The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives
Buddhist Hour
Radio Broadcast on Hillside 88.0 FM
Script 361 for Sunday 26
December 2004 CE
2547 Buddhist Era
This script is
titled:
Personal Self Habit, Phenomenal Self Habit. (Part Three)
We continue today in our series of readings of
transcriptions of recorded Buddha Dhamma teachings given by John D
Hughes at the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd during a five
day meditation course held at the Centre in June 1988.
The
authors apologise for any errors or misunderstandings that may have
occurred in the process of transcribing the talks from the original
audio tape recording.
Talking about the objective condition
of personal self-habits John Hughes commentary continued in the
following way.
[Chandrakirti] explains in the Introduction to
the Middle Way that certain Sammitiyas assert all five aggregates,
and certain others only the mind, to be the objective condition or
support of self-convictions. As for that mind, the Idealists”
which is one branch of early Buddhism “and certain Idealistic
Madhyamikas assert it to be the fundamental consciousness; other
Dogmatic Madhyamikas such as Bhavaviveka and the majority of the
Individual Vehicle scholars do not accept that, but assert it to be
the mental consciousness. In regard to the systems of all of these
schools, it is both necessary to know that the referent for the
designation "person" is merely the "I," and
necessary to be familiar with the methods of positing a substantive
basis for that "I"” (or me) “such as the
fundamental consciousness etc.”
So of all the views you
can adopt, each has been examined in turn by Tsong Khapa. Now as long
as you strike the habit kamma or vipaka against the phenomenal world,
you will produce mental constructs. Any of those mental constructs
you say is “I”, infinite numbers of "I's”,
because infinite number of mental constructs have been produced in
the unlimited past, the beginningless past. And an infinite number of
mental constructs will be formed in the infinite future extending
ahead of you. Past is real. Future is real. Present is unreal,
because the striking is only very short in time.
Now, watch
carefully, in your mind. If I breathe in and I pull the sparks away,
if I breathe out I put the sparks back. If I breathe in I pull the
sparks, I pull the mental constructs off your consciousness. If I
breathe out, I return them to you. If I breathe in, I pull the mental
constructs away from you. If I breathe, out I return them to you. If
I breathe in I pull the mental constructs arising from your self
habits away from you, if I breathe out I return them back to you.
If
I breathe out and out, what happens? If I breathe in and stop, what
happens? If I breathe out and out and out and out and out and out,
what happens? If I breathe in and in and in and in, what happens? If
I breathe in and out, in and out what happens? If I don't breathe, if
I stop my mind and my breathing stops, what happens?
So the,
we get to this phenomena of where the teacher has out breath, out
breath, out breath, out breath or, in breath, in breath, in breath,
or in breath and out breath. And you discern the change of your
mental phenomena. It is because your habitual self habit should have
had contact with the mind of the teacher.
If you have paid
respect to your teacher enough your mind comes to seek the mind of a
teacher so you can learn the Dhamma. So if the teacher, if you have
established refuge in Buddha Dhamma Sangha, which is your teacher,
then your mind, your habitual self habit - a part of it, skews off
the attachment to the phenomenal world and wants to run towards your
teacher's mind, which is itself as far as your concerned a part of
the phenomenal world.
Then when your self habit strikes that
part of the phenomenal world... the teachers mind has a Dhamma array.
And then the sparks produced from that phenomena... appear as Dhamma
knowledges. Very, very low practice, not higher practice, because
still dependent on the teacher outside. But it's a bridging point to
where you become self reliant.
You've got to pay respect to
your teacher, you've got to have, you've got to pay enough respect to
Buddha Dhamma Sangha, as exemplified by your teacher, your teacher is
part of Sangha, until you've established refuge in Buddha Dharma
Sangha and then your self habit mind tends towards the outside
phenomenal world of Buddha Dhamma Sangha.
Until that refuge
in Buddha Dhamma Sangha is established, very powerfully, and your
mind will not go towards your teacher's mind then you keep striking
the phenomenal self habit of the Samsara and your indistinguishable
from anyone else.
And so you become like, heretic, which means
someone who doesn't practice the Buddha Dhamma Sangha. For this
reason you need to establish refuge in Buddha Dhamma Sangha, and you
need to do that until, unattended, your self habit mind veers towards
the desire to learn the Buddha Dhamma.
