Observing the Five Aggregates to Cut Through the View of Self (Part 2)
Chapter 5: Arhats and Liberation
1. What Is Liberation?
Liberation means being free from all afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion; liberation means the mind has no obstruction or bondage with regard to form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and mental objects—neither greedy nor angry, neither delighted nor sorrowful; liberation means having no obstruction or bondage with regard to any people, affairs, things, or principles—neither greedy nor angry, neither delighted nor sorrowful, whether something exists or not makes no difference; liberation means responding according to conditions to eating, clothing, housing, daily use, and travel without seeking anything, without a greedy grasping mind; liberation means living in the world, knowing contentment well, getting by, without improper desires; liberation means not reminiscing about the past, not fantasizing about the future, and not dwelling in the present, with each thought not lingering; liberation means the mind does not cling to any people, affairs, things, or principles, clearly understanding their suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self, clearly understanding their origins and course, clearly understanding their illusory nature and unattainability; liberation means the mind is empty toward all dharmas, free and unobstructed.
2. Liberation and Freedom
The purpose of cultivating all dharmas is to see through the emptiness, illusory nature, and middle-way nature of all dharmas, thereby letting one's own mind gain wisdom, so that toward all states the mind is empty and unobstructed, gaining merit and benefit, and thereby becoming liberated from worldly afflictions.
Someone may ask: What is liberation for? Liberation has no use. When there is nothing to use and no greedy attachment, that is liberation; liberation is to be free from bondage and at ease. Liberation is without suffering, like a bird out of its cage soaring freely; like a fierce tiger escaped from a trap, roaming at will over the mountains; like a wild horse free of its reins, galloping freely across the vast land. Someone else may ask: What is freedom for? Freedom also has no use; when nothing is needed and anything will do, that is freedom. Freedom is merely a feeling of being unbound by self—indeed, not even a feeling; with feeling there is no freedom. So having no use is best—what would you use it for? What is the use of use? Whatever has use is a burden and a bondage, all suffering.
To attain liberation and non-self, one should ask oneself every day: What is my eating for? Then answer: Eating is for the physical body to exist; then ask: What is the physical body's existence for? Answer: The physical body exists in order to live; then ask: What is living for?... Probe to the very root, question to the very bottom, never letting yourself off easily. After that, the wise see wisdom and the benevolent see benevolence; each states their own views, states manifest in variety, thoughts leap onto the page, and differences naturally appear. By introspecting and reflecting, one will gradually enter upon cultivating the path. Ask yourself like this every day, and one day you will awaken, no longer greedy or attached, comfortable, at ease, and liberated, without vexation or affliction; in the end you will transcend the world, transcendent and free.
3. What Is the State of Mind of a Liberated Person?
Liberation is having severed afflictions, the mind empty of self, neither grasping nor taking the five aggregates and eighteen realms—not grasping the aggregate of form, not grasping the aggregate of feeling, not grasping the aggregate of perception, not grasping the aggregate of volitional formations, not grasping the aggregate of consciousness; not grasping form, not grasping sound, not grasping smell, not grasping taste, not grasping touch, not grasping mental objects; not grasping wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep, not grasping fame and gain, not greedy for worldly dharmas, responding to things according to conditions, without a utilitarian mind, without a calculating mind, not seeking reward, not for power and reputation. Neither fawning on the powerful nor arrogant; neither competing to show off nor seizing by force, nor fond of displaying oneself; neither deceiving one another nor scheming—with no mental application to any dharma, worldly dharmas cannot constrain him. Because the world of the five aggregates is ultimately empty, there is nothing to bind him, nothing to obstruct him; whether grasping or not grasping, nothing can be obtained; the shackles do not touch the mind—free and unobstructed.
