Which is unfortunate because Buddhism has degenerated into a
religion. Please read my post on faith in Hungry Ghost Month
thread.
Personally i believe in things like supernatural powers, but
even so these beliefs are irrevelant to the practice in Buddhism.
Since they are mentioned to be only be verified empirically after
reaching high meditative states, i would refrain from disregarding
such things.
To Nirvana in 5 sentences:
One evening about two weeks ago I picked up the Samyutta Nikaya
and stumbled over a short sutta which mesmerized me for the next
two weeks. It is one of those short yet deep suttas which makes the
Samyutta Nikaya so special. In this particular sutta the
Buddha explains his entire teaching in five simple
sentences. All those mountains of ink, hours of Dhamma
talks, decades of spiritual search – reduced to five short
sentences. A Buddha’s awakened humor 
towards our desire to proliferate into eternity.
It felt like a veritable Theravadin ZEN experience, staring at
those couple of lines, knowing that all the wisdom you can develop
through the Buddha’s teaching is contained in a few lines, a
handful of words. In other words, it is (like many other suttas) a
profound call for action and like many similar discourses of the
Buddha it provides an instruction, a description of the process and
a definition of progress and goal – exactly what someone who wants
to replicate an experiment is looking for.
What is this sutta? What are those five sentences? Have a
look:
“Aniccaññeva, bhikkhave, bhikkhu
rūpaṃ aniccanti passati. Sāssa hoti sammādiṭṭhi. Sammā passaṃ
nibbindati. Nandikkhayā rāgakkhayo, rāgakkhayā nandikkhayo. Nandirāgakkhayā
cittaṃ vimuttaṃ suvimuttanti vuccati. Aniccaññeva, bhikkhave,
bhikkhu vedanaṃ…saññaṃ…saṅkhārā…viññāṇaṃ aniccanti passati. Sāssa
hoti sammādiṭṭhi. Sammā passaṃ nibbindati.
Nandikkhayā rāgakkhayo, rāgakkhayā nandikkhayo.
Nandirāgakkhayā cittaṃ vimuttaṃ suvimuttanti
vuccati.” [Nandikkhayasuttaṃ, Samyutta Nikaya, Khandhasamyutta. PTS
3.51 for the five khandhas, PTS 4.141 parallel version with for the
senses. Translation further below - want you to go through this
slowly, step by step, to better see the beauty
. Todo: Learn this by heart.]
Let’s simplify this and break it down:
Aniccaṃ rūpaṃ
bhikkhu “aniccan” ti passati. The monks sees the impermanent form
thus “impermanent”.
Aniccaṃ rūpaṃ … Impermanent form
bhikkhu … (the/a) monk
“aniccan” ti passati … he sees (passati)
“impermanent” thus (aniccam iti) = He sees thus “impermanent”.
Some necessary remarks regarding the “iti passati” in the
sutta.
In a couple of older posts (here
and
here) we had been looking into this particular Sanskrit/Pali
way of marking direct speech/thought and its application towards
meditation. Pali like Sanskrit does not have what
we call indirect speech. Everything you hear or think has to be
expressed in a direct form in Pali, marked off with the word “iti”
meaning “thus”. Interestingly enough, there is a very good way for
a modern native speaker of English to understand this particular
grammatical construct:
Translating the above into somewhat colloquial modern English we
could say:
The impermanent form the monk sees like
“impermanent”.
Here the Pali uses “thus” (iti) in a similar manner as the
English”be like – quotative”. If you don’t know what that is please
have a look at the following example:
B. Expressing the
contents of one’s thought:
(Skt-2) manyate pāpakam
kṛtvā ”na kaścid vetti mām” iti
“After committing some sins, one thinks ‘nobody
knows me’.” [Mahabharata 1.74.29; cited from
Speijer[1]:§493b]
(Eng-2) “And I
thought like ’wow, this is for me’.” [OED, 2nd
Supplement[2]; 1970, no
earlier citations]
There are some great resources on this topic. If you are
interested, have a look at the following links, with a lot more
examples. But chances are you hear someone say “…and I like, wow,
you did awesome” when you listen to (young) people talk.
So what does that mean with regard to meditation practice? How
do we “see something as impermanent”. Is it meditation with labels
as practiced in Mahasi Vipassana meditation traditions? Some form
of noting process? Or meant to be “thoughtless” after all?
First of all, I really think that this instruction is complete.
There is no secret meditation instruction hidden. The native Pali
(Prakrit) listener knew what he had to do after listening to the
above instruction (see the verse of Malunkyaputta further
below).
We should probably take this sentence itself as the meditation
instruction. Clearly the Buddha refers to a process of
ñāṇadassanā or seeing-and-knowing time and again
as the means of awakening – and this line is a perfect example of
“knowing and seeing”. The Buddha refers to something that is not
just “ordinary” seeing (otherwise: bhikkhu aniccam rupam passati).
It is also not an exercise in thinking (otherwise: “bhikkhu rupassa
aniccatam cinteti”).
Rather it has to do with kind of an observation (here in form of
the verb passati; elsewhere as samanupassati or
paccavekkhati). An observation which needs to be close to
real time of sense-contact (otherwise there is no way to see the
impermanence of forms, feeling etc.).
This clearly is an indicator of a meditative environment in
which this “experiment” needs to be conducted. At the same time
there seems to be an element of “knowing” which has to go along
with that observation. Similar to an “addiction” we cannot expect
any results “all of a sudden” (in most cases) – it will take some
time. That “knowing” part of the meditative exercise has
to recognize the fundamental characteristic of form,
feeling…cognition. Impermanence. Whether “tagging” that experience
mentally as such with a short label or not is the way to go can
easily be tested if we look at step no.3 below, which defines a
very precise milestone to judge our progress.
