Tuesday, January 5, 2016

The Great Six Sense-media Discourse: Maha-salayatanika Sutra

On one occasion when the Blessed One was staying at Anathapindika's Monastery, in Jeta's Grove near Savatthi, he taught the Great Six Sense-media Discourse to the monks.
The Buddha preached , If one does not know and does not see (ajanan apassan) , the eye, the visible form , eye consciousness , eye contact & the  resultant sensations; pleasant , unpleasant ,neither pleasant or unpleasant, as they are (Yatha Butan); he or she becomes obsessed by being attached to the eye, the visible form , eye consciousness , eye contact & the resultant sensations; pleasant , unpleasant ,neither pleasant or unpleasant and thus take delight on those.

When one takes delight in these, the Buddha has stressed, he or she becomes engrossed, bonded & perplexed.  Therefore, the person is said to be preoccupied with only the pleasures (aswada) the above bring about and not the drawbacks or evils that accompany them. The Buddha raises an important point here, i.e. though one could contemplate on the nature of impermanence, suffering & selflessness of these dhammas and comprehend that they are subjected to continuous transformation, as long as he does not see them as they really are, he or she cannot be free from being engrossed, bonded & perplexed.

As the person continues to be attached to the eye, the visible form, eye consciousness, eye contact and so on, relishing them, he or she will crave & cling to them more and more resulting in further accumulation of the five clinging aggregates. In other words, the person will continue to accumulate suffering[1], i.e. birth, decay & death, as craving & clinging grows in him. This is the craving the Tathagata referred to as the one (desire) that grows within a person which causes becoming with passion & delight, relishing at any given state, here or there. By accumulating the clinging aggregates one is able to remember things & persons as those that exist. In addition he or she develops the erroneous notion that things are wholesome, permanent, pleasant & with self. However, as said above, the sutra further states that by reflecting upon the, unwholesomeness, impermanence, unsatisfactoriness & non-self of the said dhamma becomes mere words and thoughts and does not help as long as the person is deluded.

As a consequence of being obsessed with pleasures as noted above, it is further said that the person becomes disturbed and aggressive both physically and mentally. In addition, the person’s bodily torments and mental torments begin to grow & therefore he or she continues to suffer mentally & physically.

For instance, say a person finds a precious stone, a diamond; as soon as he sees the value of it he will develop craving & will do whatever he can to protect the stone. He will hide it in the most secure place in his house and may even carry a gun to protect it from burglars. He will not get proper sleep in the night thinking about the valuable stone and its security. The person's behaviour and character will change drastically ending up in suffering both physically & mentally.

If one suffers through the mind and body in this way, it is evidence for the accumulation of the five clinging aggregates and growth of craving. In other words it is evidence for the presence of both suffering and cause for suffering.

The Buddha goes on to explain this dhamma with reference to the ear as well,  if one does not know and does not see , the ear, sound (audible form) , ear consciousness , ear contact & the resultant sensations, pleasant , unpleasant ,neither pleasant or unpleasant, as they are; he or she becomes obsessed with the ear, the sound , ear consciousness , ear contact & the resultant sensations, pleasant , unpleasant ,neither pleasant or unpleasant and thus take delight on those.

When the person takes delight in these, he or she becomes engrossed, bonded & perplexed.  Therefor he or she is said to be preoccupied with only the pleasures (aswada), but not the drawbacks or the evils that they bring about and hence clings to them causing further accumulation of five clinging aggregates.

As a result the person becomes disturbed and aggressive, both physically and mentally. His or her bodily torments and mental torments begin to grow & therefore he or she continues to suffer mentally & physically. This is proof for the accumulation of the five clinging aggregates and growth of craving within the persons mind.

The Buddha has explained this dhamma in reference to the other senses as well, where one becomes engrossed, bonded & perplexed by not knowing or seeing the senses, objects & so on, causing accumulation of the five clinging aggregates with growth of craving or in other words suffering, i.e birth, decay & death.

Let’s see how one could reverse this, how can one live without accumulating the five aggregates but by discarding them?  Tathagata clarifies that, the one who does know and see (janan, passan), the eye, the visible form, eye consciousness & so on, as they are (Yatha Butan), will not be attached to & thus will not be obsessed with them and therefore does not take delight in the same.  When the person doesn’t take delight in them, he or she will not become engrossed, bonded or perplexed.

Such person continues to live being aware of the drawbacks or evils (Adeenawa) of those dhamma. In the earlier instance when one didn’t know or see, the five clinging aggregates got accumulated, now they get dissipated. In addition, the person relinquish the craving that grew within him, which caused becoming with passion & delight, relishing at any given state, here & there. When the five clinging aggregates fade away, what is seen is not left behind, as one sees that the sense (visual) experience ends with the ending of eye contact.

