On the Path. Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) AN ANTHOLOGY ON TH E NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH DRAWN FROM TH E PĀLI CANON

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2 On the Path AN ANTHOLOGY ON TH E NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH DRAWN FROM TH E PĀLI CANON Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) 2

3 These eight dhammas, Nandiya, when developed & pursued, go to unbinding, have unbinding as their final end & consummation. Which eight? Right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, & right concentration. SN 45:10 3

4 Copyright 2017 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit Commercial shall mean any sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities. Questions about this book may be addressed to Metta Forest Monastery Valley Center, CA U.S.A. Additional resources More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu are available to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at dhammatalks.org. Printed copy A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA USA. 4

5 Acknowledgements This book has been several years in the making. It began as a set of readings for a handful of people who were taking an introductory course on the Pāli Canon, and who asked me to provide extra readings to supplement what they were receiving from the teachers in charge of the course. From there, it grew into a much larger selection of readings for the bi-monthly study course that we provide here at the monastery. Only recently did I find the time to make the selection even more comprehensive and to provide introductory explanations. My aim is to provide a well-rounded picture of the noble eightfold path for people who are interested in taking guidance from the earliest extant records of the Buddha s teachings on how to reach the end of suffering and stress. I could not have completed this book without the help of many individuals. In addition to the monks here at the monastery, I would like to thank Ven. Atulo Bhikkhu, Anita Basu, Michael Barber, Geoffrey Galik, Addie Onsanit, Nathaniel Osgood, Dale Schultz, and Isabella Trauttmansdorff for their valuable suggestions for improving the manuscript. Isabella Trauttmansdorff also provided the index. I would also like to thank all those who read earlier incarnations of the reading selections for their questions and comments, which helped to sharpen the focus of the explanations offered here. Any mistakes, of course in either the translations or the explanations are my own responsibility. Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu METTA FOREST MONASTERY MAY,

6 I N T R O D U C T I O N The Fire Escape The Buddha s teachings are like the instructions posted on a hotel room door, telling you what to do when the hotel s on fire: Heed the fire alarm. This corresponds to the Buddha s teachings on saṁvega, the sense that you re enmeshed in a dangerous situation and want to find a way out. Realize that your conduct will mean the difference between life and death. This corresponds to heedfulness, the attitude underlying all skillful behavior. Read the map, posted on the door, for finding the closest fire escape. This corresponds to right view. Make up your mind to follow the map. This corresponds to right resolve. Don t abuse any of the other people in the hotel as you try to make your escape. Don t lie to them about the escape route, don t claw your way over them, and don t cheat them out of their belongings. This corresponds to right speech, right action, and right livelihood. Do your best to follow the instructions on the map, and resist the temptation to stay in the comfort of your room or to wander down the wrong corridors. This corresponds to right effort. Keep the map in mind at all times, and check your efforts to make sure that they re in line with it. This corresponds to right mindfulness. Keep calm and focused, so that your emotions don t prevent you from being clearly aware of what you re doing and what needs to be done. This corresponds to right concentration. This analogy, of course, is far from perfect. After all, in the actual practice of the Buddha s teachings, the fire is already constantly burning inside your own mind in the form of the fires of passion, aversion, delusion, and suffering and the escape from these fires lies, not in leaving your mind, but in going deeper into the mind to a dimension, nibbāna, where fire can t reach. Also, because both the fire and the escape lie within you, you can t pull other people to safety. The most you can do for them is to tell or show them the way to practice, which they will have to manage for themselves. 6

7 But still, the above analogy is useful for highlighting a number of important features of the Buddha s practice. To begin with, the practice is essentially a practice, and not a theory to be idly discussed. Even the theoretical or philosophical aspects of the Buddha s teachings are there to be used as tools in aiding in the escape from all suffering and stress. It s because of this fact that the Buddha s primary metaphor for his teachings was a path: the noble eightfold path, composed of all the right factors mentioned above. It s also why right view, the theory behind the path, is part of the path, and doesn t stand outside it. Also, because right view serves as a guide to action, it doesn t present a full picture of reality, just as a fire-escape map posted on a hotel door doesn t give complete information about the construction of the hotel. If it did, you d have trouble figuring out which parts of the map would be useful in the event of a fire. That, in turn, would actually prevent you from making a quick escape. It s for this reason that right view leaves unanswered many questions about the cosmos and the self, and directs your attention to what needs to be done to escape from the ravages of suffering. At the same time, right view labels some attitudes about suffering and its end as definitely wrong, just as certain wrong attitudes about fires and escapes would leave you trapped in a burning hotel. Suppose, for instance, that you found messages posted on the hotel room door saying that, in the case of a fire, there is no escape, or that you should wait in your room until a heavenly being saved you, that the fire won t burn you if you accept and embrace it, or maybe fire isn t really fire. You d be wise to distrust those messages, even if they were signed by the hotel management. In the same way, if you re heedful of the dangers of the fires of the mind, you d be wise not to fall for messages even within the Buddhist tradition that are at odds with the message that it is possible to escape from the suffering that the mind creates for itself, that you can reach this escape through your own efforts, and that it s the most worthwhile thing you can do in life. Unfortunately, we live in a time when, in the Buddha s words, the concept of True Dhamma has disappeared (SN 16:13). This doesn t mean that the True Dhamma i.e., a Dhamma teaching a genuine escape from the fires of the mind isn t available, simply that so many mutually exclusive versions of the Dhamma have arisen over the centuries, each claiming to be true, that it s impossible to point to any one version of the Dhamma that everyone will agree to be true. Still, there is only one version of the Dhamma that is fully in accordance with the principle that the fires of suffering are real, that escape from them is possible, and that you can achieve this escape for yourself. That s the version available in the suttas discourses of the Pāli Canon, along with whatever teachings are in 7

