THE CHARACTERISTIC OF NOT-SELF (ANATTĀ)
The concept of self is one of the most primary mental constructs. The insight into not-self, selflessness, or emptiness reveals that there is no fixed entity behind your experience and no stable definition of who you are. Basically there is no static, fixed essence, no self to whom your life happens. The Buddha taught the insight into not-self by way of impermanence, or suffering, or both impermanence and suffering.268 Buddhist commentaries explain that when a plate or saucer falls and breaks, impermanence is obvious; and when a person is pierced by a splinter or thorn, suffering is obvious; “but, the characteristic of no-self is unobvious, dark, unclear, difficult to penetrate, difficult to illustrate, difficult to make known.”269
To tease out the perception of not-self through a refined practice of vipassanā meditation, you observe mental and material phenomena arise and perish; this is the insight into impermanence. You recognize that due to this constant change, there is nothing to hold on to for happiness; this is the insight into suffering. You realize that since all the psychophysical events occur due to causes and conditions and are outside your control, you don’t need to take life personally; this is the insight into anattā. You cannot decide, “body, do not get sick or grow old!” You cannot decide, “mind, do not become feeble, do not feel pain!” Fundamentally, mind and matter are just impersonal processes that are causally related. You may look very closely, but you will find nothing that transfers intact from the past, to the present, or into the future. Yet there are causal relations that usher the next moment into being. There is no creator of our future, and yet nothing arises without a cause. Meticulously examine experience and discover for yourself that everything you discern, the tiniest of particles and the briefest of mind-moments, is not-self. This understanding elicits the insight regarding mind and matter that “this is not myself.” Not-self is not something that you must either create or fear; it is simply the fact of things.
Three Characteristics of Existence
Apply the standard sequence of three inquiry questions extracted from the Buddha’s discourses to examine any experience. When seeing a sight, hearing a sound, feeling a touch, or experiencing an emotion, ask yourself:
Is this permanent or impermanent?
Can something that is impermanent bring lasting satisfaction?
Can something that is impermanent and invariably brings suffering really be taken to be myself?
These questions can be interjected into any moment and nurture a quiet contemplation of whatever the attention is observing—breath, pain, sounds, thoughts, intentions, desires, and so on.
SPOTLIGHT ON EXPERIENCE
Insight is not intended to foster cleverness, speculation, or intellectual knowledge. Insight refers to an immediate knowing that will move you beyond the fragmentation of the conceptual mind. Problems arise only through how you conceive of things. You make experience problematic by conceiving of the impermanent as permanent, by interpreting that which is unreliable as satisfactory, and by viewing what is impermanent and unreliable as self.270 Vipassanā meditation techniques are designed to counter these misperceptions. With insight, for a brief moment you may step outside conditioned patterns and see beyond familiar frames of reference. This knowledge is not bound by the intellect; it is not limited to ideas and concepts; and it is difficult to adequately describe with language. Yet insight has the power of releasing the tension of grasping, ending the strain of clinging. When you see clearly, you will feel open, at ease, content, unconflicted, unconfused, unagitated, and profoundly peaceful.
Insight transforms the fundamental way people experience life. It is like a spotlight that puts experience into clear view. When we perceive anicca, we do not cling. When we perceive dukkha, we do not cling. When we perceive anattā, we do not cling. These three insights are specifically cultivated in vipassanā practice because they prevent clinging and erode delusion. The direct perception of these characteristics implies a twofold understanding of the cause of suffering and the cessation of suffering. As the Buddha described, “One insight is that grasping is the basis of all suffering. The other insight is that by the complete cooling and cessation of all this grasping there is no more arising of suffering.”271
We train the attention to perceive these characteristics of impermanence, unreliability, and not-self, but the goal is not to walk around pointing out everything that is impermanent, or to annoy friends by continually discerning the suffering aspect of existence, or to amplify the empty characteristic of every activity. Vipassanā practice is not fixated on the sustained perception of these three characteristics which characterize conditioned existence; rather, the condition of the former infatuation with sensory experience is replaced by an attention that is markedly disenchanted. As the Buddha instructed his son Rāhula: “Seeing thus, Rāhula, a well-taught noble disciple becomes disenchanted with the eye, disenchanted with colors, disenchanted with eye-consciousness, disenchanted with eye-contact, and disenchanted with anything comprised within the feeling, perceptions, formations, and consciousness that arise with eye-contact as condition.”272 Insight leads to a profound disenchantment with mental and material phenomena, while deep joy accompanies this profound release of attachment.
