33. The Skilled Archer
The Buddha’s instructions for how to train the mind in liberating discernment by using the second method—observing and evaluating a state of jhāna while you’re still in it—show that here, too, the contemplation has to focus on discerning the fact of fabrication in the jhāna and on arriving at a value judgment that inclines the mind to the unfabricated. In this case, the imagery is less that of a battle than of a person perfecting his skill—although the skill in question would be useful if he’s ever called into battle.
“I tell you, the ending of the effluents depends on the first jhāna… the second jhāna… the third… the fourth… the dimension of the infinitude of space… the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness… the dimension of nothingness. I tell you, the ending of the effluents depends on the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception.…
“Suppose that an archer or archer’s apprentice were to practice on a straw man or mound of clay, so that after a while he would become able to shoot long distances, to fire accurate shots in rapid succession, and to pierce great masses. In the same way, there is the case where a monk, quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful qualities, enters & remains in the first jhāna: rapture & pleasure born of seclusion, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. He regards whatever phenomena there that are connected with form, feeling, perception, fabrications, & consciousness, as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a disintegration, an emptiness, not-self. He turns his mind away from those phenomena (dhammas) and, having done so, inclines his mind to the property of deathlessness: ‘This is peace, this is exquisite—the pacification of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; unbinding.’
“Staying right there, he reaches the ending of the effluents. Or, if not, then—through this very Dhamma-passion, this Dhamma-delight, and from the total ending of the five lower fetters [self-identification views, grasping at habits & practices, doubt, sensual passion, and irritation]—he is due to arise spontaneously (in the Pure Abodes), there to be totally unbound, never again to return from that world.
“[Similarly with the remaining stages of concentration.]” — AN 9:36
There are several points worth noticing here. First, in terms of the contemplation of the state of jhāna, you have to engage in enough commitment to the jhāna to be skilled at it before contemplating it further. If you try analyzing it when the mind is still not securely in place, your concentration would simply fall apart. But when you have achieved some mastery, then the next step is to look for the fact of fabrication, here expressed in the fact that the jhāna is composed of the five aggregates.
To see how that’s so, we can take as an example the first jhāna as attained through breath meditation. Form would be the object of the concentration, the in-and-out breath. Feeling would be the feelings of pleasure experienced through being continually attentive to the breath. Perception would be the perception of the breath and the pleasure permeating the whole body. Fabrication would be the intention to stay with the breath, plus the directed thought and evaluation that allow the pleasure of the breath to spread throughout the whole body. Consciousness would be aware of all these activities.
Once you’ve seen the fact of these fabrications in the state of jhāna, the next step is to arrive at a value judgment of them. Here the Buddha recommends using skillful mental fabrications—perceptions—to induce dispassion for the fabrications of concentration. He lists eleven perceptions in all, which would fall under the three perceptions he most often uses for persuading his listeners to see the drawbacks of the aggregates and to develop dispassion for them:
Inconstancy: inconstant, a disintegration;
Stress: stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction;
Not-self: not-self, alien, an emptiness.
These perceptions are designed to develop an attitude of dispassion for all things fabricated, and to incline the mind to seeing dispassion as a good thing.
Here again, the approach of commitment and reflection arrives at a liberating value judgment by focusing on the drawbacks of where you are in concentration, and then the rewards of abandoning passion for it. The main difference here is that the contemplation focuses, not just on the rewards of a higher level of concentration, but on the rewards of going straight to the unfabricated.
This liberating appreciation of the unfabricated is identical with the eighth and final quality that makes you worthy of the Dhamma: delighting in non-objectification.
“There is the case where a monk’s mind leaps up, grows confident, steadfast, & released in the cessation of objectification. ‘This Dhamma is for one who enjoys non-objectification, who delights in non-objectification, not for one who enjoys & delights in objectification.’ Thus was it said. And with reference to this was it said.” — AN 8:30
Non-objectification is one of the Buddha’s epithets for unbinding. It’s based on his technical definition of the word “objectification”—papañca—as a type of thinking that begins with the perception “I am the thinker” (Sn 4:14). As you objectify yourself with this perception, you develop other perceptions based on it, until you identify yourself as a being with a need to feed. Because of that need, you inevitably come into conflict with other beings who have been objectifying themselves and need to feed as well. Non-objectification comes from digging out the root of that original perception, and so liberates the mind from all conflict. To delight in non-objectification is to delight in the prospect of being totally free from conflict and, once that freedom is attained, to enjoy that freedom.
One last thing to notice about this approach to dispassion given in AN 9:36 is that it is possible, on discerning the deathless as a result of this contemplation, to feel passion both for the deathless and for the verbal and mental fabrications of discernment that opened the way to it. This passion comes from a blind spot in your all-around reflection at that moment: You haven’t fully reflected on what’s left to be abandoned. The passion in this blind spot would prevent you from gaining full awakening.
It’s because of this possibility that the Buddha, in many places throughout the Canon, recommends applying the perception of not-self not only to fabrications, but even to the unfabricated (MN 35; Dhp 277–279): All phenomena are not-self. Of course, once you’ve developed dispassion for the unfabricated, you have to drop this last instance of fabricated discernment—the perception that all phenomena are not-self—for your release to be all-around. Because the perception itself is a phenomenon, if you reflect thoroughly on it in an all-around way, you see that it contains the seeds for its own transcendence.
