Chapter (2) Anatta Dhamma
Then again in the Khuddka Nikaya the Buddha says in a similar vein: “Anicca Vata sankliara uppadavaya dhammino uppa~itva nirojjhanti tesam vupasamo sukho”. It means that all compounded and conditioned things or phenomena are suffering; this connotes the ceaseless process of pancakkhandha appearing and disappearing without a stop, which is suffering. The cessation of the process of appearing and disappearing is bliss (Nibbana).
All the foregoing are intended to serve as introduction to the main body of the doctrine of the Four Noble Truths of Dhamma Cakka Pavuttana Sutta, etc. The Pali word “sacca” means “truth”. It will be seen, therefore, that the constituents of nama-rupa (mind and matter) otherwise known as pancakkhandha have been described as those of Anicca Dhamma in accordance with Paramattha Sacca = (ultimate truth) or Yathabhuta Dhamma which means to see things as they really are. All the same way, Dukkha Dhamma has been deaft with in the chapter on Dukkha sacca. The Anatta Dhamma however, has been deaft with separately in the Anaff a Sutta. In fact, the Anaffa Lekkhana Sutta is part and parcel ofthe first sermon ofthe Buddha delivered to the five asectics. The reason why this Anatta Sutta was not included in the Dhammacakka Pavuttana Sutta or why it was preached in a separate sutta five days after the Dhammacakka pavuthana Sutta when all the five asectics became sotapannas may be attributed to the fact that the Anatta Desana requires a most delicate treatment and very deep and profound tecnical analysis in as much as it is a dhamma transcending the mundane world of sankliara loka and pervading the lokuttara Nibbana. Since the Buddha says “Sabbe dhamma anatta” that all
phenomena are anatta, it is most difficult for ordinary worldlings to understand and appreciate it. Except Buddha none in this world or any other worlds including those of the great scientists, philosophers or religious leaders could teach anatta dhamma. As a matter of fact without anatta Buddha’s dhamma would not have been different from other religious or ethical philosophy or psychology. That may, perhaps, be the reason why the western scholars are said to have called the anatta doctrine the soul of Buddhism. All the above observations are, I am sure, supported by the Sammohavinodani Commentary“Anatta lakkhanam pannapananhi annassa kassaci avisayo buddhanam yeva visayo evametam anatta lakkhanam dassanto aniccena va dasseti dukidiena va anicca dukkhehi va”. The meaning in short is: It is none ofthe business of others to undertake the teaching of anatta; it is only for the Buddhas, the All-Enlightened Ones, to do so. It is a very deep and difficuft doctrine, most profound in analysis and technical in treatment. This is the reason why Buddhas teach dhamma to ordinary sentient beings starting with anicca lakkhana or with dukkha lakkhana or
with anicca dukkha lakkhana accordingly.
Ashin Nanatiloka and Anatta Dhamma
In connection with this Anatta Dhamma, the late German buddhist monk,Ashin Nanatiloka,who was a world Buddhist Missionary and a distinguished Pali scholar, observes in his little book, “The Word of Buddha”,as follows:-“This is in brief, the Anatta
Doctrine ofthe Buddha,i.e.,the teaching that all existence is void (sunna) of a permanent self or substance.It is the fimdamental Buddhist doctrine not found in any other religious teaching jor philosophical system.To grasp it ully,not only in an abstract and intelligent way, but also by constant reference to the actual experience,is an indispensable condition for the true understanding of the Buddha Dhamma and for the actual realisation of its goal. The Anatta Doctrine is the necessary outcome of the thorough analysis of actuallity undertaken, i.e., in the Khandha Doctrine.
Then on pages 11 and 12 of his ‘Buddhist Distionary” the same Ven: German Buddhist monk, Ashin Nanatiloka, dealing with the same subject of Anatta says inter alia as follows :- “Anatta (non-ego or no-self) that is the fact that neither within these bodily and mental phenomena of existence nor outside of them, can be found anything that in the uftimate sense could be regarded as a self reliant real Egoentity, personality or any other abiding substance. This is the central doctrine of Buddhism, without understanding of which a real knowledge of Buddhism is altogether impossible. It is the only really specific Buddhist docorine, with which the entire Buddhist structme stands or falls. All the remaining Buddhist doctrines may, more or less, be found in other philosophic systems and religions, but the Anatta Doctrine has been deafly and unreservedly taught only by the Buddha, wherefore also the Buddha is known as Anatta Vadi, or teacher of impersonality Whosover has not penetrated this impersonality of all existence, and does not comprehend that in reality there exists only this continually self-consuming process of arising and passing bodily and mental phenomena, and that there is no separate Ego-entity within or without this process, he will not be able to understand Buddhism, i.e., the teaching ofthe Four Noble Truths in the right light. He will think that it is his Ego, his personality, that experiences the suffering, his personality that performs good and evil actions, and will be reborn according to these actions, his personality that will enter into Nivirna, his personality that walks the eightfold path. Thus it is said in the visuddhi Maggaain Chap. XVI: ‘~ere suffering exists, no sufferer is found. The deeds are but no doer of the deeds is there. Nnvana is but not the man that enters it. The path is, but no traveller
on it is seen.”
LEDI SAYADAW AND ANATTA
The following is an extract reproduced in English translation from “Anattanisamsa (Advantages of the realisation of Anatta) written in Burmese by the late Venerable Ledi Sayadaw, Agga Maha Pandita, and published in a booklet entitled “Dhammacakka and Anatta Lakkhana Suttas” by the Buddha Sassana Aphwe of Burma in
1951.
If a person comprehends clearly the characteristic of Anatta he will be able to eradicate Sakkaya ditthit (personality wrong view or wrong belief) or Atta ditthit (wrong view or wrong belief Of ego or self) and become a Sotapanna (noble person) on the first path to Nibbana. It is the Sakkaya ditthit the pivotal cental of all immoral kammas (evil volitional actions or misdeeds) latent in the mind of a worldeing or worldly being. All these latent evil kammas keep on growing in strength so long as Sakkaya ditthi is free from him. if he comprehends clearly that the nama-rupa khandha (1)sycho- physical phenomena of existence) conatituting his so-called personality he will surely get rid of Atta ditthi, and as soon as Atta ditthi is got rid of all his latent bad kammas will disappear. With this clear comprehension of Anatta, accompanied by the disappearance of Sakaya ditthi or Atta ditthi, he will come to realise that after all there exists only the continually self-consuming process of nama-rupa, that there is no separate ego-entity, essence or substance, nor is there any abiding soul or self or personality such as I, he, she, man or woman, person or creature etc., etc., but a mere arising and vanishing nama-rupa process, and that therefore and bad kammas in the present, past or fliture are Anatta (impersonality), not Atta (personality) such as I, he, she, man or woman, person or creature, nor are the
abiding souls or substanes and so on.
There are Puthujjana (worldings) who have accumulated bad kammas (evil actions or misdeeds). They used to get worried very much about their fate as a resuft of their bad kammas. They must not forget that the more they get worried like this the worse they
will suffer as a result there of...
The following are some of the most interesting remarks by the late Ledi Sayadaw on the subject of Anatta in his Dipani Paunggyoke (Manuals of Buddhism) translated into English by the writer:-What is most important here is to comprehend Anatta a fully so that Sekkaya Ditthi is dispelled. To comprehend Anaffa fully you must have Anicca Vipassana Nana (insight knowledge of impermenance). if you have the Anicca Vipassana Nana it is easy for you to comprehend Anatta vipassana Nana (insight knowledge of no-self or non-ego. The following is a quotation from the Pali text in support of this view:-”Aniccasannino Meghiya Anatta sanra Santhati Anattasannino Sammugghtam Papunati Dittheva Dhamme
Nibbanam”.
` Meghiya, He who comprehends impermanence comprehends no-self or non-ego, and he who comprehends no- self or non-ego will bring the illusion of I over the five khandha (five aggregates) or the ego to an end and attains Nibbana, which is the termination of all kinds of suffering) in this very life time.The three characteristics of Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta are known as three vipassana Nana (threefold insight knowledge), also called Anubodhanana while the fourfold path knowledge of Sotapatti Magga, Sakadami Magga, Anagami Magga and Arabattha Magg are called Pativeda- nana.
Anicca-parinna (perfect knowledge of impermenence) means flill comprehension of marans dhamma (the law of death). There are two kinds of marana dhamma vis (1) Samudhi Marana (conventional
death) and (2) Paramattha Marana (Ultimate death), of which the former means the kind of death we refer to in our daily conversation from the conventional point of view that it is natural for every living person or creature to die one day while the latter, the ultimate death, means the momentary death of the mind and matter or the vanishing instant of the mental or material phenom
enon that occurs innumerable times in a day.
The conventional death is not real Anicca in the uftimate sense; it is one of the ten recollections only(Marananussati) The uftimate death or philosophic death is real Anicca
Here it may he noted that the Pali term Anicca (impermanent or change) means Marana (death).The kind of death when the corpse is sent to the graveyard is called cuti manana which is Samudhi Marana (conventional death), as pointed out bove by ledi Sayadaw.
The caseless process of psycho-physical phenomena always arising and vanishing in various shapes and forms and ever changing from one posture to another is called Anicca Marana (death) which is Santati Marana or Paramattha Marana philosophic death). This kind of marana is real Anicca, known only to those of Udayabbaya Nana
(insight knowledge), not to ordinary worldlings.
The kind of Marana (death) known as Khanika Marana, that is the psycho-physical phenomena arising and vanishing say at the rate of a billion and or half a billion in an eye’s wink or in a flash of lightering, has nothing to do with vipassana; it is only to show the tremendously rapid succession of psycho-physical process.It is stated in the Mula Tika as follows:
Kotisata sahassa sankhyati idam na gana na pariccheda dassana
bahu bhava dassanam meva panetam dathabbam.
` Some people used to say that Vipassana or Insight meditation is not an easy affair: it entails a good lot of ceaseless contemplation on billions ofpsycho- physical phenomena arising and vanishing all the time without interruption. To remove this kind ofmisunderstanding Samyutta Commentary says as follows.
Rupa rupa dhammanam ayuparimana sankliatassa khanassa vasena sammasanam nama sabbinnu buddhanam meva visayo na savakanam.
It is for the All-Enlightened Buddhas and not even for their Savakas (chief disciples)to comprehend the most rapid processes of Upada-Thiti-Bhanga (arising-stands still- vanishing) of mental
and mateial phenomena.Vipassana meditators are, therefore, well advised to contemplate only on Anicca which is Santiti Marana or paramattha marana (‘)hilosophic death of uftimate reality).
