Tokyo
15 February 1971

Dear Mr. G.,

First I will quote your question about personality-belief: "I wish you could tell me more about personality-belief, sakkaya-ditthi. Is sakkaya-ditthi wrong view? But, if I have wrong view, it is only a kind of nama, to be recognized as such."

Sakkaya is a name for the five khandhas which are objects of clinging. Sakkaya-ditthi is wrong view about the five khandhas. We have accumulated wrong view about them during many lives. There is wrong view about the khandhas when we really believe that they are permanent and self.

All conditioned realities in ourselves and around ourselves can be classified as five khandhas and these are the following:

    rupa-kkhandha           ¤    physical phenomena
    vedana-kkhandha       ¤    feelings
    sanna-kkhandha         ¤    remembrance
    sankhara-kkhandha    ¤    cetasikas (mental factors)                   
                                                except feeling and sanna
    vinnana-kkhandha      ¤    all cittas

This classification may seem rather theoretical, but it is a classification of realities which arise now. There are the five khandhas now while you are seeing. There is the eyesense which is rupa-kkhandha, there is visible object which is also rupa-kkhandha, there is seeing which is vinnana-kkhandha. Seeing is accompanied by feeling, vedana-kkhandha, by remembrance, sanna-kkhandha, and by other cetasikas which are sankhara-kkhandha. The khandhas arise and fall away, they do not stay and none of the khandhas is self. Do you have an idea of a self who is seeing? It is only vinnana-kkhandha which arises for an extremely short moment, performs the function of seeing and then falls away. Seeing arises because of its own conditions.

Eyesense and visible object are conditions for seeing. Without these conditions you could not see. Can you create your own eye-sense? It arises because of its appropriate conditions. Seeing, eyesense and visible object do not belong to you. Do you think that you see people? It is only visible object, rupa-kkhandha, which is seen just for a moment and then falls away.

When we have listened to the Dhamma we understand in theory that there is no self, no being, but our understanding is still weak. We do not directly experience the truth of realities as they appear one at a time. We cling to the khandhas and have an idea that they can last. Do we have a notion of a "whole" of mind and body, of "my personality"? What we take for a whole of mind and body are only five khandhas which arise and fall away. We also cling to rupas outside ourselves and consider them as things which last. Don't we cling to our possessions, to our house and all the things in it? We may be stingy, we may not be inclined to give things away. We should remember that what we take for our possessions are only rupa-kkhandha which arises and falls away.

There is not necessarily wrong view every time we cling to the khandhas. We may just be attached to our body without there being wrong view about it. We can cling to the khandhas with conceit. When we have conceit and compare our body or our mental qualities with those of someone else there cannot be wrong view at the same time. Conceit and wrong view cannot arise together. We learn from the Abhidhamma that there are eight different types of lobha-mula-cittas, cittas which are rooted in attachment, of which four are accompanied by wrong view, ditthi, and four unaccompanied by wrong view. When one has studied the Dhamma and acquired intellectual understanding about the nature of not self of realities it does not mean that one has realized the truth of not self. We have accumulated so much ignorance about realities and the latent tendency of wrong view has not been eradicated. Only the sotapanna who has developed understanding to the degree that enlightenment could be realized has eradicated the latent tendency to wrong view. Panna, right understanding, must be developed in order to realize nama and rupa as impermanent and not self.

You wrote to me that when you have wrong view it can be recognized as such. It is not easy to know exactly when there is clinging with wrong view and when without wrong view. Only when panna is keener it can know the different characteristics of realities more clearly.

We are so used to thinking that we see people, houses and trees. Do we really study with awareness seeing which appears now or visible object which appears now? Do we study again and again the realities which appear one at a time? Only in that way can we find out that no person can appear through the eyes but only visible object, that which is visible. We prefer to think about people and things, we prefer to live in the world of our thoughts instead of studying realities such as seeing or visible object. We have accumulated the tendency to be absorbed in our thoughts about people and things, and thus it is natural that we are inclined to thinking about those things which are not real, which are only concepts or ideas. It is not self who thinks, but a type of nama which arises because of its own conditions. We should not try to push away our thinking but we can begin to notice the difference between the moments we are absorbed in our thoughts and the moments of being aware of one reality at a time, such as visible object or seeing. In this way we can learn the difference between concepts or ideas and realities. Only when we know the difference we can gradually learn how to study realities with awareness and in this way there can be more understanding of them.

You have asked me what it means to take something for "self", for "atta ".

