Day 3 Adv Retreat -SN 35.95 Malunkyaputta Sutta - I need to know now!

I think most of you who followed my talks know that one of the most often quoted suttas that I have is the Bahiya Sutta. And it's such a clear instruction. In the sutta, there is an individual named Bahiya, who they call Bahiya of the Barkcloth. He had a previous life where he was a monk of the Buddha Dhamma. He was a student of a previous Buddha.

And it happened to be that in this present life of his, he was, I think if the story, if I remember the story correctly, he was shipwrecked and found himself on the shore, had no clothes, so wore tree bark as clothes, and he was known as Bahiya of the Barkcloth. Now there is some understanding that Bahiya probably had a deep understanding of the Upanishads.

The Upanishads are Vedantic texts. They appear to be at the end of the Vedas. And the Vedas are a collection of various different hymns, liturgy, and different kinds of chants to the various Devas, the Devas and even some of the Yakshas and things like that. Anyway, the Upanishads are known as Vedanta because they are at the end of the Vedas, in terms of sequence.

Because they are the reflections of the Vedas in a philosophical way. And they talk about the idea that there is somebody behind the seer. So there is the eye behind the eye, the ear behind the ear, the nose behind the nose, the tongue behind the tongue, the body behind the body, and the mind behind the mind, the eyes, the hearer behind the ears, and so on and so forth.

And so this idea is that this is what is known as Atman. It is that which is the seer, the doer, the experiencer, and so on. And so Bahiya had this idea and contemplated on it and meditated on it for a while. And he came to the conclusion that he was fully awakened. There was a Deva who apparently was a relative of his in a previous life or whatever it might be.

And he said to him, no, no, you're not fully awakened. You still need some pointers. So he said, who can I go to? Go to the Buddha and he will give you full awakening. He will give you the path to full awakening. So Bahiya searches out the Buddha, the present Buddha, Gautama. He tells him that, Venerable Sir, will you give me your teaching in short, such that I may be able to understand it, lest I die at some point. I want the teaching immediately.

And the Buddha says, come back later, I'm on my lunch break. He tells him, this is not the appropriate time, I'm going out for my alms round. I might die in the next very moment if you can just give me one teaching, please. And so when you request the Buddha three times, he has to give it to you.

So he did. And finally the Buddha said, okay, he laid his bowl aside. And he said to Bahiya, all right, Bahiya, you should train thus. In regards to the seen, there's only the seen. In regards to the heard, there's only the heard. In the sensed, there's only the sensed. In the cognized, there's only the cognized. When, Bahiya, you are not by that, then, Bahiya, you are not in that. And when you are not in that, you are neither in it, outside of it, or between the two. Antra. It's such an interesting piece of training. In the seeing there's only the seeing, in the hearing there's only the heard. And it's perfect for Bahiya. Why? Because he had this view that there is a seer behind the seen.

There is a hearer behind the heard. There is an experiencer behind the experience. That is the Atman. And the Buddha said, just the seeing is happening. Experiencing is happening. Know you in it, know you before it, know you after it. When you see this, that is the end of suffering. And so, as the story goes, Bahiya contemplated this and became fully awakened and then was walking down the road and was hit by an ox, by a bull.

And so, he died. And the monks gathered around and asked the Buddha, what shall we do with his body? And he said, where is Bahiya, and what shall we do with his body? And the Buddha said, Bahiya is now an Arahant, which means there is no trace of him anywhere in these different realms. And so you may honor his body in the way you would a fully realized one, an Arahant, or a disciple of the... So this sutta I'm about to read is an elaboration on that.

It is Samyutta Nikaya 35.95, known as the Malunkyaputta Sutta. "...brief, so that having heard the Dhamma from the Blessed One, I might dwell alone, withdrawn, diligent, ardent, and resolute. Hear now, Malunkyaputta, what should I say to the young bhikkhus when a bhikkhu like you, old-aged, burdened with years, advanced in life, come to the last stage, asks me for an exhortation in brief.

So here the Buddha is actually doing two things. He's pointing out to the younger monks that here is somebody advanced in years and they are in the last stage of life. So don't wait until the last stage in order to understand the Dhamma and come to full awakening. And at the same time, he's also commending Malunkyaputta for realizing that he still requires the true Dhamma, the understanding of the Dhamma. And so, just like Bahiya, Malunkyaputta says to the Buddha, please give the teaching to me in brief. I don't have enough time.

Although, Venerable Sir, I am old, aged, burdened with years, advanced in life, come to the last stage, let the Blessed One teach me the Dhamma in brief. Let the Fortunate One teach me the Dhamma in brief. So the Buddha says, let's break that down. So he's asking, would you have any kind of craving for any forms that are cognizable by the eye that you've never seen or that you do not see or that you would not think might be seen?

