The Path to Nibbana Read online

  Then there arises a drive or an urge to action associated with what you might do when that sound is heard. This is the habitual emotional tendency or behavior (bhava). For example, if you are a birdwatcher, when you hear a bird, you have a habitual tendency to reach for your camera, or you might have a tendency to reach for your binoculars.

  A habitual emotional tendency is something you always tend to do in a certain situation. It can be your habitual reaction to a feeling you have. Someone comes in the room and complains about something. You always react in the same way, by not liking it and emotionally reacting to the person complaining.

  Your spouse calls and says he/she will be home late from work — you may get this kind of call quite a bit, and react the same way every time with a negative reaction. It might be a judgment of, “you are unreliable,” or it might be a reaction to lash out because you think he/she isn’t telling the truth. It is habitual; it tends to come up when this situation occurs.

  When this habitual reaction arises, this is where the strong tendency to try and control your feelings with your thoughts arises. You observe that mind is disturbed and you react with frustration, trying to control the disturbing thoughts. This is the start of taking something personally. You become emotional.

  Mind has many factors or states of consciousness contained in it. There is a greedy mind, and there is a joyful mind. In the Anupada Sutta, the Buddha says that even the mental factor of decision is conditioned by previous actions from the past. This decision process is something that you might call a volition or intention, but we have to be careful to use those words because they might wrongly imply that there is a self “making a decision.” Decision is just a small, yet the most important factor of the “coming to a decision.”

  As stated previously, phenomena arise and pass like the sound of a bird, and are dependent on that sound for its existence. When your mind is very tranquil, you can see the decision factor arise as well as the “push” that goes with it to “make the decision.” It’s pretty interesting when you can observe your mind operating at this level and see how, truly, “you,” i.e., “I,” am not in charge.

  For example, a desire arises to get a cup of tea. You then continue to think about which tea might taste good. If you are very mindful, you can see the exact moment when you “decide” which tea to have.

  There is a moment in which “your” decision arises. If you back away gently, just allowing everything to arise, very carefully watching it (this is your mental investigation factor), you will see the decision (mental) factor arise entirely on its own. And then it also passes away. There appears this call to action arising through the craving attached to it. This craving is the push you feel to go into action.

  Is there really free will? Is there some soul or entity down deep making decisions? Kind of… yet at the deepest level, there is only the deciding mind that arises and passes away. So you have the decision there, but it is a conditioned decision.

  The phrase “volitional formations” used in the sutta texts is inadequate, not precisely correct. Volition indicates someone is deciding, but there is no one there to do that. There are only causes and conditions. There is no “you” that makes the decision, just the deciding moment. The only real power we have is to allow and observe, releasing and relaxing into that decision, seeing it fade away.

  Continuing, after the habitual tendency link in dependent origination comes the actual birth of action (jāti) link, and you get up to go get your camera. The drive to action translates into taking action. This can be bodily action (moving), verbal action (speaking), or mental action (thinking).

  Unfortunately, by the time you get back with your camera, the bird has flown away. Due to the result of your action in getting the camera, dissatisfaction might arise because now the bird is gone. You think your actions always will lead you to what you want, but you can never really positively be sure of the results of any action. The best-laid plans of mice and men…

  Then, what follows the Birth of Action link is the last link: Sorrow, Lamentation, Grief, and Despair. Yes, there are some happy moments here and there, but they are fleeting! Even if you get that picture, you’ll wish the bird had stayed longer, or that you’d recorded its song, etc.

  In the twelve links of dependent origination, we just went through the last part of the process, the grosser and observable part. These are the last seven: Contact; Feeling; Craving; Clinging; Habitual Tendency; Birth of Action; and Sorrow, Lamentation, Grief, and Despair. These are the ones you can see without having to go too deep into the meditation.

  Contact → Feeling → Craving → Clinging → Habitual Tendency → Birth of Action → Sorrow, Lamentation, Grief, and Despair.

  The first five links of the full twelve links of D.O. come before the ones listed above and can be understood as potentials. They can only be observed as subtle movements in mind with the exception of ignorance which is your understanding. Later, when your meditation goes deeper, you will see the arising of the first five: Ignorance → Formations → Consciousness→Mentality-Materiality → and the Sixfold Sense Base.

  The Buddha said that it all starts with ignorance of how things work; that is, ignorance of the truth of dependent origination, and of the Four Noble Truths, which makes clear that craving drives the whole process of suffering. It is this “ignoring” of the Four Noble Truths which leads us to act in unwholesome ways, which creates endless suffering.

  On the next page is a chart that shows the circle of dependent origination. Each link is dependent on the link before it as nutriment, as food. In each link, there is also a small additional amount of craving which makes the whole process continue forward in a never-ending chain of events.

  The Samyutta Nikāya has a wealth of information about Dependent Origination and what it is. Here are the basics.