8 accordance with the suttas. Here again, though, there are many disagreements on what the suttas say, largely because very few people have read them carefully and understood their idiom. This is why I have collected this anthology of passages dealing with the factors of the noble eightfold path, drawn from the suttas and Vinaya disciplinary rules of the Pāli Canon, so that you can read the Canon s teachings on these topics for yourself. I have also provided introductions to the readings as an aid in comprehending the idiom in which the suttas are written, so that you can enter into the mindset of the compilers of the suttas and gain an intuitive feel for what they re getting at. The title of this book, On the Path, can be taken in two ways, and both ways are relevant here: (1) This book is about the path and (2) it s for people who would like to be on the path to the end of suffering. These two aspects of the book correspond to the Buddha s teaching that there are two sources for the arising of right view: the voice of another and appropriate attention. The voice of another and this would include written as well as spoken words is the external source. Appropriate attention your ability to frame your questions about the path in terms that apply specifically to solve the problem of suffering and stress, and not to any other purpose is the internal source. As the reader of this book, you have to supply the internal source if you re to get the most out of it. As the compiler, I ve tried to be as faithful as possible in selecting and translating the passages so that they ll be of most use as the voice of another. At the same time, because I am assuming appropriate attention on your part, I have focused the introductory material on practical issues, and have avoided the many academic controversies that have accreted on the topic of the noble eightfold path over the centuries. Still, not all the controversies about the factors of the path are purely academic. Some have a practical bearing, and there is no getting around the need to take positions on them in your practice of the path. Although I have, by and large, avoided getting involved in polemics in the introductions to the various chapters, I would like to state at the outset the positions I have taken with regard to these practical controversies, based both on my training and on what I have found in the suttas. Some of these positions may appear to belabor the obvious, but many popular interpretations have lost sight of the obvious, so it s necessary to reaffirm that those obvious points are true. First, with regard to the path as a whole: The path is a path. In other words, (1) it s not the goal and (2) it s not meant to lead to any of its own factors. Instead, it s meant to lead someplace beyond the path. Although some interpreters have stated that the path leads to right view or 8

9 right mindfulness, in actuality when we regard these factors in terms of the famous raft analogy ( 13 14) they are part of the raft, and not the shore that we re using the raft to reach. And once we reach the shore, we don t pick up the twigs and branches of right view and right mindfulness to carry them on our head. The path is an eightfold path. In other words, all eight factors of the path are necessary for it to yield its intended results. This observation applies specifically to the factor of right concentration. There are interpreters who maintain that the Buddha actually taught two alternative paths a sixfold path, which includes right mindfulness but not right effort and right concentration and a sevenfold path, which includes right effort and right concentration but not right mindfulness. This interpretation is based on a definition of right mindfulness that is totally separate from and at odds with right effort and right concentration, but this definition has no basis in the suttas, and can be forced on the suttas only by squeezing them out of shape. As we will see, the suttas actually teach right concentration in a way that includes right mindfulness, and right mindfulness in a way that includes right effort. In this way, the factors of the path are mutually penetrating and mutually reinforcing. In fact, they cannot complete their work unless all eight factors mature together. The path is a noble path. In the Buddha s terms, this means that it leads to a goal that is unfabricated, and therefore free from change with no aging, illness, or death. Because the path is fabricated, the goal is not simply different from the path, it is radically different so different that the final act of the path, before reaching the goal, is to abandon the path along with everything else. Although some skills developed along the path remain for those who have completed the path their mindfulness, for instance, is constant the calm, the pleasure, the equanimity, and even the consciousness present in the goal are radically separate from the calm, pleasure, equanimity, and consciousness developed on the path. As for the controversies around the individual factors of the path, these tend to focus on three of the factors: right view, right mindfulness, and right concentration. The positions I have adopted on these factors are as follows: Right view is defined in terms of the four noble truths, rather than in terms of the three characteristics of inconstancy, stress, and not-self. This point would appear to be obvious when you look at the standard definition of right view, but all too often the three characteristics, interpreted as metaphysical principles, are taken as the underlying framework for right view, with the four noble truths squeezed to fit into that framework. In other words, the starting assumption is that all things are impermanent and stressful, and that therefore there s no permanent, separate self. Suffering is caused by the craving and clinging that 9

