Ānāpānasati and Paṭiccasamuppāda

ANAPANASATI AND PATICCASAMUPADA.

Buddhadasa - 1980.

(Trans. Dhammavidu ©2020, edited 2021)

1. Unaddressed problems we ought to give attention to.

Good people, those interested in Dhamma, and teachers, those of us who have the problems described here as 1) the ‘tea overflowing the cup’ 2) a ‘leaking out at the bottom’ and 3) a ‘momma crab who walks straight ahead so not allowing her child to see the right way for crabs to walk.’

I’m happy that you’ve all come here to seek out that Dhamma knowledge useable in your businesses, duties, and for advancing your lives in an increasingly prosperous and proper manner, which is a most necessary and important thing for that life which nature turns over to us to develop. Nature gives us life in its raw, basic form, it’s up to us to try to develop it so that it becomes truly useful, truly beneficial, hence, when someone seeks out the method of development it’s praiseworthy, a thing worthy of acknowledgement.

We choose this time of day to speak for several reasons, one being that when newly awakened from sleep the mind is in a more suitable condition than at other times, that is, it’s still free to some extent, like a teacup which is yet to be filled. This is also the time of day when nature is at its freshest, most buoyant, anyone can see that most flowers are so at, or just after dawn, which is a good time for us too: The Buddha awoke to the truth at around this time of day: just before dawn he was ready and subsequently became ‘awakened.’ Hence we should make proper use of this time, not for seeking slumber, but to make good use of its special properties.

Now, I must ask your indulgence while I talk about myself for a moment: At this time I have enough strength for a lecture, at other times I might feel really worn out, now I’m weak, or, more correctly, I have no real strength, I don’t feel exhausted, but I have little strength, not even enough to dress properly, hence I have to do my talking at a time when I have some energy.

Because you walk from Suan Mokkh Nanachat to this place (Wat Suan Mokkh) it can be a time for study and practice. We should try to be observant as we walk along, so turning the walking into a form of Dhamma practice. Hence we go to school, so to speak, as we walk, employing ‘sati,’ that is, we practise mindfulness based on the movement of our feet. It’s like we go to school to study this one process. It would be good to see life generally as being like a school, but a school where we study all the time. If anyone can turn their life into a course of study they’ll get the greatest benefit from being alive. So, be energetic, it’s not that difficult a matter, and we’re not really going to school, rather life itself, every second, every inch of it, can become a sort of school, a place of learning.

Now, we want to create an understanding of those still unattended-to obstacles which hinder the progress of Buddhists, particularly of teachers, and which can be compared, 1) to a teacup which is filled to overflowing so that nothing more can be put into it, 2) one which leaks at its base so that anything real put into it is prone to leak away, 3) to someone who doesn’t reveal the true state of affairs to others, as when a mother crab walks in a straight ahead way so that it’s child isn’t allowed to see the right way for crabs to walk. I see these three as being the foremost problems that we need to deal with, if they aren’t attended to then the development of Buddhists as regards attaining the higher Dhamma won’t be a possibility.

Understand that I didn’t say any particular individual had these problems, rather that there are those, whether here or elsewhere in the world, who do have them. In the Buddhist world these obstacles exist, hence there’s no real Dhamma progress. We, both as Buddhists and as teachers, should be prepared to deal with these perennial obstructions, and should, if we want to meet with the desired result, be willing to put an end to them.

The first point, that described by the phrase ‘the tea overflowing from the cup,’ refers to intellectually acquired, memorized knowledge which is clung to as being ultimate knowledge, and which clutters up the mind so that adding anything more meaningful can’t be easily done. Specifically it’s intellectual knowledge of annicam, dukkham, and anatta which has been committed to memory. Such knowledge acquired in that way tends to be sterile, impotent, and won’t give a real result, won’t bring about dispassion.

Now, something important and elevated: when ‘seeing’ aniccam properly one also ‘sees’ dukkham, that being bound up with aniccam because association with some changeful thing is always going to cause trouble, going to cause dukkha. Further, that which is aniccam and dukkham is also uncontrollable, so isn’t a ‘self,’ it’s ‘anatta,’ it’s ‘non-self.’ Here, we want to say that, when seeing anatta one must recognize the deep truth that any nature is basically just what it is, is ‘just thus,’ ‘just like that’ - it’s ‘dhammaditthata,’ something produced in the normal way, in the way things naturally are, and must therefore display the triple characteristics of aniccam, dukkham, and anatta. Seeing nature in this way leads to the realization that the law of nature - called ‘dhammaniyamata’ - is what controls, what causes natural things to operate.

When all this is clearly seen one realizes that there’s only a stream of conditionality, of mutual dependence as regards the endless arising and passing away of things, that is: with this as condition this can arise, without this as condition it quenches away. This conditioned arising and quenching, or passing away, of phenomena is called ‘idappaccayata,’ which will be a, perhaps, strange word for some, even so it’s necessary to go from seeing aniccam, dukkham, and anatta, to seeing dhammaditthata, that all things exist in the normal way, are ‘just thus,’ ‘just like that,’ to seeing dhammanyamata, that everything operates under the control of the law of nature, then to seeing idappaccayata, ‘conditionality,’ which is the driving force behind all the arising and passing away that ever takes place.

If really seeing aniccam one sees that, whatever it is, it’s ‘void,’ that is, without anything that could be called an ‘atta’ or a ‘self.’ ‘Sunnata,’ or ‘sunna’ means ‘void,’ void of anything substantial, void of ‘self,’ void of anything that could be regarded as a ‘self.’ However, in Thailand, even in Bangkok, especially Bangkok, there are still those who translate this word wrongly, as meaning completely empty and thus useless, but it doesn’t mean empty in that sense: Sunnata, or sunna, does mean empty, but empty of ‘self,’ not empty in the normally understood way but in a way which still has value, has power, has influence.

When all this is grasped, when one sees that anything and everything is ‘just like this,’ like this and not otherwise, it’s called seeing ‘tathata,’ or seeing ‘thusness,’ recognizing that nature is just what it is, is ‘just like this,’ or ‘just like that,’ essentially meaningless. On experiencing this absolutely the mind ‘lets go’ and doesn’t cling to anything anymore, doesn’t fall into infatuation, it now recognizing that, whatever it is, it’s ‘just like that.’ One who realizes this clearly is called ‘tathagata.’ All arahants are tathagata but the chief, the head tathagata is, or was, the Buddha. One who sees, or attains ‘tathata,’ ‘thusness,’ possesses the knowledge known as dhammaditthinana, the knowledge that all things are just what they are, are nature, naturally arisen in accord with the norms of nature.

Then the final stage is attained, which is ‘attamayata,’ or ‘unconcoctability,’ after which there’s no more concocting, nothing can concoct, or condition, the mind again, it’s become firm, still, of a nature to be correct - this is ‘attamayata.’ The mind which is like a cup filled to overflowing doesn’t arrive at this experience, doesn’t meet with attamayata: ‘Attamayata,’ unconcoctability, or the mind which has moved on, which has attained the ultimate rightness.

I say that the first acquired knowledge of aniccam, dukkha, and anatta will be intellectual, parrot-like knowledge and won’t therefore advance to any deeper levels of meaning. Such knowledge creates a mental blockage so that further, real, knowledge can’t be easily added, hence knowledge that whatever it is operates in accord with the norm, that it’s under the control of the law of nature, that it’s dependent on certain conditions being present, can’t be gained, and if such aren’t gained then there’s no way that knowledge of sunnata, voidness, voidness of ‘self,’ of tathata, of the ‘just like that’ quality of nature, or of attamayata, unconcoctability, can be attained either. These final three knowledges won’t be acquired because they can’t be added, there being a blockage caused by the accumulated, intellectual knowledge of aniccam, dukkham, and anatta.

There’s no progress because the tea has overflowed the cup as a result of all the talking, memorizing, and reciting.

Aniccam, dukkham, and anatta tend to become the objects of chanting and not of insight, of clear seeing. Hence these things should be managed so that Dhamma knowledge, natural truth is being added to the mix, then there’ll be no tea overflowing the cup problem and something substantial and meaningful will have been added providing the way to the attainment of that Dhamma which can really cause the mind to change.

So don’t be dim and, as is much done, talk about ‘going to’ nibbana, ‘going to’ nibbana, as when something goes to some place or other. This is oft repeated by those who don’t have knowledge, whose cups are filled to overflowing. Nibbana cannot be ‘gone to,’ and there’s no need to go to it, it’s not necessary to go anywhere to find nibbana, only change the nature of the mind until it’s the ultimate sort of mind, until it becomes attamayata, unconcoctable, and nibbana will appear by itself, it will simply take over, there’ll be no need to go anywhere to find it. The mind will gradually change as it progresses through the knowledges of aniccata, dukkhata, anattata, dhammathitata, dhammaniyamata, idappaccayata, sunnata, tathata, attamayata, and nibbana will appear of its own accord, because it, being present in all places at all times, will be waiting to appear. It’s our ignorance that blocks it, that doesn’t allow the light of nibbana to reach the mind, so, on removing the obstruction of ignorance nibbana will then illuminate the mind continually. But now it can’t do that because the curtain of our ignorance gets in the way. This can be likened to keeping the windows of a room closed so that the sunlight can’t enter, however, once we open them the sunshine comes in of its own accord, we don’t need to go and look for it. Nibbana is the same in that there’s no need for us to go to it, we just need to clear the mind up, make it correct, equip it with the right characteristics and it will attain nibbana, that is, nibbana will shine forth all by itself once we remove the blockage caused by ignorance – illustrated here by the tea overflowing the cup analogy. Doing nothing but muttering aniccam, dukkham, anatta without knowing what they actually mean and the desired result won’t be obtained, it won’t change mind into the sort that meets with nibbana. To do nothing but memorize and recite that stuff about going to nibbana after another ten thousand, another hundred thousand lives have passed indicates knowledge of the tea overflowing the cup sort.

If we’re still happy to talk about spending ten thousand, an hundred thousand lives on the road to nibbana then at least understand the meaning of that properly. Where, for instance, will those lives be spent? They’ll be spent here, in this one life. This single life thus consists in tens of thousands, in hundreds of thousands of ‘lives,’ in that the arising of attachment, of upadana, of the attachment to ‘me’ just once, is the equivalent of one ‘life.’ Any object meeting the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body, or the mind causes the feeling of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ to arise, which is one ‘life,’ thus during the course of one hour there’s the ‘birth’ and ‘death’ of we don’t know how many tens, how many hundreds of ‘lives.’ In a month, a year there’s the occurrence of ten thousand, an hundred thousand lives, and all happening during the course of this one physical life. With ‘lives’ of this mental sort there’s no need to get put into a coffin, or to go anywhere, if we understand ‘life’ in this way then we can expect to attain nibbana by improving the mind, by putting an end to wrongdoing, then nibbana will appear all by itself. There’s no need to ‘go’ to nibbana, just improve the mind, remove ignorance, and nibbana will illuminate the mind, it will know nibbana. Please, stop using words like ‘go to nibbana,’ let the ignorant say that, one who truly knows nibbana doesn’t need to go anywhere: improve the mind here and now and nibbana will illuminate it as a matter of course.

There’s a picture in the spiritual theatre at Suan Mokkh, it’s a picture of the Buddha sitting behind the curtain of ignorance. There’s no need to look for the Buddha in Temples, or in India, we need to look behind the curtain of our ignorance, so, find the curtain and cut it down, burn it up, put an end to it, and the Buddha will be revealed. Hence the Buddha is ready to be met with, but there’s something in the way which doesn’t allow that to happen: ignorance, ‘avijja.’ It’s the same with nibbana: nibbana is ready to meet with the mind but there’s something preventing it – ignorance, wrong understanding, the wrong understanding that, for instance, we’re going to have to wait for another ten thousand, another hundred thousand lives to pass before it can be known.

This is the knowledge of the ‘tea overflowing the cup’ variety, the knowledge of everyday people: The tea overflows the cup, that is, whatever of real knowledge we put into the mind doesn’t get absorbed properly because what’s already there pushes it out, hence there’s no proper knowledge of, for instance, ‘paticcasammupada,’ ‘dependent origination,’ only wrong knowledge, only ignorance.

The proper version of paticcasamupada reveals that there isn’t a ‘self,’ that there’s just a Dhamma stream called ‘paticcasamupada,’ or ‘dependent origination,’ just a stream of Dhamma, hence there’s no ‘good,’ no ‘bad,’ no right, no wrong, no duality, if there is duality there’s dukkha, if not there isn’t, this is the true version of paticcasamupada. However, there’s an explanation which doesn’t reveal this, in which it’s stressed that there exists a ‘self’ during the course of this life as there was in the life before this, and as there’ll be in next life too, hence there’s a ‘crossing over’ of this ‘self’ from one existence, from one life to another. This is the ignorant version of paticcasamupada which provides the base from which clinging can arise. The ending, the sweeping out of the dualities, of ‘good’ and ‘bad,’ etc. isn’t included here, it’s not that kind of an explanation, it’s that version of paticcasamupada in which there is an abiding ‘self,’ a version suitable for children - by all means give attention to this version of paticcasamupada, but, please, don’t let it become knowledge of the tea overflowing the cup sort which will clutter up the mind and prevent true and proper understanding being added.

Another, big, thing people like to hear about is ‘abhidhamma.’ This is added to something which is already good enough, that is, the dhammavinaya - dhamma plus vinaya - which isn’t liked it seems, what is liked, what is wanted is ‘abhivinaya,’ the vinaya-plus, and ‘abhidhamma,’ the Dhamma-plus, both of which are later than the Buddha’s time, are later expositions.

‘Abhivinaya’ is a detailed explanation of the vinaya which goes beyond that which an average human being ought to know, ‘abhidhamma’ does the same for the Dhamma, however, in the Buddha’s time this wasn’t thought necessary knowledge, it was considered to be too much. Regarding this, in the texts there’s a comparison with a horse: a horse having to have a nice appearance is like having to have abhivinaya and abhidhamma - a horse, if it looks well enough, if it’s health and strength is good and it can run as required doesn’t need to be a pretty colour too, hence, from the dhamma angle, if we want the pretty colour then we can turn to abhivinnaya and abhidhamma. Even so this abhidhamma is much sought after and much added to the Dhamma, the Dhamma which is already quite enough for the quenching of dukkha, for the attainment of nibbana. The vinaya meets with the same fate: We can study, study, study the abhivinaya but it won’t be completely beneficial; we study and flood the mind with knowledge but we won’t reach safety. This is the ‘tea overflowing the cup’ problem again. There’s the ‘great’ abhidhamma taking up space so that the ordinary Dhamma cannot gain a foothold. Be aware that this ‘tea overflowing the cup’ problem is still very much that - a problem.

Now, something closer to home: the ‘mahasatipathana’ sutta contained in the Dighanikaya. This text takes all day to read, if it’s not split up into sections it takes about six hours to read it. This is the mahasatipathanasutta which, it’s been believed since ancient times, the memorizing of which amounts to something holy so that some will strive to keep it in mind as death approaches, considering that to be enough. The mahasatipathanasutta thus packed into the mind becomes knowledge of the tea overflowing the cup variety with the result that adding just a bit of anapanasati can’t be easily achieved. Anapanasati is a small text found in the Majjhima Nikaya while the mahasatipathana is a very long text, so long that it’s unlikely that the Buddha would have sat talking for the six to eight hours it would have taken to expound. I, personally, don’t believe that the Buddha actually sat and expounded this text but have been afraid to say so because of the criticism that would inevitably follow. Even so, I don’t believe that he did teach it, rather I think that it was a written explanation compiled later which was then included in the Digha.

If we just take the heart, the ‘guts’ of the mahasatipathana sutta then it’s the same as anapanasati, although in the mahasatipathana text there are omissions, and the heart of anapanasati isn’t included fully, only a little gets in, just the first section which deals with physical matters. When the mahasatipathana sutta becomes an object of worship, of attachment, then it’s the tea overflowing the cup business again, and adding anapanasati can’t be readily done.

Now, ‘paticcasamupada,’ or, ‘dependent origination,’ study it well, it will allow us to abandon the ‘good’ and the ‘bad,’ the ‘meritorious’ and the ‘de-meritorious,’ ‘heaven’ and ‘hell,’ etc. will take all those pairs of opposites out of the equation completely and allow us to live above the power of such things so that there’s nothing to pull the mind into infatuation, nothing to cause the mind to be angry, irritated. We’d like to teach clear knowledge of paticcasamupada so that the positive and the negative can be controlled, but people are so stuck on those two that this knowledge can’t be easily gained. This is the tea overflowing the cup problem again. Whenever there’s a mental re-arrangement and infatuation with the positive and negative are swept out of the mind, our knowledge of paticcasamupada will then help us to stay away from them, then we’ll be one who dwells above the defilements, above the concocting, above the good, above the bad, and we’ll have nibbana.

The positive and negative get crammed into the minds of everybody, and, again, represent the tea overflowing the cup problem. Adding proper knowledge of them can’t be easily done. We don’t know anything about the ‘non-positive’ and ‘non-negative,’ aren’t willing to hear about transcending the positive and negative because the mind is so hot for them. In this world people go mad for the positive, hence there’s much development in the way of materialism. Now we’re creating industrial systems which will produce those things designed to sustain the defilements and keep the mind chasing after the positive. Will we be able to resist? Will people be able to resist, especially children, adolescents, will they be able to resist this madness for the positive? As much as the positive is loved so the negative is hated. There’s desire for the positive, and desire to destroy, to kill anything negative, anything considered to be the ‘enemy.’ There’s always this problematic clinging to both so that adding true knowledge can’t be easily done. This is the ‘tea overflowing the cup’ problem as it applies to everyone.

Here we arrive at the problem of ‘leakage:’ ‘up above’ nothing more can be added, while ‘down below’ there’s this leaking out. Anything which doesn’t side with the ‘kilesa,’ which would remove the kilesa, which would kill the kilesa, the defilements, leaks out of the mind, and only the defiled, the waste gets retained. This is what’s meant by a ‘leaking out.’

While there’s this leakage the nibbana which can be had here and now can’t be comprehended, only that form can which requires that we wait around for another ten, another hundred thousand lives to pass first, only the cranky version of nibbana taught before the Buddha’s time, the attainment of which involved an almost endless stream of deaths. The Buddha taught nibbana as voidness, eternal voidness, that is, being void, free from the ‘self’ delusion so that death became an unnecessary appendage - that was, and still is the true Buddhist form of nibbana. Now people cram the endless deaths version into the mind, the version that was taught in India before the Buddha’s time and which came here (Siam) before Buddhism did. We’re willing to admit that the Hindu version of nibbana, foreign to Buddhism, was taught here first, was taught here before Buddhism arrived, at which time it was being taught that the attainment of nibbana involved having to experience an almost endless stream of deaths, but with the arrival of Buddhism into this country it became difficult to teach that because what was now being taught wasn’t concerned with death, the Buddhist version of nibbana being concerned with the deathless.

When we take the almost endless deaths form of nibbana as our basic belief then we can’t easily grasp the ‘here and now’ version, which explains that when the mind isn’t afflicted by the defilements there’s nibbana, but when the defilements enter the mind nibbana disappears. Hence it’s said that nibbana disappears whenever the clinging which gives rise to ‘me’ and ‘mine’ is present, but that when this sort of clinging is absent nibbana appears, hence the mind free of ‘me’ and of ‘mine’ experiences nibbana, the nibbana of the ‘here and now’ variety. Whenever the kilesa are yet to arise, when they aren’t yet disturbing the mind, it’s then that we experience a sort of ‘little nibbana,’ or a temporary experience of nibbana called ‘nibbuti,’ a temporary quenching into coolness because the defilements aren’t active, also known as ‘nibbana here and now.’ If the nibbuti experience is unbroken, is truly of the ultimate kind, then it’s nibbana of the deathless variety.

Remember that in Buddhism nibbana is described as the ‘deathless,’ while outside of the Buddha’s teaching it’s described as having to do with death.

Some go astray yet again when they assume the ‘deathless’ to be the ‘paramatman,’ the eternal ‘self,’ which is like another version of nibbana in that it has the same characteristic, that of being eternal; it’s the eternal ‘self,’ the ‘self’ which is unconcoctable, beyond being conditioned by the good or the bad.

Be aware that we’re stuck with an understanding coming from previous generations that nibbana is concerned with a sort of eternal death. The deathless version, that is, the nibbana which is experienced whenever the defilements are absent, when there’s no positive or negative to disturb the mind, isn’t usually comprehended.

At present we aren’t able to practise anapanasati because the mahasatipathana crowds it out. Anapanasati can give us absolute power over the physical, over the feelings, over the mind, over the deceptions of nature, these four being the heart of anapanasati: Power over the physical, so that we can’t be deceived by the body; power over the feelings, the vedana, so that they can’t deceive us; power over the mind so that the mind can’t deceive us, so that we don’t fall for any of the mind’s tricks, and power over nature so that we don’t find infatuation with any of nature’s deceptions, that is, with those apparently possessable ‘things,’ like the ‘important,’ the ‘likeable,’ the ‘satisfying,’ etc. These four categories form the heart of anapanasati-bhavana, as they do the heart of mahasatipathana text, but in the latter case, they’re not complete, the heart of the anapanasati practice isn’t complete in the mahasatipathanasutta, only about fifty percent of it can be found there. This is the ‘leakage’ which occurs because of the mind being stuffed full of the wrong understanding of nibbana, and of the anapanasati and satipathana practices too, so that they aren’t really true reflections of the Buddha’s teachings, being more recently compiled revisions. This is the ‘leakage,’ a ‘leaking out’ because the mind has been crammed with these kinds of things and has become encrusted, cluttered-up with such so that the real, the genuine gets lost.

The Buddha taught only dukkha and the end of dukkha - as it’s said: ‘Now, as before, I teach dukkha and remainderless quenching of dukkha.’ He didn’t really teach anything other than dukkha and the end of dukkha.

We accumulate, accumulate until the mind becomes like a pig’s swollen tail. We’re aware you probably won’t ever have seen this phenomenon. I saw it, and was startled to see how much the tail can swell. Some pig’s tails swell up until they’re round like a ball, big, round and smooth, so that it’s almost as if there’s a coconut inside, swollen up until the tail can’t do its proper job. Ignorance can swell up like the pigs tail so that we can’t do our proper job too, so don’t accumulate knowledge of the swollen tail kind, don’t let it happen, then the tail will be able to swish naturally, but if it can’t do that it will be as if there wasn’t a tail at all

The wat I stayed at in Bangkok, wat something-or-other, kept several pigs somewhere below, and several had the swollen tail problem, some in a big, some in a small way. I doubt that they could use their tails at all to swat the mosquitoes, to keep the attackers away. Be aware that if we let useless knowledge swell up like those pigs’ tails then we won’t be able to swat the kilesa away, a mind pulled about by an excess of swollen tail knowledge can’t kill the defilements, can’t cut the kilesa.

Now, we come to look at the Buddha’s teaching on how dukkha arises and quenches, as described in the formula of paticcasamupada. Anything foreign to that we’re not interested in, not wanting to turn this into another tea overflowing the cup, or a leaking out at the bottom affair. The Buddha taught only dukkha and the end of dukkha while others taught the transmigratory atta, ‘self,’ and the spinning around in birth and death, as was their wont. The Buddha said that he taught only dukkha and the end of dukkha. Whatever is the cause of dukkha’s arising, that needs to be cut out, which can be summed up as the ignorance of ‘self’ belief, that’s the cause of dukkha, so quench the ignorance which causes ‘self’ belief and dukkha will have no way to arise.

So, study this, get to know it, to understand it intellectually, and practise in order to ‘vipassana,’ to clearly see it. At first there’ll be knowledge gained through study, study as in a school, then careful attention, due consideration, will be applied, which is called ‘yonisomanasikara,’ until there’s proper understanding, then comes vipassana, clear seeing into actuality, on the arrival of which there’s no more need for intellection. This vipassana, this ‘clear seeing’ stands above reasoning. Knowledge of what’s heard by the ear, seen by the eye, and so on, is called ‘suta,’ giving careful consideration, careful attention to experience is called ‘yonisomanasikara,’ all of which happens under the control of the intellect, we practise to see clearly until there’s no more need for reasoning, then there can be right knowledge of aniccam, of dukkham, of anatta, of dhammadittata, dhammaniyamata, idappaccayata, sunnata, tathata, attamayata, which will solve both the tea overflowing the cup, and the leaking out at the bottom problems.

Understand that, in this Buddhist world of ours, without naming anyone in particular, in our Buddhist world the problems of the tea overflowing the cup and of the leaking out continue to exist, so demonstrate the sincere determination to put an end to them both, then, perhaps, we’ll achieve true and right knowledge of Buddhism.

First, we need to listen, otherwise we can’t be helped, we can’t be helped if we don’t listen, so listen to what others have to say otherwise we won’t get going at all. Then we practise yonisomanasikara: ‘Manasikara’ means to consider carefully, ‘yoniso’ means by way of matrix, or root cause. The word ‘yoni’ can refer to the female sexual organ, but here means ‘root cause,’ while ‘so’ means ‘by’ or ‘through,’ hence ‘yoniso’ means by way of first cause, by way of root cause, thus ‘yonisomanasikara’ is to apply careful consideration to the causes and conditions involved in any experience.

Now, bring this kind of thought-out knowledge and make it into vipassana. Hence, make the mind ready, make it samadhi so that it has the power to see into the deepest, the most profound truths of nature, to see aniccam, dukkham, and anatta as they really are, then ignorance, avijja, will fall away. This is called ‘clear seeing,’ in which there’s no reliance on reasoned thought anymore. Move up from studying the surface of things to yonisomanasikara, to the more internalized careful consideration, and then to vipassana, to the sort of right-seeing which is in accord with truth - this is ‘clear seeing,’ or knowledge of Dhamma. Acquire sila, samadhi, and panna, right knowledge, and attain vimutti, liberation, release, then experience ‘vimuttiyanadassana,’ knowledge of release, the clear knowledge that there has occurred a complete escape from the obstructing ‘tea overflowing the cup’ and ‘leaking-out’ problems.

Hence we come to the third point, that of the mother crab which is unable to show her child how to walk in the right way. We’ve listened to the story of the mother crab and her child since we were children: the mother scolds her child: why don’t you walk straight? The child tells her to walk along and let it see how she walks, so momma does and in so doing lets the child see that she doesn’t walk straight either, she can’t, because crabs always walk sideways, right to left, left to right. Hence the mother crab can’t teach her child to walk in a straight-ahead way.

One is unable to live properly in accord with the basics of Buddhism and let a child see truth, that is, see that there isn’t a ‘me’ or a ‘mine.’ One is unable to display thoughts, actions, and speech of the kind that are void of ‘me’ or ‘mine,’ because whenever such happen there’s always a ‘me’ or a ‘mine’ behind them. Hence one is unable to let a child see ‘what’s what.’

Parents have only defiled sensual desires, desire powered by defilement, so cannot make their child understand dhammic sensual desire. ‘Dhammic sensual desire’ might sound strange to the ears of many people while ‘defiled sensual desire’ will be familiar enough, both hearing and doing operate under the power of such. Now, change that to Dhammic sensual desire, to sensual desire powered by the Dhamma, the true Dhamma, and defilement won’t connect. A mother living her life with defiled sensual desire cannot let her child see the Dhammic version, so the infant develops defiled desires, defiled sensual desire now here, now there. The high point for defiled sensual desire is heaven, but the heaven which isn’t even close to nibbana, heaven, here, being an overwhelmingly positive experience, is far from nibbana; hell, on the other hand, being overwhelmingly negative, is far from nibbana too. Nibbana isn’t of either persuasion, it’s above both heaven and hell. A mother cannot reveal this to her child, because she’s stuck with defiled sensual desire for the positive, and to whatever extent that she’s stuck on the positive there’ll be a similar problem with the negative.

Pay attention, observe, get to know the things called ‘me’ and ‘mine’ which arise from both positive and negative experiences. When a positive feeling occurs a positive ‘me’ arises, when a negative feeling occurs so does a negative ‘me.’ Both are equally insane, both causing the arising of dukkha. The positive causes abhijja, covetousness, the desire to get, to arise. ‘Abhijja’ is a Pali word: something is seen as positive so there’s desire to get it, if it’s negative there’ll be desire to get rid of it, which in pali is ‘domanas,’ frustration, annoyance, giving rise to a negative ‘me.’ Don’t get these words mixed up. Practise the Brahmacariya, be it the mahasatipana or anapanasati, to escape from both abhijja and domanas. The Buddha said that in this world there are just these two: abhijja, and domanas. Abhijja gives rise to a positive ‘self,’ domanas to the negative version, taking out both is nibbana.

Nature is really neutral, as is the child in the womb, which knows neither positive nor negative because it’s yet to begin thinking. On leaving the womb it meets with external things via the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, thus arise those objects we call positive and negative. When something is pleasant, delicious there arises the meaning of positive, when unpleasant, undelicious, arises the meaning of negative. We become accustomed to these two: positive, negative, positive, negative, positive, negative. Positive or negative feelings arise, giving rise to a positive or negative ‘me,’ this occurs right from infancy and continues on through childhood, through adolescence, the teenage years, and so on, there’s attachment to the positive and negative under the power of defilement.

An interesting ancient Siamese teaching tells of children who, when sufficiently grown, reject their parents and run off to follow the bandits. If one understands this teaching one will understand the thing called ‘life’ very well, and in the right way too.

When a child is old enough it will reject its parents and run after the bandits, the ‘low-lives,’ it will reject the balanced life, reject the proper approach to the positive and negative and instead worship them. The child will run after the bandidos, that is, it will fall under the power of the various defilements and become wise in a crooked, a defiled way. This is our condition. When old enough we abandon our parents and chase after the bandits. Some children can’t come back from that, remaining bad guys until they die, but if a child has good luck, is self-aware enough, and knows the crooks for what they are, it can eliminate them and return safely to its parents. True Buddhists will do that, will do away with the bandits, will destroy the defilements, eliminate the positiving and negativing and go seek out their parents, that is, go and seek out the Buddha’s true teaching, become noble, become a disciple of the Buddha, eliminate the bad guys and turn into the strait way.

Youngsters, beware of rejecting your parents and chasing after the low-lives, of seeking after the positive in the guise of the delicious, and after the negative, in the form of the stimulating, kill them both, strike them down and experience contentment. We’re mostly infatuated with and mad for the positive, we’re crazy in a positive way, but there’s still the negative-crazy too. All that needs to stop, we need to stop being the sort of children who leave their parents and chase after the bandits, that is, we don’t join the ranks of the defiled, we don’t run after the bandits but seek out the Dhamma instead, seek out the Buddha and learn to dwell above the positive and negative, come to see the pleasant and the unpleasant, the positive and the negative, as just that, just what they are, and don’t let them dominate our minds; if we’re overwhelmed by desire for the positive we’ll become crazy in a positive way, if we’re swept away by the negative we’ll be crazy in a negative way, and we’ll oscillate between a sort of heaven and hell. Don’t let that happen, look to nibbana which is above the positive and the negative, above heaven and hell, that should be our future.

Can parents venture to show this to their children, can they venture to explain something that they themselves don’t understand? What they don’t know they won’t be able to teach. The mother crab is unable to show the child crab how to walk straight ahead because she walks in a sideways fashion, to the left, to the right. We’re unable to show our children the right way to live because we’re stuck on the positive and negative: positive, negative, positive, negative, tottering through life like this. Think about it, we live like this; there isn’t anyone who doesn’t, we dwell under the power of the positive and negative, unable to be free, unable to be above them. We don’t really want to have to live our lives trying to avoid the two because we’ll forget and easily fall into positiving and negativing again, we really need to dwell above, to be beyond them in every way, controlling them isn’t what’s needed, we must be above and beyond them, so go for that, be above and beyond the positive and the negative, out of their reach, such is the doctrine of the Buddhists.

Momma crab can’t show her offspring how to walk properly because she’s stuck in the left to right mode of walking. As for us, we’re unable to train children before they’re born, teach them while still in the womb how to live in the right way so that not many of them would then ditch their parents in favour of the bandits. There’s no chance to train them then, and, later, if and when they’ve returned to the fold they’ll have many problems to deal with as they try to overcome the bandits, to defeat the delilements and become children of the Buddha once again. At present children willingly leave their parents and follow the bandits because their parents aren’t able to guide them, aren’t able to give them an example of how to live in the right way, they themselves being heavily involved with the positive and the negative.

The positive and negative give rise to all the forms of defilement; the positive gives rise to the defilement of ‘raga,’ of ‘lobha,’ the negative gives rise to the defilement of ‘dosa,’ of ‘koda,’ the neither positive nor negative gives rise to the defilement of ‘moha,’ delusion, the not knowing of ‘what’s what.’ The positive, negative, and the indeterminate forms of defilement are known as raga, dosa, and moha. Know these clearly, as they are, then one will be a good example, a good guide, one who doesn’t let their children become infatuated with the positive and negative from birth. Tell children so that they know that delicious things can make us stupid in one way, the undelicious can make us stupid in another. Take those, as yet, young children to the shops that sell the delicious, the attractive, and say: look, all these things are what keep us ignorant, be they toys, eatables, the delicious, the attractive, the pretty, expensive things, are what keep us ignorant. Tell them that whatever you want we’ll buy it for you, but all that will really do is lead you into infatuation with the positive and the negative. In the final count it’s the parents, or their relatives, those close to them, who pervert the minds of children, allowing them to more and more fall into infatuation with the positive and negative, encouraging them to follow after the bandits.

What can put this right? There’s one way: that right Buddhist knowledge called ‘Brahmacariya,’ particularly vipassana. ‘Vipassana’: seeing clearly into truth so that there can be no place in our lives for the positive and negative, the good and the bad, the meritorious and demeritorious, so that we can say to them: I don’t want you around anymore, you can’t influence me now, I’m free, I’ve transcended you and all your friends.

Do you have the courage for this, or do you still pledge allegiance to the positive, are you still a slave of the defilements, or do you want to escape from their influence? If you don’t want to escape then there’s no real benefit to be got from studying and practising vipassana, because that requires that one really wants to escape enslavement.

At present the world is headed for disaster because of infatuation with the positive and negative. There’s no thought given to overcoming them, only to becoming more and more enslaved by positive things and experiences. Industrial systems create those positives which then act as bait for the defilements. Thailand will be awash with them, there will be industries creating the bait of the defilements just as in other places. Buddhists beware! Don’t let industry take hold here and submerge us in a hell of positives and negatives. Parents need to be strong, need to give the right example, need to walk in the straight way that leads to nibbana. In former times this sort of culture was much in evidence, but it’s gradually disappeared because a new culture, a new way of life, that of the west, has come in its stead, a culture of the material, not of the mind.

Now, in this day and age, we don’t hear the words ‘comrades in, birth, ageing, sickness, and death.’ When I was a child this was heard everywhere: ‘comrades in birth, ageing, sickness, and death, comrades in birth ageing sickness, and death,’ my grandmothers repeated this I don’t know how many times every day. Now it isn’t heard. All we hear is ‘you,’ ‘you,’ ‘me,’ ‘me,’ ‘you,’ ‘you,’ ‘me,’ ‘me,’ there’s the capitalist ‘me,’ the employee ‘me,’ so there’s no way for the employer and the employee, for the capitalist and the labour force to work together. The words ‘comrades in birth, ageing, sickness, and death’ aren’t heard because people are too full of ‘me’ and ‘mine.’ This is a problem, one which there’s an unwillingness, or an inability to escape from. Who will help solve this problem when people themselves voluntarily become crooks. Who will pull them back? Where’s the good fortune that will pull those children who’ve gone over to the bandits back to their parents, back to the Dhamma. When a child is old enough to come within the range of Dhamma it will run off, will ignore the Dhamma and follow after the bandits. A few smart ones will eventually escape the bandits’ power and seek out the Dhamma again. Generally the defilements will bind one fast unto death - the death that one doesn’t know is death, which one doesn’t understand.

