A Manual of the Excellent Man

Select a linkContentsEditor's ForewordPreface to the First EditionVenerable Ledi Sayadaw's ReplyThe PerfectionsSignificance of the Five AggregatesThe Element of DeliveranceTwo Types of Ordinary PersonFour NobleTruthsThe Five MarasTaking RefugeFour Types of BuddhistEssentials to be UnderstoodGreat Opportunities

Chapter Nine

The ninth question asks me to provide a definitive stand that a Buddhist should take when confronted by non-Buddhists, i.e. what are the main aspects of the Buddha’s teaching that a Buddhist needs to understand and practise?

The Four Noble Truths Need to be Understood

I have mentioned the main aspects of Buddhism in reply to your fourth question, namely: the five aggregates, the six senses, the elements, dependent origination, the four foundations of mindfulness, etc. These teachings are found only in Buddhism, so a Buddhist worth his salt should be proficient in them.

Other meritorious deeds such as giving, keeping the precepts, meditation for concentration using devices (kasiṇas), meditation on the boundless states of loving-kindness, etc., are usually found in other religions. These teachings or practices are always prevalent in civilized societies. They are universal in the sense that they are practised in all eras, whether or not it is the era of a Buddha. They glorify the civilized world, but they are only mundane. In other world cycles too, such good practices were known. They are practised in universes other than ours. There are human beings and celestial beings in the present world and in innumerable other worlds, where there are also recluses, monks, and brahmins. Gotama the Buddha arose in the world cycle of a hundred-year life-span when the good deeds common even to non-Buddhists were on the wane. In this world cycle, the average person is so polluted with defilements that the Buddha had to dwell at great length on the ordinary deeds of merit.

Only during the time of a Buddha’s teaching is there the special advantage of taking refuge in the Three Gems. Only then can giving to the fertile field of the Saṅgha be practised. As for the teaching, it is only when a Buddha’s teaching is still extant that the teachings on the aggregates, etc., can be heard. That is why a good Buddhist ought to know them well. The seven aspects referred to earlier, if understood well, make a sound Buddhist.

The firm stand that a Buddhist can take and thus meet any criticism in the present existence is the law of dependent origination. The main knowledge that is the safeguard against any other religion either here or hereafter, until one attains nibbāna, is that of the Four Noble Truths.

Dependent Origination Needs to be Understood

I shall now explain the law of dependent origination. Please commit the twelve links to memory:

Ignorance (avijjā), mental formations (saṅkhārā), consciousness (viññāṇa), psychophysical phenomena (nāmarūpa), the six senses (saḷāyatana), contact (phassa), feeling (vedanā), craving (taṇhā), attachment (upādāna), becoming (bhava), birth (jāti), aging and death (jarā-maraṇa).

1. Ignorance

Ignorance is the opposite of knowledge. It is synonymous with delusion (moha). The mind is like the sun or the moon; knowledge is like sunlight or moonlight. Ignorance is like an eclipse. When the sun is eclipsed there is no sunlight. When the moon is eclipsed there is no moonlight. Likewise, when the mind is shrouded by ignorance, no knowledge can arise.

Ignorance is also like a cataract that makes the eye opaque and eventually causes blindness. Sensual pleasures aggravate the darkness of delusion in just the same way as a wrong diet or strong, pungent smells aggravate a cataract. Ardent practice for proficiency in the seven aspects is like the medicine that can remove the cataract.

Four Kinds of Ignorance

There are four kinds of ignorance: the ignorance that blinds one to the truth of suffering; the ignorance that blinds one to the truth of the cause of suffering; the ignorance that blinds one to the truth of the cessation of suffering; and the ignorance that blinds one to the truth of the path.

Seven Kinds of Ignorance

The ignorance that blinds one to the first aspect in the five aggregates ... the ignorance that blinds one to the seventh aspect of the five aggregates. Of the five aggregates that constitute a being, the material aggregate is most obvious. In the material aggregate, the element of extension is most obvious. You should first try to distinguish the element of extension within your body. At first, a man blinded by a cataract cannot see even such a bright object as the sun or the moon. Similarly, at first you may not see the earth element, but with sustained effort the darkness shrouding the mind gradually gives way. As the darkness of delusion slowly recedes, the mind regains its ability to see. Remember, delusion is not a total stranger, it is your mind in its negative character. The luminous quality of your mind is the original phenomenon, which, in a normal sensuous environment, is usually dominated by darkness. Light means vision or knowledge — when ignorance has been removed you can see the element of extension in your mind’s eye just as plainly as a man with normal eyes can see the sun or the moon.

Having seen the element of extension within your body, proceed to examine the other elements that make up the material aggregate. Having thus understood materiality in its true nature, proceed to understand the four mental aggregates. In this way, the five aggregates will be understood, which means that you are skilful or proficient in the five aggregates, the first aspect. Ignorance has then given way to knowledge. As you rightly discern the remaining six aspects, observe how the light of knowledge dawns on the mind, and how the veil of ignorance is lifted. After the seven kinds of ignorance have been dispelled, and knowledge of the seven aspects is gained, keep up the practice steadfastly to gain the path knowledge that is right view. Once one is established in path knowledge ignorance is absolutely dispelled, and when ignorance disappears the remaining eleven factors of dependent origination also become clear. The Four Noble Truths are then simultaneously realized.

How the Four Noble Truths are Realized

Discerning the truth of suffering (dukkha sacca) in the five aggregates, abandoning the ignorance and craving that are the roots of these ills (samudaya sacca), the direct experience of the cessation of the twelve links of dependent origination (nirodha sacca), the arising of insight with path knowledge (magga sacca) — all these four realizations occur simultaneously. The three trainings reach maturity, the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment are fulfilled, taking refuge in the Three Gems is well established, and the five māras are vanquished. Māra, the evil deva of the Paranimmitavasavattī realm, the great destroyer and “Tempter,” cannot confound such a Noble One. Even if confronted by thousands of non-Buddhist teachers, a Noble One will never be in doubt about the truth.

This is an exposition to underline the crucial importance of ignorance, the principal factor in the law of dependent origination. Although the whole chain of dependent origination is finally broken with the conquest of ignorance, the remaining factors will also be dealt with to understand them more clearly.

