CHAPTER 4
DIVERSIFICATIONS
Papanca signifies obstacle,
differentiation, diffuseness or diversification. It is of three kinds, namely,
craving (tanha), conceit or pride (mana), and wrong view
(ditthi). They are also known as gahadhammas (holdings).
Those beings who are not free from papanca
cannot be freed from further becoming or rebirths. Instead, they will
prolong their stay in samsara and its concomitant suffering. Created by
tanha, mana and ditthi, the world of diffuseness causes the
diffuseness of one's aggregates (khandhas) or the samsaric diffuseness
of one's own khandhas. Having co-existed with them throughout this long
samsara, how does one avoid them now?
Due to the eye and a visible object, eye
consciousness arises. The coincidence of this three is contact. With contact as
a condition, there is feeling. What he feels, he perceives; what he perceives,
he thinks about; and what he thinks about, he diversifies (papanceti).
Owing to having been diversified, the evaluation of diversifying perception
besets a man with respect to past, future and present visible objects and so
on.
This kind of papanca is explained by
the commentaries as due to craving, pride and views, and it may be taken as the
diversifying action, the choosing and rejecting, the approval and disapproval,
exercised by craving, etc., as the base material supplied by perception and
thought. It is said thus:
Papanca bhirata paja nippapanca tathagata
Mankind delights in the diffuseness of the world.
The perfect ones are free from such diffuseness.
Craving
(Tanha)
Let us take the case of craving (tannha).
Craving leads to more craving, so that there is no contentment, no limit.
Suppose you earn one hundred kyats now. Later, you want more — two
hundred or three hundred and so on. You own a house or a car which befits your
status, but you still want a better or a new one. There is no end. Thus, being
mired in a tanha morass, you become a slave to craving and this
differentiates you from the rest of our society as a craver.
Corresponding to the six sense objects, there
are six kinds of craving — for visible objects, sounds, odours, flavours,
bodily impressions and mental impressions. Here is a story of a Universal
Monarch (Cakka-vatti) who was very powerful. Sakka (king of devas)
offered him half the kingdom. But still he was not satisfied. He wanted all the
kingdom. By that time, he was nearing death and had to return to the human
world. Such craving for territories exists even in this world.
If the yogi is mindful of all nama rupa
phenomena as they arise, he will realise their true nature, their causal
relationship and their natural characteristics such as the arising, the
decaying and the passing away of phenomena. This nama rupa dhammas are
nothing but an aggregate of dukkha. One delights in them because one
thinks they are wholesome.
Tanha papanca will not take effect
when the yogi attains dukkhanupassana (knowledge in the contemplation of
suffering). Once he becomes a sotapanna, he will not be subjected to the
diffuseness of craving (tanha papanca) in the way that will lead him to
the lower worlds (apaya-gamaniya). However, he will still be subjected
to diffuseness of craving such as bhava-tanha for the next seven
existences. Out of the three kinds of temperament — craving, pride and
views, craving is simply greed and pride is associated with that.
Conceit
(Mana)
Mana is rendered here both by 'pride and
conceit'. It also has the diversifying nature. Even children have pride. They
take pride in the wealth of their parents, their education, their status, their
skill in athletics and so on. Even in dhamma practice, some may take pride in
their knowledge of literature, their ability to meditate longer than others,
their skill in teaching meditation, etc. You may refer to 'Ten Armies of
Mara' (Chapter 18) for more information on this subject.
Mana is one of the ten fetters that
binds one to existence. It vanishes completely only at the entrance to
Arahatship. Mana is of three kinds: · Mana (the equality
conceit) — he takes pride by virtue of his equality with another, like:
"We are equals and not different"; · amana (the
inferiority conceit) — he takes pride by virtue of his inferiority, as
saying: "Though I am inferior, why should I care ?"; ·
atimana (the superiority conceit) — he takes pride by virtue of his
superiority, as saying: "I am better".
The blind pursuit of self-interests has
created a sense of power that seems to overwhelm anything that gets in its way.
This threefold conceit should be overcome.
