(EA17)-01-Introduction-and-Arising-of-Dukkha

The topic of my talk tonight is Paticcasamuppada. It is popularly translated as dependent origination. So we'll use that word. The more literal translation is like condition co-arising. But it seems like dependent origination conveys the meaning better. So I will use this translation. Now, the sources of this subject, Paticcasamuppada, can be found in our Nikayas. In particular, in the Samyutta Nikaya, the Twelve Samyutta, which is called the Nidana Samyutta, there are 93 suttas there concerning Paticcasamuppada, 93 short suttas. Some of them are sort of repetitions. The other place is in the Digha Nikaya No. 15, Mahanidana Sutta. And another one is Majjhima Nikaya No. 9, Samaditti Sutta. And then Majjhima Nikaya No. 38, Mahatanha Sankhaya Sutta. These are the main sources of this subject, Paticca Samuppada. And then there are scattered over various suttas, smaller sections concerning Paticca Samuppada. Now what is this dependent origination? Dependent origination of what? It is actually the dependent origination of all things in existence, but more specifically, We are concerned with dependent origination of suffering because that is the main topic of all the discourses of the Buddha. The aim of all the discourses of the Buddha is to make us understand suffering because that is the nature of all existence. So, when we say we are going to talk about dependent origination is more with reference to suffering, dependent origination of suffering. Now this, the chain of dependent origination, the standard chain, consists of 12 links. It's a chain formed with 12 links. And the links are shown on the chart. The first one is Avijja, which is ignorance, conditions, Sankara, Sankara conditions, Vijnana, etc., right down to aging and death. So, this chain of dependent origination has two, there are two ways of reading it. One is the Samudaya. the arising of suffering. The other one is the Nirodha, the seizing of suffering. And the arising of suffering is like in the chant on Paticca Samupada. It is Avijjapacayasankara, Sankara, Pacaya Vinayana, Vinayana Pacayana Marupam, etc. So, The arising of suffering is read in that way. Now the nirodha, the ceasing of suffering is with the ceasing of avijja, ignorance, sankharas will cease. And with the ceasing of the sankharas, consciousness will cease, etc. So the arising chain is actually the second Aryan truth, the truth of suffering. And the ceasing chain is the ceasing of suffering, which is the third Aryan truth. The arising of suffering concerns the putujana, the ordinary person, and the ceasing of suffering, the total cessation of suffering, concerns the arahant, one who has ended suffering. And so those are the chains. Now, from this more specific dependent origination of suffering, the Buddha later came to formulate a general law of dependent origination Sometimes it's also called the basic law of dependent origination. And it is used for all things in existence. All things in existence follows a law of conditionality of dependent origination. And this general law or the general formula which applies to all things in existence is Read this way. This being that comes to be, with the arising of this, that arises. This not being that comes not to be, with the ceasing of this, that ceases. So the meaning of it is this. If there is something that exists, It brings about something else into existence. If something arises, it causes something else to arise. And then, if something ceases to exist, or something does not exist, then some other thing comes not to exist. If something ceases, it causes other things to cease. That is the general law of conditionality. Now, I will read to you part of two suttas to show the importance of this law of dependent origination. In Majjhima Nikaya number 28, the Mahahatipadopama Sutta, the Buddha is reported by Sariputta to have said the following words. He who sees dependent origination sees the Dhamma. He who sees the Dhamma sees dependent origination. So from here you see that how important dependent origination is because if you understand the Dhamma you must understand dependent origination and vice versa. Now in Sangyuta Nikaya the 12th Sangyuta, Nidana Sangyuta, the 27th Sutta, the Buddha said, Now in as much bhikkhus as the Aryan disciple knows dependent origination, knows the arising of dependent origination, knows the ceasing of dependent origination, knows the way going to the ceasing of dependent origination, he is what we call the Aryan disciple who has won the view. who has one insight, who has arrived at this good Dhamma, who sees this good Dhamma, who possesses the knowledge of the trained man, who possesses the wisdom of the trained man, who has entered the stream of the Dhamma, who has the Aryan insight of revulsion, who stands knocking at the door of the deathless. So from this Sutta, you find that a person can enter the stream become a Sotapanna by understanding Paticcasamuppada. So with these two suttas, you can understand how important this subject of dependent origination is. So I hope you will pay close attention to this subject tonight. And later on, if you have questions, I would invite you after I present this talk. Now, I would like to refer to the 10th Sutta in the Nidana Samyutta of the Samyutta Nikaya. In that Sutta, the Buddha said that when he was a Bodhisatta, that means before he became enlightened as a Buddha, he contemplated suffering. He was wondering to himself how suffering came about. And it is specifically mentioned in this sutta that he used yoniso manasikara. Yoniso manasikara, I think a good translation for it is thorough consideration. Yoni means the womb or the starting point, the source. And manasikara means contemplation or consideration. That means the kind of consideration that goes back to the source of the problem. And so it is translated as thorough consideration. So the Buddha said when he was a Bodhisatta, before he became enlightened, he used Yoniso Manasikara to contemplate the cause for the arising of dukkha, the cause for suffering. Now suffering to the Buddha is basically aging and dying. And this aging brings about sickness. And so aging, sickness and dying brings about sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair. In short, the whole mass of suffering. comes into being. So the Buddha said, when he was a Bodhisattva, he asked himself, what is the cause of aging and death? Now these three things, aging, sickness and death, if you remember, these three things are the three signs our Bodhisattva saw when he was a layman before he renounced. He saw a very aged man, a very old man, showing all the signs of old age, suffering from the signs of old age. White hair, bent over, crooked, very weak, with very little teeth or no teeth, and limping along. And then he saw a sick man, very sick man, in pain and groaning and lamenting from his sickness. There was the second thing and the third one he saw was a dead man. So these three signs awoke in him something from the past that made him want to renounce his lay life and be a monk. So that basically is the sort of signs of suffering. So when he asked himself, what is the cause of suffering, he referred to this, aging and death. And because he had cultivated strong concentration, his mind was developed by Samadhi. So when he contemplated the cause of aging and suffering, it became quite clear to him that the cause of aging and suffering was birth. because of birth there is aging and suffering and then after that he asked himself what is the cause of birth and then he came to the conclusion because there is existence so there is birth and then the cause of existence is clinging so he understood this dependent origination of suffering in this way by working backwards from item number 12 aging and dying, to birth, to existence, all the way up to the first cause, which is ignorance. So that was how he arrived at this whole chain of understanding, this whole chain of dependent origination of suffering. And so, I will present this the explanation of these twelve links of dependent origination from the bottom as the way the Buddha understood it so that you will understand in the same way. I'd like to comment here that presently there are two interpretations of this dependent origination. One is the one life interpretation and the other is the three lives or traditional interpretation according to the commentaries. After I explain these twelve links of the dependent origination, then you will understand that each of these explanations, each of these two explanations, is right to a certain extent. And also, there are some mistakes made in each of them to a certain extent. So now I come to the explanation of each of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination. Now the explanation of each of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination are given at least a brief outline of each term of Dependent Origination is found in the Second Sutta of the Nidana Samyutta and also in the 9th Sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya, the Samaditi Sutta.

