Not by handsome appearance does one become good-natured
Not by mere eloquence, nor by handsome appearance, does a man become good-natured, should he be jealous, selfish and deceitful. Dhammattha Vagga - The Dhammapada
 

On understanding the teaching of Dukkha by the Buddha

by Kingsley Heendeniya

When I was about 14, nearly 60 years ago, I read the book The Last Days of Pompeii by Baron Edward Bulwer-Lytton where two friends meet on the road after the eruption of Vesuvius and one tells the other: Life is sweet brother, who would wish to die? That sentence made a deep impression and has stuck in my memory.

In contrast, the teaching of dukkha - of sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair - by the Buddha long before Pompeii was buried in ash, appears as joylessness, pessimism, weariness and melancholia, sullen, forlorn, even cynical.

In fact, in his time, the wanderer Magandiya accused the Buddha as being a 'destroyer of all that is human'! (Sutta No. 75, Majjhima Nikaya).

Knowing it, during the discourse to him, the Buddha uttered the stanza: 'The greatest of all gains is health, Nibbana is the greatest bliss...'; and Magandiya having heard it said by earlier wanderers in the tradition of their teachers, stroking his limbs with his hands said: 'This is that health, Master Gotama, this is that Nibbana for I am now healthy, happy and nothing afflicts me.'

The Buddha then told him: Now it (the stanza) has become current among ordinary people. And although this body, Magandiya, is a disease, a tumor, a dart, a calamity and an affliction, referring to this body you say, 'This is that health, this is that Nibbana. You do not have that noble vision, Magandiya, by means of which you might know health and Nibbana.'

The concept of dukkha was well-known before the time of the Buddha, but no one before him understood it as he did, had insight, taught its dependent origin and pointed the way to escape from it, as he did, for the first time, sitting alone under a tree on a full moon night, at the age of 35 years.

Dukkha is the key to the whole of the Buddha's Teaching. Time and again he says, 'Both formerly, monks, and now, it is dukkha that I make known and the cessation of dukkha.' But the Teaching is profound, difficult, subtle, inviting investigation, and as he says, it is to be experienced privately by the wise. It is for a privileged few who have the fortune to hear it, the intelligence to grasp it and the commitment to practise from understanding it wherefrom.

Traditionally, dukkha is described in three ways:

Dukkha-dukkha, which is the sorrow and disappointment from personal misfortune, death of loved ones, loss of things one is fond of, bankruptcy and so on.

Viparinama dukkha, which is dissatisfaction from change, sickness, ageing and so on.

Sankhara dukkha, which includes both above and only that which the Buddha teaches.

The ordinary untaught man, the puthujjana, the assutava, has no difficulty in understanding (1) and (2) above. He accepts that life has ups and downs and that it is insecure, and the majority is stoical about those things that happen to them, but not to others. Life indeed is sweet, brother.

The world is splendiferous and we have only one life to live. Gifted with intact five senses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind, pursuing pleasant feelings from perceptions of visible forms, sounds, smell, taste, touch, images and ideas, though insatiable should be the be all and end all of living, here and now - though everyone knows we shall yet die, leave all of that behind, the glory and defeat, and pass on to wherever it may be.

Thus, the ignorance of understanding the Buddha appears irrelevant, a needless descent into an escape from the obvious reality of secular existence.

So what is this thing sankhara-dukkha the Buddha speaks about? Herein is the secret of the Teaching, evident, visible and immanent to wise ones who take time and effort to understand him.

The critical concept of dukkha is shrouded in the word 'sankhara'. The Buddha chose to use it to brilliantly summarize 45 years of teaching in his last four words: Vyadhamma sankhara, appamadena sampadetha (It is the nature of determinations to disappear, strive unremittingly).

The word and concept of sankhara should be understood in the context of the structural principle of dependent arising and ceasing the Buddha applied to the genesis of dukkha as exemplified in the twelve-factored formulation, paticcasamuppada: When there is this this is, with arising of this this arises; when there is not this this is not, with cessation of this this ceases.

The Culavedalla Sutta (Majjhima No. 44) uses sankhara to mean a thing (dhamma) from which some other thing is inseparable - in other words, a necessary condition. If sankhara is something upon which something else depends, we can say the 'the something else' is determined by the first thing, i.e., by the sankhara, which is therefore a 'determination' or a 'determinant'.

