Nov 15 2020 - MN 143 - Advice to Anāthapiṇḍika - Disengaging Consciousness Towards Nibbana

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening everyone. I am reading Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of Majjhima Nikaya 143. This is Anathapindika or Anathapindikovada Sutta. Advice to Anathapindika. Thus have I heard, on one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's park. Now on that occasion the householder Anathapindika was afflicted, suffering and gravely ill. Then he addressed a certain man thus: Come, good man, go to the Blessed One, pay homage in my name, with your head at his feet, and say: Venerable Sir, the householder Anathapindika is afflicted, suffering, and gravely ill.

Yes, Sir, the man replied, and he went to the Blessed One, and after paying homage to the Blessed One, he sat down at one side and delivered his message. Then he went to the Venerable Sariputta, and after paying homage to the Venerable Sariputta, he delivered his message, saying: It would be good, Venerable Sir, if the Venerable Sariputta would come to the residence of the householder Anathapindika out of compassion.

The Venerable Sariputta consented in silence. Then the Venerable Sariputta, dressed and taking his bowl and outer robe, went to the residence of the householder Anathapindika with Venerable Ananda as his attendant. Having gone there, he sat down on a seat made ready and said to the householder Anathapindika: I hope you are getting well, householder. I hope you are comfortable.

I hope your painful feelings are subsiding and not increasing, and that their subsiding, not their increase, is apparent. Venerable Sariputta, I am not getting well. I am not comfortable. My painful feelings are increasing, not subsiding. Their increase and not their subsiding is apparent. Just as if a strong man were splitting my head open with a sharp sword, so too violent winds cut through my head. I am not getting well. Just as if a strong man were tightening a tough leather strap around my head as a headband,

so too there are violent pains in my head. I am not getting well. Just as if a skilled butcher or his apprentice were to carve up an ox's belly with a sharp butcher's knife, so too violent winds are carving up my belly. I am not getting well. Just as if two strong men were to seize a weaker man by both arms and roast him over a pit of hot coals, so too there is a violent burning in my body. I am not getting well. I am not comfortable. My painful feelings are increasing, not subsiding.

Their increase and not their subsiding is apparent. Then, householder, you should train thus: I will not cling to the I, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the I. Thus you should train. You should train thus. I will not cling to the ear, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the ear. I will not cling to the nose, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the nose.

I will not cling to the tongue, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the tongue. I will not cling to the body, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the body. I will not cling to the mind, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the mind. Thus you should train, householder, you should train thus. I will not cling to forms, and my consciousness will not be dependent on forms. I will not cling to sounds, and my consciousness will not be dependent on sounds.

I will not cling to odors, and my consciousness will not be dependent on odors. I will not cling to flavors, and my consciousness will not be dependent on flavors. I will not cling to tangibles, and my consciousness will not cling to tangibles. I will not cling to mind objects, and my consciousness will not be dependent on mind objects.

Thus you should train. Householder, you should train thus: I will not cling to eye consciousness, and my consciousness will not be dependent on eye consciousness. I will not cling to ear consciousness, and my consciousness will not be dependent on ear consciousness. I will not cling to nose consciousness, and my consciousness will not cling to the nose consciousness. I will not be dependent on nose consciousness.

I will not cling to tongue consciousness, and my consciousness will not be dependent upon tongue consciousness. I will not cling to body consciousness, and my consciousness will not be dependent on body consciousness. I will not cling to mind consciousness, and my consciousness will not be dependent on mind consciousness. Thus, you should train. Householder, you should train thus. I will not cling to eye contact, and my consciousness will not be dependent on eye contact.

I will not cling to ear contact, and my consciousness will not be dependent on ear contact. I will not cling to nose contact, and my consciousness will not cling to nose contact. My consciousness will not depend on nose contact. I will not cling to tongue contact, and my consciousness will not depend upon tongue contact. I will not cling to body contact, and my consciousness will not depend on body contact.

I will not cling to mind contact, and my consciousness will not be dependent on mind contact. Thus, you should train. Householder, you should train thus. I will not cling to feeling born of eye contact, and my consciousness will not be dependent on feeling born of eye contact. I will not cling to feeling born of ear contact, and my consciousness will not depend on feeling born of ear contact.

