nanananda seeing through - a guide to insight meditation

8/2/2019 Nanananda Seeing Through - A Guide to Insight Meditation

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SEEING THROUGH

- A Guide to Insight Meditation-

BHIKKHU K. N A ~ . D


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'.

'The Gift of Dhammaexcels all other gifts'Printed for free distributionby

J.AlwisT.P.G.N.Leelaratne

&U.Sapukotana

PREFACE

Insight meditation paves the way to that penetrati ve wisdom which deliversthe mind from bondage to Sarilsiira. This bondage often baffles the thinkerbecause there is a 'catch' in the tools he has to take up to break it. Perceptsare subtly elusive and concepts are tacitly delusive. So the insight workerhas to fOFge his own tools to break this bondage , going the Buddha's MiddleWay.The present sermon, based on a verse from the 'Section on the Wise' in theDhammapada, might drop some helpful hints for the in sight meditatorclimbing the steep path of meditative attention - alone, apart, untiring. Theoriginal sermon in Sinhala was cassetted at the request of VenerableNavagamuve Sugunasiira Thera during my stay at Meetirigala NissaranaVanaya. It touches ,upon the prog'ressive stages in Insight Meditation and thelast four of the 16 steps in Aniipiinasati meditation, while drawing upon theimplications of the Dhammapada verse.This sermon has now been published in Sinhala under the tttle 'VidasunUpades' at the instance of Mr. U. Mapa, the Public Trustee, under theauspices of the 'Bhikkhu Kasyapa' Trust' in memory of the late VenerableKassapa Thera of Vajiriiriima, Bambalapitiya .Our thanks are due to Mr ,&Mrs.S.D.E. Gaminitilake for giving technicaladvice and to Ms. Sumie ' Horiuchi for her assistance in preparing themanuscript for print.

- Bhikkhu K. NiiI)anandaPothgulgala AralJyaPahan KaQuwaKandegedaraDevalegamaSri LankaJuly 1999


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~ I . N - 1\ ! : ~ i . i 1 1 1 l n a Nikaya'.N . - Smilyulla l\ikaya

A. ' . - Allgullara Nik:iya

Abbrcvial ons

P.T.. Pali Text S< leicty's Edition

B, the arne autho r

I. Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought. -( 1971)2. Sarilyull.a I ikaya-Part II (An Anthology)-wh. 183/1 853. Ideal Solitude-wh.1884. The Magic of the Mind-( 1972)

5. Towards Calm and Insight.

-Buddhist Publication Society.P.O.Box61.54.Sangharaja MawathriKandy,Sri Lanka

- Printed for free distribution by1. Alwis

, ., i

I ,'Namo tassa bhaga va to arahato samma.,ambuddha sa ''Yesmil sa mho(lhi al1gcsu - ~ a m m a citwm Jol \ IlllmAdana r apni ssaggc -


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a certain developed stage in Satipallhiina meditation. Firs tl y, the fourFoundation of Mindfulness (i .e., the four satipanhiina) and then the fourRight Endeavours (sammappadhiina), and then the four Paths to Success(iddhipada). and then lhe five Faculties (pancaindriya) and th e five Powers(paiicabala).When these are systematically developed, the Factors of Enlightenment arealso thereby developed in lhe meditator. Even in the classification of theRequisites of Enlightenment, lhe Buddha follows a certain order. There is acertain procedure in enumerating these Requisites of Enlightenment. It doesnot mean that one has to develop the first category first and then after a timethe next category and so on . But still there is a certain ord er in thedevelopment - an ascending order, one may say.One's mind is well developed in the Factors of Enlightenment when onereaches a stage at which those factors are lined up in a direct order. There isa certain lining up in one's mind. These factors are 'sati' (mindfulness),dhamma-vicaya (investigation of mind-objects), viriya (energy), piti (joy),passaddhi (calm or tranquillity), samadhi (concentration), and upekkhii(equanimity). These are the seven Factors of Enlightenment.Out of these seven, the first is sati . mindfulness. In enumerating theseseven also, we see a certain order, a system. It is when mindfulness ispurified that one comes to see the mind-obje'cts clearly, which is called'dhrurunavicaya' or investigation of mindobjects. That is to say, one sees toa certain extent, the m i n c i ~ o b j e c t s as they are. Then the mind is awake.The mind awakens when one sees mind-objects clearly. Thereby one is ableto recognize the good and bad, the skilful and the unskilful so that one cando what is necessary with those mental states. That is to say , the skilful oneshave to be developed and the unskilful ones have to be abandoned . Theknowledge of the means of doing this, is available through 'dhammavicaya'or the investigation of mind-objects and that as we stated earlier, is madeavailable through mindfulness. With the understanding acquired through'dhammavicaya' one puts forth energy -right endeav our _ to dcvelop theskilful and to abandon the unskilful Slates . This, therefore , is the third

