The
Commentary
to the Discourse on the Arousing of Mindfulness
with Marginal Notes
The Section of
the Synopsis
Evam me
sutam = "Thus have I heard" the Discourse on the
Arousing of Mindfulness [Satipatthana Sutta]. "I" refers to
the Elder Ananda, cousin of the Buddha. At the first
Buddhist Council held in the Sattapanna Cave at Rajagaha
under the presidentship of the Great Disciple of the Buddha,
the Elder Maha Kassapa, the Collection of the Discourses [Sutta
Pitaka] was recited by the Elder Ananda.
Ekam samayam
bhagava Kurusu viharati = "At one time the Blessed One
was living in the (country of the) Kurus." Although the
territory of the Kuru Princes, their homeland, was a single
contiguous domain, by taking into consideration its many
villages and market-towns, it was commonly referred to by
the use of the plural form "Kurus."
In the time of
the legendary king Mandhatu, say the commentators,
inhabitants of the three continents, Pubba Videha, Apara
Goyana, and Uttara Kuru, having heard that Jambudipa,
[1]
the birthplace of Sammasambuddhas,
[2]
Paccekabuddhas,
[3]
the Great Disciples of the Buddhas, Universal Monarchs and
other beings of mighty virtue, was an exceedingly pleasant,
excellent continent, came to Jambudipa with the Universal
Monarch Mandhatu who was making a tour of all the
continents, in due order, preceded by his Wheel Treasure.
And at last when Mandhatu bodily translated himself by means
of his psychic virtue to the Tavatimsa devaloka, the heaven
of the Thirty-three, the people of the three continents who
accompanied him to Jambudipa begged of his son for territory
to live in, as they said they had come carried by the great
power of Mandhatu, and were now unable by themselves to
return to their own continents. Their prayer was heard and
lands were granted to each of the groups of people of the
three continents. The places in which these people settled
got the names of the original continents from which they had
emigrated. The settlement of people from Pubba Videha came
to be known as Videha, of those from Apara Goyana, as
Aparanta, and of those from Uttara Kuru as Kururattha.
Kammasadammam nama Kurunam nigamo = "At Kammasadamma, a
market-town of the Kuru people." Some explain the word
Kammasadamma, here, spelling it with a "dh" instead of a
"d." Since Kammasa was tamed here it was called Kammasadamma,
the place of the taming of Kammasa. Kammasa refers to the
cannibal of Kammasapada, the one with the speckled, black
and white or gray colored foot. It is said that a wound on
his foot, caused by a stake, healed, having become like a
piece of wood with lines of fibre of a complex pattern [cittadaru
sadiso hutva]. Therefore, he became well-known as
Kammasapada, Speckled Foot. By whom was Speckled Foot tamed?
By the Great Being, the Bodhisatta. In which Birth-story [Jataka]
is it stated? Certain commentators say: "In the Sutasoma
Birth-story." But the elders of the Great Minister at
Anuradhapura, the Maha Vihara, say that it is stated in the
Jayaddisa Birth-story. Kammasapada was tamed, weaned of his
cannibalism, by the Great Being, in the circumstances
mentioned in the Jayaddisa Birth-story. The following
statement occurs in that story:
To free my
sire did I renounce my life,
When born as very son of the king,
Jayaddisa, Pañcala's sovran chief,
And make even Speckled Foot have faith in me.
[4]
Some [keci]
however explain spelling the word thus: Kammasadhamma. It is
said that the traditional Kuru virtuous practice [Kuruvattadhamma]
became (black or diversified or) stained [kammaso jato] in
that place. Therefore, it was called Kammasadhamma. The
market-town established there, too, got the same name.
Why was it not
said Kammasadamme Kurunam nigame using the locative?
Because, it is said, there was no monastery (or dwelling
place) at which the Blessed One could stay, in that
market-town. Away from the market-town, however, there was a
huge dense jungle in a delightful region, watered well. In
that jungle, the Blessed One lived, making the market-town
his place for gathering alms.
Ekayano ayam
bhikkhave maggo = "This is the only way, O bhikkhus."
Why did the Blessed One teach this Discourse? Because of the
ability of the people of the Kurus to take in deep doctrine.
The inhabitants
of the Kuru country — bhikkhus, bhikkhunis, upasakas,
upasikas — by reason of their country being blessed with a
perfect climate, and through their enjoyment of other
comfortable conditions, were always healthy in body and in
mind. They, happy with healthy minds and bodies, and having
the power of knowledge, were capable of receiving deep
teachings. Therefore, the Blessed One, perceiving their
ability to appreciate this profound instruction, proclaimed
to them this Discourse on the Arousing of Mindfulness, which
is deep in meaning, having set up the subject of meditation,
in arahantship, in twenty-one places. For even as a man,
having got a golden basket should fill it with divers
flowers, or indeed having got a golden casket should fill it
with precious jewels of the seven kinds, the Blessed One,
having got a following of the Kuru-land people, dispensed,
it is said, deep doctrine. Likewise, on that very account,
there, in the Kurus, the Blessed One, taught other deep
teachings: the Maha-nidana Sutta, Maha-satipatthana Sutta,
Saropama Sutta, Rukkhupama Sutta, Ratthapala Sutta,
Magandiya Sutta, and the Aneñjasappaya Sutta.
Further, in
that territory of the Kuru people,
[5]
the four classes — bhikkhu, bhikkhuni, upasaka, upasika —
generally by nature were earnest in the application of the
Arousing of Mindfulness to their daily life. At the very
lowest, even servants, usually, spoke with mindfulness. At
wells or in spinning halls useless talk was not heard. If
some woman asked of another woman, "Mother, which Arousing
of Mindfulness do you practice?" and got the reply, "None at
all," then that woman who replied so was reproached thus:
"Your life is shameful; though you live you are as if dead,"
and was taught one of the kinds of Mindfulness-arousing. But
on being questioned if she said that she was practicing such
and such an Arousing of Mindfulness, then she was praised
thus: "Well done, well done! Your life is blessed; you are
really one who has attained to the human state; for you the
Sammasambuddhas have come to be."
With a
perfect climate... comfortable conditions. This
includes such items as wholesome food and drink essential
for maintaining mind and body unimpaired.
"The only way"
= The one way [Ekayanoti ekamaggo]. There are many words for
"way." The word used for "way" here is "ayana" ("going" or
road). Therefore, "This is the only way, O bhikkhus [ekayano
ayam bhikkhave maggo]" means here: "A single way ("going" or
road), O bhikkhus, is this way; it is not of the nature of a
double way [ekamaggo ayam bhikkhave maggo na
dvedhapathabhuto]."
Or it is "the
only way" because it has to be trodden by oneself only [ekeneva
ayitabbo]. That is without a companion. The state of
being companionless is twofold: without a comrade, after
abandoning contact with the crowd, and in the sense of being
withdrawn (or secluded) from craving, through tranquillity
of mind.
Or it is called
"ekayana" because it is the way of the one [ekassa ayana].
"Of the one" = of the best; of all beings the Blessed One is
best. Therefore, it is called the Blessed One's Way.
Although others too go along that way, it is the Buddha's
because he creates it. Accordingly it is said: "He, the
Blessed One, is the creator of the uncreated path, O
Brahman." It proceeds (or exists) only in this
Doctrine-and-discipline and not in any other. Accordingly
the Master declared: "Subhadda, only in this
Doctrine-and-discipline is the Eightfold Way to be found."
And further, "ekayana" means: It goes to the one [ekam ayati]
— that is, it (the way) goes solely to Nibbana. Although in
the earlier stages this method of meditation proceeds on
different lines, in the latter, it goes to just the one
Nibbana. And that is why Brahma Sahampati said:
Whose mind
perceiving life's last dying out
Vibrates with love, he knows the only way
That led in ancient times, is leading now,
And in the future will lead past the flood.
[6]
As Nibbana
is without a second, that is, without craving as
accompanying quality, it is called the one. Hence it is
said: "Truth is one; it is without a second."
Why is the
Arousing of Mindfulness intended by the word "way"? Are
there not many other factors of the way, namely,
understanding, thinking, speech, action, livelihood, effort,
and concentration, besides mindfulness? To be sure there
are. But all these are implied when the Arousing of
Mindfulness is mentioned, because these factors exist in
union with mindfulness. Knowledge, energy and the like are
mentioned in the analytically expository portion [niddese].
In the synopsis [uddese], however, the consideration should
be regarded as that of mindfulness alone, by way of the
mental disposition of those capable of being trained.
Some [keci],
however, construing according to the stanza beginning with
the words, "They do not go twice to the further shore [na
param digunam yanti]"
[7]
say, "One goes to Nibbana once, therefore it is ekayana."
This explanation is not proper. Because in this instruction
the earlier part of the Path is intended to be presented,
the preliminary part of the Way of Mindfulness proceeding in
the four objects of contemplation is meant here, and not the
supramundane Way of Mindfulness. And that preliminary part
of the Path proceeds (for the aspirant) many times; or it
may be said that there is many a going on it, by way of
repetition of practice.
In what sense
is it a "way"? In the sense of the path going towards
Nibbana, and in the sense of the path which is the one that
should be (or is fit to be) traversed by those who wish to
reach Nibbana.
Regarding "the
only way" there is the following account of a discussion
that took place long ago.
The Elder
Tipitaka Culla Naga said: "The Way of Mindfulness-arousing
(as expounded in our Discourse) is the (mundane) preliminary
part (of the Eightfold Way)."
His teacher the
Elder Culla Summa said: "The Way is a mixed one (a way that
is both mundane and supramundane)."
The pupil:
"Reverend Sir, it is the preliminary part."
The teacher:
"Friend, it is the mixed Way."
As the teacher
was insistent, the pupil became silent. They went away
without coming to a decision.
On the way to
the bathing place the teacher considered the matter. He
recited the Discourse. When he came to the part where it is
said: "O bhikkhus, should any person maintain the Four
Arousings of Mindfulness in this manner for seven years," he
concluded that after producing the consciousness of the
Supramundane Path there was no possibility of continuing in
that state of mind for seven years, and that his pupil,
Culla Naga, was right. On that very day, which happened to
be the eighth of the lunar fortnight, it was the elder Culla
Naga's turn to expound the Dhamma. When the exposition was
about to begin, the Elder Culla Summa went to the Hall of
Preaching and stood behind the pulpit.
After the pupil
had recited the preliminary stanzas the teacher spoke to the
pupil in the hearing of others, saying, "Friend, Culla Naga."
The pupil heard the voice of his teacher and replied: "What
is it, Reverend Sir?" The teacher said this: "To say, as I
did, that the Way is a mixed one is not right. You are right
in calling it the preliminary part of the Way of
Mindfulness-arousing." Thus the Elders of old were not
envious and did not go about holding up only what they liked
as though it were a bundle of sugar-cane. They took up what
was rational; they gave up what was not.
Thereupon, the
pupil, realising that on a point on which experts of the
Dhamma like his learned teacher had floundered, fellows of
the holy life in the future were more likely to be unsure,
thought: "With the authority of a citation from the
Discourse-collection, I will settle this question."
Therefore, he brought out and placed before his hearers the
following statement from the Patisambhida Magga: "The
preliminary part of the Way of Mindfulness-arousing is
called the only way."
[8]
And, in order to elaborate just that and to show of which
path or way the instruction in our Discourse is the
preliminary part, he further quoted the following also from
the Patisambhida Magga: "The Excellent Way is the Eightfold
way; four are truths; dispassion is the best of things
belonging to the wise; besides that Way there is no other
for the purifying of vision. Walk along that Way so that you
may confound Death, and put an end to suffering."
[9]
Sattanam
visuddhiya = "For the purification of beings." For the
cleansing of beings soiled by the stains of lust, hatred and
delusion, and by the defilements of covetise, called lawless
greed and so forth. All reach the highest purity after
abandoning mental taints. By way of physical taints,
however, there is no cleansing of impurities taught in the
Dhamma.
By the Great
Seer it was not said
That through bodily taints men become impure,
Or by the washing of the body they become pure.
By the Great Seer it was declared
That through mental taints men become impure,
And through the cleansing of the mind they become pure.
Accordingly it
is said: "Mental taints soil beings; mental cleansing
sanctifies them."
[10]
Sokaparidevanam samatikkamaya = "For the overcoming of
sorrow and lamentation." If this Way is developed it will
lead to the casting out of sorrow similar to that
experienced by the Minister Santati, and the casting out of
lamentation similar to that of Patacara. With analytical
knowledge did Santati reach arahantship after hearing this
stanza:
Purge out the
things belonging to the past;
Let there be naught in the world to rise in future times.
If what's twixt past and future you don't grasp,
You will be one who wanders forth serene.
[11]
Patacara
reached the fruition of the first stage of arahantship after
hearing the following:
For one who
is by death oppressed there is
No safety seen in children, father, friends
Or others close to one. A shelter true
Amongst one's kinsfolk one does never find.
[12]
Since there is
nothing called spiritual development [bhavana] without
laying hold on something whatsoever in material form,
feeling, consciousness and mental objects [kaya vedana citta
dhammesu kiñci dhammam anamasitva] they (Santati and
Patacara) too overcame sorrow and lamentation just by this
Way of Mindfulness.
For the
hearers [savaka], namely, the disciples of the Buddha, there
is no attainment of the Noble Path [Ariya Magga] possible,
except by practicing the subject of meditation [kammatthana]
of the Four Truths [Catu Sacca]. Spiritual development
usually called meditation, is the development of wisdom [pañña
bhavana]. Just the contemplation of material form
(corporeality), of feeling, consciousness or mental objects,
constitutes the cultivation of the Arousing of Mindfulness.
Dukkha
domanassanam atthangamaya = "For the destruction of
suffering and grief." For the cessation of bodily suffering
and mental grief. This way maintained by contemplation is
conducive to the destruction of suffering similar to that of
the Elder Tissa, and of grief similar to that of Sakka.
Tissa, the head
of a family at Savatthi, renouncing forty crores of gold,
became a homeless one, and dwelt in a forest far from other
human beings. His sister-in-law sent a robber band of five
hundred to scour the forest in order to find him, and
ordered them to kill him when he was found.
She sent
him, it is said, in five batches of a hundred each in
succession. After entering the forest and searching for the
elder they in due course came to the place in which he lived
and sat round him.
When the
robbers surrounded him, the elder spoke thus: "Lay
disciples, why have you come?" They replied: "To kill you."
Then the elder said: "On a security, give me my life for
just this one night." Said the robbers: "O recluse, who will
stand surety for you in a place like this?" The elder,
thereupon, took a big stone, broke the bones of his legs and
said: "Lay disciples, is the security of value?" They,
leaving the elder, went to the end of the ambulatory and
lighting a fire lay on the ground.
The elder
contemplating on the purity of his conduct, after
suppressing his pain, attained arahantship, at dawn, having
fulfilled the recluse's regimen in the three watches of the
night. Giving expression to his feelings he said:
"A surety let
me raise breaking both my legs:
To die with lustful mind I loathe and shrink.
Having thought thus I saw things as they are,
And with the dawn I reached the arahant's domain."
There is
another story. Thirty bhikkhus taking the subject of
meditation from the Blessed One went into residence, during
the rains, in a forest-dwelling, agreeing amongst themselves
to practice the duty of the recluse, during all the three
watches of the night, and to avoid one another's presence.
One by one
those monks who began to doze early in the morning after
doing the recluse's duty during the three watches of the
night were carried away by a tiger. Not one of those carried
away did even utter the words: "I am taken by a tiger." When
thus fifteen bhikkhus had been devoured, on uposatha day
(the day of the Meeting of the Order for recitation of the
Rules), after it was asked (by the elder) "Friends, where
are the others?" and it became known that they had been
devoured by a tiger. It was agreed that anyone seized by the
tiger, thereafter, should utter the words: "I am taken."
Then a certain young bhikkhu was seized by the tiger in the
same circumstances in which the others were seized earlier.
That young bhikkhu said: "Tiger, Reverend Sir." The other
bhikkhus carrying sticks and torches went in pursuit of the
tiger.
The tiger,
having taken the young bhikkhu up to a rocky place, a broken
edge over a hollow spot inaccessible to the bhikkhus, began
to devour its prey from the feet upwards. The pursuing
bhikkhus said: "Good man, there is nothing that can be done
by us. The extraordinary spiritual attainment of bhikkhus is
to be seen in such a place (as that in which you are)."
That bhikkhu,
even prostrate in the tiger's mouth, suppressed his pain and
developing the wisdom of insight attained the four paths and
fruits of sanctitude together with analytical knowledge.
Then he uttered this ecstatic utterance:-
Virtuous was
I keeping to my vows
And wise with growing insight was my mind
That had to concentration well attained.
Yet, because I slacked for just a while,
A tiger took my frame of flesh and blood.
Unto a hill and then my mind did quake.
Devour me as you please, o tiger, eat
This body of mine which is bereft of thought;
Within the thought of quiet strongly held
A blessing will my death become to me.
And then there
is the story of the elder Pitamalla who in the time he was a
layman took the pennon for wrestling in three kingdoms. He
came to Tambapanni Isle, had audience of the king and
received royal assistance. Once while going through the
entrance to the Screened Sitting Hall he heard the following
passage from the "Not-yours" chapter of Scripture: "Material
form, o bhikkhus, is not yours; renounce it. That
renunciation will, for a long time, be for your welfare and
happiness." And he thought: "Neither material form, indeed,
nor feeling is one's own," and making just that thought a
goad, he renounced the world. At the Great Minister, the
Maha Vihara, at Anuradhapura, he was, in due course, given
the lower ordination and the higher. When he had mastered
the two Codes of Discipline [Dve Matika], he went to the
Gavaravaliya Shrine with thirty other bhikkhus and did the
duty of the recluse. While meditating in the open at night
there once, he was moving on his knees on the ambulatory
when his feet were unable to carry him, and a hunter
mistaking him for a deer struck him with a spear. The elder
removed the spear which had gone deep into the body and,
stopping the wound with a wad of grass, sat down on a flat
stone. Making of his misfortune an opportunity for setting
energy afoot, he developed insight and attained arahantship
with analytical knowledge. After he had reached the state of
arahantship, in order to apprise his fellow-bhikkhus of his
achievement, he made a sign by clearing his throat and
uttered this saying of joy at final liberation from
suffering:
The world of
the Fully Awakened Man, the Chief,
Holder of Right Views in all the world is this:
Give up this form, disciples; it is not yours.
Fleeting truly are component things,
Ruled by laws of growth and decay;
What is produced, to dissolution swings;
Happy it is when things at rest do stay.
Then those
fellow-monks of the Elder Pitamalla who had come to see him
said: "Reverend Sir, if the Buddha were living he would have
expressed his approval of your effort, by stretching out his
hand over the ocean and stroking your head."
Three
kingdoms = Pandu, Cola, Gola. Because he was in
the habit of carrying a yellow pennon about his body and
also because he adorned himself with that pennon when taking
part in wrestling matches he was well-known as Pitamalla,
the yellow wrestler. After his renunciation of the world
too, he was known as the Elder Yellow Wrestler. He came to
Tambapanni Isle — Ceylon — having got the information that
wrestlers were honored and hospitably received in the
island.
So, in this
manner, this way is conducive to the destruction of
suffering of those like the Elder Tissa.
Sakka, king of
the gods, after seeing the five portents, afraid of death
and grief-stricken, came to the Buddha and asked a question;
at the close of the answering of that question by the
Buddha, Sakka was established in the first stage of
arahantship. Eighty thousand other gods were established
together with Sakka in the same stage of sanctity. And the
life of Sakka again was restored to just its original state
through his rebirth once more as the king of the gods.
Further it is
said that Subrahma the god was partaking of the delights of
paradise in the company of a thousand heavenly nymphs.
There, five hundred of the nymphs, while picking flowers
from a tree, died and were reborn in a state of woe. He,
having seen their rebirth in a state of woe and having
understood that the end of his own life was approaching and
that he too would at death be reborn in that very state of
woe, was frightened. Then he went to the Buddha with his
five hundred remaining nymphs and said this to the Lord:
The heart is
always in a state of fear,
And is always full of anguish drear,
Concerning things that have now taken place,
All things which shortly I shall have to face.
If there's a place that's free from ev'ry fear,
That fear-free place wilt thou to me make clear?
[13]
The Blessed One
replied to him as follows:
Besides the
wakening factors of the truth,
Besides the virtues of the holy state,
Besides restraint and relinquishment full,
I see nothing that can bless living beings.
[14]
At the end of
the instruction, Subrahma and his five hundred nymphs were
established in the first stage of awakening, and he, it is
said, returned to his paradise, having made firm the
heavenly fortunate state of life that was his before.
It should be
understood that this way developed in this manner is
conducive to the destruction of grief of those like Sakka.
ñayassa
adhigamaya = "For reaching the right path." The Noble
Eightfold Path is called the right path. This preliminary,
mundane Way of the Arousing of Mindfulness maintained (grown
or cultivated) is conducive to the realisation of the
Supramundane Way.
Nibbanassa
sacchikiriyaya = "For the attainment of Nibbana." It is
said as follows: For the attainment, the ocular experience
by oneself, of the deathless which has got the name
"Nibbana" by reason of the absence in it of the lust [vana,
literally, sewing, weaving, from the root va, to
weave] called craving [tanha].
Craving [tanha]
sews together [samsibbati] or weaves [vinati] aggregate with
aggregate, effect with cause, and suffering with beings. In
Nibbana there is no "vana." Or in the man who has attained
to Nibbana there is no "vana."
Ocular
experience by oneself: Sensing without aid from
the outside.
This way
maintained, effects the attainment of Nibbana, gradually.
Although by the
phrase, "For the purification of beings," the things meant
by the other phrases which follows it are attained, the
significance of those other phrases that follow the first,
is not obvious except to a person familiar with the usage of
the Dispensation [sasana yutti kovido].
Since the
Blessed one does not at first make people conversant with
the usage of the Dispensation and after that teach the
Doctrine to them, and as he by various discourses sets forth
various meanings, he explained the things which "the only
way" effects, with the words "For the overcoming of sorrow
and lamentation," and so forth.
Or it may be
said that the Master explained the things accomplished by
"the only way," in this manner, in order to show that every
thing which leads to the purification of beings by the "only
way" is dependent on the overcoming of sorrow and
lamentation; that this overcoming is dependent on the
destruction of suffering and grief; and that the destruction
of suffering and grief is dependent on the reaching of the
right path which is in turn dependent on the attainment of
Nibbana. It is a declaration of the method of deliverance,
by "the only way."
Further, this
is an expression of praise of "the only way." Just as the
Blessed One by way of eight characteristics expressed praise
in the Cha Chakka Sutta, and by way of nine characteristics
in the Ariyavamsa Sutta, just in the same way he expressed
praise of this "only way," through the seven characteristics
contained in the words "For the purification of beings," and
so forth. Why did he utter talk of praise of this kind? For
the purpose of bringing out the interest of these bhikkhus.
The Blessed One thought: "Having heard the utterance of
praise, these bhikkhus will believe that his way casts out
the four onrushings [cattaro upaddave harati], namely
sorrow produced by distress of heart [hadaya
santapabhutam sokam], lamentation characterised by
confused talk [vaca vipallabhutam paridevam],
suffering produced by disagreeable bodily feeling [kayikam
asatabhutam dukkham], and grief produced by disagreeable
thought [cetasikam asatabhutam domanassam] and that
it brings the three extraordinary spiritual attainments of
purity, knowledge, and Nibbana [visuddhim ñanam
Nibbananti tayo visese avahati] and will be convinced
that this instruction should be studied (imam
dhammadesanam uggahetabbam], mastered [pariyapunnitabbam],
borne in mind [dharetabbam], and memorized [vacetabbam],
and that this way should be cultivated [imañca maggam
bhavetabbam]."
Cattaro
Satipatthana = "The Four Arousings of Mindfulness." Four
in relation to classes of objects of mindfulness.
Why did the
Buddha teach just Four Arousings of Mindfulness and neither
more nor less? By way of what was suitable for those capable
of being trained.
In regard to
the pair of the dull-witted and the keen-witted minds among
tamable persons of the craving type and the theorizing type,
pursuing the path of quietude [samatha] or that of
insight [vipassana] in the practice of meditation,
the following is stated: For the dull-witted man of craving
type the Arousing of Mindfulness through the contemplation
of the gross physical body is the Path to Purity; for the
keen-witted of this type, the subtle subject of meditation
on the feeling. And for the dull-witted man of the
theorizing type the Path to Purity is the Arousing of
Mindfulness through a subject not too full of distinctions,
namely, consciousness [citta]; for the keen-witted of
this type, the subject which teems with distinctions, namely
the contemplation on things of the mind — mental objects
[dhammanupassana].
For the
dull-witted man, pursuing quietude, the First Arousing of
Mindfulness, body-contemplation, is the Path to Purity, by
reason of the feasibility of getting at the mental reflex;
for the keen-witted of this type, because he does not
continue to stay in the coarse, the second Arousing of
Mindfulness, the contemplation on feeling, is the Path to
Purity.
And for the
dull-witted man pursuing the path of insight, the subject of
meditation without many distinctions, the contemplation on
consciousness, is the Path to Purity; and for the
keen-witted of this type the contemplation on mental objects
which is full of distinctions.
Or it may be
said that these Four Arousings of Mindfulness are taught for
casting out the illusions [vipallasa] concerning
beauty, pleasure, permanence, and an ego.
The body is
ugly. There are people led astray by the illusion that it is
a thing of beauty. In order to show such people the ugliness
of the body and to make them give up their wrong idea, the
First Arousing of Mindfulness is taught.
Feeling is
suffering. There are people subject to the illusion that it
gives pleasure. In order to show such people the painfulness
of feeling and to make them give up their wrong idea, the
Second Arousing of Mindfulness is taught.
Consciousness
is impermanent. There are people who, owing to an illusion,
believe that it is permanent. To show them the impermanence
of consciousness and to wean them of their wrong belief, the
Third Arousing of Mindfulness is taught.
Mental objects
are insubstantial, are soulless, and possess no entity.
There are people who believe by reason of an illusion that
these mental things are substantial, endowed with an abiding
core, or a soul, or that they form part of a soul, an ego or
some substance that abides. To convince such errant folk of
the fact of the soullessness or the insubstantiality of
mental things and to destroy the illusion which clouds their
minds, the Fourth Arousing of Mindfulness is taught.
Drawing
distinctions, it is said: Body and feeling are the cause of
zest [assadassa karana]. For the rejection of that zest of
body, by the dull-witted [manda] man of the craving type [tanhacarita],
the seeing [dassana] of the ugly [asubha] in the body, the
coarse object [olarika arammana], which is the basis of
craving [tanha vatthu], is convenient. To that type of man
the contemplation on corporeality, the First Arousing of
Mindfulness, is the Path to Purity [Visuddhi Magga]. For the
abandoning of that zest, by the keen-witted [tikha] man of
the craving type, the seeing of suffering in feeling, the
subtle object [sukhuma arammana], which is the basis of
craving, is convenient, and for him the contemplation on
feeling, the Second Arousing of Mindfulness, is the Path to
Purity.
For the
dull-witted man of the theorizing type [ditthi carita] it is
convenient to see consciousness [citta] in the fairly simple
way it is set forth in this discourse, by way of
impermanence [aniccata], and by way of such divisions as
mind-with-lust [saragadi vasena], in order to reject the
notion of permanence [nicca sañña] in regard to
consciousness. Consciousness is a special condition [visesa
karana] for the wrong view due to a basic belief in
permanence [niccanti abhinivesa vatthutaya ditthiya]. The
contemplation on consciousness, the Third Arousing of
Mindfulness, is the Path to Purity of this type of man.
For the
keen-witted man of the theorizing type it is convenient to
see mental objects or things [dhamma], according to the
manifold way set forth in this discourse, by way of
perception, sense-impression and so forth [nivaranadi vasena],
in order to reject the notion of a soul [atta sañña] in
regard to mental things. Mental things are special
conditions for the wrong view due to a basic belief in a
soul [attanti abhinivesa vatthutaya ditthiya]. For this type
of man the contemplation on mental objects, the Fourth
Arousing of Mindfulness, is the Path to Purity.
Consciousness and mental objects constitute the outstanding
conditions of theorizing. Consciousness is such a condition
because it is a decisive factor in the belief in permanence.
Mental objects are such conditions because these are
decisive factors in the belief in a soul.
Consciousness and mental objects are decisive factors of
craving as well as of theorizing. And body and feeling are
decisive factors of theorizing as well as of craving. Yet to
point out that which is stronger in body and feeling,
namely, craving, and that which is stronger in consciousness
and mental objects, namely, theorizing, distinctions have
been drawn.
Because
he does not continue to stay in the coarse: The
keen-witted man pursuing the path of quietude lays hold of
the gross subject of meditation, but he does not stay in
that. He lays hold of feeling, the subtle subject of
meditation, by way of the factors of absorption [jhana]
after attaining to and emerging from the absorption reached
with the material body as subject.
Since the
heart of the man pursuing the path of insight takes to the
contemplation of subtle consciousness and mental object,
these have been spoken of as the Path to Purity for the man,
dull-witted or keen-witted, pursuing insight.
Further these
Four Arousings of Mindfulness were taught not only for the
purpose of casting out the four illusions, but for getting
rid of the four floods, bonds, outflowings, knots, clingings,
wrong courses, and the penetration of fourfold nutriment,
too. This is according to the method of exegesis in the
Nettipakarana.
In the
commentary it is said that by way of remembering and of
meeting in one thing, the Arousing of Mindfulness is only
one; and that it is fourfold when regarded as a subject of
meditation.
By way of
remembering: by way of the reflection of actions
of skill, and so forth, of body, speech, and thought.
Meeting
in one thing = union in the one-natured Nibbana.
To a city with
four gates, men coming from the East with goods produced in
the east enter by the east gate... men coming from the
South... men coming from the West... and men coming from the
North with goods produced in the north enter by the north
gate. Nibbana is like the city. The Real Supramundane
Eightfold Path is like the city-gate. Body, mind, feelings
and mental objects are like the four chief directions in
space. Like the people coming from the East with goods
produced in the east are those who enter Nibbana by means of
body-contemplation through the Real Supramundane Path
produced by the power of body-contemplation practiced in the
fourteen ways. Like the people coming from the South... are
those who enter... by means of feeling-contemplation...
practiced in the nine ways. Like the people coming from the
West... are those who enter... by means of
consciousness-contemplation... practiced in the sixteen
ways. Like the people coming from the North... are those who
enter... by means of mental-object-contemplation...
practiced in the five ways.
On account
of the cause or on account of the sameness of entry into the
one Nibbana, the Arousing of Mindfulness is said to be just
one thing. The meeting in the one Nibbana of the various
Arousings of Mindfulness is called the meeting in the one
thing on account of participation in that one Nibbana or on
account of their becoming all of a kind.
Katame
cattaro = "What are the four?" This is a question
indicating the desire to expound the teaching.
Idha =
"Here." In this Dispensation.
Bhikkhave
= "Bhikkhus." This is a term for addressing persons who
accept the teaching.
Bhikkhu
[15]
is a term to indicate a person who earnestly endeavors to
accomplish the practice of the teaching. Others, gods and
men, too, certainly strive earnestly to accomplish the
practice of the teaching, but because of the excellence of
the bhikkhu-state by way of practice, the Master said:
"Bhikkhu." For amongst those who accept the teaching of the
Buddha, the bhikkhu is the highest owing to fitness for
receiving manifold instruction. Further, when that highest
kind of person, the bhikkhu, is reckoned, the rest too are
reckoned, as in regard to a royal procession and the like,
when the king is reckoned, by the reckoning of the king, the
retinue is reckoned. Also the word "bhikkhu" was used by the
Buddha to point out the bhikkhu-state through practice of
the teaching in this way: "He who practices this practice of
the Arousing of Mindfulness is called a bhikkhu." He who
follows the teaching, be he a shining one [deva] or a human,
is indeed called a bhikkhu. Accordingly it is said:
"Well-dressed
one may be, but if one is calm,
Tamed, humble, pure, a man who does no harm
To aught that lives, that one's a brahman true.
An ascetic and mendicant too."
[16]
Kaye =
"In the body." In the corporeal group. The group of big and
small corporeal constituents, namely, things like hair of
the head, hair of the body, nails, and teeth, in the sense
of a collection [samuhatthena] similar to a herd of
elephants, a concourse of chariots according to
grammatical method [sadda nayena]. From here, the
explanation is by way of word-analysis [nirutti nayena].
And as in the
sense of a collection, so also in the sense of the focus of
what is filthy and therefore of what is disgusting is it "kaya."
For the body [kaya] is the birthplace [aya] of
the disgusting, the exceedingly repellent. The birthplace
[aya] is the place of origin [uppattidesa]. Since
these originate from that place [ayanti tato] it is
the place of origin [ayo]. What originates? The
repulsive things like hair of the head. Therefore, the body
is the place of origin of disgusting or contemptible things
[kucchitanam ayoti kayo].
Kayanupassi
= "Contemplating the body." Possessed of the character of
body-contemplation, or of observing the body.
Why is the word
"body" used twice in the phrase: "Contemplating the body in
the body?" For determining the object and isolating it, and
for the sifting out thoroughly [vinibbhoga] of the
apparently compact [ghana] nature of things like
continuity [santati].
Because there
is no contemplating of feeling, consciousness nor mental
objects in the body, but just the contemplating of the body
only, determination through isolation is set forth by the
pointing out of the way of contemplating the body only in
the property called the body.
In the body
there is no contemplation of a uniform thing, apart from the
big and small members of the body, or of a man, or of a
woman, apart from such things like the hair of the head and
the hair of the body.
There can be
nothing apart from the qualities of primary and derived
materiality, in a body.
Indeed the
character of contemplating the collection of the major and
the minor corporeal members, is like the seeing of the
constituents of a cart. The character of contemplating the
collection of the hair of the head, the hair of the body and
the like is comparable to the seeing of the component parts
of a city; and the character of contemplating the collection
of primary and derived materiality is comparable to the
separation of the leaf covering of a plantain-trunk, or is
like the opening of an empty fist. Therefore, by the
pointing out of the basis called the body in the form of a
collection in many ways, the sifting out thoroughly of the
apparently compact is shown.