So, teachers should be real teachers, should be the most respectable, the most estimable of people, should know about this matter and be involved in the attempt to pull mankind away from the power of the bandits. Teachers, show that you’re worthy of respect and that you aren’t just in it for the money.

We should be truly worthy of respect, real disciples of the Buddha, we should be Dhammic, and thus unselfish. If we’re selfish we aren’t Dhammic, when we’re unselfish we automatically are. When we’re Dhamma-oriented we’re automatically a friend to all. Now we’re selfish, and being such aren’t like that. When we, because of knowing the Dhamma truth that there isn’t any such thing as a ‘self,’ put an end to selfishness, then, being unselfish we’ll automatically see the Dhamma, meet with correctness, and see all beings as our friends, as our comrades, in birth, ageing, sickness, and death. We’ll then have a new world where all forms of violence, hostility, and oppression will be extinct.

Now, it’s a selfish world: ‘you,’ ‘you,’ ‘me,’ ‘me,’ selfishness which increases in line with the development of materialism, which itself develops because of the infatuation with ‘self.’ The selfish don’t want to work but do want to take advantage, so can’t really be in harmony with anyone, they can’t be community-minded because they’re always jealous, always envious of those better-off than them; they’re always and automatically lawless, because of their selfishness they’re both directly and indirectly thieves, taking advantage of others for their own ends. Their selfishness makes them automatically criminal.

Therefore, know that our worst enemy is selfishness. Every religion from the beginning until now has taught the ending of selfishness, even the most ignorant and superstitious of religious systems teach that, but people don’t believe, don’t believe in destroying selfishness, hence it grows and the world is an increasingly selfish place.

In the worlds’ councils (UN) there’s quarrelling between selfish people scrambling to gain advantage for their own countries, there’s no agreement because of their selfishness. Whenever they drop their selfishness there can be understanding. I say that they should drop the UN, should change it into the UR (united religions), into a religious body and control the UN through that. That the UR would be allowed to function absolutely independently probably couldn’t happen, but let the UR control the UN, allow a body of unselfish people to control a body of selfish people, and the world could be at peace. If we let things go on as they are then selfishness will grow, will multiply, and there’ll be no way for the world to be peaceful, selfishness will be worshipped and there’ll be an endless scramble for world domination. If we talk together without understanding we’ll talk together ten thousand times without any agreement emerging, unless, that is, we can decrease our selfishness.

Let the Dhamma return, and quickly; eliminate selfishness from the world, let it fade away - fade away by making use of a dhamma method of the highest sort: vipassana, and thus come to see aniccam, dukkham, anatta, dhammadhittata, dhammaniyamata, idappaccayata, sunnata, tathata, attamayata. The last of those, ‘attamayata,’ means unconcoctable, that is, there isn’t anything that can concoct the mind foolishly, it’s firmly set on rightness, that’s attamayata. One who has attamayata is referred as ‘attamayo’ and is arahant. Let the Dhamma arise until attamayata is attained and the mind, without selfishness, becomes established in correctness, then there’s no selfishness, only rightness, and there are automatically feelings of amity towards others, everywhere. Such would be the world of ‘Ariyamettraya,’ a world where there’s automatic amity between people, and selfishness is absent.

It’s to be hoped that this world be allowed to appear soon. To that end we should put a stop to the ‘tea overflowing the cup’ and the ‘leaking-out at the bottom’ problems; we should all be like the momma crab who lets her children see the right way to walk, we should be willing to try and be unselfish. Have the courage to let others see that we’re unselfish, be brave and the problems will be at an end. At this time the world is going to the dogs because of selfishness, so come, take advantage of the highest Buddhist dhamma and get rid of the ‘self’ then there won’t be any selfishness either, and, not being selfish we’ll be Dhammic, taking others into consideration there’ll be peace, and nibbana will dominate in the world, we’ll et the world cool down, let it be a nibbanic world, at the least we’ll know nibbuti: coolness whenever the defilements aren’t active.

We tender the hope that all of you who’ve come to study and train in the Dhamma will achieve success in your attempts to solve the problems of life and become Buddhists in the right sense, that is, without the tea overflowing the cup or the leaking out problems, at the same time avoiding being like the momma crab who shows her child the wrong way to walk, and that you might come to allow each passing second to be a school, an opportunity to study paticcasamupada and practise anapanasati, just these two matters, these being enough to solve all our problems.

2. A brief overview of paticcasamupada.

We’ve disposed of the problems of the tea overflowing the cup, the leaking out at the bottom, and of the momma crab who doesn’t show her children the right way to walk well enough to give an initial understanding, now we’ll look at two matters which form the plan of our further study and practice, that is, ‘paticcasamupada’ and ‘anapanasati.’ We need to talk about both now because they’re connected and can’t really be separated, in that anapanasati is the practice we undertake, while paticcasamupada tells us why we need to practise, as well as how we should go about it.

This is an introductory talk, a preliminary exploration of a general nature, not a detailed discourse, that will come later. So, just as we might take visitors who come to look over Bangkok up in an aeroplane first to give them a general view of the place, then focus in on the details afterwards, so paticcasamupada and anapanasati can be approached in the same way, hence, on this first occasion we’ll be dealing with them in a broader, more general sense. Today’s talk is therefore a brief overview of paticcasamupada and anapanasati, when we’ve done that and gained a rough understanding of the outline, as it were, a sort of ‘bird’s eye’ view of things, we can involve ourselves in a more detailed study.

These two dhammas are connected, paticcasamupada being the basic knowledge we need to have, need to grasp, while anapanasati is the practice that can make that complete. Hence they can’t really be separated because if we’re to live a contented life then it must be a blend of both paticcasamupada and anapanasati.

First up is paticcasamupada: ‘Paticcasamupada’ means ‘dependent origination,’ or ‘dependent arising.’ The name is a little long and strange to the ear, but will become familiar through repetition.

Paticcasamupada has always been a problem. Ananda once told the Buddha that it was a moderately profound teaching, to which the Buddha replied: ‘don’t say that Ananda, it’s the deepest, the most profound of subjects;’ hence what we’ll be dealing with touches upon the most profound so we’ll need to employ care and wise attention as we fare along. What we want is an explanation fit for general use, one applicable to all levels of society, because paticcasamupada isn’t some sacred, incomprehensible, scriptural thing, it’s something that needs to be clearly understood as it operates in our lives both physically and mentally, and not just kept as a scripture.

If we were talking with children we might explain thus: when there’s the sun it makes steam rise from the sea and float upwards, when there’s a lot of steam, of water vapour, it produces cloud formations, when there’s a goodly mass of cloud formations they become heavy and cool giving rise to rainfall, when the rain falls our pathways become slippery, and because the paths are slippery we might slip over, because we slip over perhaps we break our head, because we’ve broken our head we cry, scream, and kick, until Momma-san takes us to the Doctor, the Doctor then puts us right and we’re smiling again. This series of events, each arising in dependence on the one before it, is called dependent origination, or paticcasamupada.

Put in another way, as would concern farmers: The sun causes water to evaporate and become clouds, but there aren’t enough clouds to make the seasonal rainfall so there’s not enough water to do the farming, hence there’s a difficulty. This is dependent origination too. Farmers know that if there’s good rainfall there’ll be good cultivation of the crops, if there’s good cultivation there’ll be a lot of rice to sell and a lot of money to be made.

Or: one is a civil servant who, having studied well, has a good job and gets a good salary. Subsequently, ignorance dominating, he turns to drink and to gambling, he cheats, gets caught, and is dismissed from his job so that his relatives have to help by contributing money to avoid him being put into prison. This is paticcasamupada too.

Now, this isn’t just about people, it’s about nature too, about the entire cosmos, which means the world, the sun, the moon, the solar system, the stars, everything, it’s a profound matter of nature which takes in human existence too, because our life depends on nature, on the law of nature, and on how we performed the human duty, hence life is a dependently arisen phenomenon, which when properly lived is problem-free and produces contentment, peace and tranquility, if, however, ignorance intervenes and life’s not properly lived there are problems.

The Buddha said that because beings don’t understand paticcasamupada they’re stuck in the ‘vatta,’ that is, they spin around in the ‘samsara,’ the ‘ocean of birth and death,’ which here involves ‘kilesa,’ ‘defilement,’ causing ‘kamma,’ ignorantly deliberated activity, which produces it’s result, or fruit, called ‘vipaka,’ followed by more kilesa, more kamma, and more results, etc. over and over again, without any foreseeable end. This is the ‘vatta’ as described by the language of Dhamma. The more traditional understanding of the vatta used before the Buddha’s time describes it as a ‘spinning around’ in physical birth and death, hence: There’s birth, then one enters the coffin, and from that comes a new birth, followed by the coffin again, etc. etc. However, this explanation of the vatta has no depth, no profundity. The vatta which happens in the here and now also involves a spinning around but one which during the course of one day happens an unknowable number of times, thus: The kilesa, the defilements, cause kamma, from kamma comes vipaka, the result of kamma, which boosts the kilesa so that there’s more kamma, etc. etc. Hence it spins on and on: kilesa, kamma, vipaka, kilesa, kamma, vipaka. It’s because people don’t know about this form of paticcasamupada that they get stuck in the vattasamsara.

Through not recognizing dependent origination we’re ‘in the dark,’ as it were, and the mind is in a ‘tangle.’ We need to use a word like ‘tangle’ which, in Pali, has two meanings, that is, 1) like a tangled-up ball of thread, a tangled mass compressed into a ball so that it’s difficult to sort out, or, 2) like grass, ‘muncha’ or ‘pabbaja’ grass, a kind of grass which intertwines, or tangles together in such a way that it’s difficult to see where its roots are. Either way it means that the mind is in a messed-up, tangled state which is going to be difficult to sort out.

I think it’s still not recognized that because paticcasamupada isn’t known the true Buddha isn’t known either. Some of us will have heard the statement: ‘One who sees the Dhamma sees the Buddha, and, one who sees the Buddha sees the Dhamma.’ One, however, who hasn’t seen the Dhamma, even though they might take hold of and hang onto a corner of his robe, won’t really have seen the Buddha either. Now, one who sees paticcasamupada, sees the dependent arising and going down of dukkha, can be said to have seen the Dhamma, and as one who sees the Dhamma also sees the Buddha, then to see paticcasamupada is to see the true Buddha, to really see the Buddha and not the person called ‘Buddha.’

We, who might profess Buddhism, should come to know the true, the Dhamma Buddha, so gain proper knowledge of paticcasamupada, the dependent arising and quenching of dukkha and do that, come to know the true, the eternal, Dhamma Buddha, the Buddha who wasn’t born, didn’t become awakened, and didn’t attain nibbana. The worldly know only that Buddha who was born, etc., the true Buddha, however, didn’t do any of that yet endures throughout time in the guise of the dominant law of nature, this is the true Buddha, the not-born, the not-awakened, the not-nibbana’d, it isn’t this or that person, born in this or that country, of this or that age, those were attributes of Siddhartha, of the person who taught knowledge of the Dhamma. Get to know the true Buddha and we won’t have wasted our time being Buddhists.

There are two kinds of Buddhas, those who are people, who are born, become awakened at some point, and who attain nibbana, of which there are supposed to have been many, and there’s the true Buddha, the one, eternal Buddha who didn’t do any of that yet exists and has existed throughout time as that unchanging law which dictates that when certain conditions are present dukkha arises, when certain other conditions are present dukkha quenches, comes to an end. Where can this Buddha be met with? It can be met within everything in the universe, in everything around us, in everything inside us, in the thirty-two elements, in the five aggregates, in the senses, in whatever is subject to dependent arising and quenching, to paticcasamupada. This is the Dhamma Buddha, but we don’t see him because something gets in the way; what gets in the way is the curtain of our ignorance, that is, ‘avijja.’

We would ask you again to go and look at the picture in the spiritual theatre, the first picture on the left after you pass through the first door, it shows the Buddha sitting behind the curtain of ignorance. The Buddha isn’t in India, in the temples, isn’t anywhere in that sense, rather he’s behind the curtain of our ignorance, so, pull the curtain aside, dispel ignorance, and meet the Buddha sitting right there.

Remember this, the Dhamma Buddha, the true Buddha, sits behind the curtain of our ignorance, not in the temple hall, not in the temple, not in India, not in any of the places we waste our money going to visit and get no benefit from.

The true Buddha is paticcasamupada, is the central law of dependent origination. Work out for yourselves how important that law is. It’s not so deep that it can’t be understood, but don’t think that it’s not deep, not profound, or that it’s only moderately profound. The Buddha believed it to be the most profound of the profound, but not so profound that it couldn’t be understood at all, it is graspable, so try, give proper attention to dependent origination, and practise anapanasati, then perhaps we’ll have the true Buddha with us, perhaps we’ll acquire the kind of paticcasamupada that can quench dukkha completely.

It - being the law underpinning every particle which makes up the cosmos, the universe - can have this benefit. Paticcasamupada is everywhere, which means that the Buddha can be found in every particle that goes to form the great universe. We mightn’t be able to study this fully from books or from listening to discourses like this one, just doing that won’t be enough, even so we do need to listen, to study, to understand, then to go and practise, meet with the truth, and use it beneficially. Just hearing about this won’t produce the full result, we’ll need to bring yonisomanasikara, systematic attention, to bear on experience to form a preliminary understanding, then practise to allow the mind to ‘see clearly,’ which is vipassana, leading to yathabhutasammapanna, and yathabhutananadassana, ‘knowledge and vision of things as they really are,’ something which is outside and beyond logical thought. We need vipassana, or ‘clear-seeing’ for the quenching of dukkha.

The problem is that we don’t usually get a proper explanation. The paticcasamupada, the dependent origination taught in schools, which is the explanation from Buddhagosa in the ‘Visudhimagga,’ strays into the path of ‘self’ belief, of the ‘self’ which transmigrates from existence to existence, from life to life, so doesn’t sit well with the Buddha’s words because paticcasamupada really tells the story of non-selfhood so leaving just the natural stream of paticcasamupada, of dependent arising flowing along. People are pleased when they meet with something good, that’s sukha, happiness; they’re displeased by meeting with something bad, and that’s dukkha, but dependent origination doesn’t showcase people, it focuses on how dukkha arises and how dukkha quenches. It’s that teaching which allows one to see that there’s isn’t a ‘self,’ in the true sense, involved in the living of life, that there’s no ‘me’ or ‘mine’, no ‘good,’ no ‘bad,’ no dualities, no ‘positive,’ no ‘negative,’ etc.

Now, we know how dukkha arises: it arises because there’s ignorance in the moment of sense contact: The eye meets with a form, or the ear receives a sound, these are sense impacts, consciousness then arises to do its duty, that’s called ‘phassa,’ or contact, if there’s ignorance when this happens there’ll be dukkha, if there’s no ignorance, if there’s ‘panna,’ or ‘vijja,’ knowledge, instead, there won’t be. We need to have ‘sati,’ mindfulness, whenever there’s a sense contact, and we need knowledge so that we can control the mind’s response to it. We need to have enough ‘sampajanna,’ enough clear understanding, enough ‘samadhi,’ enough concentration. Ordinarily we don’t have these items on hand, when we’re born we don’t have much of them, we have just a little, which isn’t enough, we have some mindfulness, some understanding, some knowledge, some concentration, but that’s not enough, there has to be the appropriate sati, panna, sampajanna, samadhi on hand so that phassa can be controlled.

Hence we need to practise, practise a system which will develop enough of these abilities, that system is anapanasati. With this in mind if we can meet with success in this practise we’ll have enough sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi to use in controlling phassa, sense contact. Control phassa through mindfulness and dukkha won’t arise. In the absence of wisdom, of proper knowledge, we’ll need to understand dependent origination, paticcasamupada, so get to know it, get to know the various things involved, practise anapanasati to have sati, panna, sampajanna, samadhi on hand to control dependent origination particularly in the moment of phassa, of sense contact. With that in mind we, it being the second matter for consideration, will now make a brief overview of anapanasati.

Anapanasati is, ultimately, about sati, mindfulness, fixing on one aspect of nature with each in and out breath. Mindfulness fixes on an object with each breath, thus penetrating deeper, deeper, until the deepest penetration into its nature is experienced. The objects fixed upon and penetrated into will become increasingly more refined, more profound, until the most profound is experienced, which will signal the end of the matter. At first we might fix on the breathing, subsequently on various conditions or things concerned with the breathing, until aniccam, dukkham, and anatta become the objects contemplated with every breath. Hence we come to know the Dhamma ever more profoundly until the utmost knowledge is attained and there’s escape, release. So, we give attention to the necessary objects with every in and out breath. Fixing attention on a truth of nature with every in and out breath, this is anapanasati.

The Buddha is on record as having said: ‘When the tathagata dwelt in the practice of anapanasati he awakened to full knowledge, having maintained the practice constantly until the day of his awakening.’ Hence he recommended anapanasati as the solution for our various problems, even those associated with the vinaya, because there were monks engaged in contemplating the body and meditating on death who wound up killing themselves, which, said he, wasn’t too wise, the problem being that they weren’t using a refined enough method of practice, that is, they weren’t using anapanasati, they’d been practising a coarser method and had formed a hatred of life and some committed suicide. The Buddha used anapanasati for solving the most profound of problems, he submitted it as a method which brought attainment of the Dhamma, which brought awakening, brought escape from all the forms of dukkha, proposing it to be the path of safety. But maybe we’re not too interested, perhaps we’re not bothered, and hearing about anapanasati we remain unmoved.

Now here’s knowledge, a secret of nature which people can gradually come to know thoroughly for themselves, and which can bring attainment of the path and its fruit: If we contemplate anything with every in and out breath that can be called anapansati, and if we manage anything by using the breathing, through controlling the breathing, that’s called anapanasati too.

It can be said with some certainty that when humans were naked forest dwellers they knew how to deal with the breathing, knew how to use it for their benefit, knew how to methodically regulate the breathing in accord with their then ability. Anapanasati came about in that way and developed until it fell into the hands of certain sages who developed knowledge of it until, subsequently, it came under the control of the Buddha-to-be, at which time it reached its highest point of development.

Originally, before anapanasati appeared, there was ‘pranayama,’ which meant ‘breath control.’ ‘Prana’ is the breath, ‘ayama’ is the method of control - ‘pranayama,’ breath control. The forest people knew about it, and eventually recognized the simple fact that when blood flows from a wound, then, by controlling the heart-rate through regulating the breathing, through making the breathing subtle, the blood-flow can be slowed down, can be stopped. The forest people thus knew that controlling the breathing had an effect on the body, that both could be controlled at the same time. Spells, incantations, mantras, grew out of this within the forest-dwelling population, the antecedents of today’s town dwellers.

Knowledge of pranayama, of breath control is ancient, it’s a product of human intelligence occurring naturally but on a low level. It evolves, develops when the sages discover it and realize that dwelling practising it brings happiness, that one can, by this method, enter and dwell absorbed in jhana for long periods, experiencing contentment both night and day.

So, this has been known in India since ancient times, where knowledge of it had increased until it became everyday knowledge which the general population was obliged to master, especially the young idea who all had to study it, every one. Hence it spread and spread until the seven year old child Siddhartha was able to achieve it while sitting under a plum tree during the first day of a farming ceremony his father was involved with. If the knowledge hadn’t spread so much then it wouldn’t have reached to the extent that anybody could know and practise it, although, it needs to be said, that practice, generally, wasn’t aimed at undoing the kilesa, the defilments, or at directly quenching dukkha, the intention was more concerned with achieving material benefits, fleshly benefits, the belief being that the result of such practice would be magic powers, etc. Even so, because of the mental power obtained through proper practice one could perform any task successfully, accomplish troublesome tasks well and live being one who fulfilled the human duty, hence even work had to become a form of mental training.

In those days, youngsters, especially those of the royal/warrior caste, would need to have understanding of mental cultivation. While young they would have the key to pranayama, to breath control. Having heard, one could come to know that this form of practice was useful in both the worldly and the unworldly, the ‘above-the-world,’ senses. If practised in order to perform physical tasks well, for thinking well, remembering well, for making good decisions, for controlling blood loss, it would be a worldly business, if practised in order to put an end to the kilesa, the defilements, it would be an other-worldly, a ‘lokuttara’ affair. Understanding and practising anapanasati brought benefit in both the worldly and unworldly senses.

If everyone in the world had knowledge of anapanasati they could find a special kind of happiness, and then nobody would go around killing anything, there’d be peace in the world because people would be able to find true happiness within themselves - being capable of controlling the breathing, of controlling the mind and thus experiencing contentment, why then would anyone go around killing? The breathing is capable of becoming a tool for universal peace because it can become a special form of breathing, a sacred form of breathing, a sort of psychic form of breathing possessing huge power: Breathe and dukkha could be smoothed away, breathe and the world, the universe could be transcended, breathe away the kilesa and dwell above the world, above the universe. Breathe away dukkha once and for all. This would be the highest benefit of anapanasati. It could go that far.

The breathing exercise that eliminates dukkha completely, which has power over the world, over all things therefore, is called ‘anapanasati.’ Being able to control the mind on demand as and when we wish, consider, how would that be? Hence this practice is something we should know about. The ignorant don’t know about it, but the wise should. Once it is known about it should be acquired, sought out and practised, and, when the practice has succeeded, one would have the power of this dhamma to use beneficially in all eventualities. One would then get the fruits of one’s labours and dwell with anapanasati as their life-partner, a true life-partner, one which allowed people to be happy and peaceful in the true sense.

On understanding this one can, perhaps, see that we should live in a controlled way. So, let everyone learn this, get to know and practise it successfully, then people won’t feel the need to destroy, to do violence, to snatch after any old sort of ‘happiness,’ and will come to live in peace.

But there isn’t anyone with the power, there isn’t any ‘god’ who can control people in such a way that they’ll want to study anapanasati, it’s only the wise who’d feel satisfied with such an endeavour. There isn’t anyone who can control such a course of education in this world. Education in the world serves, benefits the defilements; knowing anything serves the defilements: think of something good, any good thing which emerges, like radio, television, computers, all serve, benefit the defilements, they aren’t used to destroy the defilements. We don’t live in such a way that the causes and conditions for that to happen are in place, and for everyone to take up this course of action is beyond hoping for. We can only talk here, invite, persuade; there isn’t the power to control, we can only try to persuade. However, if and when this course of study and mental control should come to be popular, then, through the power of anapanasati, and in the blink of an eye, we could find ourselves experiencing the world of ‘mettraya.’

We can control the mind, let it be like this, like that, control it, let it be god-like, sitting right here, control the mind let it be brahma, let it experience the brahma world right here, control the mind let it attain nibbana, right here, without needing to go anywhere. To say ‘go,’ ‘go,’ is foolish: ‘go to heaven,’ ‘go to the brahma world,’ ‘go to nibbana,’ this is twice foolish, because the more we go, go, go, the more we don’t arrive, especially where it concerns nibbana - the more we go here or go there in search of it, the more likely it is that we won’t find it. We need to control the mind, make it correct, clean it up, and nibbana will come all by itself. As with light, if we open the blinds the light comes in of its own accord, hence there’s no need to go to find nibbana, just as there’s no need to go anywhere to find heaven, just fill the mind with erotic thoughts and experience that sort of heaven, that sort of paradise, right here and now, immediately, and without having had to go anywhere. Make the mind Brahma, separate it from the sensual, the erotic, and experience the Brahma world immediately, right here, without moving.

Hence, one who says that ‘we go to heaven,’ ‘we go to the Brahma world,’ ‘we go to nibbana,’ is ignorant, asleep. I say that it’s a very foolish person who says that sort of thing. If we want to experience heaven, the brahma world, or nibbana just control the mind by using anapanasati.

Now, the mahasatipathanasutta is a very long text, just to read it takes more than six or seven hours. The heart of the mahasatipathana is the practice of anapanasati, which doesn’t take many minutes to recite. The monks while chanting the mahasatipathanasutta in the evenings could take up three evening sessions to complete the task. But for all its length the heart of it is anapanasati: control the mind in this way, in that way - we can know the details for ourselves – control the breathing, control the body, control the feelings, control the various minds, control upadana, attachment to this and that, and ‘let go’ – this forms the essence, or heart of the mahasatipathanasutta.

If you’re interested in basics, and it’s not out of order, then take a look at the thirty-seven ‘bodhipakiyadhammas,’ the thirty-seven factors of awakening: beginning with the four satipathana, then the four sammapadhana, the four ittipada, the five indriya, the five bala, the seven bojjangha, and the eight path factors, making altogether thirty-seven factors collectively known as the bodhipakiyadhammas, the factors of enlightenment, or awakening. Looking at the satipathana, the foundations of mindfulness, first, these being the heart of the matter - the others being in the manner of accessories - there are four such, involving controlling the body, the feelings, the mind, and dhammas – those ‘things’ capable of deceiving one into clinging to them - as the fourth. The four satipathana come first, but a long explanation would take days, so, briefly, let’s say that the heart of the satipathana consists in the practice of anapanasati, four groups, sixteen steps overall, hence the sixteen steps of anapanasati form the core of the four satipathana. There’ll be success in practising the four satipathanas through sammapadhana, which is proper application of the right kind of effort; through the four iddhipada, the four paths of success, consisting in chanda, aspiration, viriya, energy, citta, thought, and vimangsa, investigation, which will allow the four satipathana to blossom; through the five indriya, the five controlling faculties, and the five bala, the five powers, which share the same five components, that is, sadha, confidence, viriya, energy, sati, mindfulness, samadhi, concentration, and panna, wisdom. As the bala, the powers, these display the characteristics of energy, and are important, while the indriya perform the task of controlling the other component dhammas involved. All of these assist in the full arising of the four satipathana.

The Buddha said that when anapanasati is fully developed the four satipathana are fully developed too, and if the four satipathana are full and complete the seven bojjangha and the noble path arise full and complete too, hence the ultimate is attained. Practise anapanasati fully, four tetrads each containing four steps, so sixteen steps in all, when these sixteen steps are fully practised the mahasatipathana arises fully of itself, without us having had to practise its individual steps.

The anapanasati sutta is a shortish discourse in the majjhima nikaya. The practice consists in four groups each of four steps, so sixteen steps overall, which gives rise to the path and its fruit. When it’s realized the path and fruit have arisen the matter is at an end. To read the anapanasati sutta text takes only a few minutes, but the mahasatipathana sutta takes hours; that text is found in the dighanikaya, the ‘long’ discourses; the anapanasati sutta is contained in the majjhima nikaya, or ‘middle length sayings.’ These two texts aren’t the same. If we’re interested we can go look them up, read them, and compare the two. The mahasatipathanasutta is like a rubbish tip, each section adding more items until they’re hardly countable, hence it’s called ‘maha,’ the ‘mahasatipathana sutta,’ just to read which takes hours.

To sum up: practise anapanasati fully and fulfil the mahasatipathana. Now, I don’t believe - whoever wants to criticize can do so - I don’t believe that the Buddha actually sat and taught the mahasatipathana sutta, which, just to read, takes six, even ten hours, who could bear to listen for that length of time? Would the Buddha be able to talk for that long, or, was the mahasatipathana sutta collected and composed at some later time, then turned into this long text? The text is too full - overblown in fact, while the anapanasati sutta is good enough, so get to know anapanasati through the sutta in the majjhima nikaya that describes it.

Anapanasati is sati, mindfulness, fixed on a natural truth with each in and out breath. Briefly, the essentials are, the body of breath which is the breathing, and the flesh body, which is the physical organism called the body, then there’s sati, mindfulness, which fixes on and controls, restrains, calms the breath body so that the flesh body itself calms down also. This is called controlling the body.

Then there’s feeling, vedana, manifesting as ‘piti,’ satisfaction, but satisfaction of a vigorous quality. When piti has been calmed down ‘sukha’ appears, so piti and sukha are connected. There’s satisfaction which, if it’s of the active kind, is called piti, when it’s calmed it allows the feeling called sukha to appear. The vedana routinely dominate the mind allowing infatuation with those things which cause pleasant feelings so creating the basis for more defiled thinking to occur. Restraint, control has to be applied: Don’t let the defilements dominate, let knowledge dominate instead, control the response to piti and sukha and the mind will be controlled. Piti and sukha are mind conditioners, controlling these, and feelings generally, means that we can control the mind.

Now, the third group: How is the mind? Know it in all its moods and modes. We can know the mind when it’s in a particular state, and when it isn’t, from which we can deduce how the mind is when it’s defiled against how it is when it’s undefiled. Even though we still have the defilements we can deduce how the mind would be if we didn’t. Hence we’re able to know the mind in all its variations: the mind with raga, greed, without raga, with dosa, aversion, without dosa, the mind which is free, the mind which isn’t free - we already know the mind which isn’t free from disturbance so we can calculate how it would be if it was free. Hence we’re able to know the mind in every which-way. This is the way to control the mind.

So, control the mind, let Dhamma gladness arise, let samadhi arise, let the mind stop thinking, allow it to let go - mental control in the ultimate sense includes these three components: control until Dhamma gladness arises, until the mind is refreshed and cheerful as desired, and until there’s stability, firmness, concentration, until there’s samadhi and the mind is without any desire for the positive or the negative, then continue on until mind lets go of the things it habitually clings to, or until the things clung to drop away, which is called ‘letting go.’ There’s Dhamma gladness, there’s samadhi, firmness, stability of mind, and there’s letting go of those things habitually clung to. Possessing these three accomplishments one has power over the mind. This is the third tetrad of anapanasati.

Now, when controlled the mind ‘lets go.’ The methodology employed here involves ‘seeing’ aniccam, dukkham, and anatta, the mind will then let go of those things usually clung to. Seeing aniccam, dukkham, and anatta is a very subtle business which would normally take a long time to explain, however, the Buddha only used one word here, ‘aniccam,’ ‘aniccanupassi,’ see clearly into the truth of aniccam then dukkham and anatta will reveal themselves quite automatically, as will dhammatithata, dhammaniyamata, idappaccayata, sunnata, and tathata, until attamayata is reccognized. Experience the secrets of nature, see aniccam truly, then, respectively, see aniccata, dukkhata, anattata, dhammatithata, dhammaniyamata, idappaccayata, tathata, attamayata, and that’s it.

Experience aniccam until, finally, ‘viraga,’ the fading away of desire, occurs, then experience ‘nirodha,’ the complete quenching of upadana, of attachment, to know that it’s all finally finished, which experience is called ‘patinissaga,’ or the giving back to nature of what’s always really belonged to nature so that nothing untoward remains.

The fourth tetrad of anapanasati involves attainment of the path and its fruit as well as the knowledge that it has been attained. One then observes that there’s no deficiency, that the attainment is full and complete. Just these four groups, four steps to each group of anapanasati form the heart of the thirty-seven bodhipakiyadhammas, form their main artery, so to speak.

The enemy is then defeated, what needed to be overcome has been overcome. One has power over the body, power over the vedana too and can now control the world. There’s nothing in this world greater than vedana, feeling, we sink and get stuck in the world because of feelings, now we can control them, end their power. So, now we can control the mind, control it so that it’s correct, so that it doesn’t go wrong, doesn’t have dukkha because we can control the arising of attachment, hence there’s no wrong attachment to anything, we’ve put an end to it, we’ve ‘let go.’

This is the great power of anapanasati, it brings control of the body, the feelings, the mind, and of attachment, and, in so doing, brings the business to an end. There’s no need to make a lot of unnecessary noise here, it’s clear and simple. This is the high point of abhidhamma set out in just a few words. Because it can quench dukkha take an interest in this anapanasati, study it well, practise it well, one probably won’t succeed in seven or eight days but that will help us to acquire the knowledge we need to carry on with the practice. Go home and continue; come and do this again if you like, but, please, continue on, one will get there one day through practising anapanasati.

Anapanasati is the high point of human spiritual culture. Human culture has many aspects, material, or, err, whatever, but mentally, knowledge of anapanasati represents the peak, the high point, because when people come to know this technique their main problem can be put an end to. Nobody can teach anything better or higher than this practice.

The Buddha taught this technique for the quenching of dukkha. Quench ‘self’ belief completely, quench dukkha completely, and our problems will be at an end. Anapanasati can be used to control the material side of things too, to prevent materialism, consumerism, from dominating the human mind. So it can control both the material and the mental, but the main requirement is cultivation of the mind. Now, how will this be done? Because anapanasati has been practised fully and completely one will have acquired the dhammas necessary for controlling the flow of paticcasamupada, that is, for controlling the ‘world,’ the ‘world’ here is represented by the flow, or ‘stream’ of paticcasamupada - control the stream of paticcasamupada and control the ‘world.’ Now, the tools which can be used to control the stream of dependent origination, to control the ‘world,’ are dhammas which come from practising anapanasati, specifically they’re the four ‘Dhamma comrades.’ These have to be used in combination, they can’t be used successfully if separated. The four are: 1) sati, 2) panna, 3) sampajanna, and, 4) samadhi. Strive to complete the practice of anapanasati and these four comrades will be acquired. Now, when we’re born into the world we have just a little sati, just a little mindfulness, it’s not that we don’t have any at all, the fact that we eat by way of the mouth and not the nose indicates the presence of mindfulness, but it’s not enough; we also have the childish levels of panna, sampajanna, and samadhi, which, again, isn’t good enough, we need to acquire more.

By practising anapanasati sati, panna, sampajjanna, and samadhi are augmented until there’s enough of each, enough and of the right sort too. These two words, ‘right’ and ‘enough,’ in this instance, belong together, because if something isn’t right, isn’t correct then it’s not useable, it’s ‘micha,’ wrong, as with ‘michasati,’ wrong mindfulness. It has to be right, correct, has to be ‘samma,’ and there must be enough of it. We practise anapanasati to produce what’s needed, we then have sufficient sammasati, sammapanna, sammasampajanna, and sammasamadhi.

Now, how do we practise to cut the defilements, to confront the enemy? It’s when a form impacts the eye, or a sound meets the ear, or a smell impacts the nose that it’s said we have to confront, come face to face with the enemy, but what do we need to have at that time? We need sati, mindfulness, to confront the enemy: there’s the recollection that this is the enemy - sati can recollect – and sati subsequently brings knowledge to bear. We’ll have studied to gain a sufficient stock of knowledge, sati now chooses just the knowledge that will enable us to deal wisely with whatever’s being experienced and straightway brings it, brings that particular knowledge to perform its duty. A lot of knowledge will have been acquired, but just that knowledge appropriate to this particular event is brought, which is called ‘sampajanna,’ ‘clear comprehension,’ or, ‘knowledge on the hoof,’ so to say. The most appropriate form of knowledge, then, is instantly brought to confront the sense object at the moment of contact, of phassa.

