind-base can also generate an infinite variety of mental objects just by application of thought. These objects are purely mental. Whereas the five sense objects must present themselves at their respective sense doors to make their impressions, the mind-objects need not actually exist. Whatever has been seen, heard, felt, or experienced can make its impression on the mind at the mind-base. The mind-base has an infinite range of capacities differing from one being to another. So the mind-bases of a Buddha, a Solitary Buddha, a Chief Disciple, a Senior Disciple, or an Ordinary Disciple vary widely in their range. So too, for beings born with three wholesome roots, with two wholesome roots, or without wholesome roots; human beings, earthbound devas, Catumahārāja devas, the Tāvatiṃsa devas, the higher devas and the brahmās; the purity and capacities vary enormously between each abode.

The mind-base of the Buddha is incomparably pure and radiant. It can be conscious of anything in the infinite universe, an infinite range of kammic forces, an infinite number of beings, or an infinite range of conditioned phenomena. The sublime Dhamma of the Four Noble Truths can arise as a mental object only in those born with three wholesome roots, which implies a certain maturity by way of perfections.

The Origin and Cessation of the Four Mental Aggregates

I shall now give a brief exposition on the four mental aggregates: feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.

The Buddha declared that the first three of those aggregates originate from contact. The aggregate of consciousness originates from psychophysical phenomena. The significance of this will be explained here. Although the aggregate of consciousness is mentioned last in the Buddha’s exposition on the five aggregates, in many ways it is the most important of the four mental aggregates. The Buddha said:

“All mental states have mind as their forerunner.
Mind is their chief and they are mind-made.”

Again, he said:

“Mind is the lord of the six sense doors.”

So consciousness is the premier among the four, or in other words, it is the leader of the other three, the lord of those three. When we say a sense object appears on the sense base, this appearance is caused by consciousness only.

Let us give an analogy here. Suppose there is a sense object in the form of a juice-bearing root. The root is first received by consciousness. Contact crushes it and strains it. When the juice is produced and strained, feeling savours it, feeling pleasant or unpleasant, and perception notes how it tastes — sweet or sour. Then, on getting that information, volition starts motivating the respective organs of the body to function. It expresses itself in bodily and verbal action and in framing the mind, thus leading to mental formation’s part in the mental process.

So contact is the key factor for feeling, perception, and mental formations. However, it is not the key factor for consciousness, which is the leader of them all. Yet consciousness cannot function without feeling, perception, and mental formations. That is why the Buddha says that the arising and cessation of consciousness is dependent on mental properties. If consciousness is likened to a flame, then feeling, perception, and mental formations are like the light of the flame. When the flame goes out, the three die a natural death, instantly. If the flame arises again, the three reappear together. If the arising and cessation of consciousness can be understood, the arising and cessation of the trio can readily be understood. Hence the arising and cessation of consciousness will be explained further.

The Origin and Cessation of Subconsciousness

When a person is asleep, the mind is in a state of subconsciousness (bhavaṅga). This very subtle state of mind is always present in a living being, hovering around the heart-base like clear water oozing from a spring. It is an inert state of mind below the threshold of consciousness. So it cannot motivate the sense organs to function, either in bodily, verbal, or mental action. It cannot advert to mental objects. The heart-base is an offshoot of the four primary elements. Its vitality and health depend totally on the vitality and health of materiality, because the four primary elements are themselves dependent on the nutriment of the body. Subconsciousness persists as long as the heart-base lasts. When the heart-base ceases, subconsciousness also ceases.

For example, a rainbow is seen due to the presence of rain clouds. Once the rain clouds are wafted away by the wind, the rainbow cannot remain. To give another example, a powerful deva, by his magical power, creates a string of highly combustible material as he runs along, letting the string burn as he runs. The fireworks would last only as long as the combustible string lasts, no longer.

If you reckon how long it lasts, say, for an hour, in that time trillions of material phenomena would have perished. Just as the deva’s string is made to appear afresh along with him, while fresh materiality continues to arise in the heart-base, subconsciousness also arises from it. Just as the string is consumed by the fire, so also the heart-base is decaying all the time and with it the subconsciousness too is decaying. The arising of fresh subconsciousness is called the arising of consciousness. Its cessation is called the cessation of consciousness.

The arising and vanishing of subconsciousness can be perceived when contemplation is exercised along with the materiality of the heart-base. It is too subtle to discern by consciousness alone. Lacking practical means of observing it, one is apt to rationalize, referring to this or that text, but rationalizing is not conducive to insight knowledge. It is not called training in insight at all.

The Origin and Cessation of Consciousness

I shall now explain how the process of consciousness arises in the six sense bases.