The monk, after overcoming this threefold conceit through full penetration, is
said to have put an end to suffering. Not only the individual nations are also
egoistic. For example, the petroleum producing nations boast of their wealth.
In reality, all things are anatta and no ego-entity is to be found.
Of course, one may feel proud of one's
achievement, like "I can meditate longer than others" which can be
classified as kusala. This is called sevitabba-mana, an innocent
type of mana which is worth possessing. The asevitabba will be
classified under evil conduct — duccarita. The perception of
permanence such as in one's position, causes mana. As the yogi becomes
engaged in profound meditation and contemplates on the impermanence of
phenomena innumerable times till he attains the stage of aniccanupassana
(contemplation of impermanence), mana papanca will then be reduced.
At those stages, the 'I' personality and ego-entity will gradually decrease. If
he is established in reflection on impermanence, he will uproot the conceit 'I
am', the thought of non-self endures. Thinking on there being no self, he comes
to the state wherein the conceit 'I am' has been uprooted. Sotapannas,
sakadagamis and anagamis cannot totally eradicate mana, but
their mana is certainly not apayagamaniya (liable to descend to
the lower worlds).
Views
(Ditthi)
Kusala actions may be performed, but unless
ditthi is overcome, views have their source in delusion. The temperament
of views fall within the deluded temperaments. In any one of this deluded
temperament there is the frequent occurrence of such states as stiffness,
torpor, agitation, worry, uncertainty and holding on tenaciously with the
refusal to relinquish. Here, I would like to mention the belief in the soul
(atta) theory which clings to the existence of the self, the ego, the
soul, the permanent and the unchanging personality core. According to this soul
theory, atta (soul) is the site of wisdom
— nanadikarana mattam. Soul
theory is of two kinds:
· parama-atta — the supreme or
the universal soul
· jiva-atta — the individual
soul
The former is the know-all, the one and only
one, devoid of pain and pleasure, creates and controls the activities of the
latter. Whatever the latter does it is done at the command of the former. Both
are believed to be permanent. Such a view is called sassata ditthi
(eternity belief).
Among the numerous speculative opinions and
theories, which at all times have influenced and still are influencing,
misleading and deluding mankind is the wrong view of a personality-belief
(sakkaya ditthi) or ego-illusion (atta ditthi).
Now the Buddha has shown us that the
personality, the ego, the individual, the man, and the woman, etc., are nothing
but mere conventional designations which in the ultimate sense is only the
self-consuming process of mental and physical phenomena (nama-rupa) that
continually arise and dissolve. The so-called Evil Views with a Fixed Destiny
(Niyatamiccha ditthi) constituting the last of the ten unwholesome
courses of action (kammapatha) include:
ahetuka-ditthi or ahetu-paccaya
ditthi — the causeless view or the fatalistic view of the
uncausedness of existence, that there is no cause or condition for the
defilement of beings; · visamahetuka-ditthi or issaranimmana
hetuka ditthi — the fictitious cause view, holding that the world's
occurrence is due to primordial essence (prakati), atoms (anu),
and time (kala) and so on as the result of the ignorance of
cause-effect relationship.
When you bend your arm, first of all you
develop an intention in your mind to bend, then you bend as intended. These
continuous series of intentions (chanda) cause the whole process of
bending. Intention is the cause and bending is the effect. This proves the
existence of relations between actions or events.
At the moment of 'hearing' there occur:
· sound, the striker element as
materiality (rupa);
· ear basis, the receptor element as
materiality (rupa);
· hearing consciousness, contact,
feeling and the ignition element as mentality (nama).
They are all conditional things —
conditioned by kamma, citta, utu and ahara.
Similar is the case with the other five
consciousness elements: seeing, smelling, tasting, body and mind. These
elements become obvious at the moment of noting.