10 arise when the truth of no self isn t realized, because all suffering comes from clinging to things that will change. However, when this truth is realized, the mind will understand that there s nothing lasting to cling to, and so growing equanimous to all things will stop suffering. However, as we will see, even though the Buddha often discussed the suffering that comes from clinging to inconstant things ( 123), he never said that clinging entails suffering only when focused on things that are inconstant. In MN 52 and AN 9:36 ( 312), for instance, he notes that it s possible to cling to the unfabricated, and that that particular clinging has to be abandoned for suffering to truly end. In other words, the suffering lies in the activity of the clinging and not in the inconstancy of the object clung to. This may seem like a subtle point, relevant only to the highest levels of the practice, but it s actually relevant to the beginning levels as well. To begin with, the practice as a whole relies on the understanding that the problem lies not with the mind s objects, but with the mind s activities in relation to its objects. To focus on the question of when clinging is a worthwhile thing to do, rather than on the metaphysical status of what objects are, helps to keep this principle always in mind. Also, if you re alert to the fact that suffering comes from clinging more directly than from any change in the object clung to, then when you encounter anything in the practice that seems to be unchanging such as a state of oneness or all-pervasive luminosity you re forewarned about the danger of clinging to it. In this way, you re less likely to fall for any premature assumptions about having reached awakening, and you re equipped to work your way free from those assumptions before they do harm. Finally, by keeping the focus on the suffering inherent in all clinging, you can keep your practice from getting sidetracked into fruitless metaphysical arguments. Here it s important to note that the Buddha never used the term characteristics to describe inconstancy, stress, and not-self. Instead, he termed them perceptions and taught that they be applied strategically for the purpose of inducing dispassion, when and where needed, in line with the duties of the four noble truths. Rather than being metaphysical positions for example, that there is no self these perceptions are tools for comprehending suffering and stress, abandoning their cause, and developing the path so as to realize the cessation of suffering. At different stages of the path, they have to be applied selectively. Only at the final stage are they applied to all objects. Then, when the goal is reached, they as perceptions have to be abandoned, too. By making the four noble truths the framework of right view, and having the three perceptions function strategically within that framework, the Buddha was able to make this point clear. In this way, he was also able to avoid the thicket of 10

11 views that grows when getting involved in the question of who or what lies behind sensory input, or whether or not there is a self ( 229; SN 12:35; SN 44:10). Right mindfulness is a faculty of the active memory, and not a practice of open, non-reactive, radical acceptance of experiences as they arise and pass away of their own accord in the present moment. Some proponents of mindfulness as non-reactive acceptance have acknowledged that the Buddha defined mindfulness as a faculty of the memory, but then claim that he actually used the term in an entirely different sense as bare attention, or non-reactive acceptance when describing mindfulness practice. However, when we examine his instructions for mindfulness practice in context, we find that the function of right mindfulness throughout the practice is to remember the right principles to apply in shaping the present moment. In fact, instead of simply allowing things to arise and pass away, one of the prime duties of right mindfulness is to remember to make skillful dhammas (actions, events, mental qualities) arise and to keep them from passing away, at the same time making unskillful dhammas pass away and preventing them from arising again ( 243). Acceptance plays a role in mindfulness practice only in the preliminary sense of being truthful to yourself about what s actually arising in your awareness so that you can be ardent most effectively in shaping the present moment in the most skillful way. Right concentration consists of the four jhānas (states of mental absorption), which are states of settled, full-body awareness. These jhānas are one-pointed in the sense that the mind is gathered around a single object or theme, but not in the sense that the mind is reduced to a single point of awareness, in which all other awareness of the body, of the senses, and of thoughts is blotted out. Many of the misunderstandings around jhāna come from the fact that the mind can be reduced to a single point of awareness, and from the subsequent assumption that that single point is what jhāna must mean. This assumption is then supported by translating a Pāli term used to describe concentration ek aggatā as one-pointedness. However, the part of this compound translated as point agga can also mean gathering place. When viewed in the context of the similes for describing the jhānas, all of which emphasize a full-body awareness, it s obvious that agga here means gathering place, and not point. Once we understand this term, we can see that the suttas teachings on jhāna are clear and consistent: When using the words body and directed thought to describe jhāna, for example, the suttas are not engaging in an esoteric language game where body means not-body, and thought means not-thought. At the same time, the compilers were not blind to their own language when stating that directed thought and ekaggatā can coexist in the mind ( 289). A correct understanding of jhāna is crucial to the practice because it supports 11

