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Chapter Three

Categorical Answers

The Buddha often structured his talks as categorical (ekaṁsa) answers to specific questions that he himself had posed. In this way, he accomplished three objectives. He was showing his listeners which questions are worth asking, he was demonstrating the context in which they should place the concepts he was discussing, and he was providing a framework to help them remember what he said. (See Appendix Two.) The fact that he structured his talks in this way means that the vast majority of the questions he answered in the Canon are categorical, and that there are thousands of them. It would be impractical in a book of this scope to survey all of the Buddha’s categorical answers, so we will focus instead on two central questions related to this type of answer: (1) What standards did the Buddha use to determine which sorts of questions deserved a categorical answer? (2) How did he intend his listeners to organize the vast body of his categorical answers into a coherent and useful fund of knowledge? In answering these two questions, we will also gain an understanding of how far the truth-value of a categorical answer goes.

Fortunately, the Buddha himself provided a useful hint in how to answer these two questions by clearly indicating that some of his answers were more categorical than others. Of all the teachings he gave in the Canon, only two did he label as categorical. The first is the distinction between good bodily conduct, good verbal conduct, and good mental conduct on the one hand, and bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, and mental misconduct on the other [§21]. Comparing MN 9 [§27] with AN 10:165 [§28], we can see that this distinction is the same as that between skillful and unskillful kamma. The second teaching the Buddha labeled as categorical was that of the four noble truths [§22].

These two sets of teachings are categorical because their range isn’t limited to particular situations. Acting on them leads categorically—universally—to good results. They are reliable guides to mastering the principle of kamma across the board. Any people who act on the distinction between skillful and unskillful actions—adopting the skillful and abandoning the unskillful—produce bright kamma, in the sense that they don’t have to fault themselves on their behavior; observant people, on close examination, praise them; their good reputation gets spread about; they die unconfused; and—on the breakup of the body, after death—reappear in the good destinations, in the heavenly world [§31]. Any people who act on the four noble truths—comprehending stress, abandoning its cause, realizing its cessation, and developing the path to its cessation—produce kamma that leads to the end of kamma, in that these truths are conducive to the goal, conducive to the Dhamma, and basic to the holy life; they lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to unbinding: a happiness so total that the need for any further action for the sake of happiness has been transcended (SN 56:31).

As for other teachings that the Buddha gave as categorical answers to questions, they can be regarded as falling under these two. As Ven. Sāriputta noted,

In much the same way, all the Buddha’s categorical answers to questions are encompassed by his two categorical teachings. For instance, as we saw in Chapter Two and will see again in Chapter Eight, the teachings of dependent co-arising are also conducive to awakening and unbinding. A cursory glance at these teachings shows that they actually fall under the four noble truths, being an elaboration of the first three of the four. In the case of other categorical answers the relationship to the categorical teachings may not be so obvious, but careful analysis will show that it’s there.

As we noted in Chapter One, the four noble truths and the distinction between skillful and unskillful action supply the categories both of right view and of appropriate attention. And as we have also noted, right view and appropriate attention involve not only looking at these topics, but also looking at the rest of experience in terms of them. In particular, right view and appropriate attention use these topics as a framework for selecting and developing the skills needed to comprehend stress and bring it to an end. They direct one to focus primary attention on one’s actions and the results of those actions, and in this way they foster the skill most essential for understanding and mastering the principle of kamma: the ability to learn from one’s mistakes so as to develop ever-higher levels of skill.

Thus appropriate attention—and, to streamline the discussion, we will refer to both right view and appropriate attention under this term—provides the framework for best understanding the Buddha’s overarching approach to giving categorical answers. This framework shows not only how to frame questions that will deserve categorical answers, but also how best to learn from those answers—how to comprehend and use them once they are received. In this way, just as Chapter One was concerned with the kamma of teaching, this chapter will focus on the kamma of learning, of listening and figuring things out. Because learning involves understanding the intention of the person teaching, the discussion in this chapter will inevitably overlap somewhat with the discussion in Chapter One, but here we will focus more on how the Buddha’s intention in teaching shaped the kind of learning he encouraged in his students, and—by implication—in those of us who still want to reap the most benefit from his words.

It’s commonly recognized that people attend to a teaching in line with the views they bring to it. But it’s a common mistake to regard these views as lying somehow outside of the field of action—thinking that, for instance, one’s understanding of the world may guide one’s actions while at the same time not noticing that one’s choice of a view and the way one attends to it is a type of action as well. The Buddha, however, saw clearly the kammic aspect of building a view, holding to it, forming questions based on it, and attending to its different features. All of these actions form the frame for how people listen to a teaching and what they take away from it. So when the Buddha, in the typical formula at the beginning of his talks, told his listeners to “listen and attend well,” he wasn’t simply telling them to pay attention to all of his words. He was also telling them to bring appropriate attention to what he was saying, framing the questions they brought to the teaching in terms of appropriate attention and placing his comments in the same framework as well.

It might seem strange that the Buddha would be asking his listeners to bring right view to his teaching even before they had heard his teaching, but he was depending on the fact that all people have experienced stress, and all search for someone who knows a way to put an end to stress (AN 6:63, Chapter One). This is the primal search, beginning in early childhood, from which all other searches grow. The question embodied in this search—“Who knows a way or two to stop this pain?”—is probably the most earnest question we ask. In advising his listeners to bring right view to his teaching, the Buddha was simply recommending that they approach it from the viewpoint of this earnest, primal search, and not through the lens of less primal issues. For anyone sensitive to the problem of stress, this is not too much to ask.

To help clarify the issue of what does and doesn’t count as appropriate attention in this area, the Buddha in MN 2 [§25] defined appropriate attention primarily as knowledge of which sorts of questions deserve attention and which don’t. The implication here is that those deserving attention are the ones most worth bringing to his teachings. He then provided lists to illustrate both categories of questions. Although the lists are not exhaustive, they provide important insights into where the line between appropriate attention and inappropriate attention can be drawn, and why it is drawn precisely there.

The questions deserving appropriate attention, predictably, are those defined in terms of the four noble truths. Those not deserving attention are these:

These questions are framed in terms of two dichotomies—me and not me, existence and non-existence—placed in the time frame of past, future, and present.

Although the texts don’t explicitly make this connection, these terms correspond to what MN 18 [§50] calls the “perceptions & categories of papañca.” Papañca is a difficult term to translate. Some common English equivalents for it include objectification, complication, elaboration, differentiation, and proliferation.

In ancient Indian artistic theory, papañca referred to the elaboration of an artwork’s basic theme: the process of embodying that theme in specific objects—the notes of a musical piece, the colors and forms of a painting, or the words and images of a literary work. The Buddha, however, had his own uses and explanations for the term. Without giving it a formal definition, he cited it functionally in MN 18 and DN 21 [§4] to describe the sort of thinking that leads to conflict. In Sn 4:14 [§52] he identified the root of papañca-classifications as the thought, “I am the thinker.” Because this thought turns the “I” into an object or being; and because the classifications derived from this thought deal with the status of individual objects existing in a world of objects, “objectification” is probably the best translation for the Buddha’s use of the term, papañca. The one caveat here is that, unlike the modern psychological use of “objectification”—in which the subject treats other people as objects—objectification in the Buddha’s sense begins when the subject objectifies itself. Only then does it apply the same process to others.

Given that objectification-classifications begin with the thought, “I am the thinker,” the connection between objectification and the inappropriate questions in MN 2 is clear. Those questions are phrased in terms that try to define what the “I” is, what it means to “be,” whether the “I” exists, and what its fate over time has been and will be: Did it come into existence from nothing? Has it always existed? Will it always exist? Will its continued existence be happy?

As the Buddha pointed out, people who attend to inappropriate questions of this sort tend to settle on views like these:

In addition, the act of attending to these inappropriate questions can lead to other views as well, for the “where” in the questions, “Where has this being come from? Where is it bound?” leads not only to views about the nature of the existence of the self, but also about the existence of the world, its source, and its final end. DN 1 [§184] provides a long list of views that can be derived in this way.

The Buddha found these questions inappropriate because the act of giving an answer framed in their terms—regardless of how true it might be—would go against the duties of the four noble truths. As SN 22:81 [§153] points out, any answer to these questions would be a form of fabrication. But these questions—instead of focusing attention on the process of fabrication leading up to them, with the purpose of freeing the mind from passion for that process—focus on using the process of fabrication for gaining what they see as worthwhile information about other things. In this way, they induce more passion for the results of fabrication, while keeping the actual processes in the dark. Thus they interfere with the duty appropriate to the first noble truth, which is to comprehend fabrication to the point of dispassion.

Similarly, SN 22:36 [§200] points out that the act of self-definition is also an act of obsession, in that one develops passion for whatever one identifies as one’s self. Because anything that could be identified in this way comes under the five clinging-aggregates, one is again going against the basic duty with regard to the first noble truth, which is to comprehend those clinging-aggregates to the point of dispassion. Furthermore, the act of taking on an identity in the context of a specific world of experience is an act of becoming, which is one of the fermentations from which the mind needs to be released. The desire to engage in becoming is one of the primary forms of craving leading to suffering and stress. To indulge in this desire goes against the duty with regard to the second noble truth, which is to abandon that craving.

At the same time, as MN 102 [§53] shows, any sense of “I am” applied to even the subtlest levels of concentration developed along the path hides a remnant of clinging that, because it has not been fully comprehended and abandoned, gets in the way of awakening.

Thus the texts go into a fair amount of detail to show how any answer to the above inappropriate questions would go against the duties of the four noble truths. As a result, any such answer—instead of leading to happiness or freedom—would lead only to entanglement.

MN 18 [§50] makes a similar point in terms of the psychology of sensory perception:

The progression in this passage is instructive. At first the processes of sensory contact are described in impersonal terms: eye, forms, eye-consciousness, contact, and feeling. With feeling, however, an agent appears, who then feels, perceives, and thinks. This thinking, however, does not yet use the perceptions and categories of objectification—a point that will be important in allowing for the use of thought on the path. (The verb for thinking used here—vitakketi—corresponds to the noun vitakka, which appears in the standard definitions of right concentration [§33] and noble right resolve [§39].) Nevertheless, the agent frequently moves from thinking to objectifying, at which point the role of agent changes to that of victim, assailed by the perceptions and categories of objectification, entangled in the thicket and fetter of views.

There are at least five reasons for this entanglement.

(1) The first is that the categories and perceptions of objectification deal in abstractions that are impossible to pin down with any certainty in the present. Thus any answer framed in their terms is bound to lead simply to more uncertainty.

The remaining reasons derive from the self-reflexive nature of this kind of thinking.

(2) The categories of objectification not only raise issues about objects of thought—selves and worlds—but also draw into those issues the identity of the person thinking: “How does this thinker, as an object, fit into the world of its thoughts? How does it fit into the world of other people’s thoughts?” In this way, the thinker is inevitably entangled in internal difficulties and controversy.

(3) As SN 22:36 [§200] points out, the act of self-definition is an act of self-limitation, for anything that one might identify as one’s self—even a cosmic self—is limited by the restrictions of space and time.

(4) Also, all people engaged in objectification are busy defining themselves and the world around them in terms of “I am the thinker.” Thus they are defining—and placing limitations on—not only themselves and their worlds, but also other people who have defined themselves and their worlds in line with their own “I am the thinker.” The act of trying to impose on other people the limitations implicit in one’s own objectifications, insisting that they submit to one’s own sense of self and world, is an act of aggression, an attempt to exert dominance over how they define themselves and their worlds. There are bound to be people who will resist any views produced from this sort of thinking, and thus the person engaged in this process is bound to meet with external conflict.

(5) Finally, the act of identifying oneself creates a “being” [§199]. As Khp 4 points out, all beings subsist on food. In creating a being that needs to feed, one is creating the many problems that come with that need: the hunger—the “foremost disease” (Dhp 203)—driving that need, along with the consequent needs to secure a source of food and to defend it from other beings who will try to take it as food for themselves. Often, one has to defend against being treated as food oneself.

These are some of the ways in which the categories and perceptions of objectification assail and entangle the person who fabricates them.

The questions framed in terms of appropriate attention, however, avoid these uncertainties and conflicts by using a level of thinking prior to objectification. To begin with, they are framed in terms that are immediately felt and perceived. Thus they deal in certainties about actions and results. In fact, in MN 2 [§25], these terms are expressed not as questions but as observations: “This is stress… This is the origination of stress… This is the cessation of stress… This is the way leading to the cessation of stress.” Only in other discourses [§33; §39] does the Buddha express these sentences in the form of questions, to show how best to induce these observations about the mind in the present.

