Abhidhamma Papers |
The material process manifests four qualities which interrelate in all forms: solidity or mass which has hardness or softness; cohesion which holds together through flowing; warmth which allows change through maturing; air, which gives support to structure through distending.
Matter under these four aspects is combined with life energy when the matter is related to life processes such as that forming the six sense bases of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. Matter also forms objects for the first five sense bases. The sixth base can have matter as well as derived material qualities (masculinity, femininity. verbal and bodily expression, etc.), and non-material objects such as concepts, mental states and nibbana as its object.
The contact between one of these sense bases and an appropriate object produces a sense consciousness, and leads to the arising of the nama aspect of being. Nama, like rupa, is the coexistence of four qualities. In the case of nama these are vedana, sanna, sankhara and vinnana. These four occur as the first set of factors with all forms of consciousness that arise.
Vedana is feeling, the initial 'taste' or essence of an aspect of the object. All contacts, sensory or cognizable (mental), feed vedana. The quality of the food depends on the degree of agreeableness of the object and on the state of the receptive base at the moment of contact.
Sanna resolves, cognizes and discerns. It perceives the nature of the object without reacting to it. It is an impression of the awareness of an object so that the object may be re-cognized when necessary.
Sankhara is the collection of the coefficients of consciousness which give consciousness activity. Cetana is one of the sankhara which is like active thought, since it co-ordinates factors that are present at the time. Purpose or intention in relation to the object then arises. It feeds the mind and gives impetus for the wish to have, to know or to think, i.e. the determination to continue being.
Vinnana is that aspect of conscious experience which is actively 'minding'. It watches and categorizes with vitality, thus feeding the dependence on categories already formed. It is that which carries forward 'categorized volition' to condition the subsequent state of being. This should be distinguished from citta, another aspect of conscious experience, which is based on the heart. Here an emotional and intuitive reviewing and understanding of the object occurs. This is the result of an examination of the object which is wider and so intensifies the knowledge of it.
Contacts allow objects to be experienced from these existing four aspects of nama. Together with contact this group is sometimes termed the sense pentad, which occurs in all spheres of life, providing an apparently 'continuous' basis for conscious experiences.
There is, however, another definition of a being which states that it is the coexistence of the five related qualities of rupa, vedana, sanna, sankhara and vinnana. It would seem that these five qualities are continuously strengthened to hold together as a 'being' every time a consciousness process occurs involving the activitity of the sense field pentad.
So watching with care any one of these qualities may lead to a knowledge and understanding of the process of existence, and of 'being'.
The sensation of touch is always accompanied either by pleasurable feeling (ease) of the body or by a painful feeling, as its nature is to discriminate the intensity of disturbance of the primary qualities on all bodily surfaces. In this way a sharp in-breath, violently disturbing the nasal membrane, will cause a painful contact, while a smooth in-breath will cause an agreeable sensation.
All other objects are tasted through mental feeling which may be pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent. If there is clear mindfulness the initial feeling is 'caught'. In most everyday thought processes, however, the initial taste is intensified because of the repetition of similar consciousness that occurs in relation to that object. So we usually notice this intensified feeling at its peak. When there is a strong wish to turn away from an object, for instance, closer observation shows an unpleasant feeling or taste left as turning away occurs. Unpleasant feeling is easy to identify as it is clearly disagreeable and it occurs only in unskilful states.
Pleasant feeling and neutral feeling occur on the basis of either unskilful or skilful states. Pleasant feeling is easier to recognize as there is joyfulness present due to piti, an energising factor, even though greed, pride, etc., may or may not be present to give it a 'moral' colour. Since it is associated with energised or energising, active states of mind, it is more noticeable than neutral feeling and is therefore more useful to develop initially for the practice of awareness of vedana.
Neutral feeling is recognised when there is an absence of pleasant feeling and of unpleasant feeling, but it is not the same as an absence of feeling. It is difficult to notice as it may arise with a 'not caring' or 'not noticing' attitude, resulting from dullness or lack of interest. Another form of neutral feeling occurs connected with equanimity in a developed state of mind, when it is easier to recognize.
The first is initial interest (vitakka) which directs attention to the object. It tends to fasten the mind to the object. The second is sustained application of mind (vicara) which is a kind of discipline which maintains the initial latching on of the mind to the object. Next is piti which is the experience of energisation. Fourthly there is sukha, the feeling of satisfaction and ease which seems to occur when the energisation of piti settles down, allowing a sense of well-being to pervade the entire body. Finally ekaggata, or one-pointedness of mind, arises when all factors of consciousness are unified by being directed to just one contact, thus immersing the mind in the object.
These five factors are referred to as jhananga: jhana constituents or intensifying factors leading to absorption. But sometimes unpleasant feeling and neutral feeling are also listed as factors that condition absorption onto any object. So in a wider sense the intensifying activity of the jhananga forms a condition which may occur not only in all meditative states but also in relation to nearly all forms of consciousness whenever there is an interest in the object.
