Ch. 4 - On Rupa (Materiality)
Reviewing the Materiality Aggregate, Rupa Kammatthana
The Four Elements
Rupa Kalapa and the Four Causes of Material States
[This discourse was given on a six week Vipassanā retreat and is an investigation of the materiality aggregate for the purposes of breaking down the compactness of our experience of material states.]
Reviewing the Materiality Aggregate, Rupa Kammatthana
Let us continue our discourses on the practical application of Dhamma with regards to our practice of meditation. I want to talk about vipassanā and make some reflections upon the actual practice of vipassanā, or insight meditation.
The Buddha practised the investigation of material and mental states for the purposes of breaking down perception of compactness and penetrating deeply into the true nature of things. His reason for doing so was quite clear – to realise the causal cessation of suffering. His practices of samādhi, these deep states of concentration, these absorptions of jhāna that he had realised on the kasiṇa meditations, had brought him what is known as the momentary cessation of suffering. The experience of jhāna, even the first jhāna, with its five mental states of initial and sustained application, bliss, happiness and one-pointedness, contains a powerful state of sukha (happiness or joy) that marks the momentary cessation of the experience of dukkha (suffering).
But the Buddha realised upon emerging from his samādhi that this was only a momentary release. His body was still subject to the inevitable truth of old age, sickness and death. His samādhi was no refuge from the suffering that this caused. So having trained his mind in these deep, powerful, penetrating and serene states of samādhi, he began the investigation of body and mind to look for the cause of suffering and the cessation of it.
It was through this investigation that he came to the realisation of the First Noble Truth of suffering. And the Second Noble Truth of the cause of suffering. This second Noble Truth, the cause of suffering, is the truth of Dependent Origination. And it was Dependent Origination that revealed itself to the Buddha through his practice of investigation of mental and material states and their interdependence. It is important to know that this word vipassanā is not a word used by the Buddha to designate his meditation upon material and mental states and Dependent Origination. The investigation of body and the investigation of mind itself does not constitute vipassanā. This investigation was for the purposes of coming to the first stage of insight that is necessary as a foundation for vipassanā practice or insight, and this is the knowledge of what is mind and what is matter. This is the preparatory work to be done before practising vipassanā.
Our first task in the practice of insight meditation is to separate the knowledge of what are material states from the knowledge of what are mental states i.e. to clearly know, see and experience matter as one aspect of reality and mind as another, seeing these things as separate from each other, though conditioned by each other. For these purposes we always begin with investigating materiality. For as the Buddha said, until one has come to know and clearly understand the nature of material states, if one tries to understand the nature of mental states one will fall from the path as a mountain cow that takes an unfamiliar route. The mind is subtle and hard to grasp, not easily penetrated or fathomed.
So we begin our investigation upon the body. The material states that constitute it. And in coming to realise its causes, its functions and its way of arising, the nature of the mind begins to reveal itself in stages. For this purpose the Buddha taught mindfulness of the body, which we have covered as a separate meditation subject, and the investigation of four elements, which we have likewise reviewed.
This practice of the reviewing of four elements of materiality is for the purposes of breaking down compactness to see ultimate materiality. What is this body truly made of? Whilst we review the body in terms of, “I’m feeling my finger, the flesh of my finger, the bone of my finger. I am feeling my hand, the flesh of my hand, the blood in my hand”, we are still bound up in conceptual view. The perception of compactness blinds us to the nature of ultimate materiality that constitutes this body.
Only when we review the four elements of material states can we break this compactness down. In truth of all the meditation subjects that the Buddha taught, the only one which is absolutely fundamental as preparation for vipassanā is the practice of four elements.
It doesn’t matter what other meditation object we take as our kammaṭṭhān, whether it is ānāpāna or kasiṇa meditation, we will in time turn away from these practices and leave them behind. They are our means to concentration only, when we begin the investigation of states.
But the practice of four elements stands at the bridge between samatha and vipassanā. We can develop it as a serenity practice in its own right, but it is also the beginning of our insight practice. So we break down the perception of compactness, reviewing material states, seeing the quality of the earth element – hardness, softness, roughness, smoothness, heaviness, lightness – within the material body as it arises. We review the quality of the water element – cohesion and flowing, the quality of the fire element of temperature – warmth, hot and cold – and we perceive directly the quality of the air element – the process of expansion and contraction, the dynamic nature of the body, of material states.
The Four Elements
Through reviewing this we come to see that this body is nothing more than the arising and passing of the four elements. Only when the four elements come into being does materiality arise, all four of them appearing simultaneously, mutually interdependent, arising and passing away together.
The Buddha reviewed the body in this way, going beyond even the investigation of the body with regards to its constituent parts, no longer interested in the idea that, “this is the liver, this is the spleen, this is the stomach, this is the bone” etc. now perceiving the body as nothing more than a mass of four elements arising and passing away.
This development of the awareness of four elements is a practice in its own right, opening the door to the practice of vipassanā. Only when we can see materiality in this way can we say that this is the arising of material states and this is its passing away, the momentary arising of the elements of earth, water, fire and air.
