Hello venerable @Lal sir. I will try to answer those questions to the best of my ability.
May be I should formulate a question as follows: If our thoughts, speech, and actions are based on ‘false assumptions about the world,’ can that approach ever lead to a satisfactory outcome?
My answer would be definitely no! If thoughts, speech and actions are based on false assumptions about the world, then it cannot lead to satisfactory outcome, even if we somehow manage to visibly force our way, it would just be like taking loan from the bank to become rich, as soon the suffering will follow in some time afterwards inevitably. Even if it seems that we are doing what we want, we are actually not able to do everything we want, as far as my observation goes.
Is there anyone who does not believe the following statement? All living beings (except Noble Persons) have false assumptions about the world. One false assumption is to believe there are colorful things in the world; another would be to believe there are tasty foods, and so on.
I believe that statement. For example, if I am watching any video song for example and I am feeling thrill and enjoying it, then on careful observation I can actually see that whatever changes are happening are inside my mind. Because I don’t feel thrill and enjoyment only when watching video song, I can experience the same thrill and enjoyment while doing any other stuff such as for example sometimes while explaining something (with proof) to my father who has rigid thinking, and he is not able to disagree with me. So the outside object/situation is just symbolic or how should I say, it is just visible cause, but the real cause kind of seems to be generated inside only. But this is almost never my experience, though I believe it because with logic/reasoning, I cannot prove that above statement wrong.
Btw about tasty foods, one thing I like to mention here. Whenever I am eating any food which is tasty, I sometimes think like, this food I am eating, it is not much different from the material we excrete from our body, like it is different only in how the atoms bond together into molecular structures and how those molecules interact. In Dutiyasaññāsutta – Perceptions in details of tipitaka, buddha literally says that the perception or contemplation or reflection on loathsomeness or repulsiveness of food when developed and cultivated, is very fruitful and beneficial, it has freedom from death as their objective and culmination. So if I am eating alone, this fact makes me uneasy because I am not able to prove it wrong with my reasoning. (BTW I do love eating tasty foods)
I’m sure everybody in this forum would at the very least say, “Yes. I intellectually understand that the sannas responsible for the cravings I hold are mental interpretations of an experience completely prepackaged and not commensurate with reality.”
Less people, but still a good amount, will append to that, “However, despite me employing this knowledge and Dhamma, despite the fact that I in real time am doing my best to recognize that this sanna is false, that this experience is simply something that my mind is laminating over to try to make it to my satisfaction, I keep giving in and falling for it.”
I actually belong to both of these kind of persons you mentioned, in a way. I intellectually as well was out of reasoning and due to faith agree with the statement:
All living beings (except Noble Persons) have false assumptions about the world. One false assumption is to believe there are colorful things in the world; another would be to believe there are tasty foods, and so on.
But I don’t do my best to recognise that this sanna is false, because I have accepted it and anyway go about living my life. It just doesn’t seem not wrong to me. So my experience I would say has become little bit more refined and it does not make me uneasy like it used to before.
One must clearly ‘see with wisdom’ that attachment to sensory inputs in the ‘kama loka‘ (that means attaching to sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches) prolongs the rebirth process. Not only that, but such attachment extends the rebirth process within the ‘kama loka‘ (which includes the human realm and also the apayas).
However, it does not require one to stop attaching to sensory inputs in the ‘kama loka.‘ That happens at the Anagami stage.
Still, ‘seeing with wisdom’ the dangers of attaching to sensory inputs is enough to avoid engaging in the worst types of akualsa kamma that can lead to rebirths in the apayas (because of the elimination of the three ditthi samyojana).
I can understand this somehow (some of it and not all of it), but my attachment to sensory input is I would say became slightly refined as a result. Its like earlier I used to play with snake at any cost because of my extreme love towards snakes but earlier I didn’t actually know that snake can bite and give me instant death with unbearable, intense, extremely painful suffering just before death. So even now I love to play with snake, only the difference now is that, I am now equipped with knowledge that this snake, which I am playing with, if I don’t play with it carefully, can instantly, at any point give me unimaginable suffering and painful death. I have realized the fact that, if I sit down and started playing with snake continuously, it will inevitably at some point, bite me definitely. This inevitability is kind of same as if we walk continuously, at some point it is inevitable that we will get tired and sit down to rest. The scariest part is the time period after snake bite and before death, because during that time I will experience physical suffering which is previously unexperienced and is of unimaginable excruciating pain before death. So I didn’t for example have this conviction about the danger of playing with snake earlier, but I have it now, so I am careful now unlike I ever was. Although I don’t need to actually stop playing with this snake altogether after I reached this conviction, the time period when this realization of danger of snake dawned upon me, for that very short time period, I really had stopped playing with snake because of being dumbfounded at that time when I realized the danger of snake and as a result, after that short time period, my method of playing with snake has become definitely smarter now. So I would say I have become better player of this sport of playing with snake than I was before. Honestly I have not stopped playing with snake. Because now I understood and accepted the danger of playing with snakes so it does not actually require me to stop playing with snake now, for now careful and smart playing is good enough for me. Moreover I know I cannot stop playing with snakes. I also know and understand that if I want to be ultimately secure and happy, at some point in future, I will have to stop playing with snakes. (Btw I am NOT sotapanna)
If I stretch this above analogy, my experience and observation made me aware of another scary fact, if I had tried to abruptly throw away that snake, there was high chance that immediately it would have bitten me at that moment, so in a way I am forced to continue playing with that snake now. That’s how dangerous this snake is! But thankfully I have become more skillful/careful.
Another example was Channa, who accompanied the Buddha (or rather the Bodhisatta, Prince Siddhatta) when Prince Siddhatta left the palace. He became a bhikkhu soon after the Prince attained Buddhahood, but could not attain even the Sotapanna stage until after the Buddha’s Parinibbana. Later on, when he sought advice from Arahants, they told him to contemplate the anicca, dukkha, and anatta nature of attaching to sensory inputs. But he said to himself, “I know all that by heart, but I also know that I have not grasped the Dhamma.” Finally, he sought help from Ven. Ananda. After hearing a discourse from Ven. Ananda, he attained Sotapanna phala. This account is in the “Channa Sutta (SN 22.90)“; The translation there is not great, but one can get the idea
Wow, this account of Channa just proves how hard it can be for some people to experientially understand these 3 characteristics, even if they know it by heart…
I apologize if me being a bit more personal in writing this is inappropriate, but I hope it gives you a better idea where some people are coming from.
I think in my writings I am being more personal than you in your writing, I hope you don’t think it is inappropriate. I am just trying to become as honest as possible.