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Inspiration from Enlightened Nuns (Susan Elbaum Jo
INSPIRATION FROM ENLIGHTENED NUNS
by
Susan Elbaum Jootla
The Wheel Publication No. 349/350
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
KANDY SRI LANKA
Copyright 1988 Buddhist Publication Society
ISBN 955-24-0032-5
DharmaNet Edition 1994
This electronic edition is offered for free distribution
via DharmaNet by arrangement with the publisher.
DharmaNet International
P.O. Box 4951, Berkeley CA 94704-4951
Transcribed for DharmaNet by R.A. Reed
* * * * * * * *
CONTENTS
Introduction
I. The Background Stories
The Long Duration of Samsara
Kammic Cause and Effect
II. The Teachings of the Poems
Trivial Incidents Spark Enlightenment
Entering the Sangha after a Child's Death
The Four Noble Truths
Reaching the Goal after a Long Struggle
Contemplation on the Sangha
The Danger of Worldly Desire
The Danger of Attachment to One's Beauty
Further Conversations with Mara
The Doctrine of Anatta
Men and Women in the Dhamma
The Five Aggregates and Nibbana
Kamma and Its Fruit
About the Author
Changes Made During Transcription
About the BPS
Distribution Agreement
* * * * * * * *
INTRODUCTION
In this booklet we will be exploring poems composed by the Arahat
bhikkhunis or enlightened Buddhist nuns of old, looking at these poems
as springs of inspiration for contemporary Buddhists. Most of the
poems we will consider come from the //Therigatha//, a small section
of the vast Pali Canon. The //Therigatha// has been published twice
in English translation by the Pali Text Society, London: first in 1909
(reprinted in 1980) by C. A. R. Rhys Davids in verse under the title
//Psalms of the Early Buddhists: The Sisters//; and second in 1971 by
K. R. Norman in prose under the title //The Elders' Verses, II.// We
have used quotations from both translations here, referring to
//Psalms of the Early Buddhists// by page number and to //The Elders'
Verses// by verse number. Mrs. Rhys Davids' translations have
sometimes been slightly modified. Our discussion will also draw upon
the verses of bhikkhunis from the Samyutta Nikaya (//Kindred
Sayings//), included by Mrs. Rhys Davids at the end of //Psalms of the
Sisters//.
From the poems of the enlightened nuns of the Buddha's time
contemporary followers of the Noble Eightfold Path can receive a great
deal of instruction, help and encouragement. These verses can assist
us in developing morality, concentration and wisdom, the three
sections of the path. With their aid we will be able to work more
effectively towards eliminating our mental defilements and towards
finding lasting peace and happiness.
In some respects, the inspiration from these poems may be stronger
for women than for men, since these are in fact women's voices that
are speaking. And when the theme of the poem is the mother-child
bond, this is bound to be the case. However, at a deeper level the
sex of the speakers is irrelevant, for the ultimate truths which they
enunciate explain the universal principles of reality which are
equally valid for men and for women.
The verses of the nuns, if systematically examined, can help
serious Buddhist meditators to understand many central aspects of the
Dhamma. The background to the verses, including biographical
information on the nuns who uttered them, is provided by the ancient
commentary on the //Therigatha// by the venerable Acariya Dhammapala.
Mrs. Rhys Davids has included some of these background stories in
//Psalms of the Early Buddhists//, and in the first part of this essay
we will look at these stories and consider the themes they suggest
that are relevant to contemporary students of Buddhist meditation.
Then we will go on to discuss a selection of the poems themselves,
which deal with many specific teachings of the Buddha.
We of the twentieth century who are seeking to attain liberation
will find ourselves deeply grateful to these fully awakened Buddhist
nuns of old for their profound assistance in illuminating the Dhamma
for us in their own distinctly personal ways.
* * * * * * * *
I. THE BACKGROUND STORIES
The ancient commentaries give us information about each nun's
background and also explain the poems themselves. Two major themes of
relevance to contemporary students of the Dhamma run through these
stories: (1) the immeasurably long time that we have all been lost in
//samsara//, the round of birth and death; and (2) the working of the
impersonal law of kammic cause and effect which brought these women
into contact with the Buddha's teachings in what was to be their final
lifetime.
The Long Duration of Samsara
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the original Pali commentaries, the tales of the nuns began many,
many rebirths and eons prior to their final existence at the time of
Buddha Gotama. We read how over ages and ages all these women had
been living out the results of their old kamma and how they created
powerful new kamma based on wisdom, which finally culminated in the
attainment of Arahatship, full awakening. Each woman -- or, more
accurately, each succession of aggregates -- had to undergo infinite
eons of suffering in its gross and subtle forms before she was
prepared to gain complete insight. But finally she gave up all
clinging and was freed from the need ever again to be reborn and
suffer, on any plane.
Vipassana meditators trying to develop this same understanding of
the ultimate nature of conditioned existence can find inspiration if
they would apply these tales to their own lives. When we realize how
long we ourselves have been wandering in ignorance, constantly
generating more and more unwholesome kamma, we will be able to remain
patient when our early efforts to train the mind tend to falter or
fail. Some of the bhikkhunis who had sufficient //paramis// --
virtues cultivated in previous lives -- even to gain Arahatship, still
had to put in many years of arduous and sometimes seemingly fruitless
effort before they could attain the goal.
For example, Siha entered the Sangha as a young woman but could
not learn to contain her mind's attraction to external objects for
seven years. Another nun worked for twenty-five years without finding
any substantial peace because of her strong attachment to sense
desire. But both these bhikkhunis, when all the appropriate
conditions were finally fulfilled, found their patience and continued
efforts fully rewarded. So too will we, if we diligently and strictly
keep to the Noble Eightfold Path until we become Ariyas, noble ones.
Once we have done this, we are assured that we will completely
eliminate the causes of all suffering.
By making this effort to live in accordance with the Dhamma and to
understand the true nature of existence, we begin to develop strong
wholesome mental volitions, kamma that will have effects in future
births as well as in this one. The continued efforts in this
direction become easier and more natural because, as we wear away
ignorance and the other defilements through insight meditation, our
minds come to be more strongly conditioned by wisdom (//panna//).
Recollecting this infinite span of time behind us, and the vast mass
of wholesome volitional activities accumulated therein, will help us
keep our efforts at purification balanced and strong.
These rebirth stories, illustrating the continuous suffering which
every sentient being has undergone during the rounds of //samsara//,
can also encourage us to work hard in the Dhamma. Understanding this
weighty aspect of the First Noble Truth stimulates us to put forth the
great effort required to overcome suffering by penetrating and
uprooting its causes, which the Buddha explains are basically craving
and ignorance.
Bhikkhuni Sumedha, in her poem, repeats one of the Buddha's
powerful injunctions to eliminate the source of the ceaseless stream
of suffering that has rushed on in our previous lives, and will
otherwise continue on in the same way throughout the infinite future.
Sumedha is pleading with her parents and fiance to allow her to enter
the Sangha rather than force her to marry:
Journeying-on is long for fools and for those who lament again
and again at that which is without beginning and end, at the
death of a father, the slaughter of a brother, and their own
slaughter.
Remember the tears, the milk, the blood, the journeying-on as
being without beginning and end; remember the heap of bones of
beings who are journeying-on.
Remember the four oceans compared with the tears, milk and blood;
remember the heap of bones (of one man) for one eon, (as) equal
(in size) to Mount Vepula.
(vv. 495-497)
"Journeying-on" is //samsara//. In the lines beginning "Remember
the four oceans compared," Sumedha is reminding her family of a
discourse which they must have heard from the Buddha. Each of us, the
Buddha tells us, has shed vast oceans of tears over the loss of loved
ones and in fear of our own doom as the succession of aggregates has
arisen and vanished throughout //samsara's// weary ages. During all
these lifetimes, as the verse declares, we have drunk seas and seas of
mother's milk, and the blood that was shed when violent death ended
our lives also amounts to an immeasurable volume. How could even one
gory death be anything but terrible suffering? The Buddha perceived
all this with his infinite wisdom and so described it to his
followers.
The vastness of //samsara// that we endured before meeting the
Dhamma in this life can easily be extrapolated from the stories of
these nuns. We must also sustain the patience in our endeavor to wear
down ignorance and to develop the awareness of omnipresent suffering
which is life in //samsara//, as the First Noble Truth makes known.
