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A ‘dhammatā‘ is something taking place according to ‘nature’s laws, and those laws are based on Paticca Samuppada.
- The post Tobias refers to is “Kāya Can be Pañcupādānakkhandha or Physical Body” and #6 of the post is as follows:
6. “Sakkāya Sutta (SN 22.105)” asks, “Katamo ca, bhikkhave, sakkāyo?” (What is sakkāya?). The answer is “Pañcupādānakkhandhātissa vacanīyaṁ” (“I say it is Pañcupādānakkhandhā“).
- The same answer is given in the “Sakkāyapañhā Sutta (SN 38.15)“: “Pañcime, āvuso, upādānakkhandhā sakkāyo vutto bhagavatā” or “āvuso, the Buddha said that pañcupādānakkhandhā are sakkāya.”
- Here, “sakkāya” is “sath kāya” or “beneficial kāya.” Furthermore, “sakkāya ditthi” is “to view (pañcupādānakkhandha)kāya as beneficial.”
- One will have sakkāya ditthi as long as they view sensory pleasures as beneficial. However, since a Sotapanna has not removed kāma rāga, they will still be attached to sensory pleasures; still, they would not do apāyagāmi deeds that lead to rebirths in the apāyās. That happens automatically, without conscious thinking, i.e., it is a dhammatā.
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Hello Ajith,
No. There is no contradiction with that post.
- Can you pinpoint a bullet number or a statement in that post such a contradiction is implied?
- It is possible that you may be thinking about the ‘vaṇṇa’ component of a suddhāṭṭhaka (in #6 of the second post). Sometimes ‘vaṇṇa’ is translated into Sinhala as ‘වර්ණ ‘ meaning ‘color’; but that is not what it means in this case.
- There, you need to take the meaning of ‘highly impressed’ (as in the case of attaching to something because one is enjoying it very much). In Sinhala, one could say ‘වර්ණනා කිරීම.’ That could be regrading something that is seen.
I understand your frustration.
- The issue is that the audience has a wide range of understanding. Some are just starting, some others could be at the Sotapanna stage, and many are in between. So, it is difficult, if not impossible, to write a post that satisfies the whole audience.
- The current series of posts (“Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta – New Series”) is the hardest, since it tackles the deepest aspects of Buddha’s teachings. At that level, one cannot teach without using Pali words, because many Pali words do not have a single corresponding word in English.
- You can look at posts in the following sections. They address fundamental aspects: “Moral Living and Fundamentals” and “Living Dhamma.”
- Also, look at Bhikkhu Bodhi’s YouTube videos. They are not fully compatible with this website, but one can get a good idea of the fundamentals, as I recall (I have not watched one in recent years). See, for example, “Bhikkhu Bodhi: Introduction to Buddhism Series.”
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Anyone who is not an Ariya (at least a Sotapanna Anugami) is a puthujjana. So, most of the ‘Buddhists’ today are probably puthujjana, because they are not at least Sotapanna Anugami. But they are likely to be more ‘moral’ compared to others.
- Even for a puthujjana, not all sensory inputs lead the mind to the nava kamma stage. Most of the things we encounter (for example, looking out of the window while riding a bus) do not lead the mind to attach to them. Those sensory events stop at the pūrana kamma stage even for a puthujjana.
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Moving to the ‘purana kamma‘ stage happens depending on the number of samyojana that remain intact. In the following, we will consider a human in kama loka.
- A puthujjana enters the ‘purana kamma‘ stage with all ten samyojana intact. Thus, the likelihood of getting to the ‘nava kamma‘ stage is high.
- A Sotapanna enters the ‘purana kamma‘ stage with seven samyojana intact. Thus, a Sotapanna’s mind will still move in the “Aniccaṁ vipariṇāmi aññathābhāvi” direction. However, the likelihood of reaching the ‘nava kamma‘ stage is lower, since he has three fewer samyojana intact. A Sotapanna’s mind does not attach with the three ditthi samyojana (i.e., with ‘wrong views’). That is why a Sotapanna is incapable of doing ‘apayagami kamma.’
