14. Day 6, afternoon#
This afternoon we’re going to have a look a the second and the third noble truths, the noble truth of the cause of suffering, and the noble truth of the cessation of suffering.
Yesterday we had a look at suffering. There is dukkha. We had a look at how the Buddha analyzes our mental and physical phenomena. He analyzed it into the six sense bases and the five aggregates.
This afternoon, we’re going to have a look how the second and third noble truths are closely related to each other. In fact, one of them, the cause of dukkha, and the other, the cessation of suffering, are really two sides of one coin. When we look at these noble truths together, we are looking at the dependent origination, or paticca samuppada.
14.1. Second noble truth#
The Buddha tells us, that the cause of dukkha needs to be seen in order to be eradicated. What is the second noble truth of the arising of suffering? – It’s just this craving that occurs again and again bound up with delight and lust. Seeking delight here and there. Sensual desire, craving for being and craving for non-being.
The cause of suffering is craving for being. It’s just this craving that occurs again and again that is bound up with delight and lust. There is some 228 delighting. That’s why craving can hit its mark so often. We like it. We enjoy being. It enjoys being. It loves to be somebody. That’s why craving’s job is so easy. It’s delighting in itself. And it’s seeking delight here and there. «Now here, now there, seeking fresh delight» at the six sense doors. Craving is seeking delight. It’s seeking being at the six sense doors.
Where does this craving arise? Where does it get established? – «Wherever in the world there is something enticing and pleasurable, there this craving arises and is established.» Wherever there is an object in which it can seek delight, there craving arises. It’s the six sense based nama-rupa.
The ultimate cause of dukkha is ignorance. Ignorance of the four noble truths. Unawareness of the four noble truths. Not knowing, not understanding dukkha and its cause, the cessation and the path. Through not understanding these four noble truths, beings are bound by the leash of craving to samsara. Bound to dukkha.
If we’re to have the ultimate breakthrough, we’ll need to understand, not only dukkha but the cause of it, its fuel, this craving that arises at the six sense bases attaching and delighting in the objects. Delighting in them means finding some pleasure in the sense of self. It delights in it.
The practical real cause of dukkha for us, is the sense of self. Whenever there’s a self, there’s dukkha. We have a lot of self, there’s a lot of selfishness in us, then we’re going to have a lot of dukkha. When our sense of self reduces, then our dukkha reduces. Reduce it a little bit, dukkha reduces a little bit. Reduce it lot, dukkha reduces a lot. Completely reduced, complete reduction of dukkha. It depends on how much self we have, how selfish we are, how big our ego is. This dependence determines how much dukkha we experience. We want to get around with a huge ego and huge sense of self, appropriating and identifying everything we come across, dividing the world into things that are mine and for me and those that are not, then we experience dukkha in every moment. If we want to have a good life, then we need to be aware of this. We need to notice selfishness. It leads to dukkha. Reducing our sense of self leads to a reduction in dukkha. It’s only because there is a «me», there is suffering. When there is no «me», then there is no dukkha. There is no dukkha that applies to anybody. How can it apply to someone that doesn’t exist? It’s only applying when there is a sense of «me». When 229 the «me» is gone, dukkha is also gone. It vanishes. It’s a subjective state.
According to our satipatthana text, craving arises in sixty ways. It arises at the internal base, where it arises in ten different ways. According to the six different doors. So in 60 ways craving manages to penetrate the mind and body process. A little parasite has 60 ways it can get in in a sense experience moment. 60 ways! Our mindfulness needs to be sharp, to be activated to stop this! It’s a very strong and rigid system that’s been set up. It’s difficult to turn it off. Craving always hits its mark unless we have supreme mindfulness and awareness or we can nail the present moment clearly in our mind, see things as they really are and not be trapped or being caught by the infection when it comes to us. We can note it, know it and let it go.
Craving arises at the internal bases, the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. We take them as being mine or as being me.
Or the external objects that correspond to those doors, the forms, the sounds, the smells, the tastes, the touch and the various thoughts and ideas that come up. These are the objects of the internal bases. These are taken as being for me, or happening to me or being mine.
There is also the consciousness. Six different types of consciousness that arise. The eye consciousness, the ear consciousness, nose, tongue, body consciousness, the mind consciousness. These also are taken as happening to me, or that is me or they are mine in some way.
The contact that happens between these three that is sometimes appropriated and identified with.
