 |
| Oh, now I get it! Now Buddhism makes sense! The Buddha really did awaken to the utmost! |
.
(SN 36.2) Pleasure
Dhr. Seven (based on Bhikkhu Bodhi translation), Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
“Meditators, there are three feelings. What are the three? There is pleasant feeling, painful feeling, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling. These are the three feelings.”
Whether it be pleasant or painful
Along with the neither-painful-nor-pleasant,
Both the internal and the external,
Whatever kind of feeling there is:
Having known, “This is disappointing,
Perishable, disintegrating,”
Having touched and touched them, seeing their fall,
One loses one’s passion for [and addiction to] them.
COMMENTARY
Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly edited by Ashley Wells
Well, why in the world would anyone ever want to become dispassionate toward pleasant feeling, or stop hating painful feeling, or stop being disinterested in (bored with) neutral feeling?
It is on account of pleasure (sukha) and pleasant feelings of all kinds (sights, sounds, scents, savors, sensations, or semblances in the mind based on these five) that craving (tanha) and greed (lobha) arises. And as soon as it arises, suffering (dukkha) co-arises. So there is a hidden danger in responding to pleasant feeling (sense stimuli) with desire, lust, pining, hankering, clinging, obsession, addiction, and craving.
It is on account of these that one acts (creates karma of mind, speech, and body), and it is on account of karma (deeds) that one creates this entire mass of suffering: rebirth, painful karmic results (vipaka and phala, resultants and fruits).
It is on account of hating pain or unpleasant feelings (dukkha) of all kinds that aversion (dosa) arises. And as soon as it arises, suffering co-arises. So there is another hidden danger in responding to unpleasant feeling (sense stimuli) with aversion (whether it manifests as hate or fear, the urge to destroy the source of pain or to run away from it).
It is on account of these that one acts, and it is on account of karma (actions) that one creates this entire mass of suffering: rebirth, painful karmic results.
It is on account of [reacting or responding with] confusion, indifference, indolence, or boredom toward neutral feelings of all kinds (those many things that inspire neither sukha nor dukkha) that boredom arises. And as soon as it arises, suffering co-arises. [Who likes boredom?] So there is a third hidden danger in responding to neutral feeling (sense stimuli) with boredom and indifference (whether it manifests as sleepiness, lethargy, sloth, torpor, inaction, negligence, or distraction).
It is on account of these that one conducts oneself, and it is on account karma (conduct, behavior, intentions) that one creates this entire mass of suffering: rebirth, painful karmic results.
So one could say, it is because of feeling (sensations or sensory stimulation and emotions, which are mental formations or sankharas that seem to be reactions to things based on our history and the cognitive labels we apply to ideas and sensory information) that we react. A reaction is an action, that is to say, is karma. Karma keeps this wheel turning. We grasp and cling, in search of ever fresh pleasant sensations, meeting all sorts of trouble (dukkha) along the way. Trouble (dukkha) goads us. We're constantly running from unpleasant and inert (neutral, bland, boring) stimuli, seeking out excitement and pleasure.
That's about seven good reasons to want to become dispassionate toward craving and go in search of peace. Moreover, there are much better pleasures than sensuality can provide. There's one form of pleasure one should not fear, as it is not based on carnal desires. It is called piti or rapture, bliss, zest, a kind of happiness arising from the temporary purification of the mind/heart through absorption (jhana).
Meditative absorption gets a bad rap because even the wandering ascetic Siddhartha feared it, avoided it, and on account of his foolishness could not attain enlightenment. He could not purify his heart/mind. He should have "followed his bliss." Instead, he pursued self-mortification, tapas or severe "austerities" to burn off impurities and blame and deprive the body as if it (rebirth and craving) were the body's fault.
The body was not to blame. It had been the mind all along. On the verge of starvation and exhaustion, he accepted food and gave up severe fasting. He gave up trying to punish his body to enlightenment via penance the way so many "saints" had pursued it. And he came upon the Middle Way, avoiding the two extremes of hedonism and pleasure and self-mortification and pain.