Second, questions expressed in terms of appropriate attention avoid the entanglements that come with trying to define a sense of the self and the world around an “I am.” Instead, they simply offer therapy for the problem of suffering: explaining how it can be comprehended in terms of actions and results, and thus brought to an end. When the Buddha offered views based on these categories to his listeners, he was not engaging in an act of aggression or seeking dominance, for he was not trying to define who they were. Instead of treating them as objects, he was speaking to the main burden of subjectivity: the experience of pain. In offering his teachings, he was simply offering tools—or to use his own analogy, medicine—to cure that pain, leaving his listeners free to use that medicine, or not, as they saw fit.

Now, there are obviously some passages in the discourses where the Buddha offers answers to such questions as, “Was I in the past?” or “Shall I be in the future?”, particularly in his discussion of past and future lives. These answers, however, should be viewed in terms of his strictures for his own speech: that it be true, beneficial, and timely. In all of the instances where the Buddha answers questions that could derive from the root thought, “I am the thinker,” he does so with the purpose of addressing a person caught in the midst of that mode of thinking, and inducing either (1) an interest in why “the thinker” should pursue skillful action or (2) a sense of dispassion for the act of continuing to think in the mode of objectification at all. A graphic example of the latter case is the following:

Thus, when the Buddha found it timely and beneficial to use the categories and perceptions of objectification in a strategic way to get a person mired in those categories to see the advantages of dropping them, he would use them for that purpose. This, in fact, is the function of the mundane level of right view, which employs categories that fall into the realm of objectification, such as “beings” and “worlds.”

However, he did not always have to follow this approach. As we noted in our discussion of MN 18, there is a type of thinking that precedes objectification and does not impose the categories of objectification on what is felt and perceived. When his listeners were ready, the Buddha would appeal to that level of thought in hopes of getting them to use it in their pursuit of the path.

This he would do in a variety of ways. To begin with, he would often describe the benefits of thinking in terms of appropriate attention:

Second, the Buddha would recommend questions that his listeners should ask other people or themselves. Because the questions they should ask themselves are a type of cross-questioning, we will consider them in Chapter Six. Here we will simply note that, in recommending the questions they should ask others, the Buddha advised (1) that they ask only experienced and knowledgeable people and (2) that the questions deal with skillful action: how to understand the concept of skillfulness, what sort of actions are skillful, and how specific skills are to be developed [§43, §44]. Of special interest are the questions in MN 135 [§43], for these are said to be the source of discernment:

These questions mark the beginning of discernment because they recognize that long-term happiness is better than short-term, that happiness depends on one’s actions, and that one’s actions can be chosen and developed as skills. Everything else in the practice comes from recognizing these basic principles.

But the Buddha’s most common method in encouraging appropriate attention among his listeners was, as we have already noted, to frame his talks as categorical answers to questions that he himself would pose. In fact, most of the detailed descriptions of the ramifications of right view—the definitions of many of the terms, and explanations of how to carry out the duties appropriate to the categories of right view—are found in talks of just this sort [§§27-31, §33, §35, §36 and §§38-41].

Because this information comes primarily in discourses where the Buddha is in total control of the shape of the discussion, posing the questions before providing the answers, it’s somewhat surprising to find gaps and apparent inconsistencies in the information about right view that can be drawn from these passages. For instance, many of the most basic terms are not formally defined. The four noble truths center on stress, but nowhere is stress given a formal definition. It is illustrated with examples, and the Buddha gives a summary definition—in terms of the five clinging-aggregates [§33]—that helps strategically in knowing how to analyze stress for the purpose of putting an end to it, but nowhere does he say what stress is in and of itself. Similarly with other basic terms: Happiness (sukha), which in one form serves as part of the path of practice (as a factor in right concentration), and in another form (unbinding) as the goal of the practice, is nowhere defined. Becoming (bhava), a concept central to understanding the cause of stress, is said simply to have three types—sensuality, form, and formless—but what it is, is not explained. The mind (citta), which functions as the agent trained in the course of the practice and is released on the attainment of the goal, is described in terms of what it does but never in terms of what it is.

As for apparent inconsistencies, one of the most striking is that the discourses offer at least four separate definitions of right view:

The first of these definitions is obviously preliminary, as it doesn’t fully cut through the mental fermentations. The next two are more advanced and—because the strength and faculty of discernment, mentioned in the third definition, are defined as seeing things in terms of the four noble truths—apparently equivalent. The fourth is more advanced than the others, as it reduces the four noble truths to one: stress. Yet, even though all four definitions are right, the first definition is framed in terms of worlds and beings, a frame discarded by the second and third definitions. They, in turn—in their definition of stress—are framed in terms of aggregates [§33], a frame discarded in the fourth. The fourth, by reducing everything that arises and passes away to mere stress, also implicitly reduces the four duties of the second and third definitions [§34, §35] to one [§36].

Another apparent inconsistency closely related to the theme of this book concerns the relationship of thinking (vitakka) to objectification (papañca). As we noted above, MN 18 states that thinking comes prior to objectification, a fact that allows for thinking devoid of objectification—framed in terms of processes and events—to have a role on the path, in the factors of noble right resolve and right concentration. However, DN 21 [§4] states that the categories and perceptions of objectification come prior to thinking; when these categories do not exist, thinking stops. Thus any thinking employed on the path would require at least a modicum of objectification.

If the Buddha were trying to propose a foundational philosophy or a full description of reality, these gaps and apparent inconsistencies would be blatant weaknesses in his system. And later Buddhist scholastics and philosophers, who did try to present Buddhism as a foundational philosophy, clearly regarded them as such, providing definitions for all the terms the Buddha neglected to define, and trying to resolve inconsistencies by advancing the idea that there were two levels of truth in his teachings, conventional and ultimate. But there are two reasons for regarding this approach as misguided.

The first is that the Buddha himself never used the concept of two levels of truth, so the concept is foreign to his teachings. He did occasionally mention (e.g., DN 9), when adopting the technical vocabulary of others for the sake of discussion, that he was speaking in line with the expressions of the world to which he did not hold. But that simply meant that his adoption of that vocabulary should not be taken out of context. He never identified any of his own vocabulary as dealing with ultimate truths. When identifying the “highest noble truth,” for instance, he cited only one truth—unbinding—and the context shows clearly that he was referring not to true statements about unbinding, but to the actual attainment of release [§49]. As §195 notes, this attainment lies beyond the limits of expression and description, which means that it lies beyond even the powers of “ultimate” description to describe. And reading §197 together with §198, it’s obvious that this attainment lies beyond the range even of the word, “all.” Thus the scholastic attempt to identify such terms as the aggregates as dealing in ultimate realities—while other, more personal terms, deal only in conventional truths—is clearly misguided. All language, in the face of the experience of unbinding, is a matter of convention.

The second reason for regarding the scholastic approach as misguided can be seen in all the evidence we have cited that the Buddha was not trying to build a systematic description of reality—or ultimate realities—as a whole. Thus to try to create one out of the raw materials of his words is a misapplication of his teaching—a form of inappropriate attention that distracts from the actual practice of his teachings, and one he would not condone.

Here it’s useful to remember the Buddha’s own analogy for his project as a teacher. From the first day of his teaching to the last, he stated that he was teaching a path. He started not with a first principle, but with a self-evident problem—stress—and then showed a path to its solution. Instead of trying to provide a total account of the world, he was simply showing the route to a particular goal where the initial problem is solved.

This is why the most fitting way to respond to his teaching is to employ appropriate attention, seeing his words in terms of how they apply to the immediate problems of stress and the way to its end. This in turn is why he defined appropriate attention as “This is stress”… “This is the origination of stress” … “This is the cessation of stress” … “This is the way leading to the cessation of stress,” for he wanted his listeners to apply these categories to what is immediately present to awareness. Building on this analysis of the present, the next step is to practice the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma (SN 55:5), i.e., to develop the skills elicited by appropriate attention to the point of disenchantment with and dispassion for the aggregates of stress, leading to the solution of total release (SN 22:39-42).

Thus in order to benefit from the Buddha’s teachings and to reach their goal, it’s necessary to apply the framework of appropriate attention to what he says: to orient oneself to one’s immediate surroundings in terms of his directions, and then to follow the path he recommends. That’s all.

In a teaching of this sort, there is no need for a systematic description of the entire landscape or for a formal definition of all the terms. Definitions are necessary only when there might be some cause for confusion. To follow a road, one doesn’t need to have “road” formally defined; but when one is told to turn left at the big tree, there can be many trees, and many gradations of big, so these terms have to be clearly defined or described—perhaps not in a formal way, but clearly enough to be of use. This may be one of the reasons why, when the Buddha was explaining his terms, he would phrase his questions not with a “what,” but with a “which”: not what is a tree, but which tree.

It’s also important to note that if the instructions start out by saying to turn left, that doesn’t mean that any later instructions to turn right are inconsistent with initial principles. The instructions have to follow the twists and turns of the path. Although there is a consistency to the Buddha’s description of the various stages of the path, that consistency—as we noted in Chapter One—is teleological and pragmatic: teleological in that all the steps of the path are aimed at the primary goal of solving the problem of stress; pragmatic in that the steps actually work together in leading to that goal. This is why the Buddha insisted that the ideal Dhamma teacher teach step-by-step [§8], for the consistency of the Dhamma lies not in any adherence to formal definitions but in the coherent progression of its stages.

This explains why there are different levels of right view, for different stages of the path. This also apparently explains the seeming inconsistency between MN 18 and DN 21 on the relationship of thinking to the categories and perceptions of objectification. On one level of the path, thinking is necessary, and—because they aren’t afflictive enough to qualify as objectification on this level—the categories and perceptions supplied by right view should be developed: thus the interpretation given in MN 18. However, on a more advanced level of the path—as when, according to MN 79, even skillful resolves are abandoned in the second jhāna—any categories of thinking would be experienced as afflictive, so on that level even the categories of right view would count as objectification and so should be abandoned: thus the interpretation in DN 21. In this way, the sense of what counts as objectification would alter as one’s sensitivities develop along the path and call for different strategies of approach. The fact that the Buddha gives no formal definition for the term allows him to use it with differing shades of meaning as differing levels of sensitivity require.

The same principle accounts for the lack of definitions in the more general area of developing of the mind for the sake of happiness. There are cases where formal definitions in this area might be counterproductive, in that one’s sense of the mind and of happiness will naturally develop as one progresses along the path. If these concepts are tied down from the beginning by formal definitions, they can hinder one’s developing sensitivities.

Thus, these are some of the implications of the Buddha’s basic analogy comparing his teachings to directions for following a path to a destination: To begin with, the directions are to be used only for the sake of reaching the goal, and not for their implications for other purposes. To achieve this aim, they need only be clear and complete enough to enable the listener to follow them to the end of the path. Not everything needs to be defined, only the points necessary for keeping the listener from going astray. And although consistent definitions often help in clarity, there are cases where a definition useful at one stage of the path would be an obstacle at another. This is why the Buddha sometimes gives different explicit definitions of his terms, for use at different stages, and at other times gives no explicit definitions at all, allowing the person on the path to develop his or her own sensitivity, based on experience, of how the directions should be understood at any particular turn along the way.

A useful way of exploring some of the further implications of the path analogy is to compare the Buddha’s use of the analogy with the same analogy as used by Socrates in Plato’s dialogues.

In the Meno, Socrates states that a man who has been to Larissa knows the way to Larissa and so would be able to give correct instructions to someone else on how to get there. Yet a man who had never been to Larissa, but who had received correct and adequate information on how to get there—who, in Socrates’ terms, didn’t have knowledge but had a correct opinion—could also give correct instructions to someone else on how to get there. The question is, then, with both knowledge and correct opinion serving as adequate guides to correct action, in what way is knowledge superior to correct opinion?

