Wisdom Wide and Deep

by Shaila Catherine

  2. The knowledge of discerning cause and condition. With this knowledge you vividly see the dependently arisen nature of the five aggregates—materiality, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. This is accomplished by successfully contemplating causes and effects throughout past, present, and future lifetimes as explained in chapter 15. Through carefully analyzing causes and effects, you will discover the patterns that condition your life and learn how they sustain the cycle of suffering.

  You will investigate the mechanisms that generate the mind and body, and see how events unfold due to causes and conditions. It will become clear, for instance, that eye-consciousness arises dependent upon the eye and visual objects, and that contact conditions feeling. This meditative practice illuminates the basic understanding that actions lead to results; causes condition existence. With the first knowledge (knowledge of analyzing mentality and materiality) you will have discerned each material element and mental factor with their distinct properties and functions. With the development of this second knowledge (knowledge of discerning cause and condition) you begin to understand the causal interrelationship of material and mental processes. It is through this examination that you will understand that events do not conform to your plans, are not determined by fate, and are not the design of a creator god.

  To comprehend the interaction of mind and matter you may become aware of how an intention to lift the foot causes the lifting of the foot, how an intention to stretch the arm causes the stretching of the arm, yet no person is causing the lifting and stretching; no being is there stretching or lifting. It is merely a lawful interplay of causally related events. Intellectual understanding does not remove the false view of self. It is the power of direct knowledge that dispels the distortion of I-formations.

  Through this meditative training you will observe a moment of sensory contact and find only interrelated causally related processes. Contact occurs dependent on the six sense bases (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind); feelings arise dependent on contact; feelings condition craving; craving conditions clinging; clinging propels the mind toward a formation of becoming; becoming gives rise to the birth of the sense of self. Finally, the conditionality of the psychophysical processes is carefully discerned. Recognize experience as an effect formed through a chain of causes.

  Although people may cling to the five aggregates or attribute substantiality to mind and body, you will see that in fact birth arises when the past causes of craving, ignorance, and grasping conspire to produce continued existence. This insight knowledge reveals three phases of the round of becoming: (1) the cycle of defilements (kilesavaṭṭa), (2) the cycle of actions (kammavaṭṭa), and (3) the cycle of results (vipākavaṭṭa). The cycle of defilements is the interaction of ignorance, craving, grasping, and wrong views that perpetuate future existence. The cycle of action is the functional aspect of those defilements; it is represented by the kamma force produced by both wholesome and unwholesome actions. The cycle of results is the pleasant and painful results of those actions.

  At this stage of the practice, your concentration and clarity will be strong enough to clearly discern many things while engaged in vipassanā meditation. However, perceptions may be disappearing so quickly that it might be difficult to see their endings. Meditators may be acutely aware of the arising and standing stage of both mental and material objects, but often the subsequent arising phenomena seem to come so quickly that you have not noticed the ending of the previous perception before you are drawn toward the arising of the new one. Some meditators feel overwhelmed by the plethora of perceptions that arise at this stage. The challenges at this stage are balanced by the understanding that ignorance, craving, and grasping produce painful effects, and also, relinquishment, compassion, and mindfulness produce profitable effects.297 Your practice will bear fruit; your skillful actions will bring a desired result.

  Informed by a strong taste of the conditioned nature of all experience and empowered by the deepening faith in the effectiveness of the path, this investigation gradually unfolds through the next few stages.

  3. The knowledge of comprehension. This stage involves perceiving the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self characteristic of all mental and material phenomena and their causes—internally, externally, near, far, gross, subtle, across past lives, throughout current existence, and into the future. The knowledge of comprehension is developed by contemplating groupings such as the five aggregates or twelve bases, and also by contemplating individual material or mental factors one by one. It encompasses the recognition of everything in the infinite universe as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self. When you develop the knowledge of comprehension through the sustained explorations of the vipassanā exercises in chapter 17, you will know unequivocally that three characteristics apply to all conditioned phenomena—nothing is apart, excluded, or spared. Impermanence is comprehended; suffering is comprehended; not-self is comprehended.

  Now, every type of matter, mental constituent, causal relation, and cognitive process (including sense-sphere, jhāna, wholesome, and unwholesome processes) must be contemplated as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self. The exhaustive contemplations characteristic of this stage can be time consuming, but they are invaluable. Variations in the exercises that were introduced in chapter 17 prevent stagnation and weariness, and demand that attention genuinely discern phenomena as not I, not mine, and not myself. It is important that the examination of phenomena be comprehensive—internal, external, near, far, gross, subtle, past, present, and future—and includes all materiality, mentality, and causal relationships. If you only examined preferred perceptions, only looked internally, or only discerned present causes, you might dismiss the universal and liberating truth that all formations whatsoever, mental or material, past, present, and future, for all existences—everyone, everywhere—are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self. The vast and far-reaching comprehension of impermanence, suffering, and selflessness distinguishes this insight knowledge.

