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“Corpse or body decay/filth contemplation are effective but only to some degree.”
That’s true. The mind is strong but the skin is weak. Even a forensic pathologist who dissects dead bodies everyday will still have sexual desires. A medical practitioner who knows the dangers of smoking cannot kick the habit. Interestingly, someone who has been burnt by fire would never play with fire anymore. They have no doubt the damage a fire can bring. But why is it that these professionals who are dealing with filth, know filth, and see filth, do not practise what they know? Of course we know the answer – ignorant to Tilakkhana. When we are burned by fire, it makes no sense to voluntarily get burned twice. A normal person will never do that unless he is really crazy. But the fire of rebirth is much more intense and damaging than a physical fire (think about the suffering a hell being has to undergo). We are tormented by the fire of passion uncountable times and yet we still never learn our lesson.
Hi Embodied,
Yes, sometimes it works for me to just let the defiled thought manifest itself. The more I try to go against it, the more it counters me back. No 2 persons have the same mind. To address the issue of how to improve our mindfulness, in my opinion, apart from the guidelines as stated in the Satipatthana, it boils down to the type of defilement one is facing and the seriousness of the defilement and then aptly applying the most suitable strategy to counter the defilement. For example, to counter lust for the opposite sex, one could view him or her as a waste bag. No different from a lavatory waste truck carrying urine and excrement all day long. They just come in a nice packaging that’s all! Then, apply Tilakkhana to further enhance the will power to give up worldly desires. Self-admonishment is another tactic I like to use if cravings are too intense.
Hi Lal,
It appears that the asañña beings are like living things, since they only have a physical form and do not have mentalities and the accompanying mental factors. Which means they only have jivitindriya rūpa and maybe temperature-born materiality and fire element to sustain their physical form longevity. Whereas in the case of plants, they do react to external stimuli such as sunlight and movements of insects in a robotic-like manner. Not too sure whether quasi-consciousness is a good term to describe this kind of behaviour but it is very predictable. And if sentient beings behave like plants, then they are in deep trouble. Because they will always be bent towards their natural tendency to acquire ‘san’. Understand from your posts that there are some beings in certain realms who behave in this manner and it is very difficult for them to change their gathi and attain liberation. Unlike humans who can train the cittaja kaya to purify the mind and attain magga phala.
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SN 10.1 Indaka Vagga is about a conversation between a yakkha and the Buddha. The yakkha asked the Buddha how does one obtain the body.
I read a dhamma book that mentions this sutta in Pali:
Paṭhamaṃ kalalaṃ hoti, kalalā hoti abbudaṃ.
Abbudājāyate pesi, pesi nibbattatī ghano.
Ghanā pasākhājāyanti, kesā lomā nakhāpi ca.The author translated the Pali text into English:
First there is the kalala; from the kalala comes the abbuda; From the abbuda the pesī is produced; from the pesī the ghana arises; From the ghana emerge the limbs, the head hair, body-hair, and nails.
Any learned friends here could shed some insight into what these bold Pali words mean? The author of the dhamma book did not elaborate on them but he did compare them with things like embryo, egg, water of washed meat…etc. They appear to be one manifestation of Nibbatti Lakkhana.
Thanks for the sutta reference, Akvan. Indeed, death lies in between our breaths. Unfortunately, death is not a welcomed topic in asian superstitious culture. Regardless of whether we mention about death or not, we are going to die one day. Thus, I make an effort to arouse this thought the very first thing I wake up every morning…”I did not die in my sleep last night. Today is another day to make merit and practise the path.”
Hi Lal,
“By the way, I came up with this interpretation because I have been thinking about the connection between quantum entanglement and the laws of kamma for a while.”
This led me to think of our kamma becoming instrumental to another person’s vipaka. For example, a person is driving recklessly on the road and a child happens to dash out onto the road to pick up his soccer ball. Tragedy struck. Child died. The aftermath of this ‘accident’ would then give rise to another series of kamma and vipaka. This sort of thing, nature already has a plan. Some people say this is fate. But that sounds deterministic. I prefer to understand it by seeing the fruit of the kamma has ripen for the child. The reckless driver, the child playing near the road unattended, being at the wrong place and wrong time, are conditions to aid in the ripening of the child’s vipaka. With all these conditions in place, nature has planned out this path to undertake. Bar none. The driver did not know beforehand a child was on the road. He was just having fun from his mad rush of adrenalin and did not expect the fun could turn into a tragedy.
Incidentally, since the earlier discussion talks about light, it arouses my curiosity on how the speed of light defines the current observable universe. Light, albeit fast, is not fast enough to let us see what lies beyond this observable universe. Einstein theorised that time travel is possible if one could travel at speed faster than light. I can’t help but feel that something is not quite right in this theory, or rather not completely understood by Einstein. His work on the theory of relativity is great. But no matter how great, it is still worldly knowledge. There is transcendental knowledge that is not known to Einstein and anyone else other than the Buddha. Could Einstein’s work explain how the Buddha, His great disciples, and the Brahmas, astral-travelled from one place to another in less than the time taken for a strong man to flex his arm? This knowledge just does not lie in our domain of conventional wisdom. Light is simply too slow for Brahma to reach earth. On the other hand, there is this grandfather paradox that debunks the possibility of time travelling back to the past to change events that had already taken place. Also, not forgetting the super events data logger, Namagotta, that is indestructible and unchangeable. So, from the above observations, I infer that time travel is impossible.
