The Tree of Enlightenment
An Introduction to the Major Traditions of Buddhism
by Peter Della Santina
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Part Four
The Abidharma
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Chapter Thirty-Seven
Analysis of Thought-Processes
In this chapter we will begin to see, in a more specific and direct
way, how the
analysis of consciousness and the analysis of
mental states can really
contribute to the
awakening of insight, and
how such analysis can also be interpreted in
our daily life to
change
our understanding of our situation.
Why analyze the processes of thought or the processes of
perception? To
answer this, we
need to remind ourselves of the
general purpose of the
Abhidharma--namely, to facilitate
our
understanding of the ultimate nature of things, which share the
three
universal
characteristics of impermanence, suffering, and not-self.
In the
analysis of thought-
processes, we can see impermanence
and not-self clearly revealed, as
two analogies from
the discourses
of the Buddha show.
The Buddha likened the life span of a living being to a single
point on
the wheel of a
chariot. He said that, strictly speaking, a
living being only endures
for the time it takes
one thought to arise
and perish, just as the chariot wheel, whether
rolling or at rest,
makes
contact with the ground at only a single point. In this
context, the
past moment existed
but it does not exist now, nor will
it exist in the future; the present
moment exists now but
did not
exist in the past, nor will it exist in the future; and the
future
moment, although it
will exist in the future, does not exist now, nor
did it exist in the
past.
The Buddha also referred to the case of a king who had never
heard the
sound of a lute.
When he did hear one, the king asked his
ministers what it was that was
so enchanting
and enthralling. His
ministers replied that it was the sound of a lute.
The king asked for
the lute; when his ministers brought one, he asked them where the
sound
was. When the
ministers explained that the sound was
produced by a combination of
diverse factors, the
king said that the
lute was a poor thing indeed, broke it up with his
own hands, and
had
the pieces burned and their ashes scattered. What the ministers
called
the sound of a lute,
the king said, was nowhere to be found.
Similarly, nowhere among the
physical and
mental factors of
experience--among factors of form, feeling,
perception, volition,
and
consciousness--is there a self to be found. Thought-processes
are, like
the sound of a
lute, also devoid of self.
The analysis of thought-processes also has a very specific
application
in the area of
mental development, in the mastery and
control of objects of the
senses. You may recall
that we spoke
earlier about the sensitivity of the mind to the objects
of the senses,
and
said that the mind is constantly subject to distractions that arise
because of contact with
sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile
sensations. The Buddha
himself declared that
one is either
conquered by sense objects or conquers them: in other
words, one
is either
controlled by and subject to sense stimuli or manages and
dominates
sense stimuli. This
is why Nagarjuna once said that even
an animal can be victorious in
battle, whereas he
who is able to
conquer the momentary, ever-changing objects of the
senses is the
true
hero.
When someone subdues, masters, and controls the objects of
the senses,
we call him
heedful. Heedfulness is akin to mindfulness,
which the Buddha said is
the one way to
freedom. Heedlessness is
the source of death and of bondage in samsara,
while
heedfulness
is the source of the deathless, or nirvana. Those who were
formerly
heedless
and later become heedful, like Nanda and Angulimala, are
able to
achieve the goal of
freedom.
By analyzing and understanding how the objects of the senses
are
perceived and
assimilated by consciousness, we can pave the
way toward right
understanding in terms
of impermanence and
not-self, and toward control over the momentary
objects of the
senses. Finally, we can achieve heedfulness, which is the key to
changing our existence
from one dominated by the afflictions to one
that is purified and
noble.
We can begin our analysis of thought-processes by examining
their place
in our
experience. Take the comparison of life to a river,
with a source and
an outlet. Between
birth and death, between the
source of the river and its mouth, there
is a continuum but
not an
identity. In Abhidharmic terms, birth or rebirth is the
'uniting' or
'connecting'
factor (patisandhi), the life continuum is the
'subconscious' factor
(bhavanga), and death
is the 'falling away'
factor (chuti). These three factors have one
thing in common: their
object is the last conscious factor of the preceding life. This object
determines them as
wholesome or unwholesome resultant factors
of consciousness.
In this context, it is important to remember that bhavanga runs
concurrent with the
reproductive karma that gives a particular life
its general
characteristics and sustains it
until it is either interrupted
or exhausted. Thus the past, present,
and future of an
individual life
are united not only consciously, by the continuum of
patisandhi,
bhavanga,
and chuti, but also subconsciously, by bhavanga alone.