Kammic Cause and Effect
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The second commentarial theme that can be helpful to us in developing
our own understanding of the ultimate nature of reality is the working
of the law of kammic cause and effect. None of these nuns was
emancipated because one day she decided, "Now I am going to cut off
all craving." Nor did the grace of a guru or the power of God or the
Buddha himself enlighten them. Rather, it was a very long process in
the evolution of the "life continuum" that gradually permitted the
conditions for liberation to develop and eventually culminate in
Arahatship. Freeing the mind of ignorance, like all activities, is an
impersonal cause and effect process. Natural laws of this sort are
cultivated and utilized by mental volition to bring about
purification. By repeatedly seeing all the phenomena of life as they
are by means of concentrated Vipassana meditation, we gradually wear
away the defilements that becloud the mind and cause rebirth with its
attendant misery.
For example, Sela took robes when she was a young woman and
"worked her way to insight and because of the promise in her and the
maturity of her knowledge, crushing the //sankharas// (conditioned
phenomena), she soon won Arahatship" (p. 43). For eons, Sela had done
many good deeds, such as making offerings to and looking after
previous Buddhas and their monks. As a result of these meritorious
actions over many lifetimes, she was reborn in the heavenly deva
planes or in comfortable situations on earth. Eventually, at the time
of Buddha Gotama, each of the bhikkhunis, including Sela, came into
the Sangha in her own way. Because the time was right for their
//paramis// to bear fruit, all the factors conducive to enlightenment
could develop, their defilements could be effaced, and the goal could
be achieved.
Sukha left the world under one of the earlier Buddhas, but she
died without becoming an Ariya. Under subsequent Buddhas "she kept
the precepts and was learned and proficient in the doctrine."
Finally, "in this Buddha era she found faith in the Master at her own
home, and became a lay disciple. Later, when she heard Bhikkhuni
Dhammadinna preach, she was thrilled with emotion and renounced the
world under her" (pp. 40-41).[*] All her efforts in past lives then
bore their appropriate fruit as Sukha attained Arahatship and became
in turn a great preacher of the Dhamma. Only a small number of nuns
are renowned for their skill in teaching, and it is likely that the
need to develop the extra //paramis// to teach the Dhamma made it
necessary for Sukha to study under earlier Buddhas for so long without
gaining the paths and fruits.
* [Dhammadinna will be discussed at greater length below, pp. 46-49.
{See "The Five Aggregates and Nibbana," below}]
Similar stories tell of how other bhikkhunis performed good works
and put forth effort in previous lives, building various kinds of
//paramis// which allowed them to completely give up all attachment to
the world at the time of our Buddha. If we consider the process by
which they gradually matured towards liberation, we can see how every
mental volition and every deed of body and speech at some time or
other bears fruit.
It is due to our own //paramis//, our own good kamma of the past,
that we have the rare and great opportunity to come into contact with
the teachings of a Buddha in this lifetime. It is because of wisdom
already cultivated that we now have the opportunity to develop greater
wisdom (//pannaparami//) through insight meditation. Wisdom has the
power to obliterate the results of past kamma since it comprehends
reality correctly. In addition, if we continue to generate such
wholesome volitions now, more good kamma is built up which will
continue to bear beneficial fruit and bring us closer to the goal.
However, wisdom cannot be cultivated in the absence of morality.
The Buddha taught that in order to move towards liberation, it is
necessary to keep a minimum of five precepts strictly at all times:
abstention from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and
consuming intoxicants. If the precepts are broken, the bad kamma thus
created will bring very painful results. Without purity of body and
speech, purity of mind cannot be developed as the mind will be too
agitated by sense desires, regrets and aversion to settle on its
meditation subject properly.
Some of the earlier rebirth stories of Arahat bhikkhunis tell of
lives in which they did not keep the precepts. Several of them
suffered the results of their unwholesome deeds in animal births or in
low forms of human existence. Addhakasi, for example, had a mixed
background. She had become a bhikkhuni established in morality under
Kassapa Buddha, the Buddha immediately preceding Gotama. But once,
due to anger, she referred to a fully liberated senior nun as a
prostitute. As a result of that wrong speech, she was reborn in one
of the lower realms, for to say or do anything wrong to an Ariya
creates worse kamma than to say or do the same thing against a
non-Ariya. When the fruit of that bad deed was mostly used up, as a
residual effect she herself became a prostitute in her final life. By
this time her previous good kamma was the stronger and she ordained as
a nun. Keeping the bhikkhuni life pure, Addhakasi attained the goal.
Causes and effects work themselves out and keep the life process
going through //samsara//. So long as the mind is attached to
anything at all, we will engage in volitional actions, make new kamma,
and will have to experience their results. Cultivating good kamma
will save one from much suffering and prepare the mind for the most
powerful wholesome kamma of all, that born of wisdom, which can
eliminate all kammic creation.
* * * * * * * *
II. THE TEACHINGS OF THE POEMS
The actual poems composed by the nuns exhibit a wide range in tone and
subject matter. They were almost all spoken after the author had
realized that rebirth and all its associated suffering had been
brought to an end by the perfection of insight and total elimination
of defilements. So virtually all the poems contain some form of
"lion's roar," an exclamation that the author has become awakened.
Trivial Incidents Spark Enlightenment
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In some cases the poems describe the circumstances which brought the
woman into the Sangha or which precipitated her awakening. Both of
these can inspire contemporary followers of the Buddha. Sometimes the
most mundane event stimulates a ripe mind to see the truth perfectly.
Bhikkhuni Dhamma returned from her almsround one day exhausted from
heat and exertion. She stumbled, and as she sprawled on the ground a
clear perception arose in her of the utter suffering inherent in the
body, bringing about total relinquishment. She describes the incident
in the following lines:
Having wandered for alms, leaning on a stick, weak, with
trembling limbs I fell to the ground in that very spot, having
seen peril in the body. Then my mind was completely released.
(v.17)
If someone could gain awakening based on such an event, surely
there are an infinite number of potentially enlightening experiences
available to all of us for contemplation. Systematic attention
(//yoniso manasikara//) given to any subject will show up its
impermanence (//anicca//), unsatisfactoriness (//dukkha//), and
essenceless nature (//anatta//) and so encourage us to stop craving.
However, unless we carefully apply our minds in Vipassana meditation
under the guidance of a competent teacher, it is unlikely that we will
be able to utilize our daily encounters with these basic
characteristics as means towards liberation. This is because the
mind's old conditioning is based on ignorance -- the very
//inability// to see things as they really are. Only concentrated
mindfulness of phenomena in meditation can enable us to comprehend
correctly our everyday experiences, because such methodical culture of
insight through Vipassana meditation loosens the old mental tendencies
by giving us direct experience of the impermanence of our mind and
body.
Entering the Sangha after a Child's Death
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quite a number of women entered the Sangha after their small children
had died. Grief is put to good use if it is made the motivation to
develop the "path leading to the cessation of suffering." Ubbiri
greatly mourned the death of her infant daughter until the Buddha
pointed out to her that right in the same charnel ground where she had
left this baby's body, she had similarly parted with thousands of
children to whom she had given birth in previous lives. Because she
had acquired strong merit in the past, this brief personalized
discourse was enough to turn Ubbiri from a lamenting mother into an
Arahat on the spot. As she clearly saw the vastness of //samsara//,
she was prepared to leave it behind. Her profound gratitude to the
Buddha is described in these simple lines:
He has thrust away for me my grief for my daughter. . . . I am
without hunger, quenched.
(vv. 51, 53)
With the quenching of ignorance and craving, nothing remains but a
pure mind, inherently peaceful. Ubbiri had a pliable, well-prepared
mind, and thus she understood, through the Buddha's instructions, that
the source of all her suffering had been craving. After countless
millions of lifetimes spent rolling in //samsara//, Ubbiri realized
how her deep motherly attachment to her children had always caused her
much anguish; for sons and daughters, like everything else, are
subject to the law of impermanence. We cannot make our loved ones
live beyond the span set by their own kamma. This was an insight so
powerful for her that no object at all seemed worthy of interest any
longer because of the potential pain permeating them all. Thus all
tendency to cling was broken, never to reappear.
The life story of Patacara before she came to the Dhamma,
described in considerable detail in the commentary to the
//Therigatha//, is even more dramatic. She lost her entire family,
her husband, two small children, parents and brothers in various
accidents within a few days. She went insane from the sorrow, but the
Buddha's compassion combined with Patacara's //paramis// from the past
enabled her to regain her right mind. When she came into his
presence, he taught her to understand how often before she had
hopelessly exhausted herself grieving for the dead. She became a
Stream-enterer (//sotapanna//), one at the first stage of irreversible
progress on the path to liberation, and she was ordained. Later, as
she was one day pouring water to wash her feet and watching it trickle
away -- as life does sooner or later for all beings -- her mind became
utterly free from clinging. Patacara, like Dhamma, had thoroughly
developed seeds of understanding, so a very minor mundane incident at
just the right moment cleared her mind of every trace of ignorance.