When we look at the moon, the image of the moon appears simultaneously at the eye-base and the heart-base. The sense object, which is the image of the moon, rudely invades the eye-base with terrific force. It is like the sparking when the steel hammer strikes the flint in a lighter. The image of the moon makes its impact there, like a bolt of lightning. Eye-consciousness arises in the eye at that instant. Similarly, the terrific impression of the image of the moon appears at the heart-base, and mind-consciousness is stirred up with dazzling intensity. It is not unlike the lightning that flashes in rain clouds. When consciousness arises, subconsciousness disappears. Eye-consciousness taking place at the eye-base, and the flashes of mind-consciousness reacting to the contact at the heart-base, thereby complete the function of receiving the impression of the moon. This goes on for as long as the contact between the eye and the moon lasts. When the viewer turns away, all those units of consciousness disappear. The ignorant person thinks that he or she sees the moon. However, it is only the occurrence of flashes of consciousness in the eye and the mind that take place. Personality view clings to a delusive “I” based on the occurrence of consciousness.

Just as darkness reasserts itself when a flash of lighting disappears, consciousness ceases and subconsciousness reasserts itself at the heart-base the moment the moon gets out of the eye. The “not seeing” is noticed by the average deluded person who thinks, “I don’t see the moon now.” Personality view makes him or her think so, of course. For had there been a “person” who had seen the moon earlier, that person should have died along with the cessation of “seeing.” This is the delusion dominating an ignorant person.

The Noble Ones, being possessed of right view, see the truth as it is. As contact occurs between the eye and the moon, transient moments of consciousness occur that cognize the material object called the moon. This transient consciousness occurs with dazzling flashes inside the body, like flashes of lightning. These conscious moments are as fleeting as flashes of lightning in their disappearance too. This is how the undeluded ones see it.

In the example of lightning, clouds are not lightning, nor is lightning the clouds. Cloud is cloud, and lightning is lightning. With a clashing of clouds, lightning occurs for just that fleeting moment. The lightning thus produced does not go back into the clouds. Nor does it go anywhere. It simply disappears. Try to extend this analogy to understand consciousness of all the six kinds.

“Like the occurrence of lightning in the sky, all things, whether mind or matter, occur in flashes as conditions arise for such occurrence. Quick as lightning, they are gone.” (Visuddhimagga)

During a momentary blinking of the eye, seeing is momentarily interrupted. This is a practical example showing the discontinuity of eye-consciousness. Seeing and not seeing are quite evident. Just remember the analogy: lightning is lightning, cloud is cloud. Regard consciousness as similar to the phenomenon of lightning. Try to understand the instant of its arising, and the instant of its cessation.

By day, visible objects are everywhere within the awareness of the eye-base, so we are easily deluded into thinking that we see them continuously. However, if you are attentive, you can probably recognize the cessation of consciousness in seeing one object as your attention is turned to another. The same process of sense cognition takes place at the ear-base, the nose-base, the tongue-base, and the body-base too.

While various sounds come within the range of the ear, their impact is felt at the ear-base and the heart-base. There, flashes of consciousness arise, only to stop altogether the moment the sound vanishes. Then the transient flashes of consciousness vanish and die. This process of arising and cessation constitutes ear-consciousness.

Except during sleep, sense contacts are always occurring at the five sense bases. None of them makes its impression concurrently with another. At any given moment, the dominant sense prevails to arouse consciousness. Not one remains even for a moment — each one that has arisen ceases instantly. This characteristic of consciousness will become clear if you contemplate properly.

The Origin and Cessation of Mind-Consciousness

The subject of volitional mind-consciousness is very profound. The flashes of consciousness are highly transient, and arise independent of the five sense organs. Here, only the basics will be explained. When aroused by external sense objects through the five sense doors, consciousness flashes onto the mind, which merely takes cognizance of it. Those flashes of consciousness function like flashes of lightning that let one momentarily see the lay of the land in the dark. So too with the sense-consciousness that arises from contact between sense objects and the sense bases. They are merely recognized as such and such, that is all. By themselves, they cannot activate the body, but merely let the mind know that a certain thing is of this shape or colour, or this kind of sound, smell, taste, or touch, and so on.

It is only mind-consciousness, arising at the heart-base, that can motivate the bodily organs and the mind itself, with the tremendous force of a storm or a clap of thunder. It activates the parts of the body to produce bodily actions, speech, or the appropriate frame of mind. Then the mind can dwell on a myriad of mind-objects in the abstract. This is generally called “thinking.”

Volition is the power that causes every action like the steam in a locomotive, steamer, or electricity-generating station. The heart-base is the power-station from where arteries and veins branch out over the whole body. Just as a power-station transmits electricity throughout the country along a network of cables, the heart-base generates material qualities of motion in the body whenever the impulsion arises. The organs respond to the impulse immediately. Whenever a fingertip or a small toe is hurt, the heart-base “knows” it at once.

These similes are just aids to visualizing the complex psychophysical process. The underlying principle is the main point. If one sees materiality, but the principle of elements occurring from conditions is missed, one is apt to cling to a delusive personality view, which will then predominate.

You should reject personality view in the light of the truth. Do not let yourself be deluded by the wrong view that there is such a thing as a person, and that “I” exist; that such and such are my concerns, such are my doings, etc. See the fact of psychophysical phenomena in everything within and around you. Try to visualize the interplay of psychophysical phenomena whenever any action takes place in you, from the slightest blinking to explosions of fury (if this ever happens!). If you are vigilant, you can perceive the amazing events that are just the incessant, conditioned occurrence of phenomena, quite independently of you or your wishes.

