There are meditation seats at strategic spots with either closed forest views
or spectacular outlooks over the monastery buildings far below, glimpses of
suburbia beyond and distant ranges-upon-ranges forming the horizon to the north.
To the rear of the seated viewer, through the dense undergrowth that covers
the higher slopes, lies the ridge which forms a natural boundary to the monastery,
sheltering it from the southerly winds. From the summit one has views of Wellington
harbour, the central cityscape and, on a clear day, the snow capped peaks of
the South Island.
Sounds of suburbia barely penetrate the inner reaches of the monastery: so much
beauty, lushness and solitude put one in a joyful mood conducive to meditational
calm. Proceeding mindfully along the leaf- strewn path, coloured golden brown
by autumnal offerings from a delightful glade of southern beech trees, the fallen
leaves give cause for reflection on impermanence. The upper layers of gold and
rustic colours grade into ever deeper shades of brown feeding the rich brown
humus; a return to mother earth (Gaia), to provide nutrients for the whole cycle
to repeat itself yet again. 'Earth', foremost of the four mahabhuta, the four
great becomings; for earth, water, fire and air ceaselessly combine in an ever
changing multiplicity of forms. The processes by which the leaves decompose
into earth cannot proceed without water (moisture), without fire (warmth), nor
without air (oxygen).
Traditional commentators and modern writers are apologetic about the Buddha's
use of this 'primitive' classification of matter. They usually explain the four
mahabhuta, in terms of solidity, fluidity, heat and motion, often digressing
into scientific explanations of the nature of matter. As is so often the case,
elaboration and overrefinement of the Dhamma is a case of the writer bringing
his over conceptual map to bear, resulting in an inevitable distortion or veiling
of the teachings. Hence the statement by the Buddha: "yena yena hi mannanti
tato ta hoti annatha" (whatever they conceive it to be, it is ipso facto
otherwise). Matter cannot be reduced to the so-called sabhave dhamma, having
their own intrinsic nature, which are referred to as the final irreducible components
of existence. This is where the Abhidhamma and commentaries move into materialism.
Herein lies the danger of conceiving rupa as either 'body' or 'corporeality'
or 'physically'. Matter is ultimately a mystery, as science is beginning to
understand.. The Suttas only refer to the 'forms' it takes in a perceiving consciousness,
defining it as, 'the four great becomings and the form based on them, this is
called form (rupa).' (S.ii.3)
Pali is a very precise language whereas English is a hybrid tongue and rarely
provides a single word which captures the meaning of the original Pali word.
Kaya is 'body' in the physical sense while rupa is 'body' only in its objective
sense as one mental image or form among all other mental images, shapes or forms:
"ayam kayo rupi catummahabhutiko" (this body formed from the four
great becomings -M 74), illustrates this subtle and confusing point. Only when
such Pali terms are rendered correctly in their precise meanings does the depth
and profundity of the Dhamma reveal itself with startling clarity.
Further reflection on 'matter' brings to mind two other classifications used
repeatedly in the Suttas but neglected or misunderstood by commentators and
all but ignored by most writers on Buddhism. They are the four nutriments (ahara)
and the six elements (dhatu). The latter classification adds space and consciousness
to the four mahabhuta. Earth, water, fire and air 'become' forms in a consciousness
which places them in space. Consciousness entails thought, one thought necessarily
follows another, hence 'kappa' can mean both 'thought' and 'time'.
"By time the sage described the mind And by the mind described time"
(Atthasalini)
The six elements, earth, water, fire, air, space and consciousness (time) are
simply the building blocks with which all conceptualization takes place. It
is a process of 'becoming', of 'coming to be, ceasing to be' taking place in
the thought processes of a consciousness that sees everything as separate from
itself. Indeed, the progression through the jhana levels is simply a matter
of transcending these six elements, the third arupa jhana being ' no-thingness'
because no 'thing' (dhamma) can be conceived in the absence of the six building
blocks which are the basis of thought. Earth, water, fire and air in different
combinations register as form (rupa), not matter, and are placed in space and
time by the perceiving consciousness. Such consciousness (vinnana-vi = divided;
nana = knowledge) or separative awareness is the arising of individuality or
separateness, which is a placement in space and time, the union of which is
causality. Causality is the arising of forms which are separate from the observing
consciousness. These forms are all that we can know of 'matter'.The profundity
and depth of all this is expressed in the resultant formula: SPACE & TIME
= CAUSALITY = MATTER.