(EA17)-02-Links-No

Now, let's look at the number 12, the aging and death, Jara Marana. Aging is defined as follows in the Sutta. What is aging? In the various classes of beings, the aging of beings, their old age, brokenness, grayness, wrinkles, decline of life, and weakness of faculties, that is aging. This brokenness probably refers to brokenness of teeth and grayness to grayness of hair. So you can see this aging refers to the normal aging of a person. And then death. What is death? In the various classes of beings, the disease, the diseasing are passing away, dissolution, disappearance, dying, completion of time, dissolution of aggregates. Death is death or dying. So, you can see here that aging and death refers to the normal aging and death as we know it. Now the cause of aging and death, I think aging and death is quite simple to understand. Now the cause of aging and death is jati, birth. Now, what is birth? In the various classes of beings, the birth of beings, they're coming to birth. Precipitation, generation, manifestation of aggregates, obtaining the basis of contact, that is birth. That precipitation probably refers to precipitation in the womb. So you see, precipitation, generation, manifestation of aggregates, obtaining the basis of contact, So this is birth as we understand it in the normal way, like birth of a being coming out of the womb and all that. So these two terms, aging and death and birth, refers to ordinary aging and death and birth of a person. It's like the death means you have to get a coffin ready and all that for that corpse. So it sort of contradicts this interpretation that aging and dying and birth refers to the birth of a being because we form this view of a being in our mind. It's not something that happens in our mind. It's something that happens to the body. So here, there's a little bit of contradiction with the one birth, one life time interpretation of dependent origination. This is the first thing we want to understand. The cause of birth is bhava, item number 12 in our chain. Bhava can be translated as existence or being. I think, to be fair, I think both are applicable. Now, what is bhava or what is existence? In the Sutta it says, there are these three kinds of existence, sensual desire existence, form existence, and formless existence. These three, in Pali it's called Kama-bhava, Rupa-bhava, and Arupa-bhava. If you use the word being, you can also say there are these three kinds of being. Sensual desire being, form being, and formless being. That's the definition of bhava, existence of being. Now, let's look at another sutta to understand this term a bit better. In Majjhima Nikaya number 43, there's a sutta called the Mahavedala Sutta. In that sutta, Mahakotita, the disciple of the Buddha, asked our Arahant Sariputta, he said, Avuso, can be translated as reverend, sometimes as friend, said, reverend, how is renewal of existence in the future generated? I use the word existence for above. How is renewal of existence in the future generated? And Sariputta Dharan answered, Renewal of existence in the future is generated through the delighting in this and that on the part of beings who are hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving. You remember this. Renewal of existence is generated through the delighting in this and that. And then, later on, Sariputta was asked another question concerning the fading of ignorance and he answered, with the fading of ignorance, with the arising of true knowledge, and with the cessation of craving, renewal of existence in the future is not generated. So you see, renewal of existence is not generated through the fading of ignorance, arising of true knowledge, and the cessation of craving. You see, this word craving is very important. The cessation of craving will bring about the ending of existence. Now, another Sutta is the 76th Sutta in the Anguttara, the Book of the Trees, Anguttara Nikaya. In that Sutta, the Venerable Ananda asked the Buddha, as to the saying, existence, existence, Lord, to what extent is there existence? And the Buddha said, if there were no worlds of sensual desire and no kamma, kamma here is deeds, To ripen therein, Ananda, would any sensual desire existence be manifested? Ananda said, Surely not, Lord. And the Buddha said, In this way, Ananda, karma is the field, consciousness is the seed, craving the moisture. For beings that are hindered by ignorance, fettered by craving, consciousness is established in lower worlds. Thus, in the future, there is repeated rebirth. In this way there is existence Ananda." And then the Buddha continued, again, if there were no worlds of form and no kamma to ripen therein, Ananda, would any form existence be manifested? Ananda said, surely not, Lord. In this way, Ananda, kamma is the field, consciousness is the seed, craving the moisture. For beings that are hindered by ignorance, fettered by craving, consciousness is established in intermediate worlds. Thus, in the future, there is repeated rebirth. In this way, there is existence, Ananda. Again, Ananda, again, if there were no worlds of the formless and no kamma to ripen therein, Ananda, would any formless existence be manifested? Surely not, Lord. In this way, Ananda, karma is the field, consciousness is the seed, craving the moisture. For beings that are hindered by ignorance, fettered by craving, consciousness is established in higher worlds. Thus, in the future, there is repeated rebirth. In this way, there is existence, Ananda." So you see, in this Sutta, the Buddha said karma is the field, consciousness is the seed, craving the moisture. that will bring you to existence in lower, intermediate, and higher worlds. And these three things refer to the sensual world, the sensual desire world, the form world, and the formless world. So, kamma is the field, consciousness is the seed, and craving the moisture. Now, these three things concerning existence, these three realms of existence, called the sensual desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm, I'd like to explain a little bit, deviation a bit. This kamaloka, this sensual desire world refers to the human realm and then six heavens above us and then the woeful planes below us. Now these woeful planes I would like to point out that many books nowadays when they mention woeful planes they like to mention four types of beings. The first is hell beings, the worst. And then the animal realm, the second worst. And then the ghost realm. And then they mention another one called the Asura realm. Now unfortunately, this is one of those mistakes that were made by commentaries and later books. Because I myself never noticed this until much later. When I studied the Sutta in detail, I found in several Suttas For example, Majjhima Nikaya, number 12, that says, that refers to these, the Wofu planes, as only three, you know. The hell realm, hell, animal and ghost realm. No mention of Asura. Asura, actually, should be in the Tavatimsa heaven, the heaven of the 33. Because these Asuras are devas, you know, who inhabit the Tavatimsa heaven. But unfortunately, because These asuras, they like to fight and drink liquor and all these things. Maybe some people consider them as suffering and put them into the woeful planes. But actually, they are having a lot of fun up in the Tavartimsa Heaven. They should not be put into the woeful planes. This is one of those things that if you are not careful, you can just believe certain books. Now concerning this existence again, I'd like to read to you parts of two suttas which are very important to understand existence. One is the Rohitasa Sutta, found in the second Sankhyuta, Devaputta Sankhyuta, Sutta number six. There the Buddha said, but friend, I do not say that the end of Dukkha is to be accomplished without reaching the end of the world. It is in this fathom-long body, friend, with its perceptions and mental workings, that I declare the world to be the origin of the world, the seizing of the world, and the path leading to the seizing of the world." This Sutta says that the world is inside our body, you know. In other words, the world actually is inside our mind. What he's trying to say, the world is in our mind. Now, another sutta, Kevada Sutta, which is Digha Nikaya No. 11, the Buddha said, but Bhikkhu, you should not ask your question in this way. Where do the four great elements, earth, water, fire, wind, seas, without remainder? Instead, this is how the question should have been put. Where do earth, water, fire and wind, no footing find? Where are long and short, small and great, fair and foul? Where are Nama Rupa, wholly destroyed? And the answer is, where consciousness is non-perceptive. Boundless, all luminous. That's where earth, water, fire and wind, no footing find. They're both long and short, small and great, fair and foul. Their Nama Rupa are wholly destroyed. With the cessation of consciousness, this is all destroyed." This Sutta says that That we should not ask, where do the four great elements? The four great elements, earth, water, fire, and wind, refers to the physical world. Our world consists of earth, water, fire, and wind. We should not ask, where does the world cease without remainder? You should ask, where does the world no footing find? That means no footing to arise. Where does the world have no footing to step on, to arise, no support to arise? And then the Buddha said, when consciousness is non-perceptive and it ceases altogether, then the world does not arise. In other words, the world arises dependent on consciousness. When you have consciousness, then you can perceive the world. If you have no consciousness, the world disappears altogether. In other words, existence, the world, does not have an independent being. The world does not exist independently of consciousness. It is existing dependent on consciousness. First you must have consciousness, then you have the world. If you have no consciousness, there is no world. This is another very important thing we need to understand about existence, which I will refer to later. Now, what's the cause of existence? The cause of existence is Upadana, which is clinging. And it is defined as follows. There are these four kinds of clinging. Clinging to sensual desires. clinging to views, clinging to rules and rituals, clinging to the soul theory. Now to find an explanation of this, we refer to the Abhidhamma. There's a book called the Dhammasangani and it is explained as follows. The first one, clinging to sensual desires. The lust, desire, attachment, passion, deludedness, fetter with regard to sensual objects. That is sensual desire clinging. Good explanation and we agree with it. It means the desire, the excitement, the fever concerning sensual objects. That's what is meant by sensual desire, clinging. Now, clinging to views, it is defined as all wrong views and wrong conceptions means clinging to views. However, this is one thing I don't quite agree because if you study the suttas, for example, Majjhima Nikaya No. 2 and No. 72, you find that there are some external sect people, those who are not Buddhist, they come and debate with the Buddha. And they ask certain questions. Or sometimes they not only want to come and debate, sometimes they want to learn the Dhamma from the Buddha. And they come up with all kinds of views. For example, This kind of view. Was I in the past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future? Self exists for me. No self exists for me. The world is eternal. The world is not eternal. The world is finite. The world is infinite. The soul and the body are the same thing. The soul and the body are different. After death, the Tathagata, the Buddha, exists. After death, the Tathagata does not exist. After death, the Tathagata both exists and does not exist. After death, the Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist. Now this, that means they have a lot of views. Now this kind of thing, what did the Buddha say? The Buddha said, this field of views is the ticket of views, the contortion of views, the vacillation of views, the factor of views. It is accompanied by suffering, by vexation, by despair, by agitation, and it does not lead to dispassion, to fading out, to cessation, to stillness, to direct knowledge, to full enlightenment, to Nibbana. In other words, the Buddha is saying, all these views are useless. So you see from this, these views, it does not only refer to wrong views, all kinds of views. And I was having many views. And this having many views is very common to the Putujana, the ordinary person who has the ego, the view of the soul in him. And because we have the view of the soul, we want to know about ourselves. For example, in the future, will I exist or will I not exist and all that. And because of the soul or the self, we have a view of others and we have the view of the world and all that. And we have a lot of questions concerning all this. So that is the, I think that is the meaning of the clinging to views, having a lot of views, which will only subside when we cultivate our mind and it does not become so restless, so agitated. And when we understand the Dhamma, that basically there is no ego or soul, and then all our questions will sort of subside. So, I think that is a more reasonable explanation of clinging to views rather than just clinging to having wrong views. Now, the third one is clinging to rules and rituals, and it is explained in the Dhammasangani as clinging to the view that through mere rules and rituals, one may attain purification. Now this explanation is quite valid, especially during the Buddha's time. Because during the Buddha's time, there were these renunciants who were not Buddhists, that were cultivating all kinds of ascetic practices. And they had a lot of rules and rituals. And for example, rules like they must not wear clothes, they must not eat meat, they must not eat any other food except rice, or not eat any food except certain types of grain, or must not eat any food except fruits picked from the forest. All these kind of rules, they think that will purify them. And things like making themselves suffer, whipping themselves, or sleeping on nails, sleeping under the open sky and all these things. They are mere rules that they think will give them purification. And rituals during the Buddha's time probably refers more to the rituals of the Brahmins, because the Brahmins had a lot of rituals, a lot of ceremonies and sacrifices to heaven and all these things. And so during the Buddha's time, many people thought that all these rules and rituals will purify them, make them purified. So this explanation is quite valid during the Buddha's time. But I think it is reasonable to extend it as clinging to rules and rituals, whatever the cause. Whatever the cause. If you cling to it, that means when you should not cling to it, when you should not practice it, you still practice it. And to understand when we should do something or should not do something, we have to see what is the standard the Buddha used. If you look at the sutra, you find here and then the Buddha refers to a certain standard that we should use when we decide whether to do something or not to do something. And what is that standard? The Buddha said, if we do something and it brings an increase in unwholesome states, meaning unwholesome states of mind, to oneself or to others, we should not do it. Not only increase in unwholesome states, but also either an increase in unwholesome states or a decrease in wholesome states of the mind, we should not do it. But if we do something, it brings an increase in the wholesome states of mind and a decrease in unwholesome states, then we should do it. So this is the standard. Whether we want to follow a certain rule or we don't want to follow a certain rule, this should be the standard we should consider. That is the standard the Buddha uses. So in this respect, I think we can say clinging to rules and rituals can be any form of clinging that is not in conformity with the Buddha's standard. Now the fourth one is the clinging to the soul theory. Clinging to the soul theory is explained as clinging to views on the ego, views on the soul. This is a good explanation and that means we cling to a soul we believe is found inside us. Now what is this soul? Soul in the Buddha's teaching refers to something that is permanent, that exists forever, that does not change, something that does not change, always is like that. However, the Buddha said, there cannot be found any soul in the world, you cannot find anything called an Atta, soul in the world, because everything is changing all the time. So, because it is changing all the time, there is no such thing as the soul, and things change, Every now and then things change, dependent on conditions. That's why it's dependent on conditions according to the law of dependent origination. Now sometimes there's some confusion between the soul and the self. Sometimes we say there is no self. But this self, we need to be clear, there are two types of self. One type of self is the conventional self. Because we have initiative to do this and to do that. The Buddha said in the Sutta, in the Anguttanikaya, the book of the Sixth Sutta, the 38th Sutta, the Buddha says that there is a self. A self exists, meaning there is a conventional self. But this self is changing all the time. It is not to be confused with soul. And sometimes when we say no self exists, that self, when we say that self, that atta refers to the soul, something that is permanent. So we have a self which is changing, but no soul.