Sometimes the feeling that is borne from this, structurally, in the moment, when there is a contact between an external object and an internal base, consciousness arises in this moment of contact, structurally there is also feeling arising in that moment, either pleasant or unpleasant. We are taking that as happening to me. This is my feeling. We are all over it.
Craving enters the perception process as well, the recognition. We pull up old data from the past to try and recognize what this experience of the moment is. We can identify it, recognize it, perceive it. We build a little picture of what’s going on and we start to think about it.
230 Through thinking at the six doors.
Six different types of volitional intention. Volitional intention is a karma process.
Six types of craving, six types of initial thought.
And six types of sustained, evaluative thoughts.
We are trying to subectify anything. Craving tries to get whatever it can. Wherever there’s a gap, wherever, there’s an unmindful spot, that’s where craving can enter. It’s like a rock climber, trying to seek any kind of refuge it can. Wherever there’s a place, it will grab and get hold of trying to keep its existence going. It doesn’t want to let go of the rock face. It wants to be. Craving wants to be something. This is its primordial energy. It’s a subjective state of being. It’s trying to hit a mark. That energy is flowing trying to manifest as someone, as something. It wants to be something. This time around, it’s manifesting as a human! As a being in the sense sphere world. A being that manifests with six sense spheres. And it has been finding its mark pretty well. For our entire lives, craving has been quite successful in infiltrating the moment and building up an idea. It’s become a solid and enduring idea. Lasting for decades. We’re constantly backing it up, supporting it, performing different activities and collecting various things so that we can add to or enhance the sense of self, the sense of me, our subjective state, our being. We’re adding to it trying to reinforce it! If it gets weakened anyway, we feel mortally wounded. Nobody wants to have a weakened sense of self. We are striving to make it stronger. The biggest, the strongest, the fastest, the richest, the funniest – all those states. We’ve been doing that our whole lives. So in 60 ways, 10 by six doors, craving has an opportunity to arise. These are the objects that we need to be noting and knowing, we need to be guarding them from the infiltration of craving to be. We need to get our awareness and wisdom operating and spinning so quickly, that wisdom takes control of the moments, the point of contact, after point of contact, after point of contact. Awareness and wisdom is there, observing, noting, knowing. When it knows, craving can’t land on to that object. Craving can’t do with it as it likes. That object has now been clearly seen by Vipassana. It’s no longer an object which can be subjectified. It can’t be taken as this is mine, this I am, this is my self. It’s out of the game if you like. It’s been neutralized 231 by awareness and wisdom in the present moment. There is a little gap, a little glitch in the matrix. Our job is to make these often and regular. We need to make these gaps more continuous and more sustained. We need to start to break down this very well constructed mechanism turning the neutral environment into one that has been subjectified – dukkhering it. Craving dukkhas the mind and matter process.
A fully enlightened being doesn’t have any dukkha. They’ve removed dukkha, and yet, they still exist. They still manifest. The mind and body process still continues even though craving has been abandoned, uprooted. So it’s possible to still have a mind and body process, still functioning, all the enlightened ones, and the Buddha after his enlightenment, existed dukkhafree. And yet he was still able to perform functions, eating, sleeping, talking, walking, a lot of teaching, all those things.
Now the cessation of craving doesn’t mean that we disappear. It means that our mind and body process is no longer infected by delusion, by ignorance. Greed, hatred and delusion don’t have much chance of arising because there is no self that generates that. It takes a self to be greedy. «I’m greedy, I want.» It’s a subjectified state. «I’m not happy with. I’m angry. I don’t know. I’m deluded.»
In 60 ways appropriating and identifying, craving mistakenly subjectifies the moment and after this is done for many years or decades, there comes to be a strong of sense of «I am». A strong sense of being manifests within the creature. In the mind and body process it comes to a very strong understanding that «I am». A self is established. It seems concrete, it seems continuous. We never question it. If someone asks us, if we really are someone, it seems obvious to us. «Of course, I’m someone, what are you talking about?» If somebody says, you’re no-one. «No, I am someone, I am». Are you? Where are you? I want to see that self. Where is it arising? – It’s just an idea! It’s a dream that infects our reality. It turns our experience of objective nature, of dhamma, into a subjectified experience. An experience of dukkha. When the Buddha is pointing this out, he declares, «there is dukkha». This is how it’s happening. Luckily for us, he also says, «there is an end of dukkha». There is the experience that is the mind and body process which is not undergoing this process of subjectification. The cessation of dukkha is when craving 232 doesn’t enter this stream of experience. That’s the third noble truth. We’ll talk about it very shortly.
