Wisdom Wide and Deep

by Shaila Catherine

  Insight into impermanence counters the illusion of continuity. Seeing the characteristic of change invites you to look deeply into the assumption of continuity. What is continuity? Is there really duration? Although you know things are continually changing, how often do you pause to consciously notice change? Insight into impermanence is among the most transformative perceptions. Are you ever surprised when looking through old photo albums at how much clothing styles, body shapes, and faces have changed with growth and age? Often, though, people just don’t notice change in the little fluctuations that occur day by day.

  Certainly you know that you were born and that you will die. The exercises in chapter 12 will refine the perception that there is no continuity to materiality. This body is not always present; it did not exist in the same way a moment earlier and will not exist in the same way a moment later. Only concepts and views create the impression of enduring features. In reality, matter has only momentary expressions, without the slightest endurance across time. Through the careful examination of ultimate materiality, the illusion of continuity regarding matter is removed.

  Watching Emotions Ebb and Flow

  How long does an emotion last? Have you ever felt that you were angry for a couple of hours or sad all day long? Look closely at that angry feeling or that sad feeling. Notice the story: the thoughts of loss that triggered sadness, the threat that triggered anger. Do such thoughts remain static or are they intermittent, or cyclical? Notice sensations in the body: perhaps heaviness in the chest, an ache in the stomach, an indistinct disoriented sensation, heat or cold, a hollow feeling. Are these sensations lasting, stable, or fluctuating? Do they increase or decrease? Notice the intensity of the anger or sadness: does it remain stable, or come as waves that intensify when triggered by certain thoughts, smells, or sights and then diminish when attention is distracted by exercise, meals, and conversation?

  Fixed concepts cloud and obscure perception; they are not a refuge to stand upon. The Buddha compared the perception of impermanence to the sun appearing after the monsoon season: “Just as in the autumn, when the sky is clear and cloudless, the sun, ascending in the sky dispels all darkness from space as it shines and beams and radiates, so too, when the perception of impermanence is developed and cultivated, it eliminates all sensual lust, it eliminates all lust for existence, it eliminates all ignorance, it uproots all conceit ‘I am.’”176

  The illusion of duration occurs when you don’t look closely enough to see the momentary nature of the cognitive process. When you observe the rapidly occurring sequence of individual mind-moments that form a single moment of cognition, you see only momentary microprocesses connected by causal relationships. By discerning the momentary existence of matter, the unique role each moment of consciousness plays in the cognitive process, and the discontinuity between each individual moment and those before and subsequent to it, you break down the delusion of continuity. Nothing lasts, nothing merges, nothing blends, nothing continues from one state into the next state; hence, the assumption of continuity is radically interrupted.

  2. The compactness of mass (samūhaghana). This aspect is variously translated as the compactness of group, synthesis, or mass. Through the meditative processes introduced in the following chapters, you will deconstruct mental and material groupings into their component elements. Just as a stew can be sorted into carrots, celery, beef, onions, broth, potatoes, and spices, you can remove the delusion of mass when you discover that each material form and mental process is composed of individual elements. When you discern earth, water, fire, and wind as individual elements that compose a group or discern the thirty-four mental factors that arise with the first jhāna, you will see for yourself that many individual components arise within each grouping. This recognition breaks down the compactness of mass.

  Conventionally, we speak as though there is man, stadium, wall, bread, cow, and computer, but these are only concepts. Just as an automobile is a construction of various parts—wheel, engine, carburetor, fuel, transmission, paint, hoses, window glass—so what we take to be “myself” is a conglomeration of mental and material phenomena. We organize the “parts” (hand, lungs, hair, beliefs, personality, past actions, relationships, preferences) into a form we call “I.”177 In reality, however, there is nothing but momentary conditions that arise together and disperse in a rapidly unfolding process. When you look very closely, there is no place to call “I,” nothing that is mine, and no one to whom experience occurs.

  To intimately experience selflessness, do not try to analyze the question of identity philosophically. Instead, drop into a mindful experience of the present moment and see if you really exist as an independent entity here and now. Is there anything that you can control, stop from changing, or claim as self? When you see, feel, or cognize any object of the senses, fixed concepts can distort the perception, construing it as I, me, or mine. With the arising of the thought “I am,” there is alienation. The position of the doer, the knower, even the meditator, takes birth. But when you explore the meditations that distill clusters and concepts into component parts, you will find only complex conjunctions of momentary causes and conditions—no entity, no self.

  On one occasion when Venerables Sariputta and Ananda were discussing jhāna attainments, Sariputta mentioned that he no longer conceives that “I have attained” the jhānas and yet he attains them. Ananda remarks, “It must be because I-making, mine-making, and the underlying tendency to conceit have been thoroughly uprooted in the Venerable Sariputta for a long time that such thoughts did not occur to him.”178 Personalizing experience, even meditative attainments, generates fear of loss, death, and suffering. Notice the moments when the exhausting thought I am ceases; rest in the absence of personal stories.