Now if the mind’s energy is low it might be defeated in its attempts to control things, hence the power of samadhi has to be used, then sampajanna can win, can control phassa, contact, and there won’t be any problems. The thing to know here is that if there’s the wrong kind of sati the right kind of knowledge won’t be available, because sati won’t be able to bring it. When sati is sufficiently fast, very fast, it can pick and bring the special knowledge that will prevent any problems from arising. It’s rather like having a medicine chest which contains lots and lots of medicines of which just one particular sort will be the right one for a particular illness, or, like having an accumulation of weapons of various kinds of which just one certain type will be the right one to overcome a particular enemy. Sati is able to choose and bring the right knowledge from our stock of that commodity to do its duty in a particular instance, which knowledge is called ‘sampajanna.’ Here, knowledge, panna, has changed its name, becoming sampajanna - as our stock of knowledge it’s just called ‘panna,’ but when it comes to take proper care of a particular experience it’s called ‘sampajanna,’ that knowledge which confronts the enemy, confronts the object impacting whatever sense organ. If the mind is weak then samadhi must be engaged to add the necessary strength, or weight: panna and sampajanna can be compared to the sharpness of a knife, which can be as sharp as we like but if there’s no power, or weight available to press the knife down, then it won’t cut anything, there must be some power involved if the sharpness is to cut anything, hence there has to be samadhi.

Remember the four comrades - life’s partners. There’s sati which here is lightning-fast. The ancients compared it to an arrow, so sati as fast as an arrow. Sati acts as the ‘conveyer,’ that which brings panna, its duty is to remember to bring that knowledge appropriate for any given situation, which is called ‘sampajanna.’ There’ll be a lack of strength, of power, so samadhi will be called in to give the necessary strength, or weight. Remember: sati brings panna, knowledge, which is called sampajanna, then brings samadhi as the weight, or power so that knowledge can do any required cutting.

These four Dhamma comrades can even be used in farming, in doing business, in all worldly affairs, but, here and now, we’re looking at them as aids to the attainment of the highest dhamma - nibbana. Just these four are more than enough, we don’t need any more than sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi, operating on time to avoid any problems, to restrain the flow of dependent origination at the moment of phassa, contact so not allowing dukkha to arise.

So, acquire and use these four Dhamma comrades at the right time. They must operate in combination and in time, at just the right moment, then there won’t be any problems.

Sufficient sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi operating properly and on time will protect us completely, dukkha won’t be able to touch us. Remember that if we practise anapanasati successfully we’ll have enough of the four comrades to able to use them in other ways too. We use them to control dukkha first and foremost, but there’ll be enough for us to use when we farm, do business, or whatever. These dhammas are truly life’s comrades, so practise to master them.

Now, ‘sila’ - we don’t need to receive the silas first, as is usually done, receiving the silas before practising samadhi is ineffectual, a waste of time, because when practising samadhi through the proper practise of anapanasati sila arises of its own accord. Receiving the silas first is traditional, customary. When practising anapanasati there’s naturally control of the body, speech, and mind, hence there’s sila full and complete during the proper practice of this technique, then there can be samadhi, and panna, clear knowledge of things as they really are, which is ‘yathabutasammapanna’ full and complete. On panna doing its duty there comes about deliverance, emancipation, which is called ‘vimutti,’ deliverance, emancipation from upadana, from attachment, followed by knowledge of that deliverance, called ‘vimuttinanadassana,’ at which time it’s clearly seen, clearly understood that one is free. Acquire the five dhammas of sila, samadhi, panna, vimutti, and vimuttiyanadassana, which are Buddhism in its entirety. These are produced by the proper practise of anapanasati, so there’s no need to talk about acquiring sila separately.

Anapanasati thus is the entirety of Buddhism, of the Brahmacariya, and can quench dukkha completely through the production of sila, samadhi, panna, vimutti, and vimuttiyanadassana.

I like these five dhammas very much, so to serve as constant reminders of them there are five pillars on the roof of many of the buildings in Suan Mokkh representing sila, samadhi, panna, vimutti, and vimuttinanadassana. The five are marshaled through the completely practised version of anapanasati. There’s no need to bother memorizing them. Memorizing and chanting the trainings, for instance, won’t create sila; receive the silas in the normal way and we’ll die without them. We should try to practise anapanasati, then we’ll possess sila complete, correct, and immediately, without having had to go somewhere and ‘take’ the silas first, or receive any blessings. Taking the five trainings to actually be sila is more foolishness, what they do is help us to keep the silas, they aren’t themselves sila. The trainings help us to maintain sila, that is, to display calmness and restraint with respect to the kilesa, the defilements, and to dukkha.

Practise anapanasati properly and there’ll be sila, samadhi, panna, vimutti, and vimuttinanadassana full and complete, which are also known as the ten ‘samathas,’ the ten ‘rightnesses.’ Eight samathas make up the noble eightfold path, add another two: ‘sammanana,’ right knowledge, and ‘sammavimutti, right liberation, and there are ten samathas, the ten samathas represent Buddhism in its entirety.

Sammaditthi is proper understanding of paticcasamupada - if it’s stated clearly, sammaditthi, right understanding, is right understanding of dependent origination. Sammasankappa is the desire to practise control of paticcasamupada, while practising to maintain right speech, right physical action, and right livelihood forms the base for that endeavour. Then there’s sammavayamo, right effort, sammasati, right mindfulness, which is about controlling everything correctly moment by moment, and constantly, so that ‘sammasamadhi’ arises full and complete. Samadhi here is called ‘noble sammasamadhi with its seven supporters.’ Remember this, although it’s something we might never have heard before it’s to be found in a sutta which is hardly ever discoursed upon, the ‘jatarisaka’(sic.)sutta. ‘Noble right samadhi with its seven supporters,’ that is, samadhi is the leader, the other seven factors support it. There’s sammaditthi, right understanding, listed first, then sammasankappa, right thought, right desire, followed by sammavaca, right speech, sammakammanto, right physical activity, sammaajivo, right livelihood, forming up as right physical conduct, there’s sammavayama, right effort, which is the boldness, the courage to persevere, there’s always sammasati, right mindfulness, then sammasamadhi jumps up as ‘noble sammasamadhi with its seven supporters.’

Remember: noble right samadhi with seven supporters. If we would attain the path and fruit there must be noble right samadhi with its seven supporters, then the defilements can be cut, ignorance can be cut, the anusaya can be cut, the samyojana can be cut. Samadhi is the leader, the other seven factors support it so that it can do its work. The leader must be combined with panna, right knowledge, samadhi must lead wisely, there’s sammasankappa, right desire, right thinking to keep it on track, to allow it to be successful, and there’s completely corrected conduct. Noble right samadhi with its seven supporters performs the task of attaining the Dhamma by cutting out the kilesa, that is, the samyojana and anusaya.

We practise anapanasati to the full, arrive at noble right samadhi and its seven supporters, and that will be the end. Don’t misunderstand and take sammaditthi, right understanding, as being the leader, the leader is samadhi, the other seven factors are supporters. When the leader combines with its seven supports it’s complete and can surely defeat the enemy, dukkha.

Now, we need to recognize that the word ‘samma’ is important, in that to be sammaditthi, right understanding, any understanding must be based in correct knowledge, it’s then sammaditthi. If knowledge is wrong it will be micchaditthi, wrong understanding. Further, although understanding might be correct, if it’s not focused on the attainment of nibbana it won’t be the right understanding, the ‘sammaditthi’ of the path. Sammaditthi in the true sense must be concerned with the attainment of nibbana. Ordinary ditthi, ordinary right understanding, the undistinguished form of sammaditthi isn’t the sammaditthi of the eightfold path. Sankappa is the same, there is the ordinary form of right desire which isn’t the right desire, the sammasankappa of the path; similarly, sammavaca, sammakammanta, and samma-ajjiva of the ordinary sort aren’t yet path components either.

There’s the prefix ‘samma’ when the focus is the attainment of nibbana. In the Pali it’s clearly set out that the mind must be based on ‘viveka,’ equanimity, ‘viraga,’ desire-lessness, ‘nirodha,’ dukkha-lessness, and ‘vosaggaparinaming,’ the inclination towards abandonment, if these aren’t present then ditthi, sankappa, vaca, kammanta, etc., won’t be samma, won’t be ‘right,’ in the sense of beng path components.

Hence, one’s morality, one’s virtue must be samma, that is, based on viveka, equanimity, viraga, freedom from the wrong kind of desire, nirodha, dukkhaless-ness, and vosaggaparinaming, the inclination towards letting go, abandonment, towards freedom from attachment. Sati, mindfulness, won’t be sammasati if the aforesaid four components are missing. Vayama, effort, won’t be sammavayama without these four. If we want samma in the true sense then we must learn to dwell with viveka, viraga, nirodha, and with vosagga, the inclination to let go, to be free, to be liberated, to emerge from ignorance, from the mass of dukkha. Being correct, being samma, is called ‘sammatta.’ There are ten samma, ten ‘rightnesses,’ the two additions being ‘sammayana,’ right knowledge, and ‘sammavimutti,’ right deliverance, or liberation, because even vimutti, liberation, can be micchavimutti, wrong liberation.

The ten sammatta represent the fullness of Buddhism, if, however, we’re concerned with just the eight sammatta, as in the eightfold path, then only a cause is being described, the result of that cause is revealed in two additional components: sammayana, right knowledge, and sammavimutti, right liberation, then there’s fullness as regards both cause and result. Hence Buddhism, full and complete, is referred to as the ten sammatta. It’s a pity that this has rarely been the subject of a discourse, just the eight samatta, as in the eightfold path, coming up for discussion. The eightfold path gives rise to its fruit, or result and we have the ten sammatta, the ten rightnesses. Practise anapanasati fully and there’ll be the ten sammattas, that is, there’ll be Buddhism full, complete in every way.

Have chandha, aspiration, right desire, viriya, right energy, citta, right thinking, vimangsa, right investigation, reflection, that is, possess the iddhipada, four bases of success in one’s endeavours, be courageous, and with unflagging energy guiding activities, experience satisfaction and happiness. Practise the Dhamma with satisfaction, without sadness, or depression, be cheerful, be joyful, practise with gladness and progress step by step in the practice of anapanasati. Once anapanasati is fully accomplished the four satipathana will be complete, and when the four satipathana are complete the seven bojjhanga and the eightfold path will be full and complete too, the ten rightnesses will have been acquired and the job will have been done.

3. A clear understanding of Paticcasmupada.

Today we’ll be talking about paticcasamupada again, but this time in a clearer, more serious way, hence the heading: ‘A clear understanding of paticcasamupada.’ We’ve looked at paticcasamupada in a general way, now we’ll take a clear and detailed look at its particulars. So, give attention, otherwise it won’t be clear at all.

Just now we all puja’d the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, if we weren’t just mouthing that then we must have, as we chanted, borne it in mind that we were puja-ing the Buddha because he was the revealer of the doctrine of paticcasamupada, of dependent orignination, the secret law of nature which nobody else knew. He discovered it, brought it forth, and revealed it to others. But we really don’t know how to repay his beneficence. Be aware that just chanting ‘arahant sammasambuddho bhagava,’ if we don’t acknowledge his generosity, is akin to being light with him. We also chant ‘svakhato bhagavata dhammo,’ which means: ‘the doctrine well preached by the Buddha.’ That well-preached doctrine is paticcasamupada - the truth of dependent origination. Then we puja the sangha, thus: ‘supatipanno, supatipanno,’ which means: ‘those who have practised well’ - we puja the sangha because they’re the ones who’ve practised with paticcasamupada successfully. If we don’t want to just mouth the words when we chant this formula then we need to bear these meanings in mind every time we do chant it, whether we’re here or anywhere else. However, if we don’t understand paticcasamupada properly we still won’t understand what we’re chanting. The more we understand this particular teaching, the more we’ll understand the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha.

We mentioned that the Buddha had said that anyone who sees paticcasamupada, dependent origination, also sees the Dhamma, and that the anyone who sees the Dhamma sees ‘me.’ So, see paticcasamupada and really see the Buddha. See paticcasamupada and see that which the Buddha declared - the Dhamma. See paticcasamupada in the Dhamma practice of the Sangha and see the true Sangha. Just this much is most important and needs to be clearly understood.

As mentioned paticcasamupada is that deep and difficult matter which Ananda had claimed was moderately so, was moderately deep and held to be so, until the Buddha told him not to talk like that as it was the deepest of the deep, the profoundest of the profound. We need to bear this in mind when we deal with the universally relevant paticcasamupada, because it is profound, and difficult to explain.

The first thing we want to propose is that one must first have knowledge of dukkha, then one can make a clear, easy, and continuous study of paticcasamupada. Hence we’ll need knowledge of dukkha and of its origins. Dukkha has a deep and quite complex meaning, a meaning difficult to grasp, but because there’s sukha, the pleasant, to be experienced comparisons can be made. People will generally experience feeling in one of two ways, experiencing either sukha, pleasant feeling, or dukkha, unpleasant feeling. There’ll be pleasure when sukha is being experienced, displeasure when dukkha dominates, both of which will happen because there’s ignorance - ignorance of paticcasamupada, of dependent origination.

If one really knows paticcasamupada one won’t fall into liking the sukha and disliking the dukkha experiences, that behaviour being the province of the ignorant, the worldly. Hence avoid both reactions, don’t like the pleasant, the sukha, or dislike the unpleasant, the dukkha, treat both with equanimity. When they arise, when they enter the mind, we should try to deal with them by not feeling anything as being sukha or dukkha, pleasant or unpleasant, in the first place, or, as mentioned, by not reacting to them with liking or disliking. However, as long as we remain ignorant it’s likely that we’ll like and dislike and continue to do so right up to the end of our lives.

So be interested in getting to know dukkha. We can rely on the ‘four noble truths’ to tell us what it is, thus: ‘birth is dukkha, ageing is dukkha, and death is dukkha,’ and, further: ‘the five aggregates affected by clinging are dukkha.’ When it’s said that ‘the five aggregates affected by clinging are dukkha’ it means everything without exception. Clinging, upadana, arises towards the pleasant, the sukha, as well as towards the unpleasant, the dukkha, but it’s the pleasant experiences which form, more than anything else does, the base for clinging.

From birth we begin to cling to the sukha, to the pleasant forms of experience, and do so increasingly, but without understanding the mechanism involved. Dukkha emerges from that clinging. The Buddha summed it up in such a way that it becomes easy to grasp, easy to observe, and easy to study, thus: ‘sankitena,’ which means ‘in brief,’ ‘pancupadanakhanda dukkha,’ ‘the five aggregates affected by clinging are dukkha.’ So we need to get to know the five aggregates, the ‘pancakhanda,’ that is, ‘rupakhanda,’ the form aggregate, ‘vedanakhanda,’ the feeling aggregate, ‘sannakhanda,’ the perception aggregate, ‘sankharakhanda,’ the thinking aggregate, and ‘vinnanakhanda,’ the aggregate of consciousness.

This life, when divided into its separate components, has five such, has five sub-divisions: rupa, this body, is one component; vedana, feelings arising from the things impacting the senses, either positive or negative; sanna, perception, or recognition, plus acceptance of something as actually being whatever we perceive it to be; sankhara, thinking, arising in dependence on how the object is being perceived; vinnana, consciousness, clear knowing of the uncountable number and variety of sensory experiences. Consciousness can know an object clearly, but as there’ll usually be ignorance involved it will inevitably give rise to clinging and dukkha. Hence consciousness knows the object clearly, but inaccurately, not in a true manner, so one is led astray, there’s clinging, the ‘self’ arises, and there’s dukkha. Dukkha thus appears because of clinging in all five aggregates.

If clinging is to all five aggregates it will be very heavy. Clinging to one aggregate, to anything which is a base for clinging will be enough. We say that these things are ‘bases for clinging,’ or ‘upadaniyadhammas.’ Clinging to anything which is the base for clinging will spread out into the five aggregates, and into the ayatana, that is, into the six internal and six external senses, in dependence on this clinging there’ll be dukkha. Dukkha arises from clinging to anything which provides a base for it, meaning anything which has been improperly or not clearly understood.

Those things which form the bases for clinging are also called ‘ayatanikadhammas,’ that is, dhammas connected to sense experience in some way. There are five groups of these: the six internal sense bases, that is, the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and the mind, the six external sense bases, that is, the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mind objects, the six kinds of vinnana, consciousness, functioning as eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and mind consciousness, the six kinds of ‘phassa,’ or sense contact, that is, contact by way of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and the mind, and the six kinds of feelings, vedana, feelings arising by way of the six senses.

The first six are the internal sense bases, second are the external sense bases, third are the six vinnana, consciousnesses, fourth are the six kinds of phassa, of contact, and fifth are the six bases of feeling. It’s when there’s feeling, vedana, that there can be a ‘spreading-out,’ feelings being most provocative of clinging; cling to anything which is a base for it and there’ll be dukkha.

We should know about these ever-present bases for clinging. Get to know the ‘ayatanikadhammas,’ those things which have to do with the senses. The Buddha emphasized these five groups as being the starting point for study and practice, whenever there’s clinging to any of them there’ll also be dukkha.

Sukha, happiness in the general understanding, is a base for clinging. Anything taken to be pleasant can become a base for clinging and give rise to dukkha. Dukkhavedana, unpleasant feeling, sukhavedana, pleasant feeling, and adukkhamasukhavedana, neither unpleasant nor pleasant feeling are all bases for clinging.

Dukkha is taught as being something hard to bear with, hard to endure, while disregarding, not taking into account that even things easy to deal are dukkha too. If something is in any way a base for clinging it will bring dukkha. But the householder would say that if something is good it’s not dukkha, it’s sukha, from which sukha, happiness becomes a base for the clinging and for the seeking-out of more of the same. Happiness of this sort teaches, it teaches people until they realize, Oh! this that I’ve been calling happiness bites, it bites me.

So ‘dukkha’ is an all-encompassing phenomenon which results from clinging: clinging to the pleasant, to the unpleasant, to the neither pleasant nor unpleasant; cling and there’ll always be dukkha. Don’t understand dukkha as just meaning ‘hard to bear with,’ ‘hard to endure’ because something just a little hard to bear with, even something easy to tolerate is necessarily going to involve dukkha. Take instead a better, broader, clearer interpretation, such as ‘when seen it’s ugly, awful,’ here the ‘du’ part of the Pali word is taken to mean ‘ugly, awful,’ while the ‘kha’ part will mean ‘seen,’ hence ‘dukkha’ will mean ‘once seen it’s awful, ugly,’ it’s unlikeable. If we say dukkha means hard to endure, hard to bear with, that meaning would derive from the pali words ‘du’ and ‘kama,’ ‘du’ here meaning ‘hard,’ or ‘difficult,’ while ‘kama’ would mean ‘to bear,’ hence ‘dukkhama’ would mean ‘hard to endure, hard to bear with.’ Such an interpretation, however, is narrow. We, ordinary people, would agree that dukkha means ‘hard to bear with,’ but the books say differently, and have the meaning as ‘once seen it’s awful, ugly, dislikeable.’ Deeper than that is the interpretation of dukkha as ‘once seen it’s empty, void, insubstantial.’ The dukkha word, then, doesn’t just mean ‘hard to endure,’ or ‘painful,’ its meaning is more profound than that, and when truly seen it’s ugly, awful. If we want to go even deeper it can also mean ‘insubstantial,’ and therefore meaningless, so that one shouldn’t waste one’s time liking or disliking such experiences, they, once seen as void, as empty, insubstantial, are simply not desirable and thus not worth clinging to.

So, dukkha: when seen it’s ugly, loathsome, deeper than that is that when seen it’s without substance of any sort, at which time the mind will give it up, because there’s nothing there worth clinging to. This word dukkha is difficult to translate. The ignorant will prefer the meaning ‘hard to endure,’ or ‘suffering.’ Westerners have taken the word to mean ‘suffering,’ which is much the same as ‘hard to endure,’ ‘hard to bear with,’ or ‘painful.’ Subsequently it’s been seen as having a broader meaning, that of ‘unsatisfactoriness,’ that nothing is able to fully satisfy, thus it’s unsatisfactory, which is also the ‘once seen it’s ugly, loathsome’ interpretation, and becoming more so with each experience until achieving the ‘once seen it’s void, unsubstantial,’ so without anything worth clinging to, scenario.

Try to see that sukha, the happiness that the naughty boys and worldly people cling to, try to see that it ‘bites’ them: love bites, love, if clung to, as when one feels full of love, love for one’s child, for one’s wife, husband, or whatever, has the ability to ‘bite’ the mind. Cling to anything which is a base for clinging and there’s biting - the biting is dukkha. Explained in this way the meaning is broad, wide-ranging, covers the whole universe: cling to anything and that thing will bite. The Buddha taught us to avoid clinging. We’d dare to say don’t cling to anything, any dhamma – don’t cling to being a ‘person,’ if we do that’s upadana and it’s dukkha.

Although an ignorant person will adhere to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, it will involve upadana, foolish clinging, and the result will be dukkha. Not clinging to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha in a foolish way gives rise to the true Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, feeling non-attachment towards anything at all is to experience the true Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.

When we puja the ‘triple gem’ bear this point in mind, that one who successfully practises non-clinging is the Buddha, Dhamma, and the Sangha. Cling and there’s dukkha, don’t cling and there isn’t.

In the Pali texts the noble truth of dukkha is set out as follows: ‘birth is dukkha, ageing is dukkha, death is dukkha, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair are dukkha, having to be with the unloved is dukkha, being separated from the loved is dukkha, wanting and not getting what we want is dukkha, in brief, the five aggregates affected by clinging are dukkha.’ The entirety of dukkha is here, understand this and gain immediate understanding of paticcasamupada, of dependent origination, that is, see the true dukkha which has the characteristic of arising even though we’re unaware of it, it’s self arisen, dukkha is being concocted, is dependently arising without us being aware of it.

Examine the suttas on paticcasamuada for a clear and detailed understanding of birth, ageing, and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure and despair, etc. - of dukkha in its entirety, of what it is, of how it is that we experience it all the time. We cling all the time to ‘me’ and ‘mine,’ whether consciously, semi-consciously, or subconsciously, which means that even when we dream our dreams are dukkha. We observe it, come to know dukkha well, then we need to understand a word which invites confusion: ‘birth.’

In the teaching of paticcasamupada birth is the condition for dukkha, thus: jati, birth is the condition for jara, ageing, and marana, death, for soka, sorrow, parideva, lamentation, and so on. Birth is the condition for dukkha, but in the noble truths the Buddha tells us that birth itself is dukkha. Observe that, if there’s ignorance then it might be charged that the Buddha had made an uncertain, a confusing statement, having said that birth itself was dukkha, and also that birth was the condition for dukkha. That would happen because of a certain one dimensionality of view: ‘birth’ is the arising of the feeling of being ‘me,’ which in itself is dukkha, yet it’s also the condition for the arising of much more dukkha in the guises of ageing and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, etc.

‘Birth’ in the noble truths is dukkha, ‘birth’ within the process of paticcasamupada is the condition for dukkha; verily, if looked at from the direction of the noble truths birth is dukkha, if from paticcasamupada it’s the condition for dukkha. It’s necessary that this is well grasped otherwise there’ll be conflict and no real understanding will emerge.

How does dukkha arise? The process which describes that is known as paticcasamupada, or dependent arising. The ‘sam’ part of the word means ‘co’ - in the sense of being together with something else - while ‘paticca’ means ‘dependent,’ and ‘upada’ means ‘arising,’ hence: paticcasamupada, dependent arising or co-arising. Even if a pleasant feeling arises it will be via paticcasamupada thus dependently arisen and leading onto dukkha. The worldly, however, like and are infatuated with the pleasant even though it is a dependently arisen phenomenon.

Paticcasamupada is a difficult to understand word. There’s the paticcasamupada, the dependent co-arising of the sankhara, and of dukkha, however, the dependent quenching of the sankhara is also called paticcasamupada. There’s the quenching, or going down, of the sankhara because there’s been the quenching of ignorance, of avijja, there’s the quenching of vinnana, consciousness because there’s the quenching of the sankhara. If there’s the quenching of this it’s because there’s been the quenching of that, the quenching of that thing happens because there’s been the quenching of some other thing which allows it. Hence there’s the arising, or occurrence of the quenching of dukkha because there’s been the quenching of the cause of dukkha. Observe: if the sankhara quench there’ll be the quenching of consciousness, vinnana, then the quenching of namarupa, mind and body, of the ayatana, the senses, of phassa, contact, of vedana, feeling, etc. all will happen because there’s been the quenching of a first thing, the quenching of some first thing causes the quenching process to operate as regards later things. Hence paticcasamupada in its quenching mode is still called paticcasamupada.

We’ve never met with the term ‘paticcanirodha’ in the Pali texts, it doesn’t occur, there’s only paticcasamupada, dependent co-arising, even the quenching of dukkha depends on the quenching of dukkha’s causes having arisen thus: avijja, ignorance, quenches so the sankhara quench, the sankharas quench so vinnana, consciousness, quenches, consciousness quenches so namarupa, mind and body, quench, namarupa quenches so the ayatana, the sense bases, quench - quench, quench, quench - which quenching happens because a prior something has already quenched. Hence there’s paticcasamupada, dependent co-arising of both dukkha and of its cessation, the quenching of dukkha.

So, give attention: when we chant paticcasamupada in its arising mode, thus: avijja paccaya sankhara, sankhara paccaya vinnanam, vinnana paccaya namarupa, etc. there’s dependent arising taking place; when we chant the quenching mode: avijja yateva asesa viraga nirodha, sankhara nirodho, sankhara nirodha vinnana nirodho, vinnana nirodha namarupa nirodho, and so on, there’s still arising, but it’s the arising of quenching, of ‘going down.’ In both the arising and quenching modes there’s dependent co-arising, paticcasamupada. Grasp this clearly: both dependent arising and dependent quenching are paticcasamupada.

The Buddha particularly used the word ‘paticcasamupada,’ the word ‘paticcanirodha’ doesn’t exist, however there is nirodha, there is quenching, there is dukkhanirodha because there’s been samudayanirodha, that is, samudaya, the arising of dukkha has quenched away. We’ll need to begin by understanding ‘dukkha’ as basic, root knowledge, if we don’t understand dukkha we’ll become infatuated with it and find ourselves chasing sukha while trying to avoid dukkha, which will be insanity, because even sukha is a sankharadhamma, is a paticcasamupanadhamma, a dependently arisen phenomenon, which, when clung to, will bite us.

Observe until it’s clearly seen that love, anger, hatred, fear, excitement, anxiety about the future, longing after the past, envy, infatuation, jealousy, all bite in their various ways. Cling to anything and it will bite.

Don’t decide that some thing, whatever it happens to be, is nice, if something is seen as being ‘nice’ it will be liked and will cause happiness, but such things will also bite us and we won’t even be aware of it. Similarly don’t think that something is nasty, because such will be disliked, and that will bite us too. Cling to the pleasant and get pleasantly bitten, cling to the unpleasant and get unpleasantly bitten. Don’t get involved with either, don’t cling to anything at all, that will produce the quenching of dukkha, of the biting. We need to see the truth of this, that is, see paticcasamupada, dependent origination, see what the condition for dukkha’s arising is, see how it arises, and see what the condition for it’s quenching is, see how it can quench, thus see the secret of paticcasamupada, dependent origination: that all this happens quite automatically, very quickly, and without us being aware of it.

Ignorance, avijja, gives rise to the sankhara, sankhara give rise to vinnana, consciousness; this consciousness isn’t anything coming over from yesterday or the day before yesterday, this concocting of consciousness happens whenever there’s a sense impact, and happens with lightning speed. It’s not about what happened yesterday, the year before, or the previous month, don’t understand in that way: there’s a sense impact happening quite naturally – nothing else - which gives rise to ignorant concocting, to sankhara, to the ‘power of concocting,’ this then concocts the ‘vinnanadhatu,’ the consciousness element, into operating as sense consciousness.

Ignorance concocts the sankhara immediately on the reception of a sense impact, not before. To grasp this easily look at something material, like copper and zinc, when these are immersed in acid they concoct immediately, but in the moment that they’re immersed in the acid, not before.

All dynamos, all generators concoct electricity in the moment that they spin, they don’t concoct it before they spin. Hence avijja concocts sankhara, sankhara concocts vinnana, but the concocting takes place in the moment that a sense experience occurs. It’s the nature of ignorant people, of the unaware, to let the mind concoct quite happily, concoct ignorance, concoct sankhara, to concoct every stage of dependent origination.

The difficulty in understanding the full version of paticcasamupada lies in the following few steps: avijja concocting sankhara, sankhara concocting vinnana, vinnana concocting namarupa, namarupa concocting the ayatana, and the ayatana concocting phassa, sense contact. This is difficult to understand. In the first two stages: avijja paccaya sankhara, sankhara paccaya vinnana, sankhara doesn’t refer to the physical body, whereas in schools, because it’s wrongly taught that it does refer to the body, then birth occurs twice, avijja concocting sankhara being one birth, vinnana concocting namarupa, being another.

Avijja, ignorance, the power of ignorance, causes concocting to arise, ergo, the ability to concoct comes to be. When there is this power on hand anything coming to connect with the senses will concoct some new thing into arising. It will concoct the vinnanadhatu, the consciousness element, which in its natural state has still to perform its function of knowing, into operating as sense consciousness. Sankhara having concocted this kind of consciousness into existence, the mental, nama, side of things, that is, the mind, appears. Vinnana, consciousness is the condition for namarupa. Before this there wasn’t anything called ‘nama,’ there was only rupa, there was no namarupa, once there’s been this concocting of consciousness nama comes to be, comes to pair with rupa, thus namarupa arises. Hence it’s said that sankhara gives rise to vinnana, vinnana gives rise to namarupa. When there’s the full pairing of namarupa all is set.

Now, there come the ayatana, the senses: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, to act as the conduits which allow concocting to expand. There are six sense bases. Once the senses arise there will be those things able to impact them, which do the duty of impacting them, hence the senses are the condition for contact to take place by way of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and the mind. There’s contact, phassa, so there’s vedana, feeling, which arises in six forms in accord with the six sense functions. Vedana, feeling, has the flavour of being either positive or negative, the positive is sukhavedana, pleasant feeling, the negative is dukkhavedana, unpleasant feeling, the neither positive or negative, the uncertain kind of feeling, is adukkhamasukhavedana, neither pleasant nor unpleasant feeling.

Vedana, feeling, gives rise to tanha, desire. Because there’s feeling there’s desire towards it, the feeling is satisfying, likeable, so tanha, the desire to get, to own, is concocted, whereas if the feeling should be unpleasant, unlikeable, then the opposite form of tanha, the desire to destroy, to avoid will be concocted, if the feeling is of the indeterminate variety, the adukkhamasukha vedana, there’ll be doubt, confusion, uncertainty as to how one should act.

Tanha is desire in accord with feeling be it sukha, pleasant, dukkha, unpleasant, or adhukkhamasukha, the neither unpleasant nor pleasant variety. When there’s tanha it represents a form of desire arising quite naturally into the mind. There’s more concocting as the feeling of the ‘me’ who wants, who desires, arises, which is tanha concocting upadana, attachment, or clinging. Once desire has arisen the feeling of being the ‘desirer’ will then be concocted.

This part is very important for the understanding of anatta - that the desirer, the ‘me’ who desires, arises as a consequence of desire. When we talk like this the ignorant will think that we’re crazy: the ‘desirer’ appears after the desire, how can that be? There must be a ‘me’ first to do the desiring, then there can be desire. That’s the worldly, the usual understanding, but that there’s foolish desire arisen into the mind before the feeling of being the desirer, of the ‘me’ who desires appears, defies logic. Ordinarily children won’t believe that the desirer arises as a consequence of desire, surely there must be a desirer before there can be any desire. Children will believe that there must be a ‘doer’ first, then there can be some action.

But this is the secret: there’s action first, then there’s clinging to being the ‘me’ who acts. The actor arises as a consequence of the acting. The foolish say this is crazy, but it’s an ultimate truth of the noble ones that the ‘me’ who desires arises subsequent to the desiring. The ‘doer’ follows on from the desire, from the ‘doing,’ so to speak.

Here, if we understand that the actor arises subsequent to the action we’ll also understand anatta, because there is no real actor, it’s a creation of ignorance. This is tanha, desire giving rise to upadana, attachment, desire causing attachment to the feeling that there is a ‘desirer.’ The arising of upadana, of attachment, represents the starting point for the arising of the ‘me’ who desires, which, once arisen, is described as ‘bhava,’ ‘existence,’ or ‘coming into existence.’ First there’s attachment, which is the starting point, then there’s bhava, becoming, where the arisen ‘self’ sense develops.

Just as, in the first place, the foetus is conceived in the physical womb, then the pregnancy advances until finally there’s birth of the infant in the physical sense, so the self sense is conceived in the mind and develops (bhava), until born as the fully developed ‘me.’

Once there’s a ‘me’ it will grab at anything and everything as being ‘mine,’ there’s a ‘me’ so it takes birth, ageing, sickness, and death to be ‘mine,’ then there’s dukkha, and deservedly so. This ‘me’ is foolish, grabbing at anything as ‘mine,’ so birth, ageing, sickness, and death become ‘mine,’ sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair become ‘mine,’ having to associate with the unloved, being apart from the loved, wanting and not getting what one wants, all bring the experience of dukkha once the ‘me’ arises. To sum up: clinging to the five aggregates is dukkha. This is called ‘birth,’ and is the condition for the arising of dukkha in accord with the principle of paticcasamupada, dependent origination.

But in the four noble truths the Buddha explained this matter shortly, didn’t stretch it out over twelve conditions, but simply declared that birth is dukkha, ageing is dukkha, death is dukkha: jatipi dukkha jarapi dukkha maranampi dukkham. In paticcasamupada the cause of dukkha is explained, hence we should take a look at paticcasamupada.

Ignorance concocts the power of concocting known as sankhara, sankhara concocts vinnana, consciousness, that is, the natural form of consciousness is made to function as sense consciousness, then nama pairs off with rupa giving rise to namarupa, the mind and body, once namarupa arises that which allows it to do its duty, the ayatana, the senses, arise, and, in accord with nature, divide into six modes; it might be more than six, but that’s not known, there isn’t awareness of that, so just six senses are mentioned, then there are the six modes of phassa, sense contact, the six modes of vedana, feeling, the six modes of tanha, craving, desire, until upadana, clinging, arises in accord with desires, then there’s bhava, becoming, coming into existence, jati, birth, and dukkha. This is paticcasamupada, dependent origination.

The twelve co-arisings are ‘paticcasamupanadhammas.’ Dependent co-arising, counting the conditions involved with arising, there are eleven pairs, eleven stages. This is the dependent origination, or paticcasamupada that operates without us being aware of it, the ordinary person is unaware that ignorance concocts the sankhara, concocts vinnana, concocts namarupa immediately on there being a sense impact, or, better, a ‘coming together’ of the elemental combinations, thus: the avijja element concocts the sankhara element, the sankhara element concocts the vinnana element, the vinnana element concocts the namarupa element, the namarupa element concocts the ayatana element, the ayatana element concocts the vedana element, concocts the tanha element, etc. It’s, in this way, all elements.

This might sound strange to you, but there isn’t anything which isn’t an element, from a speck of dust to nibbana - nibbana is an element, the nibbanadhatu, the nibbana element, or, the asankatadhatu, the asankata element. There isn’t anything that isn’t an element. In more than one place in the Pali texts it says that everything is elements: sukhadhatu, the happiness element, dukkhadhatu, the unhappiness element, adukkhamasukhadhatu, the neither one nor t’other element, the kusala element, the meritorious element, the akusala element, the demeritorious element. There isn’t anything which isn’t an element.

The concocting of elements by elements is also called paticcasamupada, or dependent origination. Who can avoid it, who can evade dependent origination? From conception to birth, from birth to the coffin, we can’t evade the stream of dependent origination. So, why is it not recognized? It’s like someone with cancer not knowing that they have cancer, or a consumptive being unaware of their problem, or it might be like someone with HIV not knowing that they have it.