- An Anagami will not enter the ‘purana kamma‘ stage even though he has five samyojana intact. An Anagami has eliminated the five samyojana that bind one to the kama loka; therefore, he will not generate ‘kama sankkappa‘ to attach to the ‘kama sanna‘ in the ‘kama dhatu‘ stage. Thus, an Anagami‘s mind will stay in the ‘kama dhatu‘ stage. See, for example, “Upaya and Upādāna – Two Stages of Attachment.”
- The above statements (for an Anagami) also hold for an Arahant, of course. In addition, an Arahant‘s mind will not enter rupa loka or arupa loka either, since it has eliminated all ten samyojana. See “Loka and Nibbāna (Aloka) – Complete Overview.”
I recommend reading those posts carefully. Feel free to ask questions. This is what is needed to become a Sotapanna.
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Jaro wrote: “Sankhara-Dukkha: The ceaseless effort and strain we invest in trying to recreate the causes and conditions of pleasure. – Among these, Sankhara-Dukkha is considered the most dangerous form of suffering.”
- Yes. Sankhara-Dukkha applies to every sensory input for a puthujjana.
- The mind of a puthujjana gets into the kama loka with any sensory input and at least generates kama sankappa in the ‘purana kamma‘ stage. Even if the mind does not proceed to the ‘nava kamma‘ stage, subtle/weak kamma are done with kama sankappa.
- That is a clear expression of ‘anicca nature’ and can be seen in the following chart.
- “Aniccaṁ vipariṇāmi aññathābhāvi” nature is associated with all sensory inputs for a puthujjana.
- If one comprehends that fact, one can become a Sotapanna Anugami.
- I discussed that in several posts. For example, “Sotapanna Anugāmi and Anicca/Viparināmi Nature of a Defiled Mind” and “First Stage of Ānāpānasati – Seeing the Anicca Nature of ‘Kāya’ .”
P.S. It is called Sankhara-Dukkha because of the ‘sankhara generation’ in panupadanakkhandha accumulation (or equivalently, the initiation of Paticca Samuppada process.)
- “Avijja paccaya sankhara” is how kamma accumulation (a Paticca Samuppada process) starts.
- That starts automatically in the ‘purana kamma‘ stage with the automatic generation of kama sankappa.
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The suttas you quoted are two of a series starting with “Pañcamacchariya Sutta (AN 5.254)” which state the five kinds of extreme greed (macchariya).
- I would translate the five as, “extreme greed for dwellings, family lineage (if born in a ‘high class’ or wealthy family), expensive material possessions, praise and respect from others, and (sharing one’s knowledge of) Dhamma.”
It is a good idea to look at the series of suttas starting with the above.
- The next sutta (AN 5.255) says one must give them up to live a spiritual life.
- The subsequent suttas state one cannot attain any jhanas or magga phala if one doesn’t give them up.
- That makes sense, doesn’t it?
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I have rewritten an old post:
“What is Suñyatā or Suññatā (Emptiness)?“
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One’s number of teeth has absolutely nothing to do with the ability to attain a magga phala.
- Buddha’s teachings are focused on the mind, not the physical body.
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The Buddha said when the mind becomes empty of greed (rāga), hate (dōsa), and ignorance (mōha), it becomes empty of those defilements: “rāgakkhayō Nibbānan, dosakkhayaō Nibbānan, mohakkhayō Nibbānan.” The ’emptiness’ is complete when the mind has attained full Nibbāna, i.e., at Arahanthood.
- That is the emptiness (suñyāta) in Buddha Dhamma. It is regarding defilements.
- I will make a further comment when I have some time.
The following description in the summary provided by Chat DeepSeek in SengKiat’s above comment provides a good summary. Still, the connection to raga, dosa, and moha is not made. While AI bots can provide excellent summaries of existing translations, the translations must be good to start with to get the correct interpretation.
- “The Cūḷasuññata Sutta is the Buddha’s step-by-step guide for a meditator to progress through ever-subtler states of concentration, using the method of “emerging and entering” to recognize how each state is “empty” of the previous one, culminating in a shift to the “signless” concentration and a final abiding in the ultimate emptiness that is the liberation of the mind—a state empty of defilements but fully aware of the dependently-arisen sensory world.”