4. Why Is the Liberation Realization of the Fourth-Fruit Arhat Equivalent to That of an Eighth-Bhūmi Bodhisattva?
A Hīnayāna fourth-fruit arhat can enter nirvāṇa without remainder. In the Mahāyāna, from the first bhūmi onward, bodhisattvas are third-fruit noble ones who have severed afflictions. Although bhūmi-attained bodhisattvas can enter the correct position of liberation and attain the fourth fruit, if they were to attain it, they would enter nirvāṇa without remainder at the end of life; the Buddha does not permit bodhisattvas to attain the fourth fruit and enter the correct position of liberation, until the completion of the seventh bhūmi, when they attain the fourth fruit and enter the eighth bhūmi. Bodhisattvas above the eighth bhūmi will no longer enter nirvāṇa without remainder. Therefore, in terms of the realization of liberation, the fourth fruit and the eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva are equal in their liberation realization. Even at the completion of the first bhūmi one may not attain the fourth fruit; otherwise one violates the Buddha's precepts and is reproached by the Buddha, and the Buddha will also protect bodhisattvas from attaining the fourth fruit.
5. The Practice of Arhats and Pratyekabuddhas Is Abandoning the Five Aggregates to Take Nirvāṇa
The arhat's practice of the Four Noble Truths and the pratyekabuddha's practice of the twelve links of dependent origination are subtraction and abandonment; the world of the five aggregates is gradually relinquished. Because in their minds there are dharmas, things, and the five aggregates, they continually reduce in their practice, including continually reducing mental karmic actions, abandoning greed and all afflictions, and finally taking nirvāṇa. Arhats believe there truly are the three realms, truly a body of the five aggregates, truly feelings of suffering, truly cause and effect, and so they resolve to abandon all of this and leave the three realms. A mind of grasping and rejecting becomes cunning artifice, so it is not the supreme and most genuine method of practice, although it is a path every practitioner must pass through.
But practice is divided into levels and stages. First one must abandon evil and take up good; after the mind is good, one neither takes evil nor takes good—neither grasping nor rejecting, the mind abides in the middle way. Bodhisattvas know that all dharmas are illusory transformations of the tathāgatagarbha; with nothing in the mind, there is nothing to abandon; toward all dharmas they neither grasp nor reject, neither crave nor loathe, facing everything calmly, delivering beings with composure—so they absolutely do not wish to leave the three realms to take nirvāṇa.
6. An Arhat's Entry into Nirvāṇa Without Remainder Is Extinguishing Body and Wisdom, Not Having All Hopes Turned to Ashes
After an arhat enters nirvāṇa without remainder, his three-realm worldly dharmas disappear—more precisely, in the three-realm world there is no longer such a person as that arhat. The three-realm world, including the desire realm, form realm, and formless realm, is called the receptacle world, containing extremely many material forms. If an arhat enters nirvāṇa without remainder, not only do the material forms corresponding to the seven consciousnesses—such as the subjectively imagined realm, the real-form realm, and the subjectively imagined realm—no longer arise, but even the essential-realm material forms corresponding to his eighth consciousness no longer arise; without the essential realm, there are no subjectively imagined realms, real-form realms, or object-aspect realms. These states are the dependent-retribution worldly dharmas manifested by the karmic seeds of the three realms; the direct retribution is the body of the five aggregates.
It is worldly ordinary people whose hopes all turn to ashes; noble ones have no mind, no thoughts, no wishes, no aspirations, so one cannot speak of ashes or all turning to ashes—an arhat cannot possibly have all hopes turned to ashes like a worldly person. "All hopes turned to ashes" means that many hopes and wishes in the mind could not be realized, so one becomes greatly disappointed and ends up without any ideas or thoughts in the world—but the manas still has many ideas and wishes not extinguished, just unrealizable. The arhat, however, extinguishes body and wisdom: toward the world of the five aggregates he holds no wishes whatsoever, and thus no longer needs the body of the five aggregates or the wisdom of liberation—both body and mind are relinquished. The Buddha used the term "extinguishing body and wisdom" to describe the arhat's folly: extinguishing the body means extinguishing the present physical body of the five aggregates as well as the five-aggregate bodies of limitless kalpas in future lives, discarding them; extinguishing wisdom means extinguishing the wisdom of liberation from the three realms—meaning the arhat abandons both body and mind, and this is called liberation, called tranquility.