2. Mental Formations

All physical, verbal, and mental kammas done with a desire to attain a good life, now and in future existences, are called mental formations. “All kammas” includes the ten moral kammas and the ten immoral kammas. Immoral kammas are committed out of attachment to the present existence, because of ignorance regarding the true nature of the five aggregates. Moral kammas are committed out of desire for future existence, because of ignorance regarding the same five aggregates.

The Buddha and the Arahants, too, perform wholesome actions with even greater diligence than ignorant persons, but having attained path knowledge, they have no attachment to the aggregates that form their existence (which is their last). Therefore, none of their actions, whether physical, verbal, or mental, carry any merit, and are not called saṅkhāras because the necessary volitional activity that clings to present well-being or to future existence is absent. The fact that all mental formations spring from ignorance of the truth is so obvious that even non-Buddhists can probably comprehend it.

3. Consciousness

Consciousness here means rebirth-consciousness, the consciousness that links the previous existence to the present one. The kammic force of previous volitional effort must result in the initial consciousness of the present. How the present existence arises from previous kamma can be known only by supernormal knowledge (abhiññā). It is unfathomable to one of normal intellect. There are certain recluses, monks, and devas who know where a being was before the present existence, but even they do not understand the law that underlies kamma. They think it is due to the transmigration of a soul, and it is exactly on this point that they go wrong. Among the ten aspects of right view, the tenth refers to this supernormal knowledge:

“There are recluses and brahmins in the world with genuine attainments through right practice, who, having realized through direct knowledge the truth regarding this world and the other worlds, make it known to others.”

Those who lack this right view hold false views on rebirth. Westerners usually lack this right view. Wrong beliefs of various descriptions began to arise in the world aeons ago when monks and recluses who had acquired the jhānas and attained supernormal knowledge began to disappear. These wrong beliefs have been spreading since the times when the human life-span was a thousand years, as is said in the Cakkavattī Sutta of the Dīgha Nikāya.

Nowadays, modern surgeons and scientists, lacking right view, depend on what the eye can see, and putting sole reliance on phenomena visible with the aid of microscopes, propound theories about life and reproduction. Those possessed of right view, however, though the subject is not within their province, do not fall into error because they practise along the right path to understand the subject as well as they can. This is true even outside the Buddha’s teaching. When the Buddha arose, they learned the Buddha’s teaching and gained right view of a higher order.

Right view at the elementary level is bound up with personality view. It is only through advanced insight training that personality view can be discarded.

This is a note of warning that rebirth, or rebirth-consciousness, is a really abstruse subject full of pitfalls.

The Relationship of the Aggregates throughout Saṃsāra

The relationship between the material and mental aggregates may be summarized here. Regard the paths of the material and mental aggregates as belonging to separate courses in a given being, each taking its own path of development. In the endless round of rebirths, the material aggregate breaks up on the death of a being, but the mental aggregates never break up until the final passing away of an Arahant (parinibbāna). The material aggregate has no sense-faculties, nor can it think about or comprehend things, which are the functions of the mental aggregates. The mental aggregates do not have any form or substance, not even the tiniest atom, which is the property of the material aggregate.

The Course of the Material Aggregate

Let us see the course that the material aggregate takes. We shall consider two cases, the flow of a river and the path of a storm.

The waters of a river, in flowing from its source to the great ocean, comprise the primary elements of heat and motion. The water undergoes constant changes in temperature. The cold in the previous material element of the water causes the element of cold to arise; the heat in the previous material element causes the material element of heat to arise. The element of cohesion has the property of weight so that it causes the water level to go down the gradient. The primary element of motion is constantly pushing away the material elements of the water as the fresh cold or hot material elements arise. These can arise only at some distance (not visible to the physical eye) from the parent material qualities. Being subject to the element of cohesion, the new material elements can arise only at some lower level. This is what we call the flow of the waters in a river (which is in reality the material aggregate with its constituent four primary elements taking their own course under a given set of circumstances).

Now consider a storm. The element of cohesion is not the dominant force as with the river. The element of cohesion only has the power of holding the material phenomena together. Since the storm is not being weighed down like the river water, it does not flow downwards. The element of motion is dominant here. So whether occurring over the ocean or on the land, the motive force can push it at great speeds over the vast area where it occurs. The fresh material phenomena that arise take place only at a certain distance from the parent material phenomena, they do not break away from the old. The new arises only dependent upon the old.

The same principle of fresh material phenomena arising at some distance from the old material phenomena applies with lightning. Here the distance between fresh material phenomena, i.e. the flash of lightning from the sky above and the earth below, is much greater than that in a storm or in a river’s current. It all depends on the constituent element of motion: the stronger the element, the greater the distance. This is the way that the material aggregate occurs.

The Course of the Mental Aggregates

When the mental aggregates arise dependent upon the material aggregate, they do not occur apart from it. Since they do not break up, their occurrence cannot take place away from the material aggregate until the moment when the latter breaks up (at the death of a given being). Among the mental aggregates, volition plays the key role, not unlike the element of heat in the material aggregate. From the viewpoint of conditional relations, it is called “kamma-relation.” Beliefs such as wrong and right view and the other mental properties are comparable to the primary element of motion in the material aggregate. This is called “the relationship of means” (magga paccaya). Each existence is the result of a volition that has a given effect. The element of heat, for example, has its effects on the proximate material phenomena in a series. This effect can last only as long as the five aggregates of a being last. As for volition, once the resultant consciousness has arisen, its effects can occur for innumerable existences. However, the kammic force may remain dormant for innumerable world cycles until favourable conditions occur. The results of one’s kamma remain as potential both in the mental aggregates and in the material aggregate. Technically these kammas form the “residual” type of kamma or kaṭattā-kamma. It therefore follows that the continuity of mental aggregates is uninterrupted. So one can say, conventionally speaking, that “the same” mental aggregates prevail, though hundreds of thousands of world cycles may pass.

This is a fundamental difference between the material and mental aggregates. No parallel exists in the material aggregate. Only the roughest comparison can be made. Even in the present existence the two are noticeably different. Try to observe this within yourself.

