CHAPTER 7

 

THE FOURTH NOBLE TRUTH

Magga: The Path

 

RIGHT UNDERSTANDING

(Samma-ditthi)

 

 

`As this great ocean has but one taste, that of salt, so has this Dhamma but one taste, that of freedom.’ ¹

 

Freedom, supreme security from bondage, ² is the clarion call of the Buddha's teaching. It is for this end--freedom--that the Master points out a path.

 

At the parting of roads a pedestrian gets bewildered, not knowing the right path to take. He looks round for help, and to his delight, sees a signboard with directions. Now if he is really intent on reach­ing his destination, he will not hesitate--but will proceed with zest watching his steps. So do people in this cycle of existence (samsara), get bewildered as long as they do not know the path to freedom. The Buddha, like the signboard, indicates the sublime path of understanding and freedom, but people still cling to the by-paths that lead deeper into the morass of dukkha, suffering. That is because they have woven previous habits into the texture of their being while wandering through the jungles of samsaric life.

 

It is very difficult, indeed, for people to turn away from accus­tomed modes of conduct, thought and action. ³ However, if one wants to conquer the burdensome cares of worldly life, and gain true happiness and freedom one has gradually to turn away from things seemingly dear and congenial, and enter the path trodden by the Supremely Enlightened Ones of all ages and pointed out by them--the ANCIENT PATH. ⁴

 

It is by advancing step by step along the Ancient Path that one reaches the goal-freedom. One cannot attain freedom all at once. As the sea deepens gradually, so in the doctrine and discipline of the Buddha there is gradual training, gradual doing, and gradual practice. ⁵ All the practical guidance and instructions given by the Buddha to remove mental conflicts due to the unsatisfactoriness of life, and gain final peace and happiness, are to be found on the Eightfold Path.

 

To one who views the modern world with dispassionate discern­ment, right understanding seems to be a very essential, nay an indispensable, factor of human life. With the advance of modern science, people, both in the East and West, seem to have become more and more materially minded and have almost ignored the mental realm, the world within, so that they seem to be lop-sided and even ill-disposed. Slogans and political propaganda seem to mould man's mind, and life to be mechanical; man has become like a puppet controlled by others.

 

Modern man seems to be enmeshed in all sorts of ideas, views, opinions and ideologies both wise and foolish. He is film-fed, television-minded, and radio-trained. Today what is presented by the newspapers, radio, television, some novels and pictures, by certain literature on sex psychology, and by sex-ridden films tends to confuse man, and turn him from the path of rectitude and understanding.

 

Wrangling, animosity, petty quarrels and even wars are the out­come of wrong ways of thinking and false views propagated by craving and hate. Today more than at any other time right understanding is needed to guide mankind through the turmoil of life, to `straighten the restless mind as a fletcher straightens his shaft', ⁶ and to conform to justice and rectitude.

 

From the early Buddhist writings it becomes quite clear that the Buddha was not a teacher who leaned to the right or left, for his path was straight. He avoided all extremes, whether of Self Indul­gence and Self Mortification; of Eternity or Annihilation; of Complete Indeterminism (adhiccasamuppanna) or Accidentalism and Strict Determinism (Niyati-vada) or Fatalism; or of any other 'ism' that tends towards extremes. His Way of Life, as he explained in his first sermon, is the Middle Path. It is a teaching that has direct bearing on the lives of mankind, a practical application, without bias, prejudice or emotion--the active and practical aspect of the entire teaching of the Master. It is not mere speculation, philoso­phizing and rationalizing, for it entails engaging oneself in the real task of applying each and every factor of the path ⁷ to life; in coming to grips with the true meaning of life, for the sole purpose of freedom from the taints that haunt the human heart.

 

The first factor of the path is known as right understanding which means to understand things as they really are and not as they appear to be. It is important to realize that right understanding in Buddhism has a special meaning which differs from that popularly attributed to it. In Buddhism right understanding is the application of Insight to the five aggregates of clinging, and understanding their true nature, that is understanding oneself. It is self-examination and self-observation.       This point we shall discuss presently.