Dukidia-parinna means perfect knowledge ofthe intransic characteristic of suffering.Dukkha or suffering is divided into two Viz (1) Vedayita Dukidia suffering of mental and physical pain) and (2) Bhayattha Dukidia (suffering accompanied by fear) which is synonymous with Dukkha Sacca (truth of suffering) and with Dukidia (suffering)which is present in the three charactaristics of Anicca, Dukidia and Anatta.
Anatta-parinna means perfect knowledge of mind and matter as no-self or non-ago, that is that all the mental and meterial phenomena in the uftimate sense are comprehended as no-self or non-ego or impersonality; neither person nor creature in the conventional sense are comprehended as self or ego or personality of the mental and material phenomena; nor is it comprehended that apart from the mental and material phenomena there exist self or ego or personality which never dies and tranamigrates from one plane of existence to another. if this view or knowledge becomes
perfect it is called Anaffaparinna.
In the Niyama Dipani (manual of Cosmic Order) the late Ledi Sayadaw is quoted as saying: “There are two types of terminology such as Suttanta terminology and Abhidhamma terminology. Terms such as person, creature, human being, god, bralima, man, woman, I, or ego, he, essence, etc., belong to Suttanta terminology and those such as Nama-Rupa (mind and matter), Phassa (contact), Vedana (feeling), Pathavi (element of earth) Tejo (element of fire), Apo (element of air) etc., to the Abhidhamma terminology.
Brief Exposition of Anatta
If any one asks you whether a being transmigrates on death from one plane of existence to another, you will have to answer from the conventional, point of view, if the questioner is an interllctual weakling, as follows: “A person who has not done any meritorious deed transmigrates on his death to a woeflil plane of existence and one who has done meritorious deeds transmigrates on his death to a happy plane of existence. “ if the questioner is a wise intellectual giant, you will have to answer efther from the conventional point of view or from the philosofic standpoint, as circumstances may permit. The following is an illustration of the answer from the philosophic standpoint: There exists no being or no creature; hence there is no right for us to say that a being transmigrates or does not transmigrate on death. What there exist are phenomena such as mind and matter or namarupa which are always in a state of flux, that is a dynamic process of arising and vanishing almost at the same time. ft is only the act of merit or demerit done in this life that gives rise to fresh mind and matter m the next. That is why we used to say in the conventional sense that a being transmigrates from one plane to another on death.
Taung Lay lone Sayadaw and Anatta
Similar views on the same subject are expressed by the late famous Taung lay lone Sayadaw of Burma, a senior to the late Ledi Sayadaw,in his Catugiri Shubwe.A brief English translation of an extract from it is given below for general information:”It would be a great loss to all of us if we could not comprehend fully and understand properly the doctrine of Anatta whilst the rays of our
Sasana were shining all over the world.It is not gratification to
think that we have become human beings merely to know just like
pigs and dogs how to get food for our stomachs and satisfation our
sex.“We must realise that a single thought-moment of meditatior on one of the characteristics of Anicca, Dukidia and Anatta is hundred and thousand times better than meritorious deeds in building hundreds of gold and silver and silver momastories every day.
“A person of egoistic wrong view, having no proper knowledge of Anicca, Dukidia nad Anatta, is worse than a fool; he is damned bloody fool who is different from a bull or buffalo only
his form but not in spirit.
“The arising of a thought-moment of loath-someness as a result of contemplation ofAnicca Dukkha and Anatta is called Nibbidanana (insight of repulsion). A meritorious act motivated by Nibbidanana (insight knowledge of repulsion) is condusive to Magga (1)atli to Nirvana) and Phala (realisation of Nirbana). It is, in deed, a great gift of dhamma to the memory of Buddha, which is hundred thousan times better than construction of 84,000 gilded pagodas every day “A person who comprehends the Five Khandhas not as Anicca Dukidia Anatta and Asubha (loathsomeness) but as Nicca (permanent), Sukha (happiness), Atta (1)ersonality) and Subha (plesantness) must be a damned bloody fool. He who is most generous in charity and zealous in moral virtue only because he is anxious to enjoy worldly happiness and sensual pleasures must be a fool who is trying to enslave himself for ever in the bondage of
Samsara (round of births and deaths).
By disregarding Buddha’s teaching that the three planes of existence for men, gods and Bralimas are bondages of slavery, a fool makes most expensive gifts in charity for rebirth in those planes. This is not only foolishness but also a sheer madness; he
is a foolish lunatic.
If you happen to think even once in your own mind that ‘pancakklianda Anicca” (fivefold paychophysical is impermenant) it is much superior to making a gift of several monasteries finished with gold or to building pagodas with gold, silver and rubbies, or to planting wish-trees all over the earth surface
ft is miccha ditthi (wrong view) ifyou do not understand Anicca Dukkha and Anatta and samma ditthi (right view) if you understand Anicca Dukkha and Anatta. Buddha does not laud or admire noble character bearing on the four Magga and four phala.
It is easy to become a millioner, a king or queen, but it is very diflicuft to become a Kalayana Puthujana (noble worldling).
According to Paramattha Desana (ultimate or absolute Truth), Buddha is Dhamma and Sangha is also Dhamma.If you perform meritorious deeds of a great magnitude for rebirth in the realms of man, deva and Brahma, because you believe that the whirlpool of Sainsara (round of births and deaths) is bliss, then you are liable to commission ofthe last ofthe seven petty offener of sexual misconduct for which you will have to go round and round the Samsara for an indefinite number of aeons. Buddha teaches that, let alone a bad Kamma (demeritorious deed), even a very good Kamma (meritorious deed) for which you deserve a rebirth in the realms of man, deva (god) or Braham must be considered as enemy That is to say that both the good and bad Kamma (meritorious deed and demeritorious deed) giving rise to rebirth in the planes of life or existence must be dreaded as worse enemy “In the uftimate sense, however, there are no beings such as man, deva or Brahma. ft is Attavada ditthi (personality wrong view) ifyou believe that there are living beings such as man, deva or Brahma. This Attaditthi also called Sakkaya Ditthi is most unobirnsive and elusive and poses a great hindrance to realisation of Magga and Phala Nanas.
“Those who have disregarded Buddha’s teaching: “Taybhave and gharamviya dathabbam (The three planes of life viz Man, deva and Brahma are no better than animal cages)” and performed meritorious deeds and prayed for repeated recommending meritorious deeds for rebirths in these planes are guilty of a serious offence
against Buddha’s teaching.
“If you hold the view that the rounds of Samsara of Ciff a (mind), Cetasika (mental factors) and Rupa (matter or material phenomenon) which are in nature Anicca Dukidia and Anaff a (impermanent, suffering and no-self) are Puggala (person), deva(god), man, woman, I or he or she, then it is Miccha Ditthi (wrong
view) which is the same as madness.“If you contemplate even for a moment : ‘kupam Anicca or Rupam Dukidiam (material phenonon is impermanent, and suffering)” it is most sublime and you earn several times more merits than you build several guilded monasteries or several pagodas of gold, silver and rubbies.
“A person who holds that it is, in the uftimate sense, itthi purisa (woman or man) and not psychosomatic phenomenon or mind-body combination he must be a foolish lunatic. Even the All-
lightened Buddha would not be able to cure him.”
Manli Sayadaw
The following is a brief English translation of an extract from Ditthi visodhana Vajiragga Dipani by the late most famous Manii Sayadaw of Burma dealing with the same subject:
“It is not your ability to recite ‘Rupakkliando Vedakidiando (aggregate of material qualities or aggregate of feelings)’ that this the proof of your Nama-rupa pariggaha nana(insight knowledge of psycho-somatic phenomena) nor is it your ability to recite “avijja paccaya sanhara (Ignorance gives rise to mental formation)” that is the sign of your Paccaya Pariggaha Dhammatthiti Nana (Insight knowledge ofthe law of cause and effect), nor is it your skill in reciting Anicca I)ukkha and Anatta that is your
vipassana Nana (Intuitive Insight).
Kyanugpan Sayadaw and Anatta
The following is and extranct is an extract from Kyaungpan vipassana Chauksaung by the late Kyaungpan Sayadaw of Burma.
All of us, who are fortunate enough to have been born on the plane of happiness as human beings during the Buddha Sasana, must understand that we need not pray for new life in a better plane of existence; only the animals and those suffering in woeflil states and those in the hell will have to do so. Of all the material phenomena, the four such as Pathavi (element of earht), Tejo (element of fire), Apo (element of water) and Vayo (element of air) are essential; they are more important than the remaining 24 derived material phenomena.If you comprehend Paramattha Dhamma (absolute reality), that is enough; you need not contemplate even Anicca, DuIddia or Anatta; you need not carry on with vip assana (insight) practice or the seven visuddhi (seven kinds of purification).If you comprehend the nature of the material phenomena quite well, you can become an Allaganil Puggala (noble person on the third stage of sainthood). ifyou comprehend the nature of the mental phenomena quite well you can become a saint straightaway;if you comprehend Nama-Rupa (psycho-somatic phenomana) with the right view after learning from literatures or teachers, you can become a Sotapanna (one on the first stage of sainthood).
All the psycho-somatic phenomena, which we call nama-rupa, which are always in a state of flux in the three Lokas of (1) Satta Loka (world of living organism (2) Sankhara Loka (world of mental formation) and (3) Okasa Loka (world of space), have had no begin-fling and no ending, and therefore, are not extant nor non-extant. This is the most important point: There are aftogether 10 types ofAkusala (immoral) conscious-ness, 10 Kusala (moral) and 9 Mahaggata (Jilanic) consciousness, totalling 39 types of consciousness. There are the universal cosmic laws since the begin
ning of the universes.
Nibbanam patthetva are the Pali words used by the commentator not as prayer for realization of Truth that leads one to Nibbana. To understand what it is that is the absolute truth, you will have to realize that nothing in the universe is permanent; there is no-self nor anything to be called sei{ Bramah, no man,
etc., etc.,
You Atwin Wun U Po Hlaing
Extract from the Wimotti Rasa Desana of the late minister of Yaw Atwinwun U Po Hlaing, the most learned minister of the late
King Mindon of Burma.
Unless you know the real nature of the mind and matter of the Law ofDependent Origination, you cannot understand whether there is Atta (self) or no Atta (no-self). Atta is believed (by those of the wrong view) to be soul or the ever-lasting entity of a sentient being. So long the people do not know the nature of Nama-Rupa (mind and matter) of the Law of Paticcasamuppada, so long will they not know the truth as taught by the Buddha to Anandha. Let alone the heretics, even those of us who profess Buddhism are not flilly convinced of the truth of Anatta unless we understand quite properly the teaching on Nama-Rupa ofthe Law of Paticcasamuppada As you will be able to realize that there is no Atta only on understanding of the right nature of the mind and matter, you must concentrate your attention on a detailed study of mind and matter according to the Law of Paticcasamuppada while the
Buddha’s Sasana is still flourishing.