The presence of the five jhananga exercises an intensifying influence on the co-existing factors of that conscious experience. Whatever kind of feeling is initially present is also intensified or aroused if the jhananga are active. For instance, a high degree of vitakka and vicara may intensify an initial unpleasant feeling to pain; alternatively, intensification due to piti arouses pleasant feeling. Jhananga have the capacity to allow the conscious experience to go to 'absorption'. For mental development, when the object is wholesome and the five jhananga factors of vitakka, vicara, piti, sukha and ekaggata are all equally activated, then the consciousness is ready to become absorbed onto the object or be infused with it.
If absorption occurs and is maintained, the mental states experienced progress in a certain way. The five activated jhana factors gradually fall away, having completed their function as the experience reaches its fullest intensity. With the systematic falling away of the five factors, the five types of feeling are also said to be counteracted.
At the first stage, when the factors of consciousness, or the jhananga, are fully intensified and come into balance, feeling of discomfort (bodily displeasure) falls away. Next, when the first two factors of vitakka and vicara fall away, there is an inward calming and joy is strong, so that unpleasant feeling falls away completely. When energisation calms down, pleasure (bodily ease) fades, leaving sukha and ekaggata. At the fourth stage pleasant feeling (sukha) goes, as there is no energy from pleasure or pain to feed it. Only a balanced state is left in which there is neutral feeling associated with one-pointedness with regard to a wholesome object. This is equipoise of mind, and the heart is serene, supple, firm and imperturbable. The mental basis has an increased vitality and strength, allowing clear penetration or awareness to arise.
This neutral feeling connected with equipoise ceases after the successive experience of non-materiality in the form of concepts of 'infinite space', 'infinite consciousness', 'no-thingness' and 'neither perception nor non-perception', at which point there is said to be the cessation of perception and feeling. Thus the domination of two of the five qualities of 'being', those of perception (sanna) and feeling (vedana), is broken.
Even if the jhananga are not intensified and allowed to go through the process described above to the fourth state with equipoise, their equal arousing is sufficient to make a pliable mental basis for the development of awareness, when 'inward' and 'outward' seeing are balanced. As the mind is directed to this purpose, if any form of insight occurs, then the jhananga's intensity seems to operate in an 'automatic' cycle, leading to clear seeing of the object or its relations, e.g. if the mind is turned to watch the cause of unpleasant feeling, first noticed as 'aversion' in oneself, then with a receptive and pliable mind the suffering in aversion may be seen. Noticing this new state allows the initial object of aversion to fade away, and confidence arises. From this, joy comes, the mind is concentrated, and if the point of contact is clearly seen, the conditions causing aversion may be understood. Mind lets go of the feeling, having seen its conditioned nature, and becomes free of it.
Thus almost all our daily conscious experiences carry in them possibilities of change and development. All links of the two processes of nama-rupa that constitute the 'being' fall apart when analysed in this way. The relationships between the various factors of being such as the jhananga and the sense pentad show the possibility of this analysis in theory, and observation of 'feeling' is one way of putting this into practice.
Usha
There was also discussion about consciousness in its aspects of vinnana and citta. As pointed out, vinnana can be seen as the active side of consciousness which is formed by an action and carries forward. In this sense, then, vinnana is the starting-point of the four qualities of nama, picking up everything in one state of mind and going on to the next. In this context, the term 'categorized volition' refers to this conditioning process, and also to whether the process tends to skilfulness or unskilfulness. The latter is the 'categorized' aspect of that which is carried forward.
It was also pointed out that 'a high degree of vitakka and vicara may intensify an initial unpleasant feeling to pain'. This is similar to a point made in a previous essay: strictly speaking, one cannot have 'too much' vitakka and vicara, but in practice they may become excessive. If, on the other hand, the practice is approached with a certain degree of warmth, then vitakka and vicara are more balanced and pain is less likely to arise. In abhidhamma it is also stated that in the second jhana, vitakka and vicara, and consequently unpleasant feeling, fall away. This may also be applied at other levels of practice: in general, if pain is a hindrance in the practice, it may be possible to place less emphasis on developing vitakka and vicaraand allow piti and sukha to develop on their own. Once these develop to a certain extent they may help to lessen attention to the pain and the practice can be cultivated in a more balanced way.
In the essay, the point is made that 'at the fourth stage, pleasant feeling (sukha) goes as there is no energy from pleasure or pain to feed it'. The question was then raised as to how pain could feed sukha. It seems that pleasure and pain are in some senses two sides of the same coin, one feeding the other. In this sense, painful feeling may give energy to the experience of sukha. Indeed, one may be able to follow this process in the practice.
At this fourth stage also, the jhana may be stable in a way in which the others are not. When, by equipoise, sukha is abandoned, a point of balance is maintained. 'Neutral feeling' in this context should not be understood as a rather dull kind of attachment. The feeling entailed in equipoise is, on the contrary, more like a higher union of pleasant and unpleasant feeling.