In this body,
apart from the above mentioned collection, there is seen no
body, man, woman or anything else. Beings engender wrong
belief, in many ways, in the bare groups of things mentioned
above. Therefore the men of old said:
What he sees
that is not (properly) seen;
What is seen, that he does not (properly) see;
Not seeing (properly) he is shackled clean;
And he, the shackled fool, cannot get free.
What he
sees = What man or woman he sees. Why, is there
no seeing of man or a woman with the eye? There is. "I see a
woman," "I see a man." — these statements refer to what he
sees by way of ordinary perception. That perception, owing
to wrong comprehension, does not get at the sense-basis [rupayatana]
in the highest sense, philosophically, through the falsely
determined condition of material form [viparita gahavasena
miccha parikappita rupatta].
Or the
meaning is: the absence of perception which is called the
seeing of primary and derived materiality, beginning with
things such as the hair of the head, owing to non-cognizability
of the collective nature of an object like a man or woman by
eye-consciousness [kesadibhutupadaya samuhasankhatam ditthi
na hoti acakkhuviññana viññeyyatta].
What is
seen that he does not properly see = He does not
see, according to reality by the eye of wisdom, the
sense-basis which exists, the collection of primary and
derived materiality beginning with hair of the head and the
like [yam rupayatanam kesadibhutupadaya samuhasankhatam
dittham tam pañña-cakkhuna bhutato na passati].
Not
seeing properly he is shackled = Not seeing this
body as it actually is, with the eye of wisdom, he thinks:
"This is mine, this am I, this is my self," and is bound
with the fetter of defilement [imam attabhavam yathabhutam
paññacakkhuna apassanto etam mama esohamasmi eso me attati
kilesa bandhanena bajjhati].
And here, by
the passage: "For the determining of the object by isolating
it, and for the sifting out thoroughly of the apparently
compact nature of things like continuity," this too should
be understood: This person contemplates in this body only
the body; he does not contemplate anything else. What does
this mean? In this definitely transient, suffering, soulless
body, that is unlovely, he does not see permanence,
pleasure, a soul, nor beauty, after the manner of those
animals which see water in a mirage. Body-contemplation is
only the contemplation of the collection of qualities of
transiency, suffering, soullessness, and unloveliness.
Because there
is no contemplating of the body with reference to a self or
to anything belonging to a self, owing to the contemplating
even of collections of things like the hair of the head,
there is the character of contemplating, in the body, the
body which is a collection of things like the hair of the
head.
The meaning
should be understood thus too: "contemplating the body in
the body" is the seeing of the body as a group of all
qualities beginning with impermanence, step by step, as
taught in the passage of the Patisambhida which begins with:
"In this body he contemplates according to impermanence and
not permanence."
The bhikkhu
sees the body in the body, (1) as something impermanent; (2)
as something subject to suffering; (3) as something that is
soulless; (4) by way of turning away from it and not by way
of delighting in it; (5) by freeing himself of passion for
it; (6) with thoughts making for cessation and not making
for origination; (7) and not by way of laying hold of it,
but by way of giving it up.
Viharati
= "Lives."
Atapi =
"Ardent." What burns the defilement of the three planes of
becoming is ardour. Ardour is a name for energy.
Although the
term burning [atapana] is applied to the abandoning of
defilements here, it is also applicable to right view,
thought, speech, action, livelihood, mindfulness and
concentration. As "ardour" [atapa], like "glow" [atappa], is
restricted by use to just energy generally, it is said: "ardour
is a name for energy." Or because of the occurrence of
energy [viriya] by way of instigating the associated things,
in the abandoning of opposing qualities, that itself (i.e.,
energy) is ardour (atapa]. In this place only energy [viriya]
is referred to by "atapa." By taking the word ardent [atapi]
the Master points out the one possessed of right energy or
exertion [sammappadhana].
Sampajano
= "Clearly comprehending." Endowed with knowledge called
circumspection [sampajañña].
Clearly
comprehending = Discerning rightly, entirely and
equally [samma samantato samañca pajananto].
Rightly
= Correctly [aviparitam].
Entirely
= By knowing in all ways [sabbakarapajananena].
Equally
= By reason of proceeding through the conveying of higher
and higher spiritual attainments [uparupari
visesavaha-bhavena pavattiya].
Satima
= "Mindful." Endowed with mindfulness that lays hold of
the body as a subject of meditation, because this yogavacara
(the man conversant with contemplative activity)
contemplates with wisdom after laying hold of the object
with mindfulness. There is nothing called contemplation
without mindfulness. Therefore the Master said: "Mindfulness
is necessary in all circumstances, O bhikkhus, I declare."
[17]
Necessary
in all circumstances = Everywhere in the state of
becoming, in every sluggish and unbalanced state of mind, it
is desirable. Or, that by the help of which the other proper
Factors of Enlightenment [bojjhanga] are capable of being
developed, is "necessary in all circumstances." Here,
contemplation takes place by means of wisdom that is
assisted by mindfulness.
To point out
the things by the influence of which the meditation of the
yogi prospers, is the purpose of the words, "Ardent, clearly
comprehending, and mindful."
To the
non-ardent state of mind there is the obstacle of mental
lassitude.
The state of
mind that is not clearly comprehending commits blunders of
judgment in the business of choosing the right means and in
avoiding the wrong.
The state of
mind which is inattentive — the mental state of absence of
mindfulness — is incapable of laying hold of the right means
and of rejecting the wrong means.
When the yogi
is not ardent, not clearly comprehending, and not mindful,
he does not succeed in accomplishing his object.
Mental
lassitude = Inward stagnation. Indolence is the
meaning.
Right
means = Things like the purification of virtue [sila
visodhana].
After the
pointing out of the things that make up the condition
connected with the Arousing of Mindfulness through
body-contemplation, there is the pointing out of the things
that make up the condition which should be abandoned in this
practice with the words, "having overcome, in this world,
covetousness and grief" = Vineyya loke abhijjhadomanassam.
Arousing
of Mindfulness. Here bare mindfulness is meant.
Therefore, the commentator speaks of "the things
that make up the condition connected with the Arousing of
Mindfulness." These things are energy and so
forth, associated necessarily with mindfulness. Condition
[anga] = reason [karana].
Mindfulness denotes concentration, too, here on
account of the inclusion of mindfulness in the aggregate of
concentration [samadhikkhandha].
Or since the
exposition is on mindfulness, and as neither the abandoning
of defilements nor the attainment of Nibbana is wrought by
mindfulness alone, and as mindfulness does not also occur
separately, the pointing out the things that make up the
condition connected with the Arousing of Mindfulness
is like the pointing out of the condition connected with
absorption [jhana]. Condition [anga]
is a synonym for constituent [avayava].
Initial application, sustained application, interest, joy
and one-pointedness of mind are together with absorption, as
energy and the other qualities are with mindfulness.
"Having
overcome" refers to the discipline of knocking out an evil
quality by its opposite good (that is by dealing with each
category of evil separately) or through the overcoming of
evil part by part [tadangavinaya] and through the
disciplining or the overcoming of the passions by
suppression in absorption [vikkhambhana vinaya].
Preliminary
practice connected with the mundane path of mindfulness is
pointed out by the commentator here.
"In this
world." In just this body. Here the body [kaya] is
the world [loka], in the sense of a thing crumbling.
As covetousness
and grief are abandoned in feeling, consciousness, and
mental objects, too, the Vibhanga says: "Even the five
aggregates of clinging are the world."
Covetousness
stands for sense desire; and grief, for anger. As sense
desire and anger are the principal hindrances, the
abandoning of the hindrances is stated by the overcoming of
covetousness and grief.
With
covetousness are abandoned the satisfaction rooted in bodily
happiness, delight in the body, and the falling into
erroneous opinion which takes as real the unreal beauty,
pleasure, permanence and substantiality of the body. With
the overcoming of grief are abandoned the discontent rooted
in bodily misery, the non-delight in the culture of
body-contemplation, and the desire to turn away from facing
the real ugliness, suffering, impermanence and
insubstantiality of the body.
By the
instruction dealing with the overcoming of covetousness and
grief, yogic power and yogic skill are shown.
Yogic power
is the power of meditation. Yogic skill is dexterity in
yoking oneself in meditation.
Freedom from
satisfaction and discontent in regard to bodily happiness
and misery, the forbearing from delighting in the body, the
bearing-up of non-delight in the course of
body-contemplation, the state of being not captivated by the
unreal, and the state of not running away from the real —
these, when practiced produce yogic power; and the ability
to practice these is yogic skill.
There is
another method of interpretation of the passage: (A bhikkhu)
lives contemplating the body in the body, ardent, and so
forth. "Contemplating" refers to the subject of meditation.
"Lives": lives protecting the subject of meditation which
here is the body.
In the passage
beginning with "ardent," Right Exertion [sammappadhana]
is stated by energy [atapa]; the subject of
meditation proper in all circumstances [sabbatthika
kammatthana] or the means of protecting the subject of
meditation [kammatthana pariharana upaya], is stated
by mindfulness and clear comprehension [sati sampajañña];
or the quietude that is obtained [patiladdha samatha]
by way of the contemplation on the body [kayanupassana]
is stated by mindfulness; insight [vipassana] by
clear comprehension; and the fruit of inner culture [bhavana
phala] through the overcoming of covetousness and grief
[abhijjha domanassa vinaya].
The subject
of meditation useful in all circumstances is stated by
referring to (the laying hold on) mindfulness and clear
comprehension, because through the force of these two
qualities there is the protection of the subject of
meditation and suitability of attention for its unbroken
practice.
Further, of
these two qualities, mindfulness and clear comprehension,
the following is stated in the commentary to the Atthasalini,
Mula Tika, "To all who have yoked themselves to the practice
of any subject of meditation, to all yogis, these two are
things helpful, at all times, for the removal of obstruction
and the increase of inner culture."
Vedanasu
Vedananupassi... citte cittanupassi... dhammesu
dhammanupassi viharati = "He lives contemplating feeling
in the feelings... the consciousness in consciousness...
mental object in mental objects." Here the repetition of
"feelings," "consciousness" and "mental objects" should be
understood according to the reasons given for the repetition
of the word "body" in body-contemplation.
"Feeling" = The
three feelings: pleasurable, painful and the neither
pleasurable nor painful. These are only mundane.
The word
"feelings" is repeated to limit (or unambiguously determine)
the object by isolating it [anissato vavatthanam],
for the analysis of the apparently compact [ghana
vinibbhoga] and for such other purposes, in order to
prevent any straying from the contemplation on feelings to
some other object. Erratic contemplation takes place because
of the connection of the other non-material aggregates with
feelings, and because of the dependence of non-material
things like feelings on material form in the
five-constituent-existence [pañca vokara bhava]
or the sensuous plane of becoming [kama bhava].
By the
repetition of the word, the limiting of the object by
isolating it, is shown through the pointing out of only a
doer of feeling-contemplation in the property called
feeling, as there is no contemplating of the body, or
consciousness or mental objects in feeling but only the
contemplating of feeling.
As, in this
matter of feeling, when a pleasurable feeling occurs, there
is no occurrence of the other two, and when a painful
feeling or a neither pleasurable nor painful feeling occurs,
there is no occurrence of the remaining ones, so is shown
the analysis (sifting out or penetration or dissection) of
the apparently compact, the absence of permanence (or
stability), by the pointing out of different feelings, after
penetrating them severally, and not having spoken of the
state of feeling in a general way.
Through the
noticing of feelings as lasting just for the measure of a
moment in time, the seeing of impermanence is made clear.
Through the same cognizance, suffering and soullessness too
are seen.
For the
analysis of the apparently compact and for such other
purposes. By the words, "And for such other
purposes," the following should be understood: "This
yogavacara (the Buddha's disciple who is endeavoring for
spiritual insight) contemplates just feelings and not any
other thing, because he is not one who contemplates by way
of the lovely (the good or the desirable), after the manner
of a fool who sees a gem in a bubble of water which has not
the quality of a gem. He does not see in this foolish way
even in the stable instant when he experiences a pleasant
feeling. Much more so does he not stray away into fanciful
thinking in regard to the two remaining feelings of pain and
indifference. On the other hand, he contemplates along the
real way of impermanence, soullessness, and the unlovely, by
way of momentary dissolution, lack of power to control (sway
or rule), and the trickling of the dirt of defilement, and
distinctively contemplates suffering, as the pain of
vicissitude, and of the formations or the constituents of
life.
Consciousness
is only mundane; and mundane, too, are mental objects. This
statement will be made evident in the analytically
expository portion [niddesavara].
In the way
mentioned above should the repetition of words in the
contemplation of consciousness and mental objects be
explained, too.
Only
mundane, as connected with the examining of
mundane objects of thought in the light of impermanence,
suffering and soullessness [sammasana carassa adhippetatta].
To be sure, in
whatever way feeling is to be exclusively contemplated,
here, the contemplating in that very way is the meaning of
the word: "Contemplating feelings in the feelings" [kevalam
panidha yatha vedana anupassitabba tatha anupassanto
vedanasu vedananupassiti veditabbo]. In the
contemplation of consciousness and mental objects too this
is the method.
"How should
feeling be contemplated upon?" it is asked, further.
Pleasurable feeling because it is the stuff of suffering as
suffering. Painful feeling because it is the condition of
bringing out trouble and so forth, as a thorn. And the
neither pleasurable nor painful feeling, because of
non-mastery or dependence and so forth, as transiency.
By the
passage, beginning with the words "To be sure, in
whatsoever way," the commentator points to the
limit of the object (excluding thereby discursive thinking
that strays from the reality).
Accordingly,
the Master said:
Who sees
pleasure as suffering,
Who sees pain as a thorn,
Who sees as a thing that is fleeting,
The neutral peace that's shorn
Of pleasure and pain; that bhikkhu will,
Rightly, know; and live, become still.
[18]
Who sees
pleasure as suffering = Who sees feelings by way
of the suffering natural to change, with the eye of wisdom.
Who sees
pain as a thorn = Who sees painful feeling as
damage causing, piercing in, and as a thing hard to drive
out.
The
neutral peace = The feeling of indifference is
peaceful, owing to the absence of grossness as in states of
pain and pleasure; and by way of a restful nature.
Who sees
feelings with the thought that they are impermanent by
reason of their becoming non-existent after having come to
be, owing to their being characterised by the qualities of
arising and passing away, owing to their temporariness, and
owing to their being in a state of constant negation, is he
who sees the neutral peace of the neither pleasurable nor
painful feelings as fleeting, and is indeed the bhikkhu who
will rightly know and live, become still.
Rightly
= Correctly.
Know
= know feelings as they are.
Further, just
all feelings should be contemplated with the thought: "These
are suffering, indeed."
Suffering is
what it is because of the ill natural to the constituents of
life [sankhara dukkhataya dukkha].
For this has
been said by the Blessed One: "All that is felt is in
suffering, I declare [yam kiñci vedayitam tam sabbam
dukkhasminti vadami."
All that
is in suffering = Everything experienced is
plunged, included, in suffering [sabbantam vedayitam
dukkhasmim antogadham pariyapannam], because the ill natural
to the formations, the constituents in life, cannot be
conquered [sankhara dukkhata nativattanato].
And pleasure
should also be contemplated upon as suffering. All should be
explained according as the arahant-nun Dhammadinna spoke (to
her former husband Visakha, in the Cula-vedalla Sutta of the
Majjhima Nikaya): Pleasant feeling, friend Visakha, is
agreeable while it lasts and is disagreeable when it
changes; painful feeling is disagreeable while it lasts and
agreeable when it changes; the neither pleasant nor painful
feeling is agreeable when there is a knowledge of its
existence and disagreeable when that knowledge is wanting.
The three
feelings should be contemplated upon as pleasant and
painful. When the first occurs, the second changes and the
third is known, then, feeling is pleasant. When the first
changes, the second occurs and the third is not known, then
feeling is painful.
The feelings
should also be seen according to the seven contemplations
beginning with that of impermanence, mentioned above (p.
37).
The remaining
division beginning with the worldly and spiritual feelings
in the classification of pleasurable feeling and so forth,
in feeling-contemplation, will become clear in the
analytical exposition [niddesavara].
Consciousness
and mental objects, too, should be contemplated upon by way
of the diversity of the division of object (arammana],
dominance [adhipati], conascence [sahajata],
plane [bhumi], causal action [kamma], result
[vipaka], non-causative functional process [kriya],
and so forth [adi], beginning with impermanence [aniccadinam
anupassananam vesena] and by way of the division of
consciousness that is with passion and so forth come down in
the portion of analytical exposition [niddesavare
agatasaragadi bhedañca vasena].
Or the
divisions of object... non-causative functional process and
so forth. Contemplation should be done by way of
the division of the blue and so forth pertaining to the
variety of objects visual and so forth [rupadi arammana
nanattassa niladi tabbhedassa); by way of the division of
the "low" and so forth pertaining to the diverse kinds of
dominance of the will-to-do and so forth [chandadi adhipati
nanattassa hinadi tabbhedassa]; by way of the division of
the spontaneous and non-spontaneous consciousness,
absorption with initial application and so forth pertaining
to the variety of conditions of conascence of knowledge,
absorption and so forth [ñana jhanadi nanattassa
sasankharikasankharika savitakkadi tabbhedassa]; by way of
the division of lofty, middling, and so forth pertaining to
the diverse planes, sensuous and so forth [kamavacaradi
bhuminanattassa ukkattha majjhimadi tabbhedassa]; by way of
the division of conduciveness to deva-plane-rebirth and so
forth, pertaining to the diverse kind of moral action of
skill and so forth [kusaladi kammananattassa devagati
samvattaniyatadi tabbhedassa]; by way of the division of the
state of requital which could be perceived in this very
present condition of life and so forth, pertaining to the
variety of dark and bright resultants of evil and good deeds
(kanha sukka vipaka nanattassa dittha dhamma vedaniyatadi
tabbhedassa]; by way of the division of the three good
conditions of rebirth and so forth, pertaining to
non-causative functional diversity of the sensuous plane and
so forth [paritta bhumakadi kriya nanattassa tihetukadi
tabbhedassa].
Mental objects
should be contemplated upon by way of own characteristic
[sallakkhana] of impression and the like [phusanadi];
by way of general characteristic [samañña lakkhana]
of impermanence and the like [aniccatadi]; by way of
phenomenon-emptiness [suññta dhamma], namely, by way of
the void-nature called soullessness [anattata sankhata
suññata sabhavassa] to explain which clearly, the
instruction of the portion dealing with the void in the
Abhidhamma proceeded by means of the statement beginning
with "At that time indeed there are phenomena, there are
aggregates [yam vibhavetum abhidhamme tasmim kho pana samaye
dhamma honti khandha hantiti adina suññatavara desana
pavatta], without any mention of a soul; by way of the
seven contemplations of impermanence and so forth [aniccadi
satta anupassananam]; and by way of the divisions of
what is present and what is absent and so forth, in the
analytical portion [niddesavare agata santasantadi
bhedanañca vasena].
If, in the
meditator's body, called the world, covetousness and grief
are abandoned, in the worlds of his feelings and so forth
too, these are abandoned owing to the earlier abandoning
of these by the yogi [kamañcettha kayasankhate loke
abhijjha domanassam pahinam vedanadi lokesu pi tam
pahinameva pubbe pahinatta].
Still,
everywhere, the abandoning of the defilements has been
stated by way of the different types of persons and by way
of the diversity of the thought-unit, in which the
development of the different subjects of the Arousing of
Mindfulness takes place [nana puggalavasena pana nana
cittakkhana satipatthana bhavanavasena ca sabbattha vuttam].
Or it should be understood thus: It is stated in this manner
in order to indicate that the abandoning of the defilements
in one object implies the abandoning of the defilements in
the remaining objects.
Therefore,
it is not fit to speak again of the abandoning of these; for
while the defilements are abandoned, they are not abandoned
separately in one object after another — i.e., the
defilements pertaining to the body, for instance, are not
first abandoned and then those belonging to the feeling and
so forth, in succession, but the defilements of all objects
are abandoned when the defilements are abandoned in one
object.
That is due
to the fact that only the defilements which can arise in the
future are capable of being abandoned through the scorching
out of the causes by the attainment of the Path or through
measures that make the causes temporarily impotent, because
of the observance of virtue and the development of
absorption. Past defilements and those arising in the
present are beyond the scope of abandoning.
The
abandoning of the defilements of one object in the
thought-unit of the Path is indeed the abandoning of the
defilements of all objects.
It is right
to say that by the Path, are the defilements abandoned.
The
abandoning of the defilements of one person is not
necessarily the abandonding of the defilements of another
person [nahi ekassa pahinam tato aññassa pahinam nama hoti].
Reference to the different types of persons is made to point
this fact of possible difference of method by way of object.
The
diversity of the thought-unit. The mundane
thought-unit is meant, as the preliminary path is dealt with
here.
What is
abandoned temporarily by mundane meditation in the body, is
not suppressed in the feelings and the other objects.
Even if
covetousness and grief should not occur in the feelings and
the other objects, when it is suppressed in the body, it
should not be stated that owing to efficient rejection by
meditation opposed to covetousness and grief, there is no
covetousness and grief in the other objects such as feelings
and in the case of suppression by meditation, therefore, it
is fit to speak of the rejection of covetousness and grief
again in feelings and the other objects.
The
defilements abandoned in one object are abandoned in the
remaining objects too [ekattha pahinam sesesu pi pahinam
hoti]. This statement refers to the supramundane meditation
of Mindfulness-arousing. In the case of mundane meditation
the rejection is stated everywhere with reference to bare
non-occurrence of the defilements [lokiya bhavanaya
sabbattha appavatt mattam sandhaya vuttam].
In regard to
the four objects of contemplation through the Arousing of
Mindfulness, it is said in the Vibhanga thus: Even the Five
Aggregates are the world [pañca pi khandha lokoti hi
Vibhange catusu pi thanesu vuttanti].
The
Contemplation of the Body
The Section on
Breathing
Now the Blessed
One, desirous of bringing about diverse kinds of attainments
of distinction in beings by the Discourse on the Arousing of
Mindfulness, began to teach the analytically explanatory
portion [niddesavara] with the word "And how o bhikkhus."
He did that
after dividing into four the one mindfulness that is right [ekameva
sammasatim] by way of the contemplation on the body, on
feelings, on consciousness, and on mental objects.
The Blessed
One's exposition of the Arousing of Mindfulness is similar
to the action of a worker in mat and basket weaving who
wishing to make coarse and fine mats, boxes, cases, and the
like, should make those goods after getting a mammoth
bamboo, splitting it into four, and reducing each of the
parts to strips.
Idha
bhikkhave bhikkhu = "Here, o bhikkhus, a bhikkhu."
"Here": In this
Dispensation of the Buddha which provides the basis for the
person producing body-contemplation in all modes. By the
word "here," dispensations other than the Buddha's are
excluded as they do not teach body-contemplation in the
complete way it is taught in the Buddhadhamma. For this is
said: "Here is the recluse; untenanted by recluses are the
other, opposing ways of thought."
The
person producing body-contemplation in all modes.
As sects outside the Buddha's Dispensation also produce a
part of this contemplation, by their words, the Buddha's
disciple's complete knowledge or all-round grasp of this
contemplation, when it is practiced by him, is told.
Araññagato
va... suññagaragato va = "Gone to the forest... or to an
empty place." By this, here is the making clear of the
getting of an abode appropriate to the meditator for the
culture of mindfulness.
The mind of the
meditator which for a long time (before he became a recluse)
had dwelt on visual and other objects, does not like to
enter the road of meditation and just like a wild young bull
yoked to a cart, runs off the road.
A cowherd
wishing to tame a wild calf nourished entirely on the milk
of a wild cow, ties that calf, after leading it away from
the cow, to a stout post firmly sunk in the ground, at a
spot set apart for it. That calf, having jumped hither and
thither, and finding it impossible to run away from here,
will crouch down or lie down at that very post. Even so,
must the bhikkhu who is desirous of taming the wild mind
nourished long on the tasty drink of visible and other
objects tie that mind to the post of the object of
mindfulness-arousing with the rope of remembrance, after
leading the mind from visible and other objects and ushering
it into a forest, to the foot of a tree or into an empty
place. The mind of the bhikkhu will also jump hither and
thither. Not obtaining the objects it had long grown used
to, and finding it impossible to break the rope of
remembrance and run away, it will finally sit or lie down at
that every object by way of partial and full absorption.
Therefore, the men of old said:
As one who
wants to break a wild young calf
Would tether it to stout stake firmly, here,
In the same way the yogi should tie fast
To meditation's object his own mind.
In this way
this abode becomes appropriate in the meditator. Therefore,
it is said, "This (namely, the passage beginning with the
words, 'Gone to the forest...') is the making clear of an
abode appropriate to the meditator for the culture of
mindfulness."
Because the
subject of meditation of mindfulness on in-and-out-breathing
is not easy to accomplish without leaving the neighbourhood
of a village, owing to sound, which is a thorn to
absorption; and because in a place not become a township it
is easy for the meditator to lay hold of this subject of
meditation, the Blessed One, pointing out the abode suitable
for that, spoke the words, "Gone to the forest," and so
forth.
The Buddha is
like a master of the science of building sites [vatthu
vijjacariya] because of the pointing out by him of the
suitable abode for yogis [yoginam anurupa
nivasatthanu-padissanato].
As a master in
the science of selecting building sites, after seeing a
stretch of ground good for building a town, and after
considering it well from all sides, advises: "Build the town
here," and when the building of the town is happily
completed receives high honor from the royal family, so the
Buddha having well considered from all points the abode
suitable for the meditator advises: "Here, should the
subject of meditation be yoked on to." When arahantship is
gradually reached by the yogi, by the expression of the
yogi's gratitude and admiration with the words: "Certainly,
the Blessed One is the Supremely Awakened One," the Master,
receives great honor.
The bhikkhu
indeed, is comparable to a leopard, because like the
leopard he lives alone, in the forest, and accomplishes his
aim, by overcoming those contrary to him, namely, the
passions.
Just as a great
king of leopards concealed in the forest in grass-bush,
jungle-bush or hill-thicket, seizes wild buffaloes, elks,
pigs and other beasts, this bhikkhu yoking himself to the
subject of meditation gains the Four Real Paths and Fruits [cattaro
magge ceva ariyaphalani ganhati] one after another,
in succession; and therefore the men of old said:
As leopard in
ambush lies and captures beasts,
So does this son of the Awakened One,
The striving man, the man of vision keen.
Having into the forest gone seize therein
Fruition that truly is supreme.
And so the
Blessed One, pointing out the forest abode, the fit place
for speedy exertion in the practice of meditation, said
"Gone to the forest," and so forth.
Nisidati
pallankam abhujitva ujum kayam panidhaya parimukham satim
upatthapetva so satova assasati sato passasati = "Sits
down, bends in his legs crosswise on his lap, keeps is body
erect, and arouses mindfulness in the object of meditation,
namely, the breath which is in front of him. Mindful he
breathes in, and mindful he breathes out."
"Bends in his
legs crosswise on his lap." Three things pertaining to the
sitting posture of the yogi are pointed out by that:
firmness of the posture; easefulness of breathing due to the
posture; and the expediency of the posture for laying hold
of the subject of meditation.
One sits in
this posture having locked in the legs. It is the entirely
thigh-bound sitting posture, and is known as the lotus, and
the immovable posture too.
"Keeps his body
erect." Keeps the vertebrae in such a position that every
segment of the backbone is said to be placed upright, and
end to end throughout. The body, waist upwards, is held
straight.
"Arouses
mindfulness in front." Fixes the attention by directing it
towards the breath which is in front.
"Mindful he
breathes in and mindful he breathes out." Breathes in and
out without abandoning mindfulness.
Digham va
assasanto digham assasamiti pajanati digham va passasanto
digham passasamiti pajanati: = "He, thinking, 'I breathe
in long,' understands when he is breathing in long; or
thinking, 'I breathe out long,' he understands when he is
breathing out long.
"When breathing
in long, how does he understand, 'I breathe in long.'? When
breathing out long, how does he understand 'I breathe out
long'? He breathes in a long breath during a long stretch of
time, he breathes out a long breath during a long stretch of
time, and he breathes in and he breathes out long breaths,
each during a long stretch of time. As he breathes in and
breathes out long breaths, each during a long stretch of
time, desire [or intention; chanda] arises in him.
With desire he breathes in a long breath finer than the last
during a long stretch of time; with desire he breathes out a
long breath finer than the last during a long stretch of
time; and with desire he breathes in and he breathes out
long breaths finer than the last, each during a long stretch
of time. As with desire he breathes in and he breathes out
long breaths finer than the last, each during a long stretch
of time, joy [piti] arises in him. With joy he
breathes in a long breath finer than the last during a long
stretch of time; with joy he breathes out a long breath
finer than the last during a long stretch of time; and with
joy he breathes in and he breathes out long breaths finer
than the last, each during a long stretch of time. As with
joy he breathes in and he breathes out long breaths finer
than the last, each during a long stretch of time, the mind
turns away from the long in-and-out-breathings, and
equanimity [upekkha] stands firm.
Sabbakayapatisamvedi Assasissami... passasissamiti sikkhati...
= "Experiencing the whole body I shall breathe in... breathe
out, thinking thus, he trains himself." He trains himself
with the following idea: I shall breathe in making known,
making clear, to myself the beginning, middle, and end of
the whole body of breathings in; I shall breathe out making
known, making clear, to myself the beginning, middle and end
of the whole body of breathings out. And he breathes in and
breathes out with consciousness associated with knowledge
making known, making clear, to himself the breaths."
"To one
bhikkhu, indeed, in the tenuous diffused body of in-
breathing or body of out-breathing only the beginning
becomes clear; not the middle or the end. He is able to lay
hold of only the beginning. In the middle and at the end he
is troubled. To another the middle becomes clear and not the
beginning or the end. To a third only the end becomes clear;
the beginning and the middle do not become clear and he is
able only to lay hold of the breath at the end. He is
troubled at the beginning and at the middle. To a fourth
even all the three stages become clear and he is able to lay
hold of all; he is troubled nowhere. For pointing out that
this subject of meditation should be developed after the
manner of the fourth one, the Master said: Experiencing...
He trains himself."
"Since in the
earlier way of the practice of this meditation there was
nothing else to be done but just breathing in and breathing
out, it is said: He thinking, I breathe in... understands...
and since thereafter there should be endeavor for bringing
about knowledge and so forth, it is said, Experiencing the
whole body I shall breathe in."
Passambhayam
kayasamkharam assasissamiti... passasissamiti sikkhati =
"Calming the activity of the body I shall breathe in...
breathe out, thinking thus, he trains himself." He thinks: "
I shall breathe in and I shall breathe out, quieting, making
smooth, making tranquil and peaceful the activity of the
in-and-out-breathing body. And in that way, he trains
himself."
"In this
connection coarseness, fineness and calm should be
understood thus: Without contemplative effort, the body and
the mind of this bhikkhu are distressed, coarse. When the
body and the mind are coarse, the in-and-out-breathings too
are coarse and proceed uncalmly; the nasal aperture becomes
inadequate and he has to breathe through the mouth, too. But
when the body and the mind are under control then the body
and the mind become placid, restful. When these are restful,
the breathings proceed so fine that the bhikkhu doubts
whether or not the breathings are going on."
"The breathing
of a man who runs down from a hill, puts down a heavy burden
from his head, and stands still is coarse; his nasal
aperture becomes inadequate and he breathes through the
mouth, too. But when he rids himself of his fatigue, takes a
bath and a drink of water, and puts a wet cloth over his
heart and is sitting in the shade, his breathing becomes
fine, and he is at a loss to know whether it exists or not.
Comparable to that man is the bhikkhu whose breaths become
so fine after the taking up of the practice of contemplation
that he finds it difficult to say whether he is breathing or
not. What is the reason for this? Without taking up the
practice of meditation he does not perceive, concentrate on,
reflect on, or think over, the question of calming the gross
activity of the breathing body, the breaths, but with the
practice of meditation he does. Therefore, the activity of
the breath-body becomes finer in the time in which
meditation is practiced than in the time in which there is
no practice. So the men of old said:
"In the
agitated mind and body the breath is of the coarsest kind.
In the unexcited body, fully subtle does it wind."
"How does he
train himself with the thought: Calming the activity of the
body, I shall breathe in... breathe out? What are the
activities of the body? Those things of the body of breaths,
those things bound up with that body, are the activities of
the body. Causing the body-activities to become composed, to
become smooth and calm, he trains himself... He trains
himself thinking thus: Calming the body-activity by way of
(quieting) the bodily activities of bending forwards,
sidewards, all over, and backwards, and (by way of the
quieting of) the moving, quivering, vibrating, and quaking
of the body, I shall breathe in... I shall breathe out. I
shall breathe in and I shall breathe out, calming the
activity of the body, by way of whatsoever peaceful and fine
body-activities of non-bending of the body forwards,
sidewards, all over and backwards, of non-moving,
non-quivering, non-vibrating, and non-quaking, of the body."
[19]
Indeed, to that
yogi training in respiration-mindfulness according to the
method taught thus: "He, thinking 'I breathe in long,'
understands when he is breathing in long... Calming the
activity of the body... I breathe out, thinking thus, he
trains himself" [digham va assasanto digham assasamiti
pajanati... passambhayam kayasankharam passasissamiti
sikkhati], the four absorptions [cattari jhanani]
arise in the respiration sign [assasapassasanimitte
uppajjanti].
In the
respiration sign = In the reflex image [patibhaga nimitta].
Having emerged
from the absorption, he lays hold of either the respiration
body or the factors of absorption.
There the
meditating worker in respiration [assasapassasa kammika]
examines the body (rupa) thinking thus: Supported by
what is respiration? Supported by the basis [vatthunissita].
The basis is the coarse body [karajja kaya]. The
coarse body is composed of the Four Great Primaries and the
corporeality derived from these [cattari mahabhutani
upadarupañca].
The worker
in respiration examines the respiration while devoting
himself to the development of insight through the means of
corporeality.
The basis,
namely, the coarse body, is where the mind and mental
characteristics occur.
Thereupon, he,
the worker in respiration, cognizes the mind (nama)
in the pentad of mental concomitants beginning with
sense-impression.
The first
beginning with sense-impression are sense-impression,
feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness. They are
taken here as representative of mind.