  SN 12.1. “Monks, I will teach you dependent origination. Listen to that and attend closely, I will speak.”–“Yes, venerable sir,” those monks replied. The Blessed One said this:

  “And what, monks, is dependent origination? With ignorance as condition, formations come to be; with formations as condition, consciousness; with consciousness as condition, name-and-form; with name-and-form as condition, the six sense bases; with the six sense bases as condition, contact; with contact as condition, feeling; with feeling as condition, craving; with craving as condition, clinging; with clinging as condition, existence; with existence as condition, birth; with birth as condition, aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair come to be. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. This, monks, is called dependent origination.

  “But with the remainderless fading away and cessation of ignorance comes cessation of formations; with the cessation of formations, cessation of consciousness; with the cessation of consciousness, cessation of name-and-form; with the cessation of name-and-form, cessation of the six sense bases; with the cessation of the six sense bases, cessation of contact; with the cessation of contact, cessation of feeling; with the cessation of feeling, cessation of craving; with the cessation of craving, 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-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair cease. Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.”

  The highest goal of TWIM is to see how each link is dependent on or conditioned by the previous link. When one understands this process in a deep and profound way, the unconditioned state, Nibbāna, arises for the first time. This first instance is the Path Knowledge. One realizes that there is no personal self or ego, just an impersonal process dependent on conditions.

  From this realization comes tremendous relief, because, as the famous Zen saying goes, "No self, no problem!" No one is there, so nobody to control.

  It’s as if we see a dark figure walking toward us; fear might arise because our mind throws up this concept of a villain from our past, yet wh
en we get closer we see it is our friend and that fearful image is replaced by another happy image. Just in the same way, we thought there was a self there, and now we see that it was an illusion.

  We can follow the links of dependent origination in our own behavior in much the same way we look at a town and trace it back over the last hundred years. The first buildings led to more buildings, then they deteriorated and were replaced by different buildings, and so on and so forth. This arising and passing away of conditions is like the arising and passing away of a great city, flourishing and deteriorating, and constantly changing. Finally, it disappears because of countless causes depending on each other. There is no controller making decisions and taking actions there in that city. There are only changes occurring, conditioned by what has happened in the past.

  Similarly, you have no personal self or soul controlling your progress through life. There are only changes that happen due to causes and conditions arising and passing away. This is what we mistakenly call our self — me, myself, and I. It’s an impersonal process, an endless chain of causes and conditions that flow like a river; a river that we mistakenly take as ourselves.

  Dependent Origination is, indeed, the most important principle of Buddhism along with the four noble truths. Understanding the source of suffering is craving and how dependent origination works leads to the elimination of that craving. Understanding that the noble eightfold path is the way to this goal and is the heart of Buddhist meditation.

  Chapter Two: Mindfulness Re-Defined

  What is Mindfulness?

  Just what does mindfulness mean? There was an article in a Buddhist Magazine where this question was posed to four meditation teachers. By the end of the discussion, a satisfactory answer still had not been reached. They decided to take it up again in next month’s magazine!

  Mindfulness does seem to be all the rage these days and has gone from its strict Buddhist origins to a more general acceptance anywhere from use by psychologists to children and even by the military. It even has its own magazine: “Mindful.” Mindfulness is used to be aware of one’s thoughts and one’s general state of being and is used to calm one down and relax. These are all good uses, but is it what the Buddha taught? Is the actual procedure of mindfulness the process he intended.

  I have a theory, and you won’t find it anywhere else, so please bear with me. The Pāli word for mindfulness is sati. When the Pāli texts were translated, the translators ran into this word sati and had to pick out an appropriate English word to translate it to. The problem is that some of the things the Buddha taught were brand new ideas and never had been exposed to European culture. There never were any English words that represented these Eastern concepts. Buddhism had never come to the West. Thus no English vocabulary had been developed.

  So what to do? Pick the closest word. Sati had to do with observation and to know what was happening, so the word mindful was selected. Made sense, but did it?

  The problem was that mindfulness already was a solid concept in the English language. “Be mindful of the opening and don’t bump your head!” That sort of definition became applied to sati, and thus, to be mindful meant to remember to look where you are going and watch carefully the process of getting there.

  What happened here is that the English word has exerted a powerful undue influence over the Pāli term. Now it was almost as if the Pāli term was created to represent the English word and not the other way around! The Pāli term, in a sense, became the English term.

  Because the translators were not meditators, they could only guess what sati really meant. That would be fine if that is how sati is defined and used in the suttas — but it may not be!

  You are now going to get a new definition of the word Mindfulness that is quite different in its application. When tested against the sutta texts you will see that it works better.

  The definition of Mindfulness is remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one thing to another.

