MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 14.1
Discerning Five Aggregates
Divide mental and material phenomena into the categories of the five aggregates. Discern cognitive processes at each sense door according to these five groups following the sequence of instructions given in chapter 13 (meditation instructions 13.3, 13.4, 13.5), only now categorize phenomena according to the five aggregates model. Specifically, you will discern the materiality that composes the basis for consciousness, sense door, and object; the feeling tone that arises on contact; the perception; the mental formations including all additional associated mental factors; and consciousnesses as they arise in each mind-moment of the cognitive series. Discern both wholesome and unwholesome cognitive processes at each sense door with phenomena now divided according to the five aggregates scheme.
This is an excellent opportunity to carefully examine certain features of experience, such as feeling tone (vedanā). For example, you might notice that within each sense-door cognitive process the adverting, receiving, and determining consciousnesses always carry a neutral or equanimous feeling tone, however investigating, impulsion, and receiving consciousnesses have pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral feeling tones. You might also discover that the body door is only affected by pleasure or pain, not neutral feelings, whereas the ear, nose, and tongue doors register only neutral feelings. Feeling tone is not continuous; it fluctuates even within the subtle stages of a single cognitive process. Explore what the five aggregates model might reveal about the psychophysical experience.
MODELS FOR EXPLORING SUFFERING
Understanding the mechanisms of suffering is integral to a genuine realization of liberation. As the Buddha stated, “The purpose of the holy life is the full understanding of suffering.”221 After exploring the five aggregates model presented in this chapter, the examination will extend in the following chapter to include causal relationships governing phenomena. The Buddha taught that these two models (the five aggregates and twelve links of dependent arising) work together in the quest for the end of suffering:
One who sees dependent arising sees the Dhamma. One who sees the Dhamma sees dependent arising. And these five aggregates [matter, feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousness] affected by clinging are dependently arising. The desire, indulgence, inclination, and holding based on these five aggregates affected by clinging are the origin of suffering. The removal of desire and lust, the abandonment of desire and lust for these five aggregates affected by clinging is the cessation of suffering.222
In practice, these two models intertwine to reveal the complex mechanisms through which suffering is formed and ceases. Aided by these models, meditators can analyze causal conditioning from two perspectives that represent a shift in time scale. You may explore the moment-by-moment dynamics of suffering, and also see how the entire round of existence is inextricably bound to suffering, and glimpse your potential to free the mind from the bonds of ignorance.
CHAPTER 15
Causes and Effects: Twelve Links of Dependent Arising
Action makes the world go round,
Action makes the generation turn.
Living beings are bound by action
Like the chariot wheel by the pin.
—MAJJHIMA NIKĀYA223
SIMPLE WISDOM WARNS: squeeze the tube slowly, because once the toothpaste is out, it is pretty hard to get it back in. The Pali term kamma describes the process by which intentional actions produce effects. It is a system in which causes (hetu) and conditions (paccaya) are linked to results; actions have consequences. The Buddha said, “Intention [cetanā], I tell you is action [kamma]. Intending, one does action by way of body, speech, and mind.”224 Our intentional actions of body, speech, and mind condition how we will experience future events. Buddhist teachings stress that “beings are owners of their actions, heirs of their actions, they originate from their actions, are bound to their actions, have their actions as their refuge. It is action that distinguishes beings as superior or inferior.”225 However, we are not trapped by the past or condemned to repeat patterns; the key to relating to kamma is in how we respond to the present.
When a fire alarm sounded, I saw most people walk straight past well-marked emergency exits, single-mindedly heading for the familiar exit at the front door. We are conditioned by our routines and repeated actions. Mental states are conditioned by repetition, and we constantly influence ourselves by how we act and react to life. If you frequently become irritated at red traffic signals, you condition the response of impatience. If you frequently cultivate loving-kindness toward your colleagues, you contribute to a caring work community and condition a response of tolerance. Physical states are also conditioned by repetition. If you frequently round your back forward when you work at a computer, you are conditioning the muscular response of collapse. If you frequently establish an upright posture when you meditate, you are creating wakeful and alert conditions for awareness. For better or for worse, we condition our way of being in the world.
Every day intentions arise by the millions—which ones do you enact? Experiences, thoughts, tendencies, feelings, and even our very existence have causes that can be traced to formations of greed, hatred, and delusion or to their counterparts of nongreed, nonhatred, and nondelusion.226
Investigating causality brings a vivid and clear comprehension of the moral foundation of action. How we act, what we do, and how we live is of paramount importance in the development of the liberating path. Our meditative practice works to remove tendencies toward greed, hatred, and delusion and simultaneously to cultivate more healthy attitudes, views, and ways of living in the world.
