Wisdom Wide and Deep

by Shaila Catherine

  4. You may apply this procedure to discern causes and effects of the five aggregates of additional past lives, linking the third past life to the second, and linking the fourth past life with the third, and so on. A series of four past lives may be a convenient quantity for a beginner to discern. This can provide a sampling of lifetimes to incorporate into the vipassanā meditations introduced in the next chapter. Additionally, it offers a glimpse of the seeds of meritorious conduct and wisdom, and the roots of the aspiration for awakening, in your kammic stream. Experts in this practice may discern the unbroken stream of conditioning back as far as they like.

  MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 15.5

  Discerning Future Existences

  1. Establish your concentration and review the discernment of mentality and materiality in the present moment. Review meditation instructions 15.2 and 15.3.

  2. Then project your attention into the future and discern the mental and material processes that may occur one minute in the future. Follow the stream of mental and material processes forward a few minutes, and again discern the ultimate realities that you find. Follow the stream of arising and perishing phenomena forward one hour, and discern mentality and materiality again. Discern the future occurrence of the five aggregates at periodic intervals until you reach your near-death moment.

  3. Discern your inclination toward the next life. Tease out the ignorance, craving, and clinging that surrounds the inclination.

  4. See the near-death sign or nimitta—the object that arises in the last moment of consciousness and the mental formations and kamma potency associated with this sign.

  5. Crossover into the next existence and discern the formation of that mentality and materiality. Note that thirty-one to thirty-five mental factors are needed to generate a human or celestial life, and the quantity of factors depends upon the kamma that produced that consciousness. In a human existence the heart base kalāpas, body kalāpas, and sex-determining kalāpas will arise first, but life in various celestial realms may have different material compositions.

  6. Observe carefully, until you are confident that there is a causal relationship between the kamma potency that you discerned and the initial production of the materiality at conception. Check that the object of the consciousness at conception is the same object held by the final mental process in the previous life. Discern back and forth across the threshold between lifetimes, checking and linking causes with effects.

  7. You may discern the corpse composed of only temperature-produced matter, or perceive an ultrasubtle state of death where the object of consciousness is that which was known at conception and in the life-continuum moments of the existence that is perishing. This is the final subtle appearance of that object.

  8. At intervals throughout the duration of this future lifetime, discern the past and present causes that produce the five aggregates as you find them. When you arrive at the near-death moment of this first future existence, carefully discern the causes that produce an effect of a second future existence. Know the ignorance, craving, clinging, volitional formations, kamma potency, and the sign or object. Link the causes from one life to the effects in the next life. Be sure that the same object is shared by the four states of existence:

  (a) the near-death consciousness in the first future life,

  (b) conception in the second future life,

  (c) life-continuum consciousnesses throughout the course of the second future lifetime,

  (d) the death moment when this second future life ends.

  9. Discern the mental and material formations of all future existences until you reach the end of your kammic stream.

  MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 15.6

  Exploring Causal Relationships between the Twelve Links 253

  The following exercise introduces practical contemplation for the first method of discerning causes and effects that was mentioned in this chapter. This first method describes a way to contemplate each link in the chain of dependent arising in forward order from ignorance to death. This is accomplished by observing the rebirth-linking process through successive past and future lives, and wholesome and unwholesome cognitive processes that occur during the course of each life span (see meditation instructions 15.1–15.5). Since the contemplation focuses on causal relationships, it emphasizes the mind-moments that are the result of past kamma: (1) conception, (2) life-continuum, (3) death, (4) eye door, (5) ear door, (6) nose door, (7) tongue door, (8) body door, (9) receiving, (10) investigating, and (11) registration.

  Through the previous exercises you will have already seen how ignorance, craving, clinging, volitional formations, and kamma potency that arose at the end of your previous life instigated this present existence. Now link the causal factors in forward order as follows:

  1. Because of the arising of ignorance, volitional formations arise. Ignorance is the cause; volitional formations are the effects. Be sure that you discern the associated mental factors for each part of the mind-door cognitive series associated with both ignorance and volitional formations. Twelve mental factors compose the mind-door adverting consciousnesses; the unwholesome impulsion consciousness of ignorance will have approximately twenty mental factors; the wholesome impulsion consciousness of volitional formations will have approximately thirty-four mental factors.

  2. Because of the arising of volitional formations, consciousness arises. To reveal the causal relationships between volitional formations and consciousness, observe sense-sphere cognitive processes while contemplating: because of the arising of volitional formations, consciousness arises; volitional formations are the cause, consciousness is the effect. Discern each specific type of consciousness that arises as a result of kamma: eye door, ear door, nose door, tongue door, body door, receiving, investigating, and registration. Recognize the mental factors associated with each mind-moment. Then discern the rebirth-linking process while continuing to contemplate: because of the arising of volitional formations, consciousness arises; volitional formations are the cause; consciousness is the effect. Focus on the consciousnesses that are the result of past kamma: conception, life-continuum, and death.