  Looking closer at this definition the first part is just remembering, which sounds easy but it isn’t. Once you pay attention, you’ll find that your mind is constantly distracted from observation of itself by thoughts over which you have no control. You are aware of mind, a thought arises, and you are pulled away into that thought until you remember that you’re supposed to be paying attention to the movement of mind’s attention. You bring your observation back to mind, and then maybe a few seconds or minutes later, another thought pulls your attention away.

  It’s important to remember what it is you’re supposed to be doing: observing the process of mind’s attention and its movements as part of an impersonal process which leads us to the second part.

  On retreat, you go for a walking meditation. As you start your practice and you slowly walk down the path, your mind wanders. The first thing you must do is to remember to be mindful. Then actually do it!

  So the second part of mindfulness means to become aware of how mind’s attention moves from one thing to another. The Buddha intended that the meditator be mindful of what arises in the present, whatever that may be, and that they specifically see how it arises. He didn’t care what the feelings or sensations were or whether we peered at them that closely or not, only to know they had arisen. He did not intend for the meditator to pick out specific parts of the four foundations of mindfulness, or the five aggregates of mind and body, and only observe those. That would have been a concentration practice — focusing in on those individual parts.

  Rather, he wanted you to watch the activity of mind’s attention and to observe: (1) how it arises and passes away without any control on your part, and (2) how you take this mental movement personally as your “self.’’ Mind clamps onto a feeling and then identifies it as “my” feeling even though you did not ask for it to arise, or to pass away. You never had any control over it whatsoever. It just arose when conditions were right.

  This identification with feeling gives rise to a false belief in a personal self — the concept of “I.” When you see how the “I” concept arises, you can release it by not keeping attention on it, relax the tension or tightness caused by that disturbance, smile into it, and return to the meditation object; it becomes clear that there never was a self at all. There is only the endless stream of activity.

  Since you have no control over what comes up, you begin to see how this identification process — craving — is at the root of suffering. Craving manifests as that desire to control what happens. And when even that can’t be accomplished, suffering arises, and we don’t like it. This leads to frustration and an even further desire to control.

  So again, what is the definition of mindfulness? Mindfulness is remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one thing to another, as things arise unasked and they then completely pass away when they have run their course.

  Mindfulness is not over-focusing on an object — feeling or breath or anything else — it only knows that it is happening.

  This process of observing the movement of mind’s attention is where you see the hindrances arise and pull your attention away.

  There are five hindrances:

  Greed or sensual desires

  Hatred or aversion

  Sloth (laziness/sleepy) and torpor (dullness)

  Restlessness, worry, or anxiety

  Doubt (in yourself, the teacher, the practice, or the Buddha)

  As you stay with your object of meditation, this is where you will find craving rearing its ugly head. It is your goal to fully understand how craving arises — and by understanding the process, you let go of this craving and stay with the object of meditation. And you don’t do this by clenching your teeth and pushing it away.

  You want to make the hindrances your friends. They are your teachers. They show you where you are attached. When you fully understand them, you will need no more instruction. You will graduate to awakening! You will see the four foundations of mindfulness with pure, clear observation power. You will see them free of cr
aving and free of your taking them personally. It will be a relief to give up the control of those things that are uncontrollable!

  The Four Foundations of Mindfulness

  As we investigate deeper into TWIM Meditation, it is important to understand the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and how they are correctly applied to the meditation practice.

  MN 10, the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, tells us to observe the four foundations of mindfulness. The sutta says to observe the four foundations and let go of craving and clinging — letting go of taking the foundations personally.

  The Four Foundations are Body, Feeling, Consciousness, and Mind Objects. They are also known as the Five Aggregates: Body, Feeling, Perception, Formations, and Consciousness.

  When the Four Foundations are used instead of the Five Aggregates, Perception and Feeling are joined together. The Four Foundations and the Five Aggregates are different ways of saying the same thing, but it depends on whether you are talking about meditation or talking about the impersonal process of the existence of mind and body.

  We want to see what is there before we create confusion by identifying with what we are observing and taking it as our “self.” We want to see the body only as a body, feeling only as feeling, consciousness only as consciousness, and so forth. We need to observe impersonality or anattā for ourselves.

  The Vissudhi Magga explains that the Satipaṭṭhāna sutta methodology is to break up these four foundations and practice them separately. If you want to observe the body, then only observe the breath (part of the body). If you want to observe feeling, then only observe feeling, and so on.

  The Vipassanā Insight Meditation practice breaks up the four foundations as described above. You observe and focus in on just one of them separately. For the most part, you watch breath going in and out, but some teachers will try to explain that you have to watch feeling or mind objects separately in a different iteration of the practice. As you focus in on feeling, for example, you only see feeling and not the rest of the aggregates that go with it. You are not truly mindful which means to see how your attention moves from one thing to another. It isn’t to just look at the objects themselves in a concentrated way but the relationship between the object of meditation and the other objects moving around it.