CHAPTER THREE

Right View

Right view is the first factor of the path. The Pāli term for right view—sammā-diṭṭhi—can also be translated as “right opinion.” Right view consists of the views and opinions needed to guide your progress on the path—to understand what to do and why to do it. In this sense, right view is a series of working hypotheses that guide the path and, at the same time, will be put to the test as the path progresses.

The reason why the path starts with right view rather than with right knowledge is indicated by the Buddha’s analogy in §3: He sees people who don’t know where they’re going, taking paths that lead to different destinations. From his perspective, he knows from direct experience where the paths go, but he can’t share that direct experience with others, nor can he show them what’s at the end of the paths without their reaching those destinations on their own. For them, the information they learn from him about the paths is, until they reach the end of the paths themselves, simply a matter of opinion.

This is why, as a first step on the noble eightfold path, right view has to be taken on conviction. This fact is included in the definition of mundane right view—the conviction that there are those who know through direct knowledge the truths about kamma and rebirth (§48)—but it underlies the more advanced levels of right view as well. On the transcendent level of right view, for instance, many of the principles of the four noble truths—such as the principle that suffering is inherent in the mind’s feeding habits—are counterintuitive. Even the value judgment implicit in the four noble truths—that the suffering caused by clinging is the important spiritual problem—is something that can’t be proven until you’ve solved the problem for yourself. This is why these truths have to be taken on faith before they can be put to use.

Similarly with the ultimate level of right view: The judgment that eventually you have to abandon even the most skillful qualities of the mind goes against the grain when you’ve put so much effort into developing them, so the wisdom of this judgment, too, has to be taken on faith.

But in every case, the faith required is not a blind faith in unreasonable ideas. Instead, the reasonableness of the Buddha’s teachings is presented as one of the signs that it is worthy of faith, as is the fact that each person is invited to test the teachings in practice for him- or herself. But to test them, you have to trust that they are worth the time and effort needed to give them a fair try.

When the texts define conviction, they frame it as a matter of having conviction in the Buddha’s awakening (§55). In fact, the three levels of right view follow the pattern of the Buddha’s three knowledges on the night of his awakening (§30): Mundane right view accepts the content of the first two knowledges, on kamma and rebirth. Transcendent right view accepts the third knowledge, in which the Buddha’s discovery of the four noble truths led to his awakening. The final level of right view, which lies beyond the transcendent, accepts a step that isn’t mentioned in the standard description of the third knowledge, but which the Buddha elsewhere states was a crucial stage on the path: the total abandoning of the path itself. To accept the Buddha’s awakening on conviction is to accept the validity of the working hypotheses that he presents as right view.

To call right view a series of working hypotheses implies two things: On the one hand, it implies that these views are not simply idle theories, maps of reality to be merely contemplated or argued about. To be properly used, they have to be put into practice. This is reflected in the fact that each level of right view entails its own duties. This is one of the reasons why the Buddha warns about grasping right view wrongly—say, for the purpose of simply holding onto it, or for getting into useless debates—because those acts would put you on a different path from the one for which right view was intended.

On the other hand, calling right view a series of working hypotheses implies that the duties they entail are not simply bald imperatives, such as, “Do this!” or “Drink me!” Instead, these views provide explanations for why the duties should be done, so that they can be followed with at least some measure of understanding and a conviction that the duties are actually beneficial to attempt. At the same time, these explanations are meant to convey, not an entire map of reality, but enough of a map to keep you on the path. Too extensive a map would risk pulling your attention into side roads that lead away from the goal, which is why the Buddha was very clear about which issues he would discuss as part of right view, and which he would put aside.

In presenting these working hypotheses on differing levels, the Buddha took on a corresponding set of standards for how he should speak: He would say only things that were true, beneficial, and appropriate for the time and place. In §175, where he presents these standards, he defines “appropriate for time and place” in terms of when it was appropriate to speak in a pleasing way and when to speak in a disagreeable way, but other suttas show that he would vary his teachings in response to the needs of the listener(s) in other ways as well. In particular, he would gauge which level of right view was most appropriate to discuss at that particular time to that particular person. Just as the path is strategic, his way of teaching it was strategic, too.

Three levels of right view. As we have mentioned several times, right view has three levels. The first two—mundane and transcendent—are presented in MN 117. The third level is nowhere named in the Canon, but a handful of suttas describe it in enough detail to show that, although it represents the final working out of transcendent right view, it forms a separate level that goes beyond it in several important respects. For the purposes of discussion, we will term it final right view.

Here, for each level of right view, we will first discuss the content of that level and the duties appropriate to it. Then we will contrast it with the wrong views that the Buddha criticized as deviating from it. This contrast helps to highlight where the line between right view and wrong view lies. We will also discuss how the Buddha taught people to progress from one level of right view to the next. Finally, we will discuss the causal principle that underlies all three levels of right view. This principle explains not only how right view is supposed to work, but how and why it works together with the other factors of the path.

Mundane Right View

Mundane right view centers on the issues of kamma and rebirth. MN 117’s definition of this level of right view is actually a negation of a set of tenets that DN 2 attributes to one of the Buddha’s contemporaries, a teacher named Ajita Kesakambalin. Ajita taught a materialist doctrine that DN 2 calls annihilationism: the belief that a person is simply a combination of material elements which are annihilated at death, and that good deeds such as generosity and gratitude to one’s parents are a waste of time because everything ends up in annihilation anyhow.

So the first implication of mundane right view is that generosity does matter, gratitude to one’s parents is a virtue, and that death is not annihilation. MN 117 states these positions in very simple terms: “There are fruits & results of good & bad actions. There is this world & the next world.… There are spontaneously reborn beings [this is a reference to beings born in heaven or in hell, with no need for mother or father].”

Other suttas expand considerably on these points. To begin with, on the topic of action: The Buddha defines the word for action, kamma, in two senses. On the one hand, it is the intention underlying the act (§57). On the other, it can also refer to the results of the act that return to the person who intentionally committed the act and that are experienced in the form of the six senses (§62). These results tend to be painful or pleasant depending on whether the intention informing the act was unskillful—based on greed, aversion, or delusion—or skillful—based on a mind-state free of those defilements.

There is an apparent discrepancy in the suttas as to how completely old kamma shapes sensory experience. In SN 35:145 (§62), the Buddha, when talking to the monks, states that all six sense media should be regarded as old kamma. However, in SN 36:21 (§66), when talking to Moḷiyasivaka, a wanderer of another sect, he states that not all feelings are the result of old kamma, and then he offers a list of other sources for feelings—a list apparently drawn from the medical beliefs of the times. The fact that the second sutta is addressed to a member of another sect, however, leaves open the possibility that the Buddha chose this list to appeal to concepts that were not specifically Buddhist and instead were common in non-Buddhist circles. And when we compare the discussion in SN 36:21 with that in SN 35:145, we see that the alternative causes listed in SN 36:21 all fall under the headings of new or old kamma listed in SN 35:145. Because SN 35:145, addressed to monks, is the more authoritative of the two suttas, this suggests that the list in SN 36:21 was simply meant as a refutation of fatalism (see below), and that if Moḷiyasivaka continued to pursue the issue he might at a later point be more receptive to the Buddha’s full-scale explanation of how kammic tendencies worked. And part of that explanation would have been that the input of the six senses should all be viewed as a form of past kamma.

The results of actions can return either immediately, later in this lifetime, in the next lifetime, or even in lifetimes after that (§57). In particular, these results tend to influence the level of one’s rebirth, which can happen on one of many different levels: in hell, in the realm of common animals, in the realm of the hungry ghosts, in the human world, or in the world of the devas. Rebirth on these levels is not permanent. Once the actions creating the conditions for a particular level of rebirth have run out, one will take rebirth on another level created by other actions. This is in line with the principle that a temporary cause cannot form the basis for a permanent result.

The obverse principle is also true: A permanent cause cannot create a temporary result, which means that the Buddhist cosmos has no unmoved mover as first cause. In the Buddha’s terms, the cosmos has an inconceivable beginning, and he discouraged speculation about the origin of the cosmos, saying that such speculation gets in the way of the issue at hand: putting an end to suffering. Similarly, the cosmos has no preordained end. It has the potential to continue indefinitely as long as the beings in the cosmos keep making the choices leading to further rebirth. As the Buddha explained in many suttas, such as DN 1 and DN 27, the cosmos has already gone through countless rounds of evolution and devolution, and has the potential to go through countless more. This realization, during the night of his awakening, is what intensified his sense of terror and urgency over the potentials of kamma, but it also proved to be liberating: When there is no ordained purpose for the cosmos that would impose duties on anyone, beings are all free to choose the path to the end of suffering.

The complexity of kamma. Although the basic principle underlying actions and their results is fairly simple, the way in which those results work out can often be complex. This is partly because a person can perform many types of action in a single day, not to mention a lifetime. The image the Buddha used to illustrate the principle of kamma was of a field planted with seeds. Some seeds are ready to sprout; others are not. Where and what you are at the present moment is simply a measure of which seeds are currently sprouting. It’s possible that you have many other seeds, potentially better, potentially worse, simply waiting for the opportunity to sprout. This means that a person’s current position in life is not an accurate measure of all the seeds in his/her kammic background.

Another reason for the complexity of kammic consequences is that it’s possible to have a major change of heart in life that, if skillful, will soften the effects of your past unskillful actions or, if unskillful, will weaken the effects of your past skillful actions. In terms of the field image, this would be like watering many good seeds to crowd out the bad seeds, or bad seeds to crowd out the good.

A third reason for the complexity of kammic consequences is that the actual experience of the results of actions will depend on your mind-state at the time when they ripen. If you are small-hearted, lacking in virtue and discernment, and if pleasure and pain can invade your mind and remain, then the ripening results of an unskillful action will be painful. If you are large-hearted, trained in virtue and discernment, and if pleasure and pain cannot invade your mind and remain, then the ripening results of an unskillful action will barely be felt (§65). The Buddha compares this to putting a lump of salt in a small cup of water or in a large, clear river. The water in the cup will be too salty to drink, but the water in the river will still be potable. In other words, just because you have done something bad doesn’t mean that you deserve to suffer for it. After all, the Buddha taught a path to the end of suffering, regardless of whether that suffering is “deserved” or not. You can train yourself to develop more skillful states of mind, both to produce skillful actions now and to ameliorate unskillful kamma from the past.

It’s because of the complexities in how kamma produces results that the Buddha said that the issue is imponderable (§64). For the sake of gaining release from suffering, it’s enough to know the basic principles that skillful actions tend to lead to pleasure, unskillful actions tend to lead to pain, and that because these are tendencies—rather than deterministic, tit-for-tat laws—you can train your mind to mitigate the results of past bad actions and actually gain release.

The way leading to release is also a path of action—the noble eightfold path—which leads to the end of action (§58). In other words, once total release is gained in this lifetime, your actions no longer create kammic results (§344); after your final death, you go beyond rebirth and any need to engage in the fabrication of action at all.

Rebirth. The Buddha sketched out the various levels of the cosmos to which one can be reborn, but he never provided a complete map of all the levels. Still, he did provide enough of a sketch to show how rebirth corresponds to actions. For instance, on the highest levels of heaven, there are beings whose states of bliss and rapture correspond, in descending order, to the formless concentration attainments (in which one takes as one’s object perceptions such as nothingness, infinite consciousness, or infinite space), to the form levels of jhāna (in which one takes as one’s object the inner form of the body), and to intense sensual pleasures, corresponding to the results of generosity, virtue, and goodwill.

Human rebirth corresponds to a more mixed bag of ripening kammic seeds. The different levels of beauty, wealth, power, life span, and status that different human beings experience depend on the relative abundance or lack of the seeds of generosity, virtue, and goodwill ripening in the bag.

Below the human level are the levels to which beings are reborn from having engaged in unskillful actions. First, going downward, is the level of the hungry ghosts, whose food is the merit dedicated to them. This level is not discussed in detail in the suttas, but later Buddhist texts depict the hungry ghosts as just that—hungry, poor, and miserable, often extremely so, from having been ungenerous in previous lives. Below them are the many varieties of common animals, and below them are the levels of hell. Although the suttas contain very few descriptions of heaven, they contain some very graphic descriptions of hell (§93), examples of the Buddha’s policy of saying disagreeable things when the time and place called for it.

It’s important to note, though, that whereas the Buddha talked about where rebirth can happen, he never discussed the issue of what gets reborn, or by what mechanism the results of action carry over from one lifetime to later lifetimes. After all, you are not responsible for those issues. He did discuss, however, how rebirth happens as a process: acts of consciousness are sustained by craving as they move from one state to the next (§59). Just this much information is useful because you are responsible for this process, and it’s something that you can aim in the right direction, or even end, by gaining control over your cravings or putting an end to them by following the noble eightfold path.

Duties. For anyone seeking the end of suffering, the imperatives that follow from mundane right view are simple: Abandon unskillful actions and develop skillful ones. This was one of only two teachings that the Buddha said were categorical, i.e., true across the board for all people in all times. The only question lies in how to determine what’s skillful and what’s not, and then—following that—how to develop the strength of character to follow through with that knowledge to yield either fortunate rebirths or, better still, find the way to release.

The famous Kālāma Sutta (§61) recommends two ways for finding the line between skillful and unskillful behavior: (1) testing a teaching by checking to see what results come from putting it into practice and (2) consulting the opinions of the wise. These instructions fall in line with two of the supplementary factors of the path that §§39–40 say are the prime internal and external factors for gaining the first taste of awakening: appropriate attention and admirable friendship. MN 9 (§130) gives a list of ten practices that wise people would criticize as unskillful, and their ten opposites that they would recommend as skillful. The sutta goes on to add that the roots both for unskillful and for skillful behavior lie in the mind—pointing to the need to train the mind if you want to find true happiness.

Wrong views. Many of the points that the Buddha discussed under mundane right view were unique to him in his time. There is a widespread misunderstanding that he simply picked up his teachings on kamma and rebirth from ancient Indian culture, but this is simply not true. In fact, the Buddha often used the teachings of mundane right view to counter many of the views widespread among his contemporaries.

Of the many forms of wrong view that he rejected in this way, six stand out, both because he argued against them so frequently and because they correspond to wrong views that are still widely held at present: annihilationism, materialism, fatalism, the denial of causality, eternalism, and racism. The Buddha had to counter these views because they either (1) denied the possibility of any path of skillful action leading to the end of suffering, (2) denied the need for such a path, or (3) undermined the motivation needed to stick with the specific path he had discovered and taught.

• Annihilationism is the belief that a person, however one might be defined, is annihilated at death, and there is no rebirth. The Buddha rejected this belief because he had seen on the night of his awakening that it simply wasn’t true. That, of course, wasn’t reason enough to include it in his teachings. After all, as he said in SN 56:31, there were many facts he came to know in the course of his awakening that he didn’t teach to others, because those facts would have served no purpose toward putting an end to suffering. But a belief in rebirth would serve such a purpose. Even though the Buddha never tried to provide an empirical proof of rebirth, he did provide a pragmatic proof for why a person seeking to develop the skills needed to put an end to suffering should reject annihilationism as a working hypothesis: If you don’t believe that the results of action can carry over into another life, you can find in the present life plenty of examples of unskillful actions leading to pleasant results here and now (§67). These would undercut any desire to adopt skillfulness as a constant principle, particularly in cases where a skillful action might endanger your health, wealth, or life. If, however, you do adopt rebirth—and the power of actions to yield results after death—as a working hypothesis, you will be motivated to adopt the skillful approach in all situations, no matter how life-threatening.

• Materialism is a subset of annihilationism. It holds not only that a person is made of material elements that will be annihilated at death, but also that, while alive, those elements are in no position to know an unconditioned dimension. In addition, it holds that because causality is purely mechanical, with both the agent and the recipients of action nothing more than material elements, there is no inherent moral quality to actions. The judgment that an action is good or bad is simply a matter of convention; the moral quality of an intention has no bearing on the pleasure or pain that the action resulting from that intention might produce for the person doing it. At present, materialism holds that the mind is nothing more than the brain, and that mental events—including acts of knowledge—are simply the by-product of chemical reactions in the brain.

In using mundane right view to counter these beliefs, the Buddha’s main argument was that materialism, as a subset of annihilationism, provided no motivation to abandon unskillful actions and adopt skillful ones, and so it neglected the primary responsibility of any teaching worth the name: that it provide the basis for thinking in terms of what should and shouldn’t be done. If everything were just material elements, no action would matter at all.

At the same time, implicit in the Buddha’s rejection of materialism are five main points crucial to the practice of the path to the end of suffering. (1) Because experience at the six senses is shaped by intentions, the causal principle governing experience is not mechanical. (2) The quality of the intention behind an action, skillful or not, can determine the nature of the action’s result. (3) The causes of suffering come from an untrained mind and they can be ended by training the mind. (4) When choosing a course of action, it’s in your best interest to include the fact of rebirth into the equation to decide which actions are worth doing and which ones aren’t. (5) Because people are not just made of material elements, they can know—through developing powers of concentration—truths about kamma and rebirth, as well as the possibility of stepping outside the dimensions of fabrication. This last principle means that it’s possible to place trust in the ability of the Buddha and his awakened disciples to provide reliable guidance in these areas.

• Fatalism holds that human actions have no power to shape experience. The Buddha used mundane right view to counter two broad categories of fatalism. On the one hand, some of his contemporaries taught different varieties of what might be called personal fatalism, claiming that experience was determined by a creator god. On the other, there were those who taught impersonal fatalism, claiming that experience was determined by impersonal factors: fate, mechanical laws, or a version of the teaching on kamma in which everything in the present was totally determined by past actions. The Buddha denounced all these forms of fatalism, arguing that they denied the possibility that a path of action could yield results, or that it was even possible to choose a path of action to begin with. These views condemned people to continue suffering with no way out. Although they might counsel people to choose to accept their suffering and to learn to embrace it, they don’t even provide logical justification for assuming even that much power of choice. Fatalism teaches powerlessness; mundane right view, empowerment.

The Buddha also argued against a fatalistic interpretation of kamma—in which past bad actions inevitably lead to hell—on the grounds that anyone who has acted unskillfully in the past, on hearing such teachings, would immediately be thrown into despair. That despair would then weaken their ability to gain release from the cycle of kamma. In contrast, mundane right view, in showing that actions tend to give certain results, opens the way for people not to fall into remorse, but to recognize the error of their past ways and to resolve on (1) showing restraint in the future and (2) developing an attitude of goodwill for all beings. These resolves will then strengthen their ability to act skillfully in the future, which will be for their long-term welfare and happiness, not only now but also into the next lifetime (§69; §139).

In rejecting fatalism, mundane right view also allows for the objective benefit of feeling gratitude for the help provided by others, recognizing that they had the choice to provide that help or not.

• The denial of causality also provides no room for a path of action that will yield results, and so the Buddha attacked it for the same reasons. Because mundane right view asserts the principle that actions tend to have certain consequences, it denies both fatalism on the one hand, and a view of total randomness on the other. This perspective allows for the possibility of developing skills, because in a world of randomness, no patterns of cause and effect could be mastered to the point of skill; in a world of fatalism, no choice of what to do and what not to do to develop a skill would be available at all. In a world of tendencies, though, skills can be developed by learning to read those tendencies and directing them to your desired ends.

• Eternalism took many forms in the Buddha’s time, but the version that has carried over to the present is the belief that there is an essence to each individual, not subject to change, that is either a separate soul or One with the changeless ground of the cosmos. The Buddha rejected these views because, whatever that essence might be, it would be impervious to the power of action to change (DN 1; MN 22). In addition, if your inner essence faces an eternal fate, then that fate cannot depend on your actions, because all actions are, by nature, limited in scope, and so cannot have the power to create an eternal result. Eternalism thus forces you to look outside of your actions to provide for an eternal happiness, and so would undercut any motivation to act skillfully in all situations.

• Racism in the Buddha’s time found its prime expression in the beliefs of the brahmans that they alone were worthy of respect, and that they alone could reach the highest spiritual attainments. The Buddha used mundane right view to argue that virtue and spiritual attainments were not connected to caste or race, and that brahmans, like everyone else, were capable of planting either good or bad seeds in their kammic fields. Also, he noted that the kammic fields of brahmans were not free of seeds that could yield bad results, and that people of other castes were not devoid of good seeds in their kammic fields. In addition, anyone, regardless of caste, can act on skillful intentions and reap their results. It’s for this reason that the path to the end of suffering contains no factors that depend on caste, class, or race.

From mundane to transcendent right view. Mundane right view provides both a conceptual background for transcendent right view and the motivation for wanting to develop it.

On the conceptual level, as we have already seen, mundane right view counters the many forms of wrong view that would make the path to the end of suffering impossible. At the same time, it divides experience into four categories: skillful action, pleasant result, unskillful action, painful result. These four categories, when refined, turn into the four noble truths: respectively, the path to the end of suffering, the end of suffering, the origination of suffering, and suffering. And because mundane right view locates the roots of skillful and unskillful actions in the mind, it lays the groundwork for the underlying principle of the four noble truths: that both the origination of suffering and the path to its cessation are to be found in the mind as well.

As for motivation: Mundane right view provides reasons for people to attempt a life of skillful action, and in this way empowers them to begin turning their lives in the direction of less suffering. However, it also shows that the pleasant levels of rebirth are precarious, and that it’s possible, even when reborn on those levels, to have bad seeds in your kammic field that could yield intense suffering down the line. In these ways, mundane right view can encourage you to set your sights higher than a pleasant lifetime now—or good rebirths in the future—to aim at the more secure safety of gaining release from rebirth entirely.

This two-fold dynamic is illustrated in a discourse that the suttas call the graduated or gradual discourse (anupubbīkathā) that the Buddha reportedly gave to many of his listeners as a way of preparing their minds to be receptive to the four noble truths. Unfortunately, all we know now of this discourse is the list of topics it covered, but the list is enough to show how the Buddha used both sides of his teaching on kamma and rebirth—the empowering teaching on skillful action, and the dismaying impermanence of the results of action—to make his listeners receptive to transcendent right view.

The discourse began with the topics of giving and virtue. Giving covers the act of choosing freely to share your resources with others. The freedom of choice, here, is the essential element in the joy of giving, which is why the Buddha never placed restrictions on where a gift should be given (§§71–72). Similarly with virtue: It’s the free choice to abstain from causing harm. From what the suttas report of the Buddha’s teachings on these topics, when he discussed them in the graduated discourse he probably focused on the happy rewards they gave in this life—such as self-esteem, living in harmony, and earning the respect of others (§74; §82). As the next step in the graduated discourse, these discussions would be followed by a discussion of the third topic: the sensual pleasures that constitute the rewards of giving and virtue in heaven. If his listeners had not already developed these skillful actions, the Buddha would often stop here, with the encouragement that his listeners develop them and taste the rewards, both inner and outer, that can come from them here and now. In this way, he affirms the principle that the desire for happiness, if conducted in a blameless way, is neither futile nor something to be ashamed of.

If, however, his listeners were already experienced in giving and virtue, he would discuss the fourth topic, the drawbacks of sensuality: the mind’s fascination with planning for and fantasizing about sensual pleasures, even heavenly ones (§147). At this point, if his listeners admitted the truth of this point, they would be receptive to the fifth topic: the teaching that renunciation of sensuality would be a state, not of deprivation, but of true safety (§§97–101). In getting his listeners to look positively at renunciation, though, the Buddha was not preparing to tell them that the pursuit of happiness was futile. Instead, he was encouraging them to continue that pursuit by aiming it toward a higher happiness, beyond the level of sensuality. It was at this point that he would teach them the map to that higher happiness in the form of the four noble truths.

Transcendent Right View

MN 117, in defining transcendent right view, doesn’t directly mention the four noble truths, but it does mention the faculty and strength of discernment (§103), both of which are synonymous with the four noble truths. In addition, transcendent right view also is expressed in the teaching called dependent co-arising (paṭicca samuppāda), which works out the first three noble truths in great detail. This section will cover both teachings.