Socrates’ answer is that correct opinion doesn’t “stay put”—that it scampers away from the soul. But knowledge ties opinion down with clear definitions and reasons so that it stays put in a way that it doesn’t change meaning or get forgotten. Thus for Socrates, there is no genuine knowledge without clear definitions of the essence of things: what they are in and of themselves. And for him the philosophic quest is a process of dialectic, where friends test one another’s definitions to arrive at a clear intellectual vision of ultimate essences, in and of themselves. In cases where clear definitions are hard to arrive at, they can be approximated by proposing a hypothesis and then testing its implications against reality. If the hypothesis fails, one has still benefited from the dialectic by learning how to think more clearly and ultimately to propose better hypotheses. This process continues until one finds a definition totally adequate to its object, connected by adequate reasons to all other known objects of value in the world of experience. Socrates expressed doubt that this project could reach completion on the human plane, but was convinced that dialectic—with its definitions connected by reasons—prepared one for a direct intellectual vision of the Good after death.

Thus for Socrates, philosophical dialogue was aimed at more than just giving directions to a goal. Simple utility was not enough. He aimed instead at a form of knowledge built out of clear definitions connected through reason: an intellectual grasp of reality as a whole, and a goal understood in terms of its inherent essence.

In contrast, the Buddha used the path analogy in two ways—general and specific—to make points that differ sharply from Socrates’. (1) His general analogy, in which he called the fourth noble truth a “path,” indicated that his attitude toward his teaching was strictly utilitarian. All his words were meant to be instrumental in attaining the goal. (2) And in a specific application of the path analogy [§96], he showed that although his teaching was utilitarian and his truths instrumental, they were universal nevertheless—not that they were logically derived from universal principles, but that they gave universal results.

These two uses of the path analogy can be explained as follows.

(1) In the general analogy, right view is the first step of the path. It is part of a course of action leading to total release. The fact that the Buddha places right view in this position—and not outside of the path—shows that, unlike Socrates, he is content to provide his listeners with a correct opinion on how to get to the goal, for if they adopt that opinion and keep it in mind, it will be enough to motivate them to apply right effort in following his instructions. Only when they have reached the goal will their correct opinion become confirmed through direct knowledge of the noble truth of unbinding [§49]. But this knowledge is to be attained not through dialectic, definitions, or logic, but by developing all eight factors of the noble path.

Even the words of the third noble truth, describing the cessation of stress, are simply a correct opinion about the goal. They neither stand outside that path nor are they a fully adequate representation of the goal. As MN 18 [§50] indicates, the attaining of the release of cessation ultimately requires abandoning all bases for the processes of thought.

Because no thought can occur in this attainment, processes of thought—such as language and logic—cannot encompass it. This is why even right views have to be abandoned in the attainment of the goal, a point conveyed in the Buddha’s famous simile of the path as a raft:

Just as the raft cannot encompass the far shore, even right view—as a factor of the path—cannot encompass unbinding. Thus the Buddha’s approach of providing correct opinions but not knowledge in the ultimate sense is dictated by the nature of the goal he taught. Direct knowledge of unbinding is not something that one person can give to another even in an approximate form, not even through language or logic. This is a point the Buddha repeatedly makes, for in his eyes language is too slippery, and logic too unreliable, to form an adequate guide to what is true. The phrase, a “teaching hammered out by logic” is, for him, a term of denigration [§184]; as he points out in MN 95:

Thus the knowledge provided by logic is not necessarily knowledge at all, even on the level of everyday sensory experience. Now, the Buddha does observe the principle of consistency in presenting his teachings and in arguing against others. In fact, as we will see in Chapter Five, his primary strategy for disproving an opponent’s position is to cross-question the opponent to the point where the opponent shows the internal inconsistency of his own views. However, the simple fact that a teaching is consistent is no proof of its validity. For the Buddha, consistency is simply one way of instilling an attitude of respect and faith that the teaching makes enough sense to deserve a careful hearing and to be put into practice.

As for the limitations of language as a means of comprehending the goal, one of the Buddha’s most striking statements of his position is in Sn 4:9 [§47]. There, Māgandiya, upset that the Buddha would not accept his gift of his daughter, asks the Buddha to describe the inner peace that could excel her. The Buddha, seeing Māgandiya’s pride, answers with a complex grammatical pun:

The pun lies in the fact that the words in the instrumental case in the first sentence—translated above as in connection with—can also mean in terms of and by means of. Thus the first sentence of the Buddha’s answer could mean either:

Or:

The Buddha apparently means this sentence in the first sense, but Māgandiya interprets it in the second. This, however, conflicts with the Buddha’s statement in the sentence that follows it. Thus Māgandiya complains that the Buddha’s statement is nonsense. However, given that Māgandiya originally asked for a description of inner peace and not for directions on how to get there, he should have taken the statement in its first sense, which would have made a perfectly reasonable point: The goal is not to be defined in terms of view, learning, knowledge, habit or practice, even though it cannot be attained without these things. And the Buddha, by expressing his answer in this fashion, is not only stating that language is inadequate to define the goal; he is also showing, through his use of a pun, that language is too slippery to reliably express truths of this sort.

In addition to avoiding any attempt to define the unconditioned goal in terms of language, the Buddha also refrained from defining things in general in terms of their essences. Whereas Socrates wanted his definitions to arrive at essences—the “bee-ness,” in one of his analogies, that makes every bee a bee—the Buddha provided definitions to clarify the categories of right view simply with an eye to their utility. In some cases, this meant giving formal definitions, but in others it meant defining nouns with verbs [§38], or giving a list of examples or gradations [§33; §90]—types of definition that Socrates abhorred because they didn’t get at the essence of the thing defined. For the Buddha, however, these sorts of definitions were perfectly adequate because they provided enough functional knowledge for use on the path. Because his approach was utilitarian and pragmatic, he neither affirmed nor denied the existence of essences. They were simply irrelevant to his program. Thus the later Buddhist scholars who tried to use his teachings to affirm or deny the existence of such essences were applying inappropriate attention to his instructions.

The Buddha’s words to Māgandiya also show that any interpretation of the Buddha’s categorical teachings as the viewpoint of the awakened mind are similarly misguided, for the ultimate inner peace is not to be defined in terms of view. Even Anāthapiṇḍika, a stream-winner—and thus one “consummate in view” [§143]—did not claim to know fully the views of the Buddha or his fully awakened disciples [§182]. SN 22:122 [§24] states that arahants should view the five aggregates in such a way that affirms dispassion, but this is not to say that this is the inherent view of the awakened mind. As the discourse says, it is simply a way for them to maintain a pleasant abiding along with mindfulness and alertness. AN 4:24 [§46], in explaining the way in which an awakened one is “Such” with regard to all knowledge, asserts that although the awakened one knows everything that can be “seen, heard, sensed, cognized, attained, sought after, pondered by the intellect,” none of this knowledge is “established” in the awakened mind. Even the knowledge and vision of release is distinct from the release itself (AN 10:70). Thus any attempt to define awakening in terms of the Buddha’s categorical answers—or to clone awakening by forcing them on the mind as the content of the awakened mindset—is misguided and counterproductive, for it mistakes the path for the goal.

Another example of inappropriate attention applied to the Buddha’s categorical answers is the attempt of later Buddhist commentators to formulate a terminology of ultimate realities based on the Buddha’s teachings. A simple illustration will show that, in doing so, they were misreading the Buddha’s intentions.

In the first noble truth, the Buddha analyzed stress in terms of the five clinging-aggregates: the form clinging-aggregate, feeling clinging-aggregate, perception clinging-aggregate, fabrications clinging-aggregate, and consciousness clinging-aggregate. Given that these five categories are found in the first noble truth, the duty with regard to them is to comprehend them so as to give rise to dispassion. One way of doing this is to see that, because they are inconstant, they are stressful; because they are stressful, they do not deserve to be viewed as “me,” “myself,” or “what I am.” The purpose of this contemplation is to induce the dispassion that leads to release.

Later commentators, however, took these aggregates to be the Buddha’s definition of what, in ultimate terms, a person is. This was a mistake on two counts. To begin with, the Buddha never defines in ultimate terms what a person is—to define oneself, remember, is to limit oneself [§200]—and he expressly states that one should not regard these clinging-aggregates as “what I am” [§140]. Second, in his definition of right view in SN 12:15 [§172], he describes a stage in the practice where, after one has watched the arising and passing away of the world—i.e., the factors of dependent co-arising, which include the aggregates—one drops all reference to these factors, along with ideas of “existence” and “non-existence,” and views whatever arises simply as stress arising, whatever passes away simply as stress passing away. Here, “whatever arises and passes away” would cover not only the first noble truth, but the second and fourth as well. Thus, at this advanced stage of right view, concepts of “four noble truths” get dropped along with “aggregates.” What this means is that “aggregates” and “noble truths” function as concepts useful at a certain point in the path, but are then dropped as one comes closer to awakening. They are not meant to be viewed as “ultimate realities” in and of themselves.

Thus the Buddha’s general use of the path analogy indicates that the views he taught as part of the path are not “knowledge” in Socrates’ sense of the term. At the same time, they are not an expression of reality as viewed from an awakened perspective. Instead of being ultimate truths, they are instrumental truths: correct opinions that serve a function when they are appropriate, to be abandoned when they have served that function, and to be replaced by other truths more appropriate to later stages of the path. Ultimately all views are abandoned when unbinding is touched. Although the Buddha in Sn 4:9, above, seems to deny that this touching can be described as “knowledge” (ñāṇa)—apparently meaning knowledge about something—in other instances he uses another word for knowing—añña—to indicate that it is a direct knowing of another sort entirely: a “seeing with the body” (Dhp 259) on a dimension apart from the ordinary dimensions of the six senses [§205]. Knowledge is required to achieve this knowing, and knowledge follows on it [§79, §163], but the knowing and the knowledge are two different things. Knowing is the goal; knowledge, merely instrumental.

(2) In MN 107, however, the Buddha uses the path analogy in a more specific way to convey a different point: that people who do not follow his instructions go astray from the goal. The implication of this version of the analogy is that there is one goal and one right path to it—another distinctive feature of the Buddha’s pragmatism. We have already noted that his very high standards for “what works”—i.e., what works in gaining total release—helped him to avoid the complacency that marks some of the lazier forms of pragmatism; he also realized that what worked for him didn’t work only for him. “What works” is not simply a matter of personal preference. Even though the truths of right view are instrumental rather than ultimate, they are still categorical: true for all.

In showing the way, the Buddha was not simply offering a personal preference about how to practice. He was pointing out the truth. If his listeners did not follow his instructions, they would actually get lost. As they listened to his teachings, right view might have the status of opinion in their minds, but that was not its status in his, for he based his teachings on his own confirmed knowledge of what does and doesn’t work in attaining release. The fact that he didn’t force his listeners to adopt right view doesn’t mean that he endorsed other views. As he stated in DN 16 [§151], there are no awakened persons in a teaching that doesn’t contain the noble eightfold path; in SN 48:53, he stated that one of the realizations of stream-entry—the first level of awakening—is this:

In Sn 4:12 [§48] the Buddha makes a similar point, that the truth is one. Other truths that deviate from right view are simply the personal opinions of those who state them, but the activity of actually attaining release confirms that they have no status as truths. In MN 126 [§67] he illustrates this point with similes, stating that anyone who tries to attain release with views other than right view is like a person who tries to churn butter from water, to squeeze sesame oil from gravel, or to get milk from a cow by twisting its horn.

So even though the Buddha could not provide his listeners with direct knowledge of unbinding, he could provide them with reliable guidance on how to get there. And given the nature of his guidance—as instrumental but categorical truths—the question is not how a comprehensive view of reality can be constructed from his categorical statements, or how his statements can be made to fit one’s own preferences or preconceived notions, but how to put aside one’s preferences and apply those categorical statements in pursuit of the path. Because the path has many stages, with many levels of right view, one of the functions of appropriate attention after listening to the Buddha’s words is to view his categorical answers as an array of tools, and to ask oneself which tool is suitable for one’s practice at any given moment.

In the Buddha’s time, there were cases where his listeners did not have to ask themselves this question, for the Buddha personally taught them a level of Dhamma suited to their immediate needs. This is especially clear in the cases where his listeners gained stream-entry or total release either while listening to his categorical answers, or—taking them away to practice—shortly thereafter. It’s also shown in the many instances where his listeners, on hearing his categorical answers, took refuge in the Triple Gem.

