Two Styles of Insight Meditation
Today the practice of insight meditation has become
popular all around the world, yet to achieve this popularity it has undergone a
subtle metamorphosis. Perhaps the most powerful pressure that has shaped the
contemporary style of teaching insight meditation has been the need to
transplant the practice into a largely secular environment remote from its
traditional matrix of Buddhist faith and doctrine. Rather than being presented
as an integral part of the Buddhist path to deliverance from saüsàra, insight
meditation is now taught as a self-contained
discipline whose fruits pertain more to life within the world than to absolute
release from the world. Many people who have taken up insight meditation
eloquently testify to the tangible benefits they have gained, benefits that
range from such relatively mundane goods as stress reduction and enhanced job
performance to more spiritual ends like greater calm, deeper self-knowledge, and clearer awareness of the
present.
While such benefits are certainly
admirable in their own right, it must nevertheless be stressed that, taken by
themselves, they do not constitute the final goal that the Buddha himself holds
up as the end point of his training. That goal, in the terminology of the texts,
is the attainment of Nibbàna, understood as the destruction of all defilements
here and now and ultimate release from the beginningless round of rebirths.
While the concrete results brought forth by the secularized practice of insight
meditation will also permeate the experience of one who takes up the practice
within a classical Buddhist framework, success in reaping these benefits is not
necessarily an indication that one is drawing close to the final goal.
Given the sceptical climate of the
present age and the stress on personal experience as a guide to truth, it is
quite appropriate that newcomers to the Dhamma be invited to explore the
potential inherent in the practice for themselves, without having the full
agenda of Buddhist doctrine thrust upon them from the start as if it were
another system of dogma. However, though we may initially take up the practice
of meditation with an open and undogmatic attitude, at a certain point in our
practice we inevitably arrive at a crossroads where we find ourselves faced
with a choice. We can either continue with the meditation based upon the
initial premises from which we started, generally a purely naturalistic
worldview, or we can set off along a different track that leads to full
actualization of the potential inherent in the practice. If we choose the first
route, we might still deepen our meditation and reap more abundantly the same
type of benefits we have obtained so far Þ
deeper calm, more equanimity, greater openness to the present. Nevertheless, as
worthwhile as these benefits might be in their own right, from the standpoint
of the Dhamma they remain incomplete. For the practice of insight meditation to
achieve its full potential as intended by the Buddha himself, it must be
encompassed by several other qualities that rivet it to the framework of the
teaching.
Foremost among such qualities are the complimentary
pair of faith and right view. As a component of the Buddhist path, faith (saddhà) does not mean blind belief but a
willingness to accept on trust certain propositions that we cannot, at our
present stage of development, personally verify for ourselves. These
propositions concern both the nature of reality and the higher reaches of the
path. In the traditional map of the Buddhist path, faith is placed at the
beginning of the training, as the prerequisite for the later stages comprised
in the triad of virtue, concentration, and wisdom. The canonical texts do not
seem to envisage the possibility that a person lacking faith in the
specifically Buddhist sense could take up the practice of insight meditation
and reap positive results from it. Yet today such a phenomenon has become
extremely widespread, as many present-day meditators make their initial contact
with the Dhamma through intensive insight meditation and use their experience
as a touchstone for deciding exactly how to incorporate the Dhamma into the
pattern of their lives.
On the basis of this choice, we find that meditators
divide into two broad camps. One consists of those who focus exclusively upon
the immediately tangible benefits of the practice, suspending all concern with
what lies beyond the horizons of their own experience. The other consists of
those who recognize that the practice flows from a source of wisdom much deeper
and broader than their own. In order to follow this wisdom in the direction to
which it points, such meditators are ready to subordinate their own
understanding of the world to the disclosures of the teaching and embrace the
Dhamma as an organic whole. These are the ones who adopt Buddhism in its
religious and doctrinal sense as the framework for their practice.
The fact that insight meditation can be earnestly
practised even without the sustaining role of faith raises an interesting
question never explicitly posed within the canon and commentaries. If insight
meditation can be pursued solely for the sake of its immediately visible
benefits, what role does faith play in the development of the path? Certainly
faith, in the sense of a full acceptance of Buddhist doctrine, is not a
necessary condition for the undertaking of the precepts or the practice of
meditation. As we have seen, those who lack faith in the distinctively
Buddhistic tenets of the Dhamma might still accept the Buddhist precepts as
guidelines to right conduct and practise meditation as a way to inner happiness
and peace. Thus faith must play a different role than that of a simple spur to
action.
