Tokyo
20 April '71.
Dear Friend,
I will repeat your question:
'There is awareness, but not often of characteristics of nama and rupa. How can I get to know directly characteristics of realities?'
Is there seeing now? It has a characteristic which can be directly experienced. It is a type of nama, not self. It is a reality which experiences visible object through the eye-door.
Is there hearing now? It has a characteristic.
Is there pain now? It has a characteristic.
Is there dosa now? It has a characteristic.
Is there softness now? It has a characteristic.
Is there heat now? It has a characteristic.
A characteristic of nama or rupa is not something besides that which can be experienced now, at this moment. All realities which appear have different characteristics and they can be experienced one at a time. Seeing is nama, visible object is rupa; they have different characteristics.
You wrote that you cannot experience the difference between seeing and thinking about what was seen. You may think that at the moment of seeing there is also thinking about the object you see. When we pay attention to the shape and form of something such as a chair, or a person, there is thinking. But are there not also moments of just experiencing what appears through the eyes? There is not all the time thinking or defining what something is. Of course, in the beginning we cannot yet know realities as they are, but can their characteristics not be experienced now and then?
There are different degrees of knowing characteristics of nama and rupa and when panna has been developed more, they will be known more clearly.
The Buddha explained realities in many different ways so that people would be able to know them as nama-elements and rupa-elements, as not self. We read in the 'Nandakovada-sutta' (Middle Length Sayings, III, no. 146) that Nandaka, a bhikkhu, had to preach to the nuns. Then the Buddha asked him to repeat to them exactly the same sermon. Why? Their 'faculties' (indriyas [1]) were developed and hearing the same sermon again would be the right condition for them to attain the degree of enlightenment for which they were ripe. How could that happen? Could it be just because they were listening and thinking about what they heard, or rather because there would be mindfulness while listening? While listening there could be mindfulness of nama and rupa, of seeing, hearing, thinking or feeling, of any reality appearing through one of the six doors. When I quote what Nandaka said, one may think, 'Is that all?' However, when one listens with mindfulness one can come to know realities as they are. We read:
'What do you think about this, sisters? Is the eye permanent or impermanent?'
'Impermanent, revered sir.'
'But is what is impermanent anguish or happiness?'
'Anguish, revered sir.'
'Is it right to regard that which is impermanent, anguish and liable to alteration as, "This is mine, this am I, this is myself"?'
'No, revered sir.
What do you think about this, sisters? Is the ear... the nose... the tongue... the bodysense... the mind permanent or impermanent? ... Is it right to regard that which is impermanent, anguish and liable to alteration as, "This is mine, this am I, this is myself"?'
'No, revered sir. What is the reason for this?
Already, revered sir, by means of perfect intuitive wisdom it has been well seen by us as it really is that, "These six internal sense-fields are impermanent." '
The six 'internal sense-fields' are the five senses and the mind-door. The same is said about the six 'external sense-fields' : colours, sounds, smells, flavours, tangibles and mental objects. The same is said about the 'six classes of consciousness' which experience these objects. Then
Nandaka said:
'It is good, sisters, it is good. For it is thus, sisters, that by means of perfect intuitive wisdom this is seen by an ariyan disciple as it really is.
It is, sisters, like the oil for lighting an oil-lamp which is impermanent and liable to alteration, and like the wick which is impermanent and liable to alteration, and like the flame which is impermanent and liable to alteration, and like the light which is impermanent and liable to alteration. If anyone, sisters, were to speak thus: " The oil for lighting this oil-lamp is impermanent and liable to alteration, and the wick... and the flame is impermanent and liable to alteration, but that which is the light-- that is permanent, lasting, eternal, not liable to alteration," speaking thus, sisters, would he be speaking rightly?'
'No, revered sir. What is the reason for this?
It is, revered sir, that if the oil for lighting this oil-lamp be impermanent and liable to alteration, and if the wick... and if the flame be impermanent and liable to alteration, all the more is the light impermanent and liable to alteration.'
'Even so, sisters, if anyone should speak thus: "These six internal sense-fields are impermanent and liable to alteration, but whatever pleasure or pain or indifferent feeling I experience as a result of these six internal sense-fields-- that is permanent, lasting, eternal, not liable to alteration," speaking thus, sisters, would he be speaking rightly?'
'No, revered sir. What is the reason for this?
