Mūlamadhyamakārikā中觀論誦 (MMK13): Chapter 13 - Examination of Action and the Agent Saṃskāra-parīkṣā
By Paramartha
Introduction
This chapter deals with inter-relationship between dispositions or volitional actions (saṃskāra) and wrong views. Dispositions mould human personality. Of all the five aggregates, disposition is by far the most critical aggregate among the five aggregates. Its appeasement is the crucial turning point in one’s spiritual life. The state of disposition determines either the state of suffering or bliss for an individual. If it is appeased, there is the human experience of bliss. Conversely, if it is not tamed, it is the source of human suffering. The five aggregates are chiefly flavoured and empowered by the aggregate of dispositions. In fact, religion functions to appease the disposition through the silence of the chatter of the human mind.
In fact, transmigration (saṃsāra) or Nirvāṇa depends on how one manages the dispositions. If one is obsessed with the conceptualization of wrong worldview and thus the dispositions are not appeased As a result, one is subject to transmigration and hence the resultant suffering If one is able to appease pacify the dispositionors through the wisdom of insight into the Insubstantiality or Emptiness of the five aggregates, then freedom (mokṣa) or cessation of suffering is resulted. Thus, the state of dispositions correlates closely with the mental state which conditions either suffering or the ending of suffering. The ending of suffering is liberation.
Aggregates
For instance, scientifically put, a perceiver perceives an external blue object. The eye senses or feels the blue light reflecting from the object and reports its frequency. The perception identifies the frequency as ‘blue’. The disposition aggregate is the human personality reacting to the perception of external object. The reaction may be either positive such as ‘I like blue’ or negative such as ‘I dislike blue.’ The type of reaction to the external stimuli is dependent upon the knowledge formed in the dispositions stored in the human consciousness as karmic seeds. If one has the knowledge of co-rrelating ‘blue’ with frustration, then his reaction would be: I don’t like ‘blue’. On the other hand, another person loves the blue roses presented by his first lover in his life, most probably, he will react: ‘I like blue’. One’s attitude towards the external stimuli is determined by one’s dispositions built up as he moves along the journey of life. The consciousness, impacted by the karmic seeds stored in store-consciousness, makes one aware, know and react to the stimuli of the environment according to his past experiences. Past experiences influences one’s reactions to the environmental stimuli.
Reactive or proactive
An ordinary unenlightened person in contact with the external stimuli through the six senses reacts either favourably or adversely leading to conceptualization and new karmic formations which may be either wholesome or unwholesome. The favourable or adverse reaction results from grasping upon the stimuli in the form of either attachment to the pleasant or aversion towards the unpleasant. This emotional reaction due to grasping binds one to the cycle of transmigrationand therefore suffering. In other words, actions and reactions consisting of wholesome or unwholesome karmas and vipākas, cause the whole mass of suffering to the transmigrating being.
Śākyamuni Buddha teaches us not to be reactive towards the external stimuli as this constitutes grasping upon the five aggregates. The blessed One admonishes us to be proactive without clinging. Proactivity, the opposite of reactivity, is the execution of right mindfulness and clear awareness without grasping upon in order to pacify or appease the dispositions. This is actually the adept skill of the four foundations of mindfulness (cattāri satipaṭṭhāna) or the Zen practice. Satipaṭṭhāna or Zen guards the Buddhist practioners’ six-sense doors well so that the minds are not mentally corrupted. If the six-sense doors are well guarded to prevent mental defilements or cankers, then the dispositions are appeased. The four foundations of mindfulness annihilate the self-centric ego and purify the human consciousness. When the consciousness is purified, one is delivered because the noisy human mind has been tamed.
According to Jonah Winters in her thesis ‘Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way’, disposition is the chief cause of grasping.It binds one to transmigration and suffering.The dispositions constitute human preferences or rejections. These preferences can easily become passionate attractions and the unpleasant rejections become unpleasant aversions. Buddhist scholar David J. Kalupahana put it this way, “We are in a double bind”. What he means is that we need the dispositions in order to live, but paradoxically, they can also contribute to our suffering if they are not appeased. The function of religion is to appease the human mind before it hurts.
Nāgārjuna and Śākyamuni Buddha provides us with the solution to release the sentient beings from such a dilemma. The key to utilize dispositional preferences or rejections without being affected by them is the appeasement of dispositions. One should not be a slave to dispositions but be a master of dispositions. In order words, one ought to develop wisdom of insight into the Insubstantiality of the five aggregates in order to manage and appease the dispositions through the intuitive discernment of Truth. The wise management and appeasement of dispositions ensues from the annihilation of the self-centric ego. The self-centric ego is obliterated by the mature practice of the four establishments of mindfulness or Zen wisdom by not grasping upon the five aggregates as this is I; this is Mine; this belongs to me.
Dispositions Properly Utilized
In an ordinary unenlightened person, dispositions are inalienable or inseparable parts of the human personality. They are influenced by the karmic potentials developed in the past. Even at death, one’s dispositions in the form of karmic energy are not eliminated. His karmic energy transmigrates together with him as long as one is a sentient being. Conversely, after the demise of a Tathāgata, the dispositions cease and his karmic force discontinues. For a living Arahant, his dispositions or five aggregates are not eliminated but only pacified or appeased. If the dispositions are not appeased, our likes and dislikes making up the dispositions contribute to our suffering and vexation in this mundane world. Upon death, the five aggregates including the dispositions of an Arahant or a Tathāgata are completely dissolved.