12 the premise stated above: that the path is an eightfold path, with right mindfulness and right concentration serving mutually supportive and interpenetrating roles. If mindfulness were an open, accepting awareness, and concentration an awareness reduced to one point, with no consciousness of anything outside the point, the two factors could not be practiced at the same time. In fact, they would be incompatible. But when we define the terms in line with their usage in the Pāli suttas, they are not only compatible, but also mutually reinforcing. And it s because all the factors of the path are mutually reinforcing that they can deliver their goal. This fact is so important that it s the organizing principle of the discussions in this book: Even though the factors of the path are given in linear order, with each factor building on the one(s) before it, in practice the factors support not only the ones succeeding them in the list but also the ones preceding them. In particular, right view, the first factor on the path, informs all of the following factors, but it can develop from its mundane through its transcendent and onto its final level only when the other factors are put into practice. On their own, the individual factors can lead to pleasant results within the confines of the cycle of birth, aging, illness, and death, but they can t take you beyond the fires of the mind. Only when they work together can they lead beyond all fires: to the noble goal of total release from all suffering and stress. How to read this book If you are studying this book as part of a study group, I would suggest that you read each chapter in full, going through the sutta passages after reading the introduction to the chapter. If you are reading this book on your own, though, I would suggest reading the introductions for all ten chapters before delving into any of the sutta passages. That way you will have a complete overview to inform your understanding of what the passages mean and how they connect with one another. To keep this book from becoming unwieldy, I have had to keep the discussions terse, sometimes reducing explanations to the bare bones of their basic points. If you find the terseness daunting, you may first want to read a more introductory book on the topic, such as The Noble Eightfold Path, which is a collection of some of my Dhamma talks on the path-factors. If, however, you would like to pursue in greater depth any of the topics raised in the discussions here, you can consult the books listed in the appendix of suggested readings at the back of the book. 12

13 C H A P T E R O N E A Framework for the Frame The noble eightfold path was the first teaching the Buddha gave to his first disciples, and the prime teaching he gave to his last. In this way, it provides the frame for all his other teachings, not only in temporal terms, but also in terms of how those teachings should be understood. All of his teachings including such topics as dependent co-arising, not-self, compassion, and emptiness find their true meaning in terms of how they fit into the factors of the noble eightfold path. So an understanding of the noble eightfold path is essential to understanding everything else the Buddha taught. The Buddha had several reasons for choosing the metaphor of a path to frame his teachings. The Sāmaññaphala Sutta (DN 2) contrasts his teachings with those of six of his contemporaries, and the contrast gives a sense of what the image of path implies. The other teachings fall into three sorts: four presenting maps of reality that deny the power of human choice, one focusing on the person of the teacher, and one providing a strategy of agnosticism for avoiding the pitfalls of debate. King Ajātasattu, who in this sutta is describing these teachings to the Buddha, points out that none of them offer any fruit i.e., any visible benefit to those who adopt them. This is precisely where they differ from the noble eightfold path. Repeatedly in the Canon, the concept of path is paired with fruit : the rewards that come from following the path. Similarly, the Dhamma one of the Buddha s names for his teachings is often paired with attha, which carries several related meanings, such as goal, benefit, and meaning. The implication here is that the Buddha s teachings are worthwhile because they are a means to a beneficial goal and that they reveal their true meaning only when that goal is attained. The Buddha taught these teachings so that his listeners would put them into action and reap the fruit for themselves. This point is reinforced by other metaphors that he and his disciples used to describe his teachings: a vehicle, a set of relay chariots, a raft to the further shore. The path is a means to an end, and finds its meaning and value in leading to an end that s worthwhile. Now, to follow a path, you need a map. And although the Buddha didn t attempt to provide a map to all of reality, he did sketch enough of a map so that people could negotiate the path all the way to its goal. It s important to note, though, that the maps he provided the various levels of right view are part of the path itself. There is no sense in his teachings that theory is separate from 13

