The Master’s Teaching (AN.6.79)

K.S.Chow

Purport:

Ven. Upāli was  a specialist in Vinaya. Vinaya is the complete set of  rules of discipline called Precepts for monks and nuns. There are 227 training precepts for a Theravāda monk (bhikkhu) to exercise moral restraints to avert the slightest moral flaws.   A lay Buddhist suffices to adhere to the Five Precepts (Pañca Sīlas) and the Ten Wholesome Course of Actions or Ten Precepts (Dasasīlas) to restrain themselves morality. Precepts ensure the monastic every member leads an ethical life. Most importantly, it constructs the moral foundation to prepare each monastic member to elevate themselves for higher training in concentration (abhisamādhi) and higher training in wisdom (abhipañññā).

 Ven. Upāli  was one of the immediate and foremost disciples of Gotama Buddha in the 6th century B.C.E. Once, he  requested Gotama Buddha to instruct  him on the  Dhamma concisely. He requested the Master for  a comprehensive and concise  instruction on Dhamma so that he could self-cultivate and would avert  derailment from the right path of the Master. He wanted a prescription of the Buddha Path so that he could esoterically redeem himself rapidly at the inner Heart of Nibbāna. The inner Heart is the pure and infinite consciousness of Man. Self-redemption is emancipation. Emancipation is resulted from the obliteration of ignorantly superimposed self-centric ego. A genuine religion shepherds its adherents to obliterate the ignorantly superimposed self-centric ego so that he can return to common haven for Man – the inner Heart. The inner Heart is the final spiritual station of  Nibbāna – a permanent refuge for sentient beings and Tathāgatas.

The goal of meditation is  to actualize the Nibbānic mind, the inner Heart of man. Actualization of Nibbāna  is to completely appease the noisy human mind. The complete silence of the chatter of the human mind is  Nibbāna. The Nibbānic mind is the pure and infinite consciousness of a Buddhist Gnostic. Psycho-ethically put, Nibbāna is the complete annihilation of self-centric ego. The annihilation of self-centric ego obliterates greed , hatred and delusion leading to deliverance.

To attain Nibbāna is monotheistically designated as to be born of God or to receive God. It is comparable to the Holy Spirit of God of Monotheism.  Mahāyāna-Buddhistly put, it is the Truth Body (Dharmakāya) of the self-awakened One. Different methods of cultivation and different paraphrases, in truth,  communicate ultimately the communal Truth of Wisdom of deliverance.  In actuality,  the inner Heart is the communal esoteric destination for all higher religions, such as Hinduism, Taoism , Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.
Gotama Buddha expounded comprehensively and concisely that the genuine Buddha Path must actualize the following highest results or fruits. This list of spiritual results or fruits constitute the central core of Buddhist teaching. The consummation of the Noble Eight Fold Path will produce  the following spiritual fruits or esoteric harvests:

1. Complete revulsion      (nibbidā)
2. Dispassion                    ( virāga)
3. Cessation  (nirodha) and peace
4. Direct knowledge        (ñāṇadassana)
5. Enlightenment            (sambodhi)
6. Nibbāna                       (Mental appeasement)

Complete revulsion is complete elimination of spiritual ignorance (avijjā) or blindness. It is an instantaneous disillusion of perversion.  It is the attainment of wisdom which eliminates  perversions of ordinary human beings. What is wrong view is conceived as right view is perversion. Complete revulsion is  what is perceived conventionally  and erroneously  as permanence is wisely  converted into the right perception of impermanence; what is pleasant, such as craving or selfish desire, is wisely perceived rightly as suffering; what is perceived  as self is wisely  perceived rightly as Non-self. What is perceived as real multiplicity of forms  is rightly perceived as unreal multiplicity of forms. What is perceived as arising and ceasing is rightly perceived as neither arising nor ceasing. Complete revulsion is the complete annihilation of perversion which is consequent nature of  spiritual ignorance.