Many other women entered the Sangha in circumstances similar to
those of Ubbiri or Patacara. A woman distraught over the death of a
child must have been very common in India in those days when limited
medical knowledge could not counter a very high infant mortality rate.
Theri Patacara spoke to a group of five hundred such grief-stricken
mothers, expressing what she had so powerfully learned from similar
experience herself:
The way of which men come we cannot know;
Nor can we see the path by which they go.
Why mourn then for him who came to you,
Lamenting through the tears? . . .
Weep not, for such is the life of man.
Unasked he came and unbidden he went.
Ask yourself again whence came your child
To live on earth this little time?
By one way come and by another gone,
As human to die, and pass to other births --
So hither and so hence -- why should you weep?
(p. 78)
In this way Patacara illustrates for these mothers the natural
connection, the invisible, impersonal causal nexus between death and
life, life and death. They too took robes and eventually became
Arahats. Their joint "lion's roar" culminates in the lines:
Today my heart is healed, my yearning stayed,
Perfected deliverance wrought in me.
I go for refuge to the Buddha, the Sangha, and the Dhamma.
(p. 77)
Because of their physiology and their conditioning by family and
society, women are more prone to attachment to their offspring than
are men, and so will suffer all the more from their loss. However, if
women train their minds to understand how clinging causes enormous
suffering, how birth and death are natural processes happening as
effects of specific causes, and how infinite the history of such
misery is, they can utilize their feminine sufferings in the quest for
awakening. In the //Kindred Sayings// (Vol. IV, pp. 62-163), the
Buddha himself pointed out the five kinds of suffering unique to
women. Three are physiological -- menstruation, pregnancy, and
childbirth. The other two are social, and perhaps not as widely
relevant today as they were in ancient Indian society: having to leave
her own family to live with her husband and in-laws, and having "to
wait upon a man." All five must be the results of past unwholesome
deeds, yet each one can be made a basis for insight. Women can train
their minds to turn to advantage these apparent disadvantages. They
can then make full use of their stronger experiences of the
universality and omnipresence of suffering to condition themselves to
let go of everything in the conditioned realm.
For some individuals, intense suffering is needed to make the mind
relinquish its misconceptions and desires. Patacara is one example of
this; Kisa Gotami is a second. The latter was so unwilling to face
the truth of her child's death that she carried the dead baby around
with her hoping to find one who could give her medicine to cure him.
The Buddha guided her into a realization of the omnipresence of death
by sending her in search of some mustard seed. This is a common
ingredient in Indian kitchens, but the Buddha specified that these
seeds must come from a household where no one had ever died.
Kisa Gotami went looking for this "medicine" for her baby, but
because of the prevalent joint family system in which three or more
generations lived together under one roof, every house she went to had
seen death. Gradually, as she wandered through the village, she
realized that all who are born must die. Her great //paramis// then
enabled her to understand impermanence so thoroughly that soon
afterwards the Buddha confirmed her attainment of Stream-entry. She
then spoke these lines:
No village law is this, no city law,
No law for this clan, or for that alone;
For the whole world -- and for the gods too --
This is the law: All is impermanent.
(p. 108)
Kisa Gotami thus transcended the limits of a woman's personal
grief to understand one of the basic characteristics of all existence.
Kisa Gotami later attained Arahatship. Some of the verses she
spoke on that occasion give useful lessons to any striver on the Noble
Eightfold Path:
Resorting to noble friends, even a fool would be wise. Good men
are to be resorted to; thus the wisdom of those who resort to
them increases. Resorting to good men one would be released from
all pains.
One should know suffering, the cause of suffering and its
cessation, and the Eightfold Path; (these are) the Four Noble
Truths.
(vv. 213-215)
The company of the wise, especially the guidance of a teacher, is
an invaluable help in getting oneself established on the path. But
the company of people not involved in the Dhamma will tend to be
distracting. Those who are not trying to practice the Buddha's
teachings will usually lead us in the worldly direction to which their
own minds incline. Thus, when we can, it is best to choose our
friends from among meditators.
The Four Noble Truths
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Kisa Gotami urges in the final lines quoted above, meditators need
to train their minds constantly to see the Four Noble Truths in all
their ramifications. This is wisdom, //panna//, the remedy for the
ignorance and delusion which are at the root of all suffering as shown
in the formula of dependent origination. To develop wisdom one has to
ponder these four truths over and over again: (1) the Noble Truth of
Suffering (//dukkha//) which includes all forms of suffering from
severe agony to the pervasive unsatisfactoriness and instability
inherent in individual existence in all planes of becoming; (2) the
Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering -- craving (//tanha//), which
drives the mind outwards after sense objects in a state of perpetual
unrest; (3) the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering -- Nibbana,
which is attained when the causes of suffering, ignorance and craving,
have been utterly uprooted; and (4) the Noble Truth of the Way leading
to the Cessation of Suffering -- the Noble Eightfold Path discovered
and taught by the Buddha, consisting in the assiduous practice of
morality (//sila//), concentration (//samadhi//) and wisdom
(//panna//).
The Four Noble Truths are concisely expressed in a verse spoken by
Maha Pajapati, the Buddha's maternal aunt who brought him up when his
own mother, Queen Mahamaya, died a week after his birth. It was at
the insistence of Maha Pajapati that the Buddha founded the Bhikkhuni
Sangha. In her poem she first praises the Buddha for the unique help
he has given to so many beings by training them in the way to
liberation; then she briefly sums up the Four Noble Truths which she
has so thoroughly experienced as ultimate truth. It would be
beneficial for modern meditators to consider these lines carefully:
Now have I understood how ill does come,
Craving, the Cause, is dried up in me.
Have I not walked, have I not touched the End
Of ill -- the Ariyan, the Eightfold Noble Path.
(p. 89)
Buddhist meditators have to train themselves to know these truths
as deeply as they can by seeing them in every aspect of existence. We
follow the mundane level of the Noble Eightfold Path in order to reach
the supramundane (//lokuttara//) path with the attainment of
Stream-entry. Then the constituents of the path -- morality,
concentration and wisdom -- are cultivated to the highest degree and
the end of suffering, Nibbana, is realized.
Reaching the Goal after a Long Struggle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When we read the stories of these great bhikkhunis, we see that many
of them attained the highest fruits either instantaneously or soon
after coming into contact with the Buddha or his Dhamma. This could
have happened because they had built up //paramis// in many previous
lives, creating pure kamma of body, speech and mind, while
simultaneously wearing out the effects of past kamma.
Yet not all the people whose //paramis// permitted them to
actually hear the Buddha preach were able to become Arahats so quickly
in their final lives. When we confront our rebellious minds as we try
to follow his path, we can take heart from the tales of nuns who had
to put forth years and years of intense persistent effort before they
eliminated all their defilements.
A youthful Citta ordained at her home town of Rajagaha and spent
her whole adult life as a nun striving for enlightenment. She finally
attained her goal only as a weak old woman, as she laboriously climbed
up the landmark of Vultures' Peak. When she had done so, she said:
Having thrown down my outer robe, and having
turned my bowl upside down, I propped myself
against a rock, having torn asunder the mass
of darkness (of ignorance).
(v. 27)
If we diligently, strictly, and vigorously practice the Noble
Eightfold Path, developing insight into the true nature of existence,
the opacity of delusion must eventually become completely transparent,
cleared by wisdom. It may require many years or many lifetimes of
work, but then patience is one of the qualities we must cultivate from
the time we first set foot on the path.
Another bhikkhuni who took years to reach enlightenment was
Mittakali. She took robes after hearing the Satipatthana Sutta. In
her "lion's roar" she describes the errors that cost her seven years
to gain Nibbana. Her poem can be instructive to other meditators both
within and outside the Sangha:
Having gone forth in faith from the house to the houseless state,
I wandered here and there, greedy for gain and honor.
Having missed the highest goal, I pursued the lowest goal.
Having gone under the mastery of the defilements, I did not know
the goal of the ascetic's state.
(vv. 92-93)
The Buddha pointed out on many occasions that it is dangerous for
monks and nuns to pursue gains or favors from the laity, as such
activities nullify any attempts they may make to purify their minds.