  3. Because of the arising of consciousness, mentality-materiality arises. The causal connection between consciousness and the mentality-materiality link emphasizes the discernment that our present formation of mentality and materiality is dependent upon the consciousness associated with the wholesome kamma from the previous life.

  (a) Discern the mental and material formations associated with the meritorious action in the past life and link them to matter and mind that arise with conception, life-continuum, and death moments as you consider: because of the arising of past consciousness, mentality-materiality arises; consciousness is the cause; mentality-materiality is the effect.

  (b) Discern a sensory process, and observe the mental formations that arise in each resultant phase of that cognitive process. Contemplate the support provided by the past consciousness that enables the current process to occur. For example, contemplate: because of the arising of past consciousness, mentality-materiality associated eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind arise; consciousness is the cause, mentality-materiality is the effect. Similarly, contemplate the causal force that is exerted on the resultant phases of receiving, investigating, and registration mind-moments by linking past consciousness with the formation of mentality and materiality.

  (c) To consider the concomitant support of consciousness and mentality-materiality, observe each resultant formation and contemplate the causal relationships that intertwine mental and material formations with their associated consciousnesses. Observe the kammically formed consciousnesses that arise with conception, life-continuum, death, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, receiving, investigating, and registration mind-moments. For example, contemplate: because of the arising of eye-consciousness, mentality-materiality associated with the eye door arises; consciousness is the cause, mentality-materiality is the effect. Or contemplate: because of the arising of receiving consci
ousness, mentality-materiality associated with receiving consciousness arises; consciousness is the cause, mentality-materiality is the effect. Or contemplate: because of the arising of conception consciousness, mentalitymateriality associated with conception arises; consciousness is the cause, mentality-materiality is the effect.

  4. Because of the arising of mentality-materiality, six sense bases arise. To unravel interconnections between mentality-materiality and the six sense bases, five distinct causal relationships are highlighted.

  (a) Mentality is seen as the cause for the arising of mentality. Specifically, the cause is the mentality that includes the mental factors associated with consciousness in any given mind-moment, and the effect is the mentality that includes the consciousness arising with those mental factors. While discerning wholesome and unwholesome cognitive processes occurring at each sense door, or reviewing the transition between death and rebirth, contemplate the causal relationship of mentality and materiality occurring in each mind-moment. Emphasize the mind-moments that are the result of past kamma.

  (b) Mentality is seen as the cause for the arising of materiality. Specifically, mentality is defined as the mental factors that arise dependent upon a material sense base that supports them. Interestingly, the cause arises subsequent to the effect, and yet their mutual dependence is classified as a causal relationship.

  (c) Materiality is seen as the cause for the arising of materiality. Specifically, the materiality defined as the four elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and their derived materialities are the cause for the arising of the six sense bases. This analysis looks into each type of kalāpa at the six sense bases to highlight the fact that the material group (kalāpa) depends upon its constituent elements (rūpas).

  (d) Materiality is seen as the cause for the arising of mentality. Specifically, the material sense base provides the support for consciousness and its associated mental factors.

  (e) Mentality-materiality is seen as the cause for the arising of mentality. In this step the mental factors and material sense bases are seen together and function as the cause for the arising of the associated consciousness.

  5. Because of the arising of six sense bases, contact arises. To contemplate the causal connections between the sense bases and contact, consider the six sense bases to include not only the internal material support for eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, but also the external object: color, sound, odor, flavor, tactile object, and mental object. Contact includes the momentary arising of the associated mental factors in each phase of the cognitive series. As you discern a cognitive process, observe four conditions as the cause for the arising of contact at each mind-moment: the material base, the object, consciousness, and the associated mental factors. Contact is the term that designates the concurrence of these four mutually dependent conditions.

  6. Because of the arising of contact, feeling arises. Feeling arises with contact at the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind doors. As you observe a cognitive process, recognize that feeling is associated with contact. The feeling that arises is directly linked to the type of contact that occurred. For example, the feeling of an ear-door cognitive process depends upon the feeling associated with sound-contact. The feeling that is present during a bodydoor cognitive process depends upon the feeling associated with touch.

  7. Because of the arising of feeling, craving arises. Craving may follow immediately after a feeling is experienced, or it may be separated by many moments or cognitive processes. Craving is not an inevitable result of every feeling; every experience of craving, however, depends upon a feeling. Observe the transition between lifetimes and discern the occurrence of the kamma in the previous life. Focus on the feeling, and contemplate how that feeling is the cause for the craving for renewed existence.

  8. Because of the arising of craving, clinging arises. To contemplate the link between craving and clinging, focus your attention on the craving for future existence (discerned in meditation instruction 15.5), and see the clinging to new existence that follows from that craving. Also, observe when sensory experiences of craving intensify into clinging during daily life encounters.