14 practice. After all, theory is a result of the act of theorizing, and its maps can lead people to act on them: to adopt them as guides to action. Right theory is a part of right practice, in that properly understanding the purpose of the path and the means for achieving that purpose is a necessary step in actually reaching its end. And because the path is a series of actions inspired by right view, one of the primary functions of right view is to explain the nature of action in such a way that shows how a path of practice is possible and how to choose which path is the best to follow. In particular, the map of right view has to explain causality to show how causes and effects work on the path, and how the path leads to its fruit. For the purpose of explaining the path, it has to show that experience is not totally determined by past actions or by outside sources, or that it s totally arbitrary. It also has to show how actions have consequences, which actions have the best consequences, and how far those consequences can extend. Otherwise, the idea of teaching a path would make no sense. If actions were totally determined, no listener could choose to follow the path. If actions had no results, the concept of a path of action leading anyplace would be nonsense. If there were no way to say that the results of one action would be better than another, or what those consequences might be, there would be no grounds for judging one path to be better than other alternatives. This is why the Buddha s teachings on causality, kamma (action), rebirth, the possible worlds into which one might be reborn, and the possibility of going beyond rebirth are all central to right view, in that they explain how a path of action can be chosen and lead to the best possible fruit. Also, because the act of holding right view is itself an action, right view has to explain itself: how it is to be acquired and how it is to be developed so as to reach the goal toward which it aims. The teaching of right view also has to explain the correct way of holding to right view so as not to get in the way of the rest of the path. This self-reflexive nature of right view is one of its distinctive qualities, and has important practical consequences that will become clear in the course of this book. All correct descriptions of the path are instances of right view, and to convey them correctly is an exercise in right speech, another factor of the path. But there is more to the path than that. This means that the actual path is not encompassed in the words describing it. Instead, it consists of all the actions inspired by right view. Because these actions give rise to knowledge of a personal and individual sort, something not contained in the words of the texts, the actual knowledge acquired in the course of the path augments right view in a personal way. In fact, as we will see, this personal knowledge is what refines right view and brings it to its culmination. Because right view is a part of the path, it, too, counts as a means, and not a 14

15 goal. Here again, it s like a map: Maps are not goals to which you aim. Instead, they point beyond themselves. The purpose of the path is not to confirm or to arrive at right view. Instead, the path includes right view as one of its factors for the purpose of arriving at a goal that although it harmonizes with right view goes considerably beyond right view and all the other factors of the path. In this way, all the factors of the path, including right view, are not simply actions. They are also strategies that have to be employed with a sensitivity to context. One of the functions of right view is to explain not only how but also in which contexts it and all the other strategies of the path are to be adopted, together with how and in which contexts they are to be skillfully abandoned. The factors of the path are right in that they lead to a worthwhile goal that transcends them. In depicting his teachings as a path, the Buddha was not simply indulging in a personal preference. In his understanding of the nature of conscious experience, all living beings are following paths of one sort or another, even if they don t realize it, in that their actions are leading to results ( 3). This means that the act of teaching is also part of a path leading to a particular destination, even if the teachers are not fully aware of where the act of teaching is leading them or their listeners. One of the Buddha s claims to authority is that he is so fully acquainted with the territory of action that he knows where various courses of action and this includes the act of giving or adopting a teaching will lead. Thus, in his eyes, every teaching should be judged in terms of what end is served in the act of teaching it or adopting it. This means that a teaching is not to be judged simply in terms of how reasonable it is or what evidence can be cited to prove it. It s to be judged as an action, and evaluated as to what sort of actions it inspires including the way it is held and the results that those actions produce. This is because experience at the six senses the five physical senses and the mind is teleological. In other words, each act or event of consciousness is directed toward an end, regardless of whether the individual engaged in sensory experience fully realizes it or not. Consciousness is also active and intentional in other words, it doesn t simply react passively to stimuli. It actively seeks out stimuli and tries to shape them to its ends. Because sensory experience is active and proactive in these ways, it is a type of kamma. The Buddha s term for the kammically purposeful and constructed nature of sensory experience is that it s saṅkhata, which can be translated as fabricated, constructed, or put together. In this book, I will adopt the translation, fabricated, but it should be understood in a way that includes the other possible translations as well. In other words, to say that an experience is fabricated or a fabrication (saṅkhāra) does not mean that it s bad or a pack of lies, simply that it s assembled with conscious intent from the raw material available to the mind. The Buddha describes the process of fabrication in many ways in the Canon, 15

