Aṅguttara Nikāya: 10 Points by which a Good Buddhist Self-examines Himself or Herself (AN.X.193)
Wong Weng Hon
Purport:
Introduction
In the early Discourse on ‘ Ten Points by Which a Good Buddhist Self-examines Himself or Herself’, Gotama Buddha declares ten criteria by which a genuine Buddhist practioner ought to check or evaluate his or her own spiritual progress. It is a sort of checklist by which one’s is constantly, morally restrained not to transgress the five precepts and is mentally mindful and clearly aware not to self-centric ego to direct and empower the sense activivities. In this way, the practice of four foundations of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna) or the Noble Eight-fold Path are being undertaken consistently mindfully and equnimously towards fulfilling the three-fold training of morality (sīla), concentration (samādhli) and wisdom (paññā). Succinctly put, the checklist regulates and maintains constantly one’s intrinsic awareness and clear comprehension according to the Buddhist maxim ‘ Avoid evils and do good,and purify the mind’.
Checklist
The ten items of checklist promulgated by Gotama Buddha is reproduced as follows for our daily contemplation, restraint and examination to insure constant self-improvement, right efforts and right mindfulness.
- Am I greedy ?
- Am I full of ill-will ?
- Am I slothful or idle ?
- Am I excited ?
- Am I doubtful ?
- Am I angry or full of hatred ?
- Am I mentally defiled or corrupt ?
- Am I bodily restless ?
- Am I lazy ?
- Is my mind concentrated on what I’m doing ?
Purport:
If your responses to the aforementioned questions are mostly ‘Yes’, it mirrors that your four foundations of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna) have been poorly undertaken. There is then much room for self-improvement or self-rectification. You are urgently required to improve your mindfulness (sati) and self-awareness skill to tame or subdue chatter of your mind. Your mind is noisy. It ought to be silenced by more serious practice of satipaṭṭhāna. Right mindfulness and clear awareness obliterate the self-centric ego to silence the chatter of the conceptual or intellectual mind.
When a lay person lives a hectic, busy mundane life in a city especially, one’s mind tends to be perturbed and become noisy if satipaṭṭhāna is not executed skillfully. In such a situation, one has a great propensity to utilize the egoistic conceptual mind (left brain function according to neuro-science). Mental constructs create the chatter of the human mind. The perturbed mind is reflected through one’s external fallable and vulnerable bodily, verbal and mental behaviours. When the mind is not appeased by mindfulness and clear awareness, the illusive self or ego directs and empowers all our kammic activities. Consequently, one is attached to the pleasant environmental stimuli and is averse towards the unpleasant stimuli. As a result, one becomes attached when greed is aroused and one is averse when one is perturbed or agitated. Thus, one tends to be more fallible and vulnerable to being greedy, excited, restless, mentally diffused, doubtful, and angry.
Conversely, if satipaṭṭhāna is effectively or wisely applied,, one shifts from the conceptual or intellectual mind into the intuitive mind of the inner Heart (According to neuro-science, intuitive mind is right brain function). According to the brain scientists, the right brain functions intuitively and egolessly while the left brain functions intellectually and egoistically. Human behavior becomes more exemplar, virtuous and worthy when the right brain is utilized through the skill of satipaṭṭhāna to appease volitional or kammic activities directed and empowered by self-centric ego. When the intuitive mind predominates, it silences the chatter of the conceptual or intellectual mind. If one’s skill of satipaṭṭhāna is still weak and immature, the conceptual or intellectual mind predominates over the intuitive mind. That is precisely why mindfulness meditation is an important device to appease the defiled mind by purifying it. If one’s mindfulness meditation is still unestablished or immature, the moral restraint can be effected by adhering to the Five Precepts (Pañcasīlas) or the Ten Wholesome Courses of Action (Dasasīlas). Mindfulness meditation is considered established or mature when one does not grasp upon the five aggregates as this is I ; this is mine; this belongs to me. Non-grasping upon the five aggregates annihilates the self-centric ego superimposed upon the five aggregates.
The Five Precepts are restraints from destruction of lives, thefts, sexual misconduct, false speeches and intoxications. The Ten Wholesome Courses of Action are moral restraints from the destruction of lives, thefts, improper sexual relations, untruthful speeches, divisive speeches, harsh speeches, gossips, greed, hatred and delusion. The Pañcasīlas and Dasasīlas support and invigorate the application of Satipaṭṭhā̄na to purge the human personality of self-centred ego to purify the body, speech and mind. The main enterprise of religious cultivation and practice is to obliterate human fallibilities and vulnerabilities directed and empowered by the false self. The false self is the self-centric ego. |