  9. Because of the arising of clinging, becoming arises. Becoming is embedded in the force produced by ignorance, craving, and, clinging. Observe the force produced by any group of ignorance, craving, and clinging that is being accumulated for a future life. Link the cause of clinging to the force for becoming, and see how it might support a new existence.

  10. Because of the arising of becoming, birth arises. By observing the transitions between lifetimes, observe that this kamma potency of becoming is a cause for the next birth.

  11. Because birth arises, aging, sickness, and death arise. The causal link between birth and death can be understood by contemplating the life span from birth to death, or by regarding the impermanence of momentary mental and material events. Although aging and death must inevitably follow from birth, the experience of sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair will depend upon various factors, most notably, the presence of ignorance, craving, and clinging. Notice if and when these amplified manifestations of suffering occur, and trace their roots through the cycle of dependent arising.

  CHAPTER 16

  A Thorough Examination: Recognizing the Characteristic, Function, Manifestation, and Proximate Cause

  When a person has assessed the world from top to bottom; when there is nothing in the world that raises a flicker of agitation, then he has become a person free … He has become calm. He has gone beyond getting old; he has gone beyond being born.

  —SUTTA NIPĀTA254

  YOU HAVE ALREADY gained a basic overview of mental and material phenomena; however, a detailed training will also include the careful contemplation of each factor according to its characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause. The characteristic (lakkhaṇa) highlights the most salient and irreducible quality of the phenomena. The function (rasa) identifies the dynamic action of the factor, how it performs a task, or achieves a goal. The manifestation (paccupaṭṭhāna) describes how it presents itself in lived experience. The proximate cause (padaṭṭhāna) points out immediately preceding conditions that permit the factor to occur.

  Readers familiar with the theory of meditation presented in the Abhidhamma may have recognized the fourfold definitions of characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause embedded in the previous chapters and discerned phenomena accordingly. Other students might have discerned the subtle realities of mind, matter, and dependent arising in a brief or intuitive way, and now they may enhance their understanding by applying this formal structure. In keeping with a traditional approach to training, at this juncture Pa-Auk Sayadaw asked me to study the fourfold definitions for each of the twenty-eight kinds of material elements, fifty-two mental factors, various types of consciousness that arise in the cognitive process, and twelve links in the chain of dependent arising. This detailed recapitulation of the ultimate realities marks the final stage of discernment in which you are gathering and examining objects that you will use for insight meditation.

  The basic exercise is rather simple. First, memorize the traditional fourfold description for each element and factor as defined in Tables 16.1–16.5. Succinct definitions of the factors can be found in A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma,255 the Visuddhimagga, and many other traditional Buddhist sources. Second, discern each element and factor explained in chapters 12–15 again, now highlighting the fourfold defining features. Although you might be eager to move on and want to skip over what could appear to be a tedious review, there is benefit in this meticulous and careful identification of each object according to its traditional fourfold description. Once the specificity of phenomena is thoroughly clarified, you will be well prepared for the forthcoming and liberating contemplation of the general characteristics of those same objects—as impermanent, suffering, and not-self. A comprehensive understanding of phenomena includes the comprehension of both the specific and general chara
cteristics.

  MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 16.1

  Defining Phenomena by Characteristic, Function, Manifestation, and Proximate Cause

  1. For ease of memorization, you might tackle this exercise in sections. Start with the material elements, later progress to consciousness and the associated mental factors, and finish with the cycle of dependent arising. Memorize the characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate causes for each element.

  2. Discern and analyze a kalāpa, which you shall define. For example, you may begin with an eye-decad kalāpa that you discern in your eye door. You will find earth, water, fire, and wind elements, along with color, odor, flavor, and nutritive essence, plus an array of nonconcrete materialities such as space, growth, decay, lightness, and so on, composing the eye-decad kalāpa. While discerning the earth element in the eye door, define it according to characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause. Then discern the water element, and contemplate water according to its fourfold definition. Similarly, examine every type of constituent found at each sense door and forty-two parts of the body (see chapters 5 and 12), and define each phenomenon one by one according to its characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause.

  3. After you have contemplated the twenty-eight types of material elements, examine the fourfold defining features of consciousness, feeling, perception, and mental factors. Memorize the characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate causes for each mental component.

  4. To define mentality, stimulate a cognitive event—for example, hearing a sound. While focusing on the cognitive process that experiences a sound, discern and define the specific mentality associated with the mind-door adverting consciousness according to characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause. Then discern and define mentality associated with ear-consciousness according to these fourfold definitions. In the same way discern and define the mental constituents associated with receiving, investigating, determining, impulsion, and registration consciousnesses. Carefully examine the cognitive series by applying this fourfold defining structure to your recognition of each type of mentality associated with each mind-moment.