The female donor Sujata and her maid saved him, gave him food, restored him to health. And he set off on his great quest again, this time with a healthy body and a clear mind. And he pondered all that he had put himself through. Spontaneously, he remembered a very dee meditation he at the age of 7 once had. He had spontaneously entered the first absorption at that time when left under the shade of a tree as the Scythians/Sakas/Shakyians were enjoying a planting festival.
His meditation had not been going particularly well. And he remembered that bliss, that piti that arises in the first and second absorptions. He questioned himself why he had feared this sort of pleasure -- given that it was not tied to sensuality and not associated with unwholesome states. And he wondered, "Maybe this is the way to enlightenment." An inner knowing or intuition called back to him that it was. So he pursued it.
He had spontaneous entered that absorption as a child because for so many past lives he had been a wandering ascetic, a mendicant, a meditator. And for so many past lives, he had enjoyed the karmic results of having mastered those absorptions. That karma had led him to heaven many time, to kingship in many worlds, to abundance and riches, beauty and strong faculties. Here he was still enjoying those good results as a handsome, strong, capable young man, age of about 35.
He had renounced his riches, his influence, his palaces, his beautiful and devoted wife, his royal parents and friends, family, and subjects. He had set off on a quest to provide for them all this one thing that could nowhere in the world be found: the end of all suffering.
No longer fearing that pleasure, that rapture, that bliss of meditative absorption, he pursued those progressive states of samadhi (stillness and mental coherence, superconsciousness brought about by purification of the mind/heart).
Then entering them, emerging, mastering, and moving on to more subtle and sublime states, he emerged and turned his mind to the question, Why do we suffer. Knowledge arose, wisdom arose, light arose. That knowledge could be condensed into the profound technical term Dependent Origination. This term should not be slighted. It is deep and profound and made it possible for Siddhartha to go from an ordinary, uninstructed worldling to an arhat, a fully enlightened person. And what's more than that, a supremely enlightened teacher or samma-sam-buddha. For he had over aeons developed the karma that gave him the capacity to teach what he himself had realized.
The turning point was that he took that samadhi, which many others have, and added to it what no one else had: a fourfold setting up of mindfulness. That is to say, he took that temporarily purified mind and applied it, in general, to the question, "Why is there suffering?" and, in specific, to the answer by way of Dependent Origination.
Briefly stated, "When this is, that comes to be. When this is not, that does not come to be." All things are dependently origination. That is, all things depend on conditions and constituents for their existence and do not exist without them. (The mind-blowing fact is that they do not even exist with them because when the constituents of a thing are present and arranged in a functional manner, the "thing" seems to arise. But all there actually is is that assemblage of constituents, not something new. Why? It is because all things are impersonal. All things are impermanent, just a temporary arrangement of those constituents which are not the thing but without which the thing -- or the illusion of the thing -- does not arise. All things are unsatisfactory, disappointing, painful, full of hidden danger, like a lure. For example, when a "wheel" is present, what is really there? Spokes, a hub, a tire, wood, a peg, and so on. When all of the constituents are arranged, "wheel" arises, that is, it originates. It comes into existence. Where is the "wheel" in these things? It is nowhere to be found. Those things are empty of a wheel.
Another example: When "flame" arises, on what conditions and constituents does it rely? Heat, fuel, a wick or catalyzing agent, oxygen, and a mysterious process of combustion. When these five are present, the illusion of "flame" arises. Where is the flame? In the conditions and constituents, apart from them? Neither. It is not in them, and it does not exist apart from them. What arose was an illusion that seemed to be a new thing. But it was just those five things, like the whole being more than the sum of its parts.
We can take anything apart (analyze it) and see the same thing: Dependent Origination. This thing, this illusion, is dependent on those things. When this (these things) is, that (illusion) comes to be. This is all very nice and interesting and accounts for all things in the world. But who cares?
I care. You care. But what we care about more is us, ourselves, our individual consciousness, our ego, our self, personality, our existence, our "soul." What conditions and constituents are there that give rise to the illusion of "self" (of an eternal soul going through all this)?