So this thing believes it is someone but it’s just a natural impersonal flow of mental and physical phenomena dependently arisen and conditioned. Traveling along on its own journey, naturally unfolding. It’s only because we don’t see it as it really is, that we come to believe this false story that we’ve been told for years and years. Our parents didn’t know and understand, they played along with the game. They may have even enhanced craving’s ability to get into the stream of our flow.
We are just quietly appropriating each sense experience moment building and constructing an ever more present sense of I. We’re developing being. If we are not noting and knowing, we’re developing being. Being is the cause of dukkha. Once there’s being, there’s birth. When there’s no being, there’s no birth. If there’s no personality being constructed than the word «birth» doesn’t apply. Birth is a concept that relates to a person. If there’s no person manifest in that moment, then that’s the end of birth. The cessation of birth. Birth doesn’t take place. Here we’re talking about the birth of the self, the birth of the ego. It’s the idea that I am someone. This is birth. «I am, I’m here».
So the heart of the teaching is to destroy this idea of me, and mine and I, to destroy this idea of subjectivity and to enter the void of suññata, where the mind and matter process is not infected by craving to be, the mind and matter process is empty of self and things pertaining to self. This is an experience of voidness. That world in which a sense of self doesn’t make itself apparent. Empty.
So that’s the second noble truth, the cause of dukkha. Dukkha is produced by this energy, this craving, this wanting, this strong desire to be something. See if you can notice and recognize this in your own mind. See if you notice when it wants to be something. Check your activities and the motivations for your activities. Why are you performing and doing things? Is it to generate a stronger sense of self? Are you deliberately trying to develop a personality? If so, have a look what happens when you do that. Understand that the development of your personality is the development of your dukkha. You’re actually helping craving. You’re opening the door and preparing a 233 seat. «Please come in, sir. Subjectify this experience. Come in and cause some dukkha here. We are all happy here. Come and disturb us!» You don’t want to invite craving into your life! When you notice it, make a note ‘craving, wanting, desiring, wanting to be’.
It seems just like a simple thing. It seems obvious but all of us have experienced that craving to be when we have to make that decision what we are going to be in our life. What are you going to be when you grow up? We think we’ve worked it out in our 20s when we get some job, secure training or get a degree of some sort. «Oh, that’s what I am.» But it doesn’t really stop. Well into your 40s and 50s, we’re still asking the question, what am I going to be when I grow up? – Yes, it doesn’t stop. What am I going to be? And then we become someone and you are not really satisfied with that identity. You want a new one. Something a little bit more funky. Something a little bit cooler. We want to have our own unique niche in the world. Our own unique business card. A CV that is wild and interesting. We can show others. See, how interesting I am! – It’s all to create a sense of self. We think we need to have a strong sense of self to be happy. It’s exactly the opposite. The more we think and spin about ourselves, the more dukkha we get.
We can even cause mental illnesses through obsessive thinking about ourselves. Obsessive thinking about the past and ourself – depression states. Obsessive thinking and planning and worrying about the future and ourself – anxiety states! These states of mind occur because of craving! Because we don’t see the trouble that it’s making. Our society and community is telling us, you have to become something. You have to be someone. And when we don’t know what we want to be, it’s awful. We need to work it out. What am I going to be? Everyone is asking you. What are you going to be? You feel obliged. What is it that we want to be, that we are searching for? Try to see that this energy is craving, is wanting. It really is the cause of dukkha in your life. This is the one, that’s causing the problems. When we can drop it and let it go, when we don’t have to fulfill its desires, running around trying to fulfill craving’s appointments, craving’s wishes – when we’re not doing that, then we’re free. We are free in that moment. We are not a slave of craving. We’re giving up the job of building our personality and our identity. We’re throwing that out of the window.
234 When we note that we start doing that, or when we note, what our motivation for doing a particular action or saying a particular thing is, when we notice that this activity is actually just a self-producing one, then we give it up. We let it go. We change our view, or we change our ability to perform that function. We change our attitude to performing that function. – We can still be helpful, we can still do different things, but we just don’t do it with such a sense of self that it causes identity view to arise.
