Bhikkhu Thanissaro - Mind Like Fire Unbound

by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Abbreviations

Vedic Texts

Pali Buddhist Texts

References to D, Iti, Khp, M are to discourse (sutta). The reference to Mv is to chapter, section, and sub-section. References to other Pali texts are to section (samyutta, nipata or vagga) & discourse.

All translations are the author's own. Those from the Pali canon are from the Royal Thai Edition (Bangkok: Mahamakut Rajavidyalaya, 1982).

Because Pali has many ways of expressing the word 'and,' I have — to avoid monotony — used the ampersand (&) to join lists of words & short phrases, and the word 'and' to join long phrases & clauses.

Preface

To study ancient texts is like visiting a foreign city: Time & inclination determine whether you want a quick, pre-packaged tour of the highlights, a less structured opportunity for personal exploration, or both. This book on the connotations of the words nibbana (nirvana) & upadana in the early Buddhist texts is organized on the assumption that both approaches to the topic have their merits, and so it consists of two separate but related parts. Part I, The Abstract, is the quick tour — a brief survey to highlight the main points of the argument. Part II, The Essay, is a chance to make friends with the natives, soak up the local atmosphere, and gain your own insights. It takes a more oblique approach to the argument, letting the texts themselves point the way with a minimum of interference, so that you may explore & ponder them at leisure. Part I is for those who need their bearings and who might get impatient with the seeming indirection of Part II; Part II is for those who are interested in contemplating the nuances, the tangential connections, & the sense of context that usually get lost in a more structured approach.

Either part may be read on its own, but I would like to recommend that anyone seriously interested in the Buddha's teachings take the time to read reflectively the translations that form the main body of Part II. People in the West, even committed Buddhists, are often remarkably ignorant of the Buddha's original teachings as presented in the early texts. Much of what they know has been filtered for them, at second or third hand, without their realizing what was added or lost in the filtration. Although the quotations in Part II, by their sheer length & numbers, may at times seem like overkill, they are important for the context they give to the teachings. Once the teachings have context, you can have a surer sense of what is true Buddha Dhamma and what are filtration products.

This book has been many years in preparation. It began from a casual remark made one evening by my meditation teacher — Phra Ajaan Fuang Jotiko — to the effect that the mind released is like fire that has gone out: The fire is not annihilated, he said, but is still there, diffused in the air; it simply no longer latches on to any fuel. This remark gave me food for thought for a long time afterwards. When I came to learn Pali, my first interest was to explore the early texts to learn what views they contained about the workings of fire and how these influenced the meaning of nibbana — literally, 'extinguishing' — as a name for the Buddhist goal. The result of my research is this book.

Many people have helped in this project, directly or indirectly, and I would like to acknowledge my debts to them. First of all, Phra Ajaan Fuang Jotiko, in addition to being the original inspiration for the research, provided me with the training that has formed the basis for many of the insights presented here. The example of his life & teachings was what originally convinced me of Buddhism's worth. A. K. Warder's excellent Introduction to Pali made learning Pali a joy. Marcia Colish & J. D. Lewis, two of my professors at Oberlin College, taught me — with no small amount of patience — how to read & interpret ancient texts. Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Donald Swearer, John Bullitt, Margaret Dornish, Robert Ebert, Michael Grossi, Lawrence Howard, & Doris Weir all read earlier incarnations of the manuscript and made valuable suggestions for improvements. I, of course, am responsible for any mistakes that may still remain.

Finally, I would like to dedicate this book in gratitude to my father, Henry Lewis DeGraff, and to the memory of my mother, Esther Penny Boutcher DeGraff, who taught me the value of truth, inner beauty, & goodness from an early age.

According to the Pali canon — the earliest record of the Buddha's teachings now extant — nothing outside of the realm of differentiation can be properly described by the conventions of language. In one mode of analysis, this realm is divided into the six senses (counting the mind as the sixth) & their objects; in another, it is divided into the five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, thought processes, & consciousness. The two modes cover mutually equivalent areas. However, one passage in the Canon points to another realm — where the six senses & their objects cease — which can be experienced although not otherwise described, even in terms of existing, not existing, both, or neither. The attainment of the Buddhist goal belongs to this second realm, and this of course raised problems for the Buddha in how to teach & describe the goal.

He solved the problem by illustrating the goal with similes & metaphors. The best-known metaphor for the goal is the name nibbana (nirvana), which means the extinguishing of a fire. Attempts to work out the implications of this metaphor have all too often taken it out of context. Some writers, drawing on modern, every-day notions of fire, come to the conclusion that nibbana implies extinction, inasmuch as we feel that a fire goes out of existence when extinguished. Others, however, note that the Vedas — ancient Indian religious texts that predate Buddhism by many thousands of years — describe fire as immortal: Even when extinguished it simply goes into hiding, in a latent, diffused state, only to be reborn when a new fire is lit. These writers then assume that the Buddha accepted the Vedic theory in its entirety, and so maintain that nibbana implies eternal existence.

The weakness of both these interpretations is that they do not take into account the way the Pali canon describes (1) the workings of fire, (2) the limits beyond which no phenomenon may be described, and (3) the precise implications that the Buddha himself drew from his metaphor in light of (1) & (2). The purpose of this essay is to place this metaphor in its original context, so as to show what it was and was not meant to imply.

Any discussion of the way the Buddha used the term nibbana must begin with the distinction that there are two levels of nibbana (or, to use the original terminology, two nibbana properties). The first is the nibbana experienced by a person who has attained the goal and is still alive. This is described metaphorically as the extinguishing of passion, aversion, & delusion. The second is the nibbana after death. The simile for these two states is the distinction between a fire that has gone out but whose embers are still warm, and one so totally out that its embers are cold. The Buddha used the views of fire current in his day in somewhat different ways when discussing these two levels of nibbana, and so we must consider them separately.

To understand the implications of nibbana in the present life, it is necessary to know something of the way in which fire is described in the Pali canon. There, fire is said to be caused by the excitation or agitation of the heat property. To continue burning, it must have sustenance (upadana). Its relationship to its sustenance is one of clinging, dependence, & entrapment. When it goes out, the heat property is no longer agitated, and the fire is said to be freed. Thus the metaphor of nibbana in this case would have implications of calming together with release from dependencies, attachments, & bondage. This in turn suggests that of all the attempts to describe the etymology of the word nibbana, the closest is one Buddhaghosa proposed in The Path of Purification: Un- (nir) + binding (vana): Unbinding.

To understand further what is meant by the unbinding of the mind, it is also important to know that the word upadana — the sustenance for the fire — also means clinging, and that according to the Buddha the mind has four forms of clinging that keep it in bondage: clinging to sensuality, to views, to precepts & practices, and to doctrines of the self. In each case, the clinging is the passion & desire the mind feels for these things. To overcome this clinging, then, the mind must see not only the drawbacks of these four objects of clinging, but, more importantly, the drawbacks of the act of passion & desire itself.

The mind does this by following a threefold training: virtue, concentration, & discernment. Virtue provides the joy & freedom from remorse that are essential for concentration. Concentration provides an internal basis of pleasure, rapture, equanimity, & singleness of mind that are not dependent on sensual objects, so that discernment can have the strength & stability it needs to cut through the mind's clingings. Discernment functions by viewing these clingings as part of a causal chain: seeing their origin, their passing away, their allure, the drawbacks of their results, &, finally, emancipation from them.

Although the Canon reports cases where individuals cut through all four forms of clinging at the same time, the more common pattern is for discernment first to cut through sensual clinging by focusing on the inconstancy & stressfulness of all sensory objects and on the worthlessness of any passion or desire directed to them. Thus freed, the mind can turn its discernment inward in a similar way to cut through its clinging to the practice of concentration itself, as well as to views in general and notions of 'self' in particular. Once it no longer views experience in terms of self, the entire self/not-self dichotomy collapses.

The mind at this point attains Deathlessness, although there is no sense of 'I' in the attainment. There is simply the realization, 'There is this.' From this point onward the mind experiences mental & physical phenomena with a sense of being dissociated from them. One simile for this state is that of a hide removed from the carcass of a cow: Even if the hide is then placed back on the cow, one cannot say that it is attached as before, because the connective tissues that once held the hide to the carcass — in other words, passion & desire — have all been cut (by the knife of discernment). The person who has attained the goal — called a Tathagata in some contexts, an arahant in others — thus lives out the remainder of his/her life in the world, but independent of it.

Death as experienced by a Tathagata is described simply as, 'All this, no longer being relished, grows cold right here.' All attempts to describe the experience of nibbana or the state of the Tathagata after death — as existing, not existing, both, or neither — are refuted by the Buddha. To explain his point, he again makes use of the metaphor of the extinguished fire, although here he draws on the Vedic view of latent fire as modified by Buddhist notions of what does and does not lie within the realm of valid description.

To describe the state of the Tathagata's mind, there has to be a way of knowing what his/her consciousness is dependent on. Here we must remember that, according to the texts, a meditator may develop intuitive powers through the practice of concentration enabling him/her to know the state of another person's mind, or the destination of that person after death. To do so, though, that person's consciousness must be dwelling on a particular object, for it is only through knowledge of the object that the state of the mind can be known. With ordinary people this is no problem, for ordinary consciousness is always dependent on one object or another, but with Tathagatas this is impossible, for their consciousness is totally independent. Because terms such as existing, not existing, both, or neither, apply only to what may be measured against a criterion of knowing, they cannot apply to the Tathagata.

The Buddha borrows two points from the Vedic notion of fire to illustrate this point. Even if one wants to assume that fire still exists after being extinguished, it is (1) so subtle that it cannot be perceived, and (2) so diffuse that it cannot be said to go to any one place or in any particular direction. Just as notions of going east, west, north, or south do not apply to an extinguished fire, notions of existing and so forth do not apply to the Tathagata after death.

As for the question of how nibbana is experienced after death, the Buddha says that there is no limit in that experience by which it could be described. The word 'limit' here is the important one. In one of the ancient Vedic myths of creation, the universe starts when a limit appears that separates male from female, sky from earth. Thus the implication of the Buddha's statement is that the experience of nibbana is so free from even the most basic notions making up the universe that it lies beyond description. This implication is borne out by other passages stating that there is nothing in that experience of the known universe — earth, water, wind, fire, sun, moon, darkness, coming, going, or stasis — at all.

Thus, when viewed in light of the way the Pali canon describes the workings of fire and uses fire imagery to describe the workings of the mind, it is clear that the word nibbana is primarily meant to convey notions of freedom: freedom in the present life from agitation, dependency, & clinging; and freedom after death from even the most basic concepts or limitations — such as existence, non-existence, both, or neither — that make up the describable universe.

Here, Hemaka,
with regard to things that are dear
	seen, heard, sensed, & cognized,
there is: the dispelling of desire & passion,
		the undying state of Unbinding.
Those knowing this, mindful,
	fully extinguished/unbound
	in the here & now,
are forever calmed
have gone beyond
	entanglement in the world.