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Pactor of n - the application of energy or 'viriya'. Thus. wehave sati , dh amm a- vicaya and viriya.As one puts fOrlh en ergy , there arises joy. fo r, it is said: ' i r a d d h a v j r i y ~ uppajjati piti nirami sii" . To one who started up effort or energy, thereari ses a kind of spiritual joy which has no th ing 10 do willt Ute maaeriaJ. Thusone attain s a certain amount of joy out of the very facL that one puts forththe right endeavour. The meditator, well knowing that this joy is nOI the endof his endeavour, subdues it and attains to a calm or tranquillity which iscalled 'passaddhi'.Through that calm or tranquillity , which is both physical and mental. heattains to a certain state of bliss which brings in its train, concenlraJioo.Once concentration is attained, there is nOlh ing more to struggle for, and sothe meditator makes use of equanimity to stabilize his gains. The purpose ofequanimity is to preserve the concentration one has auained. Also. lhisequanimity , as the culmination of the development of these Factors ofEnlightenment, i.e., as 'the last of the seven factors, is nearer wisdom. Theword 'sambojjhanga' means 'factor of enlightenmenl' (Sambodhi + mga)and when the word 'sambodhi' is taken into consideration, it gives the ideaof understanding or knowledge. It does not mean Buddbahood alone, buieven arahanthood. So the lining up of these Factors of Enlightenment is forthe purpose of understanding or knowledge. The factor that is nearest tounderstanding is equanimity. It is when one has reached an equanimousstate of mind that one can see things as they are. And in order to see dUngsas they are, one has to have concentration or one-pointedness . That also isalready mentioned, i.e ., 'samiidhi ' . It i s fo r the lIainment o f thi sconcentration that the preceding factors beginning w ith mindfulness aremade use of.When analysed thus, we see that there is a cert .ain system - an order - in theenumeration of these Factors of Enlightenment. There is also another wnyof analysing them. That is to say, at the very tart, one finds it difficult todevelop these Factors of Enlightenment as in the co e of the fi \ '"C facuhinamely, 'saddha' , 'viriya', 'sati' , 'samiidhi ' and 'pOM ii' - fa ith, energy.I.Sila Sutta, Bojjhaitga Samyutta, S.N.V. 6


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However, as one proceeds in Insight Meditation, one comes to reflect th.at in, ...this mode of attention, there is present a certain illusion - a wrong notion 'one has been cherishing throughout 'samsara'. That is, the concept of twoends and a middle. When one notes a visual object as 'a form' and anauditory object as 'a sound', there is a kind of b i f u r c a ~ i o n liJetween the e);'eand form, the ear and the sound. So thereby one is perpetuating the illusion, .the wrong notion, of two ends. Wherever there are the tw,o ellds, there isalso the middle. In s h ~ r t , this way of menta, noting leaves r.oom for a

. subject-object relationship. There is the meditatoF on one,side, whoev,er itmay he, and there is the ,object that comes to his mind; and he attends to)tas an object, even though he ma not go into its d e ~ a ! l s . Now the me\fitatorhas to break through this b a ~ r i e r as well. Be lhas .to brl;ak this bondage.Why?

:1In the case of 'sanna' or perceptj,on, there are ,the si,x kinds of percepts - r.URa .saffiia, sadda-sanna, gand\1asanna, rasa sanna, p h o . ~ f h a b b ~ sanna, dhamry;tll:sanna (i.e., the percepts oHorm, sound, smell, taste, Joufh and ielea).The,seare the six objects of the senses. The Buddha ,has (\:@mparedthe i\gguegate .onperception to a mirage. Now, if perception is a mirage, what .is fUpa-saiijnii', or a visual percept? That also must be a mirage. What about 'sadda sanna'?,What about the auditory percept or what strikes the e ? 'That too must be amirage. Thougn it is not something that one sees with the eye; it has thenature of a mirage.To take as real what is of a mirage-nature, is a delusion. h is something thatleads to a delusion. It is an illusion that l e a d ~ to a delusio.n. I.n mdyT :tounderstand deeply this mirage-nature in senso,ry perception, there is a needfor a more refined way of menta,\ attending. So thy rrieqitator, . ~ n s t e a d 0.attending to these objects as 'form', 'fonn' or 'sqund", 'sound:, moves a .stepfurther and notes them as 'seeing' or 'hearing'. Now he' attends ,to these.sense-percepts even more briefly, not allowjng the mind to go' far - .as'seeing-seeing', ' h e a r i n g ~ h e a r i n g ' , 'feeling-feeling', thinking-thinking'.In short, the attempt here, is to escape the net of 'sanna' or perc!:ption and tolimit oneself to the bare awareness. To stop short just at the awareness. This

is an attempt to escape the net of language, thenet;of logic and also to befree from the duality of the two ends which involves a middle. Everywhereone is c(;lnftonted, with a subject-object relationship. There is one whograsps and something to be grasped. There is a seer and an object seen. Butthis way of attending leaves room for delusion.Now, if perception is a,mirage, in oIder to get'at this mirage nature, one hasto be content with attending simply as 'seeing, seeing'. One way or the otherit is just a' seei'ng' or justa hearing. Thereby he stops short at the bareawareness'. He stops shoR at. the bare seeing, bare hearing, bare feeling andbate thinking. He does not igrant it an object status. He does not cognize itas an object e-xisting in the world. He does not give it a name. The purposeof this method of menta, noting or attending, is the eradication of the