When we have become skilful in this investigation of four elements, we keep reviewing the four elements within the body, diligently, tirelessly, always reviewing their impermanence, their momentary passing away. It is key to understand in the practice of vipassanā, that mere reflection upon impermanence itself does not serve to cut off attachment at the root. Whilst it might begin to dissolve the grip of clinging, it is only when we directly perceive the momentary arising and passing away of material states and mental states, that attachment is cut off at the root. When it is truly perceived that this materiality is utterly transient, totally unreliable, ultimately insubstantial then we can no longer find justifiable grounds for clinging.
As we review the four elements in the body, as with any meditation practice, a nimitta or sign appears. First the light appears in the body where we perceive the four elements. We meditate through this light, ignoring this light, keeping on paying attention to the four elements in the body. The four elements become subtler and subtler. This light becomes clear like glass. This clear light perceived within the body wherever we perceive the four elements, constitutes the paṭibhāga-nimitta – the counterpart sign of our four elements practice.
Rupa Kalapa and the Four Causes of Material States
We continue to review the four elements, no longer now reflecting this is earth, this is water, this is fire, this is air, but directly perceiving the momentary arising of this mass of materiality as only four elements. Eventually, if our concentration is powerful and penetrating enough, this clear light, this glass-like sign of the body, breaks down into nothing but the arising and passing of tiny particles of matter - rūpa-kalāpa – sub-atomic particles of ultimate materiality. It is this that the Buddha perceived when he reviewed material states. Coming to know that there is nothing more in this arising and passing away. There is no inherent materiality. It just comes into being, giving the appearance of sustaining itself, when in truth it is arising and passing incessantly.
This is the understanding of the impermanence of material states, that begins to cut off at the root, our clinging to the sense of my body and the pride and conceit regarding it. And this is the understanding of impermanence that gives us the first glimpse into the truth of anatta, or no-self, that this body is not inherently there, it cannot be called me or my body. It is just a momentary coming into being and passing away of transient material states, of four elements.
As we continue to review all these material states and this mass of arising and passing, no longer perceiving anything that one can call my body, my hand, my arm, just a mass of materiality, it becomes apparent what is the cause for the arising of this mass of material states. Through wise attention, through careful practice over time we are able to separate this mass of materiality, this mass of four elements, into four categories regarding what is the cause for their arising.
We perceive that, in this mass of four elements and the rūpa-kalāpa that they produce, there is that materiality that is produced by temperature alone - by the expansion and contraction caused by the fire element and the subtle changes of temperature. This materiality is coming into being, becoming dense and solid. It manifests momentarily before expanding and beginning the process of fading away. It is constantly coming into being and fading away. This is temperature produced materiality, perceived directly in the body and everywhere in all material states.
The second cause for the arising of material states that is perceived is nutriment. The nutriment or nutritive essence inherent within the materiality as it arises contains the potential, upon decay, to become the cause for the arising of subsequent materiality. And we perceive directly with the mind how rūpa-kalāpa containing nutriment within, when it arises in the presence of the life faculty, upon its breakdown sets off a causal chain of subsequent materiality, with that nutriment contained as the fundamental cause, and the life faculty as a secondary cause. We review materiality through the body and separate out that which is produced by nutriment as a second category of material states.
And we continue to review and we notice a third category of material states; namely that which is produced by consciousness. Every moment of consciousness produces materiality. The subtle materiality produced by the arising of consciousness is the coming together of four elements and their passing away. With the eye of wisdom and deep, penetrating samādhi we can perceive that materiality in the body which is produced by consciousness alone is not produced by nutriment and it is not produced by temperature. And through careful investigation we separate out that group of materiality within the body, or elsewhere externally, that is produced by consciousness and consciousness alone.
And we continue our meditation. Reviewing material states, we perceive a fourth category: materiality within the body that is not produced by temperature, that is not produced by nutriment, that is not produced by consciousness alone, but is produced by action energy, by kamma. And this subtle group of rūpa within the body, appearing in some places in one way, appearing in other places in another way, is what we call kamma-produced materiality in the body. The volitional force that prompted action in the past and in the present, is the momentary cause for the momentary arising of the fourth category of material states.
And I have described in detail in previous discourses, when we were looking at the gross and subtle body and how we can use meditation to heal it, which of the elements of the body are produced by temperature and nutriment, consciousness and kamma. And this is not book knowledge. This is not something simply that we read in the Abhidhamma. The Buddha asked us to investigate this and to perceive it directly for ourselves so that we can come to know – this is materiality, this is its arising and passing away, and this is its cause. Thereafter we can perceive what is its function and then we can come to the knowledge that material states have been known directly by us.
You will need to spend time on this practice and seek regular guidance from the teacher as you carefully fill in this understanding. It is very subtle and profound the way that this body actually functions. It takes much dedication to review it all clearly so that it is fully experienced and understood. For me this has been one of the most fascinating and engaging aspects of all the practice I have done and I have spent many years deepening my understanding of this.
This is not knowledge you can get from a book. Even if you study according to the Abhidhamma or the Visuddhimagga, you will still only get a brief idea of what is actually going on within you every second of every day. If you want to truly understand how and why we function the way we do, then you will want to keep returning to this aspect, time and time again as your concentration and insight mature. But that will be dependent upon your wish, and how interested you become in these things.
However this is really only for your own interest. The Buddha did not have the goal of healing the body in mind when he investigated material states. But as a basis for vipassanā we must thoroughly investigate all the material states within the body, and within the world around us. This is what constitutes the first part of our insight knowledge, namely the knowledge of materiality.