Apparently, this body seems quite solid, substantial, and unchanging. Its instability escapes our attention. We are apt to think a thing is not changing under two circumstances: when change is so rapid that we cannot normally notice it, or when the thing does not change by its very nature. When you look at the blackness of space, you never think it undergoes any change at all, because it is not a changeable phenomenon.

All psychophysical phenomena change billions of times within a blink of the eyes. Yet we barely notice that whole period of one blink, for it seems so rapid to us. This body changes at a staggering rate beyond normal comprehension. This rapidity creates the illusion of continuity, an inborn notion strengthened by nature. If sustained right thinking can be focused on the arising and cessation of phenomena in and around you, you will come to understand the changeable nature of all phenomena.

Let me illustrate. Imagine a water tank the size of a man, filled with water and placed upright. Think about the mass of still water in the tank. Imagine pulling the tank towards you just slightly, say, for half an inch at the top. You will see the water being disturbed and the whole mass of it being inclined towards you. Next, imagine pushing the tank in the opposite direction, when the water will incline away from you. Even if you just shake the tank very lightly or tap it, you would notice that the water is disturbed. There is no solidity, no unchangeable mass of water at all. Apply this illustration to the psychophysical phenomena that make up your body, and understand their changeability.

So, psychophysical phenomena are mere processes; there is no substance at all in them, not the tiniest atom that is solid or stable. That is why they are liable to change like the water in the tank. This illustrates the transient nature of things and the rapidity of change.

Now I will illustrate the rapidity of action or motion. As you rise from bed, your conscious mind impels your whole body to move through the element of motion, which originates in the mind. Once that element arises due to your impulsion, the previous posture of lying, which is temporary, ceases instantly. The sinews and muscles of that lying posture die out there and then.

Try to visualize the change from the lying posture to the newly-arisen sitting posture. The change is too rapid for the undeveloped mind to comprehend — not to speak of seeing it with the eye. It is only through insight that it can be comprehended. Even with insight you cannot catch up with the rapidity of the change of phenomena, not even one thousandth of its speed. The ordinary human faculties are only rapid enough to enable us to move about through the functioning of the element of motion, which controls bodily movement. They cannot enable us to fly.

The volition of one possessed of supernormal powers is so rapid as to master the forces of the element of motion that can keep the body in the air. One who has attained to uplifting joy (ubbegā pīti) can also float in the air like a piece of fluff or a cloud. In both cases, volition has attained supernormal dimensions. By supernormal dimensions is meant the power that can “will” the forces of the element of motion to come into play. Of the four primary elements, only the elements of extension and cohesion have weight. In a human body, these two elements together weigh about fifty or sixty kilos. When impulsion arises through the supernormal faculty or attainment of uplifting joy, the element of motion lifts the whole body so that a state of virtual weightlessness is achieved without effort. The body can float away as lightly as a balloon takes to the air. However, a balloon’s flight is very slow compared to jhānic flight. This is mentioned here to show the power of impulsion, the inherent quality of the element of motion, and the rapid change in material phenomena.

“Through the pervasion of impulsion, which is the element of motion originating in the mind, this body goes, stands or sits.”

The element of motion may be compared to the blast of air exploding from the barrel when a gun is fired. It pervades the various organs of the body when volition to execute a certain action impels the mind. The material quality of motion arises at those parts of the body and the desired movements occur. It may also be compared to the steam that rushes out of the boiler in a steam engine, providing the motive power to the pistons and crankshaft.

Impulsion and its Functions

I shall now explain the function of impulsion (javana). The boiler of a locomotive is like the heart-base, the steam-power is like impulsion, but whereas the steam-power pushes once at a stroke, impulsion functions in seven successive moments. Impulsion is a conscious process of tremendous rapidity. Its seven strokes agitate material phenomena in the body like a mine exploding in the water. However, unlike the water being agitated violently, impulsion is under the control of volition, helped by the specific material qualities of expression (viññatti-rūpa). Therefore the movements of the body organs are deliberate, co-ordinated, and orderly. Impulsion occurs billions of times within a blinking of the eyes. There are various kinds of elements of motion involved in any bodily movement. Take walking, for instance. As a man walks, at each step various elements of motion function throughout the body. It is impulsion that gives the necessary impetus to these various elements of motion. It is through its amazing swiftness that such initiation and co-ordination of all bodily functions are effected.

When impulsion sends the message to lift the head, the previous materiality in the head dies out to give way to the new materiality. For example, a firework explodes when ignited. At that instant, the previously cool materiality of the firework is replaced by fiery materiality. The actual process of change from cold to fierce heat starts from the spot where ignition occurs and spreads throughout the firework. When the element of heat undergoes change, all material qualities in association with it change too. So, the elements of extension and motion change, with all other material qualities of colour, smell, taste, and nutritive essence that perish when the cold element perishes. In the ultimate sense, the fiery hot material element and the whole materiality in the firework arise afresh where the cold materiality has ceased.