, conceit 'AM', which ~ h e meditator has to accomplish so as to attain release.The conceit 'AM' ' a s m i m a n a ' . This existence or 'bhavlI' is ,aotually a w,ay of measuring. Existence involves

. meastlring. In ol\der. to mea&ure, one has to have two p e ~ s and this subjectobject relationship fl!1lfiIls this requirement. There is one who g r a s p ~ and anobjeet grasped. It is afteE driving these two pegs 'down-to-earth', so to say,that one starts measuring w,hat is called 'existence' or 'bhava'. So, it isbetween these two pegs that 'existence' exists.In lorder to eradicate or up"qot these pegs, one has to do away with thisduality OE the e1ichotomy as well as the middle. As already mentioned,wherever theFe are 'two ends, there is a middle. The attempt now is toelimtnate all these. llhe meditator who is poised to accomplish this task, isthe one referred to in the first two lines of the verse in question.'Yesam s a m ~ o d h i ailgesusamma cittaril subhavitaril'-'whose mind is well developed in the Factors of Enlightenment' The nextIwO lines have a deeper significance.'adanapatinissaggeanupadaya ye ratii'

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'who take delight in t1l.king up and giving up, without gras ping''ad ana' mea ns ' taking up' and ' p a ~ i n i mean s g ivin g- up orrelinquishi ng. So 'adana' and 'papnissRgga' make a couple - 'takin g up andgiving up. But then we have 'anupadaya' also - 'not grasping '.'Ye anupadaya adana patinissagge rata' is the word-order. They, whowithout grasping. delight in taking up and giving up.

Here we have something suggestive of what we said above about the twoends and the middle. The representatives of the two ends would be 'adana'and 'pa!:inissagga' - 'taking up' and 'giving up' . Between these two we have aholding on or a grasping. The word for holding on or grasping is 'upadana'and 'upadaya' is its absolutive form. Of course we do not have here the word'upiidaya'. Here we have 'anupadaya', the negative - not grasping'. Any way,here are the two-ends and the middle - only, the middle is negated here. Theusual order, however, is adana-upadana - pa!:inissagga, taking up - holdingon and giving up. What comes in the middle is upadana.This is the middle - the holding on or grasping. Now in this context, themost important ternt;;se6ms to be 'anupadaya'. The most significant term is'not-grasping' . It is "because of this not-grasping' that one takes delight onlyin the taking up and the giving up - 'adiinapa!:inissagga'.In the case of Insight Meditation, there is a possibility of delighting only intaking up and giving up, when there is no grasping in the middle. Wherethere is no 'upadiina' or grasping, there is only 'adana' and 'pa!inissagga '.One may note the special significance of the prefix 'upa' in this partioularcontext

Let us try to understand this with the help of an illustration. Suppose we goto a well. We go to a well for a drink or for a wash or to bring some water.What do we do there?

First, we draw water. Then keeping the bucket near us, we either drink fromit or h a v ~ a wash or may be we pour the water into some vessel to bring italong WIth us. After all that, if there is still some water left, we throw it

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away. This is what we do with the water we draw from the well.That is, when we want to make use of the water. So (he procedure here is:'adana' - we draw water - 'upiidiina' - we keep the buckel of water beside us,or hold on to it - a nd the n we throwaway whatever is left over -' i l l i s s a g g a ' . This is what we n"ormaUy do when we are making use of tilewa ter we draw rrom a we ll.Supposin g we wa nt to empty out the well. We wanl the well emptied. Whaldo we do then? We lower the bu cket into the well, draw water and throw itaway. We draw water and throw it away. There is only a laking up and agiv in g up. We do it very speedily. There is no holding on. We need notmeddle w ith the bucket so mu ch. We a re nol thinking of making any specialuse of the water. Instead, we are now keen on seeing the well empty. Ourpurpose is to see the we ll empty - to see Ihe emptiness or the well.'Sinca bhikkhu im am navamsilla te lahumessaii''Emp ty thi s boat, 0 monk! Emptied. it w ill go lightly with you"This is an adv ice give n by the Buddha in the section on the Monk "Bhikkhuvagga) in the Dhammapada. In kee ping with this advice. here too themeditator has to do some empty in g. It is this process of emptying that issignified by the lines, 'adana pa(i nissagge-anupiidaya y e rata'.Now, let us leave as ide this illustration and take up another that is morerelevant to our medit a ti on subject and has far-reaching implications -Anapanasa ti .