The worker in
respiration examines the mind and the body, sees the
Dependent Origination of ignorance and so forth, and
concluding that this mind and this body are bare conditions,
and things produced from conditions, and that besides these
there is neither a living being nor a person, becomes to
that extent a person who transcends doubt.
Besides
these phenomena there is neither a living being nor a person
refers to vision that is purified [añño satto va puggalo
natthiti visuddhiditthi].
Mind-and-body is a bare impersonal process. It is not
unrelated to a cause and also not related to a discordant
cause (which is fictive) like god, but is connected with
(the really perceivable fact of) a cause like ignorance [tayidam
dhammamattam na ahetukam napi issariyadi visamahetukam atha
kho avijjadihi eva sahetukam].
A person
who has transcended doubt regarding the past, the
future and the present (of his own existence and so forth,
as for instance taught in the Sabbasava Sutta of the
Majjhima Nikaya).
And the yogi
who has transcended doubt while cultivating insight, applies
the three characteristics of impermanence, suffering, and
soullessness, to the mind and body together with the
conditions and gradually reaches arahantship [sappaccaya
nama rupe tilakkhanam aropetva vipassanam vaddhento
anukkamena arahattam papunati].
Applies
the three characteristics in order to grasp the
qualities of the aggregates according to the method taught
in the Anatta Lakkhana Sutta of the Samyutta Nikaya
beginning with the words: "Whatsoever form."
The worker in
absorption, namely, he who contemplates upon the factors of
absorption, also thinks thus: Supported by what are these
factors of absorption? By the basis. The basis is the coarse
body. The factors of absorption are here representative of
the mind. The coarse body is the body. Having determined
thus, he, searching for the reason of the mind and the body,
seeks it in Conditions' Mode beginning with ignorance,
concludes that this mind and the body comprise just
conditions and things produced by conditions and that
besides these there is neither a living being nor a person,
and becomes to that extent a person who transcends doubt.
And the yogi
who transcends doubt thus, while cultivating insight,
applies the three characteristics of impermanence, suffering
and soullessness, to the mind and the body together with
conditions and gradually reaches arahantship.
Iti
ajjhattam va kaye kayanupassi viharati = "Thus he lives
contemplating the body in the body internally." This bhikkhu
dwells in contemplation of the body in his own respiration
body.
By way of
the practice of quietude [samatha bhavana] however there is
no arising of the sign of full absorption [appana
nimittuppatti] in another's respiration-body.
Bahiddha va
kaye kayanupassi viharati = "Or he lives contemplating
the body in the body externally." Or this bhikkhu dwells in
contemplation of the body in another's respiration-body.
Or... in
another's respiration-body. This portion deals
with reflection for the growth of insight and has no
reference to the growth of full absorption of quietude...
Ajjhatta-bahiddha va kaye kayanupassi viharati = "Or he
lives contemplating the body in the body internally and
externally." At one time in his own and at another in
another's respiration-body, he dwells in contemplation of
the body. By this there is reference to the time when the
yogi's mind moves repeatedly back and forth (internally and
externally by way of object) without laying aside the
familiar subject of meditation [kalena attano kalena
parassa assasapassasakaye etenassa pagunakammatthanam
atthapetva aparaparam sañcarana kalo kathito].
Without
leaving aside at intervals, nor from time to time
nor occasionally [antarantara na thapetva].
The time
when the mind moves repeatedly back and forth. Or
the time when the meditation proceeds incessantly, in the
internal and external phenomena [ajjhatta-bahidha dhammesu
pi nirantaram va bhavanaya pavattana kalo].
Both cannot
occur at once [eka kale pana idam ubbayam na labbhati].
This pair of
things stated in combination as internal and external cannot
be found in the form of an object at one time,
simultaneously. It is not possible to objectify (these two)
together is the meaning [ajjhattam bahiddhati ca vuttam idam
dhammadvayaghatitam ekasmim kale, ekato arammanabhavena na
labbhati. Ekajjham alambitum na sakkati attho].
Samudaya-dhammanupassi va kayasamim viharati = "He lives
contemplating origination-things in the body." Just as the
air moves back and forth depending on the smith's bellows'
skin, the bellows' spout, and appropriate effort, so,
depending on the coarse body, nasal aperture, and the mind
of the bhikkhu, the respiration-body moves back and forth.
The things beginning with the (coarse) body are origination
(kayadayo dhamma samudayo]. The person who sees thus,
is he who lives contemplating origination-things in the
body.
Vayadhammanupassi va kayasmim viharati = "Or he lives
contemplating dissolution-things in the body." In whatever
way, the air does not proceed when the bellows' skin is
taken off, the bellows' spout is broken, and the appropriate
exertion is absent, even in that same way, when the body
breaks up, the nasal aperture is destroyed, and the mind has
ceased to function, the respiration-body does not go on.
Thus through the ending of the coarse body, the nasal
aperture and the mind there comes to be the ending of the
respirations [kayadi-nirodha assasapassasa-nirodho].
The person who sees in this way, is he who lives
contemplating dissolution-things in the body.
Samudaya-vaya-dhammanupassi va kayasmim viharati = "Or
he lives contemplating origination-and-dissolution-things in
the body." He lives contemplating origination at one time
and dissolution at another [kalena samudayam kalena vayam
anupassanto].
Origination [samudaya] is that from which
suffering arises.
Contemplating origination-things. Possessing the
character of contemplation connected with the coarse body,
the nasal aperture and the mind, the cause of the
respirations [assasapassasanam uppatti hetu karaja kayadi
tassa anupassanasilo].
As the
contemplation on origination-and-dissolution-things, too, is
split up as regards the scope of the object, it is not
possible to objectify both origination and dissolution at
the same time.
Atthi kayoti
va panassa sati paccupatthita hoti = "Or, indeed, his
mindfulness is established, with the thought: 'The body
exists.'" Mindfulness is established for the yogi through
careful scrutiny. He thinks: There is the body, but there is
no being, no person, no woman, no man, no soul, nothing
pertaining to a soul, no "I," nothing that is mine, no one,
and nothing belonging to anyone [kayoti ca attli, na
satto, na puggalo, na itthi, na puriso, na atta, na
attaniyam naham, na mama, na koci, na kassaciti evam assa
sati paccupatthita hoti].
Yavadeva
= "To the extent necessary." It denotes purpose.
This is said:
The mindfulness established is not for another purpose. What
is the purpose for which it is established?
Nanamattaya
patissatimattaya = "For just knowledge and remembrance."
That is just for the sake of a wider and wider, or further
and further measure of knowledge and of mindfulness [aparaparam
uttaruttari ñanapamanatthaya ceva satipamanattha-yaca].
For the increase of mindfulness and clear comprehension is
the meaning.
For the
purpose of reaching the knowledge of body-contemplation to
the highest extent [kayanupassana ñanam param pamanam
papanatthaya] is the meaning of: To the extent necessary for
just knowledge [yavadeva ñanamattaya].
Anissito ca
viharati = "And he lives independent." He lives
emancipated from dependence on craving and wrong views.
With these
words is stated the direct opposition of this meditation to
the laying hold on craving and wrong views.
Na ca kiñci
loke upadiyati = "And clings to naught in the world." In
regard to no visible shape... or consciousness, does he
think: this is my soul; or this belongs to my soul.
Evampi =
"Thus also."
With this
expression ("Thus also") the Blessed One wound up the
instruction on the section on breathing.
In this section
on breathing, the mindfulness which examines the
respirations is the Truth of Suffering. The pre-craving
which brings about that mindfulness is the Truth of
Origination. The non-occurrence of both is the Truth of
Cessation. The Real Path which understands suffering,
abandons origination, and takes cessation as object, is the
Truth of the Way. Thus having endeavored by way of the Four
Truths, a person arrives at peace. This is the portal to
emancipation of the bhikkhu devoted to meditation on
breathing.
The Section on
the Modes of Deportment
The Buddha,
after dealing in the aforesaid manner with
body-contemplation in the form of respiration-meditation, in
detail, said: "And further," in order to deal exhaustively
with body-contemplation, here, according to the meditation
on the modes of deportment [iriyapatha].
Gacchanto va
gacchamiti pajanati = "When he is going (a bhikkhu)
understands: 'I am going.'" In this matter of going, readily
do dogs, jackals and the like, know when they move on that
they are moving. But this instruction on the modes of
deportment was not given concerning similar awareness,
because awareness of that sort belonging to animals does not
shed the belief in a living being, does not knock out the
percept of a soul, and neither becomes a subject of
meditation nor the development of the Arousing of
Mindfulness.
Going.
The term is applicable both to the awareness of the fact
of moving on and to the knowledge of the (true)
characteristic qualities of moving on. The terms sitting,
standing and lying down, too, are applicable in the general
sense of awareness and in the particular sense of knowledge
of the (true) characteristic qualities. Here (in this
discourse) the particular and not the general sense of
awareness is to be taken.
From the
sort of mere awareness denoted by reference to canines and
the like, proceeds the idea of a soul, the perverted
perception, with the belief that there is a doer and an
experiencer. One who does not uproot or remove that wrong
perception owing to non-opposition to that perception and to
absence of contemplative practice cannot be called one who
develops anything like a subject of meditation.
But the
knowledge of this meditator sheds the belief in a living
being, knocks out the idea of a soul, and is both a subject
of meditation and the development of the Arousing of
Mindfulness.
Indeed, who
goes, whose going is it, on what account is this going?
These words refer to the knowledge of the (act of) going
(the mode of deportment) of the meditating bhikkhu.
In the
elucidation of these questions the following is said: Who
goes? No living being or person whatsoever. Whose going is
it? Not the going of any living being or person. On account
of what does the going take place? On account of the
diffusion of the process of oscillation born of mental
activity. Because of that this yogi knows thus: If there
arises the thought, "I shall go," that thought produces the
process of oscillation; the process of oscillation produces
expression (the bodily movement which indicates going and so
forth). The moving on of the whole body through the
diffusion of the process of oscillation is called going. The
same is the method of exposition as regards the other
postures: standing and so forth. There, too, the yogi knows
thus: If there arises the thought, "I shall stand," that
thought produces the process of oscillation. The process of
oscillation produces bodily expression. The raising upright
of the whole body from below owing to the diffusion of the
process of oscillation is called standing. If there arises
the thought "I shall sit," that thought produces the process
of oscillation. The process of oscillation produces bodily
expression. The bending of the lower part of the body and
the raising upright of the upper part of the body owing to
the diffusion of the process of oscillation is called
sitting. If there arises the thought, "I shall lie down,"
that thought produces the process of oscillation. The
process of oscillation produces bodily expression. The
straightening or the spreading of the whole body
horizontally or across, owing to the diffusion of the
process of oscillation, is called lying down.
There,
who goes? is a doer-question of the action of going,
without first separating efficient cause and action (tattha
ko gacchatiti sadhanam kriyañca avinibbhutam katva gamana
kriya kattu puccha]. That is for indicating just the bare
phenomenon of going, through the condition of denying
the-doer-state-endowed-with-a-soul [sa kattubhava visittha
atta patikkhepatta dhamma mattasseva gamana dassanato]. (Or
in other words the question "Who goes?" anticipates a
negative answer, for according to the Abhidhamma there is no
doer or goer but just a process dependent on conditions.
There is merely a going. No one goes.)
With the
words, whose going is it?, the commentator says the
same thing in another way after separating efficient cause
and action for making clear the absence of a doer-connection
[kassa gamananti tamevattham pariyayantarena vadati sadhanam
kriyañca akattu sambandhi bhava vibhavanato].
On what
account is it? This is a question for the real
reason of the action of going from which the idea of a goer
is rejected. [kim karanati pana patikkhitta kattukaya gamana
kriyaya aviparita karana puccha].
Going is
here shown to be one of the particular modes of bare
phenomenal movement due to appropriate cause-and-condition,
without attributing it to a fallacious reason such as the
one formulated thus: The soul comes into contact with the
mind, the mind with the sense-organs and the sense-organs
with the object (thus there is perception). [idañhi gamanam
nama atta manasa samyujjati mano indriyehi indriyani
atthehiti evamadi miccha karana vinimutta anurupa paccaya
hetuko dhammanam pavatti akara viseso
[20]].
No living
being or person, because of the proving of the
going of only a bare phenomenon and because of the absence
of anyone besides that phenomenon. Now to show proof of the
going of a bare phenomenon the words beginning with on
account of the diffusion of the process of oscillation born
of mental activity were spoken by the commentator [dhammamattasseva
gamanasiddhito tabbinimuttasa ca kassaci abhavato idani
dhammamattasseva gamana siddhim dassetum citta kriya vayo
dhatu vippharenati adi vuttam].
There mental
activity and the diffusion and agitation in the process of
oscillation which is mental activity = diffusion of the
process of mental activity [tattha citta kriya ca vippharo
vipphandanañcati citta kriya vayo dhatu vippharo]. The
commentator, by mentioning mental activity, eschews the
diffusion of the process of oscillation connected with
inanimate things, and by the mention of the diffusion of the
process of oscillation eschews the class of mental activity
producing volitional verbal-expression. By the terms mental
activity and the process of oscillation, the commentator
makes clear bodily expression [tena ettha ca citta
kriyaggahanena anindriyabaddha vayodhatu vippharam nivatteti:
vayodhatu vippharaggahanena cetana vaciviññatti bhedam citta
kriyam nivatteti. Ubhayena pana kaya viññattim vibhaveti].
Produces
the process of oscillation. Brings about the
group of materiality with the quality of oscillation in
excess.
This group
of materiality is that of the pure octad consisting of the
Four Great Primaries [mahabhuta] symbolized by earth, water,
fire and air, and the four derived from these: color, smell,
taste and nutritive essence [pathavi apo tejo vayo vanna
gandha rasa oja].
Excess
is to be taken here by way of capability (adequacy or
competency) and not by way of measure (size or amount).
The
process of oscillation produces expression. This
was said concerning the process of oscillation arisen from
the thought of going. This process is a condition to the
supporting with energy, the bearing up, and the movement of
the conascent body of materiality.
Expression is that change which takes place
together with the intention.
Oscillation is mentioned by way of a predominant
condition [adhika bhava] and not by way of production
through oscillation alone. Otherwise the state of derived
materiality pertaining to expression would not be a fact [aññatha
viññattiya upadaya rupa bhavo durupapado siya].
He who knows
(that by the diffusion of this process of oscillation born
of mental activity take place going, standing, sitting and
lying down) pursues the line of thinking (called
investigation) in the following manner: "A living being
goes," "A living being stands," (according to the false
belief of those unacquainted with the reality of the matter
or according to conventional speech), but there is no living
being going or standing. This talk of a living being going
or standing is similar to speech in the following way: "A
cart goes." "A cart stands." In fact there is no going cart
and no standing cart. When with bulls (tied to a cart) a
skilled driver is driving, one conventionally speaking says:
"A cart goes" or "A cart stands." In the sense of a thing
not able to go of itself, the body is like the cart.
Mind-born oscillation are like the bulls. Mind is like the
driver. When the thought, "I go," or the thought "I stand,"
arises, the process of oscillation producing expression
comes to existence. By the diffusion of the process of
oscillation born of mental activity, going and the other
modes of deportment take place, and then there are these
forms of conventional speech: "A living being goes," "A
living being stands," "I go," "I stand." Therefore the
commentator said:
Just as a
ship goes on by winds impelled,
Just as a shaft goes by the bowstring's force,
So goes this body in its forward course
Full driven by the vibrant thrust of air.
As to the puppet's back the dodge-thread's tied
So to the body-doll the mind is joined
And pulled by that the body moves, stands, sits.
Where is the living being that can stand,
Or walk, by force of its own inner strength,
Without conditions that give it support?
Accordingly
this yogi, who considers by way of causes and conditions,
the states of going, standing and so forth, knows well that
he is going, when he is in the state of going, that he is
standing when he stands, that he is sitting when he sits,
and that he is lying down when he lies down, as it is told
in the passage in the discourse beginning with the words:
"When he is going, a bhikkhu understands: 'I am going.'"
Yatha yatha
va panassa kayo panihito hoti tatha tatha nam pajanati =
"Or just as his body is disposed so he understands it."
Iti
ajjhattam va = "Thus internally." In this way the
bhikkhu lives contemplating the body in the body, examining
his own four modes of deportment.
Bahiddha va
= "Or externally." Or examining the four modes of deportment
of another.
Ajjhatta-bahiddha va = "Or internally and externally."
Or examining at one time his own four modes of deportment
and at another time another's four modes of deportment, he
lives.
Samudaya-dhammanupassi = "Contemplating
origination-things." Also dissolution-things are included
here. Origination and dissolution should be dwelt upon by
way of the fivefold method beginning with the words: "He,
thinking 'the origination of materiality comes to be through
the origination of ignorance,' in the sense of the origin of
conditions, sees the arising of the aggregate of
materiality."
In the same
way he sees the arising of the aggregate of materiality
through the origination of craving, karma and food, in the
sense of the origin of conditions, and also while seeing the
sign of birth [nibbatti lakkhana passanto pi]. He sees the
passing away of the aggregate while thinking that the
dissolution of materiality comes to be through the
dissolution of ignorance, in the sense of the dissolution of
conditions, and through the dissolution of craving, karma
and food, in the same way, and while seeing the sign of
vicissitude [viparinamalakkhana].
For the
arising of the materiality-aggregate ignorance, craving,
karma and food are the principal reasons. But these are not
all. As it is said that one sees the arising of the
materiality-aggregate when beholding also the rebirth-sign
or the bare origination state called the
integration-succession [upacaya santati] of the various
material forms [rupa] becoming manifest in the conscious
flux [saviññanaka santana], owing to ignorance, craving,
karma, and nutriment, and from consciousness [citta] and the
process of caloricity [utu], the knowledge of arising is
fivefold.
Similarly
the knowledge of passing away or ceasing is fivefold. The
sign of vicissitude or change is the bare state of
dissolution [bhanga sabhava] called impermanency [aniccata].
Atthi kayoti
va panassa, sati paccupatthita hoti = "Or, indeed, his
mindfulness is established with the thought: 'The body
exists.'" The exposition of this is to be done in the manner
already stated in the preceding section.
Here, the
mindfulness which examines the four modes of deportment is
the Truth of Suffering. The pre-craving which brings about
that mindfulness is the Truth of Origination. The
non-occurrence of either is the Truth of Cessation. The Real
Path which understands suffering, abandons origination, and
takes cessation as object, is the Truth of the Way.
The yogi having
endeavored thus by way of the Four Truths, arrives at peace.
This is the
portal to emancipation up to arahantship of the bhikkhu
occupied with the four modes of deportment.
The Section on
the Four Kinds of Clear Comprehension
1. Clear
comprehension in going forwards and backwards
After
explaining body-contemplation in the form of the meditation
on the four modes of deportment, the Master said, "And
further," to explain body-contemplation by way of the four
kinds of clear comprehension [catu sampajañña].
On who is
clearly comprehending [sampajano] is one who knows according
to every way, intensively, or (item by item) in a detailed
way [samantato pakarehi pakattham va savisesam janati].
Clear comprehension [sampajaññam] is the state of that one.
It is likewise the knowledge of that one [tassa bhavo
sampajaññam. Tatha pavatta ñanam].
Abhikkante
patikkante = "In going forwards (and) in going
backwards." Here, the meaning is as follows: — Going
forwards is called going. Going backwards is called turning
back. Both these are to be found in all the four modes of
deportment.
Going, here,
is going after turning back (returning) and going after not
turning back (going straight). Turning back is the bare fact
of turning back. This dyad is only mutually supported action
[gamanañcettha nivattetva anivatteva ca gamanam. Nivattanam
pana nivatti mattameva. Aññamaññamupadana kriya mattañ-cetam
dvatayam].
First, in
going, carrying the body to a position in front —
bringing the body along — is called going forwards.
Turning back — returning thence — is called turning
back.
And in
standing, one just standing and bending the body to a
position in front does what is called going forwards, and
one bending away behind — drawing back — does what is
called going backwards. In sitting down, one sitting and
moving on — creeping on, sliding on — to front
portion comprising the frame and so forth of the
seat, i.e., chair, stool or similar thing, does going
forwards; and one moving away — sliding back — to the
parts comprising the frame and so forth at the back of the
chair or stool does what is called turning back. In lying
down too the explanation is to be done according to the
method stated above.
Sampajanakari = "Practicing clear comprehension." Doing
without fail all actions with clear comprehension [sampajaññena
sabba kicca kari]. Or the doing of only clear
comprehension [sampajaññasseva va kari].
Clear
comprehension [sampajananam] = comprehending clearly
[sampajanam]. Both words mean the same thing; their
difference is only one of affix. Doing without fail all
actions with clear comprehension is the character of
doing what ought to be done by oneself, with clear
comprehension [attana kattabba kiccassa karana sila]. The
doing of only clear comprehension is the character of
practicing clear comprehension [sampajanassa karana sila].
For the yogi
practices only clear comprehension and is nowhere bereft of
clear comprehension, in going forwards and going backwards.
There are these
four kinds of comprehension: clear comprehension of purpose
[satthaka sampajañña], of suitability [sappaya
sampajañña], of resort [gocara sampajañña], and
of non-delusion [asammoha sampajañña].
The
discerning of things rightly, entirely and equally is clear
comprehension. Nothing else. This way of explanation is
different from the commentary's. As it provides non-delusion
in going forwards and backwards, the action of clear
comprehension is practice of clear comprehension. Who has
that practice of clear comprehension is (one) practicing
clear comprehension.
What takes
place together with the aim called growth according to the
Dhamma is purpose. The clear comprehension of purpose in
going forwards and backwards is clear comprehension of
purpose. The clear comprehension of what is suitable, fit,
to oneself is clear comprehension of suitability. The clear
comprehension of the (mental) resort which is called the
subject of meditation that is unrelinquished, in going
backwards and forwards on the alms resort and elsewhere, is
the clear comprehension of resort. Clear comprehension of
non-delusion is non-delusion that is clearly comprehending
and is called non-stupefaction.
Among these
four kinds of clear comprehension, the clear comprehension
of purpose is the comprehension of (a worthy) purpose after
considering what is worthy and not worthy, with the thought,
"Is there any use to one by this going or is there not?" One
does this not having gone immediately, just by the influence
of the thought, at the very moment the thought of going
forwards is born.
In this
context, purpose is growth according to the Dhamma, by way
of visiting a relic shrine, Tree of Enlightenment (Bodhi
Tree), the Sangha, the elders, and a place where the dead
are cast (a cemetery) for seeing the unlovely (a corpse, a
skeleton and the like).
By visiting a
relic shrine, a Bodhi Tree, or the Sangha, for producing
spiritual interest, and by meditating on the waning of that
interest one could reach arahantship; by visiting elders and
by getting established in their instruction one could reach
arahantship; and by visiting a place where the dead are
cast, by seeing a corpse there and by producing the first
absorption (pathamajjhana] in that unlovely object,
one could reach arahantship. So the visiting of these is
purposeful.
Arahantship. This is mentioned by way of the
highest kind of exposition. Since the generating of quietude
and insight too is growth according to the Dhamma for a
bhikkhu.
Some [keci]
however say: Increase by way of material gain, too, is (a
worthy) purpose, since material gain is helpful for the holy
life.
Some =
Dwellers at the Abhayagiri Vihara at Anuradhapura.
Material
gain = Material requisites like robes.
Clear
comprehension of suitability is the comprehension of the
suitable after considering what is suitable and not.
For instance,
the visiting of a relic shrine could be quite (worthily)
purposeful. But when a great offering is made to a relic
shrine, a multitude of people in a ten or twelve yojana area
gather, and men and women according to their position go
about adorned like painted figures. And if in that crowd
greed could arise for the bhikkhu in an attractive object,
resentment in a non-attractive one, and delusion through
prejudice; if he could commit the offence of sexual
intercourse; or if harm could come to the holy life of
purity; then, a place like that relic shrine would not be
suitable. When there could be no such harm it would be
suitable.
Prejudice
[asamapekkhana] is the name given to the grasping of an
object without wise reflection by way of worldly ignorant
complacency [gehasita aññanupekkha vasena arammanassa
ayoniso gahanam].
Commit
the offence of sexual intercourse by way of
bodily contact with a woman.
Harm come
to the life through trampling down by an elephant
and so forth.
(Harm
come to) purity through seeing those of the
opposite sex and so forth.
The visiting of
the Savgha is a purpose of worth. Still when there is
all-night preaching in a big pandal in the inner village and
there are crowds and one could possibly come to hurt and
harm in the way mentioned earlier, that place of preaching
is not suitable to go to. When there is no hurt or harm
possible one may go there as it would then be suitable. In
visiting elders who are surrounded by a large following
suitability and non-suitability should also be determined in
the way stated above.
To visit a
place where the dead are cast for beholding a corpse is fit,
and to explain the meaning of this the following story has
been told:
It is said that
a young bhikkhu went with a novice to get wood for
tooth-cleaners. The novice getting out of the road proceeded
in front to a place in search of wood and saw a corpse.
Meditating on it he produced the first absorption, and
making the factors of the absorption a basis for developing
insight realized the first three fruitions of arahantship,
while examining the conformations [sankhare sammasanto], and
stood having laid hold of the subject of meditation for
realizing the path of full arahantship.
The young
bhikkhu not seeing the novice called out to him. The novice
thought thus: From the day I took up the homeless life I
have endeavored to let me never be called twice by a
bhikkhu, so, I will produce the further distinction (of full
arahantship) another day, and replied to the bhikkhu with
the words: "What's the matter, reverend sir?" "Come," said
the bhikkhu and the novice returned. The novice told the
bhikkhu as follows: "Go first by this way: then stand facing
north, at the place I stood, for a while and look." The
young bhikkhu followed the novice's instruction and attained
just the distinction reached by the novice. Thus the same
corpse became profitable to two people. For the male the
female corpse is not suitable, and vice versa. Only a corpse
of one's own sex is suitable. Comprehension of what is
suitable in this way is called the clear comprehension of
suitability.
Further, the
going on the alms round of that one who has thus
comprehended purpose and suitability after leaving and
taking up just that resort — among the thirty-eight subjects
of meditation — called the subject of meditation after his
own heart is clear comprehension of resort.
Subject
of meditation [kammatthana] refers to the object
of concentration by way of locality of occurrence of the
contemplative action that is being stated.
Resort [gocara].
Literally, pasturing ground. This word is applied to the
wandering for alms of a bhikkhu and to the subject of
meditation in the sense of the locus [sphere, range or
scope) of contemplative action.
For making
manifest this clear comprehension of resort the following
set of four should be understood: In the Dispensation of the
Buddha a certain bhikkhu on the journey out for alms takes
along with him in the mind the subject of meditation, but on
the journey back from the work of alms-gathering he does not
bring it along with him, having become unmindful of it.
Another does not take it along with him on the outward
journey, but returns from the alms-tour with the subject of
meditation in his mind. Still another neither takes it along
with him on the outward journey nor returns with it on the
journey home. And, lastly, there is the fourth kind of
bhikkhu who both takes the subject of meditation along with
him on the journey out for alms and brings it back with him
on the journey home.
Among these
four kinds, there is a certain bhikkhu who lives thus: — By
day he cleanses his mind of things that becloud — the
hindrances [nivarana] — through meditation on the
ambulatory and in the sitting posture. By night, likewise,
on the ambulatory and in the sitting posture, through
meditation, in the first watch, and in the last watch, he
cleanses his mind of things that becloud, after sleeping in
the middle watch.
Quite early in
the day having done the duties connected with the terraces
of the relic-shrine and the Bhodhi-tree — sweeping and so
forth — he sprinkles the Bodhi-tree with water, places water
for drinking and washing and attends to the Khandhaka duties
beginning with the duties connected with the teacher and the
preceptor. Thereafter, having looked to the needs of his
body — that is, after bestowing that attention on the
body which consists of washing the face and so forth —
he enters his dwelling and practices the subject of
meditation begun that day [tadahe mula bhutam
kammatthanam], at several sittings [dve tayo pallanke
usumam gahapento = during two or three sittings while
the body happens to be put into a state of warming up].
There two or three sittings = two or three sitting
turns [dve tayo nisajjavare]. Warming up is said
concerning the matter of causing warmth to be taken up twice
or thrice [dve tini unhapanani sandhaya vuttam]. The word
sitting [pallanka] means sitting by way of the
thigh-bound or locked posture [urubaddha asana]. It is the
posture called the lion-pose [sihasana] and the firm pose [thirasana].
It is the sitting down of one with the left foot crossed on
to the right thigh and the right foot on to the left thigh,
by way of interlocking, through the bending of the thighs
(One sits in
meditation not for a long time at a stretch. There are short
intervals of relaxation through brief changes of posture
when the body gets warm or uncomfortable in the cross-legged
sitting pose.)
When it is time
to wander for alms, he having got up from the sitting
meditation-pose, and takes his bowl and robe with just the
thought of meditation uppermost in mind [kammatthana
siseneva] leaves his dwelling, attending only to the
thought of meditation [kammatthanam manasikarontova].
With just
the thought of meditation uppermost in mind =
Just with the subject of meditation in the forefront of the
mind [kammatthana mukheneva], keeping to the thought of
meditation [kammatthanam avijahanto].
If, when going
to his alms collecting place, the bhikkhu's thought of
meditation is contemplation on the Buddha's qualities [buddhanussati
kammatthanam], he, on arriving at the relic-shrine,
enters the shrine's precincts, without having put aside his
thought of meditation on the Buddha. But should his thought
of meditation be something other than the Buddha-subject, he
having stood at the foot of the stairway leading to the
shrine-terrace, put by his thought of meditation as if it
were goods hand-carried, and acquired the joy begotten of
the Buddha-subject of meditation, goes up the stairway.
If the
relic-shrine is a big one, it should be worshipped at four
places, when the bhikkhu has gone round it three times to
the right.
If it is a
small shrine, it should be worshipped by the meditator in
eight places when he has gone round it three times to the
right just as in the case of the big shrine.
By a bhikkhu
who, having worshipped a relic-shrine, has reached a Bodhi-tree
shrine even the Bodhi-tree should be worshipped. And he
should worship the Bodhi-tree showing meek demeanour as
though he were in the very presence of the Buddha, the
Bhagava.
In this way,
that monk, having worshipped relic-shrine and Boddhi-tree
shrine, goes to the place where he had put by his first
subject of meditation, namely, to the bottom of the
stairway. There, having taken up the subject of meditation
he had put by earlier, and robed himself (with the upper
robe and the shoulder cloak held together and worn as one,
that is, with the upper robe falling within the
shoulder-cloak at all edges), near the village with the
thought of meditation uppermost in mind, he enters the
village for alms.
There, people,
after seeing the bhikkhu, say: "Our venerable one has come,"
and having gone forward to meet the bhikkhu, taken his bowl,
conducted him to the sitting-hall (hall where meals are
served to the bhikkhus in a village) or to a house and made
him take a seat, offer gruel to him. Thereafter, they wash
and anoint his feet, and till rice is ready sit in front of
him and ask him questions or become desirous of listening to
a talk on the Dhamma from him. Even if the people do not ask
him to speak to them on the Dhamma, the commentators say
that a talk on the Dhamma should be given to the people in
order to help them. The bhikkhus should expound the Dhamma
for the purpose of assisting the folk with the grace of
the Dhamma, thinking, "If I do not expound the Dhamma to
them, who will?"
There is no
Dhamma-talk separate from the thought of meditation. This
is said to strengthen the dictum of the commentators
mentioned above.
Therefore,
after expounding the Dhamma even with the thought of
meditation uppermost in mind, after partaking of the food,
with just the thought of meditation uppermost in mind he
leaves the village followed by the people who in spite of
his requesting them to stop accompanying him. There, after
turning back those who followed him, he takes the road to
his dwelling-place.
After
expounding the Dhamma even with the thought of meditation
uppermost in mind = After expounding the Dhamma
just in accordance with the character of the thought of
meditation that is being attended to by oneself, by way of
sticking to that thought. The method of exegesis is the same
in regard to the next expression concerning food. After
giving thanks. Here too the governing expression is:
Even with the thought of meditation uppermost in mind.
There, just at the place of departure from the
village. The point at which the bhikkhu actually gets out of
the village.
Then, novices
and young bhikkhus who had taken their meal outside the
village, having left the village earlier than this bhikkhu
see this bhikkhu coming. And they, after going forward to
meet him, take his bowl and robe.
It is said that
bhikkhus of old did this duty without looking at the face of
the returning bhikkhu and thinking: (this is) our preceptor
(or) our teacher. In ancient times, they did this duty
according to the arriving-limit (the arriving division,
section, or company). As the elder bhikkhu came the younger
ones performed this duty not looking to see who the elder
was.
Those novices
and young bhikkhus question the elder thus: "Reverend Sir,
who are these people to you? Are they relatives on the
maternal side? Are they relatives on the paternal side?" —
"Having seen what, do you query?" — "Their affection and
respect for you." — "Friends, what even parents find it hard
to do these people do for us. Our very robes and bowls are
just due to them. Owing to these people we know no fear on
occasions of fear and know no lack of food on occasions of
famine. There are no people so helpful to us as these folk."
Speaking well of these people, thus, he goes. This bhikkhu
is spoken of as a person who carries forth (takes along with
him) the subject of meditation when he leaves his dwelling
but does not return with the thought of meditation.
If to a bhikkhu
who performs the duties detailed above, betimes, (there
arises an intense feeling of discomfort owing to hunger) if
his kamma-produced caloricity becomes very strong (pajjalati,
lit, flames up and lays hold of the derived, assimilated
material of the body owing to the absence of undigested food
in the stomach, if sweat exudes from his body and if he is
unable to concentrate on his subject of meditation, he takes
his bowl and the robe quite early in the morning, worships
the relic shrine speedily, and enters the village to get
gruel just when the village herds go out of their pens for
pasturing. After he gets the gruel he goes to sitting-hall
and drinks it.
Then, with the
swallowing of just two or three mouthfuls, the kamma-produced
caloricity letting go the material of the body — i.e.,
the inner lining of the stomach [udara patalam] lays
hold of the property of the food taken in.
