'In the seen will be merely what is seen' - Ditte Ditta Mattan Bhavissathi

The form that impinges on the eye is made of Four Great Elements known as Sathara Mahabhutha . These Elements or Mhabhutha do not pose as they are but appear in disguise hence are called ‘Bhutha’, meaning ‘spirit’. What is seen by the eye is described in the script as ‘Upadaya Rupa’ meaning, a shape formed by the Four Great elements when conditions are present.  An example given is the image (or shadow) falling on water when one looks into a pond. We cannot interact with this image by touching or smelling and it appears when we look into the water and disappears when we move away. If we try to touch it we can feel the water but not the image. There is no difference to this experience, it is said, to what we experience in our day to day encounters with external objects. 

The dilemma is that we tend to tie such a visual experience to an experience from another sense door, such as smell, taste, touch etc., which in reality occur in isolation of each other. By tying one experience to the others we compose a person or a thing in our mind as one that exist permanently out there and hence we come back in search of him/it to experience or re-cognise (forming prathisandhi vinnana or Re-link consciousness).

This can be compared with conventional film making where visual footage is shot first and voices and music dubbed in afterwords to create a motion picture.  A mental impression of either of our experiences through a sense door is sufficient to make us comeback in search of the object (image) to which it is attached to (in our mind) and when seen again the film (or the video) is played back experiencing through several senses.  This is how we are trapped in this samsaric existence.

Furthermore, according to the teachings, consciousness that arises in the visual experience, chakku Vinnana, is different to the consciousness that arise through an experience from ear, nose, tongue or body. Therefore, the experiences from two or more sense bases are distinct by nature and hence cannot be identified with one object.

The Buddha identified this error and preached to refrain from tying experience from one sense door to another. In his response to a request from a ascetic named Bahiya to teach dhamma, the enlightened one simply advised,

“Bāhiya, you should train yourself thus:  in the seen will be merely what is seen; in the heard will be merely what is heard; in the sensed will be merely what is sensed; in the cognised will be merely what is cognised. “

“Ditte Ditta Mattan Bhavissathi ,

Suthe Sutha Mattan Bhavissathi,

Muthe Mutha Mattan Bhavissathi,

Vinnate Vinnatha mattan Bhavissathi”

It is said that Bhahiya became an Arhat having listened to this sermon.

The meaning of this profound statement in simple terms is, do not combine an experience from the eye, for instance, to another as they arise within each sense base and cease from within without any interconnection.

In a similar manner we also confuse visual appearance of sense bases with their actual function. The Buddha has said that we cannot see our sense bases (anidassana). Though we identify them as eye, ear, nose, tongue or the body, the sense bases are identified by their function rather than the physical appearance. Being ignorant of the function of each in contact, for instance we combine the visual appearance of the ear to the function of hearing.

This can be explained with a simple experiment. If you prick your tongue with a pin the resultant sensation is due to arising of the body consciousness and not the tongue consciousness as it meant to be. 

When there is a pain in the leg as long as you grasp it as a leg pain it will prevail. The truth is that the sensation/pain felt due to arising of body consciousness is tied to the eye consciousness and grasped it as a pain occurring in the leg.  In this instance the body consciousness arises and ceases momentarily corresponding to the arising and ceasing of the body contact. However, we do not feel the gap in between (the moment without any pain) as the sensation (pain) is retrieved by the mind as mind consciousness in bridging the gap, hence we feel a continuous pain. Now as we attach the body pain to the visual experience we complain of suffering from leg pain.

Take an example of you being insulted by someone, you usually get hurt in such situations and often react, as you can connect what you heard to the person seen. If the person is someone you hate the reaction is multiplied. However, if you just consider what you heard as just a voice you will not feel hurt. Learning from the teachings we should consider it as something just heard without connecting to a person and moreover, if there is no listener there is no one to be hurt.

Observing this reality with insight helps to separate the experiences sensed through different sense doors lessening the power of defilements. The realisation that an experience from each sense door arises due to conditions and cease when the conditions are not present is central to the above.

It is also said that what we experience in dreams are identical to what we associate while we are awake in terms of responding to mere mental images (nothing that exist externally) due to ignorance. The deference is that when we wake up from sleep we know that the dream was unreal but while being awake we continue to be deceived. The Buddha who is called the ‘Awakened One’ realised that it is a dream in both states and declared that our affection to sensual pleasures are a dream itself, ‘swapnopaka kama’.