— Sn V.9

Freed, dissociated, & released from ten things, the Tathagata dwells with unrestricted awareness, Vahuna. Which ten? Freed, dissociated, & released from form... feeling... perception... processes... consciousness... birth... aging... death... stress*... defilement, he dwells with unrestricted awareness. Just as a red, blue, or white lotus born in the water and growing in the water, rises up above the water and stands with no water adhering to it, in the same way the Tathagata — freed, dissociated, & released from these ten things — dwells with unrestricted awareness.

— A X.81

Just as the great ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt, even so does this doctrine & discipline have but one taste: the taste of release.

— Ud 5.5

The discourses of the Pali canon make a frequent analogy between the workings of fire and those of the mind: The mind unawakened to the supreme goal is like a burning fire; the awakened mind, like a fire gone out. The analogy is made both indirectly & directly: indirectly in the use of terminology borrowed from the physics of fire to describe mental events (the word nibbana being the best-known example); directly in any number of metaphors:

Not only is the extinguishing of passion, aversion, & delusion compared to the extinguishing of a fire, but so is the passing away of a person in whom they are extinguished.

The aim of this essay is to explore the implications of this imagery — to give a sense of what it was & was not intended to convey — by first making reference to the views concerning the physics of fire current in the Buddha's time. This, short of an actual experience of Awakening — something no book can provide — seems the most natural approach for drawing the proper inferences from this imagery. Otherwise, we are bound to interpret it in terms of our own views of how fire works, a mistake as misleading & anachronistic as that of painting a picture of the Buddha dressed as Albert Einstein or Isaac Newton.

The presentation here is more like a photomosaic than an exposition. Quotations have been aligned & overlapped so as to reflect & expand on one another. Comments have intentionally been kept to a bare minimum, so as to allow the quotations to speak for themselves. The weakness of this approach is that it covers several fronts at once and can make its points only incrementally. Its strength lies in its cumulative effect: revealing — beneath apparently disparate teachings — unifying patterns that might go unnoticed in a more linear narrative, much as satellite pictures can reveal buried archaeological remains that would go unnoticed by a person standing on the ground.

One of the noteworthy features of the Pali canon is that common patterns of thought & imagery shape the extemporaneous words of a wide variety of people reported within it. Here we will hear the voices not only of the Buddha — the speaker in all passages from the Canon where none is identified — but also of lay people such as Citta, monks such as Vens. Ananda & MahaKaccana, and nuns such as Sisters Nanda, Sumedha, & Patacara. Each has his or her own style of expression, both in poetry & in prose, but they all speak from a similarity of background & experience that makes it possible to view their message as a single whole, in structure as well as content.

The structure we are most concerned with here centers on the image of extinguished fire and its implications for the word 'nibbana' (nirvana) & related concepts. Used with reference to fire, nibbana means 'being out' or 'going out.' Used with reference to the mind, it refers to the final goal and to the goal's attainment. Our essay into the cluster of meanings surrounding this word is meant to read like a journey of exploration, but a brief preview will help us keep track both of where we are in relation to the map provided by the Abstract, and of where we are going.

The first chapter surveys ancient Vedic ideas of fire as subsisting in a diffused state even when extinguished. It then shows how the Buddha took an original approach to those ideas to illustrate the concept of nibbana after death as referring not to eternal existence, but rather to absolute freedom from all constraints of time, space, & being.

The remaining three chapters deal with the concept of nibbana in the present life. Chapter II introduces a cluster of Buddhist ideas concerning the nature of burning fire — as agitated, clinging, bound, & dependent — and draws out the implications that these ideas have for what happens when a fire goes out and, in parallel fashion, when the mind attains nibbana. In particular, it concludes that of all the etymologies traditionally offered for nibbana, Buddhaghosa's 'unbinding' is probably closest to the original connotations of the term.

Chapter III takes up the notion of clinging as it applies to the mind — as sensuality, views, precepts & practices, and doctrines of the self — to show in detail what is loosened in the mind's unbinding, whereas Chapter IV shows how, by detailing the way in which the practice of virtue, concentration, & discernment frees the mind from its fetters. This final chapter culminates in an array of passages from the texts that recapitulate the pattern of fire-&-freedom imagery covered in the preceding discussion. If read reflectively, they also serve as reminders that their perspectives on the concept of nibbana can best be connected only in light of that pattern.

We should note at the outset, though, that nibbana is only one of the Buddhist goal's many names. One section of the Canon lists 33, and the composite impression they convey is worth bearing in mind:

The discourses report two instances where Brahmans asked the Buddha about the nature of the goal he taught, and he responded with the analogy of the extinguished fire. There is every reason to believe that, in choosing this analogy, he was referring to a concept of fire familiar to his listeners, and, as they had been educated in the Vedic tradition, that he probably had the Vedic concept of fire in mind. This, of course, is not to say that he himself adhered to the Vedic concept or that he was referring to it in all its details. He was simply drawing on a particular aspect of fire as seen in the Vedas so that his listeners could have a familiar reference point for making sense of what he was saying.

Now, although the Vedic texts contain several different theories concerning the physics of fire, there is at least one basic point on which they agree: Fire, even when not manifest, continues to exist in a latent form. The Vedic view of all physical phenomena is that they are the manifestation of pre-existent potencies inherent in nature. Each type of phenomenon has its corresponding potency, which has both personal & impersonal characteristics: as a god and as the powers he wields. In the case of fire, both the god & the phenomenon are called Agni:

'Sahas' here is the potency, the power of subjugation, wielded by Agni himself. Jan Gonda, in discussing this passage, comments, 'The underlying theory must have been... that a man and his physical strength are by no means able to produce a god or potency of Agni's rank. Only the cooperation or conjunction of that special principle which seems to have been central in the descriptions of Agni's character, his power of subjugation, his overwhelming power, can lead to the result desired, the appearance of sparks and the generation of fire.' Further, 'a divine being like Agni was in a way already pre-existent when being generated by a pair of kindling sticks' (1957, pp. 22-3). As fire burns, Agni 'continues entering' into the fire (AV 4,39,9). Scattered in many places — as many separate fires — he is nevertheless one & the same thing (RV 3,55). Other fires are attached to him as branches to a tree (RV 8,19).

When fire is extinguished, Agni and his powers do not pass out of existence. Instead, they go into hiding. This point is expressed in a myth, mentioned frequently in the Vedic texts, of Agni's trying to hide himself from the other gods in places where he thought they would never perceive him. In the version told in RV 10,51, the gods finally find the hidden Agni as an embryo in the water.

As Chauncey Blair notes, 'The concept of Agni in the waters does not imply destruction of Agni. He is merely a hidden, a potential Agni, and no less capable of powerful action' (1961, p. 103).

The implications of Agni's being an embryo are best understood in light of the theories of biological generation held in ancient India:

Just as ancient Indians saw an underlying identity connecting a father & his offspring, so too did they perceive a single identity underlying the manifest & embryonic forms of fire. In this way, Agni, repeatedly reborn, was seen as immortal; and in fact, the Vedas attribute immortality to him more frequently than to any other of the gods.

Not only immortal, but also omnipresent: Agni in his manifest form is present in all three levels of the cosmos — heaven, air, & earth — as sun, lightning, & flame-fire. As for his latent presence, he states in the myth of his hiding, 'my bodies entered various places'; a survey of the Vedas reveals a wide variety of places where his embryos may be found. Some of them — such as stone, wood, plants, & kindling sticks — relate directly to the means by which fire is kindled & fueled. Others relate more to fire-like qualities & powers, such as brilliance & vitality, present in water, plants, animals, & all beings. In the final analysis, Agni fills the entire universe as the latent embryo of growth & vitality. As Raimundo Panikkar writes, 'Agni... is one of the most comprehensive symbols of the reality that is all-encompassing' (1977, p.325).

This view that Agni/fire in a latent state is immortal & omnipresent occurs also in the Upanisads that were composed circa 850-750 B.C. and later accepted into the Vedic Canon. The authors of these texts use this view to illustrate, by way of analogy, the doctrines of a unitary identity immanent in all things, and of the immortality of the soul in spite of apparent death.

In the major non-canonical Upanisads — whose period of composition is believed to overlap with the time of the Buddha — the analogy is even more explicit:

One interesting development in this stratum of the Vedic literature is the positive sense in which it comes to regard extinguished fire. The Vedic hymns & earlier Upanisads saw burning fire as a positive force, the essence of life & vitality. These texts, though, see the tranquillity & inactivity of the extinguished fire as an ideal image for the soul's desired destination.

Whether this re-evaluation of the image of fire — seeing its extinguishing as preferable to its burning — predated the founding of Buddhism, was influenced by it, or simply paralleled it, no one can say for sure, as there are no firm dates for any of the Upanisads. At any rate, in both stages of the Vedic attitude toward fire, the thought of a fire going out carried no connotations of going out of existence at all. Instead, it implied a return to an omnipresent, immortal state. This has led some scholars to assume that, in using the image of an extinguished fire to illustrate the goal he taught, the Buddha was simply adopting the Vedic position wholesale and meant it to carry the same implications as the last quotation above: a pleasant eternal existence for a tranquil soul.

But when we look at how the Buddha actually used the image of extinguished fire in his teachings, we find that he approached the Vedic idea of latent fire from another angle entirely: If latent fire is everywhere all at once, it is nowhere in particular. If it is conceived as always present in everything, it has to be so loosely defined that it has no defining characteristics, nothing by which it might be known at all. Thus, instead of using the subsistence of latent fire as an image for immortality, he uses the diffuse, indeterminate nature of extinguished fire as understood by the Vedists to illustrate the absolute indescribability of the person who has reached the Buddhist goal.

The person who has attained the goal is thus indescribable because he/she has abandoned all things by which he/she could be described. This point is asserted in even more thoroughgoing fashion in a pair of dialogues where two inexperienced monks who have attempted to describe the state of the Tathagata after death are cross-examined on the matter by Sariputta & the Buddha himself.

The Buddha puts the same series of questions to the monk Anuradha who — knowing that the Tathagata after death could not be described in terms of existence, non-existence, both, or neither — had attempted to describe the Tathagata in other terms. After receiving the same answers as Yamaka had given Sariputta, the Buddha concludes:

Thus none of the four alternatives — reappearing/existing, not reappearing/existing, both, & neither — can apply to the Tathagata after death, because even in this lifetime there is no way of defining or identifying what the Tathagata is.

To identify a person by the contents of his or her mind — such things as feelings, perceptions, or mental processes — there would have to be a way of knowing what those contents are. In ordinary cases, the texts say, this is possible through either of two cognitive skills that a meditator can develop through the practice of meditation and that beings on higher planes of existence can also share: the ability to know where a living being is reborn after death, and the ability to know another being's thoughts.

In both skills the knowledge is made possible by the fact that the ordinary mind exists in a state of dependency on its objects. When a being is reborn, its consciousness has to become established at a certain point: This point is what a master of the first skill perceives. When the ordinary mind thinks, it needs a mental object to act as a prop or support (arammana) for its thoughts: This support is what a master of the second skill perceives. The mind of a person who has attained the goal, though, is free from all dependencies and so offers no means by which a master of either skill can perceive it.