Now of course if your
refuge is not strong enough, you get into Sunyata and your mind just
wanders off as it did since beginningless time. So an enormous amount
of practice is put into establishing refuge in Buddha Dhamma Sangha,
and then your self habit mind will have one or two possibilities:
either you'll be stopping from grabbing, or if it veers off it will
veer to somewhere safe, a safe refuge. It will hit a Dhamma field,
Buddha Dhamma field, and on that Buddha Dhamma field you get a
display on your mind. Of worldly Dhamma which might be of benefit to
you.
So as Chandrakirti says in the "Four Hundred
Commentary" “the self” in quotes, is the “intrinsic
reality” in quotes. That's what you think, that the sparks are
the self, that the sparks are real, but they're not! They are a
secondary production of two types of things. One is self habit. If
you want to call something real, call your self habit real. At this
point, call the outside Samsara real. But downplay the phenomena that
arises when the two hit each other.
But as Chandrakirti says
in his "Four Hundred Commentary" “the self", in
quotes, "is", in quotes, "the intrinsic reality”
which is that objectivity in things independent of anything else.
It's absence, the restrained, the restrained exercise, it's absence
is selflessness. Because if you restrain it... it won't produce too
many sparks. Therefore there's no phenomena to call a self produced,
and then you experience selflessness or anatta. It is understood as
twofold by division into persons and things called personal
selflessness and phenomenal selflessness.
As for the
objective condition of personal self habits, Chandra explains in the
introduction to "The Middle Way", and then we went through
all those combinations and variations of what different, different
views of different practitioners... had... in those days. Remember
the Buddha Sangha divided into about twenty two different views.
We're not going to go into those views, they can be reconstructed by
yourself out of errors. With regard to the innate, innate means
natural, egoistic view, which is the self habit. The ego is the self
habit hitting and producing the phenomena.
In the
introduction Chandra refutes the position that it's object, that's
the object of the innate ego view, is the aggregates... he refutes
that the ego view is the aggregates, five aggregates. And comments
that it's object is the dependently designated self, the sparks are
dependently generated by the clash of the habit mind with the
phenomena of the outside. So they arise, the self arises dependent on
phasa, contact, of your vipakic return of your karma plus the self
nature of the Samsara.
He also states that the conventional
self is not the mere conglomeration of the aggregates. Thus, as it's
object is neither the conglomeration of the aggregates, the object is
neither... the conglomerate, it's not, it only hits them one at a
time, it's not the conglomeration of the aggregates, because it only
hits one at a time. It hits rupa or vedana or sanya or sankara. It's
only striking one of them at a time. It's not the mere conglomerate,
it's not trying to weld together the five groups to make a unified
self. It's duped enough that anything will do. Thus, as it's object
is neither the conglomerate of the aggregates at any one time, it'll
conglomerate on one, it'll say that is me. I'm my feeling, I'm my
memory, I'm my self images, I'm my consciousness, I'm my body. At any
one time it will hit one, spark it, against the outside, and identify
those sparks.
So as it's object is neither the conglomeration
of the aggregates at any one time, nor the conglomeration of the
temporal continuum of the aggregates. Temporal means existing in
time, continuum means stream of the aggregates, the five aggregates
have never stopped from the day you were born. One must take the mere
"person", in quotes, and the mere "I", as the
objective basis as the mere thought of I.
So this, at one
level, you remember you examine the five groups one at a time. And
the cloud says ...now...having examined five things, the five
aggregates, knowing them as anicca, dhukka, anatta. Because the
examination of rupa produces body sparks if you like we'll call it,
an "I" notion of the body.
Examining rupa produces
a mind striking rupa, you're own rupa. Or if you've got your mind
outside external rupa, produces rupa sparks. And then you describe
your rupa, or the outside rupa, in terms of what those sparks were,
those mental objects.
So then you start describing all sorts
of magical properties to your body. So if you meditated on rupa for a
million years you'd produce a millions views of it. And then if you
try to aggregate all those views into one mental object soup you
would be flooded with data. And then, not willing to separate the
soup that you've made you walk away, leaving misinformation on your
mind ready to come up.