 

Right understanding is of the highest importance, for the remaining seven factors of the path are guided by it. ⁸ It ensures that right thoughts are held and it co-ordinates ideas; when as a result thoughts and ideas become clear and wholesome, man's speech and action are also brought into proper relation. Again it is through right understanding that one gives up harmful or profitless effort and cultivates right effort which aids the development of right mindfulness. Right effort and right mindfulness guided by right understanding bring about right concentration. Thus right understanding, which is the main spring in Buddhism, causes the other limbs of the co-ordinate system to move in proper relation. ⁹

 

Now there are two conditions that are conducive to right under­standing: Hearing from others, that is hearing the Saddhamma, the Good Law, from others (paratoghosa), ¹⁰ and systematic (wise) attention (yoniso-manasikara). ¹¹ The first condition is external, that is, what we get from outside, while the second is internal, what we cultivate (manasikara literally means doing-in-the-mind).

 

What we hear ¹² gives us food for thought and guides us in forming our own views. It is, therefore, necessary to listen, but only to that which is conducive to right understanding and to avoid all the harmful and unwholesome utterances of others which prevent straight thinking.

 

The second condition, systematic attention, is more difficult to cultivate, because it entails constant awareness of the things that one meets with in everyday life. The word yoniso-manasikara which is often used in the discourses is most important, for it enables one to sec things deeply (yontso, lit. by-way-of womb) instead of only on the surface. Metaphorically, therefore, it is `radical' or `reasoned attention'. Ayoniso-manasikara, unwise or unsystematic attention, is always deplored by the Buddha for it never helps one to consider conditionality, or to analyse the aggregates. Hence the importance of developing systematic and avoiding unsystematic attention. These two conditions, learning and systematic attention, together help to develop right understanding.

 

One who seeks truth is not satisfied with surface knowledge, with the mere external appearance of things, but wants to delve deep and see what is beyond the reach of the naked eye. That is the sort of search encouraged in Buddhism, for it leads to right understanding.      The man of analysis states a thing after resolving it into its various qualities, which he puts in proper order, making everything plain. He does not state things unitarily, looking at them as a whole, but divides them up according to their outstanding features so that the conventional and the highest truth can be understood unmixed.

 

The Buddha was discriminative and analytical to the highest degree (vibhajjavadi). As a scientist resolves a limb into tissues and the tissues into cells, he analysed all component and conditioned things into their fundamental elements, right down to their ulti­mates, and condemned shallow thinking, unsystematic attention, which tends to make man muddle-headed and hinders the investiga­tion of the true nature of things. It is through right understanding that one sees cause and effect, the arising and ceasing of all con­ditioned things. The truth of the Dhamma can be only grasped in that way, and not through blind belief, wrong view, speculation or even by abstract philosophy.

 

The Buddha says: `This Dhamma is for the wise and not for the unwise,' ¹³ and explains the ways and means of attaining wisdom by stages, and avoiding false views. Right understanding permeates the entire teaching, pervades every part and aspect of the Dhamma and functions as the key-note of Buddhism.

 

What then is right understanding? It is the understanding of dukkha or the unsatisfactory nature of all phenomenal existence, its arising, its cessation and the path leading to its cessation. ¹⁴

 

Thus ignorance of the real nature of life is primarily ignorance of the Four Noble Truths. ¹⁵ It is because of their ignorance of these truths that beings are tethered to becoming and are born again and again. Hear these words of the Buddha:

 

`Monks, it is through not understanding, not penetrating the Four Noble Truths that we have run so long, wandered so long in samsara, in this cycle of continuity, both you and I… But when these Four Noble Truths are understood and penetrated, rooted out is the craving for existence, destroyed is that which leads to renewed becoming, and there is no more coming to be.' ¹⁶

 

In his first, proclamation of the Dhamma, addressing the five ascetics, the Buddha says:

 

'So long as my knowledge and vision of reality regarding these Four Noble Truths, in three phases and twelve aspects was not fully clear to me, I did not claim to have attained incomparable supreme enlightenment in the world. But when my knowledge and vision of reality regarding these Four Noble Truths was clear to me, then I claimed to have won incomparable supreme enlighten­ment in this world.’ ¹⁷