It’s incredible that a simple light path involves such a deep dhamma on how nature works. I doubt my school teachers and uni prof could have known that themselves!
Do hormonal changes affect consciousness, or the other way round, or both support each other? For example a person sees an attractive opposite sex and the body undergoes certain chemical reaction. Same goes for adrenalin. When a person sees a tiger coming his way, he experiences adrenalin rush. Adrenalin is a chemical substance produced in our body to prepare ourselves for fight-or-flight response when we are under threat. Be it hormonal changes or adrenalin, these bio-chemical substances do affect our consciousness to a certain degree.
Realised I did not answer the question that you asked. During Buddha’s time, the monks were given specific meditation subjects that suited their temperament. And within a short period of time, ardent and resolute, the monks could attain arahanthood. Now that the Buddha is no longer around and there is no one else who could read our citta with high precision and advise us on a meditation topic to undertake, the safest way is to follow the materials on Lal’s website (my personal opinion). The materials on Lal’s website are presented in a very systematic, sensible way which cater for a wide range of readers. And it is by far the most convincing Dhamma materials I have come across. I have read many Dhamma books written by many Bhantes. Some of which do not match my personal experience and some are just doubtful to me. One such Bhante who said to become an Anagami or Arahant, one needs to attain the Fourth jhana (Bhante did not specify ariyan jhana). Nothing short of that standard. But this contradicts to some suttas which mention that some people could also attain Anagami and reborn into the Pure Abodes just by attaining the first jhana (ariyan one of course). I forgot the sutta reference as Suttacentral has a new format and all my favourites from Suttacentral are rendered useless already. Anyway, this particular sutta is a conversation between a Venerable Ananda and a disciple. Also, there was a very gifted disciple of Buddha whom the Buddha proclaimed him to be fastest to attain arahanthood. He only listened to a short stanza from the Buddha and almost immediately attained arahanthood, but was gored to death by a bull (disguised by a demon) on his way back home. Within such a short time, it is highly impossible for someone to attain the four jhanas. Moreover, this arahant was walking! I have never heard of anyone who can attain the fourth jhana while walking. During the 45 years of the Buddha’s teaching ministry, the Buddha travelled to many places to deliver His teachings. Is it not possible for any one disciple to listen to the Buddha’s discourse all the time. Many would have passed on way before the Buddha entered into His final years. Which means many disciples did not get to listen to some discourses which were uttered by the Buddha, and yet they could attain liberation. So, in my personal opinion, it is not mandatory to listen to all discourses from the Buddha to attain liberation. Modern technology has allowed us to have this privilege of accessing all the suttas in the internet. In a way, we are more fortunate than those disciples during Buddha’s time. I think there is no fixed curriculum to follow in Buddhism. That’s the reason why we see many sects surfacing, each having their own views and doctrines. We have to be careful who we learn Dhamma from.
Hi Rhys,
In the Buddha’s time, there were many lay followers who had attained Anagami. If one’s goal is to attain arahanthood in this very lifetime, according to the sutta, will take minimum 7 days. But of course there are special cases for very gifted individuals. I think 7 days is possible only if one encounters the correct Dhamma and practises without making any mistake. In another words, unceasing mindfulness 24/7. Venerable Maha-Moggallana before attaining arahantship was caught by the Buddha for nodding his head in sloth and torpor. All because he was too tired for striving too intensely. After Venerable Maha-Moggallana was admonished by the Buddha, he aroused energy to carry on his practice and in a short time, attain arahanthood.
Hi Lal,
What about the kammic relationship among sentient beings? Say for example, a couple going through courtship, get married, and eventually divorced; An employee who aspires to work in a company, got hired, stay employed for several years and decided to resign; A dog owner had to deal with the demise of his pet dog when life came to an end etc. These events appear to model like a sankata too. We can see that the experiential aspect of these things involve our 5 aggregates. Which means it will definitely involve nibbatti lakkhana too.
If Brahma creates everything in this universe, I am most certainly unimpressed by his very sick sense of humour. Why? Because he created my greed, hatred, and delusion too! If Brahma really creates everything, isn’t it sick and ridiculous that he also creates suffering and imperfections, and also my post to ridicule him here in this forum?
Base on what criteria did Brahma create beings who are inferior than us? Base on what criteria did Brahma create beings who are superior than us? Did he create himself? Why did he create imperfect beings like us? Did He enjoy imparting suffering onto us too? There is no answer to these questions. But there are some religions who might tell people that the Creator is putting us to THE TEST. And the ONLY way to end our suffering is to love and worship him unconditionally, then can we wash away our sins. How naive and simple-minded these people can be. These ignorant people mistaken the workings of Dhamma to be the works of a creator God, which is baseless. Let us not forget that even the Buddha had to respect the Dhamma.
If by wishing and worshipping a creator god can help us end suffering, we would have attained liberation long ago. We have lived forever since beginning-less time, remember?