I will not cling to feeling born of nose contact, and my consciousness will not depend on feeling born of nose contact. I will not cling to feeling born of tongue contact, and my consciousness will not depend upon feeling born of tongue contact. I will not cling to feeling born of body contact, and my consciousness will not depend on feeling born of body contact. I will not cling to feeling born of mind contact, and my consciousness will not depend on feeling born of mind contact.

Thus, you should train. Householder, you should train thus: I will not cling to the earth element, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the earth element. I will not cling to the water element, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the water element. I will not cling to the fire element, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the fire element. I will not cling to the air element, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the air element. I will not cling to the space element, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the space element.

I will not cling to the consciousness element, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the consciousness element. Thus, you should train. Householder, you should train thus: I will not cling to material form, and my consciousness will not be dependent on material form. I will not cling to feeling, and my consciousness will not be dependent on feeling. I will not cling to perception, and my consciousness will not depend on perception.

I will not cling to formations, and my consciousness will not be dependent on formations. I will not cling to consciousness, and my consciousness will not be dependent on consciousness. Thus you should train, householder, you should train thus. I will not cling to the base of infinite space, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the base of infinite space.

I will not cling to the base of infinite consciousness, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the base of infinite consciousness. I will not cling to the base of nothingness, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the base of nothingness. I will not cling to the base of neither perception nor non-perception, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the base of neither perception nor non-perception.

Thus you should train. Householder, you should train thus: I will not cling to this world, and my consciousness will not be dependent on this world. I will not cling to the world beyond, and my consciousness will not be dependent on the world beyond. Thus you should train. Householder, you should train thus. I will not cling to what is seen, heard, sensed, cognized, encountered, sought after, and examined by the mind, and my consciousness will not be dependent on that. Thus you should train.

When this was said, the householder Anathapindika wept and shed tears. Then the Venerable Ananda asked him: Are you foundering, householder? Are you sinking? I am not foundering, Venerable Ananda. I am not sinking. But although I have waited upon the teacher and bhikkhus worthy of esteem, never before have I heard such a talk on the Dhamma. Such talk on the Dhamma, householder, is not given to lay people clothed in white.

Such talk on the Dhamma is given to those who have gone forth. Well then, Venerable Sariputta, let such talk on the Dhamma be given to lay people clothed in white. There are clansmen with little dust in their eyes who are wasting away through not hearing such talk on the Dhamma. There will be those who will understand the Dhamma.

Then, after giving the householder Anathapindika this advice, the Venerable Sariputta and the Venerable Ananda rose from their seats and departed. Soon after they had left, the householder Anathapindika died and reappeared in the Tusita heaven. Then, when the night was well advanced, Anathapindika, now a young god of beautiful appearance, went to the Blessed One, illuminating the whole of Jeta's Grove.

"Good, good, Ananda. As far as reasoning goes, you have drawn the right conclusion. That young god was Anathapindaka, no one else." This is what the Blessed One said. The venerable Ananda was satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words. There's a lot of interesting layers to this story. First and foremost, Sariputta, when he visits Anathapindaka and sees that Anathapindaka is suffering, he gives him a wise discourse on consciousness at his, inevitably, his deathbed.

And he does this by taking Anathapindaka through all of the different elements and factors of one's existence. He shows Anathapindaka how to detach consciousness from the sixth sense base, how to detach consciousness from the five aggregates, from the level of contact and the level of feeling. As Anathapindaka is able to detach his consciousness from all of these, he starts to eradicate, bit by bit, his craving. He reduces his level of craving and thereby reduces his level of suffering.

And then he tells Anathapindaka about the various bases of infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception nor non-perception. And he explains to Anathapindaka that in such a being, one should not have their consciousness dependent upon any of these higher levels of awareness and understanding. And then he tells Anathapindaka to detach his consciousness from any concept of this world or the world beyond, and so on.

