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 Forty-One
Abhidharma in Daily
Life
In this last chapter I would
like to focus on some of the ideas considered in Chapters 30 through 40,
relating them to daily life and to our practice of the Buddha's teaching.
I have discussed the Abhidharma extensively, and some of the material is
rather technical. Although it may not be possible to make complete use of
what we have learned, I hope it will remain in the corner of your mind,
and that you will be able to return to it and use it as time goes
by.
I would like to begin by
drawing your attention to the fundamental orientation of the Buddha and
Buddhism toward the whole question of spiritual progress. You will recall
that the majority of the thirty-seven factors conducive to enlightenment
(see Chapter 40) relate to effort and to the mind. The emphasis in
Buddhism has always been on these two aspects, in marked contrast to other
religious traditions, where the most frequent answers to the question of
spiritual progress refer to fate or grace--in other words, to some power
outside us (whether an impersonal, unseen power, like fate, or a personal
power, like God) that determines our progress and destiny. Fate and grace
were typical answers given by other traditions in the Buddha's time, and
they remain so today. Such approaches have one thing in common: they rely
on something outside us, over which we have little or no control.
The Buddha, however, taught
that it is one's own mind and effort that determine one's progress and
destiny. Mind and effort are the keys to self-development, as is clearly
reflected in the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment. This is why it has
often been said that the mind is the most valuable thing we have. The mind
has sometimes been likened to a wish-fulfilling gem, in that it can grant
rebirth in fortunate or unfortunate states. It is on the basis of mind
that one crosses the threshold of conditioned existence and enters the
supramundane states of the noble ones. It is the mind which determines
this, and it does so through intentional action, or karma--the expressed
will of the mind, which results in the particular conditions in which we
find ourselves.
We can also see the importance
of the mind reflected in the four roads to power (see Chapter 40), which
are mental factors that can affect and control matter. What we need to do
is intensify, cultivate, and elevate the mind. We can see this clearly
when we look at the five factors of absorption or intensification
(jhananga) and the five hindrances (nivarana), two aspects of our
ordinary, mundane consciousness (see Chapter 34). The five hindrances are
typical of very low levels of conscious development, such as the
consciousness of animals, which is saturated with these factors. The
presence of these hindrances means that one's mind is totally conditioned
and manipulated by various stimuli.
In opposition to these five
hindrances are the five factors of absorption, which are also present even
in the consciousness of animals. The five absorptions counter and
eventually eliminate the five hindrances. Thus we can reduce the
controlling power of the hindrances to whatever extent we can cultivate
the absorptions.
In a sense, we are standing at
a crossroads. All ten factors, hindrances and absorptions, are present in
our minds, and it is a question of whether we allow the hindrances to
dominate or develop the factors of intensification so that they begin to
dominate our minds. This is a very important battle because as long as the
hindrances predominate we are very likely to see the results in this life
and in the next life, in the form of rebirth in unfavorable or miserable
states. But if our minds are raised by cultivating the five factors of
absorption, we reach a higher level of development in both this life and
the next.
Once we have intensified and
elevated the power of our minds by developing the five factors of
absorption, we can motivate and direct our minds in a particular
direction. This is done through the five controlling faculties: faith,
energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom (see Chapter 40). It has
been said that, to practice the Dharma, two things are essential: (1)
faith and (2) wisdom. Wisdom is the main thing, while faith is the
prerequisite. In some non-Buddhist traditions, faith means blind
adherence, but in the Buddhist tradition, faith means confidence in the
possibility of success. In other words, if we do not believe we can
succeed, there will be no chance of achieving success no matter what we
try to do. In this sense spiritual practice without faith is like a burned
seed that will never put forth the seedling of spiritual progress, no
matter how rich the soil or how carefully we tend it.
Faith and wisdom are the first
and last of the five controlling faculties. Together with the remaining
three faculties of energy, mindfulness, and concentration, they are
present in the Noble Eightfold Path (see Chapters 5, 6, and 7). Energy,
mindfulness, and concentration correspond to the three factors of right
effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration of the mental
development group of the Eightfold Path.
Faith is related to the
morality group of the Eightfold Path because it is faith, after all, which
compels us to observe the rules of good conduct and believe in the
law of karma at the beginning of our practice. Unless and until we have
achieved supernormal levels of consciousness (like the Buddha and his
foremost disciples, who were able to directly perceive the effects of
wholesome and unwholesome actions), we must rely on faith to create the
foundation of our practice of morality.
Wisdom corresponds exactly to
the wisdom group of the Eightfold Path. In the five controlling faculties,
therefore, we have in germinal form the eight steps of the Noble Eightfold
Path. To summarize, to progress toward our goal of enlightenment, we need
to intensify, elevate, and motivate our minds. The way we can do this is
(1) to cultivate the five factors of absorption to reduce the influence of
the five hindrances, and then (2) to develop the five controlling
faculties and connect them to our practice of the Noble Eightfold
Path. When the five controlling faculties become unshakable, they develop
into the five powers (see Chapter 40), which bring with them the
supramundane states of the noble ones.
Wisdom, which is the last group
of practice in the Noble Eightfold Path, is particularly relevant to the
Abhidharmic studies we have undertaken because wisdom is the understanding
of ultimate reality, and the Abhidharma is concerned with the presentation
of ultimate reality. When we speak of wisdom, we have two components
principally in mind: (1) not-self and (2) emptiness.
We have discussed the
analytical and relational approaches to the analysis of personal
experience in the teaching of not-self and in the teaching of dependent
origination, respectively. When we consider not-self, we need to think of
the self in relation to the five aggregates. Just as the erroneous idea of
a snake exists dependent on and in relation to the rope and darkness, so
when we look for the self in relation to the aggregates, we find that it
does not exist in any way. The self cannot be found in any of the
aggregates of consciousness, feeling, perception, volition, and form. The
self cannot possess the aggregates in the way we might own a car. The self
does not control the aggregates. It does not control the mind, nor
does it control the body. The self is not in any way ascertainable within
or without the aggregates.
Having arrived at this
understanding of not-self, we might look for a moment at the aggregates.
At this point, we move from an analysis of personal experience in terms of
the five aggregates to an analysis of the five aggregates in terms of
dependent origination. The five aggregates do not originate by chance, nor
do they originate without any cause. They originate dependently--dependent
on the afflictions (ignorance, craving, and clinging) and on karma,
volition, and becoming.
It has been said that
interdependent origination is the greatest treasure of the Buddha's
teaching. Understanding interdependent origination is the key to undoing
the knot that has kept us bound for so long in samsara. The Buddha himself
said that he who sees interdependent origination sees the Dharma, and that
he who sees the Dharma sees the Buddha. This is a very encouraging remark,
for if we can begin to see our daily experience in terms of interdependent
origination--in terms of the conditioned, relative, and empty nature of
the factors of experience--then we will see the Dharma, and through seeing
the Dharma, we will see the Buddha. It will then no longer be true to say
that we cannot see the Buddha, that the Buddha is not present here and
now.
I hope that this study of the
Abhidharma will not remain an intellectual exercise but will be applied to
our daily lives, however slightly. Although it may be difficult to apply
everything covered in the course of these last twelve chapters, I think
all of us who have studied the Abhidharma will no longer make the mistake
of thinking of reality in terms of a unitary, independent, and permanent
self and the essential, substantial objects around us. Insofar as we have
moved toward a new way of understanding reality in terms of factors and
functions that are interdependent and relative, we have moved some way
toward seeing the Dharma and the Buddha.
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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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Layout: Nhi Tuong
Update : 11-05-2002