This
subconscious factor of life
continuum preserves continuity and
sustains life even in the absence of
conscious
thought-processes, as
in dreamless sleep and moments of unconsciousness
like coma. In
between the various conscious thought-processes, bhavanga
reasserts
itself and preserves
the continuity of life.
To summarize, our life begins with the uniting or connecting
conscious
factor
(patisandhi) that joins the previous life to this life.
It is sustained
throughout the course of
this life by the subconscious
factor of life continuum (bhavanga), and
it ends with the
falling
away (chuti) that again precedes union (in the form of
patisandhi)
with the
subsequent life.
Consciousness, as opposed to subconsciousness (bhavanga),
arises as a
phenomenon of
resistance and vibration. In other
words, bhavanga remains subconscious
until it is
interrupted or
obstructed by an object, as when we place a dam across a
river
and find
that the course of the river is interrupted, or subject an
electrical
current to resistance and
find that the phenomenon of light
arises. This contact between bhavanga
and an object
results in
resistance, and this resistance results in vibration, which
in turn
results in a
conscious thought-process.
The thought-processes that arise as a result of this interruption
are
either (1) physical
thought-processes that operate through the
five sense doors (eyes,
ears, nose, tongue, and
body), or (2)
mental thought-processes that operate through the mind,
the sixth
sense
organ. Physical thought-processes are determined by the
intensity, or
impact, of the
object that brings about the interruption
of the stream of life
continuum. In this sense, the
largest obstruction
will cause the longest thought-process, and the
smallest obstruction
will cause the shortest thought-process.
There are four types of physical thought-processes, from one
that runs
for seventeen
thought-moments to one that fails even to
reach the point of
determination or
identification of the object.
There are two types of mental
thought-processes: (1) one
termed
'clear,' which runs through to retention, the final stage of
thought-processes, and
(2) one termed 'obscure,' which ends
before the stage of retention.
Depending on the
intensity of the
obstruction in the subconscious stream of life
continuum, we have a
more
intensive and lengthier thought-process or a less intensive and
briefer
one.
Let us look at the seventeen thought-moments that make up
the longest
of any of the
thought-processes, physical or mental.
Remember that each of these
thought-moments is
said to last less
than one billionth the time it takes to wink an eye.
Thus when the
Buddha
said that a living being endures only as long as a single
thought-moment, he was talking
about an extremely brief period of
time.
The first of these seventeen thought-moments is termed 'entry'
and
refers to an object
impinging upon the stream of life continuum,
or the placing of an
object of obstruction in
the river of life.
The second moment is termed 'vibrating' because the entry of
the object
into the stream
of life continuum sets up a vibration.
The third is the 'arresting' moment because at this point the
obstruction interrupts or
arrests, the stream of life continuum.
Here we might ask how is it that the stream of life continuum
(bhavanga), which has its
own object that forms the basis of the
factor of unification
(patisandhi) and the factor of
decay (chuti),
comes to have a secondary object in the form of a
material object
of the
senses. This is explained by means of an analogy.
Buddhaghosa said
that, just as tapping
one grain of sugar amongmany scattered on the surface of a drum causes
a vibration
that
affects a fly sitting on another grain of sugar on the drum, somaterial objects of the five
physical senses impinge upon and setup vibrations that affect
bhavanga.
Once these three moments--entry, vibration, and interruption
or
arresting--have taken
place, the object enters the conscious
sphere. It does this through the
fourth thought-
moment, which is
the moment of the 'adverting consciousness.' In the
case of the
physical thought-processes, the adverting consciousness can be of
five
types--eye, ear,
nose, tongue, and body.
This is succeeded by the fifth moment, the 'perceiving
consciousness,'
which can be of
the five types--eye consciousness,
ear consciousness, and so forth.
This is followed by the sixth
moment, the 'receiving consciousness';
the seventh
moment, the
'investigating consciousness'; and the eighth moment, the
'determining
consciousness.' It is the determining consciousness that
identifies and
recognizes the
object of perception.
This determining consciousness is followed by seven moments
of 'impulse
consciousness' (javana), which have the
function of running through the
object, thereby
assimilating the
object wholly into consciousness.
These ninth through fifteenth thought-moments are followed by
two
moments of
resultant, retentive consciousness, for seventeen
thought-moments in
all. The seven
moments of impulse
consciousness are karmically active and can be
wholesome or
unwholesome. The moments of resultant, retentive consciousness,
too,
are either
wholesome or unwholesome.
