Ch.30 - Sutta, Abhidhamma and Supramundane Paths

The Five Causes of Suffering: Ignorance, Craving, Clinging, Volitional Formations and Kamma

The Fundamental Clung-to State is the idea of Self

The Sutta and The Abhidhamma Path

The Mundane and Supramundane Path

[This discourse, given on a five month insight retreat, looks at when it is appropriate to practice the Sutta and Abhidhamma paths and then looks beyond to the different stages of path knowledge.]

The Five Causes of Suffering: Ignorance, Craving, Clinging, Volitional Formations and Kamma

So continuing this series of contemplations of insight, yesterday we were contemplating suffering, now we’re contemplating no-self. You have to see suffering as innate on account of ignorance, craving, clinging, volitional formations and kamma. These are the five causes of suffering. You have also to see that suffering has the self aspect to it, by which we mean the clinging to the idea of self, as well as the craving, clinging, aspects to it.

So you have to experience no-self, where you’ve seen that there are truly no grounds for clinging to the idea of self, and we practise vipassanā to bring us in stages to this experience of no-self. So when you’ve broken down compactness of material states you see and know that there is no self to be found in form. When you’ve broken down compactness of mental states you see and know that there is no self to be found in mental states.

That is the very basis on which vipassanā is practised. And it has to have been to the point where you are convinced there is no self. So you have to see no-self even if you’re not contemplating no-self when doing vipassanā – for example even when contemplating suffering and impermanence we have also to see no-self. Otherwise you will only relinquish craving and clinging and your endeavour will not go as far as the willingness to relinquish self and clinging to it. And it is the relinquishing of self that is the Path Knowledge. It is the absence of sense of self within our experience that is liberation, because it is that part of you that is relinquished that goes to Nibbāna. In the Sotapan that twenty percent of self that’s relinquished goes to Nibbāna. In the Once Returner that fifty percent of self that’s relinquished goes to Nibbāna. In the Non-Returner, that eighty percent of self that is relinquished goes to Nibbāna and in the Arahant all of self goes to Nibbāna.

The Fundamental Clung-to State is the idea of Self

Yes, you can say that all clinging is ego, that clinging is suffering and that ego is suffering. You can but, when you embark upon the path with imperfections of insight the first insight we come to is that clinging is the cause of suffering. So you start to let go what you’re attached to, but you continue to cling to your idea of yourself as the one who’s letting go. You don’t see that the fundamental clung-to state is this very idea of self.

When you practise enough investigation of states you can’t find self anywhere. And you finally see, “Ah, it is self. It is the clinging to the idea of me that has been the cause of my suffering.” So when you are practising the Second Noble Truth, which is the five causes of suffering, you have to see that there’s the suffering that’s produced by kamma and the suffering that’s produced by defilements – ignorance, craving, clinging and volitional formations. These are the causes of suffering.

Of the suffering that’s produced by ignorance, craving and clinging, ignorance of the truth of no-self is part of the ignorance cause, which, when relinquished, brings the cessation of suffering that’s produced by clinging. The suffering that’s produced by kamma is only cut off when self view is relinquished.

In order to understand this let’s look at the Buddha’s back pain, the affliction of Angulimala being stoned by villagers and Moggallāna being killed by bandits. Even though all these experiences were the fruiting of past unwholesome kamma, because of the absence of sense of self in all of them it merely appears as the arising of the unpleasant without it being the cause of suffering. Perhaps we might call this affliction as separate from suffering itself. In these cases we also have to understand that there is that kamma which is purified completely by awakening and that kamma which still has to be forborne.

You have to start to see Dependent Origination in stages. You can contemplate it – it doesn’t take very long to learn Dependent Origination – but what we’re looking to experience is past causes as producing present effects now and the understanding of presently produced causes which will be the cause for future effects by way of suffering or freedom from it. So there’s a certain amount of forbearance about that which has been borne by way of kamma.

The trade off for one who does not want to relinquish the ego is the forbearance of kamma. One can still purify one’s mind now of clinging but because of pride one will still suffer on account of kamma because there is the remaining volition behind the idea of me.