The four noble truths are the Buddha’s second categorical teaching, i.e., a teaching true for all situations across the board. These truths take a problem-solving approach to the issue of suffering, and treat it as a doctor might go about treating a disease. The first truth, the truth of suffering, corresponds to identifying the symptoms of the disease. The second truth, the origination of suffering, corresponds to identifying the causes of the symptoms. The third truth, the cessation of suffering, corresponds to the possibility that the disease can be cured, and the fourth noble truth corresponds to the course of treatment that cures the disease by attacking its causes.

It’s useful to keep this analogy in mind, for it counters a popular misconception that, in focusing on suffering, the Buddha was a pessimist. On the contrary: He adopted the confident attitude of a doctor who talks about a disease, not because he has a pessimistic view of the world, but because he knows how the disease can be cured.

In moving from mundane right view to transcendent right view, the Buddha narrows the focus of the teaching—from action in general to the actions that cause and end suffering—and also changes the mode in which the view is expressed. Mundane right view talks about people and worlds; transcendent right view, about actions—primarily actions of the mind—without reference to people and worlds. To continue the analogy of right view as a map, mundane right view is like a map showing political boundaries; transcendent right view is like a map of underlying geological features with the political boundaries removed. The reason for this change in the mode of expression will become clear when we discuss his definition for the origination of suffering, because one of the causes for suffering lies in being attached to concepts of “selves,” “people,” and “worlds.” Although those concepts are necessary on the mundane level of right view—to explain to listeners attached to those concepts why the path to the end of suffering is worth their while—the actual ending of suffering requires thinking in a way that steps out of those concepts to view them from another perspective.

The first noble truth. Contrary to popular belief, the Buddha did not teach that life is suffering. Instead, as we pointed out in Chapter 1, the first noble truth—the truth of suffering/stress—starts with a list of instances of suffering, and then identifies the factor that they all have in common: the five clinging-aggregates. And contrary to another popular belief, the Buddha never stated that these aggregates constitute what a person is. He simply noted that, when clung to, they provide the basis for how a person defines him- or herself. He also admitted that the aggregates do provide pleasure—that’s why people become infatuated with them and cling to them—but that to put an end to suffering, it’s necessary to end the infatuation, which is why right view has to focus on the way in which the suffering that comes from clinging to the aggregates more than outweighs the pleasures they offer (§118).

The second noble truth. The origination of suffering/stress lies in three types of craving—craving for sensuality, craving for becoming, and craving for non-becoming—which are accompanied by passion and delight, and all of which lead to further becoming. (Here again, there’s a popular misconception—that the Buddha identified all desire as the origination of suffering—but that’s not true. Some forms of desire actually function as essential parts of the factor of right effort in the noble eightfold path.)

The Pāli word for craving, taṇhā, also means “thirst,” a double meaning paralleling the double meaning of upadāna, noted above, as both clinging and feeding. This choice of words underlines the connection between the mind’s felt need to cling and feed, and the suffering that that felt need creates. The three types of craving or thirst can be explained as follows:

• Sensuality (kāma), here, carries the same meaning that it has under the graduated discourse: the mind’s fascination with planning and fantasizing about pleasures of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations (§147).

• Becoming (bhava) is a word that the suttas never define. The closest they come to a definition is to say that becoming occurs on three levels—the level of sensuality, the level of form, and the level of formlessness—and that each of these levels is based on a corresponding desire for sensual pleasures, for the pleasures of form (such as the pleasures of the mind in the four jhānas), and for the pleasures of formlessness (e.g., the pleasures of the mind in levels of concentration based on formless objects, such as the perception of infinite space or infinite consciousness) (§365).

But even though the suttas do not define the term “becoming,” the way they discuss it in various contexts shows that it means the process of taking on an identity in a particular world of experience. This process can happen both on the large-scale level—when the process of consciousness moves to a new world and new identity at the death of the body—and the small-scale level, when a thought-world appears in the mind and you inhabit that world in your imagination.

On both the large and the small scale, the world of experience and the identity you assume within that world grow out of a specific desire. In a very real sense, this desire forms the nucleus that locates both that particular world and your place in the world. This is why, in the definition of the second noble truth, the cravings that lead to becoming are said to relish, “now here, now there.” In focusing on a particular “there,” the mind establishes a location for itself, both in its imagination in this lifetime and in another world after death.

Small-scale becomings influence both scales. They begin to move out of your imagination into the larger world when you fasten on a desire to the point of acting on it. Say that you have a desire for pizza. Your world then becomes defined by the desire, consisting of anything that either helps you obtain the pizza or gets in the way. Anything or anyone irrelevant to the desire falls into the background of your world at that time.

As for your identity in this world, it has two sides: the “you” who will find pleasure in feeding on the pizza —this is your self as consumer—and the “you” who either has the abilities to obtain the pizza or not: your self as producer.

When you abandon the desire for pizza—either because you’ve obtained it and eaten it, you’ve given up on trying to get it, or you’ve simply lost interest in it—you usually find yourself moving on to a different desire, around which you develop a different sense of the world and a different sense of who you are: a new becoming.

If, as often happens, you have several competing desires at any one time, they will cause you to straddle competing inner worlds and competing senses of who you are. This is why you can feel divided against yourself and unsure of your place in the world, and is one of the most common ways in which becoming entails suffering. But even when a desire is satisfied, it depends on worlds and identities that are fabricated out of precarious acts of clinging, and so those worlds and identities are precarious and bound to end. This is why all becomings entail suffering and stress. If the fabrication of those worlds requires unskillful kamma, that adds another level of suffering on top of the simple stress of trying to find happiness in the process of fabrication and the fabricated things that result.

The process of replacing one becoming with another can continue without end, which is how small-scale becomings can carry on repeatedly.

When you act on the desires that shape small-scale becomings, you shape large-scale becomings, both in this lifetime and in future lifetimes. This is how the process of rebirth after the death of the body is directed by events in the mind and—like becomings in the mind—has the potential to continue indefinitely.

• Non-becoming (vibhava) means the destruction of a particular process of becoming. The fact that craving for non-becoming could actually lead to becoming is counterintuitive, but the Buddha cited insight into this fact as one of the more subtle aspects of his awakening (§§127–128). The suttas don’t explain the dynamic here, but apparently when the mind takes on the desire to end a particular type of becoming—either on the large-scale, in a desire to end a relationship or to commit suicide; or on the small-scale, in a desire to end the imaginings around a particular desire—it takes on a new identity, as a destroyer, and that becomes its new becoming.

AN 4:199 (§126) lists 36 verbalizations to show how the mind expresses the processes of becoming and non-becoming to itself. All of these verbalizations center around “I”—what I am, how good or bad I am, what I might be, what I want to be, or how I might be turned into something else—and the things in the world outside that are the means by which any of these “I’s” arise or change. The way these verbalizations are framed is important to know, because they show that, to get beyond craving for becoming and non-becoming, the mind has to frame its verbalizations in other terms. This is precisely why transcendent right view cannot be expressed in terms of “self” and “world” if it is to do its work.

The fact that craving for non-becoming creates further becoming presents a challenge on the path to the end of suffering: The desire to end becoming can be helpful in motivating you to embark on the path, but it will have to be abandoned if the path is to succeed. The Buddha’s solution to this challenge is strategic, advocating skillful states of becoming in the mind—i.e., the four jhānas of right concentration—that function in three ways to put the mind in a position to get past both becoming and non-becoming. These states of concentration (1) provide a steady platform from which to observe the processes of becoming and non-becoming; (2) give hands-on experience in the causal processes by which states of becoming are created and destroyed; and (3) foster both the tranquility and the insight/discernment that allow the processes of becoming to run out on their own (§129). Because concentration is a form of becoming, and because insight and discernment are fabricated, the last step of the path requires that they run out on their own, as well. This is why the path is like a raft that has to be abandoned on reaching the further shore.

The third noble truth. The cessation of suffering occurs when these three forms of craving cease without remainder, and this happens when there is no remaining passion for them in the mind. The definition of this truth is phrased in a way that reflects the twofold release that we mentioned in Chapter 1 with regard to the image of a fire going out: As a result of the total fading of passion for these cravings, they are not only relinquished but also released. Just as a fire is released when it lets go of its fuel, the mind is released when it lets go of craving—and the cravings are released as well.

The suttas seem to be inconsistent on the question of whether the third noble truth can be equated with unbinding. Some, which identify unbinding as the highest dhamma (phenomenon, act, mental object), suggest that the answer is Yes (§11); others, which state that unbinding is the transcending or ending of all dhammas, suggest No (§351; §353). The apparent inconsistency here can perhaps be resolved by saying that the act of realizing unbinding is identical with the third noble truth, but that the full dimension of unbinding lies beyond it.

The fourth noble truth. The path to the cessation of suffering is the noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

Duties. Three of these noble truths—the first, second, and fourth—are fabricated. Only the third noble truth is not. The Buddha divides the processes of fabrication into the first, second, and fourth truths for a strategic purpose: To put an end to suffering, it’s necessary to treat suffering, its origination, and the path to its cessation in different ways. Suffering is to be comprehended (which means understanding it to the point where there is no remaining passion, aversion, or delusion around it (§107)), its origination abandoned, and the path developed (literally, made to become). These three activities differ sharply from the normal reaction to suffering: People often try to abandon suffering while holding on to—and developing—their cravings. This is like coming home, finding your house full of smoke, and trying to put out the smoke while at the same time stoking the fire. Instead, the Buddha recommends understanding what the smoke is and where it’s coming from, and then putting out the fire by developing the actions appropriate for extinguishing that kind of fire.

The three activities of comprehending suffering, abandoning its origination, and developing the path are called the duties (kicca) appropriate to those truths—duties, not in the sense that they are imposed by the Buddha, but simply in the sense that if you want to end suffering, this is what you have to do.

As for the third noble truth, the duty is to realize it. Because the third noble truth is essentially identical with the act of abandoning the origination of suffering, and the act of abandoning the origination of suffering is the duty with regard to the second noble truth, this means that the duty with regard to the third noble truth is to watch the abandoning of craving and to affirm that, Yes, it does bring suffering to an end. There’s a similar close relationship between the duties of the first and second noble truths: It’s possible to abandon craving only when you comprehend, in a dispassionate way, the suffering that it causes.

When the fourth noble truth is developed, it puts the mind in a position where it can do the comprehending, the abandoning, and the realizing together: This is why it’s the path to the end of suffering.

However, whereas the duties of the first three noble truths converge around the theme of dispassion, the duties of the fourth noble truth can’t be carried out without a level of passion and delight in developing the path-factors as skills. This is why total awakening requires a step beyond transcendent right view where—when the path is fully developed—it can be treated with dispassion, too.

Dependent co-arising. As mentioned above, the teaching of dependent co-arising gives a detailed treatment of the first three noble truths, listing the sequence of conditions that lead to suffering, and showing how suffering ends when ignorance, the first member of the sequence, ends. The detail given by the list is so extensive, and the alternative versions of the list presented in the suttas so varied, that it would be impossible to cover all the facets of dependent co-arising here. Instead, we will focus on the standard list and, within that list, on the salient points that bear most directly on the practice of the noble eightfold path. These points can be discussed under two headings: the sequence in which the factors are arranged, and the content of some of the more important factors.

The factors, beginning with suffering and working back to its causes, are these:

All the factors from 12 through 9 fall under the first noble truth. However, because one of the definitions of “clinging” is delight (§109), and because the origination of suffering is defined as craving accompanied by passion and delight (§106), clinging straddles the line between suffering and its origination.

Factors 8 through 1 fall entirely under the second noble truth. The conditions for clinging are –

MN 9 (§130) adds that ignorance is conditioned by three effluents (āsava), qualities that “bubble up” in the mind and flow out of it to engage the world. These effluents are sensuality, becoming, and ignorance. So, in effect, ignorance begets ignorance at the beginning of the sequence leading to suffering.

The aspects of the sequence most obviously relevant to practicing the noble eightfold path are eight as well:

• The sequence as a whole is essentially unstable. Nothing caused can be permanent, because there are no permanent causes. This means that any happiness produced by the sequence will have to be unstable, inconstant, and unreliable, too. The Buddha conveyed this point by likening the causal process to the act of eating (§112): Effects feed off their causes. Inter-being is inter-eating. This fact is a primary motivation for following the path to the more reliable happiness that appears when the sequence can come to an end.

• All of the factors are processes and events immediately present in your awareness. There is no need to search outside of your immediate present awareness for any hidden causes underlying these factors. Every factor is right here to be observed.

• None of the factors make any reference to who is doing them or to any physical place where they are being done. Instead, they are observed simply as events and processes, in and of themselves, as they are directly experienced. Some of the Buddha’s listeners tried to ask him who was doing the factors, or to whom they belonged, but he refused to answer (SN 12:12; SN 12:35). This fact has two major implications. One, it keeps attention focused on the process, rather than on speculation about who or what does or does not lie behind the process. Two, it enables dependent co-arising to describe the process of becoming both on the large scale and on the small scale: the way consciousness moves from one lifetime to the next, and on the way it moves moment to moment from one thought world to the next.

Buddhist philosophers in the centuries after the Buddha’s life argued over whether dependent co-arising described large-scale becoming or small-scale becoming—in other words, becoming as it happened in the world or within oneself—but their arguments missed the point. Dependent co-arising does not fall in the framework either of the world or of the self. Instead, it forms the framework to describe how your sense of the world (under the factor of the six sense media (§63)) and your sense of self (under the factor of clinging) arise. The fact that dependent co-arising frames both the large scale and the small scale is reflected in the way the Buddha uses both large-scale and small-scale events to illustrate the individual factors and the relationships among them (DN 15; SN 12:2). By adopting this scale-invariant standpoint—i.e., one that stays the same across different scales of space and time—dependent co-arising provides a perspective for getting out of the framework of “world” or “self,” allowing you to stand outside the processes of becoming and observe them without getting sucked into their terms. The perspective afforded by this standpoint is like entering a movie theater and—instead of facing the screen and getting involved in the story of the movie—sitting to the side and looking across the room to see how the beam of light from the projector and the flashing colors on the screen—red, yellow, blue—cause the audience to laugh or cry.

• The factors most important in leading to stress and suffering occur prior to sensory contact. This means that suffering isn’t caused primarily by unpleasant sensory contact; it’s caused by the attitudes and views that are brought to any sensory contact, pleasant or not.

• The crucial causes for stress and suffering are internal, and so are not dependent on outside circumstances. In fact, they are so internal that they belong to the aspect of your awareness that you share with no one else. In formal terms, dependent co-arising deals in the phenomenology of awareness.

At the same time, the crucial causes of suffering and stress are subject to your knowledge and will. In this way, the focus of the noble eightfold path has to be primarily internal, on the training of the mind.

• The relationships among the factors are not simple. Even though the factors are listed in a linear sequence, a brief look at their sub-factors will show that some of the processes contained in the sequence recur at many other points in the sequence. This allows them to create feedback loops as, say, the feeling that follows on contact can also function as the feeling sub-factor in name-&-form, where it is then subject either to appropriate or to inappropriate attention. This feedback loop can then either amplify the suffering that results from the sequence or dampen it, depending on the quality of the attention involved. This is another way that right view, in the form of appropriate attention, can put a halt to the processes of suffering. And as we will see below, the many feedback loops in dependent co-arising explain why the process—unlike an iron-clad cycle that has to keep going once set into motion—can be brought to a halt.

• The sequence starts with ignorance—or lack of skill (avijjā)—in mastering the four noble truths and their appropriate duties. In other words, you don’t see what you’re doing that’s causing stress or what you could do to stop—either because you’re not focused on this issue or, if you are focused here, you have yet to master the skills to see these things clearly.

Here it’s important to note that ignorance doesn’t simply set the next factor into action and then step off the scene. It remains to foster the links between each of the succeeding factors. This is why §130 states that if knowledge is brought to the relationships between any of the factors of dependent co-arising, suffering can cease with the cessation of that particular instance of ignorance.

The fact that ignorance comes first in the conditions leading to suffering explains why right view comes first in the path. The fact that the knowledge curing ignorance comes in the form of the skills mastered when completing all the duties appropriate to the four noble truths explains why right view on its own cannot cut through ignorance. It needs the help of all the other path-factors. In fact, as right view gradually replaces ignorance, it can turn many of the factors of dependent co-arising into path-factors. When the final level of right view totally replaces ignorance, the entire sequence ends, opening the way to the unfabricated dimension.

• Fabrication is another factor occurring prior to sensory contact, in two places in the sequence: both immediately following on ignorance and as the sub-factor of intention in name-&-form. This reflects the pro-active nature of consciousness that we discussed in Chapter 1. Even before the mind experiences sensory contact, it is already searching for that contact and intending it to go in a certain direction.

Because fabrication occurs so early in the sequence, it also occurs prior to your sense of the world (§63) and, as new kamma, prior to your experience of old kamma (§62). In this way, if you bring knowledge of the four noble truths to these processes of fabrication, you can change your experience of the world and of your old kamma so that you don’t have to suffer, regardless of what the world and your old kamma have to offer. And when fabrication totally ends with the total ending of ignorance, the ensuing awareness of the unfabricated at the moment of awakening bears no relationship to the six sense media at all (§§370–372).

In terms of the specific factors of dependent co-arising, two are especially relevant as tools on the path: fabrication and name. Because these factors occur prior to sensory contact, they provide a useful analysis of what needs to be done to prevent the mind’s proactive processes from leading to suffering.

• Fabrication. We have already noted, in Chapter 1, one of the prime ways in which the Buddha analyzed fabrication: in terms of the five aggregates. In dependent co-arising, he provides another useful framework that overlaps in some ways with the five aggregates but also provides a few new perspectives on the processes of fabrication. Instead of five categories, here he analyzes fabrication into three: bodily, verbal, and mental. The suttas discussing dependent co-arising don’t clarify these terms any further, but other suttas discuss them in ways showing that their meaning depends on context. When discussing becoming on the large scale—the way kamma leads to rebirth—the suttas use the three types of fabrication as an alternative way of describing the three types of kamma in general: bodily, verbal, and mental (SN 12:25). When discussing meditation, however, they define bodily fabrication to mean the in-and-out breath, verbal fabrication to mean directed thought and evaluation—the way the mind talks to itself—and mental fabrication to mean feeling and perception (§131). Given the place of these three fabrications in dependent co-arising, right after ignorance and before sensory contact, these more specific meditative meanings are probably the relevant ones here.

As we will see throughout this book, this way of analyzing fabrication is helpful in understanding how the path is fabricated—both for the purpose of actually knowing how to fabricate it and, eventually, for the purpose of letting it go when it has performed its function.

• Name. This factor replicates two of the mental aggregates—feeling and perception—and replaces the third mental aggregate, fabrication, with three other categories: attention, intention, and contact. Contact, here, apparently refers to intra-mental contact—say, between a perception and a feeling, or between an intention and an act of attention. Intention stands for kamma (§57). Attention refers to the way the mind chooses which questions to ask and which framework to apply to what is perceived at the six senses (§229). In the course of practicing the noble eightfold path, intention underlies all of the factors—after all, the path is the kamma that puts an end to kamma—but it’s especially prominent in the concentration factors: right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Attention can be either appropriate or inappropriate—there is no “bare” or “mere” attention in the Buddha’s teachings—and when it’s fully appropriate, it frames experience in terms of the four noble truths. In this way, it plays a major role in right view.

As for feeling and perception, in Chapter 1 we have already noted the role of feeling in the pursuit of the middle way; in the section below—Final Right View—we will discuss the role of perception in performing the tasks appropriate to both the transcendent and the final levels of right view. We should also note, though, that perception also plays an important role in fostering jhāna, a point that will be discussed in Chapter 9.

Wrong views. The mere existence of the four noble truths in the Buddha’s teachings can be seen as an implicit rejection of all the other views about suffering current in his time: that it was unreal; that it was inevitable and so had to be accepted until it ran out on its own; that it could be burned off through austerities; that it could be averted through brahmanical rituals; or that all action led to suffering, so that only a path of total physical inaction, culminating in suicide by starvation, could bring it to an end. However, the Buddha never used the four noble truths to directly refute these beliefs.

Instead, when mentioning the four noble truths in contrast to other views, his main concern was to show that these truths avoided getting involved in philosophical questions that were distractions and obstacles on the path to the end of suffering, no matter how they were answered. Two prime examples stand out. In DN 9, he contrasts the four truths with a questionnaire that listed the hot topics of his time in terms of ten questions: Is the cosmos eternal? Not eternal? Infinite? Finite? Is the soul the same thing as the body? Something separate? After death, does a Tathāgata exist? Not exist? Both? Neither? In §229, he contrasts the four truths with views about the existence or non-existence of the self that arise from such questions as these: “Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where is it headed?” In both suttas, the crucial point is that the four truths provide a point of view that avoids getting involved with questions framed in terms of “self” and “world,” the terms underlying becoming. This is why they are able to offer a way of stepping out of the processes of becoming and the suffering that results from it.

Dependent co-arising functions in a similar way as a means for explaining how and why the Buddha avoided certain philosophical questions that, no matter how they were answered, led to views that led away from the path. These questions included, “Does everything exist?” “Does nothing exist?” “Is everything a Oneness?” “Is everything a plurality?” (SN 12:48) “Are pleasure and pain (and any of the other factors of dependent co-arising) self-made, other-made, or both self-made and other-made? Or—without self-making or other-making—do they arise without a cause?” (SN 12:17–18) “Is there or is there not anyone who does or experiences the factors of dependent co-arising?” (SN 12:35) Here again, the crucial point is that dependent co-arising provides, in the Buddha’s terms, a middle way that avoids the extremes of taking any position, one way or another, on questions framed in terms of “self” and “world.” In this way, dependent co-arising is a conceptual framework that gives added dimension to the Buddha’s original statement that his path provides a middle way to the end of suffering.

Final Right View

As noted above, the first, second, and fourth noble truths divide fabricated experience into three categories so as to apply three different duties to them. But as we have also noted, the duties with regard to the path fall into two stages: First it must be developed—through passion—so as to provoke dispassion for other processes of becoming and then, when it has done its work, it must be abandoned through dispassion along with all other fabrications. The final level of right view represents the stage when the path has done its work and the duties of the four noble truths collapse into one: Everything is to be regarded with dispassion and let go.

The line between transcendent and final right view is not as clear as the line between mundane and transcendent right view, due to the fact that both transcendent and final right view employ the same mode of expression: They treat events, primarily events in the mind, simply as actions. However, there is definitely a point in the practice where the line is crossed. Prior to that point, it’s necessary to hold to the path so that you can use it in the interconnected duties of comprehending suffering, abandoning its cause, and realizing its cessation. However, the point comes when you turn on the path itself to comprehend it, abandon it, and realize its cessation, too. In other words, you see that—even though it involves less suffering than any other activity—nevertheless it, too, is a form of suffering, and so has to be dropped to allow for suffering and stress to truly end. This is what SN 12:15 means when it describes this level of the practice as seeing that whatever arises and passes away—and this would include the path—is simply stress arising and passing away.

SN 22:57 (§116) provides an outline for how, on this final level, the four duties corresponding to the four noble truths collapse into the single duty of inducing dispassion for all fabrications, in line with the third noble truth. This outline serves as an answer to the question, posed in §299, as to how one should go about cultivating vipassanā, or insight. It’s important to note that, in the suttas, vipassanā—literally, “clear-seeing”—is treated as a quality of mind, not as a meditation technique, and that this quality is to be developed by pursuing the answer to these questions: “How should fabrications be regarded? How should they be investigated? How should they be seen with insight?”

SN 22:57’s answer to these questions recommends seven steps for comprehending all five aggregates—and by this it means not just the clinging-aggregates in the first noble truth, but also the aggregates as they function in the second and fourth. In addition to viewing the five aggregates under the rubric of the four truths—truth, origination, cessation, and path to cessation—it recommends examining them in terms of their allure, their drawbacks, and the escape from them. Their allure, of course, is the pleasure that can be derived from them. Their drawbacks lie in the fact that they are inconstant and stressful. The escape from them is the subduing of passion and desire for them. This pattern of analysis follows that of the graduated discourse, particularly in its comparison of the allure of sensuality with the drawbacks of sensuality for the purpose of becoming disenchanted with the allure.