Life lived in ignorance is like this, there’s unknowing, having something and not knowing that one does, not knowing that one is subject to dependent origination, to paticcasamupada. Because we don’t know about dukkha we’re not interested in its cause, not interested in that noble truth, not interested in paticcasamupada. Be interested, get to know dependent origination.

We need to begin by knowing dukkha, not just as pain but on deeper and deeper levels until we reach the ‘once seen it’s ugly’ stage. Even sukha, even the happiness we derive from our children will involve the concocting of paticcasamupada, there’ll be clinging and we’ll get bitten. Love anything and it will bite; fall in love with someone and get bitten. Because there’s ignorance, there’s going to be tanha, craving, and upadana, clinging - so, dislike something and get bitten, like something and get bitten; surely avoiding any liking or disliking, any positiving or negativing would be better, then there wouldn’t be any biting.

To do that we’ll need to understand paticcasamupada properly so that we don’t ignorantly like or dislike anything, so that we dwell above the positive and negative, above love and hate, without happiness or unhappiness, and above all the forms of dukkha.

This, then, is the essence of that paticcasamupada, or dependent origination, which has twelve stages, eleven conditions.

Now we want to mention that there’s another version of paticcasamupada which the Buddha taught consisting in just eight or nine conditions. This one doesn’t start with avijja, sankhara, vinnana, it starts from the moment that a form touches the eye and eye consciousness, ‘caksuvinnana,’ arises. These three meeting together is phassa, sense contact. This happens first, the form meeting the eye and eye consciousness arising, these three are phassa, sense contact. Now phassa is the condition for vedana, feeling, while vedana is the condition for tanha, craving, and tanha is the condition for upadana, clinging, attachment, to arise step by step, and in the same way as occurs in the longer version.

The short version starts from the ayatana, the senses, giving rise to vinnana, consciousness, thence to phassa, contact, vedana, feeling, tanha, craving, and on to dukkha in the same way. We’re pleased to call this the ‘humming’ version. Why is it so-called? According to the texts, the Buddha was sitting alone reciting this principle as it operated in dependence on the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, all six senses. He recited to himself, in much the same way as people, when they have nothing else to do, might whistle, or sing a song. At that time the Buddha sat reciting paticcasamupada and didn’t notice that there was another monk – he’d been in the basement, or somewhere - present, and the Buddha, turning to him, said something of this sort: ‘Here, take this, it’s the adhibrahmacariya,’ ‘the adhibrahmacariya which, I say, forms the starting point of the brahmacariya, so take it, take it and make use of it.’

This paticcasamupada has only nine dhammas, or eight conditions, and is that version of the teaching which is easily grasped. It doesn’t start with avijja, ignorance, concocting the sankhara, sankhara concocting vinnana - that version which is, wrongly, taught in schools – so teaching this shorter form of paticcasamupada would be better because there’s no way it can go wrong, thus: the eye meets a form and eye consciousness arises, the ear meets a sound and ear consciousness arises, the nose meets with a smell and nose consciousness arises, and so on, because the three things come together and do their duties it’s called phassa, contact, on there having been sense contact there’s vedana, feeling, and tanha, craving, and so on, as is the case in both versions of paticcasamupada. Contact, phassa, is the important point, it’s contact that will either give rise to dukkha or quench it, that is, if contact is controlled correctly then dukkha won’t arise. But at present there isn’t the ability to control contact, it’s allowed to happen willy-nilly, which gives ignorance its opportunity, and ignorance being dominant there’s ignorant sense contact, ignorant vedana, feeling, ignorant desire, tanha, ignorant clinging, upadana, ignorant becoming, bhava, and ignorant jati, birth, culminating in ignorant dukkha.

If we can have knowledge present when contact happens dukkha won’t happen, so we need to study to develop enough of that commodity. By practising anapanasati we can accrue the necessary understanding and use it at phassa, contact - be it the long or shorter version of paticcasamupada, both include phassa – so that there’s knowledge, wisdom in time to control contact, don’t let it be an ignorant contact, let it be wise, and dukkha won’t result.

What brings knowledge is sati, mindfulness. Sati is like the conveyor, the fast-as-lightning conveyor, which brings the right knowledge at the right time. Wisdom, right knowledge, is already stored away, we’ve studied to acquire a plentiful store of it, so that, when something comes in through the senses sati will bring the most appropriate form of that knowledge to the experience, will bring knowledge of the right sort to deal with it. Panna, when it operates in this way, changes its name, becoming ‘sampajanna.’ Wisdom peculiarly able to deal with a particular event is called sampajanna.

Sampajanna will deal with any sense object that arises. If it shouldn’t be strong enough then samadhi can help, giving sampajanna enough power to be able to get rid of any defilement, any kilesa, that occurs. We thus have the aforementioned four comrade dhammas: sati, mindfulness, which brings panna, wisdom, which, acting as sampajanna, combines with the strength of samadhi to cut off any problems, to cut off the causes of dukkha.

Both versions of paticcasamupada have contact as the important point. There’s satipanna to control phassa, contact, so that it’s wise, if not, and it’s a foolish contact, ‘avijjaphassa,’ the result will unavoidably be dukkha . However, if sati brings wisdom in time the result will be wise contact and dukkha won’t arise, there’ll be no arising of tanha and upadana.

The starting point, the critical point is phassa, contact, which is happening throughout the day. However, if a sense contact doesn’t have any meaning for us it won’t create interest and will dissolve away of its own accord, but if it is interesting there’ll arise feeling of either the positive or negative sort, and there’ll be happiness or unhappiness.

Happiness, pleasure is, here, called abhijja, unhappiness, displeasure is called domanas, these two cause all beings to experience dukkha in the vattasamasara. So study, get to know the critical moment of phassa, contact. We need to train sati, mindfulness, to be fast, so that it can bring correct knowledge, operating as sampajanna, to eliminate the cause, then we can control the stream of paticcasamupada, changing it into that mode which doesn’t give rise to dukkha. Being able to control the stream of paticcasamupada is our desire.

Make the effort, study over and again to understand paticcasamupada, then practise anapanasati to control its destructive power. Know that the important point is phassa, contact, deal with that unwisely and dukkha will arise, deal with phassa wisely and it won’t. Desire only the dukkha-less, don’t be foolish and let sukha, happiness, arise, because happiness deceives, infatuates, and brings more dukkha, so desire only the cessation, the end of dukkha. As the Buddha said: ‘bhikkhus, now as before I teach only dukkha and the remainderless quenching of dukkha,’ he didn’t mention anything else, didn’t mention sukha, happiness, because the remainderless quenching of dukkha doesn’t mean that, it means the remainderless quenching of dukkha, it’s we who suppose that to be happiness. He mentioned only dukkha and the remainderless quenching of dukkha, nothing else; he didn’t include atta, ‘self,’ or dying and being born again, or dying and disappearing altogether, he didn’t mention any of that, he just said that not letting dukkha arise here and now is enough; not letting dukkha arise at all in any form would mean that one was arahant.

We’re not too bright, we waste our time talking about this, about that, about subsidiary matters, about inflated abhidhamma, about much we’re unable to sustain, when just the true abhidhamma is wanted, the ‘to the point’ abhidhamma, the ‘razor sharp’ abhidhamma which can slice through avijja, tanha, and upadana, would be enough. This abhidhamma, this paticcasamupada is just right, to the point, and isn’t inflated, although it is comparatively difficult to grasp. Understand paticcasamupada well enough and we can control dukkha.

Now, it’s necessary to know something important the Buddha said: ‘sankitena pancupadanakhanda dukkha,’ that clinging to the five aggregates is dukkha. Why didn’t he say that paticcasamupada is dukkha?

The five aggregates and paticcasamupada are one and the same, be aware of this, they’re one and the same. We’ll consider this carefully, thus: on the eye meeting with a form eye consciousness arises, this is the rupakhanda arising as the inner and outer senses, the eye and the form, to perform their respective duties, vinnanakhanda, consciousness, then arises and phassa, contact, occurs, which marks the arising of the vedanakhanda, the vedanakhanda includes contact, phassa, here - the vedanakhanda arises and there’s then perception, recognition of the vedanakhanda, of what sort of feeling has occurred, which is the sannakhanda arising within the stream of paticcasumapada. The sankharakhanda then arises, that is, tanha, craving occurs. Tanha is the sankharakhanda, perception is the sannakhanda, feeling, vendana, is the vedanakhanda.

Consciousness is usually listed last amongst the khandas, but will arise many times, multiple times in multiple ways during the course of a sense experience. Here it first arises to know the meeting of the eye with a form, afterwards, as mind consciousness, ‘manovinnana,’ it contacts the meaning of the form being experienced. It will also interract with other mental operations, like vedana, feeling, for instance, and performs still other duties, hence it’s listed last of all. Vinnana, consciousness, performs manifold operations. Rupa, vedana, sanna, sankhara, and vinnana all operate within the stream of paticca samupada.

The Buddha didn’t say that clinging to paticcasamupada was dukkha, he said that clinging to the five aggregates was dukkha, however, the five aggregates and paticcasamupada, dependent origination, are essentially one and the same. Nevertheless, we should study both.

We’ve looked at paticcasamupada in its full eleven stage version, now we’ll study the aggregates, the five khandas, hence: the eye meets with a form and feeling arises as the nervous system of the eye performs its function. This is the rupakhanda arising. There’s feeling, vedanakhanda, then sannakhanda operates to perceive, to determine the quality and nature of the vedana, be it pleasant or unpleasant feeling, be it of a female or of a male, hence there’s perception, recognition in accord with any related memories from former experiences.

The word ‘sanna’ is interpreted to mean perception, it’s not just plain memory, neither is it machine-like in its operation. It determines the nature of whatever’s being experienced in dependence on previous perceptions. The sannakhanda, on this occasion, implies perception of the nature of feeling. This is the sannakhanda.

Then arises sankharakhanda, thinking, in accord with perception: if perceived as likeable there’s desire to get, if unlikeable these desire to destroy, to get rid of. This is the sankharakhanda.

Consciousness, vinnanakhanda, performs its function several times at several stages. When the eye first meets with an object there’s just ‘patighasamphassa,’ just knowledge of shape and colour only, there’s no advanced knowledge of what’s being experienced, there’s just knowledge of colour and any dimensionality - ‘patighasamphassa.’

Now mind consciousness comes to contact again, and: Oh! It’s a red rose, the form and dimensions are recognized as being those of a rose; preliminary consciousness just knows colour and shape, mind consciousness then knows it as a rose, and goes further, derives meanings like its fragrance, it’s qualities, characteristics, etc. If it concerns seeing a woman or a man, there’ll be the attractive, sexually stimulating qualities involved, so there’ll be more mental activity as a result.

Be aware that this goes on all the time during our waking hours, sense impressions by way of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind coming in, causing contact, phassa, then vedana, feeling, sanna, perception, sankhara, thinking, and vinnana, consciousness, seen at this moment in the form of the five aggregates, the pancakhanda, cling to any of them and there’ll be dukkha. Take an interest in this, and take care, have enough sati, mindfulness, so that there’s no ignorance around when phassa, contact, takes place then there’ll be no infatuation with feeling, vedana, or with sanna, perception, and no misguided thinking, none of the sort of thinking that concocts kamma, misguided activities of this or that kind, and no dukkha.

Be Dhamma smart, recognize the stream of dependent origination, see that this stream of concocting is just the five aggregates, and, if really smart, see that there are just two matters here: dukkha, and the cause of dukkha. This is paticcasamupada, dependent origination, understood, depending on how we look on it, as a detailed, a middling, or as an abbreviated matter.

We should study to understand until we know how dukkha arises and quenches, that in itself is to see paticcasamupada, dependent origination; see paticcasamupada see the Dhamma, see the Dhamma see the true Buddha, the eternal Buddha, the Buddha who wasn’t born, didn’t awaken, didn’t experience nibbana, the undying Buddha, the true Buddha.

The Mahayana refer to this Buddha as ‘Amitababuddha’ and ‘Amitayubuddha,’ the Buddhas of eternal light, or wisdom, and eternal age, which adds up to that Buddha who doesn’t need to be born, doesn’t need to become awakened, doesn’t need to attain nibbana. We probably wouldn’t see the Dhamma if the living Buddha hadn’t revealed it for us, that was his great beneficence.

Seeing paticcasamupada is to see the Dhamma; that’s something we can’t do by ourselves, we need to rely on the living Buddha’s awakening and subsequent beneficence to help us, to point it out. It’s good that we often puja the triple gem, but we shouldn’t be parrot-like in that endeavour, rather understand clearly that we can know the Dhamma through the teaching of the living Buddha, Gotama.

For now we can only know about the living Buddha, even then we can only know the material representations, the Buddha images, the bodhi trees, the relics or whatever, but those aren’t the true Buddha, the true Buddha must be the Dhamma that quenches dukkha.

Keep it always in mind that ‘anyone who sees the Dhamma sees rge Buddha, anyone who sees the Buddha sees the Dhamma.’ Anyone who hasn’t seen the Dhamma can’t be said to have seen the Buddha either. Just seeing Buddha images, representations, bone relics, or whatever, can’t help, but if there’s nothing more on hand, then they’re better than nothing. We need to see paticcasamupada then we’ll see the true Buddha, and we’ll see paticcasamupada through the teaching of the living Buddha, through his beneficence, so thank him, puja him, and, even if there are only his representations, his relics left, puja them, keep maggapuja, visakhapuja, asalahapuja, don’t be forgetful of those things, but penetrate to the true Buddha too.

Paticcasamupada describes the dependent arising of dukkha, and right here is a great secret: on dukkha arising the ignorant will bemoan their lot, will grieve and struggle, if one isn’t ignorant, however, one will go on to seek the quenching of dukkha. The foolish will sit and moan, perhaps even go and kill themselves if they feel so inclined, it will depend, but for the smart the Buddha taught a continuation of paticcasamupada which is hardly ever heard about because it’s hardly ever talked about, hardly ever taught, although it brings the greatest benefit.

That is, he said that when there’s a full dose of dependently arisen dukkha, that’s what causes the arising of saddha, of faith, of the faith that there’s something that can get rid of the problem, that can put an end to dukkha. What that is isn’t immediately understood, but there is the faith, the belief that there’s something that can end dukkha, as will be illustrated by repeating the example of the workings of paticcasamupada involving a child, thus: It’s raining, so the roadway becomes slippery, the child is walking along the slippery roadway and slips over hurting its head and experiencing pain thereby, but there’s something that causes the child to know that there’s someone able to help, there’s something that can help me, that is, a Doctor, so take me to the Doctor, the Doctor will take care of me and cure the pain. Faith in the efficacy of going to the Doctor arises for that child.

Now, when dukkha oppresses, exerts its pressure, smart people might have the notion that there’s something that can help, and might, eventually, think of the Dhamma. But where can one meet with the Dhamma? Wherever the Dhamma is such will find their way to it, and the Dhamma will be met with, liked, and subsequently practised until dukkha is quenched.

Usually one will go to find wise people, wherever they’re to be found. One will seek them out, sit with them, hear their dhamma and come to know it. The best of the wise is a Buddha. Have faith in these good people, in the best of them, the Buddha, go and hear his dhamma, meet with the Dhamma, which is the important bit, then there can be pamojja, that is, cheerfulness, gladness, giving rise to piti, joyfulness, to passadhi, tranquility, sukha, happiness, and, because there’s samadhi present, there can be yathabutanyanadassana, knowledge and vision of things as they are, giving rise to nibbida, dispassion, viraga, fading away of desire, of clinging, and the final quenching of dukkha, which is nibbana.

Dukkha itself drives the clever towards nibbana, while catching the foolish and keeping them in the vattasamsara, where they, not knowing the escape, experience dukkha all the time. Take your choice: paticcasamupada can help to the extent of one being without dukkha or to being buried in it.

There’s one of the world’s great philosophers, who’s ignorant, and who says that Buddhism teaches only dukkha. We won’t name him, but he claims that Buddhism teaches only dukkha, that it’s pessimistic in nature and, therefore, looks at the world through negative eyes. I don’t accept that. This indivual says this because they don’t know that the Buddha taught dukkha and the way out from dukkha, that is, the quenching, the ending of dukkha. He didn’t just talk about dukkha.

This is paticcasamupada, which, when we know it we can control it, then we can quench dukkha. So, don’t have the wrong understanding that Buddhism teaches only dukkha, because that would render us hopeless, joyless, would produce a flat, dull existence, and would breed dejection. The Buddha taught people to live above dukkha, above the power of sense objects, then the positive and negative can’t deceive, we won’t find infatuation with one or feel dissatisfaction with the other, we’ll have defeated the positive and the negative and can dwell above their influence, above covetousness and grief. Having developed the heart of Buddhism, the satipathana, we’ll be one who has sampajanna, clear comprehension: atapi sampajanno satima vineyya loke apiccana domassam. We’ll have energy, perseverance, plus mindfulness and clear understanding to lead us out from the happiness and unhappiness of this world. The world will cease to be a problem, we’ll come to dwell above the positive and negative. This is the heart of Buddhism.

Get to know paticcasamupada, dependent origination, then we won’t have wasted the opportunity of being born human and having met with the Buddha’s teaching, otherwise we’ll have wasted our life.

We beseech you all to hurry and study, come to understand paticcasamupada at Suan Mokkh Nanachat, which was opened to teach, to instruct in this matter, so that, understanding paticcasamupada properly, we won’t have to have dukkha. Don’t be shamed by the cats; cats don’t think much but they don’t have dukkha either. If we were wise, if we had satipanna we wouldn’t have any dukkha, and we’d be better than the cats. Now we’re shamed by them, cats don’t have dukkha, people do.

Study paticcasamupada to understand it clearly, then we can control its operation at those critical times, that is, at the moment of phassa, sense contact, which occurs each and every day, during the course of a day who knows how many times. There’s one sense contact, there’s one occurrence of paticcasamupada. One occurrence of paticcasamupada brings one birth, there’s one arising of ‘birth,’ so that, during the course of one single day ‘birth’ occurs how many tens of times, or hundreds of times, or thousands of times. Observe, and we’ll see that, during the course of one day, ‘birth’ arises an uncountable number of times, so during the course of one whole month, one whole year how many times does it happen? By the time that we die how many hundreds of thousands, how many millions of births will have occurred?

Don’t let an hundred thousand, a million lives be wasted, be without benefit, make use of them, that is, draw a little nearer to nirvana with every passing life, then we could meet with nibbana before we get put in a box, because we can’t know how many thousands or millions of lives will have passed by the time that we die. Don’t count the physical birth to death cycle as a life, count one arising of paticcasamupada as a life, so that, by the time that we die we’ll have been born many hundreds, many thousands, many tens of thousands of times. Learn to control these births and we’ll meet with nibbana before we get put in the coffin, then the word ‘life’ will gain its proper meaning and be beneficial. Knowing life only as that form which ends when we’re put in a box represents original ignorance, primeval ignorance; ignorant people in ancient times knew only that form.

This wasn’t the Buddha’s message: the arising of upadana, of clinging, was the arising of one instance of ‘me’ and ‘mine,’ that was one ‘life.’ During the course of one day how many hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of times this happens will depend on the individual. Observe that there’s thus the daily arising of a great many lives: whenever we experience something nice there’ll be the birth of ‘someone’ who’s pleased, when we experience something ugly, unpleasant, there’ll be birth in the corresponding manner. During the course of even one day how many sense objects come in through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, how many? We understand ‘life’ here as the arising of one instance of upadana, of the clinging to ‘me.’ ‘Me’ is ignorance, created by tanha, wrong desire, out of phassa, wrong contact, and vedana, wrong feeling, so, control contact, phassa, and control life.

It’s our desire that all you good people should know this thing called ‘life’ in the right way. Become aware that during the course of one day an unknowable number of ‘lives’ can arise. Know that the important point is phassa, contact, so be in control of sense contacts. Know that, when seen, this dukkha is ugly, disgusting, don’t just understand it as pain, that’s how children understand, dogs know that much too, but dukkha, when seen, is the most ugly of experiences, the most hateful, there isn’t anything quite like it. This is the dukkha we should know, the dukkha human beings should know. Know it in this way and we’ll be able to quench it.

It’s to be hoped that you all will come to know and understand paticcasamupada, dependent origination, and will practise the dhamma able to control that process. However, just the knowledge acquired from listening to me won’t be enough, we must study, and consider carefully, apply proper attention to experience until understanding arises, then take that understanding and try to practise until vipassana, clear-seeing occurs, this will help. Just knowing won’t do the job, such understanding will elevate us a little, but still won’t do the job, there has to be perfect clarity of vision, there must be clear seeing into truth, into reality, that’s what will save us.

May you progress by degrees: from knowledge to understanding, from understanding to clear-seeing, to disinterestedness, to the fading out of desire and casting off of all the forms of clinging, to dwelling above and beyond dukkha in all its forms and experiencing nibbana. Tune the mind as is appropriate and experience nibbana. Don’t be foolish and say that ‘I’ go to nibbana, only the peculiar ‘go’ to nibbana; nibbana cannot be gone to, there can be no going, nibbana cannot be attained in that way: make the mind correct and nibbana will appear all by itself.

Be successful in this way, and not by talking about going to nibbana, because the more we try to go the further away it will be, and in what direction it lies we don’t know; there’s no need to go anywhere just tune the mind and put an end to ignorance, to the defilements, to tanha at the critical moment of phassa, contact, control contact and that will be that, as they say

May we meet with success, acquire knowledge, understanding, clear-seeing, and be able to conduct life with nibbana, with coolness, cleanliness, clarity, and peace of mind everywhere and at all times. Amen. Today’s discourse is finished.

4. Applying paticcasamupada.

Today we’re going to talk about paticcasamupada again, this time under the heading: ‘Applying paticcasamupada’ – ‘applying,’ that is, using paticca in a beneficial way. This might be beyond the interest of some, but it’s most necessary that we understand and make use of this teaching. It’s a deep matter, profound, so that people generally won’t be interested, however the more refined amongst us will - and Buddhists will become more Buddhist through knowing how to use and derive increasing benefit from this teaching.

Paticca samupada can be used beneficially even in the lokiya, the worldly sphere, as well as in the lokuttara, the unworldly. It’s, as already mentioned, at the heart of Buddhism. The Buddha referred to it as the ‘adhibrahmacariya,’ the starting point for any practising of the brahmacariya, the ‘holy’ life, prior knowledge of paticcasamupada allowing one’s practise to proceed step by step until the complete quenching of dukkha has been achieved.

Paticcasamupada has a scientific basis, there’s no need for any supposition or hypothesis here, those being bound up with philosophy.

In the Pali texts it’s claimed that paticcasamupada is the middle way, the ‘majjhimapatipada,’ we, however, might not have heard this before and perhaps won’t understand how paticcasamupada can be the middle way? Don’t forget that Buddhism has the middle way as its heart, that is, the way of life that doesn’t lean towards this or that extreme. Paticcasamupada allows us to dwell in the middle way avoiding the extremes through demonstating that life is essentially a stream of concocting, ‘this’ concocting ‘that’ into and out of existence continually, hence the statement that ‘nothing whatsoever should be clung to.’

We want to compare the words ‘majjhimapatipada’ with another, Thai, word: ‘matyat,’ which is similar in meaning. Put simply to be ‘matyat’ is to be ‘in the middle.’ ‘Matyat’: avoiding indulgence on the one hand and stinginess on the other, one dwells in moderation, in the middle between those two extremes.

‘Matyat’ in the material sense has to do with money, with possessions, but in the language of Dhamma it indicates the middle way: one dwelling in the middle way, avoiding extremes of behavior. Similar are the words ‘atita’ and ‘natita,’ which have importance in the philosophies of India, and are the cause of much disputation.

Atita means ‘existence,’ natita means ‘non-existence.’ The argument is about whether things exist or don’t exist: ‘sabbam athi, sabbam nathi.’ There are those who believe that everything exists, and those who hold that nothing really does, hence there’s irreconcilable dispute and division. Atita is bound up with ‘sasataditthi,’ the ‘eternalist’ view, while natita is bound up with ‘ucchedaditthi,’ the ‘annihilationist’ view. Both are wrong-headed, so to speak.

If it’s true Buddhism it’s paticcasamupada, ‘dependently originated,’ and there’s no true atita, existence, or natita, non-existence, involved, there’s just a continual stream of concocting in accord with causes and conditions, just a stream of concocting which is all the time changing and transforming. So to declare that anything actually exists or doesn’t exist is wrong-headed. Paticcasamupada allows a good understanding of Buddhism, in that it’s not that there ‘isn’t,’ neither is it that there ‘is.’ This is very important for understanding the concepts ‘atta’ and ‘anatta.’

Declaring that there’s ‘atta,’ that there’s a ‘self’ is one extreme, saying that there’s ‘niratta,’ nothing at all, is the other extreme. If we declare for the middle way then we say that there’s ‘anatta,’ that is, there’s something but it isn’t an ‘atta,’ a ‘self.’ If we say that there’s an ‘atta,’ a ‘self,’ it’s a wrong understanding of the left-handed variety, or, if we say that there’s nothing at all, that is, there isn’t an atta, a ‘self,’ at all, then it’s wrong understanding of the right-handed variety. Stay in the middle: ‘anatta’ means ‘non-atta,’ ‘non-self,’ that is, the ‘self’ that we feel we have isn’t really a ‘self’ at all. We have to use the word ‘an’ to indicate that it isn’t ‘atta.’ ‘Anatta’ doesn’t mean that there’s no ‘self,’ it means that what we think is a ‘self’ really isn’t. That’s the middle way.

Hence there’s a ‘self’ for the ignorant, but a ‘non-self’ for the wise. Paticcasamupada can allow us to see clearly that the atta is a ‘maya,’ an illusion, a delusion, and that it should really be called ‘anatta.’ This is to know the heart of Buddhism, on knowing which we won’t say that something is, is, is, or isn’t, isn’t, isn’t ‘self,’ but that it, whatever it is, is ‘non-self.’

Paticcasamupada can help us to prevent the arising of the ‘self,’ the atta, or of the attita and nattita views, but that’s refined stuff, understanding which requires some thought, some mindfulness and wisdom. However, study paticcasamupada and we’ll see clearly that there really isn’t atita, ‘is,’ or natita, ‘isn’t.’

Now there might be some criticism when we say that there’s neither the ‘good’ nor the ‘bad.’ Both those concepts, as a rule, accord with our desires, in that anything which satisfies is judged as being good, anything unsatisfying is bad. The stream of paticcasamupada isn’t either, it’s ‘abyakata,’ which means that it, whatever it is, can’t be said to be either good or bad. If one can understand paticcasamupada properly one will recognize that it takes one above both of those meanings.

Now, feelings, the feelings of people who don’t know anything truly, arise from experiencing deceptive phenomena. Hence arises the division into ‘this’ and ‘that.’ Think about it: children must feel that there’s a ‘this’ and a ‘that,’ that there are ‘things’ which are different, are opposites.

But if one knows paticcasamupada as it really is one doesn’t have a ‘here’ or a ‘there,’ there’s only the stream of paticcasamupada. If one puts an end to the ‘here’ and the ‘there’ one puts an end to problems too, then there’s only the stream of concocting and the ‘self’ and ‘other’ scenario is transcended. This is hard to grasp, but if there’s a ‘self’ there’s also that which is different from, or ‘other than ‘self,’ then there’s a ‘me’ and there’s a ‘you.’ With ‘self’ it’s ‘me,’ ‘I’ who does anything, if it’s ‘other’ then it’s someone else who does something. When there’s ‘self’ and ‘other’ then this is ‘my’ property, that is someone else’s. There’s ‘self’ so there’s ‘other’ too, thus arise the pairs of opposites, thus arises the enemy.

The world is full of this ‘self’ and ‘other’ business, hence there can be enemies, opponents. Be well aware that, while under this spell, a husband and wife may well fight, may well ‘bite’ each other: when there’s the ‘self’ and ‘other’ scenario the wife might go for the husband in some way, or the husband might abuse his wife with a slap in the chops. There’s the feeling of ‘self’ and ‘other’ just as there’s ‘this’ and ‘that.’ If there’s clarity as regards the stream of paticcasamupada there’ll be no ‘self’ and ‘other.’ We’re all the time being deceived by this pair, hence problems arise: there’s a ‘you’ and a ‘me’ so there can be factions, enemies.

If one sees paticcasamupada with clarity one won’t have the feelings of ‘self’ and ‘other,’ then how comfortable, how much at ease would one feel? One would put an end to all problems, would feel amity towards all beings, and would become a comrade of all in birth, ageing, sickness, and death. Living life without the feelings of ‘self’ and ‘other,’ without the ‘this’ and the ‘that’ would be the ultimate benefit of paticcasamupada.

Perhaps we’ll go so far as to say that there won’t be black or white; after all black and white come from the stream of paticcasamupada: one reflects light the other doesn’t; one reflects in one way, one reflects in another way, both have their origin in the stream of paticcasamupada. There won’t be the ‘black,’ and there won’t be the ‘white,’ both are conventions, as are merit and demerit.

If paticcasamupada is clearly understood there’s no black or white, no day-time or night-time, no differenciation. Children will understand differently, for them night-time is dark, day-time is bright, in the day-time one works, at night one sleeps, there’s this difference. But if one grasps paticcasamupada properly there’ll be the realization that there’s just the stream of concocting. On the base level we suppose that there’s time, there are hours, or whatever, but on the profound level of understanding it’s recognized that there’s only the stream of change and transformation, just the stream of paticcasamupada.

From an elevated level of understanding one would say that time exists for so long as tanha, defiled desire, remains unfulfilled; the condition of waiting to get that which will fulfil tanha, that’s time. Once the defilement of tanha is satisfied time comes to a stop, because the desire is stilled.

The interval between the desire and the quenching of desire, that’s time, real time, the time that bites, bites the minds of all people. Because we don’t know this we’re influenced by time, it creates division, it bites, hence we fear time and must have the problems associated with it. If there’s knowledge of paticcasamupada then, for us, time will just be the stream, the flow of change and transformation common to all conditioned things, which is outside of time, has no ‘self,’ no other than ‘self,’ so no mother, no child, no wife, no husband, no friends, no enemies, because all such are mere concepts, products of the flow of paticcasamupada.

Then there’s no need for happiness, suffering, winning, or losing, because all are products of the stream of paticcasamupada. All the pairs, all the pairs of opposites which everyday people experience everyday: happiness, unhappiness, good, bad, winning, losing, getting, not getting, being worse than, being better than, being rich, being poor, won’t be a problem for us, if they still are then we’ve yet to really understand paticcasamupada.

Finally, we won’t cling to the past, present, or the future anymore, because those are just the stream of paticcasamupada too. When there is past, present, and future there are problems. Dwelling above those concepts results from knowledge of dependent origination.

Work it out for yourself: realizing all of this, how beneficial would that be? How beneficial would it be to tread the ‘middle way,’ to cease cycling around amongst the pairs of opposites, to experience only the stream of paticcasamupada? Do you want that? Then dwell in conformity with the principle, the stream of paticcasamupada, and it will be so. Don’t cling to being ‘me’ or to anything as being ‘mine,’ to being somebody else’s, to be the enemy’s, to be a friend’s, and your troubles will be over.

But what’s been described is difficult to achieve, it’s difficult for the ordinary worldly person to really take an interest in. That’s why the Buddha described it as being the most profound of matters. Paticcasamupada allows the middle way to arise, then there’s freedom, and, being no longer prone to cling to the pairs of opposites, nibbana can be attained.

The ultimate result of the middle way is nibbana, on attaining which there’s no more separation into here and there, into black and white, into happiness and unhappiness, into getting and losing, into the good and the bad, all that’s gone, and there’s freedom. Hence, what is the middle way in the ultimate sense? It’s freedom, it’s voidness. Know this: dwelling in the middle, not being anything, not taking sides, that’s freedom, that’s voidness. Voidness is another name for nibbana: ‘nibbana,’ complete freedom, freedom from concocting, from the kilesa, from dukkha, from all the pairs of opposites. This will be the benefit arising from realizing paticcasamupada, from realizing the middle way, the majjhimapatipada.

Returning to that Thai term, ‘matyat,’ which, in its elevated useage, that is, on the mental level, means to ‘dwell in the middle,’ ‘matyat’ – not being too indulgent, not being too mean, staying in the middle between the extremes. What is being ‘in the middle?’ It’s to be ‘just right.’ The middle way, the majjhimapatipada, is about being ‘just right,’ but being ‘just right’ in a way which is difficult to understand. If we could all know ‘just right-ness’ then, for us, attaining nibbana would be a sure thing.

As of now it’s ‘just right’ according to the defilements, according to defiled desires, which is of no real use. ‘Just right’ according to the law of truth, according to the law of nature, is correct ‘just right-ness,’ the sort that doesn’t cause any problems. This ‘just right-ness’ is also called paticcasamupada, or the ‘middle way.’

If we’re still lacking knowledge then we might say that paticcasamupada ‘leads’ towards the middle way, the majjhimapatipada, but in truth it is the middle way, which, when applied, brings freedom and elevates one above the deceptions of the hundreds, the thousands, of dualities.

Now, one point we want to look at which is interesting is that paticcasamupada and the majjhimapatipada aren’t a home to any kind of wrong view, or wrong understanding. We should know the word ‘micchaditthi,’ wrong view, wrong understanding, well enough - paticcasamupada isn’t home to any sort of wrong view. The Buddha said that there were sixty-two kinds of wrong understandings, which are all set out in the Brahmajala sutta of the Digha Nikaya. If we understand all sixty-two then it’s said that we know all the forms of wrong view. The Brahmajala sutta is compared to a net, a net of wrong views, of wrong understanding.

If one understands paticcasamupada properly there won’t be any wrong understanding arising, even, briefly, the well-known wrong understanding involved in seeing niccam, substantiality, seeing sukham, happiness, and atta, self-hood, instead of seeing aniccam, insubstantiality, dukkham, unhappiness, and anatta, non-self-hood. We understand in an upside-down way that there are things, there is happiness, and that there is ‘self’ because we have wrong view, wrong understanding.

If one has sammaditthi, right understanding, one understands paticcasampupada properly and those kinds of wrong view don’t occur. Paticcasamupada protects against wrong understanding of all sorts, be it the chief wrong views like sassadaditthi, ucchedaditthi, nattikaditthi, akiriyaditthi, if one understands paticcasamupada rightly these don’t arise.

Summing up briefly: if we can understand paticcasamupada properly then micchaditthi, of any kind, won’t occur. A bad form of wrong understanding is that which is contrary to the four noble truths, that’s a most grievous form of micchaditthi. If, however, we have a proper grasp of paticcasamupada that will preclude the appearance of any sort of wrong view.

Let’s suppose that this is like a protective wall, a ‘firewall,’ which prevents all the forms of wrong understanding from dominating. Paticcasamupada causes right knowledge to arise, pure, correct, in accord with nature, that is, it stops the feeling of being a ‘person,’ of being the ‘doer,’ from arising, hence there’s no ‘person’ of this or that sort, no wise ‘person,’ no ignorant ‘person,’ no ‘person’ who strikes, no ‘person’ who eats, no ‘person’ who gets, who wants, who clings, who’s like this or like that. There’s usually separation into eternalism, and nihilism, into sassadha and uccheda ditthi, so that there’s this or that ‘person,’ there’s ‘self’ and ‘other.’ The word ‘person’ implies ‘self,’ if there’s no ‘self’ there’s no ‘person’ either, no ‘person’ who eats, who uses, who gets, who doesn’t get, who wins, who loses, etc. When paticcasamupada is properly understood then this, or that ‘person’ disappears, there’s no-one, no ‘self’ to become a person, and there’s ease of mind.