People say that a person dies when the notion of continuity ceases, i.e. their physical death is observable. In the ultimate sense, however, new psychophysical phenomena arise only after the old phenomena have perished, which is death. This constant perishing of phenomena is also called cessation (nirodha) or dissolution (bhaṅga). It is only when one discerns the ultimate truth of this cessation of phenomena that one gains insight. Though one has mastered the seven books of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, or is a teacher on the ultimate truths for one’s whole life, if one has not gained discernment through insight one is just a learned man, not a wise man yet, for one has not empirically understood the Abhidhamma. Unless one has understood the perishing and cessation of phenomena through direct knowledge, a lifelong habit of teaching about impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self is futile.

I will now explain the arising and cessation of consciousness flashing around the heart-base and activating the whole body. Here again, the analogy of the train is useful. The incessant puffing of the steam engine, its pushing and its exhaustion, stroke after stroke, is evident on listening to it working. So it is helpful in visualizing the process of the arising and cessation of phenomena. Lightning is another useful example. The heart-base is like the clouds, consciousness is like the flashes of lightning that occur in series of threes, or fours, and then disappear instantly.

The steam engine analogy particularly helps us to visualize the bodily movements, down to the slightest movement of the eyelids, and the activating of consciousness that is constantly arising and ceasing. Not only bodily movement, but verbal and mental activities also come within its scope.

The example of lightning helps us to visualize the sparks of consciousness that clarify cognition at the six sense bases. The intensity of these sparks inside the body, their arising and cessation, are comparable to lightning. The seven strokes of impulsion are inconceivably rapid, so instead of following the text literally, for practical purposes, we can assume that impulsion occurs only once for a blink of the eye. This would be easier to comprehend.

With lightning, both its arising and cessation are evident to the eye. However, the arising and cessation of impulsion, with intervening moments of subconsciousness, is not self-evident. One thinks that the sparks are uninterrupted, because the arising and cessation of consciousness take place so rapidly. Actually, the arising of the impulsions is interrupted by inert moments of subconsciousness when the impulsion ceases. No practical example is available to illustrate this intermittent phenomenon. One has to infer it from the appearance of different mental objects at (supposedly) the same moment. Even while taking a step, various things come to mind. As each new idea enters the mind, the previous object of our attention is dead and gone. Each object is co-existent only with its impulsion. So when we consider the diverse thoughts that our mind wanders to while walking, we can see that the fleeting diversions represent moments of interrupted impulsion. Consider also the process of speaking. With each syllable uttered, there arises (at least) one impulsion that ceases with the uttering of the next syllable. Similarly, with the consciousness at the mind-base, each thought arises only on the cessation of the previous one.

The Origin and Cessation of Feeling,
Perception, and Mental Formations

At each step we take, or on seeing or hearing something, pleasure or displeasure arises in us, which is feeling. Each feeling arises and ceases, and a fresh feeling arises and ceases. Then also the perceptions of “this is what is seen,” or “that is what is heard,” and so on, arise and cease. Then fresh perceptions arise and cease again. What is perceived at the left step vanishes with the advancing of the right step, and so on.

Bodily, verbal, or mental activities are taking place all the time, denoting the arising and cessation of different volitions at each moment:

the arising and cessation of applied thoughts;
the arising and cessation of effort;
the arising and cessation of pleasure and smiles;
the arising and cessation of desire to do something;
the arising and cessation of lust or passion;
the arising and cessation of anger or hatred;
the arising and cessation of conceit;
the arising and cessation of confidence, etc.

Such volitions are always observable. Without right view, however, the observation leads only to false inferences of personality view. With the insight of right view, every observation enhances the knowledge gained already. The arising of those phenomena is called samudaya, and their cessation nirodha.

As for the practice leading to the cessation of these aggregates, what has been said with respect to materiality applies here too.

The Satisfaction and Danger in the Four Mental Aggregates

I shall now explain the satisfaction and danger in the four mental aggregates.

The Satisfaction and Danger in Feeling

In getting what one wants, or in finding what one is looking for, or in experiencing what one longs for, one is pleased. The pleasure and joy derived from such experience is the satisfaction in feeling. The impermanence, the unpleasantness or unsatisfactoriness, and the instability of all four mental aggregates are its danger.

The example of the poisoned meat given to illustrate the satisfaction and danger in materiality is relevant here too. From the viewpoint of the precious opportunity of the Buddhasāsana, the carefree attitude of the multitude who are missing the chance even to escape from the four lower realms is a common instance of the satisfaction and danger in the four mental aggregates. Imprisoned in the filthy confines of sensuality, those ignorant people are constantly oppressed by their own greed, ill-will, and delusion. They have a stubborn attachment to personality view, and have thus booked their passage to the remotest depths of hell.

