No.
33 2nd Mailing 1996
If the task of practising
the Dhamma while living in the world has always been
difficult, our modern commercial culture has stretched that difficulty by leaps
and bounds. No longer is it the case that the desires to be tamed by Dhamma practice are the simple, relatively innocent urges
implanted in us by nature or stimulated by a basic subsistence economy. Like
unsuspecting fish caught in a net, we move within the coils of a global social
and economic order predicated on the premise that the essential human activity
is the production and consumption of commodities. From the standpoint of this
system, the final good of human life is to purchase and enjoy goods, and the combined ingenuity of laboratory
researchers and business magnates ensures that the goods to be enjoyed pour
forth in inexhaustible variety.
The law that governs the global economic order is a
simple one: never allow desire to abate. The media of communication, our modern
miracle workers, employ every strategy at their disposal to ensure that this
calamity will not befall us. Through an uninterrupted series of messages they
contrive to inflame our fantasies and titillate our appetites with an intensity
that would banish the word "enough" from our vocabulary. But despite
its mammoth dimensions and global reach, the entire corporate culture rests
upon a pervasive illusion that has become so widespread that it seems almost a
self-evident truth. This is the idea that happiness is proportional to the
quantity and monetary value of our possessions. We are led to believe that by
extending our financial assets, by acquiring ownership over more and more
goods, we thereby come closer to the
good, to becoming happier, more contented, more deeply fulfilled human beings.
Yet this belief, this assumption so rarely questioned, is precisely the magical
trick, the sleight-of-hand deception, that creates the prison cage of our
misery. For so long as we seek happiness by trying to quench desire, the more
we strengthen our bondage to the implacable demands of desire. The Suttas compare this process to the attempt to slake thirst
by drinking sea water: far from eliminating thirst, the sea water will only
increase it.
At the heart of the consumerist culture we find
this puzzling paradox, that when we pursue wealth as an end in itself, instead
of arriving at true happiness, we only seem further removed from it. This
conclusion is easily confirmed if we examine the lives of those who come
closest to fulfilling the consumerist dream. Those who enjoy the most abundant
wealth, who exercise the greatest power, who revel in luxuriant pleasures, are
rarely models of contentment. To the contrary, they often live on the edge of
despair and can avoid slipping over the edge only by kindling again and again
the quest for more wealth, more power, and more pleasure in a viciously
degrading cycle.
When we reflect on this situation in the light of
the Buddha's teaching, the reason for the perpetual failure of consumerism stands
forth in clear relief. The reason, as the Buddha tells us so succinctly, is
that craving is the cause of suffering. By its own nature craving is
insatiable, and thus the more our personal lives are governed by the assumption
that the gratification of craving is the way to happiness, the more we are
bound to reap disappointment. When an entire society is founded upon the
principles of consumerism, upon the drive to produce and sell without concern
for genuine human needs, the outcome may well be catastrophic.
According to the Buddha's teaching the way to
genuine happiness does not lie in the indulgence of desire but in uncovering
and eliminating the cause of suffering, which in practical terms means the
control and removal of craving. To adopt such an approach is not a matter of
forcing oneself into the mould of a cold puritanical asceticism. The Dhamma is a gradual teaching which instructs us how to
order our lives in ways that are immediately rewarding and gratifying. It does
not promote personal development by demands for repression and self-affliction,
but by gently offering us practical guidelines applicable to our present
circumstances, guidelines that help us grow towards genuine happiness and
peace.
For those involved in civilian life, seeking to raise
a family and to forge their fortune within the world, the Buddha does not
enjoin ascetic withdrawal from social and civilian obligations. He recommends,
rather, a life regulated by moral values aimed at the cultivation of wholesome
qualities of mind. To his lay disciples he does not even decry the accumulation
of wealth or extol poverty as a preferred alternative. He recommends only that
wealth be acquired by right livelihood and be utilized
in meaningful ways to promote the happiness of oneself and others.
In his advice to the village headman Rāsiya (SN 42:12) the Buddha describes three praiseworthy
qualities in a householder who enjoys sense pleasures: he acquires wealth
righteously; he makes himself happy and comfortable with the wealth thus
earned; and he shares his wealth and does meritorious deeds. The practice of
meritorious deeds introduces a spiritual dimension to the proper employment of
wealth, a dimension based on the recognition that greater happiness comes from
giving than from gaining. To give is not only a way to reduce our greed and
attachment, not only a way to acquire merit productive of future benefits, but
a directly visible source of joy which provides immediate confirmation of the
central pillar on which the entire Dhamma rests: that
the path to happiness is one of relinquishment rather than one of accumulation.