SN 22:57 itself doesn’t make the connection, but the last three steps of this analysis are clearly related to one of the Buddha’s most prominent teachings, the teaching on inconstancy, stress, and not-self. Although these qualities are frequently called the “three characteristics,” the Buddha himself never used that term to describe them. Instead, he referred to them as “perceptions”: the perception of inconstancy, the perception of stress, and the perception of not-self. The distinction here is not merely semantic. Seeing these qualities as perceptions reminds you that they are not metaphysical statements about the ultimate nature of reality. Instead, they are labels—mental fabrications—applied strategically for furthering the duties appropriate to right view. Unlike the four noble truths, these perceptions are never identified in the Canon as categorical teachings. They are always true (§122), but they have to be applied at the right time and place if they are to be helpful in the practice (§139)—in line with the Buddha’s strictures for his own speech, that it be true but also beneficial and timely.

On the final level of right view, the Buddha recommends contemplating all fabrications in terms of these perceptions as a way of inducing dispassion for them. In essence, the insight produced by this contemplation is a value judgment: You see that the aggregates, as actions, may produce pleasure on one level (§116), which is the allure that convinces you to engage in them. But, when viewing these actions in terms of their drawbacks, you see that the pleasure is more than outweighed by the fact that they also lead to results that are unstable, stressful, and—through the processes of kamma and dependent co-arising—beyond your control. This leads to the conclusion that they are not worth the effort that goes into them. Because passion is what drives the mind to engage in fabrication to begin with, the dispassion that results from this value judgment brings the processes of fabrication to an end. That is the escape.

The dynamic of this contemplation is clearly depicted in the questionnaire in which the Buddha frames these three perceptions (§123): With reference to each of the aggregates, he asks, “Is it constant or inconstant?” “Inconstant.” “Is what is inconstant easeful or stressful?” “Stressful.” “And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ‘This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am’?” “No.”

Notice that the last question does not ask, “Can we come to the conclusion that there is no self?” After all, as we have already noted, the Buddha on two occasions assigned the question of the existence or non-existence of the self to the category of questions to be put aside (§174; §229; SN 44:10). Instead, here he is simply asking, in effect: “Is it (1) logically consistent and (2) worth the effort to identify with things that are inconstant and stressful?” And the purpose of asking this question is to end any passion or delight that would keep the mind clinging to the aggregates.

The first part of this question, as §123 shows, builds on the basic meaning of “self”: that it’s something under your control. If something changes against your will and leads to stress, it’s obviously not totally under your control, and so doesn’t deserve to be regarded as self. However, this reflection is, on its own, not enough to put an end to passion. The really effective reflection is in the second part of this question, which is the value judgment: If something changes against your will and leads to stress, is it worth the effort of clinging to it?

This line of questioning is effective only when the mind is not hungering for the pleasures of the aggregates. If it still has that hunger, then no matter how much you focus on the drawbacks of the food it gets from the aggregates, it will still refuse to abandon them (§295). It would be like telling yourself that, because food is temporary and the search for food is stressful, you’re going to stop eating.

This is why the full-blown use of the three perceptions is reserved for the final level of right view, after right concentration has been mastered enough to provide enough nourishment for the mind to step back from its usual hungers. Up until that point, in the development of mundane right view, the perceptions of inconstancy, stress, and not-self are reserved for such things as wealth, relatives, or health that might induce you to engage in unskillful behavior. Meanwhile, you actually try to develop a sense of self around your desire to develop skillful behavior because, at this stage of the effort, that attachment is still worth the effort (§217).

Similarly, in the development of transcendent right view, the three perceptions are not applied to states of concentration themselves, for that would interfere with their development. Instead, the three perceptions—or variations on them—are applied to the distractions that would pull you out of concentration (§235). At the same time, you continue to develop a responsible sense of self that feels capable of sticking with the path (§221). When you have mastered the path to the point where a sense of self is no longer necessary—when the mind has tired of the fabricated nature even of the concentration it has mastered and so wants something better—only then are you ready for the final stage.

The suttas show how this final stage happens in three phases. In the first phase, the target of your analysis is the state of concentration from which the mind has been viewing other events in the mind. As AN 9:36 (§312) explains, once the concentration has been mastered, in the same way that an archer might master archery, you analyze it in terms of the five aggregates, applying a number of perceptions that expand on the primary three of inconstancy, stress, and not-self. Under the theme of inconstancy, you can also use the perception of disintegration; under the theme of stress, you can use the perceptions of a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction; and under the theme of not-self, you can use the perceptions of alien and an emptiness.

These perceptions enable you to develop dispassion for the concentration and progress to the second phase, in which you incline the mind to the deathless. As AN 9:36 notes, though, it’s possible for the mind then to develop a passion for the discernment that sees the deathless—and in fact, in the early stages of awakening, this is precisely what happens, preventing the mind from advancing to total awakening. Still, these earlier levels of awakening are useful because they show that, in abandoning the aggregates, the mind doesn’t starve. Instead, it touches a happiness that requires no feeding at all.

But ultimately, to fully attain that happiness, the mind needs to develop dispassion also for the discernment that sees the deathless. This is why, as the third phase, the Buddha recommends the perception, not only that all fabrications are not-self, but that all dhammas—fabricated or not—are not-self, as a means of getting past that particular level of passion.

Then, as §138 notes, it’s necessary to drop any attachment to this very last act of discernment. AN 10:93 (§132) describes this step as one in which right view turns on itself. Seeing all mental actions as fabrications unworthy of attachment, right view is able to see itself as a mental action, and so unworthy of attachment. This allows you to find the escape even beyond right view and the duties it entails. This is why right view is right: It contains the seeds for its own transcendence.

In transcending itself, it also cuts through all the causes for suffering described in dependent co-arising. Because concentration is the clearest practice for seeing attention in action, and acts of discernment are the clearest for seeing intention in action, when both of these forms of fabrication are allowed to drop away, the factor of “name” disbands, causing all the other factors in dependent co-arising to disband, leaving an opening to the unfabricated.

Wrong views. Just as DN 9 contrasts transcendent right view with the ten hot questions that philosophers debated in the Buddha’s time, AN 10:93 contrasts final right view with the same list of ten questions. In both cases, the argument is the same: Right view, unlike any attempt to answer those questions, actually leads to the end of suffering. AN 10:93, however, goes a little more into the specifics of why this is so. As Anāthapiṇḍika points out in that sutta, when you see with right discernment that whatever is fabricated is inconstant, stressful, and not me, not my self, not what I am, you also see the escape that allows you not to be stuck holding onto the stress of the view itself. This implies that right view is superior because it is self-reflexive, pointing to the need to let go not only of other fabricated things, but also of itself.

SN 12:15 (§135) shows that final right view arises when, while watching the arising and passing away of the world—the six sense media (§63), which include the states of jhāna under the sixth—you reach the point where concepts of “existence” and “non-existence” don’t occur to you. As SN 22:94 (§140) indicates, this doesn’t imply the semantic argument that these concepts cannot ever be rightly applied to fabricated phenomena. It simply means that, in that state of awareness, there is no basis for giving rise to those concepts. When the concepts aren’t there, they don’t get in the way of abandoning whatever appears to be stress—even if you’ve identified with it in the past—for there is no fear of going out of existence if you do. Although concepts of existence and non-existence are not wrong on other levels of right view, they are strategically wrong for this final stage, and so have to be dropped.

Reading SN 12:15 in conjunction with SN 22:94 helps to counteract a form of wrong view about right view that can sometimes occur within the Buddhist tradition: the belief that final right view is an ultimate truth, whereas earlier versions of right view are only conventional truths. One form of this wrong view states that the beings and worlds mentioned in mundane right view don’t really exist; the only existing things are individual events. Another states that, on the level of ultimate truth, even individual events can’t be described as existing, not existing, both, or neither.

It’s true that the Buddha occasionally admits to adopting, as a teaching technique, the conventional views of the world without holding to them (see DN 9), but he never makes that statement with regard to mundane right view. And he never refers to any of the forms of right view as ultimate truths. All the levels of right view are strategies—true on their own terms, beneficial, and timely—which, after they have done their work, are abandoned for the sake of the higher truth of nibbāna (§317), which lies beyond all views. As §139 shows, it’s important not to mix up the levels by applying terms or value judgments appropriate to one level of strategy to another. The higher levels could not do their work without the support of mundane right view, and mundane right view is incomplete without the help of the higher levels. As part of the path, each level of strategy has its own integrity, and should be honored for the work it is able to accomplish.

This/That Conditionality

Although the Buddha used right view to avoid getting involved in many of the metaphysical issues of his time, there was one metaphysical issue that he had to address because it underlies every level of right view. That issue is the question of causality: How does causality work in causing suffering and in giving rise to the path to the end of suffering? In particular, the Buddha had to show how causal principles could work in such a way as to allow for a fabricated path to lead to an unfabricated state, and for the ending of fabrication in the present moment to create an opening for the unfabricated even when fabrications from the past had not all had time to produce their results. Because causality was a hotly debated topic in his time, he couldn’t simply say that causality happened, or that he accepted all forms of causality, because many of the causal theories advanced by his contemporaries—such as strict determinism or random chaos—didn’t allow for the development of skills needed to put an end to suffering. So he had to be very specific in explaining the kind of causality assumed by right view.

His explanation was a teaching that he called this/that conditionality (idappaccayatā), and expressed in the following formula:

This formula is actually the intersection of two pairs of principles working together. The first pair describes causality in the present moment: “When this is, that is. When this isn’t, that isn’t.” The cause is simultaneous with the result, and when the cause disappears, the result immediately disappears.

The second pair describes causality over time. “From the arising of this, that arises. From the cessation of this, that ceases.” The cause may appear and disappear at one time, but the effect can come and go either right away or much later.

An example of the first kind of causality would be sticking your finger into a fire. You don’t have to wait until your next lifetime to get the result. The fire burns right away.

An example of the second type of causality would be planting a seed in the field. You won’t get a mature plant right away. It will take time, well after you stopped the action of planting the seed, and perhaps not even in this lifetime.

Experience consists of the combination of these two principles. At any one moment in time, you will have the results of some past actions ripening. Because actions can ripen at widely varying rates, those results could be coming from many disparate actions spread widely over time. You also have your present actions—i.e., your present intentions—along with some of the results of those present actions. This means that experience is shaped to some extent by past actions, but also by present actions. In fact, the present actions are actually the most important ones to attend to because the present moment is precisely where you have freedom of choice concerning which intentions to act on and which to discard. Your past actions are like raw material for the present moment, and your present actions are the act of shaping that raw material into an experience. You can compare this process to preparing food: Past actions are like raw, inedible ingredients, whereas present actions turn those ingredients into food you can eat.

Although the Buddha used this/that conditionality to explain the causal pattern at work in dependent co-arising, it also underlies some of his explanations of kamma on the level of mundane right view: the fact that fabrication fabricates all the aggregates (§120), and that the results of past bad kamma depend to a great extent on your present state of mind (§65). The way these two causal principles interact to form a causal pattern that follows some regular laws but nevertheless allows for freedom of choice is precisely the combination needed to allow for the ability to develop skills: It’s because actions and their results follow a certain regular pattern that we can learn from them. It’s because we have freedom of choice in the present moment that we can use what we’ve learned to become more and more skillful over time.

But the interaction of these two principles also explains more. In general, when the interactions between two principles are complex enough—and dependent co-arising shows that their complexity is more than enough—then even though the original principles may separately be quite simple, their interaction creates complex non-linear systems. Scientists studying complex non-linear systems—both physical systems, such as erosion patterns, and social systems, such as stock market behavior—have found that many of them behave in ways that parallel the way the suttas describe the causal interactions underlying suffering and the path to the end of suffering. Four types of behavior are especially relevant here.

• The first is that such systems contain many feedback loops, where A influences B, B influences C, and C turns around to influence A. This type of pattern can be seen in dependent co-arising where feeling enters into the sequence at many points, allowing one feeling at a later position in the sequence to turn around and re-enter the sequence at an earlier point, where it can influence the factors that condition it.

Feedback loops are of two types: positive and negative. An example of a positive feedback loop is what happens when you put a microphone connected to a loudspeaker in front of the loudspeaker. A sound picked up by the microphone will get amplified many, many times until it’s deafening. That’s called a positive feedback loop, not because it’s positively good, but because it tends to intensify the original event. An example of a positive feedback loop in dependent co-arising would be a feeling of pain that, through inappropriate attention, gives rise to angry perceptions that would then circle around to aggravate the feeling of pain.

An example of a negative feedback loop is a heater connected to a thermostat in the same room: When the heater raises the room temperature to a certain point, the thermostat will turn it off. When the room cools to a certain point, the thermostat will turn the heater back on. This is called a negative feedback loop—again, not because it does anything negative, but because the two members work in opposing directions to keep each other in check. An example of a negative feedback loop in dependent co-arising would be an emotional pain that, viewed with appropriate attention, gives rise to skillful perceptions that would circle around to dampen the pain.

The fact that the causes of suffering contain feedback loops of these sorts places two obstacles in the path to their cessation. One is that their complexity can often make it hard to see exactly what the causal patterns are. A small action can be amplified by a positive feedback loop in one instance, and dampened by a negative loop in another. The second obstacle is that the patterns these loops create are so unstable and, in their details, so unpredictable, that there’s no guarantee that when you change the input, the system will show the effects of your actions right away. This means that when you start practicing, there’s no way of predicting how soon you’ll see the results you want. This can often be discouraging.

However, the main advantage of a system containing many feedback loops such as those found in dependent co-arising is that it’s neither strictly deterministic nor totally chaotic. The forces governing the system can be pushed in many different directions to lead to many different outcomes. If the “push” is done with knowledge of the principles underlying the system, it can lead the system to produce the desired results. This is why right view plays such an important role in the path, for it constitutes the knowledge that allows you to push the system of dependent co-arising in the right direction, away from causing suffering and toward suffering’s end.

In particular, if you use knowledge to create skillful feedback loops in the mind by passing the causal sequence through appropriate attention again and again, those small changes can amplify throughout the system, forcing it to go in the direction you want it to go. This fact connects with the second feature of complex non-linear systems:

• They contain different basins of attraction. In other words, if the parameters acting on the system stay within a particular range, the system’s behavior will be “attracted” to a particular outcome, like a ball circling around the floor of a basin and coming to rest in the lowest part of the basin. If those parameters pass over a threshold, the system’s behavior will be attracted to another, quite different outcome, like a ball pushed over the edge of a basin and into another basin. An example of this sort of shift is weather at the North and South Poles. When subjected to continuous sunlight, the temperatures will fluctuate within a certain range; when subjected to continuous darkness, they’ll move to an entirely different range.

In terms of dependent co-arising, the “parameters” governing the system lie within the system itself, in the factors of ignorance versus knowledge, and inappropriate versus appropriate attention. The system will head toward suffering under the influence of ignorance and inappropriate attention, but toward the noble eightfold path and the end of suffering under the influence of their opposites.

• The third relevant feature of complex patterns is called scale invariance. What this means is that patterns operating on the small scale also operate on the large scale. This can be seen in aerial photos of erosion patterns that are identical whether they are on the scale of a few inches or many hundreds of miles.

The same principle applies to the mind. If you learn how to deal with the complexities of kamma and becoming in the present moment, you learn the larger complexities of kamma and becoming as they apply over large spans of time. And when you learn about the patterns of kamma and becoming over large time scales, they can teach you lessons about how to deal skillfully with your mind in the present. In fact, that’s what the Buddha did on the night of his awakening. He learned about the pattern of intention and views on the large scale in his second knowledge, and then applied that pattern to his mind in the present moment in the third.

• The fourth relevant feature is that in most complex systems, the principles that put the system together can also be used to take the system apart. An example is the complex gravitational relationship among the Sun, Earth, and Moon. It’s possible for the Moon’s trajectory to reach a point called a resonance, where a member of one of the equations describing its trajectory gets divided by zero. When that happens, the result lies outside the system: The Moon will leave its orbit and go flying in a direction that cannot be predicted, even though it was brought to that point by following the laws of gravity.

In the same way, even though our experience is created by fabrication, and our experience of space and time is shaped by our actions, we can still fabricate our actions to get outside of those dimensions, by arriving at a point of equilibrium where intention stops and the present moment is, in effect, divided by zero. That’s where release is found.

This last aspect of complex non-linear systems supplies the answer to the question of how a fabricated path can lead to an unfabricated dimension, and how the system of fabrication can break down even though not all of the fabricated actions of the past have yielded their results.

The analogy of resonance also illustrates, roughly, what happens after each level of awakening. After the Moon has entered a resonance and momentarily left the system, the laws of gravitation bring it into a new relationship with the Sun and the Earth. In a similar way, after an experience of awakening, a person returns to the six senses but in a new relationship to them. In the first three levels of awakening, certain fetters are dropped from the mind, but not all, which means that there is still some clinging in the mind’s relationship to its objects (§324). After total awakening, though, when all the fetters are dropped, the relationship is radically different: The arahant is aware of the six senses, but disjoined from them (§24; §359). In this way, such a person continues to experience the results of old kamma until the total release occurring at death. The analogy breaks down here, however, in the sense that, unlike the gravity of the Earth and Sun acting on the Moon after the Moon has altered its course through a resonance, nothing in the six senses ever exerts any pull on the mind of an arahant at all.

The behavior of complex non-linear systems, in addition to showing how the fabrications that lead to suffering can be changed to fabrications that lead to the end of suffering, also helps to explain a central feature of the Buddha’s teachings on suffering and its end: the fact that he provides so many different explanations of how suffering is originated, and so many different lists of the factors leading to its cessation. For example, as we noted above, dependent co-arising is explained in many different ways, with some factors appearing in some explanations and not in others. The noble eightfold path lists its factors in one order; the triple training, in another. The existence of many feedback loops in the causes of suffering show not only why it was valid for the Buddha to express his teachings in these different ways, but also why it was skillful. Just as the causes of suffering act in a mutually reinforcing way, so do the factors leading to its end. For people caught at different points in the various feedback loops of dependent co-arising, it’s good to have a variety of entry points and lines of attack for dealing strategically with the causes of suffering and turning the processes of fabrication to a good end. And in showing how suffering comes from causes that are reciprocal and mutually reinforcing, the complexity of this/that conditionality drives home the point that the path to the end of suffering will require factors that are reciprocal and mutually reinforcing as well.

Readings

§ 54. “Suppose there were a man needing a water-snake, seeking a water-snake, wandering in search of a water-snake. He would see a large water-snake and grasp it by the coils or by the tail. The water-snake, turning around, would bite him on the hand, on the arm, or on one of his limbs, and from that cause he would suffer death or death-like suffering. Why is that? Because of the wrong-graspedness of the water-snake. In the same way, there is the case where some worthless men study the Dhamma.… Having studied the Dhamma, they don’t ascertain the meaning of those Dhammas with their discernment. Not having ascertained the meaning of those Dhammas with their discernment, they don’t come to an agreement through pondering. They study the Dhamma both for attacking others and for defending themselves in debate. They don’t reach the goal for which (people) study the Dhamma. Their wrong grasp of those Dhammas will lead to their long-term harm & suffering. Why is that? Because of the wrong-graspedness of the Dhammas.…

“Suppose there were a man needing a water-snake, seeking a water-snake, wandering in search of a water-snake. He would see a large water-snake and pin it down firmly with a cleft stick. Having pinned it down firmly with a forked stick, he would grasp it firmly by the neck. Then no matter how much the water-snake might wrap its coils around his hand, his arm, or any of his limbs, he would not from that cause suffer death or death-like suffering. Why is that? Because of the right-graspedness of the water-snake. In the same way, there is the case where some clansmen study the Dhamma.… Having studied the Dhamma, they ascertain the meaning of those Dhammas with their discernment. Having ascertained the meaning of those Dhammas with their discernment, they come to an agreement through pondering. They don’t study the Dhamma either for attacking others or for defending themselves in debate. They reach the goal for which people study the Dhamma. Their right grasp of those Dhammas will lead to their long-term welfare & happiness. Why is that? Because of the right-graspedness of the Dhammas.” — MN 22

Mundane Right View

§ 55. “Now, what is the faculty of conviction? There is the case where a monk, a disciple of the noble ones, has conviction, is convinced of the Tathāgata’s awakening: ‘Indeed, the Blessed One is worthy & rightly self-awakened, consummate in clear-knowing & conduct, well-gone, an expert with regard to the cosmos, unexcelled trainer of people fit to be tamed, teacher of devas & human beings, awakened, blessed.’ This is called the faculty of conviction.” — SN 48:10

§ 56. “Having approached the contemplatives & brahmans who hold that… ‘Whatever a person experiences… is all caused by what was done in the past,’ I said to them: ‘Is it true that you hold that… whatever a person experiences… is all caused by what was done in the past?’ Thus asked by me, they admitted, ‘Yes.’ Then I said to them, ‘Then in that case, a person is a killer of living beings because of what was done in the past. A person is a thief… uncelibate… a liar… a divisive speaker… a harsh speaker… an idle chatterer… greedy… malicious… a holder of wrong views because of what was done in the past.’ When one falls back on what was done in the past as being essential, monks, there is no desire, no effort (at the thought), ‘This should be done. This shouldn’t be done.’ When one can’t pin down as a truth or reality what should & shouldn’t be done, one dwells bewildered & unprotected. One cannot righteously refer to oneself as a contemplative.…

“Having approached the contemplatives & brahmans who hold that… ‘Whatever a person experiences… is all caused by a supreme being’s act of creation,’ I said to them: ‘Is it true that you hold that… whatever a person experiences… is all caused by a supreme being’s act of creation?’ Thus asked by me, they admitted, ‘Yes.’ Then I said to them, ‘Then in that case, a person is a killer of living beings because of a supreme being’s act of creation. A person is a thief… uncelibate… a liar… a divisive speaker… a harsh speaker… an idle chatterer… covetous… malicious… a holder of wrong views because of a supreme being’s act of creation.’ When one falls back on a supreme being’s act of creation as being essential, monks, there is no desire, no effort [at the thought], ‘This should be done. This shouldn’t be done.’ When one can’t pin down as a truth or reality what should & shouldn’t be done, one dwells bewildered & unprotected. One cannot righteously refer to oneself as a contemplative.…

“Having approached the contemplatives & brahmans who hold that… ‘Whatever a person experiences… is all without cause, without condition,’ I said to them: ‘Is it true that you hold that… whatever a person experiences… is all without cause, without condition?’ Thus asked by me, they admitted, ‘Yes.’ Then I said to them, ‘Then in that case, a person is a killer of living beings without cause, without condition. A person is a thief… uncelibate… a liar… a divisive speaker… a harsh speaker… an idle chatterer… covetous… malicious… a holder of wrong views without cause, without condition.’ When one falls back on lack of cause and lack of condition as being essential, monks, there is no desire, no effort [at the thought], ‘This should be done. This shouldn’t be done.’ When one can’t pin down as a truth or reality what should & shouldn’t be done, one dwells bewildered & unprotected. One cannot righteously refer to oneself as a contemplative.” — AN 3:62

§ 57. “Intention, I tell you, is kamma. Intending, one does kamma by way of body, speech, & intellect.

“And what is the cause by which kamma comes into play? Contact is the cause by which kamma comes into play.

“And what is the diversity in kamma? There is kamma to be experienced in hell, kamma to be experienced in the realm of common animals, kamma to be experienced in the realm of the hungry ghosts, kamma to be experienced in the human world, kamma to be experienced in the world of the devas. This is called the diversity in kamma.

“And what is the result of kamma? The result of kamma is of three sorts, I tell you: that which arises right here-&-now, that which arises later [in this lifetime], and that which arises following that. This is called the result of kamma.

“And what is the cessation of kamma? From the cessation of contact is the cessation of kamma; and just this noble eightfold path—right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration—is the way leading to the cessation of kamma.” — AN 6:63

§ 58. “And what is kamma that is dark with dark result? There is the case where a certain person fabricates an injurious bodily fabrication, fabricates an injurious verbal fabrication, fabricates an injurious mental fabrication. Having fabricated an injurious bodily fabrication, having fabricated an injurious verbal fabrication, having fabricated an injurious mental fabrication, he rearises in an injurious world. On rearising in an injurious world, he is there touched by injurious contacts. Touched by injurious contacts, he experiences feelings that are exclusively painful, like those of the beings in hell. This is called kamma that is dark with dark result.[1]

“And what is kamma that is bright with bright result? There is the case where a certain person fabricates a non-injurious bodily fabrication… a non-injurious verbal fabrication… a non-injurious mental fabrication.… He rearises in a non-injurious world.… There he is touched by non-injurious contacts.… He experiences feelings that are exclusively pleasant, like those of the Beautiful Black Devas. This is called kamma that is bright with bright result.