So what Sariputta is invariably doing for Anathapindaka is helping him experience Nibbana in steps, by first detaching any concepts related to form, contact, feeling, and consciousness, and then thereby allowing him to enter into the formless realms, into the formless spheres of experience and perception. And he tells Anathapindaka not to depend on these, not to see these as the end of the path.

And he walks Anathapindaka through each stage of the path in collectedness, in sama-samadhi. And as he does this, he disconnects any concepts, ideas, and attachments to any of these higher levels of awareness, understanding and perception. And he tries to lead Anathapindaka towards Nibbana, towards non-conceptual understanding, towards not attaching any form of consciousness or perception to anything that is being experienced.

In other words, he is deconditioning Anathapindaka's mind so that his consciousness does not attach to anything. In effect, he's trying to enable Anathapindika to experience parinibbana. Now, of course, Anathapindika, upon listening to the Dhamma discourse by Sariputta, starts to delight in what is being said, and relishes in the Dhamma, and has a certain attachment to the Dhamma. Through this attachment, he doesn't experience full Nibbana, he doesn't experience parinibbana, but he is then spontaneously reborn into Tusita heaven.

From this, one can gather that after having become a sotapanna, after eradicating his first three fetters, Anathapindaka was able to become a sotapanna and a stream winner, a sotapanna with fruition. Through this deep practice of understanding that all of these various states of existence, from the gross levels, from the coarse levels of the body and the sixth sense base, and the contact and feeling that arises from the sixth sense base, are all impermanent and not worth holding on to, and therefore detaching one's consciousness from detaching any kind of clinging and craving to words

But Anathapindaka also has some form of craving in the Dhamma. He has the craving for the Dhamma to be distributed and explained to other people, to other lay people. And through his compassion for them he asks Sariputta that they also be given these sorts of discourses for their benefit. But because he still has some levels of attachment, one can deduce from this that he reached at the very least the level of sakadagami and therefore attained Tusita heaven.

If he had become an anagami, he would have gone to the pure abodes and from there attained arahatship. So at the very least he became a sakadagami. On a practical level, for one's own meditation practice and in daily living, it's important to always detach any sense of I, me or mine towards the feelings that are generated from the sixth sense spaces that arise from contact. This happens through right mindfulness, always being aware in every present situation of what is arising, and seeing if the mind naturally inclines and craves and attaches towards that feeling with a sense of personal self.

Or, in that case, if it does, detach that craving, detach that sense of self and personalization to that feeling, and thereby prevent craving from arising and thereby prevent the rest of the links of dependent origination from arising. But within the meditation itself as well, it's important to see that any sort of inclination of craving towards any of the factors of the first four jhanas, or towards any of the factors of the formless realms, the formless basis of perception, awareness and understanding, will cause certain formations to be strengthened.

And when this happens, this will cause an attachment to the factors and elements of the jhanas and the basis of various perceptions, of the higher perceptions. So whenever you are meditating, it's important to make sure that the mind continues to stay with its vehicle of meditation, with its object, while understanding that whatever factors of the jhanas are arising are not to be clung to and not to be attended to.

They are to be understood in so far as understanding that these factors are present. But if you start to cling onto them, number one, your attention is no longer on your object, which means that you have strayed from your mindfulness, strayed from your object, and therefore created the potential for craving to arise, for mental proliferation to arise, through improper attention, through attention that is not unified around your object. The moment you see this, you have to then understand and use the 6R's. You have to recognize that you were distracted by even the factors of jhana, no matter how good they feel or no matter how interesting they are to the mind. You have to recognize that your mind was distracted and has clung to one or all of these factors.

Recognize and release your mind's attention from that by putting it back on the mind and body, and relaxing the tension that arises from having clung to them, thereby releasing and relaxing the craving, coming back to the re-smile, which reminds you of staying with your object, which is a wholesome state of mind, whether it's one of the brahmaviharas or a quiet mind. So you have to continuously stay with your object. Just by being aware of it, you don't have to focus on it, obviously you don't have to push it. Just be aware of it, and allow

any factors of the jhanas that are arising to be treated as background thoughts in the same way. When you are staying with your object, you might notice background thoughts, and don't pay any attention to them, in so far as allowing your attention to go to them and no longer being on your object. They will dissipate because of the lack of attention, which is their food, which is their nutriment.