But even during his lifetime there were those who had to sift through his teachings to find the ones appropriate for them. And this is our position at present. To do this skillfully requires a clear awareness of oneself—an awareness that can be gained only through the strategy of cross-questioning one’s attitudes and states of mind. This may be one of the reasons why the Buddha, in addition to teaching his listeners how to ask questions deserving categorical answers, also encouraged them in the strategy of cross-questioning so that they would use his categorical answers in an appropriate way. This is a topic to which we will return in Chapters Five and Six, but here we can simply note that this strategy of cross-questioning oneself is what takes the Buddha’s categorical answers—which were designed to be true and beneficial for all times, and which are now always readily available—and makes them timely in a way specific to now.

Readings

Categorical Teachings

§ 20. When this was said, one of the wanderers said to Vajjiya Māhita the householder, “Now wait a minute, householder. This contemplative Gotama whom you praise is a nihilist, one who doesn’t declare anything.”

“I tell you, venerable sirs, that the Blessed One righteously declares that ‘This is skillful.’ He declares that ‘This is unskillful.’ Declaring that ‘This is skillful’ and ‘This is unskillful,’ he is one who has declared [a teaching]. He is not a nihilist, one who doesn’t declare anything.”

When this was said, the wanderers fell silent, abashed, sitting with their shoulders drooping, their heads down, brooding, at a loss for words. Vajjiya Māhita the householder, perceiving that the wanderers were silent, abashed… at a loss for words, got up & went to the Blessed One. On arrival, having bowed down to the Blessed One, he sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he told the Blessed One the entirety of his discussion with the wanderers.

[The Blessed One said,] “Well done, householder. Well done. That is how you should periodically & righteously refute those foolish men.” — AN 10:94 [See also §26; §80]

§ 21. As Ven. Ānanda was sitting there, the Blessed One said to him, “I say categorically, Ānanda, that bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, & mental misconduct should not be done.”

“Given that the Blessed One has declared, lord, that bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, & mental misconduct should not be done, what drawbacks can one expect when doing what should not be done?”

“… One can fault oneself; observant people, on close examination, criticize one; one’s bad reputation gets spread about; one dies confused; and—with the breakup of the body, after death—one reappears in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell….

“I say categorically, Ānanda, that good bodily conduct, good verbal conduct, & good mental conduct should be done.”

“Given that the Blessed One has declared, lord, that good bodily conduct, good verbal conduct, & good mental conduct should be done, what rewards can one expect when doing what should be done?”

“… One doesn’t fault oneself; observant people, on close examination, praise one; one’s good reputation gets spread about; one dies unconfused; and—with the breakup of the body, after death—one reappears in a good destination, in a heavenly world.” — AN 2:18

§ 22. Then two or three days later, Citta the elephant trainer’s son and Poṭṭhapāda the wanderer went to the Blessed One. On their arrival, Citta bowed down to the Blessed One and sat to one side, while Poṭṭhapāda the wanderer greeted the Blessed One courteously. After an exchange of friendly greetings & courtesies, he sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he said to the Blessed One, “The other day, not long after the Blessed One had left, the wanderers, with sneering words, jeered at me from all sides: ‘So, whatever Gotama the contemplative says, Sir Poṭṭhapāda rejoices in his every word: “So it is, Blessed One. So it is, O One Well-gone.” But we don’t understand Gotama the contemplative as having taught any categorical teaching that “The cosmos is eternal,” or “The cosmos is not eternal,” or “The cosmos is finite,” or “The cosmos is infinite,” or “The soul is the same thing as the body,” or “The soul is one thing and the body another,” or “After death a Tathāgata exists,” or “After death a Tathāgata does not exist,” or “After death a Tathāgata both exists & does not exist,” or “After death a Tathāgata neither exists nor does not exist.”’

“When this was said, I replied to the wanderers, ‘I too don’t understand Gotama the contemplative as having taught any categorical teaching that “The cosmos is eternal,” or “The cosmos is not eternal,”… or “After death a Tathāgata neither exists nor does not exist.” But the contemplative Gotama describes a genuine, authentic, and accurate practice, grounded in the Dhamma and consonant with the Dhamma. And when a genuine, authentic, & accurate practice, grounded in the Dhamma and consonant with the Dhamma is being explained, why shouldn’t a knowledgeable person such as myself rejoice in the well-spokenness of Gotama the contemplative’s well-spoken words?’”

[The Buddha:] “Poṭṭhapāda, all those wanderers are blind and have no eyes. You alone among them have eyes. I have taught and declared some teachings to be categorical, and some teachings to be non-categorical. And which are the teachings that I have taught and declared to be non-categorical? ‘The cosmos is eternal’ I have taught and declared to be a non-categorical teaching. ‘The cosmos is not eternal’… ‘The cosmos is finite’… ‘The cosmos is infinite’… ‘The soul & the body are the same’… ‘The soul is one thing and the body another’… ‘After death a Tathāgata exists’… ‘After death a Tathāgata does not exist’… ‘After death a Tathāgata both exists & does not exist’… ‘After death a Tathāgata neither exists nor does not exist’ I have taught and declared to be a non-categorical teaching. And why have I taught and declared these teachings to be non-categorical? Because they are not conducive to the goal, are not conducive to the Dhamma, are not basic to the holy life. They don’t lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to unbinding. That’s why I have taught and declared them to be non-categorical.

“And which have I taught and declared to be categorical teachings? ‘This is stress’ I have taught and declared to be a categorical teaching. ‘This is the origination of stress’… ‘This is the cessation of stress’… ‘This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress’ I have taught and declared to be a categorical teaching. And why have I taught and declared these teachings to be categorical? Because they are conducive to the goal, conducive to the Dhamma, and basic to the holy life. They lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to unbinding. That’s why I have taught and declared them to be categorical.” — DN 9

Appropriate Attention

§ 23. “There are qualities that act as a foothold for uncertainty. To foster inappropriate attention to them: This is the food for the arising of unarisen uncertainty, or for the growth & increase of uncertainty once it has arisen….

“There are qualities that are skillful & unskillful, blameworthy & blameless, gross & refined, siding with darkness & with light. To foster appropriate attention to them: This is the food for the arising of unarisen investigation of qualities as a factor for awakening, or for the growth & increase of investigation of qualities as a factor for awakening once it has arisen…

“To foster appropriate attention to them: This is lack of food for the arising of unarisen uncertainty, or for the growth & increase of uncertainty once it has arisen….

“Not fostering attention to them: This is lack of food for the arising of unarisen investigation of qualities as a factor for awakening, or for the growth & increase of analysis of qualities as a factor for awakening once it has arisen.” — SN 46:51

§ 24. [Ven. MahāKoṭṭhita:] “Sāriputta my friend, which things should a virtuous monk attend to in an appropriate way?”

[Ven. Sāriputta:] “A virtuous monk, Koṭṭhita my friend, should attend in an appropriate way to the five clinging-aggregates as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a dissolution, an emptiness, not-self. Which five? The form clinging-aggregate, the feeling… perception… fabrications… consciousness clinging-aggregate. A virtuous monk should attend in an appropriate way to these five clinging-aggregates as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a dissolution, an emptiness, not-self. For it is possible that a virtuous monk, attending in an appropriate way to these five clinging-aggregates as inconstant… not-self, would realize the fruit of stream-entry.”

[Ven. MahāKoṭṭhita:] “Then which things should a monk who has attained stream-entry attend to in an appropriate way?”

[Ven. Sāriputta:] “A monk who has attained stream-entry should attend in an appropriate way to these five clinging-aggregates as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a dissolution, an emptiness, not-self. For it is possible that a monk who has attained stream-entry, attending in an appropriate way to these five clinging-aggregates as inconstant… not-self, would realize the fruit of once-returning.”

[Ven. MahāKoṭṭhita:] “Then which things should a monk who has attained once-returning attend to in an appropriate way?”

[Ven. Sāriputta:] “A monk who has attained once-returning should attend in an appropriate way to these five clinging-aggregates as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a dissolution, an emptiness, not-self. For it is possible that a monk who has attained once-returning, attending in an appropriate way to these five clinging-aggregates as inconstant… not-self, would realize the fruit of non-returning.”

[Ven. MahāKoṭṭhita:] “Then which things should a monk who has attained non-returning attend to in an appropriate way?”

[Ven. Sāriputta:] “A monk who has attained non-returning should attend in an appropriate way to these five clinging-aggregates as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a dissolution, an emptiness, not-self. For it is possible that a monk who has attained non-returning, attending in an appropriate way to these five clinging-aggregates as inconstant… not-self, would realize the fruit of arahantship.”

[Ven. MahāKoṭṭhita:] “Then which things should an arahant attend to in an appropriate way?”

[Ven. Sāriputta:] “An arahant should attend in an appropriate way to these five clinging-aggregates as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a dissolution, an emptiness, not-self. Although, for an arahant, there is nothing further to do, and nothing to add to what has been done, still these things—when developed & pursued—lead both to a pleasant abiding in the here & now, and to mindfulness & alertness.” — SN 22:122

§ 25. “There is the case where an uninstructed, run-of-the-mill person… doesn’t discern which ideas are fit for attention, or which ideas are unfit for attention. This being so, he doesn’t attend to ideas fit for attention, and attends [instead] to ideas unfit for attention. And which are the ideas unfit for attention that he attends to? Whichever ideas such that, when he attends to them, the unarisen fermentation of sensuality arises, and the arisen fermentation of sensuality increases; the unarisen fermentation of becoming… the unarisen fermentation of ignorance arises, and the arisen fermentation of ignorance increases…. This is how he attends inappropriately: ‘Was I in the past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Having been what, what was I in the past? Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future? Having been what, what shall I be in the future?’ Or else he is inwardly perplexed about the immediate present: ‘Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where is it bound?’

“As he attends inappropriately in this way, one of six kinds of view arises in him: The view I have a self arises in him as true & established, or the view I have no self1… or the view It is precisely by means of self that I perceive self… or the view It is precisely by means of self that I perceive not-self… or the view It is precisely by means of not-self that I perceive self2 arises in him as true & established, or else he has a view like this: This very self of mine—the knower that is sensitive here & there to the ripening of good & bad actions—is the self of mine that is constant, everlasting, eternal, not subject to change, and will endure as long as eternity. This is called a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. Bound by a fetter of views, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person is not freed from birth, aging, & death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair. He is not freed, I tell you, from stress.

“The well-instructed disciple of the noble ones… discerns which ideas are fit for attention, and which ideas are unfit for attention. This being so, he doesn’t attend to ideas unfit for attention, and attends [instead] to ideas fit for attention…. And which are the ideas fit for attention that he attends to? Whichever ideas such that, when he attends to them, the unarisen fermentation of sensuality doesn’t arise, and the arisen fermentation of sensuality is abandoned; the unarisen fermentation of becoming… the unarisen fermentation of ignorance doesn’t arise, and the arisen fermentation of ignorance is abandoned…. He attends appropriately, This is stress… This is the origination of stress… This is the cessation of stress… This is the way leading to the cessation of stress. As he attends appropriately in this way, three fetters are abandoned in him: self-identity-view, uncertainty, and grasping at habits & practices.”— MN 2

Skillful & Unskillful Actions

§ 26. “Abandon what is unskillful, monks. It is possible to abandon what is unskillful. If it were not possible to abandon what is unskillful, I would not say to you, ‘Abandon what is unskillful.’ But because it is possible to abandon what is unskillful, I say to you, ‘Abandon what is unskillful.’ If this abandoning of what is unskillful were conducive to harm & pain, I would not say to you, ‘Abandon what is unskillful.’ But because this abandoning of what is unskillful is conducive to benefit & happiness, I say to you, ‘Abandon what is unskillful.’

“Develop what is skillful, monks. It is possible to develop what is skillful. If it were not possible to develop what is skillful, I would not say to you, ‘Develop what is skillful.’ But because it is possible to develop what is skillful, I say to you, ‘Develop what is skillful.’ If this development of what is skillful were conducive to harm & pain, I would not say to you, ‘Develop what is skillful.’ But because this development of what is skillful is conducive to benefit & happiness, I say to you, ‘Develop what is skillful.’” — AN 2:19

§ 27. “When a disciple of the noble ones discerns what is unskillful, discerns the root of what is unskillful, discerns what is skillful, and discerns the root of what is skillful, it is to that extent that he is a person of right view, one whose view is made straight, who is endowed with verified confidence in the Dhamma, and who has arrived at this true Dhamma.

“And which is unskillful? Taking life is unskillful, taking what is not given… sexual misconduct… lying… abusive speech… divisive tale-bearing1… idle chatter is unskillful. Covetousness… ill will… wrong views are unskillful. These things are called unskillful.