And that
bhikkhu, having got to the assuagement of the distress of
the caloric process like a man bathed with a hundred pots of
cool water, having partaken of the (rest of the) gruel with
the thought of meditation uppermost in mind, washed bowl and
mouth, attended to the subject of meditation till the later
forenoon meal, wandered for alms in the remaining places —
in the places where he got no gruel and so where he could
still go for alms — and taken the meal with just the
thought of meditation uppermost in mind, returns, having
taken up just that subject of meditation which is thence
forward present in his mind. This person is called the one
who does not carry forth but returns with the thought of
meditation.
Kamma-produced
caloricity [kammajja tejo] is an expression
referring to the function of that part of the alimentary
tract where the bile helps digestion and from which vital
heat spreads — the grahani according to Ayurveda. It is
stated that the commentator said kamma-produced
caloricity concerning "the seizure," the name of the
alimentary function explained above [gahanim sandhayaha].
Becomes
very strong means: generates a condition of heat.
Subject
of meditation does not get on to the road of contemplative
thought owing to the disappearance of
concentration of the wearied body through hunger-fatigue.
When in the
stomach, indeed, property like cooked rice (called the
underived, the unassimilated or that which is not due to
pre-clinging) is absent; kamma-produced caloricity gets hold
of the inner lining of the stomach. That causes the
utterance of words like the following: "I am hungry; give me
food."
When food is
taken, kamma-produced caloricity having let go the inner
lining of the stomach, gets hold of the food-property. Then
the living being becomes calm. Therefore in the commentaries
kamma-produced caloricity is spoken of as (a malignant
spirit, a devourer of the living, frequenting pools,
fording-places and the like and known by the shadow it casts
on the water) a shadow-demon.
And bhikkhus,
like this one, who, after drinking gruel and exerting
themselves in the development of insight, reached the state
of arahantship in the Buddha's Dispensation are past all
numbering (so many have they been). In the Island of the
Lion Race, alone [sihala dipe yeva], there is not a seat of
sitting-hall in the various villages which is not a place
where a bhikkhu, having sat and drunk gruel, attained
arahantship (tesu tesu gamesu asanasalaya na tam asanam
atthi yattha yagum pivitva arahattam patta bhikkhu natthi].
"And
bhikkhus, like this one," and so forth. With these words the
commentator points out the state of benefit of the bhikkhu
attending to the thoughts of meditation, even, in the way
aforesaid.
But a bhikkhu
who is a loose liver [pamada vihari, lit. liver in
negligence, carelessness or indolence], who is a slacker
[nikkhitta dhuro, lit. One who has thrown away the yoke
— or the burden of right exertion — and so is an
irresponsible person], having broken all observances [sabba
vattani bhinditva] whilst living spiritually frozen
through the fivefold bondage of mind [pañca vidha ceto
vinibandha baddha citto viharanto], having entered the
village for alms without having even shown a sign of the
fact that there is a thing called a subject of meditation
(of contemplation), and having walked about and eaten his
meal in unbefitting company, comes out of the village an
empty fellow. This bhikkhu is called a person who neither
carries forth nor returns with the thought of meditation.
Who is spoken
of with the words "This one carries forth and carries back"
must be known just through the means of the observance of
carrying forth and carrying back (the subject of meditation
from the beginning to the end of the journey to and from the
village).
Just
through the means of the observance of carrying forth and
carrying back means: By way of whatsoever going
for and returning from alms-gathering only with the thought
of meditation.
Men of good
family, desirous of self-improvement, having become homeless
ones in the Dispensation of the Buddha, when living in a
group of ten, twenty, fifty or a hundred make a covenant of
observance, with these words: "Friends, you renounced not
because you were troubled by creditors, not because of fear
of punishment from the king, and not because of difficulties
of subsistence produced by famine and the like, but because
you were desirous of release here. Therefore, you should
restrain the defilement that is born when going (forwards or
backwards) just in the process of going; you should restrain
the defilement that is born when standing just in the
process of standing; you should restrain the defilement that
is born when sitting just in the process of sitting; and you
should restrain the defilement that is born when lying down
just in the process of lying down.
When after the
making of such a covenant of observance they go on to a
village for alms, if there are stones, by the road, at
distances of half-an-usabha, one usabha and one gavuta,
these bhikkhus proceed attending to the subject of
meditation with awareness of those stones. If in the course
of going (for alms) a defilement of the mind arises in one,
just in the course of going one restrains or suppresses it.
If one fails to do so one stops. Then he who comes behind
one stops too. And one thinks: "This bhikkhu here knows the
unclean thought that has arisen in you; unbecoming is that
to you." Thus having reproved oneself and developed
penetrative insight, one steps into the Plane of the Noble
Ones (i.e., arahantship; so ayam bhikkhu tuyham uppanna
vitakkam janati ananucchavikam te etanti paticcodetva vipas
sanam vaddhetva tattheva ariyabhumim okkamati).
If one is not
able to do that, one sits down and he who comes behind sits
down too, it is said: that just is the method. Should one be
not able to enter into the Plane of the Noble Ones, then,
one having stopped the defilement, goes, attending to only
the subject of meditation. One does not raise the foot with
mind bereft of the subject of meditation but should one do
so, one, having turned, gets back again even to the earlier
step.
Desirous of
self-improvement (atta kamati) — (Those bhikkhus) wishing
for personal good and well-being (attano hita sukhamicchanta)
— those wishing for (delighting in, intent on) the Dhamma is
the true meaning [dhammacchandavantoti attho] — by reason of
the fact that the Dhamma is truly good and
well-being [dhammo hi hitam sukhañca tannimittakam]. Or
to the wise the Dhamma is the self owing to the absence of
difference (of the Dhamma) from the self, and (because the
Dhamma is contained in the self) owing to the (Dhamma's)
state of being included in the living being [atha va
viññanam attato nibbisesatta attabhava pariyapannatta ca
dhammo atta nama]. They (the bhikkhus who have genuinely
renounced, in the Dispensation of the Buddha) desire, wish
for, that (tam kamenti icchanti].
[21]
Newly (or
recently) — at the time this sub-commentary was written —
however the reading: desirous of attainment, by way of
(moral) good, is seen (adhuna pana attha kamati hitavacakena
attha saddena patho dissati]. The true meaning of that is:
(those) wishing for good that is connected with the Dhamma
or (those) wishing for the Dhamma that is good [dhamma
saññuttam hitamicchanta hita bhutam va dhammamicchantati].
Unbecoming is that means: unbecoming is another's
knowing of one's own defilement [parassa jananam].
This also
should be understood as included even by another's
knowing: He (the monk who is trying to overcome the
adventitious defilement) makes systematic attention strong
on account of (his awareness of) the hungry condition of
those coming behind (pacchato agacchantanam chinna bhatta
bhava bhayenapi yoniso manasikaram paribruhetiti idampi
parassa jananeneva sangahitanti datthabbam].
Even to
the earlier step means: just to the first
footprint made with mind separate from the thought of
meditation [purima pade yevati pathamam kammatthana
vippayutta cittena uddharita pada valañje yeva].
Like the elder
Maha Phussa, the verandah-dweller. With the stories
beginning, here, the commentator lays low the misgiving
about this observance, for instance, expressed thus: Just
impossible is that what is pointed out was, indeed, in this
way, practiced before [atthane yevetam kathitam khvayam evam
patipanna pubboti asankam nivatteti].
It is said that
this elder dwelt for nineteen years fulfilling the
observance of "carrying forth and carrying back." Plowmen,
sowers, threshers of grain and other people having seen the
elder go in this manner, said: "This elder goes having
halted again and again. Why does he do so? Has he got
confused about the way or has he forgotten something?"
The elder by
just doing the recluse's duty, with mind yoked to the
thought of meditation, without giving heed to the talk of
the people, attained arahantship within twenty years.
On the very day
be became an arahant, a deva who was living at the end of
the elder's walking path, stood emitting a radiance that
came from the fingers of the deva. The Four Regents of the
Earth, Sakka the deva-king and Brahma Sahampati came to
serve the elder. Maha Tissa the forest-dweller, also an
elder, saw that radiance and inquired of the arahant the
next day: "Last night, there was a radiance about your
reverence; what was that?"
Diverting the
talk, the arahant said: "Radiance is that of light, of gem
and the like." But on being pressed repeatedly with the
words: "You are concealing," he acknowledged, saying, "Yes"
and informed Tissa of his attainment.
Like the elder
Maha Naga of the Black Creeper Pavilion. He, it is said,
when fulfilling the observance of carrying forth and back
the subject of meditation, resolved upon keeping to only the
postures of standing and of walking for seven years, with
the thought: "I will honor the Blessed One's great
struggle." And after fulfilling for sixteen years again the
observance of carrying forth and carrying back the subject
of meditation, he attained arahantship.
This is said of
him: He (when going out for alms to the village) raises his
foot only with mind yoked to the subject of meditation. If
he raises with mind not yoked thus, he turns back again.
After standing at such a distance from the village as would
raise (in the mind of one looking from the village) the
doubt: "Is it indeed a cow or a recluse?" and robing
himself, he fills his mouth with a draught of water from the
water-carrier slung over the shoulder and hanging under the
armpit, having washed the bowl with water from the same
source. For what reason does he fill his mouth so? He does
it thinking: "Let there be no distraction of the mind even
by the uttering of the words: 'May you live long!' to people
coming to worship me or give me alms." But when he is asked
the question, "Reverend Sir, which stage of the half-month
is today?" concerning the date, or when he is questioned
about the number of monks, he answers, after swallowing the
water. If there is no questioning about the day and so
forth, he having spat out the water, at the village gate, at
the time of leaving, goes.
Like the fifty
bhikkhus who entered upon the rainy season residence, at the
Monastery of the Galamba Landing Place.
On the
full-moon day of July (asalha), they made this
covenant of observance: — "Without attaining arahantship we
shall not converse with one another."
These bhikkhus
used to enter the village for alms filling the mouth with a
draught of water, and when questioned about the date and so
forth they acted just according to the method mentioned
above.
In that village
people, having seen the spots on which mouthfuls of water
had been spurted forth by the returning bhikkhus, said:
"Today one came; today, two," And those people thought:
"What indeed is the reason that these bhikkhus neither talk
with us nor with each other? If they do not speak with each
other, surely, they are persons who have had a dispute
amongst themselves," and saying: "Come, we must make them
forgive one another," went — in a body — to the monastery.
There, they saw that no two bhikkhus were in the same place.
Then a wise man in that crowd said: "Good people, a place
which quarrelsome folk occupy is not like this. The
relic-shrine and the Bodhi-shrine terraces are well swept.
The brooms are well arranged. And water for drinking and
water for washing are well set." Then those people just
turned back. And the bhikkhu of that monastery attained
arahantship within three months and performed a Pure
Pavarana ceremony.
Diverting
the talk = Turning away the talk because of
unostentatiousness due to Realization [adhigamappichiccha-taya].
Keeping to only the postures of standing and walking:
This is said by way of the postures proper to be resolved
upon for adherence. One restricts oneself to these postures
not however by way of refusing to practice the
proper-to-be-practiced and necessary posture of sitting at
meal-time and on such other occasions; for, by the word,
only, it should be understood that one tops the remaining
forms of sitting, namely, every sitting-posture not
absolutely necessary of practice, and the posture of lying
down.
I will
honor the Blessed One's great struggle. According
to my strength, I will do worship to the six-year asceticism
of extreme torture undertaken by the World's Redeemer for
our sakes, since even the honoring of the Master, through
conduct, is the more praiseworthy kind of worship. Not so
praiseworthy is the worship (of him) with material things.
Pure
pavarana. The Pavarana through the state of
destruction of the outflowings — arahantship [khinasava
bhavena pavaranam].
Thus like the
elder Maha Naga dweller in the Black Creeper Pavilion and
like the bhikkhus who went into rainy season at the Galamba
Ford Monastery, the bhikkhu (who does the observance of
carrying forth and carrying back the subject of meditation)
raises his foot only with mind yoked to the thought of
meditation. Having reached the neighbourhood of the village,
filled the mouth with a draught of water, and looked at the
streets, he enters the street where there are no quarrelsome
drunkards, gamesters and such folk or where there are no
restive elephants, horses and the like.
There,
wandering for alms, he does not go speedily like one in a
great hurry since there is no ascetic practice of begging
food, speedily. He goes, rather, having become motionless,
like a water cart on uneven ground. Entering into each house
in order, spending such time as is suitable for concluding
whether there is or not the tendency to offer alms (on the
part of the occupants of each house), he receives alms, and
comes to the inner village, outer village or even to the
monastery. There he seats himself in a place pleasant and
good (proper), attends to the thought of meditation with the
setting up of the perception of loathsomeness in food, and
reflects by way of the similes of axle-greasing, applying
ointment to ulcer and feeding on own child's flesh, and eats
the food fully followed with awareness of the eight
attributes, (and) not for sport, intoxication, adornment or
the filling up of those places of his body that have a
deficiency of flesh.
And he, having
eaten, washes. Then he rests for a while the body that is
tired with the business of eating. He attends to just the
thought of meditation, in the time after eating as in the
time before eating, and in the last watch of the night as in
the first watch.
This person is
called one who carries forth and carries back the subject of
meditation.
The person who
fulfills this observance of one who carries forth and
carries back, called the carrying forth (of the thought of
meditation) when going out for alms and the bringing back
(of the thought of meditation) when returning from the
alms-round, reaches arahantship even in the period of youth
(i.e., early age or the first stage of life), if he is
possessed of the sufficing condition, the wherewithal to
accomplish the destruction of ignorance and its defilements.
If he fails to
reach arahantship, in early age, then he reaches it in
middle age; if he fails in middle age, then at the time of
death; if he fails at the time of death, then, after
becoming a deva; if he fails as a deva, then, at a time when
no Buddha has appeared on earth, he is born as a man and
realizes the truth as a Buddha who is not able to
communicate the truth to others; and if he fails to realize
the truth in that way, then, immediately on meeting a Fully
Enlightened Buddha he becomes a person who intuits quickly
like the elder Bahiya Daruciriya, or a greatly wise one like
the elder Sariputta, or one of great psychic power like the
elder Mogallana the Great, or an exponent of ascetic
practice like the elder Kassapa the Great, or one endowed
with clairvoyant power like the elder Anuruddha, or an
expert in discipline like the elder Upali or an expounder of
the Dhamma like the elder Punna Mantaniputta, or a forest
dweller like the elder Revata, or one of great learning like
the elder Ananda, or one desirous of training like the elder
Rahula, the Buddha's son.
Amongst these
four that form the set, he who carries forth and carries
back the subject of meditation reaches the crest of the
clear comprehension of resort.
Further,
non-confusion in going forwards and so forth is the clear
comprehension of non-delusion. That should be understood in
the following way: — In this Dispensation, a monk, without
confusing himself, like a blinded worldling who, while going
forwards or backwards, becomes muddle-headed, and believes
thus: "The soul (or self) goes forward" or "The act of going
forwards is produced by the soul," or "I go forwards" or
"The act of going forwards is produced by me," and the like,
thinks: "When there is the arising in one of the thought 'I
am going forwards,' just with that thought, appears the
process of oscillation originating from mind which brings to
birth bodily expression (or intimation). Thus by the way of
the diffusion of the process of oscillation due to mental
activity, this skeleton called the body goes forward."
In raising up
the foot A [paduddharane] two processes [dhatuyo]:
extension [pathavi] and cohesion [apo], are
low, weak [omatta honti dubbala], and the other two
processes: caloricity [tejo] and oscillation [vayo]
are high, powerful [adhimatta honti balavatiyo]; so,
too, in stretching out the foot B [atiharane] and in
shifting away the foot C [vitiharane]. But in
dropping down the raised foot D [vossajjane],
and likewise in keeping the foot on the ground E [sannikkhepane]
and in pressing the foot against the ground F [sannirumbhane]
the first two processes are high and powerful and the
second, low and weak. There, the material and mental
phenomena in A do not occur in B; those in
B do not occur in C; those in C do not
occur in D; those in D do not occur in E;
those in E do not occur in F. These phenomena
after coming into existence in the form of several sections,
links, and parts, break quickly just in those places,
crackling like sesamum seeds thrown into a heated pan. In
this matter, who is the one that goes forward, or whose
going forward is there? In the highest sense (paramatthato)
what takes place is the going, the standing, the sitting
down and the lying down of the processes. With material form
in the several divisions (groups or parts),
One conscious
state arises
And quite another ceases,
In sequence, like a river's flow,
These states (of mind and matter) go.
(aññam
uppajjate cittam aññam cittam nirujjhati
avicimanusambandho nadi soto va vattati].
Low [omatta]
= Negligible [avamatta], poor in regard to standard [lamakappamana].
Since the
process of caloricity with (its cognate process) oscillation
coming (as a servant or follower) behind it [vayo dhatuya
anugata tejo dhatu] is the condition for upraising [uddharanassa
paccayo], caloricity and oscillation are in preponderance,
by reason of capability, in the action of upraising.
Caloricity is specially conducive to the action of upraising
and so in upraising oscillation is subordinate to
caloricity. The processes of extension and cohesion are low
in the action of upraising owing to their incapacity to
raise up.
Since the
process of oscillation with (its cognate process) caloricity
coming (as a servant or follower) behind it [tejo dhatuya
anugata vayo dhatu] is the condition for stretching out and
shifting away [atiharana vitiharananam paccayo], oscillation
and caloricity are in preponderance by reason of capability,
in stretching out and shifting away. Oscillation is
naturally active and because in the actions of stretching
out and shifting away its movement is excessive, caloricity
is subordinate to oscillation in these actions. The other
two processes are low in stretching out and shifting away
because of the incapacity of these processes to stretch out
and to shift away.
Raising
up is the lifting of a foot from a place already
stepped on to.
Stretching out is the carrying of a foot to the
front from the place on which one is standing.
Shifting
away is the carrying of a foot sidewards (by
moving it laterally) for the purpose of avoiding stake and
the like or for avoiding contact with the other foot already
set on the ground.
Or
stretching out is the carrying of a foot (near)
to the place where the other foot is set and shifting
away is the carrying of a foot further to a point beyond
the place on which the other foot is.
Since the
process of cohesion with (its cognate process) extension
coming (as a servant or follower) behind it [pathavi dhatuya
anugata apodhatu] is the condition for dropping down [vossajjane
paccayo], cohesion and extension are in preponderance by
reason of capability in the action of dropping down. The
nature of cohesion is most gravid and so in the laying down
of an upraised foot extension is subordinate to cohesion.
Because of their incapacity to drop down what is upraised
the processes of caloricity and oscillation are called low
in this connection.
Since the
process of extension with (its cognate process) cohesion
coming (as a servant or follower) behind it [apodhatuya
anugata pathavidhatu] is the condition for the keeping (of a
foot) on the ground, extension and cohesion are in
preponderance by reason of capability, in the keeping (of a
foot) on the ground. In keeping the foot on the ground too,
as in the state of something fixed, cohesion is subordinate
to extension owing to the excessive functioning of the
latter process.
Cohesion is
subordinate to extension also by way of the contactual
action of the process of extension in pressing the foot
against the ground.
And here
dropping down is lowering by way of relinguishment or
laying down. The setting down, thence, of the foot on the
ground and so forth is keeping the foot on the ground.
After keeping the foot on the ground, the coming to a
complete standstill of the action of going, by way of
contacting is pressing the foot against the ground.
There
= In this going forward or among the six aforesaid
divisions known as raising up, stretching out, shifting
away, dropping down, keeping down, and pressing against.
In
raising up = In the moment of upraising.
Material and mental phenomena = The material phenomena
proceeding in the form of upraising (or through the mode of
upraising), and the mental phenomena originating that
materiality do not occur in stretching out by reason
of their existing only for a moment. Throughout, this is the
method of exegesis in this passage.
Just in
these places = Wherever, in the divisions
beginning with upraising, phenomena come to be, just in
those very places, they perish. To be sure, owing to swift
change there is no going over of phenomena to another place.
Sections
= Division. Links = Joints. Parts =
Portions. And all here is stated concerning the
abovementioned divisions of the action of going which take
place in the form of a differentiated serial process.
More fleet
than the group of devas running before the Sun's chariot —
the group of devas in the shape of horses with keen-edged
razors attached to their heads and hoofs, engaged in and
taken to going, plunging forwards, some above and some
below, but never knocking against each other, though moving
close together — is the moment of existence of material
phenomena.
As the
break-up of sesamum seeds that are roasted takes place
almost at once with the sound of crackling, the destruction
of conditioned phenomena takes place almost at once with
phenomena's arising. For, similar to the crackling sound,
the sign of the breaking up of the sesamum seeds, is
arising the sign (indicatory) of the (eventual) breaking
up of conditioned phenomena, owing to the destruction
(inevitably and) assuredly of phenomena that have arisen.
Who is
the one that goes forward? Just no one. [ko eko
abhikkamati nabhikkamati yeva].
Could it be
said: Whose going forward is there? No. Why? In the
highest sense, what takes place is the going, the standing,
the sitting down, and the lying down of the processes.
The passage
just mentioned is for dispelling the false idea of a self
that goes forward which a confused blinded worldling is apt
to possess or the passage is stated by way of objection and
refutation.
With
material form in the several divisions [tasmim
tasmim kotthase rupena saddhim] means: with material form in
the aforesaid sixfold division.
The
conscious state of the thought-unit that comes into
existence when any material form comes into existence, runs
a course of its own and does not get into close contact with
the material form in question, nor does it get into repeated
contact or relation with that material form. Therefore it is
said: one conscious state arises with material form and
quite another ceases when that material form ceases. By
reason of the absence of close or repeated contact [apaccamatthatta]
of mind with matter this happens. Tension, oscillation or
vibration of mind is quicker than that of matter, seventeen
times.
The words:
with material form in relation to the first sentence
of the stanza mean: with whatsoever material form arising
simultaneously with a conscious state [yena kenaci
sahuppajjanakena rupena]. And the same words in relation to
the second sentence of the stanza refer to the material form
already arisen and existing at the starting point of the
seventeenth thought-unit that occurs after the ceasing-phase
of the thought-unit with which the aforesaid material form
arose and which material form arisen already has a total
duration from its arising to ceasing of seventeen
consecutive thought-units and is possessed of the nature of
ceasing together with the cessation of the seventeenth
thought-unit mentioned above, namely, of the seventeenth
thought-unit in its phase of dissolution or ceasing [dutiya
pada sambandhe pana rupenati idam yam tato nirujjhamana
cittato upari sattarasama cittassa uppadakkhane uppannam
tadeva tassa nirujjhamana cittassa niroddhena saddhim
nirujjhanakam sattarasa cittakkhanayukam rupam sandhaya
vuttam].
Material and
mental phenomena would perhaps be taken as things of equal
duration, if the matter were put in a different way to this.
Should these two kinds of phenomena be wrongly considered as
things of equal duration then there would be contradiction
with such commentarial sayings as: "Material form is
slow-changing, is tardy as regards ceasing," and with such
textual sayings as: "I do not see a single thing so swiftly
changing, o bhikkhus, as this mind" [aññatha ruparupadhamma
samanayuka siyum yadi ca siyum atha rupam garu parinamam
dandha nirodhanti adi atthakatha vacanehi naham bhikkhave
eka dhammampi samanupassami evam lahu parivattam yathayidam
bhikkave cittanti evamadi pali vacanehi ca virodho siya].
Since the
nature of mind and mental characteristics [citta cetasika]
is to cognize or to have objects, mind and mental
characteristics arise cognizing [vibhaventa] according to
their strength [yatha balam] the thing become a condition to
mind and mental characteristics, in the form of an object or
the thing become an object-condition to mind and mental
characteristics [attano arammana paccayabhutamattam]. And
immediately after the accomplishment or the effectuating of
that which comprises the nature or quality of mind and
mental characteristics, and that quality is just the process
of cognizing, there occurs the ceasing of mind and mental
characteristics [tesam sabhava nipphatti anantaram nirodho].
Material
phenomena, however, do not take objects, have no objects [anarammana];
they do no cognizing. Material phenomena have to be cognized
[pakasetabba]. Cognizibility's fulfillment [pakasetabba
bhava nipphatti] occurs with sixteen thought-units [solasehi
cittehi hoti]. Hence the reduction of material phenomena to
seventeen thought-units, together with the one thought-unit
of the past, is acknowledged, by the commentator, it is said
[tasma eka cittakkhanatitena saha sattarasa
cittakkhanayukata rupadhammanam icchitati].
The swift
changeability of mind or consciousness [viññanassa
lahuparivattita] takes place through the mere combination of
the other three mental aggregates with variform
consciousness [the protean mind] and through the mere
combination of objects with the same consciousness that is
replete with variegation [lahuparivattana viññana visesassa
sangati matta paccayataya tinnam khandhanam visaya
sangatimattataya ca].
The state of
slow change of material form [rupassa garu parivattita]
occurs owing to the condition of sluggishness of the
primaries, namely, of the processes of extension, cohesion,
caloricity and oscillation symbolized by earth, water, fire
and air, respectively [dandha maha bhuta paccayataya].
Only the
Tathagata, he who has arrived at the Truth by traversing the
Ancient Road of the Buddhas, has knowledge of the different
processes according to reality [yatha bhutam nana dhatu
ñanam kho pana tathagatasseva]. And by means of that
knowledge of the Tathagata, the condition of pre-nascence as
just a material phenomenon is stated. Likewise, by that
knowledge of the Tathagata, the condition of post-nascence,
too, is stated. Because of the statement of the pre-nascent
and post-nascent conditions (the idea of) the identity of
moment of occurrence of mental and material phenomena is
just not fit. Therefore it was said by the commentator, the
elder Ananda thus: Just according to the method stated
should the meaning be understood here [tena ca pure jata
paccayo rupa dhammova vutto paccha jata paccaya ca tathevati
ruparupa dhammanam samanakkhanata na yujjateva tasma
vuttanayenevettha attho veditabboti acariyena vuttam].
This matter
was stated in this way because it is easy to understand the
simultaneity of cessation of mind and bodily or vocal
expression [tadetam cittanuparivattiya viññattiya eka
nirodha bhavassa suviññeyyatta evam vuttam].
[22]
The meaning
should be understood thus: Quite another conscious state
(i.e., thought-units) ceases with the ceasing of the
material form arisen at the starting point of the
seventeenth thought-unit which is earlier to the material
form together with expression that is physical, in short,
seventeen thought-units arise and pass away during the
life-time of all material form except those connected with
expression [tato saviññattikena puretaram sattarasama
cittassa uppadakkhane uppannena rupena saddhim aññam cittam
nirujjhatiti attho veditabbo].
The passage
should be constructed thus: One conscious state ceases and
quite another arises — i.e., the conscious states at the
arising and the ceasing of material phenomena are different
[aññam cittam nirujjhati aññam uppajjate cittanti yojetabbam].
Indeed one is the word explanation; another is the
explanation of the sense [añño hi saddakkamo añño atthakkamo].
While the conscious state arisen earlier, in ceasing, it
ceases in just the form of proximity-condition and so forth,
to another conscious state arising after it [yam hi
purimuppannam cittam tam nirujjhantam aññassa paccha
uppajjamanassa anantaradi paccaya bhaveneva nirujjhati].
Then another conscious state which has just obtained a
condition, arises [yathaladdha paccayameva aññampi uppajjate
cittam]. And here (mind is) in a different state by reason
of the difference of occasion [avattha visesato cettha
aññatha].
2. Clear
comprehension in looking straight on and in looking away
from the front
Alokite
= "In looking straight on." Vilokite = "In looking
away from the front." Here, looking straight on [alokitam]
= seeing in the direction in front of oneself [purato
pekkhanam]. Looking away from the front [vilokitam]
= Looking out in all other directions [anudisa pekkhanam].
And other kinds
of seeing, by way of turning the eye in the direction above,
in the direction beneath and in the direction behind are
called looking upwards, looking downwards and looking
backwards. Here those are not taken. But just these two —
looking straight on and looking away from the front — are
taken, by way of what is befitting. Or, by this method, it
is said, all those are also taken.
By way of
what is fitting = In the form of that which is
suitable to a recluse.
Since
looking downwards could happen in such actions as sweeping
and plastering the floor with clay and cow-dung, looking
upwards in removing cob-webs and other similar actions, and
looking backwards in such actions as the avoiding of danger
coming from behind, it is said, that the commentator uttered
the passage beginning with the words: Or, by this method.
By that the commentator points out that the statement is
also one of the kind that implies what is not expressed — an
elliptical statement.
Here, the
comprehending of purpose (in looking straight on), without
having just looked by the force of the thought, when the
thought "I shall look straight on" arises, is clear
comprehension of purpose. That should be understood by
making the venerable elder Nanda the example of a person who
perceives through experience by the body [kaya sakkhi].
[23]
The following is stated in this connection: "Should looking
straight on in the eastern direction become a thing that
must be done, by Nanda, he looks straight on in the eastern
direction, having reflected with all his mind thus: 'May no
covetous, grief-producing, mean, unskillful mental phenomena
flow upon (overcome) me while I am looking in the eastern
direction.' There, he becomes mindful, thus." Further,
purposefulness and suitability, here, too, should be
understood just according to the manner in which they are
explained in connection with the worshipping of a relic
shrine and so forth.
When the
venerable elder Nanda was working for insight he slid into
an unfavorable state of mind beginning with boredom in
regard to the holy life and on becoming aware of that state
of mind of his, he stirred himself, saying, "I shall
restrain myself well." Then having become energetic and very
conscientious regarding guardedness at the doors of the
controlling faculties of sense, he reached the state of one
of great perfection in self-restraint, through the
fulfillment of all duties. By reason of that perfection the
Master placed him in the position of pre-eminence in regard
to the controlling faculty of restraint, with the words:
"This one, namely, Nanda, O bhikkhus, is the chief among my
disciples endowed with the controlling faculty of
restraint."
Because clear
comprehension of resort is just the keeping to the course of
meditation, looking straight on and looking away
from the front should be done just according to each
person's meditation (on the aggregates, processes and bases
or on a contemplation-device and so forth) with the thought
of meditation uppermost in mind.
Within, it is
said, there certainly is no self or soul which looks
straight on or looks away from the front. Still, at the
arising of the thought "I shall look straight on," and with
that thought the process of oscillation (vayo dhatu)
originating from mind, [citta samutthana] bringing into
being bodily expression [viññatti] arises. Thus owing
to the diffusion of the process of oscillation born of
mental activity [cittakiriyavayodhatu vipphara], the
lower eyelid goes down and the upper eyelid goes up. Surely
there is no one who opens with a contrivance.
Thereupon,
eye-consciousness arises fulfilling the function of sight
[tato cakkhu viññanam dassana kiccam sadhentam uppajjati],
it is said. Clear comprehension of this kind here is indeed
called the clear comprehension of non-delusion [evam
sampajananam panettha asammoha sampajaññam nama].
Further, clear comprehension of non-delusion should be also
understood, here, through accurate knowledge of the root
(mula pariñña), through the casual state (agantuka
bhava) and through the temporary state [tavakalika
bhava]. First (is the consideration) by way of the
accurate knowledge of the root: —
There is
(first) the mental state of the life-continum,
And (then) there are adverting, seeing, receiving,
Considering, determining, and impulsion
Which is seventh (in cognition's course).
[bhavangavajjanañceva
dassanam sampaticchanam
santiranam votthapanam javanam bhavati sattamam].
There, in the
course of cognition, the life-continum goes on fulfilling
the function of a (main) factor of the rebirth-process [tattha
bhavangam upapatti bhavassa anga kiccam sadhayamanam
pavattati]; after the turning round of the life-continum,
a barely active mind process, fulfilling the function of
adverting or attending to an object at the sense-door of the
eye, goes on [tam avattetva kiriya mano dhatu avajjana
kiccam sadhayamana]; from the cessation of that,
fulfilling the function of seeing, eye-consciousness goes on
[tannirodha cakkhu viññanam dassana kiccam sadhayamana];
from the cessation of that, a resultant mind process,
fulfilling the function of receiving, goes on [tannirodha
vipaka mano dhatu sampaticchanna kiccam sadhayamana];
from the cessation of that, a resultant mind consciousness
process, fulfilling the function of considering, goes on
[tannirodha vipaka mano viññana dhatu santirana kiccam
sadhyamana]; from the cessation of that, a barely active
mind consciousness process, fulfilling the function of
determining, goes on [tannirodha kiriya mano viññana
dhatu votthapana kiccam sadhayamana]; from the cessation
of that, an impulsion impels seven times [tannirodha
sattakkhattum javanam javati].
Now, among the
mental states of the life-continum and so forth or even in
the mental state of the first impulsion, there is no
looking straight on or looking away from the front,
by way of lust, hatred or ignorance by him who sees in any
direction. Also there is no such stained vision by him in
the mental state of the second impulsion, the third, the
fourth, the fifth, sixth or even in the seventh impulsion.
But when, like soldiers in a battlefield, the mental states,
after breaking-up gradually are fallen, one atop of another,
there takes place looking straight on or looking
away from the front, by way of lust, hate and ignorance,
accompanied by the discriminatory thought: "This is a
woman," or "This is a man," much in the same way as the
fallen are distinguished after a battle; for in the frenzy
of fighting there is no room for recognition of the
individuals engaged in the fray.
[24]
Thus here in
the first instance, clear comprehension of non-delusion
should be understood, by way of the accurate knowledge of
the root.
The passage
beginning with the words: Within, it is said, there
certainly is no self or soul is stated to explain that
looking straight on or looking away from the front
is, to be sure, just a variety of occurrence of even bare
phenomena and that therefore clear comprehension of
non-delusion is the knowing of that fact as it really is [yasma
pana alokitadi nama dhamma mattasseva pavatti viseso tasma
tassa yathavato jananam asammoha sampajaññanti dassetum
abhantareti adi vuttam].
Accurate
knowledge of the root [mula pariñña] = comprehension of the
fundamental reason of impulsion at the mind-door [mano
dvarika javanassa mula karana parijananam].
Through the
casual state [agantuka bhava]: through the state of one
coming as a stranger [abbhagata bhava]. Through the
temporary state [tavakalika bhava]: through the state of
proceeding only at a certain moment (tam khana matta
pavattakassa bhava].
Fulfilling the function of a (main) factor of the
rebirth-process means: accomplishing the
principal work of a link; what is stated by that is this:
having become substance. The life-continum is, indeed, the
principal factor and the principal basis because of
similarity to the relinking mind. Therefore, it is called
the principal factor and basis or it is called so owing to
its fulfilling of the function of a ground or reason by way
of the causal condition of unbroken procedure [patthana
bhutam anga kiccam nipphadentam asariram hutvati vuttam hoti,
bhavangam hi patisandhi sadisatta patthanam angam
patthanañca sariranti vuccati, avicchedappavatti hetu
bhavena va karana kiccam sadhayamananti attho].