“And what is kamma that is dark & bright with dark & bright result? There is the case where a certain person fabricates a bodily fabrication that is injurious & non-injurious… a verbal fabrication that is injurious & non-injurious… a mental fabrication that is injurious & non-injurious.… He rearises in an injurious & non-injurious world.… There he is touched by injurious & non-injurious contacts.… He experiences injurious & non-injurious feelings, pleasure mingled with pain, like those of human beings, some devas, and some beings in the lower realms. This is called kamma that is dark & bright with dark & bright result.

“And what is kamma that is neither dark nor bright with neither dark nor bright result, leading to the ending of kamma? Right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is called kamma that is neither dark nor bright with neither dark nor bright result, leading to the ending of kamma.” — AN 4:237

§ 59. “I designate the rebirth of one who has sustenance [clinging], Vaccha, and not of one without sustenance. Just as a fire burns with sustenance and not without sustenance, even so I designate the rebirth of one who has sustenance and not of one without sustenance.”

“But, Master Gotama, at the moment a flame is being swept on by the wind and goes a far distance, what do you designate as its sustenance then?”

“Vaccha, when a flame is being swept on by the wind and goes a far distance, I designate it as wind-sustained, for the wind is its sustenance at that time.”

“And at the moment when a being sets this body aside and is not yet reborn in another body, what do you designate as its sustenance then?”

“Vaccha, when a being sets this body aside and is not yet reborn in another body, I designate it as craving-sustained, for craving is its sustenance at that time.” — SN 44:9

§ 60. As Ven. Ānanda was sitting there, the Blessed One said to him, “I say categorically, Ānanda, that bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, & mental misconduct should not be done.”

“Given that the Blessed One has declared, lord, that bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, & mental misconduct should not be done, what drawbacks can one expect when doing what should not be done?”

“… One can fault oneself; observant people, on close examination, criticize one; one’s bad reputation gets spread about; one dies confused; and—with the breakup of the body, after death—one reappears in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell.…

“I say categorically, Ānanda, that good bodily conduct, good verbal conduct, & good mental conduct should be done.”

“Given that the Blessed One has declared, lord, that good bodily conduct, good verbal conduct, & good mental conduct should be done, what rewards can one expect when doing what should be done?”

“… One doesn’t fault oneself; observant people, on close examination, praise one; one’s good reputation gets spread about; one dies unconfused; and—with the breakup of the body, after death—one reappears in a good destination, a heavenly world.” — AN 2:18

§ 61. As they were sitting there, the Kālāmas of Kesaputta said to the Blessed One, “Lord, there are some contemplatives & brahmans who come to Kesaputta. They expound & glorify their own doctrines, but as for the doctrines of others, they deprecate them, disparage them, show contempt for them, & pull them to pieces. And then other contemplatives & brahmans come to Kesaputta. They expound & glorify their own doctrines, but as for the doctrines of others, they deprecate them, disparage them, show contempt for them, & pull them to pieces. They leave us absolutely uncertain & in doubt: Which of these venerable contemplatives & brahmans are speaking the truth, and which ones are lying?”

“Of course you are uncertain, Kālāmas. Of course you are in doubt. When there are reasons for doubt, uncertainty is born. So in this case, Kālāmas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These dhammas are unskillful; these dhammas are blameworthy; these dhammas are criticized by the observant; these dhammas, when adopted & carried out, lead to harm & to suffering’—then you should abandon them.

“What do you think, Kālāmas? When greed arises in a person, does it arise for welfare or for harm?”

“For harm, lord.”

“And this greedy person, overcome by greed, his mind possessed by greed, kills living beings, takes what is not given, goes after another person’s wife, tells lies, and induces others to do likewise, all of which is for long-term harm & suffering.”

“Yes, lord.”

[Similarly with aversion & delusion.]

“So what do you think, Kālāmas: Are these dhammas skillful or unskillful?”

“Unskillful, lord.”

“Blameworthy or blameless?”

“Blameworthy, lord.”

“Criticized by the observant or praised by the observant?”

“Criticized by the observant, lord.”

“When adopted & carried out, do they lead to harm & to suffering, or not?”

“When adopted & carried out, they lead to harm & to suffering. That is how it appears to us.” …

“Now, Kālāmas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These dhammas are skillful; these dhammas are blameless; these dhammas are praised by the observant; these dhammas, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’—then you should enter & remain in them.

“What do you think, Kālāmas? When lack of greed arises in a person, does it arise for welfare or for harm?”

“For welfare, lord.”

“And this ungreedy person, not overcome by greed, his mind not possessed by greed, doesn’t kill living beings, take what is not given, go after another person’s wife, tell lies, or induce others to do likewise, all of which is for long-term welfare & happiness.”

“Yes, lord.”

[Similarly with lack of aversion & lack of delusion.]

“So what do you think, Kālāmas: Are these dhammas skillful or unskillful?”

“Skillful, lord.”

“Blameworthy or blameless?”

“Blameless, lord.”

“Criticized by the observant or praised by the observant?”

“Praised by the observant, lord.”

“When adopted & carried out, do they lead to welfare & to happiness, or not?”

“When adopted & carried out, they lead to welfare & to happiness. That is how it appears to us.” — AN 3:66

§ 62. “Now, what is old kamma? The eye is to be seen as old kamma, fabricated & willed, capable of being felt. The ear… The nose… The tongue… The body… The intellect is to be seen as old kamma, fabricated & willed, capable of being felt. This is called old kamma.

“And what is new kamma? Whatever kamma one does now with the body, with speech, or with the intellect: This is called new kamma.” — SN 35:145

§ 63. Then a certain monk went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he said to the Blessed One: “‘The world, the world [loka],’ it is said. In what respect does the word ‘world’ apply?”

“Insofar as it disintegrates [lujjati], monk, it is called the ‘world.’ Now, what disintegrates? The eye disintegrates. Forms disintegrate. Eye-consciousness disintegrates. Eye-contact disintegrates. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on eye-contact—experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain—that too disintegrates.

“The ear disintegrates. Sounds disintegrate…

“The nose disintegrates. Aromas disintegrate…

“The tongue disintegrates. Tastes disintegrate…

“The body disintegrates. Tactile sensations disintegrate…

“The intellect disintegrates. Ideas disintegrate. Intellect-consciousness disintegrates. Intellect-contact disintegrates. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on intellect-contact—experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain—that too disintegrates.

“Insofar as it disintegrates, it is called the ‘world.’” — SN 35:82

The Complexity of Kamma

§ 64. “These four imponderables are not to be speculated about. Whoever speculates about them would go mad & experience vexation. Which four? The Buddha-range of the Buddhas [i.e., the range of powers a Buddha develops as a result of becoming a Buddha].… The jhāna-range of one absorbed in jhāna [i.e., the range of powers that one may obtain while absorbed in jhāna].… The results of kamma.… Speculation about [the origin, extent, purpose, etc., of] the cosmos is an imponderable that is not to be speculated about. Whoever speculates about these things would go mad & experience vexation.” — AN 4:77

§ 65. “Monks, for anyone who says, ‘In whatever way a person makes kamma, that is how it is experienced,’ there is no living of the holy life, there is no opportunity for the right ending of stress. But for anyone who says, ‘When a person makes kamma to be felt in such & such a way, that is how its result is experienced,’ there is the living of the holy life, there is the opportunity for the right ending of stress.…

“There is the case where a trifling evil act done by a certain individual takes him to hell. There is the case where the very same sort of trifling act done by another individual is experienced in the here-&-now, and for the most part barely appears for a moment.

“Now, a trifling evil act done by what sort of individual takes him to hell? There is the case where a certain individual is undeveloped in the body [i.e., pleasant feelings can invade the mind and stay there—see §30], undeveloped in virtue, undeveloped in mind [i.e., painful feelings can invade the mind and stay there], undeveloped in discernment: restricted, small-hearted, dwelling with suffering. A trifling evil act done by this sort of individual takes him to hell.

“Now, a trifling evil act done by what sort of individual is experienced in the here-&-now, and for the most part barely appears for a moment? There is the case where a certain individual is developed in the body [i.e., pleasant feelings cannot invade the mind and stay there], developed in virtue, developed in mind [i.e., painful feelings cannot invade the mind and stay there], developed in discernment: unrestricted, large-hearted, dwelling with the unlimited. A trifling evil act done by this sort of individual is experienced in the here-&-now, and for the most part barely appears for a moment.

“Suppose that a man were to drop a lump of salt into a small amount of water in a cup. What do you think? Would the water in the cup become salty because of the lump of salt, and unfit to drink?”

“Yes, lord.…”

“Now, suppose that a man were to drop a lump of salt into the River Ganges. What do you think? Would the water in the River Ganges become salty because of the lump of salt, and unfit to drink?”

“No, lord.…”

“In the same way, there is the case where a trifling evil act done by one individual [the first] takes him to hell; and there is the case where the very same sort of trifling act done by the other individual is experienced in the here-&-now, and for the most part barely appears for a moment.” — AN 3:101

§ 66. Moḷiyasivaka: “There are some contemplatives & brahmans who are of this doctrine, this view: Whatever an individual feels—pleasure, pain, neither-pleasure-nor-pain—is entirely caused by what was done before. Now, what does Master Gotama say to that?”

The Buddha: “There are cases where some feelings arise based on bile [i.e., diseases and pains that come from a malfunction of the gall bladder]. You yourself should know how some feelings arise based on bile. Even the world is agreed on how some feelings arise based on bile. So any contemplatives & brahmans who are of the doctrine & view that whatever an individual feels—pleasure, pain, neither-pleasure-nor-pain—is entirely caused by what was done before—slip past what they themselves know, slip past what is agreed on by the world. Therefore I say that those contemplatives & brahmans are wrong.

“There are cases where some feelings arise based on phlegm… based on internal winds… based on a combination of bodily humors… from the change of the seasons… from uneven (‘out-of-tune’) care of the body… from attacks… from the result of kamma. You yourself should know how some feelings arise from the result of kamma. Even the world is agreed on how some feelings arise from the result of kamma. So any contemplatives & brahmans who are of the doctrine & view that whatever an individual feels—pleasure, pain, neither pleasure-nor-pain—is entirely caused by what was done before—slip past what they themselves know, slip past what is agreed on by the world. Therefore I say that those contemplatives & brahmans are wrong.” — SN 36:21

§ 67. “There are, headman, some contemplatives & brahmans who hold a doctrine & view like this: ‘All those who kill living beings experience pain & distress in the here-&-now. All those who take what is not given… who engage in sexual misconduct… who tell lies experience pain & distress in the here-&-now.’

“Now there is the case where a certain person is seen garlanded & adorned, freshly bathed & groomed, with hair & beard trimmed, enjoying the sensualities of women as if he were a king. They ask about him: ‘My good man, what has this man done that he has been garlanded & adorned… as if he were a king?’ They answer: ‘My good man, this man attacked the king’s enemy and took his life. The king, gratified with him, rewarded him. That is why he is garlanded & adorned… as if he were a king.’

“Then there is the case where a certain person is seen bound with a stout rope with his arms pinned tightly against his back, his head shaved bald, marched to a harsh-sounding drum from street to street, crossroads to crossroads, evicted through the south gate, and beheaded to the south of the city. They ask about him: ‘My good man, what has this man done that he is bound with a stout rope… and beheaded to the south of the city?’ They answer: ‘My good man, this man, an enemy of the king, has taken the life of a man or a woman. That is why the rulers, having had him seized, inflicted such a punishment upon him.’

“Now, what do you think, headman? Have you ever seen or heard of such a case?”

“I have seen this, lord, have heard of it, and will hear of it (again in the future).”

“So, headman, when those contemplatives & brahmans who hold a doctrine & view like this say: ‘All those who kill living beings experience pain & distress in the here-&-now,’ do they speak truthfully or falsely?” — “Falsely, lord.”

“And those who babble empty falsehood: Are they moral or immoral?” — “Immoral, lord.”

“And those who are immoral and of evil character: Are they practicing wrongly or rightly?” — “Wrongly, lord.”

“And those who are practicing wrongly: Do they hold wrong view or right view?” — “Wrong view, lord.”

“And is it proper to place confidence in those who hold wrong view?” —

“No, lord.”

“Then, headman, there is the case where a certain person is seen garlanded & adorned… as if he were a king. They ask about him: ‘My good man, what has this man done that he has been garlanded & adorned… as if he were a king?’ They answer: ‘My good man, this man attacked the king’s enemy and stole a treasure. The king, gratified with him, rewarded him…’

“Then there is the case where a certain person is seen bound with a stout rope… and beheaded to the south of the city. They ask about him: ‘My good man, what has this man done that he is bound with a stout rope… and beheaded to the south of the city?’ They answer: ‘My good man, this man, an enemy of the king, has committed a theft, stealing something from a village or a forest…’

“Then there is the case where a certain person is seen garlanded & adorned… as if he were a king. They ask about him: ‘My good man, what has this man done that he has been garlanded & adorned… as if he were a king?’ They answer: ‘My good man, this man seduced the wives of the king’s enemy…’

“Then there is the case where a certain person is seen bound with a stout rope… and beheaded to the south of the city. They ask about him: ‘My good man, what has this man done that he is bound with a stout rope… and beheaded to the south of the city?’ They answer: ‘My good man, this man seduced women & girls of good families…’

“Then there is the case where a certain person is seen garlanded & adorned… as if he were a king. They ask about him: ‘My good man, what has this man done that he has been garlanded & adorned… as if he were a king?’ They answer: ‘My good man, this man made the king laugh with a lie…’

“Then there is the case where a certain person is seen bound with a stout rope… and beheaded to the south of the city. They ask about him: ‘My good man, what has this man done that he is bound with a stout rope… and beheaded to the south of the city?’ They answer: ‘My good man, this man has brought the aims of a householder or a householder’s son to ruin with a lie. That is why the rulers, having had him seized, inflicted such a punishment upon him.’

“Now, what do you think, headman? Have you ever seen or heard of such a case?”

“I have seen this, lord, have heard of it, and will hear of it (again in the future).”

“So, headman, when those contemplatives & brahmans who hold a doctrine & view like this, say: ‘All those who tell lies experience pain & distress in the here-&-now,’ do they speak truthfully or falsely?… Is it proper to place confidence in those who hold wrong view?” — “No, lord.” — SN 42:13

§ 68. “There are four kinds of person to be found in the world. Which four? There is the case where a certain person takes life, takes what is not given [steals], engages in sexual misconduct, lies, speaks divisively, speaks harshly, engages in idle chatter; is covetous, malevolent, & holds wrong views. On the break-up of the body, after death, he reappears in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell.

“But there is also the case where a certain person takes life… holds wrong views [yet], on the break-up of the body, after death, he reappears in a good destination, a heavenly world.

“And there is the case where a certain person abstains from taking life, abstains from taking what is not given… is not covetous, not malevolent, & holds right views. On the break-up of the body, after death, he reappears in a good destination, a heavenly world.

“But there is also the case where a certain person abstains from taking life, abstains from taking what is not given… is not covetous, not malevolent, & holds right views [yet], on the break-up of the body, after death, he reappears in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell.…

“In the case of the person who takes life…[yet] on the break-up of the body, after death, reappears in a good destination, a heavenly world: Either earlier he performed fine kamma that is to be felt as pleasant, or later he performed fine kamma that is to be felt as pleasant, or at the time of death he adopted & carried out right views. Because of that, on the break-up of the body, after death, he reappears in a good destination, a heavenly world. But as for the results of taking life…holding wrong views, he will feel them either right here-&-now, or later [in this lifetime], or following that.…

“In the case of the person who abstains from taking life… but on the break-up of the body, after death, reappears in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell: Either earlier he performed evil kamma that is to be felt as painful, or later he performed evil kamma that is to be felt as painful, or at the time of death he adopted & carried out wrong views. Because of that, on the break-up of the body, after death, he reappears in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell. But as for the results of abstaining from taking life…holding right views, he will feel them either right here-&-now, or later [in this lifetime], or following that.” — MN 136

§ 69. Then Asibandhakaputta the headman, a disciple of the Nigaṇṭhas, went to the Blessed One and on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, the Blessed One said to him: “Headman, how does Nigaṇṭha Nāṭaputta teach the Dhamma to his disciples?”

“Nigaṇṭha Nāṭaputta teaches the Dhamma to his disciples in this way, lord: ‘All those who take life are destined for the plane of deprivation, are destined for hell. All those who steal… All those who engage in sexual misconduct… All those who tell lies are destined for the plane of deprivation, are destined for hell. Whatever one keeps doing frequently, by that is one led [to a state of rebirth].’ That’s how Nigaṇṭha Nāṭaputta teaches the Dhamma to his disciples.”

“If it’s true that ‘Whatever one keeps doing frequently, by that is one led [to a state of rebirth],’ then no one is destined for the plane of deprivation or destined to hell in line with Nigaṇṭha Nāṭaputta’s words. What do you think, headman? If a man is one who takes life, then taking into consideration time spent doing & not doing, whether by day or by night, which time is more: the time he spends taking life or the time he spends not taking life?”

“… the time he spends taking life is less, lord, and the time he spends not taking life is certainly more. If it’s true that ‘Whatever one keeps doing frequently, by that is one led [to a state of rebirth],’ then no one is destined for the plane of deprivation or destined to hell in line with Nigaṇṭha Nāṭaputta’s words.”

“What do you think, headman? If a man is one who steals… engages in sexual misconduct… tells lies, then taking into consideration time spent doing & not doing, whether by day or by night, which time is more: the time he spends telling lies or the time he spends not telling lies?”

“… the time he spends telling lies is less, lord, and the time he spends not telling lies is certainly more. If it’s true that ‘Whatever one keeps doing frequently, by that is one led [to a state of rebirth],’ then no one is destined for the plane of deprivation or destined to hell in line with Nigaṇṭha Nāṭaputta’s words.”

“There’s the case, headman, where a certain teacher holds this doctrine, holds this view: ‘All those who take life are destined for the plane of deprivation, are destined for hell. All those who steal… All those who engage in sexual misconduct… All those who tell lies are destined for the plane of deprivation, are destined for hell.’ A disciple has faith in that teacher, and the thought occurs to him, ‘Our teacher holds this doctrine, holds this view: “All those who take life are destined for the plane of deprivation, are destined for hell.” There are living beings that I have killed. I, too, am destined for the plane of deprivation, am destined for hell.’ He fastens onto that view. If he doesn’t abandon that doctrine, doesn’t abandon that state of mind, doesn’t relinquish that view, then as if he were to be carried off, he would thus be placed in hell.

“[The thought occurs to him,] ‘Our teacher holds this doctrine, holds this view: ‘All those who steal… All those who engage in sexual misconduct… All those who tell lies are destined for the plane of deprivation, are destined for hell.’ There are lies that I have told. I, too, am destined for the plane of deprivation, am destined for hell.’ He fastens onto that view. If he doesn’t abandon that doctrine, doesn’t abandon that state of mind, doesn’t relinquish that view, then as if he were to be carried off, he would thus be placed in hell.

“There is the case, headman, where a Tathāgata appears in the world, worthy & rightly self-awakened, consummate in clear knowing & conduct, well-gone, a knower of the cosmos, unexcelled trainer of those to be tamed, teacher of devas & human beings, awakened, blessed. He, in various ways, criticizes & censures the taking of life, and says, ‘Abstain from taking life.’ He criticizes & censures stealing, and says, ‘Abstain from stealing.’ He criticizes & censures indulging in sexual misconduct, and says, ‘Abstain from sexual misconduct.’ He criticizes & censures the telling of lies, and says, ‘Abstain from the telling of lies.’

“A disciple has faith in that teacher and reflects: ‘The Blessed One in a variety of ways criticizes & censures the taking of life, and says, “Abstain from taking life.” There are living beings that I have killed, to a greater or lesser extent. That was not right. That was not good. But if I become remorseful for that reason, that evil deed of mine will not be undone.’ So, reflecting thus, he abandons right then the taking of life, and in the future refrains from taking life. This is how there comes to be the abandoning of that evil deed. This is how there comes to be the transcending of that evil deed.

“[He reflects:] ‘The Blessed One in a variety of ways criticizes & censures stealing… sexual misconduct… the telling of lies, and says, “Abstain from the telling of lies.” There are lies I have told, to a greater or lesser extent. That was not right. That was not good. But if I become remorseful for that reason, that evil deed of mine will not be undone.’ So, reflecting thus, he abandons right then the telling of lies, and in the future refrains from telling lies. This is how there comes to be the abandoning of that evil deed. This is how there comes to be the transcending of that evil deed.

“Having abandoned the taking of life, he refrains from taking life… he refrains from stealing… he refrains from sexual misconduct… he refrains from lies… he refrains from divisive speech… he refrains from harsh speech… he refrains from idle chatter. Having abandoned covetousness, he becomes uncovetous. Having abandoned malevolence & anger, he becomes one with a mind of no malevolence. Having abandoned wrong views, he becomes one who has right views.

“That disciple of the noble ones, headman—thus devoid of covetousness, devoid of malevolence, unbewildered, alert, mindful—keeps pervading the first direction [the east] with an awareness imbued with goodwill, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth. Thus above, below, & all around, everywhere, in its entirety, he keeps pervading the all-encompassing cosmos with an awareness imbued with goodwill—abundant, expansive, immeasurable, without hostility, without malevolence. Just as a strong conch-trumpet blower can notify the four directions without any difficulty, in the same way, when the awareness-release through goodwill is thus developed, thus pursued, any deed done to a limited extent no longer remains there, no longer stays there.

“That disciple of the noble ones… keeps pervading the first direction with an awareness imbued with compassion… empathetic joy… equanimity, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth. Thus above, below, & all around, everywhere, in its entirety, he keeps pervading the all-encompassing cosmos with an awareness imbued with equanimity—abundant, expansive, immeasurable, without hostility, without malevolence. Just as a strong conch-trumpet blower can notify the four directions without any difficulty, in the same way, when the awareness-release through equanimity is thus developed, thus pursued, any deed done to a limited extent no longer remains there, no longer stays there.” — SN 42:8

From Mundane to Transcendent Right View

§ 70. Then the Blessed One gave a graduated talk to Upāli the householder, i.e., a talk on giving, a talk on virtue, a talk on heaven; he proclaimed the drawbacks, degradation, and defilement in sensuality, and the rewards of renunciation. Then, when he knew that Upāli the householder was of ready mind, malleable mind, unhindered mind, exultant mind, confident mind, he proclaimed to him the distinctive teaching of the Awakened Ones: stress, origination, cessation, path. Just as a white cloth with stains removed would rightly take dye, in the same way there arose to Upāli the householder, in that very seat, 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—Upāli the householder gained fearlessness and was independent of others with regard to the Teacher’s message. — MN 56

Giving

§ 71. As he was sitting to one side, King Pasenadi Kosala said to the Blessed One: “Where, lord, should a gift be given?”

“Wherever the mind feels confidence, great king.”

“But a gift given where, lord, bears great fruit?”

“This [question] is one thing, great king—‘Where should a gift be given?’—while this—‘A gift given where bears great fruit?’—is something else entirely. What is given to a virtuous person—rather than to an unvirtuous one—bears great fruit.” — SN 3:24

§ 72. “Vaccha, whoever prevents another from giving a gift creates three obstructions, three impediments. Which three? He creates an obstruction to the merit of the giver, an obstruction to the recipient’s gains, and prior to that he undermines and damages his own self. Whoever prevents another from giving a gift creates these three obstructions, these three impediments.

