Seeing Dhamma
In the same way, friends,
as of all the creatures that roam the world using feet,
the footprint of the elephant is considered pre-eminant,
that is, in terms of size;
in the same way,
of all the doctrines describing the skillful mind,
the Four Aristocrats of Truths are considered pre-eminant,
that is, in terms of scope.
What four?
The Truth that 'This is Pain.'
The Truth that 'The origin of Pain is Thirst.'
The Truth that 'The ending of Thirst is the Ending of Pain.'
The Truth that 'The walk to walk to the ending of Pain is the Aristocratic Multidimensional High Way, that is:
High Point of View;
High Principles;
High Talk;
High Works;
High Lifestyle;
High Self-control;
High Mind;
High Serenity;
High Seeing;
High Detachment.
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And what, friends, is this 'Pain'?
Birth is Pain,
Sickness is Pain,
Aging is Pain,
Death is Pain,
Grief and Lamentation,
Pain and Misery,
and Despair are Pain.
Not getting what is wished for is Pain.
Getting what is not wanted is Pain.
In a word: 'These five support-compounds[1] are Pain.'
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And what, friends, is to be understood by
"In a word: 'These five support-compounds are Pain'"?
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What are the five support compounds?
The shape-support-compound;
the sense-experience[2] support-compound;
the perception support-compound;
the own-making[3] support-compound;
the consciousness support-compound.
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Of these the shape-support compound is made up of the four great properties:
solidity, liquidity, heat, and motion
and the shapes that are compounded from these.
These four can be either relating to an individual or be external
and in either case they are unstable,
change,
and come to an end.
And that which is unstable and changeable,
and that which is compounded from
that which is unstable and changeable
and comes to an end
cannot sanely and rationally be understood as:
"This I am;
This is mine;
This is my 'self.'"
How come?
Because that which is not under one's control
cannot sanely and rationally be called one's own
or to be said to belong to one.
And to hold that a thing
that comes into being by being derived from
that which is unstable and changeable
and which comes to an end
is the self
amounts to saying:
"That which is myself
comes and goes,"
which is absurd.
So the sane, rational individual thinks:
That Pain which has arisen
in that which I erroneously believed was myself
has arisen as a result,
or repercussion of something.
A result of what?
Contact of sense-organ with sense-object and consciousness.
For example:
If someone says something disagreeable about him, he thinks:
This unpleasant experience has come to me through my sense of hearing.
It is the result of something,
it is not not a result of something.
Of what is it the result?
Contact of that shape called sound and that shape called ear together with consciousness.
The sense-experience;
the perception;
the own-made aspect;
the consciousness of that shape,
made up from solidity, liquidity, heat and motion
that is sense-organ and sense-object consciousness —
all that is unstable and changeable
and comes to an end.
If being abused he should become angry and upset,
he should recollect the Parable wherein the Buddha says that even if downright bad guys should cut him to pieces with a saw,
were he to get angry
he would not be following the Teacher's instructions.
He should think:
'This body is so constituted that it is subject to abuse'
and he sets up recollection, investigation, energy, enthusiasm, impassivity, serenity and detachment
for the attaining of freedom from body.
By that focus of his mind
on the component parts
on the made-up nature of the experience
on the task of attaining freedom,
he is detached.
Detached he is free.
Seeing this freedom as freedom,
he sees the end of Pain.
In that freedom he can know:
"Left behind is rebirth,
lived is the best of lives,
done is duty's doing,
no more is there being any sort of 'it'
at any place of 'at-ness' left for me."
Suppose a collection of sticks and straw and mud enclosing a space were to be called a house.
Just so the collecting, assembling, combining together of shape, sense-experience, perception, own-making and consciousness in skin and bones, flesh and blood, piss and vineger, hot air and gas enclosing a space is called a living being.
If, friends, a sense organ is functioning,
and an appropriate sense-object comes within it's range,
and there is contact of the two
there arises sense-consciousness.
That which is shape in such that has thus come to be,
that is known as a 'shape-supported-compound';
that which is sense-experience in such that has thus come to be,
that is known as a 'sensation-supported-compound';
that which is perception in such that has thus come to be,
that is known as a 'perception-supported-compound';
that which is own-made in such that has thus come to be,
that is known as an 'own-made-supported-compound';
that which is consciousness in such that has thus come to be,
that is known as a 'consciousness-supported-compound'.
In this way it is to be understood that
within any given conscious experience
resulting from contact of sense-organ with sense object
there is the collecting, assembling, combining together of the support-compounds.
The Buddha said:
"Whoever sees repercussive-self-arising[4]
He sees Dhamma.
Whoever sees Dhamma
He sees repercussive-self-arising."
We have seen:
The five support compounds are repercussively-self-arisen.
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Whatever is wishing for, roosting upon, inclination for, being tied to
in these five support compounds,
that is the arising of Pain.
Whatever is the disciplining of wishing and lust among these five support compounds, that is the ending of Pain.
Whatever is the walking of the Aristocratic Multi-dimensional High Way,
is the walking of the walk for the disciplining of wishing and lust among these five support compounds.
This is how
"In a word: 'These five support-compounds are Pain'"
is to be seen.
[1] khandha. 'heap, pile'. These are categories of temptation to rebirth. The thoughts, plans, wishes, intentions, speech and action taken upon these things results in existence.
[2] Experience of pleasure, of pain, of neither pain nor pleasure.
[3] Saṅkhāra san = own; khāra = make; that which is constructed by identification with acts of thought, word or deed intended to create experience of sense-experience for the self.
[4]
'Yo paṭicca-samuppādaɱ passati||
so dhammaɱ passati|| ||
Yo dhammaɱ passati||
so paṭiccasamuppādaɱ passatī.|| ||
Adapted from MN 28