Only absolute right mindfulness supported by wisdom can appease the dispositions. The five aggregates including the dispositions are completely dissolved after parinibbāna of an Enlightened person. The Blessed One emphasizes the appeasement of dispositions while one is still living. One should train oneself so that one dies before one dies. In other words, one should be redeemed before one’s demise. The false self must die first in order to resurrect the True Self or Cosmic Self.
From the Buddhist perspective, the cessation of suffering is synonymous with ‘Not grasping upon all views including right views’. Non-grasping upon anything results in the appeasement of dispositions. The cessation of suffering is not synonymous with not having views or not having dispositions. Rather, it is synonymous with non-grasping upon even right views and also the appeasement of dispositions. Śākyamuni Buddha emphasizes the appeasement of dispositions while one is still living in the earthly world and the cessation of dispositions or the five aggregates at the time of death. The crucial practice is non-grasping upon any view. Grasping upon any view is the notion of I or mine. The notion of I or mine is the manifest of the self-centric ego. The self-centric ego arouses dispositions. In order to appease the dispositions, I or mine must be used without grasping.
The key soteriological practice in Buddhism is right mindfulness and clear awareness without grasping. It is not the question of not having views. One must have right view in order to correct wrong view. The critical point is that relinquishing all views connotes the elimination of grasping upon views. It does not imply that right view must also be discarded to produce the mental state of nothingness or nihilism. Any notion of nothingness or nihilism is still a form of subtle grasping. Of course, wrong view must be discarded in order to uphold right view. But one must be mindful enough not to grasp upon even right view. The right view is Emptiness. But one must be heedful enough not to grasp upon Emptiness. Emptiness of emptiness (Śūnyatā-Śūnyatā) is a phrase used to describe the non-grasping upon Emptiness. This is the first principle of full enlightenment. The highest knowledge is beyond all views – not grasping upon any view including right view or emptiness.
Knowledge & Dispositions
A human personality perceives the empirical world through his or her six senses. The knowledge that he or she acquires is gathered and developed to form his her dispositions. In the process of acquiring knowledge of the external world, a human being conceptualizes his perceptions and forms his or her dispositions which determine the flavors of his or her personality. An eternalist grasps upon the view of eternalism; an annihilationist grasps upon the view of annihilationism; a Svabhāvavādingrasps upon the view of self-nature and Ātmavādin grasps upon the view of soul. All these substantial views are delusions. The phenomena themselves do not produce delusions. Wrong views of phenomena engender the delusions. When a phenomenon is negated to avert grasping in the perception of Emptiness, only its sign or self-nature is negated. The phenomenon is not negated.
To view things or phenomena in a substantial way is wrong view. To view the things or phenomena as being empty of intrinsic nature or self-nature is right view. It is the correct view of the things or phenomena without grasping upon correct view that appeases the dispositions. The view of Emptiness or Insubstantiality pacifies or appeases the dispositions. Emptiness or Insubstantiality is the right view which constitutes the core of the process philosophy of dynamic becoming. It obliterates the self-centric ego. Most importantly, the grasping upon the view of Insubstantiality or Emptiness must be averted.
Central Message
Śākyamuni Buddha teaches the truth of Dharma that this world is insubstantial and is empty of any inherent existence. Everything is dependently co-arisen Unity or Non-duality. If the world is realized or apprehended in this manner (as they really are), then dispositions are appeased. With the dispositions pacified, freedom is attained.
Conclusion
The goal of Buddhism ( in fact all esoteric religions) is aimed at appeasing the dispositions while one is still living in the mundane world. Only different designations are employed in the process of mental appeasement. From Buddhist perspective, only the right view of Emptiness, Insubstantiality or Dependent Co-arising appeases the human dispositions, that is the cessation of karmic formation. Since their early childhood, all sentient beings are trained to utilize their conceptual or intellectual minds to perceive the world substantially. Religion emerges to rectify this wrong substantial view of all sentient beings so that they will shift from the conceptual or intellectual mind (head) to the intuitive mind (heart) perceiving the Truth of Insubstantiality. Once the shift is made, the dispositions are appeased. In other words, the chatter of the ordinary mind is silenced. This is the universal principle of salvation applicable to all esoteric religions. From the perspective of perennial philosophy, dissimilar religions are dissimilar expedient devices or skillful means (upāyas) to actualize the communal soteriological goal of eternal wisdom, peace and bliss.
Editor’s Note:
Every world’s religion, such as Buddhism, embodies two dimensions of study and practice: the exoteric or external dimension and the esoteric or external dimension. Learning only the exoteric dimension is studying the half-truth. The esoteric dimension is the second half which completes the whole Truth expounded by Śākyamuni Buddha. MMK is one of the most important Mahāyāna Buddhist treatises which deals with the esoteric dimension of Mahāyāna Buddhism very intensively and minutely. It is a Buddhist literature which depicts full enlightenment of the Buddha. |