Wherever you put your attention, that is where it will grow. So in the same way, if you start to pay attention to the factors of the jhana, in clinging to them, and rather than paying attention and staying with your object, you are going to create the circumstances for mental proliferation, distraction, hindrances and craving, and so on. So the way to do this is to stay with your object, allow whatever factors of the jhana or the basis of infinite space, infinite consciousness and nothingness to arise and pass away without your involvement.

Now, there's another reason why you do this. The more you are able to do this, the more the mind starts to become disenchanted and dispassionate about these factors. And by doing this, one inevitably lets go of one jhana as the mind starts to enter into a higher jhana or a higher state of perception, until finally you have let go of all subtle formations and entered cessation. And because the mind continues to be uninvolved, dispassionate and disenchanted towards any factors of the higher levels of awareness and understanding, naturally after cessation of perception and feeling, the mind continues to be uninvolved as it restarts the links of dependent origination. And remaining uninvolved in doing so, one attains and experiences freedom, release of the mind through Nibbana.

freedom release of the mind through Nibbana. And this is also a great lesson for people who want to help anyone who they know is suffering in sickness and in disease or is on their deathbed. you can read this suta to them and comfort them and provide them with good intentions provide them with good thoughts and allow them to be in a better state of mind before they pass away if they are on their deathbed because the more you're able to do this the more it allows for their mind to let go of any of the negative aspects of their life and experiences and at the very least allows the mind if it has to to cling to the good aspects to the wholesome aspects of their lives and experiences because during the death process the formations that arise deep in mind when they arise are clung to through craving when in being sees those formations in the form of various memories

or various emotions and various images and so on and when they experience this if the mind clings to them to these formations it activates a consciousness through that intention which will then carry forward those formations into the next life through spontaneously linking with a new mentality and materiality at the point of conception in the case of a new human rebirth let's say so that also brings into the understanding of parinibbana because for an arahat when they enter parinibbana at the last moments of their last life

there are no formations that arise that can be clung to and that can be craved because of this there is no intention that drives forward a consciousness that attaches itself to a formation through craving and because of that there is no new consciousness that arises that can then take rebirth into a new mentality or a new mentality materiality.

They have fully detached their consciousness from all aspects and elements of existence, of perception, awareness, understanding, and experience. So at the final moments of the arahant's life, there is no new consciousness to be found when the body finally dissolves, and that consciousness with the rest of the five aggregates are finally extinguished in that parinibbana. So this is why one practices and understands, and then through that understanding practices the detachment of consciousness, because attaching any form of consciousness by paying improper attention, or not properly paying attention to the feelings that arise

through the sensory experiences that arise will then cause craving to arise, because right mindfulness in that moment is not being utilized, and so because of that one will create a new consciousness to arise in the next cycle of the dependent origination arising and passing away. So long as one continues to attach through improper attention or not paying proper attention, the consciousness through which craving will arise, and then through which clinging and being and birth of action and suffering will arise. But as one, through one's daily living and through one's meditation practice, understands the principles and the importance of detaching consciousness, paying proper attention through right mindfulness to the extent that no greed or hatred arises, and to the extent that no identification process arises with the sensory experience, by doing this one will not attach consciousness to it, one will not crave, one will not cling, create renewal of being, and therefore birth of new karma and suffering. So at the point of sensory experience, right there and then, that consciousness is dissipated without the seeds of karma, without the moisture of

or rather the seeds of consciousness without the moisture of craving and so on, which means that because one doesn't identify with the sensory experiences, one is unable to, because of that, create new karma and create new suffering for oneself. And rather, the old karma that continues to arise is worn away at the level of sensory experiences and perception without clinging and without grasping. This is further deepened, as I already stated, through the process of meditation in the jhana practice, the more one continues to let go of all hindrances and distractions

along with that, all factors, attention on all factors of the jhanas, allowing them to be there with one's understanding that they are there and letting them arise and pass away, the more one does this, the more one practices non-grasping, which will inevitably lead to Nibbana. And all of this culminates into when one becomes an arahant, so to speak, in parinibbana, where there is complete total non-clinging and non-grasping, which allows for parinibbana to be experienced. Question, yeah, yeah. In this sutta the words are used in a different manner, but generally it is saying feeling, craving, and then clinging, but I think the consciousness word is used in a broader sense here. Yeah, consciousness will not play, yeah

