Психотренинг. Йога. Медитация. Буддийские психотехники

Кое-какие места в Бангкоке

nibbanadhatu@gmail.com (Dharmalingam) — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:04:29 GMT

Никогда не испытывал интереса к нажиманию кнопочек на фотоаппаратах. Однако Таиланд – место интересное и еще буддийское. Поэтому ряд снимков я все же сделал с превеликим удовольствием.

Весак 2009 в Таиланде

nibbanadhatu@gmail.com (Dharmalingam) — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:48:33 GMT

В этом году Весак отметили в столице Таиланда – Бангкоке. Темы выступлений были посвящены, прежде всего, тому, каким образом буддийский подход может помочь решать политические конфликты, нынешний экономический кризис и всякие такие неприятности. Имею намерение перевести фрагменты некоторых докладов по экономике и политике, которые буду помещать на сайте Буддийский мир. Здесь можно краем глаза просмотреть фотографии, которые я сделал, как бы, между прочим, не вынимая камеры из чехла.

11 Feeling – Craving (part 1)

nibbanadhatu@gmail.com (Dharmalingam) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:49:46 GMT

Now there comes a season when, after many years, many hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands of years, it does not rain; and while it rains not, all seedlings and vegetation, all plants, grasses, and trees dry up, wither away and cease to be. Thus constituent things are impermanent, unstable, non-eternal: so much so, that this alone is enough to weary and disgust one therewith and emancipate therefrom.

And there comes a season, at vast intervals in the lapse of time, when a second sun appears. After the appearance of the second sun, the brooks and ponds dry up, vanish away and cease to be. So impermanent are constituent things! And then there comes a season, at vast intervals in the lapse of time, when a third sun appears; and thereupon the great rivers: to wit, the Ganges, the Jamuna, the Rapti, the Gogra, the Mahî,Þdry up, vanish away and cease to be. At length, after another vast period, a fourth sun appears, and thereupon the great lakes, whence those rivers had their rise: namely, Anotatto, Lion-leap, Chariot-maker, Keel-bare, Cuckoo, Six-bayed, and Slow-flow dry up, vanish away, and cease to be. – The Buddha Numerical Collection VII. 62

Pemasiri Thera: Any time that feelings arise, tanhà also always arises. Tanhà is the Pali word for craving. Feeling, vedanà, is the necessary supportive condition for the arising of craving. “Vedanà,” said the Buddha “is mother to the child known as tanhà.”

Ratnayaka just brought me a cup of tea. Since I find the cup of tea satisfying and I get some pleasure from drinking it, I want to bring the cup of tea closer to me. I crave the cup of tea. A mental formation then emerges to possess and protect the cup of tea to make it mine. Our craving, tanhà, for an object only emerges after we contact and in some way experience the object. I craved the cup of tea only after the tea was brought to me and some pleasant feelings arose. It was at that point I wanted to possess it, to make the cup of tea mine. Now, if I drop my cup of tea on the floor, spilling the tea and breaking the cup, I suffer. So, before Ratnayaka brought me the cup of tea, before I found drinking the tea such a pleasurable experience, I didn’t crave the cup of tea; there wasn’t any craving whatsoever. Nothing arose in my mind with regard to this particular cup of tea no craving, no possessing, no protecting, and most importantly any suffering.
Feeling is the most dominant cause for the arising of craving. It is born of feeling. Feeling is the mother who gives birth to craving. Where pleasant feelings arise, we want to get closer. Where unpleasant feelings arise, we want to get away. Look around this hall where we are now sitting and having a nice chat. You see many different objects a statue of the Buddha resting on a stand, men and women, dozens of books on a shelf, cushions and mats. You don’t look at all the objects in the same way. You look at the mats differently than you look at the women you don’t crave the mats! Craving only arises when the object bears some significance to you, where feelings arise.

David: If I go off to the forest, I won’t be thinking about having a relationship with a woman.

You’re right. While practicing in the forest where there are no women, you can suppress your craving for women. All the same, when you leave the forest and come in contact with women again, your craving will be like a dam bursting. It’ll come on stronger than ever! You’re better off interacting with women, seeing them and talking with them. To whatever level of strength feelings arise, craving arises to the same level. There is a direct correlation between feelings and craving. Where intensely pleasant feelings arise, we want to bring the object as close as possible. We pursue pleasant feelings with the same intensity. We really want to possess the object. Where our contact with an object arouses intensely unpleasant feelings, we want to be as far away from the object as possible. We reject the painful object. Where pleasant and unpleasant feelings are absent, however, craving doesn’t arise.

Craving is never neutral. It always leads us in one of two directions: the beneficial or the harmful. Knowing our direction determines our destination, our birth; we restrain our craving for harmful objects and instead connect our craving with the beneficial. Craving performs the same function in the beneficial and the harmful, in the kusala and the akusala. Yes, craving can lead to a low birth, to a woeful state. But craving can also lead to a high birth and to high states of consciousness, such as the rupa-jjhànas and arupa-jjhànas. When the parents build a house for their son or daughter, the craving is there. The meditator recognizes his or her craving and wants liberation from it; this is kusala-cchanda.

Are you saying craving can be beneficial and wholesome?

No. There is no such thing as beneficial craving, kusala-tanhà. No. Craving is linked to the hindrances, and is the origin of suffering the second noble truth. Ultimately, craving always leads to some form of suffering.

Is it kusala, beneficial, to crave the end of craving?

Yes. In that case, the tanhà converts to chanda. Kusala-cchanda is the beneficial road of experience. Whether beings are human, celestial, ghost, goblin, or ogre, craving exists within them and it is an oversimplification of the Buddha’s teachings to just dismiss it as all harmful. The nature of craving is not a black and white issue. During the performance of both beneficial as well as harmful actions, moments of pleasant and unpleasant feeling surface, which means at those moments in time craving also surfaces. Time after time, the Buddha said, “Dependent on feeling, craving arises.” Any time we experience a pleasant or an unpleasant feeling, there is almost always craving, even in beneficial actions. With the arising of feeling, the mind automatically responds with craving. We can’t say that things are otherwise. Craving is without doubt present in those moments of our lives. In spite of that, craving isn’t present in each and every moment of our lives.

Kama is sensuality, our sense-sphere our links between our sense doors and their matching sense objects. In the kàma-loka, in this sense-sphere-plane where we live, we are constantly using our sense doors to contact sense objects. When our sense doors contact sense objects that arouse pleasant feelings, we crave those sense objects; this is kàma-tanhà. For example, when you participate in the evening pujà here at our centre, paying homage to the Buddha, you are craving pleasant contact with sense objects.

The pujà seems pleasant enough and even a bit mystical. I can’t say however that I participate in pujà all that often.

You’re missing out. The atmosphere in the hall is beautiful: meditators are all dressed in white; an oil lamp is lit; flowers and incense are offered; and a bhikkhu chants. When you see the peacefulness of the bhikkhu with your eyes, craving is there towards the sight of the bhikkhu. This is craving sensuality, kàma-tanhà. When you hear him chanting with your ears, more pleasant feelings come up. And based on your ears, craving arises towards the sound of the bhikkhu’s voice. Incense sticks are burning. You find the aroma pleasant and think that it would be nice to have this same kind of incense back at home. There’s some clinging. After the pujà, you might join me for a cup of tea. Then tasting the tea with your tongue, craving arises again, this time towards the tea. Through all of your sense doors, craving arose, even while paying homage to the Buddha. Sense doors are used to activate beneficial experiences, such as the pujà, and also activate harmful experiences. One month ago, you were in Colombo and you went to a bar.

Yes, a group of us went out to a club called Splash and had a beer. It was a nice break from the meditation centre. I sure needed a break. I was getting fed up with the routine here.

You had a good time at Splash, found the whole night quite enjoyable. The place looks good. It’s modern, trendy, and they play music that you like. You got a chance to smoke some cigarettes, drink beer, and chat. If I recall correctly, you had a few snacks later in the evening. Upon seeing Splash with your eyes and hearing its music with your ears, craving arose towards the sights and sounds of Splash. Both your eyes and ears were being used and there was some clinging towards what you were seeing and hearing. One of your friends smokes cigarettes. Smelling his cigarette with your nose, craving arose towards that smell and you had one yourself. The beer tasted good. The snacks tasted good. Based on your tongue, craving arose towards the beer and the snacks. These days, you have painful arthritis in your hands. It’s chronic. Even so, that night at Splash you didn’t likely direct any of your attention or craving towards your body, towards the pain in your hands. You ignored it. So, you can see, whether you are attending pujà or out at Splash, both your craving and your sense doors are functioning in exactly the same way. Craving and its mother called feeling are always playing an important role in our lives.

CHANDA

Chanda is the big picture; it’s the nature of tanhà within our overall experience of living. And though tanhà and chanda are often used as synonyms, tanhà is not the same as chanda. Tanhà just means craving and a little clinging. Chanda, on the other hand, is a process that involves wishing for and activating an experience. This process involves studying details and there’s a plan of action, with tanhà playing the deciding role within that process and within that plan. Chanda lasts only as long as the craving lasts. Chanda stops arising when the object of the plan is obtained and the craving is fulfilled. Consistent with the two ways of travel for tanhà, there are two ways of travel for chanda:

• The beneficial road of experience, kusala-cchanda
• The harmful road of experience, akusala-cchanda

When tanhà only plays a minor role, the experience is considered to be beneficial and its activation is kusala-cchanda. However, when tanhà plays a major role, the experience is harmful and its activation is deemed akusala-cchanda. If you lose your spectacles, you can look for them with very little tanhà, with kusala-cchanda; or you can look for them with lots of tanhà, with akusala-cchanda. It then follows, taking into consideration whether the role played by craving is minor or major, sense doors can be used in kammically harmful, beneficial, or neutral ways:

• Harmful excitement of sensuality, akusala-kàma-cchanda
• Beneficial work on the dhamma, kusala-dhamma-cchanda
• Neutral wish to do something, kattu-kamyatà-cchanda

Since harmful excitement of sensuality leads in the opposite direction to beneficial work on the dhamma and a neutral wish to do something, it must be kept separate from them. Excitement of sensuality leads to the hell planes; whereas beneficial work on the dhamma leads to the heavenly planes, and to liberation. A neutral wish only applies to the arahat. In the excitement of sensuality, kàma-cchanda, sense doors are used in harmful ways, akusala-cchanda. Craving plays a major role, with as much as ninety percent of the excitement of sensuality based on craving. When you perform an action with lots of craving, the feeling mind predominates. You hold onto the action and get sad or angry when the action is obstructed. If there is too much feeling and tanhà, you cannot perform the action in any beneficial or wholesome way whatsoever. Work on the dhamma, dhamma-cchanda, is the second way of using our sense doors. It’s the beneficial way of experience, kusala-cchanda, with craving playing only a minor role. As little as ten percent of work on the dhamma is based on craving. The feeling mind doesn’t predominate; it has a lesser presence in dhamma-cchanda. When you engage in actions with kusala-cchanda, the chances of getting angry are minimal. Do you cut the grass here at our centre with a little or a lot of craving? With kusala-cchanda or akusala-cchanda?