  3. The compactness of function (kiccaghana). The examination of material realities in chapter 12 will demonstrate that every material element performs a specific function within its unit—the life faculty maintains the material elements and establishes them in their group; nutritive essence feeds materiality; space delimits matter and displays the boundaries of each material group; the tongue element draws the mind to flavors; and so on. Just as physicists use linear accelerators to smash matter into components so small that they are no longer directly discernible as distinctive units but can be recognized only by their effects on observed phenomena, so too through an ultrasubtle analysis, you can observe the interdependent functioning of material phenomena in your body and dislodge the coarse notion that you are the agent of your actions.

  Present Awareness

  Reach down and feel the rug or the floor. What are you feeling? One answer may be “rug”; but “rug” is a concept. Another response might be “pressure, hardness, roughness, coolness,” pointing toward a more direct encounter with sensory phenomena. As you engage in daily activities, rest as often as possible in the simple perception of changing sensory events. Feel the temperature of the room in which you are reading, notice the movement of your ribs on an inhalation, settle into a mindful appreciation of the present configuration of current conditions. Strengthen insight by connecting with the here and now, as it is actually occurring.

  The Buddha described humanity as attached to self-production, to I am. One who sees clearly, however, does not claim, “I am the doer,” nor does he claim that “another is the doer.”179 The wind blows, but you do not construe a blower. Although you may use conventional language to say, “I reach for the door,” you don’t need to presume there is a doer that opens the door. Similarly, the world does not exist as we conventionally know it. This practice exposes that not only the concept of self but also the concept of everything is merely an array of mental and material processes, each limited by its specific characteristics and functions, that arise and pass away according to causal conditions.

  To dislodge the illusion of compactness regarding function, explore the meditation instructions in the following chapters for analyzing the momentary groupings of material phenomena, mental facto
rs, and consciousness. Specifically, discern the individual functions that each element and factor performs within its group or mind-moment. This meditative endeavor is remarkably precise; the nuances unravel deeply conditioned assumptions. Although the exercises may appear lengthy, or burdened by archaic definitions of the characteristics, functions, and manifestations of individual factors, the clarity and depth of peace that these explorations can provide is well worth the effort.

  4. The compactness of object (ārammaṇaghana). 180 This fourth category of deconstruction is performed only in relation to mentality and will be practiced during later stages of insight training (vipassanā). Pragmatic instructions are included in meditation instructions 17.11 and 18.3. It is sometimes called “object compactness” or “subject compactness.” “Object” is a more literal translation from the Pali, but the English term “subject” illuminates the intended meaning. The insight into this form of compactness occurs by recognizing the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and emptiness of the knowing function that arises in conjunction with insight knowledge. For the meditator to be conscious of impermanent phenomena, a cognitive process must occur. Therefore, to thoroughly examine phenomena you will turn attention to that process and recognize the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and emptiness of the mental and material processes that are engaging the practice of insight meditation itself.

  Contemplating consciousness in a moment of insight breaks down the compactness of the knower or perceiving subject. Contemplating what meditates, you interrupt the reification of yourself as meditator, as doer, as a knowing self, or as the one who discerns ultimate mentality. This understanding untangles a fundamentally dualistic process—the habit of constructing a subject that views an object.

  This fourth category does not represent a new form of compactness; it is a reiteration of the first three, now applied to insight knowledge. This endeavor highlights three kinds of compactness in multiple dimensions: the compactness of continuity, mass, and function is dissolved regarding (1) materiality, (2) mentality, and (3) the cognitive process active during insight knowledge.

  By carefully examining material and mental phenomena as instructed in chapters 12–14, you will discover and deconstruct false assumptions about the nature of things, loosen the bonds of craving, and identify subtle objects that you will use in further contemplations. The triad of deep concentration, refined mindfulness, and careful examination merge to uproot the illusion of an enduring self-existence and to enhance the liberating potential of awareness.

  CHAPTER 12

  Explorations of Matter: Four Elements Meditation

  With mindfulness of the body established,

  Controlled over contact’s sixfold base,

  A bhikkhu who is always concentrated

  Can know Nibbāna for himself.

  —THE UDĀNA181

  THOUSANDS OF YEARS before the invention of the microscope, meditators, alchemists, and ancient physicians developed methods for using the discerning capacity of a concentrated mind to study the fundamental nature of matter. Ancient meditators probed the frontiers of an inner landscape, inquiring: How does matter form? Where does it come from? How does it function? How do organisms grow, convert food into fuel, and reproduce? How is the world perceived by the senses and interpreted by the mind?

  Equipped with jhāna and skilled in a time-honored tradition of investigation, seekers explored the fundamental elements of phenomena. Today, Buddhist meditators continue to apply the light of concentration to illuminate refined strata of material and mental processes and reveal the ultimate objects for vipassanā contemplation.

