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2. The tribulations of unreflective living

(1) The Dart of Painful Feeling

“Monks, when the uninstructed worldling experiences a painful feeling, he sorrows, grieves, and laments; he weeps beating his breast and becomes distraught. He feels two feelings—a bodily one and a mental one. Suppose they were to strike a man with a dart, and then strike him immediately afterward with a second dart, so that the man would feel a feeling caused by two darts. So too, when the uninstructed worldling experiences a painful feeling, he feels two feelings—a bodily one and a mental one.

“While experiencing that same painful feeling, he harbors aversion toward it. When he harbors aversion toward painful feeling, the underlying tendency to aversion toward painful feeling lies behind this. 1 While experiencing painful feeling, he seeks delight in sensual pleasure. For what reason? Because the uninstructed worldling does not know of any escape from painful feeling other than sensual pleasure. 2 When he seeks delight in sensual pleasure, the underlying tendency to lust for pleasant feeling lies behind this. He does not understand as it really is the origin and the passing away, the gratification, the danger, and the escape in the case of these feelings. 3 When he does not understand these things, the underlying tendency to ignorance in regard to neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling lies behind this.

“If he feels a pleasant feeling, he feels it attached. If he feels a painful feeling, he feels it attached. If he feels a neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling, he feels it attached. This, monks, is called an uninstructed worldling who is attached to birth, aging, and death; who is attached to sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair; who is attached to suffering, I say.

“Monks, when the instructed noble disciple experiences a painful feeling, he does not sorrow, grieve, or lament; he does not weep beating his breast and become distraught. 4 He feels one feeling—a bodily one, not a mental one. Suppose they were to strike a man with a dart, but they would not strike him immediately afterward with a second dart, so that the man would feel a feeling caused by one dart only. So too, when the instructed noble disciple experiences a painful feeling, he feels one feeling—a bodily one, and not a mental one.

“While experiencing that same painful feeling, he harbors no aversion toward it. Since he harbors no aversion toward painful feeling, the underlying tendency to aversion toward painful feeling does not lie behind this. While experiencing painful feeling, he does not seek delight in sensual pleasure. For what reason? Because the instructed noble disciple knows of an escape from painful feeling other than sensual pleasure. Since he does not seek delight in sensual pleasure, the underlying tendency to lust for pleasant feeling does not lie behind this. He understands as it really is the origin and the passing away, the gratification, the danger, and the escape in the case of these feelings. Since he understands these things, the underlying tendency to ignorance in regard to neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling does not lie behind this.

“If he feels a pleasant feeling, he feels it detached. If he feels a painful feeling, he feels it detached. If he feels a neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling, he feels it detached. This, monks, is called a noble disciple who is detached from birth, aging, and death; who is detached from sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair; who is detached from suffering, I say.

“This, monks, is the distinction, the disparity, the difference between the instructed noble disciple and the uninstructed worldling.”

(SN 36:6; IV 207–10)

(2) The Vicissitudes of Life

“These eight worldly conditions, monks, keep the world turning around, and the world turns around these eight worldly conditions. What eight? Gain and loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame, pleasure and pain.

“These eight worldly conditions, monks, are encountered by an uninstructed worldling, and they are also encountered by an instructed noble disciple. What now is the distinction, the disparity, the difference between an instructed noble disciple and an uninstructed worldling?”

“Venerable sir, our knowledge of these things has its roots in the Blessed One; it has the Blessed One as guide and resort. It would be good, venerable sir, if the Blessed One would clarify the meaning of that statement. Having heard it from him, the monks will bear it in mind.”

“Listen then, monks, and attend carefully. I shall speak.”

“Yes, venerable sir,” the monks replied. The Blessed One then spoke thus:

“When an uninstructed worldling, monks, comes upon gain, he does not reflect on it thus: ‘This gain that has come to me is impermanent, bound up with suffering, subject to change.’ He does not know it as it really is. And when he comes upon loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame, he does not reflect on them thus: ‘All these are impermanent, bound up with suffering, subject to change.’ He does not know them as they really are. With such a person, gain and loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame, pleasure and pain keep his mind engrossed. When gain comes he is elated and when he meets with loss he is dejected. When fame comes he is elated and when he meets with disrepute he is dejected. When praise comes he is elated and when he meets with blame he is dejected. When he experiences pleasure he is elated and when he experiences pain he is dejected. Being thus involved in likes and dislikes, he will not be freed from birth, aging, and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair; he will not be freed from suffering, I say.

“But, monks, when an instructed noble disciple comes upon gain, he reflects on it thus: ‘This gain that has come to me is impermanent, bound up with suffering, subject to change.’ And so he will reflect when loss and so forth come upon him. He understands all these things as they really are, and they do not engross his mind. Thus he will not be elated by gain and dejected by loss; elated by fame and dejected by disrepute; elated by praise and dejected by blame; elated by pleasure and dejected by pain. Having thus given up likes and dislikes, he will be freed from birth, aging, and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair; he will be freed from suffering, I say.

“This, monks, is the distinction, the disparity, the difference between an instructed noble disciple and an uninstructed worldling.”

(AN 8:6; IV 157–59)

(3) Anxiety Due to Change

“Monks, I will teach you agitation through clinging and non-agitation through nonclinging. 5 Listen and attend carefully. I shall speak.”

