Saṃyukta Āgama, Volume One (11)

Original text: 如是我闻。一时。佛住舍卫国祗树给孤独园。尔时。世尊告诸比丘。色无常。若因．若缘生诸色者。彼亦无常。无常因．无常缘所生诸色。云何有常。

如是受．想．行．识无常。若因．若缘生诸识者。彼亦无常。无常因．无常缘所生诸识。云何有常。

如是。诸比丘。色无常。受．想．行．识无常。无常者则是苦。苦者则非我。非我者则非我所。圣弟子。如是观者。厌于色。厌于受．想．行．识。厌者不乐。不乐则解脱。解脱知见。我生已尽。梵行已立。所作已作。自知不受后有。时。诸比丘闻佛所说。欢喜奉行。

Explanation: The World-Honored One said to the bhikkhus: The aggregate of form (rūpa) is impermanent. When various causes and various conditions come together, all the aggregates of form are brought forth; those causes and those conditions are likewise impermanent. How could the aggregates of form, born of impermanent causes and impermanent conditions, be permanent?

By the same reasoning, the aggregates of feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), formations (saṃskāra), and consciousness (vijñāna) are also impermanent. Only when various causes and various conditions come together are all the aggregates of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness brought forth; those various causes and various conditions are likewise impermanent. How could the feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness born of impermanent causes and impermanent conditions be permanent and indestructible?

Therefore, O bhikkhus, the aggregate of form is impermanent, and the aggregates of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are all impermanent. What is impermanent is suffering; what is suffering is not self; what is not self is not mine. When noble disciples contemplate in this way, they become disenchanted with the aggregate of form, and disenchanted with the aggregates of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. Being disenchanted, they take no delight; taking no delight, they are liberated—liberated from the bondage of the five aggregates. After liberation of mind, there arises the knowledge and vision of liberation, knowing for oneself: "Birth for me has been exhausted, the holy life has been established, what was to be done has been done, and I know for myself that there will be no further becoming." When the bhikkhus heard what the Buddha had said, they joyfully put it into practice.

In contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) within meditative concentration, one must carefully and comprehensively deliberate on why the aggregate of form is an impermanent dharma—what phenomena reveal the impermanence of the aggregate of form, and what manifestations of the aggregate of form demonstrate that it is impermanent. Each time the mind consciousness contemplates out a phenomenon, condense that phenomenon into a single meaning, hold it in the mind, and hand it over to the manas for its own deliberation (manana); the consciousness then deliberates less or not at all, until the mind becomes firmly convinced, confirming that this phenomenon is indeed impermanent. Confirm one phenomenon after another, until all the phenomena of impermanence have been fully deliberated—that deep deliberation without language and words. Afterwards, one must let the mind become firmly convinced; this is the manas's confirmation.

This process may take a very long time. The consciousness's deliberation and contemplative practice may not require too much time, but the manas's deliberation on the dharma may take a very long time—diligently working at it from morning to night, persevering without cease, so that others may not even know one is cultivating, yet it can solve real problems and attain realization. If one merely remains at the stage of the consciousness's deliberation and yet feels one has already gained something, one will delay one's progress on the Path.

Use a small question to train yourself in this method of cultivation, to train in investigating with the manas, and to experience more the difference between the consciousness working alone and the manas participating in the work. Then you can grasp the essentials of truly diligent practice—that is, grasp the essentials of realization—thereby ensuring the realization of any dharma, rather than a mere intellectual understanding by the consciousness. Once this essential method is mastered, one will benefit endlessly, life after life, all the way through attaining the bhūmis as a bodhisattva, and up until becoming a bodhisattva of the eighth bhūmi or above—one will continue to benefit.

Next, contemplate and practice on why the aggregates of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are impermanent, and which phenomena demonstrate that feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are impermanent. Be comprehensive and specific—the more specific the better. When you reach a certain point, you must let the manas personally deliberate on these impermanent dharmas, using that very subtle mode of deliberation without language and words.

The five aggregates (pañcaskandha) are impermanent, and the causes and conditions that give birth to the five aggregates are also impermanent. Then deliberate further: what are the causes that give birth to the five aggregates, and how are they impermanent? What are the conditions that give birth to the five aggregates, and why are they impermanent? On account of what are the five aggregates born? In a past life, the mind was not tranquil and did not incline toward nirvāṇa; one created karmic actions in the world and deposited karmic seeds. When those karmic seeds ripened and manifested, the manas in the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava) would conceive, and thus the five aggregates were born. The mind not inclining toward the tranquility of nirvāṇa and creating bodily, verbal, and mental actions is the cause; but with only the cause and no conditions, the karmic seeds would not take root and sprout, and the five aggregates could not be born. What are the conditions? To be born among humans, there must be the condition of parents, and at the same time the karmic seeds for obtaining a human body must mature; only then can the manas conceive.

Since the causes and conditions that give birth to the five aggregates are all impermanent, how could what is produced by impermanent dharmas be permanent? It must also be impermanent. Next, contemplate that all impermanent dharmas are suffering; genuinely feel the suffering in one's heart and confirm that the five aggregates are suffering. Next, contemplate that what is suffering is not self, nor is it mine; the mind must be extremely certain about this, and one must be shaken to a certain degree, developing a sense of estrangement toward the five aggregates. When one cultivates to the stage of the third fruit (Anāgāmin), one will develop disenchantment toward the five aggregates, regarding them as a bondage, no longer craving or delighting in them, and thereby initially obtain the merit and benefit of liberation of mind (cetovimutti). After cutting off grasping at the fourth fruit (arhat), the mind becomes even more liberated, so that at the end of life one can enter nirvāṇa without remainder (anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa).

Can the manas cultivate and realize its own wholesome and unwholesome mental actions? Can the manas take as object the states of the five sense objects? It is only by relying on the mind consciousness's wisdom of specific cognition that one can make various deliberations regarding the various states. How, then, could it have the ability to introspect upon itself? How could it have the ability to contemplate the various dharmas? If the manas is apart from the mind consciousness's wisdom of specific cognition, would it not be incapable of anything?