 

These words clearly indicate that right understanding in the highest sense is comprehension of the Four Noble Truths. To grasp these truths is to understand the intricacies of nature. 'A person who fully understands these truths is truly called "Intuitively Wise".' ¹⁸

 

Now right understanding is of two kinds, mundane and supra­mundane. An ordinary worldling's¹⁹ knowledge of the efficacy of moral causation or of actions and their results (kamma, and kamma­vipaka) and the knowledge that accords with the Four Noble Truths (saccanulomikanana) is called mundane (lokiya) right understanding. It is mundane because the understanding is not yet free from taints. This may be called `knowing accordingly' (anubodha). But right understanding experienced at the moment of attaining one or the other of the four stages of realization <sup>20</sup>  is called Supramundane (lokuttara) right understanding. This is what is known as `penetration' (pativedha).

 

Thus there is right understanding cultivated by the worldling (puthujjana) and by the Noble Ones (Ariyas). It is at the higher level that right understanding, in conjunction with the remaining seven factors, reaches consummation.

 

Due to lack of right understanding, the ordinary man is blind to the true nature of life and fails to see the universal fact of life, dukkha, unsatisfactoriness. He does not even try to grasp these facts but hastily considers the doctrine as pessimism. It is natural perhaps, for beings engrossed in mundane pleasures, beings who crave more and more for gratification of the senses and loathe pain, to resent the very idea of suffering and turn their backs on it.    They do not, however, realize that even as they condemn the idea of dukkha and adhere to their own convenient and optimistic view of things, they are still being oppressed by the ever recurring unsatis­factory nature of life.

 

It is a psychological fact that people often do not want to reveal their true natures, to unfold what is in the deepest recesses of their minds, while they apparently wish others to believe that they are hale and hearty and free from worries and tribulations. It is for this same psychological reason that many people, wittingly or not, do not want to speak or hear of the universal malady of dukkha, unsatis­factoriness. They love pleasure, imagine that they are in a state of security and live in a mind-made paradise.

 

Although people see and accept change as the salient feature of existence they cannot rid themselves of the fascination and thrill which change has for men in general. They cherish the belief that it is possible to discover a way of happiness in this very change, to find a centre of security in this circle of impermanence. They imagine that although the world is uncertain they can make it certain and give it a solid basis, and so the unrelenting struggle for worldly improvement goes on with persevering effort and futile enthusiasm.

 

This effort to improve themselves and the world in every possible way, to secure better conditions in every sphere of human living and ensure against risks, reveals, without a shadow of a doubt, that there is no real happiness, no real rest in the world. This unsatisfactory nature of the world, this picture of pain, is clear to all who have eyes to see and minds to understand. It is right under­standing that brings this clear picture of what we call life before our mind's eye, and this is the realistic view (yathabhutadassana) in which there is no question of optimism and pessimism, of looking at things from the most favourable or unfavourable point of view.

 

When we turn to Sammaditthi-sutta, the ninth discourse of the Majjhima Nikaya, one of the five original collections, we find that the method of gaining right understanding is explained in sixteen different ways, which can be reduced to the following four: (a) Explanation by way of Moral Causation, (b) by way of the Four Truths, (c) by way of Nourishment, and (d) by way of Dependent Arising. The second and the fourth ways of explanation are almost identical; for both explain the same characteristic feature, namely, the process of arising and that of ceasing (samudaya, nirodha), in other words, becoming (bhava) and the cessation of becoming (bhava-nirodha).

 

Nourishment (ahara) is of four kinds: (a) ordinary material food (kabalinkarahara), (b) contact (of sense organs with sense objects, phassahara), (c) consciousness (vinnanahara), and (d) mental volition (manosancetanahara). ²¹ It is not necessary here to explain all the methods mentioned in the discourse. ²²

 

In its lower stage right understanding urges a man to under­stand moral causation (kammassakata nana), which implies the understanding of the ten 'karmically wholesome actions' (kusala­kamma) and the ten `karmically unwholesome actions' (akusala­ kamma). <sup>23</sup> Wholesome actions bring good results, they  are meritorious and lead to happiness here and hereafter. The ten wholesome actions, therefore, are called `Good Courses of Action' (kusala-kammapatha). Unwholesome actions give rise to evil consequences, they are demeritorious and lead to suffering, to painful happenings here and hereafter. The ten unwholesome actions, therefore, are called `Evil Courses of Action' (akusala-kammapatha).