Atta or self implies something which stays. Where is the self, does it have a characteristic which can be directly experienced? Is the body the self? The body consists of rupas which arise and then fall away immediately. Is feeling self? Feelings change all the time, they can be happy, unhappy or indifferent. Is thinking self? Thinking changes all the time, thus, how could you identify yourself with thinking? When we learn to be aware of the phenomena which appear through the six doors we will lose interest in things which cannot be directly experienced but which are only objects of speculation.

Even though we may not expressively think, "It is I", we are likely to be confused about realities. So long as right understanding has not been developed we join different realities together into a "mass", a "whole". For example, we do not distinguish the characteristic of sound from the characteristic of hearing, and thus our knowledge of them is still vague. We do not distinguish hearing from thinking about what we heard, or from like and dislike. When understanding has not been developed yet we are also confused as to the different doorways through which objects are experienced. For example, hearing experiences sound through the ear-door and thinking about what was heard experiences its object through the mind-door.

You asked me what the difference is between seeing a rose and seeing its colour.

There is seeing time and again but there is no right understanding of it. We do not realize the characteristics of phenomena as they appear one at a time through the different doorways. The nama which sees only experiences visible object or colour through the eye-door. When we recognize an object such as a rose there is not seeing. The object is not colour but a concept or idea we form up by thinking. The thinking of the concept "rose" is conditioned by seeing but seeing and thinking arise at different moments. There is the experience of colour and there is thinking of the concept rose, and then colour impinges again on the eye-door and there is seeing again. How fast cittas change, how fast objects change! In which world do we mostly live? Do we know the six worlds appearing through the six doors or do we live only in the world of conventional truth? Is it wisdom to know only one world? Should we not know the worlds appearing through the six doors by being aware of different characteristics? In that way the self can gradually be broken up into elements until there is nothing left of it.

We will keep on clinging to the "whole" of the five khandhas, to body and mental phenomena so long as we have not realized that they are only elements which do not stay. We read in the Kindred Sayings (III, Khandha-vagga, Kindred Sayings on Elements, Middle Fifty, Chapter 5, § 102, Impermanence) that the Buddha said to the monks at Savatthi:

The perceiving of impermanence, monks, if practised and enlarged, wears out all sensual lust, all lust of rebirth, all ignorance, it wears out, tears out all conceit of "I am".

Just as, monks, in the autumn season a ploughman with a great ploughshare, cuts through the spreading roots as he ploughs; even so, monks, the perceiving of impermanence, if practised and enlarged, wears out all sensual lust, wears out all lust for body, all lust for rebirth, wears out all ignorance, wears out, tears out all conceit of "I am".

The Buddha uses several similes in order to explain that the perception of impermanence wears out all clinging, ignorance and conceit. Further on we read:

Just as, monks, in the autumn season, when the sky is opened up and cleared of clouds, the sun, leaping up into the firmament, drives away all darkness from the heavens, and shines and burns and flashes forth; even so, monks, the perceiving of impermanence, if practised and enlarged, wears out all sensual lust, wears out all lust for body, all desire for rebirth, all ignorance, wears out, tears out all conceit of "I am".

And in what way, monks, does it so wear them out?

It is by seeing: "Such is body; such is the arising of body; such is the ceasing of body. Such is feeling, remembrance, the activities (sankhara-kkhandha), such is consciousness, its arising and its ceasing."

Even thus practised and enlarged, monks, does the perceiving of impermanence wear out all sensual lust, all lust for body, all desire for rebirth, all ignorance, wears out, tears out all conceit of "I am".

When one begins to develop right understanding of nama and rupa there cannot yet be the direct realization of their arising and falling away. First their different characteristics have to be clearly known, nama has to be known as nama, different from rupa, and rupa has to be known as rupa, different from nama. Understanding develops stage by stage and it is at a later stage that the arising and falling away of the reality which appears can be directly known. However, even the sotapanna who has realized nama and rupa as they are, as not self, has not eradicated all clinging and ignorance. Only the arahat has eradicated all kinds of clinging, all ignorance and conceit. When we read this sutta we can be reminded to begin to study with awareness the nama and rupa which appear now. Since it is a long way to realize their impermanence we should not delay the development of understanding of them.