Dispassion is generally defined as impartiality and indifference. Such definition leads to misinterpretation of Buddha’s teaching and mispresentation of the Blessed One. Dispassion has been misinterpreted and mispresented by some, both Buddhists and non-Buddhists as lack of emotions or staying emotionally aloof from others or being cold emotionally towards others.  Emotional coldness is not the right way to reflect inner calmness of the human mind appeased by wisdom of right view. Dispassion is not emotional coldness or lack or even absence of warmth. Warmth is love ; coldness is absence of love. Religion teaches us to be compassionately warms towards others but not be remain cold when the needy need our empathy and altruistic compassion.   Gotama Buddha recommends boundless or non-discriminative love towards all people. The Exalted One recommends profuse lovingkindness, compassion and appreciative joy supported by equanimity. Equanimity connotes non-discrimination or evenedness in radiating benevolence.

 Dispassion is  proactively selfless emotional response  and not selfishly reactive emotional response. The former is non-attachment that purifies the mind . The latter is attachment that defiles the mind.  Proactively selfless emotion is the power of equanimity. Equanimity is neither attachment nor aversion. Equanimity is the intended meaning of dispassion according to the original Word of Gotama Buddha. Proactively selfless emotional response  is the  rejection of attachment and aversion because attachment and aversion are emotions resulted from grasping upon the five aggregates as this is I; this is mine; this does not belong to me.

Passionate desire directed and empowered by self-centric ego is rejected by all religions. Selfish or egoistic passion is rejected whilst selfless or non-egoistic passion to be warm towards others  is recommended. Paradoxically, dispassion has been wrongly practised  and preached by some unenlightened Buddhist hermits or renunciates. The equanimous or universal love of lovingkindness, compassion and appreciative joy is the central core of all religious teaching. The Monotheists describe it as non-discriminative love of neighbour. Dispassion is not lack of  warmth and love. Dispassion is the rejection of passion directed and empowered by self-centric ego or attachment due to illusory superimposition of self or ego. Dispassion is not the renunciation of worldly life. It is only the renunciation of self-identity and other identity which are illusorily superimposed.

The wisdom of mundane living is dwelling in the world and beyond the world like the growth of a beautiful lotus flower in a sullied pond. The lotus flower can not grow if it is removed from the muddy pond. Religion ought to be humanistically pragmatic. It should not be separated from the secular life.  It is the Middle Path of both idealism and realism.  The human world is the bipolar reality of integrating  realistic secularism and idealistic spiritualism with wisdom. Being absolutely secular is one extreme; being absolutely spiritual is another extreme. The Middle Path is both secular and spiritual. Bipolar secularity and spirituality are  the intrinsic integrated nature of Man.

There are two-fold meaning of cessation in the teaching of the Master Gotama Buddha: Unsurpassed spiritual fruit and unsurpassed meditative attainment. The unsurpassed spiritual fruit is the cessation of suffering (dukkhanirodha) . Cessation of suffering in terms of unsurpassed or the highest fruit is mental deliverance or salvation gained by a liberated Buddhist. It implies that the mental  cankers have been completely destroyed by the complete annihilation of self-centric ego. Complete annihilation of self-centric ego is realized by Truth discernment of the Insubstantiality (Anattā)  of the five aggregates as this is not I; this is not mine ; this does not belong to me. Anattā is the wisdom of annihilating self-identity or individuality in the universal or cosmic Self – oneness of the world .

The unsurpassed meditative attainment is the actual direct experience of the cessation of perception and feeling (saññāvedayita-nirodha) which transcends the realm of neither perception nor non-perception. The cessation of perception and feeling is meditatively actualized at the highest level of Buddhist meditation known the attainment of cessation (nirodha samāpatti). At this level of the human mind at the highest level of tranquility and mental concentration, the human perception and feeling are completely frozen even though the human body is not dead. The meditator is  completely unconscious of his body and mind but he or she  is still biologically living. The mind has temporarily lost his cognitive power because the perception and feeling are momentarily frozen.