The dangers of the aggregates of materiality and mentality are both characterized by transience, unsatisfactoriness, and instability, but the transience of mentality is far more rapid. This should be clear from our discussions above on the arising and cessation of these phenomena.

I shall now explain the oppression caused by the transience of feeling. All people have, at some time, been born in the human and celestial realms, and also in the brahmā realms. There they enjoyed the best of sensual pleasures and the glory of the brahmā realms. However, being subject to death, which ruthlessly consumes every conditioned existence without leaving any trace, none can ever recollect those previous enjoyments. Such is the transient character of feeling. In the present existence, too, they are forever pursuing sensual pleasures, which cause them only suffering. This yearning for pleasant feeling is only too likely to continue for innumerable rebirths. Thus they are enslaving themselves to the transience of those pleasures. This is how people are forever oppressed by the transient character of feeling.

How, then, does the aggregate of feeling oppress sentient beings with suffering? Herein, suffering has these aspects:

Dukkha dukkha — the suffering of physical and mental pain;
Sankhāra dukkha — the suffering of conditioned states;
Viparināma dukkha — the suffering of changeability or instability.

The first aspect is too obvious to need elucidation.

Whatever pleasant feeling one may be enjoying now is not obtained as a favour from any external power. It is only because one has taken the trouble to acquire merit through giving, virtue, or concentration that pleasant results are enjoyed in this existence. Those meritorious deeds in previous lives have conditioned the present state of well-being. Even when favourable circumstances prevail in the present life, the enjoyment of pleasure still has to be contrived, for pleasure is not built into your system. All too often, pleasurable feeling eludes you even while you are supposed to be having some fun. This is because you can actually feel the pleasant feelings only when they contact your six sense bases. So, pleasurable feelings are highly ephemeral, and therefore unsatisfactory. This is the suffering of conditioned states.

Again, to what extent can you keep your wealth intact? Its nature is to diminish. It can be destroyed in no time if circumstances so conspire. Even if your wealth stays with you, what about your health and ability to enjoy it? If you should go blind now, what use to you is the greatest show on earth? It is the same with all your senses. Anyway, you are going to leave all your wealth behind when you die, so you wish for continued enjoyment in future existences. You try to perpetuate pleasure by acquiring merit. You do acts of merit — giving charity, keeping precepts, cultivating concentration for calm. All of these actions are efforts aimed at maintaining pleasure in perpetuity. So even a bhikkhu makes efforts just to perpetuate the suffering of rebirth, not to speak of a lay person keeping the precepts. Making a living is also full of trouble. Hankering after the heart’s desire is full of trouble. The trouble is compounded if one uses improper means to get what one wants. Misdeeds open the gates of hell for one who resorts to them. These are the hazards of feeling.

The Satisfaction and Danger in Perception

The satisfaction in perception is particularly great. How is it great? Perception bestows one with certain aptitudes and propensities. It may enable one to become highly skilled, even to become a genius, but this accomplishment may be one’s undoing because one is apt to be highly conceited. Perception fills one with preconceived ideas and biases. Puffed up with success, one is led into believing that one possesses the world when, in fact, one is possessed by the world. The satisfaction in perception pushes one down into the quagmire of sensuality, from where one sinks to the depths of hell.

The danger of perception lies in its transience. It is only when some agreeable thing is happening that the perception of well-being can be felt. Otherwise, the perception of enjoyment is not available. Sense objects are never stable. They do not please one constantly. Therein lies the danger of perception. For detailed arguments, what has been said about feeling applies here too.

The Satisfaction and Danger in Mental Formations

When you see a visible object, it may be either agreeable or disagreeable to you. This is “feeling originating in eye-contact.” When you hear a sound, it may be either agreeable or disagreeable to you. This is “feeling originating in ear-contact.” Similarly, smell causes “feeling originating in nose-contact,” taste causes “feeling originating in tongue-contact,” touch causes “feeling originating in body-contact,” and thought causes “feeling originating in mind-contact.” Personality view takes all those phenomena as “I,” but right view realizes that they are merely phenomena.

It is only when same agreeable object contacts one of the six sense bases that pleasant feeling can arise. Only then can pleasant perception arise. The moment contact is broken, the pleasant feeling and the pleasant perception cease and perish. It is quite observable how you feel pleasure or displeasure through a certain contact at any of the sense bases. Observe them then, and you can probably understand their pleasant aspect and their dangers.

So, ultimately, everyone is hankering after some contact for which they have a fancy, some agreeable contact at the six sense bases, which they regard as pleasant. The world includes humans and also animals.

The Analogy of the Robot

Let me illustrate the arising and cessation of the aggregate of mental formations. Imagine a robot the size of man contrived by the supernormal powers of a man who has, through concentration, mastered the supernormal knowledge regarding phenomena. By means of his powers he has given his robot six sensitive bases that respond to six mirrors, one for each sense door. So when the mirror for the eye is focused onto the eyes of the robot, the robot’s sensitivity at its eye-door and at its heart-base react to it simultaneously. The mechanism that controls the parts responds in harmony. In this way the robot stands, sits, or walks like a man. When the special mirror is withdrawn, the motion of the robot stops abruptly. For the motive force within the robot, available only through contact with the mirror that is outside the robot, is dead when the necessary contact is broken. The robot is now a piece of hardware only. The same experiment with the remaining five sense doors can be imagined.

