CUTTING OFF THE STREAM *
WISDOM IS THE WEAPON TO DESTROY DEFILEMENT'S
WISDOM IS THE WEAPON TO DESTROY DEFILEMENT'S
For a mind that is not so delicate, one uses one kind of wisdom. For a fine mind, fine wisdom is used accordingly. We know and see all conditions according to the Truth thoroughly , panhanana (mindfulness) evolves into vipassananana (insight knowledge), perfect knowledge or transcendent wisdom. Therefore Dharma followers must get started with their ordinary wisdom in alignment with Right View and Right Thought and develop it by contemplation until the mind knows and sees the harm and danger of birth, aging, illness and death and the harm and danger of sensual pleasures, and finds the way to detach itself from them, as stated in the
Pali:
'Nibbanagamanani maggam khippameva visodhaye' meaning, One must hurry to cut short the way to Nibbana by moving from one goal to the next, which will be seen clearly.*
'Pannayattham vipassaf 'means 'Only wisdom can lead to the true nature of Dharma'. 'Pannaya parisujjhati' means 'Only one who has wisdom can be purified.' Therefore wisdom is a very important thing, and it is an individual's responsibility to develop his own wisdom. It is not something that comes automatically. Do not misunderstand that vipassananana (insight knowledge) would occur in a completely calm mind. There are different levels of wisdom and different levels of understanding of Right View; rough, medium, and refine.
In the present life, one is usually deluded by one's appearance, by putting on things to cover oneself up to conceal the real appearance. One is deluded by one's illusory self as well as external illusions. The mind has been lost in this wheel of rebirth for so long because it has been attached to imaginings, pleasures and delusions without knowing it This is avijja ignorance, which results in cycling through different states of being for so long. We drift along the stream of the world with no end in sight. Compounded thoughts and imaginings are very good tools of defilement, craving and ignorance, and the mind that slips from mindfulness and wisdom becomes their slave. Defilement, craving and ignorance come in different forms, rough or delicate, and they reside in the mind. Compounded thoughts and imaginings are actors, acting to cover up the Truth. The mind without wisdom gets involved in the acting as if it were real.
Dharma followers must be mindful and know circumspectly in order to battle defilement and craving, like a boxer who must train himself all the time and study his opponent's weaknesses in order to win. Dharma students must build up their own strength of confidence, effort, mindfulness concentration and wisdom. Altogether they uproot and get rid of defilement and craving entirely. Only wise men know the source, the site and the course of defilement and craving, like an experienced doctor who knows what to do to his patient to cure the disease. Contemplation with wisdom is the search for the definite center of defilements and materials nor an eater, the cook is useless. Or if there are ingredients but there is no cook nor an eater; or there is an eater, but there is no food ingredient nor a cook, the component existing is useless. There must be the three components together. Craving, sankhara and imaginings are the three related things as in the cook example. As long as there is defilement or craving, sankhara is at work. It works on past, present or even future events. It associates and exaggerates things; a big thing from a small one, a fine matter from a rough one, a long story from a short one. It makes up stories about the past and the future from its own illusion, day-dreaming and imagining, roams more and more deeply into its own emotion and gets lost in them unconsciously, with no way out. One may reminisce and think about the picture of a person for whom one used to feel affection in the past until the mind is trapped in its own thought. Even though the person may have been dead or gone away a long time ago, he or she may still be remembered in great detail, whether it is his or her appearance, complexion, personality or speech at various places and times. Sometimes the reminiscence goes far beyond truth. The mind imagines totally new things. Once there are raw materials, the mind starts cooking them up and is infatuated with those cooked stories while walking or sitting and does not want to rest or sleep. The mind yields to defilement and craving and becomes miserable. Sometimes it 'cooks' up the future, by making plans about job, position, fame, happiness and wealth. It dreams of a perfect husband or wife and children. This is the craving that drives sankhara to create stories out of imagination, until the craving to eradicate them completely.
