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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hukp1" data-source="post: 7381675" data-attributes="member: 189407">8. IGNORANCE OF THE ORIGIN OF DUKKHAPeople do not know that craving is the origin (samudaya) of suffering. On the contrary they believe that it is attachment that makes them happy, that without attachment life would be dreary. So they ceaselessly seek pleasant sense-objects, food, clothing, companion and so forth. In the absence of these objects of attachment they usually feel ill at ease and find life monotonous.For common people life without attachment would be indeed wholly devoid of pleasure. It is tanha that hides the unpleasantness of life and makes it pleasant. But for the Arahat who has done away with tanha, it is impossible to enjoy life. He is always bent on Nibbana, the cessation of conditioned suffering.tanha cannot exert much pressure even on the yogis (meditators) when they become absorbed in the practice of vipassana . So some yogis do not enjoy life as much as they did before. On their return from meditation retreat they get bored at home and feel ill at ease in the company of their families. To other people the yogi may appear to be conceited but in fact his behaviour is a sign of loss of interest in the workaday world. But if he cannot as yet over come the sensual desire, his boredom is temporary and he usually gets readjusted to his home life in due course. His family need not worry over his mood or behaviour for it is not easy for a man to become thoroughly sick of his home life. So the yogi should examine himself and see how much he is really disenchanted with life. If his desire for pleasure lingers, he must consider himself still in the grip of tanha.Without tanha we would feel discomfited. In conjunction with avijja ,tanha makes us blind to dukkha and creates the illusion of sukha. So we frantically seek sources of pleasure. Consider, for example, men's fondness for movies and dramatic performances. These entertainments cost money, time and money but tanha makes them irresistible although to the person who has no craving for them they are sources of suffering.A more obvious example is smoking. The smoker delights in inhaling the tobacco smoke but to the non-smoker it is a kind of self. inflicted suffering. The non-smoker is free from all the troubles that beset the smoker. He leads a relatively care-free and happy life because he has no craving for tobacco. Tanha as the source of dukkha is also evident in the habit of betel-chewing. Many people enjoy it although in fact it is a troublesome habit.Like the smoker and the betel-chewer people seek to gratify their craving and this tanha ..inspired effort is the mainspring of rebirth that leads to old age, sickness and death.Suffering and desire as its cause are evident in every day life but it is hard to see these truths. For they are profound and one can realize them not through reflection but only through the practice of vipassana9. IGNORANCE OF THE THIRD AND FOURTH NOBLE TRUTHSAvijja also means ignorance of the cessation of dukkha and the way to it. These two truths are also profound and hard to understand. For the truth about cessation of dukkha concerns Nibbana which is to be realized only on the Ariyan holy path and the truth about the way is certainly known only to the yogi who has attained the path. No wonder that many people are ignorant of these truths.Ignorance of the end of suffering is wide spread and so world religions describe the supreme goal in many ways. Some say that suffering will come to an end automatically in due course of time. Some regard sensual pleasure as the highest good and reject the idea of a future life. This variety of beliefs is due to ignorance of the real Nibbana. Even among Buddhists some hold that Nibbana is an abode or a sort of paradise and there are many arguments about it. All these show how hard it is to understand Nibbana.In reality Nibbana is the total extinction of the nama-rupa process that occurs ceaselessly on the basis of causal relationship. Thus according to the doctrine of Paticcasamuppada, avijja , sankhara, etc give rise to nama-rupa, etc and this causal process involves old age, death and other evils of life. If avijja , etc become extinct on the Ariyan path, so do their effects and all kinds of dukkha and this complete end to dukkha is Nibbana.For example, a lamp that is refueled will keep on burning but if it is not refueled there will be a complete extinction of flame. Likewise for the yogi on the Ariyan path who has attainedNibbana, all the causes such as avijja , etc., have become extinct and so do all the effects such as rebirth, etc. This means total extinction of suffering, that is, Nibbana which the yogi must understand and appreciate before he actually realizes it.This concept ofNibbana does not appeal to those who have a strong craving for life. To them the cessation of nama-rupa process would mean nothing more than eternal death. Nevertheless intellectual acceptance of Nibbana is necessary because on it depends the yogi's whole-hearted and persistent effort to attain the supreme goal.Knowledge of the fourth truth, viz., truth about the way to the end of dukkha is also of vital importance. Only the Buddhas can proclaim the right path; it is impossible for anyone else, be he a deva, a Brahma or a human being, to do so. But there are various speculations and teachings about the path. Some advocate ordinary morality such as love, altruism, patience, alms-giving, etc., while others stress the practice of mundane jhana. All these practices are commendable. According to the Buddhist teaching, they lead to relative welfare in the deva-Brahma worlds but do not ensure freedom from samsaric dukkha such as old age, etc., So they do not form the right path to Nibbana although they are helpful in the effort to attain it.Some resort to self-mortification such as fasting, living in a state of nature and so forth. Some worship devas or animals. Some live like animals. From the Buddhist point of view all these represent what is termed silabbataparamasa which means any practice that has nothing to do with the Eightfold Path.The Eightfold Noble Path comprises right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right contemplation. The path is of three kinds, viz., the basic path, the preliminary path and path and the Ariyan path. Of these the most vital is the Ariyan path but this path should not be the primary objective of the yogi nor does it require him to spend much time and energy on it. For as the vipassana practice on the preliminary path develops, the insight on the Ariyan level occurs for a thought-moment. For example, it requires much time and effort to produce fire by friction but ignition is a matter of a moment's duration. Similarly, the insight on the Ariyan path is instantaneous but it presupposes much practice of vipassana on the preliminary path.10. RIGHT VIEW, ETC.,vipassana insight is the insight that occurs at every moment