That's right, and some good teachers talk about universal consciousness as a permanent entity. Some take it as nibbana, and some take it as a sphere of nothingness. What is your opinion about it, regarding what concept of universal consciousness as a permanent entity? Yeah, the idea of a universal consciousness as an entity is misguided, because that also is dependent upon the mind, which means that that understanding or that experience of the universal consciousness is dependent upon the state of mind. And so if that state of mind is dissolved

so is that experience of universal consciousness and the way it is understood through the suttas. The Buddha never talked about a universal consciousness; he always talked about consciousness that was either established through the process of mentality materiality or unestablished or unlinked. So nibbana is the unlinking and unconditioning of consciousness, the non-proliferation of consciousness through improper attention. So nibbana really is undoing all of those processes, including the idea, through the actual experience in infinite consciousness, the idea of a universal consciousness, because at the level of infinite consciousness one gets to see first hand how consciousness arises and passes away dependent upon the sense experiences

Hi Delson. I was wondering about the part that says and my consciousness will not be dependent on. I feel like the word consciousness here is more talking about focusing, because otherwise there would not be a difference between clinging on sense contact, which already inherently has a part of consciousness, and depending on sense consciousness. So my take on it is that when he says my consciousness will not be dependent on anything, it's talking about focusing on one of these aspects. Yes, right. Yes. Okay. It's basically like I said, paying improper attention by focusing on them, by becoming distracted by them. Okay, maybe one other quick question.

It's clear that they are skipping in this Dhamma talk the rupa jhanas, the first four jhanas. Yeah, is that perhaps because they want to get him away from focusing on a painful body? That could be, yeah, that could be seen in that already. Yeah, go ahead. Or is it, sorry, you didn't complete your question, did you? That was my question about the rupa jhanas, why they are skipped. I could think of two reasons: either he already can attain them and doesn't seem to be that attached to them, or they specifically skip it because they don't want him to focus on the body at all, because it's already very painful

Yes, it can be seen in that way. I was going to say that the way I see it is, when they start to show, Sariputta shows Anathapindika how to detach or not have consciousness dependent upon the feeling and contact. He is essentially also starting to go away from contact with form, so he's starting to lose contact with the body, starting to lose contact with the sixth sense base.

And when that happens, that is the territory of the formless realms, the disconnection with the form jhanas. Thank you. Hello, Delson. Hello. Hi. I have a question regarding a sutta in Khandha Samyutta. It is with the halit halitikani. In this sutta it says that five out of the five aggregates, consciousness is like, they mentioned the four things, like feeling element is sheltered for consciousness, perception element is sheltered for consciousness, formations, and feeling, perception, sankharas, rupa. Is it like out of these five aggregates, the consciousness takes shelters one among the rest of the three? That means consciousness present always, out of always

So long as you are in conditioned existence, consciousness will be dependent upon one or more of these five aggregates. So for example, the feeling aggregate, which is the sensory experiences, the consciousness becomes dependent upon it when attention is paid to it and flows through it, or improper attention by not understanding it, and then it clings to it, creating craving. So it's the clinging aspect that needs to be understood for the five aggregates, but consciousness is always tied to some sort of experience. That's why one of the synonyms for nibbana, or explanations, is the consciousness that is unestablished, the consciousness

without any concepts, because that consciousness does not link and therefore crave through conditioned reality, through conditioned existence. Having said that, it's important to understand that the Buddha is not talking about the universal consciousness that was talked about earlier. He's talking about, first of all, the process of unlinking the consciousness from any aspect of conditioned reality, which includes the five aggregates, and thereby one experiences nibbana. It's through that process that nibbana is achieved, so to speak. So yes, consciousness is tied to any experience of the sixth sense basis, which is within the feeling aggregate, which is within the mentality and materiality.