An astonishing statement you may think, but consider this: "Time has no
beginning or ending but all beginnings and endings are in time; space has no
limits but all limits are in space; matter has no origin or extinction but all
arisings and passings away are in matter. Every change in matter can occur only
by virtue of another change that preceded it. Therefore, a first change and
hence also a first state or condition of matter are as unthinkable as a beginning
in time or a limit of space. The essential nature of matter consists in acting;
it is action itself in the abstract, and thus action in general, apart from
all the difference in the manner of acting; it is through and through causality".
Here we have the basis of the relationship between matter and mind which proves
so elusive to the modern materialistic mind, for kamma is also action albeit
volitional or intentional action. (A. iv. 63)
The basis of modern philosophy is the Cartesian 'Cogito ergo sum' - 'I think
therefore I am'. In keeping with the Buddha's teaching of insubstantiality (anatta)
this should have been-'There is thinking therefore there is being'. However
there is another factor which is also overlooked or misunderstood. Herein lies
the essential mistake not only of modern philosophy, but of all other religions
- they consider thinking as primary - a serious misunderstanding - willing is
primary, thinking is secondary.
Kamma is the result of volition (cetana). Intentional thought sows the action
(kamma) through body, speech or mind; sow an action and reap a habit; sow a
habit and reap a character; sow a character and reap a destiny. Thus we are
born with an inbuilt character, our kammic package, created by ourselves through
our actions. This character is constantly modified in the light of new experience
via the intellect (mano). If we do not see through the deception of appearances
(the veil of maya, of time and space), we become attached to 'our world', we
thirst after it (tanha) in our ignorance (avijja), and so it is ignorant craving
or blind will that brings us into, and ties us to, the cycle of birth and death
(samsara). That is why willing is primary and thinking is secondary.
Having been born we have to assemble 'our world' again via the cognitive apparatus
which our human form endows us with, (i.e. via thinking). What we fail to understand,
however, is that this 'strange' equation, TIME & SPACE = CAUSALITY =MATTER,
is built into the workings of our cognitive apparatus. It is a priori, prior
to experience - "being pre-formed in the intellect itself, space as the
form of intuitive perception, time as the form of change, and the law of causality
as the regulator of the appearance of changes. Now it is precisely the existence
of these forms, ready-made and prior to all experience, which constitutes the
intellect. Physiologically it is the function of the brain which learns this
just as little from experience as does the stomach to digest or the liver to
secrete bile." 2
Thus the basis of both matter and kamma is action and this in turn is the basis
of the Buddha's teaching of impermanence (anicca). The Pali word for the pangs
of childbirth is kammavaja-vata (lit. wind produced by kamma). Kamma is said
to be our origin, kammayoni. The old argument, in modern psychology, of nature
versus nuture, genes versus environment, requires a third factor which is 'the
being to be born' as stated by the Buddha - in other words the kammic package
or character produced by past intentional actions as a result of willing.
The Dhamma is not reducible to scientific materialism; its purpose is to show
us the way out of the delusiveness of the veil of maya which is nothing more
than space and time generated by a 'separative' perceiving consciousness. The
relationship between the above law of motivation, which forms the basis of kamma,
and the law of physical causality is the key to the correct understanding of
the human situation as taught by the Buddha.
Further light is thrown on this perplexing dilemma by the other neglected classification,
the four nutriments (ahara). The Buddha states that they " are the sustenances
for the maintenance of beings that have come to birth, or for the forwarding
of those that seek to become" (S. ii. 11) and that they are based on, caused
and produced by craving (tanha). The first, material food (kabalinkarahara)
provides the basis for the physical body (kaya). The sperm and the ovum are
formed from the material food consumed by the parents and become the new body
which begins to grow from the moment of conception, nourished by further material
food. This contradicts the traditional interpretation which regards namarupa
as body-and-mind or physicality-and-mentality arising at conception. Such misinterpretation
also contradicts the Suttas definition of namarupa by assuming it to be the
five aggregates (khandha) which constitute the person. Some endeavour to overcome
this contradiction by attributing a different meaning to namarupa in this context.
Again this becomes an unnecessary distortion and complication of the Dhamma
while at the same time concealing its more profound aspects.
Clearly namarupa is not involved at conception. Kamma certainly is: 'we are
born of our Kamma', but namarupa only 'descends into a womb' when the zygote
develops sufficiently to have an operative brain enabling consciousness to occur.