The
expression: After the turning round of that has been
stated by way of general reference to the life-continum,
threefold as regards procedure: past thought-unit of the
life-continum, movement of the life-continum and stoppage of
the life-continum. At this place turning round refers
just to the stoppage of the life-continum [tam avattetvati
bhavanga samañña vasena vuttam pavattakara visesa vasena
pana atitadina tibbidham tattha ca bhavangupacchedasseva
avattanam].
From the
cessation of that (tannirodha) = Owing to the
dissolution of that [tassa nirujjhanato] — expressions of
reason by way of proximity-condition [anantara paccaya
vasena hetu vacanam].
Even in
the first impulsion and so forth ending with
the seventh impulsion. This passage has been stated
concerning the absence (in a definite way) of lust, hate and
ignorance with the thought: This is a woman or
This is a man, in the course of cognition at the five
doors of sense. In this matter, indeed, owing to the
existence of mental states, by way of adverting and the rest
up to determining, without radical reflection, on account of
reflecting unwisely prior to adverting-determining,
impulsion that is with a bare semblance of greed arises in
regard to a liked object such as a female form, and
impulsion that is with a bare semblance of hate arises in
regard to an object not liked. There is however no
occurrence of lust, hate and ignorance in an extreme way,
with strong moral consequences in the course of sense-door
cognition. Only in the course of mind-door cognition lust,
hate and ignorance occur absolutely, that is, with strong
moral consequences. But impulsion of the course of
sense-door cognition is the root of lust, hate and ignorance
of mind-door course of cognition. Or even all beginning with
the mental state of the life-continum can be taken as the
root of mind-door impulsion. Thus accurate knowledge of the
root has been stated by way of the root-reason of mind-door
impulsion. The casual state and the temporary state (are)
indeed (stated) on account of the newness of just impulsion
of the course of cognition at the five doors of sense and on
account of the brevity of the same impulsion [pathama
javanepi... pe... sattama javanepiti idam pañca dvarika
vithiyam ayam itthi ayam purisoti rajjana dussana muyhananam
abhavam sandhaya vuttam tattha hi avajjana vatthabbananam
puretaram pavatta yoniso manasikara vasena ayoniso avajjana
votthabbanakarena pavattanto itthe itthi rupadimhi lobha
sahagata mattam javanam uppajati anitthe ca dosa sahagata
mattam na pana ekanta rajjana dussanadi hoti tassa pana mano
dvarikassa rajjana dussanadino pañca dvarika javanam mulam
yatha vuttam va sabbampi bhavangadi evam mano dvarikassa
javanassa mula karana vasena mulapariñña vutta. Agantuka
tavakalikata pana pañca dvarika javanasseva apubba bhava
vasena ittarata vasena ca].
After
breaking up gradually are fallen, one atop of another,
on account of the turning round — changing, moving — early
and later or before and after or below and above, in the
form of the arising of the mental state of the life-continum
[hettha ca upari ca parivattamana vasena aparaparam
bhavanguppatti vasena].
Likewise
indeed (is indicated) the falling after breaking down of the
(other) mental states on account of the arising of the
mental state of the life-continum (tatha bhavanguppada
vasena hi tesam bhijjitva patanam].
By this
indeed the commentator shows, by way of the gradual arising
of the earlier and the later mental state of the life-continum,
the arising of the impulsion of the mind-door course of
cognition which is different to the impulsion of the course
of cognition at the five doors of sense [imina pana
hetthimassa uparimassa ca bhavangassa aparaparuppatti vasena
pañca dvarika javanato visadisassa mano dvarika javanassa
uppadam dasseti].
Because of
the proceeding of lust and the like by just the way of
mind-door impulsion, the commentator said even thus:
There takes place looking straight on or looking away from
the front, by way of lust, hatred and ignorance.
On an object
falling within reach of consciousness at the eye-door,
impulsion arises right at the very end when from the
movement of the life-continum onwards, the states of
adverting, seeing, receiving, considering and determining,
having arisen, have ceased.
That impulsion
is like a visitor, at the eyedoor which is comparable to a
house belonging to the states of adverting and the rest
mentioned above born there before the arising of impulsion.
As it is not
fit for a visitor who has arrived at a strange house for the
purpose of getting some assistance from the owners of the
house to do any kind of ordering when the owners themselves
are silent, so it is unfit for impulsion to be involved in
lust, hate and ignorance, at the eyedoor house of adverting
and the other states of mind, when those states of mind are
themselves not lusting, hating or bound up with ignorance.
Clear comprehension of non-delusion should thus be known by
way of the casual state.
At the
eye-door, the mental states that close with the state of
determining arise and break up together with associated
phenomena, at just those places on which they arise. They do
not see each other. Therefore the mental states that close
with determining are brief and temporary. There, as in a
house of the dead, where here is one more to die just at
that very instant, it is not proper for that one who is to
die to be given to delight in dancing and singing and the
like, even so, at a sense-door, when the states of adverting
and the rest with associated phenomena have died just where
they arose, it is not fit for the remaining impulsion that
is to die shortly to take delight in anything by way of lust
and the like. Clear comprehension of non-delusion should be
understood thus by way of the temporary state.
Like a
visitor = Like someone come specially, a stranger
[agantuka puriso viya].
Visitors are
of two kinds, by way of a guest, that is, a person who comes
and goes, a person who does not stay permanently in a place,
and by way of someone who comes specially to a place, a
stranger. In this connection, one who is an acquaintance, or
one who is known, is a guest. One who is not an acquaintance
and is unknown, is a stranger. According to the context here
a stranger is meant.
Since to
these mental states there is just that duration limited to
the process of rise-and-fall of mental phenomena, these
states of mind are called temporary.
And further
this clear comprehension of non-delusion should be
understood, by way of the reflection on the aggregates,
bases, processes and conditions.
To be sure,
here, eye and visible object are materiality-aggregate;
seeing is consciousness-aggregate; feeling that is
associated with seeing is feeling-aggregate; perceiving is
perception-aggregate, and those beginning with
sense-impression are formation-aggregate. Thus
looking-straight-on-and-looking-away-from-the-front is seen
in the combination of these five aggregates. There, who,
singly, looks straight on? Who looks away from the front?
Seeing
= Eye-consciousness [cakkhuviññanam]. By reason of
knowing the acts of looking straight on and of looking away
from the front in that way only as "eye-consciousness,"
adverting and the rest are left out, as bare seeing only is
in "eye-consciousness" [tassa vaseneva alokana vilokana
paññayananto avajjanadinam agahanam].
Separate
from that fivefold aggregate, who, singly, looks straight
on? Who, singly, looks away from the front? None, singly,
only by oneself indeed, looks straight on, and none, singly,
only by oneself, looks away from the front — this reply is
intended to be given to the questions.
In the same
way, eye is eye-base; visible object is materiality-base;
seeing is mind-base; feeling and so forth, the associated
things, are thing-base. Thus
looking-straight-on-and-looking-away-from-the-front is seen
in the combination of these four bases. There, who, singly,
looks straight on? Who looks away from the front? Likewise,
eye is eye-process; visible object is materiality-process;
seeing is eye-consciousness-process; and the things
beginning with feeling associated with eye-consciousness are
mind-process. Thus,
looking-straight-on-and-looking-away-from-the-front is seen
in the combination of these four processes. There, who,
singly, looks straight on? Who looks away from the front?
Exactly, in the manner already stated, eye is
support-condition; visible object is object-condition;
adverting is condition of proximity, contiguity,
decisive-support, absence and disappearance; light is
condition of decisive-support and those beginning with
feeling are conascence-condition. Thus looking
straight-on-and-looking-away-from-the-front is seen in the
combination of these conditions. There, who, singly, looks
straight on? Who looks away from the front?
With the
words: light is the condition of decisive-support the
conditionality of seeing is stated through the Suttanta
method, through the way of illustrated discourse,
discursively, indirectly.
Conascence-condition
too belongs to just seeing. This is (given as) only an
example owing to the obtaining also of conditions of
mutuality, association, presence, non-disappearance and so
forth.
Here, in this
way, by reflection on the aggregates, bases, processes, and
conditions, too, clear comprehension of non-delusion should
be understood.
3. Clear
comprehension in the bending and the stretching of limbs
Sammiñjite
pasarite = "in bending and in stretching." In the
bending and the stretching of the joints.
The
consideration of purpose and lack of purpose in regard to
any contemplated act of bending or stretching, and the
taking up of that which is purposeful, after not bending and
stretching according to merely the mind's inclination, is
clear comprehension of purpose.
In this matter,
a person who experiences pain every moment due to standing
long with bent or stretched hands or feet does not get
concentration of mind (mental one-pointedness), his subject
of meditation entirely falls away, and he does not obtain
distinction (absorption and so forth). But he who bends or
stretches his hands and feet for the proper length of time
does not experience pain, gets concentration of mind,
develops his subject of meditation and attains distinction.
Thus the comprehension of purpose and non-purpose should be
known.
Clear
comprehension of suitability is the comprehension of the
suitable after considering the suitable and the non-suitable
even in a matter that is purposeful. In this connection, the
following is the method of explanation: It is said that on
the terrace of the Great Relic Shrine, while young bhikkhus
were rehearsing the doctrine, young bhikkhunis standing at
the back of the bhikkhus were listening to the rehearsal.
Then a young bhikkhu came into bodily contact with a
bhikkhuni while stretching out his hand, and, by just that
fact, became a layman. Another bhikkhu in stretching his
foot stretched it into fire and his foot got burnt to the
bone. Another stretched his foot on an ant-hill and was
bitten in the foot by a poisonous snake. Another bhikkhu
stretched out his hand till it rested on the pole of a
robe-tent, a ribbon-snake on the pole bit the hand of that
bhikkhu.
Therefore the
stretching of one's limbs should be done in a suitable and
not an unsuitable place. This should be understood here as
clear comprehension of suitability.
Just by the
showing of the tribulation of non-comprehension of that, the
felicity of comprehension is made clear; thus here, the
illustration of these should be understood.
In the
terrace of the Great Relic Shrine = In the
terrace of the great relic shrine known by the name of
Hemamali, at Anuradhapura, in Lanka, built by the king
Dutthagamini.
By just
that fact, became a layman = By reason of coming
into bodily contact with a female, that bhikkhu having
become filled with longing for sense-delights turned to the
lower life of the world.
On the
pole of a robe-tent = On a pole fixed to the roof
of a tent covered with robes.
It is said
by the commentator that bhikkhus having made a robe-tent
were in that tent rehearsing the doctrine even on the
terrace of the Great Relic Shrine.
It is said
by the commentators, the elders Ananda and Dhammapala, that
the ribbon-snake is a snake-species found in Lion Island.
Clear
comprehension of resort should indeed be illustrated by the
story of the senior bhikkhu called Great Elder.
It is said that
Great Elder seated in his day-quarters bent his arm quickly
whilst talking to his resident pupils and then after putting
back his arm to the position in which it first was, bent it
again slowly. The resident pupils questioned him thus:
"Reverend Sir, why, after bending the arm quickly, did you,
having placed it in the position in which it first was, bend
it slowly?" "Friends, until now I did not bend this arm with
a mind separate from the subject of meditation ever since I
began to attend to the subject of meditation. Therefore,
having put back the arm in the place it was first in, I
bent." "Good! Reverend Sir. A bhikkhu should be one who acts
thus." Here, too, it should be understood that the
non-abandoning of the subject of meditation is clear
comprehension of resort.
Subject
of meditation — The subject of meditation of the
elements (modes or processes) that is according to the
method about to be stated with the words "Within there is no
soul" and so forth.
Within there is
no soul that bends or stretches. By the diffusion of the
process of oscillation born of mental activity, bending and
stretching occur. Indeed, here, it should be understood that
the knowing in this way is clear comprehension of
non-delusion.
4. Clear
comprehension in wearing shoulder-cloak and so forth
Sanghati
patta civara dharane = "In wearing the shoulder-cloak,
the other (two) robes and the bowl."
In this
connection, purpose is what accrues materially to one, on
the almsround, and what is stated by the Blessed One
according to the method beginning with the words, "for
keeping out cold, for keeping out heat."
Suitable to one
who is naturally warm-bodied is fine clothing, and that is
suitable to one who is weak, too. To the susceptible to cold
is suitable thick clothing made of two pieces of cloth laid
one over the other and stitched together (called also a
double cloth), Non-suitable to these is clothing contrary to
the kind mentioned above.
A worn-out robe
is indeed not suitable as that robe will even be
hindrance-causing when one patches and sews or darns it.
Likewise,
hindrance-causing are robes of silk, fine hemp and similar
material that stimulate cupidity. For, to the lone-dweller
in the forest such robes are productive of loss of clothing
and of life.
With the
words, to the lone-dweller in the forest such robes are
productive of loss of clothing, the commentator
mentioned in part what constitutes the loss of (or
destruction of) the life of purity and it is stated so
because clothing is properly free to be taken or used by or
accessible to thieves and the like.
The robe
acquired by wrong means of livelihood and the robe which
decreases the good and increases the bad in the one who
wears it, are irreversibly not suitable.
Just by that
statement (or irreversibility) the commentator shows that
the non-suitable mentioned earlier is not non-suitable
absolutely because of the possibility of the non-suitable
mentioned earlier becoming suitable to someone, at some
time, owing to this or that reason. This pair (of robes
mentioned) here is however absolutely non-suitable, on
account of the absence of suitability to anyone at any time
Here, from the
foregoing, clear comprehension of the suitable and the
non-suitable should be understood; as the holding fast to
the line of meditative thought, by way of the
non-abandoning of the line of contemplation which the
commentator is going to state [vakkhamana kammatthanassa
avijahana vasena], clear comprehension of resort should
be understood.
Within there is
nothing called a soul that robes itself. According to the
method of exposition adopted already, only by the diffusion
of the process of oscillation born of mental activity does
the act of robing take place. The robe has no power to think
and the body too has not that power. The robe is not aware
of the fact that it is draping the body, and the body too of
itself does not think: "I am being draped round with the
robe.," Mere processes clothe a process-heap, in the same
way that a modelled figure is covered with a piece of cloth.
Therefore, there is neither room for elation on getting a
fine robe nor for depression on getting one that is not
fine.
Within.
In one's own mental flux [abbhantareti attano santane].
Body too.
Body too is only an ego-concept [kayapiti atta paññatti
matto kiyopi].
I
= Karma produced body [ahanti kamma bhuto kayo].
Processes
= External processes called robes [civara sankhata bahira
dhatuyo].
Process-heap = The internal process-collection
called the body [dhatu samuhanti kaya sankhatam ajjhattikam
dhatu samuham].
Some honor an
ant-hill where a cobra de capello lives, a tree-shrine, and
so forth, with garlands, perfumes, incense, cloth, and
similar things. Others maltreat these objects. Ant-hill,
tree-shrine and the like are, however, neither elated by the
good nor depressed by the bad treatment. Just in the same
way there should be no elation on receiving a good robe or
depression on getting a bad one. Clear comprehension of
non-delusion should be understood, in this connection, as
the proceeding of reflective thought, in this way.
And in using
the bowl, clear comprehension of purpose should be
understood, by way of the benefit obtainable through the
action of one who takes the bowl unhurriedly and thinks:
"Going out to beg with this I shall get alms."
With the
seeing of the purpose, the obtaining of food, should the
bowl be taken by one. In this way indeed does clear
comprehension of purpose arise.
To one with a
lean body which is weak a heavy bowl is not suitable. And
not suitable is a damaged bowl that is tied with thread and
stopped in four or five places and hard to wash properly. A
bowl that is hard to wash well, certainly, is not fit. There
will be inconvenience caused to him who washes that kind of
bowl.
A bowl
that is hard to wash well: This was said
concerning a bowl difficult to wash properly, naturally,
though it may be without mends.
A bright bowl
which shines like a gem and therefore is capable of
stimulating the cupidity of others is not suitable for the
same reasons given in regard to robes of silk, fine hemp and
so forth.
Just
irreversibly unsuitable are the bowl acquired by wrong means
of livelihood and the bowl by which good decreases and evils
increase. Through this explanation, clear comprehension of
suitability in this connection should be understood.
And by the fact
even of the holding fast to the subject of meditation should
clear comprehension of resort be understood.
Within there is
nothing called a self that is taking the bowl. As stated
already, by the diffusion of the process of oscillation born
of mental activity, there is the taking of the bowl. In this
matter of taking the bowl, the bowl cannot think. Hands too
cannot think. The bowl does not cognize that it is taken by
the hands. Hands do not cognize that the bowl is taken by
them. Just processes take a process-heap. It is comparable
to the taking of a red-hot vessel with a pair of tongs. By
way of the proceeding of reflective thought in this way,
clear comprehension of non-delusion should be understood in
bowl-taking.
And further, it
is like this: When kindly people see, in a refuge for the
helpless, unfortunate persons, with hands and feet cut off,
and with blood, pus, and many maggots in the open wounds,
and give to the unfortunate persons bandages and medicine in
containers, some of the miserable sufferers in the refuge
may get thick bandages and containers not shapely; others
may get thin bandages and shapely containers. None of the
sufferers will feel elated or depressed about the kind of
bandages and containers they receive. That is because they
merely want cloth to cover their wounds and containers for
keeping medicine. Now, the bhikkhu who regards the robe as a
bandage, the bowl as a medicine-container, and alms-food as
medicine in the bowl, through clear comprehension of
non-delusion should be taken as a person endowed with the
highest clear comprehension.
A person
endowed with the highest clear comprehension
should be known by way of the discernment of fineness of the
characteristic activity of one possessed of the highest
clear comprehension and by way of the highest state of the
previous practicers of clear comprehension.
5. Clear
comprehension in the partaking of food and drink
As to purpose,
there is the eightfold purpose referred to with the words,
"Not for sport" and so forth in the formula of reflection on
the four requisites of a bhikkhu. As such should clear
comprehension of purpose be known.
Non-suitable to
one is the food by which to that one there is discomfort,
whatever the food may be in quality or taste: coarse or fine
or bitter or sweet or anything else. Suitable is food that
does not cause discomfort.
Just
irreversibly non-suitable are these: the food acquired by
wrong means of livelihood and the food by which good
decreases and evils increase in one who partakes of it. Food
which is got by right means and food which does not cause
decrease of good and increase of evil in the one taking it
are suitable.
In this matter
of the partaking of food, clear comprehension of suitability
should be understood according to the explanation given
above, and the clear comprehension of resort should be
understood by way of the non-abandoning of the subject of
meditation.
Within there is
no eater called a self. As stated already, by the diffusion
of the process of oscillation born of mental activity, only,
there is the receiving of food in the bowl; by the diffusion
of the process of oscillation born of mental activity, only,
there is the descent of the hand into the bowl; and by the
diffusion of the process of oscillation born of mental
activity, only, the making of the food into suitable lumps,
the raising of the lumps from the bowl, and the opening of
the mouth take place. No one opens the jaws with a key. No
one opens the jaws with a contrivance. Just by the diffusion
of the process of oscillation born of mental activity, take
place the putting of a lump of food in the mouth, the
pestle-action of the upper row of teeth, the mortar-work of
the lower row of teeth, and the tongue's activity comparable
to that of the hand collecting together material that is
being crushed. Thus that lump of food in the mouth is mixed
together with the thin saliva at the end of the tongue and
the thick saliva at the root of the tongue. That food in the
mortar of the lower teeth, turned by the tongue, moistened
by the saliva, and ground fine by the pestle of the upper
teeth is not put into the stomach by anyone with a ladle or
a spoon. Just by the process of oscillation it goes on.
There is no one within who having made a straw mat is
bearing each lump that goes in. Each lump stands by reason
of the process of oscillation. There is no one who having
put up an oven and lit a fire is cooking each lump standing
there. By only the process of caloricity the lump of food
matures. There is no one who expels each digested lump with
a stick or pole. Just the process of oscillation expels the
digested food.
It is
oscillation [vayodhatu] that does the taking onward,
the moving away from side to side; and it is oscillation
that bears, turns round, pulverizes, causes the removal of
liquidity, and expels.
Extension [pathavidhatu]
also does bearing up, turning round, pulverizing and the
removal of liquidity.
Cohesion (apodhatu]
moistens and preserves wetness.
Caloricity [tejodhatu]
ripens or digests the food that goes in.
Space [akasadhatu]
becomes the way for the entering of the food.
Consciousness
[viññanadhatu] as a consequence of right kind of
action knows in any particular situation.
According to
reflection of this sort, should the clear comprehension of
non-delusion be understood here.
Taking
onward: moving on up to the mouth.
Moving
away from side to side: taking forwards from
there to the belly.
Again,
taking onward = carrying beyond the
mouth-aperture.
Moving
away from side to side = taking what is going
belly-wards, side-wise.
Bears
= causes to stand in the stomach.
Turns
round = causes to turn back and forth.
Pulverizes = causes the complete powdering as if
by a pestle.
Expels
= causes the depositing outside the belly.
In regard to
the functions of the process of extension, too, the
explanation is similar to that which has been already
stated.
Indeed,
these — bearing, turning, pulverizing, drying — the process
of oscillation is able to do, only, together with the
process of extension. Not singly by itself. Therefore, these
— bearing, turning, pulverizing, the removal of liquidity or
drying — too, are stated by way of the function of the
process of extension.
Moistens
= makes humid.
Preserves
wetness: Just as there is no very great drying by
the process of oscillation and so forth, so the process of
cohesion preserves wetness by not wetting quite.
The way
= the way for entering, turning round, expelling
(actually the openings or vacuities which provide the range
for such functions).
Process
of consciousness = mind-consciousness process,
the knowledge in regard to seeking food, swallowing and the
like.
In any
particular situation = in any function of
seeking, swallowing or other similar act.
Right
kind of action. The act which even completes a
function and becomes a condition for any particular kind of
knowledge. That act causes fulfillment of even the knowledge
of the scope of that function, by reason of that knowledge
not arising without the act.
Knows.
Perceives, understands, by way of seeking, by way of full
experience of swallowing, by way of the digested, the
undigested and so forth.
It should be
understood that as knowledge is always preceded by the
adverting or the turning of the mind to a thing, knowledge
too is included here.
Further, the
clear comprehension of non-delusion should be understood
through reflection on the unpleasantness connected with
food, in the following ten ways: By way of the need to go to
get it (1), to seek it (2), the process of eating it (3), by
way of the receptacle (in the form of secretion of bile, and
so forth) (4), by way of the belly (5), by way of food that
is undigested (6), by way of food that is digested (7), by
way of the consequences of eating (8), by way of the
trickling or oozing of food from the body's openings in the
form of excretions (9), and by way of the pollution due to
food (10).
The detailed
exposition of the contemplation on the unpleasantness
connected with food is given in the Path of Purity (and its
commentary, The Casket of the Highest Thing, Paramattha
Mañjusa).
By way of
the need to go for it (food): By way of going
towards the alms-village in the sense of wandering for alms.
The return journey is also included.
By way of
the need to seek it: By way of wandering for alms
in the alms-village. Entry into a retiring hall and the like
become included in this, naturally.
By way of
the process of eating it: By way of taking in the
contemptible food comparable to dog's vomit in a dog's food
trough, rid of color and odor just when the tongue turns the
food which has been reduced to pulp by the pestles of the
teeth.
By way of
the receptacle (in the form of excretion of bile, phlegm,
pus and blood): Through the food thus taken in
becoming the condition for prime contemptibility, by way of
the fourfold receptacle placed on the top of the stomach.
What stands,
exists, there, in the upper part of the stomach is the
staying place, the receptacle.
By way of
the food that is undigested: By way of
non-preparation of the food in the stomach and the
intestines for absorption by the body, through the process
of karma-produced caloricity called "the seizer," a supposed
organ of the body which functions in digestion, according to
Ayurvedic teaching of ancient India.
By way of
the food that is digested: Digested through just
the karma-produced process of caloricity abovementioned.
By way of
the consequences of eating: By way of effect. By
way of the business called the bringing about of
carcass-products like hair, and diseases, like skin
eruptions through the digested and undigested food. This is
stated by the commentator as the fruit of food.
By way of
the trickling or oozing of food from the body's openings in
the form of excretions: By way of the flowing out
from eye, ear and several other openings, here and there.
For it is said by the Ancients:
Hard eats,
soft eats, food and drink superfine,
Get in at one door and get out by nine.
By way of
the pollution due to food: By way of the smearing
throughout, when eating, of the hands, lips, and other
members of that kind, and, after eating, of the nine
openings or doors of the body.
6. Clear
comprehension of cleansing the body
Uccara
passavakamme = In defecating and in urinating" means:
When the time is come, when the time is proper, if
one does not defecate or urinate, then, one's body
perspires, one's eyes reel, one's mind is not collected, and
illness in the form of sharp pain, fistula, and so forth
arise for one. But to one who defecates and urinates at the
proper time none of these discomforts, disadvantages,
troubles and illnesses arise. This is the sense in which
this matter should be understood, and in this sense should
clear comprehension of purpose in defecation and urination
be taken.
By defecating
or urinating in an improper place, one commits disciplinary
offences, one goes on getting a bad name, and one endangers
one's life. Fields occupied or frequented by humans and
places occupied or frequented by devas, and deva-sanctuaries,
are improper. Angry men and spirits cause even death to
those who defecate or urinate in such places. By using such
places for cleansing the waste of the body bhikkhus and
bhikkunis become guilty of the disciplinary offences of
minor wrong-doing (dukkata) or of acts expiable by
confession (pacittiya) according to the circumstances.
But to one
evacuating the bowels or the bladder in a place suitable for
such evacuation those offences or troubles just mentioned
above have no reference. And by way of that fitness of
place, clear comprehension of suitability should be
understood.
By the
non-abandoning of the subject of meditation, clear
comprehension of resort should be understood.
Within there is
no doer of the act of defecation or urination. Only by the
diffusion of the process of oscillation born of mental
activity defecation and urination occur, just as in a
matured boil, by the bursting of the boil, pus and blood
come out without any kind of wishing to come out and just as
from an overfull water-pot water comes out without any
desire for coming out, so too, the feces and urine
accumulated in the abdomen and the bladder are pressed out
by the force of the process of oscillation. Certainly this
feces-and-urine coming out thus is neither that bhikkhu's
own nor another's. It is just bodily excretion. When from a
water-vessel or calabash a person throws out the old water,
the water thrown out is neither his nor other's. It simply
forms parts of a process of cleansing. In the form of
reflection proceeding in this way clear comprehension of
non-delusion should be understood.
7. Clear
comprehension of walking and so forth
Now we come to
the explanation of the instruction dealing with clear
comprehension "in walking, in standing in a place, in
sitting in some position, in sleeping, in walking, in
speaking and in keeping silence" = Gate thite nisinne
sutte jagarite bhasite tunhibhave.
By the words:
"When he is going a bhikkhu understands 'I am going,'" and
so froth, postures of long duration are indicated. And by
the words, "in going forwards and backwards... in bending
and in stretching," postures of middling duration; and by
the words, "in walking, in standing... In sleeping,"
postures of short, brief duration. Therefore in these three
parts of the instruction the practicing of clear
comprehension should be known even by the triple method
stated here.
Postures
of long duration [addhana iriyapatha]: postures
kept up long or postures existing in a process of going for
or of one wayfaring long.
Postures
of middling duration [majjhima]: postures
proceeding neither too long in time nor involving too long
wayfaring, namely, those connected with wandering for alms
and so forth.
Postures
of short duration [cunnika iriyapatha]: postures
become diminutive, by reason of brief duration and
proceeding by way of going about and so forth in the
monastery or elsewhere.
The Elder
Tipitaka Maha Siva indeed said: Who, after walking or
exercising long in the ambulatory, stands and reflects: "The
bodily and mental things which existed during the time of
exercises on the ambulatory ended just there on the
ambulatory," is called a doer of clear comprehension in
walking.
When, after
standing for a long time in study or answering a question or
minding a subject of meditation, sits and reflects: "The
bodily and mental things which existed during the time of
standing ended just at the time of standing," is called a
doer of clear comprehension in standing.
Who, after
sitting for a long time in study or other similar work, lies
down and reflects: "The bodily and mental things which
existed when sitting ended just at the time of sitting," is
called a doer of clear comprehension in sitting.
Who, after
lying down falls asleep, and, then, after getting up from
his sleep, reflects: "The bodily and mental things which
existed during the time of sleep ended just during sleep,"
is called a doer of clear comprehension in sleeping and
waking.
By reason of
proximity of the word "waking," here the action of lying
down is only sleep in the sense of the descent of the mind
into the state of the life-continum. It is not merely the
stretching out of the back.
The
non-occurrence of processes which make action or are made of
action is sleep; the occurrence, waking.
Action is
doing, function of body and so forth (i.e., bodily
expression or verbal expression, kayaviññatti va
vaciviññatti). The processes which make action produce the
function of bodily expression or the function of verbal
expression. Or action is the double function of adverting.
The things made of or produced from that action or double
function are processes made of action. For by way of
adverting, when there is the stoppage of the life-continum,
courses of cognition arise [karanam kriya kayadikiccam. Tam
nibbattentiti kriyamayani. Athava avajjanadvayakiccam kriya;
taya pakatani, nibbattani va kriyamayani. Avajjanavasenahi
bhavangupaccede sati vithicittani uppajjanti].
Processes
are things which go on, move changing, by arising gradually
in different ways. Somewhere there is the reading "of mental
states," "of action-making mental states, kriyamaya cittanam."
It should be understood that this is not a reading of the
Ancients as it is against the commentary and explanation to
the Abhidhamma and other books [aparaparuppattiya
nanappakarato vattanti parivattantiti pavattani. Katthaci
pana cittananti patho. So Abhidhammatthakathadihi tattikahi
ca viruddhatta na Parana pathoti veditabbo].
Impulsion of
either course of cognition (mind-door or five-door course of
cognition) is a process made of action. Therefore it is said
in the explanation to the Abhiddhamma, "On account of the
condition of processes making action of body and so forth
and by reason of the condition of originating action of
adverting, impulsion of either course of cognition, or lust
of every process of the six doors gets known as a process
which makes or is made of action." [javanam sabbampi va
chaddvarika vithi cittam kriyamaya pavattani. Tenaha
Abhidhammatikayam kayadi kriyamayatta avajjamakriya
samutthitatta ca javanam sabbampi va chaddvarapavattam
kriyamayapavattam namati].
[25]
Non-occurrence: Non-arising (of the processes
which make action or are made of action) at the time of
falling asleep is called sleep. Thus the thing should be
understood. Otherwise sleep could be called the proceeding
of even all states of door-free consciousness (namely, every
instance of the supervention of the life-continum), before
and after the six-door states of consciousness; so, it
should be understood that the supervention of the life-continum
at a time other than that of falling asleep is included in
waking [appavattanti niddokkamana kale anuppajjanam suttam
namati attho gahetabbo. Itaratha chaddvarika cittanam pure
caranucaravasena uppajjantanam sabbesampi dvaravimutta
cittanam pavattam suttam nama siya, evañca katva
niddokkamana kalato aññasmim kale uppajjantanam dvaravimutta
cittanampi pavattam jagarito sangayhatiti veditabbam].
He who whilst
speaking thinks: "This sound arises dependent on the lips,
teeth, tongue, palate, and the act of the mind that accords
to that sound," speaks, mindful and clearly comprehending.
He who for a
long time has studied or expounded the Teaching or recited
the words of the subject of meditation, or cleared a
question, and later, on becoming silent, thinks: "The bodily
and mental things which arose during the time of speaking
ended just then," is called a doer of clear comprehension in
speaking.
He who, after
remaining silent long considering the Teaching or his
subject of meditation, thinks that the bodily and mental
things that existed in the time of silence ended just then,
that the occurrence of derived material qualities is speech,
and that the non-occurrence of these is silence, is called a
doer of clear comprehension in keeping silence.
This dominance
of non-delusion stated by the Elder Maha Siva is intended
here in this Discourse on the Arousing of Mindfulness. But
in the Discourse on the Fruit of the Homeless Life (Samañña
phala Sutta) even the entire fourfold clear
comprehension is found. Therefore in a special way, here,
only by way of clear comprehension of non-delusion should be
understood the state of doing clear comprehension.
The
occurrence of the sound-base is speech; its non-occurrence
is silence [saddayatanassa pavattanam bhasanam appavattanam
tunhi].
Since,
indeed, in the exposition of the Elder Maha Siva the state
of clear comprehension is considered by way of the vision of
the ending then and there of material and mental qualities
occurring in posture after posture, without a break, the
state of clear comprehension should be known by way of the
insight portion of the clear comprehension of non-delusion
come down in the Discourse on the Arousing of Mindfulness;
not by way of the detailing of the fourfold clear
comprehension. Therefore, only, in the Discourse on the
Fruit of the Homeless Life (Samaññaphala Sutta) is that
fourfold clear comprehension intended.
The
dominance of non-delusion refers to the statement to which
non-delusion is the dominant or principal thing. This
statement of the Elder Maha Siva contains the reason that is
found only in the Satipatthana Sutta in this connection,
namely, clear comprehension of non-delusion, by way of the
insight portion or turn; and not the detailing of fourfold
clear comprehension as given in the Samaññaphala Sutta.
In all
statements the meaning of the term "clear comprehension"
should be understood by way of only clear comprehension that
is endowed with mindfulness. Indeed in the Book of
Classifications (Vibhangappakarana) these are put
just in this way: "One goes forward, mindful and clearly
comprehending; one goes backwards, mindful and clearly
comprehending."
[26]
By the words
only clear comprehension that is endowed with mindfulness,
both the importance of clear comprehension by way of
function and that of mindfulness are taken. Indeed it is not
the pointing out of merely the condition of mindfulness with
clear comprehension for it is said, "nowhere does knowledge
exist without mindfulness."
Now in order
to reinforce that thing by the Classificatory Method too [vibhanga
nayenapi tadattham samatthetum], the words "Indeed, in the
Book of Classifications" and so forth were spoken by the
commentator.
