What is "right thinking"? (Thich Nhat Hanh)

Thich Nhat Hanh; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

WALDBROL, Germany - Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) gave a 102-minute Dharma talk at the European Institute of Applied Buddhism.

The talk is in English with simultaneous German translation. This is the first Dharma talk of the German Retreat on the theme "Are You Sure?"

The talk begins at 12 minutes into the recording following two chants by the Plum Village monastics.

Let us begin immediately with the concept of dualist thinking and Right Thinking. [Right Thinking refers to the second Noble Eightfold Path factor, often translated as Right Intention, but it seems that what Thay is actually talking about here is the more profound Right View, which is the first factor of the Path.] How do we see the interconnection between things?

For example, how do we see the interconnection between happiness and suffering or all the elements of a lotus flower? The lotus is made of non-lotus elements. 
 
EXPLANATION
Wisdom Quarterly on the wisdom that goes beyond

Li'l Buddha book (literatureismyutopia.tumblr)

[Thay teaches that a lotus flower is composed of non-lotus elements like water, mud, air, sunlight, and so on. These things are not themselves lotus flowers, but a lotus flower does not exist without them.

Whether we accept this insight as true or not, Why is it important? It is important because the Buddha teaches a more profound insight necessary for enlightenment: The "self" ("soul" or "ego") is composed of all non-self elements -- form (body, materiality, the Four Great Elements), feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousnesses (eye consciousness, ear consciousness, etc.)
 

Buddha and Angel' (K/Xiangjiaocao/flickr)

In just the same way, whatever is considered a "lotus" is a construct, a dependently-originated, conditionally-arisen thing that does not exist apart from its component parts.

Since the components are not the whole, not the "thing," the thing's existence is illusory, a dream, born of ignorance of how things really are. What illusion? The illusion that there is a thing there apart from its components! It is not a thing but, paradoxically, it is not nothing. It, whether we are talking about a lotus or a self, arises always and only completely dependent on causes and supporting conditions.
 
Great News

Gold Buddha (Chris & Annabel/Chngster/flickr)

This is great news, but it is an ultimate truth; conventionally, of course, there is a flower -- look, it's this thing I'm holding in my hand. There is a self -- look, it's this thing holding up the flower.
 
There is a world, suffering, and everything else. It is great news that things are dependently-arisen because, if this is a painful dream, we CAN wake up. If this is an illusion, we CAN become enlightened. Others have -- others like Thay and certainly the Buddha and the earliest disciples.

Enlightenment, nirvana, final liberation means seeing things as they truly are, for it is the Truth that sets a person free. Just as ignorance is trapping and binding us to suffering, rebirth, more suffering, and this endless round of wandering, so enlightenment means the end of ignorance about the the Four Noble Truths.

Have you ever heard of the Buddhist teaching or concept of Dependent Origination? It may be the most important thing the Buddha ever said. He describes it in this way: Seeing dependent origination is seeing the Dharma; seeing the Dharma is seeing dependent origination. It is due to not seeing this dependent origination that not only you but I have wandered from life to life, suffering and searching. One who sees the Dharma sees me, and so on. What could possibly be so important?

"Dependent Origination" as a formula is a set of 12 causal links. In the simplest terms, the formula goes like this: Wait. Why do we want to know this formula? Because it leads to enlightenment, nirvana (the complete end of all suffering), and deathlessness, that's why. Oh, okay, then go on. The formula runs: "Because of this, that comes to be; with the ending of this, that ends." Wait, what's this? What's that? The 12 links beginning with ignorance. Do you know how Siddhartha became enlightened? Most people do not.

How did the Siddhartha become enlightened?

Why do beings suffer, why is there suffering?

He became enlightened because he kept asking a question. He had asked it in many previous lives as a bodhisattva (buddha-to-be), and he asked it as a prince, then asked it as a renunciant, then as a meditator:

"Why is there suffering?" After learning how to enter the jhanas, the meditative absorptions, for about six years, he went off on his own without a teacher, still asking this question.
 
He sat under a heart shaped leaf tree still asking this question. The answer that dawned on him, after emerging from mind/heart-purifying absorption was Dependent Origination working backward to a first cause:

There is suffering, this always-unsatisfactory and often-painful state we find ourselves in. What is it dependent on? It is dependent on formations...and so on all the way back to ignorance. Ignorance is not really a "first cause," a prime mover, a causeless cause as in Western philosophy, Christian theology, and linear logic.

There was not one ignorance but lots of instances of it at every moment. Our suffering does not have just one cause; our suffering is being constantly replenished, giving rise to all the necessary causes and conditions. It is a dynamic, circular process.