Both. It’s a mix.

While you are cutting the grass?

Yes, I want other meditators to cut some grass.

I understand why you get upset. As part of the community, meditators have a duty to help. Be that as it may, in the cutting of grass, are you doing it with craving? I am not asking about the craving that arises with other objects and people. Specifically, what about the craving that arises with the cutting of grass?

Yes. There is craving. I cut grass with both kusala and akusala-cchanda.

Though you say both, craving is minimal in your cutting of the grass. Any sort of help around a meditation centre is kusala-cchanda. In the midst of cutting the grass, do you get angry when I ask you to show visitors around the centre? You have to stop your work.

I get a little annoyed at you.

If you could cut the grass without any craving or expectations, you wouldn’t get angry at all when I take you away from cutting it. Tanhà is connected with greed, expectations, and suffering. Not everyone has to cut grass. People support our centre in various ways. Some make donations. We wouldn’t function without donations. It’s dhamma-cchanda to give things, to help. It takes the donor’s money and effort. All the same, a few people do get upset when their act of donation is obstructed or the donation isn’t used in the way they want. Tanhà is present.

Dhamma-cchanda means exerting an effort to perform beneficial actions. There is appreciation, enjoyment, and willingness evens excitement and some craving. You might be surprised to hear that there are a few people who get excited about hearing one of my dhamma talks! They go into the details of the talks and make plans to hear me. They look forward to one of my talks in exactly the same way that you might look forward to a break away from this meditation centre energized. And some of these people who like my talks travel all the way out from Colombo to our centre here in Kanduboda. It is a long and rough trip from Colombo to Kanduboda. Yet, many people, some who are old and frail, make the effort to do so. In spite of the fact that pleasant feelings and craving arise for these people who like my talks, we cannot say any harm, any akusala, arises with wanting to hear the dhamma. Such efforts and craving are strictly linked with the beneficial.

It seems to me that you find my talks boring and are often thinking, “Why doesn’t Pemasiri finish off this talk?” or “Why does he always have to drag it out for so long?” During long periods of only listening to me, as a bystander and not as a participant, it’s normal for you to have such mental formations. Still, craving plays only a minor role in listening to a dhamma talk; you are using your sense doors in a beneficial way. What do you think? Are you listening to my dhamma talks with tanhà?

You’re a free thinker. I wish you were a lot less free thinking and a lot more logical.

Even though you have a few complaints about my teaching methods, harmful effects aren’t arising. A person who is not an arahat performs all of his or her beneficial actions with dhamma-cchanda. Your work of editing some of my talks into a book is an example of dhamma-cchanda. Craving is involved, but its role is minor in the action. To finish editing the book, you travelled all the way from Canada to Sri Lanka. You are currently correcting the manuscript with my students and are doing various other things connected with editing and publishing. You willingly spend a great deal of time and effort because there is minimal tanhà present. Nonetheless, your editing work is being performed with a degree of conceit, màna.

And what about an arahat?

Arahats use their sense doors in kammically neutral ways. Travelling the kammically neutral road of experience, they perform all their actions with kattu-kamyatà-cchanda, which means there is simply a wish to perform their actions. The mental formation comes up to perform an action and he or she just performs it. Nothing else. Completely free of craving, arahats never have any sorrow or anger come up when actions are disrupted and, if necessary, arahats can let go of their actions entirely. There is no conceit whatsoever. No craving. And when there is no craving, a new being isn’t created.

OUR MAIN CONCERN

As I said, kàma-cchanda translates as the excitement of sensuality; we can also translate it as delighting in wrong actions. It is our main concern. Kàma-cchanda is the path of greed and it is mixed up with craving, clinging, and suffering. Of the five hindrances, kàma-cchanda ranks at the top of the list. The man who told me to stop teaching teenage girls has a high level of kàma-cchanda. From his level, it looks as if I am indulging in sensual pleasures when I teach teenage girls. I am not indulging in the company of teenage girls. I have no kàma-cchanda towards them. If I wanted the teenage girls to return day after day, he could say that kàma-cchanda is there in me. This is not the case. I simply enjoy teaching the dhamma to men and women of all ages.

There is one woman, now in her twenties, I have known since the day she was born. Because of her background, she is the only woman I feel a need to look out for. There is a degree of concern, “What does her future hold?” and “Will she be okay?” I write to her at Vesak, and when her grandfather visits I always ask him how she is doing. What I feel towards her is similar to what a father feels towards his daughter: I want her to be all right. Yes. There is a form of clinging, but it is an appropriate form of clinging. I am not using her in a wrong way, for any personal benefit, and I definitely have no thoughts of a physical relationship.
Kàma-ràga and kàma-cchanda are two distinct phenomena. Kàma-ràga is purely the liking of sensuality, a general enjoyment that comes through the sense doors. There is no desire to possess the object. For example, it means you find a person’s company to be, on the whole, pleasing. Even anàgàmãs prefer the company of one person to the company of another person. Kàma-cchanda, on the other hand, means there is a strong liking for sensuality and there is a wanting to possess the object. You study and latch onto the sensual details of a person. Anàgàmãs don’t study sensual details.

I like hiking in the Singharaja Forest Reserve. Is that kàma-cchanda?

Enjoying a hike in Singharaja is one thing. That is kàma-ràga. It is quite another thing to study the flora and fauna of Singharaja, and to dream of building a rest house there. That is kàma-cchanda.

Is liking a woman’s curves kàma-cchanda?

Yes. You are indulging in the excitement of sensuality when you prolong your mental formations about the woman’s body for a day or two. In dhamma talks, I generally only deal with secondary objects of sensual pleasure, of sensuality, such as drinking a cup of tea, and I don’t deal with primary objects, such as the sexual relations between men and women.

Sex is an important topic.

Yes. Sexual relations is an important topic and it’s good you ask about it. When I speak about sexual relations, however, many people misunderstand and some are offended. Says the Buddha in the Aïguttara Nikàya, “I don’t see any other phenomenon that entangles people so completely.” When you see a beautiful and very attractive woman, kàma-ràga arises in you towards her. Kàma-ràga means you appreciate her beauty and you enjoy her company, purely in the moment. You don’t expect anything. Kàma-ràga can just be there, by itself, in your mental processes. You can think that she is a very attractive and a really pleasant person to share company with, and still not have thoughts of wanting to possess and make love with her. Any other mental formations are kàma-cchanda, “How old is she?” or “What should I say?” or “I want her company.” or maybe “Can I have sex with her?” But if it’s only kàma-ràga that arises, then these mental formations definitely don’t arise. You’re not thinking and thinking. You’re not making up a story about her. No. Ràga is only to appreciate her beauty. You certainly aren’t thinking about having sex.
When the woman sees you looking at her, even when you are only trying to be helpful and you don’t want anything sexual, she may assume you want something sexual because men frequently look at her in that way. Then, she says things that confuse you. Perhaps because of childhood abuse or because of kamma, she is suspicious and views the situation as sexual, rejecting you and your help.

Can I have sex without kàma-cchanda?

No. Kàma-cchanda is eliminated only at the stage of anàgàmã. A lot of useful things can be said about the relations between men and women, if these things are taken in a balanced way.

Women sometimes drive me crazy, one in particular.

I am not entirely unworldly about these matters. This is two non-selves trying to make a self. You are craving. If you weren’t craving for this woman, you’d be craving for another woman. When you stop craving, you stop the disturbance, the fear. Fear and craving are opposite sides of the same coin. Remember the three characteristics of conditioned things anicca, dukkha, and anattà. Men cannot completely isolate themselves from women, and women cannot completely isolate themselves from men. You have to learn to live with women, because they’re everywhere. They are women nothing more and nothing less. They needn’t be craved or condemned just because they are women. There’s a good Jàtaka story about a princes unbalanced views on women. In his youth, the prince liked the company of men, but he disliked women. He even disliked the woman who breastfed him when he was a baby. Unless the women in the palace, including his mother the queen, disguised themselves as men, they couldn’t visit him. If the prince saw a woman, he blacked out. He had almost no concept of women, no perception of them. He only wanted the company of men.

And I thought women drove me crazy.

When the prince turned sixteen years of age, his father the king put into action a plan to change his son’s views on women. He arranged for a beautiful young woman to sing a ballad and play the violin in the nearby hills, just within earshot. “What’s that sound?” asked the prince. “That’s a woman singing a ballad and playing a violin,” said his father. The prince blacked out. A few weeks later, the woman sang and played again. Instead of blacking out this time, he liked the sound of her voice and the sound of the violin. The fathers plan was working. He brought the woman into the palace and then into his son’s bedroom, hiding her behind a curtain. The woman sang and played once more and the prince couldn’t restrain himself; throwing open the curtain he embraced her contact was pleasant. Enjoying one woman, the prince wanted another woman, and then another. Now liking women instead of disliking them, he murdered his father to get the harem. The prince on becoming the king started murdering men first in the palace, then in the nearby towns, and eventually throughout the country. He was a tyrant and was soon overthrown. At first, the prince disliked women and liked men; and then he disliked men and liked women. It’s better to develop a little wisdom. When we have a wise and balanced approach, we can associate with people of either gender without caution or suspicion.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PEOPLE

Many women are genuinely interested in learning and practicing the dhamma. The majority of bhikkhus, however, don’t want to be too close to them, owing to the fact they are women. Thus many women can’t find a good teacher, or they find a poor one and get into serious trouble. Young, middle-aged, and elderly women of various ages and various natures come here to our centre to learn the dhamma. I talk with them according to their nature. I talk with women who are virtuous according to their level of virtue. I talk with women who have a great deal of faith according to their level of faith. And I talk with women who have a lot of wisdom according to their level of wisdom. Some women have jhàna and some women have attained path and fruit. In whatever way the women are, I talk with them in the same way. I associate with all of these various types of women and I treat them kindly, helping in any way possible. Women are free here and they get proper instruction. Though people criticize me for acting in this way, for even the teaching of women, I have no interest in debating the matter.

You’ve got a good attitude towards women. Me? I can’t say that I understand them all that well.