(EA17)-03-Links-No

Now coming to the eighth Ling, the cause of clinging is tan-ha, craving. Tan-ha, craving, is literally translated as thirst. Thirst. But the popular translation is craving. Now, what is craving? There are these six kinds of craving. Craving for sights. Craving for sounds. Craving for smells or odors. Craving for taste or flavors. Craving for contact or tangibles. And craving for mind objects. That is craving. However, Independent origination, that is the explanation for craving. However, in the Digha Nikaya No. 22, Mahasatipatthana Sutta, it is explained a little bit different. It is explained, craving is explained as the craving for sensual desire, craving for existence and craving for non-existence. Now in this Sutta, Mahasatipatthana Sutta, the Buddha said, What monks is the Aryan truth of the origin of suffering? It is that craving which gives rise to rebirth, bound up with pleasure and lust, finding fresh delight now here, now there. That is to say, craving for sensual desire, craving for existence, and craving for non-existence. And where does this craving arise and establish itself? Wherever in the world there is anything agreeable and pleasurable, there this craving arises and establishes itself. Sights or forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles, mind objects in the world are agreeable and pleasurable. And there this craving arises and establishes itself. So from here you can see when you say craving means craving for sensual desire, existence and non-existence. And then you say craving means craving for sights, sounds, smells, taste, tangibles, and mind objects. Actually, they are the same thing. Because, as explained here, the objects of the craving are to be found in the six sense objects. Now, this Sutta, if you read further, it says, and what monks is the Aryan truth of the cessation of suffering? It is the complete fading away and extinction of this craving. It's forsaking and abandonment, liberation from it, detachment from it. That is the cessation of suffering. So you see, craving is the root cause, the main cause of suffering and rebirth. And to end suffering, we have to get rid of craving. That we have to understand. Now we come to the seventh Ling. The cause of craving is Vedana. Feeling. Generally translated as feeling. What is feeling? There are these six classes of feeling. There are these six classes of feeling. Feeling born of eye contact. Feeling born of ear contact. Feeling born of nose contact. Feeling born of tongue contact. Feeling born of body contact. Feeling born of mind contact. That is feeling. Now to understand this feeling better, we have to refer to some other Suttas. In the Sankhyuta Nikaya, Sankhyuta number 36, the Vedana Sankhyuta, Sutta number 22, it talks about two types of feelings. Three types, 5, 6, 18, 36, 108. You can have so many types of feelings. And then it explains what it means by two feelings. It says there are two types of feelings. It's bodily feeling and mental feeling. But it doesn't explain further. Now to understand further, we have to look at another Sutta. Sankhyuta Nikaya, Sankhyuta number 48, the Indriya Sankhyuta, the fourth section, the sixth Sutta. There it says that bodily feeling arises from bodily contact. And mental feeling arises from mental contact. That means if a feeling arises through seeing, through hearing, smelling, taste and all that, that is bodily contact. That feeling that arises from that, from bodily contact, Now, mental feeling comes from mental contact. That means if we use the thinking mind, if we use the thinking mind, if we think and a feeling arises, that is mental feeling. So we are quite clear about bodily and mental feeling. And then it says there are three types of feeling. And the three types of feeling are pleasant, painful or unpleasant, and neutral. Normally, the Pali words, sukha, dukkha, and adukkha-masukha, meaning neither dukkha or sukha. Now, this adukkha-masukha, neither painful nor pleasant, is also called upekkha, equanimity. So that is pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral, the three types of healing. Now you notice here, when it says sukha, dukkha, pleasant and unpleasant, it does not say bodily or mental. In fact, sukha and dukkha just means pleasurable or unpleasant, pleasant or unpleasant, and it can be used for sukha and dukkha. And we can see this when it explains the five feelings. The five feelings are also called the panca indriyani. The five faculties. Now, there it says the five feelings are sukha, dukkha, somanasa, domanasa, and upekka. Now sukha is explained as the kaikasukha vedana. That means the pleasant bodily feeling. Dukkha is explained as kaikasukha vedana, unpleasant or painful bodily feeling. Domenasa is explained as cetasika sukavedana, pleasant mental feeling. Domenasa is cetasika sukavedana, that means painful mental feeling and Upekha is explained as Adhukamasukha Vedana. Now I want you to notice here that Somanasa refers to Cetasikha Sukha Vedana. That means that word Sukha can be used here for mental and it can also be used for bodily because we We need to understand this because, for example, when the Buddha describes the jhana states, he refers to two things, piti and sukha. And this piti and sukha, the sukha that is mentioned there, it can be bodily and mental. So there are certain suttas, if you look carefully, in the first jhana and second jhana, that sukha refers to bodily sukha and mental sukha, first and second jhāna, whereas in the third jhāna, it still uses sukha, but in the third jhāna, it's actually mental sukha. So, we need to be very clear about this to be able to differentiate when the Buddha, what the Buddha means, whether it is mental or bodily. Now, the six feelings are the feelings as we explained just now, the feeling born of eye contact, ear contact, nose, tongue, body and mind contact. Then later when the Buddha talks about 18, 36 and 108 feelings, they are all multiples of the basic 2, 3, 5, and 6 feelings. For example, 18 feelings. You get 18 feelings because you have pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feeling through the eye contact. And then you also have pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feeling because of ear contact. And then you have pleasant, unpleasant, neutral feeling because of nose contact. So 3 multiplied by 6, you get 18. In the same way, 36 and 108 are just multiples. Now, we look again at Majjhima Nikaya 43, Mahavedala Sutta. In that sutta, our Arahant Sariputta says, I was talking to his friend, Mahakutthita, he said, Reverend, feeling, perception, and consciousness, these states are conjoined, not disjoined. And it is impossible to separate each of these states from the others in order to describe the difference between them. For what one feels, that one perceives. and what one perceives, that one cognizes. So in this sutta, it is explained that feeling, perception and consciousness, they are related. You cannot separate each from each. Consciousness, we should know, is a basic ingredient of the working of the mind. Consciousness is to be found in all workings of the mind. You cannot have feeling without consciousness. You must have consciousness. You cannot have perception without consciousness. So all these are related. Now we look at Majjhima Nikaya number 44, Chula Vedala Sutta. There, the Arahant Dhammadina is teaching the former husband, supposed to be, according to the commentaries, Visakha, a layman, supposed to be her former husband. And she explained, the underlying tendency to lust underlies pleasant feeling. The underlying tendency to aversion underlies unpleasant or painful feeling. The underlying tendency to ignorance underlies neither pleasant nor neither unpleasant nor pleasant feeling. I stopped a while to explain this a bit. What is meant here is that when we experience a pleasant feeling, there is an underlying tendency to lust or to crave for it. And then when we experience an unpleasant or painful feeling, there is an underlying tendency to aversion or repulsion from the unpleasant feeling. And then when we experience neither pleasant or unpleasant feeling, there is a tendency to ignorance, not to know it. Because we are moved by feelings, and we are always moved by pleasant and unpleasant feelings. When we have pleasant feelings, we are overjoyed. When we have painful feelings, we feel a lot of suffering. But when we have neither unpleasant or pleasant feelings, we don't know. So that is the three tendencies. And then to continue, she says that the underlying tendency to lust for pleasant feeling is not in the case of all pleasant feeling. And the underlying tendency to aversion is not in the case of all unpleasant feeling. And the underlying tendency to ignorance is not in the case of all feeling also. And then it says, the underlying tendency to lust should be abandoned in regard to pleasant feeling. The underlying tendency to aversion should be abandoned in regard to unpleasant feeling. The underlying tendency to ignorance should be abandoned in regard to neither unpleasant nor pleasant feeling. Then later she says, the underlying tendency to lust does not have to be abandoned in regard to all pleasant feeling. The underlying tendency to aversion does not have to be abandoned in regard to all unpleasant feeling. And the underlying tendency to ignorance does not have to be abandoned in regard to all neither unpleasant nor pleasant feeling. And then later she continues, a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the first jhāna. With that, he abandons lust. And the underlying tendency to lust does not underlie that. I won't go further in this sutta. I'd like to point out here that in the case of jana, when a person attains jana, he abandons lust. And then the underlying tendency to lust for that jana is not there. It's different in the case of sensual, feelings that arise from sensual desire, sensual contact. There is always, when you have a pleasant feeling, there is an underlying tendency to lust for it. But here, not in the case of jhana. And that's why some people don't understand this kind of sutta. They tell you that, oh, don't cultivate jhana because you can crave for it, you can attach to it, and all