Thus the mind that has attained the goal cannot be known or described from the outside because it is completely free of any dependency — any support or object inside it — by which it might be known. This point forms the context for the dialogue in which the Brahman Upasiva asks the Buddha about the person who attains the goal.

The important term in the last verse is pamana: 'criterion.' It is a pregnant term, with meanings both in philosophical and in ordinary usage. In philosophical discourse, it refers to a means of knowledge or a standard used to assess the validity of an assertion or object. In the Buddha's time and later, various schools of thought specialized in discussing the nature and role of such criteria. The Maitri Upanisad contains one of their basic tenets:

Thus when a mind has abandoned all phenomena, there is no means or criterion by which anyone else could know or say anything about it. This much is obvious. But the verse also seems to be saying that the goal is indescribable from the inside — for the person experiencing it — as well. First, the verse is in response to Upasiva's inquiry into the goal as the Buddha has known it. Secondly, the line, 'for him it doesn't exist,' can mean not only that the person experiencing the goal offers no criteria to the outside by which anyone else might describe him/her, but also that the experience offers no criteria from the inside for describing it either. And as we have already noted, the outside criteria by which a person might be described are determined precisely by what is there inside the person's mind. Thus, for the person experiencing the goal, there would not even be any means of knowing whether or not there was a person having the experience. There would simply be the experience in & of itself.

This is where the ordinary meaning of pamana — as limit or measurement — comes in. This meaning goes back to the Vedic hymns. There, the act of measuring is seen as an essential part of the process of the creation (or 'building,' like a house) of the cosmos. In one Rg Vedic hymn (X.129), for example, the creation of mind is followed by the appearance of a horizontal limit or measuring line separating male from female (heaven from earth). From this line, the rest of the cosmos is laid out.

So to say that no criterion/measurement/limit exists for the person experiencing the goal means that the person's experience is totally free of all the most elementary perceptions & distinctions that underlie our knowledge of the cosmos. And the word 'free' — one of the few the Buddha uses in a straightforward way to describe the mind that has attained the goal — thus carries two meanings: free from dependency, as we have already seen; and free from limitations, even of the most abstruse & subtlest sort.

This second reading of the verse — dealing with the limitlessness & indescribability of the goal for the person experiencing it — is supported by a number of other passages in the Pali canon referring explicitly to the inner experience of the goal.

The phrase 'does not partake of the allness of the All' can best be understood with reference to the following three passages:

If the six senses & their objects — sometimes called the six spheres of contact — constitute the All, is there anything beyond the All?

The dimension of non-differentiation, although it may not be described, may be realized through direct experience.

This experience of the goal — absolutely unlimited freedom, beyond classification and exclusive of all else — is termed the elemental nibbana property with no 'fuel' remaining (anupadisesa-nibbana-dhatu). It is one of two ways in which nibbana is experienced, the distinction between the two being expressed as follows:

The phrase referring to the range of feeling as 'growing cold right here' is a set expression describing death as experienced by one who has reached the goal. The verse following this passage states explicitly that this is what is meant here.

The Verses of the Elder Udayin suggest a simile to illustrate the distinction between these two nibbana properties:

Here Ven. Udayin compares the nibbana property with fuel remaining — the state of being absolutely free from passion, aversion, & delusion — to a fire whose flames have died out, but whose embers are still glowing. Although he does not complete the analogy, he seems to imply that the nibbana property without fuel remaining — when the Worthy One discards his body at death — is like a fire so totally out that its embers have grown cold.

Thus the completely free & unadulterated experience we have been discussing is that of nibbana after death. There are, though, states of concentration which give a foretaste of this experience in the present life and which enabled the Buddha to say that he taught the goal on the basis of direct knowledge.

In this extraordinary state of mental poise — neither pressed, forced, blocked, or suppressed — nibbana in the present life is experienced as freedom from all perception dealing with the six sensory spheres & the spheres of meditative absorption. Although one is conscious, and these spheres are present, one does not partake of them.

On the level of ordinary sensory experience, however, nibbana in the present life is experienced by the Worthy One as the passing away of passion, aversion, & delusion. This implies that these three states are analogous to fire; and as we saw in the Introduction, they are directly referred to as fires at various points in the Canon. On the surface, the notion of passion & aversion as fires hardly requires explanation, but in order to gain a fuller appreciation of the analogies that the Canon draws between fire on the one hand, and passion, aversion, & delusion on the other, we first need some background on the specifically Buddhist views on fire it contains.

Although the compilers of the Pali canon were not concerned with teaching the physical sciences, there are frequent passages where they cite the behavior of the physical universe, in similes or examples, to illustrate points of doctrine. A number of these passages discuss questions of heat, motion, meteorology, the etiology of diseases, and so forth, in enough detail to show that a common theory underlies their explanation. That theory centers on the concept of 'dhatu,' property or potential. The physical properties presented in this theory are four: those of earth (solidity), liquid, heat, & wind (motion). Three of them -- liquid, heat, & wind -- are potentially active. When they are aggravated, agitated or provoked -- the Pali term here, 'pakuppati,' is used also on the psychological level, where it means angered or upset -- they act as the underlying cause for activity in nature. Fire, for example, is said to occur when the heat property is provoked.

There comes a time when the external heat property is provoked and consumes village, town & city, countryside & rural area; and then, coming to the edge of a green district, the edge of a road, the edge of a rocky district, to the water's edge, or to a lush, well-watered area, goes out from lack of sustenance.

— M 28

Once a fire has been provoked, it needs 'upadana' -- commonly translated as fuel -- to continue burning. Upadana has other meanings besides fuel, though -- one is the nourishment that sustains the life & growth of a tree -- and as we will see below, wind can also function as a fire's upadana. Thus, 'sustenance' would seem to be a more precise translation for the term.

'What do you think, young man: Which fire would be more brilliant, luminous, & dazzling -- that which burned in dependence on a sustenance of grass & timber, or that which burned in dependence on having relinquished a sustenance of grass & timber?'

'If it were possible, Gotama, for a fire to burn in dependence on having relinquished a sustenance of grass & timber, that fire would be the more brilliant, luminous, & dazzling.'

'It's impossible, young man, there is no way that a fire could burn in dependence on having relinquished a sustenance of grass & timber, aside from a feat of psychic power...'

— M 99

'Just as a fire, Vaccha, burns with sustenance, and not without sustenance, even so I declare the rebirth of one who has sustenance, and not of one without sustenance.'

'But, Venerable Gotama, at the moment a flame is being swept on by the wind and goes a far distance, what do you say is its sustenance then?'

'Vaccha, when a flame is being swept on by the wind and goes a far distance, I say that it is wind-sustained. The wind, Vaccha, is its sustenance at that time.'

'And at the moment when a being sets this body aside and has not yet attained another body, what do you say is its sustenance then?'

'Actually, Vaccha, when a being sets this body aside and has not yet attained another body, I say that it is craving-sustained. Craving, Vaccha, is its sustenance at that time.'

— S XLIV.9

Another meaning for upadana is clinging, which suggests that, just as a tree clings to the soil that provides its sustenance, fire clings to its fuel. Thus the above passage could also read, 'fire burns with clinging and not without clinging' -- a characteristic of fire that was observed in other ancient Asian traditions, such as the Chinese I Ching, as well.

The clinging nature of fire is reflected in a number of other idioms used by the Pali canon to describe its workings. For one, an object that catches fire is said to get 'stuck' (passive) or to 'stick' (active): Adherence is a two-way process.

Just as a wing bone or tendon parings, monks, thrown into a fire don't catch fire (lit: 'stick' or 'get stuck'), keep apart, turn aside, and are not drawn in; even so the heart of a monk who spends time often with a mind accustomed to focusing on the repulsive, doesn't stick to the [thought of] engaging in the sexual act, keeps apart, turns aside, and is not drawn in, and remains either indifferent or repelled.

— A VII.46

The second side of the attachment -- that fire, in sticking to something, gets stuck -- is reflected in yet another idiom in the Pali canon: When it leaves a piece of fuel it has been clinging to, it is said to be released.

Just as fire... after being released from a house of reeds or a house of grass, burns even gabled houses, plastered, latched, shut against the wind; even so, all dangers that arise, arise from fools, and not from wise people; all disasters... all troubles that arise, arise from fools and not from wise people.

— M 115

This sense of fire's being entrapped as it burns echoes the stanza from the Svetasvatara Upanisad, quoted above (page 19), that refers to fire as being 'seized' when ignited by the friction of fire sticks. Apparently the Buddhists were not alone in their time in seeing attachment & entrapment as they watched a fire burn. And this would account for the way early Buddhist poetry tends to couple the image of an extinguished fire with the notion of freedom:

like a flame's going out
was the liberation of awareness.

— D 16

as a flame overthrown by the force of the wind...
so the sage freed from mental activity...

— Sn 5.6

So, to summarize: The image of an extinguished fire carried no connotations of annihilation for the early Buddhists. Rather, the aspects of fire that to them had significance for the mind-fire analogy are these: Fire, when burning, is in a state of agitation, dependence, attachment, & entrapment -- both clinging & being stuck to its sustenance. Extinguished, it becomes calm, independent, indeterminate, & unattached: It lets go of its sustenance and is released.

This same nexus of events, applied to the workings of the mind, occurs repeatedly in Canonical passages describing the attainment of the goal:

One attached is unreleased; one unattached is released. Should consciousness, when standing [still], stand attached to [a physical] form, supported by form [as its object], established on form, watered with delight, it would exhibit growth, increase, & proliferation. Should consciousness, when standing [still], stand attached to feeling... to perception... to mental processes... it would exhibit growth, increase, & proliferation. Were someone to say, 'I will describe a coming, a going, a passing away, an arising, a growth, an increase, or a proliferation of consciousness apart from form, from feeling, from perception, from mental processes,' that would be impossible.

If a monk abandons passion for the property of form... feeling... perception... mental processes... consciousness, then owing to the abandoning of passion, the support is cut off, and there is no base for consciousness. Consciousness, thus unestablished, not proliferating, not performing any function, is released. Owing to its release, it stands still. Owing to its stillness, it is contented. Owing to its contentment, it is not agitated. Not agitated, he [the monk] is totally 'nibbana-ed' right within. He discerns that 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.'

— S XXII.53

This being the set of events -- stillness, independence, unattachment -- associated with the extinguishing of a fire and the attainment of the goal, it would appear that of all the etymologies offered to explain the word 'nibbana,' the one closest to its original connotations is that quoted by Buddhaghosa in The Path of Purification (VIII, 247). There he derives the word from the negative prefix 'nir,' plus 'vana,' or binding*: 'Unbinding.'