On the subject of the Law of Kamma vipaka (law of cause and effect) most of our people understand that cetana (volitional action) is called Kamma; they do not know that the Noble Eightfold Path and the Seven Bojjinga (seven enlightenment factors) are also Kamma. Kamma belonging to the Noble Eightfold Path is able to get rid of Cetana (volition) ofKusala or Akusala Cittas (moral or immoral types of conciousness) because vipassana and Magga Nana or vijia Nana or right understanding of the Noble Truth. will destroy Avijja Nana (ignorance) of the Noble Truth. When Avijja, which is the cause of Cetana, is destoryed Kamma does not arise.
In these circumstances, any one of us who are willing to get away from the whirlpool of Samsara of all forms of suffering must always remember that Cetana of Kusala or Akusala Kamma (good or bad volitional action) is a dangerous poison or an enemy and that vipaka resuft of a good or bad volitional action is a death knell and develop kamma (volitional action) of the Noble Eightfold Path with heart and soul. It is to be borne is mind that Avijja (ignorance) of the fool and Tanha (craving desire) of the wise are the root causes of the round of Samsara which we call cycle of
births and deaths.
ATTA AND ANATTA By I.B.HORNER,
the late President of London Pali Society
The article, written especially for the Golder Lotus Press, was first reprinted with their permission in the Middle Way for November 1952. In view of the current misunderstanding of the Buddha’s teaching on the subject of Atta and Anatta we think that the views of the leading English scholar on the Pali canon may be
once more helpfill to our readers.
It is becoming more and more general to think and to say that Buddhism teachers not-self anatta. Certainly, it is in the doctrine that all Abhamma thought converges and reaches its culmination. But Early Buddhism, Buddhism of the Vmaya and the Sutta-pitaka, do not exactly teach not seif~ except in so far as it says that certain definite things are not-self therefore put them away, they are not yours (S. lii, 333-34; Mi 140-141). What are these things? The five Khandas, or groups-of grasping; material shape, feeling, perception, the formations, consciousness. One and all these are repeatedly said to be suffering, impermanent and liable to change or afteration; they are therefore not self Had they been self; rupam(etc) c’dam atta abhavissa (vin. 1.13) there would have been power of disposal over them. Let my body be such, let it not be such. But as they are not seif~ one cannot after them. One can only, by training and in meditation develop such even-mindedness in regard to them as to remain unaffected by them, as they are manifested to us in the world by their impingement on our five senses-all of which; sense-data, sense-organs, sensory impingement and sensory awareness are also
called anatta.
Because these things are not-self afthough usually accepted as self by the ignorant worldling, the discipline is exhorted to ‘uproot false view of self an achievement to be affected by regarding the world as void, that is of self(Sh.lii) For the world is none other than the realm of sensory activities (s.iv 95), and like them, it is impermanent, it ages and wears away(Dhp. 151). A wrong conception of this ‘world’ also gives rise to and like them, it is impermanent, it ages and wears away (Dhp. 151). A wrong conception of this ‘world’ also gives rise to a false view concerning one’s own body, Sakkayaditthi, namely, that it is self But, as already indicated, the right view of the body is that; This is not mine, this am I not, this not my self
Completely pithless is the ‘world’, All its quarters shake;
Wanting an abode for self No shelter did I see.(sh.937)
It is the false not on of self has to be rejected, the selfthat is at home in this pithless world, not the one that finds no shefter there; and even so have the ideas “I am”, “mine”, “I am the doer”,” another is the doer” to be readicated also (A. 1, A. .2l6; S. jii. 83;M.i. 139 etc). Those self in what is not self (anattani ca atta) is an erroneous view of the scatterbrained whose is the road of birth and death (A. il. 52). This is the self that is to be denied; it is not whay it seems to be.
‘What is not self, that is not my self (yad anatta na meso atta) (S.lii.45.iv.2) a strong statement showing as clearly as the Vinaya one, already cited, that in Early Buddhism there was a definite recognition of both atta and anatta. At the same time the ethical, intellectual and metaphysical diflicufties involved in saying either yes or no to such a question as ‘is there self is there not self? are very great. The wandering recluse Vacchagotta asked Gotama(S.iv. 400-401) if there is self Gotama was silent. The wanderer then asked; ‘What then, is there no self Gotama was again silent and Vacehagotta departed. Then Ananda asked Gotama why he had not answered these questions. He replied; ‘if I had said there is self this would have been asiding-in with the Eternalists. And if I had said there is not self this would have been a siding in with the anushilenents. Again, if I had answered there is self this would not have accorded with my knowledge ‘all things are not-self (meaning all things, including the unconditioned Nibbana, are Anatta, Chp. 29). But, ifI had said there is not self(here, and above, not anatta, but anatta) the wanderer already confilsed, would have been increasingly so, and would have thought; “Was there not formerly self for me? There is not now”. This passange indicates the conflision surrounding the whole subject. ft would need a long dissertation even as much as
to approach a solution of the problem of self.
All I propose to do here is to submit various passages, some of which have been too much overlooked, and which mention the logical opposite of anatta. By this mean it may be possible to form some idea of the significance attributted to the word atta in the (maya and Nikayas, even if the meaning that we attach to that word now is not the same as was attached to it then by the people who used this word. Since they asked the question; By which self Kena attena, does not reach the Brahma-world? (Sn.508), it would appear that they drew the distinction between two or more uses of ‘self. Even if atta when used in some other way, is relegated to the sphere of ‘conventional truth’ as opposed to ‘philosophical truth’, because it not everlastling or permanent and has a beginnlng and and end, I suggent that the passages collected below, this is
not necessarily always the self that is ment.
1. The person who torments neither himself nor others nor
both lives with a selfbecome Brahma (brahmabhutena attana
vibarati.) A. il 206; M. i. 349;etc It should be noticed that brahmabhuta is used as an epithet of the Tagathata (D. 34; M. i. 111; A. v.226.256; Sh.561, etc) He is also Dhamma; who sees me sees Dhamma (ft. p.91; 5. ili. 120); while Brahama and dhamma often appear as synonymous brahamacarin, dhammacarin; brahmacakka, dhammacakka; brahmayana, dhamayana, and so on and the Tagathata is dhammakaya, bralirnaphuta (D. ijj. 84).ff atta has affinity with bralirna and this is dhamma and tagathata then so is atta. The Ud A (p.340)recognses this when it explains tagathata by at atta, while the Commentary on the M.(M.A. ji, 117; jii 141)
explains by satta, being what is real and true.
2. Similarly: Who attachment and hatred,and ignorance has left,He is called: developed of self Bralima-become, Trutlifinder,Awakened One.(bhavit’atta brahamabhuta tagathata
buddha)(It.p.57)
3. Wherefore fare alone with self as island, with self as refuge and no other, with dhamma as island, with dhamma as reflige
and no other. D. ii. lOOetc.
4. This is the way for great selves (as maggo mahattehi. It.
p.28, 29, A. il. 26).
5. Here some person has not developed (i.e. meditation upon) his body, motal bahit, thought, intuitive wisdom, He is limited, a small self~aritto appatumo), dweller in little hardness... But another person has developed his body, and so on. He is not limited, a great self (aparitto manatta), a dweller in immeasureable.
(A. i. 249)
6. Where fore, young men, which is best, that you should
seek a woman or self (attanam gaveseyyatha)? (\(m, 1.23)
7. Let him make of self of a reflige, farings with a blazig
head, seeking the state that changes not. (S. lii, 143)
8. That self I have made my refilge (words ascribed to the
dying Gotama). (D. ji. 120)
9. Self is lord of self and self s born, so then restrain thy
self as merchant does a goodly horse. I)ph. 380.
10. Self is the lord of self What other could there be? With
self well tamed one gains a lord that is hard to gain. (Dph.169)
11. Of those who fare the good faring in regard to body,
speech and thought, the self is guarded (rakkhito atta) (S. i.73)
12. This one, stead fast, released from views, is unsniirched
by the ‘world’, not blamed by self (Sh. 913)
13. The selfin the (atta ta) 0 man,knows what is true and
what is false.
14. The mind wandering over all the quarters sees nothing
dearer than self Since self is so dear to other is; Let the self-
lover harm not another, (Sh. i. 73;ud).
15. So he to whom the self is dear, who longs for the great
self should homage to true dhamma pay (A. il. 21; 5. i. 140)
16. I lay no wood, brahman, for fires on afters,only within burn the flame I kindle.Ever my fire burns, ever cornposed of self I, perfected, fare the Brahma-faring.As load of filel surely is pride, 0 brahman;The after’s smoke, anger, thy false words, ashes;
The tongue’s the proest’s spoon; and the heart the after
The flame thereon- this is man’s self well tamed.(S.i. 169).
17. ‘If monks, there were a self could it be said; it belongs to my self?‘Yes, Lord’.‘Or monks, if there were what belongs to self could it be said; it is my self?’‘Yes, Lord’.
‘But if self monks, and what belongs to self afthough actually existing, are incomprehensible (sacca thetato anupalabbhamane), is not the view and the causal rela tion that; ‘This the world this the self after dying I will become permanent, lasting, eternal, not liable to change, I will stand fast, like unto the eternal” isnot this view, monks, absolute complete folly?’ The monks agree (M. i. 138). The view here mentioned is held by mem bers of another sect. But for the disciples of ariyans all that make up ‘world’; body; body, feeling, perception, the formations and consciousness, is impermanent, suffer ing liable to change, and therefore it is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self
Much might be written about each ofthe passages I have presented. But only in (1)have I given any indication of the ramifications and affinities involved. The extracts cited cannot really be understood by themselves. All need amplif~ing by comparison with other passages in the vinaya and the Nikkayana. As the idea of brahma in the Pali canon has been overlooked in spite of the ever recurring brahma cariya, the walk to or with Brahma,the sublime-so has that of atta. Both were of the utmost siguificance in the Upanishads.both have a significance, even if we have not
assessed it, in the Pali canon.
I am aware that anyone who bungs forward these notions runs the risk of abuse, even if he does not suggest that they mean the same as Bralirnan and Atman mean in the Upanishads, even in fact if he suggests that they do not mean the same thing. Nevertheless, because these two words occur fairly frequently in the Pali canon, and usually in the significant passages, their evidence should
not be ignored.
[Nyanaponika,
Abbreviations:Udana.The Abhidhamma Philosophy, in the MahaBodhi Journal, vol,59, no, ji, Novemver 1951.
A. -Anguttara-Nikaya. D. -Digha-Nikaya.
Dhp. -Dhamapada. Sh. -Suffanipata.
It -Itivuttaka. Ud. -Udana.