14.2. Third noble truth#
The third noble truth, the cessation of dukkha or dukkha nirodha, is the other side of the coin. It’s the end of suffering. That’s what cessation means. The finish of it, the end of suffering. Where suffering ceases to exist, where it no longer appears.
The Buddha said repeatedly: «Now as before monks, I teach suffer- ing and the cessation of suffering». That’s what the Buddha’s project is. He talks a lot about dukkha and the cessation of dukkha. And this is important to keep in mind, when we investigate the dhamma, when we investigate the Buddha’s teaching for ourselves. When we’re looking to see what the actual teaching is. He was just focussed on these things, dukkha and the end of dukkha. That’s all.
In fact, there was a time, when he was sitting in the forest with a large group of monks and he picked up a hand full of leaves and said, «monks, what is more, the leaves in my hand or the leaves in this great forest?» «Oh, venerable, sir, the leaves in this great forest are many. The leaves in your hand are so few.» «So it is, monks, so it is. The knowledge I have gained is vast, like the leaves in this forest, but the knowledge I’m giving you is just this.» Dukkha and the end of dukkha. Of all the things the Buddha came to understand and came to know, he taught us this: dukkha, the cause of dukkha, the end of dukkha and the path leading to the cessation of dukkha. Only this was worthy in his talks.
These days people want to know what it is that Buddhism teaches. What it teaches in relation to a whole lot of modern day dilemmas. What does Buddhism say about environmental warming, climate change, vegetarianism, poverty, global corporate profit taking, same sex marriage, about 235 a whole range of different things. The truth is, the Buddha didn’t really address any of these subjects. It wasn’t really his thing. We can take some ideas or interference from his teaching and apply it to the modern problems but his project was singular. He was only interested in this problem of dukkha and he was very keen for us to see it. He had the unique ability to teach this dukkha in many different ways to many different people. He had the ability to look at somebody and know how their craving was arising, where they were stuck. He pointed out to them directly. There are many instances of beings becoming enlightened, quite rapidly, after an intervention from the Buddha. He was pointing out where they had gone wrong, what they’re not seeing, how they were clouded by the matrix. And so while he doesn’t deviate from his central concern, he did approach the subject from many different angles according to who he was talking about. All these angles have been recorded in the old Pali texts. We can investigate them for ourselves and see how the Buddha approaches this problem of dukkha and the cessation of dukkha. The myriads of ways, the dozens of ways that he teaches and tells us to look. If we understand what he is talking about and try to follow what he teaches, we will experience for ourselves the nature of the dhamma. People have been doing so, for a thousand years. We will also have that opportunity. The Buddha’s teaching has one taste. He says, «just as the ocean has one taste, the taste of salt, so too this dhamma has one taste, the taste of release.» He wants us to understand dhamma, because he wants us to be free from the dukkherizing process. He wants us to be free from dukkha. So what is this third noble truth? «It is just the reminderless fading away and ceasing, the giving up, the relinquishing, the letting go and reject- ing of that same craving.» It’s the giving up of that craving. Whenever you notice it arising, make a note and give it up. Start to do the work of cessation. Whenever you notice it, relinquish it. Let it go. Start to walk the path. Whenever you note it, there is craving for being starting to play its games and becomes strong in your life, you can quickly remove the suffering that it causes by just noting and knowing it, stepping back. Don’t be fooled by craving any longer. Fading away, ceasing, giving up, relinquishing, letting go and rejecting of that craving to be.
14.3. Nirvana#
236 The cessation of dukkha is something that the Buddha called nirvana. He had a very special name to use for this experience where the mind and body process are freed from the craving to be. When we free it through awareness and wisdom, than that experience is called nirvana. Nirvana is not a wonderful palace up in the clouds somewhere. Nirvana is the mind and body process in the present moment unaffected by craving to be. This is how cessation takes place. That’s an experience of nirvana in the here and now. This nirvana the Buddha talks about in the texts, he called it the unborn. It’s the base, the unborn, the unbecome, the unmade, the unconditioned, the transcendent, supra-mundane, ageless, deathless, sorrowless, supreme security from bondage. ‘Bondage’ is the state of being. ‘Supreme security from’ is letting go that craving. We’ll become secure. We reach the base, nirvana, the unconditioned element. It’s not impermanent, it’s permanent. It’s not dukkha, it’s the end of dukkha. It’s still impersonal, it’s not a self. It’s still a state of impersonality, it’s still a state of non-self. You don’t become all of a sudden nirvana. That’s not your true self. It just is what it is. The cessation of dukkha.