By this
indeed, one makes clear the importance even of mindfulness
here as of clear comprehension [imina pi hi sampajaññassa
viya satiya pettha patthanam (padhanam) yeva vibhaveti].
There,
"these" refers to the synoptical statement beginning
with "In going forwards and in going backwards, he is a doer
of clear comprehension." [tattha etani padaniti abhikkante
patikkante sampajana kari hoti adini uddesa padani].
The reciters
of the Middle Collection [Majjhimabhanaka] however and the
scholars of the Abhidhamma [Abhidhammika] say thus: "A
certain bhikkhu goes thinking the while of something else,
considering something else (that is, not thinking of or
considering his action of going, or his subject of
meditation.)
Another goes
without causing the abandoning of the subject of meditation.
In the same manner, a certain bhikkhu thinking the while of
something else, considering something else, is standing,
sitting, or sleeping (lying down); another sleeps (lies
down) without causing the abandoning of the subject of
meditation." [eko bhikkhu gacchanto aññam cintento aññam
vitakkento gacchati. Eko kammatthanam avissajjetva va
gacchati. Tatha eko titthanto nisidanto sayanto aññam
cintento aññnam vitakkento sayati. Eko kammatthanam
avissajjetva va sayati].
Indeed the
earnest bhikkhu comprehends thus: The material and mental
qualities which existed at the east end of the ambulatory
passed away just there without reaching the west end of the
ambulatory. The material and mental qualities which existed
at the west end of the ambulatory, too, passed away just
there without reaching the east end of the ambulatory. The
material and mental qualities which existed at the very
center of the ambulatory passed away just there without
reaching either end of the ambulatory. The material and
mental qualities which existed in walking, passed away
without reaching the position of standing. The material and
mental qualities which existed in the position of standing
passed away just there without reaching the position of
sitting; of sitting, without reaching the position of
sleeping. Comprehending in this way again and again, the
mind enters the life-continum, the unconscious. When
arising, he at once takes up the subject of meditation. This
bhikkhu is a doer of clear comprehension in walking (going
about) and so forth. In this way, however, the subject
becomes unclear in sleep; the subject of meditation should
not be made unclear. Therefore the bhikkhu, having exercised
to the full extent of his ability on the ambulatory, stood,
and sat, lies down comprehending thus: "The body is
unconscious; the bed is unconscious. The body does not know,
'I am lying down on the bed.' The bed also does not know,
'On me the body is lying down.' He, whilst just
comprehending again and again thus, "The unconscious body is
lying down on the unconscious bed," the mind enters the
life-continum, the unconscious. On awakening, he at once
takes up the subject of meditation. This bhikkhu is called a
doer of clear comprehension in sleeping.
[27]
Iti
ajjhattam = "Thus internally." Thus the bhikkhu lives
contemplating the body in the body by way of the laying hold
of the fourfold comprehension either in his own body or in
another's body, or at one time in his own body, and in
another's at another time. And, here too, "in contemplating
origination" and so forth, the origin and the dissolution of
only the materiality aggregate should, in the exposition, be
taken out. The remainder is to be understood just by the
method already stated by the commentator. Here, the Truth of
Suffering is the mindfulness which lays hold of the fourfold
clear comprehension; the Truth of Origination is the
pre-craving which originates that mindfulness; the
non-occurrence of either is the Truth of Cessation; the Real
Path already stated is the Way-truth. Thus, the bhikkhu
having striven by way of the Four Noble Truths reaches
peace. This is indeed the means of deliverance up to
arahantship of one who lays hold of the fourfold clear
comprehension.
The Section of
Reflection on Repulsiveness
After
explaining body-contemplation by way of the fourfold clear
comprehension, to explain it by way of the reflection of
repulsiveness, the Master said: "And further," and so forth.
Everything that
should be said in connection with the passage beginning with
"On just this body" and so forth, is stated in detail,
taking into consideration all aspects of the matter, in the
Path of Purity, the Visuddhi Magga, and its commentary, The
Casket of the Highest Thing, Paramattha Mañjusa; a summary
of that account is given here.
This reflection
by way of mindfulness directed bodywards, called the
reflection of repulsiveness is unknown to non-Buddhists in
the form of subject of meditation development (kammatthana
bhavana vasena). Hence it is a thing which comes into being
when a Buddha arises; not at other times. This mindfulness
directed bodywards leads to the following:
Great
moral-emotional upsurge (maha samvega).
The great
tranquillity or security based on effort (maha
yogakkhema)
Great
mindfulness and clear comprehension (maha sati
sampajañña)
Attainment of
insight-knowledge (ñanadassanapatilabha)
Happy living
here and now (ditthadhammasukhavihara)
Realization
of the fruition of wisdom and freedom
[28]
(vijjavi-muttiphalasacchikiriya).
This
mindfulness has been explained in the following sections:
Breathing-in-and-out; four kinds of deportment; the fourfold
clear comprehension; the reflection on repulsiveness; the
reflection on the elements or modes of existence; and the
nine cemetery contemplation.
There are these
seven kinds of skill in study to be acquired in regard to
this subject of meditation, by:
Repetition of
the thirty-two parts of the body verbally (vacasa).
Repetition of
the parts only mentally (manasa).
Determining
of the hair of the head and so forth according to color
(vannato).
Determining
of the parts according to shape (santhanato).
Determination
of situation of the parts as above or below the navel, on
the upper or lower side of the body, directionally (disato).
Determination
of the place in the body acquired by a part, that is,
determination spatially (okasato).
Determination
of one part by the position of another to it and by way of
dissimilarity of one part to another (paricchedato).
There are these
ten kinds of skill in reflecting on this subject of
meditation:
Doing the
meditation gradually as one climbing a stairway one step
after another in due order taking one part after another
serially (anupubbato).
Doing it not
too quickly (natisighato).
Doing it not
too slowly (natisanikato).
Doing it by
warding off mental rambling (vikkhepapatibahanato).
Practice by
way of going beyond the concept of hair and so forth to
the idea of repulsiveness (pannattisamatikkamanato).
Practice by
gradual elimination of the less clear parts (anupubbamuñcanato).
Practice by
way of the part which is the source of ecstasy (appanato).
Practice by
way of the Three Discourses: Adhicitta,
[29]
Sitibhava,
[30]
and Bojjhangakosalla.
[31]
The following
is the application of the simile: Like the bag with the two
openings is the body made up of the four great primaries,
earth, water, fire and air. The thirty-two parts beginning
with hair-of-the-head are like the various grains thrown
into that bag after mixing them. Like a man with seeing eyes
is the yogi. Comparable to the time when after loosening the
bag the various grains become clear to one reflecting, is
the time when the thirty-two parts become clear to the yogi.
Iti
ajjhattam = "Thus internally." The bhikkhu lives
contemplating the body in his body or in another's.
Sometimes he contemplates the body in his own body, at other
times in another's, by way of laying hold on things
beginning with the hair of the head.
From here the
meaning should be known just in the way already stated by
the commentator. Here the mindfulness which lays hold of the
thirty-two parts, is the Truth of Suffering. Having
interpreted, thus, the portal to emancipation should be
understood.
The Section of
Reflection on the Modes of Materiality
The Master
having explained body-contemplation in the form of
reflection on the repulsiveness of the thirty-two parts of
the body, said: "And further," now, to set forth
body-contemplation by way of reflection on the modes (or
elements) of materiality.
The elaboration
of the meaning together with the application of the simile,
in this connection, is as follows:
Just as if some
cow-butcher or a cow-butcher's apprentice, a man who works
for his keep, having killed a cow and made it into parts,
were sitting at a four-cross-road, just so, a bhikkhu
reflects, by way of the modes, on the body, in any one of
the four postures thus: "There are in this body the modes of
extension, cohesion, caloricity, and oscillation."
The cow-butcher
does not get rid of the cow-percept while feeding the cow,
driving it to the place of slaughter, tying it and putting
it up there, killing it, and even when seeing the dead
carcass of the cow; not until he cuts it up and divides it
into parts does the perception of a cow disappear. To that
butcher sitting (with the meat before him) after cutting up
the cow, however, the perception of a cow disappears, and
the perception of flesh comes into being. To him, there is
not this thought: "I am selling the cow; these people are
taking away the cow." But to him, indeed, there occurs this
thought: "I am selling flesh; these people indeed, are
taking away flesh."...
To the bhikkhu,
similarly, the perception of a being or the perception of a
person does not disappear as long as he does not reflect, by
way of the modes of materiality, in this body as it is
placed or disposed in whatsoever position, after sifting
thoroughly the apparently compact aggregation. To him who
reflects by way of the modes of materiality, however, the
perception of a being disappears; the mind gets established
by way of the modes of materiality. Therefore, the Blessed
One declared: "A bhikkhu reflects on just this body
according as it is placed or disposed, by way of the mode of
materiality, thinking thus: 'There are, in this body, the
mode of solidity, the mode of cohesion, the mode of
caloricity, and the mode of oscillation.' O bhikkhus, in
whatever manner, a clever cow-butcher or a cow-butcher's
apprentice having slaughtered a cow and divided it by way of
portions should be sitting at the junction of a cross-road,
in the same manner, a bhikkhu reflects... thinking thus:
'There are, in this body, the mode of solidity... And the
mode of oscillation.' = Imameva kayam yatha thitam yatha
panihitam dhatuso paccavekkhati: atthi imasmim kaye
pathavidhatu apodhatu tejodhatu vayodhatuti. Seyyathapi
bhikkhave dakkho goghatako va goghatakantevasi va gavim
vadhitva catummahapathe bilaso pativibhajitva nissinno assa
evameva kho bhikkhave bhikkhu imameva kayam... paccavekkhati
atthi imasmim kaye pathavidhatu... vayodhatuti.
The yogi is
comparable to the cow-butcher; the perception of a being is
comparable to the perception of a cow; the fourfold posture
is comparable to the cross-road; and the reflection by way
of the modes of materiality is comparable to the state of
sitting with the cow's flesh in front after dividing the cow
into parts. Here, this is the textual explanation. Details
of the reflection on the modes of materiality as a subject
of meditation, however, are given in the Path of Purity.
Iti
ajjhattam = "Thus internally." One dwells contemplating
the body in the body thus by way of the laying hold of the
four modes of materiality, in one's own or in another's body
or at one time in one's own body and at another time in
another's body. From here on the exposition should be known
just by the method already mentioned. The mindfulness which
lays hold of the four modes of materiality is the Truth of
Suffering. Thus the portal to deliverance should be known.
By the word
placed there is the elucidation of occasion by way of
own (or particular) function of material things known as the
body in various moments [kaya sankhatam rupadhammanam tasmim
tasmim khane sakicca vasena avatthana paridipanam].
By the word
disposed here the following meaning should be known:
By way of condition, the putting down or settling owing to
the arrangement of several conditions [paccaya vasena tehi
tehi paccayehi pakarato nihitam].
Reflects
(paccavekkhati) = Considers again and again, sees
analytically, part by part, separately after sifting
thoroughly with the eye of wisdom [pati pati avekkhati
ñanacakkhuna vinibhujjitva visum visum passati].
The Section on
the Nine Cemetery Contemplations
After
explaining body-contemplation in the form of the modes of
materiality, the Master said, "And further," in order to
explain body-contemplation through the nine cemetery
contemplations.
Uddhumatam
= "Swollen." By reason of the swelled state of the corpse
comparable to a pair of wind-filled bellows owing to the
gradually uprising bloattedness after death.
Vinilakam
= "Blue" is stated to be the color of fully differing shades
[viparibhinnavannam]. Blue is that corpse which is reddish
in the protuberantly fleshy parts, and whitish in the
purulent parts, while, in those parts which are
predominantly blue it seems to be as though covered with a
blue mantle. This is the descriptive statement of the "blue"
corpse.
Vipubbakajatam = "Festering" is the corpse that is full
of pus flowing from the broken parts or from the nine
openings of the body.
So imameva
kayam upasamharati ayampi kho kayo evam dhammo evam bhavi
evam anatitoti = "He thinks of his own body thus: 'This
body of mine, too, is of the same nature as that (dead)
body, is going to be like that body, and has not got past
the condition of becoming like that body.'"
This has been
stated: By the existence of these three: life [ayu],
warmth [usma], consciousness [viññanam], this
body can endure to stand, to walk, and do other things; by
the separation of these three however this body is indeed a
thing like that corpse, is possessed of the nature of
corruption, is going to become like that, will become
swollen, blue and festering and cannot escape the state of
being like that, cannot transcend the condition of swelling
up, become blue and festering.
Iti
ajjhattam = "Thus internally." Thus by laying hold of
the state of swelling and so forth, in regard to one's own
body or another's, or at one time in regard to one's own and
at another in regard to another's, one dwells contemplating
the body in the body.
Khajjamanam
= "Whilst it is being eaten": When crows and other creatures
after sitting on the belly or another part of the corpse are
eating the carcass by picking the flesh of the belly, of the
lips, the corners of the eye and so forth.
Samamsalohitam = "Together with (some) flesh and blood":
With the flesh and blood still remaining.
Nimmamsalohitam = "Blood-besmeared (skeleton) without
flesh": When, though rid of flesh, the blood is still not
dry.
Aññena =
"In a different place": In a different direction.
Hatthatthikam = "Bone of the hand": the sixty-four kinds
of bones of the hand; when these are lying in different
places separate from one another. In the explanation of the
bone of the foot and so forth, the method is the same as
this.
Terovassikani = "More than a year old": beyond a year in
a state of exposure.
Putini =
"Rotten": just those in the open become rotten by being
exposed to wind, sun and rain for over a year. Bones buried
in the earth last longer.
Cunnakajatani = "Become dust": scattered in the form of
powder.
Everywhere,
according to the method already stated beginning: "He thinks
of his own body thus: 'This body of mine too is of the same
nature as that (dead) body, is going to be like that body,
and has not got past the condition of becoming like that
body."
Iti
ajjhattam = "Thus internally": Thus through the laying
hold of the corpse from the state in which it is being eaten
by crows and other creatures to the state when it is dust,
one dwells contemplating the body in one's own body, or in
another's or at one time in one's own body and at another
time in another's body.
Further having
stopped here one should put together the nine cemetery
contemplations thus:
Ekahamatam
va dvihamatam va tihamatam va = "A body dead one, two or
three day." This is the first contemplation.
Kakehi va
khajjamanam = "Whilst it is being eaten by crows." This
portion of the Discourse where the devouring of the body of
various kinds of animals is stated refers to the second
contemplation.
Atthikasamkhalikam samamsalohitam naharusamban-dham = "A
skeleton together with (some) flesh and blood held in by the
tendons." This is the third contemplation.
Nimmamsalohitamakkhitam naharusambandham = "A
blood-smeared skeleton without flesh but held in by the
tendons." This is the fourth.
Apagatamamsalohitam naharusambandham = "A skeleton held
in by the tendons but without flesh and not besmeared with
blood." This is the fifth.
Atthikani
apagatasambandhani = "Bones gone loose, scattered in all
directions." This is the sixth.
Atthikani
setani sankhavannupanibhani = "Bones white in color like
a conch." This is the seventh.
Atthikani
puñjakitani terovassikani = "Bones more than a year old
heaped together." This is the eighth.
Atthikani
putini cunnakajatani = "Bones gone rotten and become
dust." This is the ninth.
Evam kho
bhikkhave = "Thus, indeed, o bhikkhus." He said this
bringing to an end body-contemplation after pointing out the
nine cemetery contemplations. The mindfulness which lays
hold of the nine cemetery contemplations is the Truth of
Suffering; the previous craving which originates that
mindfulness is the Truth of Origin; the non-occurrence of
both that mindfulness and the craving is the Truth of
Cessation. The Real Path that understands suffering, casts
out the origin, and has cessation for its object is the
Truth of the Way. Endeavoring in this way by means of the
Four Truths one arrives at peace. This is for the bhikkhu
who lays hold of the nine cemetery contemplations the portal
of deliverance up to arahantship.
Now, these are
the fourteen portions which comprise body-contemplation: The
section on breathing in and breathing out, on the postures,
on the four kinds of clear comprehension, of reflection on
repulsiveness, on the modes of materiality, and on the nine
cemetery contemplations. There, only the sections on
breathing in and breathing out and of the reflection on
repulsiveness can become meditation-subjects of full
absorption. As the cemetery contemplations are stated by way
of consideration of disadvantages, dangers or evils, all the
remaining twelve are only meditation-subjects of partial
absorption.
The
Contemplation of Feeling
The Blessed One
having in this way set forth the Arousing of Mindfulness
through the fourteenfold method of body-contemplation, now
said, "And now, o bhikkhus," in order to expound the
ninefold method of contemplation of feeling.
There, the
meaning of "pleasant feeling" = sukham vedanam, is as
follows: The bhikkhu when experiencing a bodily or mental
pleasant feeling knows, "I experience a pleasant feeling."
Certainly,
while they experience a pleasant feeling, in sucking the
breast and on similar occasions, even infants lying on their
backs know that they experience pleasure. But this
meditator's knowledge is different. Knowledge of pleasure
possessed by infants lying on their backs and other similar
kinds of knowledge of pleasure do not cast out the belief in
a being, do not root out the perception of a being, do not
become a subject of meditation and do not become the
cultivation of the Arousing of Mindfulness. But the
knowledge of this bhikkhu casts out the belief in a being,
uproots the perception of a being, is a subject of
meditation and is the cultivation of the Arousing of
Mindfulness. Indeed, the knowledge meant here is concerned
with experience that is wisely understood through inquiry.
Who feels? No
being or person. Whose is the feeling? Not of a being or
person. Owing to what is there the feeling? Feeling can
arise with (certain) things — forms, sounds, smells and
so forth — as objects. That bhikkhu knows, therefore,
that there is a mere experiencing of feeling after the
objectifying of a particular pleasurable or painful physical
basis or of one of indifference. (There is no ego that
experiences) because there is no doer or agent [kattu]
besides a bare process [dhamma]. The word "bare" indicates
that the process is impersonal. The words of the
Discourse, "I experience (or feel)," form a conventional
expression, indeed, for that process of impersonal feeling.
It should be understood that the bhikkhu knows that with the
objectification of a property or basis he experiences a
feeling.
It is said that
an Elder of Cittala Hill was sick, turning over from side to
side, again and again, and groaning with great pain. To him
a young bhikkhu said: "Venerable Sir, which part of your
body is painful?" — "A specially painful place, indeed,
there is not; as a result of taking certain things (such as
forms, sounds etc.) for object there is the experiencing of
painful feeling," replied the Elder. "Venerable Sir, from
the time one knows that, is not bearing up befitting?" said
the young bhikkhu. "I am bearing up, friend," said the
Elder. "Bearing up is excellent, Venerable Sir," said the
young bhikkhu. The Elder bore up. Thereafter, the aerial
humor caused injury right up to the heart. His intestines
protruded out and lay in a heap on the bed. The Elder
pointed that out to the young bhikkhu and said: "Friend, is
bearing up so far befitting?" The young bhikkhu remained
silent. The Elder, having applied concentration with energy,
attained arahantship with Analytical Knowledge and passed
away into the final peace of Nibbana, in the state of
consciousness immediately after the course of reflection on
the fruit of arahantship, thus realizing the highest and
passing away nearly at the same time.
Just as when
experiencing a pleasant feeling, so too when experiencing a
painful feeling... a neither-pleasant-nor-painful spiritual
feeling he understands, "I experience a
neither-pleasant-nor-painful spiritual feeling."
Thus the
Blessed One when expounding the non-corporeal subject of
meditation after the corporeal subject of meditation,
expounds it by way of feeling. For twofold is the subject of
meditation: the subject of meditation of corporeality or
materiality and the subject of meditation which is
non-corporeal or non-material. This twofold subject of
meditation is also spoken of as the laying hold of the
mental and the laying hold of the material.
While the
Blessed One is expounding the material subject of meditation
by way of brief or lengthy reflection he expounds the
discernment of the four modes (or elements) of materiality [dhatu].
Both those ways of reflection are pointed out fully, in the
Path of Purity.
While
expounding, however, the mental subject of meditation
generally the Master expounds it by way of the contemplation
on feeling.
Threefold,
indeed, is the establishing in the mental subject of
meditation: by way of sense-impression, feeling and mind.
How? To some meditator, indeed, when the material subject of
meditation is laid hold of, when there is the first impact
of mind-with-mental-characteristics on the object (or the
first Apprehension of that object), the sense-impression
that arises with the contacting of that object becomes
clear. To another the feeling that arises with the
experiencing of that object becomes clear. To yet another
the consciousness that arises with the knowing of that
object becomes clear.
When
sense-impression becomes clear, not only does
sense-impression arise; together with that sense-impression,
arise feeling, perception, volition and consciousness.
When feeling
becomes clear the other four too arise.
Also when
consciousness becomes clear the other four arise.
The bhikkhu, on
reflecting thus: "Dependent on what is this group of five
things?" knows as follows: "Dependent on the (coarse)
corporeal base (vatthu)."
That coarse
body [karaja kaya] about which it is said: "And
indeed this consciousness of mine is depending on, is bound
up with this body," that, in its actual nature consists of
the four great physical things, the four great primaries,
and the physical qualities sourcing from the four great
primaries. These physical qualities are called derived
materiality. Here, the bhikkhu sees mind and body, thinking,
"The (coarse) corporeal base aforesaid is body; the five
beginning with sense-impression are mind."
In this
connection there are the five aggregates because the body is
the aggregate of materiality, and the mind, the four
aggregates of non-material things. There is neither a
fivefold aggregation separate from the mind and body nor a
mind and body separate from the fivefold aggregation. The
bhikkhu who tries to find out what the cause of these five
aggregates is sees that these are due to ignorance, etc.
Henceforth the bhikkhu lives with thorough knowledge
thinking that this thing, the fivefold aggregation, is only
something conditioned and includes what is produced from
conditioning. It is a congeries of bare formations, indeed,
of bare processes. He applies to it, by way of the mind and
body that exist together with conditions, according to the
gradual succession of insight-producing knowledge, the
words: "impermanent,," "subject-to-suffering," and
"soulless."
After getting
suitable weather conditions, a person of advantage to him
spiritually, food that agrees with him, or fitting doctrinal
instructions, the bhikkhu desirous of realization says,
"Today, today," fixed in one posture, reaches the acme of
insight and stands fast in the fruit of arahantship. For the
three kinds of persons aforesaid the subject of meditation
up to arahantship is expounded, in this way.
Here, however,
the Blessed One speaking of the non-material or mental
subject of meditation speaks by way of feeling. While
expounding by way of sense-impression or consciousness the
subject of meditation does not become clear. It seems dark.
But by way of feeling it becomes clear. Why? Because of the
clearness of the arising of feeling. Indeed the arising of
pleasant or painful feeling is clear. When pleasant feeling
arises spreading through and flowing over the whole body,
making one to utter the words: "Ah 'tis joy," it is like
causing one to eat fresh clarified butter cooled in very
cold water a hundred times after being melted again and
again, also a hundred times; it is like causing one to be
massaged with an emollient oil worth a hundred pieces; and
it is like causing one to be cooled of a burning fever with
a thousand pots of cold water.
When painful
feeling arises spreading through and flowing over the whole
body making one to bewail with the words, "Alas, what woe,"
it is like the applying on one of a heated plowshare; it is
like the sprinkling upon one of molten copper; and it is
comparable to the hurling into dried grass and trees, in the
forest, of bundles of wood firebrands.
Thus the
arising of pleasant or painful feeling becomes clear, but
the arising of the neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling is
dark, and unclear.
The
neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling becomes clear to one
who grasps it methodically, thinking: "At the disappearance
of pleasure and pain, the neutral
neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling occurs, which is
contrary to the pleasant and the unpleasant." To what is it
comparable? To a deer hunter following the hoof marks of a
deer which midway having gone up a flat rock is fleeing. The
hunter after seeing the hoof marks on the hither and thither
side of the rock, without seeing any trace in the middle,
knows by inference: "Here the animal went up, and here, it
went down; in the middle, on the flat rock, possibly it went
through this part."
Like the
hoofmark at the place of going up the arising of pleasurable
feeling becomes clear. Like the hoofmark at the place of
descent the arising of painful feeling becomes clear. Like
the grasping through inference of the part traversed over
the rock by the deer is the laying hold of the
neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling methodically with the
thought: "At the disappearance of pleasure and pain, the
neutral neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling occurs, which
is contrary to the pleasant and the unpleasant."
In this manner,
the Blessed One having expounded at first the form subject
of meditation, later, pointed out the formless subject of
meditation, by way of feeling, having taken it out from the
fivefold aggregation distinguishingly.
Not only here
did he point it out thus. In the Cula Tanhasankkhaya, the
Cula Vedalla, the Maha Vedalla, the Ratthapala, Magandiya,
Dhatuvibhanga, and Aneñjasappaya of the Majjhima Nikaya; in
the Maha Nidana, Sakkapañha, and Maha Satipatthana of the
Digha Nikaya; in the Cula Nidana, Rukkhupama, and
Parivimamsana Suttas of the Samyutta Nikaya; in the whole of
the Vedana Samyutta of the same Nikaya; and in many other
discourses did the Master point out the formless subject of
meditation, by way of feeling, having taken out feeling from
the fivefold aggregation, after first expounding the form
subject of meditation.
This is another
method of understanding: (He) understands, "I experience a
pleasant feeling" = Sukham vedanam vediyamiti pajanati.
By the absence of painful feeling at the moment of pleasant
feeling, he knows, while experiencing a pleasant feeling: "I
am experiencing a pleasant feeling." By reason of that
knowledge of the experiencing of pleasant feeling, owing to
the absence now of whatsoever painful feeling that existed
before and owing to the absence of this pleasant feeling,
before the present time, feeling is called an impermanent, a
not lasting, and a changeful thing. When he knows the
pleasant feeling, in the pleasant feeling, thus, there is
clear comprehension. For it is said, in the 78th
Sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya, by the Blessed One: "When one
experiences a pleasant feeling, Aggivessana, then one does
not experience a painful feeling or a
neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling. Only the pleasant
feeling does one then experience. When one experiences a
painful feeling, Aggivessana, then one does not experience a
pleasant or a neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling. Only a
painful feeling does one then experience. When one
experiences a neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling, then,
one does not experience a pleasant or a painful feeling.
Only a neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling does one then
experience. Pleasant feeling, indeed, Aggivessana, is a
thing that is impermanent, put-together, dependently
originating, decaying, passing away, fading and ceasing. So
is painful feeling, and the neither-pleasant-nor-painful
feeling. The learned, real disciple, Aggivessana, seeing
thus, turns away from the pleasant feeling even as he does
from the painful, and the neither-pleasant-nor-painful
feelings. Turning away, he detaches himself; by absence of
attachment, he frees himself; freed, he knows thus: "I am
freed of craving. Destroyed by me is rebirth; lived by me is
the Highest Life of the Real Way; done by me is the work of
developing the Real Way that must be developed; and
(concerning the sixteen-fold work of the development of the
Royal Way) there is no more work to be done by me."
Pleasant
worldly feeling refers to the six joyful feelings connected
with the six sense-doors, and dependent on that which is
tainted by defilements.
Pleasant
spiritual feeling refers to the six joyful feelings
connected with the six sense-doors, and not dependent on
sense-desire.
Painful worldly
feeling refers to the six feelings of grief connected with
the six sense-doors, and dependent on that which is tainted
by defilements.
Painful
spiritual feeling refers to the six feelings of grief
connected with the six sense-doors, and not dependent on
sense-desire.
Worldly
neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling refers to the six
feelings of indifference connected with the six sense-doors,
and dependent on that which is tainted by defilements.
Spiritual
neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling refers to the six
feelings of indifference connected with the six sense-doors,
and not dependent on sense-desire.
The division
into pleasant worldly feeling and so forth is in the 137th
Sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya.
Ajjhattam
= "Internally": The bhikkhu dwells contemplating feelings in
the feelings that are his own by laying hold of the
pleasant, painful or neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling.
Or he dwells contemplating feelings in the feelings of
others by laying hold of the pleasant, painful or
neither-pleasant-nor-painful feelings, in the way told
above. Or at one time he contemplates his own feelings and
at another time, another's.
Samudayadhammanupassi = "Contemplating
origination-things." In this contemplation of feeling, the
bhikkhu dwells seeing the origination and the dissolution of
the aggregate of feeling or seeing the origination of
feeling at one time and the dissolution of feeling at
another time, by way of ignorance, craving and so forth, in
the five ways mentioned in the Section on the Modes of
Deportment.
[32]
From here on it
should be understood that the exposition is just according
to the method followed in the explanation of
body-contemplation.
Indeed, the
mindfulness that lays hold of feeling is the Truth of
Suffering. Thus the portal of deliverance for the bhikkhu
who lays hold of feeling should be understood.
The
Contemplation of Consciousness
After
explaining the ninefold Arousing of Mindfulness in regard to
feeling, the Master began the explanation of the
contemplation of consciousness in the sixteenfold way with
the words, "And, how, o bhikkhus."
In this section
there is no reference to supramundane truth because in the
sifting of things thoroughly to see their transient,
pain-laden and soulless nature only the mundane things are
handled, and so there is in this matter of penetrative
knowledge of things no bringing together of mundane and
supramundane things.
Here follows
the elucidation of terms mentioned in this section:
Saragam
cittam = "The consciousness with lust." Karmically
unwholesome eight conscious states of the plane of existence
of sense-experience. These are together with greed in the
sense of springing from it.
Vitaragam
cittam = "The consciousness without lust." Karmically
wholesome and karmically neutral mundane states of
consciousness.
The two
spontaneous and non-spontaneous conscious states karmically
unwholesome, accompanied by grief, linked to resentment, and
springing from hate; the conscious state karmically
unwholesome, accompanied by neither pain nor pleasure,
linked to doubt and springing from ignorance; and the
conscious state karmically unwholesome, accompanied by
neither pain nor pleasure, linked to agitation, springing
from ignorance — these four do not associate with the
consciousness-with-lust-division or the
consciousness-without-lust division.
Sodosam
cittam = "The consciousness with hate." The two
conscious states, karmically unwholesome, accompanied, by
grief (mentioned above).
Vitadosam
cittam = "The consciousness without hate." Karmically
wholesome and karmically neutral mundane states of
consciousness.
The other ten
karmically unwholesome conscious states of the plane of
existence of sense-experience do not associate with either
the consciousness-with-hate division or the
consciousness-without-hate division.
Samoham
cittam = "The consciousness with ignorance." The
conscious state, karmically unwholesome, linked to doubt
(mentioned above), and the conscious state, karmically
unwholesome, linked to agitation (mentioned above).
Because,
indeed, ignorance arises in all karmically bad states, the
other karmically bad states too should be mentioned, here.
In just this division all the twelve karmically bad,
unwholesome or unskillful conscious states are included.
Vitamoham
cittam = "The consciousness without ignorance."
Karmically wholesome and karmically neutral mundane states
of consciousness.
Sankhittam
cittam = "The shrunken state of consciousness." The
conscious state fallen into sloth and torpor. That is called
the shrivelled or contracted state of mind.
Vikkhittam
cittam = "The distracted state of consciousness." The
conscious state accompanied by agitation. That is called the
dissipated mind.
Mahaggatam
cittam = "The state of consciousness become great." The
conscious state of the sensuous-ethereal [rupavacara]
plane of existence and of the purely ethereal [arupavacara]
plane of existence.
Amahaggatam
cittam = "The state of consciousness not become great."
The conscious state of the plane of existence of
sense-experience.
Sauttaram
cittam = "The state of consciousness with some other
mental state superior to it." That refers to any conscious
state belonging to the plane of sense-experience.
Anuttaram
cittam = "The state of consciousness with no other
mental state superior to it." That refers to any conscious
state belonging to the sensuous-ethereal [rupavacara]
or the purely ethereal [arupavacara] plane.
Samahitam
cittam = "The quieted state of consciousness." It refers
to the conscious state of him who has full or partial
absorption.
Asamahitam
cittam = "The state of consciousness not quieted." It
refers to the conscious state without either absorption.
Vimuttam
cittam = "the freed state of consciousness." That refers
to the conscious state, emancipated partially from
defilements through systematic or radical reflection, or to
the conscious state, emancipated through the suppression of
the defilements in absorption. Both these kinds of
emancipation are temporary.
Avimuttam
cittam = "The unfreed state of consciousness." That
refers to any conscious state without either kind of
temporary emancipation.
In the mundane
path [lokiya magga] of the beginner there is no place for
the supramundane kinds of emancipation through extirpation
[samuccheda], stilling [patipassaddha] and
final release [nissarana].
Iti
ajjhattam = "Thus internally." The bhikkhu lives
contemplating consciousness in consciousness by laying hold
on the consciousness with lust and so forth when these
states of consciousness proceed in his own flux or in
another's flux or by laying hold of these conscious states
at one time as they proceed in his own flux and at another
time as they proceed in another's flux.
Samudayavayadhammanupassi = "Contemplating
origination-and-dissolution-things." Here, the arising of
the aggregate of consciousness should be explained with the
pointing out of the origination of consciousness from the
origination of ignorance and so forth, in the five ways,
according to the method shown in the Section on the Modes of
Deportment. And the passing away of consciousness should
also be explained in the same way as it is shown in the
Section on the Modes of Deportment.
From here on
there is nothing new in the method of explanation. The
mindfulness which lays hold of consciousness is the Truth of
Suffering. Thus, the portal of deliverance up to arahantship
of the bhikkhu who lays hold of consciousness as a subject
of meditation ought to be understood.
In the
consciousness with lust, lust occurs as a mental
concomitant arising and passing away along with a conscious
state and sharing with that conscious state the object and
basis of consciousness. In this sense of a conscious state
well-knit with lust one speaks of the consciousness with
lust. The term consciousness without lust is used
as a contrary of the term "consciousness with lust"; not as
a contradictory. That becomes clear when we know that the
work to be done in this contemplation of the mind consists
of the laying hold of the things of the three planes of
cosmic existence for the purpose of developing the
conviction based on insight in regard to cosmic
impermanence, cosmic suffering and cosmic insubstantiality.
In no stage of mundane thought can it be said that latency
of lust is destroyed and so the term "consciousness without
lust" indicates only a relatively lust-free conscious state.
The grouping
of conscious states, here, it is said, may be questioned.