Whenever we are not mindful, there will be
ignorance of the true nature of things and we tend to cling to the existence of
a power-wielder behind each and every act. Whereas, whenever we are mindful of
the arising phenomena, we will understand that there is neither a creator
(paramatman) nor a created (jiva-atta), but only the process of
materiality and mentality, which are nothing but sabhava or dhamma
(nature) and are soulless, impermanent and unsatisfactory. What is
impermanent cannot be satisfactory and what is impermanent and unsatisfactory
cannot have a soul or be soul. There is no supreme being who is controlling the
sequence of all seasons, they are governed by a natural order or fixedness of
law.
There is another view, namely, the
unconditional belief in kamma. Such people tend to put the blame on past kamma
for any fault with the common expression of 'lucky' or 'unlucky'. Such view is
known as pubbekatahetuka ditthi. One cannot put personal responsibility
on kamma alone. For instance, material phenomena arise in four ways, namely
kamma, mind, seasonal conditions and food.
To be free from personality view, one must
practise anattanupassana (contemplation of non-self). And to be free
from the no-cause view, one must practise or attain yathabhutanupassana nana
(knowledge and vision according to reality). If we do not know the true
nature, we will feel doubtful (vicikiccha) about things of the past and
future and of conditionality. It also causes sammoha (bewilderment or
delusion). People who entertain such views are deeply rooted in materialism. It
also becomes extremely difficult for them to get these ideas uprooted. Such a
situation is known as abhinivesa (adherence or inclination to one's
dogmas and strong attachment to views). If the yogi is mindful of the
nama-rupa phenomena as they arise, he will realise the cause-effect
relationships and thus believe that these dhammas arise not only in himself but
also in others.
We always invite those of other denominations
to show the way leading to true knowledge. We will also show them our method by
which they can come and practise to understand the ultimate realities. We don't
convert others by force. We only invite them to come and see for themselves.
This is said with reference to faith. It is
worthy of an invitation to inspect (ehipassiko) this dhamma. If one
responds to this clarion call and practises this dhamma, one is certain to
understand the true nature of nama-rupa phenomena, their conditionality,
their anicca-dukkha characteristics and finally the abandoning of the
two sakkaya ditthis, i.e., sassata-ditthi (eternity belief or
doctrine of eternalism that the world is self and eternal) and
uccheda-ditthi (annihilation belief).
One who sees passing away of phenomena will
eradicate the eternity belief (sassata-ditthi); and one who sees
reappearance will eradicate the annihilation belief (uccheda-ditthi). Or
one who sees only passing away and not reappearance assumes the annihilation
view; and one who sees only reappearance and not passing away assumes the
eternity belief. But since one who sees both these phenomena outstrip that
twofold false view, that vision of his is therefore a cause for purification of
view.
Beings may perform wholesome (kusala)
actions, but if ditthi is not overcome in the three periods, namely,
pubba (preliminary), munca (during) and pala (aftermath),
they may be reborn through rebirth-linking consciousness given by that kamma
with kusala ahetuka santirana (rootless profitable passive resultant
consciousness), signified by congenitally blind, deaf, dumb, lame or with
somanassasahagata nana vipayutta of kamavacara vipaka citta (the
sense-sphere, beautiful type of resultant consciousness uncombined with
knowledge) signified by slow understanding though they are otherwise prosperous
and successful.
Satipatthana as
Remedy
The diffuseness of papancas can go
beyond limits so as to intoxicate those who succumb to the diversifying action,
the choosing, rejecting, the approval and the disapproval, exercised by
craving, etc. The consequences can get out of control and beyond limits and
legal bounds. When confronted with disagreeable objects, dosa will arise
and drive them mad. There have been instances of husband and wife quarrelling
and breaking domestic materials. Satipatthana is the remedy to cure
madness.
The compound 'satipatthana' is derived
from 'sati' (mindfulness) and 'upatthana' (establishment or
foundation), meaning that mindfulness approaches its object and remains there;
'patthana' signifies adherence, entering into (anchoring upon),
continuous occurrence, firmness.
Mindfulness centred on the body, if
practised, made much of and plunged into, conduces to pleasant living in this
very life, to the realisation of the fruit of release by knowledge. Both the
mind and body become calm and discursive thoughts come to rest.
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