In fact, what is true liberation? It is that when facing all states, it is as if there were no states—without desire or seeking, seeing as if not seeing, hearing as if not hearing, applying no mind, neither approaching nor avoiding, not being influenced or stained, utterly at ease. The Buddha is precisely thus free and liberated: not precluded from having a body of the five aggregates as liberated form, not precluded from having the seven consciousnesses transformed into wisdom—body and wisdom both present, accompanying each other inseparably, and no heavenly māra or non-Buddhist path can do anything about it. This is the Buddha's realm of the abode of nowhere-standing (apratiṣṭhita-nirvāṇa): not abiding in any dharma, inactive like the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna), inactive like suchness, yet not precluding the active—active yet inactive like the great mirror-like wisdom (ādarśa-jñāna), the active and inactive fused into one whole, inseparable. This realm is incomparable, so the realms of sentient beings cannot be compared with the Buddha's realm.
7. What Karmic Seeds Are in the Eighth Consciousness Mind-Substance of an Arhat?
When an arhat is in nirvāṇa with remainder, living according to conditions, not grasping any dharma of the five-aggregate world, the mind empty of self, the karmic seeds of three-realm worldly dharmas gradually disappear. Because there are no longer karmic seeds of the three-realm world, there will be no three-realm world in future lives, much less a five-aggregate body born into the three-realm world. If there were still karmic seeds of the three realms in the arhat's eighth consciousness, the seeds would necessarily manifest to repay karmic actions, and then there would be no such state as nirvāṇa without remainder.
But after an arhat enters nirvāṇa without remainder, sooner or later he will still appear in the three-realm world, because before entering nirvāṇa the arhat had heard the Mahāyāna dharma and planted the seeds of the Mahāyāna dharma; when the seeds mature, the eighth consciousness will output the consciousness seeds of the manas, giving rise to the manas, entering the intermediate-state body, taking rebirth again, and studying the Mahāyāna. Karmic seeds correspond to the manas, and the manas corresponds to karmic seeds; if the manas does not grasp the three-realm world, worldly karmic seeds cannot be retained; with grasping, one continues to create wholesome and unwholesome karma, karmic seeds are left, and in future lives one continues to take rebirth and transmigrate according to the karmic seeds. If the manas does not grasp and the six consciousnesses create no karma, there are no karmic seeds and no need to undergo karmic retribution.
8. What Is Entering the Stream?
Entering the stream means entering the noble stream of liberation. Liberation first requires severing the view of self and wrong views that bind one to birth and death; from then on one is no longer an ordinary person with the three fetters. In the process of entering the stream, meditative concentration is indispensable: one must possess meditative concentration of at least the preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) of the desire realm in order to sever the view of self and enter the noble stream. With only meditative concentration, or even the first dhyāna, but without severing the view of self and the three fetters, one cannot enter the noble stream—otherwise all the non-Buddhists possessing the four dhyānas and eight concentrations would have entered the noble stream. Would that not mean that cultivating the non-Buddhist four dhyānas and eight concentrations could also bring liberation? Having already severed the three fetters, one enters the noble stream; it is not that one gains the ability to sever them only after entering.
