A Commentary on the key Ideas in the Chabbisodhans-sutta (M.N)

by Madhyama

1.
That which when seen is spoken of as seen, that which when heard is spoken as heard, that which when sensed is spoken of as sensed, that which when cognized is spoken of as cognized.

Commentary:

The wise whose, mind is freed from cankers (āsavas) without grasping (upādāna), perceives what is seen as merely an activity or experience of sight without objectifying or reifying a substantial seer differentiated from what is seen. There exists no notion of ‘I see’ nor the notion of ‘The sight is seen by me.’. The duality (dvittatā) between the seer or subject and what is seen or object is transcended. Likewise, the mind is also purified by the perception of non-duality between the hearer and what is heard ; between the feeler and what is felt ; between the cognizer and what is cognized. In this manner, the wise or the enlightened one is not attached to pleasant or agreeable objects which arouse greed (lobha) nor is averse towards the unpleasant or disagreeable objects which arouse anger or hatred (dosa). At this crucial point, it is important not to misinterpret or mispresent the Buddha. The Buddhist practioners are not trained to reject the wholesome pleasant or agreeable and wholesome unpleasant or disagreeable things in life. The Buddha merely trains the Buddhist practitioners to deal with all external stimuli, favourable or adverse, equanimously (upekkhā) so that their minds are free from cankers. The renunciation is internal and not external. Buddhist practioners are trained to be not reactive with greed and anger or hatred but to pro-act equanimously and constructively.

Without grasping refers to without grasping upon the five aggregates (pañcakkhandhas) of the human personality. The five aggregates are form, feelings, perceptions, volitions and consciousness. Briefly put, non-grasping upon the five aggregates connotes that the notion of This is I, This is Mine and This belongs to me is extinct as the illusive selfish self or egoistic self, which actually does not exist in the ultimate sense, has been annihilated. The selfish or egoistic self is annihilated when the insubstantiality or selflessness of the five aggregates is intuitively perceived.

2.
I went to the element of Earth, as not-self and to self not dependent on the Element of Earth ; by the destruction, fading away, stopping, giving up, and casting out of grasping after and hankering after these things which are dependent on the element of Earth. (The same statement is repeated by the Buddha for the Element of Water, Element of Fire, Element of Wind, the Element of Space and the Element of Consciousness.) Contemplating that they are dogmas, biases and tendencies, I comprehend that my mind is freed. So, monks, as I know thus, see thus in respect of these six elements, I can say that my mind is freed from cankers with no grasping.

 This utterance of Gotama Buddha explains how the Blessed One purified his mind, destroyed the cankers and liberated himself from being defiled by cankers through non-grasping or non-clinging. He realized that the Element of Earth is insubstanbtial or selfless - The Earth Element was not He ; neither it was His ; neither it belonged to Him. Likewise, he was detached from the other five elements of his personality. Consequently, he ceased grasping upon the five aggregates as This was I, This was me and This belonged to me. Realizing that his six elements were mere dogmas, biases and tendencies of substantial view or ontological commitment, the Blessed was liberated from cankers or mental defilement through non-grasping upon the five aggregates. The Exalted One has perceived the non-self of the Six Elements thus:

The Earth Element is non-self
The Water Element is non-self
The Fire Element is non-self
The Wind Element is non-self
The Space Element is non –self
The Consciousness Element is non-self.

The four Great Elements comprise the five sense organs and five sense bases, namely, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches. These are the ten physical phenomena (rūpadhammas). The mental phenomena (nāmadhammas) are mind and mental objects. In dependent upon the six sense objects and six sense organs, there arise six corresponding sense consciousness, namely, eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness and mental consciousness. The objects of the six consciousness constitute the multiplicity of the all phenomena of the empirical world. When the Buddha declared that he perceived insubstantiality or non-self of the Six Elements, he promulgated that all phenomena of the multiplicity of the empirical world are insubstantial or non-self (sabbe dhammā anattā).

The sutta is significant as it communicates the profound message of Gotama Buddha. The quintessence of the exposition of the Tathāgata is Non-self or Insubstantiality (anattā). The key theme of anattā is that there is no such substantive entity called seer but there exists merely the activity or process of seeing; there is no independent entity called hearer but there exists merely the conditioned phenomenon of hearing ; there is no separate entity called smeller but only the conditioned phenomenon of smelling ; there is no self-contained entity taster but only the conditioned phenomenon of tasting ; there is no independent toucher but the conditioned phenomenon of touching ; there is no separate thinker but only the conditioned phenomenon of thinking. Seeing is dependently co-arisen from the eye faculty and what is seen. There are not two but one. Non-duality connotes Anattā. The same principle of Dependent Co-arising (Paṭiccasamuppāda) is universally applied to the activities of hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking. No whatever soul, self or intrinsic nature is found in any activity or phenomenon. Succinctly put, depersonalization, through non-grasping of egoism, of human personality liberates a wordlling. All Buddhas commenced as worldlings with grasping and become Buddhas through non-grasping. Buddhist training is to destroy grasping due to the superimposition of illusive self-identity which does not exist in the first place. Destruction of grasping is synonymous with annihilation of self or ego which leads to greed, hatred and delusion.