For instance, in the two states of consciousness with
hate is there just absence of lust because these two
states are not well-knit together with lust? Could there not
be in them a trace of lust functioning as a distant
condition as when a man's lust for a woman produces hate
towards another who stands between him and the possession or
enjoyment of his object of lust? If there indeed could not
be such a trace of lust in these two conscious states of
hate, are these seven states of consciousness without lust?
When the commentator said that the four remaining karmically
bad states do not associate with either the consciousness
with lust or without lust, he only wanted to show them just
separate from the pair known by the phrases, with lust and
without lust. If so then would not one fall into partial
knowledge? No. Because of their being included in the pairs
(though not in the lust pair.)
Consciousness with ignorance is twofold. It is
either accompanied by doubt or by agitation.
As this
consciousness in either of its forms is fit to be called a
delusion by way of particularity owing to excessive
observation and special endowment with ignorance, these two
forms, namely, the one linked to doubt and the one
linked to agitation are in an outstanding manner "with
ignorance."
By reason of
the mind proceeding slackly in a shrivelled state owing to
want of interest in the object and more or less with
displeasure, there is the shrunken state of
consciousness. This is a name applicable to the five
karmically unwholesome sensuous conscious states not marked
by spontaneity.
There is the
conscious state associated with agitation in the sense of
agitation having become powerful in the consciousness.
"All
karmically bad conscious states are indeed accompanied by
agitation."
The mental
state accompanied by agitation is called the distracted
mind because it spreads outside its object by way of
diffused thinking.
By the
ability to suppress the defilements and by the abundance of
fruition and by the great length or extent of the series of
its particular courses of cognition there is a state of
consciousness become great. Or there is a state of
consciousness become great by reason of lofty regenerative
wish and so forth.
The state of
consciousness become great is the mind that has reached the
ground of the sensuous-ethereal and the purely ethereal
planes of existence.
As there is
nothing in the cosmos greater than the sensuous-ethereal and
the purely ethereal the commentator explained the
consciousness become great by reference to these two highest
planes of existence.
The state
of consciousness with some other mental state superior to it
refers to the consciousness that has not reached the
highest possible planes of attainment in cosmic existence or
the consciousness that can become more fine; and the
state of consciousness with no other mental state superior
to it is that which has got to the highest planes of
cosmic existence or that which has reached the acme of
fineness of mundane states of mind.
The
Contemplation of Mental Objects
The Five
Hindrances
1. Sensuality
After
explaining the Arousing of Mindfulness of the sixteenfold
contemplation of consciousness, the Master said: "And, how,
o bhikkhus," in order to expound the fivefold contemplation
of mental objects [dhamma], — things spiritual and
material.
Further, the
laying hold of pure corporeality or materiality was taught
by the Blessed One in the instruction on body-contemplation,
and in the instruction on the contemplation of feeling and
consciousness, the laying hold of the purely spiritual. Now
in order to teach the laying hold of a mixture of the
material and the spiritual, he said, "And, how, o bhikkhus,"
and so forth. Or in the contemplation on the body the laying
hold of the aggregate of corporeality or materiality was
spoken of by the Master; in the contemplation on feeling,
the laying hold of the aggregate of feeling; in the
contemplation on mind, the laying hold of the aggregate of
consciousness; and now in order to speak of even the laying
hold of the aggregates of perception and formations, he said
"And, how, o bhikkhus," and so forth.
There, in the
Discourse, the word, santam = "present." It means
existing by way of occurrence, practice or repeated
happening. Asantam = "not present." Not existing, by
way of non-occurrence or because of rejection from the mind
by way of reflection or concentration.
In connection
with the hindrances it must be known that the hindrance of
sensuality arises because of wrong reflection on an object
that is sensuously agreeable, pleasant, favorable. Such an
object is either sensuality itself or that which produces
sensuality — the sensuality-object.
Wrong
reflection is inexpedient reflection, reflection on the
wrong track. Or it is reflection which considers the
impermanent as permanent, pain as pleasure, non-soul as
soul, the bad as good.
Sense-desire
arises when wrong reflection occurs plentifully in a
sensuously good object. Therefore the Blessed One said that
the condition for the arising of fresh sense-desire and for
the increase and expansion of existing sense-desire is
plentiful wrong reflection on a sensuously auspicious or
promising object.
Sense-desire is
cast out, indeed, with right reflection on a sensuously
inauspicious or unpromising object. Such an object itself or
the jhana developed through such an object is meant by the
term sensuously inauspicious object.
Right
reflection is expedient reflection; reflection going on the
right track. It is reflection that considers the facts of
impermanence, suffering, soullessness and of impurity,
according to reality.
When there is
much right reflection on the sensuously inauspicious or
unpromising object, sense-desire is knocked out. Therefore
the Blessed One said that the condition for keeping out new
sense-desire and for casting out old sense-desire is
abundant right reflection on the sensuously inauspicious or
unpromising object.
Further, there
are six things which lead to the casting out of
sense-desire: Taking up the sensuously inauspicious subject
of meditation; application for the development of the jhana
on the sensuously inauspicious subject of meditation; the
guarded state of the controlling faculties of sense;
moderation in food; the sympathy and support of good men in
the endeavor; stimulating talk that helps the accomplishment
of the object in view.
Explaining
these six it is said: Taking up refers to the taking up of
the tenfold object sensuously inauspicious, impure, or bad;
the man who takes it up will cast out sense-desire.
Sense-desire will also be cast out, by him who develops the
jhana on the sensuously inauspicious object of meditation,
by him who guards the controlling faculties of sense by
closing the six sense doors, and by him who knows the
measure of food for sustenance and of whom it is said:
Enough it is
for the comfort of the almsman
Who has put aside all thoughts of body and life,
Who has his thoughts yoked on to craving's wane,
To stop eating when he could eat some four
Or five more lumps for which there's belly-room.
And, with drinks of water, end his begged repast.
[33]
It will also be
cast out by him who keeps the company of men like the Elder
Tissa, the worker in the sensuously inauspicious subject of
meditation, sympathetic towards those who endeavor in
accomplishing the casting out of sense-desire and by talk
connected with the tenfold sensuously inauspicious object.
Therefore it is said by the commentator that six things are
conducive to the casting out of sense-desire.
Sense-desire
cast out by these six things becomes incapable of arising,
in the future, through the attainment of the path of
arahantship.
Hindrances
have to be cast out first in the course of proper training.
With the casting out of the hindrances there is induced
jhana, the means of attaining quietude. Thus indeed is
body-contemplation surely taught with quietude preceding.
Afterwards
is given the higher instruction in regard to all divisions
beginning with what should be understood — the aggregations
and the sense-base which ought to be understood, and the
factors of enlightenment which should be developed.
Therefore, here too, the development of quietude is desired
so far as it is for the sake of insight.
It is said:
"The instruction on the Arousing of Mindfulness has insight
as the chief thing, abounds in insight."
Since there
is no state of yoking together of the good and the bad moral
qualities similar to the yoking of two bulls to a cart —
since the good and the bad do not exist together — from the
absence of sensuality at the time of seeing one's mind
through knowledge it is said: by way of occurrence.
At the moment of seeing wisely the occurrence of
sense-desire there is no sense-desire as good and bad states
of mind cannot exist together
Existing
means: When it is found in one's own mental flux.
Sensuously
inauspicious or unpromising objects are the ten inanimate
things: (1) The corpse that is swollen, (2) Blue, (3)
Festering, (4) Fissured, (5) Mangled, (6) Dismembered, (7)
Cut and dismembered, (8) With blood, (9) Wormy, (10) Become
a skeleton. Details of these may be found in The Path of
Purity in the exposition of the subject of meditation on the
foul.
And the
perception of hair of the head and so forth, because it is
called in the Girimananda Sutta the perception of the
sensuously inauspicious or impure, is taken as the
sensuously inauspicious animate thing.
The jhana on
the sensuously inauspicious object occurs in an inanimate or
animate sensuously inauspicious thing. And the indication of
the four kinds of wrong reflection and the four kinds of
right reflection in regard to the sensuously inauspicious
object is for the purpose of pointing out fully the subject.
The four
kinds of consideration of the impure as pure, the
impermanent as permanent, suffering as pleasure, and
non-soul as soul are the four kinds of wrong reflection and
the four kinds of consideration of the impure as impure and
so forth are the four kinds of right reflection.
The taking
up of the practice of considering the repulsiveness of any
of the eleven kinds of the sensuously inauspicious or the
practice of contemplation on the sensuously inauspicious
object is "taking up" or "upholding."
The
application to the development of the thought bent on the
sensuously inauspicious object which brings partial and full
concentration is application for the development of the
jhana on the sensuously inauspicious subject of meditation.
Certain
teachers say that as there is no opportunity for
sense-desire in him who knows the proper measure of food to
be taken, through absence of trouble owing to that knowledge
from sloth and torpor, sense-desire is cast out in such a
person. Just this reason is given in even the expository
portion: The person who practices moderation in food brings
about the perception of impurity bound up with that food,
for instance, through the alteration of food by way of
bodily excretions, and dwells on other similar thoughts as
well as on the idea of corporeal subjection to food. Such a
person casts out sense-desire.
The Elder
Tissa referred to in the commentary above is the Elder Maha
Tissa (of Anuradhapura), who saw the teeth of a woman and
who by doing right reflection on their bony nature cast out
sense-desire through jhana.
According to
the Abhidhamma method of instruction, even the whole world
is the hindrance of sense-desire. Therefore the commentator
said: through the attainment of the path of arahantship
[abhidhamma pariyayena sabbo pi loko kamacchandanivarananti
aha arahattamaggenati].
2. Anger
Indeed, wrong
reflection on an object of resentment produces anger. In
this connection anger itself as well as the object which
causes anger is called the resentment-object, or the sign of
resentment. Wrong reflection has just the same character
everywhere, and when it occurs much in the resentment-object
or the resentment-sign, anger arises. Therefore the Blessed
One said that intense wrong reflection on an object of
resentment is the cause of fresh anger and of the increase
and expansion of anger already existing.
By right
reflection of the liberating thought of love, the thought of
love that frees the heart indeed, anger gets cast out. The
term "love" here is applicable both to partial concentration
(upacara samadhi) and full concentration (appana samadhi).
Heart-liberating love is only full concentration. Right
reflection has the same character throughout. When it occurs
strong in the thought of love, anger is removed from the
heart. Therefore the Master said: "There is, o bhikkhus, the
liberation of the mind through love. Intense right
reflection on love is the condition for keeping out new
anger and for throwing out anger that is already in the
heart."
And it is said
that these six things help to cast anger out: Taking up the
practice of the love subject of meditation; applying oneself
to the development of jhana on the thought of love;
reflection on one's action as one's own property, abundance
of wise consideration; sympathetic and helpful companionship
of the good; and stimulating talk that assists the
development of the thought of love and the overthrow of
anger.
In explanation
the commentator said: Anger will be put down in one who
takes up the love subject of meditation by way of spreading
it particularly or separately. Or if one takes up the love
subject of meditation by way of spreading it generally,
without particularization or directional restriction in
space, then too anger will be put down, in one.
Anger vanishes
also through the development of jhana by spreading love
restrictedly with differentiation on seven or twenty-eight
ways or by spreading it unrestrictedly without
differentiation in five or twenty ways or by spreading it
directionally towards the ten points in space.
Anger vanishes
in one who reflects thus too: "What will you do to him by
becoming angry?" "Will you be able to destroy things like
his virtue?" "Have you not been born here just by your own
actions and will you not also by your own actions get reborn
hereafter?" "Getting angry with another is comparable to the
state of him who wishes to strike another with glowing
coals, red-hot crowbar, excreta and such other damaging
things after taking them up in his bare hands." "And what
can another who is angry with you do to you?" "Can he
destroy your virtue or any other similar thing of yours?"
"He, too, has been born here as a result of his actions and
will be reborn hereafter just according to his actions."
"Like a present not accepted is that anger of his and like a
handful of dust thrown against the wind, that anger of his
alights on his own head." In this way one reflects on one's
own action as one's own property and also another person's
action as that person's own, and puts out anger.
To one
remaining in an abundance of wise consideration after
reflecting on action as one's or another's own property,
anger vanishes. And it vanishes in him who is in the company
of a sympathetic friend who delights in developing the jhana
of the thought of love like the Elder Assagutta and through
stimulating talk on the thought of love when in any one of
the four postures. Therefore it is said: Six things are
conducive to the casting out of anger. The anger cast out by
these six things, however, is finally destroyed by the
attainment of the state of the Anagami, the never-returner.
The thought
of love [metta] is a sublime state of mind [brahmavihara];
it is one's own state of freedom from hatred. A detailed
description of the way of developing love as a subject of
meditation is given in the Path of Purity.
The
following summary of hints gathered from different comments
and the Path of Purity will be helpful to a beginner:
The
love-thought of meditation is different from worldly
attachment. It is based on wishing well to all beings. The
idea of possession of the loved object is foreign to it. It
is not a state of mind that encourages exclusiveness. The
aim of the meditation is finally to include in the ambit of
one's goodwill all beings equally, without distinction. "The
liberation of the mind through love" refers only to full
concentration. Without reaching full concentration there is
no effective freedom from anger. The beginner who works at
this subject of meditation is not to practice the thought of
love at first:
On a
sensuously promising object of the opposite sex, as
attachment towards it might arise in the yogi's mind.
On a dead
person, as the practice would be futile.
On an
enemy, as anger might arise.
On an
indifferent person, as the practice might prove wearisome.
On one who
is very dear as the arousing of friendly thoughts without
attachment towards such a one would be tiring; and as
mental agitation might occur should even some slight
trouble overtake that one.
Taking up
the practice of the love subject of meditation is
the generating, the bringing about of the characteristic,
sign or mark, of the love thought of meditation of him who
through loving-kindness gathers together all beings with
goodwill.
The
reflection on the thought of love itself is the sign of the
love thought of meditation, because the reflection arisen
first is the reason of the later reflection.
Spreading
it particularly: Consecutively in the following
order: to oneself, to a friend, an indifferent person, and
an enemy. Spreading it generally: By breaking down
all barriers, limits and reservations which separate oneself
from all others, and extending the same kind of friendly
thought to all. Directionally: Extending the thought
of love towards one point of the compass, for instance, the
east. These three kinds of spreading of the thought of love
refer to the stage of meditation of "taking up the
practice of the thought of love" which covers the
training from the beginning to the attainment of partial
concentration (upacara samadhi). In regard to this state of
meditation the following is stated: Spreading the thought of
love after particularizing the direction by way of a
monastery, a street, village and so forth is one way and
spreading the thought of love towards a direction in space
generally by way of the eastern direction and so forth
without specifying a monastery and so forth is another way
of practice
The
development of the jhana on the thought of love
is the practice again and again of the thought of love that
has got partial concentration. The development is done in
three ways: (1) The spreading of the love thought
universally. This is done by wishing that all living beings
(satta), all breathing things (pana), all beings born (bhuta),
all persons (puggala), all who have reached a state of
individuality (attabhavapariyapanna), be without hatred,
disease, and grief, and be happy taking care of themselves (avera,
abyapajjha, anigha hontu, suhki attanam pariharantu). (2)
Spreading the thought of love by way of a restricted group
of beings. This is done by wishing that all females, all
males, all purified ones, all non-purified ones, all divine
beings, all humans, all beings fallen to states of woe, be
without hatred, disease and grief and happy taking care of
themselves. (3) Spreading the thought of love directionally
in space. This is done by restricting the thought of love
towards each of the ten directions in space: the cardinal
points, the intermediate points, and the zenith and nadir.
And it is also done by wishing that the beings in each of
the directions taken up, according to the divisions and
groups given above, be without hatred and so forth according
to the formula already mentioned.
3. Sloth and
Torpor
Through wrong
reflection on a state of boredom and the like, sloth and
torpor come to be. Boredom is just dissatisfaction.
Lassitude is bodily laziness. Languidity of body is the
bending of the body torpidly in getting up and in similar
actions. Lethargy after a meal is a dizziness or slight
faint which is due to eating a principal meal. It is also
called the discomfort which follows such a meal. The mind's
sluggishness is the dullness of the mind. An abundance of
wrong reflection on boredom and similar states of mind
produces sloth and torpor. Therefore the Blessed One said
that much wrong reflection on boredom, lassitude, languidity
of body, lethargy after a meal, and the mind's sluggishness,
is a condition for the production of fresh sloth and torpor
and the increase and expansion of sloth and torpor already
come into being.
Through right
reflection in inceptive energy and similar states of mind is
brought about the overthrow of sloth and torpor. Inceptive
energy is the effort first set afoot. Exertion is more
powerful than the inceptive energy because it leaves
indolence behind. And because of its assailing further and
further of the destructive condition, progressive endeavor
is more powerful than exertion. By the exercise of right
reflection intensely on this threefold strenuousness sloth
and torpor are cast out. Therefore the Blessed One said that
the condition for keeping out new sloth and torpor, and for
casting out sloth and torpor that is old, is abundant right
reflection on the element of inceptive energy, of exertion
and of progressive endeavor.
There are six
things which lead to the casting out of sloth and torpor:
The seeing of the reason of sloth and torpor in the fact of
eating too much or gluttony; the changing of the postures
completely; reflection on the perception of light; staying
in the open; sympathetic and helpful companionship of the
good; and stimulating talk that assists in dispelling sloth
an torpor.
There is the
following explanation of these six things: The bhikkhu who
has eaten gluttonously is assailed by sloth and torpor while
doing his recluse duty of meditation in his day or night
quarters as by a mighty elephant pressing down on him, but
that one who practices moderation in food is not troubled
thus with these hindrances. In one who thus sees the
characteristic of sloth and torpor in gluttony there is the
casting out of sloth and torpor.
Sloth and
torpor disappear in him who changes over from the posture
which induces sloth and torpor to another; in him who
reflects on the brightness or the light of the moon, a lamp
or a torch by night, and on the light or brightness of the
sun by day; in him who lives in the open; in him who
associates with sympathetic and helpful companions, like the
Elder Maha Kassapa, who have dispelled sloth and torpor; and
by stimulating talk connected with a strict recluse-regimen.
Therefore it is
said: Six things lead to the casting out of sloth and
torpor. The yogi understands thus: sloth and torpor cast out
by these six things are stopped from arising forever in the
future by the attainment of the path of arahantship.
The
bhikkhu who has eaten gluttonously after the
manner of the well-known types of Brahmanical gormandizers
mentioned in ancient Indian books. There are five kinds of
these greedy eaters: (1) He who eats until he has to be
raised up by the hand from his seat. (2) He who lies rolling
just where he has eaten and eats as long as he likes. (3) He
who eats until he slips off his waist cloth. (4) He who
fills himself with food in such a way that it seems as if a
crow could peck at the food in him. (5) He who having filled
his belly full and vomitted eats more food again, or he who
eats until he vomits.
On the
light or brightness of the sun by day: The
meaning should be understood thus: Sloth and torpor vanish
in him, too, who at night is reflecting on the image of the
perception of the brightness of the sun he got by day.
Here it may
be helpful to state the eight ways of dealing with torpor
taught by the Master to the Elder Maha Moggallana: (1) One
should neglect to mind the thought which says that
drowsiness is descending on one, or (2) one should reflect
on the Dhamma, or (3) repeat or recite the Dhamma, or (4)
pull both earlobes and rub or massage the limbs with the
hands, or (5) getting up from the sitting position, apply
water on and rub the eyes, and look into the distance, at
the constellations in the starry sky, or (6) reflect on the
thought of light, or (7) fix the thought on the ambulatory,
aware of the ends of it with the controlling faculties of
sense turned inwards and the mind kept in, or (8) sleep
conscious of the time of waking and on awaking get up
quickly thinking that one will not give oneself to the
comforts of lying down, reclining and languor, when all
other seven ways fail.
4. Agitation
and Worry
Wrong
reflection on mental agitation brings about flurry and
worry. Mental agitation is inner turbulence. Actually it is
flurry and worry, only. Intense wrong reflection on that
mental agitation produces flurry and worry. Therefore the
Blessed One said that wrong reflection on mental agitation
when plentifully done produces fresh flurry and worry and
increases and expands flurry and worry already in existence.
The casting out
of agitation and worry occurs through right reflection on
mental tranquillity called concentration and an abundance of
right reflection on mental tranquillity, says the Blessed
One, is a condition for the keeping out of fresh mental
agitation and worry and the dispelling of agitation and
worry already in the mind.
Six things are
conducive to the casting out of agitation and worry:
Knowledge; questioning; understanding of disciplinary rules;
association with those more experienced and older than
oneself in the practice of things like virtue; sympathetic
and helpful companionship and stimulating talk that helps
the rejection of mental agitation and worry.
In explanation
it is said as follows: Agitation and worry disappear in him
who learns in the spirit and in the letter one, two, three,
four or five collections of Scripture. This is how one gets
over agitation and worry by knowledge. Questioning means:
inquiring much about what is befitting and not, according to
the practice of the Sangha. In him who does this, too,
agitation and worry disappear. Then these twin evils
disappear in him who has got the mastery of the Discipline
due to practical application of and conversance with the
nature of the Rule of the Sangha. This is the understanding
of the disciplinary rules. Association with those more
experienced and so forth; the going to the presence of and
the conversing with virtuous elders in the Sangha. By such
visits mental agitation and worry disappear in one.
Sympathetic and helpful companionship: association with
experts of the Disciplinary Rules like the Elder Upali, the
first of the great masters of the Discipline in the Sangha.
In such company mental agitation and worry disappear.
Stimulating talk in this connection refers particularly to
matters of disciplinary practice by which one comes to know
what is befitting and what is not. By this agitation and
worry vanish in one. Therefore, is it said that six things
lead to the rejection of agitation and worry, but the
agitation cast out by these things finally ceases to arise
in the future through the attainment of the path of
arahantship, and the worry cast out by these things finally
ceases to arise in the future through the attainment of the
path of the non-returner.
In their own
state or actually as they are individually, mental
agitation and worry are two different things. Still, as
worry in the form of repentance or remorse for ill done and
good undone is similar to agitation which is characterized
by distraction and disquiet of mind, mental agitation
is called flurry and worry.
Mental
agitation does not overtake the intelligent well-read man
who probes into things by way of what is written in books
and by way of the significance and import of the things
themselves. Therefore, it is said that by way of
knowledge not merely of the Disciplinary Rules, but by
way of knowledge of the ninefold Buddha-word, beginning with
the Discourses, according to the principles of the method
already stated, and by the application of the proper
remedies mentioned by way of questioning and so
forth, remorse and regret for ill done and good undone do
not take place.
By
associating with elders who are older than oneself in the
practice of the precepts of virtue and similar good things,
who are restrained, aged, matured seniors, there is brought
to one a measure of restraint, matured bearing, dignity and
calm, and mental agitation and worry are cast out.
Good
companionship refers to association with those
versed in the Discipline who are able to dispel worry as
regards any doubt concerning what is proper and improper
practice.
5. Doubt
Wrong
reflection on things which are founded on doubt brings about
the arising of doubt. Things which are founded on doubt are
known as just doubt owing to the state of being the reason
of doubt again and again. Therefore the Blessed One said
that wrong reflection on things founded on doubt is the
condition for fresh doubt and for the increase and expansion
of doubt already arisen. By right reflection on wholesome
things, karmically and the like, there is the casting out of
doubt. Therefore, the Blessed One said that right reflection
on things which are karmically wholesome and not, things
blameful and blameless, things to be practiced and not to be
practiced, things of low and high value, things dark and
fair, the counterparts of bad and good, done intensely,
keeps out fresh doubt and casts out doubt that has already
come into existence.
There are these
six things which help to throw out doubt: The state of being
learned in the Buddha's teaching; of inquiring about the
Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha; of understanding
thoroughly the nature of the Discipline; of being decided
about the truth of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha;
sympathetic and helpful companionship; and stimulating talk
that helps to dispel doubt.
The first has
been explained earlier. It is the knowledge of the Suttas
generally both in the letter and the spirit. The second is
obvious. The third indicates a state of mastery of the
Discipline through practical application and great
conversance with it at first hand. The fourth is the strong
inclination towards or reliance on the Triple Gem called the
faith that is capable of settling in the object of the
virtues of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. The fifth
is association with good companions like the Elder Vakkali,
bent, inclined, sliding towards faith, mentally. The sixth
is stimulating talk on the Triple Gem at all times possible
in every state of behavior. One can cast away doubt by means
of these six things, but the doubt cast out by these six
things does not ever arise in the future only when it is
destroyed by the attainment of the first stage of the
arahant.
Things
which are founded on doubt are things which stand
or proceed on doubt. Taking doubt itself one sees that the
doubt arisen first is the particular reason by way of a
common cause of the doubt arisen afterwards.
Surely by
the knowledge of the Dhamma and by inquiry all doubts are
cast out.
Iti
ajjhattam = "Thus internally." In this way the bhikkhu
lives contemplating the mental objects, by laying hold of
the five hindrances amongst the mental objects of his own
mind or amongst the mental objects in another's mind or at
one time amongst the mental objects of his own mind, and at
another time amongst the mental objects of another's mind.
Here
origination and dissolution, only refer to the origination
of the five hindrances by way of wrong reflection on
sensuously attractive or beautiful objects etc., and the
dissolution of the five hindrances by wise reflection on the
impurity of the sensuous objects etc.
Here the
mindfulness which lays hold of the hindrances is the Truth
of Suffering. Thus the portal of deliverance of the bhikkhu
who lays hold of the hindrances should be understood.
The Aggregates
Having
expounded the contemplation of mental objects by way of the
five hindrances, the Master said, "And, further, o bhikkhus,"
in order to explain the contemplation of mental objects by
way of the fivefold aggregation.
Pañcasu
upadanakkhandhesu = "In (the mental objects of) the five
aggregates of clinging." The five aggregates of clinging are
the groups that grasp life. The congeries of mental objects
become the condition of clinging, is the meaning. This is a
brief indication of these aggregates. For the statement
about the aggregates at length the talk on the aggregates in
the Path of Purity should be read.
Iti rupam
= "Thus is material form." So far is there material form and
no further. In this way the bhikkhu perceives material form
according to nature. In regard to feeling and the things
that come afterwards the same is the method of exegesis.
This is the brief indication of meaning of the matters
referred to here. For the lengthy explanation on these
things one should read the talk on the aggregates in the
Path of Purity.
Iti rupassa
samudayo = "Thus is the arising of material form." The
arising of material form and the other aggregates should be
known according to the fivefold way (mentioned in the
Section on the Modes of Deportment) through the arising of
ignorance and so forth.
Iti rupassa
atthangamo = "Thus is the disappearance of material
form." The disappearance of material form and the other
aggregates should be known according to the fivefold way
(mentioned in the Section on the Modes of Deportment)
through the passing away of ignorance and so forth. One
should read the talk on the aggregates in the Path of Purity
for further explanation.
Iti
ajjhattam = "Thus internally." In this way the bhikkhu
lives contemplating mental objects by laying hold of the
fivefold aggregation of clinging amongst his own mental
objects or amongst the mental objects of another or at one
time in his own and at another time in another's mental
objects.
The origination
and dissolution of the fivefold aggregate should be brought
forward and connected by way of the fifty characteristics of
the five groups, with the extended application of the words:
"From the arising of ignorance the arising of material form
comes to be."
From here on
according to the method already stated by the commentator
should the exposition be.
According
to nature means: according to the nature of
breaking-up, according to the nature of the eye, color and
the like in regard to material form, and according to the
nature of experiencing, the nature of pleasure and the like
in regard to feeling. In this way all other connected things
should be interpreted.
The
Sense-bases
After
explaining the contemplation of mental objects by way of the
aggregates the Master said: "And, further, o bhikkhus," in
order to explain the contemplation of mental objects by way
of the sense-bases.
Chasu
ajjhattika bahiresu ayatanesu = "In (the mental objects
of) the six internal and the six external sense-bases." The
eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body and the mind
are the six internal sense-bases, and material form, mind,
smell, tastes, tactual object, and mental object are the six
external sense-bases.
Cakkhum
pajanati = "(He) understands the eye." He understands
the sensory apparatus of the eye, by way of its own distinct
function and salient characteristic.
Rupe
pajanati = "(He) understands material form (objects)
that are visible." He understands material form arising from
the four producers of corporeality, namely, karma,
consciousness, climate and nutriment [kamma citta utu ahara],
by way of their own distinctive function and salient
characteristic.
Yam
tadubhayam paticcca uppajjati samyojanam = "The fetter
that arises dependent on both (eye and forms)." He
understands according to distinct function and
characteristic the tenfold fetter that arises dependent on
both eye and forms — the tenfold fetter of sense-desire,
resentment, pride, speculative theory, doubt, belief in
rites and ceremonies, the desire to go on existing, envy,
avarice and ignorance.
"How does this
tenfold fettering arise?" asks one.
The fetter of
sensuality arises for him who by way of sensuous enjoyment
takes delight in a pleasant sense-object become visible at
the eye-door. For him who is annoyed or angry at the sight
of an unpleasant object, the fetter of resentment arises,
and the fetter of pride arises in him who thinks: No one but
me is able to consider the object wisely. The fetter of
speculative theory comes to be in him who takes material
form to be permanent and everlasting. The fetter of doubt
arises in him who thinks in this way: Is the material form a
being or a being's? The fetter of the desire to go on
existing arises in him who wishes thus: To be sure, in a
favorable state of existence this material form will become
easy of access. The fetter of rites and ceremonies arises in
him who undertakes to perform rites and ceremonies thinking:
In the future it will be possible to obtain such an object
as this by taking up the observance of rites and ceremonies.
The fetter of envy arises in him who contemplates
grudgingly: Should no others get this material form, it
would be good, indeed. The fetter of avarice arises in one
who stints for another the material form belonging to one.
The fetter of
ignorance arises (with all the previously mentioned
fetters), with all sensuous passion and the like, by way of
the relation of conascent nescience.
Yathaca
anupannassa samyojanassa uppado hoti tañca pajanati =
"He understands how the arising of the non-arisen (tenfold)
fetter comes to be." He understands that the (tenfold)
fetter had not arisen earlier owing to some cause of
non-occurrence.
Yatha ca
uppannassa samyojanassa pahanam hoti tañca pajanati =
"He understands how the abandoning of the arisen (tenfold)
fetter comes to be." He understands the reason for the
abandoning of just the (tenfold) fetter arisen through
previous non-abandoning or through occurrence.
Yatha ca
pahinassa samojanassa ayatim anuppado hoti tañca pajanati
= "He understands how the non-arising in the future of the
abandoned (tenfold) fetter comes to be." He understands the
reason for the non-arising in the future of even the
(tenfold) fetter abandoned by way of rejection of separate
factors through right reflection [tadangavasena] and through
absorption [vikkhambhana vasena].
Owing to what
reason does the tenfold fettering cease to arise in the
future finally?
The path of
stream-winning or the first stage of awakening is the reason
for final cessation of the five fetters of speculative
theory, doubt, rites and ceremonies, envy, and avarice. The
path of once-returning or the second stage of awakening is
the reason for the final cessation of sensuality and
resentment of a gross kind and the residum of these two
fetters finally ceases by reason of the statement of the
path of never-returning, the third stage of awakening. The
fact which makes the fetter of pride, of the desire to go on
existing, and of ignorance to cease finally in the future is
the path of final purification, arahantship, the fourth
state of awakening.
The same is the
method of exegesis in sotañca pajanati sadde ca pajanati
= "He understands the ear and sounds." Further, in this
connection, the talk on the sense-bases in full should be
understood as stated by the commentator in the Path of
Purity.
Iti
ajjhattam = "Thus internally." The bhikkhu lives
contemplating the mental objects by laying hold of the
internal sense-bases in his own mental objects or in
another's or laying hold of the external sense-bases in
another's mental objects or in his own or at one time in his
own and at another time in another's mental objects.
Origination and
dissolution should be brought forward and connected here by
the extended application of the method indicated by the
words: "From the origin of ignorance the origin of the eye"
to the sense-bases of material form in the aggregate of
materiality, to the mental sense-base in the aggregate of
consciousness, and to the sense-base of the mental object in
the other non-material aggregates, according to the method
of exegesis already stated by the commentator. The
supramundane states should not be taken. From here onward
the exposition is according to the method already shown by
the commentator.
The two
groups of six sense-bases are stated by way of determining
the sense-doors and the sense-objects of arising of sixfold
consciousness. Of the consciousness or mind aggregate
included in a course of cognition of eye-consciousness, just
the eye-base is the "door" of origin, and the base of the
material form is the object. So it is in the case of the
others. But of the sixth sense-base the part of the
mind-base called the life-continum, the unconscious mind, is
the "door" of origin [chatthassa pana bhavangamanasankhato
manayatanekadeso uppatti dvaram]. And in a particular or
special way the mind-object base is the object [asadharananca
dhammayatanam arammanam].
Dependent
on both: The eye becomes a condition by way of
decisive support and the material forms, the objects, become
a condition by way of objective predominance and objective
decisive support [cakkhum upanissaya paccayavasena
paccayabhutam rupe arammanadhipati arammanupanissaya vasena
paccayabhute ca paticca].
The Factors of
Enlightenment
1. Mindfulness
After
explaining the contemplation of mental objects by way of the
internal and the external sense-bases, the Master said, "And
further, o bhikkhus," in order to talk on the contemplation
of mental objects, by way of the Factors of Enlightenment,
the mental limbs of a being who is awaking from the
stupor of the passions that soil or who is penetrating the
Real Truths of Suffering, its Cause, its Cessation, and the
Way Leading to the Cessation of Suffering.
Limbs are
members or constituent parts of the awaking mind.
Santam =
"Is present." Existing by way of attainment.
The
enlightenment factor called mindfulness is the enlightenment
factor of mindfulness.
Because in
these enlightenment factors, the meditator effectively gets
enlightened, the meditator is called "Complete
Enlightenment" from the time he begins strenuous
contemplation on insight. It is a name for him who stands
in the practice starting from the arising of the knowledge
of the rise and fall of phenomena.
The sevenfold
completeness or harmony, beginning with mindfulness by which
he awakes, effectively, rises from the sleep of the
defilements, or penetrates the Truths, is "Complete
Enlightenment." The components of that "Complete
Enlightenment" or of the harmony called "Complete
Enlightenment" are the factors of enlightenment.