In other words, out of sight, out of mind. If you are not experiencing that particular form, or that particular sound, or that particular odor, or that particular tangible, or that particular thought, if it's not present through one of your sense bases, would craving arise? No, it would not arise, because craving is conditioned by feeling. In order for craving to arise, there needs to be an experience, whether in the sense bases or in the mind, a mental experience.

The mind may imagine forms cognizable by the eye, sounds cognizable by the ear, and so on and so forth. And craving can arise due to that imagination. But if there were no concepts of it, no craving would arise dependent on it, based on it, conditioned by it. And so now here the Buddha gives the instruction.

Here, Malunkyaputta, regarding things seen, heard, sensed, cognized by you, in the seen there will be merely the seen. In the heard there will be merely the heard. In the sensed there will be merely the sensed. In the cognized there will be merely the cognized. So in terms of what the Buddha is saying: the seeing, the hearing, the sensing, that is to say, the sense bases, and the cognized, which is the mind.

When, Malunkyaputta, you are not therein, then you will be neither here nor beyond nor in between the two. This itself is the end of suffering. So again, he's given the same instructions. So what is he talking about? I understand in detail, Venerable Sir, the meaning of what was stated by the Blessed One in brief. So now he's going to elaborate it for us. From the visible form, covetousness and annoyance as well, by which one's mind becomes disturbed.

For one who accumulates suffering thus, Nibbana is said to be far away. Same with having heard a sound, smelt an odor, enjoyed a taste, felt a contact, having known an object with mindfulness muddled. So all of this was in verse form. Let's break this down. So the idea here is when you're having an experience, when I say experience, I'm using that as a translation for vedana. Vedana is usually translated as feeling.

And a feeling has a feeling tone. That is, it can be pleasant, it can be unpleasant, and it can be neither pleasant nor unpleasant. So in relation to the feeling, how does the feeling arise? It is dependent upon contact. What is contact? Contact is made up of three things. So when we say contact, it is the initial impact of color and form, the light bouncing off of color and form into the eyes, that initial impact.

The initial impact of sound reaching the ears, odors reaching the olfactory bulb in the nose, molecules of taste reaching the taste receptors, and so on and so forth. It just got dark suddenly. It's clouds. So this contact, initial contact, or initial impact, is known as phassa. And contact is made up of three things. It's made up of the sense base, so the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, or the mind.

The sense base object, so color and form, sounds, odors, tastes, tangibles, and thoughts, or mental objects. And it's made up of the corresponding sense base consciousness: the eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, mind consciousness. What is contact? Contact is when these two, the sense base and the sense base object, meet. And there's a corresponding sense base consciousness.

And these three have the contact, which results in that particular sense feeling. So in seeing, in hearing, in smelling, in tasting, in touching, in thinking or cognizing. So this consciousness, or your consciousness, or any sense-based consciousness, is resulting from where we place our attention. Right now, all of you are looking at me. You're listening to me, I hope.

And you're cognizing what is being said. So in seeing me, there is light bouncing off of me into your eyes. There's my sound, my voice, the sound waves touching your ears. And then your mind conceptualizes what is being said. And so there's contact made between the mind and the mind objects. Now with your attention, you are seeing me. With your attention, you're listening to me. With your attention, you're thinking about what is being said.

If I were to direct your attention to look at these beautiful flowers, has moved from me to the flowers. Which means what? Now your eyes are making contact with the flowers. And the reason why that's happening is because with your intention, you have chosen to move your attention. And the corresponding eye consciousness dependent upon the flowers meeting with your eyes arises. A new eye consciousness arises.

You can stop looking at the flowers now. But this is to give you an understanding that contact is dependent upon how we place our attention where. So if our attention is unwise, then we have muddled mindfulness. If we have wise attention, attention rooted in the reality. Of what? The reality of the three characteristics. This, that which is arising, is conditioned, and therefore it is impermanent.

That which is impermanent is liable to cause suffering, even if it is a happy experience, because ultimately that happy experience is impermanent. Therefore that which is impermanent, liable to cause suffering, is not me, not mine, not myself, is anatta. When I'm able to see in this way, I don't necessarily have to be like, what I'm doing right now, this is anatta, this is impermanent. You don't have to do that. You just rest in the presence of mind, in mindfulness that is present, aware, ardent, and resolute.

In other words, you have yoniso manasikara. When your attention is not befuddled by ignorance and conceit and craving, then the contact that arises is said to be pure. And by that pure contact, the feeling that arises is just purely karmic in nature, which is to say it is vipaka. It is the fruit of previous actions to be experienced.

