DISTORTIONS & DENSITIES

DITORTIONS (VIPALLASAS)

Due to our erroneous judgments, says Ven. Ledi Sayadaw,” we make some serious errors on many levels as we attempt to make sense of the world formed around us. As a result we fail to see three important characteristics of the conditioned phenomena, i.e impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukka) and non-self (anatma)” –The Manual of Buddhism.

This is due to distortions (vipallasa) which are fundamental to the Buddhist teachings of ignorance or delusion. The distortions of the mind work on three levels of scale. First, distortions of perception (sanna-vipallasa) cause us to misperceive the information coming to us through the sense doors. “We might mistake a rope by the path as a snake, for example. Normally such errors of vision are corrected by a more careful scrutiny, but sometimes these sensory mistakes are overlooked and remain.”

Distortions of thought (citta-vipallasa) have to do with the next higher level of mental processing, when we find ourselves contemplating over things in our minds. The mind tends to elaborate upon perception with these thought patterns, and when our thoughts are based upon distortions of perception, then they too will be distorted.

Eventually such thought patterns can become habitual, and evolve into distortions of view (ditti-vipallasa). “We might become so convinced that there is a snake by the path that no amount of evidence to the contrary from our own eyes or reason, nor the advice of others, will shake our beliefs and assumptions. We are stuck in a mistaken view.”

Furthermore, it is noted that these three levels of distortion are cyclical — our perceptions are formed in the context of our views, which are strengthened by our thoughts, and all three works together to build the cognitive systems which develop our sense of personality and its uniqueness.

One should recognize that the particular distortions mentioned above correspond to following three characteristics. Taking what is impermanent (anicca) as permanent, what is inherently unsatisfactory (dukkha) as a source of satisfaction, and what is without a self (anatta) to constitute a self — “these are the primary ways we distort reality to the profound disadvantage of ourselves and others. Seeing the unwholesome (asubha) as wholesome rounds out the traditional list of four vipallasas” says Ven. Shadaw.

Buddha has said

Anicce niccasaññino, dukkhe ca sukhasaññino;
anattani ca attāti, asubhe subhasaññino;
micchādiṭṭhihatā sattā, khittacittā visaññino.

Perceiving permanence in the impermanent, and pleasant in the painful
And self in the impersonal, and beauty in the repulsive
Beings are injured by wrong-views,
minds unhinged, they go mad.

Vipallasa Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya

DENSITIES (GHANA SANNA)

It is further stated that our clear vision is obstructed by Densities or crowding (Ghana) of continuity, of whole, of function and of Object. These give rise to illusions or distortions (Vipallasa) discussed above by three functions of the mind i.e. by perception (sanna), by thought (citta), and by view (ditti) as to create four false notions of Permanence, Wholesomeness, Happiness and Self in what are essentially Impermanent, Unwholesome, Unsatisfactory and without Self.

The above four densities are called  the Density of Continuity or unbrokenness (Santhathi Ghana), the density of Whole  (Samuha Ghana) The Density of Function (Kriya Ghana) and the Density of Object( Arammana Ghana) .

Dr W.F.Jayasuriya in his book ‘The psychology and Philosophy of Buddhism’ writes, “The Continuity is the seeming existence of mind and matter, in time, as continuous things when the truth is the momentariness (Transitionary Nature) in all things. For instance, what is seen as a continuous line to a naked eye is seen as separate dots when seen through a magnifying glass, if a torch be whirled we see it as a single ring of light.”

The nature of seeing a continuation in the arising and passing of aggregates (skandas) in form of name-matter (nama-rupas) is santhathi.

“The Density of Whole is the notion of wholeness of a body whereas it consists of parts and units such as when one imagines a chariot as one whole body though it consists of many parts.” Another example would be seeing and noting a heap of sand when in real terms it’s a pile of sand particles grouped together. 

Density of function is the acceptance as one function in an action which in fact has a number of sub actions on it such as  when the foot is raised, trust forward and then put down.

The density of object is the acceptance of oneness in kind whereas it is not so. “What is seen as white light when sent through a prism splits into the rainbow colours. Although we have an illusion as one colour it consists of a number of colours.”

On account of such densities, Dr Jayasuriya writes, “distortions of three functions of the mind namely, perceiving, knowing and opinion formation occurs and are called Sanna Vipallasa, Citta Vipallasa and Ditti viplasa respectively as mentioned above. These three in respect of each of the four false notions noted before as permanence, happiness, wholesomeness and self make 12 illusions. The liberation from these illusions is the key to the attainment of Nibbana. They are corrected in stages as a person proceeds to the Arahat state.”

Buddha preached four Frames of Mindfulness (Sathara Sathipattana) meditation as the only path, ‘ekayano maggo,’ to overcome these errors of view and to see things as they are (Right View) and thereby to follow the noble eightfold path to supreme bliss of nirvana. Sathara Sathipattana meditation focuses on observing the arising & ceasing phenomenon of aggregates. Through mindfulness regarding the body (kayanupassana) one clears the view to see unwholesomeness, through mindfulness of the feelings or sensations (Vedananupassana)  unsatisfactoriness, through mindfulness of mind or consciousness (cittanupassna),  impermanence and through mindfulness of mental phenomena (dhammanupassna),  non- Self and so on.

References:

Dharma Sermons :

Venerable Pitigala Gunarathana, Venarable Mankadawala Sudassana, Venerable Dankande Dhammarathana.

Books:

Purana Buruma Sathipatthana Bhavana Kramaya: Venearable Rerukane Chandavimala,

The Manual of Buddhism: Venerable Ledi Sayadaw

Psychology & Philosophy of Buddhism: Dr. W.F. Jayasuriya.