“I tell you, Vaccha, even if a person throws the rinsings of a bowl or a cup into a village pool or pond, thinking, ‘May whatever animals live here feed on this,’ that would be a source of merit, to say nothing of what is given to human beings. But I do say that what is given to a virtuous person is of great fruit, and not so much what is given to an unvirtuous person.” — AN 3:58

§ 74. “One who is generous, a master of giving, is dear & charming to people at large.… This is a fruit of generosity visible in the here-&-now.

“And further, good people, people of integrity, admire one who is generous, a master of giving.… This, too, is a fruit of generosity visible in the here-&-now.

“And further, the fine reputation of one who is generous, a master of giving, is spread far & wide.… This, too, is a fruit of generosity visible in the here-&-now.

“And further, when one who is generous, a master of giving, approaches any assembly of people—noble warriors, brahmans, householders, or contemplatives—he/she does so confidently & without embarrassment.… This, too, is a fruit of generosity visible in the here-&-now.

“And further, at the break-up of the body, after death, one who is generous, a master of giving, reappears in a good destination, a heavenly world.… This is a fruit of generosity in the next life.” — AN 5:35

§ 77. “If beings knew, as I know, the results of giving & sharing, they would not eat without having given, nor would the stain of stinginess overcome their minds. Even if it were their last bite, their last mouthful, they would not eat without having shared, if there were someone to receive their gift. But because beings do not know, as I know, the results of giving & sharing, they eat without having given. The stain of stinginess overcomes their minds.” — Iti 26

§ 79. On that occasion Princess Sumanā—with an entourage of 500 ladies-in-waiting riding on 500 carriages—went to the Buddha. On arrival, having bowed down to him, she sat to one side. As she was sitting there, she said to the Blessed One, “Suppose there were two disciples of the Blessed One, equal in conviction, equal in virtue, equal in discernment, but one was a giver of alms, the other a non-giver of alms. At the break-up of the body, after death, they would reappear in a good destination, a heavenly world. Having become devas, would there be any distinction, any difference between the two?”

“There would, Sumanā,” said the Blessed One. “The one who was a giver of alms, on becoming a deva, would surpass the non-giver of alms in five areas: in divine life span, divine beauty, divine pleasure, divine status, and divine sovereignty. The one who was a giver of alms, on becoming a deva, would surpass the non-giver of alms in these five areas.”

“And if they were to fall from there and reappear in this world: Having become human beings, would there be any distinction, any difference between the two?”

“There would, Sumanā,” said the Blessed One. “The one who was a giver of alms, on becoming a human being, would surpass the non-giver of alms in five areas: in human life span, human beauty, human pleasure, human status, and human sovereignty. The one who was a giver of alms, on becoming a human being, would surpass the non-giver of alms in these five areas.””

“And if they were to go forth from home into the homeless life [of a monk]: Having gone forth, would there be any distinction, any difference between the two?”

“There would, Sumanā,” said the Blessed One. “The one who was a giver of alms, on going forth, would surpass the non-giver of alms in five areas: He would often be asked to make use of robes and rarely not be asked. He would often be asked to take food… to make use of shelter… to make use of medicine and rarely not be asked. He would live with companions in the holy life who would often treat him with pleasing actions and rarely with unpleasing ones, who would treat him with pleasing words… pleasing thoughts… who would present him with pleasing gifts, and rarely with unpleasing ones. The one who was a giver of alms, on going forth, would surpass the non-giver of alms in these five areas”

“And if both were to attain arahantship, would there be any distinction, any difference between their attainments of arahantship?”

“In that case, I tell you, Sumanā, there would be no difference between them as to their release.”

“It’s amazing, lord, and astounding. Just this is reason enough to give alms, to make merit, in that merit is helpful to one who has become a deva, merit is helpful to one who has become a human being, and merit is helpful to one who has gone forth.” — AN 5:31

§ 80. “And how is a donation endowed with six factors? There is the case where there are the three factors of the donor, the three factors of the recipients.

“And which are the three factors of the donor? There is the case where the donor, before giving, is glad; while giving, his/her mind is bright & clear; and after giving is gratified. These are the three factors of the donor.

“And which are the three factors of the recipients? There is the case where the recipients are free of passion or are practicing for the subduing of passion; free of aversion or practicing for the subduing of aversion; and free of delusion or practicing for the subduing of delusion. These are the three factors of the recipients.…

“Just as it’s not easy to take the measure of the great ocean as ‘just this many buckets of water, just this many hundreds of buckets of water, just this many thousands of buckets of water, or just this many hundreds of thousands of buckets of water.’ It’s simply reckoned as a great mass of water, incalculable, immeasurable. In the same way, it’s not easy to take the measure of the merit of a donation thus endowed with six factors as ‘just this much a bonanza of merit, a bonanza of what is skillful—a nutriment of bliss, heavenly, resulting in bliss, leading to heaven—that leads to what is desirable, pleasing, charming, beneficial, pleasant.’ It is simply reckoned as a great mass of merit, incalculable, immeasurable.” — AN 6:37

Virtue

§ 81. “There are these five gifts, five great gifts—original, long-standing, traditional, ancient, unadulterated, unadulterated from the beginning— are not open to suspicion, will never be open to suspicion, and are unfaulted by knowledgeable contemplatives & brahmans. Which five?

“There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones, abandoning the taking of life, abstains from taking life. In doing so, he gives freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings. In giving freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings, he gains a share in limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression.…

“Abandoning taking what is not given [stealing], he abstains from taking what is not given.…

“Abandoning sexual misconduct, he abstains from sexual misconduct.…

“Abandoning lying, he abstains from lying.…

“Abandoning the use of intoxicants, he abstains from taking intoxicants. In doing so, he gives freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings. In giving freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings, he gains a share in limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression.… This is the fifth gift, the fifth great gift—original, long-standing, traditional, ancient, unadulterated, unadulterated from the beginning—that is not open to suspicion, will never be open to suspicion, and is unfaulted by knowledgeable contemplatives & brahmans.” — AN 8:39

§ 82. “There are these five benefits in being virtuous, in being consummate in virtue. Which five? There is the case where a virtuous person, consummate in virtue, through not being heedless in his affairs, amasses a great quantity of wealth.… His fine reputation is spread far & wide.… When approaching an assembly of nobles, brahmans, householders, or contemplatives, he does so confidently & without embarrassment.… He dies without becoming delirious.… With the break-up of the body, after death, he reappears in a good destination, a heavenly world. These are the five benefits in being virtuous, in being consummate in virtue.” — DN 16

§ 83. “And further—with reference to the virtues that are untorn, unbroken, unspotted, unsplattered, liberating, praised by the observant, ungrasped at, leading to concentration—the monk dwells with his virtue in tune with that of his companions in the holy life, to their faces & behind their backs. This, too, is a condition that is conducive to amiability, that engenders feelings of endearment, engenders feelings of respect, leading to a sense of fellowship, a lack of disputes, harmony, & a state of unity.” — AN 6:12

Heaven

§ 84. “It’s from having known it myself, seen it myself, realized it myself that I tell you that I have seen beings who—endowed with bodily good conduct, verbal good conduct, & mental good conduct; who did not revile noble ones, who held right views and undertook actions under the influence of right views—at the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in a good destination, a heavenly world.” — Iti 71

§ 85. “I have seen a heaven named ‘Six Spheres of Contact.’ Whatever form one sees there with the eye is desirable, never undesirable; pleasing, never displeasing; agreeable, never disagreeable. Whatever sound one hears there with the ear… Whatever aroma one smells there with the nose… Whatever flavor one tastes there with the tongue… Whatever tactile sensation one touches there with the body… Whatever idea one cognizes there with the intellect is desirable, never undesirable; pleasing, never displeasing; agreeable, never disagreeable.” — SN 35:135

§ 86. “Monks, if one speaking rightly were to say of anything, ‘It’s utterly desirable, utterly charming, utterly appealing,’ one speaking rightly would say that just of heaven: ‘It’s utterly desirable, utterly charming, utterly appealing’—so much so that it’s not easy to make a comparison for how pleasant heaven is.”

When this was said, a certain monk said to the Blessed One, “But, lord, is it possible to make a comparison?”

“It is,” the Blessed One said. “Monks, suppose that a universal emperor were endowed with the seven treasures and four powers, and because of that would experience pleasure & joy.”

[Here the Buddha gives a detailed description of these treasures and powers, which briefly stated are these: The seven treasures consist of the wheel-treasure, which magically and peacefully establishes the emperor’s rule over all four directions; the elephant-treasure and the horse-treasure, either of which—leaving the palace at dawn—can take him to the ocean and back before his morning meal; the jewel-treasure that can turn night into day; the woman-treasure—his queen—who is lovely and faithful to him; the steward-treasure, who provides him with all the gold and bullion he needs; and the counselor treasure, who teaches him what is right and wrong, and rules wisely in his stead. The four powers are the power of a supremely attractive appearance, a supremely long life, supremely good health, and supreme popularity among his subjects.]

Then the Blessed One, taking a small stone the size of his hand, said to the monks, “What do you think, monks? Which is greater, this small stone I have taken, the size of my hand, or the Himalayas, the king of mountains?”

“It’s next to nothing, lord, the small stone you have taken.… It doesn’t count. It‘s not even a small fraction. There’s no comparison.”

“In the same way, monks, the pleasure & joy experienced by a universal emperor because of his seven treasures and four powers doesn’t count next to the pleasures of the heavenly world. It’s not even a small fraction. There’s no comparison.” — MN 129

Drawbacks

§ 87. “When a deva is about to pass away from the company of devas, five omens appear: His garlands wither, his clothes get soiled, sweat comes out of his armpits, a dullness descends on his body, he no longer delights in his own deva-seat. The devas, knowing from this that ‘This deva-son is about to pass away,’ encourage him with three sayings: ‘Go from here, honorable sir, to a good destination. Having gone to a good destination, gain the gain that is good to gain. Having gained the gain that is good to gain, become well-established.’”

When this was said, a certain monk said to the Blessed One, “What, lord, is the devas’ reckoning of going to a good destination? What is their reckoning of the gain that is good to gain? What is their reckoning of becoming well-established?”

“The human state, monks, is the devas’ reckoning of going to a good destination. Having become a human being, acquiring conviction in the Dhamma-&-Vinaya taught by the Tathāgata: This is the devas’ reckoning of the gain that is good to gain. When that conviction is settled within one—rooted, established, & strong, not to be destroyed by any contemplative or brahman; deva, Māra, or Brahmā; or anyone else in the world: This is the devas’ reckoning of becoming well-established.”

§ 88. Then the Blessed One, picking up a little bit of dust with the tip of his fingernail, said to the monks, “What do you think, monks? Which is greater: the little bit of dust I have picked up with the tip of my fingernail, or the great earth?”

“The great earth is far greater, lord. The little bit of dust the Blessed One has picked up with the tip of his fingernail is next to nothing. It doesn’t even count. It’s no comparison. It’s not even a fraction, this little bit of dust the Blessed One has picked up with the tip of his fingernail, when compared with the great earth.

“In the same way, monks, few are the beings who, on passing away from the human realm, are reborn among human beings. Far more are the beings who, on passing away from the human realm, are reborn in hell… in the animal womb… in the domain of the hungry ghosts.

… “In the same way, monks, few are the beings who, on passing away from the human realm, are reborn among devas. Far more are the beings who, on passing away from the human realm, are reborn in hell… in the animal womb… in the domain of the hungry ghosts.

… “In the same way, monks, few are the beings who, on passing away from the deva realm, are reborn among devas. Far more are the beings who, on passing away from the deva realm, are reborn in hell… in the animal womb… in the domain of the hungry ghosts.

… “In the same way, monks, few are the beings who, on passing away from the deva realm, are reborn among human beings. Far more are the beings who, on passing away from the deva realm, are reborn in hell… in the animal womb… in the domain of the hungry ghosts.

“Therefore your duty is the contemplation, ‘This is stress… This is the origination of stress… This is the cessation of stress.’ Your duty is the contemplation, ‘This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress.’” — SN 56:102–113

§ 89. “From an inconceivable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. What do you think, monks? Which is greater, the tears you have shed while transmigrating & wandering this long, long time—crying & weeping from being joined with what is displeasing, being separated from what is pleasing—or the water in the four great oceans?”

“As we understand the Dhamma taught to us by the Blessed One, this is the greater: the tears we have shed while transmigrating & wandering this long, long time—crying & weeping from being joined with what is displeasing, being separated from what is pleasing—not the water in the four great oceans.”

“Excellent, monks. Excellent. It is excellent that you thus understand the Dhamma taught by me.

“This is the greater: the tears you have shed while transmigrating & wandering this long, long time—crying & weeping from being joined with what is displeasing, being separated from what is pleasing—not the water in the four great oceans.

“Long have you (repeatedly) experienced the death of a mother. The tears you have shed over the death of a mother while transmigrating & wandering this long, long time—crying & weeping from being joined with what is displeasing, being separated from what is pleasing—are greater than the water in the four great oceans.

“Long have you (repeatedly) experienced the death of a father… the death of a brother… the death of a sister… the death of a son… the death of a daughter… loss with regard to relatives… loss with regard to wealth… loss with regard to disease. The tears you have shed over loss with regard to disease while transmigrating & wandering this long, long time—crying & weeping from being joined with what is displeasing, being separated from what is pleasing—are greater than the water in the four great oceans.

“Why is that? From an inconceivable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. Long have you thus experienced stress, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling the cemeteries—enough to become disenchanted with all fabricated things, enough to become dispassionate, enough to be released.” — SN 15:3

§ 90. “From an inconceivable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. When you see someone who has fallen on hard times, overwhelmed with hard times, you should conclude: ‘We, too, have experienced just this sort of thing in the course of that long, long time.’… When you see someone who is happy & well-provided in life, you should conclude: ‘We, too, have experienced just this sort of thing in the course of that long, long time.’” — SN 15:11–12

§ 91. “There is, monks, an intergalactic void, an unrestrained darkness, a pitch-black darkness, where even the light of the sun & moon—so mighty, so powerful—doesn’t reach.”

When this was said, one of the monks said to the Blessed One, “Wow, what a great darkness! What a really great darkness! Is there any darkness greater & more frightening than that?”

“There is, monk, a darkness greater & more frightening than that.”

“And which darkness, lord, is greater & more frightening than that?”

“Any contemplatives or brahmans who do not know, as it has come to be, that ‘This is stress’; who do not know, as it has come to be, that ‘This is the origination of stress’… ‘This is the cessation of stress’… ‘This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress’: They revel in fabrications leading to birth; they revel in fabrications leading to aging; they revel in fabrications leading to death; they revel in fabrications leading to sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair. Reveling in fabrications leading to birth… aging… death… sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair, they fabricate fabrications leading to birth… aging… death… sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair. Fabricating fabrications leading to birth… aging… death… sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair, they drop into the darkness of birth. They drop into the darkness of aging… the darkness of death… darkness of sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair. They are not released from birth, aging, death, sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs. They are not released, I tell you, from suffering & stress.” — SN 56:46

§ 92. “Monks, I have seen a hell named ‘Six Spheres of Contact.’ Whatever form one sees there with the eye is undesirable, never desirable; displeasing, never pleasing; disagreeable, never agreeable. Whatever sound one hears there with the ear.… Whatever aroma one smells there with the nose.… Whatever flavor one tastes there with the tongue.… Whatever tactile sensation one touches there with the body.… Whatever idea one cognizes there with the intellect is undesirable, never desirable; displeasing, never pleasing; disagreeable, never agreeable.” — SN 35:135

§ 93. “Then the hell-wardens, seizing [an evil-doer] by the arms, present him to King Yama: ‘This is a man, your majesty, with no respect for mother, no respect for father, no reverence for contemplatives, no reverence for brahmans, no honor for the leaders of his clan. Let your majesty decree his punishment.’

“Then King Yama interrogates & interpellates & castigates the man regarding the first deva messenger: ‘My good man, didn’t you see the first deva messenger that has appeared among human beings?’

“‘I didn’t, lord,’ he says.

Then King Yama says, ‘My good man, didn’t you see among human beings a tender baby boy lying prone in its own urine & excrement?’

“‘I did, lord,’ he says.

Then King Yama says, ‘My good man, didn’t the thought occur to you—observant & mature: “I, too, am subject to birth, have not gone beyond birth. I’d better do good with body, speech, & mind”?’

“‘I couldn’t, lord. I was heedless, lord.’

Then King Yama says, ‘My good man, through heedlessness you did not do what is good with body, speech, & mind. And of course, my good man, they will deal with you in accordance with your heedlessness. For that evil kamma of yours was neither done by your mother, nor done by your father, nor done by your brother, nor done by your sister, nor done by your friends & companions, nor done by your kinsmen & relatives, nor done by the devas. That evil kamma was done by you yourself, and you yourself will experience its result.’

“Then, having interrogated & interpellated & castigated the man regarding the first deva messenger, King Yama interrogates & interpellates & castigates him regarding the second: ‘My good man, didn’t you see the second deva messenger that has appeared among human beings?’

“‘I didn’t, lord,’ he says.

“Then King Yama says, ‘My good man, didn’t you see among human beings a woman or man eighty, ninety, one hundred years old: aged, roof-rafter crooked, bent-over, supported by a cane, palsied, miserable, broken-toothed, gray-haired, scanty-haired, bald, wrinkled, with limbs all blotchy?’

“‘I did, lord,’ he says.

“Then King Yama says, ‘My good man, didn’t the thought occur to you—observant & mature: “I, too, am subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging. I’d better do good with body, speech, & mind”?’

“‘I couldn’t, lord. I was heedless, lord.’

“Then King Yama… interrogates & interpellates & castigates him regarding the third deva messenger: ‘My good man, didn’t you see the third deva messenger that has appeared among human beings?’

“‘I didn’t, lord,’ he says.

“Then King Yama says, ‘My good man, didn’t you see among human beings a woman or man diseased, in pain, severely ill, lying in her/his own urine & excrement, lifted up by others, laid down by others?’

“‘I did, lord,’ he says.

“Then King Yama says, ‘My good man, didn’t the thought occur to you—observant & mature: “I, too, am subject to illness, have not gone beyond illness. I’d better do good with body, speech, & mind”?’

“‘I couldn’t, lord. I was heedless, lord.’

“Then King Yama… interrogates & interpellates & castigates him regarding the fourth deva messenger: ‘My good man, didn’t you see the fourth deva messenger that has appeared among human beings?’

“‘I didn’t, lord,’ he says.

“Then King Yama says, ‘My good man, didn’t you see among human beings kings—catching a thief, a criminal—having him tortured in many ways [as above]?’

“‘I did, lord,’ he says.

“Then King Yama says, ‘My good man, didn’t the thought occur to you—observant & mature: “It seems that those who do evil actions are tortured in these many ways in the here-&-now. And how much more in the hereafter? I’d better do good with body, speech, & mind”?’

“‘I couldn’t, lord. I was heedless, lord.’

“Then King Yama… interrogates & interpellates & castigates him regarding the fifth deva messenger: ‘My good man, didn’t you see the fifth deva messenger that has appeared among human beings?’

“‘I didn’t, lord,’ he says.

“Then King Yama says, ‘My good man, didn’t you see among human beings a woman or man, one day, two days, or three days dead: bloated, livid, oozing with lymph?’

“‘I did, lord,’ he says.

“Then King Yama says, ‘My good man, didn’t the thought occur to you—observant & mature: “I, too, am subject to death, have not gone beyond death. I’d better do good with body, speech, & mind”?’

“‘I couldn’t, lord. I was heedless, lord.’

“Then King Yama says, ‘My good man, through heedlessness you did not do what is good with body, speech, & mind. And of course, my good man, they will deal with you in accordance with your heedlessness. For that evil kamma of yours was neither done by your mother, nor done by your father, nor done by your brother, nor done by your sister, nor done by your friends & companions, nor done by your kinsmen & relatives, nor done by the devas. That evil kamma was done by you yourself, and you yourself will experience its result.’

“Then, having interrogated & interpellated & castigated the man regarding the fifth deva messenger, King Yama falls silent.

“Then the hell-wardens torture [the evil-doer] with what’s called a five-fold imprisonment. They drive a red-hot iron stake through one hand, they drive a red-hot iron stake through the other hand, they drive a red-hot iron stake through one foot, they drive a red-hot iron stake through the other foot, they drive a red-hot iron stake through the middle of his chest. There he feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet he does not die as long as his evil kamma is not exhausted.

“Then the hell-wardens lay him down and slice him with axes… they hold him feet up & head down and slice him with adzes… they harness him to a chariot and drive him back & forth over ground that is burning, blazing, & glowing… they make him climb up & down a vast mountain of embers that is burning, blazing, & glowing… they hold him feet up & head down and plunge him into a red-hot copper cauldron that is burning, blazing, & glowing.…

“Then the hell-wardens throw him into the Great Hell.… The flame that leaps from the eastern wall of the Great Hell strikes the western wall. The flame that leaps from the western wall strikes the eastern wall. The flame that leaps from the northern wall strikes the southern wall. The flame that leaps from the southern wall strikes the northern wall. The flame that leaps from the bottom strikes the top. The flame that leaps from the top strikes the bottom.…

“There ultimately comes a time when, with the passing of a long stretch of time, the eastern gate of the Great Hell opens. He runs there, rushing quickly. As he runs there, rushing quickly, his outer skin burns, his inner skin burns, his flesh burns, his tendons burn, even his bones turn to smoke.… When he finally gets there, the door slams shut.… [Similarly with the western gate, the northern gate, & the southern gate.] …

“There ultimately comes a time when, with the passing of a long stretch of time, the eastern gate of the Great Hell opens. He runs there, rushing quickly.… He gets out through the gate. But right next to the Great Hell is a vast Excrement Hell. He falls into that.… Right next to the Excrement Hell is the vast Hot Ashes Hell… the vast Simbali Forest… the vast Sword-leaf Forest… the vast Lye-water River. He falls into that.…

“Then the hell-wardens pull him out with a hook and, placing him on the ground, say to him, ‘Well, my good man, what do you want?’ He replies, ‘I’m hungry, venerable sirs.’ So the hell-wardens pry open his mouth with red-hot iron tongs, burning, blazing, & glowing, and throw into it a copper ball, burning, blazing, & glowing.… Then the hell-wardens say to him, ‘Well, my good man, what do you want?’ He replies, ‘I’m thirsty, venerable sirs.’ So the hell-wardens pry open his mouth with red-hot iron tongs, burning, blazing, & glowing, and pour into it molten copper, burning, blazing, & glowing.… There he feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet he does not die as long as his evil kamma is not exhausted.

“Then the hell-wardens throw him back into the Great Hell once more.…

“I tell you this, monks, not from having heard it from another contemplative or brahman. On the contrary, I tell you this just as I have known for myself, seen for myself, penetrated for myself.” — MN 130

Renunciation

§ 98. Now, on that occasion, Ven. Bhaddiya, Kāḷigodhā’s son, on going to the wilderness, to the root of a tree, or to an empty dwelling, would repeatedly exclaim, “What bliss! What bliss!” A large number of monks heard Ven. Bhaddiya, Kāḷigodhā’s son, on going to the wilderness, to the root of a tree, or to an empty dwelling, repeatedly exclaim, “What bliss! What bliss!” and on hearing him, the thought occurred to them, “There’s no doubt but that Ven. Bhaddiya, Kāḷigodhā’s son doesn’t enjoy leading the holy life, for when he was a householder he knew the bliss of kingship, so that now, on recollecting that when going to the wilderness, to the root of a tree, or to an empty dwelling, he is repeatedly exclaiming, ‘What bliss! What bliss!’” They went to the Blessed One and… told him.…

Then the Blessed One told a certain monk, “Come, monk. In my name, call Bhaddiya, saying, ‘The Teacher calls you, friend Bhaddiya.’”

Responding, “As you say, lord,” the monk went to Ven. Bhaddiya.…

Then Ven. Bhaddiya went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, the Blessed One said to him, “Is it true, Bhaddiya, that—on going to the wilderness, to the root of a tree, or to an empty dwelling—you repeatedly exclaim, ‘What bliss! What bliss!’?”

“Yes, lord.”

“What compelling reason do you have in mind that… you repeatedly exclaim, ‘What bliss! What bliss!’?”

