by Dalai Lama
Because this wheel [of saṃsāra] is not obtained from self, other,
or from both, in the past, present, or future,
[one who knows this] overcomes the grasping of I
and thereby karma and rebirth.
Cyclic existence — our five polluted aggregates — does not arise from itself in the sense that it does not exist already inside its causes waiting to manifest. Saṃsāra also does not arise from causes that are inherently different from it. Nor does it arise from both self and other together, or without a cause. Because there is no inherently existent origin of saṃsāra, an absolute beginning to a set of twelve links cannot be found in the past, present, or future. Those who realize the dependent nature of saṃsāra and the person who cycles in it can overcome the ignorance grasping inherent existence. By overcoming the root cause of saṃsāra, the entire cycle of rebirth discontinues and nirvāṇa is attained. As Nāgārjuna says (RA 365):
Having properly realized that in this way
beings are actually unreal, having no basis [for rebirth],
or any appropriation [of new aggregates],
one attains nirvāṇa like a fire whose causes have ceased.
REFLECTION
1. Review the forward and reverse orders of afflictive dependent origination. Generate the aspiration to be free from saṃsāra.
2. Review the forward and reverse orders of purified dependent origination. Have conviction that it is possible to free yourself from saṃsāra.
Transcendental Dependent Origination (Pāli Tradition)
Dependent arising, the lack of independent existence, and impermanence go hand in hand. The present is different from but related to the past. Impermanent things do not exist under their own power; they arise due to causes that preceded them. The present is the continuation of the past and is conditioned by the past. Present things and events have their own unique functions, and in the next moment they give way to a new moment that becomes the present.
We often think of impermanence as something negative: we are separated from what we like. However, because things are impermanent and conditioned, they can also change for the better. Transcendental dependent origination clarifies this and, in doing so, encourages us to practice the path leading to liberation and to knowledge of the destruction of all pollutants (āsravakṣaya, āsavakkhaya).
This theme is expressed in the forward and reverse orders of purified dependent origination. In addition, a few sūtras in the Numerical Discourses as well as the Proximate Cause Sutta (Upanisā Sutta, SN 12.23) present dependent origination in a dynamic way where one virtuous factor produces another, culminating in knowledge of the destruction of all pollutants. This emphasizes that spiritual evolution involves not just eradicating problematic factors but also enhancing constructive ones.
The presentation of transcendental dependent origination according to the Pāli tradition is expounded in the Proximate Cause Sutta. This presentation highlights the goal: knowledge of the destruction of all pollutants. The steps for arriving at that goal are then traced backward. Knowledge of the destruction of all pollutants has a proximate cause: liberation. Liberation has a proximate cause: dispassion. Dispassion’s proximate cause is disenchantment. Disenchantment’s is knowledge and vision of things as they really are. The proximate cause of knowledge and vision of things as they really are is concentration. Concentration’s proximate cause is bliss, bliss’s is pliancy, pliancy’s is joy, joy’s is delight, and delight’s is faith.
At this juncture, the Buddha makes an interesting turn and cites duḥkha as the chief condition for faith: without duḥkha, we would not turn to the Buddhadharma for relief and would not generate faith in it. This is the point where we cross from mundane to transcendental dependent origination. The Buddha then says birth is the proximate cause for duḥkha and traces the sequential series of causes back to first-link ignorance. He goes forward again from ignorance to birth, then to suffering, and then crosses to the transcendental links beginning with faith and going through to the destruction of all pollutants. Meditating back and forth from ignorance to knowledge of the destruction of all pollutants has a powerful effect on our minds and shows us that we saṃsāric beings can attain liberation.
TRANSCENDENTAL DEPENDENT ORIGINATION (FORWARD ORDER):
1.
Faith (P. saddhā)
2.
Delight (P. pāmojja)
3.
Joy (P. pīti)
4.
Pliancy (tranquility, P. passaddhi)
5.
Bliss (P. sukha)
6.
Concentration (P. samādhi)
7.
Knowledge and vision of things as they are (P. yathābhūta-ñāṇadassana)
8.
Disenchantment (P. nibbidā)
9.
Dispassion or fading away (P. virāga)
10.
Liberation (P. vimutti)
11.
Knowledge of the destruction of all pollutants (P. āsavakkhayañāṇa)
1. Duḥkha is the proximate cause for faith.
Our lives are fraught with frustration and duḥkha. Not knowing a healthy way to deal with our stress, misery, and confusion, we usually seek to distract ourselves from it, spawning a culture of addiction to sense objects: drugs and alcohol, food, sex, entertainment, shopping, sports, news, and so on. Alternatively, we react to duḥkha with self-pity, digging ourselves deeper into despair. Although we sometimes deal with our pain in a healthy way by building up fortitude, resoluteness, and using our talents and intelligence, ignorance still obscures us from seeing that duḥkha permeates our lives. No matter how much we succeed in changing the external world to make it what we want it to be, we cannot bring our bodies, minds, or the external world completely under our control. Deep inside, a spiritual malaise remains and a small voice within us says, “There must be another way.”
