Ven. Nanamoli, Three Cardinal Sutras; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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| Who am I? Who have I been? Will I be again? Who will I be? These are foolish questions that lead to no profit. What is suffering, its origin, its cessation, the path to its cessation? These are wise questions that lead to enlightenment here and now, in this very life (WQ). |
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The Heart Sutra tells us that the ultimate truth is that there is NO self. What there is are Five Aggregates clung to as self. They are form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. And they are EMPTY -- that is, devoid of self.
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| Warm for my form? This is "my" body. |
FORM: The Pali word
rupa means "form, what appears, appearance" [physical body]. It is the first of the
Five Aggregates that make up
SELF, who we are.
Form is defined in terms of the
Four Great Elements, namely earth (the quality of hardness), water (cohesion), fire (temperature),
and air (distension and motion), along with the negative aspect of
space (what does
not appear).
From these are derived the
secondary phenomena such as persons, features, shapes, and so on. They are
regarded as "secondary" because form can appear without any of them
but they cannot appear without form.
Form is also defined as "that which is
being worn away" (ruppati), thus underlining its general characteristics of impermanence and instability.
NOT-SELF: Together with the
Four Noble Truths, the ultimate truth of the impersonal nature of all phenomena is taught only by
buddhas. Not-self (
anatta) is shown as a general characteristic of all phenomena without exception.
The characteristic of impermanence does not become apparent because,
when rise and fall are not given attention, impermanence is concealed by
continuity.
The characteristic of disappointment/pain does not become apparent because,
when continuous oppression is not given attention, it is concealed by
the postures (changing from one posture to another, waking and
sleeping, to become comfortable).
The characteristic of not-self does not become apparent
because, when resolution into the various elements (that compose
all that is) is not given attention, it is concealed by compactness [not seeing that things, in fact, are compounds of various constituents rather than compact entities].
Self-identification [identifying various constituents -- such as form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness -- as a "self"] and hunger for permanence and bliss form the
principal manifestations of craving, guided by wrong view -- wrong
because it is not in line with the ultimate truth of things.
When confronted
with the contradictions and impossibility of self-identification
with any of the Five Aggregates of Clinging's objects, craving
seeks to satisfy this need by imagining a soul (or self that is individual or
universal).
But since no such self or soul, however conceived, can escape
falling within the Five Aggregates of Clinging's objects, this solution
is always doomed to failure.
Similarly any attempt to identify self
with nirvana must always fail for the same reason. Nirvana conceived as
identical (with self) or (self), as apart from it (emanence), or inside of it
(immanence), or nirvana conceived as "mine" is misconceived (MN 1).
This does not prevent a fully Enlightened One from using conventional speech that is
current in the world in order to communicate. But a buddha does so without becoming confused or
misapprehending it it, as is shown in the Dhammapada:
Self is savior of self;
what other savior could there be?
For only with (one-) self well tamed
one finds
the savior, hard to find.
Only by self is evil done,
self born and given being by self,
oppressing one who
knowledge lacks
as grinding diamond does the stone.
Similarly with the expression "in oneself" (ajjhattam) in the Second Discourse (Anattalakkhana Sutra), this is simply a convenient convention for the focus
of the individual viewpoint, not to be misapprehended.
A meditator heard
the Buddha saying, as in the Second Discourse here, that the Five
Aggregates are "not mine" and he wondered; "So it seems form is
not-self; feeling, perception, mental formations (determinations), and consciousness are
not-self. What self, then, will the action (karma) done by the not-self affect?"
- [In other words, "If only the not-self does the karma, what 'self' is going to experience the results of that karma?"]
That meditator was severely rebuked by the Buddha for forgetting the
conditioned [dependently originated] nature of all arisen things (MN 109).
"It is impossible that
anyone with right view should see any idea as self" (MN 115). And
"Whatever philosophers and divinities see 'self' in its various forms, they
see only the Five Aggregates or one or other of them" (SN 22.47).
FEELING: (vedana) this is always confined strictly to the
affective feelings of (bodily or mental) pleasure and pain with the
normally ignored neutral feeling of "neither-pain-nor pleasure." These
can be subdivided in various ways.
PERCEPTION: (sañña) simply means recognition.
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| "Mind" is in the heart more than the brain. |
MENTAL FORMATIONS: (
sankhara) a great many different translations of this term are
current, the next best of which is certainly "determinations." The Pali word
sankhara literally means "a construction."
It is derived from the prefix sam (con) plus the verb karoti (to do, to make). It can be compared to the Latin conficere from con (plus) and facere (to do), which gives us the French confection
(a construction).
The Sanskrit samkassa means ritual acts with the purpose of
bringing about a good rebirth. As used in Pali by the Buddha it covers any
aspects having to do with action, willing, making, planning, using,
choice, and so on (anything teleological).
And contact (phassa) is often placed
at the head of lists defining it. Otherwise defined as bodily, verbal,
and mental action (karma).
CONSCIOUSNESS: (viññana) is here the bare "being conscious"
left for consideration when the other four aggregates have been dealt
with.
It is only describable in individual plurality in terms of the
other four aggregates clung to as self, as fire is individualized only by the fuel it
burns (see MN 38 and 109).
Otherwise it is to be regarded as an
infinitude (MN 111) dependent upon the contemplation of it as such.
It
is only impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal because however it arises, it can only do so
in dependence on the other aggregates, that is, on conditions
that are themselves impermanent, disappointing, and not-self.
It never arises unless
accompanied by co-nascent perception and feeling. It has six "doors" (see under Eye and Mind) for cognizing its objective fields, but no more.
ESTRANGEMENT: the Pali noun
nibbida and its verb
nibbindati are made up of the prefix
nir in its negative sense of "out," and the root
vid (to find, to feel, to know intimately).
Nibbada
is thus a finding out. What is thus found out is the intimate hidden
contradictoriness in any kind of self-identification based in any way on
these things (and there is no way of determining self-identification
apart from them — see under
NOT-SELF).
Elsewhere the Buddha says: Whatever there is here of [these
Five Aggregates]
- form
- feeling
- perception
- formations, or
- consciousness
such ideas one sees as impermanent, one sees them as disappointing (subject to
pain, unable to fulfill), as a sickness, as a tumor, as a barb, as a calamity, as an
affliction, as alienating, as disintegrating, as void, as
not-self.
One averts one's heart from these aggregates (groups, heaps). And for the most
peaceful,
the supreme goal, one turns one's heart to
the deathless element (
nirvana),
that is to say, the stilling of all formations, the relinquishment
of all substance, the exhaustion of craving, the fading of passion,
cessation, extinction.
— MN 64
The "stuff" of life can also be seen this way. Normally the discovery of a
contradiction is for the unliberated mind a disagreeable one. Several
courses are then open. It can refuse to face it, pretending to itself to
the point of full persuasion and belief that no contradiction is there.
Or one side of the contradiction may be unilaterally affirmed and the
other repressed and forgotten.
Or a temporary compromise may be found
(all such expedients being haunted by insecurity).
Or else the
contradiction may be faced in its truth and made the basis for a
movement towards liberation.
So too, on finding estrangement thus, two
main courses are open -- either the search, leaving "craving for
self-identification" intact, can be continued for sops to allay the
symptoms of the sickness.
Or else a movement can be started in the
direction of a cure for the underlying sickness of craving and
liberation from the everlasting hunt for painkillers, whether for
oneself or others.
In this sense alone, "Self protection is the
protection of others, and protection of others is self-protection" (
Satipatthana Samyutta)
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Step by step, we walk through the layers of awareness, the habit of searching, and the quiet freedom beyond identity.