At the breaking up of the existing material aggregate, the mental aggregates take rebirth with a fresh material aggregate elsewhere. How far away from the old body can consciousness take its rebirth? It depends on the volition (comparable to the element of heat) and the other mental concomitants such as right or wrong views, which are comparable to the functioning of motion (i.e. the relation of means). The text calls them “the mental formations that have the power of casting out (khipanaka saṅkhārānaṃ).” When the relation of means is strong enough, rebirth-consciousness may arise in the highest brahmā realm called nevasaññā-nāsaññā. At the other extreme, it may arise in the deepest hell (Avīci). Consciousness of the mind-base can apprehend things unhindered by any physical barrier. Mental phenomena are therefore incomparably more powerful than material phenomena.

Being ignorant of the power of mental phenomena, modern thinkers reason based on the material phenomena that they can observe, and deduce theories of life based on such observations. All these theories are nothing but futile exercises in wrong thinking. This is impressed upon you because rebirth-consciousness offers a ready ground for confrontation by other religions. When one discusses Buddhism with others, one ought to be sure of what one is saying. One should speak out of conviction acquired by direct knowledge. Reliance on shallow knowledge or texts learnt by rote will only bring discredit to Buddhism.

4. Psychophysical Phenomena

By nāma the three mental aggregates of feeling, perception, and mental formations are meant, which are mental concomitants. The mental aggregate of consciousness is supreme in the ultimate sense. Its supremacy has been mentioned earlier. It is the leader (jeṭṭha), the chief (seṭṭha), pre-eminent (padhāna), the principal (pamukha) without which no mental phenomena can exist, the lord (rāja) of all the six senses.

How Body and Mind Arise

When a person is reborn in Tāvatiṃsa due to the acquisition of powerful merits, the celestial mansion for a deva of that realm is at once present. By the same analogy, whenever consciousness arises, feeling, perception, contact, volition, etc., arise simultaneously. The body including the four elements also arises. Since rebirth-consciousness is the dominant factor in the process, it is said that body and mind have consciousness as their origin. In the case of rebirth in the womb, the initial arising of material phenomena is invisible to the naked eye. Just as a tiny seed of the banyan tree grows into a magnificent tree, from the moment of conception an embryo develops gradually into a living being (such as human being, etc.) as follows:

1. In the first seven days, as embryonic liquid (invisible at first);
2. In the second seven days, as a foamy substance;
3. In the third seven days, as a clot of blood;
4. In the fourth seven days, as a tiny lump of flesh.

Then at the end of the eleventh week, the head and limbs take shape when the four sense bases of eye, ear, nose, and tongue are formed. The two sense bases of body and mind arise at conception. This is (roughly) how materiality arises.

Scientific knowledge is limited primarily to what the microscope can reveal. It is therefore beyond the ability of modern scientists to observe the subtle material phenomena. Based on physiological findings alone, they can only define animal and human faculties.

5. The Six Senses

The six senses — the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind — are called saḷāyatana. The first five are included in the material aggregate. The sixth, the mind, is nothing but consciousness. Although the six senses are included in psychophysical phenomena, they are repeated as the fifth link of dependent origination due to their importance. They are the six main doors in a being like the main gates of a city. They may also be called the six head offices, the six warehouses, the six ports, or the six railway terminals.

It is through these six ports that the six kinds of steamships travel to the various destinations — the heavenly realms or the realms of misery. Similarly, it is through these six railway terminals that the six trains set out on their journeys in saṃsāra.

The Buddha said, “What, monks, is the arising of the world? Because of the eye and visible object, eye-consciousness arises. The meeting of the three — the eye, the visible object, and eye-consciousness — is contact. Because of contact, feeling arises. Because of feeling ... Thus arises this whole mass of suffering. This, monks, is called the arising of the world.”

In the above discourse, the Buddha expounds how the six senses condition the aggregates and their attendant suffering. If the inhabitants of hell were grouped according to their mode of descent, there would be six groups as follows:

1. Those who travelled there by the eye-base;
2. Those who travelled there by the ear-base;
3. Those who travelled there by the nose-base;
4. Those who travelled there by the tongue-base;
5. Those who travelled there by the body-base;
6. Those who travelled there by the mind-base.

To extend the metaphor: they travelled from those six main terminals, or they set out from those six ports.

The arising of the mental aggregates is quite different from that of the material aggregate. As for the material aggregate, a tiny seedling from a banyan tree can grow into a big tree, and from the seeds produced by that tree during its lifetime, thousands of banyan trees can be propagated. As for the mental aggregate of mental formations, each kamma produces only one existence at a time. Even within one sitting, six volitions can arise out of the six senses, all of which will produce a result sometime if not during one’s present lifetime. In the next existence, too, since only one of them is going to give its fruit, the rest are delayed until favourable opportunities prevail. They may be likened to trains standing in a station with their engines running, waiting for a green light. That green light may take aeons to appear, but eventually it will appear, as will the result of mental formations unless one becomes a stream-winner. As for a blind worldling submerged in immorality, trains to carry him or her to the hell realms are being made ready every day.

How is one destined for such miserable existences? It depends upon the stimulation of the sense bases. Take the eye-base for instance. Some enticing form that belongs to someone else appears to view, and the eye-base contacts it, so eye-consciousness arises. It is like the spark that occurs when the hammer strikes the flint in a cigarette lighter. Due to the presence of three factors — visible object, the eye, and eye-consciousness — contact arises. Contact is like the hand that grasps the visible object. The moment it grasps it, feeling arises. Here, feeling is like a withered lotus coming into contact with cool water. Feeling is enjoyed as pleasant. This causes craving or attachment to arise. Attachment does not let go of that pleasant feeling. No craving arises in the Buddha and the Arahants, although they know that a thing can evoke pleasure, since they see the danger of being attached to pleasant feeling.

For example, when an unwary person finds a poisonous fruit which looks like the choicest mango, and smells and tastes like it too, he will be enticed by the appearance, smell, and taste. However, someone who knows that the fruit is poisonous, far from being enticed, will laugh at it and scorn it in fear. This is how, on seeing some desirable thing, different reactions arise in one who has defilements and one who is free from defilements.

Pleasant feeling or attachment may be likened to the sticky substance used by hunters to trap monkeys. When one is pleased with the object, craving for the pleasant feeling grows, intensifies, and becomes rooted in the sense object. The roots extend deeper and take a firm hold like the roots of a banyan tree clinging to and creeping into decaying brickwork. (How this process of attachment arises will be dealt with later.) The attachment that arises from craving is called “sensual attachment” (kāmupādāna).