  When your vipassanā practice has reached this stage of development, you’ll find that you will be able to perform the detailed insight meditation practices described in chapter 17 without difficulty, but meditation may still require a great deal of energy. You may need to refresh attention with periodic “dips” into jhāna or concentration practice. Now you will successfully observe the beginning, middle, and end of mental and material processes more easily than in previous stages, but the discernment is not complete and the contemplation may feel a bit clumsy. Phenomena will still arise and pass more rapidly than your attention can perceive, so you may tend to see things as groups or concepts, rather than refined and meticulous perceptions. The contemplation is only partial and inconsistent at this stage. Sometimes characteristics are vividly clear, other times they are not so clear; sometimes arising is clear; other times the perishing is more clear. The traditional illustration of this stage portrays a man who uses a cane or walking stick to support his stride. The amount of ground that the walking stick or cane touches is small compared to the areas where it does not make contact. Similarly, although the meditator genuinely discerns some arising and passing of phenomena, there are many gaps in attention.

  This can be a tumultuous stage for some meditators. The intensity of the insight practice can cause agitation if they think about their personal past causes or future possibilities. An overwhelming perception of impermanence and suffering can lead to boredom, withdrawal, or exhaustion. The heightened sensitivity may make some meditators prone to overreact to minor inconveniences, or to tumble into a cascading profusion of aversion or fear. However, as the knowledge of comprehension matures, a pervasive perception of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and emptiness brings the poignant realization that everything arises and dissolves; nothing is enduring, controllable, or possessable.

  4. The knowledge of arising and passing away. There are two parts to this stage, the tender knowledge of arising and passing away and the mature knowledge of
arising and passing away.

  4a. The tender knowledge of arising and passing away. This fourth knowledge reveals the characteristics of the arising and passing away of phenomena intensely, clearly, and distinctly. Now the meditator will be able to perceive ultimate materiality and ultimate mentality arising and perishing, without falling back on course perceptions and compact concepts, groupings, or states. The truth of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self becomes evident in every perception—you see it everywhere you look. When your perception is informed by insight, you will have a vivid “with your own eyes” type of experience, and know with certain knowledge that “only what is subject to falling arises, and to be arisen necessitates fall.”298

  At this stage the meditator contemplates the causal and momentary arising and perishing, and both the arising and perishing of causes and effects as described in Meditation Instructions 18.1 and 18.2. The tender knowledge of arising and perishing is attained when two aspects of direct knowledge reveal that it is only through the cessation of causes that effects will cease.

  Insight regarding causal arising and perishing. The insight into causal arising occurs with the direct insight that causes create the conditions for every birth into a new existence. The insight into causal perishing occurs with the direct insight that due to the cessation of those causes, the cycle of successive arising and the round of rebirths ends. This insight highlights the profound mark of an arahant—with the eradication of defilement and the complete cessation of the five causes (ignorance, craving, clinging, volitional formations, and kamma potency), the five aggregates end with the death of the arahant and do not produce any future arising.

  Insight regarding momentary arising and perishing. This insight highlights the successive arising and ceasing of mental and material processes, moment-by-moment, lifetime after lifetime. It reveals the incessant flow of rapidly changing causes, conditions, and effects that constitute life experiences.

  MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 18.1

  Contemplating the Arising and Perishing of Causes and Effects According to the Fifth Method

  1. Establish concentration. To contemplate causal arising and perishing, discern (according to meditation instruction 15.1 steps 10 and 11, 15.4, and 15.5) your past and future existences until they come to an end.

  Recognize causal arising by observing that every mentality and materiality occurs due to five past causes—the supporting causes of ignorance, craving, and clinging, plus the productive causes of volitional formations and kamma potency. Systematically observe that, because of the arising of past causes, mentality and materiality arise.

  Recognize causal perishing by seeing that the powerful insight of the arahant path that occurs during your final existence destroys the subtle defilements of ignorance, craving, and attachment. Without these supporting causes, the production of a new birth cannot occur. Systematically confirm that because of the cessation of ignorance, craving, and clinging, neither mentality nor materiality is produced after the death of the arahant. Recognize the cessation of the round of rebirths by thoroughly contemplating the final cessation of causes and effects. For example contemplate that, because of the arising of ignorance, feeling/perception/volitional formations/consciousness arises; because of the complete cessation of ignorance, feeling/perception/volitional formations/consciousness ceases without remainder with the death of the arahant.

  2. Contemplate momentary arising and perishing to see that all formations, including causes and effects, arise and perish, moment by moment. For example, see that both the cause (ignorance) and the effect (alternately discern feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness) perish as soon as they arise. Observe sense-door or mind-door cognitive processes during the course of each lifetime and systematically contemplate the successive arising and perishing of mental and material processes throughout past, present, and future lives. Every aggregate, element, and formation that you will find in every cognitive process perishes as soon as it arises.