For the purpose of practice of the path, it is important to
know at
which point in these
seventeen thought-moments one is
able to act freely, for better or for
worse. The three
moments of
bhavanga are resultant. The adverting consciousness and the
determining
consciousness are functional. The perceiving
consciousness is
resultant. Thus the seven
moments of impulse
consciousness (javana) are the first karmically
active
thought-moments. The first of these seven moments determines the
next six, so
if it is wholesome,
the rest are wholesome, and if it is
unwholesome, the rest are
unwholesome, too.It is at the point when
determining consciousness is followed by the
seven impulse
moments that resultant or functional states give way to active states.
This is the all-important point in thought-processes, because one
cannot alter the
character of
resultant
or functional states but can
alter the character of active states,
which have a wholesome or
unwholesome karmic potential. At the moment when the javana
moments
commence, the
presence or absence of wise attention is
therefore very important. If
wise attention is
present, the probability
of wholesome impulses is greater; if absent,
unwholesome
impulses are more likely to predominate.
The actual object of the seventeen thought-moments is of little
importance here because
the object in itself, no matter how desirable or undesirable, does not
determine whether
the seven impulse moments are wholesome or unwholesome. You may recall
the case of
the Elder Tissa (see Chapter 23). It happened that the daughter-in-law
of a certain
family,
having quarreled with her husband, dressed in her best garments and
jewelry and set out
to return to her father's house. When she came upon the Elder Tissa,
being of an
irreverent nature, she let out a loud laugh. Seeing her teeth, Tissa
reacted in terms of the
perception of the foulness of the body, and by the strength of that
perception won through
to Arhatship on the spot. When the woman's husband came along and asked
whether
Tissa had seen a woman going that way, the Arhat replied that he was
not aware whether
it had been a man or woman but knew that he had seen a heap of bones
walking along the
road.
This story indicates that no matter what the nature of the determining
consciousness, the
seven moments of impulse consciousness can be an occasion for either
winning through
to the stage of Arhatship or for the further accumulation of moments of
consciousness
that have an unwholesome karmic value. To a man other than Tissa, the
sight of the
woman laughing might have given rise to impulses rooted in lust rather
than ones leading
to the realization of Arhatship. Since wise attention or the lack of it
determines the karmic
value of the impulse moments that follow, we need to apply wise
attention to decrease the
chances of unwholesome impulses arising and increase the chances of
wholesome
moments of impulse consciousness.
I would like to conclude by referring to a simile popularized by
Buddhaghosa in his Path
of Purification (Visuddhi Magga ) to illustrate the seventeen moments
of consciousness
in a thought-process. Suppose a man has gone to sleep at the foot of a
mango tree full of
ripened fruit. A ripened mango is loosened from a branch and falls to
the ground. The
sound of the mango falling to the ground stimulates the ears of the
sleeping man, who
awakes, opens his eyes, and sees the fruit lying not far from where he
is. He stretches out
his arm and takes the mango in his hand. He squeezes the mango, smells
it, and then eats
it.This whole process illustrates the seventeen moments of perceiving a
physical object. The
sound of the falling mango impinging upon the man's ears is analogous
to the three
moments of bhavanga--entry, vibration, and interruption. When the man
uses his eyes
and spots the mango, this is analogous to the moments of adverting and
perception; when
he stretches out his hand to take the fruit, to the moment of
receiving; when he squeezes
the mango, to the moment of investigating; when he smells it, to the
moment of
determining; when he eats it and enjoys it, to the seven moments of
impulse
consciousness; and (although apparently Buddhaghosa did not do this)
one might add that
when he digests it, this is analogous to the two resultant moments of
retention.
If we analyze our thought-processes carefully, and if through
heedfulness we master
them, this can result in a deepened understanding of the ultimate
nature of things as
impermanent and not-self. This analysis can also lead to mastery over
the objects of the
senses, the result of which is dispassion, joy, and freedom. We should
therefore apply the
knowledge we gain about the momentary, conditioned, and transient
nature of the
processes of thought and perception to our daily experience, in order
to seek out that
understanding and wise attention which will enable us to multiply our
moments of
wholesome karmic potential and minimize our moments of unwholesome
karmic
potential. If we can do this, we will have taken a very important step
in extending our
study of the Abhidharma from the merely intellectual sphere to the
practical and
experiential sphere.
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Contents
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01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11
| 12 | 13
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41
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Update : 11-05-2002