Attachment arises immediately in one who is in the habit of falling into lust. If the object of attachment is one’s own property, it holds him fast to the round of existences but does not pull him down to hell. If the object of attachment is the property of another, and one does not covet it, the attachment may not send one down to the hell realms. When, however, one covets another’s property, this attachment is unwholesome kamma. Scheming to take another’s property is an evil volition that amounts to a mental act of covetousness (abhijjhā). It has the potential to push one down to hell. It, too, is like a train that will carry one to the realms of torture.

Further, if one bears malice against the owner of the property that one covets, it is the evil volition of ill-will (vyāpāda). This also has the potential to send one down to hell. Again, if one believes that harbouring malice is not a serious evil, and that those recluses and wise men who say it is are wrong; that there is no such thing as kamma; that malicious thoughts produce no result; that the worse that could happen is that anger would arise in the owner if he comes to know of the ill-will directed against him — that amounts to the evil volition of wrong view. This is another train to take one down to hell. Beginning from feasting one’s eyes on another’s property, a string of other immoral deeds may also be perpetrated, such as killing, stealing, adultery, lying, backbiting, abusive speech, gossiping, or idle chatter — all of which provide sure transport to the realms of torture. These immoral volitions that cause one to commit the ten immoral deeds are what is meant by: “Because of attachment, becoming arises.”

This is how, from the eye-base alone, one of the six “railway terminals,” trains depart daily for the fiery realms bearing the unwary, ignorant people. The same should be understood in respect of the other five bases and the other five terminals.

It is from the very same terminals that the six trains to the fortunate planes of existence depart. Herein, since I am confining myself to using everyday examples only, the more abstruse matters regarding the consequences that birth entails are not touched upon. From such sense bases (terminals in our example), ten trains leave for the four lower planes of existence due to the ten immoral actions. Ten trains leave for the fortunate planes of existence due to the ten moral actions. The fortunate realms are the human, deva, and brahmā planes. This is why the six senses are taught as a separate factor though they are already included in consciousness and psychophysical phenomena.

6–8. Contact, Feeling, and Craving

These factors have already been examined in our discussion on how the ten moral and immoral deeds are based at the six senses using the analogy of the six trains.

9. Attachment

The significance of attachment (upādāna) will now be explained. To one who fails to understand things in their true nature, the twelve factors of dependent origination seem inadequate to describe life. It is said, by the poet, “The world is too much with us.” However, in truth, one has to see the world only in the light of these twelve factors. Failure to do so allows a persistent state of craving to prevail that naturally inclines one to harbour wrong views and personality view.

All the existences of beings in the human world, or the higher worlds of the devas and the brahmās, or the lower worlds of the four realms of misery, arise due to the causal factors of consciousness and psychophysical phenomena. This fact must be understood. These two factors bring about what is tangible.

The six senses, contact, and feeling are the three factors that manipulate and adorn the tangible bodies of beings. Craving and attachment are the bold banners of the ordinary person signifying the manipulation and adornment (by the three manipulators) on the body. Regarding the banner of attachment there are four kinds:

1. Sensual attachment (kāmupādāna);
2. Attachment to wrong view (diṭṭhupādāna);
3. Attachment to futile practices or rituals (sīlabbatupādāna);
4. Attachment to personality view (attāvādupādāna).

i. Kāmupadāna means tenacious attachment to magnificent existence as a man, deva, or Sakka, the celestial lord of the Tāvatiṃsa realm, just as the roots of the banyan tree cling to the crevices in brickwork. It is, in essence, craving. It is comparable to Balavamukha — the awesome whirlpool in the great oceans, the dread of all seafarers. If sucked into the whirlpool of sensual attachment, one is dragged down directly to hell. Most beings are spun around by the powerful whirlpool of sensuality so that even when a Buddha arises in the world, they miss the rare opportunity to comprehend the Dhamma because they cling to existence so desperately. They cannot hear the teaching even now, though it is still loud and clear.

Craving, which takes pleasure in the six senses and their objects, may be likened to the peripheral currents of the great whirlpool, from which one could, with mindful determination, extricate oneself, However, if one advances too far into the currents, the whirlpool will drag one down. All seafarers, once caught in it, are sucked down into the ocean’s depths. Similarly, once attachment has established itself in one’s mind, one is inextricably drawn into the saṃsāric current and cast down to the depths of hell.

1. Diṭṭhupādāna means the sixty-two confirmed wrong views and the three gross wrong views (visamahetu diṭṭhi).
2. Sīlabbatupādāna means futile practices and rites held to with religious fervour. An example of the worst type is to believe that if one models one’s life on that of an ox or a dog one attains eternal bliss.
3. Attavādupādāna is personality view, attachment to a sense of “self,” which we have discussed earlier.

10. Becoming

Becoming is understood as a process of kamma as the active side (kammabhava), which determines the passive side (upapattibhava) of the next existence. The ten moral kammas and the ten immoral kammas are the active side. Moral kammas result in fortunate existences as a wealthy human, deva, or brahmā. Immoral kammas result in rebirth in the four lower realms: the hell realm, the animal realm, hungry ghosts (petas), and fallen gods (asurakāyas). These existences, both high and low, are the passive side of existence (upapattibhava).

11–12. Birth, Aging, and Death

Birth means rebirth or continued existences in the future, as a new set of the five aggregates.

Aging means the constant decay of phenomena manifested as senility. After arising, the five aggregates decay and perish incessantly. Decay is called aging; perishing is called death.

Some Difficult Points in Dependent Origination

The first two factors — ignorance and mental formations — are the past causes that lie at the root of the present existence. In other words, our previous deluded actions have “created” our present existence. Who creates all beings? Ignorance and mental formations create them all. There is no other Creator. (Ignorance and mental formations have already been explained above.)

What happens after death? Rebirth follows death. Rebirth is a fresh becoming. The eight intermediate factors from viññāṇa to bhava belong to the present. That is what is generally called “life” or “the world.” The cycle of rebirth is without beginning. In that beginningless cycle, when you consider the present existence, it is just a manifestation of your previous ignorance and mental formations. As soon as the present life ceases, a fresh rebirth arises. That fresh birth is also another “present” existence. In other words, one existence after another is arising, so there is always a “present” existence as long as ignorance and craving remain. This is the eternal cycle of existence called saṃsāra.