Acknowledging this malaise spurs us to seek answers beyond what we already know. Here we have to thank the illness, injury, breakup of a treasured relationship, loss of a job, or internal dissatisfaction and anxiety for spurring us to look more deeply at the human situation.
Duḥkha alone will not cause faith to arise. We must encounter a reliable and true teaching that shows us the way out of our situation. We must investigate the teaching, teacher, and followers using our intelligence and reasoning. When we conclude they are reliable and trustworthy, we take refuge in the Three Jewels. Our faith is not blind or coerced. Based on inferential reliable cognizers and reliable cognizers based on authoritative testimony, our faith and confidence will be stable.65
2. Faith is the proximate cause for delight.
Through learning and contemplating the Dharma, we come to adopt the Buddhist worldview. This worldview does not demand submission to an external creator, nor does it justify suffering as something that is good for us. The worldview of the four truths looks squarely at our situation so that we know duḥkha, abandon its origin, realize its cessation, and cultivate the path. Relief arises because at last we have found a reliable path. Delight, which is a weak kind of joy, arises because we have met the ārya’s eightfold path, which now lies in front of us. Our hearts swell with virtuous aspirations and we dive into practice, commencing with the higher training in ethical conduct. Living ethically and purifying our past misdeeds, we experience freedom from guilt and self-recrimination. The low self-esteem that plagued us due to our mistaken actions evaporates, and our self-confidence increases because we now make wise decisions rooted in compassion and restraint from self-indulgence.
3. Delight is the proximate cause for joy.
On the basis of following ethical conduct, we now engage in meditation. While some people prefer to begin with insight meditation, in general it is recommended to tame the coarse afflictions first by generating serenity. In the eleven factors of transcendental dependent origination, joy, pliancy, bliss, and concentration are part of the higher training in concentration. Knowled
ge and vision of things as they are, dispassion, and disenchantment pertain to insight meditation and the higher training in wisdom.
Cultivating serenity requires effort, fortitude, and perseverance. As the mind becomes more concentrated, joy arises, uplifting and refreshing the mind and bringing strong interest and delight in the object of meditation. The commentaries talk of five degrees of joy that develop as the mind approaches single-pointedness: (1) minor joy can make the hair on our bodies stand on end, (2) momentary joy flashes through the body with an intensity likened to lightning, (3) showering joy is like waves of ecstasy breaking over the body66 or flowing through the mind, (4) uplifting joy gives the body a feeling of lightness, and in some cases can make the body levitate, and (5) pervading joy fills the entire body. The first four precede the attainment of the first dhyāna, and the fifth occurs in the first dhyāna.67
4. Joy is the proximate cause for pliancy.
Although joy brings great pleasure, it agitates the mind. It may also bring subtle fear of losing the ecstasy and cause the meditator to cling to the experience of ecstasy. The restlessness, anxiety, and clinging interfere with deep concentration, so as meditators progress they come to regard the ecstasy as a hindrance to be pacified. As joy calms down and becomes less exuberant, pliancy — the subsiding of distress and unserviceability — becomes more prominent. Pliancy is of two types: mental pliancy applies to the consciousness aggregate, and physical pliancy applies not to the body but to the mental factors in the aggregates of feeling, discrimination, and miscellaneous factors that accompany the consciousness. Pliancy subdues the excited disturbance caused by joy, eliminates rigidity and sluggishness, makes the mind more flexible so that it can be used to actualize higher stages of the path, and brings incredible stillness in the mind.
5. Pliancy is the proximate cause for bliss.
Due to the stillness brought by pliancy, bliss, which was present before, now becomes prominent. Joy is a mental factor belonging to the fourth aggregate, whereas bliss is a type of pleasant feeling. Joy is comparatively coarse; bliss is more subtle. Joy is compared to the gladness a weary, thirsty traveler feels upon hearing of an oasis nearby, and bliss to the happiness he experiences after he has bathed, satisfied his thirst, and lies down to rest in the shade of trees. In the present stage, joy is present, but due to pliancy it has been toned down and bliss is dominant.
Bliss here refers to the bliss experienced with access concentration, which is prior to the first dhyāna. Access concentration arises when the five hindrances have been suppressed and the counterpart sign — the radiant inner object of meditation — arises. Although subduing the hindrances began with faith and delight, now they have been suppressed more firmly so that the mind can remain concentrated and free from constant disruption. The meditator has much greater control of his or her mind. The bliss of being released from the hindrances, even temporarily during access concentration, is compared to the relief and joy someone feels upon being freed from slavery.
6. Bliss is the proximate cause for concentration.
As the bliss of access concentration expands, it permeates the mind and the hindrances to the unification of the mind vanish. At this point the mind enters into absorption or full concentration, dhyāna. In general, concentration is a mental factor present in many mental states, including both access and absorption. It functions to unite the mind on a single object and to enable the consciousness and its accompanying mental factors to operate in harmony, making them steadier and more focused. While concentration has been increasing all along while cultivating serenity, in the dhyānas it becomes especially strong. The mind becomes very still, like a still lake on a cloudless night that clearly reflects the trees and moon. No discursive thought disturbs the mind’s stillness.