But while the Buddha praises the virtuous
householder who possesses the above three qualities, he does not stop there. He
introduces a fourth quality which distinguishes the virtuous lay followers into
two groups: on one side, those who enjoy sense pleasures while remaining tied
to them, blind to the danger and unaware of an escape; on the other, those who
enjoy sense pleasures without being tied to them, seeing the danger and aware
of an escape. It is the second of these that the Buddha declares superior. This
pronouncement offers us an insight into the Buddha's final solution to the
challenge posed by consumerism. The final solution is not a limp compromise
between indulgence and virtue, but a bold, decisive step in the direction of
detachment, an inner renunciation that enables one to rise above the whole
round of production and consumption even while living within its boundaries.
The incentive for this movement comes from seeing the danger: from recognizing
that there is no stable happiness to be gained by the pursuit of sense
pleasures, from seeing that sense pleasures "give little satisfaction and
are productive of much suffering." Its completion comes from recognizing
an escape: that the removal of desire and lust brings an unshakeable peace and
freedom that is not contingent upon external circumstances.
Although it may be
difficult to master desire for material things within the confines of household
life, the Buddha, in his wisdom, created a model for the greater Buddhist
community to emulate, indeed a model for the world as a whole. This is the Sangha, the order of monks and nuns, pledged to a mode of
living in which needs are reduced to the most basic and their satisfaction
provided in the simplest ways. While only a few may have the opportunity and
capacity to leave behind the household life in order to devote their energies
unhindered to the task of self-purification, the ideal Buddhist social order
forms a pyramid in which those at the apex, dedicated to the ultimate goal of
deliverance, serve as the models and teachers for those still enmeshed in the
demands of economic subsistence.
By their purity, peacefulness, and wisdom the monastics demonstrate to the lay community, and to all
those who have eyes to see, where true happiness is to be found. They show that
happiness is to be found, not in acquisition and self-indulgence, but in
freedom from desire, in renunciation and detachment. Whether as lay disciple or
as monk, to enter the course of training that culminates in such freedom is to
walk evenly within the uneven terrain of the world. It is to recover, even with
one's initial steps, a balance of living so sorely needed amidst the loud
demands and hollow promises of our rapacious consumerist culture.
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Publications
Recent
Releases
An Unentangled
Knowing: Lessons in Training the Mind.
Upāsikā
Kee Nanayon (Acharn Kor Khao-suan-luang).
This book offers an inspiring collection of discourses by one of the foremost
woman Dhamma teachers of modern
Softback: 176 pages6" x 9"
The
Buddha's Ancient Path. Piyadassi Thera. An authentic and comprehensive book on Basic Buddhism, 30 years in
print. (Reprint)
Softback: 240 pages 5.5" x 8.5"
Ready
for the Press
Great
Disciples of the Buddha.
Ven. Nyanaponika Thera & Hellmuth Hecker.
This volume combines all past issues of our Wheel titles in the "Lives of
the Disciples" series.
Abhidhamma Studies:
Researches in Buddhist Psychology.
Nyanaponika Thera. Bold and brilliant essays on the foundations of the Abhidhamma philosophy, highlighting its significance for
the spiritual life.
Note:
While preparatory work on the above two titles is complete, we have entered
into co-publication arrangements with Wisdom Publications (Boston) to ensure
that they receive a wider international distribution; we are expecting
publication to take place in the course of 1997.
In
Preparation
The Dhammapada:
The Buddha's Path of Wisdom.
Translated by Acharya Buddharakkhita;
introduction by Bhikkhu Bodhi.
This revised reprint of our classic Dhammapada will
include as well the Pali text on facing pages.
The Seven
Contemplations of Insight. Ven. Mātara Sri Nāõārāma Mahāthera. A profound
examination of the "seven contemplations" of classical Buddhism and
of the actual way they are experienced in the course of meditation, by one of
Sri Lanka's foremost meditation masters of recent times.
[Editor's
Note: As there have been many inquiries about this book and puzzlement over the
inordinate delay, we must offer an explanation: In August 1995 we sent the
printout of the translation to the editor of the Sinhala
version for him to check against the original Sinhala
text and return. His share of the work has been delayed by several trips abroad,
but he has now assured us that he will finish the work promptly. (BB)]
A
Treasury of Buddhist Stories.