that. It's not true, according to the sutta. Now let's look at the Majjhima Nikaya 66 and 139 that explains a bit about the sensual pleasure. The five strands or the five courts of sensual pleasure are sights, sounds, smells, tangibles that are wished for, desired, agreeable, likable, connected with sensual desire and provocative of lust. The pleasure and joy that arise dependent on these five courts of sensual pleasure are called sensual pleasure, a filthy pleasure, a coarse pleasure, an ignoble pleasure. I say of this kind of pleasure that it should not be pursued, that it should not be developed, that it should not be cultivated, that it should be feared. This is what the Buddha says about sensual pleasure. Sensual pleasure that arises out of contact with the world should not, should be avoided, should be feared. And then the Buddha continues. A bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the first jhāna, second, third, fourth jhāna. This is called the bliss of renunciation, the bliss of seclusion, the bliss of peace, the bliss of enlightenment. I say of this kind of happiness that it should be pursued, that it should be developed, that it should be cultivated, that it should not be feared. You see here the Buddha makes a very clear distinction between sensual pleasure and the bliss of the jhāna states. And the Buddha says in the case of sensual pleasure, I should be feared, I should not be cultivated at all. But in the case of jhāna, the Buddha says you should be pursued, should be developed, should be cultivated, should not be feared. And in other suttas, the Buddha says, why? Because if you practice the Jhanas, the Buddha says, there are four advantages. And the four advantages are Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami, and Arahant. In other words, all the stages of sainthood come from Jhana. Now we look at another sutta to understand feelings better. In the Vedana Samyutta, the 36th Samyutta of the Samyutta Nikaya, Sutta number 6, the Buddha says that the Putujana, or ordinary person, suffers bodily and mental dukkha. But an Arya suffers only bodily dukkha. Then the Buddha says the Putujana, the ordinary person, knows of no refuge from dukkha except sensual pleasure, whereas the Arya knows of a refuge. Here, the Buddha says very clearly that the ordinary person suffers bodily and mental dukkha, whereas the Arya has only got bodily dukkha. The Arya continues to suffer because he has the body, but his mind does not suffer anymore. The mind is quite stable in that sense. And then the other thing is the ordinary person has no refuge from dukkha. When dukkha comes, He feels so moved by it that he wants to distract himself from dukkha. And he distracts himself using sensual pleasure. That is his refuge. So ordinary people, we keep going to sensual pleasure to run away from dukkha, to distract ourselves from dukkha. But not the Ārya. The Ārya, because the Ārya, the Buddha says, cultivates meditation, meaning concentration, and that itself gives him a source of happiness. And just now as I read, the Buddha mentioned it as the bliss of enlightenment. Actually here the Buddha is overstating it a bit because the jhanas are actually not enlightenment itself. But this happens in other suttas also where the Buddha describes jhana as though it's a supramundane state. This is not only in one Sutta. It's more than one Sutta where the Buddha has such a high regard for the Jhānas that sometimes he describes them as though they were supramundane states. Because there's one Sutta, I forgot the number, where the Buddha says when a monk abides in the first Jhāna, he's already cool, Nibbhuta. He has crossed over. These two terms, cool and crossed over, nibbuta and paragatta, are normally used for the arahant. But the Buddha used this even for the first jhāna. It shows how much the Buddha esteems the jhānas. The last thing I'd like to point out about feelings is that, say for an arahant, sometimes we say an arahant has ended suffering. It's not exactly true, you know. An arahant still has got bodily dukkha, you know, and the arahant abandons dukkha fully when he lets go of the body, when he lets go of the five khandas and enters parinibbana, then only he does not have any dukkha at all. So, that's the other thing I want to point out.

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Now we come to item number six. The cause of the origin or the cause of feelings is passa. Passa is contact. The definition is as follows. There are these six classes of contact. Eye contact, ear contact, nose contact, tongue contact, body contact, mind contact. That is contact. Now, let's look at Samyutta. number 35, Salayat Tanah Sangyutta, Sutta number 93. There the Buddha says, it is owing to a dual thing, bhikkhus, that consciousness comes into being. Owing to the eye insights or forms arises eye consciousness. Now the striking together, the falling together, the meeting together of these three things, this bhikkhus is called eye contact. What are these three things? The three things are because of the eye, the form or sight, and eye consciousness that arises. These three things, when they come together, because you go and pay attention, then there is contact. There is contact. So similarly, for the other five sense organs, it's the same thing. For ear, nose, et cetera, it's the same way. Now, we look at the Sankhyuta number 22, the Khanda Sankhyuta, Sutta number 56. There it says, the cause for the arising of feeling is contact. The cause for the arising of perception is contact. The cause for the arising of volition or intention is contact. Then we look at Nidana Sankhyuta, the 12th Sankhyuta, Sutta number 24. It says, the cause for the arising of dukkha is contact. The cause for the arising of dukkha is contact. So you see, because of contact, we get feeling followed by perception, volition. And then if we are not careful, we get dukkha. So that's why we have to be careful about contact. So because of that, the Buddha asks us to practice one practice called guarding the six sense doors. The Buddha asks us to guard our six sense doors. When you say guard, it means like a jaga, somebody who stands guard. He only lets certain people in. He does not let all people in through the door. So in the same way, when we guard our Sixth Sense doors, we don't let everything come in through our Sixth Sense doors. We have to be careful not to see too much, not to hear too much, not to smell too much and all that. So in other words, if you are a good practicing Buddhist, don't watch too much TV and videotapes. How very bad for your meditation. Okay, now the cause of contact is the six sense bases, item number five, salayatana, the six sense bases. And what is the six sense bases? There are these six bases, the eye base, ear base, nose base, tongue base, body base, mind base. That is the six, those are the six bases. Now, I'd like to explain here, there are six internal sense bases, and there are six external sense bases that correspond to these six internal sense bases. The eye, ear, nose, etc., those are the internal sense bases. And the external sense bases are the objects of these six sense organs, namely sights or forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles, and mind objects. Those are the external sense bases. The first five sense bases refers to the external world, the world that's external to our body, the world around us. And then the mind refers to our internal world where we daydream and imagine and fantasize and all that. Now, our consciousness flows out through the six sense bases and it dissipates our energies, our energy. And we become tired and all that because our mind, the energy is always going up to the six sense bases. And when we cultivate ourselves, we cultivate our mind, we want to go back to our original mind. Our original mind, we don't want our energy to be dissipated. So if we meditate and try to practice one-pointedness of mind, our energy is not scattered. It stays inside our mind. And then what happens? The Buddha says the original mind is bright. If we can prevent our energy from going out to the six-sense doors and concentrate it, have one-pointedness of mind, our mind will light up, light up to be its original state. And then that's the way to go back to our original nature. The cause of the six-sense spaces is the fourth link, Nama Rupa. This is a very, important thing that I want to explain here because the explanation here will be a bit different from many books. Many books define Nama Rupa as mind and matter or mind and body, whereas I follow the Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation which is mentality and materiality. However, Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation, although it is mentality and materiality, his explanation of it is the same as mind and body. But I would explain it, my explanation of it is a bit different. Now let's look at Nama. Nama, what is Nama Rupa? In the Sutta it says, Contact, feeling, perception, consideration, volition, these are called mentality, nama, which I translate as mentality. The four great elements and the materiality derived from the four great elements, these are called materiality. Now, we notice that nama or mentality excludes consciousness. Normally, when you say mind, and the mind normally, when we talk about the five khandhas, we talk about body, and then we talk of four mental parts, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness. And these four things normally are called mind. However, here, in the definition of Nama, it does not include consciousness. This thing we should notice. Now what is materiality, the four great elements? The four great elements, earth, water, fire, wind, does not literally mean earth, water, fire, wind. It refers to four modes of behavior that is perceived by the mind. Because earth refers to the hardness element. When we perceive something as hard, we call it the earth element. For example, this chair, the cane of this chair is hard. I feel it as hard, or I perceive it as hard. So to me, that is the earth element. But it is not earth, right? This is wood. That is the meaning of the earth element. Now what's the meaning of the water element? The water element