You will never understand women. The kammic nature of women comes along with being born a woman. A woman’s perception of a situation is different from a man’s perception of the same situation. A woman’s feelings are also different from a man’s feelings. Men’s and women’s perceptions and feelings are simply not the same. And with differences in perceptions and feelings, men and women often don’t understand each other, which make interactions between men and women difficult. Conflicts can emerge. As a man, you are better off letting go of trying to understand women. I can’t comprehend how a man and a woman can get married and live together for so many years. Before the Buddha allowed his own step-mother to ordain and start the order of bhikkhunis, he laid down rules of discipline that are specific to bhikkhunis because he wanted to avoid the difficulties that arise out of the differences between men and women. The rules of discipline for bhikkhunis are very strict.

Are men born as men in their next birth, and are women born as women in their next birth?

By and large, both men and women have the same gender in the next birth. Though a woman might say she wants to be born as a man, she is generally born as a woman because she clings to objects associated with being a woman, such as a woman’s form, being a wife, and being a caring mother. A woman rules the home. It’s her first priority and she gets caught up in running it. If a woman starts clinging to the objects a man clings to, she will be a man in the next birth. This is difficult to understand. We have to look at the relations between men and women in a balanced way, from both sides. And at the end of the day, you need not worry about being a man or a woman. Just accept the fact of the matter. If you are a man, you are a man. If you are a woman, you are a woman. Both men and women have the potential to overcome their defilements and attain liberation. It isn’t necessary for women to become men. And if female and male body parts are isolated, can you tell me which parts are female and which parts are male? Is there such a thing as a female liver or a male kidney? No, just parts. No difference. Female and male is just a perception.

I think I’ve found the right woman.

You say you want a woman and then later on you say that you don’t want a woman. “In this world,” said the Buddha, “it is rare that any person finds another person of the same inclination.” The differences between people are significant. Even among the Buddha’s sangha, there were bhikkhus that always associated with Sàriputta and there were bhikkhus that always associated with Moggallàna; and then there were those who associated with Devadatta. In inclination and mind, the bhikkhus that associated with Sàriputta were slightly different from the bhikkhus that associated with Moggallàna. “Milk is similar to milk,” said the Buddha. “Thus, milk mixes well with milk. In the same way, urine is similar to urine. Urine mixes well with urine. And excrement is similar to excrement. Excrement also mixes well with excrement.” You will not find a partner who is just right for you. Total communication and total trust between two people is exceptionally rare. A few people might find someone who is of a similar inclination; most people don’t find anyone of a similar inclination.

In the Migasàlà Sutta of the Anguttara Nicoya, the Buddha talks about the differences between people. Migasàlà was a young girl who lived at the time of the Buddha. Her father had renounced the householder’s life and all its sensual pleasures, and he led a brahmacariya life, abstaining from having sex. In contrast, Migasàlà‘s uncle had lived a householder’s life with his wife and children, and he enjoyed all the sensual pleasures available to him, including having sex. After her father and her uncle died, Migasàlà went to the Buddha, “Where were my father and uncle born?”

“Your father and your uncle took births in the Tusità Heaven,” said the Buddha. “Both were sakadàgàmãs.” Migasàlà doubted that her father and her uncle could have the same destiny. When Venerable ânanda arrived at Migasàlà’s home for alms, she asked him, “How can it be that both my father and my uncle took births in the Tusità Heaven? My father led a pure brahmacariya life, but my uncle indulged in sense pleasures.” Venerable ânanda reported Migasàlà’s comments to the Buddha.

“Migasàlà is a young girl of little wisdom,” said the Buddha. “She plays games and eats mangoes like a little child. How can she understand the differences between people? How can she measure another person’s level of realization? Morality was her father’s strong characteristic and wisdom was her uncle’s strong characteristic.” According to the Buddha, the father and uncle were equal in that way. Even in our meditation centre, there are people like Migasàlà’s father and uncle. If we measure those amongst us, as Migasàlà did from external signs, we will make mistakes. Only someone like the Buddha can measure people with any accuracy.

STUDYING DETAILS AND A PLAN OF ACTION

The excitement of sensuality, kàma-cchanda, involves studying details and a plan of action. Because of taking delight in the details of sensuality, a plan of action is worked out to indulge in sensuality. Both men and women study the sensual details of the opposite sex. Men long for women, and women long for men. Nevertheless, what’s an object of sensual pleasure for one person is solely dependent upon that person. There are women who are commonly considered beautiful that you don’t find at all beautiful, and there are women who aren’t commonly considered beautiful that you find very beautiful. Which characteristic of the person causes kàma-ràga to arise often has nothing to do with material beauty? Various characteristics can cause kàma-ràga to arise.

A little sympathy and helpful wisdom, and I’m sunk! Seems hopeless.

Yes. When women speak kind words with you, your kàma-ràga starts going. You approve of them. To your detriment, however, your kàma-cchanda starts going too. You enjoy the little things about women. Not only talking with them, you enjoy looking at parts of their bodies, maybe their eyes, and enjoy watching them move. You enjoy being with women just because they are women. Caught up in noticing the sensual details of women, you latch onto them and get stuck. Yes, little restraint and then you’re sunk! Thinking you need their company, you look forward to women dropping by to speak with you, and you make plans to be with them. Pursuing, doing various things, you excite yourself to the point of wanting to experience the sensual pleasure of having sex with them.

Is sexual self-stimulation any different from a night emission?

Self-stimulation is kàma-cchanda; a night emission isn’t kàma-cchanda. There may be a sotàpanna or a sakadàgàmã who has kàma-cchanda about these objects of sensuality. The kàma-cchanda is there; even so, neither the sotàpanna nor the sakadàgàmã indulges in illegitimate sex, sex that leads to the four lower worlds, the four apàyas. Sex is only with a legitimate partner, such as a spouse. Sex isn’t with another man’s wife, another woman’s husband, or with any other person’s partner. Though kàma-ràga may arise towards these certain individuals, neither the sotàpanna nor the sakadàgàmã let kàma-cchanda come on; they don’t let it develop concerning these individuals, not in that way.

Is sex a problem?

You don’t have to make kàma-ràga into a problem. You find sex within a legitimate relationship and you don’t go looking for sex outside that relationship. If you have sex within your relationship, there is no problem. Relationships belongs to you and your partner in the same way any material object, say a chair, and belongs to you and your partner its okay for the two of you to use it. Even the ability to attain jhàna is not destroyed just by having sex. Of course, at the time you are having sex, you won’t have the possibility of attaining jhàna. All the same, later on, you again meditate and again you have the possibility to attain jhàna. Sex within a legitimate relationship is not detrimental to the spiritual practice. You must abstain from illegitimate sex. When you go looking for sex outside a legitimate relationship, when you break the third precept, the possibility of attaining jhàna is destroyed, and you will never be able to attain jhàna, not in this birth as long as you indulge in breaking the precept. You lose the jhàna because your mental formations are of a low level.

A Sri Lankan arahat, who lived during the Anuradhapura period, had a student who had the spiritual power to travel through the air. When his teacher needed flowers to offer at a stupa, the student travelled at a great speed to a forest in the Himalayas, filled up a basket, and then returned. The basket was bottomless. It remained full of flowers until the arahat turned the basket upside down. Looking into the future, the arahat saw his student as a layperson. “Be careful,” said the arahat to his student. “Protect yourself. Otherwise, you will lose your spiritual powers and live an unhappy lay life with a one-eyed lady.” The student did not protect himself. Once while travelling through the air, he caught a glimpse of a stunning and gorgeous woman, and was overcome with sensual passion. Instantly, he descended and committed an offence with her, and lost all his spiritual powers. Later, as man and wife, they scraped out a living on a chena farm. It was a hard life and they often fought with each other. One day, he gave her a brutal punch to the head and she lost an eye. At this point in time, he remembered his teachers warning, “You’ll live with a one-eyed lady.” He fell down and cried.

Also during the Anuradhapura period, a highly developed student of meditation lived in the Sithulpahuwa area of Sri Lanka. He could walk on water and travel through the air. Yes, he was a good student and he generally exercised a great deal of restraint. On one of his pilgrimages to the Kelaniya temple, however, his restraint slipped a little. While floating above the temple, he saw a group of bhikkhunis. He was very surprised and happy to see them. With his divine powers, he stretched out supernatural arms and embraced the whole group of bhikkhunis. By mistake, he touched the breast of one of the bhikkhunis, and immediately he too lost all his divine powers.

In another Jàtaka story, King Maha Pratapa falls in love with a beautiful woman called Chandra Devi and he takes her to be his queen. Queen Chandra Devi loves King Maha Pratapa and in due course she bears him a baby boy, which they call Dhammapala. The queen also loves the baby. Little by little, the king gets less of the queen’s love and the baby gets more and more of her love. Eventually, the king gets none of the queen’s love and the baby gets all her love. When the king enters the queen’s bedroom, she doesn’t even notice him. She no longer pays respects to the king, and the king is jealous. One day, the king walks into the bedroom when the queen is breastfeeding the baby, and his hate explodes, “Cut the baby’s hands and legs off.” Soon after, the king puts the baby to death. Recently right here in our own city of Colombo, one family’s disturbing story came to light. A father forced two of his three daughters into having sex with him. When he tried forcing his third daughter into also having sex, she refused and fought back. The father was very angry, “I gave you life. I fed you. I raised you.” Then failing to have his way with her, he stabbed her to death.

Kàma-cchanda has a close relationship with kàma-ràga. Because you enjoy sensuality, you excite and take delight in sensuality. And when you choose to excite and delight in sensuality, the enjoyment of sensuality flows into you. Using the Pali, because of kàma-ràga, kàma-cchanda arises. And when you choose the road of kàma-cchanda, kàma-ràga arises. Your sense doors and the objects of your sense doors are not the problem. Lack of restraint is the problem.

This sure sounds similar to Christian piety. That through sheer force of will, I better practise self-denial and stop doing the things I like to do, else I’ll end up in hell.

No. Wise people aren’t denying themselves the joys of life.

THE NATURE OF RESTRAINT

Wise people make the effort to restrain kàma-cchanda. When wise people have a good meal at our meditation centre, they don’t go into the details of the meal and they don’t wish to have the same meal tomorrow, the day after, or next month. When they finish the meal, the experience of the meal ends. It’s over. Like you and I, wise people enjoy eating the meal. That’s kàma-ràga. Why wouldn’t they enjoy a good meal? It’s not that wise people don’t enjoy a good meal and foolish people do enjoy a good meal. Both groups enjoy a good meal. But kàma-cchanda doesn’t arise for wise people as a reaction to enjoying the meal. Only kàma-ràga arises. We aren’t out to destroy our kàma-ràga. We are reducing our kàma-cchanda. When kàma-cchanda is reduced, kàma-ràga is as you would expect also reduced. Kàma-cchanda needn’t arise and it doesn’t arise for wise people because they make the effort to see objects as they really are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and insubstantial. Clearly comprehending these three characteristics of all conditioned things, wise people have hardly any problems. It seems to me that, when it comes to enjoying the company of women, you’re not making much effort to restrain your kàma-cchanda, or to see the three characteristics.