You were wondering how there can be different characters of people, a "personality", if there is no self. There are accumulations, tendencies which are accumulated in the citta. Cittas arise and fall away but the citta which falls away conditions the next citta and that is why accumulations can be "carried on" from one citta to the next one. That is why we can notice that people have different inclinations, that they behave in different ways. Our behaviour is conditioned, it is not self. We cling to our personality, to the image we have of ourselves. We want to be good, we cling to our good deeds. We have not realized that there is no self, no matter kusala citta or akusala citta arises. We do not possess kusala, it cannot stay. It only arises for a moment and then akusala citta is bound to arise. Because of our ignorance we do not even notice when there is kusala citta and when akusala citta. For example, when we give something away with generosity there are kusala cittas which can be accompanied by pleasant feeling. Very shortly afterwards akusala cittas with attachment may arise and these can also be accompanied by pleasant feeling. We may, for instance, think," I did this very well; I have really achieved something; I did this." If there is no awareness we do not know the different moments of citta and the different moments of feeling. It seems that there is only one kind of feeling, pleasant feeling, which lasts, and it seems that it is kusala all the time. Thus we take for wholesome what is unwholesome. It is essential to have right understanding of kusala and akusala, otherwise kusala cannot be developed.

You wrote that you can be aware of more than one reality at a time. This is not possible. Each citta can have only one object at a time and thus also the citta with awareness can have only one object at a time. One may take for awareness what is only thinking. For example, one may have an idea of oneself seeing and hearing at the same time. Then there is thinking of a concept, of a "whole" of different phenomena which are joined together. If there can be awareness of different characteristics of realities which present themselves one at a time one will find out that awareness can be aware of only one object at a time. It is unpredictable which reality will present itself at which moment. It can be softness or hardness which impinges on the bodysense, it can be sound, visible object or another reality. So long as we do not distinguish between different realities which arise closely one after the other we will keep on thinking that realities last. For example, cittas with attachment may arise and then there may be thinking of the attachment. We may think with aversion about the attachment which arose a moment ago. If there can be awareness of different characteristics it can be known that attachment is one kind of reality and thinking with aversion another kind of reality. They arise because of their own conditions, they are beyond control, not self.

You asked me whether awareness of sound means recognizing sound as sound.

Who is recognizing sound as sound? Is there an idea of self who recognizes sound as sound? When two people say that they recognize sound as sound one person may have right understanding and the other person may not. We may understand in theory that sati is not self but we may still cling to an idea of "my sati". When one has desire for sati and one wants to create conditions for its arising one has not understood that sati is not self, that it arises because of its own conditions. One may imagine what sati should be like but instead of speculation about it one should keep in mind that the realities which appear and thus also sati and panna are only conditioned phenomena which are beyond control. Beyond control means that they are not self.

Our goal should not be to have many moments of sati but to develop right understanding of the nama and rupa which appear now. Sound appears time and again. Right understanding of sound can be developed when it appears and we do not need to think about sati. One may say that one recognizes sound as sound but one may not realize it as a kind of rupa which appears through the earsense. One may name it "rupa," but naming a reality is not the same as directly knowing its characteristic when it appears. In the beginning there cannot be a precise knowledge of nama and rupa but we should remember that it can be developed only when there is study with awareness of the nama or rupa presenting itself now.

You said that you can experience "something" of impermanence, "fluctuations" of phenomena. Then there is only thinking about an idea one has of impermanence. The arising and falling away of one nama or rupa at a time can, as I said, only be realized later on. It cannot be realized so long as one is still confused about the difference between nama and rupa.

We live most of the time in the world of conventional truth, and there is much ignorance about the world of absolute truth, the world of paramattha dhammas. In your letter you give an example of young people who are displeased with situations in their countries and who commit acts of violence (dosa) in order to show that they are discontented. Their accumulated violence is the real cause that they commit these acts, and the situations they are displeased with are only opportunities for their accumulated dosa to appear. Dosa will always arise so long as it has not been eradicated.

In our daily life there are many moments of aversion, dosa. We may wake up with a slightly unpleasant feeling. At first we do not realize that there is dosa, but then we may remember an unpleasant event, for example, unkind words someone may have spoken to us the day before. Or we may worry about a difficult situation we will have to face that day. These circumstances are not the real cause of our dosa. The outward circumstances, the people we meet change, but there is still our accumulated dosa and it will come out, always finding an object. There will always be reasons for dosa so long as it has not been eradicated yet. The person who has attained the third stage of enlightenment, the anagami, has eradicated dosa. The way leading to the eradication of defilements is the development of right understanding of them when they appear. There is no other way.

How can we realize that dosa is a conditioned nama? Not by thinking about the dosa which has fallen away already, or about the events which conditioned its arising, but by being aware of it when it appears at the present moment. Only if there is mindfulness of phenomena as they appear through the six doors will we gradually realize that they are conditioned realities, not self. If there is awareness only of phenomena appearing through the eye-door or through the ear-door, it is not enough. There is not only visible object or sound, but also seeing, hearing, attachment, lobha, aversion, dosa, and other realities.