Modern scholars have tended to scorn this derivation as fanciful, and they favor such hypotheses as 'blowing out,' 'not blowing' or 'covering.' But although these hypotheses may make sense in terms of modern Western ideas about fire, they are hardly relevant to the way nibbana is used in the Canon. Freedom, on the other hand, is more than relevant. It is central, both in the context of ancient Indian theories of fire and in the psychological context of attaining the goal: 'Not agitated, he is totally unbound right within.'

So 'Unbinding' would seem to be the best equivalent for nibbana we have in English. What kind of unbinding? We have already gained some idea -- liberation from dependency & limitations, from agitation & death -- but it turns out that nibbana is not the only term the Buddha borrowed from the workings of fire to describe the workings of the mind. Upadana is another, and a survey of how he applied it to the mind will help to show what is loosed in the mind's unbinding and how.

Upadana carries both of its meanings — clinging & sustenance — when applied to the mind. It refers on the one hand both to mental clinging & to the object clung to, and on the other to both the act of taking mental sustenance & the sustenance itself. This, of course, raises the question, 'Sustenance for what?' In the description of dependent co-arising, upadana forms the condition for becoming and, through becoming, for birth, aging, death, and the entire mass of suffering & stress. Thus the answer: 'Sustenance for becoming' & its attendant ills.

The Buddha made a distinction between phenomena that offer sustenance & the sustenance itself.

Thus passion & desire are both the act of taking sustenance and the sustenance itself, while form, feeling, mental processes, & consciousness simply offer the opportunity for them to occur.

Alternatively, we can translate the distinction as one between clingable phenomena & the clinging itself.

In this case, passion & desire are the act of clinging and the object clung to, while form, feeling, & the rest simply offer the opportunity for them to occur.

Still, the two sides of this distinction are so closely interrelated that they are hardly distinct at all.

(The use of the word aggregate (khandha) here may relate to the fire image, as khandha can also mean the trunk of a tree.)

These four modes of sustenance act as the focus for many of the passages in the Canon describing the attainment of the goal. Because they are so closely related to the notion of nibbana — they are the binding loosened in the unbinding of the mind — each of them deserves to be considered in detail.

First, sensuality.

The Buddha recommended relinquishing attachment to sensuality, not because sensual pleasures are in any way evil, but because the attachment itself is dangerous: both in terms of the pain experienced when a relished pleasure inevitably ends, and in terms of the detrimental influence such attachment can have on a person's actions — and thus on his or her future condition.

This is not to deny that sensual pleasures provide a certain form of happiness, but that happiness must be weighed against the greater pains & disappointments sensuality can bring.

Even the more honorable emotions that can develop from sensual attraction — such as love & personal devotion — ultimately lead to suffering & stress when one is inevitably parted from the person one loves.

A theme recurrent throughout the Canon is that complete knowledge of any object does not end with an understanding of its allure & drawbacks, but goes on to comprehend what brings emancipation from the mental fetters based on both.

Here again, we see the reciprocal nature of attachment: One is bound by what one relishes & latches onto — or rather, by the act of relishing & latching on, in and of itself.

In other words, neither the senses nor their objects are fetters for the mind. Beautiful sights, sounds, & so forth, do not entrap it, nor do the senses themselves. Instead, it is trapped by the act of desire & passion based on such things.

Thus sensual pleasures, which belong to the realm of form, are the 'clingable phenomena' that offer sustenance for the bond of desire & passion. Or, to borrow an image from Ven. Rahula, they are the bait — as long as one is blind to their true nature — for falling into the trap of one's own craving & heedlessness.

For this reason, freedom from sensuality as a clinging/sustenance requires a two-pronged approach: to realize the true nature of the bait and to extricate oneself from the trap. The first step involves examining the unattractive side of the human body, for as the Buddha says,

The purpose of this contemplation is not to develop a morbid fascination with the grotesque, but simply to correct the distortion of perception that tries to deny the unattractive aspects of the body and to admit only 'the sign of the beautiful' — its attractive side. Now of course this contemplation has its dangers, for it can go overboard into states of aversion & depression, but these are not incurable. At several points in the Canon, where the Buddha sees that monks have let the contemplation of foulness adversely affect their minds, he recommends that they calm their aversion by focusing on the in & out breath as a companion meditation.

Ultimately, as a more balanced perception of the body develops, one may make use of the second prong of the approach: turning one's attention from the object of the lust to the act of lust itself, seeing it as an act of mental fabrication — foolish, inconstant, & stressful — and so removing any sense of identification with it. This, in turn, can calm the mind to an even deeper level and lead on to its Unbinding.

Views

are the second mode of clinging/sustenance. And, as with the abandoning of attachment to sensuality, the abandoning of attachment to views can lead to an experience of Unbinding.

Attachment to views can block an experience of Unbinding in any of three major ways. First, the content of the view itself may not be conducive to the arising of discernment and may even have a pernicious moral effect on one's actions, leading to an unfavorable rebirth.

Secondly, apart from the actual content of the views, a person attached to views is bound to get into disputes with those who hold opposing views, resulting in unwholesome mental states for the winners as well as the losers.

Thirdly, and more profoundly, attachment to views implicitly involves attachment to a sense of 'superior' & 'inferior,' and to the criteria used in measuring and making such evaluations. As we saw in Chapter I, any measure or criterion acts as a limitation or bond on the mind.

An important point to notice is that attachment to views must be abandoned through knowledge, and not through skepticism, agnosticism, ignorance, or a mindless openness to all views. This point is made clear in the Discourse of the Supreme Net. There the Buddha gives a list of 62 philosophical positions concerning the nature of the self, the cosmos, & the state of ultimate freedom in the immediate present. The list is intended to be exhaustive — the 'net' in the title of the discourse — covering all possible views & positions on these subjects divided into ten categories, one of the categories — equivocation — including cases of agnosticism.

The second case is virtually identical with the first, substituting 'clinging' for 'falsehood.'

Agnosticism, then, is not a way of abandoning standpoints but is simply another standpoint: Like all standpoints, it must be abandoned through knowledge. The type of knowledge called for — in which standpoints are regarded, not in terms of their content, but as events in a causal chain — is indicated by the refrain that follows each of the ten categories of the Supreme Net.

Another list of speculative views — a set of ten positions summarizing the standard topics debated by the various schools of contemplatives in the Buddha's time — recurs frequently in the Canon. Non-Buddhist debaters used it as a ready-made checklist for gauging an individual's positions on the controversial issues of the day and they often put it to the Buddha. Invariably, he would reply that he did not hold to any of the ten positions.

The construings the Buddha relinquished include views not only in their fullblown form as specific positions, but also in their rudimentary form as the categories & relationships that the mind reads into experience. This is a point he makes in his instructions to Bahiya, which led immediately to the latter's attaining the goal. When the mind imposes interpretations on its experience, it is engaging implicitly in system-building and all the limitations of location & relationship that system-building involves. Only when it can free itself of those interpretations and the fetters they place on it, can it gain true freedom.

Precepts & practices.

The Canon mentions a variety of precepts & practices — the third mode of clinging/sustenance. Prominent among them are Brahmanical rituals & Jain practices of self-torture, and according to the Commentary these are the precepts & practices referred to in this context. Yet although the goal will always remain out of reach as long as one remains attached to such practices, the abandonment of this attachment is never in & of itself sufficient for attaining the goal.

But there is another practice which, though a necessary part of the Buddhist path, can nevertheless offer sustenance for becoming; and which — as the object of attachment to be transcended — figures prominently in descriptions of the goal's attainment. That practice is jhana, or meditative absorption. It might be argued that this is stretching the term, 'practice' (vata), a little far, but jhana does not fall under any of the other three sustenances for becoming at all, and yet it definitely does function as such a sustenance, so there seems to be little choice but to place it here.

Different passages in the Canon number the levels of jhana in different ways. The standard description gives four, although the pure mindfulness & equanimity attained on the fourth level may further be applied to four progressively more & more refined formless sensations — termed the 'peaceful emancipations, formlessness beyond forms' — that altogether give eight levels, often referred to as the eight attainments.

A number of objects can serve as the basis for jhana. The breath is one, and an analysis of the Canon's description of the first stages of breath meditation will give an idea of what jhana involves.

The remaining steps are willed, or determined: He 'trains himself,' first by manipulating his sense of conscious awareness, making it sensitive to the body as a whole. (This accounts for the term 'mahaggatam' — enlarged or expanded — used to describe the mind in the state of jhana.)

Now that he is aware of the body as a whole, he can begin to manipulate the physical sensations of which he is aware, calming them — i.e., calming the breath — so as to create a sense of rapture & ease.

(As we will see below, he maximizes this sense of rapture & pleasure, making it suffuse the entire body.)

Now that bodily processes are stilled, mental processes become apparent as they occur. These too are calmed, leaving — as we will see below — a radiant awareness of the mind itself.

The standard description of jhana, however, does not refer to any particular object as its basis, but simply divides it into four levels determined by the way the mind relates to the object as it becomes more & more absorbed in it.

'Directed thought' mentioned in the reference to the first level of jhana corresponds, in the description of breath meditation, to the mindfulness directed to the breath in the present. 'Evaluation' corresponds to the discernment of variations in the breath, and to the manipulation of awareness & the breath so as to create a sense of rapture & pleasure throughout the body (the bathman kneading moisture throughout the ball of bath powder). The still waters in the simile for the third level of jhana, as opposed to the spring waters welling up in the second level, correspond to the stilling of mental processes. And the pure, bright awareness in the fourth level corresponds to the stage of breath meditation where the meditator is sensitive to the mind.

Thus as the mind progresses through the first four levels of jhana, it sheds the various mental activities surrounding its one object: Directed thought & evaluation are stilled, rapture fades, and pleasure is abandoned. After reaching a state of pure, bright, mindful, equanimous awareness in the fourth level of jhana, the mind can start shedding its perception (mental label) of the form of its object, the space around its object, itself, & the lack of activity within itself. This process takes four steps — the four formlessnesses beyond form — culminating in a state where perception is so refined that it can hardly be called perception at all.

To abandon attachment to jhana as a sustenance for becoming means, not to stop practicing it, but rather to practice it without becoming engrossed in the sense of pleasure or equanimity it affords, so that one can discern its true nature for what it is.

Once the mind can detach itself from the pleasure & equanimity offered by jhana, it can be inclined toward that which transcends jhana — the unconditioned quality of deathlessness.

The fact that the various levels of jhana are nurtured & willed, and thus dependent on conditions, is important: A realization of exactly how they are nurtured — a realization acquired only through practical experience with them — can give insight into the conditioned nature of all mental events and is one of the ways in which the attachment to jhana, as sustenance for becoming, can be abandoned.

An indication of how this happens is given in outline form in the Discourse on Mindfulness of In & Out Breathing. To take up the description of breath meditation where we left off: Once there is direct awareness of the mind itself, the various levels of jhana are reviewed. Now, however, primary attention is focused, not on the object, but on the mind as it relates to the object — the different ways in which it can be satisfied & steadied, and the different factors from which it can be released by taking it through the different levels (e.g., releasing it from directed thought & evaluation by taking it from the first to the second level, and so forth).