From the analogy of the robot we should understand these facts. If the mirror were focused on the robot for the whole day, the robot would keep moving like a man the whole day. The robot has no life, and neither has the mirror. The reaction aroused within the robot’s body, on contact with the mirror at the appropriate sense base, is a distinct, separate phenomenon. It does not belong to the robot, nor does it belong to the mirror. The robot’s eye-door cannot produce the sensitivity by itself, neither can the mirror. Both are dead things with certain qualities only. The mechanical contrivance of the robot is like the material phenomena in us. The mirrors are like the six external sense objects. The sensitivity that is being activated within the robot is like the four mental aggregates.

In cultivating insight for right view, forget the person, or even the human shape. Concentrate only on the phenomena that rise and fall. Focus on the elements that find expression in the body.

Phenomena arise and cease due to a given set of conditions. When those conditions cease, the arising of the particular phenomenon ceases.

When conditions prevail for the arising of desire, desire arises at the heart-base. This replaces all the previous physical phenomena in the body. All mental and physical phenomena including the materiality originating in kamma, temperature, nutriment, and consciousness undergo a change from the arising of desire.

Imagine a mine exploding in a pond and the violent impact caused to the water. Apply the underlying principle of the explosion and the water, when some strong emotion arises. Doing it fruitfully is not easy, but that is the way. Strive hard. Success depends on three factors: the example has to be appropriate, the mental and physical phenomena must be observed as they really are (unbiased by perceptions of personality or shape), and the experience must be strong enough to be observed. For instance, when strong passion arises, its arising may be observed from a detached observer’s view, and the example of the mine explosion brought to bear upon it.

As greed arises, the expression on a person’s face can be noticed by a careful observer. The expression is the manifestation of the new materiality that has arisen in that person. In other words, the mental phenomenon of greed can be inferred from the physical expression. If one reflects on one’s own mind, the arising of a new frame of mind caused by some emotion, like greed for instance, is only too evident. When the object of greed has been enjoyed (say, a delicious meal has been eaten), or when it disappears, or if one reflects on its disgusting aspect, the greed vanishes like the ebbing of the tide in a narrow creek. The vanishing of the volition of greed is quite evident. This is how greed, a mental formation, sometimes arises within a person and how it ceases.

A warning here: do not confuse the phenomena with the personality. Focus on greed as a distinct phenomenon, not as belonging to a person. When one volition is seen through, the other volitions can be understood. All volitions arise and cease in much the same way — conceit, malice, covetousness, for instance — as and when the necessary conditions prevail. It is observable when one’s spirits rise and one is ready to exert. One sees the arising of the volition of effort, and the cessation later. Likewise with the arising and cessation of delight, or the desire to do something, such as, “I want to go, but not now,” or “I want to do this, but not just yet,” etc. The pure volitions like confidence, generosity, or mindfulness, and the acts of charity, virtue, or meditation expressing those volitions, can also be observed.

Whenever the arising and cessation of one distinct volition is closely observed within oneself, contemplate on the fresh arisings and cessations of the aggregate of materiality.

Remember the tank of water. Also, remember the explosion in the pond. The analogies must be clear to you. The process of arising and cessation taking place in all phenomena must be clear too. The cessation of a certain element is called its impermanence. When the psychophysical phenomena in the body undergo a change, it is cessation and death. Try to visualize that death taking place in you every moment. Never despair if you have not been successful in your effort. You have to strive until you gain the right view.

As for the practice leading to the cessation of the four mental aggregates, the approach does not differ much from what was said regarding materiality. One contemplates the aggregate of materiality to gain right view about physical phenomena. One should contemplate the mental aggregates to gain right view regarding mental phenomena. The remaining factors of the Eightfold Path pave the way for right view, which is crucial.

The Danger of Impermanence in the Five Aggregates

The satisfaction and danger that lie in the aggregates of materiality, feeling, and perception have been discussed above. The danger characterized by impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and instability is crucial for a clear understanding. Skill in the two aspects of the arising and cessation of phenomena is the proper way to understand the dangers lurking in all the aggregates of existence. Of the three forms of danger, that of impermanence is the key because once that is grasped the other two will become evident. So I shall dwell further on impermanence, which underlies the truth of the cessation of all conditioned phenomena.

Among the eleven fires that constantly burn all mental and physical phenomena, the fire of death, which is the abiding danger of death, is subtle. It is not seen with the physical eye. Its heat is not tangible. Yet it burns inexorably within us and consumes all mental and physical phenomena, which is obvious. This fire is far more pervasive and greater than any conflagration on earth. It extends as far as the infinite universe and it endures as long as the endless cycle of rebirths.