means the property of cohesion. the property to cohere, to come together. Because water has the property of bringing things together. For example, my body has got the water element. If I remove all the water element from my body, what happens to my body? My body will crumble. It cannot have a shape without the water element. The water element makes my body cohere together, therefore I have a shape. That's the meaning of the water element, the property of cohesion. The fire element refers to the heat element. The heat element, that we know. The wind element refers to motion. If there is motion, that means the wind element. For example, inside my body there are gases, I have breathing and all that. That is the wind element. Now, to understand better mentality and materiality and nama-rupa, let's look at a few suttas. In the Mahanidana Sutta, which is the 15th Sutta in the Digha Nikaya, it is said, with mentality, materiality as condition, there is consciousness. With consciousness as condition, there is mentality, materiality. In other words, Vijnana or consciousness conditions Nama Rupa. And Nama Rupa conditions consciousness. These two, They condition each other. Now, to understand this a bit better, let's look at the 67th Sutta in the Nidana Samyutta, the 12th Samyutta, called the Nidana Samyutta. Now, there it says that consciousness and mentality, materiality, consciousness and nama-rupa, are likened to two bundles of reeds leaning one against the other. We have two bundles of reeds standing, leaning one against the other. And it is stated that they stand together and fall together. In other words, they support each other. Now, when you say consciousness and Nama Rupa support each other, It means that Nama Rupa refers to phenomena, what consciousness cognizes. Because when you say consciousness, it means you are conscious of something. You cannot have consciousness without an object. You cannot. When you have consciousness, it simply means you are conscious of something. And that something is Nama Rupa. In other words, phenomena. phenomena that is presented to the mind or consciousness, that is Nama Rupa. And it has two parts. One is the mental working. mental working that is presented to consciousness, and the other is the behavior of the world. Just now we said the four things, earth, water, fire, wind, the modes of behavior that is perceived by consciousness. These are the two aspects of phenomena that is presented to the mind. Therefore, Nama Rupa should mean the totality of phenomena that is presented to the mind. Now, just now I read to you that the Rohitasa Sutta and the Kevada Sutta where the Buddha says that the world is inside our mind and also that the world does not exist by itself. It only arises dependent on consciousness. So, from this, You can see that when we say Nama Rupa refers to phenomena, mentality, materiality, that is correct. In other words, the world is inside our mind. Whereas if you say that Nama Rupa means mind and matter, that means you are separating mind from matter. When you separate mind from matter, you imply that the world or matter is independent of the mind or consciousness, which is not true according to the Rohitasa Sutta and the Kevada Sutta. We explain Nama Rupa as mentality and materiality, which is the phenomena that is cognized by consciousness. And then there are some other suttas that back this explanation. If you look at the Sangyuta Nikaya, the 47th Sangyuta, called the Satipatthana Sangyuta, the 5th section, the 2nd Sutta. It says there, by the arising of Nama Rupa, comes the arising of mind. By the ceasing of Nama Rupa, comes the ceasing of mind. So you see, if you explain Nama Rupa as mind and matter, Then you should say, by the arising of nama, mind, comes the arising of mind. But you don't say that in this sutta. It says the arising of nama rupa. Nama and rupa comes the arising of mind. That's why we say that nama rupa refers to what is perceived by consciousness. Now, another sutta, Anguttara Nikaya, the 9th, book of the 9th, the 14th sutta, there it says, the basis of Sankapavitaka, which is intentional thoughts, is Nama Rupa. The basis of thoughts is Nama Rupa. But if you say Nama Rupa is mind and matter, then you should say the basis of thoughts is mind, which is Nama. But the basis of thoughts is not Nama. The basis of thoughts is Nama Rupa. Therefore, it is more correct to understand Nama Rupa as totality of phenomena. Now, we refer to another Sutta in the 12th Sankhyuta, the Nidana Sankhyuta, the 19th Sutta. There it says, there is just this body and Nama Rupa without giving rise to contact. Here it's saying, the body is inside, Nama Rupa is outside. That's why we say Nama Rupa is phenomena, phenomena that is presented to consciousness. So all these Suttas, show that Nama Rupa should refer to mentality, materiality, which is the totality of phenomena presented to consciousness. And Nama Rupa is not mind and matter, which is very frequently translated and explained, because basically we say that Rupa, the world, does not have an independent existence from consciousness. Now we come to consciousness. The cause of Nama Rupa is consciousness. And what is consciousness? There are these six classes of consciousness, eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, mind consciousness. And just now we heard earlier that eye consciousness arises because of eye and forms. Ear consciousness arises because of sounds and ear. Now we look at one Sutta in the Khandasangyuta which is the 22nd Sangyuta, Sutta number 79. There the Buddha says, one cognizes because therefore the word consciousness is used. Cognizes what? Of sour, bitter, acrid or sweet, alkaline or non-alkaline, salty or not salty. That's the meaning of consciousness. We can cognize, we can know all these different things. Therefore, it's called consciousness. And as I mentioned before, consciousness is the basic ingredient present in all the mental workings.

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Now we come to item number two, Sankara. This is another very important term which so far I find most of the explanations are not consistent with the Sutta. Sankara has been variously translated. formations, processes, mental activities, condition, conditions, compound, etc., etc. However, I would like to translate it as conditioners, conditioners or existence conditions, and I will explain why. One of the last books translated by Venerable Nyanamoli, the English monk who was, everybody acknowledged as a very, very good translator. Venerable Nyanamoli, the monk who translated the Visuddhimagga, He has passed away. But the last book he translated was the Majjhima Nikaya. Previous books, he translated Sankara as formations, etc. But in his last book, he translated it as determinant. Determinant is a very good translation. Something that determines something else. And this translation, conditioner, is the same meaning. Conditioner means something that conditions something else. That's the meaning of Sankara. Now, according to the Sutta, what is Sankara? There are these three Sankaras. Body Sankara, Kaya Sankara, Speech Sankara, Vaci Sankara, and Mind Sankara, Citta Sankara. That's all they say in the Sutta, you know, when they explain dependent origination. That's all they say about the Sankharas. There are three Sankharas. Sakaya Sankhara, Paci Sankhara, and Citta Sankhara. Now, according to the commentaries and the traditional interpretation, or in fact, almost everybody interprets the Sankharas as karma, you know, the working of karma. The working of karma. And that's why from, because this is the working of kamma, action, kamma is action. And then they, from there they like to translate sankara as activity or processes. But to understand this word Sankara, let's see what the suttas explain Sankara. How the suttas explain Sankara. Now we look at the Sankyuta Nikaya, the 22nd Sankyuta called the Khanda Sankyuta. Sutta number 79. What does the Buddha say? The Buddha says, and why? Because are they said to be conditioners? Why are they called Sankaras? And then the Buddha says, they condition. The conditioned. That is why because they are called conditioners. The Pali is, Sangkatang Abhisankarontiti Bhikkave Dasmasankaratibhucanti. The word condition is Abhisankaronti. And the conditioned is Sangkata. Sangkata is always translated as condition. Because Sankhata is always translated as condition, I prefer to use Sankara, to explain Sankara as conditioners rather than the determinant. So they condition something else, you know, that's why they are called conditioners. And what is the condition that they condition, the Buddha continued. Matter as matter is the condition that they condition. Feeling as feeling is the condition that they condition. Perception. Conditioners. Consciousness. They condition the condition. That indeed bhikkhus is why they are called conditioners. Rupam rupataya. Sangkatam abhisankaranti. Matter as matter is the condition that they condition. So, the conditioners, they condition the five aggregates, you know, matter, feeling, perception. Even conditioners themselves, they condition, and consciousness. Conditioners condition the condition, and conditioners even condition the conditioner, you know. Why? Because when you have a conditioner that conditions something else, In other words, the cause of, say, the cause of B existing is A. So A is the conditioner of B. When A comes into existence, B comes into existence. So B is the conditioner. But when B comes into existence, it conditions C. So when it conditions C, it becomes the conditioner. So, the conditioned can become the conditioner, you see. That's why they say, conditioners condition the condition and even condition the conditioners. So, that is the basic meaning of the word Sankara is to be found here. Another place where it's very clear is the Mahavedala Sutta, the 43rd Sutta in the Majjhima Nikaya. There, it is explained by the Arahant Sariputta. The five faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and the body stand in dependence on life. Life is ayu. When we have life, then we have these five faculties in us, eye, ear, nose, Tongue and body, they depend on life. Now, life stands in dependence on heat. We