Preface: The world in the Buddhist sense
Letter 1: The realities in and around ourselves
Letter 2: The wrong conception of an ego
Letter 3: Clear comprehension
Letter 4: The difference between mental phenomena and physical phenomena
Letter 5: The understanding of realities as elements devoid of self
Letter 6: Mindfulness of breathing
Letter 7: The difference between the development of calm and the development of insight
Letter 8: Mindfulness during all daily activities
Letter 9: The growth of right understanding
Glossary: Pali terms translated
Preface:
The world in the Buddhist
sense
From our childhood we are used to the idea that this
world we are living in with all the people around us is the real world.
The Buddha taught that the world is composed of the objects which come to
us through the senses of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and through the
door of the mind. These are all fleeting phenomena which change within splitseconds.
Seeing is there just for a moment and then it falls away. Visible object
is there just for a moment and then it falls away. What we used to take for
our solid world consists of impermanent elements. Our world crumbles away,
there is the disintegration of our world and of ourselves.When the reader is in the first page of this book confronted with two different kinds of truths, the conventional truth and the absolute truth, he may wonder whether there is a discrepancy here which makes it impossible to practise Buddhism and at the same time to live one's life in the world. We have to do our work, to be with other people and we want to enjoy our possessions, all the things of this world. The Buddha did not deny that there is the conventional truth we have to live with. However, it is a great blessing that he taught us the absolute truth, the truth of mental phenomena, nama, and physical phenomena, rupa. Nama and rupa are terms in Pali, the language in which the Buddhist scriptures have been written. We can develop understanding of the absolute truth, of nama and rupa, while we live our daily life naturally. Absolute truth is not a truth which cannot be grasped, it is not something abstract, it is the truth about daily realities. Understanding this truth will help us to be able to lead our life in the world in a more wholesome way and to face contrarieties in our work, and in our relationships.
How to develop understanding of nama and rupa naturally, while we are eating, doing our daily tasks, doing everything we normally do? This was the topic of the letters I wrote while living in Tokyo to someone who was wondering how to develop right understanding of nama and rupa in daily life. The Buddha taught mindfulness, in Pali: sati, of the nama and rupa of our life, in order to acquire direct understanding of them. We discussed what sati is; it is difficult for all of us to understand this reality which seems so elusive. Sati is different from thinking, but what is it then? We have to accept that we cannot understand immediately what sati is, we have to study carefully all the phenomena of our life the Buddha taught. We need knowledge of them as a foundation. Gradually we can learn to investigate the namas and rupas which appear in our life and then there can be conditions for direct awareness of them, for sati.
The reader may wonder what the purpose is of the study of nama and rupa. Why should one take so much trouble? It is important to have less ignorance about our life, about ourselves. The real cause of all our troubles is not the behaviour of other people or the situation we are in, but our own defilements. Our ignorance conditions many other defilements, such as selfishness, hatred, avarice and jealousy.
Through the development of understanding there will be elimination of ignorance. When there is less ignorance it will be for the benefit of both ourselves and others. The development of understanding can only be very gradual. We need patience to investigate all phenomena which appear. At first we may believe that we know already what phenomena such as seeing, hearing or thinking are, but gradually it will dawn on us how ignorant we are of the most common phenomena of our life. That is the right beginning. We are hearing sounds the whole day, but what do we know about hearing? We may have thought that we can hear and define the sound or recognize what we hear all at the same time.
Hearing is one moment, and knowing the meaning of what we hear such as the meaning of words are other moments. The reader may wonder why it is important to know this. It is important, because defilements arise immediately on account of what we experience through the senses. We ought to learn more about our defilements and the way they are conditioned. We hear pleasant and unpleasant sounds and after that, when we know the meaning and think about what was heard, we immediately react to it either in a negative way, or in a positive way. There may be unwholesome moments of clinging or aversion, or there may be wholesome moments of patience and wisdom. All this happens so quickly, within splitseconds, it is actually beyond control. When we investigate such processes in our life we can experience ourselves that there are many different namas which are beyond control. We cannot create our own hearing, nor can we direct the way we react, it has happened already when we realize it. The Buddha taught that nama and rupa arise because of their own conditioning factors. For example, when one reacts with patience to harsh sounds one can do so because it is in one's character to react in that way. Such inclination has already been accumulated. This is an example which illustrates that there is not one mind, but many different mental phenomena which change all the time.
We may wonder why we also have to learn about physical phenomena, rupas. Is it necessary to learn so many details? Rupas affect us very much all the time. We cling to pleasant rupas and we dislike unpleasant rupas. Through the ears the rupa which is sound is experienced by hearing-consciousness. When we hear harsh words it is only sound which is heard, only the rupa which impinges on the earsense. However, we think with anger or sadness about an unkind person who spoke harsh words, we think in a negative, unwholesome way and this happens most of the time. In the absolute sense there is no person who speaks unkind words. The moments of consciousness which motivated his speaking are only fleeting moments, they have fallen away but we keep thinking about his unkindness. There is no person, no self who hears, hearing arises only for a moment and then it falls away. The sound which is heard is only a kind of rupa which does not last. Right understanding of the objects we experience through the six doors will eventually lead to more patience. The effect will be that we are less inclined to feel hurt by what others say to us and that we will be able to forgive more easily.