The layman gives gifts to bhikkhus and bhikkhunis to earn merit. If
the mind of the recipient is pure, free from greed and other
defilements, the merit accruing to the lay disciple is far greater
than if the recipient's mind is filled with craving. One of the
epithets given to Arahats, whose purity is permanently perfect, is
"worthy of the highest offerings." All those, ordained or not, who
allow craving to overtake them and waste the precious opportunity they
have to practice the Dhamma, will delay their own liberation and
increase their suffering.
In the simile of the poisonous snake in the //Middle Length
Sayings// (Vol I, pp. 171-72), the Buddha points out that his teaching
has only one aim, freedom from suffering. An incorrect approach that
seeks to misuse the Dhamma will lead to increased suffering, just as
grasping a snake by the body or tail will result in one's being
bitten. The same venomous snake, if grabbed with the help of a forked
stick by the neck just behind its head, will safely yield up its
poison for medicinal use. The Buddha declares that similarly only
those who wisely examine the purpose of his teachings will be able to
gain insight and actually experience their purpose -- the elimination
of the causes of suffering.
When Mittakali perceived that old age and death were rapidly
approaching, she finally came to realize the urgency of the task after
wasting years in the pursuit of gain and honor. Since we can never be
sure how much longer we will live, it is risky to put off meditation.
We have come into contact with the Dhamma under conditions conducive
to pursuing the Buddha's goal. Such conditions as youth and human
birth will come to an end -- either gradually or abruptly -- so we can
never be certain that the conditions to practice the Dhamma will
remain ideal. Mittakali took years to comprehend that with advancing
age, rigidity of mind and bodily ailments were making the job of
purification ever more difficult. But once she did realize this, she
was able to achieve the goal. Studying this verse of hers may help us
to avoid wasting precious time:
I felt a sense of urgency as I was seated in my little cell;
(thinking) "I have entered upon the wrong road; I have come under
the mastery of craving.
"My life is short. Old age and sickness are destroying it.
There is no time for me to be careless before this body is
broken."
Looking at the arising and passing away of the elements of
existence as they really are, I stood up with my mind completely
released. The Buddha's Teaching has been done.
(vv. 94-95)
By observing the rise and fall at every instant of body, feelings,
perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness, Mittakali's mind
was freed from misconceptions of any lasting "I" or self. After those
seven long years of being trapped in the net of desires, she saw
through her foolish and dangerous interest in mundane matters. She
was then able to see the elements or aggregates as they actually are:
utterly transient (//anicca//), hence incapable of providing any
satisfaction (so //dukkha//), working automatically without any
lasting core (//anatta//). All her worldly involvements dropped away
as she attained Arahatship and thenceforth passed beyond all sorrow
and suffering.
Perhaps the most moving story of a nun who had to undergo a long
struggle from the time she first ordained until she became fully
enlightened is that of Punna. Under six earlier Buddhas, in the vast
eons prior to the Buddha Gotama's dispensation, Punna was a bhikkhuni
"perfect in virtue, and learning the three Pitakas [the Buddhist
scriptures] she became very learned in the Norm and a teacher of it.
But because of her tendency to pride [each time], she was unable to
root out the defilements." Even at the time of Buddha Gotama, she had
to work out some bad kamma and so was born as a slave. Hearing one of
the Buddha's discourses, she became a Stream-enterer. After she
helped her master clear his wrong view, in gratitude he freed her and
she ordained. After so many lifetimes of striving, the //paramis//
she had built up as a nun under previous Buddhas ripened. Pride or
conceit, always one of the last defilements to go, finally dissolved
and she attained Arahatship.
By pondering the accounts of women who attained full awakening
after much application and effort, we can be encouraged to continue
our own exertions no matter how slow our progress may appear at a
given time. In the //Gradual Sayings// (Vol. IV, pp. 83-84), the
Buddha gives an analogy of the wearing down of the carpenter's ax
handle to illustrate how the mental impurities are to be gradually
worn away. Even though the woodcutter cannot say, "This much of the
handle was rubbed off today, this much last week," it is clear to him
that slowly, over time, the handle is being destroyed. Similarly, a
meditator who has a good guide and who constantly attempts to
understand the Four Noble Truths and to live in accordance with the
Noble Eightfold Path, will gradually eliminate his defilements, even
though the steps in the process are imperceptible. Even the Buddha
declined to predict the amount of time that will elapse before the
final goal is reached. This is conditioned by many interacting
factors, such as the good and bad kamma built up in the past and the
amount of effort put forth now and in the future. Whether it takes us
millions of more lifetimes or a week, we will be sustained in our
efforts by the faith that perfection of morality, concentration and
wisdom will bring utter detachment and freedom from all suffering.
Liberation means renouncing attachment to oneself and to the
world. We cannot rush the process of detachment; insight into the
suffering brought about by clinging will do it, slowly. While trying
to eliminate mental impurities, we have to accept their existence. We
would not be here at all were it not for the ignorance and other
defiling tendencies that brought us into this birth. We need to learn
to live equanimously with the dirt of the mind while it is slowly
being cleared away. Purification, like all other mental activities,
is a cause and effect process. Clarity comes slowly with the repeated
application of the wisdom of impermanence. If we are patient and
cheerfully bear with moments of apparent backsliding or stupidity, if
we continue to work energetically with determination, not swerving off
the path, the results will begin here and now. And in due time they
have to ripen fully.
Contemplation on the Sangha
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Sangha, the order of monks and nuns, preserves and perpetuates the
Buddha's pure teachings, and its members have dedicated their lives to
practicing them. Thus contemplation on the Sangha is recommended by
the Buddha to help cultivate wholesome mental states. We could begin
such contemplation based on the poem of a bhikkhuni named Rohini.
Her father had asked her why she thought recluses and monks were
great beings. He claimed, as might many people today -- particularly
in the West with its strong "work ethic" -- that ascetics are just
lazy; they are "parasites" who do nothing worthwhile and live off the
labor of others. But Rohini proclaimed her faith in the work and
lives of pure recluses. She thereby inspired her father's confidence,
and at her bidding he then took refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and
the Sangha. Her poem can also inspire us:
They are dutiful, not lazy, doers of the best actions; they
abandon desire and hatred . . .
They shake off the three roots of evil doing pure actions; all
their evil is eliminated . . .
Their body-activity is pure; and their speech-activity is
likewise; their mind-activity is pure . . .
They are spotless like mother-of-pearl, purified inside and out;
full of good mental states . . .
Having great learning, expert in the doctrine, noble, living in
accordance with the doctrine, they teach the goal and the
doctrine . . . with intent minds, (they are) possessed of
mindfulness . . .
Traveling far, possessed of mindfulness, speaking in moderation,
not conceited, they comprehend the end of suffering . . .
If they go from any village, they do not look back (longingly) at
anything; they go without longing indeed . . .
They do not deposit their property in a store-room, nor in a pot,
nor in a basket, (rather) seeking that which is cooked . . .
They do not take gold, coined or uncoined, or silver; they live
by means of whatever turns up . . .
Those who have gone forth are of various families and from
various countries; (nevertheless) they are friendly to one
another; therefore ascetics are dear to me.
(vv. 275-285)
The Buddhist texts speak of two kinds of Sangha, both referred to
in this poem, the Ariya Sangha and the Bhikkhu Sangha. In the opening
lines Rohini describes the Ariyas, "noble ones," and those striving to
attain that state. The three lower kinds of Ariyas may be lay
disciples or ordained monks and nuns. But because of their utter
purity, the highest type, the filly liberated Arahats, can continue to
live only within the Bhikkhu Sangha. It is Arahats who have
completely rid their minds of greed, hatred and ignorance, the three
roots of evil which Rohini mentions. Other Ariyas are striving to
abandon whatever of these three still remains in their minds. All
Ariyas to some extent "comprehend the end of suffering," the Third
Noble Truth, for it is this experience of Nibbana which sets them
apart as "noble."
Beginning with the next line, Rohini specifically talks about the
behavior of monks and nuns. They wander on almsrounds through the
streets with their eyes trained just a few steps ahead of them. "They
do not look back" as they have no idle interest in the events that are
going on around them. They do not handle money and are content with
the minimum by way of the requisites -- whatever their lay followers
may offer them. Students of the Dhamma who are not in the monastic
order would also do well to cultivate the monk's lack of interest in
his surroundings. A good monk does not let his gaze wander about
uncontrolled, especially when he is on almsround, because when going
into the village every morning he encounters a plethora of sense
objects that might entice him if he does not restrain his senses and
maintain mindfulness. Attentively, the good bhikkhu goes silently
from door to door and leaves when there is enough food in his bowl,
without letting craving disturb his balance of mind. Such a monk is
not interested in the details of the lives of those around him. His
focus is always on the ultimate nature of things -- their
impermanence, painfulness and essencelessness. As lay meditators we
too need to train ourselves to be like these bhikkhus, to remain
equanimous and detached amidst all the clamor and distractions of life
by reminding ourselves that none of these things is worth running
after.