“Before, when I has a householder, maintaining the bliss of kingship, lord, I had guards posted within and without the royal apartments, within and without the city, within and without the countryside. But even though I was thus guarded, thus protected, I dwelled in fear—agitated, distrustful, & afraid. But now, on going alone to the wilderness, to the root of a tree, or to an empty dwelling, I dwell without fear, unagitated, confident, & unafraid—unconcerned, unruffled, living on the gifts of others, with my mind like a wild deer. This is the compelling reason I have in mind that—when going to the wilderness, to the root of a tree, or to an empty dwelling—I repeatedly exclaim, ‘What bliss! What bliss!’” — Ud 2:10

§ 99. On one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Āḷavī on a spread of leaves by a cattle track in a siṁsapa forest. Then Hatthaka of Āḷavī, out roaming & rambling for exercise, saw the Blessed One sitting on a spread of leaves by the cattle track in the siṁsapa forest. On seeing him, he went to him and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he said to the Blessed One, “Lord, I hope the Blessed One has slept in ease.”

“Yes, young man. I have slept in ease. Of those in the world who sleep in ease, I am one.”

“But cold, lord, is the winter night. The ‘Between-the-Eights’ is a time of snowfall. Hard is the ground trampled by cattle hooves. Thin is the spread of leaves. Sparse are the leaves in the trees. Thin are your ochre robes. And cold blows the Verambhā wind. Yet still the Blessed One says, ‘Yes, young man. I have slept in ease. Of those in the world who sleep in ease, I am one.’”

“In that case, young man, I will question you in return. Answer as you see fit. Now, what do you think? Suppose a householder or householder’s son has a house with a gabled roof, plastered inside & out, draft-free, with close-fitting door & windows shut against the wind. Inside he has a throne-like bed spread with a long-fleeced coverlet, a white wool coverlet, an embroidered coverlet, a rug of kadali-deer hide, with a canopy above, & red cushions on either side. And there a lamp would be burning, and his four wives, with their many charms, would be attending to him. Would he sleep in ease, or not? Or how does this strike you?”

“Yes, lord, he would sleep in ease. Of those in the world who sleep in ease, he would be one.”

“But what do you think, young man? Might there arise in that householder or householder’s son any bodily fevers or fevers of mind born of passion so that—burned with those passion-born fevers—he would sleep miserably?” — “Yes, lord.”

“As for those passion-born fevers—burned with which the householder or householder’s son would sleep miserably—that passion has been abandoned by the Tathāgata, its root destroyed, like an uprooted palm tree, deprived of the conditions of existence, not destined for future arising. Therefore he sleeps in ease.

“Now, what do you think, young man? Might there arise in that householder or householder’s son any bodily fevers or fevers of mind born of aversion… any bodily fevers or fevers of mind born of delusion so that so that—burned with those delusion-born fevers—he would sleep miserably?” — “Yes, lord.”

“As for those delusion-born fevers—burned with which the householder or householder’s son would sleep miserably—that delusion has been abandoned by the Tathāgata, its root destroyed, like an uprooted palm tree, deprived of the conditions of existence, not destined for future arising. Therefore he sleeps in ease.

§ 100. “And who is the person who, subject to death, is not afraid or in terror of death? There is the case of the person who has abandoned passion, desire, fondness, thirst, fever, & craving for sensuality. Then he comes down with a serious disease. As he comes down with a serious disease, the thought doesn’t occur to him, ‘O, those beloved sensual pleasures will be taken from me, and I will be taken from them!’ He doesn’t grieve, isn’t tormented; doesn’t weep, beat his breast, or grow delirious. This is a person who, subject to death, is not afraid or in terror of death.” — AN 4:184

§ 101. “A discerning lay follower who is diseased, in pain, severely ill… should be asked, ‘Friend, are you concerned for the five strings of human sensuality?’ If he should say, ‘I am concerned for the five strings of human sensuality,’ he should be told, ‘Friend, divine sensual pleasures are more splendid & more refined than human sensual pleasures. It would be good if, having raised your mind above human sensual pleasures, you set it on the Devas of the Four Great Kings.’

“If he should say, ‘My mind is raised above human sensual pleasures and is set on the Devas of the Four Great Kings,’ he should be told, ‘Friend, the Devas of the Thirty-three are more splendid & more refined than the Devas of the Four Great Kings. It would be good if, having raised your mind above the Devas of the Four Great Kings, you set it on the Devas of the Thirty-three.’

“If he should say, ‘My mind is raised above the Devas of the Four Great Kings and is set on the Devas of the Thirty-three,’ he should be told, ‘Friend, the Devas of the Hours are more splendid & more refined than the Devas of the Thirty-three. It would be good if, having raised your mind above the Devas of the Thirty-three, you set it on the Devas of the Hours.’

“If he should say, ‘My mind is raised above the Devas of the Thirty-three and is set on the Devas of the Hours,’ he should be told, ‘Friend, the Contented Devas are more splendid & more refined than the Devas of the Hours… the Devas Delighting in Creation are more splendid & more refined than the Contented Devas… the Devas [Muses?] Wielding Power over the Creations of Others are more splendid & more refined than the Devas Delighting in Creation… the Brahmā world is more splendid and more refined than the Devas Wielding Power over the Creations of Others. It would be good if, having raised your mind above the Devas Wielding Power over the Creations of Others, you set it on the Brahmā world.’

“If he should say, ‘My mind is raised above the Devas Wielding Power over the Creations of Others and is set on the Brahmā world,’ he should be told, ‘Friend, even the Brahmā world is inconstant, impermanent, included in self-identity. It would be good if, having raised your mind above the Brahmā world, you brought it to the cessation of self-identity.’

“If he should say, ‘My mind is raised above the Brahmā worlds and is brought to the cessation of self-identity,’ then, I tell you, Mahānāma, there is no difference—in terms of release—between the release of that lay follower whose mind is released and the release of a monk whose mind is released.” — SN 55:54

Transcendent Right View

§ 102. “And what, monks, is right view? Knowledge with regard to stress, knowledge with regard to the origination of stress, knowledge with regard to the cessation of stress, knowledge with regard to the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: This, monks, is called right view.” — SN 45:8

§ 103. “And what is the faculty of discernment? There is the case where a monk, a disciple of the noble ones, is discerning, endowed with discernment of arising & passing away—noble, penetrating, leading to the right ending of stress. He discerns, as it has come to be: ‘This is stress… This is the origination of stress… This is the cessation of stress… This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress.’ This is called the faculty of discernment.” — SN 48:10

§ 104. “Any time one examines, investigates, & scrutinizes internal dhammas with discernment, that is analysis of dhammas as a factor for awakening. And any time one examines, investigates, & scrutinizes external dhammas with discernment, that too is analysis of dhammas as a factor for awakening.” — SN 46:52

§ 105. “There are dhammas that are skillful & unskillful, blameworthy & blameless, gross & refined, siding with darkness & with light. To foster appropriate attention to them: This is the food for the arising of unarisen analysis of dhammas as a factor for awakening, or for the growth & increase of analysis of dhammas as a factor for awakening once it has arisen.” — SN 46:51

§ 106. “Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress: Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.

“And this, monks, is the noble truth of the origination of stress: the craving that makes for further becoming—accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there—i.e., craving for sensuality, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.

“And this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of stress: the remainderless dispassioning & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving.

“And this, monks, is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: precisely this noble eightfold path—right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

“Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: ‘This is the noble truth of stress’… ‘This noble truth of stress is to be comprehended’… ‘This noble truth of stress has been comprehended.’

“Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: ‘This is the noble truth of the origination of stress’… ‘This noble truth of the origination of stress is to be abandoned’… ‘This noble truth of the origination of stress has been abandoned.’

“Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: ‘This is the noble truth of the cessation of stress’… ‘This noble truth of the cessation of stress is to be directly experienced’… ‘This noble truth of the cessation of stress has been directly experienced.’

“Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: ‘This is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress’… ‘This noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress is to be developed’… ‘This noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress has been developed.’

“And, monks, as long as this—my three-round, twelve-permutation knowledge & vision concerning these four noble truths as they have come to be—was not pure, I did not claim to have directly awakened to the right self-awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its devas, Māras, & Brahmās, with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & commonfolk. But as soon as this—my three-round, twelve-permutation knowledge & vision concerning these four noble truths as they have come to be—was truly pure, then I did claim to have directly awakened to the right self-awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its devas, Māras, & Brahmās, with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & commonfolk. Knowledge & vision arose in me: ‘Unprovoked is my release. This is the last birth. There is now no further becoming.’” — SN 56:11

§ 107. “And what is comprehension? Any ending of passion, ending of aversion, ending of delusion: This is called comprehension.” — SN 22:23

§ 108. “Monks, I will teach you the five aggregates & the five clinging-aggregates. Listen & pay close attention. I will speak.”

“As you say, lord,” the monks responded to him.

The Blessed One said, “Now what, monks, are the five aggregates?

“Whatever form is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: That is called the form aggregate.

“Whatever feeling is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: That is called the feeling aggregate.

“Whatever perception is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: That is called the perception aggregate.

“Whatever fabrications are past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: Those are called the fabrication aggregate.

“Whatever consciousness is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: That is called the consciousness aggregate.

“These are called the five aggregates.

“And what are the five clinging-aggregates?

“Whatever form—past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near—is clingable, offers sustenance, and is accompanied with effluents: That is called the form clinging-aggregate.

“Whatever feeling—past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near—is clingable, offers sustenance, and is accompanied with effluents: That is called the feeling clinging-aggregate.

“Whatever perception—past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near—is clingable, offers sustenance, and is accompanied with effluents: That is called the perception clinging-aggregate.

“Whatever fabrications—past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near—are clingable, offer sustenance, and are accompanied with effluents: Those are called the fabrication clinging-aggregate.

“Whatever consciousness—past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near—is clingable, offers sustenance, and is accompanied with effluents: That is called the consciousness clinging-aggregate.

“These are called the five clinging-aggregates.” — SN 22:48

§ 109. “There is the case where one enjoys, welcomes, & remains fastened. And what does one enjoy & welcome, to what does one remain fastened? One enjoys, welcomes, & remains fastened to form. As one enjoys, welcomes, & remains fastened to form, there arises delight. Any delight in form is clinging. [Similarly with feeling, perception, fabrications, and consciousness.]” — SN 22:5 (emphasis added)

§ 110. Visākha: “Is it the case, lady, that clinging is the same thing as the five clinging-aggregates or is it something separate?”

Sister Dhammadinnā: “Friend Visākha, neither is clinging the same thing as the five clinging-aggregates, nor is it something separate. Whatever desire & passion there is with regard to the five clinging-aggregates, that is the clinging there.

Visākha: “But, lady, how does self-identity come about?”

Sister Dhammadinnā: “There is the case, friend Visākha, 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.

“He assumes feeling to be the self.…

“He assumes perception to be the self.…

“He assumes fabrications to be the self.…

“He assumes consciousness to be the self, or the self as possessing consciousness, or consciousness as in the self, or the self as in consciousness. This is how self-identity comes about.”

Visākha: “But, lady, how does self-identity not come about?”

Sister Dhammadinnā: “There is the case where a well-instructed disciple of the noble ones—who has regard for noble 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.

“He doesn’t assume feeling to be the self.…

“He doesn’t assume perception to be the self.…

“He doesn’t assume fabrications to be the self.…

“He doesn’t assume consciousness to be the self, or the self as possessing consciousness, or consciousness as in the self, or the self as in consciousness. This is how self-identity does not come about.”” — MN 44

§ 111. Then Ven. Rādha went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he said to the Blessed One: “‘A being,’ lord. ‘A being,’ it’s said. To what extent is one said to be ‘a being [satta]’?”

“Any desire, passion, delight, or craving for form, Rādha: When one is caught up [satta] there, tied up [visatta] there, one is said to be ‘a being.’

“Any desire, passion, delight, or craving for feeling… perception… fabrications…

“Any desire, passion, delight, or craving for consciousness, Rādha: When one is caught up there, tied up there, one is said to be ‘a being.’” — SN 23:2

§ 112. “What is one?—All beings subsist on nutriment.” — Khp 4

§ 113. “If one stays obsessed with form, that’s what one is measured/limited by. Whatever one is measured by, that’s how one is classified.

“If one stays obsessed with feeling…

“If one stays obsessed with perception…

“If one stays obsessed with fabrications…

“If one stays obsessed with consciousness, that’s what one is measured/limited by. Whatever one is measured by, that’s how one is classified.”— SN 22:36

§ 114. “Which clinging? These four clingings: sensuality clinging, view clinging, habit-&-practice clinging, and self-doctrine clinging.” — SN 12:2

Perceptions for Inducing Dispassion for the Aggregates

§ 115. Ven. Sāriputta said, “Friends, just as the footprints of all legged animals are encompassed by the footprint of the elephant, and the elephant’s footprint is reckoned the foremost among them in terms of size; in the same way, all skillful dhammas are included in the four noble truths. In which four? In the noble truth of stress, in the noble truth of the origination of stress, in the noble truth of the cessation of stress, and in the noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress.

“And what is the noble truth of stress? Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful. And which are the five clinging-aggregates? The form clinging-aggregate, the feeling clinging-aggregate, the perception clinging-aggregate, the fabrication clinging-aggregate, and the consciousness clinging-aggregate.

“And what is the form clinging-aggregate? The four great existents and the form derived from them. And what are the four great existents? The earth property, the liquid property, the fire property, & the wind property.

THE EARTH PROPERTY

“And what is the earth property? The earth property can be either internal or external. What is the internal earth property? Whatever internal, within oneself, is hard, solid, & sustained [by craving]: head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, tendons, bones, bone marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, pleura, spleen, lungs, large intestines, small intestines, contents of the stomach, feces, or whatever else internal, within oneself, is hard, solid, & sustained: This is called the internal earth property. Now, both the internal earth property and the external earth property are simply earth property. And that should be seen as it actually is with right discernment: ‘This is not mine, this is not me, this is not my self.’ When one sees it thus as it actually is with right discernment, one becomes disenchanted with the earth property and makes the mind dispassionate toward the earth property.

“Now, there comes a time, friends, when the external liquid property is provoked,[1] and at that time the external earth property vanishes. So when even in the external earth property—so vast—inconstancy will be discerned, destructibility will be discerned, a tendency to decay will be discerned, changeability will be discerned, then what of this short-lasting body, sustained by clinging, is ‘I’ or ‘mine’ or ‘what I am’? It has here only a ‘no.’

“Now, if other people insult, malign, exasperate, & harass a monk [who has discerned this], he discerns that ’A painful feeling, born of ear-contact, has arisen within me. And that is dependent, not independent. Dependent on what? Dependent on contact.’ And he sees that contact is inconstant, feeling is inconstant, perception is inconstant, consciousness is inconstant. His mind, with the [earth] property as its object/support, leaps up, grows confident, steadfast, & released.…

THE LIQUID PROPERTY

“And what is the liquid property? The liquid property may be either internal or external. What is the internal liquid property? Whatever internal, belonging to oneself, is liquid, watery, & sustained: bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, skin-oil, saliva, mucus, fluid in the joints, urine, or whatever else internal, within oneself, is liquid, watery, & sustained: This is called the internal liquid property. Now, both the internal liquid property and the external liquid property are simply liquid property. And that should be seen as it actually is present with right discernment: ‘This is not mine, this is not me, this is not my self.’ When one sees it thus as it actually is present with right discernment, one becomes disenchanted with the liquid property and makes the mind dispassionate toward the liquid property.

“Now, there comes a time, friends, when the external liquid property is provoked and washes away village, town, city, district, & country. There comes a time when the water in the great ocean drops down one hundred leagues, two hundred… three hundred… four hundred… five hundred… six hundred… seven hundred leagues. There comes a time when the water in the great ocean stands seven palm-trees deep, six… five… four… three… two palm-trees deep, one palm-tree deep. There comes a time when the water in the great ocean stands seven fathoms deep, six… five… four… three… two fathoms deep, one fathom deep. There comes a time when the water in the great ocean stands half a fathom deep, hip-deep, knee-deep, ankle deep. There comes a time when the water in the great ocean is not even the depth of the first joint of a finger.

“So when even in the external liquid property—so vast—inconstancy will be discerned, destructibility will be discerned, a tendency to decay will be discerned, changeability will be discerned, then what of this short-lasting body, sustained by clinging, is ‘I’ or ‘mine’ or ‘what I am’? It has here only a ‘no.’…

THE FIRE PROPERTY

“And what is the fire property? The fire property may be either internal or external. What is the internal fire property? Whatever internal, belonging to oneself, is fire, fiery, & sustained: that by which [the body] is warmed, aged, & consumed with fever; and that by which what is eaten, drunk, chewed, & savored gets properly digested, or whatever else internal, within oneself, is fire, fiery, & sustained: This is called the internal fire property. Now, both the internal fire property and the external fire property are simply fire property. And that should be seen as it actually is present with right discernment: ‘This is not mine, this is not me, this is not my self.’ When one sees it thus as it actually is present with right discernment, one becomes disenchanted with the fire property and makes the mind dispassionate toward the fire property.

Now, there comes a time, friends, when the external fire property is provoked and consumes village, town, city, district, & country; 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. There comes a time when people try to make fire using a wing-bone & tendon parings.[2]

“So when even in the external fire property—so vast—inconstancy will be discerned, destructibility will be discerned, a tendency to decay will be discerned, changeability will be discerned, then what of this short-lasting body, sustained by clinging, is ‘I’ or ‘mine’ or ‘what I am’? It has here only a ‘no.’ …

THE WIND PROPERTY

“And what is the wind property? The wind property may be either internal or external. What is the internal wind property? Whatever internal, belonging to oneself, is wind, windy, & sustained: up-going winds, down-going winds, winds in the stomach, winds in the intestines, winds that course through the body, in-&-out breathing, or whatever else internal, within oneself, is wind, windy, & sustained: This is called the internal wind property. Now, both the internal wind property and the external wind property are simply wind property. And that should be seen as it actually is present with right discernment: ‘This is not mine, this is not me, this is not my self.’ When one sees it thus as it actually is present with right discernment, one becomes disenchanted with the wind property and makes the mind dispassionate toward the wind property.

“Now, there comes a time, friends, when the external wind property is provoked and blows away village, town, city, district, & country. There comes a time when, in the last month of the hot season, people try to start a breeze with a fan or bellows, and even the grass at the fringe of a thatch roof doesn’t stir.

“So when even in the external wind property—so vast—inconstancy will be discerned, destructibility will be discerned, a tendency to decay will be discerned, changeability will be discerned, then what of this short-lasting body, sustained by clinging, is ‘I’ or ‘mine’ or ‘what I am’? It has here only a ‘no.’

“Now, if other people insult, malign, exasperate, & harass a monk [who has discerned this], he discerns that ’A painful feeling, born of ear-contact, has arisen within me. And that is dependent, not independent. Dependent on what? Dependent on contact.’ And he sees that contact is inconstant, feeling is inconstant, perception is inconstant, consciousness is inconstant. His mind, with the [wind] property as its object/support, leaps up, grows confident, steadfast, & released.

“And if other people attack the monk in ways that are undesirable, displeasing, & disagreeable—through contact with fists, contact with stones, contact with sticks, or contact with knives—the monk discerns that ‘This body is of such a nature contacts with fists come, contacts with stones come, contacts with sticks come, & contacts with knives come. Now, the Blessed One has said, in his exhortation of the simile of the saw, “Monks, even if bandits were to carve you up savagely, limb by limb, with a two-handled saw, he among you who let his heart get angered even at that would not be doing my bidding.” So my persistence will be aroused & untiring, my mindfulness established & unconfused, my body calm & unaroused, my mind concentrated & gathered into one. And now let contact with fists come to this body, let contact with stones, with sticks, with knives come to this body, for this is how the Buddha’s bidding is done.’

“And if, in the monk recollecting the Buddha, Dhamma, & Saṅgha in this way, equanimity based on what is skillful is not established, he feels apprehensive at that and gives rise to a sense of urgency: ‘It is a loss for me, not a gain; ill-gotten for me, not well-gotten, that when I recollect the Buddha, Dhamma, & Saṅgha in this way, equanimity based on what is skillful is not established within me.’ Just as when a daughter-in-law, on seeing her father-in-law, feels apprehensive and gives rise to a sense of urgency [to please him], in the same way, if, in the monk recollecting the Buddha, Dhamma, & Saṅgha in this way, equanimity based on what is skillful is not established, he feels apprehensive at that and gives rise to a sense of urgency: ‘It is a loss for me, not a gain; ill-gotten for me, not well-gotten, that when I recollect the Buddha, Dhamma, & Saṅgha in this way, equanimity based on what is skillful is not established within me.’

“But if, in the monk recollecting the Buddha, Dhamma, & Saṅgha in this way, equanimity based on what is skillful is established, then he is gratified at that. And even to this extent, friends, the monk has accomplished a great deal.

THE SPACE PROPERTY

“Friends, just as when—in dependence on timber, vines, grass, & clay—space is enclosed and is gathered under the term ‘house,’ in the same way, when space is enclosed in dependence on bones, tendons, muscle, & skin, it is gathered under the term, ‘form.’

DEPENDENT CO-ARISING

“Now, if internally the eye is intact but externally forms do not come into range, nor is there a corresponding engagement, then there is no appearing of the corresponding type of consciousness. If internally the eye is intact and externally forms come into range, but there is no corresponding engagement, then there is no appearing of the corresponding type of consciousness. But when internally the eye is intact and externally forms come into range, and there is a corresponding engagement, then there is the appearing of the corresponding type of consciousness.

“The form of what has thus come to be is gathered under the form clinging-aggregate. The feeling of what has thus come to be is gathered under the feeling clinging-aggregate. The perception of what has thus come to be is gathered under the perception clinging-aggregate. The fabrications of what has thus come to be are gathered under the fabrication clinging-aggregate. The consciousness of what has thus come to be is gathered under the consciousness clinging-aggregate. One discerns, ‘This, it seems, is how there is the gathering, meeting, & convergence of these five clinging-aggregates. Now, the Blessed One has said, “Whoever sees dependent co-arising sees the Dhamma; whoever sees the Dhamma sees dependent co-arising.”[3] And these things—the five clinging-aggregates—are dependently co-arisen.[4] Any desire, embracing, grasping, & holding-on to these five clinging-aggregates is the origination of stress. Any subduing of desire & passion, any abandoning of desire & passion for these five clinging-aggregates is the cessation of stress.’[5] And even to this extent, friends, the monk has accomplished a great deal.

“Now, if internally the ear is intact.…

“Now, if internally the nose is intact.…

“Now, if internally the tongue is intact.…

“Now, if internally the body is intact.…

“Now, if internally the intellect is intact but externally ideas do not come into range, nor is there a corresponding engagement, then there is no appearing of the corresponding type of consciousness. If internally the intellect is intact and externally ideas come into range, but there is no corresponding engagement, then there is no appearing of the corresponding type of consciousness. But when internally the intellect is intact and externally ideas come into range, and there is a corresponding engagement, then there is the appearing of the corresponding type of consciousness.

“The form of what has thus come to be is gathered under the form clinging-aggregate. The feeling of what has thus come to be is gathered under the feeling clinging-aggregate The perception of what has thus come to be is gathered under the perception clinging-aggregate. The fabrications of what has thus come to be are gathered under the fabrication clinging-aggregate. The consciousness of what has thus come to be is gathered under the consciousness clinging-aggregate. One discerns, ‘This, it seems, is how there is the gathering, meeting, & convergence of these five clinging-aggregates. Now, the Blessed One has said, “Whoever sees dependent co-arising sees the Dhamma; whoever sees the Dhamma sees dependent co-arising.” And these things—the five clinging-aggregates—are dependently co-arisen. Any desire, embracing, grasping, & holding-on to these five clinging-aggregates is the origination of stress. Any subduing of desire & passion, any abandoning of desire & passion for these five clinging-aggregates is the cessation of stress.’ And even to this extent, friends, the monk has accomplished a great deal.”

That is what Ven. Sāriputta said. Gratified, the monks delighted in Ven. Sāriputta’s words. — MN 28

§ 116. “Monks, a monk who is skilled in seven bases and has three modes of investigation is fulfilled & fully accomplished in this Dhamma & Vinaya—the ultimate person.

