Discourse on the Wheel of Dhamma

NÂMA AS DISTINCT FROM RUPA, EXAMPLE GIVEN BY THE BUDDHA
A precious gem named Veluriya, which has a thread of either brown, yellow, red, white or light yellow colour placed in it, is taken in the palm of the hand for observation. A man with good eyesight is able to distinguish the gem from the thread; he can see clearly the coloured thread embedded in the body of the gem. Likewise, the yogi is able to differentiate the knowing mind from the object to be known; he knows also the knowing mind (consciousness) rushing out towards the object to be known. In this simile, the material object is like the precious gem, the knowing mind is like the thread. And like the thread embedded in the gem, the knowing mind plunges towards the object. Thus the differentiation between nãma and rupa is illustrated by the simile. It should be carefully observed that in the simile there is no mention of knowing as to how many types of rupa, how many types of mind and mental concomitants, etc. are involved. It mentions only distinguishing the knowing mind from the material objects known.

Again in Visuddhimagga, we find the following description of how nãma becomes evident to the observing yogi. ‘For the yogi having discerned by such and such a method, the nature of rupa, then in proportion as rupa becomes quite distinct, disentangled and clear to him so the non-rupas, the nãmas that have rupas as their object, becomes plain and evident of themselves, too.’ Further, we find in Visuddhimagga: ‘It is when supported by nãma that rupa arises; it is when supported by rupa that nãma arises. When nãma has the desire to eat, to drink, to speak and to adopt a posture, it is rupa that eats, drinks, speaks and adopts a posture.’ In these passages from Visuddhimagga, mention was made regarding enumeration of different categories of nãma and rupa; only what will be actually experienced is described. It is plain, therefore, that mere reflection on different categories of nãma and rupa will not result in true nãmarupaparicchedañãna. True nãmarupapariccheda ñãna is developed only when the knowing mind and the material object to be known could be separately recognised while observing the phenomenon of arising and vanishing of nãma and rupa as it occurs.

Ability to distinguish nãma, the knower from rupa, the known, constitutes sammã ditthi, the Right View. Although it may have been learnt from books that nãma, the knowing mind, is separate from the material body, prior to taking up of the meditation practice and at the initial stage of the practice, the yogi cannot distinguish the knowing mind and the material body through actual experience. Only at the stage when the nãmarupapariccheda ñãna is developed that the distinction between these two comes forth spontaneously. When noting the phenomenon of thinking or painful feeling as it occurs, the yogi discerns separately the thinking mind and the material object or painful feeling and location of pain on the body. This discernment of nãma as distinct from rupa is knowing reality as it truly is, that is the Right View. The yogi becomes convinced then that there is only material body and the knowing mind; apart from them, there is no such thing as the living substance or entity. This is also knowing reality as it truly is, the Right View.

As the power of concentration becomes further developed, while noting rising, falling, sitting, touching etc., he comes to realize that he touches because there is the material body to touch; he sees because of eye and sight object, hears because of ear and sound, bends because of desire to bend. He realizes also that he does not know the reality because he fails to take note of the phenomenon as it occurs; he develops liking because he does not know the true nature; he develops attachment because he likes. He then knows that when he has developed attachment, he becomes engaged in activities such as doing or talking. These activities of doing and talking produce resultant effects, good resultants when the action has been wholesome, bad resultants when the action has been unwholesome. In this way he gains the knowledge of cause and effect to the extent of his previous pãrami attainments. This again is knowing the reality as it is, the Right View.

As his concentration becomes further strengthened during the course of noting rising, falling, sitting, touching, seeing, hearing, thinking, feeling, stiff, feeling hot, feeling painful, he discerns clearly the origination of the object as well as its dissolution, the beginning and end of each phenomenon. He becomes convinced through personal experience that every phenomenon is impermanent; it arises into being only to vanish away instantly. He realizes also that incessant arising and ceasing constitute fearful dukkha and what is not subjected to anyone’s control, anyone’s will is not self. This knowledge is also the Right View of knowing what reality is.