16 most commonly in terms of the fabrication of five khandhas. Khandha can be translated as heap, mass, or most commonly aggregate. The use of the term aggregate for khandha comes from a distinction, popular in eighteenth and nineteenth century European philosophy, between conglomerates of things that work together in an organic unity called systems and other types of conglomerates that are no more than random collections of things, called aggregates. Using aggregate to translate khandha conveys the useful point that these processes, which can seem to have an organic unity, are actually shaped by discrete choices and their results. Still, it s important to bear in mind that the mind does shape the aggregates toward purposes, and those purposes can be more or less unified a fact that makes a path of practice possible. The five aggregates are: form: any physical phenomenon (although the Buddha s focus here is less on the physical object in itself, and more on the experience of the object; in terms of one s own body, the primary focus is on how the body is sensed from within); feeling: feeling-tones of pleasure, pain, or neither pleasure nor pain; perception: the act of recognizing, mentally labeling, and identifying experiences; fabrication: the intentional shaping of experience; consciousness: awareness at the six senses. There s something of an anomaly in that the term fabrication covers all five aggregates and yet is listed as one of the five. SN 22:79 ( 120) helps to explain why: The mental act of fabrication shapes the actual experience of all physical and mental experiences in the dimensions of space and time. It chooses among the potentials for any of the aggregates made available by past actions, and turns them into the actual experience of those aggregates in the present. Fabrication as a name for one of the aggregates refers specifically to this mental process. As a term for all five aggregates, fabrication covers both the processes of fabrication and the fabricated phenomena physical and mental that result. SN 22:79 also defines the aggregates in terms of verbs even form deforms making the point that these aggregates are processes and activities, rather than solid things. The Buddha describes the origination of the aggregates in other words, the causal factors that give rise to them in two different ways. In one description ( 116), the causal factors are these: The origination of form (in this case, the form of one s own body) is nutriment or food; the origination of feeling, perception, and fabrication is contact; and the origination of consciousness is name-&-form, a blanket term to cover the other four aggregates. At first glance, 16

17 these factors would seem to be totally impersonal and operating without purpose: Nutriment and contact on their own, for instance, have no will to cause anything. However, nutriment on its own cannot cause form. It has to be taken, i.e., you have to eat it. The origination of form is actually in the act of taking nutriment, as when you feed the body to sustain it. Similarly, when the first four aggregates are listed under the heading of name-&-form ( 130), fabrication is divided into the sub-factors of intention and attention, which in turn influence contact, showing that the driving force behind these seemingly purposeless conditions is actually willed. It s shaped by which intentions you choose to act on in 116 the Buddha defines fabrication as intention and by which ways of paying attention you choose to apply. Each of these choices, in formal terms, is teleological: It has an aim. This point is made clear in the second description of the origination of the aggregates ( 281), in which each aggregate results from the acts of relishing, welcoming, and remaining fastened. This reflects the larger view of the fabrication of experience offered in other parts of the Canon, such as the statement in 9 that desire is the root of all phenomena, and in 10 that the mind is the forerunner of all phenomena. These facts, in turn, are shaped by the observation that all beings are driven by the need to feed, both physically and mentally ( 112, SN 12:63.) The aggregates, in this analysis, have their origin in desire. This, then, is the context for understanding the fabrication of the aggregates described in SN 22:79: Fabrication takes the potentials for the aggregates and shapes them for the sake of the functions that the activities of the aggregates can perform. That for the sake of aims at the pleasure that those activities can provide and on which the mind, when it assumes the identity of a being, can feed ( 111). Yet, even though the larger context of fabrication emphasizes the willed nature of the aggregates, the more impersonal descriptions of these processes make two crucial and connected points: 1) The first is that once these processes are set in motion, they follow laws of their own over which the mind has little control. This means that fabrications, even though they are intentional, can have unintended consequences. And as the teaching on kamma and rebirth indicates, many of these consequences can last for a long, long time so long that we often can t trace the results of an action back to their source, which is why we re often ignorant of how causality works. Even though desire is the root of all phenomena, anyone who is ignorant of the more impersonal patterns of causality can wind up creating conditions that are anything but desirable. People can put themselves on the paths to the lower realms, not because they want to go to those realms, but because they don t know 17