Anapanasa ti : 'ana' mea ns brea thing in ; 'apana' means breathing OUI.Breathing in and breathing out. Th is i what we do everyday. We breathe inand out.Between these two there is something rather imperceptible, som'thing th:lt'is ov erl oo ked. But that is the very thing which perpetuates samsarn. Why do

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impennanence. He sees impelmanence in ~ h e in-breath as ~ e l l as il'l uhe Ol'ltbreath.What is this impelmanence? Summed up in two words, it is 'udaya' and'vaya' _ arisina and passing away. This appears as the first bud fr,qlm wl)ichb ,arows the tree of insight into impermanence. To ll;le ex ten.t Olne s:nderstanding of the process of arising and passing away deepens, to thatextent the law of impennanence becomes .c1ear to him. [J:t a m e d i t a t e ~ wltehas developed the Factors of E n l i g l r t t e n m ~ n t and otheu requis[tes ofsatipatthana meditation, by the time he reaches the last four stages in bhepractice of Anapanasati, the insight into impeT/Ranence is ,aifleady tiheue to acertain extent. He is well aware of the process of aFising and ,passing away.As this contemplation Olf impermanence d e e p ~ o s , h e ~ e t h e ince&sannprocess of arising and ,passing av.(ay all cl\le mpre ,F

. lust, desire or craving. . '" JNow, when the .rapid process of des,truction and brell,k,io.gup becomes mG I\e,prominent, dispassion sets in. Ol'le se((s thi,s as a troubl((. Qne is FepeIJerl bY'it, not attracted. The result of this dispassion is the w e a l < e n ~ n g 0f ,cFaving,jthe regeneratpr -, 'talJha ponobhayika'. As craving tihins ou ti, Ehe fae( ofcessation,becomes all the more clear, becau&e is tl;lis very GraV,LI'Ig', manmas'been concealing it all the time. .1Why do we say that craving is concealing tne fact ot cessation? Becal'ls,e,

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cFa;ving is on the side oli "arising," As soon,as a cessation occurs, c raving asnlk regenerator ,prompts ,a Fe-arising., As the phrase ,'lalJha pooc)bhavikanandiragasahagatii tatratatrabhinandini" implies, craving as the regeneratoris always oul to make lior Fe-becoming. II' is accompanied by delight andlus t, and it delights now-here-now-there, Because of its very nature oftaking delight now here-now there, craving says, 'Don't worry about theb r e a that is gone, catch hold of another breath . Take hold of anotherereatm'. it tempts arid pFompts, ~ u t when dispassion sefs in, this tendency tot e m p ~ and prompt,eec0mes less and less. It is reduced, with the result, hatcessabol). aspect becomes mOFe prominent - and with it, the passinga,way, ~ h e ereaking-up, the destruction. lihat way, one comes to see thec,e'ssati@,m of mind-obj'ects also and that is ',nirodhanup.assana - Ihecontemplation of cessation.So heFe too we see some order and sequence , From the contemplation ofimJilermanene to Uhe contem.p.lationof detac'hment and from theGontemplation oj:' detali:hment to the contemplation of cessation. Now when0ne sees this process of Gessation more clearly, one understands how vain

' a'nd I!Iseless -all tlflese attempts , are. Even, the process 0f breathing nowappeaFs to lhim 'as a ,set of attempts. With a deep awareness of thisva,n,it!}', Ilie n@WJ,bIeathes ,in, simply to breathe out, to le t go -J i l a ~ i n i s s a g g a n u p a s s l ' .. ]bis [S the,contemJillation of relinquishment which isthe sixteel'ltlfl and ,laststep in Anapanasati meditation.

1iFhe -insighn develloped throl'lgh anapanasati, reaches its climax here. The, pmen0men@n of b1lealmdng ,'mas now. -become a'n object-lesson inunclersMnding !me empt , ness and "not-s,e1f nature of existence'Patinissagganupassi assasissami' - 'Contemplating relinquishment I shall

,JeFealhe in, even wmile 'bFeathing-in; one i,s contemplating the idea of giving?Up .' .one , i's net ge ,ing to gra:sp it and make us e of i-t. Similarly,

J > a ~ i n i s s a g g a m ! l p a s s i i passasissami', Needless ,to say then, while breathingout to(i),' he is contemplating the idea of giving ,up,'so we can now revert to@ur simi'le,(i)f the weN, OnlY',' in this contex,l, i't is not a case of drawing.watertilll a illia,wing ,in of breath.~ , D h a m m a c a k k a p p a v a t t a n a $utta, ~ . ~ . V. 421

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One draws ,in a breath just to let go of it. Here is simply a drawing in aAd aletting go. One has no idea of holding on to the breath, to do something withit. . One is simply aware of it as a certain natural .phenomenon. There is no'I' who holds on to the breath . Breathing is 'Simply a natuml processconnected with this bodily frame.By now, the meditator has passed througln the stages of insight connectedwith the seeing of 'h>reaking-up ; feau and peuil. , 'the m a ~ l ! 1 r i t y oli h e s e insight knowledges, the meditator is now well p o i s e ~ tG! , et go in ourleF to mefree. Breathing, as an illustration of the nalUFal law of auising and passingaway, has now contributed to a deepening of-inslght in fio ,the uhreecharacteristics, 'anicca' 'dukkha"and 'anattii' - impermanence, sufifering andnot-self.Out of the two ends and .the middle we earlier s]iloke amout, the middlesignified by 'upadiiya' (grasping), has d i s a p ] i l e a Sio we are left withsimply the two ends. J , ~ is the midd'le that justifies the discriminati 6lnbetween two ends. Now that the significance af th6 middle, s ,10st, the tw.oends also lose their jl!1stification. !Now the entire process Clofl breathing 'isunderstood as a Gircular ]'lrocess. Thenl is simpJ.y a pU0cess !of breathing inand a breathing out. There is no 'one' that breathes. 'Phis, i,n}act, is tinerealization of the not-self nature. What .has happened is tnat a @isgust or adisenchantment - 'nibbida' - has been aroused by the insight knowledgesrelating to destruction, fear and peroH (bhanga, bhaya, adinava), with theresult craving has lost its sanction. When craving; the regenerator, goes rol!1tof action, there is no 'upadana'. There is no grip to grasp\So breathing is now understlooc;! simply as ia ,lbodidy JilrepatMian(kayasankhiira), not as an activity impelled and p r o J i l e l 1 e ~ by am T . Thisway, one reaches a depth of insight that is helpful in' doing ,away with thefiisavllS' or influxes which are the net-result ()f one's samsane habits. 'Iihe