The states of satisfaction, steadiness, & release experienced on these levels, though, are willed and therefore conditioned. The next step is to focus on the fact that these qualities, being conditioned, are inconstant. Once the mind sees directly that inconstancy is inherent both in the pleasure offered by jhana and in the act of will that brings it about, one becomes dispassionate toward it, stops craving it, and can relinquish any & all attachment to it.

At the conclusion to the discourse, the Buddha states that breath meditation, when practiced often & repeatedly in this way, results in the maturation of clear knowledge & release.

A more vivid description of how mastery of jhana can lead to the insight that transcends it, is given in the Discourse on the Exposition of the Properties:

Doctrines of the self

form the fourth mode of clinging/sustenance. The Canon reports a wide variety of such doctrines current in the Buddha's time, only to reject them out-of-hand for two major reasons. The first is that even the least articulated sense of self or self-identification inevitably leads to stress & suffering.

The second reason for rejecting doctrines of the self is that, whatever form they take, they all contain inherent inconsistencies. The Buddha's most systematic treatment of this point is in the Great Discourse on Causation, where he classifies all theories of the self into four major categories: those describing a self (a) possessed of form (a body) & finite; (b) possessed of form & infinite; (c) formless & finite; and (d) formless & infinite. The text gives no examples for the categories, but we might cite the following as illustrations: (a) theories that deny the existence of a soul, and identify the self with the body; (b) theories that identify the self with all being or with the universe; (c) theories of discrete souls in individual beings; (d) theories of a unitary soul or identity immanent in all things.

Discussing these various categories, the Buddha states that people who adhere to any of them will state that the self already is of such a nature, that it is destined to acquire such a nature after death, or that it can be made into such a nature by various practices. He then goes on to discuss the various ways people assume a self as defined in relation to feeling.

Views of the self can center around not only feeling, but also physical form, perception, mental processes, & consciousness — the five aggregates for sustenance — which, according to another passage in the above discourse, cover the extent of what can be designated, expressed, & described, but none of which, on investigation, can rightfully be designated as self.

On the surface, doctrines about the self would appear simply to be another variety of speculative view. They deserve separate treatment, though, because they all come down to a deeply rooted sense of 'I am' — a conceit coloring all perception at the most basic level.

The sense of 'I am' can prevent a person from reaching the goal, even when he feels that he has abandoned attachment to sensuality, speculative views, & the experience of jhana.

Whereas the contemplative or priest under discussion in this passage reads an 'I' into what he is experiencing, the Buddha simply observes that 'There is this...' This unadorned observation — which simply sees what is present in an experience as present, and what is absent as absent — is treated in detail in the Lesser Discourse on Voidness. There the Buddha describes how to develop it methodically, in ascending stages passing through the levels of jhana — in this case based on the object 'earth,' or solidity — and leading ultimately to Awakening.

In abandoning the notion of self with regard to the world — here defined in the same terms as the 'All' (page 31, above)— the Buddha did not, however, hold to a theory that there is no self.

This dialogue is one of the most controversial in the Canon. Those who hold that the Buddha took a position one way or the other on the question of whether or not there is a self have to explain away the Buddha's silence, and usually do so by focusing on his final statement to Ananda. If someone else more spiritually mature than Vacchagotta had asked the question, they say, the Buddha would have revealed his true position.

This interpretation, though, ignores the fact that of the Buddha's four express reasons for not answering the question, only the last is specific to Vacchagotta. The first two hold true no matter who is asking the question: To say that there is or is not a self would be to fall into one of two philosophical positions that the Buddha frequently attacked as incompatible with his teaching. As for his third reason, the Buddha wanted to be consistent with 'the arising of knowledge that all phenomena are not-self,' not because he felt that this knowledge was worth holding onto in & of itself (cf. his statement to Upasiva, on page 28, that in the experience of the goal all phenomena are done away with), but because he saw that the arising of such knowledge could, through causing the mind to let go of all forms of clinging/sustenance, lead to liberation.

This point becomes clear when we compare the exchange with Vacchagotta, given above, to this one with Mogharaja:

The fundamental difference between this dialogue & the preceding one lies in the questions asked: In the first, Vacchagotta asks the Buddha to take a position on the metaphysical question of whether or not there is a self, and the Buddha remains silent. In the second, Mogharaja asks for a way to view the world so that one can go beyond death, and the Buddha speaks, teaching him to view the world without reference to the notion of self.

This suggests that, instead of being a metaphysical assertion that there is no self, the teaching on not-self is more a strategy, a technique of perception aimed at leading beyond death to Unbinding — a way of perceiving things that involves no self-identification, no sense that 'I am,' no attachment to 'I' or 'mine.' And this would be in keeping with the discernment the Buddha recommends in the Discourse on the Supreme Net (see page 64): one that judges views not in terms of their content, but in terms of where they come from and where they lead.

If a person aiming at Unbinding is not to view the world in terms of self, then in what terms should he or she view it? The Buddha's comment to Anuradha (page 25)— 'It is only stress that I describe, and the stopping of stress' — suggests an answer, and this answer is borne out by a series of other passages in the Canon.

Thus for the person who aims at Unbinding, the Buddha recommends a technique of perception that regards things simply in terms of the four truths concerning stress, with no self-identification, no sense that 'I am,' no attachment to 'I' or 'mine' involved. Although, as the following passage states, there may be a temporary, functional identity to one's range of perception, this 'identity' goes no further than that. One recognizes it for what it is: inconstant & conditioned, and thus not worthy of being taken as a self — for in transcending attachment to it, there is the realization of deathlessness.

Once the sense of self is transcended, its polar opposite — the sense of something standing in contradistinction to a self — is transcended as well. In the Discourse at Kalaka's Park, the Buddha expresses this lack of a self/non-self polarity directly in terms of sensory experience. For a person who has attained the goal, experience occurs with no 'subject' or 'object' superimposed on it, no construing of experience or thing experienced. There is simply the experience in & of itself.

A view is true or false only when one is judging how accurately it refers to something else. If one is regarding it simply as an event in & of itself, true & false no longer apply. Thus for the Tathagata — who no longer needs to impose notions of subject or object on experience, and can regard sights, sounds, feelings, & thoughts purely in & of themselves — views are not necessarily true or false, but can simply serve as phenomena to be experienced. With no notion of subject, there is no grounds for 'I know, I see;' with no notion of object, no grounds for 'That's just how it is.' So — although a Tathagata may continue using 'true' & 'false' in the course of teaching others, and may continue reflecting on right view as a means of abiding mindfully & comfortably in the present — notions of true, false, self, & not self have lost all their holding power over the mind. As a result, the mind can see conditioned events in their suchness — 'such are the aggregates, such their origin, such their disappearance' — and is left free to its own Suchness: unrestrained, uninfluenced by anything of any sort.

This concludes our survey of the four modes of clinging/sustenance — passion & delight for sensuality, for views, for precepts & practices, and for doctrines of the self — and should be enough to give a sense of what is loosed in the Unbinding of the mind. All that remains now is the question of how.

Many of the passages we have considered seem to suggest that total Unbinding may be realized by letting go of any one of these four modes of sustenance. What most likely happens in such cases, though, is that the abandoning of one mode immediately triggers an abandoning of the remaining three, for there are other cases reported in the Canon where the experience of Unbinding comes in stages spread over time: the arising of the eye of Dhamma, which frees one from passion & delight for doubt, self-identity views, and grasping at precepts & practices; the attainment of non-returning, which frees one from passion & delight for sensuality; and the attainment of arahantship, which frees one from passion & delight for all views, the practice of jhana, & the conceit 'I am.' Why these stages happen in this order, and how they relate to the practices meant to induce them, is what we will take up next.

A theme recurrent in the passages we have been considering is that the abandonment of clinging/sustenance is effected through knowledge.

These four [modes of] sustenance have what as their cause, what as their origin, from what are they born, from what do they arise? These four [modes of] sustenance have craving as their cause, craving as their origin, are born from craving, and arise from craving.

And what does craving have as its cause...?... feeling... And what does feeling have as its cause...?... contact... And what does contact have as its cause...?... the six sense spheres... And what do the six sense spheres have as their cause...?... name & form... And what do name & form have as their cause...?... consciousness... And what does consciousness have as its cause...?... processes... And what do processes have as their cause...?... ignorance...

And, monks, as soon as ignorance is abandoned in a monk, and clear knowing arises, he — from the fading of ignorance and the arising of clear knowing — clings neither to sensual pleasures as sustenance, nor to views as sustenance, nor to precepts & practices as sustenance, nor to doctrines of the self as sustenance. Not clinging (unsustained), he is not agitated. Unagitated, he is totally unbound right within. He discerns that 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.'

— M 11

The word 'vijja' — translated here as clear knowing — also means 'science.' And just as science implies a method, there is a method — a discipline — underlying the knowledge that leads to Unbinding. That method is described from a number of perspectives in the Canon, each description stressing different aspects of the steps involved. The standard formula, though, is the Noble Eightfold Path, also known as the middle way.

There are these two extremes that one who has gone forth is not to indulge in. Which two? That which is devoted to sensual pleasure with reference to sensual objects: base, vulgar, common, ignoble, unprofitable; and that which is devoted to self-affliction: painful, ignoble, unprofitable. Avoiding both of these extremes, the middle way realized by the Tathagata — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.

And what is the middle way realized by the Tathagata that — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding? Precisely this Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

— S LVI.11

The eight factors of the path fall under three headings, the first two factors coming under discernment, the next three under virtue, and the final three under concentration. These three headings are called the Threefold Training; the dynamic among them, leading to the knowledge & vision of release, is one of natural cause & effect.

It is natural that in a virtuous person, one of consummate virtue, freedom from remorse will arise... It is natural that in a person free from remorse gladness will arise... that in a glad person rapture will arise... that for an enraptured person the body will be calmed... that a person of calmed body will feel pleasure... that the mind of a person feeling pleasure will become concentrated... that a person whose mind is concentrated will see things as they actually are... that a person seeing things as they actually are will grow disenchanted... that a disenchanted person will grow dispassionate... that a dispassionate person will realize the knowledge & vision of release.

— A XI.2

According to the standard description of the Eightfold Path, the heading of discernment includes seeing things in terms of the four noble truths about stress, and maintaining the resolve to release oneself from sensuality, to abandon ill will, and to avoid doing harm. Virtue includes abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from harsh speech, & from idle chatter; from killing, stealing, & having illicit sex; and from engaging in dishonest or abusive forms of making a living, such as dealing in poison, slaves, weapons, intoxicants, or animal flesh.

The factors that go into concentration, though, are somewhat more complex.

And what, monks is right effort? There is the case where a monk generates desire, endeavors, arouses persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the non-arising of evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen... for the sake of the abandoning of evil, unskillful qualities that have arisen... for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen... (and) for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, plenitude, development, & culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen. This, monks, is right effort.

And what is right mindfulness? There is the case where a monk remains focused on the body in & of itself — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting away greed & distress with reference to the world. He remains focused on feelings in & of themselves... He remains focused on the mind in & of itself... He remains focused on mental qualities in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting away greed & distress with reference to the world.