It is convenient to thus translate and understand sankhara as a 'determination'. For example, as taught by the Buddha consistently in different formulations of paticcasamuppada, contact (phassa) is the determination upon which arises feelings, perceptions and intentions.

These in turn, are determinations upon which arise craving (tanha) and holding (upadana) and so on, where the structural principle leads to the determinations of birth, ageing and death - the arising of this whole mass of sankhara dukkha. And herein is the difficulty for the puthujjana.

He does not see dependent arising. Nor does he see that each and every determination is impermanent, liable to change, fading and ceasing. That is to say, the untaught ordinary man does not see for himself, experience it in himself, that whatever he feels, perceives, intends, whether pleasurable or not, all that arise in consciousness are sankhara are dependently arisen, impermanent and therefore dukkha.

The above exegesis is necessarily an outline (in consideration of space). The thrust of this brief essay is to encourage the student of the Teaching to study it in depth, and not as the Buddha says, merely run up and down on the shore.

If one understands the dependent arising and cessation of dukkha, of sankhara-dukkha, one then sees the Teaching as found only in the Suttas, in the words of the Buddha and by his senior disciples such as venerable Sariputta. Do not be misled by others.

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How a noble one dwells

On one occasion the Blessed One was dwelling at Kapilavatthu in the Banyan-tree Monastery. Then Mahanama the Sakyan approached the Blessed One, paid homage to him, and sat down to one side. So seated, he said to the Blessed One:

"Lord, in what way does a noble disciple often dwell when he has arrived at the fruit and understood the teaching?"

"When, Mahanama, a noble disciple has arrived at the fruit and understood the teaching, he often dwells in such a way as this. Here, a noble disciple recollects the Tathagata thus: 'The Blessed One is an arahant ...(as in Text 92)... teacher of devas and humans, the Enlightened One, the Blessed One.'

When a noble disciple recollects the Tathagata thus, on that occasion his mind is not obsessed by lust, hatred or delusion; his mind is straight, with the Tathagata as its object. A noble disciple whose mind is straight gains the inspiration of the meaning, the inspiration of the Dhamma, gains gladness connected with the Dharma.

When he is gladdened rapture arises; for one uplifted by rapture the body becomes calm; one calm in body feels happy; for one who is happy the mind becomes concentrated. This is called a noble disciple who dwells evenly amidst an uneven generation, who dwells unafflicted amidst an afflicted generation, who has entered upon the stream of the Dhamma and develops recollection of the Buddha.

"Further, Mahanama, a noble disciple recollects the Dhamma thus: "The Dhamma is well expounded by the Blessed One, directly visible, immediate, inviting one to come and see, worthy of application, to be personally experienced by the wise.'

When a nobel disciple recollects the Dhamma thus, on that occasion his mind is not obsessed by lust, hatred or delusion; his mind is straight, with the Dhamma as its object ... This is called a noble disciple who dwells evenly amidst an uneven generation, who dwells unafflicted amidst an afflicted generation, who has entered upon the stream of the Dhamma and develops recollection of the Dhamma.

"Further, Mahanama, a noble disciple recollects the Sangha thus: 'The sangha of the Blessed One's disciples is practising the good way, practising the straight way, practising the true way, practising the proper way; that is, the four pairs of persons the eight types of individuals - this Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples is worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of reverential salutation, the unsurpassed field of merit for the world.'

When a noble disciple recollects the Sangha thus, on that occasion his mind is not obsessed by lust, hatred or delusion; his mind is straight, with the Sangha as its object ... This is called a noble disciple who dwells evenly amidst an uneven generation, who dwells unafflicted amidst an afflicted generation, who has entered upon the stream of the Dhamma and develops recollection of the Sangha.

"Further, Mahanama, a noble disciple recollects his own virtues thus: I possess the virtues dear to the noble ones, unbroken, untorn, unblemished, unmottled, freeing, praised by the wise, unadhered to, leading to concentration."