“And how is a monk skilled in seven bases? There is the case where a monk discerns form, the origination of form, the cessation of form, the path of practice leading to the cessation of form. He discerns the allure of form, the drawback of form, and the escape from form.

“He discerns feeling.… He discerns perception.… He discerns fabrications.…

“He discerns consciousness, the origination of consciousness, the cessation of consciousness, the path of practice leading to the cessation of consciousness. He discerns the allure of consciousness, the drawback of consciousness, and the escape from consciousness.

“And what is form? The four great existents [the earth property, the liquid property, the fire property, & the wind property] and the form derived from them: this is called form. From the origination of nutriment comes the origination of form. From the cessation of nutriment comes the cessation of form. And just this noble eightfold path is the path of practice leading to the cessation of form, i.e., right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. The fact that pleasure & happiness arise in dependence on form: That is the allure of form. The fact that form is inconstant, stressful, subject to change: That is the drawback of form. The subduing of desire-passion for form, the abandoning of desire-passion for form: That is the escape from form.…

“And what is feeling? These six bodies of feeling—feeling born of eye-contact, feeling born of ear-contact, feeling born of nose-contact, feeling born of tongue-contact, feeling born of body-contact, feeling born of intellect-contact: This is called feeling. From the origination of contact comes the origination of feeling. From the cessation of contact comes the cessation of feeling. And just this noble eightfold path is the path of practice leading to the cessation of feeling.… The fact that pleasure & happiness arise in dependence on feeling: That is the allure of feeling. The fact that feeling is inconstant, stressful, subject to change: That is the drawback of feeling. The subduing of desire-passion for feeling, the abandoning of desire-passion for feeling: That is the escape from feeling.…

“And what is perception? These six bodies of perception—perception of form, perception of sound, perception of smell, perception of taste, perception of tactile sensation, perception of ideas: This is called perception. From the origination of contact comes the origination of perception. From the cessation of contact comes the cessation of perception. And just this noble eightfold path is the path of practice leading to the cessation of perception.… The fact that pleasure & happiness arise in dependence on perception: That is the allure of perception. The fact that perception is inconstant, stressful, subject to change: That is the drawback of perception. The subduing of desire-passion for perception, the abandoning of desire-passion for perception: That is the escape from perception.…

“And what are fabrications? These six bodies of intention—intention with regard to form, intention with regard to sound, intention with regard to smell, intention with regard to taste, intention with regard to tactile sensation, intention with regard to ideas: These are called fabrications. From the origination of contact comes the origination of fabrications. From the cessation of contact comes the cessation of fabrications. And just this noble eightfold path is the path of practice leading to the cessation of fabrications.… The fact that pleasure & happiness arise in dependence on fabrications: That is the allure of fabrications. The fact that fabrications are inconstant, stressful, subject to change: That is the drawback of fabrications. The subduing of desire-passion for fabrications, the abandoning of desire-passion for fabrications: That is the escape from fabrications.…

“And what is consciousness? These six bodies of consciousness: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, intellect-consciousness. This is called consciousness. From the origination of name-&-form comes the origination of consciousness. From the cessation of name-&-form comes the cessation of consciousness. And just this noble eightfold path is the path of practice leading to the cessation of consciousness, i.e., right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. The fact that pleasure & happiness arise in dependence on consciousness: That is the allure of consciousness. The fact that consciousness is inconstant, stressful, subject to change: That is the drawback of consciousness. The subduing of desire-passion for consciousness, the abandoning of desire-passion for consciousness: That is the escape from consciousness.…

“This is how a monk is skilled in seven bases.

“And how does a monk have three modes of investigation? There is the case where a monk investigates in terms of properties, investigates in terms of sense media, investigates in terms of dependent co-arising. This is how a monk has three modes of investigation.

“A monk who is skilled in seven bases and has three modes of investigation is fulfilled and fully accomplished in this Dhamma & Vinaya—the ultimate person.” — SN 22:57

§ 117. “Suppose, monks, that there were a beverage in a bronze cup—consummate in its color, consummate in its smell, consummate in its flavor, but mixed with poison—and a man were to come along: scorched from the heat, oppressed by heat, exhausted, trembling, & thirsty. They would say to him, ‘Here, my good man, is a beverage for you in a bronze cup: consummate in its color, consummate in its smell, consummate in its flavor, but mixed with poison. Drink it, if you want. Having been drunk, it will please you with its color, smell, & flavor. But having drunk it, you will—from that cause—meet with death or death-like suffering.’ He would drink it quickly without reflection—he wouldn’t reject it—and from that cause he would meet with death or death-like suffering.

“In the same way, monks, any contemplatives & brahmans in the past… future… present who see whatever seems endearing & alluring in terms of the world as constant, as pleasant, as self, as freedom from disease, as safety, make craving grow. Those who make craving grow make acquisition grow. Those who make acquisition grow make stress grow. Those who make stress grow are not released from birth, aging, death, sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs. They are not released, I tell you, from suffering & stress.…

“Suppose, monks, that there were a beverage in a bronze cup—consummate in its color, consummate in its smell, consummate in its flavor, but mixed with poison—and a man were to come along: scorched from the heat, oppressed by heat, exhausted, trembling, & thirsty. They would say to him, ‘Here, my good man, is a beverage for you in a bronze cup: consummate in its color, consummate in its smell, consummate in its flavor, but mixed with poison. Drink it, if you want. Having been drunk, it will please you with its color, smell, & flavor. But having drunk it, you will—from that cause—meet with death or death-like suffering.’ The thought would occur to that man, ‘It’s possible to subdue this thirst of mine with water, with whey, with salted porridge, or with bean-broth. I certainly shouldn’t drink that which would be for my long-term harm & suffering.’ Having reflected on that beverage in the bronze cup, he wouldn’t drink it. He would reject it. And so from that cause he would not meet with death or death-like suffering.

“In the same way, monks, any contemplatives & brahmans in the past… future… present who see whatever seems endearing & alluring in terms of the world as inconstant, as stressful, as not-self, as a disease, as a danger: They abandon craving. Those who abandon craving abandon acquisition. Those who abandon acquisition abandon stress. Those who abandon stress are released from birth, aging, death, sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs. They are released, I tell you, from suffering & stress.” — SN 12:66

§ 118. “Mahāli, there is cause, there is requisite condition, for the defilement of beings. Beings are defiled with cause, with requisite condition. There is cause, this is requisite condition, for the purification of beings. Beings are purified with cause, with requisite condition.”

“And what, lord, is the cause, what the requisite condition, for the defilement of beings? How are beings defiled with cause, with requisite condition?”

“Mahāli, if form were exclusively stressful—followed by stress, infused with stress and not infused with pleasure—beings would not be infatuated with form. But because form is also pleasurable—followed by pleasure, infused with pleasure and not infused with stress—beings are infatuated with form. Through infatuation, they are captivated. Through captivation, they are defiled. This is the cause, this the requisite condition, for the defilement of beings. And this is how beings are defiled with cause, with requisite condition.

“If feeling were exclusively stressful.…

“If perception were exclusively stressful.…

“If fabrications were exclusively stressful.…

“If consciousness were exclusively stressful—followed by stress, infused with stress and not infused with pleasure—beings would not be infatuated with consciousness. But because consciousness is also pleasurable—followed by pleasure, infused with pleasure and not infused with stress—beings are infatuated with consciousness. Through infatuation, they are captivated. Through captivation, they are defiled. This is the cause, this the requisite condition, for the defilement of beings. And this is how beings are defiled with cause, with requisite condition.”

“And what, lord, is the cause, what the requisite condition, for the purification of beings? How are beings purified with cause, with requisite condition?”

“Mahāli, if form were exclusively pleasurable—followed by pleasure, infused with pleasure and not infused with stress—beings would not be disenchanted with form. But because form is also stressful—followed by stress, infused with stress and not infused with pleasure—beings are disenchanted with form. Through disenchantment, they grow dispassionate. Through dispassion, they are purified. This is the cause, this the requisite condition, for the purification of beings. And this is how beings are purified with cause, with requisite condition.

“If feeling were exclusively pleasurable.…

“If perception were exclusively pleasurable.…

“If fabrications were exclusively pleasurable.…

“If consciousness were exclusively pleasurable—followed by pleasure, infused with pleasure and not infused with stress—beings would not be disenchanted with consciousness. But because consciousness is also stressful—followed by stress, infused with stress and not infused with pleasure—beings are disenchanted with consciousness. Through disenchantment, they grow dispassionate. Through dispassion, they are purified. This is the cause, this the requisite condition, for the purification of beings. And this is how beings are purified with cause, with requisite condition.” — SN 22:60

§ 119. Sister Dhammadinnā: “Pleasant feeling is pleasant in remaining, & painful in changing, friend Visākha. Painful feeling is painful in remaining & pleasant in changing. Neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling is pleasant in occurring together with knowledge, and painful in occurring without knowledge.” — MN 44

§ 120. “Monks, any contemplatives or brahmans who recollect their manifold past lives all recollect the five clinging-aggregates, or one among them. Which five? When recollecting, ‘I was one with such a form in the past,’ one is recollecting just form. Or when recollecting, ‘I was one with such a feeling in the past,’ one is recollecting just feeling. Or when recollecting, ‘I was one with such a perception in the past,’ one is recollecting just perception. Or when recollecting, ‘I was one with such mental fabrications in the past,’ one is recollecting just mental fabrications. Or when recollecting, ‘I was one with such a consciousness in the past,’ one is recollecting just consciousness.

“And why do you call it ‘form’ [rūpa]? Because it is afflicted [ruppati], thus it is called ‘form.’ Afflicted with what? With cold & heat & hunger & thirst, with the touch of flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, & reptiles. Because it is afflicted, it is called form.

“And why do you call it ‘feeling’? Because it feels, thus it is called ‘feeling.’ What does it feel? It feels pleasure, it feels pain, it feels neither-pleasure-nor-pain. Because it feels, it is called feeling.

“And why do you call it ‘perception’? Because it perceives, thus it is called ‘perception.’ What does it perceive? It perceives blue, it perceives yellow, it perceives red, it perceives white. Because it perceives, it is called perception.

“And why do you call them ‘fabrications’? Because they fabricate fabricated things, thus they are called ‘fabrications.’ What do they fabricate as a fabricated thing? For the sake of form-ness, they fabricate form as a fabricated thing. For the sake of feeling-ness, they fabricate feeling as a fabricated thing. For the sake of perception-hood… For the sake of fabrication-hood… For the sake of consciousness-hood, they fabricate consciousness as a fabricated thing. Because they fabricate fabricated things, they are called fabrications.

“And why do you call it ‘consciousness’? Because it cognizes, thus it is called consciousness. What does it cognize? It cognizes what is sour, bitter, pungent, sweet, alkaline, non-alkaline, salty, & unsalty. Because it cognizes, it is called consciousness.

“Thus a well-instructed disciple of the noble ones reflects in this way: ‘I am now being chewed up by form. But in the past I was also chewed up by form in the same way I am now being chewed up by present form. And if I delight in future form, then in the future I will be chewed up by form in the same way I am now being chewed up by present form.’ Having reflected in this way, he becomes indifferent to past form, does not delight in future form, and is practicing for the sake of disenchantment, dispassion, and cessation with regard to present form.

“[He reflects:] ‘‘I am now being chewed up by feeling… perception… fabrications… consciousness. But in the past I was also chewed up by consciousness in the same way I am now being chewed up by present consciousness. And if I delight in future consciousness, then in the future I will be chewed up by consciousness in the same way I am now being chewed up by present consciousness.’ Having reflected in this way, he becomes indifferent to past consciousness, does not delight in future consciousness, and is practicing for the sake of disenchantment, dispassion, and cessation with regard to present consciousness.” — SN 22:79

§ 121. “In seeing six rewards, it’s enough for a monk to establish the perception of inconstancy with regard to all fabrications without exception. Which six? ‘All fabrications will appear as unstable. My mind will not delight in any world. My mind will rise above every world. My heart will be inclined to unbinding. My fetters will go to their abandoning. I’ll be endowed with the foremost dhammas of the contemplative life.’”

“In seeing six rewards, it’s enough for a monk to establish the perception of stress with regard to all fabrications without exception. Which six? ‘The perception of disenchantment will be established within me with regard to all fabrications, like a murderer with a drawn sword. My mind will rise above every world. I’ll become one who sees peace in unbinding. My obsessions will go to their destruction. I’ll be one who has completed his task. The Teacher will have been served with goodwill.’”

“In seeing six rewards, it’s enough for a monk to establish the perception of not-self with regard to all phenomena without exception. Which six? ‘I won’t be fashioned in connection with any world. My I-making will be stopped. My my-making will be stopped. I’ll be endowed with uncommon knowledge. I’ll become one who rightly sees cause, along with causally-originated phenomena.’” — AN 6:102–104

§ 122. “Whether or not there is the arising of Tathāgatas, this property stands—this steadfastness of the Dhamma, this orderliness of the Dhamma: ‘All fabrications are inconstant.’

“The Tathāgata directly awakens to that, breaks through to that. Directly awakening & breaking through to that, he declares it, teaches it, describes it, sets it forth. He reveals it, explains it, makes it plain: ‘All fabrications are inconstant.’

“Whether or not there is the arising of Tathāgatas, this property stands—this steadfastness of the Dhamma, this orderliness of the Dhamma: ‘All fabrications are stressful.’

“The Tathāgata directly awakens to that, breaks through to that. Directly awakening & breaking through to that, he declares it, teaches it, describes it, sets it forth. He reveals it, explains it, makes it plain: ‘All fabrications are stressful.’

“Whether or not there is the arising of Tathāgatas, this property stands—this steadfastness of the Dhamma, this orderliness of the Dhamma: ‘All phenomena are not-self.’[1]

“The Tathāgata directly awakens to that, breaks through to that. Directly awakening & breaking through to that, he declares it, teaches it, describes it, sets it forth. He reveals it, explains it, makes it plain: ‘All phenomena are not-self.’” — AN 3:137

§ 123. “Form, monks, is not self. If form were the self, this form would not lend itself to dis-ease. It would be possible (to say) with regard to form, ‘Let my form be thus. Let my form not be thus.’ But precisely because form is not self, this form lends itself to dis-ease. And it is not possible (to say) with regard to form, ‘Let my form be thus. Let my form not be thus.’

“Feeling is not self.…

“Perception is not self.…

“Fabrications are not self.…

“Consciousness is not self. If consciousness were the self, this consciousness would not lend itself to dis-ease. It would be possible (to say) with regard to consciousness, ‘Let my consciousness be thus. Let my consciousness not be thus.’ But precisely because consciousness is not self, consciousness lends itself to dis-ease. And it is not possible (to say) with regard to consciousness, ‘Let my consciousness be thus. Let my consciousness not be thus.’

“What do you think, monks? Is form constant or inconstant?”—“Inconstant, lord.”— “And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?”—“Stressful, lord.” “And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ‘This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am’?”

“No, lord.”

“… Is feeling constant or inconstant?”—“Inconstant, lord.”…

“… Is perception constant or inconstant?”—“Inconstant, lord.”…

“… Are fabrications constant or inconstant?”—“Inconstant, lord.”…

“What do you think, monks? Is consciousness constant or inconstant?”—“Inconstant, lord.”—“And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?”—“Stressful, lord.”—“And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ‘This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am’?”

“No, lord.”

“Thus, monks, any form whatsoever that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: Every form is to be seen with right discernment as it has come to be: ‘This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.’

“Any feeling whatsoever.…

“Any perception whatsoever.…

“Any fabrications whatsoever.…

“Any consciousness whatsoever that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: Every consciousness is to be seen with right discernment as it has come to be: ‘This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.’

“Seeing thus, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones grows disenchanted with form, disenchanted with feeling, disenchanted with perception, disenchanted with fabrications, disenchanted with consciousness. Disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is released. With release, there is the knowledge, ‘Released.’ He discerns that ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.’” — SN 22:59

§ 124. On one occasion the Blessed One was staying among the Ayujjhans on the banks of the Ganges River. There he addressed the monks: “Monks, suppose that a large glob of foam were floating down this Ganges River, and a man with good eyesight were to see it, observe it, & appropriately examine it. To him—seeing it, observing it, & appropriately examining it—it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance would there be in a glob of foam? In the same way, a monk sees, observes, & appropriately examines any form that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near. To him—seeing it, observing it, & appropriately examining it—it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance would there be in form?

“Now, suppose that in the autumn—when it’s raining in fat, heavy drops—a water bubble were to appear & disappear on the water, and a man with good eyesight were to see it, observe it, & appropriately examine it. To him—seeing it, observing it, & appropriately examining it—it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance would there be in a water bubble? In the same way, a monk sees, observes, & appropriately examines any feeling that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near. To him—seeing it, observing it, & appropriately examining it—it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance would there be in feeling?

“Now, suppose that in the last month of the hot season a mirage were shimmering, and a man with good eyesight were to see it, observe it, & appropriately examine it. To him—seeing it, observing it, & appropriately examining it—it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance would there be in a mirage? In the same way, a monk sees, observes, & appropriately examines any perception that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near. To him—seeing it, observing it, & appropriately examining it—it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance would there be in perception?

“Now, suppose that a man desiring heartwood, in quest of heartwood, seeking heartwood, were to go into a forest carrying a sharp ax. There he would see a large banana tree: straight, young, of enormous height. He would cut it at the root and, having cut it at the root, would chop off the top. Having chopped off the top, he would peel away the outer skin. Peeling away the outer skin, he wouldn’t even find sapwood, to say nothing of heartwood. Then a man with good eyesight would see it, observe it, & appropriately examine it. To him—seeing it, observing it, & appropriately examining it—it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance would there be in a banana tree? In the same way, a monk sees, observes, & appropriately examines any fabrications that are past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near. To him—seeing them, observing them, & appropriately examining them—they would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance would there be in fabrications?

“Now, suppose that a magician or magician’s apprentice were to display a magic trick at a major intersection, and a man with good eyesight were to see it, observe it, & appropriately examine it. To him—seeing it, observing it, & appropriately examining it—it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance would there be in a magic trick? In the same way, a monk sees, observes, & appropriately examines any consciousness that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near. To him—seeing it, observing it, & appropriately examining it—it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance would there be in consciousness?” — SN 22:95

Craving for Becoming & Non-becoming

§ 125. Ven. Ānanda: “This word, ‘becoming, becoming’—to what extent is there becoming?”

The Buddha: “If there were no kamma ripening in the sensuality-property, would sensuality-becoming be discerned?”

Ven. Ānanda: “No, lord.”

The Buddha: “Thus kamma is the field, consciousness the seed, and craving the moisture. The consciousness of living beings hindered by ignorance & fettered by craving is established in/tuned to a lower property. Thus there is the production of renewed becoming in the future.

“If there were no kamma ripening in the form-property, would form-becoming be discerned?”

Ven. Ānanda: “No, lord.”

The Buddha: “Thus kamma is the field, consciousness the seed, and craving the moisture. The consciousness of living beings hindered by ignorance & fettered by craving is established in/tuned to a middling property. Thus there is the production of renewed becoming in the future.

“If there were no kamma ripening in the formless-property, would formless-becoming be discerned?”

Ven. Ānanda: “No, lord.”

The Buddha: “Thus kamma is the field, consciousness the seed, and craving the moisture. The consciousness of living beings hindered by ignorance & fettered by craving is established in/tuned to a refined property. Thus there is the production of renewed becoming in the future. This is how there is becoming.” — AN 3:76

§ 126. “And which craving is the ensnarer that has flowed along, spread out, and caught hold, with which this world is smothered & enveloped like a tangled skein, a knotted ball of string, like matted rushes and reeds, and does not go beyond transmigration, beyond the planes of deprivation, woe, & bad destinations? These 18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is internal and 18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is external.

“And which are the 18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is internal? There being ‘I am,’ there comes to be ‘I am here,’ there comes to be ‘I am like this’ … ‘I am otherwise’ … ‘I am bad’ … ‘I am good’ … ‘I might be’ … ‘I might be here’ … ‘I might be like this’ … ‘I might be otherwise’ … ‘May I be’ … ‘May I be here’ … ‘May I be like this’ … ‘May I be otherwise’ … ‘I will be’ … ‘I will be here’ … ‘I will be like this’ … ‘I will be otherwise.’ These are the 18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is internal.

“And which are the 18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is external? There being ‘I am because of this [or: by means of this],’ there comes to be ‘I am here because of this,’ there comes to be ‘I am like this because of this’ … ‘I am otherwise because of this’ … ‘I am bad because of this’ … ‘I am good because of this’ … ‘I might be because of this’ … ‘I might be here because of this’ … ‘I might be like this because of this’ … ‘I might be otherwise because of this’ … ‘May I be because of this’ … ‘May I be here because of this’ … ‘May I be like this because of this’ … ‘May I be otherwise because of this’ … ‘I will be because of this’ … ‘I will be here because of this’ … ‘I will be like this because of this’ … ‘I will be otherwise because of this.’ These are the 18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is external.

“Thus there are 18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is internal and 18 craving-verbalizations dependent on what is external. These are called the 36 craving-verbalizations. Thus, with 36 craving-verbalizations of this sort in the past, 36 in the future, and 36 in the present, there are 108 craving-verbalizations.

“This, monks is the craving that’s the ensnarer that has flowed along, spread out, and caught hold, with which this world is smothered & enveloped like a tangled skein, a knotted ball of string, like matted rushes and reeds, and does not go beyond transmigration, beyond the planes of deprivation, woe, & bad destinations.” — AN 4:199

§ 128. “Now, as for those contemplatives & brahmans who describe the destruction, annihilation, & non-becoming of the existing being after death, they criticize the contemplatives & brahmans who describe the self as percipient & free from disease after death and they criticize the contemplatives & brahmans who describe the self as non-percipient & free from disease after death and they criticize the contemplatives & brahmans who describe the self as neither percipient nor non-percipient & free from disease after death. For what reason? (They say,) ‘These venerable contemplatives & brahmans, rushing ahead, assert nothing but their attachment: “I will be this after death. I will be this after death.” Just as when a merchant going to market thinks, “From this, that will be mine. By means of this I will get that”; in the same way, these venerable contemplatives & brahmans act like merchants, as it were: “I will be this after death. I will be this after death.”’

“With regard to this, the Tathāgata discerns that “Those venerable contemplative & brahmans who describe the destruction, annihilation, & non-becoming of the existing being after death, they—through fear of self-identity, through disgust for self-identity—(nevertheless) keep running & circling around self-identity. Just as a dog, tied by a leash to a post or stake, keeps running around and circling around that very post or stake; in the same way, these venerable contemplative & brahmans—through fear of self-identity, through disgust for self-identity—(nevertheless) keep running & circling around self-identity. With regard to that—fabricated, gross—there is still the cessation of fabrications: There is this.’ Knowing that, seeing the escape from it, the Tathāgata has gone beyond it.” — MN 102

§ 129. “Overcome by two viewpoints, some devas & human adhere, other devas & human beings slip right past, while those with vision see.

“And how do some adhere? Devas & human beings enjoy becoming, delight in becoming, are satisfied with becoming. When the Dhamma is being taught for the sake of the cessation of becoming, their minds do not take to it, are not calmed by it, do not settle on it or become resolved on it. This is how some adhere.

“And how do some slip right past? Some, feeling horrified, humiliated, & disgusted with that very becoming, relish non-becoming: ‘When this self, at the break-up of the body, after death, perishes & is destroyed, and does not exist after death, that is peaceful, that is exquisite, that is sufficiency!’ This is how some slip right past.

“And how do those with vision see? There is the case where a monk sees what’s come to be as what’s come to be. Seeing what’s come to be as what’s come to be, he practices for disenchantment with what’s come to be, dispassion toward what’s come to be, cessation of what’s come to be. This is how those with vision see.”

Dependent Co-arising

§ 130. Ven. Sāriputta said, “’Right view, right view’ it is said. To what extent is a disciple of the noble ones a person of right view, one whose view is made straight, who is endowed with verified confidence in the Dhamma, and who has arrived at this True Dhamma?”