There can also be awareness of the different kinds of feelings which arise. Our feelings change all the time. There are feelings arising on account of what is seen, heard, smelt, tasted, of what is experienced through the body-sense and of what is thought. At each moment of citta the condition for the accompanying feeling changes and thus feelings change all the time. It does not appear to us this way when we cling to the feeling which has fallen away already. It exists no more but we keep on pondering over it. If we cling to feelings of the past, we live more in the world of illusions than in the world of realities, of paramattha dhammas.

In the Visuddhimagga (XX, 96) nama and rupa which arise and fall away are compared to the sound of a lute which arises because of conditions and falls away again. The text states:

'...But just as there is no store, prior to its arising, of the sound that arises when a lute is played, nor does it come from any store when it arises, nor does it go in any direction when it ceases, nor does it persist as a store when it has ceased, but on the contrary, not having been, it is brought into being owing to the lute, the lute's neck, and the man's appropriate effort, and having been, it vanishes-so too all material and immaterial states, not having been, are brought into being, having been they vanish.'

It is beneficial to be reminded that the namas and rupas which appear in our daily life arise because of conditions and then fall away. If we consider this thoroughly there will be less inclination to keep on thinking about what is past already. In this way there will be less forgetfulness of what appears now. You don't have to do anything special to be aware, there are objects impinging on the six doors time and again. When you touch water which is too hot heat presents itself. You may think, "This water is too hot", and then there is thinking. Hot water is a concept we think of, but heat is a reality, a rupa, which impinges on the bodysense, it can be directly experienced. The rupa which is heat, the nama which experiences heat or the painful feeling can appear again and again, in between the thinking. These are all different phenomena which do not stay, which are not self. There is no person who has painful feeling, there is a nama which feels. Painful feeling arises because of its own conditions. When there are not the right conditions for it it cannot arise.

When we hear harsh words there are conditions for unpleasant feeling, but there can also be moments of awareness in between. Besides unpleasant feeling there are sound, hearing and other realities appearing. In this way we can realize that unpleasant feeling is only one phenomenon among many other realities which each arise because of their own conditions. Whereas if we are not mindful we think that there is only "my unpleasant feeling" which seems to last. We may believe that this particular person, this place and this situation are the causes of our unhappiness. However, these are not the real causes. The real cause is our accumulated dosa.

When we are aware of nama and rupa there is less enslavement to the objects we experience. When there is awareness of visible object which appears through the eyes there is no enslavement to visible object.

When there is awareness of sound which appears through the ears there is no enslavement to sound, and it is the same with regard to the objects which present themselves through the other doorways. Wisdom can make us free, but we should not expect results within a short time. Do you remember the sutta about the handle of the knife which wears out very slowly, in the Kindred Sayings (III, Khandha-vagga, Middle Fifty, Adze-handle)? The Buddha speaks about the handle of a knife which one holds each day. It gradually wears away, but one cannot notice how much is worn out each day. We cannot control the frequency of awareness, since it is anatta, not self, arising because of its own conditions. However, even a few moments of awareness in between lobha, dosa and moha is very beneficial. One begins to develop the Path which will surely lead to freedom. We read about the condition for freedom from defilements in the Kindred Sayings (IV, Salayatana-vagga, Kindred Sayings on Sense, Third Fifty, Chapter III; § 124). We read about a conversation the housefather Ugga had with the Buddha:

'Pray, lord, what is the condition, what is the cause whereby in this world some beings are not wholly set free in this very life, while other beings are wholly set free?'

'There are, housefather, objects cognizable by the eye. sounds cognizable by the ear...scents...savours..tangibles cognizable by the body..mind-states cognizable by the mind...If he has grasping for them, housefather, a monk is not wholly set free. That, housefather, is the condition, that is the cause whereby in this world some beings are not wholly set free in this very life.

'Likewise, housefather, there are objects cognizable by the eye...If he has no grasping for them a monk is wholly set free. That, housefather, is the condition, that is the cause whereby in this very life some beings are not wholly set free, while other beings are wholly set free.'

When there is seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching or thinking, are we free? Don't you find that at the moment of mindfulness of one object at a time there is a beginning of freedom? There is less enslavement to objects and one is on the way leading to the eradication of the wrong view of self, of "personality belief". There is no other way but the development of understanding of the realities which present themselves through eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and mind-door.


With metta,

Nina van Gorkom



 Glossary

December 2004