1\VOrd 'iisava'connotes both fermentation and intoxication. 'Asavas" are,therefore, habits and habitual tendencies which we' have stored up in the

'past and. w h i ~ h s ~ k now to i n f l u ~ n ~ e and i ~ f i l t . r a t e into our everyday life.'beeply ingrained In all these samsaric habIts, IS a tendency to grasp and

hold on. 'one grasps.and holds 011 to sensuality, to views, to rites and ritualsand to the assertion of a self.All these are modes of habitual grasping. It is the release from this habitualgras]'ling that bril)gs abG!ut the extinction of the influxes. The three influxesare, 'kamiisavii', 'bhaviisava' and 'avijjiisavii', i.e., the in'fluxes relating tosensuality, ,existence and ignorallc.e. 'Khll).iisava' is the term for th e arahantwha .nas extingl:1ished 'these influ'Xes. The arahants have reached that statemy ,giving. UJilI g r a ~ p i n g ami, that w o h y we sometimes come across thephrase, 'anupad,aya,ciLtassa vimokkhG!' - 'the mind's release by not grasping'.What it means is the freedom of, the mind 'from the tendency to grasp. So ,when upadana which is il) the middle is -d'one away with, the two ends alsolose t h e i r i g n i . f ~ c a n c e . But all this happens through understanding. That js ,the understanding of the two ends and the middle. In short., it boils down tothe understanding that the so-called object is merely a mirage. That is tosay, what one has so far taken as the object, what one has so far conceivedas an oojet, is, in fact, simply a mirage.AI,I tile de'lusion in tl?e world is traceable to the illusion that is in perception- 'sanna'. It is because of 'sanna' or .perception that knots and grips occur, somuch so that one who is free from 'sanna' is free from knots and grips also.That is why it is said in the Magandiya.Sutta of the Sutta Nipata.'Sannavirattassa na santi ganthaPannavimuttassa na santi moha''To one detached from perceliltion there are no knots a ~ d to one releasedthrough wisdom there'are -na delusions.'

So the purpose off this .training in insight is that release from perception.. Until fuTl detachment with regard to perception sets in, knotting will go on.A sort of disgust or disenchantment has to occur for detachment to sel in.With the gradual refinement of the mode of mental noting, one IS able 10eliminate these knots brought about by .perception. As mentioned above,one has to stop short at the bare awareness of seeing, hearing, feeling and sl)

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forth. T h e r ~ b y one does not take seriously those two pegs between, whichperception occurs. One avoids thinking in terms of s u b j e e ~ aniil object -'There is that fonn there, and here am 1'; 'There is that sound there, and heream 1'. A v o ~ d i n g that way of thinking, one understands experience. simply asa process of seeing and hearing. But there is something far m0re subtlewhich leads orie towards perception and that is, contaot or 'phassa'. Thearising of c0ntact is an extremely subtle phenomenon. What is generallyunderstood as c o n t a c ~ is the striking togetJrter 'oftwo things. So, the notion ofduality is already implicit there. But this of course is the w o ~ l d l y way ofunderstanding the phenomenon of contact. That is why the Bl!liildha alsosometimes gives the i l l u s t F a ~ i o n of the s t ~ i k i n g together of ~ w o pieces ofwood as a simile for the phenomenon of contact To contact 0r to striketogether there has to be two. The presence of two thin.gs is a.lread'ypresupposed.

There is, however, an important sutta in MajJh:ima N.ikaya wJrtieh g.ives us adeeper insight into this phenomenon of contact. is tJrte MaiilJrtupil)QiikaSutta. There we read: .'Cakkhuilca paticoa rTIpe CR u p p a j j a ~ i ,oakkhuviililal)'aom, til)I;laom' sangatiphasso, phassa paccaya vedana ... ''Dependent on eye and '[onns, there arises eye-consciousness. The comingtogether of the three is contact, dependent on contact is feeling ... .' and 'soforth. It is the first few words that convey something extremely deep.'Cakkhuilca paticca rope ca uppajjati cakkhuviililal)am. Here we have thetw o words'paticca' Mld ;uppajjaoi' whieh Ireminiil us of th e ' term'paticcasamuppada.' 'Paticca' means ' d e p e n d e n ~ ' 0 n ' 01;' 'liJecause 0f'. What isimplied here is that consciousness is not something e x i s ~ i l 1 g in itself or byitself. It is not something abstract. It always arises depeniilenf on s o m e t h i n ~ .oi other, because of something or other. 'Paticca' c0n'veys rhe idea ofrelationship or relativity.