Nirvana is also described as the stilling of all formations. The quieting of conditioned phenomena. The relinquishing of all acquisitions. All those things we come to acquire and get – not only the physical things but also our own attributes that we believe we are – it’s the relinquishing of those acquisitions. All the time and all the effort we’ve gone into creating that special identity that we have today, it’s letting all that go and not caring what other people think about us letting it go. We’re evolving in a spiritual way. We are moving beyond our normal mundane lives of eating, sleeping, seeking sensual pleasures, from one sensuality to another, searching for stuff to identify with, to have fun to. As the Buddha says, «delighting». We’re seeking delight. Craving is seeking delight. That’s its speciality. As soon as there is something pleasurable, craving rubs its hand and glee, «uhmm, good, I’ll get easily in here». There is some delighting, creating a sense of being, right here, right now. It loves to be. It loves to develop a self. It likes to work hard on it. It loves dukkha. It’s the cause of dukkha.
Nirvana is described as the destruction of craving and dispassion. So 237 there are many passages throughout the Pali texts describing this state of the bliss of the release when the mind is released from craving. Some of the most beautiful are in the old poetry books. The texts of the terigata and teragata verses, of the elder monks and nuns, where they exclaim in beautiful poetry the bliss of release. Hundreds of monks and nuns explaining, or exalting their experience of nirvana. All of them using slightly different words to explain this experience they uncovered as member of the sangha, the noble sangha, the aria-sangha. Beings who have come across the Buddha’s teaching, had enough intelligence to recognize its importance, put aside a period of their live to intensify their practice and break through, break through to the further shore. And then they tell others about it. Beautiful. Very beautiful. I recommend it if you have a chance to read those texts and translations. Nirvana is sometimes referred to in the texts as the unfashioned. It hasn’t undergone fashioning yet. Sculpting. Creating. It’s called the end. The effluentness. The truth, the beyond, the subtle. The very hard to see. The permanent. The undecaying. The surfacelessness. The non-objectification. Peace. The exquisite. The solace. The exhaustion of craving. The wonderful. The marvelous. The secure. The unafflicted. The passionlessness. The pure. The release. Non-attachment. All these terms signify this state which is beyond craving, where craving can’t enter. The end of craving. The shelter. The harbor. The refuge.
The term «nirvana» was actually a word that the Buddha took from the local language. It didn’t have the meaning of the complete cessation of dukkha. It had a more simple meaning. It was traditionally used in northern India in the fifth century b.c. to describe the going out of a fire. You see the candle burning. When the flame gets put out, we say the flame has «nirvanaed». It’s been put out. The flame burns dependent upon conditions. When its conditions are in place, a flame burns. When there is wax, and wick and heat, when these three are there, the flame burns. When we remove the conditions, one of them at least, heat or wick or wax, then the flame disappears. It’s gone out. It’s no need for us to ask, «oh, where has the flame gone?» This is not what we’re doing. There’s no point in asking «where has it gone?». When we blow out the candle, it doesn’t have to go anywhere. It just ceases to be, because the conditions that were putting it in place have altered, changed. 238 The conditions are impermanent. The conditions on which it stands have changed and so the flame changes. And so it is with this sense of self. It keeps being generated when the conditions are in place and when the conditions are no longer there – nirvana. Cessation.
There are two different types of nirvana. There is nirvana here and now which is experienced when mind and matter are still functioning, but the sense of self ceases. That’s the experience of an enlightened person who still has a mind and body process that they’re carrying around with them. There are people in this country who are enlightened. Monks and nuns and laypeople, who have done the training, experienced it, the mind and body still functioning, still talk. You can have a chat with them. There is nobody there. No-one home! The mind and body process still activated but they don’t have a sense of self. Very interesting to meet these people. If you ever hear about them, please go and visit them.
Then there is the type of nirvana of the enlightened being who passes away. That’s the full nirvana when the mind and body process no longer breathes or is conscious. The normal word we use, «it dies». The person is dead. Death. When an enlightened being dies – it’s a bit of a problem with that sentence – because ‘death’ is a word that applies to a person and if you are fully enlightened you are no longer a person. So this concept death doesn’t apply anymore. Death doesn’t take place for an enlightened one. The elements break apart, and that’s it! Finished. «Done is what had to be done.» Full final release. Consciousness unencumbered. Unhindered by mind and body process. Not attached or identifying with any of it. Free. Released!
