The way that the Path to end dukkha (suffering) is being practiced the
world over as Buddhist meditation is contrary to Buddhist teachings. The Buddha
preached to comprehend Dukkha (Suffering) as it is, in order to uproot craving
(the cause for suffering) and realise ending of Dukkha (cessation of suffering).
He proclaimed the Noble Eightfold Path as the path leading to end suffering. Today’s
practices have mixed up this teaching where the practitioners primarily attempt
to realise cessation by observing the cause for Suffering first, rather than
the Truth of Suffering itself in the order the Buddha has preached, pronouncing
the Four Noble Truths.
The Buddha has defined ‘Nibbana’ as discarding greed, hatred &
delusion, referred to as roots of evil or three poisons. These defilements
cannot be removed after the error has already been made in perceiving &
knowing a thing or a person with delusion. The function of ignorance (delusion)
i.e. formation has already been completed and confronting the object formed
either by observing its impermanence or its composition, as one made of the
Four Great Elements or 32 impure parts of the body, does not help in discarding
greed & hatred. The effect of these defilements can be subdued temporarily
by meditating in this manner, but cannot be eradicated completely. This can be
achieved only trough removing ignorance (delusion) in its entirety for which
one needs to see how the formation occurred in the first place. ‘One should not
make any response to the form seen, heard etc. but observe how the formation
originated ’, says Venerable Sudassana.
DELUSION CAUSES FORMATION
When the visual object is not seen as it is, due to delusion (or ignorance),
formation takes place erroneously, for instance an image of a particular shape
& colour that associates a bundle of aggregates in form of hair, nails,
teeth, skin etc. is perceived & formed as a human body. The mind perceives
the image as a person and goes onto create relationships as father, mother,
son, partner, friend etc. These impressions dwell in the mind and drive one to
re-experience the objects as determined (as father mother etc.) and thus one
begins to behold accordingly. What is seen is different to what one beholds and
the latter that is formed in the mind as an impression is a defilement that progressively
get accumulated as fermentations in accordance with our sense experiences which
are pleasant, unpleasant or neither pleasant nor unpleasant. Delusion, causes
the accumulation of fermentations which in turn condition further delusion in
sense experiences.
Venerable Thero proposes an experiment to explain this. Imagine that you
are building a brick wall where you order bricks, cement & sand and
construct it yourself. You complete the wall by rendering it to a smooth
white finish. Now you buy different colours of paint, paint brushes etc. and
engage an artist to paint a picture of a person that you know, say Nimal, on
the wall. You can now see the picture (of Nimal) that associates the wall that
you built. The wall can exist on its own, but the painting is dependent on the
wall. The wall made of bricks & mortar is selfless & so is the painting
that associates it. The notion of ‘Nimal’ that arises in the mind, when you see
the painting hence, is without self too. You will either dislike or like Nimal
(the painting) and may even respond, for instance, by saying that he is a
wicked person who should be killed (unwholesome thought -hatred) or else you
may say that he is a nice person and reach out to embrace him (wholesome
thought -greed). However, you cannot touch Nimal & if you do you only feel
the wall. You simply cannot have any physical interaction with (the notion of)
Nimal as it is an impression or sign that is formed in the mind and not what
exists out there.
Ven. Sudassana Thero,
relates this experience to explain the Four Great Elements (wall) & forms
that associates them - Upadaya Rupa (painting). He compares
this to a visual experience where you note a person when in fact what you
encounter is a trace of an image of particular shape & colour where a
bundle of aggregates that consist of hair, nails, teeth, skin etc. is present.
When you see in person you perceive Nimal the same way you see him on the wall,
responding to the image that appears where the aggregates of hair, nails, skin
etc. are present. You recognise Nimal in the same manner if you see a picture
of him in a newspaper or in a video clip. ‘Which one of this actually is
Nimal?’
It’s only the mental impression that’s being recalled at each instance
providing the visual identity, in other words a mental defilement or
fermentation that persists even if Nimal is dead. Though one can contemplate on
the said impression and attempt to see its composition by breaking the image
into components (hair, nails, skin etc.) or even into group of matter (Rupa
Kalapa), that want be helpful to see the form as it is since the impression
is a formation, a fruit of delusion. “If defilements arise due to erroneous
formations, for not seeing the objects as it is, can the errors made originally
be fixed just by removing defilements attached to the impressions?”
Ven. Sudassana says, we need to go back to where the impression was
formed in the mind first (due to not seeing & knowing the visual object as
it is) and comprehend that where there is a group of aggregates (hair, nails,
skin etc.) we have developed a notion of a person. In the same way, we can see
how the impression will be formed again when we meet the person in the future.
We need to grasp this dhamma in terms of both the past (origin) & the
future.
Similarly, we can substitute ‘Nimal’ with our self & see insights of
the notion of ‘me’ that seems to exist. It’s a mental fabrication identical to the
notion of Nimal seen externally. The teachings require that one must see this
phenomenon in relation to both the external & the internal in this manner
(The Foundations of Mindfulness Meditation).
ABANDONING DELUSION: THE RIGHT VIEW
The error can only be corrected by gaining the Right View of seeing the
object as it really is, discarding ignorance. To elaborate this further Ven.
Sudassana relates to an interesting parable.
The story is about a chief monk in a rural temple, an acolyte and a bad
neighbour. The acolyte is innocent, kind & sincere but the neighbour is
vicious and hates him. This neighbour is experienced in occult practices and
has supernormal powers thus plan to break the trust the chief monk has on the
acolyte. Whenever the man goes away from the temple the neighbour appears in
front of the monk disguised as the acolyte and abuses him badly behaving in an
evil manner. When the acolyte returns to the temple the neighbour disappears.
Soon the monk loses faith on the acolyte & begins to see him as an evil
person, being distracted from the person’s true nature. He simply fails to see
that there are two people.
“The real acolyte is like the object that we encounter through senses,
harmless and innocent”, says Ven. Sudassana. He further adds that the
neighbour’s role is similar to that of our mind, for instance, a visual object
comes in front of our eye and the interaction passes away quietly but the mind
substitutes it by recreating the captured image with false information (slanders)
making us to respond according to our likes or dislikes. We are ignorant of the
true nature of the object and thus get deceived by the ‘slandering’ the mind
projects on the image.
‘By understanding arising ceasing nature of the clinging aggregates we
can discard ignorance and see the two phases apart’, says the Venerable. In the
above analogy, if someone can advise the monk of what is going on and if he
doesn’t believe, perhaps suggest him a way to distinguish the difference
between the real acolyte and the fake one, for instance, that the real one
being human should cast a shadow on ground and blink eye lids while the fake
(inhuman) one will not cast a shadow or blink eye lids, the monk will accept
& will be able to see the two persons apart.
Similarly if we need to see the contact bases and the mental formations
apart, we need to identify the characteristics of the two phases, the five
clinging aggregates & the subsequent mental volitions, as those arising due
to causes i.e. nutriments. The former arises from edible foods (Form) & due
to contact (feeling, noting & knowing), the later (mental volitions) due to
above (Name-Matter). The mental volitions are projected on the external objects
to define & determine (with slandering) & to know it, so that we can
respond with thought, speech & action accordingly.
THE NOBLE PATH
By observing the sense bases which are unsatisfactory by nature and
susceptible to clinging (Suffering or Dukkha), with insight, we can
remove the potential they carry to arise again (Cause for Suffering or Dukkha
Samudaya). Meditating on the 32 impure parts of the body (Kayagathasathi)
alone, as preached by the Buddha is sufficient in this regard, says Ven.
Sudassana.