Two further quotes on this topic:
‘‘Sukhaṃ vā yadi vā dukkhaṃ, adukkhamasukhaṃ
saha;
Ajjhattañca bahiddhā ca, yaṃ kiñci atthi veditaṃ. ‘‘Etaṃ
dukkhanti ñatvāna, mosadhammaṃ palokinaṃ [palokitaṃ
(sī.)]
Phussa phussa vayaṃ passaṃ, evaṃ tattha vijānati
[virajjati (ka. sī.)]
Vedanānaṃ khayā bhikkhu, nicchāto
parinibbuto’’ti.
From the amazing Dvayatanupassana Sutta in the Sutta
Nipata, v.743-44:
“Pleasant or painful, neither pleasant nor painful
also,
Inside or from outside – whatever there is to be
felt:
Having perceived it “this is painful”
thus,
A treacherous thing, bound to breaking up
again,
Hit and hit (over and over by sense-contact) while seeing
the passing away -
There, in such a way, he knows [or: he becomes
dispassionate - altern. reading].
Through the destruction of feelings the monk becomes
desireless, fully extinguished.
and similarly:
‘‘Na so rajjati rūpesu, rūpaṃ disvā paṭissato;
Virattacitto vedeti, tañca nājjhosa tiṭṭhati.
‘‘Yathāssa passato rūpaṃ, sevato cāpi vedanaṃ;
Khīyati nopacīyati, evaṃ so caratī sato;
Evaṃ apacinato dukkhaṃ, santike nibbānamuccati.
He does not delight in forms, having seen a form he
remembers (lit. back-remembers, i.e. comes back to his meditation
object)
With a dispassionate mind he feels it, and does not grasp (does not
rest) on this form. When he sees form like that, and experiences
feeling in such a way,
It falls away, it does not amass, thus he practices
remembering/witnessing.
Thus suffering/pain is reduced, and close is he to the extinction
(Nibbana), they say.
[For more info on this passage
see this post: Malunkyaputta's vipassana
instruction]
Sā assa hoti
sammādiṭṭhi. This is his right view.
Sā … (fem. sg. pron.) This (fem.), She [right
view]
assa … to him, his
hoti … is
sammādiṭṭhi … right view.
Fascinating. So the above way of looking at form (and feeling,
perception, mental activities and cognition) – seeing those five
elements (or what constitutes the entirety of our “being” in each
conscious moment) as impermanent is – according to the Buddha in
this sutta – the practice of right view. Right view is not an
opinion. It is a way of observing ourselves in a real-time
psychological manner without giving thoughts and mental constructs
any habitat. As the brahmins at the time of the Buddha used to say,
after learning about the Buddha’s teaching – “wow, all we ever
studied was hear-say (itihasa) – your teaching is timeless,
immediate”.
Again, right view is explained in many Sutta’s as the
realization of the four noble truths. Here the Buddha summarizes in
one line, that the real realization of the four noble truths is
born out of the simple observation of nature. Knowing
suffering/pain, its origin, its cessation and even the path(!) will
be understood and realized by the student who applies himself to
step 1. If stream entry is your true goal, put your books away
Sammā passaṃ
nibbindati. Seeing correctly he becomes disenchanted.
Sammā … Right, correct.
passaṃ … seeing (pres. part.)
nibbindati … he gets fed up with, wearied of,
satiated, disgusted with, disenchanted, disillusioned. Literally
from nir+vindati – to find (vindati) nothing [see http://glossary.buddhistdoor.com/en/word/98321/nibbindati].
So here we get a wonderful guideline for our meditation.
According to the Buddha our mode of observation has to lead to
nibbida – some kind of “disgust, dissatisfaction, disenchantment”
with the five aggregates. If it does that, we are on the right
path. If we see more delusion or infatuation then something about
our approach must be wrong.
Nandikkhayā
rāgakkhayo, rāgakkhayā nandikkhayo.
With the waning of delight wanes passion. With the waning of
passion wanes delight.
nandi…
delight, fun.
rāga… passion, color,
desire.
khayo … destruction, waning, decay.
This formula is quite particular. The first thing I am reminded
of is the simile of “love lost” where the Buddha equates the term
nandi-raga with the passion/emotion we feel towards someone we
believe belongs to us, but who betrays us and thus creates pain. He
doesnt even say “this is similar” – no, he uses the exact same
expression.
See that post here, for cross-reference and more details
here.
Look at this nice list for how the word ksaya (sanskr.) was
associated: http://vedabase.net/k/ksaya
Nandirāgakkhayā cittaṃ vimuttaṃ,
“suvimuttan” ti vuccati. With the destruction of delight and
passion the mind is de-tached. “Fully de-tached” thus it is
said.
Nandirāgakkhayā … from
the delight-passion-destruction (abl).
cittaṃ … the mind.
vimuttaṃ… vimutta (ppp. from
muñcati – to loosen, release) = detached, or even closer “vi- (ab-)
mutta (geloest)” in German.
“suvimuttam” iti vuccati ….
“well-freed” thus it is called.
A perfect description of “enlightenment” or “awakening” by the
Buddha. Clear, straight forward, almost clinical in its description
of what the Arahants mind “feels” like from the inside. If you
share this truly, congratulations, kata-kiccham – your job is
done.
What else needs to be said?