18 where they re going. They don t see that their search for pleasure from the aggregates in the short term involves actions that actually lead to long-term pain. The Canon illustrates this point with the stories of people who think that their means of livelihood will lead them to heaven but will actually lead them to hell ( ). 2) Because the raw material for fabricating the aggregates comes from our past fabrication of aggregates, it is not entirely malleable to our will. We have to work within the limited range of which past actions are currently ripening, and this ripening raw material follows its own causal laws. In some cases, it provides us with opportunities to fashion the aggregates that will provide the pleasure for which we hunger; in others, it doesn t. The Buddha s twofold analysis of the origination of the aggregates provides his formal explanation for the human predicament: We find ourselves in a place that we may or may not like, and where we cannot simply rest, because we need to feed, both physically and mentally. In response to our search for food, we find that some circumstances respond to our desires and others don t. We re also in the dark about the long-term results of our choices. From experience, we ve learned that even when circumstances are responsive, they don t always yield the long-term results for which we might hope. We re not even sure which results come from which actions. It s for this reason that the Buddha, when he had found a path of action that gave totally beneficial results, felt that it would be worth teaching to others, to help them get themselves out of this predicament. To understand what this path might accomplish, and how it goes about accomplishing its aim, it s good to return to the Buddha s first and last teachings to see how they present the goal and methods of the path. Although the path itself provides the frame for understanding the rest of the Dhamma, the first and last teachings provide a framework for understanding the frame. The first teaching, to the five brethren ( 1), makes three major points about the noble eightfold path: It leads to the end of dukkha (suffering, stress), it leads to nibbāna (unbinding), and it functions as a middle way. The last teaching, to Subhadda ( 2), makes one major point about the path: It s not simply a path of practice leading to unbinding and the end of suffering. It s the only one. We will discuss these points one by one, fleshing them out with information from other suttas in the Canon. The end of dukkha. Dukkha is a term that can mean pain, suffering, and stress. In this book, I will use these terms interchangeably, depending on which seems most appropriate for the context. When discussing the noble eightfold path, the Buddha focused most often on 18

19 the fact that following it leads to the end of suffering. This point is so important in his teachings that he twice stated, Both formerly & now, it s only stress that I describe, and the cessation of stress (SN 22:86; MN 22). Any question that interfered with this aim, he would put aside. The map of right view, like a fireescape diagram that includes nothing but information needed to find the fire escape, includes only the views necessary to understand suffering and the way to put an end to it. Too much information would clutter a fire-escape map with distractions that would get in the way of its intended purpose. To understand how the noble eightfold path works in putting an end to suffering, it s necessary to understand the Buddha s analysis of what suffering is and how it s caused. He distinguished between two types of suffering: the suffering caused by the fact that fabrications are inconstant in other words, they offer no steady foundation for happiness and the suffering caused by craving and clinging, based on ignorance (avijjā). His focus was on the second type of suffering, although as we will see in the next section, once the second type of suffering is ended, the first will inevitably end as well. Suffering is felt on a level of experience that is totally immediate and personal. In fact, it s so personal that no one can directly experience another person s suffering, just as no one can enter into your experience of blue to see if your blue is the same as theirs. We may see the outward signs of another person s suffering, just as we can point to an object and agree that it s blue, but the actual stress and pain of one person s suffering is something that no one else can feel. The same holds true for the causes of suffering: No one else can directly experience your own craving, clinging, and ignorance. And as it turns out, the crucial factors in putting an end to suffering are experienced on this same inward level as well. This means that the Buddha s teachings deal primarily with what is totally personal in your experience. In formal terms, this is called phenomenology: speaking about consciousness as it s directly experienced. However, even though the focus of the Buddha s teachings is on a problem that is immediately personal, his analysis of the problem is not subjective. In other words, even though the precise texture of your suffering is something that no one else can know, it s not so individual that it doesn t follow an objective pattern, true for all beings. The Buddha claimed and this claim has been confirmed by many, many people from many different backgrounds over the millennia that he found the common pattern underlying all suffering, and so was able to discover a path of practice that worked in ending all suffering. This is one of the reasons that he called the path ariya, which we usually 19

20 translate as noble, but which can also mean universal. The path is noble partly because it s universally true. Even though the Buddha was a member of the warrior caste in ancient India, there s nothing of his personal or cultural background contained in the path. This is because suffering is something precultural: We all experience it from birth, well before culture has made any imprint on our minds. Part of the Buddha s genius was that he was able to dig deeply enough into his mind to find the pre-cultural patterns of how we all suffer and how we can all learn not to suffer. Although his teachings are expressed in an ancient language, they point to an experience prior to all languages. The primary factor underlying every case of suffering is avijjā, a term that can be translated as ignorance or lack of skill. Both meanings are appropriate here. On the one hand, avijjā means not knowing four truths about suffering: what it is, what causes it, what its cessation is, and what path of practice leads to its cessation. On the other hand, avijjā means not having mastered the skills appropriate to these truths. These truths are not simply four interesting facts about suffering. Instead, they are meant to be applied as a way of cutting up the pie of experience i.e., dividing it into four categories so that a person desiring the end of suffering can know what to do with phenomena that fall into any of the four categories: phenomena that count as suffering should be comprehended, those that count as the cause of suffering should be abandoned, those that count as the cessation of suffering should be realized, and those that count as the path should be developed. Information about these four truths which are also called noble, in that they re universally true is something that one person can give to another. This is why the Buddha saw that it was worthwhile to teach them to others. However, the skill in mastering the duties appropriate to the truths is something that no one can do for anyone else. This is why he also said, It s for you to strive ardently. Tathāgatas simply point out the way ( 379). The path is something that each person has to master for him- or herself. But what is suffering? Unlike later commentators in the Buddhist tradition, the Buddha did not give a formal definition of what suffering is. Instead, he simply listed many cases of suffering, so that his listeners could recognize that he was talking about something with which they were already familiar, and which they would recognize as a problem: Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful ( 106). This pattern of not formally defining his central terms is a distinctive feature of the Buddha s teachings. He is basically teaching a course for training the mind to end suffering and achieve true happiness, but he never gives a formal 20