of contemplation. The yogi who notes every psycho-physical phenomenon becomes aware of its real nature. Thus he focuses his attention on the bending of his arms or legs and he realizes the elements of rigidity and motion. This means right view in connection with vayodhatu. Without mindfulness there will arise illusion of "It is the hand." "It is a man," and so forth. Only the mindful yogi sees things as they really are.The same may be said of right view in regard to sensation in the body, e.g., heat or pain and mental activities, e.g., imagination, intention. When the mind becomes fixed and calm, the yogi finds the nama-rupa phenomena arising and vanishing and so he gains insight into their anicca, dukkha and anatta.Right belief implies right intention and other associative dhamma on the path. Insight on the path occurs at every moment of contemplation. With the attainment of perfect insight into the three characteristics of existence, the yogi sees Nibbana. Hence if Nibbana is to be realized here and now, the practice of vipassana is essential. The yogi who cannot as yet practise vipassana should focus on the path that is the basis of vipassana practice. This basic path means doing good deeds motivated by the belief in kamma . In other words, it is the practice of dana, sila etc., in the hope of attainingNibbana.All the paths (magga).. the basic, the preliminary and the Ariyan—form the threefold path leading to Nibbana. In particular the yogi must recognize the Ariyan path as the dhamma that is to be desired, cherished and adored. Such a recognition is essential to strenuous effort in the practice of vipassana. The yogi must also accept the vipassana magga as a noble dhamma and know how to practise it.Some people are ignorant of the way to Nibbana. On top of that they belittle the Nibbana-oriented good deeds of other people. Some deprecate the teaching and practice of other people although they have never practised' vipassana effectively. Some criticize the right method because they are attached to their wrong method. All these people have avijja which means ignorance of and misconception about the right path. It is avijja not to know that dana , sila and bhavana lead to Nibbana and it is avijja too to regard dana , etc as harmful to one's interest. The more destructive avijja is ignorance of and illusion about the right method of contemplation.Ignorance of the right path is the most terrible form of avijja. For it makes its victims blind to good deeds and creates illusions, thereby preventing them from attaining human happiness or divine bliss, let alone the Ariyan path and Nibbana. Yet most people remain steeped in ignorance, unmindful of the need to devote themselves to dana, sila and bhavana .11. AVIJJA LEADS TO SANKHARATo them sensual pleasure is the source of happiness, Nibbana as the extinction of nama-rupa is undesirable and the way to it is arduous and painful. So they seek to gratify their desire through three kinds of action (kamma ) viz., bodily action, verbal action and mental action. Some of these actions may be ethically good and some may be ethically bad. Some people will practise dana, etc for their welfare hereafter, while some will resort to deceit or robbery to become rich.A Pali synonym for kamma (action) is sankhara. Sankhara is also of three kinds, viz., sankhara by thought, sankhara by speech and sankhara by body. Sankhara presupposes cetana (volition). The function of cetana is to conceive, to urge or to incite and as such it is the mainspring of all actions. It is involved in killing, alms-giving, etc. The yogi knows its nature empirically through contemplation.In another sense there are three kinds of sankharas, viz., punnabhi (wholesome) sankhara , with its good kammic result, apunnabhi (unwholesome) sankhara with its bad kammic result and anenjabhisankhara that leads to wholesome arupajhana which literally means immobile jhana. Rupajhana and all the good actions having the kammic results in the sensual world are to be classified as punnabhi sankhara. Punna literally means something that cleanses or purifies. Just as a man washes the dirt off his body with soap, so also we have to rid ourselves of kammic impurities through dana, sila and bhavana . These good deeds are conducive to welfare and prosperity in the present life and hereafter.Another meaning of punna is the tendency to fulfil the desire of the doer of the good deed.Good deeds help to fulfil various human desires, e.g, the desire for health, longevity, wealth and so forth. If a good deed is motivated by the hope for Nibbana, it leads to a life that makes it possible to attain his goal or it may ensure his happiness and welfare till the end of his last existence. Abhisankhara is the effort to do something for one's own welfare. It tends to have good or evil kammic results. So punnabhisankhara is good deed with good kammic result. There are eight types of good deed in sensual sphere (kamavacarakusala) and five types in fine material sphere (rapavacara). All these may be summed up as of three kinds, viz., dana , sila and bhavana.Giving dana gladly means wholesome consciousness which is kammically very fruitful. So the donor should rejoice before, during and after the act of alms-giving. In the scriptures this kind of dana is credited with great kammic productivity. The attitude of the donor may also be one of indifference (upekkha) but if the mind is clear, his act of dana too has high kammic potential. Any act of alms-giving that is based on the belief in kamma is rational and it may bear fruit in the form of rebirth with no predisposition to greed, ill-will and ignorance. An act of dana that has nothing to do with a sense of its moral value or the belief in kammic result is good but unintelligent and it will lead to rebirth with no great intelligence. It may bear such kammic fruit in everyday life but it does not make the donor intelligent enough to attain the path in his next life.Again one may do a good deed spontaneously without being urged by others (asankharika-kusala); some do good deeds at the instigation of others (sasankharika-kusala). Of these two kinds of good deeds the former is kammically more fruitful than the later. When we consider the four kinds of good deeds mentioned earlier in terms of these last two attributes, we have a total of eight types of wholesome consciousness in the sensual sphere. Whenever we do a good deed, we are prompted to do so by one of these kusala dhammas; when we practise concentration and meditation, we have to begin with these eight types of wholesome dhammas.If it is bhavana that can lead to jhana, the yogi attains rupavacara jhana when his samadhi is well developed. jhanameans total concentration of mind on an object of mental training. Samatha jhanais concentration for bare tranquillity. jhana samadhi is like the flame burning in still air. According to the Suttas, the rupavacarajhana has four levels; in Abhidhamma It has five levels.</blockquote>

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