M -MajIiini~a Nikaya. Uda. -Commentary on
-Commentary on Majjima. -Samyutta-Nikaya. (m.Vinaya-Pitaka.
The Middle Way Vol. LV No, 2.pp 66-7 August 1970.]
“A proper study under a competent teacher of Nama-Rupa is most essential for us to understand with analytical knowledge the characteristics of Nama and Rupa and see the things as they trnly are but not as Atta (ego) or Sakkaya. (1)ersonality), that is Yathabhuta Nana (seeing things are they truly are).”\MAS.Aniceam khayatthena Dukkham bhayatthen Anatta Asarakatthena ti.
Its meaning in short is “It is anicca because it is subject to death and destruction; it is dukidia because it is subject to pain, and anatta because it is of no abiding essence nor of an enduring entity; it is merely a self-consuihing phenomenon; Attano
sabhavam dharetiti dhatu.
Atom and Anatta
In an article entitled “Atom and Anatta” carried by the Light of Buddha, a monthly magazine of January 1959 published in English by the Burma Buddhist Society of Mandalay in Burma, correspondent Upasaka Wu-Shu (a) Loo Yung Tsung) writes as follows:-Everybody should agree in saying that science is the leading
factor that creates modern civilisation. The recent discovery of the release of nuclear energy brings mankind to a new age, the so-called Atomic Age. But unfortunately the first sigu that served as an announcement of the opening of this new lethal weapon is called the Atomic bomb. Men begin to worry that they are living in an Atomic Age where total annihilation of the whole civilised races is actually possible. They generally cannot but think that men are going along the wrong track, and feel that it would be better to give up the deadly enerygy and enjoy a peaceflil though simpler life like their ancestors’. But history does not allow events to go backwards. As Mr. Arthur H. Compton, authoritative American scientist said in “One World or None”, no group of men has had the power to prevent the coming of the atomic age. So the only right thing for men to do is to be aware of the serious position where mankind now stands and adjust their thinking and their mode of living in such a way that they may make the best possible use of this force that has been put into their hands. As a
matter of fact, there is nothing wrong with the bomb; what’s wrong is with man lmnseif Furthermore, the truth revealed as to the inside nature of the atom has undoubtedly invaluable influence not only upon the field of science ftself but upon all other branches ofknowledge; psychology, philosophy and even theology. It is the aim of this talk to introduce the in]portant facts and new conceptions disclosed by the scientists of today and to compare these analogically with the fimdamental principles of reality, unveiled and preached by Sakyamuni, the Buddha, some two
thousand five hundred years ago.
In 1808, John Dalton propounded the atomic theory. He believed that an element actually consisted of separate mvisible and indivisible atoms. He thought of atoms as things having the properties of a billiard ball. In the later part of the century great scientists like Michael, Faraday, James Maxwell and Lord Kelvin began their work in the development of electrical science. The electric nature of an atom was partly disclosed. In 1913 Niels Bohr of Coppenhagen produced a theory stating that an atom consisted oftwo parts, a small heavy nucleus surrounded by a largely empty region in which electrons move somewhat like planets about the sun. Around the electrons there lines is theoretically universal~araday symbolised an atom as a star-fish with a small body and comparatively long limbs ~hich entangle things the limbs t~ This nn~~ght be put thus; the constituents of the material universe i+g~twith one another and are i;~~y inseparable. This concept of the atom has important philosophical significance. mi’igs do not exist individually The existence of a single object is therefore nothing more than a mental illusion. The universe is simply a process, a system of interconnected activities in which nothing moves independently of the rest and where all is in ceaseless motion. This is exactly same in principle, though difference in words, as the Buddha’s preaching of ‘Anicca’ which means the impermanent or transient nature of things
Until the release of nuclear energy men still had a shady belief in the existence of ninety-four elements, whose atoms were visalized to be indestructible. Yet as early as 1905 scientist Albert Einstein had already foreseen that mass energy were convertible, and he gave the neat equation; E = me where E = energy, C = the velocity of light, m = mass. It is apparent from the equation that a small piece of matter, if converted entirely into energy, would give an enormous amount of energy. And this equation has been verified to be principally correct by the atomic bombs which exploded over New Mexico, Hiroshlma, ~ ai~asaki, and near B~i Atoll in the Pacific. Thus matter or the atom can be described as a highly concentrated form of energy. The reaction which occurs in an exploding atomic bomb can be expressed in the following:
= U-235+ neutron = I : Y : N (neutrons) {U = Uranium, I = Iodine, Y = Ytrium, N = a number); thus a uranium atom breaks up and transforms into atoms of iodine and yttrium. Atom, the original meaning of which is “indivisible” had been finally proven to be divisible. But in ordinary chemistry the conventional theory of the atom still holds good for most practical purposes. Paradoxically it might be put in the following way: All atom is not (really) an atom; it is ~ll~&in atom for the sake of convenience. One might notice the startling resemblance here of science with Buddhism if one ever had read the Diamond Sutta in which it is said “when the Tathagata speaks of universes he does not mean really universes; he calls them universes only us now turn to a field which scientists pay comparatively little attention, that is, to our mental faculties. Though the psychic
flinctions are much more complicated and subtle than physical phenomena, yet every sentient being has enough instruments, and material of his own if he only cares to observe and to do his experiment on himself Our mental or psychical faculties can be dMded into two fields: those which flincion within the field of consciousness and those beyond the field of consciousness. Different psychologists give different terms and definitions to the latter, some called it subconsciousness while others called it unconsciousness, yet they generally agree to mean that part of our psychic activities which is beyond the perception and control of our conscious mind. As to the content of this field of subconsciousness or unconsciousness, psycohologists suggested various terms as primitive inherited impulse and desire, original nature, impulse, drive urge, ctc. As a matter of fact, science in this
particular branch is still in its infancy.
It is a strange fact the field of subconsciousness which is in a large part obscure to the men of the atomic age, can be found clearly and repeatedly in various Buddhist writings. In these writings not only of the is the theory of mind given but also the physical and mental traninings are shown for getting hold of the seemingly uncontrollable impulse and desires, for uprooting them entirely, and for attaining to the state called Enlightenment where one experiences things as they really are, and finally proves nothing called a personal ego. ft is not possible to mention here with any detail the Buddhi~ philosophy and trahihig of mind but it might be of interest to you perhaps ifI explain briefly the philosophy ofthe Dharmalakana school (the consciousness only or perception only school). According to the philosohy of this school, the constituents of the universe are divided into eight faculties (or eight consciousness). The first five are the five sensual faculties, i.e., the faculty to see, to hear, to smell, to taste, and to feel. The sixth faculty is the mental flinctions within the field of consciousness. The seventh faculty is the instinctive grasp or attachment of ego. It is somethimes termed the Reservoir Faculty (Alaya VUnana of Mahayana concept), where the tendencies and energies of all our previous actions and experinces and energies of all our previous actions and experiences are kept. The seventh and eighth faculties flinction continuously as the centre of the psychic system no matter whether a man is in the state of awareness or of sleep or is even in the state we commonly call death. When all the abovementioned six faculties cease to flinction, the force of the seventh faculty or attachment of ego is tremendous; it is like the nuclear binding energy of an atom. ft causes the arising of the superficial layer, in different forms, in the distinctive desire to live, to propagate, to possess, etc. As a matter of fact, the ego-instinct originates and directs aimost all the superficial flinctions such as volition, emotion, etc., and even affects our system of reasoning. ft distorts our conscious mind and hence creates the illusory picture of the individual existence of “I”, “Being”, “Things”, etc., thus over shadowing the real nature ofimpermanence and egolessness. Since all the faculties of the conscious mind are more or less affected by the blind attachment of the ego, it might be said figuretively that the field of subconsciousness is the nucleus in which the ego-attachment is the binding force. The other mental faculties move around it like the electrons revolving round the nucleus of an atom. The arrangement of electrons in the orbits of an atom deternrnes its chemical properties, so do the conscious faculties like volition, emotion, intellect etc., of a certain individual deteimine his personality or character. It is worth while to mention especially the intellectual power of a hu man being. ft has the power of reasoning, understanding and generalising all the events occuning in experience; thus through this faculty, men are able to transmit and interchange in the outermost orbit make possible the flow of electric current. Another important feature of the intellect is that it is the least affected by the influence of the ego-instinct. On the contrary, through reasoning and contemplation it even possesses the power of self-realising the truth of egolessness. It is actually by means of this delicate faculty that the detachment of the ego, figuratively speaking the breaking of a psychic atom, is
possible.
Induced, perhaps, by the newly disclosed scientific ideas and theories, a scientist and philosopher like William James declared that consciousness was only a flinction, and one like Bertrand Russell said that such a term as “mental” does not belong to a single entity in its own right (that is the imaginary ego), but only to a system of entities. The revival of egolessness foreshadows the possible recovery of their faith in reality which is built upon a rational philosohy closely related to modern
science.
But to understand the emptiness of the ego is one thing; to practise, to realise and to live an egoless life is quite another. Einstein visualised the probable release of nuclear energy but the actual bonb came into existence some forty years later. There were people like Sakyamuni and his Arahat followers, though with aim quite different from the scientists, who declared their attainment to the state of flill enlightenment and annihilation of the ego, yet compared with billions of sentient beings they are just as rare as the self- radiating elements; uranium, radium, actinium and thorium, on this earth. ft is also interesting to nothice that in the Buddhist teaching everywhere, the principle of the so-called ‘middle-path’ or ‘middle-way’ can be seen. This principle essentially teaches one to refrain from going to
extreme in both physical and mental practices. And it is believed that this principle effectively leads one to penetration and enlightenment. In the process of penetrating into the nature of an atom, scientists found that an atom consisted of a complex system of negatively charged clectrons widely spaced round a positively charged nucleus. Charged particles (such as protons, electrons, or alpha particles) and electromaguetic radiations (such as gamma rays) lose energy and thus slow down in passing through that field. They discovered finally a new particle called neutron, a particle having no electric extremities, able to penetrate through the orbits and go its way unchecked until it makes a ‘head- on’ cornsion with an atomic nucleus. Though atomic acience and Buddhism seem to be entirely different, yet they are really tackling the same problem of energy and release of energy by breaking the highly concentrated form of energy, the so-called atom in one case, and the ego in the other. Aild their direction is the same, namely, ‘Inward’. Therefore, we should not be stonished by the close resemblance between the two. The energy released through the breaking of an ego is not so evident as in the atomic bomb yet the Buddha’s highest wisdom and infinite compassion, are very much like the light and heat released from the natural source of
atomic energy-the sun.
Briefly I have mentioned two of the three fundamental principles of Buddhism namely Anicca (impermanence) and Anatta (egolessness). The other important principle is called Dukka(suffering)or the consequence
of an agoiatie life.