Yes, I have to admit that I’m still working through a few problems with women. I guess it’s because I’m not as developed as you are. Apparently, I’m not all that wise.

Comments like that annoy me. You like to perform virtuous actions, and then you dislike reducing your kàma-cchanda. Only after the woman departs, you start thinking of reducing your kàma-cchanda towards the woman. You aren’t interested in reducing your kàma-cchanda while you’re enjoying her company.

Okay. That’s true enough! Then please tell me how am I supposed to restrain my cravings? All these pleasant feelings keep coming up.

It’s a gradual process that you have to figure out for yourself. For some people, asubha helps them to restrain their kàma-cchanda. Asubha means contemplating the unpleasant realities of the body and seeing the problems in the pleasure. Through practicing asubha as well as skeleton, people get a slight aversion towards sensual objects, and this aversion removes their minds from those objects of desire. Aversion leads the mind away from always thinking about the pleasant nature of the body. It’s a kind of suppression of desire. For others, relevant dhamma discussions help them to restrain their kàma-cchanda more than contemplation on asubha helps them. Fear of unpleasant consequences is enough to restrain excitement of sensuality for many people. And quite often, it’s common, because of physical illness or too much work at the office or excessive family concerns, a lot of people simply have no spare time to indulge in kàma-cchanda.
These meditation practices and life conditions, such as asubha and illness and work, do not overcome kàma-cchanda. They only keep it away; only temporarily turn minds away from desiring objects of pleasure.

To overcome our tendency towards the excitement of sensuality, kàma-cchanda, we need to see clearly and develop a little wisdom. We know that it’s because of our non-restraint with our sense doors that the objects connected to kàma-cchanda keep flowing into us. Thus, where kàma-cchanda is liable to enter, an understanding of the three characteristics, the tilakkhaõa, has to be recalled. At that exact moment, at that very instant in time, we need to make the effort to restrain kàma-cchanda. We avoid going into the sensual details of objects, avoid wishful thinking and avoid plans of action. That is right effort. It often takes a great deal of effort to restrain kàma-cchanda. The practice isn’t always easy. All the same, when we train properly, making the effort to restrain kàma-cchanda becomes a habit. And when kàma-cchanda is completely restrained, kàma-ràga won’t arise. Does this help you? Restraining through Samadhi and effort, together with wisdom, now that is real progress.

You’re a teacher. Yet, you never give me any specific advice. What am I supposed to do?

Not only you, have I never told anyone what to do because life is unpredictable. I can only give you a few clues, such as it’s wise to put your chanda into travelling roads to power, iddhipàda. These are four beneficial roads of experience:

1. Concentration of intention, chanda-samàdhi
2. Concentration of energy, viriya-samàdhi
3. Concentration of mind, citta-samàdhi
4. Concentration of investigation, vima§sa-samàdhi

In closing for today, I’d like to remind you that we can’t just outright reject kàma-tanhà and kàma-cchanda, craving for sensuality and the excitement of sensuality, because, as the Buddha states in the Mahàsatipaññhàna Sutta of the Dãgha Nikàya, “Wherever objects are pleasant, craving arises.” It’s natural. It’s automatic. Craving is also powerful and leads into repeated births. So, just be careful.

Why am I in this birth?

You are in a human birth because sense doors were used in beneficial ways in previous births. If you turn your sense doors towards the beneficial in this birth, you should again take a future birth in a good plane of being, for instance one of the six lower celestial worlds or again in the human world. You’ll have sense doors that are in good working order, and you’ll again be able to indulge in the pleasures of sensuality. Living a good life, performing beneficial actions here and now this is the way to a good future birth. You also have the opportunity to realize there is no person behind the eye, ear, nose… Since all your sense doors are in good working order, you could use this birth to develop the jhànas, break the concept of self, and attain path and fruit. You could use this birth for that purpose. You have the opportunity. It’s possible. You have no obstructions.

Through samatha and vipassanà-bhàvanà, you could suppress the rupa-kalàpas, the sub-atomic particles of your body, which are associated with sensuality. The rupa-kalàpas appetite for sensuality varies according to the person. One person’s rupa-kalàpas are satisfied with a small meal, and another persons rupa-kalàpas want to eat again and again. You must know the appetite of your rupa-kalàpas. Practice awareness on body touch, phoññhabba, and awareness on mental contact, phassa. See how the sabhàga turns to the visabhàga, how the suitable turns to the unsuitable. The place where there is neither phoññhabba nor phassa, you see the asubha. When you practice bhàvanà well, the structure of your body’s rupa-kalàpas transforms temporarily, hormones change, and your skin will shine. If you practice really well and attain path, the structure of your rupa-kalàpas transforms irreversible. The sotàpanna drops views, no longer sees what is non-self as self. To be completely free of your craving for sensuality, however, you have to attain to anàgàmità.

You aren’t in this birth to abuse your sense doors, such as putting your chanda into travelling harmful roads of experience, agati:

1. The road of greed, lobha
2. The road of aversion, dosa
3. The road of delusion, moha
4. The road of cowardice, bhaya

Yes, these are without a doubt very bad roads to travel! There’s some advice. And if you continue to use your sense doors in harmful ways, you might end up in a lower plane of being, in a hell or in an animal plane as a dog or a cat or a bug on a tree. A being who takes birth in a hell is really suffering the effects of harmful actions, akusala-kamma-vipàka; he or she may not even have eyes. Some dogs have wealthy owners and live a life that is more comfortable than many poor Sri Lankans can possibly imagine. Nonetheless, these dogs do not have human sense doors. In a previous human birth, they used their sense doors in harmful ways kàma-tanhà led them down the wrong road and they were born as dogs. You recently bought me a packet of razor blades. What if I used one of the blades to slit my throat? Did you give me the razor blades to help me kill myself?

No, of course not.

Sense doors are like razor blades. We don’t use them to slit our throats.

10 Mentality-Materiality - Contact - Feeling

nibbanadhatu@gmail.com (Dharmalingam) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:55:04 GMT

Friend, I assert and proclaim such a teaching that one does not quarrel with anyone in the world with its gods, its Màras, and its Brahmàs, in this generation with its recluses and brahmins, its princes and its people. – The Buddha The Honeyball Sutta

Pemasiri Thera: Now, let’s get going on contact and feeling, phassa and vedanà. These two links in the process of dependent origination must be spoken about in the same breath, as the Buddha states, “Dependent upon mentality-materiality, contact arises, nàma-råpa-paccayà phasso; and then dependent on contact, feeling arises, phassa-paccayà vedanà.” I’m including the six sense bases with mentality-materiality.

Contact, phassa, is different from touch, phoññhabba. Touch just means there is some form of link with the four primary elements. Contact, on the other hand, means a sense impression is made upon the mind. The term samphassa is used in compounds, such as cakkhu-samphassa eye-contact. Though these two terms, touch and contact, are often used as synonyms, they are two separate terms.

David: Does phoññhabba apply to the mind?

Our bodies are often touched without contact, without a sense impression made upon the mind. When the barber cuts your hair, there is no contact. When a blind woman wears a beautiful bangle, the beauty is not something she can see and know because there is no eye-contact. Does the wrist know it has a bangle on it? Does the bangle know it is on the wrist? Of course, both do not know and there is no contact, no phassa. The woman knows she is wearing the bangle on her wrist because of the material sense of touch that is present. In that case, there is both touch and contact. A person who has the power of sight can look at the bangle and tell her about it. That form of contact is also possible. Contact means that feelings arise. Your hair is touched by the barber, but feelings don’t arise; and feelings don’t arise because your hair has no pasàda-råpa. Our hair is similar to the building there is no sensitive, subtle form of the four primary elements present. As a result, feelings don’t arise. There is no contact.

Very often, I haven’t a clue as to what you’re talking about.

I know.

Which makes me wonder why you teach me things I don’t understand.

I could tell you about simple matters that you would easily understand, but I’d get bored.

Yes, probably me too!

All your material sense doors eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body have their own mode of responding to sense stimuli. When these responses also take place in your mind, there is contact. Sense doors are similar to strands in a spider’s cobweb. When one of the strands starts shaking, the spider knows it has caught an insect. And note, phassa often occurs without phoññhabba. When I consider going to the city of Kurunegala, my mind connects with ideas and images of Kurunegala. This is not phoññhabba; this is only phassa. The person called “I” makes contact.

Can the term touch apply to both my body and my eyes?

Almost always, the term phoññhabba is used when talking about the body and the term phassa is used when talking about your eyes, as well when talking about your ears, nose, and tongue. When someone bumps into you, the pasàda-råpa of your body responds and senses the bump. The pasàda-råpa of your body is sensitive, but it isn’t as sensitive as the pasàda-råpa of your other sense doors. Your body’s pasàda-råpa is relatively gross. When the gross pasàda-råpa responds to sense stimuli, the term phoññhabba is used because the gross pasàda-råpa is making a link with the four primary elements. Phassa, on the other hand, is used when the finer, more sensitive, pasàda-råpa responds to sense stimuli, and there is no direct link with the four primary elements. When you see a visible object, the more sensitive pasàda-råpa of your eyes responds and there is contact in your mind. Sight occurs. This is phassa, only phassa. Though sight of the object may cause you some grief or joy, the sight is neutral for your material eyes your eyes don’t make a link with the four primary elements. But when the bright light of the sun glares in your eyes, the relatively gross pasàda-råpa responds. Glaring sunlight is not neutral. It hurts. Your eyes physically feel the glare, which means there is a link with the gross pasàda-råpa, and phoññhabba occurs. So, in this case, we can say that the experience of touch, the term phoññhabba, applies to the eyes.

FIVE TYPES OF FEELING

In the Honey ball Sutta, the Buddha states, “Through the means of the sense door and sense object, a sense door-consciousness can arise. The coming together of sense door, sense object, and sense door-consciousness is contact, phassa. Dependent on contact, feeling arises.” There are five types of feelings:

1. Pleasant body feeling, kàyikà sukhà-vedanà
2. Painful body feeling, kàyikà dukkhà-vedanà
3. Pleasant mental feeling, cetasikà sukhà-vedanà
4. Painful mental feeling, cetasikà dukkhà-vedanà
5. Neutral feelings of equanimity, upekkhà-vedanà

There are both pleasant and painful body and mental feelings. The term body includes our five material sense doors eyes, ears, nose, tongue, as well as the body. Resting between the pleasant and the painful lies equanimity. It is neutral. Neither a pleasant nor a painful body or mental feeling, equanimity is a well-balanced mind free of clinging and aversion. The term feeling is a mental factor, not something external. You have a few mosquito bites on your arm and they are itchy. But, contrary to what many teachers state, itchiness is not a feeling. It is just changes in materiality, changes in non-mental forms called råpa. The difference between feeling and just changes in råpa is subtle, but it’s important to know the difference. Now, because the bites are itchy, you are scratching them which give rise to pleasant and painful feelings, and then there is some liking and disliking. It always feels good to scratch an itch.