When a noble disciple recollects his own virtues thus, on that occasion his mind is not obsessed by lust, hatred or delusion; his mind is straight, with virtue as its object ... This is called a noble disciple who dwells evenly amidst an uneven generation, who dwells unafflicted amidst an afflicted generation, who has entered upon the stream of the Dhamma and develops recollection of virtue.

"Further, Mahanama, a noble disciple recollects his own generosity thus: 'It is a gain for me, it is well gained by me, that in a generation obsessed by the stain of stinginess, I dwell at home with a mind devoid of the stain stinginess, freely generous, open-handed, delighting in relinquishment, one devoted to charity, delighting in giving and sharing."

When a nobel disciple recollects his own generosity thus, on that occasion his mind is not obsessed by lust, hatred or delusion; his mind is straight, with generosity as its object ... This is called a nobel disciple who dwells evenly amidst an uneven generation, who dwells unafflicted amidst an afflicted generation, who has entered upon the stream of the Dhamma and develops recollection of generosity.

"Further, Mahanama, a noble disciple develops the recollection of the devas thus: 'There are devas in the heaven of the Four Great Kings, Tavatimsa devas, Yama devas, Tusita devas, devas Who Delight in Creation, devas Who control What Is Created by Others, devas of Brahma's Company, and devas still higher than these.

There is found in me such faith as those devas possessed because of which, when they passed away from this world, they were reborn there; there is found in me such virtue...such learning...such generosity...such wisdom as those devas possessed because of which, when they passed away from this world, they were reborn there.'

When a noble disciple recollects his own faith, virtue, learning, generosity and wisdom, as well as those of the devas, on that occasion his mind is not obsessed by lust, hatred or delusion; his mind is straight, with the devas as its object...This is called a noble disciple who dwells evenly amidst an uneven generation, who dwells unafflicted amidst an afflicted generation, who has entered upon the stream of the Dhamma and develops recollection of the devas.

"A noble disciple, Mahanama, who has arrived at the fruit and understood the teaching often dwells in just this way".

Anguttara Nikaya

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Buddhism in English for youngsters

The Sri Wimalasiri English Dhamma School at Asokaramaya, Polpithimukalana, is just two-and a-half kilometres off Kandana town towards Gampaha. The Dhamma School renders yeoman services to the community by teaching the children Buddhism in English.

The Venerable Uturumagala Nandasiri Nayake Thera, chief incumbent of the temple and Venerable Beligaswelle Wijithasiri Thera, the chief disciple, are both advisors to the Dhamma School. It was heartening to observe the present developed State of the Dhamma School which was started, with the blessings of the two chief monks with twenty students and within the same year, the number of students had increased up to eighty.

Venerable Polpithimukalane Pangnasiri Thera, the pioneer of the Dhamma School, is a former English instructor at Buddhist and Pali University and an assistant lecturer in sociology.

He said that the Dhamma School was started in order to produce students who were well-versed in Buddha Dhamma and English and of course, with good discipline. "I was born and bred in this area and obtained higher education from the University of Peradeniya in the English medium, which made me understand the place English occupies in the modern world. I got my primary education from the village school and later was able to study English under very good teachers.

I did it facing a lot of hardship so I fully understand the problems students of our area could face in this sphere," the Thera said.

"I invited some well-educated English teachers of the area and started this Dhamma School in January 2000. First and foremost the students were given a basic knowledge of English in order to understand Buddhism. Then we directly started off to teach Buddhism in English.

As the students had learnt the words denoting the objects what they saw in the temple, such as the Buddha images, Pagoda, Bodhi Tree, oil lamp, incense etc; they were able to understand what was being taught to them.

"Today the number of students has increased up to 200. The Dhamma School which started with just one class, has now developed into a six-class institute.

It is a magnanimous gesture on their part, Venerable Pangnasiri Thera said.

There is a Sinhala Medium Dhamma School too, which has a long history. It has more than 600 students.

The Thera observed that if the students continued to study in that manner up to the final test of the Dhamma School, he would not need teachers from outside for the lower classes. When it comes to higher classes, he expects to get lecturers in the universities to teach in the Dhamma School.

The Principal Thera adds that he expects to offer foreign scholarships to the students who excel in their studies. He also appreciated the co-operation of the parents to make his effort a success.