***************
Then again in the Khuddka Nikaya the Buddha says in a similar vein: “Anicca Vata sankliara uppadavaya dhammino uppa~itva nirojjhanti tesam vupasamo sukho”. It means that all compounded and conditioned things or phenomena are suffering; this connotes the ceaseless process of pancakkhandha appearing and disappearing without a stop, which is suffering. The cessation of the process of appearing and disappearing is bliss (Nibbana).
All the foregoing are intended to serve as introduction to the main body of the doctrine of the Four Noble Truths of Dhamma Cakka Pavuttana Sutta, etc. The Pali word “sacca” means “truth”. It will be seen, therefore, that the constituents of nama-rupa (mind and matter) otherwise known as pancakkhandha have been described as those of Anicca Dhamma in accordance with Paramattha Sacca = (ultimate truth) or Yathabhuta Dhamma which means to see things as they really are. All the same way, Dukkha Dhamma has been deaft with in the chapter on Dukkha sacca. The Anatta Dhamma however, has been deaft with separately in the Anaff a Sutta. In fact, the Anaffa Lekkhana Sutta is part and parcel ofthe first sermon ofthe Buddha delivered to the five asectics. The reason why this Anatta Sutta was not included in the Dhammacakka Pavuttana Sutta or why it was preached in a separate sutta five days after the Dhammacakka pavuthana Sutta when all the five asectics became sotapannas may be attributed to the fact that the Anatta Desana requires a most delicate treatment and very deep and profound tecnical analysis in as much as it is a dhamma transcending the mundane world of sankliara loka and pervading the lokuttara Nibbana. Since the Buddha says “Sabbe dhamma anatta” that all
phenomena are anatta, it is most difficult for ordinary worldlings to understand and appreciate it. Except Buddha none in this world or any other worlds including those of the great scientists, philosophers or religious leaders could teach anatta dhamma. As a matter of fact without anatta Buddha’s dhamma would not have been different from other religious or ethical philosophy or psychology. That may, perhaps, be the reason why the western scholars are said to have called the anatta doctrine the soul of Buddhism. All the above observations are, I am sure, supported by the Sammohavinodani Commentary“Anatta lakkhanam pannapananhi annassa kassaci avisayo buddhanam yeva visayo evametam anatta lakkhanam dassanto aniccena va dasseti dukidiena va anicca dukkhehi va”. The meaning in short is: It is none ofthe business of others to undertake the teaching of anatta; it is only for the Buddhas, the All-Enlightened Ones, to do so. It is a very deep and difficuft doctrine, most profound in analysis and technical in treatment. This is the reason why Buddhas teach dhamma to ordinary sentient beings starting with anicca lakkhana or with dukkha lakkhana or
with anicca dukkha lakkhana accordingly.
Ashin Nanatiloka and Anatta Dhamma
In connection with this Anatta Dhamma, the late German buddhist monk,Ashin Nanatiloka,who was a world Buddhist Missionary and a distinguished Pali scholar, observes in his little book, “The Word of Buddha”,as follows:-“This is in brief, the Anatta
Doctrine ofthe Buddha,i.e.,the teaching that all existence is void (sunna) of a permanent self or substance.It is the fimdamental Buddhist doctrine not found in any other religious teaching jor philosophical system.To grasp it ully,not only in an abstract and intelligent way, but also by constant reference to the actual experience,is an indispensable condition for the true understanding of the Buddha Dhamma and for the actual realisation of its goal. The Anatta Doctrine is the necessary outcome of the thorough analysis of actuallity undertaken, i.e., in the Khandha Doctrine.
Then on pages 11 and 12 of his ‘Buddhist Distionary” the same Ven: German Buddhist monk, Ashin Nanatiloka, dealing with the same subject of Anatta says inter alia as follows :- “Anatta (non-ego or no-self) that is the fact that neither within these bodily and mental phenomena of existence nor outside of them, can be found anything that in the uftimate sense could be regarded as a self reliant real Egoentity, personality or any other abiding substance. This is the central doctrine of Buddhism, without understanding of which a real knowledge of Buddhism is altogether impossible. It is the only really specific Buddhist docorine, with which the entire Buddhist structme stands or falls. All the remaining Buddhist doctrines may, more or less, be found in other philosophic systems and religions, but the Anatta Doctrine has been deafly and unreservedly taught only by the Buddha, wherefore also the Buddha is known as Anatta Vadi, or teacher of impersonality Whosover has not penetrated this impersonality of all existence, and does not comprehend that in reality there exists only this continually self-consuming process of arising and passing bodily and mental phenomena, and that there is no separate Ego-entity within or without this process, he will not be able to understand Buddhism, i.e., the teaching ofthe Four Noble Truths in the right light. He will think that it is his Ego, his personality, that experiences the suffering, his personality that performs good and evil actions, and will be reborn according to these actions, his personality that will enter into Nivirna, his personality that walks the eightfold path. Thus it is said in the visuddhi Maggaain Chap. XVI: ‘~ere suffering exists, no sufferer is found. The deeds are but no doer of the deeds is there. Nnvana is but not the man that enters it. The path is, but no traveller
on it is seen.”
LEDI SAYADAW AND ANATTA
The following is an extract reproduced in English translation from “Anattanisamsa (Advantages of the realisation of Anatta) written in Burmese by the late Venerable Ledi Sayadaw, Agga Maha Pandita, and published in a booklet entitled “Dhammacakka and Anatta Lakkhana Suttas” by the Buddha Sassana Aphwe of Burma in
1951.
If a person comprehends clearly the characteristic of Anatta he will be able to eradicate Sakkaya ditthit (personality wrong view or wrong belief) or Atta ditthit (wrong view or wrong belief Of ego or self) and become a Sotapanna (noble person) on the first path to Nibbana. It is the Sakkaya ditthit the pivotal cental of all immoral kammas (evil volitional actions or misdeeds) latent in the mind of a worldeing or worldly being. All these latent evil kammas keep on growing in strength so long as Sakkaya ditthi is free from him. if he comprehends clearly that the nama-rupa khandha (1)sycho- physical phenomena of existence) conatituting his so-called personality he will surely get rid of Atta ditthi, and as soon as Atta ditthi is got rid of all his latent bad kammas will disappear. With this clear comprehension of Anatta, accompanied by the disappearance of Sakaya ditthi or Atta ditthi, he will come to realise that after all there exists only the continually self-consuming process of nama-rupa, that there is no separate ego-entity, essence or substance, nor is there any abiding soul or self or personality such as I, he, she, man or woman, person or creature etc., etc., but a mere arising and vanishing nama-rupa process, and that therefore and bad kammas in the present, past or fliture are Anatta (impersonality), not Atta (personality) such as I, he, she, man or woman, person or creature, nor are the
abiding souls or substanes and so on.
There are Puthujjana (worldings) who have accumulated bad kammas (evil actions or misdeeds). They used to get worried very much about their fate as a resuft of their bad kammas. They must not forget that the more they get worried like this the worse they
will suffer as a result there of...
The following are some of the most interesting remarks by the late Ledi Sayadaw on the subject of Anatta in his Dipani Paunggyoke (Manuals of Buddhism) translated into English by the writer:-What is most important here is to comprehend Anatta a fully so that Sekkaya Ditthi is dispelled. To comprehend Anaffa fully you must have Anicca Vipassana Nana (insight knowledge of impermenance). if you have the Anicca Vipassana Nana it is easy for you to comprehend Anatta vipassana Nana (insight knowledge of no-self or non-ego. The following is a quotation from the Pali text in support of this view:-”Aniccasannino Meghiya Anatta sanra Santhati Anattasannino Sammugghtam Papunati Dittheva Dhamme
Nibbanam”.
` Meghiya, He who comprehends impermanence comprehends no-self or non-ego, and he who comprehends no- self or non-ego will bring the illusion of I over the five khandha (five aggregates) or the ego to an end and attains Nibbana, which is the termination of all kinds of suffering) in this very life time.The three characteristics of Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta are known as three vipassana Nana (threefold insight knowledge), also called Anubodhanana while the fourfold path knowledge of Sotapatti Magga, Sakadami Magga, Anagami Magga and Arabattha Magg are called Pativeda- nana.
Anicca-parinna (perfect knowledge of impermenence) means flill comprehension of marans dhamma (the law of death). There are two kinds of marana dhamma vis (1) Samudhi Marana (conventional
death) and (2) Paramattha Marana (Ultimate death), of which the former means the kind of death we refer to in our daily conversation from the conventional point of view that it is natural for every living person or creature to die one day while the latter, the ultimate death, means the momentary death of the mind and matter or the vanishing instant of the mental or material phenom
enon that occurs innumerable times in a day.
The conventional death is not real Anicca in the uftimate sense; it is one of the ten recollections only(Marananussati) The uftimate death or philosophic death is real Anicca
Here it may he noted that the Pali term Anicca (impermanent or change) means Marana (death).The kind of death when the corpse is sent to the graveyard is called cuti manana which is Samudhi Marana (conventional death), as pointed out bove by ledi Sayadaw.
The caseless process of psycho-physical phenomena always arising and vanishing in various shapes and forms and ever changing from one posture to another is called Anicca Marana (death) which is Santati Marana or Paramattha Marana philosophic death). This kind of marana is real Anicca, known only to those of Udayabbaya Nana
(insight knowledge), not to ordinary worldlings.
The kind of Marana (death) known as Khanika Marana, that is the psycho-physical phenomena arising and vanishing say at the rate of a billion and or half a billion in an eye’s wink or in a flash of lightering, has nothing to do with vipassana; it is only to show the tremendously rapid succession of psycho-physical process.It is stated in the Mula Tika as follows:
Kotisata sahassa sankhyati idam na gana na pariccheda dassana
bahu bhava dassanam meva panetam dathabbam.
` Some people used to say that Vipassana or Insight meditation is not an easy affair: it entails a good lot of ceaseless contemplation on billions ofpsycho- physical phenomena arising and vanishing all the time without interruption. To remove this kind ofmisunderstanding Samyutta Commentary says as follows.
Rupa rupa dhammanam ayuparimana sankliatassa khanassa vasena sammasanam nama sabbinnu buddhanam meva visayo na savakanam.
It is for the All-Enlightened Buddhas and not even for their Savakas (chief disciples)to comprehend the most rapid processes of Upada-Thiti-Bhanga (arising-stands still- vanishing) of mental
and mateial phenomena.Vipassana meditators are, therefore, well advised to contemplate only on Anicca which is Santiti Marana or paramattha marana (‘)hilosophic death of uftimate reality).