This volume will combine into a single full-size book the four BPS Wheel issues
entitled Buddhist Stories from the Dhammapada Commentary, an anthology compiled from
Notes and
News
Art Exhibition. From February 10-23 the BPS held its first-ever art exhibition in the upstairs lecture hall
at the BPS headquarters. The exhibition, entitled "The Vision of Dhamma" featured 108 watercolours
by Bhikkhu Sumedha, one of
Europe's most gifted contemporary painters, who has lived in
Honours for Majjhima
Nikāya. Last year The Middle Length
Discourses of the Buddha, the new translation of the Majjhima
Nikāya by Bhikkhu Nā¤amoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi, published jointly by Wisdom Publications and the
BPS, received two special honours. The U.S. Buddhist
journal Tricycle selected the book as
the recipient of its annual Prize for Excellence in Buddhist Publishing (in the
category "Dharma Discourse"), recognizing it as a work of translation
"remarkable both in its scope and in its contemporary rendering of the
Buddha's words." The academic journal Choice,
published to guide university libraries in the selection of books, selected The Middle Length Discourses as one of
the "Outstanding Academic Books of 1995," describing it as "an
indispensable addition to any collection of Buddhist studies."
Translations. We wish to call the attention of our readers to
translations of BPS titles and other books of interest. Boeddhayana
Uitgeverij in The Netherlands (The Hague) has been
especially prolific, issuing Dutch translations of the following: Nārada Mahāthera, Buddhism in a Nutshell; Mahāsi Sayadaw, The Progress of Insight; Piyadassi Thera, The Buddha's Ancient Path and The Psychological Aspect of Buddhism; Nyanaponika Thera, The Four Sublime States; and Francis
Story, Rebirth As Doctrine and Experience
(in part). In Germany Jhana Verlag
(Uttenbuhl) has issued a compact softback
edition of Nyanatiloka Mahāthera's
translation of The Dhammapada,
and also a handsome hardback edition of his translation of the Abhidhammattha-Saīgaha, never before published, entitled Handbuch der Buddhistischen Philosophie.
For readers of Spanish, Carmen Dragonetti's
long-standing translation, Dhammapada: La esencia de la sabiduria budista, with introduction and detailed notes, has been
reissued by Editorial Sudamericana in
Sinhala Series. Recognizing the need for fine-quality Sinhala books on the Dhamma, the
BPS has decided to launch a new line of full-size titles in the Sinhala medium, to be jointly edited by Ven.
Piyadassi Nāyaka Thera and Professor P.D. Premasiri
of the
From the BPS Management
*
Remittances by bank drafts. We often
notice that bank charges are not paid by members and dealers to the bank of
origin when they remit payment to us by cheque and
bank drafts. The payment of these charges then falls to the BPS, and as a
consequence we do not receive the correct amount due to us. We would be
thankful if our customers would kindly pay the bank charges at their end when
making remittances. Otherwise we may be compelled to levy a bank charge in
order to receive the full amount due to us.
*Acknowledgement of books. Often we do
not receive prompt acknowledgement of books received from our overseas book
dealers, members, Buddhist organizations, etc. We would appreciate such
acknowledgement, which will help us to ascertain whether the books reach you
and the speed of transport, and also to take remedial action if necessary.
Book Review
Nirvana and Ineffability: A Study of
the Buddhist Theory of Reality and Language.
Asanga
Tilakaratne.
Despite
their differences, most expositors of Buddhist thought would probably agree
that nibbāna is a transcendental, ineffable reality,
a state that cannot be expressed in words. Nirvana
and Ineffability by Asanga Tilakaratne
is a tightly argued philosophical study that aims at disposing of both these
widespread beliefs. The author, head of the Department of Buddhist Philosophy
at the Postgraduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist
Studies, contends that neither transcendence nor ineffability pertain to nibbāna as understood in early Buddhism. On the one hand,
he says, the anti-substantialist, empirical stance of
the original teaching precludes the recognition of nibbāna
as a transcendent reality; on the other, the Buddha's pragmatic, affirmative
attitude towards language precludes the idea that it might be ineffable.
Tilakaratne bases his main argument on the Buddha's formula of the ßgradual training,û
contending that this formula shows the entire Buddhist path to be a personal
discipline of moral and mental purification that does not require reference to
any reality beyond the empirical order. This description of the path, he
claims, establishes that ßnirvana is not a separate
and distinct objectû of knowledge, but a mode of
knowing and experiencing, ßthe quality of the life
led by the emancipated personû (p.69). To validate
his position, Tilakaratne offers to freshly
re-examine the texts most often cited in support of the transcendental
interpretation, the famous Nibbāna Suttas of the Udāna (VIII,1-4). He admits that these suttas
could be used to support the view of nibbāna he is
opposing, but he concludes that to be understood correctly they must be
interpreted in a manner consistent with the naturalist picture of nibbāna, ßthe broader picture
well supported by the textsû (p.76).