 

The Buddha, in more than one place, has emphatically stressed the psychological importance of action (kamma) ; 'O monks, it is volition that I call kamma.     Having willed one acts through body,  speech and mind.' ²⁴ It is the understanding of moral causation that  urges a thinking man to refrain from evil and to do good.   He who acknowledges moral causation well knows that it is his own actions that make his life miserable or otherwise.    He knows that the direct cause of the differences and inequalities of birth in this life, are the good and evil actions of each individual in past lives and in this life. His character is predetermined by his own choice. The thought, the act which he chooses, that by habit he becomes.     Thus he under­stands his position in this mysterious universe and behaves in such a way as to promote moral and spiritual progress. This type of right understanding on the mundane level paves the way towards the realization of conditionality and the Four Truths.

 

Now let us discuss the method of gaining right understanding by way of the Four Truths. We have seen earlier ²⁵ that the Four Truths are not separated from the five aggregates, outside of which the; are not to be sought. The understanding of the true nature of the aggregates implies the realization of the Four Truths. It is, therefore, very necessary to have a clear idea of the five aggregates which have been explained in detail in chapter 3.

 

The Buddha's analysis of the so-called being into five ever chang­ing aggregates, makes it clear that there is nothing abiding, nothing eternally conserved, in this conflux of aggregates (khandha-santati).

 

Change or impermanence is the essential characteristic of pheno­menal existence. We cannot say of anything, animate or inanimate, 'this is lasting'; for even while we say it, is undergoing change. The aggregates are compounded and conditioned and therefore ever subject to cause and effect. Unceasingly does consciousness or mind and its factors change, and just as unceasingly, though at a slower rate, the physical body also alters from moment to moment. He who sees clearly that the impermanent aggregates are imperma­nent, has right understanding. ²⁶

 

The Buddha gives five very striking similes to illustrate the changing nature of the five aggregates. He compares material form or body to a lump of foam, feeling to a bubble, perception to a mirage, mental formations to a plantain-trunk and consciousness to an illusion, and asks: 'What essence, monks, could there be in a lump of foam, in a bubble in a mirage, in a plantain-trunk, in an illusion?' Continuing, the Buddha says:

 

'Whatever material form there be whether past, future or present; internal or external; gross or subtle; low or lofty; far or near; that material form the monk sees, meditates upon, examines with systematic attention, he thus seeing, meditating upon, and examin­ing with systematic attention, would find it empty, he would find it unsubstantial and without essence. What essence, monks, could there be in material form?' The Buddha speaks in the same manner of the remaining aggregates and asks: 'What essence, monks, could there be in feeling, in perception, in mental formation and in consciousness?' ²⁷

Thus we see that a more advanced range of thought comes with the analysis of the five aggregates. It is at this stage that right under­standing known as Insight (vipassana) begins to work. It is through this Insight that the true nature of the aggregates is grasped and seen in the light of the three signs or characteristics (ti-lakkhana), namely: Impermanence, Unsatisfactoriness and No-Self.

 

The Master explains it thus:

 

'The five aggregates, monks, are impermanent; whatever is im­permanent, that is dukkha, unsatisfactory; whatever is dukkha, that is without Self.       What is without Self, that is not mine, that I am not, that is not my Self. Thus should it be seen by perfect wisdom (sammappannaya) as it really is. Who sees by perfect wisdom as it really is, his mind not grasping is detached from taints, he is liberated. ²⁸ Nagarjuna only echoes these words when he says "When the notion of an Atman, Self or Soul ceases, the notion of `mine' also ceases and one becomes free from the idea of I and mine."’ ²⁹

 

It is not only the five aggregates that are impermanent, un­satisfactory and without a Self, but the causes and conditions that produce the aggregates are also impermanent, unsatisfactory and without a Self.       This point the Buddha makes very clear:

 

'Material form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness, monks, are impermanent; whatever causes and con­ditions there are for the arising of these aggregates, they too are impermanent. How, monks, could aggregates arising from what is impermanent, be permanent?