Rohini also states that the noble monks are not greedy about money
or other possessions. They do not save up their requisites out of
fear for the future. Instead, they trust their good kamma to fulfill
their daily needs. While, as laymen, we must work for our living, we
should heed this behavior and similarly adopt a detached attitude
towards wealth. We work in order to sustain our bodies and those of
the people who are dependent on us. But if we can learn to do this
without intense longing for the "security" that money seems to
provide, we will see how the law of kamma works.
The last verse states that within the Sangha, the family, class or
national background of its members does not impede their cordial
relations with each other. This kind of open good will is surely
useful for laymen to put into practice in their daily lives too.
Since it is by ordaining that individuals can completely dedicate
their lives to the Dhamma, bhikkhus and bhikkhunis offer us laymen
many examples of how we should try to apply the teachings within the
limitations of "the dust of household life." Rohini's poem has
pointed out some of these.
The Danger of Worldly Desire
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A large number of poems by the nuns emphasize the danger of worldly
desire. The bhikkhuni named Sumedha shaved off her hair herself in
order to force her parents to cancel her proposed marriage and permit
his to enter the Sangha. But before she left home, Sumedha convinced
her whole family and its retinue of the validity of the Buddha's
message. To her fiance, King Anikaratta, she explained the futility
of sense desires and the insatiability of the senses:
Even if the rain-god rained all seven kinds
Of gems, until earth and heaven were full,
Still senses would crave and men die unsatiated.
(p. 176)
No matter how large a quantity of worldly goods we may have, if
the mind has not gained insight, craving will recur. If ignorance has
not been uprooted, desire will seek more and different objects, always
hoping for lasting satisfaction. Durable happiness is impossible in
the mundane sphere because all sense objects change and decay every
moment, as does the mind itself. This perpetual state of underlying
dissatisfaction -- craving looking for gratification -- is one of the
many forms of present suffering. In addition, desire itself generates
the kammic energy which propels life towards rebirth in order for it
to continue its efforts at finding fulfillment. If desire is present
in the mind at the moment of death, rebirth has to ensue.
After speaking the above verse, Sumedha gave a lengthy discourse
to the whole assembly in her palace on the great value of a human
birth in the infinity of //samsara//. Life in this world is precious
because it provides a very rare opportunity for learning the way to
put an end to rebirth and suffering, for putting into practice the
teachings of the Buddha. Sumedha also spoke on the danger inherent in
sensual joy and sense desire and she uttered verses about the Noble
Eightfold Path as well. She enthusiastically exhorted her audience:
When the undying (Nibbana) exists, what do you
want with sensual pleasures which are burning
fevers? For all delights in sensual pleasures
are on fire, aglow, seething.
(v. 504)
When craving momentarily gains its aim, mind's enjoyment of the
sense object brings it to a feverish state of excitement and activity.
Sumedha urges her family to look beyond such unsettling, binding
pleasures and to heed the words of the Awakened One which show the way
beyond all desire to utter peace. She exhorts them to keep in mind
their long-term benefit and not get caught up in the fragile momentary
happiness that comes with the occasional satisfaction of sense desire.
She reminds them in words we too should recall: "Desires of sense burn
those who do not let go" (p. 176). Clinging to pleasure always brings
pain. Such agitated emotions, although perhaps pleasant in a gross
way, are gone in a moment. They arise and cease due to conditions we
cannot completely control. We always tend to want the pleasant to
last in spite of the fact that its nature is to change, vanish, and
give way to the unpleasant. Sumedha's poem expounding this wisdom is
the last one in the original //Therigatha// and it summarizes what the
Buddha taught about the dangers of craving.
The bhikkhuni named Subha also dwells at length on the dangers of
mundane wishes, using some terrifying metaphors to show the tremendous
dangers inherent in attachment to the world. In the following poem
taken from the Samyutta Nikaya a meditator can discover much by
reflecting on Subha's intense imagery:
May I not meet (again) with sensual pleasures, in which no refuge
is found. Sensual pleasures are enemies, murderers, like a mass
of fire, pain-(ful).
Greed is an obstacle, full of fear, full of annoyance, full of
thorns, and it is very disagreeable. It is a great cause of
stupefaction . . .
Sensual pleasures are maddening, deceiving, agitating the mind; a
net spread out by Mara for the defilement of creatures.
Sensual pleasures have endless perils, they have much pain, they
are great poisons, they give little enjoyment, they cause
conflict, drying up the virtuous.
(vv. 351f., 357f.)
These lines show us the peril and suffering we must face when we
allow ourselves to become entangled in mundane desires. Only personal
comprehension of these dangers motivates a meditator to become truly
mindful, aware of his physical and mental activities with ever-present
detachment. Otherwise his "mindfulness" may be forced, suppressing
reactions without helping to untie mental knots. Studying the
suffering we have to encounter if we are carried away by our desires,
naturally loosens their hold on the mind. We will realize along with
Subha that worldly lusts are enemies and that they herald all the
misery of successive births.
One of our tasks in seeking liberation is to train our minds to
see desire as it arises at the sense doors. We must also see desire
as it persists and as it passes away. Having done this over and over
again, we will understand that all desire or attachment is bound to
result in unhappiness. In this way we will gradually train our minds
to let go of all craving and aversions towards sense objects.
To try to practice this mindfulness without any specific training
is likely to fail because the worldling, the average person, perceives
no suffering in craving. A worldling can only see the expected
happiness. He invariably thinks, "If only this would happen just
right, all would be well." But as we purify our bodily and vocal
activities through morality, still our minds through concentration,
and take up insight meditation under a good teacher, we will come to
see more and more clearly how all desire is suffering and brings still
more suffering in the future. We will then also realize how often
attaining a desired object turns out to be an anti-climax which leaves
-- not the anticipated happiness -- but only emptiness. With a calm
mind we can clearly perceive the tension, distress, and uneasiness
caused by the continual dissatisfaction, which in turn is due to
craving impelling the mind to various sense objects.
Thus the mind is always running -- now towards what it foolishly
regards as a "desirable" thing, now away from what it considers
"undesirable." In Vipassana meditation, the one-pointed mind is
trained to experience directly the transitory nature of body and of
mind itself, and also of external sense objects. With this direct
knowledge or experiential insight, the "happiness" which is so avidly
sought by the worldling is seen as really just another form of
suffering, and the perpetual tension caused by the ignorance and
craving latent in any unliberated mind becomes evident. As sensual
pleasure is understood to be the seething fire described by our
bhikkhunis, the mind naturally lets go of all these different
manifestations of craving. Such a mind has thoroughly learned the
lesson that the nuns gleaned from their Master and passed on to us:
suffering is inherent in desire.
The Danger in Attachment to One's Beauty
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In ancient times as well as at present, women in all stations of life
have used various means to enhance their beauty and to hide the signs
of advancing age. This, however, is just a futile attempt to pretend
that the body is not growing old, to keep it from showing outwardly
that it is actually falling apart. But if, instead of creams and
lotions, wisdom is applied to the aging process, it can deepen our
understanding of impermanence on all levels.
Ambapali was a wealthy and beautiful courtesan during the time of
the Buddha. Before she heard the Buddha preach, her main concern had
been to cultivate and maintain her renowned beauty. With the Buddha's
guidance, she was able to face the inevitability of aging and the loss
of her beauty and to comprehend the suffering of old age. Her verses
can also stimulate our own understanding:
My eyes were shining, very brilliant like jewels, very black and
long. Overwhelmed by old age, they do not look beautiful. Not
otherwise is the utterance of the speaker of truth . . .
Formerly my hands looked beautiful, possessing delicate signet
rings, decorated with gold. Because of old age they are like
onions and radishes. Not otherwise is the utterance of the
speaker of the truth . . .
Formerly my body looked beautiful, like a well-polished sheet of
gold. (Now) it is covered with very fine wrinkles. Not
otherwise is the utterance of the speaker of the truth . . .
