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Understanding
The newest thing about me while learning Pure Dhamma was explaining the memory process in detail. The infinite, eternal, and non-local preservation of information without extra energy revolutionized my thinking. There is no need for energy to remain anidassana/appaṭigha nāma. In contrast, every sankhata needs energy to maintain itself.
We can tell sankhata is information in a way. For example, a pencil contains not only the basic information that there is it but also information on how rubber, coal, and wood became pencils. Over time, the physical preservation of such information becomes impossible. However, mental information(pancakkhanda)is eternal.
It means there are two different types of information. The first type is sankhata, the first information. The second type is namagotta, the meta information. If the former is the information that there was a pencil there, the latter is the information that I saw that there was a pencil there.
The first type of information is not stored forever. But the second type is. It means the mind can generate meta-information, which is infinite and eternal.
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Practical application
The meta-information is infinite and eternal. It means that all the happiness in samsara is not new for me. Every kind of it has already been experienced. If I choose to continue the rebirth process, it’s not new at all because it’s the choice I made before already. But if I decide to stop the rebirth process, it is new. So the only new thing that can be done is the complete elimination of defilement.
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There are three layers of suffering: dukkha dukkha, viparinama dukkha, and sankhara dukkha.
I arranged them in deep order.
The first step is to understand the law of kamma.
The punna(good) kamma can give us happiness(good vipaka).
The akusala(bad) kamma can give us suffering(bad vipaka).
So we can see that the suffering is due to the bad kamma.
It means you’ll pay for what you do, good or bad.
But we don’t need Buddha Dhamma to know it.
The second step is to understand mortality.
Everything born must die one day.
Naked we come into the world, and naked we leave it.
No matter how good it is, it will be over one day.
But we don’t need Buddha Dhamma to know it, either.
The third step is to understand the danger of samsara.
When we understand sankhara dukkha, we understand how to chunk the two previous dukkha.
We suffer when we make an effort inconsistent with nature’s laws. (dukkha dukkha)
For example, they believe that evil can cause happiness, that they can achieve happiness without providing the right conditions, or that an inappropriate way is appropriate.
It is linked to ‘aññathā(unexpected change of sankhata)’. (aññathattaṁ saṅkhatalakkhaṇa)
Unpredictable changes make it difficult to grasp the conditions that must be prepared to achieve happiness.
This creates a time gap between happiness and effort.
Efforts to narrow this gap forcefully harm other beings(akusala kamma).
And someday, it gives us bad vipaka.
Therefore, all efforts inconsistent with the laws of nature must lead to suffering.
Furthermore, we suffer when we make an effort consistent with nature’s laws too. (viparinama dukkha)
Even if we do all good deeds and birth in the good realms, we can’t help ourselves from running up against death. (vayo saṅkhatalakkhaṇa)
So, all efforts consistent with the laws of nature must lead to suffering.
This is a dead-end ally in samsara. As long as we think that the choice to continue samsara is a good thing, we must meet it.
As long as you try to find happiness in samsara, there must be suffering. (sankhara dukkha)
This is the essence of Buddha Dhamma.
That is why the sankhara dukkha is “the great danger“
Ne 5 “tasmā saṅkhāradukkhatā dukkhaṁ lokassāti katvā dukkhamassa mahabbhayanti”
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Excellent.
1. The last verse captures the essence. “Bhaya” is ‘danger,” and “mahabbhaya” (mahā + bhaya) is “great danger.”
2. An average human perceives the cultivation of (abhi)saṅkhāra as “pleasure.” An extreme example is raping a woman seeking sensory gratification. That involves vaci (planning/thinking) and kaya (implementing) abhisankhara. It could be enjoyable at that time.
- However, he will pay for that brief gratification for millions of years. Unimaginable but true!
- That is “the great danger.”
P. S.
3. It is a good idea to gradually contemplate the danger of even excessive sensory pleasures (such as craving tasty foods, music, etc.) See “Son’s Flesh” which is the translation of the “Puttamaṁsa Sutta (SN 12.63).”
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+) If one makes sankhara, it makes sankhata: manomaya kaya, dhamma rupa, etc. (uppada)
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Lal, I think the above analysis might enhance the value of the post Introduction -2 – The Three Categories of Suffering with compactness. How about using it?
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Good idea. Thank you!