Defilements and craving are in the mind. One must watch the mind closely with wisdom and must not yield to any defilement or craving. Whenever it 'cooks up' any supposition, one must use wisdom to destroy it immediately. Do not let sankhara work too long. Wiping soon as they get dirty. When the mind is sad, one must contemplate and find a way to get rid of that feeling right away. Destroy all carriers of defilement and craving. Know their hiding place and do not let them fool the mind again. Form, sound, smell, taste and tactile receptors, that is, eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin, including the mind are hiding places of defilements and cravings. The Five Aggregates, namely corporeality, feeling, perception, mental formation and consciousness, are fooled by defilement and craving. The mind is deluded that there is self, but in the wise mind, wisdom destroys the delusion right away where it arises and reveals its Three Characteristics, suffering, impermanence and no-self. Every component of the Five Aggregates that the five sense receptors perceive as self must be analyzed until the mind accepts its Three Characteristics. The belief that form, sound, smell, taste and tactile sensation are beauty is the work of defilement and craving and must be contemplated until the mind sees them as filth and accepts their true nature. Our own bodies as well as those of others must be contemplated until the mind sees no difference in them.
Contemplation in this way is to let the mind know and see things according to the Truth. Once it does, defilement and Craving can no longer use their old tricks to fool the mind in seeing things as beauty or self. They become like musicians or actors who only perform in front of us. Once we know that it is only a performance and it is harmful, we would not want to watch it anymore, or not even allow them to act. Therefore, there is no stage for the actors. Once the mind knows and sees things according to the Truth, any defilement and craving can no longer "act' or fool the mind with its performance. The mind becomes analayo, having no attachment to anything. Contemplation with wisdom is to train the mind to distinguish between real and false things. If the mind knows that it has been attached to fake and harmful things, it will detach itself from them. The body that the mind once believed to be self is merely a troublesome aggregate. The mind resides in it during its limited life. When one knows the beginning and the end of things and their causes clearly according to the Truth until there is no doubt, The knowledge becomes vipassananana, the ultimate knowledge of the Three Characteristics, from which all things reveal themselves in their entirety. Nothing in this world is secret anymore. Perfect knowledge clears up the past, the present and the future and they all fall into the Three Characteristics. There is no more doubt or hesitation on this point.
If a Dharma follower reaches this stage, he or she will not turn back any more but will proceed to the end of the Path. From here on, there is calmness and cessation. This type of calmness and cessation occurs only to the person on the verge of transcended mind. Calmness alone can occur to anyone who practises meditation. It can be calmness at the levels of the Form or Formless. But the cessation or extinction described here is something new, that is not experienced in meditation. The meditative calmness suppresses defilement and craving, but the cessation here is nirodha (cessation of suffering), which occurs once and for all at the end of Dharma practice. It is the extinction of suffering that has occurred in so many lives. Suffering due to birth, aging, illness and death all come to an end. All factors and causes of suffering are terminated. They become asarikhatadhatu, asankhatadhamma and asarikhatapaccaya which can no longer find connections. There is no 'fuel' for greed, hatred and delusion. Defilement, craving and ignorance are extinguished all at once. There is no cause for mental formation because sankhara is terminated. There is no consciousness because vinnana is terminated. There is no mind and body (namarupa) to cause the existence of sense receptors (ayatana). There is no ayatana to cause any sense reception (phassa). There is no phassa, to cause any feeling (vedana). There is no vedana to cause any craving (tanha). there is no tanha to cause any attachment (upadana). There is no upadana to cause existence (bhava). There is no bhava to cause birth (jati). When there is no birth, there is no aging, illness and death, and there is no more sorrow because its true cause, craving, has been extinguished. Sankhara that used to associate things has been cut off. It is like the death of the engineer which ends construction even though all the equipment is present. Since ignorance and craving are gone, there is nothing to create new existence and birth. The business of rebirth is over.
* The views and opinions expressed in this document may not necessarily be shared by knowbuddhism.info
