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Paticca Samuppada

Today is the 10th August, 1992. The purpose of Samatha Meditation is to attain higher concentration of mind. We call it Jhana concentration. Sometimes Appana concentration, Appana Samadhi. Jhana concentration is translated as fixedness concentration. Appana Samadhi is translated as absorption concentration. Both are in the same sense. When the mind is well concentrated on a single object of meditation then it is fixed firmly on the object so it is called fixedness concentration. Also it is totally absorbed into the object of meditation, so it is called absorption concentration, Appana Samadhi. Some Samatha meditators aim at attainment of supernormal power or psychical power through deep concentration of mind by means of Samatha Meditation, such as some of the hermits in ancient times who went into the forest and practise Samatha Meditation with a view to attaining psychical power or supernormal power through deep concentration of mind.

Though Samatha meditators have attained those psychical power or supernormal power, they are unable to realize the three characteristics of mental and physical processes, Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta because their purpose is to have deep concentration of mind and not to realize any physical or mental phenomena. There is also another reason why a Samatha meditator is unable to realize Nama and Rupa: if your mind is very deeply concentrated on the object of meditation you are unable to realize body-mind processes in their true nature because concentration is too deep to realize mental and physical processes.

The purpose of Vipassana Meditation is to attain Nibbana or deliverance through destruction of all mental defilements be means of right understanding of body-mind processes. So Vipassana meditators, Insight meditators first of all must have some degree of concentration; not too deep, some degree of concentration on which he will build up the insight knowledge that penetrates into the true nature of mental and physical phenomena, realization of physical and mental phenomena in their true nature. That insight knowledge will destroy the mental defilements. For Vipassana meditator, if he hasn't yet attain any Path or Fruition Knowledge, he is still able to remove some of the mental defilements, Kilesa; partially, not completely.

There are three types of removal or abandonment of Kilesa, mental defilements. We call three types of Pahana. Pahana here means removal or abandonment or destruction or elimination. There are actually five kinds of removal but here to make it easy for you, I will explain only three kinds of removal. The first one, Tadanga Pahana means partial removal or abandonment of Kilesa. The second one is Vikkhambhana Pahana which means temporary removal or abandonment of Kilesa. The third one is Samuccheda Pahanaya which means complete removal or abandonment of Kilesa. Out of these three, partial removal or abandonment of mental defilements is done by Vipassana nana, insight knowledge. Temporary removal or abandonment of Kilesa is done by deep concentration, Samadhi. Complete removal or abandonment of Kilesa is done by Path knowledge, enlightenment.

When you practise Vipassana Meditation and your mindfulness becomes continuous and constant then the mind becomes concentrated gradually. The more continuous your mindfulness becomes, the deeper the concentration you have, the clearer the insight knowledge becomes. With a deeper concentration, your insight knowledge becomes sharp and penetrating. Then it realizes bodily and mental phenomena in their true nature.

Suppose you hear a song which is very sweet and you like it. Then if you hear that song and if you enjoy it, what will happen? You feel it pleasant, "Ah, very sweet. I like it." That pleasant feeling arises dependent on your ear and the sweet song. Dependent on your ear and the sweet song, there arises pleasant feeling about the song. Then when you are not able to observe and note it as 'hearing, hearing', you will enjoy it more and more. When you enjoy it more and more, your pleasant feeling about the sweet song becomes more and more powerful. When the pleasant feeling becomes more powerful, there arises a desire to hear it. Sometimes to meet the singer through hearing of the song. So hearing the sweet song you are not able to just note as 'hearing, hearing' but you enjoy it. Then that desire to meet the singer or listen to the song repeatedly arises, dependent on pleasant feeling about the sweet song. Why? Because you could not note it, you could not observe it. You could not note it as 'hearing, hearing'.

Then the desire becomes stronger and stronger to hear the song or to meet the singer. Then you do something to meet the singer. Maybe you go to him or her. That deed may be good or bad, wholesome or unwholesome. When you meet him or her you may talk about something. That talk may be wholesome or unwholesome. It is called verbal action, Vaci Kamma in Pali. That verbal action may be good or bad, wholesome or unwholesome. That verbal action arises dependent on the stronger desire which arises dependent on the ordinary desire to see the singer or to hear the song.

Here why do you have this chain of Kilesa arising one after another? Because you do not notice the hearing or you are not aware of it. This pleasant feeling about the song arises dependent on your ear and the sweet song. It means Salayatana paccaya phasso, phassa paccaya vedana, dependent origination.

Phassa paccaya vedana, because you have ears, the ears contact the song; that contact is called phassa. It is conditioned by the ear and the song. Because of contact there arises pleasant or unpleasant feeling, that is Vedana. Phassa paccaya vedana, this pleasant feeling is conditioned through contact.