Dukidia-parinna means perfect knowledge ofthe intransic characteristic of suffering.Dukkha or suffering is divided into two Viz (1) Vedayita Dukidia suffering of mental and physical pain) and (2) Bhayattha Dukidia (suffering accompanied by fear) which is synonymous with Dukkha Sacca (truth of suffering) and with Dukidia (suffering)which is present in the three charactaristics of Anicca, Dukidia and Anatta.
Anatta-parinna means perfect knowledge of mind and matter as no-self or non-ago, that is that all the mental and meterial phenomena in the uftimate sense are comprehended as no-self or non-ego or impersonality; neither person nor creature in the conventional sense are comprehended as self or ego or personality of the mental and material phenomena; nor is it comprehended that apart from the mental and material phenomena there exist self or ego or personality which never dies and tranamigrates from one plane of existence to another. if this view or knowledge becomes
perfect it is called Anaffaparinna.
In the Niyama Dipani (manual of Cosmic Order) the late Ledi Sayadaw is quoted as saying: “There are two types of terminology such as Suttanta terminology and Abhidhamma terminology. Terms such as person, creature, human being, god, bralima, man, woman, I, or ego, he, essence, etc., belong to Suttanta terminology and those such as Nama-Rupa (mind and matter), Phassa (contact), Vedana (feeling), Pathavi (element of earth) Tejo (element of fire), Apo (element of air) etc., to the Abhidhamma terminology.
Brief Exposition of Anatta
If any one asks you whether a being transmigrates on death from one plane of existence to another, you will have to answer from the conventional, point of view, if the questioner is an interllctual weakling, as follows: “A person who has not done any meritorious deed transmigrates on his death to a woeflil plane of existence and one who has done meritorious deeds transmigrates on his death to a happy plane of existence. “ if the questioner is a wise intellectual giant, you will have to answer efther from the conventional point of view or from the philosofic standpoint, as circumstances may permit. The following is an illustration of the answer from the philosophic standpoint: There exists no being or no creature; hence there is no right for us to say that a being transmigrates or does not transmigrate on death. What there exist are phenomena such as mind and matter or namarupa which are always in a state of flux, that is a dynamic process of arising and vanishing almost at the same time. ft is only the act of merit or demerit done in this life that gives rise to fresh mind and matter m the next. That is why we used to say in the conventional sense that a being transmigrates from one plane to another on death.
Taung Lay lone Sayadaw and Anatta
Similar views on the same subject are expressed by the late famous Taung lay lone Sayadaw of Burma, a senior to the late Ledi Sayadaw,in his Catugiri Shubwe.A brief English translation of an extract from it is given below for general information:”It would be a great loss to all of us if we could not comprehend fully and understand properly the doctrine of Anatta whilst the rays of our
Sasana were shining all over the world.It is not gratification to
think that we have become human beings merely to know just like
pigs and dogs how to get food for our stomachs and satisfation our
sex.“We must realise that a single thought-moment of meditatior on one of the characteristics of Anicca, Dukidia and Anatta is hundred and thousand times better than meritorious deeds in building hundreds of gold and silver and silver momastories every day.
“A person of egoistic wrong view, having no proper knowledge of Anicca, Dukidia nad Anatta, is worse than a fool; he is damned bloody fool who is different from a bull or buffalo only
his form but not in spirit.
“The arising of a thought-moment of loath-someness as a result of contemplation ofAnicca Dukkha and Anatta is called Nibbidanana (insight of repulsion). A meritorious act motivated by Nibbidanana (insight knowledge of repulsion) is condusive to Magga (1)atli to Nirvana) and Phala (realisation of Nirbana). It is, in deed, a great gift of dhamma to the memory of Buddha, which is hundred thousan times better than construction of 84,000 gilded pagodas every day “A person who comprehends the Five Khandhas not as Anicca Dukidia Anatta and Asubha (loathsomeness) but as Nicca (permanent), Sukha (happiness), Atta (1)ersonality) and Subha (plesantness) must be a damned bloody fool. He who is most generous in charity and zealous in moral virtue only because he is anxious to enjoy worldly happiness and sensual pleasures must be a fool who is trying to enslave himself for ever in the bondage of
Samsara (round of births and deaths).
By disregarding Buddha’s teaching that the three planes of existence for men, gods and Bralimas are bondages of slavery, a fool makes most expensive gifts in charity for rebirth in those planes. This is not only foolishness but also a sheer madness; he
is a foolish lunatic.
If you happen to think even once in your own mind that ‘pancakklianda Anicca” (fivefold paychophysical is impermenant) it is much superior to making a gift of several monasteries finished with gold or to building pagodas with gold, silver and rubbies, or to planting wish-trees all over the earth surface
ft is miccha ditthi (wrong view) ifyou do not understand Anicca Dukkha and Anatta and samma ditthi (right view) if you understand Anicca Dukkha and Anatta. Buddha does not laud or admire noble character bearing on the four Magga and four phala.
It is easy to become a millioner, a king or queen, but it is very diflicuft to become a Kalayana Puthujana (noble worldling).
According to Paramattha Desana (ultimate or absolute Truth), Buddha is Dhamma and Sangha is also Dhamma.If you perform meritorious deeds of a great magnitude for rebirth in the realms of man, deva and Brahma, because you believe that the whirlpool of Sainsara (round of births and deaths) is bliss, then you are liable to commission ofthe last ofthe seven petty offener of sexual misconduct for which you will have to go round and round the Samsara for an indefinite number of aeons. Buddha teaches that, let alone a bad Kamma (demeritorious deed), even a very good Kamma (meritorious deed) for which you deserve a rebirth in the realms of man, deva (god) or Braham must be considered as enemy That is to say that both the good and bad Kamma (meritorious deed and demeritorious deed) giving rise to rebirth in the planes of life or existence must be dreaded as worse enemy “In the uftimate sense, however, there are no beings such as man, deva or Brahma. ft is Attavada ditthi (personality wrong view) ifyou believe that there are living beings such as man, deva or Brahma. This Attaditthi also called Sakkaya Ditthi is most unobirnsive and elusive and poses a great hindrance to realisation of Magga and Phala Nanas.
“Those who have disregarded Buddha’s teaching: “Taybhave and gharamviya dathabbam (The three planes of life viz Man, deva and Brahma are no better than animal cages)” and performed meritorious deeds and prayed for repeated recommending meritorious deeds for rebirths in these planes are guilty of a serious offence
against Buddha’s teaching.
“If you hold the view that the rounds of Samsara of Ciff a (mind), Cetasika (mental factors) and Rupa (matter or material phenomenon) which are in nature Anicca Dukidia and Anaff a (impermanent, suffering and no-self) are Puggala (person), deva(god), man, woman, I or he or she, then it is Miccha Ditthi (wrong
view) which is the same as madness.“If you contemplate even for a moment : ‘kupam Anicca or Rupam Dukidiam (material phenonon is impermanent, and suffering)” it is most sublime and you earn several times more merits than you build several guilded monasteries or several pagodas of gold, silver and rubbies.
“A person who holds that it is, in the uftimate sense, itthi purisa (woman or man) and not psychosomatic phenomenon or mind-body combination he must be a foolish lunatic. Even the All-
lightened Buddha would not be able to cure him.”
Manli Sayadaw
The following is a brief English translation of an extract from Ditthi visodhana Vajiragga Dipani by the late most famous Manii Sayadaw of Burma dealing with the same subject:
“It is not your ability to recite ‘Rupakkliando Vedakidiando (aggregate of material qualities or aggregate of feelings)’ that this the proof of your Nama-rupa pariggaha nana(insight knowledge of psycho-somatic phenomena) nor is it your ability to recite “avijja paccaya sanhara (Ignorance gives rise to mental formation)” that is the sign of your Paccaya Pariggaha Dhammatthiti Nana (Insight knowledge ofthe law of cause and effect), nor is it your skill in reciting Anicca I)ukkha and Anatta that is your
vipassana Nana (Intuitive Insight).
Kyanugpan Sayadaw and Anatta
The following is and extranct is an extract from Kyaungpan vipassana Chauksaung by the late Kyaungpan Sayadaw of Burma.
All of us, who are fortunate enough to have been born on the plane of happiness as human beings during the Buddha Sasana, must understand that we need not pray for new life in a better plane of existence; only the animals and those suffering in woeflil states and those in the hell will have to do so. Of all the material phenomena, the four such as Pathavi (element of earht), Tejo (element of fire), Apo (element of water) and Vayo (element of air) are essential; they are more important than the remaining 24 derived material phenomena.If you comprehend Paramattha Dhamma (absolute reality), that is enough; you need not contemplate even Anicca, DuIddia or Anatta; you need not carry on with vip assana (insight) practice or the seven visuddhi (seven kinds of purification).If you comprehend the nature of the material phenomena quite well, you can become an Allaganil Puggala (noble person on the third stage of sainthood). ifyou comprehend the nature of the mental phenomena quite well you can become a saint straightaway;if you comprehend Nama-Rupa (psycho-somatic phenomana) with the right view after learning from literatures or teachers, you can become a Sotapanna (one on the first stage of sainthood).
All the psycho-somatic phenomena, which we call nama-rupa, which are always in a state of flux in the three Lokas of (1) Satta Loka (world of living organism (2) Sankhara Loka (world of mental formation) and (3) Okasa Loka (world of space), have had no begin-fling and no ending, and therefore, are not extant nor non-extant. This is the most important point: There are aftogether 10 types ofAkusala (immoral) conscious-ness, 10 Kusala (moral) and 9 Mahaggata (Jilanic) consciousness, totalling 39 types of consciousness. There are the universal cosmic laws since the begin
ning of the universes.
Nibbanam patthetva are the Pali words used by the commentator not as prayer for realization of Truth that leads one to Nibbana. To understand what it is that is the absolute truth, you will have to realize that nothing in the universe is permanent; there is no-self nor anything to be called sei{ Bramah, no man,
etc., etc.,
You Atwin Wun U Po Hlaing
Extract from the Wimotti Rasa Desana of the late minister of Yaw Atwinwun U Po Hlaing, the most learned minister of the late
King Mindon of Burma.
Unless you know the real nature of the mind and matter of the Law ofDependent Origination, you cannot understand whether there is Atta (self) or no Atta (no-self). Atta is believed (by those of the wrong view) to be soul or the ever-lasting entity of a sentient being. So long the people do not know the nature of Nama-Rupa (mind and matter) of the Law of Paticcasamuppada, so long will they not know the truth as taught by the Buddha to Anandha. Let alone the heretics, even those of us who profess Buddhism are not flilly convinced of the truth of Anatta unless we understand quite properly the teaching on Nama-Rupa ofthe Law of Paticcasamuppada As you will be able to realize that there is no Atta only on understanding of the right nature of the mind and matter, you must concentrate your attention on a detailed study of mind and matter according to the Law of Paticcasamuppada while the
Buddha’s Sasana is still flourishing.