The Buddha taught the impermanence of the phenomena of our life. We may believe that we know already that our body is subject to decay and that our thoughts and feelings change. We can think of impermanence but this is not the same as the direct knowledge of the changes from moment to moment of nama and rupa. A very precise knowledge of nama and rupa has to be developed so that later on their arising and falling away, their impermanence, can be directly experienced. When one has come to that stage there will be less enslavement to the objects one experiences. However, this is a learning process which has to continue for a long time, even longer than this life. There is no quick result, no shortcut.
The person who wrote to me wanted to create particular situations in order to have more mindfulness. He thought that concentration on breathing would help him to reach the goal sooner. In Letter 6 and 7, I deal with mindfulness of breathing. There are many misunderstandings about this subject. When one concentrates on breathing one may be able to eliminate worry for those moments, one cannot think of anything else when one thinks of breathing. However, there is right concentration and wrong concentration, as I tried to explain in these letters. When there is right concentration there is calm which is wholesome and when there is wrong concentration there is unwholesome consciousness. When one clings to a quick result there is wrong concentration. I deal with this subject and quote from the commentary, the Visuddhimagga, in order to show how complex this subject is. If one does not know precisely the way of development of mindfulness of breathing there is wrong concentration and this is useless. It is already a gain when one understands that mindfulness of breathing is not just sitting and trying to concentrate on breath without knowing anything.
The Buddha taught that nama and rupa are impermanent and not self. What we take for a person or a self are only fleeting elements. When we begin to develop understanding of nama and rupa we have not eliminated the idea of self. There is still another person who speaks harsh words to us, and there is still "self" who hears them and is angry. The fact that we think in this way is conditioned by remembrance of past experiences, we always thought in that way. Also thinking is a conditioned nama, it is a reality. The person we think of is not an absolute reality but a conventional reality. We do not have to behave in an artificial way while we develop understanding of phenomena, but while we answer back to someone who speaks to us there can be a short moment in between of realising the truth that whatever we say or do is conditioned, that it is not "I". We are not used to such an approach, but gradually it can be learnt if we see its benefit. When we do not want to mislead ourselves about the fleeting phenomena of our life right understanding can begin to develop, it develops, there is no self who develops it. We may feel happy or sad, just as we used to, but in between understanding of such phenomena can very gradually be accumulated.
We can learn from our own experience the difference between the moments we are living in the world of conventional realities, the world of self, people and possessions, and the moments there is one nama or rupa appearing through one of the six doorways. We usually live with our illusions and dreams, we are led by the outward appearance of things and we are ignorant of what is really going on within us or around us. We look at our surroundings and at other people and we make our own mental pictures of what we observe. We are all different, with different inclinations, and this conditions the way we see the people and things around us. Each of us lives in his own world of thinking. We live most of the time in our own world of thinking, but through the study of the Buddha's teachings we begin to understand the difference between imaginations and realities.
The Buddha taught that there is no person, no self who can exert control over nama and rupa, they are beyond control. It may be difficult to accept this since we want to control our life. When there is seeing which experiences a pleasant visible object there is attachment to this object immediately. When there is seeing which experiences an unpleasant object there is aversion to this object immediately. The Buddha taught about realities in detail. A very precise knowledge of the different realities should be developed. Then we will find out that there are many more unwholesome moments, moments of attachment, aversion and ignorance, than we ever thought. These moments arise because of their own conditions but there can be the development of understanding of them. When understanding has been fully developed unwholesomeness can be eradicated, but that is a long way off. Even though the final goal is a long way off it is valuable to develop understanding. When there is a short moment of understanding we learn to see that there is only a nama or only a rupa, and consequently we will be less inclined to see them as very important. Understanding will condition more even-mindedness. Gradually we will learn to see nama and rupa as they are: impermanent and not self.
The reader may wonder why I use Pali terms. The Buddhist teachings are contained in the Tipitaka, the three "Baskets" which are the Vinaya (the book of discipline for the monks), the Suttanta (discourses), and the Abhidhamma, which deals with absolute realities in detail. The Scriptures as they have come to us date from the Buddha's time, the sixth century B.C. and they are in the Pali language. I have also quoted from the Visuddhimagga which is a summary of the teachings written by Buddhaghosa in the beginning of the fifth century A.D. In different English translations of the texts the Pali terms have been rendered differently and thus confusion may arise as to which reality has been referred to by which term. The Buddha's teaching of realities is very precise and therefore it is useful to learn some of the Pali terms which represent these realities. In the back of this book is a glossary to help the reader. The reader should not be discouraged by the Pali terms. When one continues to study one will find that they are helpful for a more precise understanding of what the Buddha taught about all the different phenomena which occur right now.
The scriptures are deep in meaning and it is difficult to understand the application of the Buddha's teachings. Therefore I feel deep gratitude to Ms. Sujn in Thailand, who helped me to understand the Buddha's teachings and pointed to me the way to develop understanding of realities in daily life. Without such a good friend in Dhamma one will easily misunderstand the scriptures and apply them in the wrong way. I also wish to express my appreciation to the "Dhamma Study and Propagation Foundation" and to the publisher Alan Weller. Without their help the publication of this book would not have been possible.
While we study we should not forget the purpose of our study. The purpose is not theoretical knowledge, but direct understanding of our own life, of all our wholesome moments and unwholesome moments, all the namas and rupas occurring at this moment. When we learn more about the conditions for these phenomena we will begin to see that they are beyond control, not self. The Buddha's message to us is to investigate the truth and to prove the truth through developing direct understanding, and this understanding can eradicate ignorance and all other defilements. May the reader investigate the truth himself!
Nina van Gorkom
|
|
|
December 2004