Perhaps an answer to our question will emerge if we
ask, ßWhat exactly does faith mean in the
context of Buddhist practice?û It should
be clear at once that faith cannot be adequately explained simply as reverence
for the Buddha as a great spiritual teacher, or as some alloy of devotion,
admiration, and gratitude. For while these qualities often exist alongside
faith, they may all be present even when faith is absent. If we look at faith
more closely, we would see that besides its emotional constituents, faith also
involves an indispensable cognitive component. This component consists in a
readiness to accept the Buddha as the unique discoverer and proclaimer of
liberating truth. From this angle, faith is seen to involve a decision. As the
word decision implies (ßto decideû = to cut off), to place faith in something is
to exercise an act of discrimination. Thus Buddhist faith entails, at least
implicitly, a rejection of the claims of other spiritual teachers to be bearers
of the liberating message on a par with the Buddha himself. As a decision,
faith also entails acceptance, that is, a willingness to open oneself to the
principles made known by the Enlightened One and accept them on trust as
reliable presentations of the real nature of things and of the proper way of
life.
It is this decision that marks the distinction between
one who takes up the practice of insight meditation as a purely naturalistic
discipline and one who takes it up within the framework of Buddhist faith. The
former, by suspending any judgement about the picture of the human condition
imparted by the Buddha, limits the fruits of the practice to those that are
compatible with a purely naturalistic worldview. The latter, by accepting the
Buddha's own picture of the human condition, gains access to the goal held up
by the Buddha as the final fruit of the practice, complete deliverance of mind
and the realization of Nibbàna.
The second pillar that supports the practice of insight
meditation is the cognitive counterpart of faith, namely, right view (sammà di~n~nhi). Though the word ßviewû
might suggest that the practitioner actually sees the principles considered to
be ßright,û
at the outset of the training this is seldom the case. For all but a few
exceptionally gifted disciples, ßright
viewû initially means right belief, the
acceptance of principles and doctrines out of confidence in the enlightenment
of the Buddha. Though Buddhist modernists often claim that the Buddha said that
one should believe only what one can see and verify for oneself, no such
statement is found in the Pali Canon. What the Buddha does say is that one
should not accept his teachings blindly but should inquire into their meaning
and attempt to realize their truth for oneself. There are, however, many
principles taught by the Buddha as essential to right understanding that we
cannot, at the outset of training, ascertain for ourselves. These are by no
means umimportant, but define the entire framework of the Buddha's programme of
deliverance. They delineate the deeper dimensions of the suffering from which
we need release, point in the direction where true liberation lies, and
prescribe with pinpoint precision the steps to be followed to arrive at the
liberating wisdom.
These principles include the tenets of both ßmundaneû
and ßtranscendentû right view. Mundane right view is the type of correct
understanding that leads to a fortunate destination within the round of
rebirths. It involves an acceptance of the principles of kamma and its fruit;
of the distinction between meritorious and evil actions; of the vast expanse
and multiple domains of samsàra within which rebirth may occur. Transcendent
right view is the view leading to liberation from saüsàra in its entirety. It
entails understanding the Four Noble Truths in their deeper dimensions, as
offering not merely a diagnosis of psychological distress but a description of
saüsàric bondage and a programme for final release. It also involves
understanding dependent origination as an account of the causal dynamism of
saüsàra; recognizing the inadequacy in all conditioned modes of being; and
accepting Nibbàna as the sphere that offers final deliverance from suffering.