Such was this body. (Now) it is decrepit, the abode of many
pains, an old house with its plaster fallen off. Not otherwise
is the utterance of the speaker of the truth.
(vv. 257, 264, 266, 270)
Ambapali sees how all the body's charms give way to ugliness and
pain as the aging process takes its toll, as the Buddha teaches it
must. All physical beauty, no matter how perfect it might seem at one
youthful moment, is utterly impermanent. Even at its peak, the
brilliance of the eyes is already, if invisibly, starting to grow dim;
the firmness of limbs is withering; the smoothness of skin is
wrinkling. Impermanence and decay, Ambapali reminds us, is the nature
of all bodies and of everything else in the universe as well.
Khema, the queen of King Bimbisara, was another woman who had been
enthralled with her own beauty prior to meeting the Buddha. But Khema
had made a vow before one of the earlier Buddhas to become great in
wisdom under the Buddha Gotama. During the dispensations of several
of the intervening Buddhas, she had parks made which she donated to
each Buddha and his Sangha.
But in her final lifetime Khema strongly resisted going to see the
Buddha Gotama. Perhaps her "Mara forces" were making a last effort to
keep her in //samsara//. They were, however, doomed to fail since by
the force of her merits this was to be her final existence. King
Bimbisara almost had to trick her into going to the Buddha because
Queen Khema was so attached to her looks and was afraid that this
would provoke the Buddha's disapproval. If we ever find ourselves
resisting the Dhamma, we can use Khema's example to remind ourselves
of the temporary nature of this mental state. Then we will not take
it as a major personal fault. Mind's old habits are not pure, so at
times it is bound to struggle against the process of purification.
But the Buddha knew how to tame Khema's vanity and conceit. He
created the vivid image of a woman even more attractive than she was.
When she came into his presence, Khema saw this other lady fanning the
Buddha. Then, before the queen's very eyes, the Buddha made the
beautiful image grow older and older until she was just a decaying bag
of bones. Seeing this, first Khema realized that her own beauty was
not unmatched. This broke her pride. Second and more important, she
understood that she herself would likewise have to grow old and
decrepit.
The Buddha next spoke a verse and Khema became a Stream-enterer.
Then in rapid succession she went through all the stages of
enlightenment to attain Arahatship on the spot. Thereupon the Buddha
told King Bimbisara that she would either have to ordain or to pass
away, and the king, unable to bear the thought of losing her so soon,
gave her permission to ordain. So, already an Arahat, she was
ordained -- one of the very rare cases of a human being who had
achieved Arahatship before entering the Sangha. Khema had clearly
built up truly unique //paramis// by giving great gifts to earlier
Buddhas and by learning their teachings thoroughly. [*] Here again we
see the great importance of creating in the present strong good kamma
based on wisdom, even if we do not attain any of the paths or fruits
in this lifetime. The more good deeds accompanied by wisdom that we
do now, the easier will it be when the time actually comes for us to
reach the goal. Meditation is, of course, the most valuable of such
deeds.
* [This story is related in the Commentary to the Dhammapada,
translated as //Buddhist Legends// by E. W. Burlingame, published by
the Pali Text Society. See Part 3, pp. 225ff.]
In the //Therigatha//, Khema's poem takes the form of a
conversation with Mara, the being who controls and symbolizes the
forces of evil. Mara praised her beauty, and her reply shows how
totally her view of herself and of life had changed now that she fully
understood the true nature of things:
Through this body vile, foul seat of disease and corruption,
Loathing I feel, and oppression. Cravings of lust are uprooted.
Lusts of the body and mind cut like daggers and javelins.
Speak not to me of delighting in any sensuous pleasure!
All such vanities cannot delight me any more.
(p. 83)
Then she identifies Mara with those who believe that mere ritual
observances will lead to mental purification. Khema states that such
people, who worship fire or the constellations, etc., are ignorant of
reality and cannot eliminate their defiling tendencies through such
practices. This is why the belief that rites and rituals can bring
about liberation has to be eliminated to attain even the stage of
Stream-entry.
Khema concludes her verses with an exclamation of deep gratitude
to the Buddha, the supreme among men. Her last line is a resounding
"lion's roar":
(I am) utterly free from all sorrow,
A doer of the Buddha's teachings.
(pp. 3-4)
Khema had "done," i.e. put into practice, the message of all the
Buddhas, and this had taken her beyond the realms of suffering.
Further Conversations with Mara
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some of the other discourse-type verses in the //Therigatha// also
take the form of a discussion with Mara. Typically, Mara asks the
Arahat nun why she is not interested in the "good things of life."
Mara urged Sela, for example, to enjoy sensual pleasures while youth
allowed her to do so. The theri's reply on the dangers of such
delights offers similes as powerful as those used by Bhikkhuni
Sumedha:
Sensual pleasures are like sword and stakes; the elements of
existence are a chopping block for them; what you call 'delight
in sensual pleasures' is now 'non-delight' for me.
(v. 58)
Surely many of us have also heard our own internal Mara urge us to
"go have a good time and never mind the long-term kammic
consequences." But if we can remind ourselves often enough and early
enough of the painful after-effects of such "joys" -- especially of
those that involve breaking moral precepts -- we may see through the
pleasures of the senses and so gradually lose our attachment to them.
In one of the discourses from the Samyutta Nikaya, Cala tells Mara
that, unlike most beings, she finds no delight in birth in spite of
the so-called sensual pleasures that life makes possible. With clear
simplicity she shows that ultimately all that birth produces is
suffering:
Once born we die. Once born we see life's ills --
The bonds, the torments, and the life cut off.
(p. 186)
We too should cultivate this understanding in order to develop
detachment from the poison-soaked sensual pleasures offered by mundane
life.
The Doctrine of Anatta
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One of the unique aspects of the Buddha's teaching is its doctrine of
//anatta//, the impersonal, essenceless, egoless or soul-less nature
of all phenomena. This universal characteristic is difficult to
comprehend as it is contrary to our most deeply held assumption that
"I" exist, that "I" act and "I" feel.
Sakula, in the following lines of her poem in the //Therigatha//,
briefly expresses her understanding of the impersonal quality of all
compounded things:
Seeing the constituent elements as other, arisen causally, liable
to dissolution, I eliminated all taints. I have become cool,
quenched.
(v. 101)
Sakula has attained Nibbana because she saw with total clarity
that everything normally taken to be "myself" is, in fact, devoid of
any such self. She knew that all these phenomena arise and dissolve
every moment strictly dependent on causes. This comprehension has
rooted out all tendency to cling to the //sankharas// or "constituent
elements" and so all the defiling mental tendencies have ceased.
When Mara asks Sister Sela, "Who made this body, where did it come
from and where will it go?", she gives him in reply (in one of the
poems added from the Samyutta Nikaya) a discourse on egolessness:
Neither self-made the puppet is, nor yet
By another is this evil fashioned.
By reason of a cause it came to be;
By rupture of a cause it dies away.
Like a given seed sown in the field,
Which, when it gets the taste of earth,
And moisture too -- by these two does grow,
So the five aggregates, the elements,
And the six spheres of sense -- all of these --
By reason of a cause they came to be;
By rupture of a cause they die away.
(pp. 189-190)
After the seed analogy, the last four lines discuss the "self" as
it actually is -- a compound of conditioned, changing phenomena. The
five aggregates make up //nama// (mentality) and //rupa//
(materiality), each of which is turn made up of groups of ephemeral
factors. //Nama//, the mental side of existence, consists of the four
immaterial aggregates -- feeling (//vedana//), perception (//sanna//),
mental formations (//sankhara//), and consciousness (//vinnana//) --
which arise together at every moment of experience. //Rupa//, which
may be external matter or the matter of one's own body, consists of
the four essential material qualities -- solidity, cohesion,
temperature, and vibration -- along with the derivative types of
matter coexisting with them in the very minute material groupings
called //kalapas//, arising and passing away millions of times per
second.
Each aggregate arises due to certain causes and when these causes
end, the aggregate also ceases. Causes, or conditions, are connected
with effects in the law of dependent arising (paticcasamuppada), which
is at the center of the Buddha's own awakening. The refrain from
Sela's poem (lines 3-4 and 10-11) is, in fact, a reformulation of the
most general exposition of that law often stated thus in the suttas:
When there is this, that comes to be;
With the arising of this, that arises.
When this is absent, that does not come to be;
With the cessation of this, that ceases.
