Saṃyuktāgama, Volume 1 (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 is impermanent. When various causes and various conditions come together, all aggregates of form are born; therefore those causes and those conditions are also impermanent. How could the aggregates of form, born of impermanent causes and impermanent conditions, have any permanently abiding, unextinguished nature?

By the same reasoning, the aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness are also impermanent. Only when various causes and various conditions come together are all the aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness born; therefore those various causes and various conditions are also impermanent. How could the feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness born of impermanent causes and impermanent conditions be permanently abiding and unextinguished?

Therefore it is said, O bhikkhus, that the aggregate of form is impermanent, and the aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness are all impermanent. What is impermanent is suffering; what is suffering is not self; what is not self is also not belonging to self. When noble disciples contemplate and practice contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) in this way, they grow weary of the aggregate of form, and weary of the aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. Being weary, they take no delight; taking no delight, they are liberated, no longer bound by the five aggregates. After the mind is liberated, the knowledge and vision of liberation will be complete, and one will know for oneself: birth for me is 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 more rebirth into future existence.

In practicing contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) within meditative concentration (samādhi), one must carefully and comprehensively deliberate on why the aggregate of form is an impermanent dharma, what phenomena demonstrate the impermanence of the aggregate of form, and what manifestations of the aggregate of form show it to be impermanent. Each time the mind consciousness contemplates out a phenomenon, condense that phenomenon into a single meaning, suspend it in the mind, and hand it over to the manas for personal deliberation (manasikāra); the mind consciousness then deliberates little or not at all, until the mind is very certain and confirms 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 very certain; that is the manas's confirmation.

This process may take a very long time. The mind consciousness's deliberation and contemplative practice may not need too much time, but the manas's deliberation on the dharma may require a very long time—working at it from morning to night, perseveringly, without others necessarily knowing that one is applying effort—yet it can solve real problems and achieve realization. If one merely remains at the stage of the mind 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 and manner of applying effort, training the manas to investigate. By experiencing more the difference between the mind consciousness applying effort and the manas participating in applying effort, you can grasp the essential key to truly diligent practice—that is, grasping the essential key to realization—thereby ensuring the realization of any dharma, rather than mere intellectual understanding by the mind consciousness. Once this essential key is mastered, one will benefit endlessly, life after life, and will continue to benefit until one attains the bhūmis as a bodhisattva, all the way until becoming a bodhisattva of the eighth bhūmi or above.

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

The five aggregates 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? In what way 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 tend toward nirvāṇa; one created karmic actions in the world and deposited karmic seeds. When those karmic seeds ripen and manifest, the manas in the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava) will enter the womb, and thus the five aggregates are born. That the mind does not tend toward the tranquility of nirvāṇa and creates bodily, verbal, and mental actions is the cause; but with only the cause and no conditions, the karmic seeds will not take root and sprout, and the five aggregates cannot 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 ripen; only then can the manas enter the womb.

The causes and conditions that give birth to the five aggregates are all impermanent; so how could what is produced by impermanent dharmas be permanent? It must necessarily also be impermanent. Next, continue the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) that all impermanent dharmas are suffering; genuinely feel suffering in the heart and confirm that the five aggregates are suffering. Next, contemplate that what is suffering is not self, nor belonging to self; the mind must be extremely certain, receiving a certain shock, and develop a sense of estrangement toward the five aggregates. When one cultivates to the stage of the third fruit (anāgāmin), one will grow weary in the mind of the five aggregates, feeling them to be a bondage, no longer craving or delighting in them, and will initially obtain the merit and benefit of liberation of the mind. After cutting off grasping at the fourth fruit, the state of mind is even more liberated, to the point 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 realms of the five sense-objects? Only by relying on the discriminating wisdom of the mind consciousness can it make various deliberations (manasikāra) regarding the various realms—how then would it have the ability to introspect upon itself? How then would it have the ability to think about the various dharmas? If the manas were apart from the discriminating wisdom of the mind consciousness, would it be capable of nothing?