Which is why when the mindfulness is muddled, when the mindfulness has I in it, when the mindfulness is not present, when the three characteristics are not observed in this way, when one has lack of mindfulness of the Four Noble Truths, all of these things I've just said are one and the same thing. It just depends on how you want to utilize it.

You don't have to do all of these things all at once. As long as you have presence of mind to understand what is arising in this moment and seeing it as an impersonal process, then there's no way you can hold on to it. But if the mind does that, as he says, one having attended to, paying attention to the pleasing sign with mindfulness muddled, he experiences it with infatuated mind. What do we mean by infatuated mind? A mind with craving.

A mind that says, this belongs to me, or this affects me in some way. And he remains tightly holding on to it. He takes ownership of it. And from there, many feelings flourish within, originating from that experience: covetousness and annoyance as well. What do we mean by that? Craving and aversion. By which one's mind becomes disturbed, agitated, restless, clinging, becoming, mentally proliferating.

For one who accumulates suffering, thus, this is how suffering is accumulated. This is how karma is accumulated. For one with muddled mindfulness, their attention is grasping towards the experience as me, mine, or myself. And when they do this, there arises craving. One or more of the anusayas, seven underlying tendencies, can arise. If it's a pleasing or pleasant experience, there can arise the underlying tendency towards craving, towards wanting to hold on to it, wanting it to continue.

If it is an unpleasant experience, there's an underlying tendency towards aversion. I don't like this. Take it away from me. The initial reaction that this is unpleasant is the perception. But then after that, the clinging or the mind pushing it away is the underlying tendency to aversion. There can be an underlying tendency towards ignorance, where the mind has complete lack of attention of whatever is arising, or towards conceit, where the mind takes that as something that needs to be me, mine, or myself, where the mind compares it. This feeling is better than that person's feeling, or this experience is better than that person's experience, or I'm worse off than that person's experience. These things are the underlying tendency to conceit, the underlying tendency towards becoming, where the mind says, I want to hold on to this and control where this goes, the outcome of what this becomes for me.

The underlying tendency towards doubt, which is the lack of discernment, whether this experience is leading to a wholesome state or an unwholesome state. The underlying tendency towards view, where the mind says, I have an opinion about this particular experience. I identify it with a self-view. Or I make concepts around this particular experience. So these are some of the underlying tendencies that can arise when the mind has lack of mindfulness of every experience that arises.

And from there, craving arises. And from that craving, clinging arises. From that clinging, becoming arises. So craving, clinging, and becoming. Craving is the obsessive mind to control the experience by holding on to it, pushing it away, or identifying with it, making it all about me, mine, or myself. Clinging is the rationalizations for why it is that the mind likes it, doesn't like it, or makes it mine.

Becoming are the habitual tendencies, the library of initial reactions that the mind has towards that particular experience. So for example, somebody says something to you that is unwholesome, or says something about you that is unwholesome. Because you may have experienced something similar in a past moment, a series of actions that you've produced before. Reactions. And so the mind has a library of these.

And it almost automatically gears towards, inclines towards those particular reactions when there is no mindfulness. And it selects one of those which builds up this personality leading to what is known as of action, birth of karmic action, birth of new karma. Because in that process, suffering accumulates. Craving, clinging, becoming are the ingredients for the accumulation of suffering, for the accumulation of new karma. Types of dukkha that we may experience: pain, old age, disease, death, despair, sorrow, lamentation, grief, all of those things may arise as the vipaka, the result of that new action that we produce. Dependent upon the becoming, dependent upon the clinging, dependent upon the craving. Dependent upon the underlying tendencies, underlying the experience.

Dependent upon the mind taking it personally. Dependent upon the mind having lack of mindfulness or muddled mindfulness. Dependent upon the mind having lack of wise attention. So if you want to prevent all of that from arising, what do you do? This is what he says. One fares mindfully in such a way that even as one sees the form or hears the sound or smells the odor or enjoys the taste or feels a tangible or knows a mental object, and while one undergoes a feeling, in other words, there is a contact that arises, the attention is there, and then there is an experience, a feeling that arises.

And while one undergoes that feeling, has that experience, suffering or karma is exhausted, not built up. For one dismantling suffering thus, is said to be close by. So I'll repeat that again. One fares mindfully in such a way. What does that mean? One fares mindfully in such a way. One has yoniso manasikara. Wise attention. Wise reflection. This is not me. This is not mine. This is not myself.