A Wise Pause
To expand the possibility of choice, learn to pause before reacting to daily events. Take a moment to consider your response before you speak, reply to an email, make a decision, or finalize a purchase. Even a split second of calm can create a space in which you become aware of your body, feelings, views, and emotions. A simple willingness to wait a moment can transform a habitual enslavement into a conscious commitment to act in accordance with your core values. Notice how much of your present response to daily events is influenced by personal history, childhood conditioning, or habitual reactions. Consider: what would be a skillful response?
Five Practical Steps—The Five R’s
Five practical steps can help change unwanted habits.
1. Recognize harmful habits and the desire to change. Use the power of your observational skills to examine habitual actions, words, and thoughts and the impact that they have on your mind.
2. Restrain and inhibit conditioned reactions to familiar stimuli. Make the commitment to pause before speaking, acting, and deciding. Give yourself the time to consider your response without reacting to a habitual trigger.
3. Renounce unskillful habitual patterns. Don’t act until the harmful impulse to react diminishes and an appropriate response arises.
4. Redirect the mind toward the preferable alternative.
5. Reflect on what you might learn about the patterns and tendencies that lead to suffering, and on a way of being with things that brings ease and clarity.
For example, if you have a tendency to react with angry criticism every time your friend is late, recognize your tendency and decide not to react in that familiar way. The next time he is late, restrain your familiar irritation, renounce the anger, and resolve to remain calm. You might feel your breath as you mindfully track the unfolding of your emotions, thoughts, and feelings. Learn to remain alert in this nonhabitual response; grow comfortable with the practice of restraint. At first, you might not know how else to respond, but if you inhibit the unskillful habit and wait patiently, eventually you will intuit a more skillful response. You don’t need to figure out what you will do, plan how you will feel, or script future interactions. This reflection simply suspends the habitual mode of reaction and creates a moment of calm, mindful awareness in which an alternative response might emerge. When a more skillful alternative
emerges, redirect your energy to this response. Then observe and reflect to learn if this mode might offer you greater benefits than the habitual response.
THE CYCLE OF DEPENDENT ARISING
The cycle of dependent arising (paṭiccasamuppāda) is central to the Buddhist understanding of how things come to be the way that they are. Venerable Ananda once enthusiastically remarked that “Dependent arising is very profound, but to me it seems as clear as clear can be.” The Buddha corrected, “Not so Ananda, not so! This dependent arising is profound and appears profound; it is truly very difficult to penetrate. Because they have not understood and penetrated this one principle, beings are caught on the wheel of birth and death and cannot find the means to freedom.”227 Listed in Table 15.1 are twelve factors that comprise the wheel of which the Buddha speaks. A step-by-step presentation of dependent arising is briefly sketched in the following standard summary:
When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be; with the cessation of this, that ceases. That is, with ignorance as condition, formations come to be; with formations as condition, consciousness; with consciousness as condition, mentality-materiality; with mentality-materiality as condition, the sixfold [sense] base; with the sixfold [sense] base as condition, contact; with contact as condition, feeling; with feeling as condition, craving; with craving as condition, clinging; with clinging as condition, being; with being as condition, birth; with birth as condition, aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair come to be. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering.228
The cyclic nature of dependent arising was traditionally illustrated by drawing a circle on the ground.229 Just as it is nonsensical to say that either the hen or the egg came first, regarding the cycle of dependent arising, the “earliest point cannot be found.”230 Not only is the beginning impossible to detect, the image of the circle poses a profound question: where is the end of this configuration? As long as the cycle continues no release will be found, and beings will continue to wander repeatedly through existences affected by ignorance and suffering. So we ponder how kamma sustains the cycle of suffering and how we might escape this beginningless cycle of suffering.
The image of a circle, however, is not entirely satisfactory. It might give students the erroneous impression that death is the immediate cause of ignorance. In addition to the traditional circle design, Buddhist teachers have presented the twelve factors as a chain, a web, and a knotted ball of thread. The image of a chain highlights the conditioned dependency of each link but may place too much emphasis on a linear sequence. A web design invites a multifaceted and nonsequential exploration of the relations between the twelve factors. A knotted ball of string, however, might offer the most satisfactory image: an image of looping, intertwined, nonlinear sequences of causation.231 A mind conditioned by ignorance is entangled in suffering through complex patterns that may be difficult to untie. As various threads are patiently pulled, loosened, and rearranged, even tight knots eventually become loose. Similarly, even deeply ingrained mental patterns can be released and abandoned through systematic training. Just as a knotted ball of string can unravel and become useful, a mind confused by ignorance can be purified and see the ultimate nature of things. Meditative investigation of the twelve factors of dependent arising explores not only how the mind gets entangled in patterns that perpetuate suffering, but also encourages the removal of ignorance at every stage of the process.