As a result of this or that condition, revered sir, these or those feelings arise. From the stopping of this or that condition these or those feelings are stopped.'
You wrote that awareness helps you to be less involved when unpleasant things happen. When there are conditions for sati and panna we are not taken in by the objects which present themselves through the six doors. However, there are many moments of forgetfulness of realities. For instance, when feelings are intense, we tend to take them for self, we find it very
difficult to see them as only conditioned realities.
At times we have unpleasant experiences and there is akusala vipaka through eyes, ears, nose, tongue or bodysense. The other day someone hit me, meaning it as a joke. Feeling the impact of it was akusala vipaka through the bodysense. Why, why did this have to happen? At such moments one may be upset and there is no awareness. Of course, I know why it happened: it was akusala vipaka, the result of akusala kamma. Thus we see that everything we have to experience are only conditioned realities, and also our like or dislike of what happens, and our feelings, are only conditioned realities.
Our attachment or dislike are not vipaka, they arise with akusala cittas which are conditioned by our accumulated defilements. There are different types of conditions which play their part in our life
Now I shall continue with the sutta. Nandaka said further on: 'It is good, sisters, it is good. For it is thus, sisters, that by means of perfect intuitive wisdom this is seen by an ariyan disciple as it really is.
It is, sisters, as if a clever cattle-butcher or cattle-butcher's apprentice, having killed a cow, should dissect the cow with a butcher's sharp knife without spoiling the flesh within, without spoiling the outer hide, and with the butcher's sharp knife should cut, should cut around, should cut all around whatever tendons, sinews and ligaments there are within; and having cut, cut around, cut all around and removed the outer hide and, having clothed that cow in that self-same hide again, should then speak thus: " This cow is conjoined with this hide as before." Speaking thus, sisters, would he be speaking rightly?'
'No, revered sir. What is the reason for this?
Although, revered sir, that clever cattle-butcher or cattle-butcher's apprentice, having killed a cow... having clothed that cow in that self-same hide again, might then speak thus: "This cow is conjoined with this hide as before," yet that cow is not conjoined with that hide.'
'I have made this simile for you, sisters, so as to illustrate the meaning.
This is the meaning here: "the flesh within" sisters, is a synonym for the six internal sense-fields. "The outer hide", sisters, is a synonym for the six external sense-fields. "The tendons, sinews and ligaments within", sisters, is a synonym for delight and attachment. "The butcher's sharp knife", sisters, is a synonym for the ariyan intuitive wisdom, the ariyan intuitive wisdom by which one cuts, cuts around, cuts all around the inner defilements, the inner fetters and the inner bonds.'
After Nandaka had finished his sermon and the nuns had departed, the Buddha said to the monks: '...although these nuns were delighted with Nandaka's teaching on Dhamma, their aspirations were not fulfilled.'
We then read:
Then the Lord addressed the venerable Nandaka, saying: 'Well then, Nandaka, you may exhort these nuns with this same exhortation again tomorrow.'
We read that after Nandaka had spoken the same sermon to the nuns for the second time, the Buddha said:
'...these nuns were delighted with Nandaka's teaching on Dhamma and their aspirations were fulfilled. She who is the last nun [2] of these five hundred nuns is a stream-attainer (sotapanna), not liable to the Downfall; she is assured, bound for self-awakening.'
You might think that the nuns had understood the impermanence of conditioned realities already the first time, but there are many degrees of realizing the truth. Because of Nandaka's sermon, which he repeated, there was a condition for those who had not attained enlightenment to become sotapanna, and for others who were already ariyan saints to attain higher stages of enlightenment in so far as they were ripe for it.
Thus we can see that listening to the teachings or reading them are conditions for mindfulness and the development of panna, and even for attaining enlightenment.
In the above quoted sutta we read about the dissecting of a cow. When we join realities together into a 'whole', we take for 'something', for 'self'.
We are not taken in by objects which are 'dissected' into elements, that is, when panna realizes visible object as rupa, not self; hardness as rupa, not self; hearing as nama, not self, and so on as to the other realities presenting themselves through the six doors.
After I had typed the text about dissecting the cow, my husband and I were having dinner. While we were eating I was still busy 'dissecting the cow'. I liked the food and I remembered the words of the sutta that we are bound by delight and attachment. We are all bound by these ' tendons', but wisdom can cut them away. This sutta was a condition for me to be mindful of different namas and rupas which appeared.