I shall expand on the analogy of the flame and the fuel. The flame in the shape of the human body is a composite of eight kinds of inseparable material qualities (atthakalāpa). However, not all the eight can be called fire. Visible form characterized by colour is the material element called vanna, but it is not fire. The primary element of extension provides the basis for the fire, but it is not fire. What holds materiality together is the element of cohesion, but it is not fire. The motion of the flame is the element of motion, but it is not fire. The smell of any object is the quality of odour (gandha), but it is not fire. The taste of any object is the quality of taste (rasa), but it is not fire. The nutrition in any object is the quality of nutritive essence (oja), but it is not fire. The element of fire is a separate phenomenon, which can be felt by touch. Most Buddhists are familiar with the above eight material elements. However, very few understand that each is a distinct phenomenon. Understanding them as such is important.

So, of the eight inseparable material qualities, only one is the phenomenon called fire, the other seven are its fuel. The fire is sustained by those seven kinds of fuel. As one contemplates hard on physical phenomena, the startlingly rapid succession of fresh materiality that appears is the phenomenon called arising. Wherever new materiality arises, the old materiality has been consumed. Thus all materiality that has arisen a moment ago vanishes. This vanishing is the phenomenon of death, which must not be confused with the phenomenon of burning. It is the function of fire to burn, but the function of death is to vanish after having arisen. The primary element of heat, which has the specific quality of burning, consumes or burns up the other seven material qualities, which always occur together. The “fire of death” (metaphorically) consumes not only its conascent seven material qualities, but also consumes the primary element of heat. The element of heat has the “burning” quality, as distinct from the phenomenon of death, which has the “vanishing” quality. This distinction is stressed here.

Analogy of the Flame

The human body is like the flame. All material elements from the smallest atom to the great earth itself are flames. All living things from the tiniest flea to the Akanittha Brahmā are flames. The flames are governed by the element of heat. All objects, animate or inanimate, are governed by the phenomenon of death, or the “fire” of death. In the flame (whether big or small) seven of the eight kinds of materiality are the fuel that is constantly being consumed by the element of fire, the eighth quality. All materiality, animate or inanimate, is fuel to the fire of death. The bodies of all beings, all vegetation, all material objects, are like burning cinders, blazing flames, or furnaces of the fire of death. All of them are the fires of the heat element too, one of the four factors that sustain materiality. However, the element of heat has the quality of variation in temperature. So this quality is the underlying phenomenon in all changes in temperature. The whole body is both cold and hot inside. The cold is conducive to cold materiality; the heat is conducive to hot materiality. The nutrition derived from our daily meals is the fuel for the element of heat inside our body. While there is nutriment in the stomach, the element of heat is kept burning inside the body, causing fresh materiality to arise.

Bodily movement causes a faster arising of fresh materiality. If one observes mindfully (a prerequisite for knowledge) as one walks, one can perceive the materiality within the whole body being powerfully agitated (like lightning or an explosion) and the fresh materiality arising with startling rapidity. No sooner has fresh materiality arisen than its cessation follows. This arising and cessation can be felt if one focuses attention on the body while walking. These successive fresh elements of materiality are ephemeral — they arise while walking is taking place. Focus your attention on the moving body to realize the phenomena at the point of arising and vanishing. Fresh materiality arises only when the previous materiality has vanished. In other bodily movements and postures the same phenomena can be observed. What people describe as, “My back is stiff,” or “My legs are tired,” etc., are the manifestations of rapidly changing materiality. Old materiality is constantly perishing where fresh materiality is arising.

Changes in the body due to food, change of season, illness, or cuts and bruises, are superficially noticed by everybody, but lacking insight, most people just think, “My body hurts,” or “I feel ill,” etc. The personal identification of phenomena with a vague sense of “I” always predominates for the average person. This persistent belief has the dire potential of pushing one down to the lower realms of existence.

It is only by gaining right view that this liability to fall into the lower realms can be prevented. Right view must be cultivated because personality view is inherent in most people. It is, so to speak, built into their very system. It can, however, be uprooted with due diligence. When a house is on fire, the owner of the house will be careful to see that every flame is put out. He will not rest until he has extinguished the last trace of fire, since even an ember can flare up at any time and consume the house. Similarly, if you want to be safe from the lower realms, you need to be diligent, constantly checking that personality view does not linger in you regarding the physical or mental phenomena occurring within you. Through repeated moments of right view, insight will develop, which is the only effective weapon against personality view.

The Analogy of the Fire-Worshipper

Personality view is not just ordinary wrong view, but the gravest wrong view. There is, for instance, the wrong view of fire-worship. When a child is born, the fire-worshipper’s parents kindle a fire for the child. For sixteen years the parents keep the fire alive by refuelling it regularly with ghee or butter. When he is sixteen, the parents ask their son whether he will remain as a layman or become a recluse and take up the practice that will lead him to the brahmā realm. If the boy chooses to become a recluse, the parents hand over the sacrificial fire to him. The recluse then takes upon himself the duty of feeding the fire with the best ghee or butter. The purer the fuel, the more meritorious is the fire-sacrifice. He takes the sacrificial fire wherever he goes. He keeps the flame alight constantly throughout his life. By this dutiful sacrifice he earns merit said to lead to rebirth in the brahmā world. This fire-worshipper is virtually a slave to his sacrificial fire. For as long as he lives, maybe a hundred years or more, his servitude persists. For as long as his wrong belief in the virtue of the fire sacrifice persists, he will serve the fire dutifully. This is, of course, a case of saṅkhāra dukkha, the tyranny of conditioned states. It is the nature of fire to consume whatever fuel it can lay hold of. Searching for fuel to keep the fire alive is therefore never-ending serfdom, eternal suffering.