There are five. They are form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. When these are present, "self" arises. And with the self, all those feelings, all that identification, all that karma, all that rebirth, all those results of karma, and of that entire mass of suffering arises. This is completely unacceptable.
Fortunately, we don't have to believe it. We have to find the "self." Go find yourself. Where should I look? Look for self in the body, this form. Whatever form one takes, where is the self in it? Well, I'm not the body. Aha, then I must be feelings! Of course, I am this feeling and that feeling, and all the past feelings and all the future feelings... Well, that doesn't make much sense. I must be the perceptions. No, I am my intentions, my emotions, my history, my cognitive labels, these mental formations. No, well, that doesn't make sense either. AHA, I am the Feeler. I am the Perceiver. I am the formless in Form. I am these Formations. I am (OM!) Consciousness itself!!! The only problem is, consciousness is not a noun so much as a verb.
It is not a thing quite like other things. It is, and when investigated this becomes clear, an empty process, an impersonal process, a stream of cittas and cetasikas, mind-moments and mental concomitants. Well, okay, I'm not consciousness, because what is consciousness without formations, perceptions, feelings, and form? No, on second thought, I am that I am. Which I am? This one. No, that one. Here I am, wasn't I?
What Siddhartha saw that put him on the path to enlightenment and nirvana (unending peace and happiness) was that this "self" is dependently originated just like everything else in this reality, in this universe, in this multiverse, in these dimensions, in these worlds exalted and abysmal.
But what was he looking for? He didn't start off "looking for himself," though that's what he found. He was looking for an answer to the question, "Why do we suffer and what is the end of all suffering?" How does one bring that about, the end of all pain, grief, loss, annoyance, the not getting what we want, the getting what we don't want, the ultimate disappointment in all things, the lack of fulfillment, the never being satisfied? All of that stuff is called dukkha.
Me no want dukkha. How me get not-dukkha? By understanding Dependent Origination, it all became clear. And with it, the illusion fell away. And with its falling away, the reality was laid bare. And the mind/heart shrank back, let go, became disillusioned and dispassionate toward all formations. And he was free. Siddhartha was now the Buddha. He would soon be able to teach and lead others to this realization and to enlightenment and to a glimpse of nirvana. Now, one should know, there are two nirvanas. They are the same, of course, but they are differentiated as "nirvana with remainder" and "nirvana without remainder." What remains? Once one has touch nirvana, there is no falling back.
One has entered the stream that leads inevitably and invariably to the consummation, to the end of ALL suffering of any and every kind, to nirvana.
But though one has realized it here-and-now, there is some residual to deal with. This body (form) still exists. This mind (feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness) still exists -- only now one does not take it to be a "self" to cling to. One no longer clings to the Five Things (heaps, aggregates) as a self.
What is suffering?
Suffering is an illusion, too, one based on causes, conditions, and constituents. It is real, insofar as any dependently originated thing is, but it does not apply to anyone.
By identifying with the Five Aggregates clung to as "self," those very aggregates were suffering. When the illusion is dispelled, there is no one for the suffering to cling to.
By letting go, wisdom arises and wisdom cuts off the illusion of an ongoing self wandering endlessly through samsara, that self that is the One True I, the Higher Self, the Ultimate Myself, the Eternal Soul, the Personality, the I am that I am, the Doer, the Watcher, the Recipient of the Results of Karma, the conceit, the pride, the clinging to ephemeral things like form (assemblages of the Four Great Elements or characteristics of materiality manifesting as particles called kalapas, which a purified and still mind, a coherent and concentrated heart, can directly see) and mind.
That is no "self," that body composed of these secondary manifestations of those primary elements (maha dhatus). That is no self, that feeling (pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral) arising based on causes and conditions, that perception, those formations, that consciousness.
So, yeah, you know, if one could become disillusioned and dispassionate toward feeling, it would be good to do so. If only there were a way! There is. That is condensed as the Ennobling Eightfold Path, which is a very general outline. A more detailed outline would be the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment, all those "things pertaining to awakening" from this illusion. They are listed in seven groupings. (Wow, this seven sure pops up a lot, does it not?) But to sum it up more briefly and still very usefully, one should come to know just one thing: Dependent Origination.