We all should consider that without ignorance there’s no such thing as a ‘person,’ there’s not even a ‘woman’ or a ‘man.’ Ordinarily the feeling is that there are such things, but when paticcasamupada is properly grasped there’s only the stream of concocting with no ‘woman’ or ‘man’ to be found. It’s people themselves, infatuated with feelings, with sense objects, who project the concepts ‘woman’ and ‘man.’ Understand paticcasamupada and put an end to that. However, while we still have to use everyday language for us there’ll still be a ‘person,’ someone who goes, who gets, who doesn’t get, who wins, who loses, who knows, who doesn’t know, when, in reality, all of that is just the stream of paticcasamupada.

Now, we’ll look at something subtle, that is, if we understand paticcasamupada we’ll understand the subtle, profound nature - that which we should learn, should know, should study - of all the forms of sankhara.

For children and householders ‘sankhara’ means the body, but that’s not a good enough understanding. Sankhara, here, has at least three meanings: the ‘concocter,’ the ‘concocted,’ and the action of ‘concocting.’ Understanding sankhara in this way isn’t childish knowledge, isn’t old woman’s temple knowledge, and isn’t knowing sankhara as just being the physical body.

Look at the stream of paticcasamupada: the various conditions involved are the ‘concocters,’ there’s the action of ‘concocting’ going on all the time, the results of which are those ‘concocted’ things. See how paticcasamupada helps us to know the sankhara. In fact paticcasamupada helps us understand paticcasamupada itself as being a series, or stream, of paticcasamupannadhammas.

If we look at the overall activity it’s called ‘paticcasamupada,’ if we look at the individual objects involved, the various conditions, they’re called ‘paticcasamupannadhammas,’ dependently arisen things.

Paticcasamupada consists in twelve paticcasamupannadhammas: avijja, sankhara, vinnana, namarupa, ayatana, phassa, etc., twelve conditions called paticcasamupannadhammas, which are deep, profound, and which, themselves, allow one to recognize that concealed profundity, in that those paticcasamupannadhammas display the characteristic of aniccam, of impermanence, insubstantiality. We say it’s ‘concealed,’ but in truth it’s not concealed at all. The ignorant don’t see it, hence it becomes a deep secret, as if it’s been hidden, been concealed. But it’s not really hidden, not really concealed, it’s displayed quite clearly.

Paticcasamupada allows us to see aniccam, impermanence, insubstantiality, the continual process of change and transformation flowing on, as with a river. See aniccam and see the ‘sankata,’ that is, see those concocted ‘things,’ the ‘sankatadhammas.’ One characteristic revealed by paticcasamupada is ‘sankata,’ the characteristic of permanence, substantiality, of ‘thingness.’ However, if we see the opposite of that then we see ‘asankata,’ the characteristic of impermanence, of aniccam, of no-thing-ness, of insubstantiality. That, however, is still to be achieved, because the ignorant can’t even recognize sankata, so how are they to see asankata?

But paticcasamupada lets us know the sankata, when we do that allows recognition of something else called ‘vayadhammam,’ or deterioration, the commonplace process of degeneration. The everyday characteristic of degeneration is revealed by paticcasamupada. Then there’s termination, expiration called ‘kayadhammam,’ also a commonplace. ‘Vayadhammam,’ the commonplace process of degeneration, is seen within the process of paticcasamupada. When the ignorant don’t recognize this what happens? There are problems. However, paticcasamupada will help us to see what needs to be seen.

Hence we go further, higher, we see ‘viraga,’ a dhamma worthy of a shake of the head. Viraga is boredom with things deemed now to be dull, no longer interesting, and thus not worth clinging to. ‘Viraga’ is revealed by paticcasamupada. Then there’s ‘nirodha,’ quenching, quenching: the arising of viraga as a condition results in the ‘nirodhadhammam,’ quenching, which is actually displayed throughout the process of paticcasamupada. However, one being still dominated by ignorance, one’s vision is obstructed so that there’s no true understanding of these things.

But if we look at this in another way we’ll it as the arising and quenching of ignorance, of avijja, throughout the process of paticcasamupada, in that one instance of avijja quenches, and another instance of avijja arises in its stead. Thus there’s step-by-step ignorance.

When paticcasamupada is given proper attention the things we ought to understand will gradually be understood. Paticcasamupada helps us to see the truths we haven’t yet seen. We ignorantly take the body to be ‘mine,’ take this life to be ‘mine,’ take wife and children to be ‘mine,’ take any property or wealth to be ‘mine,’ assume that any authority or merit are ‘mine.’ If we don’t really see paticcasamupada we’ll think like this. Paticcasamupada will help with the arising of the proper understanding that this body, for instance, isn’t ‘mine,’ it’s just a stream of paticcasamupada which is clung to as being ‘mine,’ both body and mind are just streams of paticcasamupada which we lay claim to, which we steal, take to be ‘me’ or ‘mine.’

Paticcasamupada will let us see the truth, dispelling the ignorance that sees the body as ‘mine’, this will be the benefit of paticcasamupada, gradually understanding until there’s no opportunity for clinging to anything as ‘me’ or as ‘mine’ to arise. Paticcasammupada thus has the characteristic of being ‘ariyanyayadhamma.’ Remember this, clearly: ‘ariya’ and ‘yayadhamma’- ‘ariya’ means noble, ‘yaya’ means ‘vehicle,’ or ‘method,’ while dhamma means dhamma. Ariyanyayadhamma: the Buddha said - not me – that paticcasamupada was ariyanyayadhamma, was a superb vehicle for going from ignorance to wisdom, for going from darkness, to the light.

To sum up: going from dukkha to the end of dukkha requires the ‘ariyanyayadhamma.’ If this concept can be compared to anything we don’t know what it would be. A supersonic aeroplane can only take one so far, it can’t reach the lokuttara, can’t go beyond the world. Any sort of worldly vehicle, no matter how amazing, can’t get beyond this world in the true sense. Paticcasamupada as an ariyanyayadhamma, is the vehicle that can. Dependent origination is an ariyanyayadhamma, and anyone who acquires this vehicle and is able to control it can get beyond the world.

Yesterday we spoke about the level of paticcasamupada which leads to faith, thus: there’s avijja, sankhara, vinnana, namarupa, ayatana, and so on until dukkha arises, the fire of dukkha builds up until the feeling, the belief arises that there must be something able to cure the problem, something that can quench dukkha, which is the arising of faith, of saddha. Dukkha causes the arising of faith, after which begins the search for that dhamma which can help quench dukkha. A dog, when it feels sick, has the belief that there’s something which can help cure the problem and will make every effort to find it. It’s the same with dukkha, if there’s dukkha, there must be something that can quench it.

An example of paticcasamupada is one we’ve already related: our child falls over, breaks it’s head and feels pain, but there’s the belief, the faith that there’s something which can help allay the pain, a person, or something, or some sort of activity that will put an end to the pain, so one thinks about, remembers the Doctor, one has faith that the Doctor can cure the problem, so the child is taken to see the Doctor. Thus there’s faith, the necessary faith. Real faith, the beginning of the belief that there’s something which can solve our problems, is the cause behind any seeking after the Dhamma.

The beginning of faith, of saddha, comes from dukkha, from that dukkha which oppresses, which beats us down, but which also causes us to search for something that will help us be rid of it. Hence there has to be the arising of faith, of saddha. On becoming arahant such is no longer a necessity.

The arahant is also known as ‘asato,’ that is, one who is without faith; someone who’s yet to reach that level will need to have faith, but once they’re similarly exalted, once they’re arahant too, faith ceases to be a necessity, then there’s no need to believe anyone, or anything, or to rely on anyone else.

Dukkha oppresses and gives rise to the belief that there’s something which can cure the problem, so there’s seeking of the Dhamma, and of someone who can help, who can be a refuge: one seeks out the doctor, the Buddha, the great physician, or someone familiar with the Buddha’s teaching, associates with them, sits and hears their teaching, on receiving which one becomes spiritually cheered, satisfied and happy by degrees as they elucidate the characteristics, following which there’s happiness, satisfaction, there’s tranquility, there’s happiness so that the mind can attain samadhi, from which arises yathabhutananadassana, or knowledge and vision of things as they really are, followed by nibbidha, dispassion, boredom with dukkha, then viraga, the fading away of attachment, vimutti, liberation from attachment, and then knowledge of cessation. Do we see that it’s dukkha pushing people into seeking out nibbana: one can no longer bear with it so one is pushed into seeking, that is, the faith, the belief arises that there is something able to get rid of our problems, and, through some wise person, one, perhaps, meets with the ultimate, the ending of dukkha. This is the beneficent side of dukkha.

But, if one doesn’t know how to use paticcasamupada one follows another path, not this one. If, however, one meets with correct knowledge of paticcasamupada they will be pushed onto this path. Full and firm belief in some thing able to quench dukkha will be the starting point, the faith that leads to the Dhamma, while associating with the right people will develop our Dhamma knowledge until it’s full and complete. This is what will lead to the quenching of dukkha. The stream which carries one there is paticcasamupada in its cessation mode; what causes the quenching of dukkha is the dependent arising of those things capable of quenching it.

Summing up the important bits: know the truth of everything in the universe both within and without, both material and mental, that is, be aware that there are only dependently arisen processes, that whatever happens up and until the final quenching of dukkha it will just be a paticcasamupannadhamma, be something dependently arisen.

There is something we should be interested in, should know: that paticcasamupada, or proper knowledge of paticcasamupada, is known as ‘sotapattianka.’ Those who study abhidhamma, who study to become ‘maha,’ will have met this word in the sutta texts. ‘Sotapattianka’ means ‘factors for the attainment of stream entry.’ ‘Anka’ means ‘factors,’ ‘patti’ means ‘attaining,’ while ‘sota’ means ‘stream.’

The four most generally known factors involved in the attainment of stream entry are 1) faith, firm faith in the Buddha; 2) firm, unwavering faith in the Dhamma; 3) firm, unwavering faith in the Sangha; 4) possession of that sila, that moral putrity beloved of the ‘noble ones.’ These four together are sotapattianka: firm belief in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, and ariyakhantasila, moral purity praised by the noble.

But here, in this case, Buddha suggests that realizing paticcasamupada is sotapattianka, is the factor necessary for the attainment of stream entry. See paticcasamupada and the factor necessary for the attainment of stream entry will arise immediately, without having had to bring the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, or the sila beloved of the noble into the equation. See paticcasamupada and entry into the nibbanic stream will be attained. A single factor, it seems, is enough for the attainment of sotapanna: see paticcasamupada clearly, on the level of realisation, apply it, and the factor of stream entry will have been acquired, one will then be someone who has, in an economical manner, attained the stream which flows on to nibbana.

However, he generally arranged it into the four factors of saddha, firm faith in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, and that ‘unspotted,’ unsullied sila. But such sounds very basic, very elementary, while true knowledge of paticcasamupada is elevated and can help one to know nibbana, to see the nibbanic stream, to knock on nibbana’s door.

There’s another name for the sotapanna, the stream enterer: ‘amattavarang ahajja,’ which is one who stands at the door of nibbana but has yet to enter, has still to open the door and go in, as it were. This is the sotapanna, the ‘stream-enterer,’ one who stands at the threshold, at the door of nibbana because of the attainment of knowledge, of clear seeing into paticcasamupada, into the arising and quenching of dukkha, which itself is the most sure guarantee of the attainment of the nibbanic stream.

However, in some places the Buddha explained in another way, that sotapattianka was attained through proper knowledge of the eightfold path. But what was emphasized as very important for one possessing the highest, brightest satipanna, mindfulness and wisdom, was seeing paticcasamupada as ‘sotapattiankasangyut.’ If this word is strange to the ear, is new, please remember it, don’t get it wrong, don’t mix it up with ‘sotapattianka,’ the factor involved in the attainment of stream entry.

There’s some time left so we’ll continue: We need to see paticcasamupada, to use it, to control it for our benefit on a daily basis, which requires that we have proper sati, mindfulness, that is, enough and fast mindfulness so that we can observe and control the flow of paticcasamupada thus preventing the feeling of ‘self’ from arising at any time. Because of seeing paticcasamupada the ignorance won’t arise that would otherwise turn the eye seeing a form into ‘me’ seeing a form, the ear hearing a sound into ‘me’ hearing a sound, etc.

If we have proper knowledge of paticcasamupada this ignorance won’t arise, then when the eye sees a form it will be the nervous system at the eye doing the seeing so that there’ll just be seeing taking place without the ‘me’ getting involved: be it the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body, or the mind, when we’re not ignorant we don’t take the form, the sound, the smell, the taste, the touch, or the aramana, the mind object, to be ‘mine,’ then ‘me’ and ‘mine’ don’t arise into our daily life. How nice would that be? We should find out for ourselves how it would feel if there wasn’t any foolishness, no feeling of being ‘me,’ and no vattasamsara to bear with.

The samsara of those still minus real knowledge, those equipped with the childish version of samsara which was bandied about before the Buddha’s time, the one concerned with birth and death, then death and birth, birth then death, death then birth, that is, birth from the mother’s womb then entry into the coffin, then back into and out of the mother’s womb, followed by the coffin again, and so on and so forth, this was the samsaravatta taught before the Buddha’s time and was all the ancients knew.

Now, the nastiest version of the samsara is that contained within the teaching of paticcasamupada, thus: there’s kilesa, defilement, then ignorance, then the doing of ‘kammic’ activities in accord with ignorance, followed by reception of the results of those activities, and, because the kilesa don’t come to an end there, there’s more ignorance, more kamma, more results, then more kilesa, and so on and so forth. Hence there’s a spinning around between the kilesa, the performing of kamma, and the receiving of the results, over and again: spinning around, caught up in the kilesa, kamma, vipaka cycle – kilesa, kamma, vipaka, kilesa, kamma, vipaka, during the course of one day who knows how many cycles, how many times the vattasamsara can arise. If one can grasp paticcasamupada properly one can see the true form of the vattasamsara, the really terrible form, and one can then stop the cycles by controlling the stream of paticcasamupada so that the vatta doesn’t arise.

Paticcasamupada will allow us to recognize the vattasamsara and to control its arising. If we can deal with paticcasamupada properly there’ll never be a day during which we’ll stray into superstitious belief.

The Pali word usually translated into English as ‘supposition,’ or ‘superstition,’ infers the knowledge of one who is ‘asleep.’ ‘Buddha’ means ‘awake,’ so if we choose to coin a term like ‘Buddhology’ it would indicate the knowledge of one who was awake, thus safe from superstitious belief, from the knowledge of the sleepy. The sleepy are so because of being ignorant, being ignorant of paticcasamupada they know nothing at all. Such people are inclined to let others live their lives for them, they, having no knowledge of kamma, or of anything that would allow them to help themselves, are inclined to guess, surmise, assume, so arises the belief in spirits, devas, in a god who can somehow help them. This is superstitious belief rooted in foolish fear.

If it’s fear accompanied by Buddhology, the fear accompanied by satipanna, it’s not foolish fear, so hurry, find Buddhology.

Understanding paticcasamupada provides an escape from the dominance of superstition. Minus superstitious belief we’d recognize the true Buddha, how then could anyone fall into superstition, into blind belief.

But it happens: by turning the Buddha into a sacred spirit, by taking Buddha relics, or Buddha images to be sacred, as things to be supplicated, one enters the realm of the superstitious and are then far from any clear knowledge of paticcasamupada. On clearly understanding dependent origination such things being properly grasped we come to know the true Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, the true quenching of dukkha, and the true escape from the power of superstitious belief.

But how can that happen when we’re born from our mother’s womb without any knowledge. There’s not even a tiny bit of real understanding when we come from the womb. We emerge ignorant and step almost straight into the realm of blind belief, then we chase after the bandits, as it were, that is, we chase after, we pursue ignorance. On, perhaps, becoming conscious of this mistake we might turn around, get away from the bandits and seek out our parents once more, that is, we might seek out proper knowledge. Paticcasamupada is the knowledge that could keep us from slipping into superstitious belief, but from whence could such knowledge come? Who could, or has ever taught their children true knowledge of this kind?

Parents love their children, but they indulge them so that their ignorance increases, the defilement of tanha flourishes and they go far away from real knowledge, from proper understanding. The parents themselves make the children run after the bandits because they encourage the defiled desire called tanha. They should, at the right time, teach their children paticcasamupada, let them know that when they meet with the delicious they could say to themselves: Oh! this is really just nature, ‘just thus,’ ‘just like that,’ it’s a sensation generated in the nervous system of the tongue, it’s ‘just thus,’ just what it is, and nothing more. We call some things delicious, while if some thing isn’t delicious we might call it nasty, or whatever, but in reality it’s ‘just like that,’ just nature. Give children the opportunity of knowing the true nature of ‘things’ so that they have the chance of avoiding falling into love and hate.

As it was said: when the eye sees a form let it be just that - the eye seeing a form - don’t let it be ‘me’ seeing the form; when the ear hears a sound, let it be the ear, don’t feel that it’s ‘me’ who does the hearing; when the nose smells a pleasant or an unpleasant smell it’s the nose doing the smelling, not ‘me;’ the tongue tastes and it’s just the tongue, not ‘me;’ touches and the skin are just like that too, the skin, possessing a nervous system, can feel all by itself; and the mind can think for itself too, there’s no need for a ‘me’ to be involved. The eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, abd the mind are all naturally operating senses, don’t take them to be ‘me.’

Try to make the comparison: when there’s a ‘me’ around how different is it, how does it feel? The eye sees a form but when it’s ‘I’ seeing the form what’s the difference? There’s an enormous difference, because then problems arise and the mind is overwhelmed. The eye sees a form and ‘I’ see a form are polar opposites, as are the ear hears a sound and ‘I’ hear a sound, the nose smells an odour and ‘I’ smell an odour, etc. Teach children so that they don’t fall into being infatuated with the goods and the bads, the delicious, the undelicious, the sweet, the sour, the fragrant, the foul, and so on.

It’s the greatest good fortune to be born into a spiritually inclined family, a noble-minded family, such an one might attain the path, fruit, and nibbana at a very early age.

Release yourself from wrong understanding, from the love affair with superstition, and, through that, let children gain an understanding of Buddhology from childhood. Those parents who take children to the shops that sell toys, sell pretty, attractive, delightful things, should tell their kids: look, all of this is what makes us foolish, is what keeps us foolish, what makes us struggle and strive to get, to possess. Parents everywhere treat their children in much the same way, often buying them anything they want. Who’s the more foolish, the parents, or the children? Who teaches who to be foolish?

The Buddha said that we should take the Dhamma as our guiding light, as our refuge. He repeated it in plainer language, saying that we should take ourselves as our guiding light, as our refuge, don’t look elsewhere. This is Buddhology; relying on oneself is to rely on the Dhamma, then it will be our refuge. In this way the ‘self’ becomes the refuge of the ‘self.’

The Buddha didn’t teach atta, but he did teach that our ignorant ‘self’ belief should be made use of to possibly solve our problems.

As related, when there’s enough experience of dukkha, saddha, the faith arises that there’s something able to combat and quench the problem, one then seeks that thing out, acquires it, and uses it to quench dukkha. Paticcasamupada requires that we’re able to rely on ourselves, if we rely on other things, spirits, devatas, god, or whatever, on some external thing, it’s not Buddhism, Buddhism is all about self-help.

If we need a ‘god’ then paticcasamupada, knowledge of the dependently arisen nature of the ‘self’ would be the ‘god’ who could really help us. We should avoid those gods up in the sky, what we really need is knowledge of paticcasamupada, of the perfect principle of paticcasamupada, that should be our god, then we can extract dukkha, we can quench dukkha. Have dependent origination, paticcasamupada, as the ever-present god within to protect us, then dukkha can’t arise.

We’ve been looking at how to apply paticcasamupada, so develop clear knowledge of this dhamma, then learn to apply it, be able to make use of this gift of the Buddha. Whoever has satipanna, mindfulness and right knowledge, can acquire and make use of this gift. So develop satipanna, then we can use this for our benefit, we can use it to quench dukkha.

5. The required form of anapanasati. (first part)

Today’s discourse will take ‘the desirable form of anapanasati’ as subject. The desirable form of anapanasati is that which will enable us to put into practice what we’ve learnt about paticcasamupada. Anapanasati assists in our application of paticcasamupada, as well as bestowing mental efficiency in many other ways. Hence we’ll practise with it.

Anapanasati is about maintaining sati, mindfulness, with each and every in and out breath. Mindfulness of what? Basically there are four objects of contemplation: kaya, the body, vedana, feelings, citta, the mind, and, finally, dhammas, or mind objects, altogether four things that we’ll practise with until able to understand and control them so problems don’t arise, only benefits.

Ana + apana, these two words taken together mean either ‘in and out breathing,’ or ‘out and in breathing,’ the commentary explains in these two opposing ways, however, we should stick with the ‘in and out breathing’ explanation as more natural sounding. Doctors say that while still in the mother’s body the infant’s lungs won’t be receiving air, that on emerging the child must breathe in, must bring air into the lungs, then, when that’s done with, it must breathe out - first there’s an in-breath, then there’s an out-breath. Hence we should follow natural principles as to the meaning of ‘anapana,’ that is as ‘in and out breathing.’ ‘Ana’ is in-breathing, ‘apana’ means out-breathing.

Now, ‘anapanasati’ is divided into four groups, which, as mentioned, are 1) that concerned with the kaya, the body, 2) with the vedana, the feelings arising from the various contacts with sense objects, 3) with the mind, the nature of the mind and its modes, its characteristics, and 4) with those problematic dhammas, the mental objects we need to understand and to manage correctly. We need to understand all four groups so that we can make the best use of them.

There are some necessary preliminary praparations to take care of, like getting the nose to work properly, so that it isn’t obstructed and can breathe easily and clearly. If there’s already no problem here that’s fine, if not then we need to do something about that, so take a little water in the palm of the hand and gently suck it up into each nostril, afterwards gently blowing it out again. This is a device we can use to prepare the nose.

Now we need a suitable sitting posture, ‘suitable’ here means stable so that we can’t fall over even when semi-conscious. Hence we develop a posture with a broad enough base, and we sit so that the weight of the body is centred, balanced, as with a pyramid. Thus arose the sitting posture we call ‘cross-legged.’ Crossing the legs is generally referred to as the ‘lotus,’ so, sit in the cross-legged lotus posture with one leg placed on top of the other and with the feet more or less in contact with the knees so forming a triangular configuration. If we develop the posture further, that is, if we take the underneath leg and cross it over the upper leg so that the feet are resting on the thighs then it becomes the ‘diamond’ posture. We can’t fall over while in this posture, it’s compact, firm, stable, just as a pyramid is firm, is stable.

I once saw this posture in an Egyptian museum catalogue. It was a photograph of a sculpted statue of some person, beautifully carved, who was sitting in the cross-legged posture we in Thailand call the ‘diamond.’ That wasn’t anything to do with Buddhism. The accompanying text explained that it was four or five thousand years old, so it was twice as ancient as Buddhism. It was said to be a represention of a priest, or of a royal officer. So it seems that even royal counsellers wer’e capable of sitting samadhi, and that the crosslegged and ‘diamond’ postures were known about a long time ago. Perhaps India got this posture from the ancient Egyptians? Anyway, to sum up: adopt a stable posture so that, even though the mind be semi-conscious or unconscious, we can’t fall over, then find and go sit in a place which is quiet, peaceful.

Don’t cling too tightly to the idea of a peaceful place, although we do need some peace and quiet. Hence we might go and sit in a cave, or whatever. Go to some quiet place, to the roots of a tree, or to some empty dwelling. However, in truth it’s when we can forget the ‘self’ that real peace will be found. If the mind has the feeling of being this or that kind of a ‘me,’ of being the ‘me’ who sits meditation, the ‘me’ who does this or that, it won’t be peaceful at all. Forget the ‘self’ altogether and anywhere we happen to be will be a peaceful place. One can find peace while sitting in the middle of a theatrical performance, or even while sitting close to an operating machine in a factory. Forget the ‘self’ and you won’t hear the machine, you won’t be distracted by it. Anyway, to begin with, find a sufficiently peaceful place somewhere, sit down, and try to fix the mind on the breathing.

Now, there are stronger, heavier, forms of breathing, there’s the normal, ordinary form of breathing, and there are the softer, gentler forms. There are these three kinds, or forms of breathing.

The heaviest, or the longest, fullest forms of breathing, have their particular characteristic, as does the the normal, ordinary form, and the specially produced, soft, gentle forms. Usually it’s understood that if we breathe in the stomach will expand, while on breathing out it will contract. However, if a special form of strong, heavy breathing is being used it will display the opposite characteristics. Try it: go and sit and try it yourself, experiment with specially produced heavy breathing, breathe in a full breath and the upper body will expand while the lower body, the abdomen, or stomach area, will contract; breathe in the fullest possible breath and the lower body will contract, while the upper body, the chest area, will expand. On breathing out the opposite will pertain, the upper body will experience contraction, while the lower body, the abdominal area, will expand.

If the breathing is of the special kind, that is, subtle, soft breathing there’ll be hardly any expansion or contraction involved, while if breathing is of the subtlest sort, that which accompanies the first jhana, for instance, there won’t be any expansion or contraction at all, it will be as if there’s no breathing taking place. You should try to observe this: with the heavy, full in-breathing there’s expansion abdominally and contraction in the chest area, with heavy and full out-breathing, there’s contraction in the abdomen and expansion in the chest. If the breathing is normal then it involves normal contraction and expansion, but if we can learn to breathe softly, subtly so that we can’t feel the breath enter or leave the body, then it’s another experience altogether, usually described as ‘no breathing.’

However, I believe that, when it’s said that there’s no breathing, that the breathing actually stops when experiencing the first jhana, in reality there’s still breathing but it’s so soft that it doesn’t feel as if there is. It’s not that there’s no breathing at all, if that was so one would certainly die, anyone sitting for one hour without breathing at all would certainly die somewhere along the way. However, the breath can be so soft that it feels as if there’s no in or out breathing taking place. Practise at least the strongest, heaviest breathing, and the ordinary, normal breathing, that most subtle kind of breathing which doesn’t produce feelings of bodily expansion or contraction at all will have to wait for a while. Anyway, now we, having some prior knowledge of the breathing, can practise anapanasati.

First we rehearse with the most extreme form of long out-breathing, and the most extreme form of long in-breathing, so that we know that the lungs, etc. are operating properly, so that there’s no problem in that department. Then we breathe more normally, more comfortably, then more subtly, until there’s no detectable feeling of expansion or contraction, of rise and fall associated with the in and out-breathing. And then we let the breathing go along as it will, let it choose its own form.

In this way we approach the first group to be practised, that is, ‘kayanupassanasatipathana.’ In the first step of this group one attends to the long breathing. Long breathing is a characteristic of a body in its normal mode. We let the breathing be long, comfortably long, naturally long, so that it brings feelings of satisfaction. Fixing on the whole track of the long breath as it flows in and out, in and out, but not just fixing our attention on the movement of the breathing alone, because we’ll also get to know the characteristics, the qualities, and the influence long breathing has: how it makes the body feel, even how it makes the mind feel. We sit and fix our attention on the long breathing until we know it well, until we understand the long breathing completely. This is to fully comprehend, to know all about long breathing.

Now, the second step, the short breathing: whether in or out breathing it’s short, short because something from outside is exerting influence, or because we’re controlling it, making it short. If sense experience is normal the breathing will be naturally long, if experience is unusual the breathing will be short. Hence determine that when the breathing is short, how is it, why is it short, what characteristics does it display, what is its quality, what influence is it having on the body, what influence does it exert over the mind, come to know everything about it.

Step one: fully comprehend the long breathing; step two: fully comprehend short breathing, as described, get cosy with the breathing until it’s well enough understood, comprehended.

Now, coming to the third step we fix our attention on two bodies. In Pali it says ‘sabbakayampatisamvedi’ : ‘sabba’ means ‘all,’ ‘all’ in the way of ‘all’ kinds, not the whole of just one kind. Those who translate this phrase into English translate ‘sabba’ wrongly, as meaning ‘whole,’ when, in truth, it should mean ‘all,’ as in ‘all’ kinds, not the ‘whole’ of just one kind. ‘Sabba’ means ‘all’ kinds, if it’s the whole of just one thing it’s called ‘kevala.’ So, ‘sabbakaya’- know ‘all’ bodies, all kinds of bodies.

All bodies here refers primarily to two bodies, that is, the ‘flesh-body’ and the ‘breath-body,’ the breath-body is the breathing which, according to the Pali language, is a ‘body,’ as is the physical, or flesh body, hence there are two bodies. How do the breath and physical bodies relate to each other? Everyone knows that if there’s no breathing there’s death, hence there must be breathing, there must be a breath-body so that there can be a flesh body, so that there can be life. They’re a pair, and can’t be separated, if there’s no breathing the flesh body can’t exist, the breath body helps to maintain, to nourish the flesh body, and more than that too: if the breathing is rough, coarse, the flesh body will be rough, coarse too, if the breathing is subtle, refined, the flesh body will be subtle, refined, if the breathing is peaceful, restrained, the body will be peaceful, restrained too, one will be influenced by the other, they go along together. Try to observe this: if the breathing is rough, coarse the flesh body will be disturbed, if the breath is made to be refined the flesh body will be peaceful. This is the secret: they’re connected, hence they’re coarse, rough, or they’re refined, peaceful, but together. There’s a definite connection, or relationship, between the two.

Now, there’s more: we’re able to control the flesh body through, or by way of, the breath-body. We can make the flesh-body become rough and coarse or restrained and peaceful, but not directly, we can do it indirectly by using the breath-body. Controlling the breath-body will have an effect upon the flesh-body, so, make the breathing refined, subtle, and the flesh-body will become refined and subtle too; make the breath-body coarse and rough and the flesh-body will become coarse and rough. Hence we’re able to control the flesh-body through the breath-body. We practise to control the breath-body, to make it deliberately subtle, refined, so that the flesh-body will follow suit.

In practising this third step we fix our attention on the two bodies, the flesh and breath-bodies. We practice to know that these two are connected, that they affect each other, that they arise together, that they go down together, that they become coarse together, become refined together, etc. In this third step we exercise control over the flesh-body by means of, or through the breath-body. We can’t control the flesh-body directly, but we can control it by using the breath body. It’s something like a very refined trick, or ploy, in that we adjust the breathing as we wish and the flesh- body then becomes what we want it to be.

Now, the fourth step, which is subtle, a little difficult, and is concerned with calming the body-conditioner with every in and out-breath. The ‘body-conditioner’ is the breathing itself, the ‘breath-body’ acting as the ‘body conditioner,’ as the concocter of the flesh-body.

The Pali word ‘sankhara’ translates as ‘to condition;’ the breath-body is the ‘conditioner’ of the flesh-body, hence it’s called the ‘kayasankhara,’ or ‘body-conditioner.’ Now we begin to make the breath-body, or the body-conditioner gradually calm down so that the flesh-body can follow suit, can gradually calm down too. This is the fourth step of the first group which will be achieved by means of various methods, devices, or ‘tricks,’ five of which are going to be involved in the controlling, in the managing of the breathing.

There’s an ancient word from before the Buddha’s time, from the time when people first began to gain knowledge of these things: ‘pranayama.’ ‘Pran’ + ‘ayama;’ ‘prana’ here means the breathing itself, while the ‘ayama’ part has to do with controlling it, with controlling the ‘prana,’ hence: ‘pranayama.’ Understand that forest people since ancient times, even before they got around to wearing clothing, knew about this business, they knew how to control the breath in this, or in that way to achieve this or that sort of a result. ‘Pranayama’ is most ancient in origin, and has been adjusted, improved in various ways by various teachers. It remains extant within the practice of anapanasati: ‘pranayama,’ an ancient teaching from people of long ago called ‘breath control.’

To briefly sum up: in the first place we fix our attention on, and follow, or chase, the breathing in and out, we fix on the breathing as it flows in and out of the body, this is called ‘following,’ or ‘chasing.’ The furthest outer point of contact with the breath is the tip of the nose, the farthest inner point of contact is the feeling arising in the abdomen, or midriff area of the body. We don’t need to be factual here, this is just a device to help us follow and study the breathing. The farthest outer point of contact with the breathing is the tip of the nose, or the nostrils, the farthest inner point is the feeling of the rising and falling of the abdomen. If one is of African descent the nose will be of such a configuration that the breath will strike more clearly on the upper lip than at the nose-tip. But we, not being such, the furthest outer point of contact with the breathing for us will be felt at the tip of the nose, while the furthest inner point will manifest as the disturbance felt in the abdominal area. ‘Chase,’ or ‘follow’ the breathing between these two points. Chasing the breathing in this way won’t be easy for one whose mind isn’t well set, the mind will wander, it being used to doing what it wants, it won’t be able to just do this following in and out, the mind won’t immediately be able to do this.

We’re normal people, we try, and perhaps we can do it, we can follow the breathing in and out, in and out until it’s under our control, until we have full control as we chase the breathing in and out, in and out without losing contact, which represents trick, or method, number one.

Now we come to the ‘guarding’ level, or technique. Here we don’t chase anymore, that would be a waste of time, and it would be too rough, too crude. The chasing will have rendered the breathing more refined that it would have been had we not persisted with that method, if we’d just let the breathing go along in its own way it would have remained rough, but chasing has brought a level of refinement, now ‘guarding’ brings more. There’s no need to chase, to follow the breathing in and out now, instead fix attention on the appropriate point, which will be the outer-most contact point, that is, the tip of the nose, or the nostrils, that now becomes the ‘guarding’ point. The practice here will be something like guarding a door, checking people as they pass in and out, without needing to observe anybody once they’ve gone through the door. In a similar way, by just attending to the guarding point we can be aware of the breathing as it passes in and out of the body, we can know the in-breath and the out-breath at just that one place without having to chase, to follow the breath anymore. Now the practice gets harder, more difficult, but it’s also an increasingly refined experience. If we can do this the mind will become more and more restrained and thus more peaceful too. Observe for yourself that if one is able to control the breathing, if sati, mindfulness, can fix attention on the guarding point well enough, there’ll be increasing levels of mental restraint, and thus of calmness.

Now, we come to the third method, where we, either intentionally or unintentionally, create a mental image. If we make the breathing sufficiently refined a mental image will appear at the guarding point; instead of the feeling of breathing at the nose tip a ‘nimitta,’ a mental image will appear. These images won’t be the same for everyone, for some it might be a disk, or globe of some sort, or some a figure, or form of some kind, or whatever.

There are many examples in the scriptures: disks, stars, of different colours, and different sizes, sparkling gem-like objects, spider webs in the sunlight, and so on, it depends, there are many different forms the images can take. Bring up just one image which is satisfactory and fix attention on it. This is to successfully create a mental image. If we can do this the mind will calm down, will be refined, will change and be more calm than of yore. This is the third method.

Now, more skilful than that is to exercise and control the mental image, thus: incline the mind in whatever way and the image will change accordingly, so, change its characteristics, that is, change its size, its colour: now it’s green, so make it red, or white, make it small, then let it become big, from being still, unmoving, make it move, make it float backwards and forwards. Being able to do all of this means one has some control over the mind, one has become its ‘boss,’ one might say. From controlling the body with the breathing we eventually arrive at this level, where we have power over the mind.

If someone is able and prepared to practise to the level of ‘jhana,’ to the ‘rupajhanas,’ that’s fine, if not then it’s still alright, it’s not necessary to achieve the rupajhanas, we want just that sort of samadhi which is close to jhana, to absorption, so, control the mind to that extent, choose an appropriate mental image, choose a nimmita to practise controlling and fix attention on it. There’ll then be increasing peace and tranquility until five component concentration arises. We should remember these five components of concentration as ‘vitaka,’ ‘vicara,’ ‘piti,’ ‘sukha,’ and ‘ekagatta.’