The
instruction of the Discourses is figurative and as this
instruction on the Arousing of Mindfulness is set going by
way of the mundane eightfold path, it is said by the
commentator that the meditator is "Complete Enlightenment."
Otherwise he should be a Pure Disciple [ariya savaka]. The
meditator is considered the personification of the factors
of complete enlightenment by which he can reach Nibbana.
In the other
factors of enlightenment the word-meaning should be
understood in the same way.
Assantam
= "Is absent." Not existing through lack of attainment.
Yatha
anuppannassa = "How (the arising) of the non-arisen."
First, is the enlightenment factor of mindfulness. There are
things which condition the enlightenment factor of
mindfulness, and an abundance of right reflection on them is
the reason that is conducive to the arising of the
non-arisen enlightenment factor of mindfulness and for the
increase, the expansion and completion by culture of the
arisen enlightenment factor.
Thus it comes
into being: just mindfulness comprises the things which
condition the enlightenment factor of mindfulness. Right
reflection has just the characteristic already mentioned,
and when right reflection occurs plentifully in the things
which condition the enlightenment factor of mindfulness, the
enlightenment factor of mindfulness arises.
Further, four
things lead to the arising of the enlightenment factor of
mindfulness: Mindfulness with clear comprehension, the
avoiding of person with confused minds, association with
persons who keep mindfulness ready for application,
inclination towards mindfulness.
In explanation
it is said: Mindfulness arises through mindfulness with
clear comprehension in the seven positions beginning with
that of "going forwards"; or the mindfulness arousing the
knowledge which grasps the purpose of these actions is
mindfulness with clear comprehension, and as mindfulness
with clear comprehension everywhere is a state which brings
about the cultivation of mindfulness, mindfulness with clear
comprehension is necessary for the arising of mindfulness.
As the abandoning or rejection of contrary things and the
practice of suitable things are necessary for the arising of
fresh karmically wholesome things, so the eschewing of
persons bereft of mindfulness, association with persons who
cultivate mindfulness, the state of being not engaged with
the first kind and the state of being engaged with the
second are necessary for the arising of the enlightenment
factor of mindfulness.
Mindfulness
arises through the avoiding of persons who are confused in
mind like crows that come cawing to food thrown; through
association with persons who keep mindfulness ready for
application like the Elder Tissadatta who in the Terrace
of the Wisdom Tree having got a golden ticket authorizing
him to expound the Dhamma [bodhi mande suvanna salakam
gahetva] entered the assembly saying: "In which one of the
eighteen languages shall I expound the Dhamma?" and the
Elder Abhaya who is mentioned as the Elder Dattabhaya by
the commentator; and through the state of mind tending
for originating mindfulness in all postures, in all kinds of
behavior or disposition of the body. And the bhikkhu knows
that the completion by culture of the enlightenment factor
of mindfulness brought into being by these four ways takes
place by means of the attainment of the path of arahantship.
2.
Investigation of Mental Objects
There are
karmically good and karmically bad things... right and wrong
counterparts of bright and dark things, and an abundance of
right reflection on them is the reason conducive to the
arising of the non-arisen enlightenment factor of the
investigation of mental objects and for the increase,
expansion and the completion of culture of that
enlightenment factor when it has arisen.
Here, right
reflection is the conscious state that is associated with
knowledge and which arises by way of perceiving, according
to actuality, the nature, function, characteristic and so
forth of the several skillful (or wholesome) states of mind
and the like. Because it is correct reflection it is called
right (or radical) reflection.
Six things lead
to the arising of this enlightenment factor: Inquiring about
the aggregates and so forth; the purification of the basis
(namely, the cleaning of the body, clothes and so forth);
imparting evenness to the (five spiritual) controlling
faculties; avoiding the ignorant; associating with the wise;
reflecting on the profound difference of the
hard-to-perceive processes of the aggregates, modes (or
elements), sense-bases and so forth; and the inclining
(sloping, bending) towards the development of the
enlightenment factor of the investigation of mental objects.
Inquiring about
the aggregates and so forth means: seeking the meaning of
the aggregates, the modes (or elements), sense-bases,
controlling faculties, powers, enlightenment factors, way
factors, absorption factors, the meditation for quietude,
and the meditation for insight by asking for explanation
of knotty points regarding these things in the Five Nikayas
with the commentaries from teachers of the Dhamma.
Purification of
the basis is the cleaning of the personal basis: the body,
and of the impersonal basis: clothes and dwelling place. The
flame of a lamp is unclear when its wick, oil and container
are dirty; the wick splutters, flickers; but the flame of a
lamp that has a clean wick, oil and container is clear and
the wick does not spit; it burns smoothly. So it is with
knowledge. Knowing that arises out of the mind and mental
qualities which are in dirty external and internal
surroundings is apt to be impure, too, but the knowledge
that arises under clean conditions is apt to be pure. In
this way cleanliness leads to the growth of this
enlightenment factor which comprises knowledge.
Personal
cleanliness is impaired by the excessive length of hair of
the head, nails, hair of the body, by the excess of humors,
and by the dirt of perspiration; cleanliness of impersonal
or external things is impaired when robes are worn out,
dirty and smelly, and when the house where one lives is
dirty, soiled and untidy. So personal cleanliness should be
secured by shaving, hair-cutting, nail-paring, the use of
pectoral emetics and of purgatives which make the body
light, and by shampooing, bathing and doing other necessary
things, at the proper time. In similar way external
cleanliness should be brought about by darning, washing and
dyeing one's robes, and by smearing the floor of one's house
with clay and the like to smoothen and clean it, and by
doing other necessary things to keep the house clean and
tidy.
Imparting
evenness to the (five spiritual) controlling faculties is
the equalizing of the controlling faculties of faith,
energy, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom.
Equalizing
is making neither more nor less effective functionally.
When faith
outstrips the others through over-activity, the others are
thrown out of gear. Then energy finds it impossible to
exert; mindfulness, to attend to the object; concentration,
to be non-distracted; and wisdom, to see. Therefore that
over-activity of faith should be made to wane either by
reflection on the phenomenal nature of the things (faith) or
by not attending to that thing when thinking of which faith
becomes excessive. The story of the Thera Vakkali
[34]
is the illustration of over-active faith.
Faith
outstrips the others because of unclearness of wisdom and
the laxity and so forth of energy and the others, through
the excessive zeal of the function of faith, in regard to a
believable object, an object that generates trust. Energy is
unable to do the work of exerting and of supporting the
associated mental characteristics and to avoid indolence.
Mindfulness
is not able to do the work of attending to the object, of
continuing to be at the object, after coming to it.
Concentration is not able to do the work of non-distraction,
of rejecting distraction.
To see the
object, according to actuality as if one were seeing a
physical thing with the eye, wisdom is not able.
These four
faculties are unable to do their work because of their being
overwhelmed by the faculty of faith acting very strong. Only
by the evenness of function can the mental things which
exist together with consciousness, and are the principal
things amongst conascent mental things, namely, the five
spiritual controlling faculties, accomplish their work. Not
otherwise.
Reflection on the phenomenal nature of the thing
(faith). By examining the objet of faith by way of the
conditioned and the produced from the conditioned and the
like, by scrutiny according to actuality.
The story
of the Thera Vakkali. This venerable person who
fulfilled his duties through keen faith liked to behold the
Master always. The Master admonished him saying, "What shall
it profit you to see this impure body. Who sees the Dhamma,
sees me," and urged him to practice a subject of meditation.
He was unable to apply himself to the practice of the
subject of meditation and as he was inclined to destroy
himself, he went up to a place that was a steep declivity.
Then the Master showed himself by his psychic power as if he
were seated before the thera and spoke these words:
The
bhikkhu who is full of joy and believes in
The Dispensation of the Buddha
Can reach the peaceful happy state
of the ceasing of activities.
Gladdened by
the words of the Master he set up the development of
insight, but as his faith was very strong he was not able to
enter into the joy of the insight. The Master knowing this
gave him the subject of meditation after correcting it with
the imparting of evenness of the controlling faculties. The
thera after putting himself in the path of practice taught
by the Master, and after doing hard work in regular order,
reached arahantship.
If however the
controlling faculty of energy becomes too powerful then
neither will the faculty of faith be able to do its work of
arousing faith in a settled way in its object nor will the
remaining controlling faculties be able to perform their
functions. Therefore, in such a case, energy should be made
to lessen its activity by the development of the
enlightenment factors of calm, concentration and equanimity.
The story of the Thera Sona
[35]
is given as an illustration of overdone energy.
The story
of the Thera Sona. This refers to Sona Thera who
was of delicate constitution. After getting a subject of
meditation from the Master he was living in Cool Wood, and
he thought thus: "My body is delicate and it is not possible
to reach happiness with comfort only. Even after being
exhausted, the duty of the recluse should be done."
Thereupon, he decided, while giving himself up to exertion,
to keep to only the two postures of standing and walking.
Owing to excessive walking blisters appeared on the soles of
his feet and caused him great pain. He continued to make
strong effort in spite of the pain but could not produce a
state of distinction in meditation with his excessive
energy.
The Master
visited Sona, instructed him with the simile of the lute,
corrected the Thera's subject of meditation showing him the
method of applying energy evenly and went to Vulture Peak.
Having applied energy evenly according to the method given
by the Master, and after working hard for insight, the Thera,
developing the practice, established himself in arahantship.
Even thus
should the incapacity of the rest of the spiritual faculties
to function effectively when one of them has become
over-active and powerful, be understood.
Here, the wise
specially praise the equalizing of faith and wisdom and of
concentration and energy. He who is very strong in faith and
feeble in wisdom becomes a person who believes in foolish
people who have no virtue, persons who are not trustworthy.
He who has very strong wisdom and feeble faith gets
crafty-minded and is like a drug-produced disease that
cannot be cured. Such a person thinks that wholesome karma
arises with just the intention to do good. Going along the
wrong way, by a species of thought beyond the limits of
reason, and doing neither almsgiving nor other similar good
deeds, he is born in a state of woe. By the equalizing of
faith and wisdom one believes only in those like the Buddha
who are worthy of trust because there is a reason for
trusting them.
As
concentration naturally inclines towards indolence, when
there is too much of concentration and too little of energy,
indolence overwhelms the mind. As energy inclines naturally
towards restlessness or agitation when there is much energy
and little concentration, restlessness overwhelms the mind.
When concentration is combined well with energy there will
be no falling of the mind into indolence. When energy is
combined well with concentration there will be no falling of
the mind into restlessness.
Discord of
faith and wisdom and discord of concentration and energy
through functional unevenness are not conducive to success
in meditation.
Faith and
wisdom should be made functionally even and harmonious. So,
too, concentration and energy. With the making even
functionally of these pairs full absorption occurs.
Further, to a
worker in concentration — a man pursuing the path of
quietude [samatha] — faith that is somewhat strong is
met. With faith that is (rather) strong, the yogi will, by
believing in and fixing the mind on the object, reach full
absorption.
If for
instance the yogi is meditating on the element of earth he
will not think thus: "How can absorption arise by the
repetition of the word earth?" He will think that the
method of meditation taught by the Supreme Buddha will
surely succeed, and he will settle in, and leap on to the
object by way of firm belief, having, as it were, forced his
way into it.
Concerning
concentration and wisdom it is said as follows: For the
worker in concentration — the man pursuing quietude [samatha]
— strong one-pointedness is met by reason of the fact
that concentration is the principal thing in absorption.
With strong one-pointedness he reaches full absorption. For
the man pursuing the path of insight [vipassana] strong
wisdom is met; if strong wisdom exists he arrives at the
penetration of the characteristics. By the equalizing of the
concentration and wisdom of the worker in concentration, the
man pursuing quietude, there is just full absorption.
Owing to the
very great strength of the concentration of the man pursuing
quietude, very great strength of wisdom too should be
desired.
Full
absorption is mundane full absorption.
Supramundane full absorption also is expected through the
equalizing of these. Accordingly the Master said: "He
develops quietude and insight yoked together."
Strong
mindfulness is met everywhere since it protects the mind
from falling into restlessness belonging to faith, energy
and wisdom and from falling into indolence belonging to
concentration. Faith, energy and wisdom have a tendency
towards excitement and concentration has a tendency towards
sloth.
Therefore,
mindfulness is to be desired by the yogi always. It is
likened to the salt-flavoring which is in all curries, and
the minister-of-all-work wanted in every business of the
king.
And because of
this (universality of application of mindfulness) the
commentator made the following statement: "And indeed, it
was said by the Blessed One thus: 'Mindfulness is to be
desired everywhere.' Why? Because mindfulness is the mind's
help, because mindfulness has just protection as its
manifestation, and because without mindfulness there is no
exerting or restraining of the mind."
Because it
is applied always mindfulness is always useful or desirable;
and because in all states of elation and depression it
should be developed by the man longing for the factors of
enlightenment, it is necessary.
Mind's
help: the help of a wholesome or skillful state
of consciousness. It is the support of such a state of mind
for attaining the yet unattained.
Avoiding the
ignorant is keeping away from foolish folk not grounded in
the knowledge of the divisions of the aggregates and so
forth. Association with wise folk is fellowship with persons
possessed of the knowledge of rise and fall through the
laying hold of all the fifty characteristics.
Reflecting on
the profound differences of the profound process of the
aggregates and so forth is the analytic reflection according
to wisdom of the movement of the hard-to-perceive aggregates
and so forth.
Inclining
towards the enlightenment factor of the investigation of
mental objects is the mental state inclining, tending, and
sloping towards the purpose of originating this
enlightenment factor in every posture of standing, sitting,
walking and lying down.
The yogi
understands that the culture of this enlightenment factor
arisen thus comes to completion through the path of
arahantship.
3. Energy
There is the
mode (or element) of energy that is inceptive, the mode of
energy that is enduring, and the mode of energy that is
strong, powerful, courageous; and an abundance of right
reflection on these (modes of energy) is the reason
conducive to the arising of the non-arisen enlightenment
factor of energy, and for the increase, expansion and the
completion by culture of that enlightenment factor when it
has arisen.
Eleven things
lead to the arising of the enlightenment factor of energy:
Reflection on the fearfulness of states-of-woe [apaya bhaya];
the seeing of the benefits of energy; reflection on the path
to be trodden; the honoring of alms, reflection on the
greatness of the heritage; the reflection on the greatness
of the Master; reflection on the greatness of race;
reflection on the greatness of fellows in the holy life; the
avoiding of lazy folk; the associating with folk who have
begun to exert; and the inclination towards the development
of the enlightenment factor of energy.
Reflection on
the fearfulness of the states-of-woe as stated in the
Devaduta
[36]
and other Suttas produces in the yogi the thought: "Now is
the time to rouse energy; it is not possible to be energetic
when subject to great suffering."
The seeing of
the benefits of energy is the appreciation of the fact that
only by one who has begun to exert himself (in the
development of the enlightenment factors etc.) could the
Supramundane Truth be obtained and not by a lazy person.
"The path
trodden by all the Supreme Buddhas, the Paccekabuddhas, and
the Great Disciples, has to be trodden by you," says the
yogi to himself, "and that path is impossible for an
indolent person." That is the reflection on the path to be
trodden.
The yogi thinks
thus: "Those who support you with alms-food and so forth are
not relatives of yours, are not your servants; they do not
give you excellent alms thinking: 'We shall (in the future)
live depending on you.' But they give expecting from their
offerings great fruit. Also the requisites were not allowed
to you by the Master so that you may make use of the
requisites and live strong-bodied in comfort, but they were
allowed to you so that you may do the duty of the recluse
and escape the round of suffering whilst using the
requisites. The indolent one does not honor the alms; only
he who has begun to be energetic honors it." Reflection in
this way about honoring the alms permitted by the Buddha
produces energy, as in the case of the Thera Maha Mitta
(Great Friend).
The Thera lived
in Kassaka Lena (Cultivator's or Farmer's Cave). In the
village to which he resorted for alms there was a certain
Maha Upasika (elderly or great female lay devotee) who
taking him as a child of hers looked after him.
One day she was
preparing to go to the forest, and spoke to her daughter
thus: "Here is old rice; here, milk; here, ghee; and here,
treacle. When your brother the venerable Mitta comes cook
the rice and give it to him with milk, ghee, and treacle.
You, too, eat of it. I have eaten the cold rice cooked
yesterday with gruel." "Mother, what will you take at noon?"
"Cook a sour gruel with herbs and broken rice and put it by
(for me)."
Just as the
Thera was taking out the bowl (from the bowl-bag), after he
had robed himself to go out for alms, he heard that talk of
the mother and daughter through his clairaudient power, at
the door of his cave, and thought as follows: "The great lay
devotee has eaten stale rice with gruel and will take sour
gruel at noon. For you she has given old rice, milk, ghee
and treacle. She does not expect field or food or cloth from
you. Only expecting the three good attainments of the human,
divine and supramundane planes does she give (alms to you).
Will you be able to bestow on her those attainments? Indeed
her alms is not fit to be taken by you with (heart of) lust,
hatred and ignorance." Then, he put back the bowl into the
bowl-bag, loosened the robe-knot, refrained from going for
alms, and returning to the Cultivator's Cave put the bowl
under his bed, the robe on the robe pole and sat down
resolved on endeavor thinking, "I will not go from here
without attaining arahantship.)
This recluse
who had been earnest for a long time, after developing
insight, reached the fruit of arahantship even before
meal-time, and the great destroyer of the corruptions
smiling like an opening lotus went out of the cave.
To him the
guardian deity of the tree near the cave said this:
Hail to thee
man-steed of finest strain,
Hail to thee the best of mortal kind,
Gone are thy cankers, Sorrowless One, and so
Worthy art thou to take a gift of faith.
Having uttered
this appreciation, the tree deity said: "Venerable Sir,
after giving alms to an arahant like you wandering for alms,
the elderly woman will escape suffering."
When the Thera
got up and opened the door to observe what the time was he
found that it was still quite early. So he took his bowl and
robe and entered the village.
The young girl,
having prepared the rice, sat looking towards the door of
her house thinking, "Now my brother will come."
And when the
Thera arrived she took the bowl, filled it with milk-rice
alms mixed with ghee and treacle and placed it in his hands,
and he departed after giving thanks with the words: "May
there be happiness," and the girl stood there looking at the
departing one. The color of the Elder at that time was
exceedingly clear, and his controlling faculties especially
pure and his face was shining like a ripe palm-fruit freed
from the foot-stalk.
The mother of
the girl on returning from the forest inquired: "Dear, did
your brother come?" The daughter told her everything. The
Maha Upasika knowing that her son's renunciation work had
that day reached its acme, said, "Dear, your brother
delights in the Dispensation of the Buddha. He is not
dissatisfied."
There is
reflection on the greatness of the heritage when one thinks
thus: "Great, indeed, is the heritage of the Teacher, namely
the Seven Real Treasures [Sutta Ariya Dhanani]. These are
not to be got by the slothful. The indolent man is like a
son disowned by his parents. He does not get this parents'
wealth when they pass away. So too it is with the Seven Real
Treasures. Only the man of energy gets these."
Reflection on
the greatness of the Master consists in recalling the great
events in the teacher's life, and admonishing oneself thus:
"Does it befit you to be slack after entering the
Dispensation of such a Teacher?"
Reflection on
the greatness of race is carried out by way of the fact that
in entering the Buddha's Dispensation one has become the
Conqueror's son [spiritually], and that for such a one
slacking is not fit.
Reflection on
the greatness of fellows in the holy life consists of
admonishing oneself thus: "Sariputta, Maha Moggallana, and
the great disciples penetrated the supramundane after much
endeavor. Are you following their way of life?"
The avoiding of
lazy folk is the avoiding of people without physical and
mental energy who are like a rock-snake lying inert after a
full feed. And the association with folk who have begun to
exert themselves is mixing with those whose minds are turned
towards and who are endeavoring for the attainment of
Nibbana. Inclination towards the development of this
enlightenment factor is the inclining, sloping and bending
of the mind towards right exertion in all postures of
sitting, standing and so forth. The enlightenment factor
that arises in this way comes to completion by culture
through the path of arahantship.
4. Joy
There are
things which condition the enlightenment factor of joy and
an abundance of right reflection on these is the reason that
is conducive to the arising of the non-arisen enlightenment
factor of joy and for the increase, expansion and completion
by culture of the enlightenment factor when it has arisen.
Eleven things
lead to the arising of the enlightenment factor of joy:
recollection of the Buddha, recollection of the Dhamma,
recollection of the Sangha, recollection of virtue, of
liberality, of the shining ones [devas], and the
recollection of peace [upasama], the avoiding of bad
people, association with good people, reflection on the
discourses inspiring confidence, and the inclination towards
joy.
By recollection
of the Buddha's qualities, of the qualities of the Dhamma,
and of the Sangha, joy arises.
Joy arises also
for one who having kept the precepts of fourfold purity
unbroken for a long time reflects on one's virtue; to laymen
who reflect on their virtue through observing the ten and
the five precepts; to one reflecting on liberality and
recollecting one's gift of excellent food to one's fellows
in the holy life during a time of scarcity and the like; to
laymen recollecting their liberality in giving alms to
virtuous folk; to one reflecting on one's possession of
qualities by which beings have reached the state of shining
ones (devas); to one reflecting thus by way of peace: "The
passions suppressed by the higher attainments do not occur
for sixty or seventy years."
The avoiding of
bad people is the keeping away from rough people who are
like dirt on a mule's back, who show a callous nature
through irreverence, owing to lack of faith-inspired
affection for the Buddha and the like, in worshipping
shrines or elders. Good people are those who have much faith
in the Buddha and the like and are gentle of mind.
Discourses which illumine the qualities of and inspire
confidence in the Triple Gem are discourses inspiring
confidence. The inclination towards joy refers to the mind
sloping towards this enlightenment factor in all postures of
sitting and the like. The completion by culture of this
enlightenment factor is through the path of awakening.
5. Calm
There are
things which condition the enlightenment factor of calm of
the body (the aggregates of feeling, perception and the
conformations) and of the mind (the aggregate of
consciousness) and an abundance of right reflection on these
things is conducive to the arising of the non-arisen
enlightenment factor of calm and for the increase,
expansion, and completion by culture of this enlightenment
factor when it has arisen.
Seven things
lead to the arising of the enlightenment factor of calm: The
resorting to fine food, comfortable weather, and comfortable
postures; judgment according to the middle way; the avoiding
of people who are physically restless; the association with
people who are physically calm and the inclination towards
the development of the enlightenment factor of calm.
The
resorting to fine food is the resorting to
excellent, beneficial food that is suitable to one. The
resorting to comfortable weather and postures means the
resorting to weather and postures suitable to one. By
resorting to this threefold suitability, well-being of mind
comes into existence by way of the basis of bodily
well-being and there proceeds then the reason for twofold
calm.
Judgment
according to the middle way is reflection on one's own deed
as one's own property and another's deed as that of other's
property.
This is the
judgment of things based on the acknowledgment of the law of
moral causation avoiding first the extreme view that the
suffering and happiness experienced by living beings are
causeless and then the other extreme view of ascribing these
to a fictive cause like that of a Creator God, and the
knowing of all suffering and happiness as one's own action.
But he who has
the nature of a great man is patient of all kinds of weather
and postures. Not concerning such a person has the above
been said.
The avoiding of
people who are physically restless is the keeping away from
restless people who go about harassing others with clod and
stick. People who are physically calm are those who are
quiet because they are restrained on hand and foot. The
inclination towards the development of this enlightenment
factor is the inclining, sloping, and bending of the mind
towards calm in all postures. By the arahant's path the
completion by culture of this enlightenment factor takes
place.
6.
Concentration
There is the
sign of quietude, and the sign of non-confusion, and an
abundance of right reflection on these is the reason
conducive to the arising of the non-arisen enlightenment
factor of concentration and for the increase, expansion and
completion by culture of the enlightenment factor of
concentration when it has arisen.
The first
stage of tranquillity which arises when an object is being
grasped by way of bearing it in mind, the composed manner,
is the characteristic sign of quietude.
There the sign
of quietude is just the quietude by way of the composed
manner. And in the sense of non-distraction is the sign
of non-confusion to be taken.
Confusion is
the state of mind which, because of the whirling in a
multiplicity of objects, is jumping from thing to thing,
diverse of aim, and not one-pointed. Distraction is the same
in character. Unsteadiness is its salient feature, and
deviation is its manifestation. By one-pointedness of mind
confusion is thrown out.
Eleven things
lead to the arising of concentration. Purification of the
basis; the imparting of evenness to the spiritual
controlling faculties; skill in taking up the sign of the
object of meditation; the inciting of the mind on occasion,
the restraining of the mind on occasion, the gladdening of
the mind on occasion and the regarding of the mind without
interfering on occasion; the avoiding of people who are not
collected in mind; association with people who are collected
in mind; reflection on the absorptions and the
emancipations; and the inclination towards the development
of the enlightenment factor of concentration.
Skill in the
taking up of the sign which is the cause for the arising of
absorption is skill in taking up the sign.
The inciting of
the mind on occasion is the applying of the mind vigorously
by bringing into being the enlightenment factors of the
investigation of mental objects, energy and joy, when there
is excessive laxity of energy and of the application of
wisdom, and a deficiency of delight in the meditation.
The restraining
of the mind refers to the checking of the mind that is
becoming excessively energetic, too strong, in the
application of wisdom and elated with delight, by bringing
into being the enlightenment factors of calm, concentration
and equanimity.
The gladdening
of the mind means: The enlivening with confidence of the
mind becomes dissatisfied either through weak application of
wisdom or the non-attainment of the bliss of restfulness (or
of the subsidence of the passions even temporarily). This
enlivening is done through reflection on the eight reasons
for the upsurge of spiritual feeling, namely, birth, decay,
disease, death, the suffering of the four states of woe, the
samsaric round of suffering in the past, and the suffering
rooted in the search for nutriment in the present life, and
through contemplation on the qualities of the Triple Gem.
The regarding
of the mind without interfering is the absence of the work
of inciting, retraining and gladdening the mind which has
got to right practice and which proceeds well in the object,
free from sloth, free from restlessness, and free from
dissatisfaction. It is comparable to the state of a
charioteer who looks on uninterfering when the horses are
going well.
The keeping
away from persons who have not reached partial or full
absorption and are distracted of mind is the avoiding of
people who are not collected in mind. Association with
persons who have reached those states of absorption is
association with people who are collected in mind. The mind
inclining, sloping, and bending towards
concentration-production in all postures of standing,
sitting and the like constitutes the inclination for this
factor. The completion by culture of the enlightenment
factor of concentration is through the path of arahantship.
Excessive
laxity... Of application of wisdom means feeble
working of wisdom. As the principal thing in liberality is
non-greed, and in virtue non-hate, so in meditation it is
wisdom (non-ignorance) that is the principal thing.
Therefore, if wisdom is not very strong in the development
of concentration there will be no causing of contemplative
attainment (or distinction). As unprepared food gives no
pleasure to a man, so, without the application of wisdom,
the object of meditation does not give satisfaction to the
yogi's mind. To the yogi then there is the pointing out of
the remedy for that lack of satisfaction in the stirring up
of spiritual feeling and confidence.
7. Equanimity
There are
things which condition the enlightenment factor of
equanimity and an abundance of right reflection on these is
the reason that is conducive to the arising of the
non-arisen enlightenment factor of equanimity and for the
increase, expansion and the completion by culture of the
enlightenment factor when it has risen.
Five things
lead to the arising of the enlightenment factor of
equanimity: The detached attitude towards beings; the
detached attitude towards things; the avoiding of persons
who are egotistical in regard to living beings and things;
association with people who are neutral (impartial) in
regard to living beings and things; and the inclination for
developing the enlightenment factor of equanimity.
The detached
attitude towards beings is brought about by reflection on
beings as possessors of their own deeds, and by reflection
in the highest sense.
Reflection on
beings as possessors of their own deeds is there when a
person thinks thus: "You have been born here by your own
deeds in the past and will depart from here and fare
according to your own deeds. Who then is the being you are
attached to?"
Reflection in
the highest sense is thinking in the following way: "Really
no living being exists. To whom then, can you be attached?"
The detached
attitude towards things is brought about by reflection on
ownerlessness and temporariness.
A person thinks
thus: "This robe will fade, get old, become a foot-cleaning
rag and be after that fit only to be taken up at the end of
a stick and flung away. Surely, should there be an owner of
this he would not let it come to ruin in this way?" This is
the reflection on ownerlessness. To think that this robe
cannot last long and that its duration is short, is to
reflect on the temporariness of it. These two reflections
are applicable in a similar way to the bowl and other
things.
Persons who are
egotistical in regard to living beings are laymen who
cherish their own sons and daughters and the like, and
recluses who cherish their resident pupils, mates,
preceptors and the like. And these persons, if for instance,
they are recluses do with their own hands for them whom they
cherish, hair-cutting, sewing, robe-washing, robe-dyeing,
bowl-lacquering, and so forth. If even for a short time they
do not see their cherished ones they look here and there
like bewildered deer, and ask, "Where is such and such
novice?" or "Where is such and such a young bhikkhu." And if
these recluses are requested by others to send a novice or a
young bhikkhu to do some work for them, such as
hair-cutting, they don't send the novice or young bhikkhu,
on the pretense that he is not made to do even his own work,
and that if he is made to do the work of others he would get
tired. Persons egotistical in this way should be avoided.
A person who is
egotistical in regard to things is he who cherishes robes,
bowls, beakers, walking sticks, staffs and so forth and does
not let another even touch these. When asked for a loan of
some article he would say: "Even I do not use it; how can I
give it?" Persons egotistical in that way, too, should be
avoided.
A person who is
neutral, indifferent, as regards both living beings and
things is a person who is detached as regards both living
beings and things. The company of such a person should be
sought.
Inclination for
developing this enlightenment factor is the inclining,
sloping, and bending of the mind towards equanimity, in all
postures of standing and so forth.
The completion
by culture of the enlightenment factor of equanimity is
wrought by the path of awakening.
Iti
ajjhattam = "Thus internally." The yogi lives
contemplating mental objects in mental objects (that is,
contemplating mental objects only and nothing else) by
laying hold of his own enlightenment factors or another's
enlightenment factors or at one time his own enlightenment
factors and at another time another's enlightenment factors.
Here,
origination and dissolution should be known by way of the
origination and dissolution of the enlightenment factors.
From here on
the exposition is just according to the manner already
stated.
The cause of
the enlightenment factor of equanimity is the impartial
state, the middle state, free from attraction and repulsion.
If that freedom from attraction and repulsion exists then
there is equanimity; when it does not exist there is no
equanimity. This state of freedom from attraction and
repulsion is twofold by way of scope: detachment in regard
to beings and detachment in regard to things.
Repulsion is
thrown away even by the development of the enlightenment
factor of calm and in order to show just the way of casting
out attraction is the instruction beginning with detachment
in regard to beings taught.
Specially,
equanimity is an enemy of lust and so the commentator said:
Equanimity is the path of purity of one who is full of lust.
The detached
attitude towards beings is developed by reflection on the
individual nature of moral causation and by reflection on
soullessness. By reflection on ownerlessness, the state of
not belonging to a soul is brought out and by reflection on
temporariness, the impermanence of things is brought out to
produce the detached attitude towards inanimate things.
The Four
Truths
Having
explained thus the contemplation of mental objects by way of
the seven factors of enlightenment, the Master said, "And
further," and so forth, in order to explain the meditation
by way of the Four Truths.
Idam
dukkhanti yathabhutam Pajanati = "A bhikkhu understands:
'this is suffering,' according to reality." He puts aside
craving, and understands all things of the three planes of
becoming as suffering, according to nature. He understands
according to nature the previous craving that produces and
makes to arise that very suffering. He understands the
non-occurrence of both suffering and its origin, according
to nature, as Nibbana. He understands, according to nature,
the Noble Path which penetrates suffering, abandons
origination, and realizes cessation.
The rest of the
explanation of the Noble Truths is in the Path of Purity [Visuddhi
Magga].
Iti
ajjhattam = "Thus, internally." He lives contemplating
mental objects in mental objects, having laid hold of his
own four truths or the four truths of another or at one time
his own four truths and at another time another's four
truths.
In this
explanation of the truths, the origination and dissolution
of the four truths should be understood according to nature
by way of arising and stopping.
From here on
the explanation is according to the manner already stated.
With this have
been stated the following twenty-one subjects of meditation:
Breathing, Modes of Deportments, the Method of the
Thirty-two Parts of the Body, the Determination of the Four
Modes of Materiality (or the Four Elements), the Nine
Cemetery Contemplations, Contemplation of Feeling,
Contemplation of Consciousness, the Laying Hold on the
Hindrances, the Laying Hold on the Aggregates, the Laying
Hold on the Sense-bases, the Laying Hold on the
Enlightenment Factors, and the Laying Hold on the Truths.
The Cemetery Contemplations are counted separately.
The
Contemplation on Breathing, the Thirty-two Parts and the
Nine Cemetery Contemplations, these eleven, are subjects of
meditation which produce full absorption. The Digha-bhanaka
(Reciter of the Long Collection of Discourses) Maha Siva,
however, says that the Nine Cemetery Contemplations are here
stated by way of the contemplation of Misery. Therefore
according to his view only two subjects, Breathing and the
Thirty-two Parts, produce full absorption; the rest produce
only partial absorption.
Yo hi koci
bhikkhave ime cattaro satipatthane evam bhaveyya = "O
bhikkhus, if anyone develops the Four Arousings of
Mindfulness in this manner." If any bhikkhu or bhikkhuni or
upasaka or upasika cultivates mindfulness from the beginning
according to the method taught here.
Titthantu
bhikkhave = "O bhikkhus, let alone." This together with
what follows, was said by way of the average person capable
of being trained.
But concerning
the person of keen intelligence it was stated as follows:
Instructed in the morning, he will attain in the evening;
instructed in the evening, he will attain in the morning.
The Blessed One
pointed out the teaching thus: "Bhikkhus, my Dispensation
leads to Deliverance in this way," closed the instruction
that is crowned with arahantship in twenty-one places and
uttered the following words: "This is the only way, o
bhikkhus, for the purification of beings, for the overcoming
of sorrow and lamentation, for the destruction of suffering
and grief, for reaching the right path, for the attainment
of Nibbana, namely the Four Arousings of Mindfulness."