For instance, eye-consciousness is a relationship between the eye, theinternal base, and fonns, the external base. Here, then,. we already have an

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i.nstance of pa\icca samuppada' - the law of Dependent Arising.Consciousness has been compared to a conjuror's trick - to a maic-shoW.One has to get an in sight into the back-stage workings of thi), magic-sho w.'There are the s ix dependently arisen conseiousnesscs with mindconsciousness as the sixth. In the phrase quoted above, the emphasis shouldbe placed on the word 'paticca.' "Cakkhui'ica paticca rtipe ea uppajjatic1lklQhuviili'ianam. Eye consciousness arises dependent on eye and farm andnot ,independently.Apparently, mere again, we are faced with the question of two things, butthen let us ,ake a peep into the backstage workings oF-consciousness. Whatis called 'consciousness ' is a' fonn of discrimination. In fact. consciousnessitsel f is the very discrimination between an internal base and an externalbase - eye and forms, ear and sounds and so on.But nhe irony of the situation is this. The very discrimination implies theigno ni ng of, uhe relations!o1ip. That is why the birth of consciouSness is initself; rhe' birth of ignorance. Given this 'ign0rance, there is the possibility ofeQunting the three f a c ~ o F s - 'eye ' forms and eye-consciousness. This, then, isthe triad - the three that are comi'ng together to bring about contact.''1''il)l)aFiJ sangati phasso'. This is the' most basic reckoning - 'phassa paiii'iatti'which implies the counting as a three. This -might wel l appear as !inextreme ly subtle problem for the logician. It is because of eye and fonnsthat eye-consciousness has arisen. But once eye-consciousness has arisen,there is the tendency to.forget - to ignore - the relationship and to make areckoning in which the ohird. factor - the 'tertium-quid' - is that verydiscrimination, \eye-co nsci@usness'. -In other words, there is an implicitignorance of nhe f a c ~ that consciousness is dependently-arisen. Once thisreckoning of rhe three as eye, forms, and eye-consciousness is takenseri'ously, the stage is set for 'contact' - 'til)l)aril sangati phasso': 'Thecoming-together of the t h r ~ e is oontact.'In fact it is not simply a coming-together; it is a going-together as well. It i'a concurrence. So long as the three go together in ignorance. there is

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cOlllac!. There i: a possihility of a situlllion called 'colltIlCt.' E a l ' l i ~ r . we wcrclalking aboul two things to define 'colltact.' But here we seem to have threething', But there is 11(\ cOlltradil'tinn. Whl\l is meant is that the .. is anignor,l1lce of the fact thai eye-consciousness which forms the third is arisendependcnt on the othcflwo.When eyc hccomcs se lf consciou it separates itself from forms. and theseare the two ends. Wilh thesc IWO end: as pegs, 11 measuring goes on whichwe call percepts, concept and knowlcdge. But in this socalled knowledge,the duality is already implicit. There is a dichotomy between an 'internal'and an 'c:uemal'-between a subjcct and an object. That is why there is aneed for a more refined way of mental-noting in order to get rid of thisdelusion.

ow let us take the case of a mirage. When a deer sees a mirage al adi'tance. it does not know. It is ignorant of the fact Ihal il is a mirage. Thirstyas it is. it imagines the mIrage to be water. Its vision is biased and unclear. Itlacks the wisdom 10 understand the nature of the phenomenon which we call'a mirage'. It perceives and conceives water in the mirage. In the language ofthe deer, the mirage would be called 'water.'Just as in the world people call each other 'man' or 'woman', so the deerwould call the mirage water.' If we are 10 take seriously the duality and say:'the form is oul Ihere and I am here, the sound is out there and I am here,'we will be in a similar position. So actually what we have here is just a bitof bare experience. That 100 comes about by giving recognition to the twoends - the internal base and the external base. By recognizing them, byseparating them, by discriminating between them, there-arises a certainmeasuring. So the concept of two things striking together also follows as amailer of course. Given two things, there is a possibilit,y of a contactbetween thcm. And this is 'contact' as the world understands it.Givcn Ihis conlact, there arisc dependent on it, feeling, perception and allthe rest of it. It goes as far as Ihinking and logic.

Now, this is the delusion. This is the ignorance. What, then, is the insightthat helps one to unravel this MalC of affairs'! It is the understanding of the

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conditioned nature of con:.cioul>neSs - that c o n ~ J O u n e . ~ . a t l ~ S dependenton conditions Even that inljight emerges through II refined WIliY ofattcnding. That is. by accelerating the mental nOling III such a way as nOI IVget caught in the net of perception or sanna. In other wordI, to stop ,hor. li tbare awareness. It is by such a tcchnique that one can get an insighl inlo theback stage workings of consciousness. For instance. the inSight thallhe eyeconsciousness arises dependenl on eye and forms and thaI the: verydiscrimination between the twO ends is eye-consciousness. which themiddle. This story of the two ends and the middle is beaulifully presenred inthe Piiriiyal:la Sulta found in Ihe Section of the Sixes II I th e AnguuaraNikaya. What forms the nucleus of that SUn3 b the rollowlng verse quotedfrom the ParayaQa Yagga of the Sutta Niplita:

'Yo ubhante viditvana - majjhe manta na lippali.Tam br\imi mahapurisoti - so'dha sibbanimaccagli '

This verse preached by the Buddha in reply to a queslion put by BrobmmTissa Melleyya, is quoted here for comment. In a sort of a 'semmar- on lhesignificance of lhis verse, six monks put forward !heir individual opinion.;thereby drawing out the deeper implications of the yerse in que tion. Themeaning of the verse, as it stands, would be something like this:

'Yo ubhante viditvana' - He who having understood both ends,'Majjhe manta na lippati' - Does not get altacht.-d 10 the middle through \\isdom.'Tam brumi mahapurisoli' - Him I call a great man'So idha sibbanirh accaga' - It i he who has by po 'sed or escaped t h ~ seamstress in this world.'Sibbani' or 'seamstress' is a lerm for craving. The fun'lion of n\\,ingo i.'conceived here as a process of stilching or weaving. The ~ n d ' r l y i n g i ,.the accumulation of knots. It is craving that L re pon'ible for lhe 1..11 Itynalllre of this existence. The two end and Ihe middl rdcm:d IQ in thi'verse arc just the things necessary for making a knot, Th ' signifi an ' .-the two ends and the middle has heen \ariou.l) interpreted in Ihi. s-utlJ.According 10 one interprelation Ihal cnme up at thi: :ymposium. th unc-

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end means the six internal bases and the second end m eans the s ix ex t.ern albases and the middle is consciousness.Bv consciousness is meant the six kinds or se nse-consc ious ness. ,Soa ~ c o r d i n g \0 this interpretation lOa , we rind thaL Gonsciousness betWmcs t lmiddle as a result or reckoning the sense and ,its 0bjcot as. two fi) nds. It is asif two . pegs have. been driven as eye and fOl1ll1 S for l 1 1 e a u r i n Lhat isimplicit in sense-perception.The arising of this basic discriminati () n is called the. arising of thc senscbases - 'ayatanuppada'. And the insight into this basic di scrimination iscalled the seeing of the arising of sense-bases. In San a Sutla, among theSixes of the Anguttara Nikaya, we find the fo llow ing s ignificant verse :

'TalJhakkhayadhimuttassaAsammohanca cetasoDisva ayatanuppadamSamma cillam vimuccati'

, I," r 1 l I' ff t

) , r

'In one who is intent upon the destruction of craving aDd the.non-de lusioAofthe mind, on seeing the arising of sense-bases, the m i n ~ is well released.'One may well infer from this verse that it is by the not-seeing of bhe ari sin gof the bases that one Temains bound - that the mind remains bound tosamsara. As we mentioned above , so long as thllre . i,s ITO pr o pe runderstanding of the two-ends. a middle creeps in. So long as one graspseye and forms as the two ends, eye-consciousness comes in. That is becausewhat is called eye-consciousness is the very discrimination of eye and 1'01111as two things. Now, in the case of the mirage, the deer thinks: 'I alql hore, thewater is out there.' It is with this presumption that the deer rum; towards vhemirage. But from the very outset, this discrimination, this consciousness Qfwater, is wrong. Therefore the deer keeps on running after the mirage. It is avain pursuit. Th e more it approaches the more its object recedes. Ifhis isnature of a mirage. But what impels the deer in its pursuit is iLS ey econsciollsness, This consciousness acts like two pegs. So the deor thinks:

"here is my eye and there is th at water. If only I can go there. I can see thatrea l wuter'and d flink il. "

Similarl y, when we grasp eye and forms a5 the two e nds. we have dr iven thetwo pegs down to th e ea rth, as it were. Wc have take n eye and fonns as rea l.That very di scrimination is eye-consc iousness.

The bes t re velati on of thi s state of af fairs comes when one has acceleratedone's speed or mental-noting to such an ex tent th at when a thought comes toone's mind, one summarily di smi sses it as a mere thin king without beingcarried away by it. Thereby one does not a llow that thought to crystall izeitse lf as an objec t. NGnma lly, an obj ect is something that one cli ngs to orhangs on to. The mind which has bee n in the habi t of cling ing throughoutsarilsa ra, always seeks to hang on to something or the other, however frai l itmay be. That is because of the crav ing fo r ex istence. Just as a man fa ll ing

/,down a jDrec ipi ce would hang on even to the fra il straw for fear of the fa ll ,th e ever-new regene rator, craving - 'taDha ponobhavika' - prompts one tohang @n to 'this that or the otlqe-r. But the crux of the problem lies where themind meets its objeot.Mind has the habit of hanging on to its object. Even when the fi ve externalsenses do not grasp their respective objects, mind would grasp the thoughtas its object. One tends to think: "Here am I , the thinker. and this is mymi,ndrobjecl." So 10ng as this bifurcation , this duality. is there. there willalso be a place for mind-con s ciousness. In the magic-show ofcon sciousness, mind-consciousness is the subtlest trick of all. Now in theverse qU(Jted abo ,ve, it is saidr that the mind is well released on seeing thearising of bases. How does this come about? When the meditator attends 10the objects of the six senses rapidly and in a more refined way. withoutclinging to them , summarily dismissing them, in th e course of hi _meditative attention - aliiof a sudden - he discovers the mind-object as soonas it strikes the mind. The relativity involved in the process of sense-contactis Lhereby understood and the delusion regarding the magic-show of consciousness is dispelled. Strange as it may appear, this very insight intothe dependenL arising of sense bases has dismantled those vcry sense-bascs-