The Buddha taught about ignorance and mental formations to show that there is no other Creator. He taught about birth to show that as long as craving and attachment are present, there is no end to the round of births.

Ignorance and mental formations cannot arise by themselves. They can arise only when the eight factors such as consciousness are present. So whenever there are ignorance and mental formations, the eight factors must be in existence. The eight also are only a creation of the previous ignorance and mental formations. Thus the beginning of saṃsāra cannot be known. This shows that it is a mistake to think that there must be a first cause of a being. It also does away with another wrong view — the theory of transmigration of a soul, i.e. that the same being is reborn after death. A fresh birth must always arise if craving and attachment are present. By birth is meant the eight factors such as consciousness that are present right now — generally called the present birth or the present life.

The round of births therefore ends only when craving and attachment are extinguished. Otherwise there is no end to existence on some plane or another. Craving and attachment do not die out unless one contemplates thoroughly on the seven aspects in the five aggregates. It is only when right view is attained through insight that craving ceases. When craving is extinct, attachment is automatically dead and gone.

The Buddha taught a way that an ordinary person can follow. How does seawater taste? If one tastes a drop of seawater at the seashore one knows that it is salty. One need not taste water from the middle of all the great oceans to know this. In much the same way, the Buddha explains how the eight factors of dependent origination arise through previous ignorance and mental formations. This shows that dependent origination and the eight factors are knowable. It is enough to understand their past arising. To ask when previous ignorance began is as futile as tasting water from all the great oceans to know whether seawater is salty. The previous ignorance and mental formations arose just because there were those eight factors present in a previous existence. So to trace back all the previous existences would be an endless search. More importantly, it serves no purpose and is not conducive to attaining nibbāna. This is the reason for saying that saṃsāra is without any beginning.

The Dangers of Aging and Death

In all the realms of existence, aging and death are the real dangers. All animate or inanimate things that one thinks one possesses (including the body and the mind) contain the elements of aging and death. Therefore, one is subject to the dangers of fire, water, disease, poisonous or ferocious animals, evil spirits, and so on. One who has epilepsy is in constant danger of having a fit on hearing exciting music. Similarly, the constant danger of aging and death is inherent in all beings. Life-spans are spoken of because death is a sure thing. So we say, for instance, that the Cātumaharājikā devaloka has a five-hundred year life-span or that the Tāvatiṃsa devaloka has a thousand-year life-span, etc.

It is due to the element of aging and death that we have to busy ourselves with the daily chores of maintaining our existence, or on a spiritual level, with onerous meritorious deeds such as giving, virtue, training and cultivating the mind, and so on.

In all the planes of existence, aging and death are the only real dangers. They are the only fires in the ultimate sense. All the activities of each living being are undertaken just to serve the fires of aging and death. Every existence ends in decay and death. (A proper presentation of this point should convince any non-Buddhist of these facts.)

Q Where do aging and death originate?

A They originate in birth.

Birth implies decay and death. Where there is no birth, decay and death cannot arise. This is a plain fact with which non-Buddhists can readily agree. However, one needs to understand birth in its ultimate sense. The arising of any sensation within us, where it arises, how it feels, what sort of illness it is, what sort of pain, etc., are “births,” as are the varying frames of mind or mental feelings.

Q Where does rebirth originate?

A It originates in becoming, both wholesome and unwholesome.

No rebirth can arise unless there is the potential of one’s previous deeds to be realized. There is no Creator who creates life other than one’s own kammic force. This point is profound. It is no easy matter to explain to the satisfaction of all. Even among traditional Buddhists, whatever right view they have is only shallow — direct insight into the elements and phenomena is still lacking. So the way in which the material and mental aggregates function should be clearly understood.

The question of birth is the one over which one is most likely to fall into wrong views if one happens to live outside Buddhist tradition and culture. That is why it is crucial to have the right view regarding who can show the truth, having himself known it through training and insight, the tenth subject in the ten aspects of mundane right view (see p.78).

Q Where does becoming originate?

A It originates in attachment.

Q Where does attachment originate?

A It originates in craving.

Q Where does craving originate?

A It arises from feeling. These points should be clear to non-Buddhists as well.

Q How do pleasant and unpleasant feelings arise?

A They arise due to contact. This point will not be readily acceptable to non-Buddhists.

It is a controversial question for them. Even among Buddhists, some wrong beliefs can arise on this point. For there are many so-called Buddhists who believe that all internal and external feelings, pleasant or unpleasant, are due to previous kamma alone. “It is as fate (kamma) would have it,” they would say, or “If luck is with us we may have something to eat,” or “It is bad kamma that caused this misfortune,” or “It is through good kamma alone that one prospers,” and so on. Such exclusive dependence upon the power and effect of past kamma is not correct. It is a form of wrong view called “pubbekatahetu-diṭṭhi” or the belief that all is conditioned by past kamma. This is according to the Suttas and also the Abhidhamma.

Kamma is like seed-grain. Joy or sorrow (pleasant or unpleasant feeling) are like the paddy, making an effort is like the fertility of the soil, knowledge or skill are like the rain or irrigation water. The same seed-grain yields a good or poor crop depending upon the fertility of the soil, the supply of water, and most of all, effort exerted at the right time and in the right way. Indeed kamma is highly dependent on present effort. The seed-grain is no more significant than good soil and regular watering of a paddy field. Even the best of seeds, such as the Abbhantara fruit’s stone, will not thrive in poor soil and in dry conditions. A successful birth can result only when proper prenatal care is given and arrangements have been made for the birth. Again, present results also depend on skill, discretion, and prompt effort.

Some people lack knowledge and skill besides effort. They fall on hard times, too. No wonder, then, that they become poor. They blame fate or previous kamma. They would point to the exceptional cases of those lucky ones who prosper without skill or effort. In fact their knowledge about kamma is scanty and shallow.

Because one’s previous kamma has been deficient in wholesome deeds, one may be born ugly, physically deformed, or handicapped. Such congenital deficiencies are the result of past kamma, which one can do very little to alter. Once one has been born, the matter of upbringing, personal care, working for a living, acquiring wealth and merits, etc., are up to oneself. This is present kamma, which depends primarily on one’s own wisdom and effort. One’s progress in the world depends very much on present kamma.