 

`Material form... and consciousness, monks, are unsatisfactory; whatever causes and conditions there are for the arising of these aggregates, they too are unsatisfactory. How, monks, could aggregates arising from what is unsatisfactory be pleasant and pleasurable?

 

`Material form... and consciousness, monks, are without a Self (anatta) ; whatever causes and conditions there are for the arising of these aggregates, they too are without a Self. How, monks, could aggregates arising from what is without a Self be Self (atta)?

 

`The instructed noble disciple (sutava ariyasavako), monks, seeing thus becomes dispassionate towards material form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness. Through dispassion he is detached, through detachment he is liberated; in liberation the knowledge comes to be that he is liberated, and he understands: "Destroyed is birth, lived is the life of purity (lit. noble life), done is what was to be done, there is no more of this to come (meaning that there is no more continuity of the aggregates, that is no more becoming or rebirth)." ' ³⁰

 

By the ceasing of ignorance, by the arising of knowledge, by the cessation of craving, there is thus no more becoming, no more rebirth. ³¹

 

It is always when we fail to see the true nature of things that our views become clouded; because of our preconceived notions, our greed and aversion, our likes and dislikes, we fail to see the sense organs and sense objects in their respective and objective natures, and go after mirages and deceptions. The sense organs delude and mislead us and then we fail to see things in their true light, so that our way of seeing things becomes perverted (viparita dassana).

 

The Buddha speaks of three kinds of illusion (vipallasa, Skt. viparyasa) that grip man's mind, namely: the illusions of perception,  thought and view. ³² Now when a man is caught up in these illusions, he perceives, thinks and views incorrectly:

 

(a) He perceives permanence in the impermanent; (b) satisfactori­ness in the unsatisfactory (ease and happiness in suffering); (c) Self in what is not Self (a Soul in the Soulless); (d) beauty in the repulsive.

 

He thinks and views in the same erroneous manner.       Thus each illusion works in four ways, ³³ and leads man astray, clouds his vision, and confuses him. This is due to unwise reflections, to

unsystematic attention (ayoniso-manasikara). Right understanding alone removes these illusions and helps man to cognize the real nature that underlies all appearance. It is only when man comes out of this cloud of illusions and perversions that he shines with true wisdom like the full moon that emerges brilliant from behind a black cloud.

 

The Buddha gave full freedom to sceptics and inquirers to doubt and question what is doubtful and questionable; for there was no secrecy in his teaching. `Monks, the doctrine and discipline set forth and laid down by the Tathagata, shines when brought to light, and not when hidden. ³⁴ As a result the disciples were not reluctant to question the Buddha on doctrinal points--to question him point blank.

 

The Venerable Kaccayana, for instance, approached the Buddha and asked him:

 

`Venerable sir, "right understanding", "right understanding", it is said. How far is there "right understanding"?'

 

'This world (i.e. being) for the most part, Kaccayana, is con­cerned with these two (views): existence and non-existence (eter­nalism and annihilationism). Now he who with perfect wisdom sees the arising of the world (of aggregates) as it really is, does not hold with the view of existence.

 

`This world for the most part, Kaccayana, hankers after thoughts of grasping and habitually clings to objects of sense desire. The ariya, the noble one, does not harbour thoughts of grasping, and does not cling habitually to objects of sense desire, thinking: "this is my Self (Soul)".

 

`That which arises is just suffering (dukkha, that is the five aggregates of clinging); ³⁵ that which ceases is suffering (the five aggregates of clinging). The noble disciple who thus thinks, doubts not, he is not perplexed. He realizes it on his own, unaided by others. Thus far, Kaccayana, is right understanding.