have life because we have heat. And then he also says that heat stands in dependence on life. Life depends on heat, and heat depends on life. Now, later he says that Āyusankara, life conditioners are not states of feeling. If life conditioners were states of feeling, then when a bhikkhu has entered upon cessation of feeling and perception, he would not be seen to emerge from it. Now, what is he trying to say here? He says that life conditioners are not states of feeling. In other words, life-conditioner is something that can be confused with feeling. Then he says, if life-conditioners were feeling itself, when a monk enters upon cessation of perception and feeling, that means he enters into cessation of consciousness, when you have cessation of perception and feeling, the feeling stops altogether. Then if life-conditioner were feeling itself, then the life-conditioner will also cease. So if life-conditioner ceases, then that person will die. So he cannot emerge from cessation. Now what does the commentary say about life-conditioner? The commentary says that life-conditioner is life itself. But to me, this is a mistake. Because if life-conditioner were life itself, then there would be no confusion with feeling. How can life be confused with feeling? Life and feeling has no connection. I mean, they cannot be confused. They are clearly quite different from each other, life and feeling. But if life condition were heat, then you can be confused with feeling. Why? Because heat, normally when we have heat, we say, I feel hot. Yes or no? I feel hot because I have a lot of heat in me. So, heat can be confused with feeling. Because we perceive heat as though it is a feeling. Because you say, I feel hot, I feel the heat. Because of that, heat can be confused with feeling. That's why here it says that life conditioners are not states of feeling. In other words, life conditioner means heat. And just now we said that life depends on heat. That's why sankara here again is used very definitely as a conditioner. In other words, the life conditioner, which is heat, is not feeling. So from here, from this sutta, again, you see very clearly that the word sankara, ayu-sankara. Ayu-sankara means heat. So the word sankara here is again definitely used as conditioner or determinant. Now, the second use of the word sankara to be found in the suttas It's intention, you know, intention or volition. And this is to be found in the Samyutta Nikaya, the 22nd Samyutta, called the Khanda Samyutta, Sutta number 56 and also 57. There it says, and what bhikkhus are sankara? It is these six bodies of intention, cetanakaya, bodies of intention. It is these six bodies of intention. Intention with regard to sights. Intention with regard to sounds. Intention with regard to smells. Intention with regard to taste, touch, mind, objects. These bhikkhus are called Sankara. So here, it says that Sankara refers to all bodies of intention. That means volition, intention is sometimes, cetana is sometimes translated as intention, sometimes translated as volition or will. So here we find very clearly that the word is used in a second sense, namely volition. Now, I'd like to point out that there is a great mistake made In the explanation of the word Sankaras, in most books, in fact, in almost all books, they explain Sankaras as karma formations. And why is there this confusion? Because if you look carefully into the suttas, you find Here they are talking about the three Sankaras, the body Sankara, the speech and the mind Sankara. And it is Kaya Sankara, Bachi Sankara, and Citta Sankara. However, if you look very carefully into the suttas, you find there is another set of three Sankaras, which are almost the same as this. What are they? They are Kaya Sankara, Vachi Sankara, and Mano Sankara. The first two items are exactly the same. The last one is Mano Sankara. Whereas here, it is Citta Sankara. Then if you look into the Suttas and the Nikayas, you find that these two sets of three Sankaras, they are used differently. They are used differently, you know. For example, in two suttas, the Chula Vedala Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya number 44, and the Kamabhu Sutta in the Sankhyuta Nikaya, the 41st Sankhyuta, namely the Citta Sankhyuta, Sutta number 6, they also talk about these three Sankharas. Let's look at the Majjhima Nigakaya, number 44. The layman, Visakha, asked the Arahant Dhammadina, he said, Lady, how many Sankaras are there? Arahant Dhammadina answered, there are these three Sankaras, friend Visakha, body Sankara, speech Sankara, Speech Sankara and Mind Sankara. Here, you note carefully, it is Kaya Sankara, Vaci Sankara and Citta Sankara, which is exactly the same as our Paticca Samuppada, the Three Sankaras. And then, she explains further. Indeed, friend Visakha, In and out breaths are body Sankara. Initial and sustained thoughts are speech Sankara. Feeling and perception are mind Sankara. Friend Visakha, in and out breaths are bodily. These states are bound up with the body. That is why the in and out breaths are body Sankara. First one applies initial thought and sustains thought, and subsequently one breaks out into speech. That is why initial and sustained thoughts are speech sankara. Perception and feeling are mental. These states are bound up with the mind. That is why perception and feeling are mind sankara. Here, you see, we can understand. better, these three terms. Firstly, that these three Sankaras, which is not explained in the Paticcasamuppada. It's explained here, you know, that Body Sankara refers to in and out breaths. Speech Sankara refers to initial and sustained thoughts, namely, Vittaka Vichara. And then Mind Sankara refers to feeling and perception. And then, Why it is so is explained because the body depends on the breath. In other words, the thing that conditions the body is the breath. Therefore, the breath is called the body conditioner. Thoughts condition speech because you have to think before you speak. Therefore, thoughts are called speech sankara. And for the mind to work, you must have perception and feeling. In other words, consciousness, before the mind can operate. That's why the mind conditioner is perception and feeling. Okay. That's how the three Sankaras are used. That is the three Sankaras, which is Kaya, Paci, and Citta Sankara. Now, let's look at the other three Sankaras found in the Suttas, which is Kaya, Vaci, and Mano Sankara. And these are used in a different sense, you know. Now, let's look at Anguttara Nikaya, Book of the Four, Sutta number 171. There the Buddha says, because It is due to ignorance that either oneself wills bodily intentions, kāyā-saṅkarāṅga-abhi-saṅkaroti, following which arises to the self pleasure or pain, or others will bodily intentions against the self, following which arises to the self pleasure or pain. That's used for bodily intentions. Similarly, either oneself wills verbal intentions or somebody else wills. Or the third one is either oneself wills mental intentions or somebody else wills. And the result of that, you have pleasure or pain. I hear it refers to karma, you know, doing karma. Because the Buddha said karma is intention. Karma insistently, or karma is volition. So here, when you use kaya, vaci, and mano sankara, it refers to the creation of karma. And this again is seen very clearly in another sutta, Majjhima Nikaya number 57, the Buddha said, and what puna is dark action with dark result. Here, someone generates an afflictive bodily sankara, an afflictive verbal sankara, an afflictive mental sankara, and then etc., etc., which I don't have to quote. Here again, it's very clear that you do Afflictive bodily Sankara, Afflictive verbal Sankara, and Afflictive mental Sankara, it is what the Buddha calls dark action, unskillful action. So here, again, we can see that these three Sankaras, namely Kaya, Vajji, and Mano Sankara, is again refers to the doing of kamma. So, here is where the confusion, comes in, as I mentioned just now, that they confuse these two sets of three sankharas, which are used differently in the suttas. When we use bodhi, kaya, vaci, and citta sankhara, it refers to the breathing, the thoughts, and the feeling and perception. In other words, these are the three things that condition the operation of a being, because we operate through the body, the speech and the mind. So for your being to operate, these three must be there. So, as I pointed out just now, in Dependent Origination, which is the set of 3 Sankaras that is used in Dependent Origination? If we look in all the suttas of Dependent Origination which explains the 3 Sankaras, it's always Kaya, Bachi and Citta Sankara. In other words, it's referring to the breathing, the thoughts and the feeling and perception, not the doing of karma. That's where the confusion comes in. So now we are clear about this, then we want to know more about the Three Sankaras. In, again we quote Majjhima Nikaya number 44, there is stated, when a bhikkhu is attaining the cessation of feeling and perception, that means the cessation of consciousness, first the speech sankara ceases, then the body sankara ceases, then the mind sankara. When a bhikkhu is emerging from the attainment of cessation of feeling and perception, first the mind-sankara arises, then the body-sankara, then the speech-sankara. This is very important because here we can understand when a person is attaining the cessation of consciousness, these three sankaras must cease gradually. First the speech-sankara, meaning the thoughts must cease first. And then the breathing must cease first, then the consciousness ceases last. So there is a ceasing of consciousness. In other words, from this we can also say that when a person is dying, this is what happens. This is the sequence of dying. When a person is dying, first he cannot talk. His mind might still be working. But he cannot talk. So if he is dying and he cannot talk and you are crying and you are lamenting and all that, it might disturb him, you know. That's why in some religions, it is taught that when a person is dying, you must not cry, you must not make anything to disturb him, which is quite valid. From here, you can see, first, he cannot speak. Then his breathing stops. But when