Meditative training invites you to carefully examine phenomena and see, as the Buddha taught, that “both the internal element and the external element are simply [elements]. And that should be seen as it actually is with proper wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not myself.’ When one sees it thus as it actually is with proper wisdom, one becomes disenchanted with [the element] and makes the mind dispassionate towards [the element].”273 We see beyond conventional views of phenomena to gain liberating knowledge. The Buddha explained that clearly seeing the impermanence of feeling naturally propels the mind toward dispassion: “Seeing thus, a well-taught noble disciple becomes disenchanted with pleasant feeling, disenchanted with painful feeling, disenchanted with neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling. Being disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion [the mind] is liberated.”274 There is an almost automatic transformation that occurs as a consequence of seeing things as they are; it is a natural progression from clear seeing, through disenchantment, dispassion, and detachment, and toward liberation from attachment to the five aggregates.
DIFFICULT “D” WORDS
For some contemporary readers, the terms dispassion, disenchantment, and detachment can, unfortunately, trigger images of an aversive withdrawal from life. Yet if you brave association with these terms, you might come to appreciate how each negates a particular problem and does not suggest a disconnection with life.
Disenchantment describes the absence of the seductive force of titillated desire. It is not an aversive rejection but a simple suspension of the fascination that habitually seeks sensory gratification. A mind that is disenchanted sheds the entanglements that shackle it to this psychophysical process. Ajahn Chah, a master in the Thai Forest Tradition, likened disenchantment in the mind to unscrewing a bolt.275 The mind is unwound and untangled from entrenched distortions of attention.
Detachment describes the ease of a mind not adhering, not fixated, and not identified with the fleeting stream of lived events. There is a definite quality of release: what was confined and caught becomes unbolted or unhooked.
Dispassion implies the ending of suffering or the absence of passion. The term passion is derived from the Latin root which means suffering. Just as compassion, composed of com (with), and passion (suffering), describes the heart’s capacity to stay open in the presence of suffering, dispassion describes the heart’s capacity to stay open without suffering. Dispassion refers to a mind that stays steady and unperturbed by truth.
When clear seeing is established, you will find that much of what you had clung to regarding personality, social role, and personal preferences simply no longer feels attractive. You will be meditating on the three characteristics of the first three ultimate realities—matte
r (rūpa), mental factors (cetasika), and consciousness (citta)—in order to realize the fourth ultimate reality, nibbāna. Clearly seeing the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty nature of the five aggregates, we realize the fruit of awakening.276 The clarity of seeing the conditioned is the means to glimpse beyond conditioning. The relationship between the conditioned and the unconditioned is similar to the relationship between any number, big or small, to infinity. Infinity cannot be reached by adding more numbers. Similarly, the goal of the Buddha’s path is not attained by adding one more contemplation or practice. At some point, a certain clarity will arise that dislodges attachment and liberates the mind from misperception and ignorance.
BEYOND THE DESCRIBABLE
In a flash of insight, when clinging ceases, you may experience something beyond the describable and analyzable factors of mind and matter. It is as though the mind peels away or recoils from the incessant barrage of conditioned mental and material contacts and is naturally inclined toward what is of deepest importance in the spiritual life—the deathless liberation.277 At this point, a meditator’s “mind shrinks away from [the mental and material], turns back from it, rolls away from it, and is not drawn toward it, and either equanimity or revulsion toward it is established in him. Just as a cock’s feather or a strip of sinew, thrown into a fire, shrinks away from it, turns back from it, rolls away from it, and is not drawn toward it.”278 The mind turns toward a vast expression of peace, and rests with the unconditioned, the ultimate, the inexpressible, nibbāna as object. The Buddha said, “Whatever the phenomenon through which [beings] think of seeking their self identity, it turns out to be transitory. It becomes false, for what lasts for a moment is deceptive. The state that is not deceptive is nibbāna: that is what the men of worth know as being real. With this insight into reality their hunger ends: cessation, total calm.”279
Essentially, the mind finally lets go and experiences release; then later, consciousness again picks up the mundane processes of mind and matter, but something has changed. And when you return to your ordinary life, you will find that a deep shift occurred. Life may seem utterly fresh, while the mind is infused with profound equanimity. The conditioned processes of mind and body will no longer feel like a strong bond, merely an old tiring habit. The chains of craving and attachment have loosened. Ceasing to grasp after transient things for your happiness, security, and identity, you may discover a balance and joy through not-grasping, knowing happiness through letting go. The way of relating to phenomena has changed from an interaction based on clinging to an infinitely spacious clarity regarding all things. Allow clear seeing to inform your life.
STRUCTURED VIPASSANĀ MEDITATION INSTRUCTIONS
Each of the following meditation instructions presents traditional and refined methods for contemplating the characteristics of matter and mind. The casual reader may choose to skip or skim these exercises and continue reading with the next chapter. If you wish to genuinely experience these practices you will need to set some time aside, probably under retreat conditions. Prepare the mind for each exercise with the concentration practice of your choice and a review of the subtle realities previously discerned, which will include twenty-eight types of materiality (chapter 12), wholesome and unwholesome mental states (chapter 13), and causal conditions (chapter 15). Once your objects are clearly discerned, proceed to contemplate them according to each set of instructions. A well- concentrated mind will be quick, flexible, alert, and eager to apprehend the dynamic nature of conditioned phenomena. Meditators who have prepared their minds according to the instructions given throughout this book will find these contemplations to be astoundingly effective vehicles that unravel deeply conditioned patterns and lead to liberating insight.
MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 17.1
Contemplating the Characteristics of Materiality
1. Discern the types of ultimate materiality (rūpa) that exist in one sense door (see Tables 12.4–12.6). Be sure to discern ultimate material phenomena as individual characteristics, not general concepts, masses, or clusters. For this phase of vipassanā meditation, we only contemplate concrete materialities,280 not the nonconcrete materialities.281 Notice their nature to arise and pass away. Contemplate their impermanent nature as you observe each concrete rūpa actually arising and perishing. Do the same for all types of ultimate matter found at each of the six sense doors.
2. Now, consider the characteristic of suffering (dukkha), noticing that each material element is oppressed by constant arising and perishing. Contemplate all types of ultimate materiality at each sense door as suffering.
3. Then, meditate on the characteristic of not-self (anattā) by noticing the absence of any indestructible, lasting, or controlling entity in this morass of ephemeral events as you observe material phenomena arising and passing away at each sense door.
4. Similarly, analyze, discern, and contemplate the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness of all materiality by dividing the body into the thirty-two parts scheme presented in chapter 5. For a more thorough contemplation, expand the list by incorporating four manifestations of heat and six aspects of wind to produce a forty-two part scheme (see Table 12.7).
MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 17.2
Contemplating Phenomena One by One
1. Contemplate each individual component of ultimate material and mental phenomena and each causal relationship that you previously discerned. You will be seeing the same subtle elements and factors, only now you will emphasize the causal matrix within which they arise and pass. To do this, discern them one by one, and contemplate each as impermanent. You must actually discern the phenomena as you contemplate, so that you are perceiving the arising and perishing of subtle phenomena, not merely considering the concept of impermanence.
2. Repeat the sequential discernment of material and mental phenomena, contemplating them as suffering.
3. Repeat the sequence again, discerning all phenomena while contemplating them as not-self.
4. Then, sometimes meditate on their impermanence, sometimes their unsatisfactoriness, and sometimes the characteristic of emptiness. Repeatedly contemplate phenomena that are internal and external, near and far.
MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 17.3
Contemplating Material and Mental Phenomena as Impermanent, Unsatisfactory, and Not-Self
1. Divide phenomena into two categories: material and mental. Discern a cognitive process occurring at the eye door. Analyze the components of that cognitive process to discern their essential factors and elements.
2. Contemplate each individual component of ultimate material and mental phenomena and each casual relationship that you discern at the eye door as impermanent.
3. Repeat this thorough examination with phenomena occurring at each sense door (ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind).
4. Repeat the sequence of discerning, analyzing, and contemplating material and mental phenomena and their causal relationships, contemplating them as suffering and then again as not-self.
5. Sometimes meditate on mentality and materiality and their causal relationships as impermanent, sometimes as unsatisfactory, and sometimes as not-self. Contemplate phenomena that are internal and external, near and far—all while actually discerning the arising and perishing of each phenomenon. Alternately meditate on the three characteristics of material phenomena. Alternately meditate on the three characteristics of mental phenomena. Then, alternately meditate on the three characteristics of material and mental phenomena paired together.
6. Contemplate materiality and mentality at periodic intervals throughout the span of lifetimes, from the earliest lifetime that you have discerned through to the present moment, and then through to the end of your future existences.
7. Contemplate the causal relationships that occur throughout the lifetimes you have discerned, from the earliest lifetime through the present, and to the end of your future existences. Contemplate each link and each causal relationship in the chain of dependent arising, past, present, and future a
s impermanent, suffering, and not-self.
MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 17.4
Contemplating the Five Aggregates as Impermanent, Unsatisfactory, and Not-Self
1. Divide phenomena into the categories of the five aggregates (matter, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness) as described in chapter 14. Discern a cognitive process occurring at the eye door as practiced in chapter 13, and contemplate each aggregate as impermanent. You must actually discern the phenomena as you contemplate so that you are perceiving the arising and perishing of ultimate mentalities or materialities, and not merely thinking about the concepts of aggregates or impermanence.
2. Repeat the discernment, analysis, and contemplation of the impermanence of the psychophysical process as broken down into five aggregates through cognitive processes that occur at each remaining sense door (ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind).
3. Contemplate the five aggregates as suffering through cognitive processes occurring at all the six sense doors.
4. Repeat the sequence, contemplating the five aggregates as not-self in conjunction with cognitive processes occurring at all the six sense doors.
5. Sometimes meditate on their impermanence, sometimes on their unsatisfactoriness, and sometimes on their emptiness.
Repeatedly contemplate phenomena that are internal and external; near and far; past, present, and future, while actually discerning the arising and perishing of that phenomenon.
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