 

`Everything exists, this is one extreme. Nothing exists, this is the other extreme. Avoiding these two extremes, Kaccayana, the Tathagata teaches the Dhamma by the median path: dependent on ignorance arise volitional formations, dependent on volitional formations arises consciousness ... (and so on) ...... Thus does this whole mass of suffering arise. ³⁶  Through the complete cessation of ignorance cease volitional formations ... (and so on) ......Thus does this whole mass of suffering cease. ³⁷

 

It should now be clear that this being whom for all practical purposes we call a man, woman or individual, is not something static, but kinetic, being in a state of constant and continuous change. Now when a person sees life and all that pertains to life in this light, and understands analytically his so-called being as a mere succession of mental and bodily aggregates, he sees things as they really are. He does not hold the wrong view of `Personality Belief', belief in a Soul or Self (sakkaya-ditthi), because he knows through right understanding that all phenomenal existence is causally dependent (paticca-samuppanna), that each is conditioned by some­thing else, and that its existence is relative to that condition. He knows that as a result there is no 'I', no persisting psychic entity, no ego principle; no Self or anything pertaining to a Self in this life process. He is therefore free from the notion of a microcosmic soul (Jivatma), or a Macrocosmic Soul (Paramatma).

 

Thus the realization of the Four Noble Truths dawns through a complete comprehension, a full penetration, of the five aggregates, that is through seeing the aggregates as impermanent, unsatisfactory and without a Self. Hence the Buddha's repeated request to his disciples to understand analytically the so-called being built up by the aggregates. Many examples of how the disciples gained deliverance of mind by seeing the true nature of the aggregates are recorded in the Psalms of the Early Buddhists.    Mitta Kali, for instance, tersely states her experience in this verse:

 

'Contemplating as they really are

The rise and fall of aggregates

I rose up with mind free (of taints).

Completed is the Buddha-word.' ³⁸

      

These aggregates of mind and body being ever subject to cause and effect, as we saw above, pass through the inconceivably rapid moments of arising, existing and ceasing (uppada, thiti, bhanga) just as the unending waves of the sea or as a river in flood sweeps to a climax and subsides. Indeed human life is compared to a moun­tain stream that flows and rushes on, changing incessantly. ³⁹ 

 

Thus the sum total of the doctrine of change taught in Buddhism is that all component things that have conditioned existence are a process and not a group of abiding entities, but the changes occur in such rapid succession that people regard mind and body as static entities.  They do not see their arising and their breaking up, but regard them unitarily, see them as a lump (ghana sanna) or whole.

 

`Those ascetics and brahmins, O monks, who conceive a Self in diverse ways conceive it as either the five aggregates of clinging, or as any one of them. What five?

 

`Herein the untaught worldling ... considers body as the Self, Self as possessed of body as included in the Self, Self as included in the body ... similarly as to feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness ... ⁴⁰ Thus this is the wrong view. The "I am" notion is not abandoned. . . ⁴¹

 

It is very hard indeed for people who are accustomed continually to think of their own mind and body and the external world with mental projections as wholes, as inseparable units, to get rid of the false appearance of `wholeness'. So long as man fails to see things as processes, as movements, he will never understand the Anatta (no-Soul) doctrine of the Buddha. That is why people imperti­nently and impatiently put the question: If there is no persisting entity, no unchanging principle, like Self or Soul (Atman), what is it that experiences the results of deeds here and hereafter?

 

Two different discourses ⁴² deal with this burning question.    The Buddha was explaining in detail to his disciples the evanescent nature of the five aggregates, how they are devoid of Self, and how the latent conceit 'I am' and `mine' ceases to exist, and then there arose a thought in the mind of a certain monk thus: `Material body is not self, feeling is not self, perception is not self, mental formations are not self, consciousness is not self. Then what self do selfless deeds affect?'

 

The Buddha, reading the thoughts of that monk's mind, said: the question was beside the point and made the monks understand, the impermanent, unsatisfactory and not-self nature of the five aggregates.

 

`It is wrong to say that the doer of the deed is the same as the one who experiences its results. It is equally wrong to say that the doer of the deed and the one who experiences its results are two

different persons'; ⁴³ for the simple reason that what we call life, as we saw earlier, is a flow of physical and psychic processes or energies arising and ceasing constantly, and it is not possible to say that the doer himself experiences the results because he is changing now, every moment of his life; but at the same time we must not forget the fact that the continuity of life, that is the continuance of ex­perience, the procession of events, is not lost; it continues without a gap. The child is not the same as the adolescent, the adolescent is not the same as the adult, they are neither the same nor totally different persons (na ca so, na ca anno). ⁴⁴   There is only a flow of bodily and mental processes.     Therefore said the ancients:

 

`No doer of the deed is there,

No one who experiences its result;

Bare phenomena flow on.