The specific link in the cycle of dependent arising most relevant
to Sela's verse is: "With consciousness as condition,
mentality-materiality arises." That is, at the moment of conception,
//nama-rupa// (in this case excluding consciousness) arises due to
rebirth-linking consciousness. Later on, during the course of an
existence, //nama//, the mental aggregates, comes into being due to
ignorance, past kamma, objects at the sense doors, and many other
conditions. //Rupa//, the matter which makes up the body, arises
during life because of food, climate, present state of mind, and past
kamma.
Sela also refers to the elements, //dhatu//, a word which the
Buddha uses for several groups of phenomena. Let us look here at the
eighteen elements. The five sense faculties (eye, ear, nose, tongue,
body), their objects (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches), and
the five types of consciousness dependent on their coming together
make up fifteen of the elements. Mind as a faculty, mental objects
(ideas), and the mind-consciousness that arises when those two come
together are the sixth in each set, completing the eighteen.
The Buddha analyzed the totality of conditioned phenomena into
ultimate constituents in a number of ways for the benefit of listeners
of varying proclivities. To some, the eighteen elements are clear, to
others, the five aggregates. Either way, what we need to understand
as Sela did is that none of these things is "me" or "mine" or "my
self." All these phenomena -- the aggregates, the elements, the
spheres -- arise because of certain conditions, and when those
conditions end, naturally they also have to end. When the relevant
causes have expended their force, all these aspects of what we
erroneously take to be "me" and "mine" cease. So we see with Sela
that nowhere is there any real, independent, or lasting "I" with the
power to create and sustain itself. There is only the concept "I am"
which is conditioned by ignorance, i.e. our inability to see
mind-and-body as it really is. The idea "I" is itself essenceless, it
arises due to causes; and it is also inherently impermanent, bound to
completely disappear when the ignorance and other supporting
conditions behind it are uprooted. This is the attainment of
Arahatship.
The removal of ignorance takes place step by step in Vipassana
meditation. Every aspect of the mind-body complex comes to be clearly
known at its ultimate level as conditioned, essenceless, transitory,
oppressive. One comes to fully understand that only when the
appropriate conditions come about will a so-called "being" be born.
Only then will a five-aggregate life-continuum commence a new life
with its bases, elements and sense organs. If we explore Bhikkhuni
Sela's seed analogy, we will see in relation to ourselves how a strict
succession of causes and effects, kammic and other, governs all of
life. We will discover that there is no underlying or ongoing "I"
doing or experiencing anything, and will begin to loosen our
attachment to this non-existent "self." Then we start to eliminate
the dreadful suffering that comes attendant on this delusion.
Suffering follows from the mistaken belief in an "I," technically
called //sakkayaditthi//, wrong view of a lasting self. On the basis
of this idea the mind generates all its thoughts of craving: "I must
have this," "I don't like that," "This is mine." It is basically due
to this misconception of a controlling self that we have been
wandering and suffering throughout eons in //samsara//. If we are to
eliminate all the //dukkha// of existence, as Theri Sela did, we must
develop insight through Vipassana meditation to the point at which
understanding of the ultimate truth about mind and body dissolves the
mistaken belief in an "I." We can use this bhikkhuni's words to
stimulate our own personal meditative experience of the essenceless
nature of the five aggregates.
Men and Women in the Dhamma
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The difference between the male and female in connection with the
Dhamma is a minor theme running through the //Therigatha//. It takes
two forms: poems whose subject matter is the irrelevance of one's
gender for gaining insight, and instances in which a nun specifically
inspires or instructs a man with a discourse. The stories of Sumedha
and Rohini already discussed fit into the latter type.
An example of the first type is Soma's challenge to Mara's query
about women's ability to attain Arahatship. Soma showed Mara that the
capacity to gain the requisite insight for liberation need not be
hindered by "woman's nature." Soma's encounter with Mara in the
//Therigatha// proper is explained in her verses from the Samyutta
Nikaya, where she rhetorically asks him:
What should the woman's nature do to them
Whose hearts are firmly set, who ever move
With growing knowledge onward in the Path?
(pp. 45; 182-183)
If one is really developing morality, concentration and wisdom, it
does not matter whether one was born male or female. The insight to
"truly comprehend the Norm" is completely irrespective of superficial
distinctions of sex, race, caste, etc. Soma adds that if one even
thinks, "Am I a woman in these matter, or an I a man, or what not am I
then?" one is under Mara's sway. To be much concerned with such
subjects is to remain on the level of conventional truth, clinging to
the non-existent self. Repeatedly worrying about which sex is better
or about the "inequities" women suffer generates unwholesome kamma.
Thoughts like this are rooted in attachment to "I" and "mine" and are
associated with ill will or desire.
Moreover, spending time on such matters distracts us from the
urgent task of self-purification. Meditators who wish to escape
Mara's net need to cast off such thoughts as soon as they are noticed.
We should not indulge in or expand upon them. Soma and all the other
nuns follow the Buddha's advice closely when they urge us to stick
exclusively to the work that will allow us to liberate ourselves from
all suffering. All side issues will lose their importance and so pass
away with further growth of wisdom. When we know fully that all
beings are just impersonal, unstable mind-body processes, generating
kamma and feeling its results, our minds will remain with the ultimate
truths and have no interest in any conventional concerns.
The story of the bhikkhuni known as "Vaddha's Mother" is one in
which a nun specifically guides a man in the Dhamma. This woman
joined the Sangha when her son Vaddha was small; thus he had been
brought up by relatives. Later, he too ordained and one day went to
visit his mother in the bhikkhunis' quarters. On that occasion, she
exhorted and inspired him to seek and attain the highest goal:
Vaddha, may you not have craving for the world at any time.
Child, do not be again and again a sharer in pain.
Happy, indeed, Vaddha, dwell the sages, free from lust, with
doubts cut off, become cool, having attained self-taming, (being)
without taints.
O Vaddha, devote yourself to the way practiced by seers for the
attainment of insight, for the putting an end to pain.
(vv. 204-205)
From these lines Vaddha deduced that his mother had reached the
goal, a fact she confirmed. She again urged him to develop "the path
leading to the cessation of suffering" himself. Vaddha, being deeply
inspired by his mother's words, also attained the goal and then spoke
the following lines praising her:
Truly my mother, because of being sympathetic, applied an
excellent goad to me, (namely) verses connected with the highest
goal.
Having heard her utterance, the instruction of my mother, I
reached a state of religious excitement in the doctrine, for the
attainment of rest-from-exertion.
(vv. 210-211)
Here we find a woman's example of perfect sainthood, combined with
her timely Dhamma instruction, inspiring a man whose //paramis// were
ripe to put forth the utmost effort and attain complete liberation.
The Five Aggregates and Nibbana
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Culavedalla Sutta (//Middle Length Sayings//, Vol. I) is
another sutta in which a bhikkhuni instructs a man. This important
text takes the form of a discourse on some fine points of the Dhamma
given by the theri Dhammadinna in reply to questions put to her by her
former husband, the lay disciple Visakha. They had been married for
some time when he attained the third stage of holiness, that of the
Non-returner (//anagami//), by eradicating all traces of ill will and
sense desire. Dhammadinna then learned from him that women too could
purity their minds and she obtained his permission to take robes as a
nun. By the time of this discussion, she must have already attained
Arahatship, the fourth and final stage of holiness.
Visakha first asks Dhammadinna what the Buddha actually refers to
when, using conventional language, he says "own self." [*] As a
Non-Returner, Visakha knew the answer to this basic question, but he
put it by way of introduction to his progressive series of queries.
Dhammadinna's reply is something for us to ponder. She says that the
"five aggregates of grasping" (//pancupadanakkhandha//) comprise "own
self." She defines the aggregates or groups of grasping as:
the group of grasping after material shape,
the group of grasping after feeling,
the group of grasping after perception,
the group of grasping after habitual tendencies,
the group of grasping after consciousness.
* [In Pali, //sakkaya//. I. B. Horner's translation of this term
here as "own body" may be misleading. Although the work //kaya// does
literally mean "body," it is often used to refer to a collection or
assemblage of things, such as a "body of people." Here it signifies
the assemblage of psycho-physical phenomena that the worldling
identifies as his self.]
The aggregates are viewed and clung to as myself or mine: this is
//sakkayaditthi//, the view that there is a lasting self. Actually,
there is no lasting controller or core corresponding to the concept
"me" or "I." It is merely the grasping after these five groups, which
are all that actually makes up "myself," that perpetuates our illusion
that there is something substantial. If we can see this, we will be
attacking //sakkayaditthi// and will come to know that in reality
there is no essence, just these five aggregates, all of whose
components are continually changing.