“And which are the roots of what is unskillful? Greed is a root of what is unskillful, aversion is a root of what is unskillful, delusion is a root of what is unskillful. These are called the roots of what is unskillful.

“And which is skillful? Abstaining from taking life is skillful, abstaining from taking what is not given… from sexual misconduct… from lying… from abusive speech… from divisive tale-bearing… abstaining from idle chatter is skillful. Lack of covetousness… lack of ill will… right views are skillful. These things are called skillful.

“And which are the roots of what is skillful? Lack of greed is a root of what is skillful, lack of aversion… lack of delusion is a root of what is skillful. These are called the roots of what is skillful.” — MN 9

§ 28. I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Pāvā in Cunda the silversmith’s mango grove. Then Cunda the silversmith went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, the Blessed One said to him, “Cunda, of whose rites of purification do you approve?”

“The brahmans of the Western lands, lord—those who carry water pots, wear garlands of water plants, worship fire, & purify with water: they have declared purification rites of which I approve.”

“And which kind of purification rites have they declared, those brahmans of the Western lands who carry water pots, wear garlands of water plants, worship fire, & purify with water?”

“There is the case where the brahmans of the Western lands… get their disciples to undertake their practice thus: ‘Come, now, my good man: Get up at the proper time from your bed and touch the earth. If you don’t touch the earth, touch wet cow dung. If you don’t touch wet cow dung, touch green grass. If you don’t touch green grass, worship a fire. If you don’t worship a fire, pay homage to the sun with clasped hands. If you don’t pay homage to the sun with clasped hands, go down into the water three times by nightfall.’ These are the purification rites declared by the brahmans of the Western lands… of which I approve.”

“Cunda, the purification rites declared by the brahmans of the Western lands… are one thing; the purification in the Vinaya of the noble ones is something else entirely.”

“But how is there purification in the Vinaya of the noble ones, venerable sir? It would be good if the Blessed One would teach me how there is purification in the Vinaya of the noble ones.”

“Very well then, Cunda, listen & pay close attention. I will speak.”

“As you say, lord,” Cunda the silversmith responded.

The Blessed One said, “There are three ways in which one is made impure by bodily action, four ways in which one is made impure by verbal action, and three ways in which one is made impure by mental action.

UNSKILLFUL BODILY ACTION

“And how is one made impure in three ways by bodily action? There is the case where a certain person takes life, is brutal, bloody-handed, devoted to killing & slaying, showing no mercy to living beings. He takes what is not given. He takes, in the manner of a thief, things in a village or a wilderness that belong to others and have not been given by them. He engages in sexual misconduct. He gets sexually involved with those who are protected by their mothers, their fathers, their brothers, their sisters, their relatives, or their Dhamma; those with husbands, those who entail punishments, or even those crowned with flowers by another man. This is how one is made impure in three ways by bodily action.

UNSKILLFUL VERBAL ACTION

“And how is one made impure in four ways by verbal action? There is the case where a certain person engages in false speech. When he has been called to a town meeting, a group meeting, a gathering of his relatives, his guild, or of the royalty [i.e., a royal court proceeding], if he is asked as a witness, ‘Come & tell, good man, what you know’: If he doesn’t know, he says, ‘I know.’ If he does know, he says, ‘I don’t know.’ If he hasn’t seen, he says, ‘I have seen.’ If he has seen, he says, ’I haven’t seen.’ Thus he consciously tells lies for his own sake, for the sake of another, or for the sake of a certain reward. He engages in divisive speech. What he has heard here he tells there to break those people apart from these people here. What he has heard there he tells here to break these people apart from those people there. Thus breaking apart those who are united and stirring up strife between those who have broken apart, he loves factionalism, delights in factionalism, enjoys factionalism, speaks things that create factionalism. He engages in abusive speech. He speaks words that are harsh, cutting, bitter to others, abusive of others, provoking anger and destroying concentration. He engages in idle chatter. He speaks out of season, speaks what isn’t factual, what isn’t in accordance with the goal, the Dhamma, & the Vinaya, words that are not worth treasuring. This is how one is made impure in four ways by verbal action.

UNSKILLFUL MENTAL ACTION

“And how is one made impure in three ways by mental action? There is the case where a certain person is covetous. He covets the belongings of others, thinking, ‘O, that what belongs to others would be mine!’ He bears ill will, corrupt in the resolves of his heart: ‘May these beings be killed or cut apart or crushed or destroyed, or may they not exist at all!’ He has wrong view, is warped in the way he sees things: ‘There is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed. There is no fruit or result of good or bad actions. There is no this world, no next world, no mother, no father, no spontaneously reborn beings; no contemplatives or brahmans who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim this world & the next after having directly known & realized it for themselves.’ This is how one is made impure in three ways by mental action.

“These, Cunda, are the ten courses of unskillful action. When a person is endowed with these ten courses of unskillful action, then even if he gets up at the proper time from his bed and touches the earth, he is still impure. If he doesn’t touch the earth, he is still impure. If he touches wet cow dung, he is still impure. If he doesn’t touch wet cow dung, he is still impure. If he touches green grass… If he doesn’t touch green grass… If he worships a fire… If he doesn’t worship a fire… If he pays homage to the sun with clasped hands… If he doesn’t pay homage to the sun with clasped hands… If he goes down into the water three times by nightfall… If he doesn’t go down into the water three times by nightfall, he is still impure. Why is that? Because these ten courses of unskillful action are impure and cause impurity. Furthermore, as a result of being endowed with these ten courses of unskillful action, [rebirth in] hell is declared, [rebirth in] an animal womb is declared, [rebirth in] the realm of hungry shades is declared—that or any other bad destination.

“Now, Cunda, there are three ways in which one is made pure by bodily action, four ways in which one is made pure by verbal action, and three ways in which one is made pure by mental action.

SKILLFUL BODILY ACTION

“And how is one made pure in three ways by bodily action? There is the case where a certain person, abandoning the taking of life, abstains from the taking of life. He dwells with his rod laid down, his knife laid down, scrupulous, merciful, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings. Abandoning the taking of what is not given, he abstains from taking what is not given. He does not take, in the manner of a thief, things in a village or a wilderness that belong to others and have not been given by them. Abandoning sexual misconduct, he abstains from sexual misconduct. He does not get sexually involved with those who are protected by their mothers, their fathers, their brothers, their sisters, their relatives, or their Dhamma; those with husbands, those who entail punishments, or even those crowned with flowers by another man. This is how one is made pure in three ways by bodily action.

SKILLFUL VERBAL ACTION

“And how is one made pure in four ways by verbal action? There is the case where a certain person, abandoning false speech, abstains from false speech. When he has been called to a town meeting, a group meeting, a gathering of his relatives, his guild, or of the royalty, if he is asked as a witness, ‘Come & tell, good man, what you know’: If he doesn’t know, he says, ‘I don’t know.’ If he does know, he says, ‘I know.’ If he hasn’t seen, he says, ‘I haven’t seen.’ If he has seen, he says, ’I have seen.’ Thus he doesn’t consciously tell a lie for his own sake, for the sake of another, or for the sake of any reward. Abandoning false speech, he abstains from false speech. He speaks the truth, holds to the truth, is firm, reliable, no deceiver of the world. Abandoning divisive speech, he abstains from divisive speech. What he has heard here he does not tell there to break those people apart from these people here. What he has heard there he does not tell here to break these people apart from those people there. Thus reconciling those who have broken apart or cementing those who are united, he loves concord, delights in concord, enjoys concord, speaks things that create concord. Abandoning abusive speech, he abstains from abusive speech. He speaks words that are soothing to the ear, that are affectionate, that go to the heart, that are polite, appealing & pleasing to people at large. Abandoning idle chatter, he abstains from idle chatter. He speaks in season, speaks what is factual, what is in accordance with the goal, the Dhamma, & the Vinaya. He speaks words worth treasuring, seasonable, reasonable, circumscribed, connected with the goal. This is how one is made pure in four ways by verbal action.

SKILLFUL MENTAL ACTION

“And how is one made pure in three ways by mental action? There is the case where a certain person is not covetous. He does not covet the belongings of others, thinking, ‘O, that what belongs to others would be mine!’ He bears no ill will and is not corrupt in the resolves of his heart. [He thinks,] ‘May these beings be free from animosity, free from oppression, free from trouble, and may they look after themselves with ease!’ He has right view and is not warped in the way he sees things: ‘There is what is given, what is offered, what is sacrificed. There are fruits & results of good & bad actions. There is this world & the next world. There is mother & father. There are spontaneously reborn beings; there are contemplatives & brahmans who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim this world & the next after having directly known & realized it for themselves.’ This is how one is made pure in three ways by mental action.

“These, Cunda, are the ten courses of skillful action. When a person is endowed with these ten courses of skillful action, then even if he gets up at the proper time from his bed and touches the earth, he is still pure. If he doesn’t touch the earth, he is still pure. If he touches wet cow dung, he is still pure. If he doesn’t touch wet cow dung, he is still pure. If he touches green grass… If he doesn’t touch green grass… If he worships a fire… If he doesn’t worship a fire… If he pays homage to the sun with clasped hands… If he doesn’t pay homage to the sun with clasped hands… If he goes down into the water three times by nightfall… If he doesn’t go down into the water three times by nightfall, he is still pure. Why is that? Because these ten courses of skillful action are pure and cause purity. Furthermore, as a result of being endowed with these ten courses of skillful action, [rebirth among] the devas is declared, [rebirth among] human beings is declared—that or any other good destination.”

When this was said, Cunda the silversmith said to the Blessed One: “Magnificent, venerable sir! Magnificent! Just as if he were to place upright what was overturned, to reveal what was hidden, to show the way to one who was lost, or to carry a lamp into the dark so that those with eyes could see forms, in the same way has the Blessed One—through many lines of reasoning—made the Dhamma clear. I go to the Blessed One for refuge, to the Dhamma, and to the community of monks. May the Blessed One remember me as a lay follower who has gone to him for refuge, from this day forward, for life.” — AN 10:165

§ 29. “Now which are unskillful habits? Unskillful bodily actions, unskillful verbal actions, evil means of livelihood. These are called unskillful habits. Which is the cause of unskillful habits? Their cause is stated, and they are said to be mind-caused. Which mind?—for the mind has many modes & permutations. Any mind with passion, aversion, or delusion: That is the cause of unskillful habits. Now where do unskillful habits cease without trace? Their cessation has been stated: There is the case where a monk abandons wrong bodily conduct & develops right bodily conduct, abandons wrong verbal conduct & develops right verbal conduct, abandons wrong livelihood & maintains his life with right livelihood. This is where unskillful habits cease without trace. And which sort of practice is the practice leading to the cessation of unskillful habits? There is the case where a monk generates desire, endeavors, arouses persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the non-arising of evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen… for the sake of the abandoning of evil, unskillful qualities that have arisen… for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen… (and) for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, plenitude, development & culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen. This sort of practice is the practice leading to the cessation of unskillful habits.

“And which are skillful habits? Skillful bodily actions, skillful verbal actions, purity of livelihood. These are called skillful habits. Which is the cause of skillful habits? Their cause too has been stated, and they are said to be mind-caused. Which mind?—for the mind has many modes & permutations. Any mind without passion, without aversion, without delusion: That is the cause of skillful habits. Now where do skillful habits cease without trace? Their cessation too has been stated: There is the case where a monk is virtuous, but not fashioned of virtue. He discerns, as it actually is, the release of awareness & release of discernment where his skillful habits cease without trace. And which sort of practice is the practice leading to the cessation of skillful habits? There is the case where a monk generates desire… for the sake of the non-arising of evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen… for the sake of the abandoning of evil, unskillful qualities that have arisen… for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen… (and) for the… development & culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen. This sort of practice is the practice leading to the cessation of skillful habits.

“And which are unskillful resolves? Being resolved on sensuality, on ill will, on harmfulness. These are called unskillful resolves. Which is the cause of unskillful resolves? Their cause too has been stated, and they are said to be perception-caused. Which perception?—for perception has many modes & permutations. Any sensuality-perception, ill will-perception, or harmfulness-perception: That is the cause of unskillful resolves. Now where do unskillful resolves cease without trace? Their cessation too has been stated: 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. This is where unskillful resolves cease without trace. And which sort of practice is the practice leading to the cessation of unskillful resolves? There is the case where a monk generates desire… for the sake of the non-arising of evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen… for the sake of the abandoning of evil, unskillful qualities that have arisen… for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen… (and) for the… development & culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen. This sort of practice is the practice leading to the cessation of unskillful resolves.

