Sacca-bhāva (Sacca-pabba)
(Translation of the Saccabhaṇḍa section from the sutta)
After the Blessed One had classified dhamma-anupassanā under the seven bojjhaṅga as described, He then said, “Now I will classify the four ariyasacca.” He spoke further as follows.
The Four Noble Truths (Cattāri Ariyasaccā)
In those words the phrase “to know clearly as it is, e.g. ‘This is dukkha’ ” means: to know with insight the reality as it is — that the conditioned phenomena in the three realms, excepting taṇhā, are such that this is dukkha as it truly is; to know the taṇhā that exists beforehand which makes that suffering arise and manifest is to know dukkha-samudaya as it is; to know as it truly is the cessation that stops suffering and the causes of suffering is to know dukkha-nirodha; to know as it truly is the ariya-magga which is the means by which one knows suffering, abandons samudaya, and makes nirodha manifest — that is dukkha-nirodha-gāminī-paṭipadā. The remaining explanatory passages (the detail of the headings) — such as the exposition of dukkha (beginning with jāti) — have been set out in full in the Visuddhimagga.
Exposition of the Headings
Jāti (Birth)
Concerning the heading passages, understand as follows. In the question “What is birth?” the phrase “of those beings” is a general designation covering beings without specifying any particular class. “Among those beings” is likewise a general designation. Jāti (birth) is the name of that specific arising of a khandha — the first particular arising with its concomitant change. The word sajjāti is a synonym for birth but indicates there are afflictive conditions. “Arising” means a stepwise coming-to-be; “particular arising” means the arising of a specific khandha. The Pali khandhanaṃ pātubhāvo denotes the manifestation of the khandhas in ultimate terms. The manifestation of the khandhas as one, four, and five khandhas among groups of beings is not the manifestation of a person; still, when the khandha-manifestation exists, conventionally one speaks of a person as appearing. The phrase āyatanaṃ paṭilābho — the obtaining of sense-bases — means the manifestation of the sense-bases; that manifestation is called “obtaining.”
Jarā (Aging)
The term jarā indicates the state of being old; chīranta indicates the condition (the mode). Khaṇḍiccha (loss of teeth) and such denote the condition of change. In youth the teeth are sound and white; with old age they gradually change color and fall out. “Tooth-broken” means teeth fallen or broken; that condition is called khaṇḍitā and the occurrence of broken teeth is khaṇḍicca. Hair and body-hair turn gray progressively — that is “graying.” The skin becomes wrinkled from dryness and loss of sap — that is “wrinkling.” These descriptions indicate the manifest changes in teeth, hair, body, and the faculties. The path of wind or fire becomes manifest by wind breaking grass or by fire burning; likewise the sign of aging is manifest in conditions such as broken teeth among the thirty-two characteristics. One cannot perceive aging as a self by the eye; yet because with old age the faculties become impaired and no longer perceive clearly, the Blessed One speaks in proximate terms that this impairment of the faculties is called aging.
Maraṇa (Death)
On death: the word for death indicates the cessation — not a grammatical gender. Terms such as cuti and juṇḍa denote death; cuti denotes a state, juṇḍa denotes the event. At death the khandhas disintegrate and disappear; therefore death is called separation, dissolution, extinction. Majjūmarana (complete death) is not merely a momentary death. The falling away of the life-faculty is called the act of dying. All these are conventional descriptions; in ultimate terms Pali states the disintegration of the khandhas. When the khandha-manifestation ceases, conventionally one says the person has died. The leaving behind of a corpse is called abandonment of the personality-form. In ultimate terms, the loss of life-faculty and the disintegration of the khandhas is death.
Soka (Grief)
“By calamity” — grief arises when one is struck by some misfortune, e.g. loss of kin, or when painful causes such as killing or imprisonment overwhelm one. Soka is sorrow that dries the mind out; it is inner desiccation — hence called grief.
Parideva (Lamentation)
People lament on account of attachment; lamentation and wailing arise from clinging. The terms denote the condition of lamenting and mourning.
Dukkhadomanassa (Bodily and Mental Pain)
Physical suffering (dukkha) is painful bodily feeling arising from bodily contact; mental suffering (domanassa) is painful feeling arising from mind-contact. These are described as unpleasant, hard to endure, unwelcome.
Upāyāsa (Distress / Oppression)
Upāyāsa denotes mental distress, oppression, a state of dejection and internal contraction due to affliction.
Not getting what one desires is dukkha
“Birth-phenomena” (jātidhammā) are the conditions of arising; desire arises — taṇhā arises. Desire ( icchā ) arises. The worldlings cannot obtain what they wish; such frustrated desire is suffering. All such instances are suffering. The khandhas are suffering.
The Arising of Dukkha (Dukkha-samudaya)
The compound terms describe taṇhā which is recurrent becoming (ponopabhavikā), accompanied by delight and craving (nandi-rāga). Taṇhā takes delight in sense-objects, in forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile objects, and dhamma-objects. Taṇhā arises where the faculty, the sense-object, sense-consciousness, contact, and the feeling born of contact are loved and pleasing. Thus where eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind and their objects are taken as dear and delightful, taṇhā arises there. Each passage teaches: when such a cause is delightful and pleasing in the world, taṇhā arises and abides there.