So, in the first three stages of Nibbāna there is still pride, there is still a sense of me, even though it becomes very subtle and not so easy to trace at this stage. But in the final stage there is no pride, there’s no clinging to self, it’s not me, it’s functional, it’s kamma-freed, it’s total cessation, the remainderless cessation of suffering.

The Sutta and The Abhidhamma Path

Now I want to put some context on the way and the ways of practising. There is the Sutta path and there is the Abhidhamma path. So when you read the Buddha’s Suttas you actually read very simple formulas for a way of practice. And when you read the Abhidhamma you read extremely complicated formulas which turn into an extremely detailed and complex way of practice.

So we have to understand who needs to practise what path. You should not compare one teacher to another until you’ve understood their kamma and the kamma of their students. Most of the Buddha’s disciples practised the Sutta path. Why? Because they were human beings, had been human beings, were practising as human beings and they have this physical body as testimony to their suffering. Kamma, volition, craving, clinging, ignorance all manifest themselves within this body. So all suffering can be found between the top of your head and the soles of your feet.

Therefore you do not need a complicated formula to find suffering and its causes, because it’s right there with you. So those teachers who are born as humans, practise as humans and then teach as humans and whose students are born as humans, have memory as humans, have suffered as humans and practice as humans, can realise Nibbāna with the Sutta path alone.

With respect to the Abhidhamma, the Buddha did not teach the Abhidhamma to a congregation of human disciples. He taught the Abhidhamma to his mother in the Deva realm after she had passed away. Why? Because it was not clear to her what was the cause of her suffering whilst in the Deva realm.

This is because: first, good fortune is fruiting when you live in the Deva realm and you are not obviously afflicted; and secondly, you do not have this physical body that is a testimony to your suffering and its causes. So the suffering that is produced that is experienced by Devas is on account of mental affliction, such suffering as not getting what you want, being separated from what is dear to you and jealousy, on account of what others have had, not being able to delight their fortune.

They may also experience suffering on account of vanity, due to a loss of radiance and beauty with the arising of unwholesome states and the dulling of the purity of their mind. This is the mental suffering that causes a falling from that state of good fortune into a state of less fortune.

So for beings such as this, one has to: first, meditate on the subtle – which is to know kamma- and consciousness-produced materiality, because temperature and nutriment materiality are not there in the Deva realm; and secondly, to fathom deeply the mental process – because it is through the mental process and the mental kamma that most suffering is produced.

In the human realm, when you feel really bitter with somebody for a week, even though the kamma does not fruit mostly until the next life, your body will start to suffer. You can already see this bitterness, this jealousy, this resentment, is misery right here and now, because apart from the fact that your mind is obviously disturbed your body starts to hurt. You do not get this degeneration in the Deva realm that you get in the human realm, you merely lose your lustre and radiance. The Deva simply pass away at the end of their term, or if intercepting kamma fruits, they pass away and re-appear according to that kamma, whereas we, as humans, watch old age, sickness, death, decay and degeneration happen to us. So we can perceive suffering so much more clearly.

So one reason to teach Abhidhamma path to human beings is if those human beings have poor memory as humans, or their fortune is so great that they are not experiencing suffering, the normal type of human suffering. If they are experiencing suffering, then they should practice the Sutta path because suffering and its cause will appear to them quickly and directly. If, on account of complacency it does not, then you have to practise Abhidhamma.

Now, why do I teach you both paths? Because most of you are in the most fortunate bracket of human beings. The abject suffering that is inherent in most human conditions is spared to a lot of you on account of good fortune. Many of you will have appeared as humans from Deva life in a time of good fortune and failed to see that it’s your mental attitude now that will produce future suffering. It is not clear to you the suffering that will come about on account of greed – the expectation to get what you want and the willingness to consume with the expectation that your desires will be gratified are habit patterns brought with us from the Deva life. This is not the typical human condition.

Those human beings who are born as human beings lifetime after lifetime, do not expect their needs to be gratified. They do understand that good fortune is hard won and therefore there is a much greater sense of appreciation. So, the danger that those beings who appear in the human life after Deva life face is that they do not see that they are suffering. But also the danger is that the suffering they produce is so much greater than the suffering of those who are used to being humans, who do not have the sense of expectation that their desires should be gratified. But you are human beings nevertheless and you have this body as testimony to the truth of suffering.