The thinking which fixes the mind on the object here is called ‘vitaka,’ the investigation of its characteristics is ‘vicara,’ feelings of satisfaction arising as a result are called ‘piti,’ there’s happiness, the calm contentment called ‘sukha,’ and there’s ekagatta, the mind poised, or we might say ‘peaked,’ on a single object, which is ‘ekagatta,’ or ‘one-pointedness.’ Hence there are five components: vitaka, vicara, piti, sukha, ekagatta, together called ‘pathamajhana,’ that is, the first jhana, or first absorption concentration.

If we want to reach the ultimate ‘rupajhana’ we should continue on and develop the second, third, and fourth absorptions, that is, recognizing that the five components making up the first absorption produce a still quite coarse experience two are then dropped - vitaka and vicara - leaving piti, sukha, and ekagatta, which together produce the calmer, more subtle, more profound level of concentration known as ‘dutiyajhana.’ We, seeing that this level is still coarse, get rid of piti, because we recognize that piti is a comparatively disturbed form of happiness, so we get rid of it, now just sukha and ekagatta remain, which, together, form the ‘tatiyajhana,’ the third absorption. Now, recognizing that sukha is still a cause of disturbance and something we don’t want to be bothered with, we make the mind ‘uphekka,’ equanimous, mindfully indifferent, concentrated and still. As long as sukha, is involved we won’t be experiencing the ‘catthutajhana,’ the fourth absorption, but once there’s only uphekka and ekagatta left that’s the final level, the fourth absorption.

At this level the breathing will be refined, until, as the Buddha said, there won’t be any breathing. I don’t object to that, but I don’t believe it either, I think that there’s still breathing but it’s not felt, it’s not detectable, it’s so refined, so subtle that the in and out breaths can’t be detected, because to survive without breathing at all is contrary to reason, so there is breathing but it can’t be felt, can’t be detected. If we can reach this level we’ll have calmed the body-conditioner - the breathing - to the ‘nth’ degree.

At this point we want to talk about those things called ‘nivarana,’ translated as ‘hindrances.’

It’s wrongly said that when making samadhi one controls the nivarana, which rather gives the impression that it’s only when we want to meditate that the nivarana, the ‘hindrances’ arise. Disregard that, the nivarana don’t arise only when we want to meditate, they’re an everyday occurrence, it’s just that when samadhi is successfully achieved the nivarana don’t have the opportunity of arising, that’s all.

‘Kamachandha,’ ‘bhyapada,’ ‘thinamidha,’ ‘uddaccakukkuccha,’ and ‘vicikiccha,’ the five ‘hindrances,’ arise during the course of each and every day, much or little, this or that one, right throughout life, not just when we want to meditate. The nivarana might well arise then, might well come and disturb, come and be a hindrance to our attempts to practise, but if we can manage to meditate successfully they’ll lose the opportunity to interfere.

At this time we’ve met with success in our attempts to calm the mind and place it in jhana, in absorption, so we’ll look at a profundity, at something we don’t really need to talk about but which it will be good to have knowledge of. The Buddha mentioned ‘atammayata’ on many occasions. ‘Atammayata’ is the tool which will enable us to escape from the sensual element and meet with the element of pure form, even here and now, will help us to come out from the sensual element, from the world of forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mind objects, and meet with the rupadhatu, the element of pure form, that is, meet with the rupajhanas. There’s a step-by-step development involved: atammayata, unconcoctability, will enable us to abandon the pathamajhana, the first absorption, and enter the second, the dutiyajhana, then to leave the second and enter the third, the tatiyajhana, to leave the third and enter the fourth, the catthutajhana, the last of the rupajhanas, and to leave the rupajhanas entirely and enter into the arupajhana levels: ‘akasanancayatana,’ the sphere of infinite space, ‘vinnanancayatana,’ the sphere of infinite consciousness, up to ‘nevasannanasannayatana,’ the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, which is the last of the arupajhanas, of the formless absorptions. Through the step-by-step development of attamayata, unconcoctability, one attains the final level, escapes the power of the nevasannanasannayatana, leaves the arupadhatu, the formless element, entirely, and enters into the nirodhadhatu, that is, one controls the sankhara, the concocting, and experiences nibbana. Attamayata will be present throughout, from beginning to end: we escape the ‘kamadhatu,’ the sensual element, and meet with the rupadhatu, the element of pure form, which is that group of meditations based on pure forms. We can be aware of this or not, but it will be the case that attamayata will be present step-by-step.

Anyway, back to the present: we’ve encountered success in practising the first level, the first four steps of anapanasati.

If anyone doesn’t want to do all of the foregoing, or isn’t able to do it, that’s alright, the jhanas aren’t necessary, just manufacture enough samadhi, the appropriate samadhi, then move on to the second group, or, jump to the fourth group (step thirteen of the practice). Normally, however, anapanasati isn’t dealt with in that way, isn’t divided up like that. The sixteen-step version, the four group version, each group consisting in four steps - if one can manage it - that’s the full version.

Practising this first group is a stretch, is time-consuming, so we ought to impart a little more practical information. In our practising we fix attention on the in and out-breathing all the time, but if it’s necessary for us to get up, to stand up, to walk, lie down, or whatever - if we have to walk because we can’t bear sitting anymore then we can switch our attention from the breathing to the activity of walking, or to whatever we happen to be doing, and it will still fall within the compass of the first group, the kayanupassanasatipathana group.

So, fix on the breathing in the kayanupassanasatipathana section, and, sometimes, on other activities too. If one has to walk then fix attention, that is, be mindful of the walking, so that sati doesn’t wander off somewhere else. To be detailed here: as we walk be mindful of lifting the foot, of moving it forwards, and of placing it on the ground. However, the best way to be mindful is to maintain the feeling of being samadhi, or to maintain the influence of any samadhi we’ve already attained while sitting and which is still present in the mind, so that, although walking, sitting, lying down, or whatever, we’re able to feel its influence.

The Pali texts affirm that if samadhi, or the influence of samadhi is present when walking then the walking will be ‘divine,’ ‘divine’ walking meditation, because of being done while still experiencing the remaining influence of previously experienced samadhi, not while actually experiencing jhana, but while its influence yet remains with the mind. If while standing that influence is still apparent, is still felt in the mind, such standing will be called ‘divine,’ likewise any such sitting will be divine sitting, any lying down will be divine lying down, or divine reclining. Which means having samadhi, to some degree, present in all postures, or while changing postures. This is something useful to know in case we have to change our posture.

Do we get this? We eat, we bathe, etc. and if we’re really skilful samadhi won’t be completely lost, even when eating food, when bathing, when dressing, or at whatever time, samadhi won’t be lost, it will be maintained. We need to train so that we don’t have any problems, so that we aren’t out of step with anything, whether we sit meditation, or we change our posture, we don’t lose samadhi. This is basic to the first group.

The first group: know the body, control it, use it beneficially, be able to make both the flesh and breath bodies peaceful, and don’t forget that important residual effect: piti, satisfaction, we need to retain piti, retain it as the object of the second group, ‘vedananupassanasatipathana,’ because this group comes with the injunction to fix attention on piti with every in and out breath; to fix attention on sukha with every in and out breath; to know the mind conditioners with every in and out breath; and to reduce the power of, to calm the mind conditioners with every in and out breath.

The second group then is concerned with vedana, mental feelings, and the control of them: pleasant feelings, unpleasant feelings, and the neither pleasant nor unpleasant variety. We’re slaves of the vedana, of the feelings, disliking the unpleasant, liking the pleasant, and spinning around in uncertainty when faced with the neither pleasant nor unpleasant variety. These feelings lead us a merry dance. The vedana usually push people into doing anything and everything the defilement of tanha desires. If we can’t control them we’ve become their slaves.

Now we manage the feelings, control the feelings, hence the second group is called vedananupassana, getting to know the vedana until we’re able to control them, that’s the essence of this group: know the vedana so that we can control them, after which we won’t be pushed here and there by the ‘self’ anymore.

Vedananupassanasatipathana divides out into four steps: 1) piti, 2) sukha, 3) cittasankhara (the previous two steps piti and sukha, are cittasankharas too,) 4) controlling the cittasankhara. This is anapanasati, second group.

Piti and sukha are, in truth, the same thing. Piti means satisfaction, but that satisfaction which is very strong and can cause feelings of excitement, hence it doesn’t tend towards peace and tranquillity. We call it ‘piti,’ we call it by various names, go and look for yourselves, we’re too lazy to give them utterance: there’s piti of this sort, piti of that sort, piti of the other sort, however, they’re all piti, that exciting form of satisfaction.

We bring piti to be the object of practise here, it comes as the fruit, or result of the first section: control the breathing successfully, the body calms down, and there’s the satisfaction we now use as object in the second section. Piti - what is it like? In the first step of this group we fix our attention on piti, we enjoy it, we taste its flavour, we enjoy our gains for a while. But that isn’t the real purpose, the purpose is to control piti, just that, to make it into the object for the arising of sukha. Being able to have piti wherever and whenever we want is the gain, the advance, the profit of practice thus far, to be able to ‘taste’ the flavour of piti as and when we wish. Make the mind feel the satisfaction of piti - how does it feel? what are its characteristics? how does it influence the mind? what are its good and bad points? In the first step of the second level of anapanasati we get to know piti.

Piti is made calm, is restrained - that piti which is spectacular, exciting, isn’t suitable here. In English there are the words ‘rapture,’ and ‘contentment,’ if it’s piti as rapture it’s the form which excites, if it’s piti as contentment it’s the peaceful, quiet variety, ergo, take the comparatively quiet version, not the exciting, the demonic, deceiving variety, to be the object, and be able to create that feeling at anytime. We want to dwell with piti, but that’s not the sole purpose, the purpose is to control it, to stop it from exciting the mind, because if we can do that piti will change into the happiness called ‘sukha.’ This is the form of practise in the second step of the second level, the sixth step overall.

Manage piti until we know how to control it so that it becomes sukha, happiness, becomes that form of piti which is contentment, which is restrained, peaceful, which doesn’t disturb, then ‘drink’ in this happiness, take the profit first, enjoy the happiness generated by the restrained version of piti whenever, wherever, this is the profit, the gain, that piti which comes from practising the first section, or that piti which comes about through recollection of other things capable of causing it. Achieve piti, manage it until it’s pacified, calmed into becoming sukha, happiness, achieve it and use it. Hence we come to know both piti and sukha well, and the second step is completed.

Now we arrive at the third step, in which we come to know these two feelings as ‘cittasankharas.’ ‘Cittasankara’ means ‘mind conditioner,’ the feelings condition, concoct thought. The vedana, feelings, gives rise to sanna, perceptions, which gives rise to tanha, foolish desires, the feelings concoct thinking in this way. Precisely: these feelings condition, or concoct, the mind into thinking of this and that sort, like the thinking, the assumption that something is ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ and so on. The feelings are ‘mind-conditioners.’ Recognizing this is the practise in the third step: ‘cittasankharapatisamvedi’ which means ‘experiencing’ the mind conditioners and acquiring power over them, over piti, over sukha. Know that we, all the time, fall under the power of the feelings, the vedana, which then concoct the mind in these and those ways, hence we run, we fly around the world: ‘cittena niyatti loke,’ which means that as a rule this world (us) is led along by the mind, the world (we) spins around because of the mind, the mind which is under the power of the vedana, the feelings.

Manage the mind conditioners, the things that concoct the mind, restrain, put an end to the concocting by whatever means, the most common of which is to develop distaste, dislike for the disturbance, for the dukkha which results from the endless concocting. Over time this becomes something we don’t want around. If we feel this way we can perhaps control, reduce the power of the cittasankharas, reduce the ability of piti and sukha to concoct the mind. If we have knowledge of vipassana meditation we can achieve the same result just by recognizing that this concocting is dangerous, it brings danger so it’s unwelcome. If we feel this way then concocting won’t happen, or will be reduced. Reduce the power of the feelings, the pleasant feelings, the cittasankharas, the concocting dies down and there’s peace, this is the practice in the fourth step of the second group of anapanasati.

To whatever extent we can control the feelings, to that extent the power of the cittasankhara will be reduced. When we can do this we’ll have power over the feelings. Reduce the power of the feelings, reduce the power of the cittasankhara, don’t allow concocting, or allow concocting of this sort rather than that sort, allow a little concocting rather than a lot, allow concocting which is right and proper, which is beneficial. However, if there were no ignorant concocting at all that would be wonderful, marvellous, because then there wouldn’t be any trouble and strife, there wouldn’t be any dukkha.

Now, we have power over the concocting of the vedana, the feelings, hence we have power over everything that comes to connect in the form of a feeling, a vedana. We’ll take a detailed look here: having power over feeling, over vedana, is having power over the senses, we’re no longer slaves of the inner senses, the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or the mind, nor of the outer senses, the forms, sounds, smells, taste, touches, and mind objects, these no longer control the mind. Now, when there’s vedana, feeling there’s the arising of sanna, perception, of experience as being like this or like that, now drive that away, don’t follow it and one will have power over sanna, over the perceptual process, but, most wonderfully, one will also be above the concocting of paticcasamupada, dependent origination. We, from the beginning, have said that we practise anapanasati in order to be able to deal with paticcasamupada, to control the flow of dependent origination so that dukkha doesn’t happen. Now, there’ll be success in controlling the vedana, the cittasankharas, so that the cycle of paticcasamupada can’t operate, the flow will be interrupted at vedana, feeling, or at phassa, contact, so that it doesn’t give rise to any of the forms of dukkha. We want to fix this in the memory, make it hard to forget, hence we’ll make the explanation a little racy so that it is memorable, and we’ll say that now we can control the world and everything in it so that there isn’t anything capable of causing trouble: the desirable things like wealth, possessions, property, money, prestige, fame, or whatever, there are no more problems with these - we can control the world because we’re able to control the senses, the eyes, etc. and the vedana, the feelings arising from sense contacts.

Now we have power over the world, it’s under our thumb, as it were, under our feet would be better, now it can’t do anything to us, we dwell above it always. It’s being in control of the cittasankhara, the mind conditioners, that gives rise to the desirable, that is, to the macchimapatipada, the eightfold path, which will advance to dukkhanirodha, to the remainderless quenching of dukkha. Control the cittasankhara and what remains will be the stream which flows to dukkhanirodha, to nibbana.

We should have knowledge, have understanding of the foregoing, so that chandha, viriya, citta, and vimangsa, the four idhipada, will arise. ‘Chandha’ is hunger based in satipanna, based in mindfulness and wisdom. There must be hunger for us to do anything, there must be hunger for one to eat delicious food, but that’s an example from the material world, at this time we’re concerned with the hunger of satipanna. Chandha, then, is that appetite, that hunger, or that zeal, that desire we feel to do something, and do it to the best of our ability. Chandha, the satisfaction felt in doing that which will have the greatest value, the quenching of all the forms of dukkha. Then arises viriya, effort, diligence, perseverence, and citta, mental application, then, finally, vimangsa, investigation, examination of things, occurs. These four are the ‘idhipada,’ the four bases for success in practising, arisen because we’ve recognized the value and benefit of acquiring power over the cittasankhara, over the mind conditioners, over all vedana, all feelings, so that they don’t bite us, and don’t lead us up queer street anymore. This is the practice in the second level of anapanasati.

There’s not enough time left to talk about all four sections, there’s only been enough time for two: the body group, which involves knowing the long and short forms of breathing, knowing how breathing concocts the body, knowing how to control the power and influence of the breathing so that the body, along with its conditioner, calm down. This is the first group. The second group is where we meet with the feeling called ‘piti,’ which comes from having controlled the body tnrough controlling the breathing, and, perhaps, from other sources, and which is now carefully considered, investigated until it’s understood. Piti is that form of sukha, happiness, which is exciting, spectacular, now it’s made to be unspectacular, unexciting, to be sukha, the calmed-down, restrained form of piti. Then, we come to know that these feelings concoct the mind, they’re ‘mind-concocters,’ conditioning the thinking that we normally don’t know how to stop, but which must be stopped, must be controlled. The method, the way to control thinking, consists in not allowing the vedana, the feelings, the mind-conditioners to perform their duty in a queer manner, that is, not letting them do as they please, keeping them under control, making them correct, making them operate in an enlightened way. We’ll then have possession of anapanasati, second group.

We need knowledge, understanding, so we practise in accord with the principles theoretically explained here as a basic and suitable form of practice. When you return to practising in the outside world you should try to increase understanding so that you can practise more accurately. The teachers who help to teach, help us to understand better, will help with advice too so that, as our practice becomes more accomplished, we’ll get the highest benefit from having come to Suan Mokkh, that is, we’ll have the ability to practise anapanasati.

6. The required form of anapanasati (part 2).

Today’s discourse is a continuation of that already given concerning the required form of anapanasati, this being the second part. In the first part groups one and two were dealt with, at this time we’ll deal with the third and fourth groups.

The first group of anapanasati has control of the kayasankhara, the body-conditioner as result, the result of the second is control of the mind conditioners, the cittasankharas. These two groups share similar characteristics, however the individual levels differ.

We can make use of a simile to show how calming the body and calming the mind differ, thus: we eat some food to relieve hunger, we take some rice noodles and coconut cream for lunch which settles the stomach to begin with, but brings only a passing relief, so now we take some guavas, or some jackfruit to eat, which brings more satisfaction; the noodles and coconut cream contains more calories, but doesn’t satisfy fully, there is satisfaction but it’s not complete, but if we add some fruit, some guava and some jack fruit, there’s a deeper feeling of satisfaction. Compare this with calming the body and the mind, with the mind there’s more subtelty involved. Although samadhi is employed in both instances its form differs: we control the breathing to make the body calm, if we can control the feelings it will make the mind calm, thus we generate two levels of control.

Anapanasati on the first level is concerned with controlling the body, on the second level with controlling the mind. Go over the previous discourse again: when the body and mind are well controlled we can use them, have them do their duties, do their work in increasingly refined ways.

So, we arrive at the third group of anapanasati, which involves directly controlling the mind so that it can be indifferent to the influence of the sankhara. Observe the course of study here: step 1) know the mind with every in and out breath; step 2) make the mind glad with every in and out breath; step 3) concentrate the mind with every in and out breath; step 4) liberate the mind with every in and out breath.

Essentially in this section, we: 1) practise to know the mind in its various modes, to know it comprehensively, then: 2) we control it so that a certain feeling called ‘pamojja,’ or gladness arises, then: 3) we make it firm, stable, and still, then: 4) we make it let go, make the mind let go of whatever it’s clinging to. These are the four steps in this group.

First we do again as we did with the breathing, and as we did with piti and sukha, but now we observe the mind itself to know how it is, what its characteristics are? We, as specified in the Pali, take a sample, as it were, and we observe the mind first with raga, greed, or without raga, then with dosa, aversion, or without dosa, then with moha, delusion, or without moha.

The mind has raga, lust, or it doesn’t have raga. We know the mind with greed, with lust, especially for the pleasure we derive from sex, it being a normal form of disturbance, an experience we’re accustomed to, hence we should be able to recognize it when it’s present. So, know that we have or don’t have that particular problem. Being more particular, or more detailed than that, we’ll need to calculate, or compare this raga-mind with the mind which doesn’t have raga at all, which, in truth, we as yet won’t have experience of, but which we will have at some point in the future, at which time we can make the comparison: how hot is the mind with raga? How cool is the mind without raga?

Now we practice to know the mind when it has or doesn’t have dosa, aversion, which is observed in the same way. What is the ‘fire’ of dosa like, how good does it feel when dosa has been quelled? If it could be completely quelled, absolutely quenched one would be arahant, how good, how wonderful would that be?

Now, the mind with or without moha, delusion, which will be troublesome because it’s a little difficult to grasp. There is moha, there is ignorance, but it’s not something we’re usually conscious of, that is, we don’t usually acknowledge it. Now we need to know how the mind is when there’s ignorance, when there’s that delusion which makes anything that happens difficult, troublesome to deal with, as when anything is only somewhat understood, so is obscure, or when wanting to know something but not being able to recall it, or when wanting to work something out but being unable to, wanting to understand anything and not being able to do that. This will be enough to make some knowledge of what the fire of moha is like.

Observe that this is the beginning, the ABC of mental control: observing the mind when with or without raga, dosa, or moha. Sit and observe, sit and review, practise: raga is easy to remember, it’s a hot fire, it’s wet but it’s hot, it’s hot and soggy; dosa is a dry fire, it burns in a dry manner; moha is a dark form of heat, a darkness that burns. Raga, the wet form of heat, dosa, dry heat, and moha, a dark heat. Get to know these three well, they’re at the root of everything.

Now, to continue: know when the mind is distracted, or undistracted. Whenever we can’t exercise control the mind will be distracted, will be moving, floating around for whatever reason. Conditioned by internal or external events mind will be distracted, until we feel that it’s unbearable and there’s, perhaps, irritation. This will be the ‘nivarana’ of uddacca, the distracted mind, observe it well, it’s no fun at all. On the other hand, when the mind is betimes undistracted how is it then? And if there’s absolutely no distraction, how does that feel?

Compare this problem to gnats, swarming around continually, how annoyingly disturbing are gnats? - and they won’t be driven away, brush them off and they’ll come swarming annoyingly back. They get into the eyes, into the nose, and sometimes, when we’re breathing-in, into the mouth too, so, even simple distraction, the restless, not peaceful, mind, is an irksome, most annoying experience.

Continuing on: know the mind which is elevated, or not elevated. ‘Elevated’ here means the mind with samadhi, a mind which is clean, clear, peaceful. Do we, or don’t we have such a mind? If we do we’ll know its flavor, its qualities, the fact that it’s cleaner, clearer, more peaceful than is usually the case. Although we, as yet, perhaps haven’t attained the more elevated mind, the sort of mind which is under our control, we can work out how it would feel by considering the results of controlling the kaya and cittasankharas, how does that feel? Controlling the breathing and the feelings produces a wonderful experience. Do we know this elevated mind, or not? If we practise the first and second groups successfully we’ll be able to achieve it, then we can have mental elevation on demand.

Continuing on: is the mind surpassable or unsurpassable? We can know for ourselves whether the mind is unsurpassable because if there’s still dissonance, still uneasiness with regard to those things which contact the mind, that shows us that the mind can be better, more peaceful, more controlled than at present, and that we’re yet to to complete the practice, there’s more and better still to be achieved. Hence we can know with certainty that the mind can be better than it is, the path and fruit being still unattained there’s work yet to be done.

To continue: Is the mind stable or not stable, concentrated or not concentrated? As will have been somewhat gathered from practise in the first two levels, when the kayasankara don’t concoct the body and the cittasankhara don’t concoct the mind, the mind is stable, is ‘normal.’ Because these things concoct the mind there’s turbulence, disorder, abnormality. So, is there, or isn’t there samadhi, concentration? And what sort of samadhi? We’ve yet to study the fine details so we’ll take another look at this matter later.

Now, the last pair: Is the mind liberated, or not liberated? We can know the liberated mind by figuring it out: because we know what the mind is like when it’s not liberated, that is, when it’s being bitten by love, by anger, by dislike, by fear, by excitement, by anxiety, by longing, by jealousy, by envy, we can know, or can calculate how the mind would be without those disturbing factors, we can understand the liberated mind by calculation, as it were.

Or we can know through direct experience that the mind isn’t afflicted by ‘kamupadana,’ that is, it isn’t clinging to sensuality, isn’t bound by sensual desire; that it doesn’t have ‘ditthupadana,’ doesn’t cling to views and opinions so isn’t dominated by wrong understanding; that it isn’t dominated by ‘silabattupadana,’ isn’t under the control of wrong knowledge concerning the results of practice - ‘silabattupadana,’ the mistaken understanding that practicing is about peace and tranquility, about the acquisition of heavenly states of mind. Mind isn’t dominated by ‘attavadupadana,’ the feelings of ‘me’ and ‘mine.’ ‘Atta’ and ‘vada’ are the cause of the verbalizations ‘me’ and ‘mine,’ mental clinging, upadana, causes the utterances ‘me’ and ‘mine’ to emerge. This is called ‘attavadupadana.’ If we didn’t have this problem how would it be? If we study upadana, clinging, and come to understand it, we can then calculate, or figure out what it would be like if we didn’t have this clinging problem, we’d be able to recognize both the mind with and without upadana and would then know if the mind wasn’t liberated, because still depressed, upset by the things that bind it. Life still bites its owner continually, so get to know upadana, clinging, well, to be capapable of calculating how the mind would be without it.

This is the first step of the third group: ‘cittanupassana.’ Sit and observe, check out the mind, does it have raga, or not; does it have dosa, or not; does it have moha, or not, hence: is the mind distracted, or is it at peace; is it an elevated mind, or not; is the mind unsurpassable, or not; is it firm, stable, or not; is it liberated, or not liberated? This isn’t just about knowing these things themselves, it’s about knowing whether we have them, in whatever form, or not; it’s not just about knowing what they are, but knowing whether the mind is defiled or not defiled, hence, if defilement is present how is the mind, if absent, how is the mind. Complete knowledge here is ‘cittapatisamvedi,’ fully experiencing the mind, and is the practice in the first step of the third level, or group: ‘cittanupassana.’

Now we come to the second step. We know the mind in all its moods. We’ve practised in the first group to control the kayasankharas, in the second group to control the cittasankharas, so we have enough ability to control the mind in this and that way. In this particular step we control the mind in order to gladden it, to make it ‘glad.’ Trying to control the kayasankharas brings one kind of gladness, while in step one of this group controlling the cittasankharas brings another kind, then there’s satisfaction and happiness, faith and belief in the Dhamma as the quencher of dukkha, the solver of our problems, we see dukkha as paticcasamupada, as a dependently arisen phenomenon, from which comes the faith, the belief that dukkha can be quenched, and that the quenching of dukkha is nibbana. Aiming, inclining towards quenching brings gladness.

There are several levels of gladness, but this isn’t the gladness of sensuality, not defiled gladness, this is ‘Dhamma gladness,’ the defiled form we don’t need to talk about. Dhamma gladness, a satisfying, refreshing form of the genre. The mind is composed of virtue, of the good, the proper, hence there’s gladness, sustained gladness, and ‘on call’ regardless of what’s being experienced.

Hence we arrive at the third step, which is about making the mind firm, stable, with every in and out-breath. Make the mind firm, make it stable and still. Stability of mind manifests on several levels, all the while maintaining mental subtlety and refinement, hence it’s stability on the Dhamma side of things, or samadhi of that sort which will become ‘ariyasammasamadhi,’ noble right samadhi, at sometime in the future. The Buddha defined the characteristics of samadhi as three:

The first characteristic is purity, called ‘parisuddho,’ or ‘parisuddha’ : there’s nothing depressing or disturbing the mind, there’s no kilesa, defilement, causing disturbance, no nivarana, no hindrances to interfere, the mind is clean and free from those unclean trouble-makers.

The second characteristic is that of ‘samahito,’ firmness, stability of mind. The mind is firm, unmoving, nothing can disturb it. This mind, when there’s no nivarana to bother it, is still, established in such a way that it can support the experiencing of all things as they really are, which won’t happen if the mind isn’t still, isn’t firmly established. Make the mind samadhi and knowedge will arise as a matter of course. It’s natural for one capable of jhana, of absorption concentration, to acquire real knowledge, just as jhana, absorption, is a natural experience for one who has real knowledge, the two being mutually supportive. Make samadhi, make the mind stable, firmly established, and there will be knowledge, panna, and, if there’s real knowledge there’ll also be the ability to make samadhi, to make the mind firm, stable.

Now, we have that stability of mind from which can arise ‘yathabhutananadassana,’ the ability to know all things as they really are. Samadhi has two forms, one aims mainly for the acquisition of peace, tranquility, and happiness, without the desire to see clearly into the truth of things, the other form, the samadhi we want, is that form which allows clear seeing into the truth of all things, and not just the acquisition of peace and tranquility, etc. which in itself doesn’t lead to any further development but which has use all the same in that it brings happiness which helps to stabilize the mind.

Now, the third characteristic might sound strange, being something we’ve probably not yet encountered: ‘kammaniya,’ which the books say means ‘ready for work,’ which work here will be mental, the work of the mind, but matters physical, matters material are included too. Try to see this: when the mind is samadhi it’s fit to do its work, but both physical and mental work are included here, however, where Dhamma practise is involved the work will be mental, the work of the mind. But we can apply this to physical, material matters too, like plowing a field, for instance, if the mind is samadhi the plowing will be better done; likewise any kitchen work, any cookery will be better done if the mind is samadhi - any basket work, any mat weaving, any tower of Babel building, will be better done if the mind is samadhi, is stable, firmly established.

The three characteristics which should be observable are: 1) mind is clean, pure, 2) it’s tranquil, peaceful, 3) it’s active, agile. If anyone is too lazy to remember longer words remember these three short ones: ‘pure,’ ‘tranquil,’ ‘active.’ The ignorant might object that if the mind is tranquil, still, how can it be active? If mind is still it’s, according to the ignorant, stopped, motionless, but ‘still’ here means that there’s nothing disturbing, oppressing it, hence it’s supple, fit to do its job, it’s nimble, quick to think, to remember, to decide.

The universal language, English, contains the words ‘active,’ and ‘activeness.’ The mind is active, but in an agile, nimble, way, not in a clumsy, blundering, sluggish, unsteady manner. Put simply, it’s ready to do its work, to do its duty. In the Pali language there’s a word meaning ‘finesse,’ or ‘with finesse,’ so now the mind does its work with ‘finesse,’ at such times the mind isn’t hard, stiff, it’s sensitive, quick, refined, fit for work. In the Pali language such a mind is described as possessing the attributes of parisudha, samahita, and kammaniya.

Samadhi - the mind is samadhi, nothing bothers it, it’s well-established, free, and it has kammaniya, so it’s supple, agile, nimble in its operations, even in writing a letter, compare: if the mind is kammaniya a letter is quickly composed and written, and written well, and, further, the task will have been enjoyable, but if the mind isn’t kammaniya it will be an uncomfortable, uneasy experience, and there’ll be some tearing up and throwing away involved. The third level of the third group is about making the mind samadhi, that is, firm, well-established.

We’ve reached the fourth step of the third group, called ‘imodayam cittam,’ which means liberating the mind. If there’s some wisdom to assist here that will be better, because we will possess wisdom, some true knowledge that can be used in this event. ‘Liberate,’ that is, release the mind from the thing that binds it, which is ‘upadana,’ clinging, the foolish clinging which happens easily towards matters sensual, towards anger, hatred, etc. If we can make the mind samadhi it will also occasion release, then there’ll be vipassana, insight knowledge, into aniccam, dukham, and anatta to help, resulting in a greater, faster, deeper liberation of the mind.

This liberating can be explained in two ways: making the mind let go of the objects it clings to, or separating the objects from the mind. For ease of understanding we can use the words ‘let go,’ hence we make the mind let go of any object it’s clinging to, or we take the object away from the mind, the result will be the same. Depending on how we see the situation, sometimes we’ll free the mind from the object, from love, from anger, from whatever, or sometimes we’ll take the object away from the mind. This is liberating the mind, freeing the mind from the object, or the object from the mind. The important part is the word ‘liberate.’ This is the fourth step of the third group.

The third group, if we count from the beginning, contains steps nine, ten, eleven, and twelve, of, if we’re being complete, sixteen, if, however, we’re concerned with the particular groups then these are steps one, two, three, and four of the third group, that called ‘cittanupassana,’ which is concerned with gaining power over the mind. Hence it’s necessary to know the mind in all its phases, to know causes and results, to know everything about the mind, and to arrange matters so that we’re able to have power over it, to control it so that it’s like this, or like that, so that it’s correct in the way that it should be.

Now, we’ll look at the fourth group: ‘dhammanupassanasatipathana.’ We have a good understanding of the first group, we’ve been victorious over and gained control of the breathing, and of the physical body, we’ve been victorious over and can control the effect of feeling, which is the concern of the second group, and we’ve defeated and can control the mind, which forms the substance of the third group. In the fourth group we aim to beat upadana, clinging, so that we can control nature, so that we can understand the secrets of nature, all of which is referred to as Dhamma. There’s a problem, a profound problem, called ‘upadana,’ clinging. We’re going to control upadana. So, group one, controlling the body; group two, controlling the feelings; group three, controlling the mind; group four, controlling upadana, clinging, a profound, complex, and hidden secret of nature, from which comes dukkha.

In the first step of the fourth group, ‘aniccanupassi,’ contemplate aniccam with every in and out-breath: breathe in and out contemplating impermanence, mutability, unsubstantiality. He (himself) pointed out aniccam as the first dhamma, the first thing, the first nature to be seen, to be properly understood. Impermanence - it’s mildly amusing that the point here is to not see permanence, substantiality, observe that that’s what we do all the time, but if we experience in a more profound way, then there’s only continual change and transformation going on. If we care to make enough of a properly carried-out study of paticcasamupada we’ll know that there’s only a continuing stream of change, of concocting of causes and conditions - causes and conditions concocting together bringing new formations into existence continually. That’s aniccam: impermanence, unsubstantiality, change and transformation on the profound level.

The continual concocting of new formations, of sankharas, this is impermanence. But this is shallow stuff, easily seen, something everyone can experience, there’s plenty of it about - like birth, for instance, the subsequent growing up process, boy or girl, the onset of old age, and finally into the coffin; or as regards possessions, wealth, these things change too, as does honour, prestige, fortune, everything changes: poverty, riches, it’s all change and transformation, impermanence.

The Buddha mentioned only one word: aniccam, impermanence, mutability, unsubstantiality, but we should also be well aware of anything related to aniccam, because there are many other connected concepts, like dukkha and anatta, for instance. Why didn’t he give the complete list, well, it’s long, there’s a lot, so he just mentioned aniccam, because the truth is that if one sees aniccam one will also see all related dhammas, see aniccam and see everything concerned with it. Aniccam: impermanence, ceaseless change and transformation, instability, the absence of any stable state of affairs, whether without, in the external universe where there’s ony ceaseless change and transformation, and, nearer to home, this world, our home, our body and everything that goes to make it up, all is aniccam, changeful, transformative, insubstantial.

What changes most crazily are mental feelings, because the mind is fast it can change quickly, much more quickly than the body. The physical, the ‘rupa’ dhammas, change slowly so, sometimes, they can be clearly observed, but the mind, the ‘nama’ dhammas, change so quickly that it’s difficult to see, it’s too fast. But, all in all, it’s a matter of change and transformation, instability, so, contemplate aniccam both within and without.

Now it can be further seen that this life, being bound up with change and transformation, must contain dukkha, trouble and strife, and true peace and contentment cannot usually be achieved. If one truly sees aniccam, one sees dukkha too.

Then, when whatever is seen as being both aniccam and dukkham, how can that be called ‘self,’ it’s then understood as being ‘non-self,’ as just a stream of paticcasamupada, of change and transformation. This life isn’t anything other than a stream of dependently originated change and transformation, hence it’s seen as anatta, as ‘non-self.’ Experiencing in just these three ways is sufficient. This is the arising of clear seeing, of wisdom: seeing aniccam, the continuous flow of change and transformation, recognizing that anything which gets bound to the impermanent, the changeful, also gets dukkha, and that anything which is prone to change and to experience dukkha, is there any reason to call that ‘atta,’ or ‘self,’ or ‘me?’