  Through a careful examination of the causal and momentary arising and perishing of past, present, and future phenomena, you will recognize the two kinds of cessation: 1) cessation in which subsequent arising continues to occur, and 2) cessation in which there is no further arising.

  3. To contemplate the causal and momentary arising and perishing of causes and effects with insight repeat the sequence linking causes and effects from your earliest past life through to your final existence, but this time contemplate:

  Because of the arising of causes, effects arise.

  Because of the cessation of causes, effects cease.

  The causes are impermanent, suffering, and not-self.

  The effects are impermanent, suffering, and not-self.

  In each case you would identify the specific phenomena and causal relationship that you are observing, precisely discern the relevant mental factors and material elements, and alternately contemplate them as impermanent, suffering, and not-self. For example, when contemplating the arising and ceasing of ignorance you would discern twelve mental formations in the mind-door adverting moment, usually twenty mental formations in the impulsion mind-moments, and if a registration mind-moment occurs, see its eleven to thirty-four formations (see tables 13.8, 13.9, and 13.10). Then contemplate each component as impermanent, suffering, and not-self.

  This is a systematic and exhaustive contemplation that encompasses every kind of formation involved in the production of a new life, and every phase in sense-door and mind-door cognitive processes that can occur during the course of each lifetime. Presenting every possible discernment here would require many pages and be boring to read, so a few simple illustrations of the contemplation will suffice. Practitioners may refer to the Visuddhimagga for more details, and seek guidance from qualified teachers.299

  Illustration 1: Because of the arising of ignorance, kamma-produced materiality arises. Because of the cessation of ignorance, kamma-produced materiality ceases. Ignorance is impermanent. Kamma-produced materiality is impermanent.

  Illustration 2: Because of the arising of object, perception arises. Because of the cessation of object, perception ceases. Object is suffering. Perception is suffering.

  Illustration 3: Because of the arising of eye-contact, feeling born of eye-contact arises. Because of the cessation of eye-contact, feeling born of eye-contact ceases. Eye-contact is not-self. Feeling born of eye-contact is not-self.

  MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 18.2

  Contemplating the Arising and Perishing of Causes and Effects According to the First Method

  You may also use the First Method for exploring dependent arising (explained in meditation instruction 15. 6) to attain insight into the arising and perishing of causes and effects. The progression is similar to the foregoing instructions for the Fifth Method.

  a) To meditate on arising, review the sequence of meditation instructions in 15.6 and begin the discernment as follows: because of the arising of ignorance, volitional formations arise; because of the arising of volitional formations, consciousness arises…

  b) To meditate on perishing, follow the sequence in meditation instruction 15.6 beginning the discernment as follows: because of the cessation of ignorance, volitional formations cease; because of the cessation of volitional formations, consciousness ceases…

  c) To gain insight into the arising and perishing of causes and effects begin the discernment as follows: because of the arising of ignorance, volitional formations arise; because of the cessation of ignorance, volitional formations cease; ignorance is impermanent [suffering, not-self]; volitional formations are impermanent [suffering, not-self].

  Thoroughly meditate on the causal factors that characterize each link in the chain of dependent arising, meditating on phenomena internally and externally, past, present, and future, throughout successive lifetimes. Link causes and effects, and then alternately contemplate each cause and each effect as impermanent, suffering, and not-self.

  In this stage the meditator will
continue to thoroughly contemplate mental and material phenomena as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self; as “this is not I, this is not mine, this is not myself”; or in the forty ways described in chapter 17.300 As the vipassanā exercises are practiced, the mind grows increasingly light, quick, and pure. Now the meditator is able to observe the rapidly arising and passing phases clearly. Although many things occur together—materiality, mentality, causal arising, contemplation, knowledge—consciousness is efficient, sharp, and pliant enough to observe these subtle and rapidly arising and passing formations and see that “all formations are impermanent, all formations are subject to suffering, and all things are not-self.”301

  As the vivid recognition of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and emptiness makes an impression on consciousness, the meditator might experience a heightened enthusiasm for the Buddha’s teaching and the power of this practice that could lead to visions of grandeur, the fantasy of becoming a great teacher, or zealous proselytizing. However, at this stage meditators are still subject to ten corruptions, impediments, or imperfections of insight that can cause agitation, distraction, complacency, or sidetrack the unwary meditator.302 These imperfections are not unwholesome; they arise with vipassana meditation and are tied to insight. The experiences themselves are not errors, but they can impede the progress of insight if you delight in them, become seduced through craving or pride, or construct a view of self based on these meditative experiences. It would be a trap to feel special because of your attainments; it would be a mistake to consider the experiences associated with concentration and insight to be a possession that you deserve. Your hard-won accomplishments become corruptions if you cling to them. These experiences too must be contemplated as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self until you deeply understand that they are not the liberating path.