So most of you should also be able to realise Nibbāna practising according to the Sutta teachings. The Abhidhamma teachings are to fill out where there is complacency and where you might hide in your good fortune and think, “Well, maybe it won’t happen to me.” One only needs to exhaustively investigate the Abdhidhamma teachings the way the Buddha taught to the Devas if you really feel that your complacency is not going to be relinquished easily.

So now you have had the entire teaching of the Dhamma, from the basis – that year long practice that you did last year which was looking at the refinement of character, and in starting to look at an understanding of what is virtue. You have practised concentration so that you can see formations and you have the understanding what the Four Noble Truths are and what is the Eightfold Noble Path.

The Mundane and Supramundane Path

You know what is suffering and its causes, and this is basically what you need to know. You are also starting to understand what is the cessation of suffering. At first you start to understand that it is the cessation of craving, clinging, ignorance, etc. Only gradually do you come to understand the cessation of suffering is the realisation of Nibbāna and this is the reason you do not hear me teaching Nibbāna when you first come to learn Dhamma; it would be inappropriate.

You do not understand Nibbāna. You cannot understand it and it sounds like something that is beyond you at that point. But when you first come for instruction you do understand clinging, you do understand craving, you do understand attachment. But as the imperfections in your insight are removed you come to understand Nibbāna, which is why now you are practising to realise Nibbāna. So for the mundane Eightfold Noble Path, the cessation of suffering is the relinquishing in stages of ignorance, craving, clinging, volitional formations and the forbearance of every kind of past kamma. But the supramundane path is the realisation of Nibbāna, the causal cessation of suffering is the realisation of Nibbāna.

With the mundane Eightfold Noble Path ignorance is not knowing the truth of impermanence, suffering, no-self and Dependent Origination or not knowing the Four Noble Truths. But with the supramundane path, ignorance is not knowing Nibbāna. So while you are practising the mundane path you are, in stages, working to surmount your ignorance, cut off your craving and clinging, forbear your kamma and cut off the conditional tendencies to produce volitional formations that produce future suffering. With supramundane Path Knowledge all five causes are cut off in stages as a function of the entering into Nibbāna. It is this seeing of Nibbāna which we call Path Knowledge. With the realisation of Nibbāna you fulfil the supramundane Eightfold Noble Path.

The first time you realise Nibbāna has the function of cutting off a block of craving and clinging, a block of the tendency toward formations, a block of kamma and that is the cessation of that much suffering. It also happens to be the cutting off of the weightiest aspect that produces the weightiest suffering.

So the first realisation of the path is that deliverance from the fear of suffering. You are still subject to suffering though, because there is still enough ego there. How far you go thereafter, is a question of your own desire for peace, or your own willingness to forbear inconvenience for the purposes of gratifying your remaining ego.

Whether that is bearable or not will depend upon your kamma. If you have clean past kamma you may not find it too inconvenient to forbear the rest of your ego and its kamma. You may stop at first stage. It’s quite rare. Normally you will find that actually that is not enough peace. That ego continues to be an inconvenience, to say the least. So you would go the next stage. It’s a bit like when we practise jhāna.

The first jhāna remains close to the gross, despite being a transcendent state that is beyond the sense realm, where you are finally freed from contact with gross material objects and their gross impression and entirely inhabit the subtle material realm for the first time. It isn’t really until you enter into second jhāna and you are one stage removed again from the gross, that you feel properly secluded, momentarily freed from suffering.

That is why jhāna is the momentary cessation of suffering. When you entirely inhabit the subtle, there is no gross object appearing at any of the sense does. That is a function of jhāna – it cuts off all attention at the sense doors. There is no impinging of objects at the five sense doors whilst you are in jhāna and you entirely inhabit the subtle realms. This is the same as the Deva realms. The Deva realms do not have the experience of gross material objects within them. So you are more secluded and the danger is you forget it’s only the momentary cessation of suffering, as the Devas do.