The Buddha also used the term suññata, emptiness or voidness to describe his most profound and deepest teachings. It means that all things, all conditioned and unconditioned things are void of self. Suññata. Sometimes we find in the texts, the monks asking the Buddha, «what state does the blessed one normally dwell in these days?» He says, «at the moment I am hanging out in suññata.» Voidness, entering the void where there is no self or things pertaining to self.
So when we put these two noble truths together, the second and the third, they form two sides of one coin, if you like. Two sides of our experience. We can either be noting and knowing and letting go and experiencing 239 the third noble truth, or, we can be appropriating and identifying allowing craving in and we experience the cause of dukkha and dukkha. Two experiences. It’s up to us in the present moment to decide which one we’re going to experience. It’s your choice. Dukkha or nirvana. One of them is very easy. Just lay back and think about yourself all the time. Hmm, just have a nice life of dukkha. Lots of problems. The other one is a little more tricky to practice but a lot more worthwhile – the cessation of dukkha. We’ll have to do something. We have been working very well this week striving to train our mind to be in the present moment so that we can set ourselves up to experience this phenomena. We need to put all the conditions in place and there’s quite a few of them. We’ve been explaining them to you this week. Putting these conditions in place and then to allow the dhamma to unfold.
14.4. Dependent origination#
When we join the second noble truth and the third noble truth together, it’s referred to as the paticca samuppada, or dependent arising or dependent origination. It’s the deepest and most profound teaching that the Buddha offers us. In fact, the venerable Ananda, the Buddha’s close attendant for 25 years, once said to the Buddha, «ah, this dependent origination seems so clear and easy to understand. I just don’t get it, why beings don’t under- stand.» The Buddha admonished him: «Oh, do not say so Ananda, do not say so. This teaching is deep and profound as the ocean is wide. It’s through not understanding the dependent origination that beings are bound to sam- sara.» And this is the central teaching we need to understand. It’s the key for unlocking our experience of dhamma.
It teaches us, how the me, or the I arises in the present moment or how the me or the I ceases in the present moment. It’s a very succinct, a very short but also very illuminating teaching. It has 12 forms, 12 different bases on which the sense of self arises. And these 12 bases or these 12 conditioned things are linked together by conditioning processes. They are linked together by what we call the idappaccayatā, or specific conditionality. Each link conditioning the next. «When this is, that comes to be. With the arising of this, that arises. When this ceases, that ceases. With the cessation of this, that ceases.» The things are conditioned. When the conditions are in place 240 they arise. When the conditions are no longer in place, they cease to exist. This is the great teaching that the Buddha uncovered. Conditionality. He saw how the self is a conditioned phenomena. Arising, when there is ignorance and delusion, and ceasing, when there is full awareness and wisdom. He explains this in a little road map. You can often see visual representations of the paticca samuppada. Sometimes it’s in a chain of twelve links. I hope you had a chance to read the notice board down there. Dependent origination is explained there, both in the forward process and in the reverse process, in the dukkha creating process and in the dukkha ceasing process. It’s one coin, with dukkha on the one side and nirvana on the other. It’s either or. When you flip it, it doesn’t land on its edge. We’re either dukkhering ourselves or we’re reaching cessation in the present moment.
14.5. Dukkha creating process#
It starts with ignorance. With ignorance as condition volitional formations come to be. The first four items of the dependent origination, ignorance, conditional formations, consciousness and nama-rupa. In the forward direction, if there is ignorance the sankharas or the conditional formations, the intentional structures condition consciousness and nama-rupa. They set that ignorance is conditioning the consciousness in the present moment if we’re unaware. If we’re unaware, the consciousness that arises at the six sense bases has already been infected by ignorance. Just the fact that we’re unaware of that moment, means that we are ignorant in that moment. When ignorance is present, then – consciousness and nama-rupa, which are stuck in a vortex conditioning each other arising at the six sense bases – this consciousness and nama-rupa vortex becomes conditioned by ignorance, and then, when it squeezes out through the six sense bases somewhere, the moment of contact is infected. Contact is there. We can note that contact and see it happening in real time. We can see the infection taking place if there’s ignorance. This happens in a snapshot, this is not a temporal movement. Visual representations of the dependent origination appear to show it traveling through time from one link to the next link and from the next link to another one. But it’s more useful to look at these 12 links stacked upon each other, based upon each other. When we start stacking, they start growing.