When feelings are pleasant and we’re comfortable, our experience is suitable, sabhàga. When feelings are painful and we’re uncomfortable, however, our experience is unsuitable, visabhàga. You find sitting on a cushion to be suitable; while you find sitting right on the concrete floor to be unsuitable. At the beginning of each session of sitting meditation, the contact between the råpa-kalàpas of your bottom and the råpa-kalàpas of the cushion is pleasant. Like water and water, your bottom and the cushion do not clash. They are similar.

What are råpa-kalàpas?

They are unit bundles of minute particles, atomic level, which come from the four primary elements. The bundles can be animate, as in your body; or the bundles can be inanimate, as in the cushion. After sitting on the cushion for an hour, your bottom gets sore because there is a clash between your bottom and the cushion. No longer like water and water, more like oil and water, your bottom and the cushion are not similar. The four primary elements of your bottom are out of balance with the cushion. The fire element has increased; the skins temperature has gone up. The water element has also probably increased, and you’ve started to sweat. In an attempt to balance the four primary elements, your body increases the blood flow to your bottom. But when the balance of the four primary elements changes, feelings also change. Whatever comfortable state the four primary elements were in when you began your sit, that state no longer exists and painful feelings arise. You feel uncomfortable and want to adjust your sitting position. The comfortable has become the uncomfortable; sabhàga has turned to visabhàga. What had originally suited our minds no longer suits our minds. This is the nature of contact and feeling.

Do I look at my craving?

The balance of the four primary elements changes. This realization is enough for your vipassanà practice. People who are bedridden get bedsores because they remain in the same position for weeks. They never roll over or make any adjustments to the position of their bodies. For them, only painful feelings are present. This does not happen to us because just as soon as pleasant feelings fade and painful feelings start arising, we change our position. If we try to experience too much pleasant contact, the contact becomes painful. When you look at a beautiful woman, pleasant feelings arise in your mind. If you stare at the same woman for an hour, your feelings change from the pleasant to the painful. But before that happens, you think, “I’ve looked at her long enough.” We cannot experience the same object for a long time. At some point, the original pleasantness we experience with the object changes to unpleasantness.
The mind must alternate between the pleasant and the painful, sukha and dukkha. A person can only rationally exist in this sense-sphere plane, in this world where we live, when the contact with objects keeps changing from the pleasant to the painful. Even meditators who are practicing properly alternate between the pleasant and the painful. If people remain in one state, without switching back and forth, they become mentally ill. You must have seen mentally ill men living on the streets of Colombo, men who never bathe, are very dirty, and are always in some sort of pain. For them, it is quite all right and normal to live in painful conditions. At the opposite extreme, if people constantly experience the pleasant beautiful house, food, clothes, etc.possibly the condition for Princess Diana, they too become mentally ill.

PURE ENJOYMENT

Only pleasant and painful feelings drive people towards extreme behavior and mental illness; whereas neutral feelings of equanimity, upekkhà-vedanà, never unbalance people.

Thieves steal cars with craving, taõhà, and experience a form of happiness or a certain amount of joy from stealing cars. Otherwise, they wouldn’t steal cars! While racing away, a thief’s contact with the stolen car is pleasant; he feels happy because he’s got the car. There’s pleasant contact with the object. Pleasant feeling. But when the thief realizes that the owners of the car are chasing him and he is just about to get caught, his contact with the car changes from the pleasant to the painful. The thief knows the owners of the car are mad at him for stealing it and he knows that they want to beat him up. So, not surprisingly, the thief’s contact with the object, the car, is getting quite painful. He starts to regret his actions when the owners of the car finally catch up to him. Joy has changed to pain. The irate owners then hand the thief over to the police and the police take him to court where the judge sentences him to a jail term. Later, while languishing in jail, the thief is indifferent towards the car. The situation is out of his control.

I used to be a heavy drinker.

Well, over a night of heavy drinking, getting really drunk, you experienced both pleasant and painful contact with alcohol. By morning, you found yourself in a neutral state of indifference towards alcohol, possibly with a hangover and you had no reason to continue drinking. These days, you are meditating instead of drinking. If you ever settle your mind down into the state of Samadhi, you will see that feeling is coreless.

By coreless, do you mean anattà?

Coreless is fine. Since the same pleasant feeling that you’re clinging to will eventually turn into a painful feeling, we say that feeling is coreless and without foundation. When you are settled in Samadhi, you will clearly see that feeling has this characteristic of anicca and as a result you won’t cling to pleasant feelings. I’m not talking about anattà. When there is sati, mentality and materiality are differentiated and everything is seen as a continuous flow of dependent origination, an unbroken chain of causes and effects.

And when I can manage some sati, I’ll be in peace then?

Equanimity may arise out of ignorance, delusion, or wisdom. When I ask you a question about a subject that you know very little, for instance, the nature of jhàna consciousness, you are simply incapable of answering me. As a result of ignorance, your mind leans towards equanimity. You simply have no other choice than indifference. Equanimity can also arise when a person realizes they are terminally ill, as he or she gives up hope. Equanimity also arises when certain drugs are taken. And it arises when a meditator suppresses his or her defilements through the practice of samatha. Even this type of result, this equanimity that arises out of a meditator’s samatha practice, arises out of the meditator’s ignorance and delusion. In contrast, equanimity arises for a wise person because he or she realizes that the same conditions in life leading to the arising of pleasure, the assàda, also lead to the arising of pain. Pain is the drawback, the àdãnava, the dangers, of pleasurable conditions. Understanding that pain is connected with pleasure, a wise person moves towards equanimity regarding all objects. An arahat fully realizes the true nature of life’s assàdas and its àdãnavas, and abides in equanimity. You can read about the pleasures, pains, and dangers of feeling in the The Seven Cases Sutta and also in the If There Were No Sutta.

_Okay, you’re saying that if I’m ever to find peace of mind, I have to get it through my head that there is always pain and danger connected to sense pleasure. _

The bodhisatta Siddhàrtha Gautama fully understood the nature of enjoyment, and understood how enjoyment is tied to misery and danger. Studying with âlàra Kàlàma, he attained to the sphere of nothingness, an extremely refined and peaceful object for his mind. With no applied thoughts or even anything to think about, the sphere of nothingness is such a high attainment that âlàra Kàlàma thought it to be the highest possible attainment. âlàra Kàlàma measured it to be a state of pure enjoyment with no misery or drawbacks. Siddhartha, however, saw misery and drawbacks in the sphere of nothingness it too is conditioned, which means it is subject to decay and death, and therefore suffering. Siddhartha continued his search.

NO CONCERNS

As I said right at the beginning of this section, contact and feeling phassa and vedanà must be discussed together. They cannot be separated, which is why the Buddha said, “Dependent on contact, feeling arises.” To develop our minds, to attain liberation, we must understand the nature of vedanà. When we live out our lives in the kàma-loka, this sense-sphere plane, we have to look at the nature of vedanà in the kàma-loka. We must look at events happening around us, which means looking at kàma, looking at sensuality.

A meditator who suppresses cravings for sensuality leaves the kàma-loka behind and enters into the råpa-loka, the fine-material realm. He or she attains the first jhàna. When the meditator has full control of the first jhàna and enters it at will, it is called first jhàna-samàpatti. The mind of the meditator is fully settled down in the state of samàdhi, in jhàna. He or she doesn’t think about the sensual world, no sensual concerns whatsoever; this consciousness is not of an ordinary nature. The meditator only thinks about the fine-material world, a world completely apart from sensuality and apart from the harming of beings that arises on account of chasing sensual pleasures. In the jhàna, the meditator only makes contact with extremely refined forms of derived materiality, refined forms called upàdàya-råpa, which is a more pleasant form of contact than the contact found in the kàma-loka. A good meditator directs mind towards the refined upàdàya-råpa and avoids directing mind towards the gross forms of derived materiality of the four primary elements. In due course, the meditator perceives lightness in the body, softness, also perceives changes in the body and the arising of sensations. Since the meditator avoids making any direct link with the four primary elements, he or she only experiences mental contact and doesn’t experience any touch. Are you following? There is phassa for the meditator, but no phoññhabba. It’s only mind that perceives the changes in the body, that’s at the upàdàya-råpa level.

A good meditator can choose to look at the arising of materiality produced by kamma or to look at the arising of materiality produced by mind. A man or woman who has full attainment has trained the mind in the sign of the jhàna the nimitta. A nimitta is a totality sign that appears internally, in the mind. It is upàdàya-råpa. While in jhàna, the meditator chooses contact with the nimitta and avoids contact with the gross materiality of the four primary elements.

_I don’t suppose the meditator is making any mental contact with that materiality of his bottom that hurts from sitting for hours on a cushion! Can the meditator contact subtle materiality, the pasàda-råpa, while in our sense-sphere plane? _

No. This is only at the time of being in jhàna. Depending on the situation, the meditator can choose to have phassa with the extremely refined upàdàya-råpa. He or she directs the mind towards pleasant objects of contact and avoids directing the mind towards any painful objects of contact. The meditator has no phassa with the four primary elements, whether they be gross or the subtle pasàda-råpa. Selecting only pleasant phassa, no painful feelings arise, attaining both mental and material serenity. The fine-material realm of the jhàna is totally removed from the sensuality of the sense-sphere realm. It is incompatible with sensual ways. When the meditator experiences the fine-material realm, he or she is fully immersed in the fine-material realm. Once the meditator is removed from jhàna, is experiencing the sense-sphere realm, he or she is fully immersed in that plane of the sense-sphere realm. It is back to sensuality again.

_Do we always have phassa? _

Worldly, lokiya, means that there is phassa, contact. All mental phenomena, except magga-phala of the lokuttara, have phassa. In the lokuttara, there is only vedanà and no phassa.

CONFLICTS AT HOME

You once had a glimpse of jhàna, just a quick look. While living here at our meditation centre, you engaged in relatively intensive periods of walking and sitting, and gained a degree of serenity, maybe some insight. You never truly experienced jhàna and you definitely never became proficient at entering jhàna. You only experienced a pleasant feeling that you created in your mind.

It’s peaceful at the centre. Yet I still get into conflicts at home.

You are not alone. Many people, even those who consider themselves good meditators, have conflicts at home. Conflicts come out of views. If the experiences at the meditation centre are pleasant, meditators often want the same pleasant experiences at home. This is not possible. For example, at the same time a man wants to do sitting meditation and wants silence in his home, his wife chats with her friends or his son watches TV. The man is disturbed and scolds them, “Be quiet!” or “Why don’t you meditate?” or “You must meditate.” or “You shouldn’t watch TV it’s no good for you.”