• The Heart Sutra (the core of the Prajna Paramita or the "Perfection of Wisdom" literature) is exactly this: understanding and penetrating "not-self" also called "emptiness" with insight. What is not-self? It is the "wisdom that has gone beyond." It breaks down or unpacks the Five Aggregates: "Form is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form. Feeling is emptiness, and the very emptiness is feeling," and so on.

When the "self" comes into existence, what has come into existence? No-thing really, just an illusion dependent on causes and conditions like the Five Aggregates that are the basis of clinging. But it is not nothing, as evidenced by the fact that by insight meditation, purified and supported by absorption, it is possible to discern the causes and conditions, the factors, the components, the parts that give the illusion of there being something that just came into existence.

There is no being, only becoming, no static entity, just a dynamic process, no personality, just a series of mental and physical processes. What goes out of existence at every moment? Not a "being" -- as there never was a being, not even for one moment, only becoming. What goes out for the enlightened person? Only ignorance, only the illusion, only the frightful dream.

If all of this sounds shocking, it is. What an awakening! But it can be confirmed in many lines and teachings scattered all over the Buddhist texts. One of the most famous is:

"Mere suffering exists, no sufferer is found;

The deeds are, but no doer of the deeds is there;

Nirvana is, but not the person who enters it;

The path is, but no traveler on it is seen." 

 

There's a Meditation for Dummies in the series

The profound teaching of egolessness or not-self is not a teaching the Buddha, or Thay, directly gives ordinary instructed worldlings.

 

But it is the deeper meaning of "lotuses being composed of all non-lotus elements." Most monastics cannot grasp it for a long time as they are training to understand it. For it is subtle, deep, and goes against the stream of all of our assumptions. A clever person would never figure it out by mere reasoning.

 

No, no, What about that Descartes, the Westerner? He said it best: "I think; therefore, I am!" Yes, and didn't he jump the gun? Based on the evidence, all that one could conclude is, "Thinking is; therefore, thinking is going on."

 

Thinking -- that is, impersonal cognitive processes which are explained at length and in excruciating detail by the Buddha and cataloged in the voluminous Abhidharma and available for any and all of us to verify for ourselves during insight meditation -- does not need a self, a thinker. 

 

In fact, it is the process of thinking and cognizing that gives rise to the illusion/assumption of a self, not the other way around. And to assume that there is self, and to futher assume that self/the thinker is eternal or unchanging, permanent, destined for eternity in paradise or a pulverizing place of punishment is the sad state of the majority of the world's religionists. Isn't it great news that reality is not this way; it's not unfair and without a cause, not just some God's whim, not a random error of a cold universe that accidentally got a some heat in it....

 

Wait. What about karma? The five karmic causes (ignorance, karmic-formations, consciousness, mind-and-matter, six sense bases) of the past birth are the condition for the karmic-results of the present birth. And the five karmic causes of the present birth are the condition for the five karmic-results of the next birth. It is said in the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII):

"Five causes were there in the past,

Five fruits we find in the present;

Five causes do we now produce,

Five fruits we reap in the future."]

Gardening Analogy

A good gardener knows how to make good use of the mud just as a good mindfulness practitioner knows how to make good use of her suffering.

The goodness of suffering [is using it to grow]. When you understand suffering then understanding and compassion arises -- the foundation of happiness.

From the "Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing," we have exercises handed down by the Buddha to help our practice with suffering.

• Generate a feeling of joy.
• Generate a feeling of happiness.
• Recognize painful feelings.
• Calm down the painful feelings.

Mindfulness is an energy that helps us know what is going on in our body and our feelings [sensations]. How do we bring relief to our painful [physical] feelings and emotions?
 

Thay, Thich Nhat Hanh

There are three kinds of energies we should try to generate: mindfulness, concentration, and insight.

There are four elements of True Love and being present for those we love. By taking care of our suffering and our lives, we can learn to take care of the world. 

In the last 10-minutes, walking meditation instructions are given.

(Plum Village Online) Thay, Thich Nhat Hanh, teaches from Germany: Are you sure?

• PODCAST: AUDIO download (1:43 - 94.1MB) embed
• Domains of Mindfulness Practice
• Embrace the Whole Cosmos
• Conditions of Happiness
• We Are Peace
• The Holiness of Mindfulness, Concentration, and Insight
• Applying Buddhist Teachings to the Classroom
• Breathing and Interbeing 
• Full of Wonder 
• Touching the Wonders of Life 
• Energies of Buddhism 
• Blue Cliff Monastery
• Deer Park Monastery
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Magnolia Grove Monastery
• Planting Seeds of Compassion
• Plum Village

This entry was posted in Breathing, European Institute of Applied Buddhism, Retreats, Walking and tagged 2013 German Retreat, concentration, EIAB, German, Insight, mindfulness, Right Thinking, True Love on July 1, 2013.