241 If we’ve been unable to note in the present moment and unawareness is in that moment, ignorance is in that moment, then the consciousness and nama-rupa which arise at the six sense bases become infected. The feeling that arises joined in this moment becomes a feeling of somebody. A sense of «I» enters in, a sense of «me» enters in into the scene. «It’s my feeling.» That feeling starts to condition the mind. It conditions craving.
When craving comes to be, clinging comes to be. With clinging as condition, being. With being as condition, birth. The next four links show the gradual concentration of the sense of me and mine. The «me» becoming more and more solid. The craving is just taking things as «me» and «mine», happening to me and for me. It does that so rapidly that it builds up a more concrete sense of subjectivity. Clinging, upadana, we come to attavada or the view of self arises. The conceit «I am» starts to arise. It starts to take life, it believes it’s alive. The subjectivity is arising. A person is manifesting in the present moment. Clinging then leads to being, the full sense of self and then a whole history gets mapped out. Birth, that’s the past. Death, that’s the future. These concepts relate to the person that has just been established in that moment.
With ignorance as condition, volitional formations. With volitional formations as condition, consciousness. With consciousness as condition, mind and matter. With mind and matter as condition, the six sense bases. And the six sense bases are infected, the contact is infected, feeling is infected, and then craving, clinging and being come to be. Finally it results in birth, the establishment of an identity and a personality and then sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair. All those states of suffering come into being – just because we’ve been unable to note and know in the present moment. That moment gets infected and becomes a self-moment adding to the pile of self that’s being created along the way, adding to the illusion, reinforcing the illusion.
14.6. Dukkha ceasing process#
On the other side, if we can be aware of the present moment, what our Vipassana meditation is all about, if we can note and know rapidly and continuously, if we can increase our noting speed and the number of objects we 242 can note, we’ll start to build up a continuous field of awareness and wisdom. So any time a door opens, we’re knowing what’s there. We’re seeing it clearly. Ignorance is ceasing in that moment. Unawareness is being removed and awareness is replacing it. There is awareness of the moment. When this happens, ignorance is gone. It doesn’t condition the volitional formations. When those volitional formations are no longer functioning, either as greed, hatred or delusion or, on the more positive side, as non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion, when this conditioning process is not taking place, consciousness doesn’t get conditioned by ignorance. The ‘consciousness and mind and matter’-vortex that arises at the six sense doors, has not been infected by ignorance. That moment is clear, unsubjectified, purified if you like. It’s an experience of dhamma. The contact point seen very clearly – no self there! It’s a moment of freedom. We’ve noted the point of contact at the six sense doors. The feeling that arises, the pleasantness or unpleasantness, is just feeling. It doesn’t belong to anyone. It’s not taken as being good or bad. It ceased to have the opportunity to condition the mind. The pleasantness or unpleasantness is still there, but it has lost its conditioning ability because it’s seen clearly for what it is. It’s not going to be appropriated and identified with. That moment is a moment of knowing, it’s a moment of clear seeing. It’s a Vipassana moment. Feeling doesn’t get taken, craving doesn’t arise. Craving ceases, clinging ceasing, being ceases and so does birth, old age, sickness and death. The whole string of dukkha ceases. Sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, despair, depression, anxiety, worry, tension – all these things cease in that moment. All these things are concepts that relate to a person and since there is nobody in that moment, those concepts cease to have any validity. They don’t exist.
All we have to do, is to extend this from moment to moment. You can catch it for a second, can we do it for two seconds, three seconds, hold it back, keep noting and knowing, keep noting and knowing, make it continuous. Don’t allow any gaps to occur. See how long ignorance can cease for in the moment. See if you can have that experience of the mind and matter process which is independent of ignorance. Which is not being conditioned by ignorance, which is, in fact, conditioned by wisdom, by true knowledge. When we experience this in the present moment, this is the third noble 243 truth. Cessation. The mind and body process ceases. And the whole edifice collapses in that moment. Our job as meditators is to make sure that we can bring as many of these moments as we can into our experience. The more we can do it, the more we start to alter our understanding of the mind and body process. You’ll start to see it more and more clearly. The things that used to worry us and excite us before, completely loose our attention. Just like when we used to play with dolls or little trucks in the sand pit, when we were very small children, we’ve stopped doing that now because it doesn’t have any interest for us anymore. No longer interesting to play those games. And so it is with developing a sense of self or developing an identity view. It no longer has any interest for us. We just see it as a useless activity while others get a lot of delight from it. We’re just not interested in that anymore. We see the pointlessness of it, we see the futility of it.