But with Nibbāna, the first stage of Nibbāna takes you to the point where you do not experience the really gross suffering, You do not experience the fear that kamma will bring you to a woeful birth. And you may think, on account of complacency, “Well, that’s great. I’ll have another joyful human birth now please.” But you do not know what misery kamma will produce for you as a human.

Your pride might cling to the idea that it is said the Sotapan has seven more human lives. “That would be nice. I could be the king, I could be the great movie star, I could be an amazing athlete, I could learn to sing songs. I could teach Dhamma, I could try and save the world, all in those seven lives. Wonderful.” But there is still so much pride and how much kamma to purify? You don’t know.

So you might say, “Hmmm, maybe just one life of real peace would be enough.” So you might go to the second stage, where fifty percent of your ego is gone, where there is very little clinging, there is very little by way of greed which would be disappointed if it didn’t achieve its goals. There is much by the way of appreciation and gratitude and the ability to enter into your experience simply. “No need to make a great mark and be that unifying monarch. No need to save the world, just to do my best.”

That is a lot closer to peace, that is far more secluded. So, this is a little bit like second stage jhāna, in a way. You now are really safe, you really feel the peace of being not afflicted. Sotapan does not feel the same safety of not being afflicted, because he still has pride and his pride will still cause reaching out, that may or may not be satisfied. And there will be so many things that he still wants to do that this ordinary moment may not feel complete.

This ordinary moment starts to be complete at the second stage where there is not so much striving, craving and clinging. And there again, you might say, “I have this peace in this human life, I’ve done what needed to be done, I’ve realised everything that could be realised within this realm of human life. There’s no need to do that again.”

And so you might think about the exalted blissful states, those of the pure realms. “Maybe one time, to experience a life in the Pure Abodes as a fully realised being, where I can experience the array of enlightened deeds and expression.” And you go to the third stage, so as a Non-Returner you appear there and enjoy the bliss of the subtle realms before becoming Arahant.

But, you might even make the reflection, “There will always only be this moment at the end of the day and what makes it peaceful is when it’s enough. In fact, it’s already enough, why would I need to go all the way to those Pure Abodes to experience the magnificence of the array of enlightened deeds. This is the array of enlightened deeds, this is the array of the Buddha, here and now.” And therefore you take your leave as an Arahant in this very life here on earth.

All of that can be realised as a human being by practising the Sutta path alone. At what stage and how much you need to practise the Abhidhamma path will depend upon your complacency on account of your good fortune. A beggar off the street can appear before a teacher and, receiving the right instruction, can practise all the way to Arahantship and even maybe find it quite easy. Sometimes those with great fortune find the path extremely hard because they do not understand enough about suffering and they are not willing to relinquish.

So if you have not seen rūpa-kalāpa and you haven’t seen which materiality is produced by consciousness, kamma, temperature or nutriment, or if you cannot see the discrete mental factors in each mental and mind moment that knows those rūpa-kalāpas, it does not matter because you are human beings. You are practising as human beings, with this body that is a testimony to suffering. The only reason the Buddha implored beings to investigate states was so that they could understand suffering and its causes.

How far you need to investigate them depends upon how long it takes you to understand suffering and its causes, these first two of the Four Noble Truths. If you appear in the next life as a Deva and want to continue practising Dhamma you will need to not fall into complacency. Remember what you’ve learnt of the Abhidhamma in case that’s where you end up.

But for now, while you are practising to realise Nibbāna here and now with your body that you inhabit, that you have carried around with you since you were born, that will grow old and die and become crooked, it is a testimony to the first two Noble Truths. So you can work it out now, as I’ve always said, between the top of your head and the soles of your feet.

So do not compare one teacher to another because some teach Abhidhamma and others teach Sutta. If you do not understand their kamma and the kamma of their students, you cannot understand why they teach what they teach. It is wrong to think if you’re a human being, and have been for a long time, that you need to study Abhidhamma to realise Nibbāna. If however, out of pride, you come to the conclusion that this Abhidhamma is the highest Dhamma, this is the Dhamma I want, you could spend an entire life time learning Abhidhamma and make no practical progress on the path out of suffering.

So, work it out for yourselves, what do you need to do? You only need to understand – This is suffering, this is the cause of suffering and then practise as you’ve been taught, because that is the path that leads to the cessation of suffering.