While the actual techniques
for practising insight meditation may be identical whether it be pursued as a
purely naturalistic discipline or taken up as an integral part of the Buddha's
path, the two styles of practice will nevertheless differ profoundly with
respect to the results those
techniques are capable of yielding. When practised conscientiously within the
framework of a naturalistic understanding, insight meditation will bring
greater calm, understanding, and equanimity. It will purify the mind of the
coarser layers of defilements and can culminate in a tranquil acceptance of
life's vicissitudes coupled with a capacity for compassionate action. Thus this
style of practice should not be disparaged. However, practice in this style will
still remain confined to the sphere of the conditioned; it will still be tied
to the round of wholesome kamma and its fruit. It is only when insight
meditation is buttressed from below by deep faith in the Buddha as the
perfectly enlightened teacher, and illuminated from above by the wisdom of the
Buddha's teachings, that it acquires the power to cut away all the fetters that
have kept us in bondage through beginningless time. It then becomes the key to
open the doors to the Deathless, to winning a freedom that can never be lost.
With this, insight meditation transcends the limits of the conditioned,
transcends even itself, and arrives at its proper goal: the unconditioned truth
of Nibbàna, final release from all fetters and from the round of birth,aging,
and death.
Bhikkhu Bodhi
From Other Publishers
The
Piyadassi: The
Wandering Monk. Kirthi Abeysekera. 200 pp. U.S. $5.00; SL Rs. 150.
The Spectrum of
Buddhism.
Piyadassi Thera. 447 pp. U.S. $15.00; SL Rs. 350.
A Pàli Primer. Lily De Silva. 152
pp. U.S. $5.00; SL Rs. 175.
One Night's Shelter. Yogavacara Rahula.
462 pp.
Early History of
Buddhism in
Humour in Pàli
Literature.
Walpola Rahula. 42 pp.
Forest Recollections:
Wandering Monks in 20th Century
In Memoriam.
On March 22 death
snatched from our midst one of
Bhikkhu Bodhi Speaks
at UN.
This year, for the first time ever, the UN accorded to Vesak—he day
commemorating the birth, enlightenment, and passing away of the Buddha—status
as an official UN holiday. To mark the occasion, a group of delegates,
spearheaded by the Sri Lankan delegation, organized a Vesak celebration at the
UN headquarters on May 15, attended by a great number of dignitaries. Our
president and editor, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, was invited to deliver the keynote
address, in which he explained the relevance of the Buddha's teaching, past,
present, and future. We plan to bring out the text of his highly acclaimed
lecture as a Bodhi Leaf early next year.
BPS's New E-mail Number.
Please note that BPS
now has a new e-mail number: bps@ids.sl.
The Foundations of
Buddhism.
Rupert Gethin.
Although many introductory books on Buddhism are
already available on the market, this recent title stands out by reason of its
careful scholarship, lucid style, and sensitive appreciation of subtle points
relating to Buddhist doctrine. Rather than offer a general overview of the
different historical forms of Buddhism, the approach usually taken in
introductory surveys on the subject, the author focuses on the fundamental
doctrines and practices that underlie the entire Buddhist tradition. By
treating these as the kernel from which all Buddhist doctrines and practices
have evolved, the author can show how later forms of Buddhism, such as the
Abhidharma and the Mahayana, rest upon essentially the same groundplan as the
more ancient structures. Thus, in the author's view, whatever innovations these
later schools introduce can be seen as attempts to work out, under historical
and doctrinal pressure, the implications of the basic principles at the heart
of the common Buddhist heritage.
The book is divided into ten chapters as follows: (1)
the Buddha; (2) the Buddhist scriptures and schools; (3) the Four Noble Truths;
(4) the Buddhist community; (5) Buddhist cosmology; (6) the doctrine of
non-self and dependent arising; (7) the Buddhist path; (8) the Abhidhamma; (9)
the Mahayana; (10) the evolving Buddhist traditions in southern, eastern, and
northern Asia, and finally in the West. Throughout, Gethin neatly compresses a
vast amount of information into the relatively concise dimensions of his book.
But equally admirable is his skill in explicating the main pillars of Buddhist
thought and practice and in lighting up obscure corners of this edifice with
remarkably keen observations. In a brief review like this I can do little more
than highlight some of the more noteworthy among Gethin's many perceptive
comments and interpretations.
In his chapter on the Buddha, Gethin does not drive a
sharp wedge between the historical facts of the Buddha's life and ßthe Buddha legend,û as historically oriented scholars are prone to do. He holds
rather that ßthe Buddha legendû is actually ßthe
story of the Buddhist path, a story that shows the way to a profound religious
truthû (p. 16). He also gives attention
to the nature and cosmological role of the Buddha, showing how ideas that
became prominent in later Buddhist thought, such as the three bodies of the
Buddha, are already prefigured in the ancient sources. Such texts hardly countenance
the modernist notion, prevalent among certain contemporary Buddhist writers,
that the Buddha was nothing but an exceptionally wise human being.