We thus expand it into the seeing of three characteristics, called ‘tri-lakana,’ which our grandparents liked to sanctifiy with the prefix ‘phra.’ Most excellent is it if one sees the tri-lakana, one is then safe. The Buddha mentioned just the word ‘aniccam,’ but it extends into dukkham and anatta, the tri-lakana.

Now we want to be clear, to be more detailed, it’s not really necessary to be so but it will give us some useful knowledge. I’ll take it step by step going on from aniccam, dukkham, and anatta. In the first place we see impermanence, aniccam, dukkha, and anatta clearly, now we also see that, whatever it is, it’s natural, it’s nature, which is called ‘dhammaditthata,’ it’s something ‘established naturally.’ Seeing clearly that in aniccam there is dukkha and anatta, that’s nature, that’s the ‘norm,’ if we recognize these three they add up to ‘dhammaditthata.’

Seeing that things must operate, must be established in accord with the normality of nature, one sees that there’s also a controlling agent, that is, the law of nature, here called ‘dhammaniyamata.’ Recognizing dhammaniyamata follows on from recognition of dhammaditthata, and one realizes, Oh! everything happens in accord with the timeless law of nature, thus one sees idappaccayata, the law of conditionality. Hence we get another three concepts: ‘dhammaditthata,’ ‘dhammaniyamata,’ and ‘idappaccayata.’

We’re still not finished, there’s more: now it’s recognized that whatever it is it’s free, void, it’s ‘sunnata,’ void of ‘self,’ there’s only the void, the ‘non-self,’ constantly rolling along in dependence on causes and supporting conditions. See that, whatever it is, it’s free of ‘self,’ it’s ‘non-self.’ This is ‘sunna,’ which means free, or void - of ‘self,’ but which is usually mis-translated as ‘empty.’ The unknowing translate sunnata as ‘emptiness,’ but those who know translate it correctly in accord with Buddhist principles as ‘void,’ ‘void’ of ‘self.’ Sunna: void of ‘self,’ not just the condition of emptiness. See sunnata, see all things as void: the senses, the aggregates, even all of the elements, are void of ‘self.’

If one sees that anything is completely free of any ‘self’ principle one sees that it’s ‘just like that,’ ‘just like that,’ and not otherwise, this is to see ‘tathata.’ ‘Tatha’ means ‘like that,’ or ‘thus,’ ‘tathata’ means ‘just like that,’ or ‘just thus.’ Recognize that all things are ‘just like that,’ just what they are and not anything more ot less.

‘Tathata’ means ‘just like that,’if anyone doesn’t know this truth they’ll be prone to infatuation, to anger, to hatred, to aversion, and so on. Through recognizing tathata one can put an end to raga, dosa, and moha, to greed, aversion, and delusion. ‘Tathagata’ means one who’s attained that sort of vision: attain tatha, recognize tatha, and see the arahant, the Buddha - all arahants are tathagata, the Buddha representing the peak of that attainment, he being the first to see tatha and then teach it. The word ‘tathagata’ – which means ‘thus come,’ or ‘thus gone’ - describes one who’s attained to tatha, so putting an end to clinging. ‘Tatha,’ ‘just thus,’ or ‘thusness’ - attain to thusness and put a stop to infatuation, to insanity, or whatever, completely.

Finally there’s ‘attamayata,’ a word that nobody much has heard of, because they don’t read the Pali language they don’t meet with it. ‘Attamayata,’ according to the books, means ‘unconcoctability,’ mental stability, or ‘natural correctness.’ I used to talk about this word ten years back but had to stop because nobody understood, and some even claimed it was a falsehood, something brought to delude, to dupe, so it had to be kept back. In later times I quietly took the opportunity to talk about it as often and as regularly as possible, until now there are lots of people who understand: ‘attamayata,’ uncoctability, being naturally stable and correct, being unconcoctable, that’s attamayata, the way out from the undesirable.

So, leave ‘kama,’ carnal desire, gross sensual desire, behind. This world is full of carnality, so enlist attamayata to escape its influence. Kama doesn’t allow an easy escape, one needs to meet with pure form first, the sort of form which isn’t concerned with gross sensuality, the ‘rupadhamma,’ the ‘rupadhatu,’ the element of pure form. One escapes the sensual element and adheres to the element of ‘rupa,’ pure form, finds satisfaction in the pure form element, subsequently one is unmoved by gross sensuality. Escaping the element of pure form through attamayata one coincides with the ‘arupa,’ the formless, because this is a refined experience, it impresses, fascinates, until one experiences the ‘nevasannanasannayatana,’ the experience of neither perception nor non-perception. Escape the ‘arupa,’ the formless, by means of attamayata and experience the ‘nirodhadhatu,’ that is, the ‘nibbanadhatu,’ the nibbana element. All of this will be the result of a preliminary recognition of aniccam expanding out until attamayata is experienced.

The Buddha used just the one word: aniccam, ‘aniccanupassi,’ realise aniccam, he mentioned just the one word, he didn’t include dukkham, or anatta, because truly seeing aniccam gives rise to viraga, the fading away of clinging to things formerly clung to. However, if we want to be more meticulous, more studied, then from aniccam one sees dukkham, anatta, then dhammaditthata, dhammaniyamata, idappaccayata, sunnata, tathata, and, finally, attamayata, which is what makes a Buddha, is what made Siddhartha into a Buddha, and took him beyond his former teacher whose range ended with the arupadhatu, with nevasannanasannayatana.

Seeing aniccam influences to this extent, but if a full explanation of all this was given it would have involved a great deal of information so the teaching was kept brief and just aniccam, aniccanupassi, was mentioned. Shortcut or complete it will be a progressive experience, so let’s say that, although it was kept brief it does involve, at the least, these nine ‘insights,’ if it were to be really explained in detail it would run to twenty, thirty such, but it would then be inflated abhidhamma – ‘abhi’ meaning beyond, or inflated, bloated, too much – while what’s required is enough, enough to truly quench dukkha. Explaining these nine insights is already too much, isn’t necessary for people generally, but good for the sage, the philosopher.

The first step of the fourth group is to see aniccam, which is called aniccanupassi. Realize the first step of the fourth group fully and clearly until attamayata is realized, clinging will then begin to subside, to fade away. This is called ‘viraga,’ and is a most important dhamma - if there’s no fading away of desire and clinging one will remain stuck fast in the vattasamsara, unable to escape, if there is this fading away, this viraga, one can extract oneself from the vatta and meet with the non-vatta, which is nibbana.

‘Viraga’ is a common term borrowed from the laity, it means ‘fading away,’ ‘fading out.’ Nibbana, meaning, ‘cooled,’ ‘quenched,’ is another every-day term which becomes elevated when used in the Buddhist sense. Viraga, then, is used by people generally and borrowed by the Buddhist, at which time it also becomes very elevated, because anything which causes the mind to cling, then, when that clinging fades away it’s referred to as ‘viraga.’ Like dark colours, when such have water added to them repeatedly their colour is diluted, it fades until it’s gone altogether, that’s called ‘viraga.’ The import is that experience aniccam and the same thing happens with clinging, it fades away: the kilesa, tanha, upadana, raga, fade away.

In the second step of the fourth group, seeing aniccam causes the fading away of upadana, mental clinging, to happen, this ‘fading away’ constitutes the second step: ‘viraganupassi;’ observe this ‘fading away,’ with every in and out breath. We need to experience this for ourselves otherwise there won’t be the quenching called nirodha.

Hence the third step is called ‘nirodhanupassi,’ observing the quenching, the ending of the kilesa, the defilements, especially the defilement of upadana, clinging, then there’ll be the end of dukkha. Nirodha here refers to the quenching of the cause - the kilesa of upadana – which will allow the quenching of its result, dukkha, because if the cause is put an end to the result will be gone also: the remainderless quenching of the kilesa, defilement in the form of upadana, being the cause, the result, dukkha, will also quench. Put in another way: quench the sankhara, put an end to all the forms of concocting, and put an end to the stream of paticcasamupada so that there’s no further activity.

We’d like to give another reminder that, although this has already been pointed out we’re afraid that blind-belief is still prevalent, but ‘sankhara’ here doesn’t mean the body, it means mental concocting: something concocting another thing is sankhara, the thing concocted is sankhara, and the activity of concocting is sankhara too. Sankhara has these three meanings. ‘Desang vupassamo sukho,’ which the monks chant at an interment, means that the stilling of the sankhara is sukha, happiness. The stilling, stopping, of the sankhara, of the stream of concocting, is also the stopping of the stream of paticcasamupada, it’s nirodha, quenching, the stilling, or stopping of those things called sankharas.

Now, we’ll make this easier to remember, or there’ll be more stumbling around. Final quenching is the quenching of ‘atta,’ ‘me,’ and of ‘attaniya,’ ‘mine’ : because there’s ignorance there’s always an ‘atta,’ a ‘self,’ then anything we’re concerned with becomes ‘mine.’ There’s ‘me’ first, then there’s ‘my’ life, ‘my’ body, ‘my’ possessions, ‘my’ wife, ‘my’ husband, ‘my’ name, ‘my’ reputation - there’s ‘me’ and there’s ‘mine.’ ‘Me’ or ‘self’ is called ‘atta,’ ‘mine’ is ‘attaniya.’ The final ending of the feeling of attaniya is called ‘nirodhanupassi,’ then there’s normalcy, just nature, that is, there’s recognition of the true emptiness of all sankharas, thus of all things in the universe. There isn’t an atta or an attaniya but ignorance makes us think there is, clinging brings them into existence, clinging binds and the mass of dukkha envelops us. Now there’s nirodha, the remainderless quenching of the atta.

We say that we quench the kilesa, quench the defilement of tanha, and we quench dukkha, but if we use the language of Buddhism we actually quench the atta, which means that we quench attaniya too, the two being inseparable, like a thing and its shadow. Here atta is the actor, it’s the shadow of attaniya, quench that completely and there’s nirodhanupassi, the third step of the fourth group.

We come to the final step: ‘patinissaganupassi,’ or, experiencing ‘giving back’ with every in and out-breath, so seeing the final result. There’s no need to experience this, but it would be good to do so, it being the last job to be done as we put an end to our problems, as we quench dukkha completely - we ‘put the lid on it,’ as it were, then it will be finished, it will be the end of the story and we’ll have fulfilled the brahmacariya. Patinissaga, or ‘giving back,’ specifically the ‘giving back’ of those ‘things’ formerly clung to, which implies the ending, the stopping of the clinging - that’s ‘giving back.’ Before this we were ignorant, going about taking this and that to be ‘me,’ or to be ‘mine,’ we were openly cheats, taking nature to be ‘me,’ we were openly bandits, thieves, taking things to be ‘mine.’ But now we’ve seen the natural truth: because we were ignorant we got bitten and had to endure dukkha continually, hence we practised properly until able to toss back, to give back the things we’d appropriated to their original owner. To use a simile: we’ve been thieves, bandits taking natural processes to be ‘me,’ to be ‘mine,’ and we’ve been deservedly bitten because of that. This ‘giving back,’ is called ‘patinissaganupassi,’ which represents the final step of the practice.

The fourth group, like the other groups, has four steps: aniccanupassi, thoroughly seeing impermanence until experiencing attamayata, unconcoctability, then, because of that, experiencing viraganupassi, the fading away of clinging, with every in and out-breath, subsequently seeing that there’s this fading away until clinging is completely gone, which is to see quenching, or nirodhanupassi. On seeing nirodhanupassi, the quenching process completes itself, there’s the ending of all problems, and there’s the further realization that our duty is done, the matter is finished, the job has been accomplished, now there isn’t anything capable of provoking clinging, which is patinissaganupassi, or ‘giving back.’ The ‘giving back’ process completes and there’s fullness, there’s escape, release - which also needs to be experienced.

Don’t be ‘light’ with the Buddha, the speaker, he stated the case fully, the Dhamma that he revealed he revealed fully and completely: there’s sila, samadhi, and panna, there’s vimmuti, escape, release, but there’s still vimuttinanadasana, the knowledge and vision of release, which should also be known: experience the escape, then, finally, know that it’s all finished, if we don’t have this knowledge and vision of escape it means that there’s still some darkness remaining, the light isn’t yet full and complete. Experience, step by step, aniccanupassi, viraganupassi, nirodhanupassi, patinissaganupassi, these four steps make up the final group, the fourth, called ‘dhammanupassanasatipathana.’

Here we’ll sum up all sixteen steps, all four groups, from beginning to end, full and complete. The first group requires we know all about the body, that is, both the physical and breath bodies. In the first four steps we make complete knowledge of both bodies so that we can control them as we want, whenever we want. Controlling the body is the concern of the first group. The second group is concerned with the vedana, the feelings. The feelings of piti and sukha concoct the mind, so we practise to know them then to control their influence by, 1) not allowing them to concoct the mind at all, or, 2) by allowing them to concoct only in the way that we want. Hence we become the conqueror of the vedana, the feelings. The first group is about conquering the body, the second is about conquering the feelings. The third group is concerned with knowing the mind in all its forms so that we can control it, so that we become its boss, its ever-present chief. Hence we become the mind’s governor, we control it. These three groups are mostly concerned with making the mind fit and able, with making it samadhi.

Having arrived at the fourth and final group we move into the realm of vipassana, of complete knowledge, knowledge of the Dhamma, the kind that liberates the mind. Here we use the well-trained mind, let it do its duty, do its work and experience aniccam, viraga, nirodha, and patinissagga, let it do its work, allow it to let go, to cool down, to abate, to quench until it knows that complete quenching, knows the end of all problems, knows the end of the story and is arahant, is noble, is khinasavo, has put an end to the asava, the inflows of defilement, is vusitava (sic), has transcended the brahmacariya, is katakaraniyo (sic), has done what ought to be done, is ohitaparo (sic), has cast off the burden, is anupattasatato (sic), has acquired the appropriate benefit, is parikhinabhavasannocano (sic), has cut the ties that bind one to existence, and is sammapannavimutto (sic), is liberated through right knowledge. The story ends here.

The four groups of anapanasati perform this activity by controlling the body, the feelings, the mind, and by controlling upadana, clinging, which is thus completely got rid of. Is this a good thing or not? The ignorant won’t want it because it’s not fun, not stimulating, such can’t resist the fun and games. But how sublime would it be? Think about it: liberated from dukkha, from all problems, born human and not wasting the opportunity, getting the best thing we could get, and, being able to answer the question: why were we born? Why were we born? Why were you born? We were born to achieve the best thing that a human being can achieve, to acquire which we practise anapanasati to cut the root of all our problems - paticcasamupada.

Hence we ask you to study this in two stages: study paticcasamupada, the story of dukkha, the growth of dukkha, the concocting of dukkha, so that, in the first place, it’s clearly known that because dukkha arises in this way it can also quench in this way, then practise anapanasati to acquire the ability to do that. Practise for that purpose, to acquire that which can eradicate the problem of dukkha, which is something too detailed to be explained here, hence, for now, we’ll just say practise anapanasati successfully and acquire the ability to stop the stream of paticcasamupada, to not allow it to concoct into dukkha, but instead to concoct into dukkha’s quenching: let the quenching of dukkha arise rather than dukkha itself. This will be paticcasamupada in quenching mode.

The matter ends with this: anapanasati studied and practised in two stages: cittanupassana and dhammanupassana. One should make a detailed study - a teacher can help, can point out the details enabling one to know paticcasamupada and to practise anapanasati.

Our time is up so we’ll stop here. Thank you all for listening. We hope that you’ll meet with increasing success in study and in practice, come to find satisfaction in such activities, come to find happiness in dhamma practice.

7. Applying anapanasati and paticcasamupada.

Today’s talk is about applying anapanasati in tandem with paticcasamupada. Previously we’ve explained paticcasamupada and its applicability, now we’ll look at the actual application of it in our everyday lives.

We’ll look at using anapanasati in conjunction with those events which involve paticcasamupada as they occur in daily life. We’ll be using the term ‘weapons’ here, because there are tools designed to put an end to our problems, those tools, or ‘weapons’ acquired through the practise of anapanasati and known as the four ‘Dhamma comprades.’ Once paticcasamupada has given us knowledge of the problem to be solved we then use the weapons of anapanasati to overcome it, that is, to get rid of dukkha.

Those weapons, those four dhammas, are sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi, each of which has a particular duty to perform. We’ll see how and when they should be used.

These are the four comrade dhammas, here called ‘weapons,’ which exist naturally but need to be developed, brought up to strength until they become instinctual reactions, until they become self-acting. It’s not that we don’t already have these four dhammas, because life must possess these four attributes naturally, there must be sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi, but on a certain level, which, unfortunately, won’t be enough to address the greater problems of life, hence they need to be developed.

A child has sati and can recall things quickly enough, if that wasn’t the case there could be danger, it could be harmed. If the child grabs at a fire it will have enough mindfulness, enough sati to withdraw its hand quickly. Panna, knowledge, the gradual knowing of things, increases naturally, constantly connecting with the sensory world takes care of that, hence children gradually develop knowledge and can learn from their mistakes, learn from experience, so that they can come to know the dangerous from having had to deal with it previously. This knowledge is of the childish level, but it’s also the seed that can flourish and grow into great knowledge, into panna, wisdom. Sati, mindfulness, is the bringer of sampajanna, that particular and necessary knowledge which allows one to function properly in the moment of sense contact, which is something a child also has the appropriate, childish, level of. Samadhi? Children have the childish level of samadhi, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to play their games properly, even throwing a stone at a bird requires that natural form of samadhi appropriate to a child.

Samadhi comes paired with life, it’s included in the form of an instinct. Think about children, about ourselves as children, we had sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi of the childlike kind. As we grew those increased, life’s situations and circumstances developed them. Hence we had access to more sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi than was originally the case. If our schooling was good, if the tuition and training was good, those four items would have become greater and faster, become the sort that would allow us to conduct life successfully in the everyday manner. These are the four comrade dhammas as they naturally occur, we, however, should be interested in developing them fully.

How does practising anapanasati develop sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi? If we aren’t careless and practise anapanasati properly, as defined, the four will be developed in every one of the sixteen steps. Thus: in conjunction with knowing the forms of breathing, short and long, and their relationship with the physical body, in the restraining of the breathing and, through that, the restraining of the physical body; in experiencing the vedana, the feelings, both of piti and sukha, in knowing the feelings, the cittasankhara, and in controlling them; in observing every kind of mind state, in making the mind glad, in making the mind samadhi enough to do its work properly, and in liberating the mind, resulting in sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi refined, subtle, and carefully enough directed to achieve the contemplation of aniccam.

All sixteen steps of anapanasati are concerned with the training of extreme mindfulness, of sati, hence it’s called ‘anapana-sati,’ that is, having sati, being mindful each time we breathe in and out. We train to have sati with every in and out-breath, hence we practise for the appropriate amount of time to develop that sati which is agile, which is very quick, we aim for speed and sensitivity. When the practice of anapanasati has been completed there’ll be sati to burn, fast and powerful, possessing the power of an ‘indriya,’ a ‘controlling faculty,’ there’ll be something great. So, develop sati to the full.

Now, panna, right knowledge: in practising all of anapanasati everything eventually comes together in the final group of four steps, there’s been throughout the practice that gradually burgeoning knowledge which will culminate in ultimate knowledge. That ultimate knowledge arises in the final group, but don’t forget that there’s knowledge to be gleaned from all four groups, and from every step, even the first, in fact there’s been an accumulation of knowledge ever since we began to practise. Sampajanna, ‘clear comprehension,’ is that special knowledge brought by sati which is appropriate for a particular sense experience, but which also boosts one’s keenness and willingness to move on through the steps. We could say that sampajanna is ‘problem-solving’ knowledge, but it could also be called ‘developing knowledge’ in that it renders each succeeding step better understood. Knowing how the breathing is, what the characteristics of long breathing are, what sort of influence it has, or whatever, and how the short forms of breathing are, how the breathing combines together with the body, how the body and the breathing are related, is panna operating as sampajanna, knowledge functioning as clear comprehension, clear understanding.

‘Sampajano satima vineyyaloke abhijja domanas’ - which means something like ‘having sampajanna and sati to lead us away from the happiness and unhappiness of the world’ - forms the heart, the essence, of the satipathana practice. To remove happiness and unhappiness there must be the subtle knowledge called ‘sampajanna.’ The Buddha said having sampajanna and sati would take us away from happiness and unhappiness, from the positive and negative, from the ups and downs of the world.

Now, samadhi: there’s a little samadhi from the beginning of the practice, just fixing the mind on an object involves some samadhi. From step one, step two, three, up until the final step, from the first up to the beginning of thirteenth step it’s a matter of samadhi, from the thirteenth step onwards it’s a matter of vipassana, of clear seeing. Get comfortable with samadhi, it forms a pair with vipassana.

Now, this is important: samadhi, if it’s just samadhi, can’t do anything wonderful, but when it’s coupled with panna, when the two work together, samadhi becomes very useful. Consider an engine, a motor - a motor isn’t going to be useful until it’s connected to something else. Connect a motor to something and it can perform its duty. Samadhi alone is peaceful, relaxing, but when it performs its duty in combination with panna it becomes that continuous samadhi, that samadhi without lapses, without gaps, which is its most developed and highest form. It’s true to say that samadhi combined with knowledge becomes useful in the full sense, because then it can do its proper duty, just as a motor, an engine, when connected to a load will do its proper duty, be it milling rice or cutting wood, or whatever.

Know how to use samadhi, how to use the power of samadhi in combination with panna. Panna can be seen as being like sharpness, while samadhi can be likened to weight. If there’s only sharpness, no matter how much sharpness there is, if the weight isn’t there to apply the necessary pressure there’ll be no cutting. Sharpness alone is sterile, ineffective.

To continue: how will we manage the four dhamma comrades, how will we use them for our benefit?

We’ll look at paticcasamupada first, the paticcasamupada we’ve already considered in some detail: bring these four comrade knowledges to deal with paticcasamupada at the step which concerns just the senses. An impact between the inner and outer senses gives rise to consciousness, even this much is paticcasamupada. Of the eleven pairs involved any pair can be called paticcasamupada. Take the paticcasamupada which the Buddha liked to recite, thus: when the eye meets a visual object eye consciousness arises - it’s not the case that consciousness pre-exists the meeting together of the two senses, we’re not concerned here with the Hindu version in which there is a pre-existing atman hence a pre-existing consciousness too, Buddhism doesn’t allow that understanding, rather, when the eye meets a form, when an inner sense base meets with an outer sense base, consciousness will occur as a result. Even at this step we’ll need to make use of the four comrades, so, bring sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi to exercise control, even here, at the arising of eye consciousness, to avoid any mistakes being made.

Those three – sense organ, sense object, and sense consciousness - working together are collectively called phassa, contact, hence control the moment of contact. Phassa gives rise to vedana, to feeling, so control feeling too. It would be very wise to know and to be able to control things so that dependent origination doesn’t happen at all, so that there’s no arising of eye-consciousness, for instance, then, both the eye and the form being under control no problem would occur, instead we’d let the eye be a wise eye, let the form be the sort that wasn’t dangerous. Otherwise exercise control at the moment of sense contact or the stream of paticcasamupada will be concocted.

Controlling one instance of this process is equivalent to controlling the whole stream, because one condition can become the stream. When it’s still one condition alone it doesn’t possess any potency, when it becomes the stream it will pull one towards death.

Now, when there’s phassa, contact, when the inner sense base, the outer sense base, and consciousness come together and create phassa, contact, then sati, mindfulness, must arrive immediately bringing the other three dhamma comrades along to deal with the contact, to make it a wise contact, a ‘vijja’ phassa, not an ignorant contact, a contact guided by foolishness. A wise contact won’t produce an unwise, a deceptive, feeling, vedana, the sort of feeling which is the basis for the spread of delusion. When contact is wise, feeling will be wise too; if contact is foolish the feeling will be deceptive and will give rise to liking or disliking, will let the positive and negative arise. Hence, let feeling be wise, not foolish so that one doesn’t fall into love or hate, into liking or disliking, into happiness or unhappiness.

Now, vedana, feeling, gives rise to tanha, foolish desire, which, itself, is quite an exciting experience. Tanha, like a house fire, is something difficult to deal with but can still be controlled, so control it, and don’t let upadana, clinging, foolish clinging arise. Sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi will control tanha, but if the four comrades aren’t already developed and thus aren’t strong enough there’s no way tanha can be controlled.

Now, if clinging, upadana, arises then dukkha is already arisen too; clinging can’t be fully controlled and is itself naturally combined with dukkha. Clinging, other than by reducing its power somewhat, can’t be fixed, it’s dukkha, so restrain clinging, don’t let it develop.

In this way we make use of the four special weapons, the four Dhamma comrades, to deal with paticcasamupada, to control it, to stop it from giving rise to dukkha.

Controlling the five khandas is a similar affair, in fact the operation of paticcasamupada involves the five aggregates.

Here, be especially interested in finding out what the ‘pancakhanda,’ the five aggregates, actually are, because at this time they’re still misunderstood, in that it’s thought that the khandas are present all the time, that they’re always existent, but this is ignorance, because the five aggregates arise in the same way as paticcasamupada, that is, when the conditions are suitable. Now we’ll take a look at them.

When an inner sense, like the eye, for instance, does its duty in conjunction with an outer sense, like a form, this represents the arising of the rupakhanda, the aggregate of form, or materiality.

Now, ‘birth’ in the highest Dhamma language doesn’t mean birth from the mother’s womb, but refers to something doing its duty, performing its function, while, something which is at rest, which isn’t performing its duty, is referred to as ‘not born,’ or ‘not arisen.’ When anything does its duty it’s ‘born’ - as with the eye, which is always physically present, but if it’s yet to do its duty, yet to perform its function, it’s not yet said to have arisen, to have been ‘born,’ it’s when it does its duty that it’s born as the eye. Children, or people without real knowledge, will argue that they always have eyes so why say that the eyes haven’t been born? But that’s the sound of ignorance. The language of Dhamma has it that when the eye does its particular duty it’s born at that time; when the ear does its duty it’s born, as is tha case with the nose, the tongue, etc. When something does its duty, performs its function, it’s said to be born, when not doing it’s duty it’s not characterized as having been born, it’s then referred to as a ‘dhatu,’ a natural element.

Hence there’s something children will misunderstand, that is: ‘the eye is born and the eye quenches, the ear is born, and the ear quenches, the nose is born, and the nose quenches’ – children, and those who’ve never studied Dhamma, won’t understand this properly: ‘the eye is born, the eye quenches, the ear is born, the ear quenches,’ so grasp this first of all: if something is doing its duty it’s said to have been ‘born,’ or to have arisen, when it’s not doing its duty, when it’s at rest, it’s said to have ‘quenched,’ or ceased. Hence there’s birth, or arising, and there’s quenching, or ceasing, going on all the time. The rupakhanda arises when the inner and outer sense bases meet together and perform their respective duties, thus: the eye meets a form and eye consciousness arises, that is, the rupakhanda having arisen so eye consciousness, the vinnanakhanda, arises as a result - the vinnanakhanda will arise several times during the processing of one a sense contact, so will perform its duty several times: in the first moments of sense contact eye consciousness will perform its function, then ‘manovinnana,’ mind-consciousness will take over and oversee the rest of the process. Hence vinnana, consciousness will operate several times.

When there’s a sense contact vedana, feeling, arises, which is the vedanakhanda. If the contact is ignorant the feeling will be understood as likeable or unlikeable, if, because of the presence of the four comrades, the contact is wise, any feeling will be wise too, won’t be delusive, won’t provoke liking or disliking. It will, however, still be called vedana. When vedana, feeling, arises, if there’s ignorance, avijja, in charge, the feeling will be perceived as being this or that sort of a feeling, which will be the sannakhanda doing it’s duty and perceiving the feeling as pleasant, unpleasant, as likeable, as satisfying, as pertaining to a woman, a man, etc.

Sannakhanda is perception, arising in response to feeling, but this is perception operating as recognition so isn’t too powerful. This sanna, which is essentially memory, assists that sanna which perceives something as being this or that, with this or that meaning, like ‘man’ or ‘woman,’ etc. This is the arising of the sannakhanda.

When the sannakhanda has perceived there’ll be the power to concoct, hence arises thought, concocting, in accord with the perception. This is the sankarakhanda arising as thinking, so ‘kamma’ will now be concocted, mental, followed by verbal, and bodily kamma, action, will ensue. The sannakhanda thus gives rise to the sankharakhanda. The pancakhanda, the five aggregates, operate in this way.

Now, the vinnanakhanda, in the listing of the khandas, is kept until last, but in truth vinnana, consciousness will have been involved since the beginning of any experience, since the senses first impacted, consciousness arose then as sense consciousness, and, subsequently, will have arisen many more times during the course of one experience, but as mind-consciousness. The five sense consciousnesses do their respective duties but aren’t capable of producing meaning, there must be mind-consciousness making contact for any meaning of this or that sort to arise. Hence manovinnana, mind-consciousness is continually involved during the perceptual process, it knows contact, phassa, ignorant or wise, it knows vedana, feeling, sanna, perception, etc. Every time there’s a contact there has to be vinnana, consciousness, too. This is the vinnanakhanda.

It’s puzzling as to why vinnana is listed last, brings up the rear, as it were. It operates from the first in any experience but is put last because it accompanies every mode, hence there’s uncertainty as to which of its various duties it’s performing at any given time, so it’s proper to put it in last place. It was observed that the rupakhanda arose to do its duty, then the vedanakhanda, then sannakhanda, then sankharakhanda, but always in company with the vinnanakhanda. These are the pancakhanda, the five aggregates. However, because of our original ignorance, the aggregates have been and always are being attached to as ‘self’: the rupakhanda is a ‘self,’ the vendanakhanda is a ‘self,’ the sannakhanda is a ‘self,’ etc. they become the ‘pancupadanakhandas,’ the foolishy ‘clung to’ aggregates, having been clung to ever since we emerged from the womb - not that clinging was present in the womb, rather from the womb, from birth, is meant here. These are the pancakhanda, the five aggregates. If upadana, clinging, takes possession of them they’re called pancupadanakhandas, if not they’re just referred to as the pancakhandas, the aggregates still to be possessed by clinging, or the aggregates in which clinging has been destroyed, which would then be the aggregates of an arahant.

Further, these aggregates were probably known about before the Buddha emerged, so don’t go about making false claims as to what the Buddha knew and taught. The five khandas, or the four dhatus, the four elements, were known about before the Buddha’s time, but were wrongly understood as being ‘self’ - but they were known about, although mostly in the medical sense. The Buddha came along and taught, correctly, that the aggregates weren’t ‘self.’ He didn’t need to waste time explaining what the aggregates actually were – what the rupakhanda, the vedanakhanda, etc. actually were - there was no need to do that, he told his first five disciples that form, feeling, perception etc. weren’t ‘self,’ they already knew what the five khandas were, but clung to them as being ‘self,’ as was, and still is, the way of things. The Buddha had the duty of putting that misunderstanding right: the five aggregates which were clung to as being ‘self,’ weren’t. There were several other matters which were already known about, even nibbana had been recognized but was understood in a way which was not in line with the Buddha’s understanding. He had to explain some things - the five aggregates, the elements, nibbana, etc – which were being explained wrongly in the right way, most particularly that which dominated all, the teaching of ‘self,’ that there was an ‘atta,’ a ‘self,’ a ‘me,’ and that there was attaniya, ‘mine,’ the Buddha came and taught anew: that there wasn’t.

Please, Buddhists, don’t be ignorant and mistranslate the word ‘anatta’ as meaning that there isn’t a ‘self’at all, because there is, even the Buddha mentioned it, but it’s the atta which isn’t atta, it’s the ‘self which isn’t a ‘self,’ the ‘self’ which is just a word. The ‘atta’ which isn’t atta is the ‘majjhimapatipada,’ the middle way, that’s the ‘atta’ which, it can be seen, isn’t atta at all. If it’s felt that there is an atta, a ‘self,’ in the full sense, it’s ‘sassathaditthi,’ eternalism, which forms one extreme view, if, however, it’s held that that there isn’t anything at all, no atta of any kind, it’s ‘ucchedaditthi,’ the other extreme view. In the middle between those two extremes is the view that there’s an atta which isn’t really an atta at all. Anatta means ‘non-atta,’ ‘non-self,’ we have a ‘self’ which isn’t a ‘self,’ but we misunderstand and believe that there’s always been a ‘self,’ ever since we emerged from our mother’s womb it’s been thus, and it will continue to be so until we come to know that it’s a ‘self’ that’s not a ‘self,’ not an atta at all, then we’ll be arahant.

The atta which isn’t atta, the ‘self’ which isn’t a ‘self,’ is called anatta. That there is an atta, a self, is one extreme view, the other extreme view is that there isn’t, which is known as ‘niratta’ - nir + atta, that is, no atta at all. The word here is a + atta, or anatta, ‘non-self,’ which represents a correct understanding, represents ‘sammaditthi,’ right view, represents the majjhimapatipada, the middle way between the extremes. It’s not that there is or there isn’t an atta, there is something but it’s not what we think - that’s ‘anatta.’ It’s alright to say that there is a kind of ‘self,’ but when that boils up into ‘ahankara,’ into ‘me,’ or ‘mamankara,’ into ‘mine,’ there’s trouble. But everyone feels that there is a ‘self,’ it’s habitual.

Now we know the five aggregates when clung to as ‘me’ and ‘mine’ are called the pancupadanakhandas, the five clung-to aggregates, which form a stream like that of paticcasamupada. The aggregates when not being clung to are called the ‘pancakhanda,’ when being clung to they’re known as the ‘pancupadanakhanda,’ hence there are two designations in use with meanings as far apart as the sky is from the ground, so don’t mix them up. The five aggregates if clung to are of one sort, if not clung to they’re of another, however, they’ll usually be the clung-to variety, as is the case with the worldly, so that in everyday language when talking about the aggregates the clung-to kind will be meant. It’s said that the five aggregates are heavy loads, that is, the aggregates of everyday people are full of clinging and dukkha, and dukkha is something heavy, hence it’s said: ‘bharahavepancakhanda’ - the five aggregates are heavy loads; ‘bharaharocapuggalo,’ which means ‘the person foolishly picks them up and carts them around’ ; ‘bharadanamdukkamloke,’ means ‘carrying such weight is dukkha in this world’ ; and, ‘bharanikepanamsukham, which means ‘throwing off this weight is sukha, is happiness.’ The wise having discarded all of that weight, and without acquiring any more of the same, are without problems, they’re niccatoparinibhuto: ‘completely quenched in parinibbana,’ in full nibbana.

The khandas arise as the clinging aggregates all the time: rupa does its duty, arises and is clung to, vedana arises to do its duty and is clung to, sanna is clung to, sankhara is clung to, hence it’s said that the five clinging aggregates are dukkha. We chant this everyday, but it doesn’t get properly grasped. The morning chanting identifies dukkha fully and completely, sums it up with the words: ‘sankitena pancupadanakhanda dukkha,’ which means: ‘in brief, the five aggregates mixed up with clinging are dukkha.’ So, know what the phrase ‘pancupadanakhanda dukkha’ means, see with clarity what the five aggregates are, and recognize that when clung to they’re dukkha.

Now we have the four Dhamma comrades directing things there’s no clinging to the aggregates, because there’s sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi on hand to deny the arising of the ignorant atta, it doesn’t arise from any individual aggregate or from the aggregates collectively.