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as it were.Of course, the process of cessation was going on all the tlime. But due to tmeregenerator, - craving - which had a partiality for the arising aspect, the factof cessation was not seen. As it is said in Dvayatanupassana Sutta of theSutta Nipata:'Ye ca rTIpTIpaga sattaYe ca arTIpaHhayinoNirodhari1 appajanantaAgantaro punabli>havari1''Those beings who approach realms 0f form and tmose that are i'n f0mJlessrealms, not understanding well the fact of cessation, come again and againto existence.'What is meant is that impelled by craving, beings are always keen on evernew arisings to the neglect of the fa:Gn Iilf eessati0n. As S00n as a nmingbreaks up, craving p r ~ m p t s : "Don't worry about this thing that is lost. Takehold of that thing out there." This renewing process goes on so rapidly inthe mind, that the process of mental-noting is something like a battle withMara. One has to speed up the process of mental-noting in such a way as toeliminate the possibilities of attachment and clinging. ltd'aen, it wliluld li>e at1\ totally unexpected moment that the teleasing insighn breaks forth. But oncethat insight dawns, one understands fOF the fitst time nfue delusi6ln one fuasbeen in, a1\ this time. Consciousness a ~ i s e s dependent on oonditions. Thereis no 'I' in it. This way, one sees the law of Paticcasamuppada with the helpof the six sense-bases. This is the significance of .the wmrase: "Cakkml!lncapa!icca rope ca uppajjati c a k k h u v i n n ~ a J n ' quoted above.

Eye-consciousness arises dependent on eye and forms. And likewise, mindconsciousness arises dependent on mind and mind-objects. So long as ~ h i s fact is not seen, there is a tendency to imag!ne three things in nhis siluatiIDn -'til)l)arn sangati phasso', 'the concurrence of the three is contact.' Thisconourrence or the going-together is actually a goiHg-togetheF of thedelusion of the three. So this insight ma y be called the understanding of

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contacD or the understanding of consciousness or the understanding ofperception.In short, it is the understanding of P a ~ i c o a s a m u p p a d a - the DependentAFising. 'Fh0ugh it is the illusion of the mirage that tcmpts the deer, whatprompts its vain pursuit is a delusion. It is when one understands thisdelusion concerning the sense-bases that one attains to the influx-freeposition of the Arahant - the extinction of influxes. The tendency to graspand Gling which leads to grips and kn0ts wears off. That is why it was said:'Sannaviraltassa na santi gantha' -, 'to one detached from sense-perceptionthere are no knots.' This is the release from 'Sanna' or perception. It was alsosaid: 'pannavimuttassa na santi moha' - 'to one released through wisdom,there are no delusions. It is in the light of wisdom that one discovers thesecret on consciousness.

'Vinnal)ariJ. )!larini'ieyyariJ, panna bhavetabbaq - 'consciousness is to beeomp>Fehended and wisd0m is to be developed.'

rt is by the development of wisdom that one comes to understand the truestate Iilf affairs with regard to consciousness. It is something like taking apeep into th e backstage workings of a magic-show. Wisdom is somethingpenetrative (,nibbedhika panna'). In fact, the culmination of all endeavoursis the development of wisdom. Wisdom is the crest-gem. 'Panna naranamFatanarn'- 'Wisdom is the jewel of mankind." It is only through wisdom thatone can understand the delusion involved in cl'Jnsciousness. In the lastanalysis , tme murk of delusion, th.e darkness of ignorance, is dispelled onlyli>y t!hJe r.adiaHee of wisd


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the darkness of ignorance is dispelled only by it. The influx-free arahant'smind is radiant with that radiance of wisdom. So it is ' said" 'khil)asavaJutimantii'. The fermenting inf'luxes which make for intoxication aredestroyed and with the insight into the nature of consciouspess bhroughwisdom, his mind is radiant. N(!)w , all thiS shows that to see'Paticcasamuppada' is t(i) be free from it. In this Law 06 Dependent Arising,there are two aspects _ mising (samudaa) and cessani0n (nirodha). Out ofdlese two aspects, if one has seen the arisilirg aspect, rhen and thepe, one hasalready got an insight in'to the fact of oessati.on. 10n e undeFstands thatwhatever of a nature to arise is also of a nature ,to cease. 'mTh kincisamudayadhammaIit, sabbantaIit nirodhadhammam.'What prevents this insight is that grasping or 'upadana'. _Generally in theworld, very few are keen on emptying the well. The majority simply drawwater to make use of it. But there is no end to this making use of the water.Only when one decides upon emptying the well, will one be clrawing waterjust to throw it away without graswirog. This is nhle position 011 those wmG> arekeen on seeing the emptiness of the worl

nanananda seeing through - a guide to insight meditation

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