Rupa
By Sujin Boriharnwanaket
| Is sound rupa? It is.
Therefore we must correctly understand that realities that truly exist,
with characteristics that appear but which can know nothing; are rupa.
Without eyes, can there be seeing? Without ears, can we hear the
sound, rupa? Not the sound of rupa, but the sound itself is a rupa.
Are the rupa seen through the eye and the rupa heard through the ear the
same? There are several types of rupa, each one could appear through
different ways. Can the rupa sit? (No.) That is right
understanding, because hardness is not 'sitting'; heat is not 'sitting'.
Therefore the true rupa which has its own characteristics is cold, heat,
softness, hardness, tension, motion, etc. If one really knows this
one would be able to realize and experience the arising and falling away
of the specific rupa, if the understanding is correct. All the rupa
of the whole body is reduced to the tiniest part. Where? The
rupa from head to toe disappear, just a bit remains, where? If there
is still the 'sitting position' as a whole, the self would never cease
to exist. In reality, however, for rupa not to be 'us' in the least,
is because there will only remain the rupa at the part (of the body) where
it appears, depending on where it appears at that instant. Hardness
or heat, tension or motion: the rupa from head to toe are the maha-bhuta-rupa
that we thought existed. They exist only as they appear or when they
are in contact. Is this not true even when vipassana nana has not
arisen? Please consider this. Would anyone confirm or deny
this? That rupa exists and appears only at the part where it is in
contact at the moment, and nothing remains at other parts at all?
Everyone might already remember that at this moment there is the entire body, complete with arms, legs, a face and a body. At what used to be the arm, if there were nothing in contact with it, does anyone know what is appearing there? Likewise, do the head, brows, eyes, nose or mouth appear if there were no contact? Is this true or not? It has to be proven and examined. And even though at this moment this is true, we would not abandon the attachment that we used to have that there is the self still. The vipassana nana is the realization and experience of the truth about normal realities like now. Since at this moment is not the vipassana nana, even though the truth is such (that there is nothing left except the rupa at the place where it appears), without the development of panna one would not know that in reality it [what appears as the entire body] is the characteristics of the rupa (when it appears, exists and is in contact with something). Whenever there is no contact the rupa that arises from conditions would arise and fall away with extreme rapidity and not appear [to us] at all. Once we understood this truth, when samma sati arises to be mindful, there would only be the characteristics of the rupa that appears only at the place where there is mindfulness. When there is increased knowledge and understanding of the characteristics of nama dhamma and rupa dhamma no matter through the eye, ear, nose tongue, body sense or mind, the 'self' would gradually be attenuated. Vipassana nana would then be able to realize the truth with panna that would be able to attenuate the 'self'. Therefore one does not have to do anything out of the ordinary, since at this very moment no one is, still there are conditions for this reality to arise to do its duty of seeing. At this moment, there is no 'self' to perform any function of any of the realities at all. Whenever a reality is conditioned to arise, it would do its specific duty. One must begin to correctly understand that there is no 'us' to do anything, only realities that arise and perform their respective functions. Through listening, (theoretically) we all understand that seeing is a reality that really exists, and it arises because of conditions, then falls away, belonging to no one. Hearing is also another reality that is not us, not the self. It arises from conditions to hear sounds, one cannot stop it from hearing, when there are conditions hearing must arise, to fall away after hearing. If we increasingly understand that all are realities there would be no 'us'. Therefore at this moment there are realities, all are realities but we do not really know that all are dhamma. Therefore we must develop panna until it really knows or realizes the experience. February 26, 2001 |
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