The Cessation of Dukkha (Dukkha-nirodha)
All the phrases such as “cessation by utter exhaustion” are synonyms of Nibbāna. When taṇhā reaches Nibbāna it is loosened and extinguished without remainder; thus Nibbāna is called the exhaustion and non-remainder of taṇhā. Since taṇhā reaches Nibbāna and is abandoned, relinquished, released, unattached, Nibbāna is spoken of by many names — opposite to conditioned things — such as “that which is exhausted, ceased, relinquished, freed, unobstructed, untainted” etc. Nibbāna has those characteristics: no more lust, hatred, delusion; no arising, no becoming; no old age, disease, death; no sorrow, lamentation, distress, affliction.
To show how taṇhā is ended, the Blessed One compares it: a farmer finds a bitter gourd vine in the field, traces it to its root and cuts it out; the vine withers and ceases to appear there — one says the vine in that field is destroyed. Similarly taṇhā in the eye and so on is like the bitter vine: it can be cut up to the root by the arahant-magga; when it reaches Nibbāna it ceases and no longer appears in those objects — like the vine gone from the field. Again, as one brings a bandit from the forest and kills him at the south gate of the city, people say the bandit of the forest is dead; similarly taṇhā reaching Nibbāna is said to be destroyed — hence when teaching the cessation of taṇhā the Blessed One says: “The eye is loved and pleasing in the world; when one abandons that taṇhā, it is abandoned at the eye; when one extinguishes it, it is extinguished at the eye,” and so on for each sense-sphere.
The Path Leading to the Cessation (Dukkha-nirodha-gāminī-paṭipadā)
The phrase “this very” (ayam eva) designates explicitly that the ariya-magga is to be distinguished from other paths. Ariya indicates the path that is free from defilements and that destroys them — thus called “noble.” The Blessed One sets forth the four truths by teaching knowledge of suffering and so on. Of the four truths, the first two (dukkha and samudaya) are cyclic truths (vattasacca), the latter two (nirodha and magga) are counter-cyclic (vivatthasacca). The yogācāra (the meditative practitioner) first contemplates and establishes the two initial truths in abbreviated form: the five khandhas are suffering; taṇhā is the origin. Then, by continued practice, the practitioner penetrates fully the truths.
Practitioners develop insight (paṭivedha) in the first two truths by investigation, questioning, listening, recollecting and reflection. For the latter two truths they arrive at penetrative knowledge by listening and then by direct meditative insight. The stages of realizing those truths are described: insight into the two initial truths is deep and subtle (hard to see); the two latter truths are hard to see because they are deep. One who works to see the two latter truths may be likened to stretching a hand to catch a Brahmā or stepping into hell — a simile for difficulty. The Blessed One’s statement “to know suffering as it is” points to the initial insight that is deep and hard to see; when the penetrative insight (paṭivedha-ñāṇa) breaks through, there is but one decisiveness.
Treatment of the Eightfold Path Terms (short notes)
Sammā-saṅkappa (Right Intention)
Initially intentions differ (renunciation, non-ill-will, non-cruelty), but in the moment of path-realization the single wholesome intention arises which cuts off the unwholesome intentions connected to the three bases; this is sammā-saṅkappa in action.
Sammā-vācā (Right Speech)
Initially differing by vow, but at the path moment the single wholesome intention to refrain from unwholesome speech arises and completes that factor.
Sammā-kammanta (Right Action)
Similarly: abstaining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct — differing initially by formulation, unified in the path-moment.
Sammā-ājīva (Right Livelihood)
Wrong livelihood is abstained from; right livelihood is pursued. Initially the formulations differ, but at the path-moment the single wholesome resolve completes it.
Sammā-vāyāma (Right Effort)
“Not-yet-arisen” unwholesome states are those not yet arisen in one’s current life or in that specific object; one arouses energy to prevent such unwholesome states from arising, to abandon those arisen, to produce unarisen wholesome states, and to develop arisen wholesome states. Terms denote: arousing, undertaking, sustaining, making abundant, completing — all four aspects of effort. Differing initially, but unified as one wholesome viriya in the moment of path culmination.
Sammā-sati (Right Mindfulness)
Although initial practices differ in object (body, feeling, mind, dhamma), in the path-moment a single mindfulness arises completing the four establishments and accomplishing their work — that is sammā-sati.
Sammā-samādhi (Right Concentration)
Jhāna-states differ both initially and in the course of the path: the path may have as its base first jhāna, or second, or third, or fourth — the jhānic base may vary. A practitioner who has attained a given jhāna and then develops insight may have that jhāna as the base of his path. In some cases the factorization of the path and the bojjhaṅga differ by which jhāna is the base. The four jhāna-series and the arūpa jhānas are world-transcendent (lokuttara). When the practitioner goes out from any jhāna and cultivates insight, that jhāna served as the base of the path that then ripens. Thus sammā-samādhi is designated as “right concentration” — initially worldly, ultimately transcendent.
Final remarks on the sacca-section
The Blessed One thus taught that right mindfulness contemplates the four noble truths as practice: to fix the truths as objects, to know them, and to progress out of suffering. That completes the sacca-pabba.
End of the Sacca section.