The analogy of the fire-worshipper is this: All beings who have strong attachment to “self,” which is but the five aggregates, exhaust themselves to maintain their lives, but they are only feeding the fire that consumes from within. The fire of death is kept alive, consuming fresh materiality and mentality, being sustained by regular feeding.

All Beings are Fuel to the Fire of Death

Human existence is fuel for the fire of human death. A deva’s existence is fuel for the fire of a deva’s death. A brahmā’s existence is fuel for the fire of a brahmā’s death. Almsgiving done to acquire merit for these forms of existence is merely trouble taken to feed the fires of these existences. It virtually means cultivating the fields where these fires are to thrive. Keeping the precepts to acquire merit — whether five, eight, or ten precepts — is merely cultivating the field to reap a good crop of fires. Similarly, developing concentration or the four divine abidings is merely cultivating the field of fires. In the beginningless cycle of rebirths, every being has done infinite deeds of giving, and has reaped the results of infinite existences as human beings or as devas. All of those existences have been consumed by the fire of death. Not a particle of ash remains. In each of these existences, the nurturing of one’s life, from the time one could look after oneself until death, is just feeding the fire of death. Nothing remains at the time of death. There is no fundamental difference between such subsistence and maintaining the sacrificial fire of the fire-worshipping recluse.

This analogy is given to drive home the truth of the impermanence of all materiality, the danger that besets all living beings.

Try to Understand the Phenomenon of Death

In spite of the inevitability of death, most people usually ignore it. You should meditate to realize the omnipresence of death. Try to visualize the ceaseless burning of the fire of death in all the four postures: standing, sitting, walking, and lying down.

All the merits acquired in the past through giving, virtue, or meditation for calm, if they were aimed at prolonging existence, are futile. The acquisition of merit now aimed at prolonging existence in the future will lead to the same fate. The burdensome tasks that one undertakes to support one’s present existence are no different either. All these efforts merely serve as fuel for the fire of death. This is to impress upon you the futility of all human efforts, however meritorious, aimed at the continuation of existence.

The Five Aggregates and the Four Noble Truths

The five aggregates, being truly impermanent, are unsatisfactory. This is the Noble Truth of Suffering. Attachment to the five aggregates as one’s own property, or one’s own self, and the craving for existence and rebirth, is the origin of suffering. This is the Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering. The liberation from craving, which is the same as the escape from the five aggregates, is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering. The Noble Eightfold Path beginning with right view is the Noble Truth of the Path Leading to the Cessation of Suffering.

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A Manual of the Excellent Man

Chapter Two

Seven Aspects of Materiality to be Perceived

The True Nature of Materiality

1. The Four Primary Elements

2. The Five Sense Bases

3. The Five Sense Objects

4. The Material Qualities of Sex

5. Vitality

6. The Material Base of Consciousness

7. The Material Quality of Nutrition

The Origin and Cessation of Materiality

The Practice Leading to the Cessation of Materiality

How Does Right Thought Function?

The Satisfaction in Materiality

The Danger in Materiality

The Escape from Materiality

Seven Aspects of Feeling to be Perceived

The True Nature of Feeling

The Origin and Cessation of Feeling

From Contact Arises Feeling

The Practice Leading to the Cessation of Feeling

The Satisfaction and Danger in Feeling

The Escape from Feeling

Seven Aspects of Perception to be Perceived

Seven Aspects of Mental Formations to be Perceived

The Analogy of the Locomotive

Some Examples of how Attachment to Personality View Works

Seven Aspects of Consciousness to be Perceived

The True Nature of Consciousness

The Origin and Cessation of the Four Mental Aggregates

The Origin and Cessation of Subconsciousness

The Origin and Cessation of Consciousness

The Origin and Cessation of Mind-Consciousness

Impulsion and its Functions

The Origin and Cessation of Feeling, Perception, and Mental Formations

The Satisfaction and Danger in the Four Mental Aggregates

The Satisfaction and Danger in Feeling

The Satisfaction and Danger in Perception

The Satisfaction and Danger in Mental Formations

The Analogy of the Robot

The Danger of Impermanence in the Five Aggregates

Analogy of the Flame

The Analogy of the Fire-Worshipper

All Beings are Fuel to the Fire of Death

Try to Understand the Phenomenon of Death

The Five Aggregates and the Four Noble Truths

The Origin and Cessation of Feeling,
Perception, and Mental Formations