Although kamma is related to pleasure and pain, it is not the cause of feeling. As the Buddha said, “Because of contact, feeling arises.” He did not say, “Because of kamma, feeling arises.” Certain other religions do not recognize kamma, which is one extreme of wrong view. However, some Buddhists place all their faith in kamma to the exclusion of effort and prudence. This is the other extreme of wrong view called “pubbekatahetu-diṭṭhi.” Those who hold the latter wrong view maintain:

“Whatever pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral feeling one experiences is due to a previous cause.”

When a banyan tree seed is planted, its successful sprouting depends on the soil, water supply, and seed-grain. Of these three, the seed-grain is most vital; the soil and moisture are only supporting factors. Once germination has taken place, the growth of the tree depends on the soil and moisture only, for the seed-grain has discharged its function, and is no longer needed. This is a practical example. The potential inherent in the genes of the seed determines the size of the tree and its longevity, but this potential can only be realized with the help of soil and water. Only when this help is available can the potential in the seed be realized to the full. Here, the difference in the species of seeds must be understood. A tree’s size and longevity depend on its species. It is the same for grasses and other types of vegetation. In this example, the seed-grain is like kamma, the tree like our body, the soil like our due efforts, and water like prudence.

The kamma that one has accumulated from the beginningless past is a unique mixture of good and bad. Skilful effort and prudence will be the dominant factors contributing to progress. One is doing oneself a disservice if one blames kamma for one’s failures in life; so too if one blames the lack of perfections for failing to acquire learning, merit, and insight in one’s religious life. Ponder on this well.

“From contact, feeling arises”: It is cold in winter, and cold is unpleasant. Certain teachers maintain that it is cold because God has willed the seasons. This is a kind of wrong view called “issaranimmāna-diṭṭhi.” Those who believe this maintain:

“Whatever pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral feeling one experiences is due to an Almighty God.”

Certain teachers hold that there is no cause or condition for what a person experiences. Those who believe this maintain:

“Whatever pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral feeling one experiences is without cause.”

Certain naked ascetics taught that pleasure and pain are the result of past kamma and nothing else. This is also a wrong view called “pubbekatahetu-diṭṭhi.” This view is partly true, but it is still a wrong view because it rules out causes and conditions other than kamma.

The law of dependent origination says:

“Body consciousness arises dependent on the body and a tactile object. The coincidence of the three is contact, and feeling is conditioned by contact.”

Cold is felt in the following way according to the Buddha’s teaching quoted above. There is the body-base inside you. There is the material element of heat, which can become cold (a quality of the heat element). This serves as the sense object, the tangible kind that corresponds to the sensitive body-base. As the sense object (cold) and the sense base (body) come into contact, tactile-consciousness arises throughout the body. These three elements of cold, body-base, and tactile-consciousness condition the mental factor called contact. This contact causes feeling to arise. Here, it is the unpleasant feeling of cold, and one might say, “Oh, it’s terribly cold.” When one approaches a fire, the cold feeling vanishes, and a pleasant feeling of warmth arises in its place. How does this new feeling come about? Is it God’s will? Or is it purely a matter of kamma?

Similarly, when the external material quality of warmth contacts the sensitive body-base, tactile-consciousness arises. Consciousness arises dependent on the body, so it is called tactile-consciousness. This, in turn, causes feeling born of body-contact (kāya-samphassajā-vedanā) to arise. The vanishing of the external cold material quality leads to the vanishing of the tactile-consciousness and of the cold feeling thus produced. When one moves away from the fireplace, the pleasant feeling of warmth vanishes. The same causal law should be applied here too.

By the same principle, when one feels hot and sweaty in summer one takes a cool shower. The arising of the pleasant cool feeling should be understood in the same way. These examples illustrate the arising of contact in the sensitive body-base and the consequent arising of pleasant or unpleasant feelings. Feelings arising through the other five sense bases should be understood in the same way.

The causal law is universally applicable. In our illustration, the change from unpleasant to pleasant feeling is caused by one’s effort, which is merely present action, though, to a certain extent, it is assignable to kamma. However, such a view cannot help to dispel personality view and doubt. It is only when contact is understood as the dependent factor on which feeling arises, that the vague belief in a “self” and doubts about the Four Noble Truths will be dispelled. Otherwise, the fires of hell burn relentlessly within. Previous kamma, of course, has its role here, but it is just a remote cause like the seed that has grown into a tree. What is most obvious is that the world is a thick forest of desirable and undesirable sense objects. Since the six sense doors are always open, how could any individual prevent pleasant and unpleasant feelings or sensations arising?

Present activities may be motivated by greed, anger, or delusion; or they may be inspired by confidence and knowledge. They include meritorious deeds such as giving or virtue, which may be for one’s own benefit or for the benefit of others. None of them are the effects of previous kamma; they result from present effort and present undertakings only. From one’s own efforts, one experiences all sorts of feelings. Whether doing a moral deed or an immoral deed, when the necessary conditions prevail, an appropriate contact arises, and dependent on that particular contact, feeling must arise.

This question of pleasant or unpleasant feelings and how they originate is a thorny problem that troubles followers of other religions. Even during the Buddha’s time, wrong views on this question were prevalent. That is why it has been given such comprehensive treatment.

The Four Noble Truths Explained

Everyone normally seeks safety, and strives for well-being. All mundane activities are aimed at avoiding discomfort and enjoying pleasure in some way or other. No one wants to get into trouble. No one knowingly tries to hurt himself. Everyone wants to enjoy pleasure and is striving towards that end. Although everyone wants pleasure and happiness and fears pain and sorrow, few know what really ails the world, or what real happiness is.

The Real Ill is Aging and Death

The main ill in the world is aging and death. The danger of death and how it destroys all existences has already been discussed at length and illustrated by the examples of the fire-worshippers and the spendthrift wife. Aging paves the way for death. So whatever illustrations we have used concerning death also apply to aging.

Wherever an ordinary person is born, two hell fires are burning within. One is personality view and the other is doubt (about the Four Noble Truths). Aging and death are the agents in the service of the two fires. They destroy one who is attached to existence, as all beings are. When they have completed their mission of destruction and a being breaks up into the constituent aggregates, the two fires of personality view and doubt cast that being down into hell. They can seize this opportunity only at the breaking up of the five aggregates. The two fires burn within all individuals, even if they are born in one of the six deva realms or in the brahmā realms.