his breathing stops, he's still not dead, because his consciousness is going on. And lastly, when his consciousness, his feeling and perception stops, that means his consciousness also stops. And then for the Arahant, when he's emerging from cessation, Nirodha Samapatti, you see how this being starts operating. The mind, Sankara, arises first. That means the feeling and perception, which includes consciousness, arises first. Yet, when the consciousness arises, he hasn't started to breathe. Then after that, the breathing starts. When the breathing starts, he still cannot speak. Then lastly, he can speak. Now, to understand, I give you a simulator. It's like the operation of a being. It's something like a car. You want to start a car, what do you do? First, you put the key inside. You put on the ignition. That means you turn the battery on. That's the first step. It's like being... Just now we explained the three steps. And then, after you start the... I mean, you connect the battery, then you press the ignition. That's the second step. Press the ignition, then the starter motor turns, and then the engine comes to life. Then to make the car move, you step on the accelerator, then the car moves. There's three steps to get the car moving. So in the same way, a being to operate, the consciousness comes first, and then the breathing, and then the thoughts. Now, I want to refer to another sutta to make you understand that these three things are connected with the jhanas. Let's look at the Sankhyuta Nikaya, the Sankhyuta number 36, called the Vedana Sankhyuta, Sutta number 11. There it says, the seizing of the Sankharas is gradual. In the first jhāna, speech seizes. In the second jhāna, vittaka-vicara seizes. That means thinking seizes, thoughts. In the third jhāna, pity seizes. In the fourth jhāna, Breathing ceases. And then continue until the ninth jhana, which is cessation. Feeling and perception ceases. From here, you can see, the first jhana, the speech ceases. In the second jhana, the things that condition speech, the speech conditioner, namely pitaka, vicara, thoughts cease. That means the ceasing of Vittaka Vichara is actually the second jhana. And the ceasing of breathing is the fourth jhana. So from here we can understand that when an arahant enters cessation of consciousness, first his Vittaka Vichara ceases, the speech conditioner ceases, which means he enters the second jhana. And then the second step, The breathing ceases, which is the body sankara ceases, which means he enters the fourth jhana. And then finally, the mind sankara ceases, the feeling and perception ceases, and then he enters into cessation of consciousness. Now this is very important. Why? Because if we look into the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, we find in the Divya Nikaya, we find that when the Buddha was entering Parinibbana, the Arahant Anuruddha said that he entered the first jhāna, second jhāna, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, up to the eighth jhāna. After the eighth jhāna, he came down, seven, six, five, down to one. And then he went up again, second, third, fourth. And from the fourth, he entered into Parinibbana. This is very important, you know, because from listening to what we said just now, we can understand that for the Buddha to enter the Parinibbana, he must sort of take off from the 4th jhāna into Parinibbāna. It's a necessity. He must go to the 2nd jhāna, 4th jhāna, then only enter Parinibbāna. So from here, we see why the Buddha said that right concentration is the four jhanas. Because if you don't cultivate the four jhanas and be able to enter them, as the Buddha says, easily and at will, then when you are dying, all the thoughts start coming. You are controlled by your thoughts, you know. What you did in the past and all that, they will come and haunt you, you know. So at that moment, most people will panic. They think of all the past karma. It's only a person who has cultivated his mind so well that he can suppress all his thinking and enter second jhana, fourth jhana, and from there enter Nibbana. From here it's very clear that you cannot have an arahant without any jana, impossible. How can you have a person without any jana entering Parinibbana? Absolutely cannot according to the explanation of these Sankaras. So we find that the explanation of the Sankaras as these three things is more reasonable. Firstly, according to the Sutta, you have to distinguish these two sets of three Sankaras. And then when you look into the Suttas, they are used differently. And then we can understand that the difference is in the last Sankara. It's either Citta Sankara or Mano Sankara. Then it's used differently. The other thing, They say that that is because of the ... we create karma. that there is renewed rebirth. It's not true because the cause of renewed rebirth, the cycle of existence is always craving. The Buddha said craving. Karma is one of the necessary conditions but it is not The absolutely necessary condition, in other words, it is only a supporting condition. It is not sometimes what is called a sufficient condition. It is not the one that decides rebirth. The one that decides rebirth is actually craving. That's why in the Sutta we heard earlier, the Buddha said that karma is the field. Craving is the moisture that sustains the seed of consciousness. If we say that the three Sankharas refer to karma creation, then it gives the impression that if we stop doing karma, if we stop creating karma, then we will end existence. But it's not true. Suppose now I don't do anything, I just do, I'm very careful, I don't want to do any karma. You cannot get out of samsara this way. In fact, we find, for example, the Buddha, he had to create a lot of skillful karma. Yes or not? He struggled. for how many lifetimes, struggle for many lifetimes to create the right karma to get out of samsara. It's not by inaction, not by stopping the actions, the karma. Whereas, when we explain the three Sankaras as the body Sankara, breathing, thinking, and perception, and feeling, then you can see very clearly that you continue to exist, we continue to exist and to live because our three Sankaras are working. In other words, we are breathing, we are thinking, and we are conscious, you know, we are conscious. But if we were to stop these three things, we stop breathing, we stop thinking, and we stop our consciousness, immediately we end existence, right? So you see this explanation of these three Sankaras as thinking, breathing, and perception and feeling is more forceful, is more sort of, you can see very clearly that immediately you end this, you can end existence by stopping your breathing, stopping your thinking, and stopping your consciousness. The other thing that supports this explanation of the Three Sankharas as the breathing, the thinking, and feeling, and perception is that According to the traditional interpretation, they say that Sankaras refer to karma making. In other words, if you look at the chart, they are saying that item number 2, Sankara, because of karma making, you get Vinayana, which they say is rebirth. Past life karma conditions present life rebirth. But if that is true, then you look at the bottom, it says craving, tanha, Clinging and existence will give you jati, rebirth. So if at the top you say Sankara causes rebirth, at the bottom you say it's craving. It's not consistent. It's not consistent. That's another thing wrong about explaining Sankara as karma making. And then the last thing I like to say is that When you say that karma is the cause of your present life, in other words, because we created karma, now we are living, it's something that is not easily seen. You cannot verify, how do I know in the past I created karma that I'm existing now? Although it is logical, but yet it is not so clear as I can see I continue to exist now because I'm breathing. because i'm thinking because i'm conscious you can see more clearly you know It's that, as the Buddha says, san-di-ti-ko-la. Dharma is something you can see in this life itself. If we explain the three sankharas as the breathing, the thinking, and the feeling, and perception, that means we are only bothered with this life. We are not bothered about the previous life. In other words, the explanation of Paticca Sambupada, it is not sort of one life, it is not three lives, it is more like two lives, present life and the rebirth. Because we can see now, the cause of my rebirth is going to be craving. If I can just let go of craving, I will get out of samsara. That is why you find, for example, in the Mahanidana Sutta, the 15th Sutta in the Digha Nikaya, it has only 10 links. It explains paticca-samupada instead of the normal 12 links which is found. They cut off the talk of Vijja and Sankara. The Buddha is not concerned with Vijja and Sankara. He just says that consciousness exists because of Nama Rupa. And Nama Rupa exists because of consciousness. And therefore we are existing now. And that will give you the six sense bases, contact, feeling, craving, etc. So you can see again that in the Digha Nikaya Mahanidana Sutta, the Buddha is not so concerned with the past. So that's another backing for our translation and explanation of that term Sankara. Now the Sankaras are caused by ignorance. And that's the first item, the basic, the root cause of existence and suffering is ignorance. And what is ignorance? It is explained in the Sutta as not knowing about suffering. Not knowing about the origin of suffering, not knowing about the ceasing of suffering, not knowing about the path leading to the ceasing of suffering. This is called ignorance. In other words, ignorance means the ignorance of the four Aryan Truths. Now, in the Majjhima Nikaya Sutta No. 9, the Samaditti Sutta, it is stated that, with the arising of the Asavas, there is the arising of ignorance. With the arising of ignorance, there is the arising of the Asavas. In other words, the cause of The ignorance is the asavas and the cause of asavas is ignorance. They condition each other. Asavas would be best translated as uncontrolled mental outflows. The word asavas literally means outflow, leakage. So I would think it is uncontrolled mental outflows. So that explains the Twelve Links.