As regards the rupakhanda, understand clearly that rupa, which is composed of the four elements, while still operating as the four elements is problem-free, on them coming together as the rupakhanda there’ll immediately be a nervous system involved so that the rupakhanda now has the ability to feel. The rupakhanda thus experiences feeling whenever there’s a contact. There’s no need for an atta, here, for a ‘self,’ a spirit, or a soul, it’s not necessary that there be anyone doing the feeling, because the rupakhanda can feel of its own accord, albeit on basic, simple, crude level. A leaf - which is the rupakhanda - can therefore feel too, and some kinds of leaves when touched will close up, will fold up in order to avoid, to get out of the way, to escape, hence a leaf can feel too, but any feeling it might experience is just the rupakhanda operating, there’s no need for an atta, for a ‘self,’ a spirit, or whatever, to be involved. Hence know that the rupakhanda isn’t atta, isn’t a ‘self,’ using the power of sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi, consider carefully, and see that rupa, form, isn’t ‘self.’

Now, the vedanakhanda, once concocted as the vedanakhanda, is what feels. The vedanakhanda is mental feeling, it’s an attribute of the mind called ‘cetasika,’ which means ‘mental factor.’ The vedanakhanda can do any feeling by itself, there’s no need for an atta or anything else to be involved, the vedanakhanda knows, or feels, any feeling itself.

When the sannakhanda perceives anything to be this or that it’s the sannakhanda, just the sannakhanda, performing its natural function.

When the sankharakhanda thinks, concocts, that’s all that’s happening: the sankharakhanda is thinking.

The vinnanakhanda, and only the vinnanakhanda, operating through the eyes, ears, nose, body, and mind, is what does the cognizing, the knowing, according to which form of consciousness is operating, there’s no need for an ‘atman,’ for a ‘self’ to get involved. See clearly that the five aggregates aren’t ‘self,’ be aware that the ‘self’ is something that arises from the stream of paticcasamupada.

The ‘ayatana,’ the senses, operating within paticcasamupada, are the rupakhanda, there’s vedanakhanda, feeling, within dependent origination too, vedana gives rise to tanha, foolish desire, which is the sankharakhanda, the sannakhanda, perception, recognition, is also involved in the arising of tanha, while the vinnankhanda, cognition or awareness, is present at every stage of the process. Looked at like this we can see how both paticcasamupada, dependent origination, and the pancakhanda, the five aggregates operate. We’ll use the four dhamma comrades to manage both.

This discourse is about applying anapanasati to paticcasamupada and to the five khandas, or, we could say, it’s about applying anapanasati to dukkha, both paticcasamupada and the pancakhanda being bound up with dukkha. We’ll use the four comrades to control dukkha’s arising. Simply put: we don’t allow the ‘atta’ to arise at any time, not even at avijja, thus avija, ignorance, isn’t atta, sankhara aren’t atta, vinnana isn’t atta, namarupa isn’t atta, the ayatana aren’t atta, vedana aren’t atta, tanha isn’t atta, there’s no atta to be found in the whole stream of paticcasamupa. The rupakhanda isn’t atta, vedanakhanda isn’t atta, sannakhanda isn’t atta, sankharakhanda isn’t atta, vinnanakhanda isn’t atta. So where is the ‘self’? There’s no room for it anywhere.

In systems prior to the arising of Buddhism it was taught that there was an ‘atta,’ both in the individual sense, and, in the ultimate sense, as the atta that existed everywhere, in all things - a special, an eternal atta. Hence they taught in an opposite way to Buddhism. They claimed to possess the highest knowledge concerning this atta, the idea being that we could clean the personal atta up, purify it, and then join with the eternal atta, which, for those people was nibbana.

The Buddhist nibbana dispenses with the atta, finishes with it, quenches it without remainder, is completely free from the idea of any eternal ‘self.’ Put simply: the eternal atta is nibbana for some people, not having any such thing is nibbana for the Buddhist. Why can’t there be an eternal atta? Because the four comrade dhammas of sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi, once sufficiently and properly developed, will eliminate the feeling of ‘self,’ the perception will be gone, and, more profoundly, foolish clinging will be gone too, leaving no basis for the arising of dukkha. There isn’t a ‘self’ so there’s nothing to be born, age, get sick, and die, all that is sankharas, don’t take them to be ‘mine,’ we don’t need to have those problems. It’s asked: after we die where do we get born? We don’t have an atta now, here and now, so, given that there isn’t a ‘self’ here and now, what gets born, where and how?

That each person has a ‘self’ isn’t Buddhism. The usual assumption is that each person has a ‘self,’ even if, at first it’s naturally remaining ‘fuel,’ like the six elements of earth, water, fire, air, space, and consciousness, and from them a new atta will be concocted. However, it won’t be the same as existed before, this new atta won’t be the same as the previous one. We don’t have an atta which spins around in birth and death as some believe, we have an illusory atta which is provisional, ephemeral, comes and goes, but which, ultimately, isn’t a reality. Quenching this ‘self’ feeling makes one arahant.

Hence the arahant isn’t reborn, there’s no more birth because there isn’t an atta. If there’s still the ignorance of ‘self’ belief then there’ll be birth - as some believe. Those who came and taught here (Siam) before Buddhism arrived taught an atta-based teaching, imbedded it into the minds of people in this part of the world so that they came to believe that there really was such a thing. When Buddhism came to this country it met with much difficulty because the people were so sold on the atta.

To use an analogy, one that we might not understand: it was necessary to overcome the belief in mara, in demons, ogres, and so forth, before Buddhism could be established here (Siam), which was a big task, because while there was firm belief in such things Buddhism couldn’t be taught. Which means that it was necessary to first extract, remove the previously taught knowledge of atta (the aforementioned mara, ogres, and demons) and replace it with the Buddhist teaching of anatta (reality.)

But it’s become so tangled up that it can’t be drawn out, there’s still atta, still ‘self’ belief, but Buddhism taught like that isn’t Buddhism: if it’s still believed that it’s the same ‘self’ cycling around in birth and death it’s not Buddhism. Buddhism teaches here and now that there isn’t an atta, a ‘self,’ hence: rupa, form, isn’t ‘self,’ vedana, feeling, isn’t ‘self,’ sanna, perception, isn’t ‘self,’ sankhara, thought, isn’t ‘self,’ and vinnana, consciousness, isn’t ‘self,’ so what could be this ‘self?’ That’s called ‘anatta.’ There’s only the ‘self’ which isn’t really a ‘self,’ because it’s something which is misunderstood by the ignorant as being atta, as being ‘me,’ they being deceived by a feeling which is essentially instinctual.

Take an interest in studying those things called instincts, which occur naturally in babies. While in the womb there’s no atta, no feeling of ‘self,’ but on exiting the womb the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind will meet with their objects, and when the positive is met with, in say, the form of the delicious, the child will experience delight and ignorance will step in as the ‘me’ who’s delighted - a delighted ‘me’ will arise from the experience. When the nervous system experiences the delightful there will arise the ignorant feeling of being ‘me,’ which will come from, or be a result of the experience. If it’s an experience of the unpleasant there’ll be constraint, perhaps anger, the unpleasant will cause the arising of a displeased ‘me.’ Either way this will happen, and happen increasingly, in dependence on the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or the mind performing their functions.

When the child bumps into a chair and hurts itself it might hit out at the chair, ignorantly feeling that the chair is a ‘self’ which has hurt ‘me.’ The child doesn’t need to be taught to do this, it’s a matter of self-arisen ignorance. The child through ignorance is ‘me.’ A knife cuts a finger, there’s ignorance, so it’s a knife cuts ‘me.’ How foolish is this? The feeling of a knife cutting a finger, and the feeling of a knife cutting ‘me,’ how different are they? How different in weight of meaning? A child is frightened because the knife has cut ‘me’ rather than realizing that the knife has cut a finger.

While the nervous system at the eye sees a form, the worldly would say ‘I’ see a form, not the eye sees a form. The ear and its nervous system hear a sound, but it’s ‘I’ hear a sound, or ‘I’ smell an odour, ‘I’ taste, ‘I’ feel a touch, ‘I’ get that, get this kind of feeling, hence the ‘me’ arises out of the five aggregates. We just feel something instinctually, but there’s original ignorance around, and that ignorance comes to growth, bears fruit. Those Hindoos don’t know this, they believe that there’s a ‘self,’ an atta, but the Buddha didn’t admit such ignorance, he said that there’s avijja, ignorance, tanha, craving, and upadana, clinging, which brings forth the feeling of ‘self.’ We should know this truth, that is, know the truth of paticcasamupada, and of the pancakhanda, with this knowledge in place we can then exercise control using our weaponry, the four dhamma comrades of sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi.

Consider carefully: there’s ignorance progressing through the power of an instinctual feeling. Ignorance begins with the exit from the mother’s womb, because then vedana, feelings are met with, and sukhavedana, pleasant feelings, will give rise to a positive ‘self,’ while dukkhavedana, unpleasant feelings will produce the negative version. There arise positive and negative versions of the ‘self,’ which, as time passes, will grow more powerful until we end up killling each other, or whatever. Ignorance makes the ‘self’ more and more powerful. The Buddha revealed this truth. We need to get rid of this problem: don’t have a ‘self’ and there won’t be any dukkha. This is where we call on the four comrades and use them to solve the problems associated with paticcasamupada and the pancakhanda.

Here we’ve looked at applying anapanasati in order to eradicate the problems associated with paticcasamupada, and the pancakhanda.

There’s a little time left so we’ll add some more: even in matters which aren’t concerned with the Dhamma, in worldly matters, the four dhamma comrades can be used: in working the fields, in the orchards, in business, or whatever, these four comrades can be made use of. Think about it, would a farmer with the knowledge, with the abilities of sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi, farm better than a farmer without them? Any farmer who has these four comrades would farm well, and could do any work well, could do business, could be an artist, could do anything well. Even, finally, in fighting, it’s not that one encourages altercations, or fights, rather fighting itself, boxing, using the fists as boxers do, any boxer who possesses the four comrades will certainly defeat one who doesn’t. In verbal disputes anyone who has the four comrades would argue more skilfully, would win a dispute. In court, in a court case, anyone with the four comrades is more likely to succeed than one without them. In debating, discussing in a meeting, one who has the four comrades will debate well, will come out on top. These are examples of the dhamma comrades operating in worldly affairs.

In summing up the problems of everyday life it can be said that one who doesn’t possess, and thus cannot use the four Dhamma comrades in the proper way and at the right time will have the sort of life which will bite them. The life of the ignorant bites, bites worse than a dog would; dogs, however, don’t usually bite their masters, but life, lived ignorantly, will, life without the four Dhamma comrades will bite, and continually. Foreigners who come to Suan Mokkh to study Dhamma like this saying very much: we say that we teach people how to live in such a way that life doesn’t bite, and that if one doesn’t have this knowledge life will bite. Love bites, love is one form of madness which bites; anger bites, fear bites, excitement bites, worrying about the future bites, longing after the past bites, jealousy bites, sometimes we kill each other because of jealousy. Life bites its owner in many ways: love, anger, hatred, fear, excitement, worry, longing after, jealousy, these examples will do, although there are more that could be mentioned.

Think about it: if one has the four Dhamma comrades life won’t bite, so, be interested in acquiring and using them at the right time and in the way described. Possess sati, panna, sampajanna, samadhi, and life will display the coolness of nibbana, it won’t be hot, and it won’t bite. Nibbana is problem-free, dukkha-free, cool, peaceful. This concerns us here and now, in our daily lives. So control paticcasamupada, control the pancakhanda, control the bad which tends to occur in everyday life and get something worthwhile. Be interested in acquiring those marvelous weapons, the four Dhamma comrades of sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi, in the full sense.

8. Anapanasati, the bodhipakiyadhammas, and attaining the Dhamma.

Today’s, final, lecture will be on anapanasati as it’s concerned with lokuttaradhamma, the transcendental. We’ve already taken a general look at the practice as it pertains to lokiyadhamma, the worldly, today we’ll direct our attention towards ‘anapanasati, the bhodipakiyadhammas, and attaining the Dhamma.’

Here we’ll just review the previous lectures a little. We spoke about those present and still unresolved small problems: the ‘tea overflowing the cup,’ the ‘leaking out at the bottom,’ and ‘the mother crab that won’t show the child crab the right way to walk.’ As regards Dhamma, the tea overflows the cup because of the ‘pariyati’ form of teaching, because of over intellectualisation, plus an excess of tradition, until the cup of the mind overflows and nothing of a more truly useful kind can be put in. The characteristic of ‘leaking out at the bottom’ means that the true Dhamma, that which can truly quench dukkha, leaks away, and what’s left is the sort of dhamma that’s materially useful, so even though Dhamma does get taught it’s not for ending dukkha, it’s for some material purpose, for money, for distinction, for fame, while the dhamma that can really quench dukkha just leaks away. The materially beneficial thus cakes-up, blocks-up the mind up. The mother crab unable to show its offspring how to walk refers to those teachers who transmit knowledge but without demonstrating how to actually get benefit from it. These problems should be the first we attempt to solve.

Subsequently we gave a rough sketch of paticcasamupada and anapanasati, enough to see what it’s all about, after which we explained paticcasamupada clearly, then we explained how to apply it, how to practise with it, following which we looked at the required form of anapanasati, both from the point of view of the teacher and the taught. Today will be the last day of the series, so first we’ll look again at applying anapanasati to the teaching of paticcasamupada from both the worldly and the Dhammic points of view, then we’ll take on the subject of ‘anapanasati, the bodhipakiyadhammas, and the attainment of Dhamma,’ which means that we’ll be looking at the lokuttaradhamma in this final lecture.

Something important the Buddha said that we should keep in mind was that when anapanasati is fulfilled the four satipathana are fulfilled too, which means that if all sixteen steps of anapanasati have been fulfilled, completed, then the four satipathanas will be fulfilled, will have been completed too. Further the four satipathanas, once fulfilled, will fulfill the bodhipakiyadhammas, especially the seven bojjhanga, and, when the seven bojjhanga are fulfilled that will naturally give rise to vijja and vimutti, to knowledge and liberation, or, to put that another way, will naturally fulfill the noble eightfold path.

Briefly: anapanasati fulfills the four satipathana, the satipathana fulfill the seven bojjhanga, the bojjhanga bring full knowledge and liberation. These are the essentials.

Now, for the sake of completeness we should go over all sixteen steps of anapanasati again to reiterate their importance, and to understand clearly what’s what. In the first group we study the bodies, both the breath and the physical bodies, until we know that they aren’t ‘self,’ and so that we can control them, make them calm down. The essential component here is the knowledge that neither is in any way ‘self.’ Doing this level completely means that we see the body in the body, that is, see each body. How many bodies are there? At the least see the flesh body which arises with the breath body, see the inter-relationship, see them arise together and go down together, see them become rough together, and become subtle together, see them calm down together. See the body in the body from all points. Be diligent in observing, possess sampajanna, clear comprehension, that is, be perfectly and clearly aware of every detail, and have full mindfulness. When we can achieve this level of commitment we’ll naturally dwell without covetousness and grief, without happiness and unhappiness.

We would ask you to remember a little of the Pali language here, which will be useful: atapi, sampajano, satima vineyyaloke abhijja domanassam, just these words. ‘Atapi’ means being diligent in the burning up of ignorance, of the defilements - being atapi to the fullest extent. ‘Sampajano’ is the clear comprehension of what one is actually doing, and ‘satima’ is the sort of constant mindfulness which renders one always in control. A person who practises should possess these three characteristics: atapi, sampajano, and satima.

Practise the kayanupassana section of anapanasati until there’s atapi: diligence in burning up the kilesa, in the burning up of ignorance and attachment; sampajano: clear comprehension; and satima: sati, mindfulness which is fast and complete.

Vineyyaloke abhijja domanasam have been somewhat explained already but we want to make clear what ‘abhijja’ and ‘domanasam’ mean, we’ve only heard the words happiness and unhappiness in relation to them, but the Buddha hardly ever used that kind of language, he just said abhijja and domanasam. Happiness and unhappiness are their accepted ordinary, everyday interpretations in the world, that is, feelings of the positive or negative sort.

When something causes a positive feeling there’ll be desire to get, to possess, then to protect, when something causes a negative feeling there’s the desire to destroy, to get rid of, giving rise to vexation, distress, anger. Positive and negative feelings are frequently experienced by human beings, occurring daily, hourly, even every five or ten minutes. The Buddha used the words abhijja and domanas to describe experiences occurring in the workaday world, the world of the still unknowing being full of abhijja and domanasa, of the positive and negative.

Now practise each group of anapanasati; practise the body group with atapi, sampajano, satima, vineyaloke abhijja domanasam, to such an extent that the positive and negative are absent, then, in physical matters, there’ll be peace, the body will remain calmed, cooled, and a good balance will have been struck between the breath and the flesh bodies.

We reach the vedana group next, so get to know what vedana is, for instance, know it as the mind’s boss, as what dominates the mind, as what pushes it around, makes it do anything, makes it do right, do wrong, do bad, do good, or whatever. Vedana is feeling, and feeling includes ‘piti.’ Whenever there’s the desired result the pleasure of satisfaction arises, which is abhijja, if the pleasant feeling is so strong that there’s trembling, shaking in the body, it’s called ‘piti.’ If that’s restrained until the disturbance disappears and it smooths out it’s then referred to as sukha, happiness. In truth it’s satisfaction in both instances, it’s just that one instance is rough in character, while the other is subtle, peaceful, and calm. This is the positive side of things, positive feeling.

Observe that, for how much positive there is, there will be that much of the negative too, even the highest experience of satisfaction will come to an end and the negative must follow. Know that vedana are both positive and negative, but that the vedana which dominate people the most are the positive sort, up to and including piti and sukha. Know them clearly, understand their behaviour, their influence, especially how they dominate, and try to reduce their influence, reduce their ability to dominate. This attempt to lessen the power of the positive and negative will be atapi, the care and attention being applied to every point, every aspect, every problem along the way, will be sampajano, while satima will manifest as full mindfulness of the vedana, then there’ll be vineyyaloke abhijja domanasam, that is, both abhijja and domanasa will be taken out.

Here we come to the mind group: know the mind in all its forms, know and control it in the way related: make it glad, cheerful, let it stop thinking, be calmed, be peaceful, be samadhi, and make it let go of anything it’s involved with, release the mind from its object, or release the object from the mind, which comes to the same thing - take the mind away from the object, take the object away from the mind, that is, incinerate, burn up any clinging. Atapi here is about being diligent and persevering in order to burn up clinging, and that, in conjunction with sampajano and satima, will result in vineyyaloke abhijja domanasam.

Now, the final group, the Dhamma group. This one is important, huge, covering the entire universe. Being free from clinging is Dhamma. The truth of nature, thus of all things is Dhamma. In the final group of anapanasati our problems are dealt with, that is, the clinging - clinging to everything, clinging to the positive, that which is desired, loved, held dear, to the negative, that which isn’t wanted, which causes anger, hatred, fear, disruption of our peace and quiet.

Be aware that there’s clinging to both positive and the negative, don’t think that there’s clinging only to the likeable, the satisfying, because even the hateful, the fearsome, that provocative of anger is a condition for clinging, if such weren’t clung to there’d be no anger, no hatred, no fear, hence there’s clinging to both positive and negative. See ignorance and end clinging, which means that recognizing aniccam to whatever extent will burn up clinging to that extent. Hence we apply atapi, sampajanno, and satima to dhammas, to all those mind objects which can form the base for clinging so that there arises that fading away known as ‘viraga.’ With the arising of viraga there’s nowhere for clinging to go, it’s finished, which is called ‘nirodha.’ With nirodha one sees that the business is at an end, hence there’s patinissaga. This Dhamma group is hugely important, more so than the three previous groups. It represents the culmination of practice, and of atapi, sampajjano, satima vineyyaloke abhijja domassam, the ending of that abhijja and domassa usually found in dhammas, in all things. This is the end, the final chapter.

This is anapanasati expressed as four groups, or as sixteen steps. Anapanasati, when fulfilled, naturally fulfills the four satipathana, hence body, feelings, mind, and mind objects can now be controlled, they’re no longer a problem, there’s neither abhijja nor domassa with regard to these four things. Considering anapanasati as groups, there are four such, but if we want to be more detailed then we say there are sixteen steps involved in the practice. Therefore we’re able to be, to establish atapi sampajanno satima vineyyaloke abhijja domanassam sixteen times for the sixteen steps of anapanasati, unless we’re dealing with the groups, then it’s four times for the four groups. Do we have atapi sampajanno satima vineyyaloke abhijja domassam fully established all sixteen times, or not, think about it?

According to the Buddha fulfilling anapanasati naturally fulfills the four satipathana, that’s one thing, now we arrive at the second thing, which is that fulfilling the four satipathana naturally fulfills the seven bojjhanga. ‘Bojjhanga’ means ‘factor of enlightenment’ – ‘bojjha’ means ‘enlightenment,’ ‘anga’ means ‘factor,’ or ‘ingredient.’ For ease and clarity in study and practise the Buddha stipulated seven items, collectively called the ‘bojjhanga,’ which should be understood and remembered, thus: ‘sati,’ ‘dhammavicaya,’ ‘viriya,’ ‘piti,’ ‘passadhi,’ ‘samadhi,’ and ‘uppekha,’ these are the ‘bojjhanga.’ When anapanasati is fulfilled, the four satipathana will, as mentioned, come to fulfillment also, as will the bojjhanga.

Briefly: sati, mindfulness, constantly established within the sixteen steps of anapanasati is called ‘satisambojjhanga.’ See clearly that sati permeates the sixteen steps of anapanasati, as it does the four satipathana.

Considering, researching, reflecting on, analyzing, observing those dhammas with wisdom - those ‘dhammas’ being, collectively, anapanasati or satipathana: investigating, considering, studying, reviewing, examining with satipanna, that’s called ‘dhammavicayasambojjhanga.’ ‘Dhammavicaya’ - investigation of dhammas: this word comes from the Buddha’s time more than two thousand years ago and still applies in scientific circles. Children might think that it’s a new word, copied, perhaps, from foreigners, but don’t be so ignorant, it’s a word the Buddha used. Constantly studying, investigating dhammas is called ‘dhammavicayasambojjhanga,’ doing which requires diligence, perseverance: acting, making the effort, having the mental strength, having the courage to go on adds up to diligence, while not easing up on one’s investigations, persevering, not ‘slacking-off’ is called ‘viriyasambojjhanga,’ the bojjhanga of viriya, of energy.

Take the full meaning of viriya to be courageous perseverance - perseverance is viriya, being courageous is viriya too - hence there’s strong, courageous perseverance, this is ‘viriyasambhojjanga.’

When practising in this way that piti, that satisfaction which isn’t dependent on sensual indulgence, isn’t based on the alluring, the enticing, arises for the one who’s diligent and perseveres; this is called ‘pitisambhojjanga.’ Pitisambhojjanga has a special meaning, in that it isn’t the sort of satisfaction which, for instance, arises from carnality, from sensual indulgence, from the acquiring of the material, of worldly things, it’s satisfaction with the Dhamma, with the unworldly, that’s called ‘pitisambhojjanga.’ When there’s pitisambhojjanga there’s freedom from the lure of the worldly.

Don’t forget the words ‘freedom from allurement, from temptation,’ when not under the power of the delightful, the stimulating, the body and mind will be restrained, will be stilled, which is called ‘passadhisambojjhanga.’ ‘Passadhi’ means tranquil, relaxed. Here’s an easier to grasp interpretation of passadhi: ‘to get on the right track,’ or to be disfunction-free so that peace, coolness, and tranquility reigns. Passadhi has the characteristic of stopping, of quelling the defilements and the things they concoct: if there is concocting of the sankhara there’ll be opposition, disfunction, now there isn’t any of that, there’s the tranquility called passadhisambojjhanga.

The mind of one who’s restrained, both physically and mentally, experiences Dhamma happiness, that is, happiness because of restraint, not the happiness arising from some stimulating sense object, not worldly happiness, not defiled happiness, this is the happiness that comes from the mental and physical restraint, called ‘samadhisambhojjanga.’

Understand that this particular form of samadhi isn’t about sitting somewhere stiff as a board, deep in concentration, dead to the world. It’s clearly stated in the texts that the mind of one who’s restrained experiences happiness, the cool, tranquil happiness called ‘samadhisambojjhanga.’

Now, the mind of one who has samadhisambhojjanga is at rest, is detached, aloof, equanimous, out of danger. Being detached, or aloof is called ‘upekkhasambhojjanga.’ This word ‘upekkha’ should be well grasped, because it doesn’t mean detached as in ‘indifferent’ : ‘upa’ means ‘to go in,’ or ‘to enter,’ while ‘ikka’ means ‘observe,’ so to ‘enter into and observe’ is upekkha, which means that one is calm, restrained, with no need to do anything other than to maintain matters as they are and be observant.

There’s a simple comparison: driving a horse and carriage, for instance: if the horse knows its duty well, the road is good and the carriage is fine, then the driver just needs to hold the reins. Here’s a more up-to-date, example: if a car has a good engine, the road is good and is the right one, and everything operates normally, then the driver just needs to give attention and to steer the thing, any steering here will be guided by satima, atapi, and sampajanno, thus it will be steering in the right way, not just steering in a sleepy, read ignorant, manner. Again: a farmer farms properly, plows the fields correctly, cultivates the soil properly, puts on the right fertilizer, waters correctly, weeds properly, and guards against pests in the required way, so doesn’t need to do anything more, he just has to wait and watch, but wait and watch here means waiting and watching in the right way.

Upekkha then is correctly controlled contemplation, that’s the upekkha of the Brahma viharas, and the upekkha of the sambhojjanga. Control feelings properly until upekkhasambhojjanga arises then sleepiness will be gone and there’ll be the fullest sati, dhammavicaya, viriya, piti, passadhi, and samadhi.

There are seven particular operations involved here, hence: sati does its duty, dhammavicaya does its duty, viriya does its duty, piti sustains viriya, passadhi adds calm restraint and keeps things on track, samadhi brings the sustaining happiness, and upekkha supplies the equanimity.

The Buddha often compared this to a hen incubating and hatching its eggs: there’s a right way to incubate eggs which involves maintaining the temperature and turning the eggs over occasionally, which the hen will do two or three times during the night - at such times if there should happen be a nest nearby we might hear this being done. When all is done correctly the chickens will break out of their eggs and be ready to go. The mother hen needn’t bother herself as to whether the chicks will emerge or not, that’s not necessary, unless the mother hen is crazy, the chicks will and must break out of the eggs themselves. One fulfills one’s duties properly, fulfills the seven bojjhanga, and the chickens emerge, that is, the Dhamma is attained.

You can look at this as one big matter, or divide it up into its details, but see clearly, as mentioned, the seven bhojjanga as they occur in each of the sixteen steps of anapanasati, which gives us seven times sixteen, think about it, how much is that if each and every step is to be fully and correctly practiced? There’s the long breathing, the short breathing, the experiencing of all bodies, the calming of the body conditioner, there’s piti, sukha, the experiencing of the mind conditioners, calming down of the mind conditioners, there’s the knowing of all minds, making the mind glad, concentrating of the mind, releasing the mind, up until the contemplation of aniccam, the fading away, the experiencing of nibbana, and the going back to nature step. There’ll be, even at first, a little of the bhojjanga which will gradually mature as practice develops, eventually becoming the full versions.

Now, we come to the point where the bhojjanga being completely developed give rise to full vijja and vimutti, vijja here being knowledge, vimutti deliverance; these come as a pair, ‘sammanyana,’ right knowledge, ‘sammavimutti,’ right deliverance, or right release, and form the last two of the ten ‘sammatta,’ or ‘rightnesses,’ hence, following on from the eight path factors are the two extra factors of sammanyana, right knowledge, and sammavimutti, right deliverance. The seven bhojjanga bring about the arising of sammanyana and sammavimutti.

Now, in the seven bhojjanga we don’t find vijja or vimutti mentioned by name, so precisely where are they? They’re included in the uphekkasambhojjanga, which is the ultimate dhamma.

The bhojjanga are fundamental, but what’s most important during their development is that our aim is for nibbana, if not there won’t be any certainty of attainment, and our nibbana will be of the worldly sort. As mentioned, anapanasati and the four dhamma comrades can be used in a worldly way, but now we direct our energies solely towards that called ‘vivekanissitam,’ we live for, we direct our energies towards viveka, seclusion; towards viraganissitam, towards viraga, detachment; towards nirodhanissitam, towards quenching; towards vossagga parinamim, we direct our energies towards renunciation, towards relinquishment.

Viveka, here, is another name for liberation, for escape; ‘viveka’ means seclusion, mental seclusion, the utmost mental seclusion. If there’s no liberation, no escape from the disturbances how can there be seclusion, viveka? If there’s something dominating the mind, controlling it, causing it to be a mess, there’s no viveka. Most Dhamma practice isn’t aimed at this, it’s more about experiencing something heavenly, while maintaining sila is about reputation, about making a show, so that meditation tends to be a quest for the miraculous, and knowledge is acquired to exert advantage over others, none of which is viveka.

The great dhammas, be they ‘saddha,’ faith, ‘sati,’ mindfulness, or whatever, if our practice isn’t aimed at viveka, mental seclusion, it won’t be aimed at attaining these results either. Every dhamma, the attainment of every Dhamma subject must hinge on our intention to attain viveka, on our intention to attain viraga, the fading away of desire, of clinging, and on our intention to quench, to put an end to dukkha. Remember these three words: ‘viveka,’ that seclusion, that mental solitude which fosters liberation; ‘viraga,’ the fading out of desire, of clinging and the escape it provides; and ‘nirodha,’ the ending of all the stumbling around, of all our problems.

To summarize: all three add up to ‘vosaggaparinaming.’ ‘Vosagga’ means letting go, renouncing, giving up, while ‘parinaming’ means inclining towards, so that ‘vosaggaparinaming’ means inclining towards letting go, that being the condition for vimutti, for liberation. To repeat: one inclines towards vimutti, towards liberation, hence there’s a ‘getting rid of,’ an ongoing ‘throwing away’ until the end is reached.

In this day and age we don’t give alms, maintain sila, or encourage samadhi in this manner, rather we do these things to get more of what we want, and there’s no trace of ‘vivekanissitam viraganissitam nirodhanissitam vosagga parinamim,’ not even a touch, quite the opposite in fact, hence the bhojjangas don’t manifest, are absent, aren’t available for use.

The bhojjangas cause the arising of knowledge and liberation, they make knowledge and liberation full and complete, because all of them come from the intention to attain viveka, seclusion, viraga, fading away, nirodha, the ending of dukkha, and at letting go, at giving back. We should note this well, and check our understanding.

Briefly: anapanasati sixteen steps when fully practised gives rise to the understanding that in the body group the body is non-self, in the vedana group, vedana, feeling is non-self, in the citta group citta, mind is non-self, and in the dhamma group dhammas, mind objects, are non-self, then we’ve brought atapi, sampajanno, vineyaloke, abhicca domanasam into action in all four groups, in all sixteen steps.

When the satipathana are fulfilled the bhojjanga arise automatically: sati, fully established in all four groups, is called satisambhojjanga, investigation of dhammas through knowledge in all four groups is dhammavicayasambhojjanga, the undiminishing effort involved is viriyasambhojjanga, that piti arising independent of enticement, of allurement which sustains that effort is pitisambhojjanga, the mind and body of one who has piti are calmed, which is passadhisambhojjanga, mind and body thus experiences sustained happiness, and the mind is samadhi, which is samadhisambhojjanga, with samadhisambhojjanga there comes about a letting go, allowing things to go along in the Dhamma way, which is uphekkasambhojjanga. Bear these seven attributes in mind always, examine the mind to check if we have them yet.

Regarding these seven bhojjanga, there’s still one further test to be made, in that the intention involved in one’s practice is based in vivekanissitam, viraganissitam, nirodhanissitam, vosagga parinaming or not, if there’s been deviation into the worldly path of worship, of fortune seeking, into the desire for some material result, then hurry and rearrange things, take the path of the lokuttara, of nibbana, don’t go after honours, prestige, fame, which most do, both the teachers who teach vipassana and the pupils who practise it are out for material gain, so how can things be made to work out properly? Both teachers and students must aim for the deathless, the ‘amata,’ the escape from dukkha, that’s the deathless, the ‘amata,’ which is nibbana.

If we sum up one more time then try to give attention: the essence of each step of anapanasati when fully practised will be ‘atapi sampajanno satima vineyyaloke abhicca domanassam.’ Anapanasati is divided into sixteen steps, and into four groups, there’s the arising of the seven bhojjanga if the practice is properly carried on, so don’t let anything interfere, the seven bhojjanga will be automatically based on the aspiration for viveka, viraga, nirodha, vosagga parinaming, as accords with the word sambhojjanga, and the factors of awakening will be correct.

At present the world interferes, the kilesa, the defilements, interfere, so the sambhojjanga aren’t apparent, but then, when all is right and there’s viveka, viraga, et. al. abhicca and domanas will be gone from the world, gone through the power of the bhojjanga, even though we might not directly intend it they will be gone - as with the eggs the mother hen incubates, the chicks will without doubt come forth if everything happens as it should. This is anapanasati, leading towards the attainment of path and fruit by way of the bodhipakiyadhammas.

Anapanasati fulfills the four satipathana; in practising anapanasati the four ‘sammapadhana,’ the four ‘right efforts’ come to full growth, the four ‘ittipada, the four ‘bases for success,’ are fulfilled, the five ‘indriya,’ that is, the five ‘controlling faulties,’ and the five ‘bala,’ the five ‘powers,’ are also fulfilled - the five indriya and the five bala share the same components: saddha, faith, viriya, energy, sati, mindfulness, samadhi, proper concentration, and panna, wisdom; as ‘leaders’ these five are called ‘indriya,’ as ‘powers’ they’re called ‘bala’ - the indriya and the bala are fulfilled, the bhojjanga are fulfilled, the eightfold path is fulfilled, so seven groups comprising thirty-seven clauses which are together known as the ‘bodhipakyadhammas,’ these being made to arise through the full and complete practising of anapanasati.

The essential points are vijja and vimutti, the knowledge and liberation arising with the upekkhasambhojjanga, go and review, particularly the fourth group of anapanasati, to meet with these complete, first as aniccanupassi, the seeing of impermanence, insubstantiality, which includes several other insights: dukkha, anatta, dhammattitha, dhammaniyamata, idappaccayata, sunnata, tathata, and atammayata, so all the bhojjanga are there too; then, following on from aniccam, there’s viraga, then nirodha, then patinissaga. This is the fourth group of anapanasati, the Dhamma group - Dhammanupassana , the group in which all these dhammas come together.

Once more and for the last time: practise anapanasati and acquire the four Dhamma comrades, that is, sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi. These four dhammas can be used in worldly matters, which wasn’t the Buddha’s intention, but they can be so used, they’re marvelous weapons which can be used in both high and low affairs if necessary, hence there’s no need to have a variety of approaches, the four can be used in the worldly sense: in finding food, in farming, gardening, doing business, by the worker, the employee, the artist, the beggar: know and make use of these dhammas: sati, panna, sampajanna, and samadhi.

Now, those dhammas necessary for the attainment of nibbana as explained today: the four satipathana full and complete make the seven bhojanga full and complete, make knowledge and deliverance full and complete.

So we’ve mentioned both sides of the equation, the four comrades can be used beneficially on both sides of the fence, which, it can be said, is enough, when there’s the anapanasati which is genuine, which is right, then it’s enough to conquer the world, to be victorious in the world, to be above the world, to dwell problem-free.

We would that all of you will meet with success in the foregoing, if not now, at this time, that you’ll continue on until success is achieved. Whether here or wherever, keep practising, repeat, repeat, and be skillful, become intimate with the practise and one day success will certainly come. May you succeed in accord with your desires, thrive, progress in the Buddhist way, attaining more and more the intended result with each passing day. Here, finally, endeth the lesson.