“We would come from a long distance, friend, to learn the meaning of these words in Ven. Sāriputta’s presence. It would be good if Ven. Sāriputta himself would enlighten us as to their meaning. Having listened to him, the monks will bear it in mind.”

“Then in that case, friends, listen & pay close attention. I will speak.”

“As you say, friend,” the monks responded to him.

SKILLFUL & UNSKILLFUL

Ven. Sāriputta said, “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns what is unskillful, discerns the root of what is unskillful, discerns what is skillful, and discerns the root of what is skillful, it is to that extent that he is a person of right view, one whose view is made straight, who is endowed with verified confidence in the Dhamma, and who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is unskillful? Taking life is unskillful, taking what is not given… sexual misconduct… lying… divisive speech… harsh speech… idle chatter is unskillful. Covetousness… ill will… wrong views are unskillful. These things are called unskillful.

“And what are the roots of what is unskillful? Greed is a root of what is unskillful, aversion is a root of what is unskillful, delusion is a root of what is unskillful. These are called the roots of what is unskillful.

“And what is skillful? Abstaining from taking life is skillful, abstaining from taking what is not given… from sexual misconduct… from lying… from divisive speech… harsh speech… abstaining from idle chatter is skillful. Lack of covetousness… lack of ill will… right views are skillful. These things are called skillful.

“And what are the roots of what is skillful? Lack of greed is a root of what is skillful, lack of aversion… lack of delusion is a root of what is skillful. These are called the roots of what is skillful.

“When a disciple of the noble ones discerns what is unskillful in this way, discerns the root of what is unskillful in this way, discerns what is skillful in this way, and discerns the root of what is skillful in this way, when—having entirely abandoned passion-obsession, having abolished aversion-obsession, having uprooted the view-&-conceit obsession ‘I am’; having abandoned ignorance & given rise to clear knowing—he has put an end to suffering & stress right in the here-&-now, it is to this extent that a disciple of the noble ones is a person of right view, one whose view is made straight, who is endowed with verified confidence in the Dhamma, and who has arrived at this True Dhamma.”

NUTRIMENT

Saying “Good, friend,” having delighted in and approved of Ven. Sāriputta’s words, the monks asked him a further question: “Would there be another line of reasoning by which a disciple of the noble ones is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma?”

“There would. When a disciple of the noble ones discerns nutriment, the origination of nutriment, the cessation of nutriment, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of nutriment, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is nutriment? What is the origination of nutriment? What is the cessation of nutriment? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of nutriment?

“There are these four nutriments for the maintenance of beings who have come to be or for the support of those in search of a place to be born. Which four? Physical food, gross or refined; contact as the second, intellectual intention the third, and consciousness the fourth. From the origination of craving comes the origination of nutriment. From the cessation of craving comes the cessation of nutriment. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of nutriment is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

STRESS

… “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns stress, the origination of stress, the cessation of stress, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is stress? Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful; separation from the loved is stressful; not getting what one wants is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful. This is called stress.

“What is the origination of stress? The craving that makes for further becoming—accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there—i.e., craving for sensuality, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming. This is called the origination of stress.

“And what is the cessation of stress? The remainderless dispassioning & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving. This is called the cessation of stress.

“And what is the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress? Just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

AGING-&-DEATH

… “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns aging-&-death, the origination of aging-&-death, the cessation of aging-&-death, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of aging-&-death, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is aging-&-death? What is the origination of aging-&-death? What is the cessation of aging-&-death? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of aging-&-death?

“Whatever aging, decrepitude, brokenness, graying, wrinkling, decline of life-force, weakening of the faculties of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called aging. Whatever deceasing, passing away, breaking up, disappearance, dying, death, completion of time, break up of the aggregates, casting off of the body, interruption in the life faculty of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called death. This aging & this death are called aging-&-death.

From the origination of birth comes the origination of aging-&-death. From the cessation of birth comes the cessation of aging-&-death. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of aging-&-death is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

BIRTH

… “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns birth, the origination of birth, the cessation of birth, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of birth, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is birth? What is the origination of birth? What is the cessation of birth? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of birth?

”Whatever birth, taking birth, descent, coming-to-be, coming-forth, appearance of aggregates, & acquisition of [sense] spheres of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called birth.

“From the origination of becoming comes the origination of birth. From the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of birth. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of birth is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

BECOMING

… “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns becoming, the origination of becoming, the cessation of becoming, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of becoming, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is becoming? What is the origination of becoming? What is the cessation of becoming? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of becoming?

“There are these three becomings: sensual becoming, form becoming, & formless becoming. This is called becoming.

“From the origination of clinging comes the origination of becoming. From the cessation of clinging comes the cessation of becoming. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of becoming is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

CLINGING

… “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns clinging, the origination of clinging, the cessation of clinging, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of clinging, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is clinging? What is the origination of clinging? What is the cessation of clinging? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of clinging?

“There are these four clingings: sensuality clinging, view clinging, habit-&-practice clinging, and self-doctrine clinging. This is called clinging.

“From the origination of craving comes the origination of clinging. From the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of clinging is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

CRAVING

… “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns craving, the origination of craving, the cessation of craving, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of craving, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is craving? What is the origination of craving? What is the cessation of craving? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of craving?

“There are these six cravings: craving for forms, craving for sounds, craving for smells, craving for tastes, craving for tactile sensations, craving for ideas. This is called craving.

“From the origination of feeling comes the origination of craving. From the cessation of feeling comes the cessation of craving. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of craving is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

FEELING

… “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns feeling, the origination of feeling, the cessation of feeling, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of feeling, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is feeling? What is the origination of feeling? What is the cessation of feeling? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of feeling?

“There are these six feelings: feeling born from eye-contact, feeling born from ear-contact, feeling born from nose-contact, feeling born from tongue-contact, feeling born from body-contact, feeling born from intellect-contact. This is called feeling.

“From the origination of contact comes the origination of feeling. From the cessation of contact comes the cessation of feeling. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of feeling is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

CONTACT

… “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns contact, the origination of contact, the cessation of contact, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of contact, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is contact? What is the origination of contact? What is the cessation of contact? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of contact?

“There are these six classes of contact: eye-contact, ear-contact, nose-contact, tongue-contact, body-contact, intellect-contact: This is called contact.

“From the origination of the six sense media comes the origination of contact. From the cessation of the six sense media comes the cessation of contact. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of contact is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

SIX SENSE MEDIA

… “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns the six sense media, the origination of the six sense media, the cessation of the six sense media, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of the six sense media, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what are the six sense media? What is the origination of the six sense media? What is the cessation of the six sense media? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of the six sense media?

“There are these six sense media: the eye-medium, the ear-medium, the nose-medium, the tongue-medium, the body-medium, the intellect-medium: These are called the six sense media.

“From the origination of name-&-form comes the origination of the six sense media. From the cessation of name-&-form comes the cessation of the six sense media. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of the six sense media is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

NAME-&-FORM

… “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns name-&-form, the origination of name-&-form, the cessation of name-&-form, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of name-&-form, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is name-&-form? What is the origination of name-&-form? What is the cessation of name-&-form? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of name-&-form?

“Feeling, perception, intention, contact, & attention: This is called name. The four great elements, and the form dependent on the four great elements: This is called form. This name & this form are called name-&-form.

“From the origination of consciousness comes the origination of name-&-form. From the cessation of consciousness comes the cessation of name-&-form. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of name-&-form is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

CONSCIOUSNESS

… “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns consciousness, the origination of consciousness, the cessation of consciousness, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of consciousness, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is consciousness? What is the origination of consciousness? What is the cessation of consciousness? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of consciousness?

“There are these six classes of consciousness: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, intellect-consciousness. This is called consciousness.

“From the origination of fabrication comes the origination of consciousness. From the cessation of fabrication comes the cessation of consciousness. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of consciousness is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

FABRICATION

… “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns fabrication, the origination of fabrication, the cessation of fabrication, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of fabrication, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is fabrication? What is the origination of fabrication? What is the cessation of fabrication? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of fabrication?

“There are these three fabrications: bodily fabrication, verbal fabrication, mental fabrication. These are called fabrication.

“From the origination of ignorance comes the origination of fabrication. From the cessation of ignorance comes the cessation of fabrication. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of fabrication is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

IGNORANCE

… “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns ignorance, the origination of ignorance, the cessation of ignorance, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of ignorance, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is ignorance? What is the origination of ignorance? What is the cessation of ignorance? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of ignorance?

“Any lack of knowledge with reference to stress, any lack of knowledge with reference to the origination of stress, any lack of knowledge with reference to the cessation of stress, any lack of knowledge with reference to the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: This is called ignorance.

“From the origination of effluent comes the origination of ignorance. From the cessation of effluent comes the cessation of ignorance. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of ignorance is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.…

EFFLUENT

Saying “Good, friend,” having delighted in and approved of Ven. Sāriputta’s words, the monks asked him a further question: “Would there be another line of reasoning by which a disciple of the noble ones is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma?”

“There would. When a disciple of the noble ones discerns effluent, the origination of effluent, the cessation of effluent, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of effluent, then he is a person of right view… who has arrived at this True Dhamma.

“And what is effluent? What is the origination of effluent? What is the cessation of effluent? What is the way of practice leading to the cessation of effluent?

“There are these three effluents: the effluent of sensuality, the effluent of becoming, the effluent of ignorance. This is called effluent.

“From the origination of ignorance comes the origination of effluent. From the cessation of ignorance comes the cessation of effluent. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of effluent is just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

“Now, when a disciple of the noble ones discerns effluent, the origination of effluent, the cessation of effluent, and the way of practice leading to the cessation of effluent in this way, when—having entirely abandoned passion-obsession, having abolished aversion-obsession, having uprooted the view-&-conceit obsession ‘I am’; having abandoned ignorance & given rise to clear knowing—he has put an end to suffering & stress right in the here-&-now, it is to this extent, too, that a disciple of the noble ones is a person of right view, one whose view is made straight, who is endowed with verified confidence in the Dhamma, and who has arrived at this True Dhamma.”

That is what Ven. Sāriputta said. Gratified, the monks delighted in Ven. Sāriputta’s words. — MN 9

§ 131. Visākha: “Now, lady, what are fabrications?”

Sister Dhammadinnā: “These three fabrications, friend Visākha: bodily fabrications, verbal fabrications, & mental fabrications.… In-&-out breaths are bodily; these are things tied up with the body. That’s why in-&-out breaths are bodily fabrications. Having first directed one’s thoughts and made an evaluation, one then breaks out into speech. That’s why directed thought & evaluation are verbal fabrications. Perceptions & feelings are mental; these are things tied up with the mind. That’s why perceptions & feelings are mental fabrications.” — MN 44

Final Right View

§ 132. Then Anāthapiṇḍika the householder went to where the wanderers of other sects were staying. On arrival he greeted them courteously. After an exchange of friendly greetings & courtesies, he sat to one side. As he was sitting there, the wanderers said to him, “Tell us, householder, what views Gotama the contemplative has.”

“Venerable sirs, I don’t know entirely what views the Blessed One has.”

“Well, well. So you don’t know entirely what views Gotama the contemplative has. Then tell us what views the monks have.”

“I don’t even know entirely what views the monks have.”

“So you don’t know entirely what views Gotama the contemplative has or even that the monks have. Then tell us what views you have.”

“It wouldn’t be difficult for me to expound to you what views I have. But please let the venerable ones expound each in line with his view-standpoint, and then it won’t be difficult for me to expound to you what views I have.”

When this had been said, one of the wanderers said to Anāthapiṇḍika the householder, “The cosmos is eternal. Only this is true; anything otherwise is worthless. This is the sort of view I have.”

Another wanderer said to Anāthapiṇḍika, “The cosmos is not eternal. Only this is true; anything otherwise is worthless. This is the sort of view I have.”

Another wanderer said, “The cosmos is finite…”…”The cosmos is infinite…”…”The soul is the same thing as the body…”…”The soul is one thing and the body another…”…”After death a Tathāgata exists…”…”After death a Tathāgata does not exist…”…”After death a Tathāgata both does & does not exist…”…”After death a Tathāgata neither exists nor does not exist. Only this is true; anything otherwise is worthless. This is the sort of view I have.”

When this had been said, Anāthapiṇḍika the householder said to the wanderers, “As for the venerable one who says, ‘The cosmos is eternal. Only this is true; anything otherwise is worthless. This is the sort of view I have,’ his view arises from his own inappropriate attention or in dependence on the words of another. Now, this view has been brought into being, is fabricated, willed, dependently co-arisen. Whatever has been brought into being, is fabricated, willed, dependently co-arisen: That is inconstant. Whatever is inconstant is stressful. This venerable one thus adheres to that very stress, submits himself to that very stress.” [Similarly for the other view-standpoints.]

When this had been said, the wanderers said to Anāthapiṇḍika the householder, “We have each & every one expounded to you in line with our own view-standpoints. Now tell us what views you have.”

“Whatever has been brought into being, is fabricated, willed, dependently co-arisen: That is inconstant. Whatever is inconstant is stressful. Whatever is stressful is not me, is not what I am, is not my self. This is the sort of view I have.”

“So, householder, whatever has been brought into being, is fabricated, willed, dependently co-arisen: That is inconstant. Whatever is inconstant is stressful. You thus adhere to that very stress, submit yourself to that very stress.”

“Venerable sirs, whatever has been brought into being, is fabricated, willed, dependently co-arisen: That is inconstant. Whatever is inconstant is stressful. Whatever is stressful is not me, is not what I am, is not my self. Having seen this well with right discernment as it has come to be, I also discern the higher escape from it as it has come to be.”

When this was said, the wanderers fell silent, abashed, sitting with their shoulders drooping, their heads down, brooding, at a loss for words. Anāthapiṇḍika the householder, sensing that the wanderers were silent, abashed… at a loss for words, got up & went to the Blessed One. On arrival, having bowed down to the Blessed One, he sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he told the Blessed One the entirety of his discussion with the wanderers.

[The Blessed One said,] “Well done, householder. Well done. That is how you should periodically & righteously refute those foolish men.” Then he instructed, urged, roused, & encouraged Anāthapiṇḍika the householder with a talk on Dhamma. When Anāthapiṇḍika the householder had been instructed, urged, roused, & encouraged by the Blessed One with a talk on Dhamma, he got up from his seat and, having bowed down to the Blessed One, left, keeping the Blessed One on his right side. Not long afterward, the Blessed One addressed the monks: “Monks, even a monk who has long penetrated the Dhamma in this Dhamma & Vinaya would do well, periodically & righteously, to refute the wanderers of other sects in just the way Anāthapiṇḍika the householder has done.” — AN 10:93

§ 133. “When those contemplatives & brahmans assert various types of theories… on 62 grounds, that is an agitation & vacillation to be felt by those contemplatives & brahmans who, not knowing, not seeing, are immersed in craving.… That comes from contact as a requisite condition.… That they would experience that other than through contact: That isn’t possible.… They all experience that through repeated contact at the six sense media. For them, from feeling as a requisite condition comes craving. From craving as a requisite condition comes clinging/sustenance. From clinging/sustenance as a requisite condition comes becoming. From becoming as a requisite condition comes birth. From birth as a requisite condition, then aging-&-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair come into play. Such is the origination of this entire mass of stress & suffering.

“But when a monk discerns the origination, ending, allure, drawbacks of, & emancipation from the six sense media, he discerns what is higher than all of this.” — DN 1

§ 134. “What do you think, Māluṅkyaputta? The forms cognizable via the eye that are unseen by you—that you have never before seen, that you don’t see, and that are not to be seen by you: Do you have any desire or passion or love there?”

“No, lord.”

“The sounds cognizable via the ear…

“The aromas cognizable via the nose…

“The flavors cognizable via the tongue…

“The tactile sensations cognizable via the body…

“The ideas cognizable via the intellect that are uncognized by you–the you have never before cognized, that you don’t cognize, and that are not to be cognized by you: Do you have any desire or passion or love there?”

“No, lord.”

“Then, Māluṅkyaputta, with regard to phenomena to be seen, heard, sensed, or cognized: In reference to the seen, there will be only the seen. In reference to the heard, only the heard. In reference to the sensed, only the sensed. In reference to the cognized, only the cognized. That is how your should train yourself. When for you there will be only the seen in reference to the seen, only the heard in reference to the heard, only the sensed in reference to the sensed, only the cognized in reference to the cognized, then, Māluṅkyaputta, there is no you in connection with that. When there is no you in connection with that, there is no you there. When there is no you there, you are neither here nor there nor between the two. This, just this, is the end of stress.” — SN 35:95

§ 135. Then Ven. Kaccāyana Gotta approached the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he said to the Blessed One: “Lord, ‘Right view, right view,’ it is said. To what extent is there right view?”

“By & large, Kaccāyana, this world is supported by/takes as its object a polarity, that of existence & non-existence. But when one sees the origination of the world with right discernment as it has come to be, ‘non-existence’ with reference to the world does not occur to one. When one sees the cessation of the world with right discernment as it has come to be, ‘existence’ with reference to the world does not occur to one.

“By & large, Kaccāyana, this world is in bondage to attachments, clingings, & biases. But one such as this does not get involved with or cling to these attachments, clingings, fixations of awareness, biases, or obsessions; nor is he resolved on ‘my self.’ He has no uncertainty or doubt that mere stress, when arising, is arising; stress, when passing away, is passing away. In this, his knowledge is independent of others. It’s to this extent, Kaccāyana, that there is right view.

“‘All exists’: That is one extreme. ‘All doesn’t exist’: That is a second extreme. Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathāgata teaches the Dhamma via the middle:

From ignorance as a requisite condition come fabrications.

From fabrications as a requisite condition comes consciousness.

From consciousness as a requisite condition comes name-&-form.

From name-&-form as a requisite condition come the six sense media.

From the six sense media as a requisite condition comes contact.

From contact as a requisite condition comes feeling.

From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving.

From craving as a requisite condition comes clinging/sustenance.

From clinging/sustenance as a requisite condition comes becoming.

From becoming as a requisite condition comes birth.

From birth as a requisite condition, then aging-&-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair come into play. Such is the origination of this entire mass of stress and suffering.

“Now, from the remainderless dispassioning & cessation of that very ignorance comes the cessation of fabrications. From the cessation of fabrications comes the cessation of consciousness. From the cessation of consciousness comes the cessation of name-&-form. From the cessation of name-&-form comes the cessation of the six sense media. From the cessation of the six sense media comes the cessation of contact. From the cessation of contact comes the cessation of feeling. From the cessation of feeling comes the cessation of craving. From the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging/sustenance. From the cessation of clinging/sustenance comes the cessation of becoming. From the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of birth. From the cessation of birth, then aging-&-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair all cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of stress and suffering.” — SN 12:15

§ 136. “From the abandoning of craving, action [kamma] is abandoned. From the abandoning of action, stress is abandoned.

“Thus, Udāyin, from the ending of craving comes the ending of action; from the ending of action, the ending of stress.” — SN 46:26

§ 137. “There is the case, Moggallāna, where a monk has heard, ‘All dhammas are unworthy of attachment.’ Having heard that all dhammas are unworthy of attachment, he directly knows every dhamma. Directly knowing every dhamma, he comprehends every dhamma. Comprehending every dhamma, then whatever feeling he experiences—pleasure, pain, neither pleasure nor pain—he remains focused on inconstancy, focused on dispassion, focused on cessation, focused on relinquishing with regard to that feeling. As he remains focused on inconstancy, focused on dispassion, focused on cessation, focused on relinquishing with regard to that feeling, he is unsustained by [doesn’t cling to] anything in the world. Unsustained, he isn’t agitated. Unagitated, he totally unbinds right within. He discerns: ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.’

“It’s in this respect, Moggallāna, 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 devas & human beings.” — AN 7:58

§ 138. “This, monks, the Tathāgata discerns. And he discerns that these standpoints, thus seized, thus grasped at, lead to such & such a destination, to such & such a state in the world beyond. And he discerns what is higher than this. And yet discerning that, he does not grasp at that act of discerning. And as he is not grasping at it, unbinding [nibbuti] is experienced right within. Knowing, as they have come to be, the origin, ending, allure, & drawbacks of feelings, along with the escape from feelings, the Tathāgata, monks—through lack of clinging/sustenance —is released.” — DN 1

On Not Confusing Levels of Right View

§ 139. Then Potaliputta the wanderer, while walking & wandering around to exercise his legs, went to Ven. Samiddhi and exchanged courteous greetings with him. After an exchange of friendly greetings & courtesies, he sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he said to Ven. Samiddhi, “Face to face with Gotama the contemplative have I heard this, face to face have I learned this: ‘Bodily action is barren, verbal action is barren, only mental action is true. And there is an attainment in which, on being attained, nothing is felt.’”

“Don’t say that, friend. Don’t slander the Blessed One. For it’s not good to slander the Blessed One; the Blessed One would not say that: ‘Bodily action is barren, verbal action is barren, only mental action is true.’ But there is, friend, an attainment in which, on being attained, nothing is felt.”

“How long has it been, friend Samiddhi, since you went forth (into homelessness)?”

“Not long, friend. Three years.”

“Then what now should I say about the elder monks, when a junior monk would suppose that his Teacher is to be defended in this way? Having intentionally done an action with body, with speech, or with mind, what does one experience?”

“Having intentionally done an action with body, with speech, or with mind, one experiences stress.”

Then Potaliputta the wanderer neither delighted in nor scorned Ven. Samiddhi’s words. Neither delighting nor scorning, he got up from his seat and left.

[Ven. Samiddhi reports this conversation to Ven. Ānanda, who then—taking Samiddhi along—takes him to the Buddha and reports the conversation to him.]

When this was said, the Blessed One said, “I do not recall even having seen Potaliputta the wanderer, much less having that sort of discussion. And his question, which deserved an analytical answer, has been given a categorical answer by this worthless man, Samiddhi.”

When this was said, Ven. Udāyin said to the Blessed One, “But what if Ven. Samiddhi was speaking in reference to this: ‘Whatever is felt comes under stress’?”

When this was said, the Blessed One said to Ven. Ānanda, “Look, Ānanda, at how this worthless Udāyin interrupts. I knew just now that he would interrupt in an inappropriate way. From the very beginning, Potaliputta the wanderer was asking about the three kinds of feeling. When this worthless Samiddhi was asked by him in this way, he should have answered, ‘Having intentionally done—with body, with speech, or with mind—an action that is to be felt as pleasure, one experiences pleasure. Having intentionally done—with body, with speech, or with mind—an action that is to be felt as pain, one experiences pain. Having intentionally done—with body, with speech, or with mind—an action that is to be felt as neither-pleasure-nor-pain, one experiences neither-pleasure-nor-pain. Answering this way, this worthless Samiddhi would have rightly answered Potaliputta the wanderer.” — MN 136

§ 140. “Monks, it’s not that I dispute with the world, but that the world disputes with me. A proponent of the Dhamma doesn’t dispute with anyone with regard to the world. Whatever is agreed upon by the wise as not existing in the world, of that I too say, ‘It doesn’t exist.’ Whatever is agreed upon by the wise as existing in the world, of that I too say, ‘It exists.’

“And what is agreed upon by the wise as not existing in the world that I too say, ‘It doesn’t exist’?

“Form that’s constant, permanent, eternal, not subject to change is agreed upon by the wise as not existing in the world, and I too say, ‘It doesn’t exist.’

“Feeling that’s constant…

“Perception that’s constant…

“Fabrications that are constant…

“Consciousness that’s constant, permanent, eternal, not subject to change is agreed upon by the wise as not existing in the world, and I too say, ‘It doesn’t exist.’

“And what is agreed upon by the wise as existing in the world that I too say, ‘It exists’?

“Form that’s inconstant, stressful, subject to change is agreed upon by the wise as existing in the world, and I too say, ‘It exists.’

“Feeling that’s inconstant…

“Perception that’s inconstant…

“Fabrications that are inconstant…

“Consciousness that’s inconstant, stressful, subject to change is agreed upon by the wise as existing in the world, and I too say, ‘It exists.’” — SN 22:94 [Compare with §135, above]