Thus either internally he remains focused on the body in & of itself, or externally... or both internally & externally... or else he remains focused on the phenomenon of arising with reference to the body... or the phenomenon of passing away with reference to the body... or the phenomenon of arising & passing away with reference to the body. Or his mindfulness that 'There is a body,' is maintained just to the extent of knowledge & recollection. And he remains independent, not sustained by (clinging to) anything in the world. (Similarly with feelings, mind & mental qualities.)

— D 22

(See page 66 above, instructions to Bahiya.)

Right concentration is the practice of the four basic levels of jhana.

These three factors are component parts of a single whole. In fact, their balanced inter-relatedness is what makes them 'right.' The first level of jhana requires the abandoning of unskillful mental qualities (the Hindrances*), which is part of the duty of right effort; and, as we saw in the description of breath meditation, jhana begins with mindfulness of the present. As jhana is practiced & mastered, skillful qualities (such as the Factors for Awakening*) are fostered & maintained; physical processes are stilled so that mental qualities may become clearly apparent as they occur; mindfulness is made pure on the attainment of the fourth level of jhana; and all four of the Applications of Mindfulness are developed.

On whatever occasion, monks, a monk breathing in long discerns that he is breathing in long; or breathing out long, discerns that he is breathing out long; or breathing in short discerns that he is breathing in short; or breathing out short, discerns that he is breathing out short; trains himself to breathe in... &... out sensitive to the entire body; trains himself to breathe in... &... out calming the bodily processes: On that occasion, monks, the monk remains focused on the body in & of itself — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world...

On whatever occasion a monk trains himself to breathe in... &... out sensitive to rapture; trains himself to breathe in... &... out sensitive to pleasure; trains himself to breathe in... &... out sensitive to mental processes; trains himself to breathe in... &... out calming mental processes: On that occasion the monk remains focused on feelings in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world...

On whatever occasion a monk trains himself to breathe in... &... out sensitive to the mind; trains himself to breathe in... &... out satisfying the mind; trains himself to breathe in... &... out steadying the mind; trains himself to breathe in... &... out releasing the mind: On that occasion the monk remains focused on the mind in & of itself — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world...

On whatever occasion a monk trains himself to breathe in... &... out focusing on inconstancy; trains himself to breathe in... &... out focusing on dispassion; trains himself to breathe in... &... out focusing on stopping; trains himself to breathe in... &... out focusing on relinquishment: On that occasion the monk remains focused on mental qualities in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world.

— M 118

In the Great Discourse on the Applications of Mindfulness, the Buddha describes mindfulness of mental qualities in & of themselves, in part, in terms of the Hindrances and the Factors for Awakening, qualities that are respectively set aside & fostered in the practice of jhana.

And how does a monk remain focused on mental qualities in & of themselves with reference to the five Hindrances? There is the case where, there being sensual desire present within, a monk discerns that 'There is sensual desire present within me.' Or, there being no sensual desire present within, he discerns that 'There is no sensual desire present within me.' He discerns how there is the arising of unarisen sensual desire. And he discerns how there is the abandoning of sensual desire once it has arisen. And he discerns how there is no further appearance in the future of sensual desire that has been abandoned. (The same formula is repeated for the remaining Hindrances: ill will, sloth & drowsiness, restlessness & anxiety, and uncertainty.)...

And how does a monk remain focused on mental qualities in & of themselves with reference to the seven Factors for Awakening? There is the case where, there being mindfulness as a Factor for Awakening present within, a monk discerns that 'Mindfulness as a Factor for Awakening is present within me.' Or, there being no mindfulness as a Factor for Awakening present within, a monk discerns that 'Mindfulness as a Factor for Awakening is not present within me.' He discerns how there is the arising of unarisen mindfulness as a Factor for Awakening. And he discerns how there is the development & consummation of mindfulness as a Factor for Awakening once it has arisen. (The same formula is repeated for the remaining Factors for Awakening: investigation of phenomena, persistence, rapture, serenity, concentration & equanimity.)

— D 22

Thus the practice of right mindfulness does not repress undesirable mental qualities — i.e., it does not deny their presence. Rather, it notices them as they occur so that the phenomenon of their occurrence can be understood. Once they are understood for what they are as phenomena, they lose their power and can be abandoned.

However, the practice of right mindfulness focuses, not on the haphazard occurrence of mental qualities, but on the elimination of undesirable qualities — the Hindrances — that obstruct jhana, and on the development of desirable qualities — the Factors for Awakening — that jhana fosters. As these factors are strengthened through the continued practice of jhana, they make possible a clearer awareness of sensory processes as they occur. The factors of rapture, serenity, & equanimity, existing independently of the input of the five senses, make the mind less involved in sensory pleasures, less inclined to search for emotional satisfaction from them; the factors of mindfulness, investigation of phenomena, persistence, & concentration enable clear insight into the events that make up sensory perception.

To see events in the body & mind simply as that — events, conditioned, arising & passing away — creates a further sense of distance, disenchantment, & de-identification.

Knowing & seeing the eye as it actually is, knowing & seeing forms... visual consciousness... visual contact as they actually are, knowing & seeing whatever arises conditioned by visual contact — experienced as pleasure, pain, or neither pleasure nor pain — as it actually is, one is not infatuated with the eye... forms... visual consciousness... visual contact... whatever arises conditioned by visual contact and is experienced as pleasure, pain, or neither pleasure nor pain...

Knowing & seeing the ear... Knowing & seeing the nose... Knowing & seeing the tongue... Knowing & seeing the body...

Knowing & seeing the intellect as it actually is, knowing & seeing ideas... mental consciousness... mental contact as they actually are, knowing & seeing whatever arises conditioned by mental contact — experienced as pleasure, pain, or neither pleasure nor pain — as it actually occurs, one is not infatuated with the intellect... ideas... mental consciousness... mental contact... whatever arises conditioned by mental contact and is experienced as pleasure, pain, or neither pleasure nor pain.

For him — remaining uninfatuated, unattached, unconfused — the five aggregates for sustenance head toward future diminution. The craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now this & now that — is abandoned by him. His bodily disturbances & mental disturbances are abandoned. His bodily torments & mental torments are abandoned. His bodily distresses & mental distresses are abandoned. He is sensitive both to ease of body & ease of awareness.

Any view belonging to one who has come to be like this is his right view. Any resolve, his right resolve. Any effort, his right effort. Any mindfulness, his right mindfulness. Any concentration, his right concentration: just as earlier his actions, speech, & livelihood were already well-purified. Thus for him the Noble Eightfold Path goes to the culmination of its development... the four Applications of Mindfulness go to the culmination of their development... the seven Factors for Awakening go to the culmination of their development. [And] for him these two qualities occur in concert: tranquillity & insight.

— M 149

With the union of tranquillity & insight at the culmination of the path, Awakening occurs. The Canon records many instances where Awakening is sudden & total, and many where it occurs in stages: The reason for the difference isn't stated, but perhaps in sudden Awakening the mind goes through the various stages in quick succession. At any rate, a brief look at the stages will give something of an idea of the dynamics of the mind's Unbinding.

The standard list of the stages gives four, and describes them in terms of how many of the ten Fetters the mind sheds: (1) self-identity views, (2) grasping at precepts and practices, (3) doubt, (4) sensual passion, (5) resistance, (6) passion for form, (7) passion for formlessness, (8) conceit, (9) restlessness, & (10) ignorance.

There are in this community of monks, monks who, with the total ending of [the first] three Fetters, are stream-winners, steadfast, never again destined for states of woe, headed for self-awakening...

There are... monks who, with the total ending of [the first] three fetters and the thinning out of passion, aversion, & delusion, are once-returners. After returning only once to this world they will put an end to stress...

There are... monks who, with the total ending of the first five of the Fetters, are due to be reborn [in the Pure Abodes], there to be totally unbound, never again to return from that world...

There are... monks who are arahants, whose mental effluents are ended, who have reached fulfillment, done the task, laid down the burden, attained the true goal, totally destroyed the fetter of becoming, and who are released through right gnosis.

— M 118

An alternative way of classifying the stages lists three:

There is the case of the monk who has attained full accomplishment with regard to virtue, a modicum of accomplishment with regard to concentration, and a modicum with regard to discernment...

There is the case of the monk who has attained full accomplishment with regard to virtue, full accomplishment with regard to concentration, and a modicum of accomplishment with regard to discernment...

There is the case of the monk who has attained full accomplishment with regard to virtue, full accomplishment with regard to concentration, and full accomplishment with regard to discernment. With the ending of the mental effluents, he remains in the effluentless awareness-release & discernment-release, having known and made them manifest for himself right in the present.

— A III.88

As the text makes clear, stream-winners and once-returners are those who have fully developed virtue, non-returners are those who have fully developed virtue & concentration, and arahants are those who have fully developed all three parts of the path: virtue, concentration, & discernment.

This is not to say, however, that stream-winners have not developed discernment to a fairly high degree. In fact, the unvarying definition of stream-winners is that they have 'seen with discernment,' and their level of Awakening is called the arising of the Dhamma eye. What they see with this Dhamma eye is always expressed in the same terms:

Then Ven. Assaji gave this exposition of Dhamma to Sariputta the Wanderer:

'Whatever phenomena arise from a cause:
	Their cause
		& their cessation.
Such is the teaching of the Tathagata
			the Great Contemplative.'

Then to Sariputta the Wanderer, as he heard this exposition of Dhamma, there arose the dustless, stainless Dhamma eye: Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation.

— Mv 1.23.5

For this realization to occur, it must follow on a glimpse of what stands in opposition to 'all that is subject to origination,' i.e., a glimpse of the Unconditioned — deathlessness.

[Immediately after winning to the Stream] Sariputta the Wanderer went to where Moggallana the Wanderer was staying. Moggallana the Wanderer saw him coming from afar and, on seeing him, said, 'Your faculties are bright, my friend; your complexion pure & clear. Could it be that you have attained the Deathless?'

'Yes, my friend, I have...'

— Mv 1.23.5

Although their Awakening is not yet complete, stream-winners see enough of the Deathless to remove all doubt in the Buddha's teachings.

To Upali the householder, as he was sitting right there, there arose the dustless, stainless Dhamma eye: Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation. Then — having seen the Dhamma, having reached the Dhamma, known the Dhamma, gained a footing in the Dhamma, having crossed over & beyond doubt, having had no more questioning — Upali the householder gained fearlessness and was independent of others with regard to the Teacher's message.

— M 56

Their glimpse of deathlessness is also enough to convince stream-winners of the worthlessness of self-identity views that center on the five aggregates of sustenance, all of which come under the category of 'all that is subject to origination.'

Magandiya, it is just as if there were a blind man who couldn't see black objects... white... blue... yellow... red... the sun or the moon. Now suppose that a certain man were to take a grimy, oil-stained rag and fool him, saying, 'Here, my good man, is a white cloth — beautiful, spotless, & clean.' The blind man would take it and wear it.