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The following are two publications that discuss the fact that objects inherently do not have colors:
“Color realism and color science“
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The following are two videos that explain the phenomenon of ‘terminal lucidity in dementia patients.’
It turns out that science cannot explain it. I am not sure whether Buddha’s teachings on the gandhabba (explained in my above comment) can explain it either.
- May be the arising of strong ‘javana cittas‘ in the gandhabba can make it possible.
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Sādhu! Sādhu!! Sādhu!!!
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1. As Abid stated, it is critical to understand the roles of the gandhabba (our mental body), the physical body, and the brain (which serves as the bridge between the mental body and the physical body).
- The mental body is more important than the physical body in the long term. A human gandhabba born at the cuti-patisandhi moment can live for hundreds to thousands of years. Within a given “human bhava,” there can be many repeated births as a human with a human body; see “Bhava and Jāti – States of Existence and Births Therein.”
- On the other hand, it is important to keep the physical body healthy to understand Buddha’s teachings and to make progress toward Nibbana in this life. Thus, it is critically important to eat healthy and exercise regularly to maintain a healthy physical body.
2. A vital part of the physical body is the brain. The mental body receives sensory information from the external world through the brain. For example, visual information comes into the physical body via the eyes and are processed by the brain before being sent to the mental body (gandhabba).
- We can think of the gandhabba being trapped inside the physical body. It is completely shielded from the external world by the physical body. All information from the external world enters the physical body through the six ‘doors’: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, the nerves of the physical body, and an organ in the brain (unknown to science yet) that receives our memories stored in the vinnana dhatu.
- All those signals are first processed by the brain to convert them to types of signals that the seat of the mind (hadaya vatthu) located in the gandhabba.
- Thus, if the brain does not function properly, the gandhabba would not fully ‘experience the external world.’
- This is why it is critically important to keep the physical body and the brain in good condition!
3. The brain consumes roughly 25% of all the energy we get from food. That should tell you how important the brain is.
- That is why we need to eat well to get the nutrients the body needs to move, and, even more importantly, for the brain to work properly.
- In addition, it is also important to keep the brain active. Many neural connections in the brain will lose their function if not regularly used. Many people these days just watch TV or movies the whole day, sitting on a couch. That is bad for the physical body and the brain. The physical body needs physical exercises, and the brain needs ‘mental exercises.’
- The best mental exercises for the brain are to engage in learning Buddha’s teachings. Abid has confirmed that for himself. Even solving crossword puzzles is better than watching TV/movies.
4. The above ideas are discussed in many posts throughout the website.
- One could start with the posts in the following section: “Brain and the Gandhabba.”
- The following video is from the post “Gandhabba in a Human Body – an Analogy” in that section.
5. Abid wrote: “This must be similar to OBE reports of people who were blind being able to see. It must be the gandhabba.”
- The following account provides a real-left account to confirm that.
- In some cases, people are born with the cakkhu pasāda rūpa in good condition, but the optic nerve (or the physical eye itself) may be damaged. In that case, they cannot see because the brain is not receiving signals from the eyes.
- But if the gandhabba can come out of the body, it can see by itself. The following video clearly illustrates this situation.
P.S. I see that Abid has posted a comment while I was writing mine. I will see whether I can add anything else regarding his following comment:
“The interesting part is that when dementia patients are close to dying at the late stage of dementia, they experience “terminal lucidity” where they suddenly regain the abilities they lost, even after the massive brain damage that has occurred. For example, they can go from previously non-verbal to speaking again and also recollect all the memories they lost briefly.”
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Sorry. I have not had much time to think about it as I am traveling. I just did a search to find more about it.
- Dementia typically begins with subtle symptoms that develop slowly and gradually worsen over several years, progressing through stages from mild cognitive impairment to severe decline. Early signs often include memory lapses, difficulty concentrating, or challenges with familiar tasks, which may go unnoticed at first.
- Have you done any medical screening to confirm? It could be due to memory loss or to other factors affecting attention.
- I will think about it a bit more and post some comments later.
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