“And which are skillful resolves? Being resolved on renunciation (freedom from sensuality), on non-ill will, on harmlessness. These are called skillful resolves. Which is the cause of skillful resolves? Their cause too has been stated, and they are said to be perception-caused. Which perception?—for perception has many modes & permutations. Any renunciation-perception, non-ill will-perception, or harmlessness-perception: That is the cause of skillful resolves. Now where do skillful resolves cease without trace? Their cessation too has been stated: There is the case where a monk, with the stilling of directed thoughts & evaluations, enters & remains in the second jhāna: rapture & pleasure born of concentration, unification of awareness free from directed thought & evaluation—internal assurance. This is where skillful resolves cease without trace. And which sort of practice is the practice leading to the cessation of skillful resolves? There is the case where a monk generates desire…for the sake of the non-arising of evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen…for the sake of the abandoning of evil, unskillful qualities that have arisen…for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen… (and) for the… development & culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen. This sort of practice is the practice leading to the cessation of skillful resolves.” — MN 78

§ 30. “Now, what is old kamma? The eye is to be seen as old kamma, fabricated & willed, capable of being felt. The ear… The nose… The tongue… The body… The intellect is to be seen as old kamma, fabricated & willed, capable of being felt. This is called old kamma.

“And what is new kamma? Whatever kamma one does now with the body, with speech, or with the intellect: This is called new kamma.” — SN 35:145

§ 31. “Monks, these four types of kamma have been directly known, verified, & announced by me. Which four? There is kamma that is dark with dark result. There is kamma that is bright with bright result. There is kamma that is dark & bright with dark & bright result. There is kamma that is neither dark nor bright with neither dark nor bright result, leading to the ending of kamma.

“And which kamma is dark with dark result? There is the case where a certain person fabricates an injurious bodily fabrication, fabricates an injurious verbal fabrication, fabricates an injurious mental fabrication. Having fabricated an injurious bodily fabrication, having fabricated an injurious verbal fabrication, having fabricated an injurious mental fabrication, he rearises in an injurious world. On rearising in an injurious world, he is there touched by injurious contacts. Touched by injurious contacts, he experiences feelings that are exclusively painful, like those of the beings in hell. This is called kamma that is dark with dark result.

“And which kamma is bright with bright result? There is the case where a certain person fabricates a non-injurious bodily fabrication… a non-injurious verbal fabrication .. a non-injurious mental fabrication…. He rearises in a non-injurious world…. There he is touched by non-injurious contacts…. He experiences feelings that are exclusively pleasant, like those of the Beautiful Black Devas. This is called kamma that is bright with bright result.

“And which kamma is dark & bright with dark & bright result? There is the case where a certain person fabricates a bodily fabrication that is injurious & non-injurious… a verbal fabrication that is injurious & non-injurious… a mental fabrication that is injurious & non-injurious…. He rearises in an injurious & non-injurious world…. There he is touched by injurious & non-injurious contacts…. He experiences injurious & non-injurious feelings, pleasure mingled with pain, like those of human beings, some devas, and some beings in the lower realms. This is called kamma that is dark & bright with dark & bright result.

“And which kamma is neither dark nor bright with neither dark nor bright result, leading to the ending of kamma? Right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is called kamma that is neither dark nor bright with neither dark nor bright result, leading to the ending of kamma.

“These, monks, are the four types of kamma directly known, verified, & announced by me.” — AN 4:237

§ 32. “‘Kamma should be known. The cause by which kamma comes into play should be known. The diversity in kamma should be known. The result of kamma should be known. The cessation of kamma should be known. The path of practice for the cessation of kamma should be known.’ Thus it has been said. In reference to what was it said?

“Intention, I tell you, is kamma. Intending, one does kamma by way of body, speech, & intellect.

“And which is the cause by which kamma comes into play? Contact is the cause by which kamma comes into play.

“And which is the diversity in kamma? There is kamma to be experienced in hell, kamma to be experienced in the realm of common animals, kamma to be experienced in the realm of the hungry shades, kamma to be experienced in the human world, kamma to be experienced in the world of the devas. This is called the diversity in kamma.

“And which is the result of kamma? The result of kamma is of three sorts, I tell you: that which arises right here & now, that which arises later [in this lifetime], and that which arises following that. This is called the result of kamma.

“And which is the cessation of kamma? From the cessation of contact is the cessation of kamma; and precisely this noble eightfold path—right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration—is the way leading to the cessation of kamma.

“Now when a disciple of the noble ones discerns kamma in this way, the cause by which kamma comes into play in this way, the diversity of kamma in this way, the result of kamma in this way, the cessation of kamma in this way, & the path of practice leading to the cessation of kamma in this way, then he discerns this penetrative holy life as the cessation of kamma.” — AN 6:63

The Four Noble Truths

§ 33. “[1] Now which is the noble truth of stress? Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful; separation from the loved is stressful; not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.

“And which is birth? Whatever birth, taking birth, descent, coming-to-be, coming-forth, appearance of aggregates, & acquisition of [sense] spheres of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called birth.

“And which is aging? Whatever aging, decrepitude, brokenness, graying, wrinkling, decline of life-force, weakening of the faculties of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called aging.

“And which is death? Whatever deceasing, passing away, breaking up, disappearance, dying, death, completion of time, break up of the aggregates, casting off of the body, interruption in the life faculty of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called death.

“And which is sorrow? Whatever sorrow, sorrowing, sadness, inward sorrow, inward sadness of anyone suffering from misfortune, touched by a painful thing, that is called sorrow.

“And which is lamentation? Whatever crying, grieving, lamenting, weeping, wailing, lamentation of anyone suffering from misfortune, touched by a painful thing, that is called lamentation.

“And which is pain? Whatever is experienced as bodily pain, bodily discomfort, pain or discomfort born of bodily contact, that is called pain.

“And which is distress? Whatever is experienced as mental pain, mental discomfort, pain or discomfort born of mental contact, that is called distress.

“And which is despair? Whatever despair, despondency, desperation of anyone suffering from misfortune, touched by a painful thing, that is called despair.

“And which is the stress of association with the unbeloved? There is the case where undesirable, unpleasing, unattractive sights, sounds, aromas, flavors, or tactile sensations occur to one; or one has connection, contact, relationship, interaction with those who wish one ill, who wish for one’s harm, who wish for one’s discomfort, who wish one no security from the yoke. This is called the stress of association with the unbeloved.

“And which is the stress of separation from the loved? There is the case where desirable, pleasing, attractive sights, sounds, aromas, flavors, or tactile sensations do not occur to one; or one has no connection, no contact, no relationship, no interaction with those who wish one well, who wish for one’s benefit, who wish for one’s comfort, who wish one security from the yoke, nor with one’s mother, father, brother, sister, friends, companions, or relatives. This is called the stress of separation from the loved.

“And which is the stress of not getting what is wanted? In beings subject to birth, the wish arises, ‘O, may we not be subject to birth, and may birth not come to us.’ But this is not to be achieved by wishing. This is the stress of not getting what is wanted. In beings subject to aging… illness… death… sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair, the wish arises, ‘O, may we not be subject to aging… illness… death… sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair, and may aging… illness… death… sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair not come to us.’ But this is not to be achieved by wishing. This is the stress of not getting what is wanted.

“And which are the five clinging-aggregates that, in short, are stressful? The form clinging-aggregate, the feeling clinging-aggregate, the perception clinging-aggregate, the fabrications clinging-aggregate, the consciousness clinging-aggregate: These are called the five clinging-aggregates that, in short, are stressful.

“This is called the noble truth of stress.

“[2] And which is the noble truth of the origination of stress? The craving that makes for further becoming—accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there—i.e., sensuality-craving, becoming-craving, and non-becoming-craving.

“And where does this craving, when arising, arise? And where, when dwelling, does it dwell? Whatever is endearing & alluring in terms of the world: That is where this craving, when arising, arises. That is where, when dwelling, it dwells.

“And which is endearing & alluring in terms of the world? The eye is endearing & alluring in terms of the world. That is where this craving, when arising, arises. That is where, when dwelling, it dwells.

“The ear…. The nose…. The tongue…. The body…. The intellect….

“Forms…. Sounds…. Aromas…. Tastes…. Tactile sensations…. Ideas….

“Eye-consciousness…. Ear-consciousness…. Nose-consciousness…. Tongue-consciousness…. Body-consciousness…. Intellect-consciousness….

“Eye-contact…. Ear-contact…. Nose-contact…. Tongue-contact…. Body-contact…. Intellect-contact….

“Feeling born of eye-contact…. Feeling born of ear-contact…. Feeling born of nose-contact…. Feeling born of tongue-contact…. Feeling born of body-contact…. Feeling born of intellect-contact….

“Perception of forms…. Perception of sounds…. Perception of aromas…. Perception of tastes…. Perception of tactile sensations…. Perception of ideas….

“Intention for forms…. Intention for sounds…. Intention for aromas…. Intention for tastes…. Intention for tactile sensations…. Intention for ideas….

“Craving for forms…. Craving for sounds…. Craving for aromas…. Craving for tastes…. Craving for tactile sensations…. Craving for ideas….

“Thought directed at forms…. Thought directed at sounds…. Thought directed at aromas…. Thought directed at tastes…. Thought directed at tactile sensations…. Thought directed at ideas….

“Evaluation of forms…. Evaluation of sounds…. Evaluation of aromas…. Evaluation of tastes…. Evaluation of tactile sensations…. Evaluation of ideas is endearing & alluring in terms of the world. That is where this craving, when arising, arises. That is where, when dwelling, it dwells.

“This is called the noble truth of the origination of stress.

“[3] And which is the noble truth of the cessation of stress? The remainderless fading & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving.

“And where, when being abandoned, is this craving abandoned? And where, when ceasing, does it cease? Whatever is endearing & alluring in terms of the world: That is where, when being abandoned, this craving is abandoned. That is where, when ceasing, it ceases.

“And which is endearing & alluring in terms of the world? The eye is endearing & alluring in terms of the world. That is where, when being abandoned, this craving is abandoned. That is where, when ceasing, it ceases.

“The ear…. The nose…. The tongue…. The body…. The intellect….

“Forms…. Sounds…. Aromas…. Tastes…. Tactile sensations…. Ideas….

“Eye-consciousness…. Ear-consciousness…. Nose-consciousness…. Tongue-consciousness…. Body-consciousness…. Intellect-consciousness….

“Eye-contact…. Ear-contact…. Nose-contact…. Tongue-contact…. Body-contact…. Intellect-contact….

“Feeling born of eye-contact…. Feeling born of ear-contact…. Feeling born of nose-contact…. Feeling born of tongue-contact…. Feeling born of body-contact…. Feeling born of intellect-contact….

“Perception of forms…. Perception of sounds…. Perception of aromas…. Perception of tastes…. Perception of tactile sensations…. Perception of ideas….

“Intention for forms…. Intention for sounds…. Intention for aromas…. Intention for tastes…. Intention for tactile sensations…. Intention for ideas….

“Craving for forms…. Craving for sounds…. Craving for aromas…. Craving for tastes…. Craving for tactile sensations…. Craving for ideas….

“Thought directed at forms…. Thought directed at sounds…. Thought directed at aromas…. Thought directed at tastes…. Thought directed at tactile sensations…. Thought directed at ideas….

“Evaluation of forms…. Evaluation of sounds…. Evaluation of aromas…. Evaluation of tastes…. Evaluation of tactile sensations…. Evaluation of ideas is endearing & alluring in terms of the world. That is where, when being abandoned, this craving is abandoned. That is where, when ceasing, it ceases.

“This is called the noble truth of the cessation of stress.

“[4] And which is the noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress? Precisely this noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

“And which is right view? Knowledge with reference to stress, knowledge with reference to the origination of stress, knowledge with reference to the cessation of stress, knowledge with reference to the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: This is called right view.

And which is right resolve? Resolve for renunciation, for freedom from ill will, for harmlessness: This is called right resolve.

“And which is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech.

“And which is right action? Abstaining from taking life, from stealing, & from sexual misconduct: This is called right action.

“And which is right livelihood? There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones, having abandoned dishonest livelihood, keeps his life going with right livelihood. This is called right livelihood.