In his survey of the Buddhist scriptures, Gethin
stresses that all the early Buddhist schools had a Vinaya and Sutra collection
that were substantially the same across the sectarian divide, differing in
little more than expression and arrangement. This corpus of material
constituted the common heritage of all Buddhist thought, known to all the early
Buddhist schools as well as to the masters of the Mahayana. In this chapter he
also sketches the division of the ancient Buddhist Sangha into the early
Buddhist schools and the origins of the Mahayana.
When dealing with the Buddhist community, Gethin
underscores the interdependence of the monastic and lay branches of the
Buddhist social order, citing the Buddhist view that monks and nuns bring
positive benefits to everyone in society. He discusses the Vinaya rules binding
on the monks and nuns, their different lifestyles, their relationship to the
lay community, and the main forms of lay Buddhist practice. (One correction to
this chapter should be noted: Gethin asserts (pp. 87Ý88) that full ordination requires the presence of five bhikkhus of
ten years' standing; actually, only one of the five bhikkhus, the preceptor,
must have ten years' standing.)
Gethin's treatment of Buddhist cosmology is unusually
insightful. He points out that while the vision of the universe the Buddhist
texts depict may strike moderns as outlandish, the scheme becomes intelligible
when we recognize that it rests upon ßthe
principle of the equivalence of cosmology and psychologyû (p. 119). That is, the realms of existence parallel states of
mind in such a way that the cosmic hierarchy reflects the diversity of mind,
while the latter becomes manifests in the diversified planes of the cosmos.
This awareness of doctrinal underpinnings continues in his chapter on ßno self,û
where he shows how the teachings of non-self
and dependent arising conjointly define the parameters of Buddhist philosophy,
revealing reality to be made up ßnot [of]
static building blocks, but [of] dynamic processesû (p. 155). He also stresses the essentially practical
bearings of both doctrines: their aim is not so much to establish a systematic
body of thought as to expose the mistaken conceptions that must be eliminated
to win liberation from suffering.
The chapter on the Buddhist path accentuates the
integral unity of Buddhist practice, which extends from simple expressions of
devotion to the higher stages of meditation and insight. In dealing with the
interrelationship of calm and insight meditation (samatha and vipassanà),
Gethin again shows eminently good sense. Eschewing the hard stances common
among meditators today, he points out that in the classical meditation texts
calm and insight do not constitute a sharp dichotomy but represent two
contrasting qualities to be balanced in different degrees at different stages
of the path, depending on the practitioner's temperament.
For Gethin, too, the Abhidharma is not a dry scholastic
enterprise (the view of some Buddhist scholars), but a legitimate project
designed to systematize the early teachings and thereby draw a clear
theoretical map for understanding the inner transformations and experiences
effected by meditation. He gives an excellent overview of the philosophical
premises of the Abhidharma and a compact summary of the Theravàda system, with
side glances at the rival system of the Sarvàstivàda. His chapter on the Mahàyàna,
too, is motivated by the same urge to highlight continuities and consistencies
rather than to accentuate differences. While he takes note of the novel
features of Mahàyàna thought and practice, he traces these innovations to their
roots in the older teachings. Thus he contends that even the sophisticated and
abstruse philosophies of the Madhyamika and Yogàcàra schools operate within the
framework of the Four Noble Truths: they are not exercises in speculative
thought but means of uprooting the subtler kinds of clinging that underlie
existential suffering.
This introduction brings to its task not only careful
scholarship and wide knowledge of Buddhist thought, but also a warm sympathetic
appreciation of Buddhism evident throughout its pages. It is no doubt this
sympathy that allows Gethin to penetrate beneath the outer crust of formal
doctrine and discern the deep connections between currents of Buddhist thought
that might superficially appear incongruous. Through Gethin's eyes we are given
not only a clear and accurate picture of the doctrinal foundations of Buddhism,
but also the keys to understand the integral unity that underlies the outward
diversity in much of the Buddhist tradition.