It
is, however, just the nature of the ßbroader pictureû that is in question here, and I must say that Tilakaratne does not offer any convincing arguments in favour of his view. It seems that such suttas
clearly point to a transcendent conception of nibbāna,
and that to square them with a naturalistic conception requires considerable
bending and stretching of their manifest meaning. Tilakaratne
is on firmer ground when he criticizes the attempt to use the famous tetralemma on the arahant after
death to justify a transcendental interpretation, but again I would hesitate
over his conclusion that the Buddha's rejection of the four alternatives establishes
that ßnon-transcendence is a central characteristic
of nirvanaû (p.81). The famous simile of the
extinguished flame is counterbalanced by the simile of the great ocean, ßunfathomable and immeasurable,û and a proper understanding of the arahant's post-mortem condition must give equal weight to
the implications of both similes.
Tilakaratne proposes that in contrast to both monism and theism, which locate the
solution to the problem of worldly suffering in a reality beyond the empirical
order, Buddhism offers as a solution ßnirvana, which
is neither a disappearance of the distinction between subject and object nor a
`physical' transcendence of the worldû (p.149).
According to the author, the transcendence relevant to the Buddhist concept of nibbāna is a moral one, ßthe
moral quality of the state of mind that has realized nirvana.û
This transcendence means the purification of the mind, which allows the
individual to dwell in the midst of the world untainted by the mire of
phenomenal existence.
Now
while it can hardly be denied that the attainment of nibbāna
requires moral and mental purification, it would seem an oversimplification to
identify this purification with nibbāna itself. In
its own nature nibbāna is bhavanirodha, the cessation of
becoming, and its full realization brings the entire process of becoming to an
end, inclusive of the subject-object relationship and the very presence of a
world. It is true, as Tilakaratne states, that the arahant is ßliving in the world
(while) transcending it simultaneously,û
but what makes him an arahant is the fact that he has
ensured that he will never return to existence.
In
early Buddhism we do not find any laments over the shortcomings of language or
an insistence on the utter ineffability of the ultimate good, as we do in the
writings of the mystics. The Pāli Nikāyas
in particular appear to treat language as a perfectly viable instrument for
communicating the truths enshrined at the heart of the Dhamma.
But from this it would be premature to conclude, as Tilakaratne
does, that nibbāna is not a transcendent reality but
a quality of life that can be adequately understood simply as the end point of
the process of mental purification effected by the path. Though texts dealing
with the ßmetaphysicalû aspect of nibbāna
are certainly few in number, in the opinion of this reviewer such texts are
straightforward enough to leave little doubt that nibbāna
is a transcendent reality which serves as a distinct object of meditative
knowledge.
The
guiding purpose behind Nirvana and
Ineffability emerges on the very last page. It is the wish to dispel what
the author calls ßthe myth of the universal identity
of religionû (p.150). This contention must be taken
seriously, for along with the points of convergence between the great religious
traditions there are also important differences which resist facile attempts at
harmonization. However, it is questionable that the distinctiveness of Buddhism
can be successfully preserved by arguing against a transcendental dimension at
its core and seeking to assimilate its teachings to Anglo-American empiricism
and positivism. While such a rationalized version of the Dhamma
may seem impressive, it may leave us in the end with something that amounts to
little more than a system of ethical culture and mental training based on an
especially insightful psychology.
Throughout
the book Tilakaratne contends that transcendent
models of religion must be either monistic or theistic, and thus because
Buddhism is neither it cannot be a religion of transcendence. This logic
excludes a priori the possibility that there could be a version of religious
transcendence which is neither monistic nor theistic. In this reviewer's
opinion it is precisely there that we should assign early Buddhism, which
encompasses, within the framework of a non-substantialist
philosophical vision, nibbāna as a transcendent
reality which is at once the pre-condition for deliverance and the final term
of the liberative process.
Bhikkhu
Bodhi
Guidelines
to Sutta Study
Reminder:
After the disciple has mastered the four jhānas, on
the basis of the fourth jhāna he attains the three
higher knowledges.
The
three higher knowledges (tevijjā) are always found in the Suttas in the same sequence: first, the knowledge of the
recollection of past abodes; second, the knowledge of the passing away and
rebirth of beings; third, the knowledge of the destruction of the taints.