So if you made soup and put in a
carrot, you put in a parsnip, you put in an onion, boiling them all
together, you say “That is soup.” You think it's a
homogeneous thing, but it's an aggregated combination of different
vegetables boiled together.
Now when you boil together your
misinformation that you've gathered you believe you have a
homogeneous view of your own body or your own feelings.
But
you're quite wrong.
You've got to let, you've got to say "that
carrot was produced from habit karma striking rupa and a carrot
appeared. That onion was appeared by habit karma striking rupa at a
different angle and an onion appeared. That parsnip was caused
striking rupa from a different angle" and so on and so on and so
on.
To do that you must constrain the self habit from
striking again, because as it tries to analyze something, if you've
got a shower of old sparks, and you strike it with your self habit,
you'll just add more confusion, more blindness, more stupidity, more
misinformation, that won't do.
So the mind that you use, or
the series of minds that you use, for things like kayanupassana are
put down.
So Chandra refutes the position that the object of
the innate egoistic view is the aggregates, the five groups. And
comments that it's object is the dependently designated self.
It
postulates a me.
It says, “Alright, I know I'm not the
five groups but I'm still me.” That "me" is the
dependently designated self and it is empty of any existence
whatever. It's just a shower of sparks. Because sparks appear you
think there must be a “me” producing them. And you forgot
that it can only appear when there are two things. You're trying to
maintain a view that there is one me producing the shower of the
phenomena, where in fact there is two things: one, your vipaka, two,
the external samsara. And it is those two hitting together which
produce the mental objects. Until you understand that the mental
objects which occupy your whole infinite number of lives in the past,
and will occupy your infinite number of lives in the future, until
you understand those mental objects arise from contact of two things:
one, your vipaka, your personal, and two, the samsara.
And
why do you insist that there is one me, producing them. You have got
the world's best piece of misinformation. Two things in contact
produce them, and you suppose quite...in total error... that there is
some dependently designated self.
Chandra also states that the
conventional self is not the mere aggregation of the aggregates. You
know the aggregates are not self, but there is another delusion,
another mental object which you call "me".
And it's
not real! It's empty!
It's about as much importance as a
carrot or a parsnip or an onion. And yet you've always overrated it.
And it's just a phenomena. It's called an error. It's in error,
error, error, error. It arose out of two things. It's, it...is the
dependently designated self. You designate it as a self and yet you
have no control over it whatever.
Just as you bring a piece
of steel and a flint together and you strike them you must get
sparks. Just like you put a match to dry wood you must get a flame.
There's no self in it. The flame arises. The sparks arise by the mere
act of bringing two things together. Now when you're hypnotized by
the flame, or the sparks, or whatever you like to call it, and you
call that, you suppose there is a single "me" producing
that display. It is not true. There is not a "me" producing
it. There is not something there at all. There is not a self
producing the phenomena. The phenomena, there is not a self in the
five groups, most of you know that now, but there's not a self
anywhere else either. There's not a me anywhere else either. There
are two things CLASHING... like that. You must restrain them from
hitting... and then you'll know there are two things...both empty.
The one we're concentrating on...the one we're concentrating
on is the self habits. Your stream of vipakic karmic
return...clashing against the objects in the Samsara.
Restrain
the self habit. Knowing there are two things there, neither of which
are a self, nor is there a third self. Until you restrain the self
habit from hitting the phenomenal self, the phenomenal self habit,
until you restrain, you will still think, when the shower of sparks
stop, you will think the "me" is dead. But you won't even
have that thought, because you'll have lost it. Constrain, constrain
to stop the clash.
Errors occur because you are not
experienced. Showers of phenomena occur. And out of stupidity you
say, “Me is doing this meditation.” No. Not me at all.
There is no such thing. So if, in regard, in this regard, Chandra
refutes the position, with regard, the position of the regard for the
innate egoistic view which is the self habit. The self habit is the
innate egoistic view. That it's object is the aggregates, the five
groups. And comments that it's object is the dependently designated
self. He also states that the conventional self is not the mere
conglomeration of the aggregates.
You can't mix oil and
water. You can't make rupa into vedana. You can't make vedana into
sanna. You can't make sanna into sankara. You can't make sankara into
vinnanum. You can't transpose one of the five groups and make it into
another.