Then suppose his friends, companions, & relatives took him to a doctor, and the doctor treated him with medicine: purges from above & purges from below, ointments & counter-ointments, and treatments through the nose. And thanks to the medicine his eyesight would appear & grow clear. Then together with the arising of his eyesight, he would abandon whatever passion & delight he felt for that grimy, oil-stained rag. And he would regard that man as an enemy & no friend at all, and think that he deserved to be killed. 'My gosh, how long have I been fooled, cheated, & deceived by that man & his grimy, oil-stained rag!— "Here, my good man, is a white cloth — beautiful, spotless, & clean."'

In the same way, Magandiya, if I were to teach you the Dhamma — this freedom from Disease, this Unbinding — and you on your part were to understand that freedom from Disease and see that Unbinding, then together with the arising of your eyesight, you would abandon whatever passion & delight you felt with regard for the five aggregates for sustenance. And it would occur to you, 'My gosh, how long have I been fooled, cheated, & deceived by this mind! For in clinging, it was just form that I was clinging to... it was just feeling... just perception... just mental processes... just consciousness that I was clinging to. With my clinging as condition, there is becoming... birth... aging & death... sorrow, lamentation, pains, distresses, & despairs all come into play. And thus is the origination of this entire mass of stress.'

— M 75

Because they realize that their glimpse of the goal came through an act of discernment, stream-winners no longer grasp at precepts & practices. What this means is that they no longer view mere adherence to precepts & practices as a sufficient means to the goal in & of itself, although they continue to abide by the precepts of right speech, action, & livelihood and by the practice of jhana that fostered their discernment to begin with. Having seen the efficacy of their own actions, they will never intentionally do evil again. This is what perfects their virtue. Still, they have yet to fully comprehend the practice of jhana, and so their minds remain attached to the phenomena — with & without form — on which that practice is based. As the texts say, they are bound by their incomplete mastery of concentration & discernment, and by seven remaining Fetters to the cycle of birth & death.

As for non-returners, they have mastered jhana to the extent that they can use it as a vantage point for watching the arising & passing away that occurs in reference to the five senses, while the pleasure, rapture, & equanimity it offers serve them as a fulcrum point for uprooting any desire for the pleasures of those five senses, together with all feelings of resistance that come when such desires are not met.

They, too, have seen the Deathless, but as with stream-winners, their discernment is not yet fully comprehensive: They have yet to turn it on the act of seeing: the tools — tranquillity & insight — that lead to that discernment, and the subtle levels of passion & delight that accompany it.

The texts express this point in a variety of ways. Some passages simply list the Fetters that non-returners have yet to abandon: passion for form, passion for formlessness, conceit, restlessness, & ignorance. Others give more experiential accounts of what is happening in a non-returner's mind. From reading these latter accounts it is possible to see how the five Fetters in the list are interconnected: Although non-returners shed attachment to self-identity views back when they attained stream-entry, they still have a lingering sense of the conceit 'I am,' associated with the five aggregates for sustenance — possessing form & formless — as they function subtly in the arising of tranquillity & insight as a process of becoming. And while they have gained enough insight into the five senses to let go of any attachment to them, they still suffer from a certain amount of ignorance concerning the subtler level of becoming inherent in that conceit. This leads to refined forms of passion & delight that keep them restless & bound to the sixth sense: the mind.

There is the case, Ananda, where a monk... enters & remains in the first jhana: refreshment & pleasure born of withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. He regards whatever phenomena there that are connected with form (body), feeling, perceptions, mental processes, & consciousness as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a dissolution, a void, not self.

He turns his mind away from those phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the quality of deathlessness: 'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all mental processes; the relinquishment of all mental acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; stopping; Unbinding.' Having attained this point, he reaches the ending of the mental effluents. Or, if not, then — through passion & delight for this very phenomenon [the discernment inclining to deathlessness] and from the total ending of the first five of the Fetters — he is due to be reborn [in the Pure Abodes], there to be totally unbound, never again to return from that world. (Similarly with each of the remaining levels of jhana.)

— M 64

Several strands of our discussion converge at this passage. To begin with, the act of discernment described here — inclining the mind to the Deathless — is identical with the object of concentration described by the Buddha at A X.6 (see page 35). This would thus be an instance of tranquillity occurring in concert with insight (see page 102).

Secondly, as the passage points out, the crucial difference between arahants and non-returners is whether or not the mind feels passion & delight for this act of discernment. Here the distinctions concerning sustenance & clinging raised at the beginning of Chapter III (see page 44) come subtly into play. Any act of discernment, even on this level, comes under the five aggregates for sustenance, as composed of perception, mental processes, & consciousness. If not fully seen for what it is, it can thus act as a phenomenon offering sustenance (or as a clingable phenomenon). Any passion & delight for it — and these themselves are perceptions & mental processes — function as refined sustenance/clinging in the modes of views (of inferior/superior), mental absorption, & a sense of 'I am' involved in the act of discerning. Thus the mind still contains the conditions for becoming on a refined level, and this stands in the way of its total freedom.

Bound by both
	the yoke of sensuality
	& the yoke of becoming,
beings continue in transmigration,
	returning to birth & death.
	
Those who have abandoned sensuality
	without reaching the ending of the effluents,
are bound by the yoke of becoming:
	non-returners they are called.

While those who have cut off doubt
	have no more conceit
		or renewal of becoming.
		
They who have reached
	the ending of the effluents,	
while in the world,
	have gone beyond.

— Iti 96

[Ven. Khemaka, a non-returner, speaks shortly before attaining arahantship:] 'It's just like the scent of a blue, red, or white lotus: If someone were to call it the scent of a petal or the scent of the color or the scent of a filament, would he be speaking correctly?'

'No, friend.'

'Then how would he describe it if he were describing it correctly?'

'As the scent of the flower: That's how he would describe it if he were describing it correctly?'

'In the same way, friends, it's not that I say "I am form," nor do I say "I am other than form." It's not that I say, "I am feeling... perception... fabrications... consciousness," nor do I say, "I am something other than consciousness." With regard to these five aggregates of sustenance, "I am" has not been overcome, although I don't assume that "I am this"...

'Just like a cloth, dirty & stained: Its owners give it over to a washerman, who scrubs it with salt earth or lye or cow-dung and then rinses it in clear water. Now even though the cloth is clean and spotless, it still has a lingering residual scent of salt earth or lye or cow-dung. The washerman gives it to the owners, the owners put it away in a scent-infused wicker hamper, and its lingering residual scent of salt earth, lye, or cow-dung is fully obliterated.

'In the same way, friends, even though a noble disciple has abandoned the five lower fetters, he still has with regard to the five aggregates of sustenance a lingering residual "I am" conceit, an "I am" desire, an "I am" obsession. But at a later time he keeps focusing on the phenomena of arising & passing away with regard to the five aggregates of sustenance: "Such is form, such its origin, such its disappearance. Such is feeling... Such is perception... Such are mental processes... Such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance." As he keeps focusing on the arising & passing away of these five aggregates of sustenance, the lingering residual "I am" conceit, "I am" desire, "I am" obsession is fully obliterated.'

— S XXII.89

Only when discernment is so fully developed & totally comprehensive that it has no lingering conceits, desires, or tendencies for anything — not even for the mental processes of passion & delight that condition subtle levels of becoming around the act of discerning — can it complete its emancipation from the six spheres of sensory contact that make up the All.

[Moggallana (shortly before becoming an arahant):] Briefly, sir, in what respect is a monk — released through the ending of craving — utterly complete, utterly free from bonds, a follower of the utterly holy life, utterly consummate: foremost among human & heavenly beings?

The Buddha: There is the case, Moggallana, of the monk who has heard, 'All phenomena are unworthy of attachment.' Having heard that all phenomena are unworthy of attachment, he fully knows every thing. Fully knowing every thing, he fully comprehends every thing. Fully comprehending every thing, then whatever feeling he experiences — pleasure, pain, neither pleasure nor pain — he keeps focusing on inconstancy with regard to it, keeps focusing on dispassion, focusing on stopping, focusing on relinquishing. As he keeps focusing on inconstancy... dispassion... stopping... relinquishing with regard to that feeling, he is unsustained by (does not cling to) anything in the world. Unsustained, he is not agitated. Unagitated, he is unbound right within. He discerns: 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.'

It is in this respect, Moggallana, that a monk, in brief, is released through the ending of craving, utterly complete, utterly free from bonds, a follower of the utterly holy life, utterly consummate: foremost among human & heavenly beings.

— A VII.58

One who knows the All
	from all around,
who is not aroused
	by anything at all,
having totally comprehended
	the All,
has overcome
	all stress.

— Iti 7

Now when a monk discerns — as they actually are — the origin & passing away of the six spheres of (sensory) contact, their allure, their drawbacks, & the emancipation from them, then he discerns what is superior to all these things.

— D 1

With ignorance as condition, there occur processes; with processes as condition, [sensory] consciousness; with [sensory] consciousness as condition, name & form; with name & form as condition, the six sense spheres...

But with the remainderless fading & stopping of ignorance, processes stop. With the stopping of processes, [sensory] consciousness stops. With the stopping of [sensory] consciousness, name & form... the six sense spheres... contact... feeling... craving... clinging... becoming... birth stops. With the stopping of birth — aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, & distress all stop. Thus is the stopping of this entire mass of stress.

— M 115

That which arises in dependence on the eye as pleasure or joy, that is the allure of the eye. Whatever aspects of the eye are inconstant, stressful, & subject to change, that is the drawback of the eye. Whatever is the subduing of passion & desire, the abandoning of passion & desire for the eye, that is the emancipation from the eye. (Similarly with the ear, nose, tongue, body, & intellect, and with forms, sounds, aromas, flavors, tactile sensations, & ideas.)

— S XXXV.13-14

This, the unsurpassed, foremost state of peace, has been realized by the Tathagata: liberation, through lack of clinging/sustenance, having known, as they actually are, the origin, the passing away, the allure, the drawbacks of — and the emancipation from — the six spheres of [sensory] contact.

— M 102

This unsurpassed, foremost state of peace that comes as the mind realizes emancipation from the All, is totally Unconditioned.

There is, monks, an unborn — unbecome — unmade — uncompounded. If there were not that unborn — unbecome — unmade — uncompounded, there would not be the case that emancipation from the born — become — made — compounded would be discerned. But precisely because there is an unborn — unbecome — unmade — uncompounded, emancipation from the born — become — made — compounded is thus discerned.

— Ud 8.3

Where water, earth, fire and wind have no footing
There the stars do not shine
	the sun is not visible
	the moon does not appear
	darkness is not found.
	
And when a sage, a Brahman through sagacity
	has known [this] for himself,
then from form & formless,
	from pleasure & pain,

	        he is freed.

— Ud 2.10

Having fully realized the Unconditioned, the mind no longer falls under the sway of stress & inconstancy. No longer engrossed, it finds that its sense of participation & engagement in all the processes of experience disbands once & for all.