We can break this casual process at the point of contact, if our awareness and wisdom is clear. When consciousness and the mental factors arise at the six sense bases, this is where we have to note. If we can be noting at the point of contact continuously, repeatedly, unremittingly, then we can have some possibility of reaching the cessation stage. This is our job. This is what our meditation practice is all about. In fact, this is the role of human evolution. This is what has to be done. Eventually, all beings will escape samsara through this process of letting go of the sense of self, freeing themselves. All of us will have to go through it at some point. Maybe this week, this year or this lifetime or some other time. But this is our destiny, this is our evolution as a species. This is how we move beyond the material realm and enter into the spiritual realm of the enlightened ones. The realm of the beings who are free from dukkha.
For now, it’s important for us to recognize that we may break this causal process and the practicing of satipatthana is the way out of the process that the Buddha so eloquently described. You just need to examine it closely, not the books, we need to examine our own mind. We need to see if the map is reproduced in our own mind and body process. When we see things as they really are in the present moment, it blocks defilement from arising. It’s like we’ve neutralized the field of objects. None of them can be used as a sense of self, as a base for the sense of self. Liking and disliking disappear, judging 244 and comparing – all gone! The knowledge of arising and passing away, it’s not the permanent removal of defilement but it is a little bit of a taste of the deathless state. When we can sit observing the mind, the body and mind process arising and passing at the six sense doors, uninterruptedly, without us subjectifying the process, then we have a taste of the deathless state. A taste of nature. It’s not full nirvana but it’s something getting close to it.
I like to read you now part of the Kaccayanagotta sutta: Kaccayanagotta, just the name of another monk, once visited the Buddha. This text has a special place in the teaching of the Buddha being used by one of the major traditions, the Majjhimas. It’s the central text in their teaching of emptiness and non-self.
Dwelling at Savatthi… Then Ven. Kaccayana Gotta approached the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down, sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One: «Lord, ‘Right view, right view,’ it is said. To what extent is there right view?»
«By and large, Kaccayana, this world it depends upon a duality, upon the notion of being and upon the notion of non-being. But when one sees the origin of the world as it actually is with correct wisdom – (the second noble truth, the arising of dukkha) – there is no notion of non-being/non-existence in regard to the world. When one sees the cessation of the world as it actually is with correct wisdom, there is no notion of being/existence in regard to this world.
By and large, Kaccayana, this world is shackled by attachments, clingings and adherence. But this one [with right view] does not get involved with or cling to these attachments, clingings, and adherence; he does not take a stand about ‘my self.’ He has no uncertainty or doubt that what arises is only suffering arising; what ceases is only suffering ceasing. His knowledge about this is independent of others. It’s to this way, Kaccayana, that there is right view.
‘Everything exists’: That is one extreme. ‘Everything doesn’t exist’: That is a second extreme. Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathagata teaches the dhamma via the middle: With ignorance as condition, volitional formations. With volitional formations as condition, consciousness. With consciousness as condition, nama-rupa. With nama-rupa as condition, the six sense bases. 245 With the six sense bases as condition, contact. With contact as condition, feeling. With feeling as condition, craving. With craving as condition, clinging. With clinging as condition, being. With being as condition, birth. With birth as condition, aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, despair come to be. Such is the origination of this entire mass of suffering.
But with the remainderless fading away and cessation of ignorance comes cessation of volitional formations. With the cessation of volitional formations, cessation of consciousness. With the cessation of consciousness, cessation of nama-rupa. With the cessation of nama-rupa, cessation of the six sense bases. With the cessation of the six sense bases, cessation of contact. With the cessation of contact, cessation of feeling. With the cessation of feeling, cessation of craving. With the cessation of craving, cessation of clinging. With the cessation of clinging, cessation of being. With the cessation of being, cessation of birth. With the cessation of birth, cessation of aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress and despair. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of suffering.»
So this formula, this dependent origination is a map that shows us very clearly our options in the present moment. We are either dealing with ignorance, craving, self and dukkha, or we are dealing with wisdom, the cessation of craving, nirvana and freedom. The choice is ours to make.