This alone is the right view.’ ⁴⁵

 

What does this mean? The answer is that there is no permanent `I' or `mine' in the form of a Self or Soul in this psycho-physical pro­cess. There is a seeing, a feeling, an experiencing, etc., but not an unchanging never-ending Self or Soul behind the scene.  That is all. ⁴⁶

 

Before concluding this chapter a challenging question raised by some against the doctrine of anatta should be answered. Those who consider the word anatta in Buddhism as something diametrically opposed to the so-called atta, ask: `How can one speak of anatta, (no Self), if there is no atta, (Self?). They treat them as relative terms.     But we must understand what the Buddha meant by anatta. He never meant anything in contradistinction to atta. He did not place the two terms in juxtaposition and say: `this is my anatta in opposition to atta.'  The term anatta, since the prefix `an' indicates non-existence, abhava, and not opposition, viruddha, means literally no atta, that is the mere denial of an atta, the non-existence of atta.

 

The believers in an atta tried to keep their atta. The Buddha simply denied it, by adding the prefix 'an'. As this concept of an atta, Self or Soul, was deep rooted in many whom the Buddha met, he had to discourse at length on, this pivotal question of Self to learned men, dialecticians and hair-splitting disputants.      The Sutta Pitaka, wherein are recorded thousands of discourses of the Buddha, became so voluminous mainly because of this question of Self. The careful reader of the discourses will note how the Buddha's answers and elucidations concerning this vexed question of Self developed into lengthy sermons.

 

From the foregoing exposition of the Buddha it will now be clear that right understanding, at the highest levcl, is merely the avoidance of all wrong views, illusions and perversions which according to Buddhism are mainly due to the notion of a Self or to belief in an individuality (sakkdya ditthi) : it is the understanding of the arising and ceasing of the aggregates. Through understanding of the aggregates, that is through an intellectual grasp of the nature of the so-called being, dawns the knowledge of the Four Noble Truths.

 

The Buddha's doctrine of anicca and dukkha (impermanence and suffering) was not new to the people of India. In the early Upani­shads like Chandogya we come across such expressions as 'tarati sokam atmavid', `knowledge of the Self ferries a person across (the world of) sorrow'. But what baffled Indian thinkers was the Buddhist doctrine of anatta (No Self).       They were so steeped in the belief of a Self that when the Buddha denied a Self and discoursed against it, it was a real shock to them, and they were up in arms to safeguard the long-standing and central conception of their religion and philosophy-Self, Atman.

 

As they failed to understand the meaning of anatta they did not hesitate to label the Buddha a nihilist (venayika). ⁴⁷ It was the recog­nition that this Self or Soul is an illusion that made the Buddha's doctrine so revolutionary. The doctrine of anatta is unique in the world history of religion and philosophy.

 

`The distinguishing characteristic of Buddhism was that it started in a new line, that it looked at the deepest questions men have to solve from an entirely different standpoint. It swept away from the field of its vision the whole of the great soul-theory which had hitherto so completely filled and dominated the minds of the super­stitious and of the thoughtful alike. For the first time in the history of the world, it proclaimed a salvation which each man could gain for himself, and by himself, in this world during this life, without the least reference to God, or to gods, either great or small.

 

'Like the Upanishads, it placed the first importance on knowledge, but it was no longer a knowledge of God, it was a clear perception of the real nature, as they supposed it to be, of men and things. And it added to the necessity of knowledge, the necessity of purity, of courtesy, of uprightness, of peace, and of a universal love, "far-­reaching, grown great, and beyond measure".'⁴⁸

 

 

1. Udana, p. 56.

 

2. M. 26.   

 

3. S. ii. Discourse 61.

 

4. S. ii. 106, puranamaggam, puranamjasam, pubbakehi samma-sambuddhehi anuyatam.

 

5. A. iv. 200; Udana, p. 54. 

 

6. Dhp. 33.

 

7. For the factors, see chapter 6.        

 

8. See M. 117.   

 

9. See M. 117.

 

10. As in the case of Upatissa hearing from Arahat Assaji, see chapter 2.   

 

11. M. 43.

 

12. In the past people learnt by hearing and became `learned', bahussuta; nowadays people learn mainly by reading and become known as well read.