[Nandaka:] 'Sisters, it is just as if a skilled butcher or butcher's apprentice, having killed a cow, were to carve it up with a sharp carving knife so that — without damaging the substance of the inner flesh, without damaging the substance of the outer hide — he would cut, sever, & detach only the skin muscles, connective tissues, & attachments in between; and having cut, severed, & detached the outer skin, and then covering the cow again with that very skin, he were to say that the cow was actually joined to the skin: Would he be speaking rightly?'

'No, sir. Why is that?... because no matter how much he might say that the cow was actually joined to the skin, the cow would still be disjoined from the skin.'

'This simile, sisters, I have given to convey a message. The message is this: The substance of the inner flesh stands for the six inner sense spheres (the senses); the substance of the outer hide stands for the six outer sense spheres (their objects). The skin muscles, connective tissues, & attachments in between stand for passion & delight. And the sharp knife stands for noble discernment, which cuts, severs, & detaches the defilements, fetters, & attachments in between.'

— M 146

Although the senses & their objects are there just as before, the fundamental affective link that ties the mind to sensations has been cut. And its cutting means unconditional freedom for the mind.

[MahaKaccana:] 'Concerning the brief statement the Master made, after which he entered his dwelling without expounding the detailed meaning — i.e., "A monk should investigate in such a way that, his consciousness neither externally scattered & diffused, nor internally positioned, he would from lack of clinging/sustenance be unagitated. When... from lack of clinging/sustenance he would be unagitated, there is no seed for the conditions of future birth, aging, death, or stress" — I understand the detailed meaning of this statement to be this:

'How is consciousness said to be scattered & diffused? There is the case where a form is seen with the eye, and consciousness follows the drift of (lit.: 'flows after') the image of the form, is tied to the attraction of the image of the form, is chained to the attraction of the image of the form, is fettered & joined to the attraction of the image of the form: Consciousness is said to be externally scattered & diffused. (Similarly with the remaining senses.)

'And how is consciousness said not to be externally scattered & diffused? There is the case where a form is seen with the eye, and consciousness does not follow the drift of the image of the form, is not tied to... chained to... fettered, or joined to the attraction of the image of the form: Consciousness is said not to be externally scattered & diffused. (Similarly with the remaining senses.)

'And how is the mind said to be internally positioned? There is the case where a monk... enters & remains in the first jhana. His consciousness follows the drift of the rapture & pleasure born of withdrawal, is tied to... chained... fettered, & joined to the attraction of the rapture & pleasure born of withdrawal. Or further... he enters & remains in the second jhana. His consciousness follows the drift of the rapture & pleasure born of composure, is tied to... chained... fettered, & joined to the attraction of the rapture & pleasure born of composure. Or further... he enters & remains in the third jhana... His consciousness follows the drift of the equanimity & pleasure... Or further... he enters & remains in the fourth jhana. His consciousness follows the drift of the neither pleasure nor pain, is tied to... chained to... fettered, & joined to the attraction of the neither pleasure nor pain: The mind is said to be internally positioned.

'And how is the mind said not to be internally positioned? There is the case where a monk... enters & remains in the first jhana. His consciousness does not follow the drift of the rapture & pleasure born of withdrawal, is not tied to... chained to... fettered, or joined to the rapture & pleasure born of withdrawal. (And similarly with the remaining levels of jhana.)

'And how is agitation caused by clinging/sustenance? There is the case where an uninstructed, run-of-the-mill person — who has no regard for noble ones, is not well-versed or disciplined in their Dhamma; who has no regard for men of integrity, is not well-versed or disciplined in their Dhamma — assumes form to be the self, or the self as possessing form, or form as in the self, or the self as in form. His form changes & is unstable. Because of the change & instability of form, his consciousness alters in accordance with the change in form. With the agitations born from the alteration in accordance with the change in form and coming from the co-arising of (unskillful mental) qualities, his mind stays consumed. And because of the consumption of awareness, he feels fearful, threatened, & solicitous. (And similarly with feeling, perception, mental processes & consciousness.)

'And how is non-agitation caused by lack of clinging/ sustenance? There is the case where an instructed disciple of the noble ones — who has regard for nobles ones, is well-versed & disciplined in their Dhamma; who has regard for men of integrity, is well-versed & disciplined in their Dhamma — doesn't assume form to be the self, or the self as possessing form, or form as in the self, or the self as in form. His form changes & is unstable, but his consciousness doesn't — because of the change & instability of form — alter in accordance with the change in form. His mind is not consumed with any agitations born from an alteration in accordance with the change in form or coming from the co-arising of (unskillful mental) qualities. And because his awareness is not consumed, he feels neither fearful, threatened, nor solicitous. It is thus, friends, that non-agitation is caused by lack of clinging/sustenance. (And similarly with feeling, perception, mental processes & consciousness.)'

— M 138

One who is dependent has wavering. One who is independent has no wavering. There being no wavering, there is calm. There being calm, there is no desire. There being no desire, there is no coming or going. There being no coming or going, there is no passing away or arising. There being no passing away or arising, there is neither a here nor a there nor a between-the-two. This, just this, is the end of stress.

— Ud 8.4

Sensing a feeling of pleasure, he (a person who has reached the goal: This is the continuation of the passage on pages 74-75) discerns that it is fleeting, not grasped at, not relished. Sensing a feeling of pain... Sensing a feeling of neither pleasure nor pain, he discerns that it is fleeting, not grasped at, not relished. Sensing a feeling of pleasure, he senses it disjoined from it. Sensing a feeling of pain... Sensing a feeling of neither pleasure nor pain, he senses it disjoined from it. When sensing a feeling limited to the body, he discerns that 'I am sensing a feeling limited to the body.' When sensing a feeling limited to life, he discerns that 'I am sensing a feeling limited to life.' He discerns that 'With the break-up of the body, after the termination of life, all that is sensed, not being relished, will grow cold right here.'

Just as an oil lamp burns in dependence on oil & wick; and from the termination of the oil & wick — and from not being provided any other sustenance — it goes out unnourished; even so, when sensing a feeling limited to the body, he discerns that 'I am sensing a feeling limited to the body.' When sensing a feeling limited to life, he discerns that 'I am sensing a feeling limited to life.' He discerns that 'With the break-up of the body, after the termination of life, all that is sensed, not being relished, will grow cold right here.'

Thus a monk so endowed is endowed with the highest resolve for discernment, for this — the knowledge of the passing away of all stress — is the highest noble discernment.

His release, being founded on truth, does not fluctuate, for whatever is deceptive is false; Unbinding — the undeceptive — is true. Thus a monk so endowed is endowed with the highest resolve for truth, for this — Unbinding, the undeceptive — is the highest noble truth.

Whereas formerly he foolishly had taken on & brought to completion mental acquisitions, he has now abandoned them, their root destroyed, like an uprooted palm tree, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future arising. Thus a monk so endowed is endowed with the highest resolve for relinquishment, for this — the renunciation of all mental acquisitions — is the highest noble relinquishment.

Whereas formerly he foolishly had greed — as well as desire & infatuation — he has now abandoned them, their root destroyed... not destined for future arising. Whereas formerly he foolishly had malice — as well as ill-will & hatred — he has now abandoned them... Whereas formerly he foolishly had ignorance — as well as delusion & confusion — he has now abandoned them, their root destroyed like an uprooted palm tree, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future arising. Thus a monk so endowed is endowed with the highest resolve for calm, for this — the calming of passions, aversions, & delusions — is the highest noble calm. 'One should not be negligent of discernment, should guard the truth, be devoted to relinquishment, and train only for calm.' Thus was it said, and in reference to this was it said.

'He has been stilled where the currents of construing do not flow. And when the currents of construing do not flow, he is said to be a sage at peace:' Thus it has been said. With reference to what was it said? 'I am' is a construing. 'I am this' is a construing. 'I will be' is a construing. 'I will not be'... 'I will be possessed of form'... 'I will not be possessed of form'... 'I will be percipient'... 'I will not be percipient'... 'I will be neither percipient nor non-percipient' is a construing. Construing is a disease, construing is a cancer, construing is an arrow. By going beyond all construing, he is called a sage at peace.

Furthermore, a sage at peace is not born, does not age, does not die, is unagitated and free from longing. He does not have anything whereby he would be born. Not being born, will he age? Not aging, will he die? Not dying, will he be agitated? Not being agitated, for what will he long? It was in reference to this that it was said, 'He has been stilled where the currents of construing do not flow. And when the currents of construing do not flow, he is said to be a sage at peace.'

— M 140

Sariputta: And how, my friend, is a monk's mind well-composed by means of awareness? 'My mind is without passion' — his mind is well-composed by means of awareness. 'My mind is without aversion'... 'My mind is without delusion'... 'My mind is not subject to passion'... 'to aversion'... 'to delusion' — his mind is well-composed by means of awareness. 'My mind is destined not to return to states of sensuality'... 'to states of form'... 'to formless states' — his mind is well-composed by means of awareness.

Even if powerful forms cognizable by the eye come into the visual range of a monk whose mind is thus rightly released, his mind is neither overpowered nor even engaged. Being still, having reached imperturbability, he focuses on their passing away. And even if powerful sounds... aromas... flavors... tactile sensations... Even if powerful ideas cognizable by the intellect come into the mental range of a monk whose mind is thus rightly released, his mind is neither overpowered nor even engaged. Being still, having reached imperturbability, he focuses on their passing away.

Just as if there were a stone column, sixteen spans tall, of which eight spans were rooted below ground, and then from the east there were to come a powerful wind storm: The column would not shiver nor quiver nor quake. And then from the west... the north... the south there were to some a powerful wind storm: The column would not shiver nor quiver nor quake. Why? Because of the depth of the root and the well-buriedness of the stone column. In the same way, my friend, even if powerful forms cognizable by the eye come into the visual range of a monk whose mind is thus rightly released... etc... his mind is neither overpowered nor even engaged.

— A IX.26

Everywhere
	the sage
		independent
holds nothing dear or undear.

In him
lamentation & selfishness
like water on a white lotus
	do not adhere.

As a water bead on a lotus leaf,
as water on a red lily,
	does not adhere,

so the sage
	does not adhere
to the seen, the heard or the sensed;

for, cleansed,
	he does not construe
by means of the seen, the heard or the sensed.

In no other way
does he ask for purity,
for neither impassioned
	nor dispassioned
		is he.

— Sn 4.6

This radical freedom — unattached to sensation, untouched by the power of passion, aversion, & delusion — is the Unbinding experienced in the present life.

Sister Patacara:

Washing my feet, I noticed
		the
		water.

And in watching it flow from high
		to
		low,
	my heart was composed
	like a fine thoroughbred steed.
	
Then taking a lamp, I entered the hut,
	checked the bedding,
	sat down on the bed.

And taking a pin, I pulled out the wick:
	Like the flame's unbinding
	was the liberation
		of awareness.

— Thig 5.10

Contents

Abbreviations

Vedic Texts

Pali Buddhist Texts

Preface

Glossary

Bibliography