Because of pleasant feeling you have desire to meet the singer or to hear the song repeatedly. That desire is caused by the pleasant feeling. Vedana paccaya tanha in Pali. The desire is conditioned by the pleasant feeling.

Then when the desire is not overcome be noting it or by being aware of it, there arises a stronger desire. The stronger desire is called grasping, Upadana. You grasp it, you never release it, you grasp it firmly. The grasping is caused by the desire. Tanha paccaya upadana in Pali.

The grasping makes you do something to achieve what is grasped. That deed or action is caused by the grasping. So the action or deed arises dependent on grasping or the action or deed is conditioned by grasping. Upadana paccaya Bhavo. Bhava here means action or deed.

Because of that action, then you are reborn again. That rebirth is caused by the action you did in the previous existence. It means Bhava paccaya jati. Jati means rebirth. The rebirth is conditioned by the action or deed in the previous existence, so Bhava paccaya jati.

When you are reborn, you are sure to undergo decay, to be old and to die. This old age and death is caused by that rebirth. In other words, old age and death are conditioned by rebirth. Jati paccaya jara marana. Jara means old age, marana means death.

Then there is much suffering, both physical and mental, before he dies because of rebirth. In this way he has to have a great deal of suffering because he did not note the song or the consciousness of hearing as 'hearing, hearing'. Do you follow this dependent origination, Paticca Samuppada? Because you have ear, the ear contact the song. Then because of that contact you have pleasant feeling about the song. Salayatana paccaya phasso. Phassa paccaya vedana. Salayatana here means six sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind). Because you have these six sense organs (in the case the ear organ), you have contact with the song. So that contact arises dependent on the ear, one of the six organs. It means salayatana paccaya phasso. Phasso means contact. The contact is conditioned by the six sense organs. When the ear contact the song, there arises the consciousness of hearing. Though you have ear, if there is no song or voice there won't be any contact. Because you have ear and there is song, so there is contact. The ear contact the sound. Because of that contact there arises consciousness of hearing.

That consciousness of hearing has its associates, mental consciousness which are Sanna (perception), Vedana (feeling/sensation), Manasikara (attention), Cetana (volition), Phassa (contact), Ekaggata (one-pointedness) and Jivitindriya (vitality/psychic life). Hence one of the mental concomitant which arises together with the consciousness of hearing is feeling. It is very distinct, more powerful than the other mental concomitant. As soon as you hear the song, you must observe it 'hearing, hearing', attentively, energetically and somewhat quickly so that your noting mind becomes more and more powerful and overwhelms the consciousness of hearing. The consciousness couldn't hear the song very clearly. So there won't arise any judgement because it can't judge if the song is good or bad because it can't grasp the song very well. Why? Because the noting mind disturbs it and overwhelms it.

"Hearing, hearing' you note. Then the hearing is not able to know the object very well so it can't judge if it is good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. Even though there is contact, there won't arise any pleasant or unpleasant feeling because the consciousness can't judge whether the object is good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. So there won't arise any pleasant or unpleasant feeling. That feeling is removed by the noting mind, mindfulness. Because of being mindful of what you are hearing, so there is no pleasant or unpleasant feeling arising. It means the feeling is removed or made weak by the constant and powerful mindfulness. There cannot arise pleasant feeling.

Because there is no pleasant or unpleasant feeling, then you don't have any desire for the song or the singer.

Because there is no desire there won't be any grasping.

Because there is no grasping, there won't arise any action or deed. Because you have no grasping for the object you do not do any action or deed to get it. So there is no action or deed.

Because there is no action or deed, you won't be reborn again (i.e. regarding this consciousness of hearing). Then your rebirth stops here. Why? Because when you hear the song you note it, you observe it, you are mindful of it.

Then all kinds of suffering cease to exist here. You suffer no more. Why? Because you are mindful of it, you are aware of what you hear as 'hearing, hearing'. Because you have ear and there is a song then you have contact but you observe it, you note it 'hearing, hearing'. By means of mindfulness, by the power of mindfulness, your mind couldn't judge the song or the object to be good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, so there is no pleasant or unpleasant feeling.

Because there is no pleasant or unpleasant feeling, there won't arise any desire at all to meet the singer or hear the song. It means vedana nirodha tanha nirodha.

Because of the absence of feeling or sensation there is no desire arising.

Because of the absence of desire, there is no grasping at all. Tanha nirodha upadana nirodha.

Because of the absence of grasping, there won't arise any action or deed. Upadana nirodha bhava nirodha.

Because of the absence of action or deed, good or bad, there won't arise any rebirth again. That means bhava nirodha jati noridha.