  Strong concentration is needed to glimpse these subtle formations of matter, and even stronger concentration is required to discern the function of each element and formation. While jhāna is a valuable asset in the quest of a direct perception of refined phenomena, it is not an absolute requirement. The four elements meditation is a meditative training that is designed to enable you to see these subtle material properties. It is a meditation that may be undertaken with or without the foundation of jhāna.

  What a meditator perceives through this meditation may at times correspond to Western scientific concepts and at times not. The intent of the four elements meditation is not to propose a scientific explanation of reality. Rather, the intent of the four elements meditation is to illuminate phenomena beyond our constructed concepts and thereby create an effective vantage point for perceiving the emptiness of all phenomena.182

  In this chapter I only aim to provide an overview of the four elements meditation as a practical framework for understanding how this analysis of matter bridges concentration and insight practices. These practices are subtle and difficult to describe. They are best undertaken with the assistance of a qualified instructor who has already seen these elements for herself or himself and can confirm the accuracy and extent of your discoveries.

  DISCOVERING WHAT IS REAL

  The Abhidhamma-piṭaka, a division of the ancient Buddhist scripture, calls for a refined examination of constituents of experience in their most distilled and nonconceptual forms. To facilitate a precise analysis of phenomena, Abhidhamma theory proposes a pragmatic categorization that divides all experiential phenomena into four categories of irreducible realities (paramattha dhammas). These include: (1) materiality (rūpa), (2) consciousness (citta), (3) mental factors that are associated with consciousness (cetasika), and (4) the unconditioned element (nibbāna). The first category—materiality—includes some of the most classical objects for vipassanā. It will be the focus of this chapter.

  The paramattha dhammas theory has been the focus of historic controversies among Buddhist schools for the last two thousand years. Paramattha, a term indicating that something is further, beyond, or supreme, was used in the early Discourses of the Buddha to refer to the transcendent, ultimate goal; namely, the realization of nibbāna. Later Abhidhamma theory came to use the term paramattha to refer to the nonconventional, nonconceptual, intrinsic, irreducible, and therefore “ultimate” building blocks of experience. The exacting analysis undertaken in Abhidhamma-influenced training scrutinizes experiential reality to resolve phenomena into their nonconceptual and irreducible functions.

  The term dhamma can be translated as thing, phenomenon, state, or reality. In the early Discourses of the Buddha, dhamma primarily referred to the doctrine that the Buddha preached, but in the Abhidhamma literature the term dhamma came to refer to the final units of experience that can be discerned and examined through meditation. Meditation techniques were devised to highlight these ultrasubtle momentary psychophysical events. The terms ultimate (paramattha) and reality (dhamma) do not imply that there is an enduring essence that can be possessed; both conditioned and unconditioned phenomena are devoid of substantial self-existence. Through the power of your own direct insight and with the support of a concentrated and careful examination, you can discern the specific and nonconceptual constituents of experience. By pursuing a rigorous examination of phenomena, you will realize that no thing, no substance, no essence can be found; all designations, terms, labels, and names merely refer to instances of causally related processes.

  TABLE 12.1

  Four Ultimate Realities

  FOUR ULTIMATE REALITIES PALI TERM NUMBER OF TYPES

  Materiality/matter rūpa 18 concrete types

  10 nonconcrete types

  Consciousness citta 89

  Mental factors cetasikā 52

  The unconditioned element nibbāna 1

  In contemporary Buddhism, the four elements meditation and the direct perception of ultimate realities have been largely overlooked, appearing to some to be overly complex, academic, and tedious. We are thus in danger of losing these techniques through neglect and disuse. However, by using these practices, we can strip away interpretations, break apart groupings and compounds, and look at bare phenomena below the level of concept to contemplate their impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and emptiness. Thus, these practices provide
a powerful tool for insight, and they are simpler and easier to employ than they first appear.

  In this training we analyze our meditation object until we discover highly refined and real phenomena. We dissect groupings, masses, or concepts that are applied to clusters of elemental properties. In nature it is rare to find a pure element such as mercury, iron, oxygen, or sodium. Just as early chemists separated substances into their constituent elements to examine their properties and further scientific knowledge, meditators discern the subtle interactions, functions, and processes of matter and cognition in their quest to understand the mind and body.

  The four elements meditation functions as a bridge between attention-sharpening concentration methods and analytical investigative processes. It might be considered the centerpiece of the meditation system explained in this book. At Pa-Auk Monastery in Burma (Myanmar), while jhāna practice is strongly encouraged, it is considered optional. On the other hand, everyone must practice four elements meditation. It is considered indispensable to a precise undertaking of vipassanā. This meditation is the means by which we gather the material that we later examine as vipassanā objects.

  PHASE 1: A DETAILED MATTER—THE FOUR ELEMENTS