Bhikkhu
Bodhi
Review: The last installment
explained the four nutriments of life, which in the sutta itself are merely
enumerated by the Buddha.
The Buddha has introduced the four nutriments to show
that the entire life-process, comprised
in the five aggregates of clinging, originates and continues with the support
of conditions. This reinforces the point made earlier in the sutta, namely,
that consciousness arises through conditions, but the mode of treatment extends
the scope of conditionality beyond consciousness itself to sentient existence in
its entirety. Now in the next passage, the Buddha shows the process of
conditionality in a still wider light by inquiring into the source and origin
of the four nutriments. While the four nutriments are the primary supports for
sentient existence, they themselves also arise from causes and thus can be
integrated into the chain of conditionality. The Buddha himself provides the
answer to his question with the words, ßThese
four nutriments have craving as their source, craving as their origin; they are
born and produced from craving.û
Normally, we think we crave because there is food; we
regard food as the cause giving rise to craving. But the Buddha says that
craving is actually the cause and origin of the four kinds of nutriment. How
this is so can be understood in two ways, at a common-sense level and at a deeper level made explicit in the Abhidhamma.
At the commonsense level, we can understand that
craving is the source of the four nutriments because it is craving that turns
these four supports of life into fuel for sustaining the forward movement of
saüsàra. Even arahants, who have eradicated craving, continue to live in
dependence on the four nutriments, but for the arahants these nutriments no
longer nurture renewed existence (punabbhava).
For ordinary people, however, craving turns these four requisites of survival
into tributaries sustaining the onward flow of the saüsàric process. Backed up by craving, the four nutriments nourish
the continuum of becoming as it moves forward from one existence to the next.
When there is craving, physical food becomes
transformed from an essential condition for sustaining life into an object of
desire and longing. Again, on account of craving, the nutriment of contact
becomes an object of seeking. Through craving, we strive to establish contact
with diverse objects through the six sense faculties, experiencing joy when we
succeed in making pleasant contacts, anger and frustration when we meet with
painful contacts. Craving gives rise to mental volitions, as we formulate plans,
embark on projects, and engage in activities that build up wholesome and
unwholesome kamma. Finally, craving latches on to consciousness, the fourth
nutriment, and uses it as a vehicle for seeking out experiences that promise
pleasure and delight.
According to the Abhidhamma system, craving is the
cause of the four nutriments because it is the craving in the previous life
that generates rebirth. Thus, by bringing into being the sentient organism,
craving also brings into being the four nutriments that sustain the sentient
organism. Already at the moment of rebirth, there exists nutritive essence (ojà) produced within the arisen body;
this is the kammically acquired physical food originating from prior craving.
The contact and volition associated with the rebirth-consciousness, and that rebirth-consciousness
itself, are respectively the kammically acquired nutriments of contact, mental
volition, and consciousness originating from prior craving. Thus at rebirth the
nutriments have their source in prior craving. And as at rebirth, so those
produced throughout the entire course of existence should be similarly
understood.
Having established that craving is the cause of the
four nutriments, the Buddha next inquires what is the cause of craving. With
his answer to this question, he grafts the teaching on the four nutriments on
to his wider and better known teaching on conditionality, namely, dependent
origination (pa~nicca-samuppàda). The condition for craving is
feeling, and this in turn has contact as condition, which in turn arises from
the six sense bases. The latter arises from name-and-form; this from consciousness; this from
volitional formations; and this from ignorance. Thus, at this point in the
sutta, the Buddha has shown how ßthisû (bhåtaü)
Ý the being consisting of the five
aggregates Ý originates from the four
nutriments, which are sustained by the series of eight links in the standard
twelvefold formula of dependent origination, from craving back to ignorance.
Having picked up the series two-thirds of the way down and taken it back to ignorance, the Buddha
next runs through the entire series in forward order, beginning with ignorance.
This time he follows the standard sequence, which proceeds from ignorance to
craving, then from craving to clinging, and thence to existence, birth, and
finally aging-and-death. Thus here all twelve factors are incorporated. Yet again,
by questioning the monks, he traces the series backwards from the end to the
beginning. It is this backwards series that we will use as the basis for our
own exposition.
(to be continued)