On the subject of the Law of Kamma vipaka (law of cause and effect) most of our people understand that cetana (volitional action) is called Kamma; they do not know that the Noble Eightfold Path and the Seven Bojjinga (seven enlightenment factors) are also Kamma. Kamma belonging to the Noble Eightfold Path is able to get rid of Cetana (volition) ofKusala or Akusala Cittas (moral or immoral types of conciousness) because vipassana and Magga Nana or vijia Nana or right understanding of the Noble Truth. will destroy Avijja Nana (ignorance) of the Noble Truth. When Avijja, which is the cause of Cetana, is destoryed Kamma does not arise.
In these circumstances, any one of us who are willing to get away from the whirlpool of Samsara of all forms of suffering must always remember that Cetana of Kusala or Akusala Kamma (good or bad volitional action) is a dangerous poison or an enemy and that vipaka resuft of a good or bad volitional action is a death knell and develop kamma (volitional action) of the Noble Eightfold Path with heart and soul. It is to be borne is mind that Avijja (ignorance) of the fool and Tanha (craving desire) of the wise are the root causes of the round of Samsara which we call cycle of
births and deaths.
ATTA AND ANATTA By I.B.HORNER,
the late President of London Pali Society
The article, written especially for the Golder Lotus Press, was first reprinted with their permission in the Middle Way for November 1952. In view of the current misunderstanding of the Buddha’s teaching on the subject of Atta and Anatta we think that the views of the leading English scholar on the Pali canon may be
once more helpfill to our readers.
It is becoming more and more general to think and to say that Buddhism teachers not-self anatta. Certainly, it is in the doctrine that all Abhamma thought converges and reaches its culmination. But Early Buddhism, Buddhism of the Vmaya and the Sutta-pitaka, do not exactly teach not seif~ except in so far as it says that certain definite things are not-self therefore put them away, they are not yours (S. lii, 333-34; Mi 140-141). What are these things? The five Khandas, or groups-of grasping; material shape, feeling, perception, the formations, consciousness. One and all these are repeatedly said to be suffering, impermanent and liable to change or afteration; they are therefore not self Had they been self; rupam(etc) c’dam atta abhavissa (vin. 1.13) there would have been power of disposal over them. Let my body be such, let it not be such. But as they are not seif~ one cannot after them. One can only, by training and in meditation develop such even-mindedness in regard to them as to remain unaffected by them, as they are manifested to us in the world by their impingement on our five senses-all of which; sense-data, sense-organs, sensory impingement and sensory awareness are also
called anatta.
Because these things are not-self afthough usually accepted as self by the ignorant worldling, the discipline is exhorted to ‘uproot false view of self an achievement to be affected by regarding the world as void, that is of self(Sh.lii) For the world is none other than the realm of sensory activities (s.iv 95), and like them, it is impermanent, it ages and wears away(Dhp. 151). A wrong conception of this ‘world’ also gives rise to and like them, it is impermanent, it ages and wears away (Dhp. 151). A wrong conception of this ‘world’ also gives rise to a false view concerning one’s own body, Sakkayaditthi, namely, that it is self But, as already indicated, the right view of the body is that; This is not mine, this am I not, this not my self
Completely pithless is the ‘world’, All its quarters shake;
Wanting an abode for self No shelter did I see.(sh.937)
It is the false not on of self has to be rejected, the selfthat is at home in this pithless world, not the one that finds no shefter there; and even so have the ideas “I am”, “mine”, “I am the doer”,” another is the doer” to be readicated also (A. 1, A. .2l6; S. jii. 83;M.i. 139 etc). Those self in what is not self (anattani ca atta) is an erroneous view of the scatterbrained whose is the road of birth and death (A. il. 52). This is the self that is to be denied; it is not whay it seems to be.
‘What is not self, that is not my self (yad anatta na meso atta) (S.lii.45.iv.2) a strong statement showing as clearly as the Vinaya one, already cited, that in Early Buddhism there was a definite recognition of both atta and anatta. At the same time the ethical, intellectual and metaphysical diflicufties involved in saying either yes or no to such a question as ‘is there self is there not self? are very great. The wandering recluse Vacchagotta asked Gotama(S.iv. 400-401) if there is self Gotama was silent. The wanderer then asked; ‘What then, is there no self Gotama was again silent and Vacehagotta departed. Then Ananda asked Gotama why he had not answered these questions. He replied; ‘if I had said there is self this would have been asiding-in with the Eternalists. And if I had said there is not self this would have been a siding in with the anushilenents. Again, if I had answered there is self this would not have accorded with my knowledge ‘all things are not-self (meaning all things, including the unconditioned Nibbana, are Anatta, Chp. 29). But, ifI had said there is not self(here, and above, not anatta, but anatta) the wanderer already confilsed, would have been increasingly so, and would have thought; “Was there not formerly self for me? There is not now”. This passange indicates the conflision surrounding the whole subject. ft would need a long dissertation even as much as
to approach a solution of the problem of self.
All I propose to do here is to submit various passages, some of which have been too much overlooked, and which mention the logical opposite of anatta. By this mean it may be possible to form some idea of the significance attributted to the word atta in the (maya and Nikayas, even if the meaning that we attach to that word now is not the same as was attached to it then by the people who used this word. Since they asked the question; By which self Kena attena, does not reach the Brahma-world? (Sn.508), it would appear that they drew the distinction between two or more uses of ‘self. Even if atta when used in some other way, is relegated to the sphere of ‘conventional truth’ as opposed to ‘philosophical truth’, because it not everlastling or permanent and has a beginnlng and and end, I suggent that the passages collected below, this is
not necessarily always the self that is ment.
1. The person who torments neither himself nor others nor
both lives with a selfbecome Brahma (brahmabhutena attana
vibarati.) A. il 206; M. i. 349;etc It should be noticed that brahmabhuta is used as an epithet of the Tagathata (D. 34; M. i. 111; A. v.226.256; Sh.561, etc) He is also Dhamma; who sees me sees Dhamma (ft. p.91; 5. ili. 120); while Brahama and dhamma often appear as synonymous brahamacarin, dhammacarin; brahmacakka, dhammacakka; brahmayana, dhamayana, and so on and the Tagathata is dhammakaya, bralirnaphuta (D. ijj. 84).ff atta has affinity with bralirna and this is dhamma and tagathata then so is atta. The Ud A (p.340)recognses this when it explains tagathata by at atta, while the Commentary on the M.(M.A. ji, 117; jii 141)
explains by satta, being what is real and true.
2. Similarly: Who attachment and hatred,and ignorance has left,He is called: developed of self Bralima-become, Trutlifinder,Awakened One.(bhavit’atta brahamabhuta tagathata
buddha)(It.p.57)
3. Wherefore fare alone with self as island, with self as refuge and no other, with dhamma as island, with dhamma as reflige
and no other. D. ii. lOOetc.
4. This is the way for great selves (as maggo mahattehi. It.
p.28, 29, A. il. 26).
5. Here some person has not developed (i.e. meditation upon) his body, motal bahit, thought, intuitive wisdom, He is limited, a small self~aritto appatumo), dweller in little hardness... But another person has developed his body, and so on. He is not limited, a great self (aparitto manatta), a dweller in immeasureable.
(A. i. 249)
6. Where fore, young men, which is best, that you should
seek a woman or self (attanam gaveseyyatha)? (\(m, 1.23)
7. Let him make of self of a reflige, farings with a blazig
head, seeking the state that changes not. (S. lii, 143)
8. That self I have made my refilge (words ascribed to the
dying Gotama). (D. ji. 120)
9. Self is lord of self and self s born, so then restrain thy
self as merchant does a goodly horse. I)ph. 380.
10. Self is the lord of self What other could there be? With
self well tamed one gains a lord that is hard to gain. (Dph.169)
11. Of those who fare the good faring in regard to body,
speech and thought, the self is guarded (rakkhito atta) (S. i.73)
12. This one, stead fast, released from views, is unsniirched
by the ‘world’, not blamed by self (Sh. 913)
13. The selfin the (atta ta) 0 man,knows what is true and
what is false.
14. The mind wandering over all the quarters sees nothing
dearer than self Since self is so dear to other is; Let the self-
lover harm not another, (Sh. i. 73;ud).
15. So he to whom the self is dear, who longs for the great
self should homage to true dhamma pay (A. il. 21; 5. i. 140)
16. I lay no wood, brahman, for fires on afters,only within burn the flame I kindle.Ever my fire burns, ever cornposed of self I, perfected, fare the Brahma-faring.As load of filel surely is pride, 0 brahman;The after’s smoke, anger, thy false words, ashes;
The tongue’s the proest’s spoon; and the heart the after
The flame thereon- this is man’s self well tamed.(S.i. 169).
17. ‘If monks, there were a self could it be said; it belongs to my self?‘Yes, Lord’.‘Or monks, if there were what belongs to self could it be said; it is my self?’‘Yes, Lord’.
‘But if self monks, and what belongs to self afthough actually existing, are incomprehensible (sacca thetato anupalabbhamane), is not the view and the causal rela tion that; ‘This the world this the self after dying I will become permanent, lasting, eternal, not liable to change, I will stand fast, like unto the eternal” isnot this view, monks, absolute complete folly?’ The monks agree (M. i. 138). The view here mentioned is held by mem bers of another sect. But for the disciples of ariyans all that make up ‘world’; body; body, feeling, perception, the formations and consciousness, is impermanent, suffer ing liable to change, and therefore it is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self
Much might be written about each ofthe passages I have presented. But only in (1)have I given any indication of the ramifications and affinities involved. The extracts cited cannot really be understood by themselves. All need amplif~ing by comparison with other passages in the vinaya and the Nikkayana. As the idea of brahma in the Pali canon has been overlooked in spite of the ever recurring brahma cariya, the walk to or with Brahma,the sublime-so has that of atta. Both were of the utmost siguificance in the Upanishads.both have a significance, even if we have not
assessed it, in the Pali canon.
I am aware that anyone who bungs forward these notions runs the risk of abuse, even if he does not suggest that they mean the same as Bralirnan and Atman mean in the Upanishads, even in fact if he suggests that they do not mean the same thing. Nevertheless, because these two words occur fairly frequently in the Pali canon, and usually in the significant passages, their evidence should
not be ignored.
[Nyanaponika,
Abbreviations:Udana.The Abhidhamma Philosophy, in the MahaBodhi Journal, vol,59, no, ji, Novemver 1951.
A. -Anguttara-Nikaya. D. -Digha-Nikaya.
Dhp. -Dhamapada. Sh. -Suffanipata.
It -Itivuttaka. Ud. -Udana.