Although the first two knowledges are extraordinary,
they are still technically classified as mundane (lokiya) and are not strictly
necessary for the attainment of liberation. Nevertheless, the Buddha has
included them within the framework of the gradual training, and the ancient
monks and nuns often celebrated them in the verses by which they testified to
their awakening. When properly harnessed, these knowledges
can give a powerful boost to the forward movement of the path. By opening our
vision to the vast panorama of saüsāric suffering,
with its ever-shifting scenes of rebirth and frightful dangers, they inspire
the keen sense of revulsion and urge for deliverance needed to complete the
development of the path.
The
entire gradual training culminates in the third higher knowledge, called the
knowledge of the destruction of the taints (āsavakkhaya-¤ā¤a). In the Kandaraka Sutta, and in most
other concise discourses on the gradual training, this knowledge is described
by the same stock formula:
When
his concentrated mind is thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of
imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, he
directs it to knowledge of the destruction of the taints. He understands as it
actually is: 'This is suffering' ... 'This is the origin of suffering' ...
'This is the cessation of suffering' ... 'This is the way leading to the
cessation of suffering.' He understands as it actually is: 'These are the
taints' ... 'This is the origin of the taints' ... 'This is the cessation of
the taints' ... 'This is the way leading to the cessation of the taints.'
Taken
at face value, this passage gives the impression that the meditator
who has mastered the fourth jhana need only incline
his concentrated mind to the Four Noble Truths and the whole process of
enlightenment will flash by in an instant. To make proper sense of this
statement we must recognize that here, for economy of exposition, the Buddha
(or the original redactors of the Pāli Canon) have
compressed into the limits of a single compact formula the entire training in
the development of wisdom, which in most cases unfolds in a long process
advancing by gradual stages.
When
the meditator has stabilized his mind in the jhānas and made the mind malleable and wieldy, he must
emerge from absorption and direct his attention to the mental and material
phenomena that constitute the fabric of experience. These phenomena, the five
aggregates of clinging (pa¤c'upādānakkhandhā),
make up the first noble truth. Thus the work of understanding the first noble
truth "as it really is" begins with the analysis and investigation of
the five aggregates, which are called accordingly "the sphere of
wisdom" (pa¤¤āvacara,
DN ii,63). The meditator must learn how to dissect
the compact, solid mass of experience into these five groups of transient,
insubstantial phenomena: form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and
consciousness. He must discern them as they appear on each occasion of
experience, recognize their causes and conditions, and perceive their
origination and perishing.
As
he dwells thus, contemplating rise and fall in the five aggregates, the
aggregates gradually reveal their three universal characteristics. They show
that, because they invariably pass away, they are impermanent; that because
they are impermanent they are suffering, incapable of offering true security;
that because they are without any inner essence they are non-self. The meditator must uncover these three characteristics over and
overŪanicca, dukkha, anattāŪthereby
bringing the first noble truth into increasingly sharper focus.
As
the meditator's insight into the three
characteristics penetrates more and more deeply, he experiences a sense of
revulsion or disenchantment (nibbidā) towards the five aggregates that comprise his very
being in the world. He realizes that he has been bound to these five aggregates
because of ignorance and craving, the second noble truth, and his mind yearns
for that state of deliverance where craving has been extirpated and suffering
brought to an end. This is Nibbāna, the third noble
truth, which he knows can only be realized by cultivating the eight factors of
the path he has enteredŪthe fourth noble truth.
Thus
in the stage of deep insight the meditator has
acquired a clear understanding of the Four Noble Truths, but at this point he
has not yet seen the truths, not yet
penetrated them with direct knowledge (abhi¤¤ā). When, however, all the qualities conducive to
enlightenment (bodhipakkhiyā dhammā) have
reached the requisite degree of maturity, a transformation takes place at the
very root of the mind. As insight pierces clear through the three marks of the
conditioned, at a certain point the mind turns away from all conditioned
phenomena, from the conditioned formations (saīkhārā) that make up "the
noble truth of suffering," and launches upon the unconditioned stateŪthe "deathless element," NibbānaŪwhich constitutes "the noble truth of the
cessation of suffering." When the unconditioned is penetrated, the "supramundane knowledge of the path" (lokuttara-magga¤ā¤a)
arises by which the meditator understands the Four
Noble Truths directly and infallibly. This knowledge is not sequential: a
single act of consciousness penetrates and comprehends all four truths
simultaneously. By realizing the noble truth of cessation directly as its
object, it also directly knows the truths of suffering, of its origin, and of
the way leading to the cessation of suffering.
(to be continued)