Consciousness is clearly defined by the Buddha as the six sense door consciousnesses
and therefore dependent on a functioning brain. These six senses have, in turn,
been defined as the sum total of the world, the 'all' (sabba) placed in space
and time when namarupa begins to function. Namarupa, form-and-name, is an activity
which takes place when a consciousness becomes conscious of something separate
from itself. That 'something' appears as a form, shape or image which the consciousness
' bends towards' (nameti) and names it or identifies it. Hence the definition
of nama as sensation(vedana), perception (sanna) contact or presence (phassa),volition
(cetana) and attention (manasikara). This is a synthesising process by which
we become aware of the five aggregates (khandha) and can then analyse this result
and find, as the Buddha repeatedly states, nothing but the five aggregates,
which are the 'all', the 'world', the totality of our experience. When we say
something 'exists' we mean no more than that we perceive it.
Note that the remaining three nutriments are contact (phassa), intellectual
intention (manosancetana) and consciousness (vinnana). Again it is a consciousness
based on a physical body (kaya) in contact with 'forms' that creates via the
mental formations (sankhara). The latter are defined elsewhere (S. iii. 60)
as the intentions or volitions (cetana) towards sensations entering via the
six sense doors. Tradition has reduced mental formations(sankhara) to volition
(cetana) because of such definitions, but note that the sixth sense door volition
is (dhammasancetana) i.e. phenomena that arise in the mind in which we express
an interest. However, the sustainer of beings is (manosancetana), being the
ideational, creative, intellect aspect of mind which fashions these separate
volitional gleanings into our version of the world, the craving (tanha) for
which, ensures our captivity in the cycle of existence (sa3/4sara). Hence the
above statements that these four sustenances arise, are produced and caused
by craving (tanha-thirst).
Thus the term sankhara in the Buddha's Dependent Arising (Paticcasamuppada)
encompasses both volitional and creative aspects of mind and should not be reduced
to volition only, as the traditionalists do.
Such are the thoughts that arise during a slow, silent circumambulation of the
"garden of enlightened knowledge". The world of nature can incline
the mind to either tranquillity meditation or to such investigative probing
into the extraordinary depth and profundity of the Buddha's explanation of the
human situation and the cyclical and interdependent nature of all existence
exemplified by the fallen leaves: " The genuine symbol of nature is universally
and everywhere the circle, because it is the schema or form of recurrence; in
fact, this is the most general form in nature.She carries it through in everything
from the course of the constellations down to the death and birth of organic
beings. In this way alone, in the restless stream of time and its content, a
continued existence, i.e. a nature, becomes possible".3
So where, you may ask, do all the new leaves come from? Where do future generations
of human beings come from? An intriguing question: here is an intriguing answer:
" Whence will all these come? Where are they now? Where is the abundant
womb of that nothing which is pregnant with worlds and which still conceals
them, the coming generations? Would not the smiling and true answer to this
be: Where else could they be but there where alone the real was and always will
be, namely in the present and its content?- hence with you the deluded questioner
who in this mistaking of his own true nature, is like the leaf on the tree.
Fading in the autumn and about to fall, the leaf grieves over its own extinction
and will not be consoled by looking forward to the fresh green which will clothe
the tree in spring, but says as a lament: 'I am not these! These are quite different
leaves!' Oh foolish leaf! Whither do you want to go? And whence are the others
supposed to come? Where is the nothing, the abyss of which you fear? Know your
own inner being, precisely that which is filled with the thirst for existence;
recognise it once more in the inner, mysterious, sprouting force of the tree.
This force is always one and the same in all generations of leaves, and it remains
untouched by arising and passing away. And now, 'As the leaves on the tree,
so are the generations of human beings' (Homer-Iliad) 4
Thus everything lingers only for a moment, and hurries on to death. The plant
and insect die at the end of summer, the animal and man after a few years; death
reaps unwearily. But despite all this, in fact as if this were not the case
at all, everything is always there and in its place, just as if everything were
imperishable. The plant always flourishes and blooms, the insect hums, animal
and man are there in evergreen youth and every summer we have again before us
the cherries that have already been a thousand times enjoyed......Therefore,
what forces itself on us more irresistibly than the thought that that arising
and passing away do not concern the real essence of things, but that this remains
untouched by them, hence is imperishable, consequently that each and everything
that wills to exist actually does exist continuously and without end."5
Endless indeed is this sa3/4saric cycle in which beings fettered by ignorance(avijja)
and fueled by craving(tanha) ' fare on'. Contemplate this, and be thankful for
the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path. As I wend my way along the monastery's scenic
pathway back to my picturesque little hut nestled in the greenery high above
the main monastery building, I reflect on the spiritual path and the urgent
need for progress along it. May all those who make the effort attain its goal
of freedom, of peace that passes understanding, of happiness that transcends
happiness.
Evam.