Likewise with form, likewise with perception, likewise with formations, and likewise with consciousness itself. Thank you. Thank you. When he says my consciousness will not arise on base of other things, he means that no birth will occur after this. He says that my consciousness will not be dependent upon these things. You're saying he says that birth will not arise, is that what you're asking? Yeah, that is what I am asking. Yeah. If consciousness does not become dependent upon these things, and through that there is no clinging aspect to it, then birth will not arise. But the thing is, as soon as you see that there is consciousness dependent upon something, if you recognize it and let it go, you can still prevent the arising of birth. Yeah, there's still a micro span of time in which you see that, for example

at the level of sensory experience that the consciousness dependent upon that is taken as personal. As soon as it's recognized, you can use the 6R's to let go of it and then prevent clinging, being, and birth from arising. So the 6R's can lead you to parinibbana; the 6R's can lead you to nibbana and parinibbana, in the sense that at the arahant's level, in their mind there is no letting go, but instead there is complete detachment, which means there's no attachment to anything whatsoever. So there's nothing to detach; it's more non-attachment rather. So when any formations do arise, they are automatically not clung to, because of that there's no new consciousness that would arise to give way to new birth, a new rebirth, to arise. Thank you

I feel that what people are confused about, when they say that nibbana is a permanent state, and that after the arahant passes away they still keep thinking that there is something in which that unlinked consciousness abides. But it is my understanding that when the Buddha says nibbana is permanent, it is because an arahant is permanently in that state, in that body, without nibbana sometimes arising and sometimes passing away. And I think that this is why people feel that, yes, nibbana is permanent. So after the arahant passes away, there is something that stays somewhere, but I feel that's wrong view, right?

That is wrong view, because that presupposes the idea that there is a self that's still around after the dissolution of the body. So the idea that nibbana is permanent is really about the arahant's mind, which is to say that the mind of an arahant is continuously in that state of cessation, meaning the third noble truth. They are living the third noble truth and applying it in every moment of their life. So because of that, which is to say that there is no suffering arising in the mind, it's the complete cessation of suffering in the mind. So the arahant, it is not

going somewhere after death. It's not about that. And Nibbana is not some kind of permanent dimension or permanent heaven or sphere or anything like that. It is the permanent change in one's perspective, in one's understanding of reality. It's permanent to the extent that it is irreversible once you have it once you understand it there's no way of going back before that it's a complete shift in one's mind. Hello Delson, hello. Yes. What would you say, how many times does it take to enter the brahma realms? How many times of jhanas does it take to enter the primary else? Because I don't think just one successful jhana meditation can get you there.

It depends upon the strength of the formation that is produced from that experience of the jhana. So that could mean that even one experience of jhana, if it's strong enough to create a formation, which is then attached to at the point of the dissolution of the body, it can bring a person into the Brahma realm. Having said that, it could also be that it would require more and more experiences of the jhana to be able to continue to strengthen that formation, which would become more dominant in the arising at the point of death, so that that consciousness will cling to it and will then transport it to one of the Brahma realms.

Does this require any sort of breakthroughs like stream entry or anagami? Or is it just dependent on the jhana itself? You have to understand that, for example, in stream entry, that can destroy first and foremost the potential of rebirth in the lower realms, lower than the human realm, because one destroys the wrong view of a permanent self, one destroys doubt in the practice in the path, and one destroys the attachment to rites and rituals which one thinks will lead one to nibbana. And in the case of a sotapanna, they will have up to, according to the suttas, seven lifetimes before they attain nibbana, and those lifetimes can be anywhere within the scope

of the human realm and above. Whereas in the case of an anagami, well, you have also sakadagami, who will continue to take one more rebirth in the sensuous realms, so that would be within the deva realms for example, and in the case of an anagami they will have taken rebirth one more time beyond the sensuous realms, beyond the brahma realms, into the pure abodes, and from there will attain arahatship. But when one attains arahatship, they destroy the potential for rebirth in any of the planes from the human realm above. So this is the way it should be seen and understood.

I think we can share some merit now. May suffering ones be suffering free, and the fear-struck fearless be. May the grieving shadow grieve, and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisitions 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.