“Yes, venerable sir,” those monks replied. The Blessed One said this:

“And how, monks, is there agitation through clinging? Here, monks, the uninstructed worldling, who is not a seer of the noble ones and is unskilled and undisciplined in their Dhamma, who is not a seer of superior persons and is unskilled and undisciplined in their Dhamma, regards form as self, or self as possessing form, or form as in self, or self as in form. 6 That form of his changes and alters. With the change and alteration of form, his consciousness becomes preoccupied with the change of form. Agitation and a constellation of mental states born of preoccupation with the change of form remain obsessing his mind. Because his mind is obsessed, he is frightened, distressed, and anxious, and through clinging he becomes agitated.

“He regards feeling as self … perception as self … volitional formations as self … consciousness as self, or self as possessing consciousness, or consciousness as in self, or self as in consciousness. That consciousness of his changes and alters. With the change and alteration of consciousness, his consciousness becomes preoccupied with the change of consciousness. Agitation and a constellation of mental states born of preoccupation with the change of consciousness remain obsessing his mind. Because his mind is obsessed, he is frightened, distressed, and anxious, and through clinging he becomes agitated.

“It is in such a way, monks, that there is agitation through clinging.

“And how, monks, is there non-agitation through nonclinging? Here, monks, the instructed noble disciple, who is a seer of the noble ones and is skilled and disciplined in their Dhamma, who is a seer of superior persons and is skilled and disciplined in their Dhamma, does not regard form as self, or self as possessing form, or form as in self, or self as in form. 7 That form of his changes and alters. Despite the change and alteration of form, his consciousness does not become preoccupied with the change of form. No agitation and constellation of mental states born of preoccupation with the change of form remain obsessing his mind. Because his mind is not obsessed, he is not frightened, distressed, or anxious, and through nonclinging he does not become agitated.

“He does not regard feeling as self … perception as self … volitional formations as self … consciousness as self, or self as possessing consciousness, or consciousness as in self, or self as in consciousness. That consciousness of his changes and alters. Despite the change and alteration of consciousness, his consciousness does not become preoccupied with the change of consciousness. No agitation and constellation of mental states born of preoccupation with the change of consciousness remain obsessing his mind. Because his mind is not obsessed, he is not frightened, distressed, or anxious, and through nonclinging he does not become agitated.

“It is in such a way, monks, that there is non-agitation through nonclinging.”

(SN 22:7; III 15–18)

The text here enumerates the twenty types of identity view (sakkāyadiṭṭhi ), obtained by positing a self in four ways in relation to the five aggregates that constitute personal identity (sakkāya ). Identity view is one of the three fetters to be eradicated at stream-entry, the first of the four stages of realization.

Spk: He regards form as self (rūpaṃ attato samanupassati ), by regarding form and the self as indistinguishable, just as the flame of an oil lamp and its color are indistinguishable. He regards self as possessing form (rūpavantaṃ attānaṃ ), when he takes the formless (i.e., the mind or mental factors) as a self that possesses form, in the way a tree possesses a shadow; form as in self (attani rūpaṃ ), when he takes the formless (mind) as a self within which form is situated, as the scent is in a flower; self as in form (rūpasmiṃ attānaṃ ), when he takes the formless (mind) as a self situated in form, as a jewel is in a casket.

Footnotes

  1. The underlying tendencies (anusaya ) are dispositions toward the defilements that lie dormant in the mind and become active when provoked. Some texts, such as the present one, mention three underlying tendencies: the tendency to lust (rāgānusaya ) for pleasant feeling; to aversion (paṭighānusaya ) for painful feeling; and to ignorance (avijjānusaya ) in regard to neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling. Other texts mention seven underlying tendencies: to sensual lust, aversion, views, doubt, conceit, attachment to existence, and ignorance. ↩

  2. Spk: The escape is concentration, the path, and the fruit. He does not know this; the only escape he knows is sensual pleasure. ↩

  3. These five terms constitute a major pattern for contemplation. “The origin and the passing away” (samudaya , atthaṅgama ) point to the characteristic of impermanence. On the triad of gratification, danger, and escape (assāda , ādīnava , nissaraṇa ), see pp. 186–87. ↩

  4. The sequel will make it clear that “the instructed noble disciple” being described here is the arahant, who alone is entirely free from the tendencies to aversion, lust, and ignorance. However, while the arahant alone may be capable of maintaining perfect equanimity toward physical pain, an ordinary practitioner can still emulate the arahant by attempting to overcome dejection and despondency when experiencing painful bodily feelings. Everyone with a body, including the Buddha, is subject to bodily pain. A mark of spiritual maturity is the ability to endure pain without being overwhelmed by it. ↩

  5. The noun paritassanā is derived from the verb paritassati , which represents Skt paritṛṣyati , “to crave, to thirst for”; it is connected etymologically with taṇhā , craving. However, in Pāli the verbal stem has become conflated with tasati = to fear, to tremble, and thus its noun derivatives such as paritassanā and paritasita also acquire meanings derived from tasati . This convergence of meanings, already evident in the Nikāyas, is made explicit in the commentaries. I have tried to capture both nuances by rendering the verb paritassati “to be agitated” and the noun paritassanā “agitation.” Though Spk understands paritassanā here in the sense of craving, the text seems to be emphasizing bhaya-paritassanā , “agitation as fear.” ↩

  6. The uninstructed worldling is one who lacks both doctrinal knowledge of the Dhamma (underscored by the word akovida , “unskilled”) and practical training in the Dhamma (underscored by avinīta , “undisciplined”). The worldling is not a “seer of the noble ones,” that is, of the Buddha and the noble disciples, because he or she lacks the eye of wisdom that discerns the truth they have seen. “Noble ones” (ariya ) and “superior persons” (sappurisa ) are synonyms. ↩

  7. This noble disciple is presumably at minimum a stream-enterer. ↩

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