21 definition for mind, suffering, or happiness. What he defines in detail is the course of training, because the words defining the factors of the training can be immediately put into practice. As for the other terms, when a person is on the path, his/her sense of what the mind is, and of what suffering and happiness are, will inevitably develop, so it s best that these things not be nailed down too firmly in words. Still, for strategic purposes, the Buddha did present a way of explaining suffering that points to how it can be ended: He identified suffering with clinging to the five aggregates. Because clinging can be abandoned, this explanation gives you a handle on what to do about suffering: Drop the clinging, and suffering will end. The word clinging (upādāna) he defined as passion and delight, and the Buddha cited four types of clinging: Clinging through sensuality: a fascination with thoughts about how to gain and enjoy sensual pleasures. This definition focuses on the fact that we tend to cling more to our fantasies about sensual pleasures than we do to the actual pleasures themselves. Clinging through habits and practices: an insistence that things have to be done a certain way, regardless of whether that way is really effective. The extreme form of this clinging is a fixation on ritual behavior: that everything depends on doing a certain ritual right. Clinging through views: an insistence that certain views are right, regardless of the effects of holding to them; or a belief that simply holding to a particular view will make us pure or better than other people. Clinging through doctrines of the self: beliefs about who we are, whether we re innately good or bad, and what we will be after death. This can also extend to beliefs about whether or not we have a true self and, if so, what that self is ( 126; 229). A bit of reflection will confirm that these four types of clinging contain all the details of how we define ourselves, both personally and culturally: in terms of the sensual pleasures we enjoy, our habitual customs and ways of doing things, our views about the world and our place in the world, and our views about who we are. This means that, to end suffering, we have to stop clinging to the way we construct our identities. This is a radical job. How radical is suggested by another meaning of the word upādāna: feeding. We suffer in the way we feed mentally as well as physically on the pleasures of fabrication, in particular our fabrication of our sense of self and our place in the world. 21

22 This means that the end of suffering will require the end of feeding. And that, in turn, will mean the end of fabrication, because fabrication is driven by the need to feed. Still, the Buddha recognized that the mind cannot simply bring the process of feeding to a screeching halt, because you can t end hunger simply by willing it away. Instead, your hunger has to be retrained. In other words, the mind has to be trained to feed in new, more skillful ways that will wean it off its more unskillful ways of feeding i.e., ways of feeding that obviously do harm and ultimately bring it to a dimension where there is no hunger: an unfabricated dimension where there is no need to feed at all. This is why the path to the end of suffering is also the path to nibbāna, for nibbāna is precisely that: the unfabricated. Nibbāna. The word nibbāna literally means unbinding. In everyday Pāli usage, this word described the going-out of a fire, and reflected what people in the Buddha s time thought was happening when a fire went out. As they saw it, fire was caused by the agitation or provocation of the fire-property, a potential that existed in a latent state everywhere in the physical world. When provoked, the fire-property would be ignited and then cling to its fuel, which was how a burning fire was sustained. The fire would go out when it let go of its fuel, and the fire-property freed would return to its earlier unagitated state. The Buddha used the analogy between the freed fire and the released mind to make several points about total release: It is a cool state of calm and peace. It comes from letting go of clinging. Just as a burning fire is trapped, not by the fuel, but by its own clinging to the fuel, the mind is trapped not by the aggregates, but by its clinging to the aggregates. This is why, when it lets go, the aggregates can t keep it from gaining release. Just as a fire, when it has gone out, can t be said to have gone east, west, north, or south, similarly, a person fully released can t be described as existing, not existing, both, or neither. This point relates to the fact that, through the process of fabrication, you define yourself by the desires you cling to ( 111). Because the released mind is free of clinging, it can t be defined and so can t be described. And because the world of your experience is defined by the desires you cling to, a released mind cannot be located in any world at all. In fact, unbinding, in the ultimate sense, is not even a dhamma, i.e., an act or object of consciousness. Some texts suggest that it is the highest of dhammas, but they apparently are referring to the moment when unbinding is realized. Other texts, more in line with the Buddha s observation that all dhammas are rooted in desire, call unbinding the transcending of all dhammas ( 351). It s a type of consciousness, but one not included in the consciousness aggregate, as it is 22

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