“And which is right effort? There is the case where a monk generates desire, endeavors, arouses persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the non-arising of evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen… for the sake of the abandoning of evil, unskillful qualities that have arisen… for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen… (and) for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, plenitude, development, & culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen. This is called right effort.

“And which is right mindfulness? There is the case where a monk remains focused on the body in & of itself—ardent, alert, & mindful—subduing greed & distress with reference to the world. He remains focused on feelings in & of themselves… the mind in & of itself… qualities in & of themselves—ardent, alert, & mindful—subduing greed & distress with reference to the world. This is called right mindfulness.

“And which is right concentration? 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. With the stilling of directed thoughts & evaluations, he enters & remains in the second jhāna: rapture & pleasure born of concentration, unification of awareness free from directed thought & evaluation—internal assurance. With the fading of rapture, he remains equanimous, mindful, & alert, and senses pleasure with the body. He enters & remains in the third jhāna, of which the noble ones declare, ‘Equanimous & mindful, he has a pleasant abiding.’ With the abandoning of pleasure & pain—as with the earlier disappearance of joys & distresses—he enters & remains in the fourth jhāna: purity of equanimity & mindfulness, neither pleasure nor pain. This is called right concentration.

“This is called the noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress.” — DN 22

§ 34. “Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: ‘This noble truth of stress is to be comprehended’ … ‘This noble truth of the origination of stress is to be abandoned’ … ‘This noble truth of the cessation of stress is to be directly experienced’ … ‘This noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress is to be developed.’” — SN 56:11

§ 35. “And which qualities are to be comprehended through direct knowledge? ‘The five clinging-aggregates,’ should be the reply. Which five? The form clinging-aggregate, the feeling clinging-aggregate, the perception clinging-aggregate, the fabrications clinging-aggregate, the consciousness clinging-aggregate. These are the qualities that are to be comprehended through direct knowledge.

“And which qualities are to be abandoned through direct knowledge? Ignorance & craving for becoming: these are the qualities that are to be abandoned through direct knowledge.

“And which qualities are to be developed through direct knowledge? Tranquility & insight: these are the qualities that are to be developed through direct knowledge.

“And which qualities are to be realized through direct knowledge? Clear knowing & release: these are the qualities that are to be realized through direct knowledge.” — MN 149

§ 36. “And which is comprehension? Any ending of passion, ending of aversion, ending of delusion. This is called comprehension.” — SN 22:23

§ 37. “For a monk practicing the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma, this is what accords with the Dhamma: that he keep cultivating disenchantment with regard to form, that he keep cultivating disenchantment with regard to feeling, that he keep cultivating disenchantment with regard to perception, that he keep cultivating disenchantment with regard to fabrications, that he keep cultivating disenchantment with regard to consciousness. As he keeps cultivating disenchantment with regard to form… feeling… perception… fabrications… consciousness, he comprehends form… feeling… perception… fabrications… consciousness. As he comprehends form… feeling… perception… fabrications… consciousness, he is released from form… feeling… perception… fabrications… consciousness. He is released from sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs. He is released, I tell you, from suffering & stress.” — SN 22:39

§ 38. “And why do you call it ‘form’ (rūpa)? Because it is afflicted (ruppati), thus it is called ‘form.’ Afflicted with what? With cold & heat & hunger & thirst, with the touch of flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, & reptiles. Because it is afflicted, it is called form.

“And why do you call it ‘feeling’? Because it feels, thus it is called ‘feeling.’ What does it feel? It feels pleasure, it feels pain, it feels neither-pleasure-nor-pain. Because it feels, it is called feeling.

“And why do you call it ‘perception’? Because it perceives, thus it is called ‘perception.’ What does it perceive? It perceives blue, it perceives yellow, it perceives red, it perceives white. Because it perceives, it is called perception.

“And why do you call them ‘fabrications’? Because they fabricate fabricated things, thus they are called ‘fabrications.’ What do they fabricate as fabricated things? For the sake of form-ness, they fabricate form as a fabricated thing. For the sake of feeling-ness, they fabricate feeling as a fabricated thing. For the sake of perception-hood… For the sake of fabrication-hood… For the sake of consciousness-hood, they fabricate consciousness as a fabricated thing. Because they fabricate fabricated things, they are called fabrications.1

“And why do you call it ‘consciousness’? Because it cognizes, thus it is called consciousness. What does it cognize? It cognizes what is sour, bitter, pungent, sweet, alkaline, non-alkaline, salty, & unsalty.2 Because it cognizes, it is called consciousness.” — SN 22:79

§ 39. “Now which, monks, is noble right concentration with its supports & requisite conditions? Any singleness of mind equipped with these seven factors—right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, & right mindfulness—is called noble right concentration with its supports & requisite conditions.

“[1] Of those, right view is the forerunner. And how is right view the forerunner? One discerns wrong view as wrong view, and right view as right view. This is one’s right view. And which is wrong view? ‘There is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed. There is no fruit or result of good or bad actions. There is no this world, no next world, no mother, no father, no spontaneously reborn beings; no contemplatives or brahmans who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim this world & the next after having directly known & realized it for themselves.’ This is wrong view.

“And which is right view? Right view, I tell you, is of two sorts: There is right view with fermentations, siding with merit, resulting in the acquisitions [of becoming]; and there is noble right view, without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path.

“And which is the right view that has fermentations, sides with merit, & results in acquisitions? ‘There is what is given, what is offered, what is sacrificed. There are fruits & results of good & bad actions. There is this world & the next world. There is mother & father. There are spontaneously reborn beings; there are contemplatives & brahmans who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim this world & the next after having directly known & realized it for themselves.’ This is the right view that has fermentations, sides with merit, & results in acquisitions.

“And which is the right view that is without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path? The discernment, the faculty of discernment, the strength of discernment, analysis of qualities as a factor for awakening, the path factor of right view1 in one developing the noble path whose mind is noble, whose mind is free from fermentations, who is fully possessed of the noble path. This is the right view that is without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path.

“One makes an effort for the abandoning of wrong view & for entering into right view: This is one’s right effort. One is mindful to abandon wrong view & to enter & remain in right view: This is one’s right mindfulness.2 Thus these three qualities—right view, right effort, & right mindfulness—run & circle around right view.

“[2] Of those, right view is the forerunner. And how is right view the forerunner? One discerns wrong resolve as wrong resolve, and right resolve as right resolve. This is one’s right view. And which is wrong resolve? Being resolved on sensuality, on ill will, on harmfulness. This is wrong resolve.

“And which is right resolve? Right resolve, I tell you, is of two sorts: There is right resolve with fermentations, siding with merit, resulting in the acquisitions [of becoming]; and there is noble right resolve, without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path.

“And which is the right resolve that has fermentations, sides with merit, & results in acquisitions? Resolve for renunciation, resolve for freedom from ill will, resolve for harmlessness. This is the right resolve that has fermentations, sides with merit, & results in acquisitions.

“And which is the right resolve that is without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path? The thinking, directed thinking, resolve, mental fixity, mental transfixion, focused awareness, & verbal fabrications in one developing the noble path whose mind is noble, whose mind is without fermentations, who is fully possessed of the noble path. This is the right resolve that is without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path.”

“One makes an effort for the abandoning of wrong resolve & for entering right resolve: This is one’s right effort. One is mindful to abandon wrong resolve & to enter & remain in right resolve: This is one’s right mindfulness. Thus these three qualities—right view, right effort, & right mindfulness—run & circle around right resolve.

“[3] Of those, right view is the forerunner. And how is right view the forerunner? One discerns wrong speech as wrong speech, and right speech as right speech. This is one’s right view. And which is wrong speech? Lying, divisive tale-bearing, abusive speech, & idle chatter. This is wrong speech.

“And which is right speech? Right speech, I tell you, is of two sorts: There is right speech with fermentations, siding with merit, resulting in the acquisitions [of becoming]; and there is noble right speech, without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path.

“And which is the right speech that has fermentations, sides with merit, & results in acquisitions? Abstaining from lying, from divisive tale-bearing, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter. This is the right speech that has fermentations, sides with merit, & results in acquisitions.

“And which is the right speech that is without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path? The abstaining, desisting, abstinence, avoidance of the four forms of verbal misconduct in one developing the noble path whose mind is noble, whose mind is without fermentations, who is fully possessed of the noble path. This is the right speech that is without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path.

“One makes an effort for the abandoning of wrong speech & for entering right speech: This is one’s right effort. One is mindful to abandon wrong speech & to enter & remain in right speech: This is one’s right mindfulness. Thus these three qualities—right view, right effort, & right mindfulness—run & circle around right speech.

“[4] Of those, right view is the forerunner. And how is right view the forerunner? One discerns wrong action as wrong action, and right action as right action. This is one’s right view. And which is wrong action? Killing, taking what is not given, illicit sex. This is wrong action.

“And which is right action? Right action, I tell you, is of two sorts: There is right action with fermentations, siding with merit, resulting in the acquisitions [of becoming]; and there is noble right action, without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path.

“And which is the right action that has fermentations, sides with merit, & results in acquisitions? Abstaining from killing, from taking what is not given, & from illicit sex. This is the right action that has fermentations, sides with merit, & results in acquisitions.

“And which is the right action that is without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path? The abstaining, desisting, abstinence, avoidance of the three forms of bodily misconduct in one developing the noble path whose mind is noble, whose mind is without fermentations, who is fully possessed of the noble path. This is the right action that is without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path.

“One makes an effort for the abandoning of wrong action & for entering into right action: This is one’s right effort. One is mindful to abandon wrong action & to enter & remain in right action: This is one’s right mindfulness. Thus these three qualities—right view, right effort, & right mindfulness—run & circle around right action.

“[5] Of those, right view is the forerunner. And how is right view the forerunner? One discerns wrong livelihood as wrong livelihood, and right livelihood as right livelihood. This is one’s right view. And which is wrong livelihood? Scheming, persuading, hinting, belittling, & pursuing gain with gain. This is wrong livelihood.

“And which is right livelihood? Right livelihood, I tell you, is of two sorts: There is right livelihood with fermentations, siding with merit, resulting in the acquisitions [of becoming]; and there is noble right livelihood, without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path.

“And which is the right livelihood that has fermentations, sides with merit, & results in acquisitions? There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones abandons wrong livelihood and maintains his life with right livelihood. This is the right livelihood that has fermentations, sides with merit, & results in acquisitions.

“And which is the right livelihood that is without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path? The abstaining, desisting, abstinence, avoidance of wrong livelihood in one developing the noble path whose mind is noble, whose mind is without fermentations, who is fully possessed of the noble path. This is the right livelihood that is without fermentations, transcendent, a factor of the path.

“One makes an effort for the abandoning of wrong livelihood & for entering into right livelihood: This is one’s right effort. One is mindful to abandon wrong livelihood & to enter & remain in right livelihood: This is one’s right mindfulness. Thus these three qualities—right view, right effort, & right mindfulness—run & circle around right livelihood.

“Of those, right view is the forerunner. And how is right view the forerunner? In one of right view, right resolve comes into being. In one of right resolve, right speech comes into being. In one of right speech, right action…. In one of right action, right livelihood…. In one of right livelihood, right effort…. In one of right effort, right mindfulness…. In one of right mindfulness, right concentration…. In one of right concentration, right knowledge…. In one of right knowledge, right release comes into being. Thus the learner is endowed with eight factors, and the arahant with ten.

“Of those, right view is the forerunner. And how is right view the forerunner? In one of right view, wrong view is abolished. The many evil, unskillful qualities that come into play with wrong view as their condition are also abolished, while the many skillful qualities that have right view as their condition go to the culmination of their development. In one of right resolve, wrong resolve is abolished…. In one of right speech, wrong speech is abolished…. In one of right action, wrong action is abolished…. In one of right livelihood, wrong livelihood is abolished…. In one of right effort, wrong effort is abolished…. In one of right mindfulness, wrong mindfulness is abolished…. In one of right concentration, wrong concentration is abolished…. In one of right knowledge, wrong knowledge is abolished…. In one of right release, wrong release is abolished. The many evil, unskillful qualities that come into play with wrong release as their condition are also abolished, while the many skillful qualities that have right release as their condition go to the culmination of their development.