The next question Visakha asks Dhammadinna concerns the reasons
for the arising of the aggregates. Quoting the Buddha, she replies
that the cause for the aggregates is "craving (that is) connected with
again-becoming, accompanied by delight and attachment, finding delight
in this and that, namely, the craving for sense pleasures, the craving
for becoming, the craving for annihilation."
All craving contributes to the arising of the aggregates over and
over again. Being attracted to the things of this world or of the
heavenly planes ("craving for sense pleasures") will lead to rebirth
there with renewed suffering, gross or subtle. Wanting to keep on
going ("craving for becoming") strengthens clinging and ignorance to
force us to continue in //samsara//. The belief that there is no form
of life after death (rooted in "craving for annihilation") undermines
the doctrine of kamma and its result, the understanding of which is
essential to moral living.
After a long series of questions and answers which cover the Four
Noble Truths, the attainment of cessation, feeling, etc., Visakha asks
a final question: "And what, lady, is the counterpart [i.e. equal] of
Nibbana?" Here Dhammadinna has to stop him:
This question goes too far, friend Visakha, it is beyond the
compass of an answer. Friend Visakha, the Brahmafaring is for
immergence in Nibbana, for going beyond to Nibbana, for
culminating in Nibbana.
Nothing can possibly be compared with Nibbana as everything else,
be it mental or physical, arises and ceases due to conditions.
Nibbana alone is unconditioned and unchanging. Going beyond the realm
of transitory, unsatisfactory phenomena to the utter peace of Nibbana
is the aim of the teaching of the Buddha and so of serious Buddhists.
It is useful to keep this goal in mind even during the early stages of
meditation, when it may seem remote and vague. The aspiration to
attain Nibbana is cumulative. If it is frequently considered,
repeated and combined with the practice of Vipassana, this aspiration
will become a supporting condition for the attainment itself.
Frequent recollection of the goal will also keep us from being
sidetracked by the pleasurable experiences one may encounter on the
path.
After this question and answer session, Dhammadinna suggests that
Visakha should ask the Buddha about all this so that he is certain and
learns the answers well. Visakha takes up the idea and later repeats
to the Buddha his entire conversation with the theri. The Lord
replies in her praise:
Clever, Visakha, is the nun Dhammadinna, of great wisdom. . . .
If you had asked me, Visakha, about this matter, I too would have
answered exactly as the nun Dhammadinna answered.
Kamma and its Fruit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally, let us look at a poem in which a bhikkhuni describes in
detail a few of her previous lives and shows her questioner how she
comprehended the law of kammic cause and effect working out behind her
present-life experiences.
Isidasi had built up many good //paramis// long ago during the
times of former Buddhas. But some seven lifetimes back, when she was
a young man, she had committed adultery. After passing away from that
existence Isidasi had to suffer the results of this immoral action:
Therefrom deceasing, long I ripened in Avici hell
And then found rebirth in the body of an ape.
Scarce seven days I lived before the great
Dog-ape, the monkey's chief, castrated me.
Such was the fruit of my lasciviousness.
Therefrom deceasing in the woods of Sindh,
Born the offspring of a one-eyed goat
And lame, twelve years a gelding, gnawn by worms.
Unfit, I carried children on my back.
Such was the fruit of my lasciviousness.
(p. 157)
The next time she was born a calf and was again castrated, and as
a bullock pulled a plow and a cart. Then, as the worst of that evil
kamma's results had already ripened, Isidasi returned to the human
realm. But it was still an uncertain kind of birth as she was the
hermaphroditic child of a slave. That life too did not last long.
Next, she was the daughter of a man oppressed by debts. One of her
father's creditors took her in lieu of payment. She became the wife
of that merchant's son, but she "brought discord and enmity within
that house."
In her final lifetime, no matter how hard she tried, no home she
was sent to as a bride would keep her more than a brief while.
Several times her virtuous father had her married to appropriate
suitors. She tried to be the perfect wife, but each time she was
thrown out. This inability to remain with a husband created an
opportunity for her to break through the cycle of results. After her
third marriage disintegrated, she decided to enter the Sangha. All
her mental defilements were eliminated by meditation, insight into the
Four Noble Truths matured, and Isidasi became an Arahat.
She also developed the ability to see her past lives and thus saw
how this whole causal chain of unwholesome deeds committed long ago
brought their results in her successive existences:
Fruit of my kamma was it thus that they
In this last life have slighted me even though
I waited on them as their humble slave.
The last line of her poem puts the past, rebirth and all its
sufferings, completely behind with a "lion's roar": "Enough! Of all
that now have I made an end." (p. 163)
In Isidasi's tale we have several instructive illustrations of the
inexorable workings of the law of kamma. The suffering she had to
undergo because of sexual misconduct lasted through seven difficult
lives. But the seeds of wisdom had also been sown and when the force
of the bad kamma was used up, the powerful //paramis// she had created
earlier bore their fruit. Hence Isidasi was able to become a
bhikkhuni, purify her mind perfectly, and so eliminate all possible
causes of future suffering. The beginning, the middle, and the ending
of every life are always due to causes and conditions.
* * *
We have now come full circle with these stories of the theris and have
returned to the theme of impersonal causes and effects working
themselves out, without any lasting being committing deeds or
experiencing results. The infinite sequence of lifetimes steeped in
ignorance and suffering is repeated over and over until accumulated
//paramis// and present wisdom, aided by other factors, become
sufficiently strong to enable one to see through the craving which has
perpetually propelled the succession of aggregates. Through this
process these bhikkhunis clearly perceived that their attachments and
aversions were the source of all their suffering. Because of this
insight, they were able to dissolve the knots of old delusion-based
conditioning.
With their completed understanding of suffering, the First Noble
Truth, and the abandoning of craving, the Second Noble Truth, their
practice of the Noble Eightfold Path, the Fourth Noble Truth, was
perfected. They attained the cessation of suffering, the Third Noble
Truth, in that very lifetime, and were never reborn again.
The poems of these enlightened nuns, telling how they came to meet
the Buddha, how they had built up wisdom and other meritorious kamma
over many previous lives, how they understood the Buddha's teachings,
and how they attained Arahatship, offer us inspiration and guidance.
They can help us present-day Buddhists to practice Vipassana
meditation and to gain insight into suffering and its causes. Then we
too will be able to give up all craving by developing wisdom. We can
use the messages of the theris to assist us in putting an end to our
own suffering.
Grateful for their assistance, may we all follow in the footsteps
of these great nuns, true daughters of the Buddha. May our minds be
perfect in wisdom, perfectly pure, and utterly free from all
possibility of future suffering.
* * * * * * * *
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan Elbaum Jootla was born in New York City in 1945 and obtained
B.A. and M.A. degrees in Library Science from the University of
Michigan. She is married to an Indian, Balbir S. Jootla, with whom
she lives in the Western Himalayan hill station of Dalhousie. They
have both been practicing Vipassana meditation in the tradition of the
late Sayagyi U Ba Khin of Burma since 1970 and are now students of his
leading disciple, Mother Sayama, who directs the International
Meditation Centres in England and Rangoon. Her previous BPS
publications are "Right Livelihood: The Noble Eightfold Path in the
Working Life" in //The Buddhist Layman// (Wheel No. 294/295) and
//Investigation for Insight// (Wheel No 301/302). Her book //Buddhism
in Practice//, about the meditation tradition of U Ba Khin, is
scheduled for publication by Motilal Banarsidass of India.
* * * * * * * *
CHANGES MADE DURING TRANSCRIPTION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In preparing this electronic edition for DharmaNet, some minor
changes and corrections were made to the original text. These include
changing the spellings of certain words from British to American
English and adapting punctuation and style to conform more closely
with the Chicago Manual of Style (13th edition) guidelines.
In order to make this text readable by as wide an audience as
possible, we have removed all hardware- and software-dependent special
characters and formatting. Text appearing in italics in the original
book is represented here by //double slashes//. Pali and Sanskrit
diacritic marks have been removed.
* * * * * * * *
THE BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT
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TITLE OF WORK: Inspiration from Enlightened Nuns (The Wheel
Publication No. 349/350)
FILENAME: WHEEL349.ZIP
AUTHOR: Susan Elbaum Jootla
AUTHOR'S ADDRESS: NA
PUBLISHER'S ADDRESS: Buddhist Publication Society
P.O. Box 61
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Kandy, Sri Lanka
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 1988
DATE OF DHARMANET DISTRIBUTION: April 1994
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