TABLE 15.1
Twelve Links of Dependent Arising
Beginning with Ignorance
The Buddha taught, “Not knowing suffering, not knowing the origin of suffering, not knowing the cessation of suffering, not knowing the way leading to the cessation of suffering. This is called ignorance.”232 An ignorant mind does not comprehend either the subtlety or the magnitude of suffering, and it therefore misses the primary purpose of this path. When we are affected by ignorance, we believe the unreal to be real, disregard the impermanent nature of things, mistake what causes suffering for potential happiness, and misapprehend ephemeral conditions as being self. Ignorance misperceives and distorts perceptions to the point that experience is mistakenly interpreted as stable, a cause of lasting happiness, and a sufficient foundation for self-concepts. According to the Abhidhamma, the characteristic of ignorance is the unknowing of the ultimate constituents of mental and material processes, the function of ignorance is to confuse, and its manifestation is the concealing of the individual essence of things. In daily life ignorance is recognized through its effects: a grasping at fleeting experiences as though they are really mine or myself, resulting in the perpetuation of suffering.
Although we start the description of the twelve links of dependent arising with ignorance, the Buddha cautioned that “a first beginning of ignorance cannot be discerned, of which it can be said, ‘before that, there was no ignorance and it came to be after that.’”233 Although we can never know the origin of ignorance, we can understand that it is activated only when the necessary conditions arise, such as an absence of mindfulness and wise attention.
With Ignorance as Condition, Volitional Formations Come to Be
Volitional formations are clusters of mental formations that enable an experience to come into existence. This element in the chain of causation includes the intention plus the mental formations that arise in association with that intention. Volitional formations can produce kamma. They arise with the volitional activities of body, speech, and mind. The classic definition summarizes volitional formation as having the characteristic of forming, its function is to accumulate kamma, and it manifests through volition. In a multiple lifetime scheme, formations or activities that occur in the previous life instigate the rebirth-linking process that generates the new life. Through observing the causal formations, meditators will recognize how volitional formations that produce renewed existences are invariably linked to ignorance.
With Volitional Formations as Condition, Consciousness Comes to Be
Consciousness has the characteristic of cognizing an object. Consciousness cannot be known separate from materiality, feeling, perceptions, and formations, which arise together as the five aggregates of experience. It occurs in six classes—eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, and mind-consciousness—as these arise in the various mind-moments that compose the cognitive processes (explored in chapter 13), and in the rebirth-linking process. The volitional formations that accrue during one lifetime ripen through the formation of a new conscious existence. Consciousness also functions as the forerunner of mental factors and manifests as a continuity of processes through bridging cognitive processes during the course of a lifetime of perceptions and supporting the causal relationships that govern the rebirth-linking process.
With Consciousness as Condition, Mentality and Materiality Come to Be
Consciousness and mentality-materiality are interdependent. Mentality does not include materiality, and materiality does not include mentality, yet they occur together in mutual dependence. Traditional teachings illustrate the partnership with a story of two traveling companions—a blind man and a cripple. The cripple (representing mentality) climbs onto the shoulders of the blind man (representing materiality), and by sharing their abilities—one steers and the other provides the momentum—they successfully navigate the road, avoid obstructions, and reach their destination.234 The aspect of mentality-materiality includes all the elements and factors that are associated with material and mental phenomena. Basically this includes everything that appears to us.
Material factors were addressed in chapter 12 and include the four elements (earth, water, fire, wind) with their derived materialities. The characteristic of materiality is traditionally described as being “molested by change”; its function is to be dispersed or altered; its manifestation is indeterminate, implying that material elements do not possess the nature to produce kamma.
Mental factors were addressed in chapters 13 and 14 and include the fifty-two mental factors, which may alternatively be structured as the four mental aggregates of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. Each specific element or factor bears its own characteristics, but in the framework of the twelve links of dependent arising we shall focus on the characteristic of mentality as a whole—how it bends toward its object. Mentality functions to associate with the object of perception; it manifests in this formula through the rebirth-linking between multiple lives.
With Mentality and Materiality as Condition, the Six Sense Bases Come to Be
Sensory experience relies upon mental and material elements. The six sense bases represent the internal material support for eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. These bases are naturally ready to receive stimulus from the environment. They have the characteristic of enlarging, actuating, or extending the sphere of experience; they function as seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking; and they manifest as the state of material base and door. The six sense bases represent the specific dynamic of mental-material phenomena that is responsive to sensory impingement. They are the means through which we make contact with the world.
With the Six Sense Bases as Condition, Contact Comes to Be
Contact describes the meeting of the sense door, consciousness, and sense object. The characteristic of contact is touching; its function is impinging; it manifests as coincidence of material base, object, and consciousness. Likened to a fire that is generated by the rubbing of sticks, contact is produced from impact on the six sense bases.235 It is in the moment of contact that the accumulation of our conditioning is aroused. If we are under the sway of ignorance as we experience sensory phenomena, then we might react in a mode that will lead to suffering; if we are mindful and attentive to the nature of things, we might respond in a mode that diminishes greed and hate, and lightens the burden of ignorance. Through meditation practice we examine how ignorance conditions moment-to-moment contacts in both refined meditative structures and in the mundane expressions of everyday life.
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