Then here your mental and physical processes cease to exist. It doesn't go on any longer or any more. Your suffering ceases. You attain cessation of suffering. Do you follow? Why? Because you are mindful of what you hear. Because you notice what you hear. Because you are aware of what you hear or the consciousness of hearing. When you are able to be mindful of the consciousness of hearing while you are hearing something, then the consciousness or the mind cannot judge the object to be good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant because of strong and powerful mindfulness.

It is called closing the door. What kind of door is closed? Ear door is closed. How is ear door closed, with what? The ear door is closed with mindfulness. Then the enemy can't get in. Who is the enemy? Tanha (vedana or feeling is the forerunner). When you hear a sweet song, if your mindfulness becomes continuous, constant and powerful, then no defilement at all can enter into it. You are able to close your ear. So mindfulness prevents mental defilements from coming into your mind through the door of the ear. Hence you have to observe any sound or voice, 'hearing, hearing'.

The same with the other five sense doors. When you see something, note 'seeing'. That is closing the doors of the eyes. When you hear something, note 'hearing'. It is closing the door of the ear. When you smell any scent or odour, note 'smelling', closing the nose door. When you eat something, you should note all actions and the movements involved in the act of eating, saying 'taking', 'opening the mouth', 'putting into the mouth", 'chewing', 'tasting' and so on. When you observe every mental state or physical process, then you cannot enjoy your food because the powerful mindfulness prevents mental defilements from coming into the door of the tongue.

Say if you have a sweet taste while you are taking your food, then note 'chewing, chewing', or 'sweet, sweet'. Then when the mindfulness becomes powerful you do not know the food as sweet any longer because what you are realizing at that moment is something being chewed or something which is grinding; the two jaws. Then you don't identify the taste with you. You don't identify the movement of the jaws with you. There are two things which are moving constantly and also there is something between these two things. That's all. Then you don't have any sweet taste. Because you don't have any sweet taste, you don't have any desire to enjoy it. If your noting is more powerful and more detailed, gradually you want to vomit. Why? Because you have aversion to that food. It is good? No good because aversion is also one of the defilements, Dosa. You must feel neutral feeling, without pleasantness or unpleasantness. If you feel pleasant you would have desire; if you feel unpleasant you would have aversion. So your feeling must be neutral. To make it neutral you must observe it. Then you don't know the food is good or bad; the food is liked or disliked. That is closing of the door of the tongue.

It is called Indriya Samvara. Indriya means six sense doors or sense organs. Samvara means closing or blocking. You block the ear with mindfulness. Then none of the mental defilements will come into the mind through the ear because you blocked it. It is called closing of the six sense doors or blocking of the six sense doors. So whatever you hear, note 'hearing, hearing'; whatever you see note as 'seeing'; whatever you smell, note as 'smelling'; whatever you taste, note as 'tasting' or 'chewing' and so on; whatever you touch, 'touching'; whatever hardness you feel, 'hard, hard'; whatever softness you feel, 'soft, soft'. Then there is no mental defilement at all because you realize this is just the consciousness of touching.

With a deeper concentration and clearer insight you may know the consciousness of hearing appearing and disappearing, arising and passing away. Then you come to realize the impermanence of the consciousness of hearing Anicca. Then you don't have any desire or aversion. No mental defilements at all. That is the purpose of Vipassana Meditation. It means the attainment of the cessation of suffering through realization of mental and physical phenomena in their true nature. That is what Vipassana meditators aim at. Samatha meditators cannot realize any mental or physical phenomena because their aim is to attain higher degree of concentration.

First of all I have told you three types of removal or abandonment. When you hear that sweet song and if you observe it 'hearing', then you come to know that there is hearing and there is the object and there is the mind that notes it with deeper concentration. If you do not observe 'hearing', then as I have explained, you have a desire for the song or to see the singer. That desire arises dependent on feeling or sensation. But when you are able to observe or to be mindful of what you are hearing, then what you know is just this hearing, the song and the mind that notes it. That is Vipassana nana which rightly understands the consciousness of hearing, the song (or the voice) and the mind that notes it. That right understanding or realization or insight knowledge removes some of the mental defilements which may arise when you are not able to observe it.

However there are other mental defilements. Say when you see something there will arise the desire to see; when you taste something there will arise the desire to taste. These desire, tanha, lobha still remain untouched because what you are able to remove is the desire, tanha which may arise when you are not able to observe hearing. So some part of desire or tanha is destroyed by the right understanding while you are observing hearing. That is partial removal or partial abandonment of Kilesa by Vipassana nana, insight knowledge. It is partial removal.

May all of you be able to close all of your six sense doors by constant mindfulness and achieve your goal.

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