I am glad you asked the question. This must be fully understood, because it is a somewhat ‘twisted’ mechanism that comes into play. Let me explain it in a bit more detail for those who may not know about vanna rupa, sadda rupa, gandha rupa, rasa rupa, and photthabba rupa.
- Everything in the world is made of suddhāṭṭhaka (fundamental unit of matter in Buddha Dhamma). Suddhāṭṭhaka (“suddha” for “pure” or fundamental” + “aṭṭha” or “eight”) means a unit of matter consisting of eight fundamental entities (usually translated as the “pure octad,” for example, in Bhikkhu Bodhi’s book referenced in #1 of “The Origin of Matter – Suddhāṭṭhaka.” A suddhāṭṭhaka is made of eight dhātu: pathavi, āpo, tejo, vāyo, and vaṇṇa, gandha, rasa, oja.
- The mind creates four types of gati (pathavi, āpo, tejo, and vāyo) due to avijjā or ignorance. The other four types of gati of vaṇṇa, gandha, rasa, and oja arise due to taṇhā. These gati (arising in the mind) lead to the creation of corresponding suddhāṭṭhaka with eight components of fundamental matter (called dhātu) in the ‘external’ world (and also in the physical body and even the mental body consisting of hadaya vatthu and the five pasada rupa, which can be called ‘internal’).
- Different types of saññā arise in distinct species due to the matching of ‘internal suddhāṭṭhaka‘ and ‘external suddhāṭṭhaka.‘
- This is why, while rotten food tastes yucky to humans, it tastes great to pigs. Even though the rotten food (‘external suddhāṭṭhaka‘) are the same, the composition of ‘internal suddhāṭṭhaka‘ in pigs is very different compared to humans. That is why they taste the same thing differently than humans do. This is a critical point to understand. Don’t hesitate to ask questions if the point is not clear.
- This is also why this (distorted) saññā arises even in an Arahant. An Arahant will live the same body that he/she was born with. Those ‘internal suddhāṭṭhaka‘ in the Arahant‘s body do not change upon attaining Arahanthood. Thus, he will experience the world just as any other human.
- But the Arahant fully understands how the “subjective reality’ with distorted saññā arises via Paṭicca samuppāda. The bonds to the rebirth process (ten samyojana) have been removed from the Arahant‘s mind via several stages (Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami). An Arahant fully understands and has fully verified the “objective reality” (paramattha) but will experience the “subjective reality” until the death of the physical body.
- One can become a Sotapanna by just understanding the basic idea. But a Sotapanna would still have the distorted (kāma) saññā. That second step of not attaching to kāma saññā is achieved at the Anagami stage. Then the distorted saññā associated with the rupa loka (jhāma saññā) and arupa loka (arupa samāpatti saññā) are removed at the Arahant stage.
- I can write a post to clarify this critical point. Please keep asking questions.