I added the following to the post:
13. The “Vicayahāravibhaṅga” in the Petakopadesa states the following: “Saṅkhāradukkhatāya pana loko anupādisesāya nibbānadhātuyā muccati, tasmā saṅkhāradukkhatā dukkhaṁ lokassāti katvā dukkhamassa mahabbhayanti.”
- The meaning is “If saṅkhāra-dukkha can be overcome, one will get to Nibbāna. Therefore, saṅkhāra-dukkha is the one with great danger (mahabbhaya or mahā + bhaya.)”
- An average human perceives the cultivation of (abhi)saṅkhāra as “pleasure.” An extreme example is raping a woman seeking sensory gratification. That involves vaci (planning/thinking) and kāya (implementing) abhisaṅkhāra. It could be enjoyable at that time. However, he will pay for that brief gratification for millions of years. Unimaginable but true!
- Thus, any such “pleasure” is short-lived (vipariṇāma dukkha) and will bring unimaginable dukkha-dukkha in the future. One must “see” the “hidden suffering in sensory pleasures” before getting to the Sotapanna stage.
- Until then, humans see the cultivation of (abhi)saṅkhāra as “pleasure.”
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Ragakkhayo Nibbanan.
There are three types of raga: kama raga, rupa raga, arupa raga.
To put it simply, PS describes how raga turns into kaya.
If you have yet kama raga, you will be born in kama loka. (Kama kaya)
Samely, rupa and arupa raga gives you (a)rupavacara kaya.
So, the continuation of samsara is to continue with getting kaya.
As long as someone thinks kaya is a good thing(have raga), the creation of kaya doesn’t stop.
Sakkaya ditthi is sath + kaya. So put together, it means samsara is good for oneself.
Kaya comes from raga. Ragakkhayo is the end of kaya. That is why there is no kaya in Nibbana.
Also, if there is no kaya(manomaya), there can not be citta too. So, there is no citta or cetasika in Nibbana.
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Sakkaya ditthi can also be analyzed as “sa + kaya” or “my + kaya.”
- But it is neither mine nor someone else’s. It arises due to causes and conditions (Paticca Samuppada.)
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Many suttas explain that “this body is not yours; not someone else’s either.” It is a “hetu/phala.”
See, for example, “Natumha Sutta (SN 12.37).”
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“Is this “pleasure” also described by the word Assāda, as in Assāda, Ādīnava, Nissarana?”
Yes. That is indeed the critical point.
- Buddha never denied that there are “pleasurable things” in this world. That is why beings are trapped in the rebirth process. They look at only the “immediate gratification” (Assāda) offered by sensory pleasures.
- The “previously unheard teachings of the Buddha” is that those “pleasurable things” have “hidden suffering” (Ādīnava.)
- When one comprehends the Noble Truths/Paticca Samuppada/Tilakkhana, one can see how such Assāda leads to Ādīnava. See “Understanding the Terms in Paṭicca Samuppāda.”
- That is when one becomes a Sotapanna/Sotapanna Anugami and starts striving for Nissarna, which means “stop traveling the rebirth process.”
- There is a series of posts on “Assāda, Ādīnava, Nissarana.”
See, for example, “Baḷisa Sutta (SN 17.2),” where the Buddha compared those who have not comprehended Buddha Dhamma to a fish who only sees the bait as “pleasure.” They do not see the “hidden suffering” in sensory pleasures. Until they see it, they will be trapped in the rebirth process (samsara.)
- In that sutta, the Buddha compared sensory pleasures to “Māra’s hook.”
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Do I Have “A Mind” That Is Fixed and “Mine”?
8. When an EM wave (kiraṇa) packet arrives at the cakkhu pasāda, it hits the hadaya vatthu and “transfers” that visual information about the tree to the mind. The mind is born momentarily during this transition for the duration of that signal.
This is what is meant by “cakkhunca Paṭicca rupeca uppajjāti cakkhu viññānam.”
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In that context, “cakkhunca Paṭicca rupeca uppajjāti cakkhu viññānam.” shows how to be aware world by indriya.
But when we see with san, it shows how to be aware world by ayatana.
The cakkhu become cakkayatana and rupa become rupayatana.
For example, two people with different tastes read the same book.
John didn’t like what the main character did at the end. But Mary thought it was the best ending.
They both read the same letters, but they took them differently.
So, in this case, we can say that they’re not looking at the same thing.
This is why rupa ayatana is all personal and mental.
It is made by the mind and reflects one’s personal preferences(gati, anusaya).
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