He or she would not return to see things that exist but will be aware that they can be created and experienced when and where necessary. There is a difference between going back to see things that one tend to think as those that exist out there, as against going back to create and experience again. In the first instance he or she goes back without being aware of the reality and thus due to delusion forms greed or aversion. In the other instance one goes back being fully aware, with wisdom, that the person can create and experience as he or she wishes. For instance one can look into a mirror to see his or her image, being aware that it is an image that does not exist but one that appears only when the person looks into the mirror. Therefore one does not leave things in the external as the craving is uprooted.

As a consequence, it is further said, one becomes calm and soft both physically and mentally. The person’s bodily torments and mental torments disappear and he or she is happy and content, both mentally & physically. Free from suffering and cause for suffering, the person reaches the state where he or she enjoys bliss. The Buddha went on to explain this dhamma in terms of all remaining senses, i.e. ear, nose, tongue, body etc. as well.

If we may go back to the earlier example, the person who found the precious stone visits a dealer and shows him the stone expecting a good price. The dealer checks it carefully and rejects it straightaway as a fake with no value. The man not convinced goes to another dealer and gets the same response. All hopes & expectations the man had suddenly falls apart and hence his attachment to the fake stone. Being disillusioned & detached he becomes free from worry and stress thus regains his composure.

The one who gains the vision (Yatha Butha Nana) as discussed is said to be having the Right View. The person’s contemplation focused on such vision is the Right Contemplation. The effort to achieve such vision is the Right Effort. The mindfulness aimed at the above is the Right Mindfulness and the concentration that contributes to it is the Right Concentration.
Being a virtuous person, his (or her) speech, action and the livelihood are already purified and such person is said to have embarked on the Noble Eight Fold Path.  

Thus for him, having thus developed the noble eightfold path, the four frames of reference go to the culmination of their development. The four right exertions... the four bases of power... the five faculties... the five strengths... the seven factors for Awakening go to the culmination of their development. [And] for him these two qualities occur in tandem: tranquillity and insight.”[2]

The person clearly comprehends the five clinging aggregates (suffering) and the cause for it which he or she now discards along with ignorance. Avidya translated as ignorance has the literal meaning of ‘Nescience’, and thus Vidya is the ‘Science’ which the Buddha has comprehended (Yathabutha Nana) at his Enlightenment, i.e the wisdom that was unheard of before.

The sutra goes on to say,
"He comprehends through direct knowledge whatever qualities are to be comprehended through direct knowledge, abandons through direct knowledge whatever qualities are to be abandoned through direct knowledge, develops through direct knowledge whatever qualities are to be developed through direct knowledge, and realizes through direct knowledge whatever qualities are to be realized through direct knowledge.”

The knowledge to be gained is the knowledge of the Five Clinging aggregates, i.e. suffering. What need to be abandoned are the ignorance, craving & existence. What one has to develop is tranquillity & insight meditation, realisation should be the science and liberation. In other words one has to see & know suffering as it really is and abandon craving to realise cessation.

What we encounter & interact in our day to day life is the form (visible, audible etc.)  not the eye, eye consciousness, contact or the resultant sensations. The Buddha’s words, when one does not know & do not see, in effect refers to the form which we do not see as they really are. This applies to all forms whether its visible, audible etc.

Now let’s explore how we could know & see form as it is (janan passan)?

Ven Mankadawala Sudassana Thero refers to the example of the reflection on water, which we can’t smell taste or touch, but only a visible form. It’s merely an image that can’t bring luck or bad luck to you.

Similarly, says the Thero, we can’t touch the visual object which associates the Four Great Elements, if we attempt to touch we will only feel the Four Great Elements. When we gain the realisation of this phenomena, we do not get attached to a visual object and will not find delight in it. We will not find value in it but will see  as a void, therefore, the Buddha has said “in the seen will be what is merely seen’ (Bhahiya Sutra).

Within our existence we can touch an object that we see, we can even smell and feel, as we do not see the object as it really is. As we don’t see objects as they really are we find gold, silver, sons , daughters etc. which we grasp in terms of the pleasures they bring in. With the accumulation of the five clinging aggregates we keep growing our desire (craving) that make us to go in search of things & persons over and over again, leading to rebirth (punarbhava).

To overcome this unsatisfactoriness one needs to know & see things as they really are (janan passan yathabutan) i.e. He or she needs to develop his /her ability to see form as it is. Thereby, the person can begin to live experiencing the drawbacks or evils of form, the eye, eye consciousness, eye contact & corresponding sensations so he or she wouldn’t accumulate the five clinging aggregates any more, in other words, does not leave behind what the person saw, heard etc. This is the state where one sees & realises ‘being non-existent things arise due to causes and cease when the causes cease to exist’ (Yatha Bhutha Nana).

One cannot see the said reality of form due to hindrances & thus needs to restrain senses adopting a tranquillity meditation technique to calm the mind. Stillness of the mind develops concentration required for insight meditation and thus the person begins to see things as they really are. One needs to use both, tranquillity & Insight meditation techniques concurrently in this manner until the ultimate goal is achieved.




[1] The Buddha referred to the five clinging aggregates as suffering
[2] "Maha-salayatanika Sutta: The Great Six Sense-media Discourse" (MN 149), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 30 November 2013

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