(EA17)-06-Ceasing-of-Dukkha

Now I come to the important thing we want to know. How do we end all this mass of suffering? How do we get out of all this suffering? Now in the Majjhima Nikaya number 38, Maha Tantra Sankhaya Sutta, it is explained as follows. On seeing a form with the eye, he lusts after it. if it is pleasing. He has aversion towards it if it is unpleasing. He abides with recollection of the body unestablished. I use the word recollection here for sati which I think is a better translation. He abides with recollection of the body unestablished with a limited mind and he does not understand as it actually is the liberation by mind and liberation by wisdom wherein those evil unwholesome states cease without remainder. Engaged as he is in favouring and opposing, whatever feeling he feels, whether pleasant or painful, or neither painful nor pleasant, he delights in that feeling, welcomes it, and remains holding to it. As he does so, delight arises in him. Now, delight in feelings is clinging. With clinging as condition, existence or being comes to be. With existence as condition, there is birth. With birth as condition, aging and dying. Sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair come to be. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. There's this explanation for the eye. Then similarly, it is said, on hearing a sound with the ear, on smelling a smell with the nose, tasting a taste with the tongue, etc. He lusts after it, if it is pleasing. He has aversion towards it, if it is unpleasing. And then he delights in that feeling, welcomes it, and holds on to it, and in other words, clings to it. And that is the cause for all the suffering. Now, how to get out of all that suffering? It is explained here. Here because a Tathagata appears in the world, etc. etc. This is the standard explanation how a person comes to hear the Dhamma, then has faith in the Buddha, and then renounces. After he renounces, he cultivates himself. He cultivates the four jhanas. After he cultivates the four jhanas, then, on seeing a form with the eye, he does not lust after it if it is pleasing. He has no aversion towards it if it is unpleasing. He abides with recollection of the body established with an immeasurable mind, and he understands as it actually is, the liberation by mind and liberation by wisdom, wherein those evil unwholesome states cease without remainder. Having thus abandoned favouring and opposing, whatever feeling he feels, whether pleasant or painful, or neither painful nor pleasant, he does not delight in that feeling, welcome it, or remain holding to it. As he does not do so, delight in feelings ceases in him. With the cessation of his delight comes cessation of clinging. With the cessation of clinging, cessation of existence. With the cessation of existence, cessation of birth. With the cessation of birth, aging and dying, sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair cease. Such is the ceasing of this whole mass of suffering. Similarly for hearing a sound, smelling an odor, etc. That's the way to end suffering. Namely, not to be moved by the states of pleasure and pain. And as he does not delight in feelings, there is a cessation of clinging. Cessation of clinging, etc., as I read just now, will finally bring you to cessation of suffering. So you find here the way out of suffering is in feelings. If we look carefully at the twelve links of the chain of dependent origination, we find that there is nowhere you can break the chain except in feelings. Why? Because ignorance must give you the Sankaras. You cannot have it any other way. Ignorance will definitely bring on the conditioners. And the conditioners must bring on the consciousness. And consciousness must bring on Nama Rupa and the sense bases, etc. Except feeling, you know. When you have feeling, it is not definitely that you must have craving. You can have craving in the case of an ornery person who does not cultivate his mind. He will crave to feelings because he has no way to run away from dukkha. He has to distract himself with sensual pleasure, therefore he craves for it. But a person who cultivates his mind, he can stop that craving. And because he has got something else to hold on to, he holds on to the happiness from jhāna. Because the happiness from jhāna is higher, more blissful than the pleasure from sensual desire. Only because of that, he can let go of craving. And this is, for example, to be found in the, in the Chula Dukkha Kanda Sutta, which is Majjhima Nikaya number 14. Now, I'll read a little bit of this to you. One day, Buddha's relative by the name of Mahanama came to see the Buddha and he talked to the Buddha. He said, he said, Lord, he said, although I understand Dharma and I know that greed, hatred, and delusion are defilements, that I should not attach to them, that I should have nothing to do with them. Yet, there are times when greed, hatred, and delusion control my mind, and I'm moved by greed, hatred, and delusion. What did the Buddha say to him? The Buddha said, He's supposed to be an Arya, you know. According to the commentaries, he was already an Arya, you know. So what did the Buddha say? The Buddha said, even though an Aryan disciple has seen clearly, as it actually is, with proper wisdom, how sensual pleasures provide little gratification, much suffering, and much despair, and how great is the danger in them, as long as he still does not attain to pity and sukha, which can be translated as delight and pleasure, that are apart from sensual pleasures, apart from unskillful states, or to something more peaceful than that, he is still attracted to sensual pleasures. This is a very important statement. From here you can see that unless you attain piti and sukha, which is the jhanas, you are still attracted to sensual pleasures. And the only way To stop this attraction to sensual pleasures is to experience piti and sukha, which is the rupa janas. Or the Buddha said something more peaceful than that which is normally explained as the Arupajanas. Either you get Rupajanas or the higher Arupajanas, you will still be attracted by sensual pleasures. That means there is no way you can let go of sensual pleasures except through Attaining the Jhanas. Here the Buddha says very clearly, even you are an Aryan disciple and you understand Dharma, you have wisdom here. He says, has seen clearly as actually is with proper wisdom. Still, you are attracted to sensual pleasures. There is no way you can run out of this sort of chain. You are sort of bound by these sensual pleasures, and the only way to run out of it is to have something which is higher, you can hold on to, namely the bliss and the happiness that comes from jhanas. And so here, finally, we see why it is So important that we cultivate the jhanas. In fact, there's one sutta, I've forgotten the exact number here, but if you want to know, I can let you know later, where the Buddha says, samadhi or concentration is the wither away. No samādhi is the no wither way. There is no way without concentration. And again we can see from the Nidāna-saṅyutta, which is the 12th saṅyutta, sutta number 23, where the Buddha says, the cause for yathā bhūta-jñāna-dasana, which is normally translated as seeing things as they really are, is Samadhi. And Samadhi is always translated in the Suttas as the Jhanas. Now, I quote here from the Mahanidana Sutta, the 15th Sutta of the Digha Nikaya, the Buddha said, It is wonderful and marvelous, Lord, Ananda said, sorry, Ananda said, It is wonderful and marvelous, Lord, how this dependent origination is so deep and appears so deep, yet to myself it seems as clear as clear can be. Then the Buddha said, Do not say so, Ananda. Do not say so, Ananda. This dependent origination, Ananda, is deep and it appears deep. Because of not understanding and not penetrating this Dhamma, Ananda, this generation has become like tangled yarn. like a tangled ball of string, like matted rushes and reeds, unable to pass beyond the cycle of birth and death, with its woeful planes, unfortunate destinations and lower realms." So here the Buddha is saying that dependent origination is very deep and it is a very deep subject. What we hear now is a simple explanation of dependent origination according to the suttas. Why the Buddha says it is deep, very deep and profound? Because there are certain connections between the links that we cannot really understand. For example, that link between clinging and existence. How clinging can bring about existence? Because we said existence is the existence of the world in our minds. How because we cling the world can appear in our mind? That kind of thing we cannot know unless our mind is so clear that we can have the intuitive wisdom. And the intuitive wisdom can only come with a very deep concentration because only a very profound concentration can make you understand very profound truths. Shallow concentration will only make you understand shallow truths. There's no way other than, no shortcut other than that. So you notice, for example, in the Sutta I quoted just now, how our Buddha, when he was a Bodhisatta, he came to understand dependent origination using yoniso manasikara. And I said just now, yoniso manasikara means thorough consideration. That means the mind is so strong that you can see so clearly. He gets intuitive wisdom. You can see one, one cause, the cause of each of the succeeding links right up to the first cause, you know, is avijja or asavasla. And unless your mind is strong enough, you start going backwards and then you start thinking of something else. How can you continue? And so here you see that the way to understand Paticca Sambhupada is Yoniso Manasikara, not Sati. You find that some people, for example, this Satipatthana Sutta, what do they normally say? They say mindfulness is the one and only way. That is not only a poor translation, it's a very misleading translation. Seems as though they purposely said that, you know. Because this word they use is the Pali word is Ekayana Mago. Ekayana Mago consists of three Pali words, you know. Eka, Ayana, and Mago. Eka means one. Ayana means going, you know. Mago means path. It means it is one going path. One going path means it is a one-way path, you know. One-way path. That's why like Venerable Nyanamoli, he translated it very well. He said Ekayano Mago means a path that leads One way only. That's the meaning. A path that leads one way only. In other words, if you cultivate Satipatthana, it's going to lead you out of samsara. It cannot lead you somewhere else. It cannot lead you back to samsara. It will lead you only out of samsara. But it's not that it's the only way. Because the Buddha talked about the 37 Bodhipakya Dharmas. the Four Aryan Truths, the Four Right Efforts, the Four Idipadas, the Five Balas, the Five Indriyas, the Seven Bhojangas, the Eight Aryan Noble Eightfold Paths. And the Buddha stated in one of the Suttas, Majjhima Nikaya 149, that if you develop the Aryan Eightfold Path fully, then all the 37 Bodhipakya Dharmas at the same time are developed fully, you know. So you cannot say like you want to choose which you want to practice Sati, you want to practice Hiribhadra and all that. You cannot have such a thing. So that basically is the explanation of this Paticca Samuppada. One last thing I would like to say concerns the two interpretations, the one lifetime interpretation and the three lifetime interpretation. As I mentioned just now, the problem with the One Lifetime Interpretation is in the last part. The explanation of birth, aging, and dying does not conform to the One Lifetime Interpretation. And then that's the fault with the One Lifetime Interpretation. Then I also mentioned if you, and listen carefully, that the defect in the three lifetime interpretation concerns the Sankharas. The Sankharas do not refer to the performing of karma in the previous life. Rather, it refers to the existing conditions or the conditioners of body, speech, and mind. In this present life, we are walking the middle path. Instead of one lifetime and three lifetimes, we prefer to explain it as a two lifetime interpretation. In other words, now, what we can see now and the future. The other thing I like to say is that the one lifetime interpretation of explaining dependent origination as a moment-to-moment thing is actually, can be said to be valid. In other words, moment-to-moment, because of ignorance, we are sustaining the existence conditions, the conditioners of body, speech, and mind, because moment-to-moment, we are breathing. Right? So you can see clearly also, moment to moment, we are breathing, we are thinking, and we are having feeling and perception, moment to moment. And also because of that, moment to moment, we have consciousness working. And phenomena that is perceived by consciousness is actually a moment to moment thing. And because of that, we perceive our six sense bases, and we have contact, and feeling, and craving, and clinging, and all these things are actually working moment to moment. So it is valid in that sense. The only thing is that that last part, that last part as I mentioned just now. Now to explain it as a three lifetime interpretation is a bit Too rigid. It's a bit too rigid. It's as though past, condition, present, present, condition, as though the thing is like, it does not concern the present, it does not concern now, it does not concern moment to moment. So it is a combination. We could interpret it, this dependent origination, as a combination of moment to moment, as well as present life, conditioning, past life. And if you want to extend it further, you can also say that, for example, past life, is the cause of this life. Because logically speaking, we can accept it if we accept rebirth. However, as I pointed out just now, the explanation of these terms in the dependent origination, these twelve links, is more concerned with the present life.