During access concentration the dhyānic factors — investigation, analysis, joy, bliss, and one-pointedness — are strong enough to suppress the five hindrances, but not to place the mind in full meditative absorption. With the attainment of the first dhyāna, the dhyānic factors are strong enough to do this. Now the mind is so concentrated that any feeling of separation from the meditation object vanishes. From the first dhyāna, a meditator can proceed sequentially to attain the second, third, and fourth dhyānas, and then to the four formless absorptions, which are very refined states of mind in meditative absorption.
7. Concentration is the proximate cause for knowledge and vision of things as they really are.
Although it is an important precursor for wisdom, concentration alone is not sufficient to free us from cyclic existence. Despite its bliss and tranquility, concentration has only suppressed the coarse defilements. Other defilements still remain in the mind, dormant and ready to spring up whenever conditions allow. The ignorance of the four truths that is the root of saṃsāra as well as the other pollutants and fetters that depend on it must still be abandoned. To do this, insight and wisdom are essential, so now concentration is used to generate knowledge and vision of things as they really are, which is a form of insight that knows and sees the five aggregates as they actually are — their nature, arising, and passing away.
A mind in which the hindrances have been suppressed through concentration is needed to be able to see reality clearly. Just as a woodcutter needs not only a sharp ax but also clear eyesight so he can strike the same point repeatedly and fell the tree, similarly meditators require the steadiness and clarity that concentration provides to direct their wisdom to the analysis of conditioned phenomena.
The knowledge and vision of things as they really are liberates us. The Buddha said (SN 12.23), “The destruction of the pollutants is for one who knows and sees, I say, not for one who does not know and does not see.” Knowledge and vision are not intellectual but are a knowing and seeing that are so vivid that it is as if we were perceiving something with our eyes. Its initial cultivation may depend on conceptual knowledge, which helps to dispel mistaken notions. However, once the coarse misconceptions are dispelled and right view is established, we must go beyond conceptual knowledge to effect the very deep changes that lead to liberation.
Since all our experiences consist of a combination of the five aggregates, essential to the cultivation of wisdom are mindfulness and introspective awareness placed on the five aggregates. Although every experience and cognition can be broken down into the five aggregates, our ignorant, nonanalytical mind takes the aggregates as a uniform whole. This leads to the view that there is a permanent, substantial self. This view of a personal identity as being a self is the outer shell surrounding ignorance, and to eliminate it we must continually break our experience down into the five aggregates, see their nature, their arising, and their passing away.
A very peaceful and concentrated mind has difficulty engaging in the intense analysis that is now required. Thus the meditator emerges from the deep concentration of a dhyāna and studies each factor of that dhyānic state, identifying it as one of the five aggregates. She then examines the causes and conditions giving rise to each factor and each aggregate. This brings awareness that there is simply an ever-changing flow of physical and mental events that is devoid of a controlling self. She understands conditionality because each event arises when its causes and conditions exist and ceases when its causes and conditions cease. None of the factors or aggregates exist on their own, independently, and none of them require a supervisory self to function.
This awareness of conditionality leads to the examination of the arising and passing away of each physical and mental event. Noticing the coming into existence and the vanishing from existence of form, feelings, discriminations, miscellaneous factors, and consciousnesses reveals their impermanence. They not only arise and cease due to conditions, but conditions cause them to arise and cease in each nanosecond.
Changing in every brief moment, the five aggregates are unsatisfactory because they are incapable of bringing us stable happiness. The five aggregates cannot be the core of a real self because they are impermanent and unsatisfactory bo
th individually and as a collection. The clear seeing of the three characteristics of conditioned phenomena — impermanence, duḥkha, and no self — is the knowledge and vision of things as they really are.
8. Knowledge and vision of things as they really are is the proximate cause for disenchantment.
Knowledge and vision of things as they really are is weak insight; disenchantment is strong insight. To progress from the former to the latter, a meditator now focuses his attention on the momentary passing away of the aggregates — their disintegration and cessation. Repeated mindfulness on the vanishing of what he thinks is the source of happiness and security sparks disenchantment and disappointment. The things that he believed would protect him and bring him joy are now seen as they are — farces and deceptions — and the mind wisely turns away from them. This process of disenchantment is similar to that of a child who realizes without a doubt that Santa Claus does not exist and stops waiting for Santa to come on Christmas Eve. Disenchantment is not depressing; it is simply losing interest in the transient, unsatisfactory, and selfless external world with its kaleidoscope of illusory sensual delights that leave us exhausted. We now turn inward to wisdom.
He realizes that until now he has filtered and evaluated every experience through the distorted lens of mine, I, and my self. Whereas he previously believed this was truth, he now sees mine, I, and my self are conceptual fabrications imputed by ignorance and knows without a doubt that believing them to be true is the source of duḥkha. He knows the aggregates are not mine, these I am not, these are not my self, and he begins to mentally set down the burden that was never his to begin with. The Buddha says (SN 22.59):