“Daddy,” says his son, “you’re going crazy. I think meditation is bad for you.” Wife and son do not understand why the man wants to meditate and are concerned about him.

A meditation centre is geared to walking slowly, sitting for hours, and silence. No one takes any special notice of these practices. It is, however, impossible to engage in these types of practices outside a meditation centre and attempting to do so only leads to conflicts. Conflicts arise when meditators just get a glimpse of what lies beyond the sense-sphere realm and do not fully penetrate the jhànas. Measuring and finding faults in others is a huge impediment to progress. Some bhikkhus measure other bhikkhus, “When I go on alms round, you should go on alms round.” and “Since I sit in meditation for four hours, you too should sit and meditate for four hours.” Hopeless, how can anyone approve of such behavior? They haven’t found any serenity even after seeing objects for what they really are. And you? Because you attained some concentration in your practice here at our centre, you expect your fellow meditators to also attain the same concentration. Much of your fellow meditators behaviour irritates you, including their unsolicited and unwanted advice, which means you have yet to understand the nature of being human. You don’t know your own mind and don’t know how to live in this sense-sphere plane.

But when I look around this meditation centre, I don’t see anyone applying your teachings.

A person’s character is subtle. By observing external signs, by looking at people, you can’t measure a person’s mental state; you can’t tell their spiritual attainment. Some meditators look very restrained. They are silent, always directing their gaze towards the ground, never looking around, and are always walking carefully. They may eat and breathe slowly. These signs are meaningless. Another meditator may eat fast and may even talk a lot, but is more advanced in terms of suppressing hindrances and overcoming defilements. Try to have some compassion for your fellow residents, as many of them are in the middle years of their lives and things are complicated with family responsibilities there are husbands, wives, children, jobs, financial concerns, and so on and so forth. In spite of that, these lay people who left their work at home for a month or two and are dedicating themselves to the practice at our meditation centre can go quickly on this path. And when they return home, if there is understanding between family members, then things will continue to progress smoothly and quickly. The father may meditate and the others co-operate by not making noise. Similarly, when the mother takes her turn to meditate, she gets the same support, and then the practice is balanced. Read the Nakulapità Sutta in the Saüyutta Nikàya.

Some people, because of their experiences in meditation, do not lead a balanced life in the society. And of course, because of their unbalanced nature, others are discouraged from meditating. We must not confuse the society with the things we do at a meditation centre. When I first started meditating at Kanduboda, my parents advised me, “Do not tell stories about meditation to anyone.” So, when I was at home, I did what the other teenagers were doing, like flying kites and biking.

Are teenagers good meditators?

Teenagers do very well at meditation centres. And their parents aren’t anxious because they know their children are in a safe place. When I was a teenager, my parents gave me permission to meditate on one condition, “Don’t behave in a way that brings shame to our family.” By bringing any shame, they meant stealing, or lying, or being deceitful. I knew if I protected myself from those things then I was on the right track and could do anything else! I was free and it was easy for me to meditate. The practice can go very well for young people.

SENSUALITY AND PASSION

Kàma is different from ràga. The term kàma means sensuality. It means that, through our sense doors, we take in sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and body touch. Ràga on the other hand translates as passion, or is sometimes translated as simply appreciation and enjoyment. The two terms are often connected, as in kàma-ràga, but kàma only applies to the sense doors. We don’t use the term kàma when talking about the råpa-jjhànas and the aråpa-jjhànas. There are three types of ràga:

1. Sensual passion, kàma-ràga
2. Fine-material passion, råpa-ràga
3. Immaterial passion, aråpa-ràga

Sensual passion, kàma-ràga, also known as enjoyment of sensuality, is what we experience when we have pleasing contact with objects of our sense-sphere plane. A familiar occurrence, enjoying sensuality is normal, nothing extraordinary. We all have our personal preferences some things we like and some things we don’t. When I take overseas guests on a car trip to Kandy, I do my best to be a good host. I start by making sure they have comfortable seats because, like you and I, they prefer comfortable seats to uncomfortable ones. They appreciate that form of body touch. This is the enjoyment of sensuality, kàma-ràga. During the trip, I point out waterfalls, panoramic views, birds, and elephants. My guests always tell me the sights are beautiful and the wildlife is fascinating. They are expressing their appreciation, ràga. At a rest house, we drink tea, eat cake, and smell the fresh mountain air. Again, my guests express their appreciation and enjoyment. In Kandy, we take pleasure in hearing a bhikkhu recite a gàthà. Comfortable seats, beautiful sights, tasty tea and cake, the smell of fresh air, and the sounds of a gàthà enjoyment of sensuality was taken by my guests through all of their sense doors. Of course, enjoyment arose for them. Why wouldn’t they like pleasing objects of contact? It’s completely natural for everyone to enjoy sensual pleasure. Kàma-ràga. It arises in everyone.

Does an arahat experience ràga?

We can’t use the term ràga in reference to arahats, or anàgàmãs. Adherence to or an acceptance of social conventions is closer to their experience with sense objects. He or she accepts that sitting in a comfortable chair is pleasant. They may accept that abiding in the råpa-jjhànas and the aråpa-jjhànas is pleasant. The Buddha accepted pleasant surroundings. On two occasions, the Buddha’s body was radiant upon enlightenment and upon final passing away. Though an acceptance of sensual pleasure still arises for arahats, sensual pleasure doesn’t disturb their equanimity, as it does for those of lesser levels of knowledge.

Parents often bring their children to our meditation centre. Five to ten-year-old boys and girls casually sit on the floor and even sit on me. I talk with them, give them sweets, pat their backs, sometimes hold their hands as we walk around the centre, and if they are small enough I carry them over rough ground. I enjoy the company of young boys and girls. I also enjoy the company of teenage boys and girls, and what I feel towards the teenagers is the same as what I feel towards the five to ten-year-olds appreciation and enjoyment. It’s my kàma-ràga.

“You should not be teaching teenage girls,” said one man. “It’s okay to teach the five to ten-year-olds and the adults, but it is wrong to teach teenage girls.” There is nothing wrong in teaching teenage girls the dhamma nothing whatsoever.

A few people might take what you’re saying in the wrong way.

TWO DIFFERENT CONDITIONS

Whatever we have developed for ourselves is ours and ours alone. It is internal. While living in a meditation centre, we conduct ourselves in ways that are suitable for a meditation centre. While living a worldly working life, we conduct ourselves in ways that are suitable for the normal way of being in the worldly working life.

What’s suitable?

Being suitable means involving ourselves in wholesome and beneficial activities that are common to everyone. We are born in this sense-sphere plane; we have to live in this sense-sphere plane. This does not mean living at a low level in the sense-sphere plane full of envy, jealousy, and lust. No. We practise kindness, compassion, and generosity. We meditate to develop wisdom and live in harmony with people. Avoid conflicts. And to avoid conflicts, we interact with others in ways that others understand, not in ways that only we understand. When in a worldly situation, we speak and act in worldly ways. We don’t impose our views about the nature of contact and feeling upon people who aren’t considering contact and feeling. No. And a meditator who has attained jhàna isn’t talking about the nature of jhàna consciousness with people who have no interest in jhàna. Contact and feeling in jhàna is one thing; contact and feeling in the kàma-loka is something else.

What are my chances of attaining jhana?

If you understand the beneficial and the harmful of the kàma-loka, you can easily attain the solitude and peace of the jhàna. And then when back in the kàma-loka, you would have some objectivity on the nature of the kàma-loka. Far better than the person who had never attained jhàna, entered the råpa-loka, you would have the opportunity to clearly see the kàma-loka’s pleasures and pains, its assàdas and its àdãnavas, as the jhàna is a complete contrast to our disturbing kàma-loka. Some strong meditators know what I am talking about and thus know how to live in harmony with others.

If the Buddha gave us one thousand units of teachings on the nature of contact and feelingÞone thousand being an arbitrary number a sotàpanna might understand one hundred of the one thousand units, and the average person probably only understands twenty-five of the one thousand. The average person doesn’t know the difference between the beneficial and the harmful; he or she won’t be attaining jhàna. A sotàpanna always interacts with the average person at a level that is equal to or below the average person’s level of understanding, maybe interacting at a level of twenty-three or twenty-four units. If a sotàpanna interacted with the average person at a level greater than the average person’s level of understanding, say helped at a level of twenty-six, the average person would be confused and would definitely misunderstand. He simply wouldn’t be able to relate. Even though twenty-six units is just a bit beyond the average persons twenty-five units of understanding, the average person would consider the sotàpanna to be acting with greed, acting out of anger, or acting in a way that is a sign of mental illness. So, conflicts would occur between the sotàpanna and the average person. Yes, interactions between people are always problematic. If I can help someone, I help them as much as I can. But very often my help has resulted in a great deal of confusion and serious conflicts; they thought I expected something or I was leading them somewhere.

_At home, I want the same serenity I have here at the centre. _

You can’t have the same serenity at your home, as contact and feeling depend upon the conditions in which they arise. The conditions in which you live must be considered. When you go to a meditation centre and practice relatively intensively for fifteen days to a month, conditions are meditative, a little less worldly than at home. Thus, dependent upon the less worldly meditative contacts, meditative feelings arise. And when there are meditative contacts and feelings, meditative råpa-kalàpas come to be. Your mentality and materiality, your mind and body, are affected by existing conditions. Your mental formations at a meditation centre are of a slightly less worldly nature than your mental formations at home.

When you leave the meditation centre and return home, conditions are completely worldly and you encounter sensual objects, which means sensual forms of contact and feelings arise. For this reason, dependent upon worldly contacts and feelings, worldly råpa-kalàpas arise in your mind and body. It always takes some time for the råpa-kalàpas of your mind and body to transform from their calm meditative state to their, relatively speaking, disturbed worldly state. Until that transformation takes place, you simply have to wait. It can take a number of days before you can easily form words, have normal thoughts, and are completely readjusted to the worldly life. Possibly, it’s in this readjustment period between meditative and worldly conditions, you find yourself getting into conflicts by imposing views, measuring and giving marks, and criticizing. You might think, “I’m very restrained and serene, but others aren’t at all restrained or serene.”

Be aware that the conditions in a meditation centre and the conditions at home are both worldly. The meditation centre is only slightly less worldly than the home life. Kàma-loka, råpa-loka, and aråpa-loka are all worldly, lokiya. For conditions to be anything other than worldly, a meditator must attain the path and fruit of the supramundane, the lokuttara. Must attain to sotàpatti.