9. Does the Buddha's Nirvāṇa Mean the Extinguishing of All Dharmas?
The Buddha's nirvāṇa and the arhat's nirvāṇa are fundamentally different. After the Buddha's nirvāṇa, He still conjures and manifests countless five-aggregate bodies to deliver sentient beings in the worlds of the ten directions, so the Buddha says the five-aggregate body is called liberated form. When the conditions for the Buddha's delivering beings in one world have temporarily ended, He extinguishes the physical body, provisionally called nirvāṇa—for example, Śākyamuni Buddha's nirvāṇa in the Sahā world: the physical body temporarily departs and is extinguished, yet Śākyamuni Buddha remains the Dharma lord, teaching master, and guide of the Sahā world; the beings of the Sahā world are still disciples taught by Śākyamuni Buddha, and at the same time Śākyamuni Buddha manifests immeasurable, boundless five-aggregate bodies, teaching beings of the ten directions in the worlds of the ten directions. After an arhat's nirvāṇa, there will be no more physical body of the five aggregates, so after nirvāṇa the arhat has no liberated form; their nirvāṇa is not ultimate ease, and their liberation is not thorough.
The Buddha has the five aggregates, yet is liberated; the liberated form can be seen by sentient beings' naked eyes and is not bound by any worldly dharma. Sentient beings, though also having the five aggregates, are bound by worldly dharmas and so cannot attain liberation. When the mind is liberated, the physical body is liberated, and all five aggregates are liberated. Therefore liberation does not require extinguishing the physical body of the five aggregates; rather, one must extinguish the mental thoughts and views that are not in accord with reality and the Dharma; when thoughts transform into views and insights that accord with reality and truth, one is liberated.
10. The Way of Dealing with the World
Everyone's eyes are like this: a cat's eye set into a white ping-pong ball, merely a mechanical device—do not take it seriously. If someone gazes at you tenderly, that is the ping-pong ball leaking water, flowing out of the cat's eye—no matter, it cannot form a great river to drown you, nor pour down hills and mountains to sweep you away; pay it no heed. If someone casts amorous glances at you, that is the ping-pong ball emitting light, projected from the cat's eye—no need to heed it either; the light of nature is warmer than this. If someone glares at you angrily, that is the ping-pong ball catching fire, bursting out of the cat's eye—no need to fear; it cannot burn you, nor become a prairie blaze; ignored, it will naturally go out.
Whether others love me or hate me is no concern of mine; I remain leisurely and at ease. Take everything lightly, the mind calm as water; I do not cling to marks, and there is nothing amiss in the world—heaven and earth are naturally vast. When even heaven and earth can no longer be seen, one is truly liberated—how wonderful!
11. An Arhat Who Has Severed Innate Grasping at Self Will Never Be a Layperson
Question: There is a view that once innate grasping at self is severed, the mind has no obstructions, no longer fearing the birth and death of oneself and one's relatives, no longer fearing the loss of one's property. This is of course a great liberation, but is this state appropriate for a lay householder who does not intend to leave home? If one truly cultivates to this state, it seems many jobs could no longer be done, right?
Answer: First of all, a person who has completely severed innate grasping at self is, in the Hīnayāna, a fourth-fruit great arhat, and in the Mahāyāna, an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva. And a layperson cannot possibly cultivate to the fourth-fruit great arhat; a layperson can at most cultivate to the third fruit, and reaching the third fruit is extremely difficult. A third-fruit person in the secular world has almost no interest in worldly dharmas and will certainly find a way to leave home; moreover, opportunities to leave home are very numerous, and he has even less interest in the household, unable to bear it any longer. If he does not leave home, most such people simply live out their days according to conditions, but some attachments have not yet been severed; toward household life and work they too proceed according to conditions, with little attachment.
As for Mahāyāna fourth-fruit arhats at the eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva stage, they generally do not come to the Sahā world; even if they come to this world, they would not live that kind of secular household life, such as working to support a family—that is utterly impossible. Their merit is immensely vast; how could they stoop to such a vulgar thing as doing secular work to get by? The enterprise of delivering sentient beings is all according to conditions, without a trace of attachment—why would they need to demean themselves with work and supporting a family? In fact, in the Sahā world even finding a first-bhūmi bodhisattva or a third-fruit person is extremely rare; bhūmi-attained bodhisattvas generally do not remain householders but leave home to deliver beings—unless there are so many bodhisattvas that not all of them need to leave home to serve as exemplars for beings.