 

13. A. iv. 232.   

 

14. D. 22; M. 141.

 

15. Discussed in chapters 3 and 4.

 

16. S. v. 431; D. 16; Vin. i. 231. Also see chapter 6.

 

17. Mhvg. v. 423.

 

18. M. 43.

 

19. A worldling (puthujjana) is one who has not yet attained to any of the four stages of realization. See  n. 20         below in the same chapter.

 

20. The first stage of realization is technically known as sotapatti 'Stream  Entry'; the second stage is sakadagami 'Once-Return'; the third is anagami 'Non-Return'; the fourth and the last stage is Arahatta, Arahatship, the stage at which all fetters are severed and taints rooted out.

 

21. M. i . 48.

 

22. For a detailed explanation read Right Understanding by Soma Thera (Buddhist Literature Society, Colombo, 1946).

 

23. For details see chapters on Right Speech and Right Action.

 

24. A. iii. 415. See also chapter 4. 

 

25. See chapter 3.

 

26. S. iii. 51.

 

27. S. iii. 140.     

 

28.S.iii.44.

 

29. 'atmanyasati catmiyam kuta eva bhavisyati nirmamo nirahamkarah samadatmatmamnayoh' (Madhyamika-karika, xviii. 2).

 

30. S. iii. 23. Discourses 7, 8, 9 abridged.

 

31. M. 43.

 

32. Sanna vipallasa citta-v, ditthi-v.

 

33. A. ii. 52.

 

34. A. i. 283.

 

35. 'Monks, what is suffering? It should be said that it is the five aggregates of clinging.' S. ii. 158. See chapter 3.

 

36. For the whole formula of twelve factors see chapter 4.         

 

37. S. ii. 17.

 

38. Theri-gatha. Verse 96.

 

39. A. iv. 137. Compare 'nadi soto viya', like a flowing stream.

     A few years after the passing away of the Buddha, Heraclitus taught the 'Panta Rhei' doctrine, the flux theory, at Athens, and one wonders if that teaching was transmitted to him from India. `There is no static being,' says Heraclitus, 'no unchanging substratum.' 'Change, movement, is Lord of the Universe. Every­thing is in a state of becoming, of continual flux (Panta Rhei).' He continues: 'You cannot step twice into the same river; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you.' (A. K. Rogers, A Student's History of Philosophy, London, 1920, p. 15). But one who understands the root of the Dhamma would go a step further and say: 'The same man cannot step twice into the same river; for the so-called man who is only a conflux of mind and body, never remains the same for two consecutive moments.' (Philosophy of Change, Piyadassi Thera, Dharmodaya Sabha, Kathmandu, Nepal, 1956, p. 7).

 

40. The idea of a Self is applied to each aggregate in four ways. Thus when applied to all the five aggregates it become twentyfold. This is what is known as vimsatiakara sakkayaditthi, or the twenty kinds of self-illusion. (See M. i. 8; iii. 17; Vbh. 364.) When this self-illusion is removed, the sixty-two wrong views also are removed.  For the sixty-two views see D. i. Brahmajala sutta.

 

41. S. iii. 46 sutta 47.

 

42. M. iii. 19, Discourse, No. 109; S. iii. 103, Discourse No. 82.    

 

43. A. ii. 70.       

 

44. Milinda Panha.    

 

45. Vism. xix.

 

46. For a very comprehensive and brilliant exposition of 'The Doctrine of No-­Soul: Anatta', see What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula (Gordon Fraser, London, 1959), chapter VI.

 

47. M. Discourse 22. See chapter 3.

 

48. The Hibbert Lectures, 1881, Professor T. W. Rhys Davids, p. 28.