People who are always in meditative conditions such as a meditation centre experience meditative types of contacts and feelings each and every day of their lives. Because they are not switching back and forth between the two different conditions meditative and worldly transformation of the råpa-kalàpas never occurs and there are no conflicts between the two different conditions. Of course, even these sincere meditators might occasionally be in a five-star hotel, attending a wedding for a relative. The Buddha attended weddings. As long as these meditators don’t fully immerse themselves in the ways of the world, they can help people who are fully immersed in the world.

Are these people sotàpannas?

No. Not necessarily, as it’s feasible they were bodhisattas in one of their previous births and instead of attaining magga-phala, they help others, once in a while.

Why help others only once in a while?

Only once in a while, a person comes along and asks the right questions.

9 Mentality-Materiality - Sense Bases

nibbanadhatu@gmail.com (Dharmalingam) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:51:36 GMT

I do not know anyone in this world, friend, with its devas, Màra, and Brahmà, in this generation with its ascetics and Brahmins, its devas and humans, who could drive me insane or split my heart or grab me by the feet and hurl me across the Ganges. But ask whatever you want, friend. – The Buddha replies to the yakka Såciloma Såciloma Sutta

PEMASIRI THERA: As I said earlier, various forms of secondary materiality, upàdà-råpa in Pali, are derived from the materiality of the four primary elements, cattàro-mahà-båtàni:

1. Earth element, pañhavã-dhàtu
2. Water element, àpo-dhàtu
3. Fire element, tejo-dhàtu
4. Air element, vàyo-dhàtu

Upàdà-råpa is not original materiality. It is secondary; it is derived from the elements. The four primary elements are already present, and from them similar things are produced; similar in that they are built up from these exact same four elements. It’s all the same råpa; it is all the same four building blocks of earth, fire, water, and air. Secondary materiality is not anything apart from these same four basic blocks. By kamma and by mind, twenty-something different forms of secondary materiality are produced. Bear with me. The four primary elements are already present, and what is produced by kamma and by mind is of the same composition. The four primary elements are only being put together in altered formations, which is the heart of the proposition, “Dependent on consciousness, mentality-materiality arises; vi¤¤àõa-paccayà nàma-råpa§.” All of our physical sense doors eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body are simply secondary forms of materiality. We’re concerned with the workings of kamma and citta, that’s the mind. Is this clear enough for you? Are you following?
David: So far, so good.

SIX SENSE DOORS

Through our six sense doors, we experience six types of objects:

• Eyes and sights
• Ears and sounds
• Nose and aromas
• Tongue and tastes
• Body and tangibles
• Mind and ideas

These six sense doors enable us to see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and experience all sorts of different states of consciousness, vi¤¤àõa.

Good. Finally a topic that should be easy to grasp! I’m pretty familiar with my eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body.

You’re on the right track. Both this brick meditation hall where we are now sitting and our sense doors are forms of derived materiality; they are both produced from the four primary elements earth, fire, water, and air. But inanimate objects such as this hall as well as our lifeless nails, hair, and dry skin have only gross forms of materiality, and they do not have any subtle forms of materiality, called pasàda-råpa in Pali, nor do they have any of the life essence forms of materiality, råpa-jãvitindriya. The materiality of this hall and our hair are not in this subtle and extremely sensitive state called pasàda. Pasàda-råpa, the subtle materiality, is the most sensitive part of your sense doors and it helps you contact sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangibles. Pasàda-råpa is the subtlest form of the four primary elements. If your eye were the size of this hall, your eye’s pasàda-råpa would be one ray of sunshine reflecting off a spot on the floor. Pasàda-råpa would be just one grain of sand out of this whole big hall.

Each of our sense doors has its own subtle materiality:

• Eye subtle materiality, cakkhu-pasàda råpa
• Ear subtle materiality, sota-pasàda råpa
• Nose subtle materiality, ghàna-pasàda råpa
• Tongue subtle materiality, jivhà-pasàda råpa
• Body subtle materiality, kàya-pasàda råpa
• Heart and growth materiality, hadaya-vatthu and upacaya-råpa

Gross, subtle, and life essence these three forms of materiality, three forms of råpa, support our experiencing of sense objects. These three are vital. It’s easy to accept that the gross materiality of our eyes exists and that our eyes are necessary for the seeing of objects. Obviously, an eye-consciousness cannot take place at our eyes if we don’t have eyes. Then again, it isn’t so easy to accept that the subtle materiality and life essence materiality are also necessary for the experiencing of sense objects, such as the seeing of things. If this subtle materiality, the pasàda-råpa, of a sense door is absent or damaged, it is impossible for that sense door to make contact with its sense object.

Can I prove that subtle materiality really exists?

Yesterday, a wandering bhikkhu dropped in for a visit. He is completely blind. There is absolutely no eye-consciousness arising. Yet, when you look at him, his eyes appear to be in quite good health. All right, I said that an eye has at least these three forms of materiality gross, subtle, and life essence. Since this bhikkhu’s eyes physically exist and they are alive, we accept that his eyes have the gross and the life essence forms of materiality. Then why can’t he see? Definitely something is wrong with his eyes something must be missing or damaged. So what’s missing? Well, maybe this subtle form of materiality called pasàda-råpa is the missing element. I told you four soldiers were here at our centre a few days ago. Do you remember me telling you about them?

_Yes. All four soldiers were blind and two of them were also missing a leg or an arm. _

The eyes of those four soldiers also appeared to be in quite good health. But just as the subtle materiality, the pasàda-råpa, of our wandering bhikkhu’s eyes is damaged, the subtle materiality of those soldiers eyes is damaged, and there is no possibility for eye-consciousness to arise.

I often feel my life would be easier if I were blind like those soldiers. All my senses seem to be such a nuisance, like when I’m riding on a crowded Colombo bus. People are rude; they’re always bumping into me.

Because your body has these extremely sensitive forms of the four primary elements called pasàda-råpa, your body has the characteristic of sensing and you feel people bump into you. After a bump, you create a scenario, “He bumped into me because he is rude.” or “She bumped into me out of desire.” The mental states of ill will and greed come up because you cultivate ill will and greed. There is nothing else happening. If someone bumps your body where there is no pasàda-råpa, no subtle materiality, you don’t think there is a problem.
The subtle materiality in your body, eyes, ears, nose, and tongue makes it possible to feel bumps, see me, and hear this dhamma talk, smell the flowers, and enjoy a tastey cup of tea. Likewise, there is materiality in your heart that makes it possible for your heart to beat. The form of materiality in your heart is not pasàda-råpa; it is upacaya-råpa. Upacaya-råpa is similar to the pasàda-råpa in your eyes, ears, and nose, tongue, and body in that it is the initial, gathering materiality. Can you follow what I am saying? We’re getting a little technical. Upacaya-råpa is the first arising of materiality, the frontline growth materiality. Apparently, it’s this form of materiality that creates and controls the beating of the heart that’s what it does. Just as a bump stimulates the subtle materiality in your body and you feel a bump, energy loaded blood stimulates the growth materiality in your heart and your heart beats. The blood supplies the energy to the heart, and the heart circulates the blood throughout the body to pick up the energy. Blood is pumped through the lungs and other organs. The blood and the heart work together.

Eyes, ears, nose, and tongue understanding the nature of these sense doors is fairly straightforward. However, understanding the nature of the body, kàya, and the heart, hadaya-vatthu, is anything but straightforward, as mind comes into play; we always need both nàma and råpa there. Take into account, whenever one of your sense doors experiences its sense object, a consciousness arises both at that sense door and at the heart. Both locations. If we accept that mind is actually in the heart, then this growth materiality, the upacaya-råpa, must be in and around the heart. So, when energy loaded blood flows into the heart, the hearts growth materiality is stimulated, the heart beats and moments of consciousness, vi¤¤àõa, are produced. If the heart doesn’t beat, no energy loaded blood flows into the heart, the hearts growth materiality isn’t stimulated, and no moments of consciousness are produced.

Suffice it to say, the body and the heart are complex sense doors. No, they’re not easy to come to terms with. We’ll learn a little at a time, in as practical way as possible.

Practical?

It’s enough to bear in mind that our bodies have gross, subtle, and life essence forms of materiality, and to also bear in mind that our bodies are extremely delicate, vulnerable to decay and destruction. For example, surgeons who perform skin graft operations do their best to preserve the skin’s subtle as well as its life essence materiality. These two forms of materiality subtle and life essence must survive the operation as they are crucial to the skin’s experiencing of touch. Though most surgeons know nothing of subtle and life essence materiality, for any operation on the human body to be a success, the operating surgeon must somehow care for the health of these two forms of materiality, whether he or she is operating on skin, eyes, hearts, or whatever part of the body. In theory, even tongues and ears can be transplanted, as tongues and ears are nothing more than the four primary elements. Pasàda-råpa and life essence materiality are not forms of mentality, not mind things. Since all our sense organs are purely råpa, purely materiality, it follows then that any one of them could be transplanted or produced artificially.
Years ago when I was in Australia, I had a conversation with a man who had suffered a heart attack and had been clinically dead for a brief period of time. He was taken by ambulance to the local hospital where he was fortunate enough to receive a heart transplant. He made a full recovery. Upon returning home, the man called his family together, “Being close to death changed my life. Someone, a person I don’t know, gave me his heart. I can’t even thank him. What should we do?” As a family, the man, his wife, and his children immediately agreed that they too should make their organs available for donation. Soon after that decision was made, just one short month, the man’s son was killed in a car accident. Yes, the man was sad that his son had died. That was a great loss for him. But since the son had agreed to donate his organs, surgeons transplanted the son’s organs into the bodies of eight different people. Organs from the man’s son improved the lives of eight people. Said the Australian man, the father, “I now have eight new children!”

That’s an inspiring story. I always carry my organ donor card you never know.

Yes, it’s difficult to predict our exact moment of death. Funny, as a child, I read commentaries on life at the time of the Buddha as science fiction because many of these ancient commentaries seemed far too remarkable to be true. There are accounts of surgeons transplanting organs as well as repairing eyes, transferring blood from one person to another person, and operating on brains. Dr. Jãvaka, for instance, reportedly performed many of these types of operations. Since it all sounded exaggerated, I always read these ancient commentaries as fairytales, that is right up until I heard that our present-day surgeons were also performing organ transplants. The Buddha lived at a time when society was in an advanced stage of development. And whenever society as a whole is in an advanced stage, the arts and sciences, which include medicine, are also in an advanced stage. I now have much more confidence in the ancient commentaries.
SIX SENSE BASES
We’re now going to talk about saëàyatana. Saëà means six, and àyatana means the base of mental contact with sense objects. Thus, saëàyatana is generally translated as the six sense bases of mental contact, or simply the six sense bases:

• Eye sense base, cakkhàyatana
• Ear sense base, sotàyatana
• Nose sense base, ghànàyatana
• Tongue sense base, jivhàyatana
• Body sense base, kàyàyatana
• Mind sense base, manàyatana

There are many ways to teach the six sense bases, from briefly to detailed to the deeply profound. One teacher will tell you the sense bases are identical to the sense doors, that your eyes, ears, nose, and tongue are the sense bases. A brief teaching. A second teacher will tell you that there are six pairs of internal and external sense bases. Your physical eyes would be an internal base and the objects you see would be your eyes matching external base. A third teacher will tell you the sense bases are the subtle materiality, the pasàda-råpa, part of each sense door he or she will say that is real sense base. There are many, many ways of teaching the sense bases. Sense bases are taught in scores of suttas and in the Abhidhamma. A fourth teacher will tell you the nature of sense bases must be penetrated on your own by descending into a deep Samadhi; otherwise, their nature remains nothing more than book knowledge.