So you've got a mess, you've got, you've got five
groups...... Each arising and falling, anicca, impermanent, each
unsatisfactory and each not self. And then you've got a clouded
misconception that there is still a "me" around. And then
the innate stream of that, five groups appearance and disappearance
clashes with the, whatever the object is that's being conjured up,
and then the shower of sparks go again.
The present is
unreal. The infinite past is real. The infinite future is real. So
the clashing is tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. (clicking fingers with
each tick). Unreal! Discount.
As it's object is neither the
conglomeration of the aggregates, the mind, the "me", the
cloud, the ignorance would love to spot weld all the five groups
together and make it into a permanent, beautiful sculpture. You're so
dopey if you'd do it you'd probably weld on unpleasant feeling
permanently, unhealthy body permanently, unpleasant memories
permanently, awesome sankara's permanently and low consciousness and
you'd make yourself into a permanent hell being.
Ah, terrible
mistake! Ah, I made it permanent, ah, no wonder hell is long. Hell is
long because the people who get there have been trying to make a
permanent five groups. That's why hell beings' long. Thats why a hell
being is long. They want it permanently so much they weld it
together. Unsatisfactory mind. Unsatisfactory bodies. Unsatisfactory
memories. Any idiot, it's easier to stick mud to mud. Mud sticks
nicely to mud. Take five pieces of mud, squeeze them together, and
they will stay together for a while. And that is a hell being. Very
hard for the hell being to break up the five loads of mud.
We
conclude Personal Self Habit, Phenomenal Self Habit here and invite
you to tune in to the Buddhist Hour on Hillside FM next Sunday 2
January for the next in the series of teachings by John D. Hughes
1988 Bhavana Course Teachings titled “Conventional Self”
“Dependently Designated Self”.
Thank you very much.
The MP3 file of the original recorded teachings read on
today's program will be available online at www.edharma.org by early
January 2005.
May you not be duped by the phenomena created by
the striking of your personal self habit and your phenomenal self
habit.
May you be blessed by the Triple Gem.
May you
be well and happy.
May all beings be well and happy
The
script was transcribed, prepared and edited by Julian Bamford, Frank
Carter, Leanne Eames, Anita Hughes and Alec Sloman.
References:
John D. Hughes Collection Recorded Dhamma Teachings.
Transcription Of Dhamma Teachings
Five Day Meditation Course
Saturday 25th June 3pm.Recording Title: “Personal Self Habit,
Phenomenal Self (continued)
Tape 3, Side 1.
Teacher: John D.
Hughes.
Date of recording: 25/6/88
Transcribed by: Lainie
Smallwood, Alec Sloman.
Checked by: Leanne Eames.
CD Reference
25_06_88T3S1A File Name: 25_06_88T3S1A_JDHtranscribe.rtf
Five
Day Bhavana Course. 25 June 1988, 4.25pm.
Recording Title:
“Personal Self Habit, Phenomenal Self (continued).
Tape 3,
Side 2,
Teacher: John D. Hughes.
Date of recording: 25/6/88.
Transcribed by: Alec Sloman.
CD Reference 25_06_88T3S2A
File
Name: 25_06_88T3S2A_JDHtranscribe.rtf
Disclaimer
As
we, the Chan Academy Australia, Chan Academy being a registered
business name of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd., do not
control the actions of our service providers from time to time, make
no warranty as to the continuous operation of our website(s). Also,
we make no assertion as to the veracity of any of the information
included in any of the links with our websites, or another source
accessed through our website(s).
Accordingly, we accept no
liability to any user or subsequent third party, either expressed or
implied, whether or not caused by error or omission on either our
part, or a member, employee or other person associated with the Chan
Academy Australia (Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.)
This
Radio Script is for Free Distribution. It contains Buddha Dhamma
material and is provided for the purpose of research and study.
Permission is given to make printouts of this publication for
FREE DISTRIBUTION ONLY. Please keep it in a clean place.
"The
gift of Dhamma excels all other gifts".
For more
information, contact the Centre or better
still, come and visit us.
© 2002. Copyright. The Buddhist Discussion Centre
(Upwey) Ltd.