“Thus, monks, there are twenty factors siding with skillfulness, and twenty with unskillfulness.” — MN 117

Dependent Co-arising

§ 40. “And which is the noble method that he/she [a stream-winner] has rightly seen & rightly ferreted out through discernment?”

“There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones notices:

“In other words:

“From ignorance as a requisite condition come fabrications…

“From becoming as a requisite condition comes birth.

“From birth as a requisite condition, then aging-&-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair come into play. Such is the origination of this entire mass of stress & suffering.

“Now from the remainderless fading & cessation of that very ignorance comes the cessation of fabrications… From the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of birth. From the cessation of birth, then aging-&-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair all cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of stress & suffering.

“This is the noble method that he/she has rightly seen & rightly ferreted out through discernment.” — AN 10:92

§ 41. Staying at Sāvatthī…. “Monks, I will describe & analyze dependent co-arising for you.

“Which dependent co-arising?

From ignorance as a requisite condition come fabrications.

From fabrications as a requisite condition comes consciousness.

From consciousness as a requisite condition comes name-&-form.

From name-&-form as a requisite condition come the six sense media.

From the six sense media as a requisite condition comes contact.

From contact as a requisite condition comes feeling.

From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving.

From craving as a requisite condition comes clinging.

From clinging as a requisite condition comes becoming.

From becoming as a requisite condition comes birth.

From birth as a requisite condition, then aging-&-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair come into play. Such is the origination of this entire mass of stress & suffering.

“Now, which aging-&-death? Whatever aging, decrepitude, brokenness, graying, wrinkling, decline of life-force, weakening of the faculties of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called aging. Whatever deceasing, passing away, breaking up, disappearance, dying, death, completion of time, break up of the aggregates, casting off of the body, interruption in the life faculty of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called death.

“And which birth? Whatever birth, taking birth, descent, coming-to-be, coming-forth, appearance of aggregates, & acquisition of sense media of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called birth.

“And which becoming? These three becomings: sensuality-becoming, form-becoming, & formless-becoming. This is called becoming.

“And which clinging? These four clingings: sensuality-clinging, view-clinging, habit-&-practice-clinging, and self-doctrine-clinging. This is called clinging.

“And which craving? These six cravings: craving for forms, craving for sounds, craving for smells, craving for tastes, craving for tactile sensations, craving for ideas. This is called craving.

“And which feeling? These six feelings: feeling born from eye-contact, feeling born from ear-contact, feeling born from nose-contact, feeling born from tongue-contact, feeling born from body-contact, feeling born from intellect-contact. This is called feeling.

“And which contact? These six contacts: eye-contact, ear-contact, nose-contact, tongue-contact, body-contact, intellect-contact. This is called contact.

“And which six sense media? These six sense media: the eye-medium, the ear-medium, the nose-medium, the tongue-medium, the body-medium, the intellect-medium. These are called the six sense media.

“And which name-&-form? Feeling, perception, intention, contact, & attention: This is called name. The four great elements, and the form dependent on the four great elements: This is called form. This name & this form are called name-&-form.

“And which consciousness? These six consciousnesses: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, intellect-consciousness. This is called consciousness.

“And which fabrications? These three fabrications: bodily fabrications, verbal fabrications, mental fabrications. These are called fabrications.

“And which ignorance? Not knowing in terms of stress, not knowing in terms of the origination of stress, not knowing in terms of the cessation of stress, not knowing in terms of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: This is called ignorance.

“Now from the remainderless fading & cessation of that very ignorance comes the cessation of fabrications. From the cessation of fabrications comes the cessation of consciousness. From the cessation of consciousness comes the cessation of name-&-form. From the cessation of name-&-form comes the cessation of the six sense media. From the cessation of the six sense media comes the cessation of contact. From the cessation of contact comes the cessation of feeling. From the cessation of feeling comes the cessation of craving. From the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging. From the cessation of clinging comes the cessation of becoming. From the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of birth. From the cessation of birth, then aging-&-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair all cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of stress & suffering.” — SN 12:2

§ 42. “Now, which is ignorance? Which is the origination of ignorance? Which is the cessation of ignorance? Which is the way of practice leading to the cessation of ignorance?

“Any lack of knowledge with reference to stress, any lack of knowledge with reference to the origination of stress, any lack of knowledge with reference to the cessation of stress, any lack of knowledge with reference to the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: This is called ignorance.

“From the origination of fermentation comes the origination of ignorance. From the cessation of fermentation comes the cessation of ignorance. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of ignorance is precisely this noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration….

“And which is fermentation? Which is the origination of fermentation? Which is the cessation of fermentation? Which is the way of practice leading to the cessation of fermentation?

“There are these three fermentations: the fermentation of sensuality, the fermentation of becoming, the fermentation of ignorance. This is called fermentation.

“From the origination of ignorance comes the origination of fermentation. From the cessation of ignorance comes the cessation of fermentation. And the way of practice leading to the cessation of fermentation is precisely this noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.” — MN 9

Recommended Questions

§ 43. “This is the way leading to discernment: when visiting a contemplative or brahman, to ask: ‘What is skillful, venerable sir? What is unskillful? What is blameworthy? What is blameless? What should be cultivated? What should not be cultivated? What, having been done by me, will be for my long-term harm & suffering? Or what, having been done by me, will be for my long-term welfare & happiness?’” — MN 135

§ 44. “The individual who has attained internal tranquility of awareness, but not insight into phenomena through heightened discernment, should approach an individual who has attained insight into phenomena through heightened discernment and ask him, ‘How should fabrications be regarded? How should they be investigated? How should they be seen with insight?’ The other will answer in line with what he has seen & experienced: ‘Fabrications should be regarded in this way. Fabrications should be investigated in this way. Fabrications should be seen in this way with insight.’ Then eventually he [the first] will become one who has attained both internal tranquility of awareness & insight into phenomena through heightened discernment.

“As for the individual who has attained insight into phenomena through heightened discernment, but not internal tranquility of awareness, he should approach an individual who has attained internal tranquility of awareness… and ask him, ‘How should the mind be steadied? How should it be made to settle down? How should it be unified? How should it be concentrated?’ The other will answer in line with what he has seen & experienced: ‘The mind should be steadied in this way. The mind should be made to settle down in this way. The mind should be unified in this way. The mind should be concentrated in this way.’ Then eventually he [the first] will become one who has attained both internal tranquility of awareness & insight into phenomena through heightened discernment.” — AN 4:94

Views & Awakening

§ 45.

§ 46. The Blessed One said, “Monks, whatever in the cosmos—with its devas, Māras, & Brahmās, its generations with their contemplatives & brahmans, their royalty & common people—is seen, heard, sensed, cognized, attained, sought after, pondered by the intellect: That do I know. Whatever in the cosmos—with its devas, Māras, & Brahmās, its generations with their contemplatives & brahmans, their royalty & common people—is seen, heard, sensed, cognized, attained, sought after, pondered by the intellect: That I directly know. That has been realized by the Tathāgata, but in the Tathāgata1 it has not been established.

“If I were to say, ‘I don’t know whatever in the cosmos… is seen, heard, sensed, cognized… pondered by the intellect,’ that would be a falsehood in me. If I were to say, ‘I both know and don’t know whatever in the cosmos… is seen, heard, sensed, cognized… pondered by the intellect,’ that would be just the same. If I were to say, ‘I neither know nor don’t know whatever in the cosmos… is seen, heard, sensed, cognized… pondered by the intellect,’ that would be a fault in me.

“Thus the Tathāgata, when seeing what is to be seen, doesn’t construe an [object as] seen, doesn’t construe an unseen, doesn’t construe an [object] to-be-seen, doesn’t construe a seer.

“When hearing…. When sensing….

“When cognizing what is to be cognized, he doesn’t construe an [object as] cognized, doesn’t construe an uncognized, doesn’t construe an [object] to-be-cognized, doesn’t construe a cognizer.

Thus the Tathāgata—being the same with regard to all phenomena that can be seen, heard, sensed, & cognized—is ‘Such.’ And I tell you: There’s no other Such higher or more sublime.

§ 47.

§ 48.

§ 49. “His release, being founded on truth, doesn’t fluctuate, for whatever is deceptive is false; unbinding—the undeceptive—is true. Thus a monk so endowed is endowed with the highest determination for truth, for this—unbinding, the undeceptive—is the highest noble truth.” — MN 140

Papañca

§ 50. Ven. MahāKaccāyana said this: “Concerning the brief statement the Blessed One made, after which he went into his dwelling without analyzing the detailed meaning—i.e., ‘If, with regard to the cause whereby the perceptions & categories of objectification assail a person, there is nothing there to relish, welcome, or remain fastened to, then that is the end of the obsessions of passion, the obsessions of resistance, the obsessions of views, the obsessions of uncertainty, the obsessions of conceit, the obsessions of passion for becoming, & the obsessions of ignorance. That is the end of taking up rods & bladed weapons, of arguments, quarrels, disputes, accusations, divisive tale-bearing, & false speech. That is where these evil, unskillful things cease without remainder’—I understand the detailed meaning to be this:

“Dependent on eye & forms, eye-consciousness arises. The meeting of the three is contact. With contact as a requisite condition, there is feeling. What one feels, one perceives [labels, assigns a meaning in the mind]. What one perceives, one thinks about. What one thinks about, one objectifies. Based on what a person objectifies, the perceptions & categories of objectification assail him/her with regard to past, present, & future forms cognizable via the eye.

“Dependent on ear & sounds, ear-consciousness arises….

“Dependent on nose & aromas, nose-consciousness arises….

“Dependent on tongue & flavors, tongue-consciousness arises….

“Dependent on body & tactile sensations, body-consciousness arises….

“Dependent on intellect & ideas, intellect-consciousness arises. The meeting of the three is contact. With contact as a requisite condition, there is feeling. What one feels, one perceives. What one perceives, one thinks about. What one thinks about, one objectifies. Based on what a person objectifies, the perceptions & categories of objectification assail him/her with regard to past, present, & future ideas cognizable via the intellect.

“Now, when there is the eye, when there are forms, when there is eye-consciousness, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of contact. When there is a delineation of contact, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of feeling. When there is a delineation of feeling, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of perception. When there is a delineation of perception, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of thinking. When there is a delineation of thinking, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of being assailed by the perceptions & categories of objectification.

“When there is the ear….

“When there is the nose….

“When there is the tongue….

“When there is the body….

“When there is the intellect, when there are ideas, when there is intellect-consciousness, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of contact. When there is a delineation of contact, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of feeling. When there is a delineation of feeling, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of perception. When there is a delineation of perception, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of thinking. When there is a delineation of thinking, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of being assailed by the perceptions & categories of objectification.

“Now, when there is no eye, when there are no forms, when there is no eye-consciousness, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of contact. When there is no delineation of contact, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of feeling. When there is no delineation of feeling, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of perception. When there is no delineation of perception, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of thinking. When there is no delineation of thinking, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of being assailed by the perceptions & categories of objectification.

“When there is no ear….

“When there is no nose….

“When there is no tongue….

“When there is no body….

“When there is no intellect, when there are no ideas, when there is no intellect-consciousness, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of contact. When there is no delineation of contact, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of feeling. When there is no delineation of feeling, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of perception. When there is no delineation of perception, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of thinking. When there is no delineation of thinking, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of being assailed by the perceptions & categories of objectification.” — MN 18

§ 51.

§ 52.

§ 53. “There is the case, monks, where a certain contemplative or brahman, with the relinquishing of speculations about the past and the relinquishing of speculations about the future, from being totally not determined on the fetters of sensuality, and from the surmounting of the rapture of seclusion [in the first jhāna], of unworldly pleasure, & of the feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain [in the fourth jhāna], thinks, ‘I am at peace, I am unbound, I am without clinging/ sustenance!’

“With regard to this, the Tathāgata discerns: ‘This venerable contemplative or brahman, with the relinquishing of speculations about the past… thinks, “I am at peace, I am unbound, I am without clinging/sustenance!” Yes, he affirms a practice conducive to unbinding. But still he clings, clinging to a speculation about the past or… a speculation about the future… or a fetter of sensuality… or the rapture of seclusion… or unworldly pleasure… or a feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain. And the fact that he thinks, “I am at peace, I am unbound, I am without clinging/sustenance!”—that in itself points to his clinging.’

“With regard to this—fabricated, gross—there is still the cessation of fabrications. Knowing, ‘There is that,’ seeing the escape from it, the Tathāgata has gone beyond it.” — MN 102