American Buddhist Net

Sunday February 25, 2007

To understand the root causes of unhappiness, meditation master S.N. Goenka says we need to see through our attachments and identify what causes them - which is what the Buddha discovered on the night of his enlightenment

There are three types of attachment. First, there is the attachment to the habit of seeking sensual gratification.

An addict takes a drug because he wishes to experience the pleasurable sensation that the drug produces in him, even though he knows that by taking the drug he reinforces his addiction. In the same way, we are addicted to the condition of craving. As soon as one desire is satisfied, we generate another. The object is secondary; the fact is that we seek to maintain the state of craving continually, because this very craving produces in us a pleasurable sensation that we wish to prolong.

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And just as an addict gradually develops tolerance toward his chosen drug and requires ever larger doses in order to achieve intoxication, our cravings steadily become stronger the more we seek to fulfil them. In this way we can never come to the end of craving. And so long as we crave, we can never be happy.

Another great attachment is to the "I", the ego, the image we have of ourselves. For each of us, the "I" is the most important person in the world. We behave like a magnet surrounded by iron filings: It will automatically arrange the filings in a pattern centred on itself. And with just as little reflection we all instinctively try to arrange the world according to our liking, seeking to attract the pleasant and to repel the unpleasant.

But none of us are alone in the world: One "I" is bound to come into conflict with another. The pattern each seeks to create is disturbed by the magnetic fields of others, and we ourselves become subject to attraction or repulsion. The result can only be unhappiness, suffering.

Nor do we limit attachment to the "I": we extend it to the "mine", whatever belongs to us. We each develop great attachment to what we possess, because it is associated with us, it supports the image of "I". This attachment would cause no problem if what one called "mine" were eternal, and the "I" remained to enjoy it eternally. But the fact is that sooner or later the "I" is separated from the "mine". The parting time is bound to come. When it arrives, the greater the clinging to "mine", the greater the suffering will be.

And attachment extends still further - to our views and our beliefs.

No matter what their actual content may be, no matter whether they are right or wrong, if we are attached to them they will certainly make us unhappy.

We are each convinced that our own views and traditions are the best and become very upset whenever we hear them criticised. If we try to explain our views and others do not accept them, again we became upset. We fail to recognise that each person has his or her own beliefs. It is futile to argue about which view is correct; a more beneficial approach would be to set aside any preconceived notions and try to see reality. But our attachment to views prevents us from doing so, keeping us unhappy.

Finally, there is attachment to religious forms and ceremonies. We tend to emphasize the external expressions of religion more than their underlying meaning and to feel that anyone who does not perform such ceremonies cannot be a truly religious person.

We forget that without its essence, the formal aspect of religion is an empty shell. Piety in reciting prayers or performing ceremonies is valueless if the mind remains filled with anger, passion and ill will.

To be truly religious we must develop the religious attitude: purity of heart, love and compassion for all. But our attachment to the external forms of religion leads us to give more importance to the letter of it than the spirit. We miss the essence of religion and therefore remain miserable.

All our sufferings, whatever they may be, are connected to one or another of these attachments. Attachment and suffering are always found together.

What causes attachment? How does it arise? Analysing his own nature, the future Buddha found that it develops because of the momentary mental reactions of liking and disliking.

The brief, unconscious reactions of the mind are repeated and intensified moment after moment, growing into powerful attractions and repulsions, into all our attachments. Attachment is merely the developed form of the fleeting reaction. This is the immediate cause of suffering.

What causes reactions of liking and disliking? Looking deeper, he saw that they occur because of sensation.

We feel a pleasant sensation and start liking it; we feel an unpleasant sensation and start disliking it.

Now why these sensations? What causes them?

Examining still further within himself, he saw that they arise because of contact: Contact of the eye with a sight, contact of the ear with a sound, contact of the nose with an odour, contact of the tongue with a taste, contact of the body with something tangible, contact of the mind with any thought, emotion, idea, imagination or memory.

Through the five physical senses and the mind we experience the world. Whenever an object or phenomenon contacts any of these six bases of experience, a sensation is produced, pleasant or unpleasant.

And why does contact occur in the first place?

The future Buddha saw that because of the existence of the six sensory bases - the five physical senses and the mind - contact is bound to occur. The world is full of countless phenomenon: sights, sounds, odours, flavours, textures, various thoughts and emotions. So long as our receivers are functioning, contact is in inevitable.

Then why do the six sensory bases exist?

Because they are essential aspects of the flow of mind and matter.

And why this flow of mind and matter? What causes it to occur? The future Buddha understood that the process arises because of consciousness, the art of cognition that separates the world into knower and the known, subject and object, "I" and "other".

From this separation results identity, "birth".

Every moment consciousness arises and assumes specific mental and physical form. In the next moment again, consciousness takes a slightly different form. Throughout one's existence, consciousness flows and changes. At last comes death, but consciousness does not stop there: Without any interval, in the next moment, it assumes a new form. From one existence to the next, life after life, the flow of consciousness continues.

Then what causes this flow of consciousness? He saw that it arises because of reaction. The mind is constantly reacting, and every reaction gives impetus to the flow of consciousness so that it continues to the next moment. The stronger a reaction, the greater the impetus it gives.

The slight reaction of one moment sustains the flow of consciousness only for a moment. But if that momentary reaction of liking and disliking intensifies into craving or aversion, it gains in strength and sustains the flow of consciousness for many moments, for minutes, for hours.

And if the reaction of craving and aversion intensifies still further, it sustains the flow for days, for months, perhaps for years. And if through life one keeps repeating and intensifying certain reactions, they develop a strength sufficient to sustain the flow of consciousness not only from one moment to the next, from one day to the next, from one year to the next, but from one life to the next.

And what causes these reactions?

Observing at the deepest level of reality, he understood that reaction occurs because of ignorance.

We are unaware of the fact that we react, and unaware of the real nature of what we react to. We are ignorant of the impermanent, impersonal nature of our existence and ignorant that attachment to it brings nothing but suffering.

Not knowing our real nature, we react blindly. Not even knowing that we have reacted, we persist in our blind reactions and allow them to intensify. Thus we become imprisoned in the habit of reacting because of ignorance.

This is how the Wheel of Suffering starts turning:

If ignorance arises, reaction occurs;

if reaction arises, consciousness occurs;

if consciousness arises, mind-and-matter occur;

if mind-and-matter arise, the six senses occur;

if the six senses arise, contact occurs;

if contact arises, sensation occurs;

if sensation arises, craving and aversion occur;

if craving and aversion arise, attachment occurs;

if attachment arises, the process of becoming occurs;

if the process of becoming arises, birth occurs;

if birth arises, decay and death occur, together with sorrow, lamentation, physical and mental suffering, and tribulations.

Thus arises this entire mass of suffering.

By this chain of cause and effect - conditioned arising - we have been brought into our present state of existence and face a future of suffering.

At last the truth was clear to him: Suffering begins with ignorance about the reality of our true nature, about the phenomenon labelled "I".

And the next cause of suffering is sankhara, the mental habit of reaction. Blinded by ignorance, we generate reactions of craving and aversion, which develop into attachment, leading to all types of unhappiness.

The habit of reacting is the karma, the shaper of our future. And the reaction arises only because of ignorance of our real nature.

Ignorance, craving and aversion are the three roots from which grow all our suffering in life.

The above is an excerpt from the book 'The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation as Taught by S.N. Goenka' by William Hart. More information on S.N. Goenka is available at http://www.dhamma.org/.