Sees the impersonal process. Has the presence of mind to see it as it actually is. That even as one has the sensual experience, the sensory-based experience, or the mental experience, and while one undergoes the experience or the feeling, suffering is exhausted, not built up. Because all karma is to be felt. This is why the Buddha asked in the beginning: form, if you had not seen that particular form, if you were not to see that particular form, or if you were not to imagine that particular form, could craving arise? No, but because you see it, because you experience it, because you hear the sound, smell the odor, taste the flavors, feel the tangible, or think. Because you do these things, there is an exhaustion of karma.

There's another sutta in which the Buddha talks about this. Old karma is to be felt and experienced. There is no other way for you to exhaust karma but to go through it when the causes and conditions are ripe. Now, listen carefully. That does not mean that for one to be fully awakened, or for one to experience parinibbana, that once one is fully awakened, that in order for one to have final Nibbana, that all the karma needs to be exhausted. That's not what we're talking about here.

What the Buddha is saying is that when the causes and conditions come together in the way that they do, there is the potential for karma to arise. That karma is facilitated through our formations, a certain kind of awareness, a certain kind of attention that is facilitated through nama-rupa, mentality, materiality, which allows for the sense basis to appear, and then through their contact, that karma is experienced in the form of vedana. Everything you see, everything you hear, everything you smell, taste, touch, and think about is a result of karma.

Of course, this is not the absolutist view, because the Buddha does warrant for things like mishaps, things like climate, things like the environment, like accidents, and certain diseases of the body, which are not karmic in nature, which just arise because of imbalances in the body. But in terms of understanding karma and suffering, which are one and the same thing, because it is karma which keeps the wheel of rebirth running.

We don't learn from that karma. We don't understand that we need to just let go of identifying with that karma. So we have the experience fully, but we don't cling to it with the I, with me, mine, or myself. And when we don't do that, then it's just an experience. It is just in the scene, there is the scene. In the heard, there is only the heard. In the sensed, there's only the sensed. In the cognized, there's only the cognized.

And because there is no you being superimposed upon that experience, there's nothing to defend, there's nothing to protect, there's nothing to enamor, there's nothing to adorn, there's nothing to make beautiful. It's all just an experience, an impersonal process. And since nothing like that is present, then who is it that might crave? Nobody. There won't be any craving.

There won't be any clinging. There won't be any becoming. And so all the old karma that might arise due to the causes and conditions coming into place, they're exhausted when they are experienced. But because we have not reacted, with craving, clinging, or becoming, we don't add to that whirlpool of karma. We don't add to that balance. We just keep it exhausted.

And this is what is the mechanism, the utility of having a mind that is filled with understanding the impersonal process of experience. Initially, it might help to see it as: this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself. Initially, it might help to see it as an impersonal process intellectually. But if you can relax into every moment and truly see that it is just an experience, you don't need to memorize, to consciousness, consciousness leads to mentality materiality, and so on and so forth until we have experience or feeling, and feeling leads to craving. You don't need to memorize all that. If you can just be present right here, right now, with regards to the experience, and recognize when the mind starts to identify with it, when the mind starts to say this is me, this is mine, this is myself, when the mind starts to relate it from that illusion sense of self, and we can relax that, then no conceit is present, no ignorance is present, no craving can arise, and karma becomes exhausted in that particular experience. No new suffering is accumulated. No new karma is accumulated.

And so one is not inflamed. One is not inflamed by the sounds, inflamed by lust for the odors, for the tastes, for the contacts, for any mental object. For one, diminishing suffering thus, or dismantling suffering thus, Nibbana is said to be close by. Why? Because once you realize that it's an impersonal process, you don't take it seriously.

And your mind automatically becomes disenchanted with the experience, becomes dispassionate in relation to the experience, ceases that suffering that may have arisen from that experience, and thereby, having done all of that, experiences Nibbana. For this is peaceful, this is sublime, that is the stilling of all activities, acquisitions, the destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation, Nibbana. Was stated by me in brief; should be understood in detail.

Then the Venerable Malunkyaputta, having delighted and rejoiced in the Blessed One's words, rose from his seat, and after paying homage to the Blessed One, keeping him on his right, he departed. Then dwelling alone, withdrawn, diligent, ardent, and resolute, the Venerable Malunkyaputta, by realizing it for himself with direct knowledge, in this very life, entered and dwelled in that unsurpassed goal of the holy life for the sake of which clansmen rightly go forth from the household life into homelessness. He directly knew, destroyed his birth. The holy life has been lived. What had to be done has been done. There is no more for this state of being. And the Venerable Malunkyaputta became one of the Arahants.

We'll share some merit now. May suffering ones be suffering free, and the fear struck fearless be. May the grieving shed all grief, and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power, share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Salam, salam, salam.