As the power of concentration gets still more developed, although the yogi is noting the acts of rising, falling, sitting, bending, stretching, lifting, moving forward, dropping, he is no longer aware of the objects in their various shapes and forms such as the body, stomach, the limbs, etc. He notices only the rapid succession of phenomena of dissolution. He perceives the swift passing away of the object of awareness as well as the noting mind and comes to vivid realization of the real nature of impermanence, fearful suffering and insubstantiality, non-self. The object of awareness passes away the instance it makes its appearance and there is no atta to fasten one’s attachment onto. The knowing mind also dissolves away so fast that there is no atta, nothing to hold onto. Thus, with every noting there is developed the knowledge into the true nature of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and insubstantiality. All these constitute the Right View.

From the time the knowledge, regarding the distinction between nãma and rupa, is developed to the stage of the development of the vipassanã Right View (sammã ditthi), there has been bending of the mind toward perceiving the reality as it is. This constitutes Right Thought. There is involved, too, Right Concentration to keep the mind fixed on the right object and Right Mindfulness to be aware of it. All this while, the yogi is engaged in one of the four foundations of mindfulness: contemplation of the body postures, the feelings, the mind and mental objects. He does the contemplation with an effort which is, therefore, the Right Effort.

Thus, whenever a yogi is engaged in meditation, there are involved five paths, three from the samãdhi group: sammã vãyama, sammã samãdhi, sammã sati, and two from the paññã group: sammã ditthi and sammã saïkappa. These five paths are connectedly involved in each act of heedful noting, knowing. The commentary has named them the kãraka maggas, the working maggas, so to say. In addition, there are also involved the three maggas of the sila group: sammã vãca, sammã kammanta, sammã ãjiva, by way of preserving the precepts intact and by way of fulfilling the abstentions.

And this is how such involvement takes place: the Vipassanã yogi starts observing the precepts even before he starts meditation and keeps them pure. During the course of meditation, sila remains unpolluted, its purity is maintained. If anything, it may be said that sila gets more and more pure then.

Thus, with three sila maggas added to the five in the previous groups, a yogi is developing altogether eight maggas at each instance of noting and knowing the phenomenon. Mahã Salãyatanika Sutta of Upari Pannãsa Pãli text gives the following description of how the eight maggas are developed: “Bhikkhus, when the eye is seen as it truly is (at the instant of noting), when visual objects, eye consciousness, visual contact and feeling that arises due to eye contact, are seen as they truly are, then no liking is developed for the eye, visual objects, eye consciousness, etc. Seeing the eye, visual objects, etc., as they truly are and has not developed liking and attachment for them but sees only revulsion in them, the upãdãnakkhandhãs (which may have arisen through failure to note) get no opportunity to materialize and his craving for these objects also ceases, gets annihilated.
“The view of such person is the Right View; his thoughts are Right Thoughts; his efforts are Right Efforts; his mindfulness is Right Mindfulness; his concentration is Right Concentration. Even before he starts meditation, the yogi is well-established in Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. It is in this way that the yogi becomes established in the Eightfold Noble Path.”

This is a brief account in the Buddha’s words of how the Eightfold Noble Path is developed when the yogi discerns what should be known at the moment of seeing; the true nature of the five dhammas involved, namely, the eye, visual objects, etc. For detailed description, reference may be made to the original Mahã Salãyatanika Sutta of the Upari Pannãsa Pãli text.

The commentary states that the Eightfold Noble Path becomes established at the moment of achieving the ariya magga. This may be taken as a superior form of interpretation. We would like, however, to take the view that the text meant here vipassanã magga instead of the ariya magga, which is the goal to be achieved by accomplishment of the vipassanã magga. This interpretation of ours will be found to be in accord with the fact that knowledge as to the true nature of the eye, visual object, eye consciousness, visual contact and feeling, comes by only through Vipassanã meditation. Ariya magga, on the other hand, does not take the eye, visual object etc,. as its object; it accomplishes only the function of knowing.

In a similar manner, by taking note of the phenomena of hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, thinking, the five dhammas which become prominent at the respective moment of occurrence, could be known and the Eightfold Path developed accordingly.

What has been explained so far relates to involvement of the sila magga by way of maintaining it unpolluted at the moment of Vipassanã meditation.