The Buddha and King P. (sutra)

G.P. Malalasekera (Dictionary of Pali Names), Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly, as taught to us by the noble Czech-born scholar-monk Ven. Dhammadipa

The Buddha as a king Maitreya Jampa, Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal (fedMin/flickr)

 

Once, far to the west of Magadha (India), there was a discontented royal. From a distance he befriended an Indian king. They had never met, but they grew close as they exchanged gifts, and news, and outlooks on the world.

 

King Pukkusāti lived west of the Indus river in modern Taxila, Pakistan (which until 1948 was India next to Afghanistan). His friend was the Buddha's famous royal patron, King Bimbisara, who ruled Magadha.

Gold Buddha, Bodh Gaya, India (Chandrasekaran)

King Pukkusati heard of the Buddha's teachings and was so moved that he determined to begin meditating in his private quarters. His success in achieving the absorptions led him to renounce, then he was overcome with a longing to meet the Buddha.

He cut his hair and beard and became a wandering ascetic (shramana), like Prince Siddhartha had. And like Siddhartha, he crossed the Indus river into India. Before he could reach the Buddha, however, he stopped for the night and was given lodging in a potter's shed at the house of Bhaggava the potter in Rājagaha, the capital of King Bimbisara's kingdom. 

Buddha, Taxila Museum (Amir Taj)

The Buddha knew he was coming and arrived at the guest quarters in the potter's house after the king. The Buddha asked to be allowed to share it, and Pukkusāti -- having no idea that this was the Buddha -- readily agreed. They sat together for some time meditating in silence. The Buddha was impressed at the king's ability to meditate so deeply, apparently entering the absorptions.

When he emerged and was still meditating, the Buddha taught him the Dhātu-vibhanga Sutra (hear it below). The former king, now a wandering ascetic, immediately recognized that this could only be his professed teacher, the Buddha. At the end of the sutra, having had a noble attainment, he begged his forgiveness for not having paid him due honor when they met.

He then beseeched the Buddha to confer on him the higher ordination of a fully gone forth Buddhist monastic. The Buddha said yes and sent him to procure a proper alms bowl and saffron robe. On the way, however, Pukkusāti was gored to death by a mad cow.

When this seeming tragedy was reported to the Buddha, he explained that Pukkusāti was a non-returner and had therefore been spontaneously reborn [i.e., immediately, without the intervention of parents, but based instead solely on the power of karma] in the Pure Abodes (MN.iii.237 47).

• The Pure Abodes are five special planes of existence in Buddhist cosmology (see graphic below). They are only open to non-returners, that is, those who have attained the third stage of enlightenment but pass away before full enlightenment. If one were fully enlightened, there would be no rebirth or disappointment (dukkha) at all. These unique planes from which there is no falling back, unlike all other "heavenly" worlds within the sensual, fine-material, and immaterial spheres. The heavens (sagga) are not immaterial planes. Most are composed of subtle material form, four are formless, and six are sensual within our own sphere the Kama Loka. (See graphic below for full listing of all these worlds).

In this context, Pukkusāti is spoken of as a "son or offspring of good family," "nobly born" (kulaputta, iii.238); see also J.iv.180 and DhA.ii.35.

Buddhist treasures being smuggled out of formerly Buddhist Pakistan and parts of Pashtun-dominated Afghanistan, which together once formed Gandhara, India, on the frontiers of ancient Shakya territory, the Buddha's hometown (BigStory.AP.org).

  

Sutra explanation

Derived from the Commentary

Indo-Greek Buddha coin (as.miami.edu)

In his comments on the Dhātuvibhanga Sutra, the great Buddhist commentator Buddhaghosa gives a long account of Pukkusāti (MA.ii.979 ff.). Compare it to the story of King Tissa of Roruva (ThagA.i.199ff.).

 

King Pukkusāti had been the king of Takkasilā (Taxila), a contemporary of King Bimbisāra (himself a stream enterer) of about the same age. A friendly al)liance was established between the two kings through merchants who traveled between their countries for purposes of trade.

Over time, although the two kings had never seen each other, there grew between them a deep bond of affection. King Pukkusāti once sent King Bimbisāra a gift of eight priceless garments in lacquered boxes. This gift was accepted at a special meeting of the entire court. King Bimbisāra wishing to return the favor but having nothing to match of a material nature, sent what he considered most precious:

 

He conceived of the idea of acquainting King Pukkusāti with the knowledge that there had appeared in the world of Three Jewels (ratanāni): the Buddha (Teacher), the Dharma (Teaching), and the Sangha (the intensively Taught). 