The Buddha said, “Through not understanding this law of dependent origination, Ānanda, these beings are all confused in their existences, like a spoilt skein, or like a weaver bird’s nest, or like dried muñja grass. They cannot escape from falling into the realms of misery, all in disarray.”

The Danger of Falling in Disarray

If you ask someone, “Where will you be born after death?” the reply will probably be, “I don’t know; it depends on my kamma.”

That is true. Nobody can aim at a certain future existence: it depends on one’s kamma. All have to resign themselves to their own kamma. It is just like withered leaves scattered in a strong wind — no one knows where they are going to fall. Not only are human beings subject to an uncertain destination after death, but so too are the devas and brahmās, up to the Vehapphala Brahmā realm. All ordinary persons are in the same situation. They fall in disarray, quite unprepared, to wherever their kamma sends them at their death. Individuals who have passed away from the four formless brahmā realms share the same fate. According to the Nakhasikhā Sutta (S. ii. 263.) most of them fall into the four realms of misery.

Let us give an illustration. Suppose there is a magnificent multi-storeyed mansion. On the first storey, there are plenty of pleasures and the life-span is one month. The second storey provides even more pleasures, and the life-span is two months. As we go up the levels, the pleasures on offer are greater and the life-spans longer. Below the great mansion are areas of scrub land full of thorns and sharp-edged rocks. There are enormous holes filled with sewage and excrement. There are wide areas where sharp spikes are standing. Deep crevices and hollows filled with burning coals lie at the bottom of this place. None falling there could have any chance of escape.

Around the great mansion prevailing winds blow at every storey. The inhabitants of the first storey are swept away by the prevailing winds at the end of their one month life-span. Many of them fall onto the thorny scrub land, many fall into the sewage-filled holes, many drop helplessly onto the standing spikes, many fall down to the fiery hollows. The inhabitants of the upper storeys of the grand mansion share the same fate at the end of their life-span.

The analogy is this: the multi-storeyed mansion is like the human, deva, and brahmā worlds. The terrible terrain below is like the four realms of misery, the prevailing winds like aging and death.

During life one is obsessed with enjoying whatever pleasures one can gain, quite heedless of death; but when death comes, one loses one’s bearings. Through attachment to the notion of a self, one is cast down by kamma and falls in disarray. The same thing happens in the deva and brahmā realms as well, and this has been happening since the dawn of time. This complete helplessness at death, when one’s kamma usually casts one down into the four realms of misery, is called “vinipāta.” This is the law of kamma that governs all ordinary persons.

This danger besets the multitude. Its danger and relentlessness during one’s lifetime should be understood from the analogies of the fire-worshipper and the spendthrift wife. Aging and death not only destroy, but they also send one to hell because of one’s attachment to personality view. All beings are subject to the misfortunes of decay and death, and all have the fires of hell burning within them. That is why all existences are simply dreadful — dukkha.

The Present Dangers of Decay and Death

I shall now explain the evils of decay and death to which one is subject during one’s lifetime. Since one’s birth there has not been a single moment, not so much as a single breath, when one was free from the danger of death. Death is lurking from the time a being is born, and it has always been like this. Mortality keeps beings in constant danger, for there are any number of ways to die. For instance, food is not normally poisonous. However, food can cause an allergic reaction. Though you choose some delicacy to pamper your palate, on eating it you may suddenly become ill and die. Death has countless ways to fulfil its mission. Why should good food turn deadly? Why should this happen to anyone? It is simply because there is a disease in beings (aging, in the ultimate sense) that is always faithfully aiding death. This is just one example of how death can overtake us at any moment. If there was no danger of death, one need not fear anything, not even a thunderbolt striking one’s head.

All human endeavours such as earning a livelihood, living in organized society, maintaining law and order, protecting oneself, one’s property, etc., are primarily aimed at self-preservation. This, in simple terms, is an attempt to ward off the dangers of death. The danger of death is also a motivating factor in doing meritorious deeds such as giving or virtue. The religious life is also taken up because of an awareness of death’s peril. This is an explanation of the dangers of aging and death during one’s lifetime.

Of all the ills to which people are subject, aging and death are paramount. There is nothing in the world, whether human or celestial, animate or inanimate, that is free from these two agents of destruction. All material or mental phenomena are fraught with aging and death. Knowing this, one may have done innumerable acts of merit in innumerable previous existences as good humans, devas, or brahmās, all aimed at escaping the fate of falling in disarray. Yet nothing now remains to protect one from such an ignoble fate. One is still just as vulnerable as ever. Those existences have come and gone. The present existence is a fresh aggregate of the same type of suffering. What a waste! One has to start from scratch again. Why have all your good works come to naught? It is because you do not yet know what dukkha is. You have been serving the fires of dukkha in doing good deeds hoping to escape from suffering. So you have taken the trouble to perform the meritorious deeds such as giving, virtue, mental development and training, diligence, concentration, insight, acquiring skills repeatedly throughout saṃsāra. Your present efforts and meritorious undertakings can also become the fuel that feeds the fires of dukkha whose competent helpers are the decay, aging, and death within you. This exhortation is to illustrate the destructive nature of dukkha.

Real Happiness

Real happiness is the freedom from the dangers of aging and death. I shall make this clear. The highest form of human happiness is to be a Universal Monarch (Cakkavattī), but the fires of aging and death burn in him too, as in any other being. He is also enslaved by personality view, and is prone to doubts about the Four Noble Truths. These fires are manifested as life-spans. When aging burns up a human existence in ten years, it is said that ten years is the life-span of man. Understand it in the same way for all life-spans. Life-spans in the deva and brahmā realms are of the same nature. When the human life-span lasts a hundred years a man’s youth is burnt up in thirty-three years; his middle age in another thirty-three years and his old age in the last thirty-three years. Or if the length of a human’s life is just thirty years, the first decade is consumed by aging in just ten years, the second in the next ten years, and so on.

In the three seasons of the year, the material elements that have existed in the cold season are burnt up in four months; those of the rainy season, in four months; and those of the hot season, in four months, respectively. Of the twelve months in a year, the material elements of the first month are burnt up in thirty days; those of the second month, in thirty days; and so on. Contemplate on the burning of aging in you, in the same way, down to the shortest time span you can imagine, down to the blinking of an eye.

