Chapter FiveThe fifth request is a question of assimilation. “The Buddha said that nothing falls outside the scope of the Four Noble Truths, and that nothing cannot be employed as a fruitful subject for contemplation. Would the Venerable Sayādaw
kindly give us a guide to the practical application of the Dhamma so that, when we do any meritorious deed, we can be mindful of the Four Noble Truths and the three characteristics of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self, thus fulfilling the threefold training, cultivating the ten perfections and simultaneously bearing in mind dependent origination, and the twenty-four conditional relations?” How to be Mindful while Doing a Meritorious DeedI shall now explain briefly how a single utterance of “Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi — I go to the Buddha as my refuge,” is an act of merit that encompasses the Four Noble Truths, the three characteristics of existence, the fulfilment of the threefold training, and the cultivation of the ten perfections, done while one is mindful of dependent origination and the twenty-four conditional relations.
In uttering the words “Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi,” by the time you have uttered the last syllable, a great moral consciousness, accompanied by joy and connected with knowledge, has arisen. This impulsion is good kamma of the highest class accompanied by three wholesome roots: non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion. The impulsion lasts for seven thought-moments. Each of the seven thought-moments comprises the four mental aggregates: feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. The impulsion from that produces material quality of sound audible to the ear as “Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.” Thus we see how the five aggregates arise. There is also the material phenomena present at the heart-base, the source of the impulsive mental activities pervading the whole body.
As to mindfulness of the Four Noble Truths: By the time the last syllable has been uttered, the five aggregates are being consumed by the ever-present fire of death, which is the truth of suffering. Remember the danger in the five aggregates: “The transience, unsatisfactoriness, and instability of materiality, constitute the danger in materiality. The nutriment that has been producing the aggregate of materiality during the utterance is the truth of the origin of
materiality. The contact arisen from the mental object of the Buddha’s noble attributes is the origin of the arising of feeling, perception, and mental formations — the truth of the cause in respect of the mental aggregates. The three mental aggregates and the heart-base are the truth of the origin of consciousness. As soon as the recollection of the Buddha arises in your mind, the three basic evils of greed, hatred and delusion are destroyed, which is the truth of cessation, or momentary
bliss. The five factors of the Noble Eightfold Path involved in impulsion, namely, right view, right thought, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration, are mindfulness of the Noble Eightfold Path. This is how the Four Noble Truths are realized in a single utterance while recollecting the Buddha. The Three Characteristics of Existence
Remember our previous example of the robot. Herein, the mind-object, the Buddha’s attributes, is like the mirror. This mirror is focused on the heart-base of the robot, which instantly receives the mental object and apperceives it. Seven thought-moments of impulsion flash out from the heart-base — seven highly-charged mental activities that cause verbal action to arise through its motive
power, comparable to the agitated waters when a mine explodes in a pond or like the whistling of the steamer. The example of the agitated water is analogous to materiality being agitated. However, impulsion is so inconceivably rapid that no adequate example can be given. The power of impulsion over all materiality in your body must be perceived in every activity. If this is not clearly
perceived, the danger of hell remains. If you really dread the fires of hell, it is well to cultivate insight to perceive the change of materiality caused by impulsion. The example of the water tank best illustrates the rapidity of change in physical phenomena as impulsion arises. The transience of materiality, the decaying and the fresh arising within the whole body, may not be vivid enough
even by means of that analogy. So let’s take another example. Imagine a life-size doll made of cotton-wool. Soak it in spirit and burn it. Observe how quickly the cotton-wool changes from one end to the other. The changes within the body may not be as clearly noticeable as in the burning doll, being many times faster. Don’t despair, though. When a flame is kindled in a dark room, the
darkness in the entire room vanishes the instant that light arises, and the light fills the whole room at once. In this example, light is new materiality originating in the flame. It arises so swiftly that one cannot follow it with the eye. You only know its arising by seeing the lighted room. So too, you cannot actually observe the cessation of darkness, but you can know that it has ceased. The change of materiality within your body is the same. Its rapidity need not be a barrier to your
understanding. The fact of change is inescapable to your vigilant consciousness and can be known. That is the nature of insight. The rapidity of the change of psychophysical phenomena is not even known by the Noble Disciples. Only the Buddhas can trace it. As for disciples, the abandonment of personality view through insight into impermanence is sufficient for enlightenment. As soon as the utterance of “Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi” has
ended, the flashes of impulsion vanish in the heart-base so that all materiality actuated by that impulsion ceases, just as when a flame is extinguished in a dark room all the light suddenly disappears. When the thought of the Buddha vanishes with its concomitant mental activities, other forms of consciousness, depending on the mind-object, take over. This is also observable. The knowledge
that understands the cessation of the four mental aggregates and the materiality dependent on them is called knowledge of impermanence. The cessation of phenomena must be discerned. Merely saying “impermanent, impermanent” is not insight, nor is it mental development. Once the truth of impermanence is grasped, the painful fact that all mental and physical phenomena merely feed the fires of death will be clearly realized. Then the relevance of the analogy of the fire-worshipper will be
fully appreciated. When the perpetual arising and cessation of all phenomena within oneself is clearly perceived, the illusion of “I” will fall away. You will then understand that the phenomena are never you or your self. The characteristic of anatta is discerned only in this manner. If lack of a self is not perceived, all talk of anatta is fruitless. It is not knowledge, it is not insight, it is not practice for mental development. The Threefold TrainingOf the threefold training, the volition that impels a person to utter the words, “Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi,” belongs to higher virtue because it is a virtuous act motivated by a conscious undertaking to abstain from the four kinds of immoral speech. That volition comprises right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration — the three factors of higher concentration. Right view and right thought in uttering the words constitute higher understanding.
The Ten PerfectionsUnderstand the practice of the perfections in the manner of the Noble Eightfold Path discussed above. Regarding Dependent OriginationThe second aspect discussed concerning the virtuous person is, in essence, dependent origination. Nutriment arising, materiality arises; contact arising, feeling arises; perception arising, mental formations arise; psychophysical phenomena arising, consciousness arises. Tracing the cause in this way by analysing the results is the Buddha’s method of teaching called dependent origination. As to the twenty-four types of conditional relations, I shall not give a reply here for these reasons: (i) it is probably too abstract for you, Maung Thaw; (ii) it is not useful for insight training; (iii) it is purely for the finer discriminations to be exercised by those who have attained to path knowledge. When you have digested the present answers, you may ask for it later. |