Even though these various ways of teaching appear incomplete and contradictory, all these different ways may be correct. All these teachers could be right in what they have to say about the sense bases it depends upon the needs of the student.

How can teachings be at odds with each other?

A teacher’s way of teaching depends upon the temperament of his or her student. For instance, in the Buddha’s teaching to ânanda on the process of dependent origination found in the Mahànidàna Sutta, the Buddha goes from the link of mentality-materiality directly to the link of contact, and he doesn’t even mention the six sense bases:

1. Dependent on ignorance, formations arise; avijjà-paccayà saïkhàrà
2. Dependent on formations, consciousness arises; saïkhàra-paccayà vi¤¤àõa§
3. Dependent on consciousness, mentality-materiality arises; vi¤¤àõa-paccayà nàma-råpa§
4. Dependent on mentality-materiality, contact arises; nàma-råpa§-paccayà phasso
5. Dependent on contact, feeling arises; phassa-paccayà vedanà
6. Dependent on feeling, craving arises; vedanà-paccayà taõhà
7. Dependent on craving, clinging arises; taõhà-paccayà upàdàna§
8. Dependent on clinging, becoming arises; upàdàna-paccayà bhavo
9. Dependent on becoming, birth arises; bhava-paccayà jàti
10. Dependent on birth, decay and aging and death arise; jàti-paccayà jarà-maraõa§

Why are you teaching me about sense bases if the Buddha didn’t see the need to teach the sense bases? Maybe we could skip them?

The Mahànidàna Sutta is not the only sutta dealing with the process of dependent origination. And since many of these other suttas do treat the six sense bases as a separate link, we too should best treat the six sense bases as a separate link. Let’s look at how the Buddha presents dependent origination in the Nidàna Saüyutta:

1. Dependent on ignorance, formations arise; avijjà-paccayà saïkhàrà
2. Dependent on formations, consciousness arises; saïkhàra-paccayà vi¤¤àõa§
3. Dependent on consciousness, mentality-materiality arises; vi¤¤àõa-paccayà nàma-råpa§
4. Dependent on mentality-materiality, the six sense bases arise; nàma-råpa-paccayà saëàyatana§
5. Dependent on the six sense bases, contact arises; saëàyatana-paccayà phasso
6. Dependent on contact, feeling arises; phassa-paccayà vedanà
7. Dependent on feeling, craving arises; vedanà-paccayà taõhà
8. Dependent on craving, clinging arises; taõhà-paccayà upàdàna§
9. Dependent on clinging, becoming arises; upàdàna-paccayà bhavo
10. Dependent on becoming, birth arises; bhava-paccayà jàti
11. Dependent on birth, decay and aging and death arise; jàti-paccayà jarà-maraõa§

In this sutta, a teaching given to bhikkhus at Sàvatthi, the Buddha feels the need to mention the six sense bases. He states that mentality-materiality is the necessary condition for the six sense bases, and then states that the six sense bases are the necessary condition for contact.

Did the Buddha somehow forget the six sense bases in the Mahànidàna Sutta? Did he make a mistake?

No, the Buddha didn’t forget them or make a mistake! The needs of ânanda as a student were different from the needs of those bhikkhus at Sàvatthi. The Buddha doesn’t have to treat the six sense bases as a separate link in the Mahànidàna Sutta because ânanda understood that the sense bases are included with mentality-materiality. The Buddha can omit the six sense bases simply because he already covered the sense bases when he talked about mentality-materiality. Don’t think the six sense bases are something totally separate or different from mentality-materiality, nàma-råpa. They aren’t separate. Saëàyatana§ is part and parcel of the same nàma-råpa. I mentioned this point earlier in our talk on the relationship between consciousness and mentality-materiality, that everything can be seen as mentality-materiality. Everything. Thus, and leaving aside nibbàna, if we accept that everything is within the scope of mentality-materiality, then the sense bases must be within the scope of mentality-materiality. If the appropriate mentality-materiality is present, a kamma based sense base of mental contact will definitely arise.

Are you talking about my eyes and ears when you say sense bases? Are the sense bases the same as the sense doors?

No. Your eyes are not a sense base, as a sense base is more than the materiality of sense doors.

My eyes and ears and the rest of my senses must be somehow related to my sense bases. Right?

Yes, there’s a close union between sense doors and sense bases. For you to experience objects, for you to see or hear or taste, the gross materiality of your eyes and ears and tongue must be present and undamaged. If the sense door is not there, the mind cannot arise at that place. We all know that we need eyes to see, and ears to hear. However, sense bases are also in close union with mentality. Sense bases have two sides mentality side in addition to the materiality side. Since your sense doors eyes, ears, nose, est. are built up from the four primary elements, and they are the materiality side to your sense bases.

Alright, the gross materiality of my sense doors is only half the story.

Correct. And don’t forget about the subtle and life essence forms of materiality of your sense doors. Furthermore, though the gross, subtle, and life essence forms of materiality of the sense doors are needed to experience objects, the materiality of the sense doors is not what is meant by the term sense base, àyatana, as sense bases have that mentality side too. So, from the mentality side, there is consciousness.

One side of a sense base is materiality and the other side is consciousness?

No, we can’t quite say that either, as the mentality side to the sense bases is not only consciousness. Yet, when we talk about mentality, we also have to bring in the concept of consciousness. And when we talk about consciousness, we have to bring in mentality as well as materiality. Consciousness is not something that operates in isolation. It doesn’t have its own active and inherent characteristics. It only knows what has arisen. Feelings, perceptions, mentality and materiality, mental formations many different phenomena unite and are known by a moment of consciousness. This topic of sense bases is not easily approached intellectually because there’s a complexity, an inter-relatedness with the other links in the process of dependent origination: consciousness conditions mentality-materiality; consciousness also depends upon mentality-materiality; mentality-materiality is the condition for the arising of the six sense bases; and the six sense bases condition mental contact. Yes, mentality-materiality, nàma-råpa, and consciousness, vi¤¤àõa, must always be talked about together because mentality-materiality and consciousness arise together.

Whew!

Sense bases are in union with mentality, which means sense bases are in union with consciousness; a sense base is where consciousness is generated. If we can penetrate the nature of consciousness, we can penetrate the nature of the sense bases. As the Buddha states in the Honeyball Sutta, “When the sense door, the object of the sense door, and the sense door consciousness come together, there is mental contact.” Your eye sense base, the cakkhàyatana, is not your material eye, is not the pasàda-råpa that is present in your eye, and is not the object that you see. Your physical eyeball is no more than the material place where your eye-consciousness arises.

A sense base, àyatana, requires the sense door, requires a sense doors matching sense object, and requires the sense door consciousness. Consciousness. The consciousness of the sense door must arise. To taste curry, for the sense base of taste to arise, we need our tongue, some curry, and the tongue consciousness. Clearly, the arising of the tongue sense base requires the surface of the tongue where the consciousness of taste can be generated. We have feelings, perceptions, and mental formations about the delicious curry. These various causes and conditions arise and then die. Not just one cause. Many causes come together. Only when there is the sense door, the matching object of the sense door, and the sense door consciousness can there be mental contact. When all of these come together, we find the curry to be delightfully sour! The consciousness must arise. The eyes of the blind bhikkhu and those blind soldiers appear to be okay. Their eyes look as if they are fine. But the place within their eyes where eye-consciousness arises is dead, and that’s really the àyatana, the sense base.

The place where consciousness arises is the sense base?

Consciousness is a critical component, as it’s consciousness that knows all the causes and conditions that come together. Consciousness knows the objects of our senses. Without the arising of consciousness, vi¤¤àõa, there is no sense base; and for consciousness to arise, the sense base must also be there. Both ways.

If I’m following correctly, a sense base is not a sense door, not the subtle materiality, and not the sense object. And not really even consciousness, as you said earlier that consciousness is inactive and doesn’t have any inherent characteristics. Then, what is a sense base?

See a sense base as a characteristic of mentality-materiality. Yes, a sense base depends upon mentality-materiality. Nevertheless, try to let go of sense bases being something either mental or material, or being a fixed place or being anything substantial in any way at all. âyatana, sense base, means the gross and subtle materiality, the råpa, of sense doors make contact with external objects. In other words, a consciousness, based on an object, arises at a sense door. For example, the eye-àyatana means, based on the eye and sights, an eye-vi¤¤àõa arises. That’s the nature of eyes and sights. Nothing more. Sense base is a characteristic, simply the nature of things, the way that many different things come together and behave for a brief period of time. Âyatana means gathering places where mind can arise. More than mind, àyatana means a consciousness, a vinnàna, can be produced.

Consciousness is only produced at one of our sense doors when our faculty of attention, manasikàra, directs consciousness towards that sense door. You have healthy and fully functioning eyes. When you direct your consciousness towards your eyes, you experience visible objects. If you direct your consciousness somewhere else, towards another sense door, then you won’t be aware of seeing anything; you won’t be experiencing visible objects. The same applies to your ears, nose, and tongue. The arising of consciousness at a sense door is always only a possibility.

Why are you stressing the importance of consciousness and seeing sense bases as a characteristic? It sure seems easier to see my sense bases as my sense organs.

Sense bases are not just the materiality of sense doors, as the possibility of consciousness arising has to be considered.

Yes, I believe you. But why should I bother seeing sense bases in this way?
Sense bases fuel this engine called a human being. It’s this characteristic of mentality-materiality that supplies the fuel for craving, suffering, and in the end samsàra. Our suffering doesn’t lie in our ears, in the sounds, or in ear-consciousness. It’s in the craving that arises in dependence of all these, lies in the sense bases, that’s where suffering lies. Ears are not interested in sounds! Do you agree? So, if we penetrate the nature of sense bases, we use our sense doors in beneficial ways, in kusala ways, to overcome the akusala. When our consciousness picks up sense objects, we experience these sense objects without abhijjhà or domanassa, without coveting or grieving. We’re talking about the practice of sati, a practical training to open up our minds to nibbàna!