From the most fleeting moment to world cycles or aeons, aging is at work without interruption. Underlying it is the ultimate destroyer — death, a more terrifying fire. Aging or decay is very powerful, so you need to understand it. Unless you can perceive decay at work, you have not gained a clear perception of the causal process. You must be able to pinpoint the “culprit” of the whole scheme. So much for aging or decay. As for death and personality view, I have already explained them above.

Vicikicchā or doubt is a close associate of ignorance or delusion. Doubt is of two kinds: doubt relating to the Dhamma and doubt relating to the soul or self.

The first kind of doubt springs from the ignorance that misconceives things such as the aggregates, sense bases, and elements making up a being. A traveller in unfamiliar terrain, having lost his bearings, thinks that the right way is wrong. He is confused and cannot decide which is the right way. Likewise, due to ignorance, one does not know the earth as the earth element. Doubt makes one vacillate concerning the truth, it also dampens one’s fervour to continue in the search for truth. This is doubt about the Dhamma.

The second kind of doubt arises from attachment to the notion of a vague “self” or “soul.” One unskilled in dependent origination is upset when faced with death. One is shocked at the prospect of losing the present life, which one believes is one’s own. One who holds wrong views dreads that after death his or her “self” may be lost for ever. One who holds right view (mundane right view only) fears falling into one of the four lower realms. That feeling arises from remorse for immoral deeds or having neglected to do meritorious deeds, or both. It is this feeling that magnifies the fear of death at the last, helpless moment. All this vexation and uncertainty about the future casts beings down into the four realms of misery after death.

Personality view and doubt oppress a person on his or her deathbed like a mountain tumbling down. The danger of falling in disarray worries the Universal Monarch as it does other individuals. Even a Universal Monarch is not really happy because he is prone to the same fears and anxieties as any other being. It should be understood that the five aggregates of a deva’s existence, Sakka’s existence, or a brahmā’s existence are all subject to the same fires of aging and death, personality view, and doubt.

Enjoyment of life is fraught with the dangers referred to above, so that at the time of death all the glories of one’s existence become meaningless and useless. When the five aggregates fall apart, what one has clung to as one’s own life perishes and goes. Whether one is a human being, a deva, or a brahmā, one possesses nothing. Rebirth may be as a lowly being such as a louse, a flea, a dog or a pig, an earthworm or a leech. For instance, on seeing a pig that had been a brahmā in a certain previous existence, the Buddha remarked thus:

“When the roots of a tree are undamaged, but only the trunk is cut off, the tree flourishes again. Even so, when craving is not totally rooted out with its latent tendencies, this suffering of rebirth, death, etc., arises repeatedly.” (Dhp. v.338)

That pig had been a bhikkhunī during the time of Kakusandha Buddha. When she attained the first jhāna, she was reborn as a brahmā. Then on her death as brahmā she became a human being. When her human existence ended she was reborn as a pig. The significant thing to note is that when she was reborn as a pig, it was only a pig’s existence with no special attributes for having been a bhikkhunī or a brahmā in her previous existences.

No pleasure marred with the inherent fire of death is real happiness. In truth it is only suffering. That is why real happiness exists only when aging and death can arise no more. Then, and only then, is happiness real and true. That happiness is called deliverance or “escape” (nissaraṇa) — the seventh aspect we discussed above.

The Two Highways

There are two highways. One highway leads to the truth of suffering, the other leads to the truth of happiness.

Consider whether it is knowledge or ignorance that governs the daily activities of most beings. If their activities are undertaken with right view according to the sevenfold proficiency in the seven aspects discussed above, it depends on knowledge. Knowledge consists of acquiring insight into the elements of extension, cohesion, heat, and motion. Ignorance consists in the inherent darkness in one’s mind that has kept one from perceiving the true nature of the four elements. It is the dense darkness that has been with all beings throughout the beginningless cycle of saṃsāra. All activities done under the spell of that darkness, whether they are daily chores, the religious practices of a bhikkhu, deeds of merit such as giving, haphazard mental development or learning the scriptures — in short, all undertakings, good or bad — are only acts dominated by ignorance. All actions done with ignorance lead to suffering. They make up the high road to suffering, which has been laid down under the supervision of aging and death since the dawn of time.

Ignorance is not something that needs to be cultivated. This veil of darkness has always been inherent in living beings. Knowledge, on the other hand, is something that has to be cultivated. This is possible only by following the Buddha’s teaching. This is an uphill task since it entails eradicating ignorance. Knowledge is the highway where aging and death are completely absent. It is the road taken by the Buddhas, Solitary Buddhas, and all the Arahants who have ever attained enlightenment. It is the road to deliverance.

This is the exposition of the way leading to suffering and the way leading to happiness — the two highways that lead in opposite directions.

Regarding the way of knowledge: contemplating the five aggregates might seem rather heavy-going for meditation practice. Penetrative awareness, direct knowledge, or insight into just the five basic elements, namely the elements of extension, cohesion, heat, motion, and mind, is sufficient.

Pakkusāti, the king of Taxila (now in Pakistan), won enlightenment by understanding those five elements plus the element of the void or space (ākāsa). The Buddha said, “This being, bhikkhus, is just (an embodiment of) the six elements.”

Ākāsa means the element of space. The Buddha indicated the cavities such as the mouth, the ears, and the throat to illustrate ākāsa. If one contemplates the five basic elements and the seven aspects to gain insight into the nature of the body, it is quite possible that insight leading to the truth of happiness is within one’s reach right now. This is an exposition on the truth of suffering, the way to the truth of suffering, the truth of happiness, and the way to the truth of happiness. This method of exposition, which is the method of dependent origination in forward and reverse order, is most helpful for practice.

According to the method taught by the Buddha in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the first sermon at the Deer Park, the four truths are shown in this order: the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering, and the truth of the path. Suffering is, as we have seen, the real danger and ill in all forms of existence, which are nothing but the five aggregates. The origin of suffering is nothing but craving. The cessation of suffering is real happiness, ultimate bliss or deathlessness. The Noble Eightfold Path is the highway leading to insight knowledge that we have discussed above. The Noble Eightfold Path has been explained in the section on the fourth aspect of the aggregates. Ignorance and craving being co-existent, when one ceases, the other automatically ceases.

For meditation practice, ignorance, as the antitheses of knowledge, is shown as the origin of suffering. This helps in giving one direct knowledge in meditation.

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