The greatest realization at this level of meditation is that it corroborates rationally the Buddha’s teaching of Non-self (Anattā) that human being is empty of both mind and body. A human personality is merely a systemic structure constituted from the unity of five aggregates and nothing else. The attainer of meditative cessation attainment is a  non-cognitive experience of the human perceptions and feelings. It is still not the actual state of Nibbāna. A genuine Nibbāna experience is cognitive. Nibbāna must be experienced while the cognitive power  in relation to the perceptions and feelings still can be exercised by a conscious man  normally. A Nibbānic yogi still lives with the normal  consciousness of perceptions and feelings. However, he has developed right mindfulness through insightful wisdom not to grasp upon the daily active perceptions and feelings as this is I or this is Mine or this belongs to me.  Buddhist wisdom is applicable even while one is dynamically active in mundane daily activities without any more sitting meditation. The wisdom of right mindfulness and clear awareness of the Insubstantiality of the world is unceasingly sustained in all places at all times.

It is incorrigible to conceive that Anattā can only be intuitively discerned at the summit of meditation of  the cessation attainment. Anattā can be intuitively  discerned at any level of the process of the meditative contemplation. The Anattā discernment or Gnosis can occur at the first mundane jhāna or second mundane jhāna ……. or at the third higher attainment  level of nothingness ……. and so forth. Gnosis may not even occur at the highest attainment of cessation of feelings and perceptions if Anattā is not intuitively penetrated into. Enlightenment is not the attainment of the highest mental concentration. Enlightenment or Gnosis is the attainment of wisdom of insight into Insubstantiality  or Impermanence or Dependent Co-arising or the Four Noble Truths.  This eternal Truth awareness is soteriologically significant. All meditation yogis should take note.

When perceptions and feelings are completely lost through cessation attainment in a formal sitting meditation of a yogi, it implies the mind and body are also frozen temporarily. Devoid of mind and matter, this is the direct experience  of insubstantiality or selflessness at a non-cognitive level of the mind. When the yogi withdraws from meditative absorption, the perceptions and feelings return to a normal state of cognition. If Anattā  is truly discerned through the meditative process, the spiritual Anattā can still be sustained even though the meditative Anattā has vanished. Complete non-grasping upon the five aggregates is the experience of Anattā in all places and at all times while one lives consciously in all daily activities. When one experiences Anattā only during the final spiritual station of meditation of attainment of cessation, this is still not the actualization of actual genuine experience of Gnosis.  Genuine experience of Anattā is the actual attainment of  Gnosis. One dies before one dies. False self dies and the True Self of Anattā is resurrected  in the present life. This is genuine  experience  of Self-enlightenment or Gnosis even when perceptions and feelings are consciously experienced   normally. 

Peace pertains to perfect tranquillity of the mind due to perfect appeasement of the volitional activities (sankhārā) which is actually cessation of the formation of kammas. The peace is freedom from kammic bondage. Perfect peace is arisen from direct knowledge to the supernormal knowledge of destruction of cankers or taints (āsavas). Direct knowledge  is the direct experience of the ultimate Truth – the direct knowledge of the eternal Truth of Dependently co-arisen Insubstantiality- the Unity of existence. The self-centric ego must be annihilated completely in order to destroy the cankers completely.

 Enlightenment refers to the self-awakening to the ultimate Truth of the Three Universal Characteristics of phenomena (Tilakkhaṇas) comprising impermanence (Anicca), Suffering (Dukkha) and Non-self (Anattā). The Three Universal Characteristics are attributes of Dependent Co-arising (Pațiccasamuppāda).

 Nibbānais the complete destruction of the three poisons of life, namely, greed (lobha), hatred (dosa) and delusion (moha). The destruction of these three poisons of life perfects the wisdom and virtue of a delivered Buddhist. The delivered Buddhist becomes completely peaceful and friendly towards others. He is completely adept at avoiding evils, doing good and has purified his or her mind. A Perfect  Man designated as Arahant  is born. From the perspective of Buddhist wisdom and ethics, he or she becomes the supermodel to be emulated by all learning Buddhists. He is designated as an Arahant in Theravāda tradition and a Bodhisattva in the Mahāyāna tradition.

Nibbāna also connotes the destruction of the bondage to the cycle of death and birth or transmigartion (saṃsāra). It also connotes the complete liberation of the mind (cetovimutti). It is the state of the complete liberation (vimutti) from kammic bondage. It is going beyond the shore – from this shore of illusion to the other shore of Gnosis. The cross from this shore to the other shore metaphorically represents the complete obliteration of self-centric ego.