Why? Because if one understood this and its 12 causal links, one would never again become confused as to why suffering arises and what it is that, first having come to be, gives rise to this suffering. One would be like the Buddha was on that day under that other tree, the Bodhi tree. And one begins by getting under a tree, in the shade, absorbing the mind into a single object of awareness then taking that awareness to three other things (for a fourfold setting up of mindfulness).
A final word to clarify something no one seems to understand: Why did the Buddha single out craving, desire or literally "thirst" (tanha) as the lynchpin to all this unraveling? You know how everyone, including Lisa Simpson, thinks "desire is bad" and "the Buddha wants us to not desire"? That is inaccurate and very misleading no matter how many times and places one seems to see that in the sutras.
When he was reviewing the causal links of suffering, how this whole mess started, he saw a general starting point (ignorance) but no specific starting point. It wasn't as if one day there wasn't ignorance and then the next moment there was, and this was a Big Bang that gave rise to everything. That's how it sounds, that's how it reads, that's how teachers say it, but it isn't correct.
It's all an illusion, and illusion is dependent on ignorance, it's true, but the 12 causal links are set in this functional relationship to one another. When this is, that comes to be. With the ending of this, that ends. So it should theoretically be possible to pull out any of the pins or Jenga pieces and bring this whole painful game down. But that's not easily done. The Buddha looked and looked and realized that of all these 12, the easiest to pull is desire (tanha).
If one can pull that, the whole structure resulting in suffering falls apart. So he taught beings (devas and humans) to start there. That's workable. That's doable. If we could, if you can, forget getting rid of desire. Keep it. Cling to it. Trust in it. Never mind it. Instead, focus on ignorance. Pull that one. Get rid of that one...no, no, but we can't. That's not doable. We can't just go from ignorant to unignorant. It's too much of a jump. We can't just go from any piece of the puzzle to bring suffering down. But we can with desire. That one's doable. That we could do something about.
What can we do about it? We can read the short sutra that started this exegesis, this rant, this Dharma talk, this whatever it is. In it the Buddha says, as translated by Ven. Sujato:
“Me[ditator]s, there are these three feelings. What three? Pleasant, painful, and neutral feeling. These are the three feelings.
Whatever is felt
internally and externally—
whether pleasure or pain
as well as what’s neutral—
having known this as suffering,
deceptive, falling apart,
one sees them vanish
as they’re experienced again and again:
that’s how to be free of desire for them.”
- Saṁyutta Nikāya, "The Connected Discourses," on the subject of feeling (sensation, touch)
- SN 36.2: Sukha Sutta—Bhikkhu Bodhi (suttacentral.net)
- Linked Discourses (36.2 1) with verses, "Pleasure"
Alas, it was all for naught, to give such a long commentary only probably confuses the matter. The mind/heart that is not temporarily purified cannot hope to awaken to the Truth in an instant of reading or hearing, no matter how intellectualized the Dharma is, distilled down to many important points. People want simple, particularly modern Americans raised on a diet of assumptions and thinking we know. So forget all that and let's listen to magic words of the Buddha that frequently gave rise to enlightenment on the spot. This is called ānupubbī-kathā (Ven. Nyanaponika) or:
"Gradual Instruction"
 |
| The historical Buddha |
- ["Noble" means "enlightened," and "ennobling" means "what gets one to the noble state."]
"Then the Blessed One gave the person a gradual instruction. That is to say, he spoke on letting go (giving, sharing, generosity, dāna), on virtuous conduct (sīla), and on rebirth in the heavens (sagga). He explained the peril, the vanity, and the depravity of sensual pleasures, and the advantage of letting go.
"When the Blessed One perceived that the listener's mind was prepared, pliant, free from obstacles, elevated, and lucid, he then explained that exalted teaching particular to the Buddhas (buddhānam sāmukkamsikā desanā), that is:
suffering (disappointment),
its cause,
its cessation,
and the path leading to its cessation."
No comments:
Post a Comment