We are bound by attachment and delight with regard to what is experienced through the six doors:
We like savours-- tasting-- we want to go on tasting,
We like visible object-- seeing-- we want to go on seeing,
We like sound-- hearing-- we want to go on hearing,
We like thought -- thinking-- we want to go on thinking.
Thus there are conditions to go on in the cycle of birth and death. It is because of craving that we must be reborn. There will be the arising of nama and rupa in other existences, again and again.
Why did the nuns have to hear the same sermon again? Hearing it only once was not enough. I would need to hear it again and again, many more times. I still cling to the internal sense-fields and to the external sense-fields.
That is why it is necessary to be aware of seeing, colour, hearing, sound, of all namas and rupas which appear through the six doors, over and over again, without preference for any reality. Their characteristics have to be realized over and over again, so that panna will know them as they are. Thus we are busy, dissecting the cow.
You asked me how we can realize the conditions of nama and rupa through being aware of them, and whether that is different from thinking about conditions.
There are different degrees of understanding conditions. First one should have intellectual understanding of conditions. Eye-sense, for example, is a condition for seeing, since it is the physical place of origin, the base (vatthu) of seeing. Without eye-sense there cannot be seeing. Visible object is a condition for seeing by being its object. Seeing is vipaka-citta, it is produced by kamma. Kamma-condition is another type of condition. There are different types of conditions for the phenomena which arise.
Theoretical understanding of conditions is not the same as panna which discerns the conditions of the nama and rupa which appear. This is a stage of insight which cannot arise before the beginning stage of insight which is: panna which clearly distinguishes between the characteristic of nama and the characteristic of rupa, thus, which knows nama as nama and rupa as rupa.
Seeing is a reality which knows visible object through the eye-door, it is not self but nama. There is no need to think about this. Can the characteristic of seeing not be known when it appears? Seeing is different from visible object. Visible object is a rupa which can be experienced through the eye-door, it does not know anything. Hearing is a reality which knows sound through the ear-door, it is different from sound, a rupa which can be experienced through the ear-door. Panna can come to realize that not a self, not a person sees or hears, but nama, and that nama is different from rupa.
Panna can also come to realize that nama and rupa arise because of conditions, not without conditions. A higher stage of insight has been reached when panna directly discerns the conditions of the nama and rupa which appear.
Someone thought that knowing the conditions for dosa (aversion) would help to eliminate it. He thought that knowing the conditions means thinking about the circumstances, the 'story'. However, that is not panna which realizes conditions, it is thinking about a 'story', about concepts. And is there not an idea of ' my dosa' about which one thinks?
How can one know dosa as it really is, since that is the only way to eventually eliminate it? It should be known as nama, not self, arising because of conditions. Not only dosa should be known as it is, but all realities which appear through the six doors. As regards dosa, the real cause of aversion or anger is not the circumstances, not the other people, but our accumulations of dosa. Dosa is not self, but a conditioned reality.
Thus we can see that in thinking about the story, about the circumstances, we do not come to know more about dosa. We have accumulations to think a great deal. When there is thinking about dosa, the thinking can be realized as nama, not self.
Ignorance of realities can never be eradicated by merely thinking about them. The Buddha spoke time and again about realities appearing through the six doors in order to remind us to be aware of them. In this way panna will know them as they are and ignorance and wrong view of realities can be eradicated.
We read in the 'Kindred Sayings' (IV, Salayatana-Vagga, Second Fifty, Ch I, par. 53, Ignorance):
Then a certain monk came to the Exalted One, and on coming to him saluted him and sat down at one side. So seated that monk said this:
'By how knowing, lord, by how seeing does ignorance vanish and knowledge arise?'
'In him that knows and sees the eye as impermanent, monk, ignorance vanishes and knowledge arises. In him that knows and sees objects... seeing-consciousness, ...the ear... sounds... hearing-consciousness,... the nose... smells... smelling-consciousness..., the tongue... flavours... tasting-consciousness..., the body... touches... body-consciousness,... the mind... mindstates... mind-consciousness,... as impermanent, ignorance vanishes and knowledge arises.
With metta,
Nina van Gorkom
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
The indriyas are here, in this context: faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom.
[2]:
With the least attainment