M -MajIiini~a Nikaya. Uda. -Commentary on
-Commentary on Majjima. -Samyutta-Nikaya. (m.Vinaya-Pitaka.
The Middle Way Vol. LV No, 2.pp 66-7 August 1970.]
“A proper study under a competent teacher of Nama-Rupa is most essential for us to understand with analytical knowledge the characteristics of Nama and Rupa and see the things as they trnly are but not as Atta (ego) or Sakkaya. (1)ersonality), that is Yathabhuta Nana (seeing things are they truly are).”\MAS.Aniceam khayatthena Dukkham bhayatthen Anatta Asarakatthena ti.
Its meaning in short is “It is anicca because it is subject to death and destruction; it is dukidia because it is subject to pain, and anatta because it is of no abiding essence nor of an enduring entity; it is merely a self-consuihing phenomenon; Attano
sabhavam dharetiti dhatu.
Atom and Anatta
In an article entitled “Atom and Anatta” carried by the Light of Buddha, a monthly magazine of January 1959 published in English by the Burma Buddhist Society of Mandalay in Burma, correspondent Upasaka Wu-Shu (a) Loo Yung Tsung) writes as follows:-Everybody should agree in saying that science is the leading
factor that creates modern civilisation. The recent discovery of the release of nuclear energy brings mankind to a new age, the so-called Atomic Age. But unfortunately the first sigu that served as an announcement of the opening of this new lethal weapon is called the Atomic bomb. Men begin to worry that they are living in an Atomic Age where total annihilation of the whole civilised races is actually possible. They generally cannot but think that men are going along the wrong track, and feel that it would be better to give up the deadly enerygy and enjoy a peaceflil though simpler life like their ancestors’. But history does not allow events to go backwards. As Mr. Arthur H. Compton, authoritative American scientist said in “One World or None”, no group of men has had the power to prevent the coming of the atomic age. So the only right thing for men to do is to be aware of the serious position where mankind now stands and adjust their thinking and their mode of living in such a way that they may make the best possible use of this force that has been put into their hands. As a
matter of fact, there is nothing wrong with the bomb; what’s wrong is with man lmnseif Furthermore, the truth revealed as to the inside nature of the atom has undoubtedly invaluable influence not only upon the field of science ftself but upon all other branches ofknowledge; psychology, philosophy and even theology. It is the aim of this talk to introduce the in]portant facts and new conceptions disclosed by the scientists of today and to compare these analogically with the fimdamental principles of reality, unveiled and preached by Sakyamuni, the Buddha, some two
thousand five hundred years ago.
In 1808, John Dalton propounded the atomic theory. He believed that an element actually consisted of separate mvisible and indivisible atoms. He thought of atoms as things having the properties of a billiard ball. In the later part of the century great scientists like Michael, Faraday, James Maxwell and Lord Kelvin began their work in the development of electrical science. The electric nature of an atom was partly disclosed. In 1913 Niels Bohr of Coppenhagen produced a theory stating that an atom consisted oftwo parts, a small heavy nucleus surrounded by a largely empty region in which electrons move somewhat like planets about the sun. Around the electrons there lines is theoretically universal~araday symbolised an atom as a star-fish with a small body and comparatively long limbs ~hich entangle things the limbs t~ This nn~~ght be put thus; the constituents of the material universe i+g~twith one another and are i;~~y inseparable. This concept of the atom has important philosophical significance. mi’igs do not exist individually The existence of a single object is therefore nothing more than a mental illusion. The universe is simply a process, a system of interconnected activities in which nothing moves independently of the rest and where all is in ceaseless motion. This is exactly same in principle, though difference in words, as the Buddha’s preaching of ‘Anicca’ which means the impermanent or transient nature of things
Until the release of nuclear energy men still had a shady belief in the existence of ninety-four elements, whose atoms were visalized to be indestructible. Yet as early as 1905 scientist Albert Einstein had already foreseen that mass energy were convertible, and he gave the neat equation; E = me where E = energy, C = the velocity of light, m = mass. It is apparent from the equation that a small piece of matter, if converted entirely into energy, would give an enormous amount of energy. And this equation has been verified to be principally correct by the atomic bombs which exploded over New Mexico, Hiroshlma, ~ ai~asaki, and near B~i Atoll in the Pacific. Thus matter or the atom can be described as a highly concentrated form of energy. The reaction which occurs in an exploding atomic bomb can be expressed in the following:
= U-235+ neutron = I : Y : N (neutrons) {U = Uranium, I = Iodine, Y = Ytrium, N = a number); thus a uranium atom breaks up and transforms into atoms of iodine and yttrium. Atom, the original meaning of which is “indivisible” had been finally proven to be divisible. But in ordinary chemistry the conventional theory of the atom still holds good for most practical purposes. Paradoxically it might be put in the following way: All atom is not (really) an atom; it is ~ll~&in atom for the sake of convenience. One might notice the startling resemblance here of science with Buddhism if one ever had read the Diamond Sutta in which it is said “when the Tathagata speaks of universes he does not mean really universes; he calls them universes only us now turn to a field which scientists pay comparatively little attention, that is, to our mental faculties. Though the psychic
flinctions are much more complicated and subtle than physical phenomena, yet every sentient being has enough instruments, and material of his own if he only cares to observe and to do his experiment on himself Our mental or psychical faculties can be dMded into two fields: those which flincion within the field of consciousness and those beyond the field of consciousness. Different psychologists give different terms and definitions to the latter, some called it subconsciousness while others called it unconsciousness, yet they generally agree to mean that part of our psychic activities which is beyond the perception and control of our conscious mind. As to the content of this field of subconsciousness or unconsciousness, psycohologists suggested various terms as primitive inherited impulse and desire, original nature, impulse, drive urge, ctc. As a matter of fact, science in this
particular branch is still in its infancy.
It is a strange fact the field of subconsciousness which is in a large part obscure to the men of the atomic age, can be found clearly and repeatedly in various Buddhist writings. In these writings not only of the is the theory of mind given but also the physical and mental traninings are shown for getting hold of the seemingly uncontrollable impulse and desires, for uprooting them entirely, and for attaining to the state called Enlightenment where one experiences things as they really are, and finally proves nothing called a personal ego. ft is not possible to mention here with any detail the Buddhi~ philosophy and trahihig of mind but it might be of interest to you perhaps ifI explain briefly the philosophy ofthe Dharmalakana school (the consciousness only or perception only school). According to the philosohy of this school, the constituents of the universe are divided into eight faculties (or eight consciousness). The first five are the five sensual faculties, i.e., the faculty to see, to hear, to smell, to taste, and to feel. The sixth faculty is the mental flinctions within the field of consciousness. The seventh faculty is the instinctive grasp or attachment of ego. It is somethimes termed the Reservoir Faculty (Alaya VUnana of Mahayana concept), where the tendencies and energies of all our previous actions and experinces and energies of all our previous actions and experiences are kept. The seventh and eighth faculties flinction continuously as the centre of the psychic system no matter whether a man is in the state of awareness or of sleep or is even in the state we commonly call death. When all the abovementioned six faculties cease to flinction, the force of the seventh faculty or attachment of ego is tremendous; it is like the nuclear binding energy of an atom. ft causes the arising of the superficial layer, in different forms, in the distinctive desire to live, to propagate, to possess, etc. As a matter of fact, the ego-instinct originates and directs aimost all the superficial flinctions such as volition, emotion, etc., and even affects our system of reasoning. ft distorts our conscious mind and hence creates the illusory picture of the individual existence of “I”, “Being”, “Things”, etc., thus over shadowing the real nature ofimpermanence and egolessness. Since all the faculties of the conscious mind are more or less affected by the blind attachment of the ego, it might be said figuretively that the field of subconsciousness is the nucleus in which the ego-attachment is the binding force. The other mental faculties move around it like the electrons revolving round the nucleus of an atom. The arrangement of electrons in the orbits of an atom deternrnes its chemical properties, so do the conscious faculties like volition, emotion, intellect etc., of a certain individual deteimine his personality or character. It is worth while to mention especially the intellectual power of a hu man being. ft has the power of reasoning, understanding and generalising all the events occuning in experience; thus through this faculty, men are able to transmit and interchange in the outermost orbit make possible the flow of electric current. Another important feature of the intellect is that it is the least affected by the influence of the ego-instinct. On the contrary, through reasoning and contemplation it even possesses the power of self-realising the truth of egolessness. It is actually by means of this delicate faculty that the detachment of the ego, figuratively speaking the breaking of a psychic atom, is
possible.
Induced, perhaps, by the newly disclosed scientific ideas and theories, a scientist and philosopher like William James declared that consciousness was only a flinction, and one like Bertrand Russell said that such a term as “mental” does not belong to a single entity in its own right (that is the imaginary ego), but only to a system of entities. The revival of egolessness foreshadows the possible recovery of their faith in reality which is built upon a rational philosohy closely related to modern
science.
But to understand the emptiness of the ego is one thing; to practise, to realise and to live an egoless life is quite another. Einstein visualised the probable release of nuclear energy but the actual bonb came into existence some forty years later. There were people like Sakyamuni and his Arahat followers, though with aim quite different from the scientists, who declared their attainment to the state of flill enlightenment and annihilation of the ego, yet compared with billions of sentient beings they are just as rare as the self- radiating elements; uranium, radium, actinium and thorium, on this earth. ft is also interesting to nothice that in the Buddhist teaching everywhere, the principle of the so-called ‘middle-path’ or ‘middle-way’ can be seen. This principle essentially teaches one to refrain from going to
extreme in both physical and mental practices. And it is believed that this principle effectively leads one to penetration and enlightenment. In the process of penetrating into the nature of an atom, scientists found that an atom consisted of a complex system of negatively charged clectrons widely spaced round a positively charged nucleus. Charged particles (such as protons, electrons, or alpha particles) and electromaguetic radiations (such as gamma rays) lose energy and thus slow down in passing through that field. They discovered finally a new particle called neutron, a particle having no electric extremities, able to penetrate through the orbits and go its way unchecked until it makes a ‘head- on’ cornsion with an atomic nucleus. Though atomic acience and Buddhism seem to be entirely different, yet they are really tackling the same problem of energy and release of energy by breaking the highly concentrated form of energy, the so-called atom in one case, and the ego in the other. Aild their direction is the same, namely, ‘Inward’. Therefore, we should not be stonished by the close resemblance between the two. The energy released through the breaking of an ego is not so evident as in the atomic bomb yet the Buddha’s highest wisdom and infinite compassion, are very much like the light and heat released from the natural source of
atomic energy-the sun.
Briefly I have mentioned two of the three fundamental principles of Buddhism namely Anicca (impermanence) and Anatta (egolessness). The other important principle is called Dukka(suffering)or the consequence
of an agoiatie life.
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