So he had inscribed on a golden plate, four cubits long and a span in breadth, descriptions of these Three Jewels and of various tenets of the Buddha's Dharma -- such as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (satipatthānā), the Noble Eightfold Path, and the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment.

 

This plate was placed in the innermost of several special caskets made of various precious materials and was taken in procession on the back of the state elephant to the frontier of King Bimbisira's kingdom. Similar honors were paid to it by the chiefs of other clan territories (janapadas rather than "countries") all the way along the route to Takkasilā.

Pukkusati's probable route: Afghan border policeman, Gosha district, Nangarhar, Pakistan border May 2, 2013 (Reuters/VOANews.com)

 

When King Pukkusāti, in the solitude of his inner chamber, read the inscriptions on the plate, he was filled with boundless joy so much so that he decided to renounce the throne and the world.

 

He cut off his long hair and beard, donned fine robes like the coarse ones used by wandering ascetics of the day, and left the palace alone amid the lamentations of his subjects. They loved him and wanted him to say and lead them.

 

The Buddha (dharmadeshana)

He traveled the 192 leagues to the wealthy city of Sāvatthi, passing the gates of Jetavana, "Jeta's Grove," the famous Buddhist monastery where the Buddha frequently resided. But having understood from King Bimbisāra's letter that the Buddha lived in King Bimbisara's capital, Rājagaha, at Vulture's Peak monastery, he neglected to inquire if the Buddha was Jetavana. He continued his travels onward 45 leagues farther to Rājagaha, only to find that the Buddha was all the while residing in Sāvatthi.

As it was then evening, he sought lodging in Bhaggava's house. The Buddha, with his divine eye, saw what was in store for Pukkusāti. So traveling on foot from Sāvatthi, he reached Bhaggava's house at sundown. He awaited his opportunity to engage Pukkusāti in talk after a long period of meditation, which was fortuitous because it made the former king's mind and heart malleable and trainable.

When the Buddha taught him the "Analysis of the Elements Discourse" (Dhātu-vibhanga Sutra) -- which deals with the six major elements of earth, water, fire, air, space, and consciousness -- he was able to intuitively grasp and benefit from it, becoming a stream enterer then a non-returner very soon reborn fully enlightened.

"Analysis of the Elements Sutra" (Dhātuvibhanga Sutta). Meditate on this with headphones, pausing as needed, as the Buddha guides Pukkusati through the deepest levels of meditation, beyond the four material and four immaterial meditative absorptions (jhanas). Hearing this, Pukkusati was enlightened and became a non-returner, who was reborn in the Pure Abodes, where he attained nirvana without ever having to return from that world (MN 140).

After his untimely death -- which is explained in the Commentary as not being a natural or accidental occurrence -- Pukkusāti was reborn in a Pure Abode (suddhavasa) called the Avihā world where, together with six others, he became an arhat at the moment of his rebirth (see S.i.35, 60, for the names of the others and the remarkable story that led to this unusual immediate enlightenment).

Mad cow? The "cow" that killed Pukkusāti is explained, as so often happens in these strange situations, as having been a yakkhinī who was reborn a cow in 100 times. In her final rebirth as a cow, she killed, in addition to Pukkusāti, Bāhiya Dāruciriya (Bahiya "of the Barkcloth," famous in the sutras for becoming enlightened after hearing the briefest teaching of the Buddha), Tambadāthika, and Suppabuddha the leper (DhA.ii.35).

What is so remarkable about Pukkhusāti and the others who attained when reborn in the Aviha world is that they were some of the seven monks who, in the time of Kassapa Buddha, decided to abstain from eating until they should attain arhatship. They went to live on the top of a mountain and kicked down the ladder that had used to climb up to the top on.

The senior ascetic attained arhatship, the second became a non-returner, but the remaining five died of starvation -- after refusing the others' offers of food to sustain them in their practice. But they were proud and had made no such agreement to accept alms from those who had succeeded while fasting. The five were reborn in the Tusita world, a very exalted plane of existence.

In this age they became, respectively, Pukkusāti, Kumāra Kassapa, Bāhiya Dārucīriya, Dabba Mallaputta, and Sabhiya (Ap.ii.473; DhA.ii.212; UdA.81; but see MA.i.335, where only three are mentioned (Pukkusāti, Bāhiya Dārucīriya, and Kassapa).