Post # 44 -The Seven Factors for Awakening (satta bojjhanga). Part 2

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In the book titled ‘The Seven Factors of Enlightenment Satta Bojjhaṅga’ published by the Buddhist Publication Society of Kandy, Sri Lanka, Ven. Piyadassi goes on to describe the seven factors in detail as follows:

The first is sati, mindfulness. It is the instrument most efficacious in self-mastery, and whosoever practices it has found the path to deliverance. It is fourfold: mindfulness consisting of contemplation of the body (kāyānupassanā); feeling (vedanānupassanā); mind (cittānupassanā); and mental objects or mind contents (dhammānupassanā).

The man lacking in this all-important quality of mindfulness cannot achieve anything worthwhile. The Buddha’s final admonition to his disciples on his death bed was this: “Transient are all component things. Work out your deliverance with heedfulness!” (vaya-dhammā saṅkhārā, appamādena sampādetha)”.

Man cannot be heedful unless he is fully aware of his actions, whether they are mental, verbal or physical, at every moment of his waking life. Only when a man is fully awake to and mindful of his activities can he distinguish good from bad and right from wrong. It is in the light of mindfulness he will see the beauty or the ugliness of his deeds. The word appamāda throughout the Tipiṭaka is used to denote sati, mindfulness; pamāda is defined as absence of mindfulness.

Says the Buddha in the Aṅguttara Nikāya: “Monks, I know not of any other single thing of such power to cause the arising of good thoughts if not yet arisen, or to cause the waning of evil thoughts if already arisen, as heedfulness. In him who is heedful, good thoughts not yet arisen do arise, and evil thoughts, if arisen, do wane.” “The man who delights in mindfulness and regards heedlessness with dread is not liable to fall away. He is in the vicinity of Nibbāna.”

The second enlightenment factor is dhammavicaya - keen investigation of the Dhamma. It is the sharp analytical knowledge of understanding the true nature of all constituent things, animate or inanimate, human or divine. It is seeing things as they really are; seeing things in their proper perspective. It is the analysis of all component things into their fundamental elements, right down to their ultimate. Through keen investigation one understands that all compounded things pass through the inconceivably rapid moments of uppāda, ṭhiti and bhaṅga; or of arising, reaching a peak, and ceasing, just as a river in flood sweeps to a climax and fades away. The whole universe is constantly changing, not remaining the same for two consecutive moments. All things in fact are subjected to causes, conditions, and effects (hetu, paccaya and phala). Systematic reflection (yoniso manasikāra) comes naturally through right mindfulness, and it urges one to discriminate, to reason and investigate. Shallow thinking, unsystematic reflection (ayoniso manasikāra), makes people muddleheaded, and then they fail to investigate the nature of things. Such people cannot see cause and effect, seed and fruit, the rise and fall of compounded things. Says the Buddha: “This doctrine is for the wise and not for the unwise.”“As the wise test the purity of gold by burning, cutting and examining it by means of a piece of touchstone, so should you accept my words after examining them and not merely out of regard and reverence for me.”

 Thus blind belief is condemned in the analytic teaching (vibhajjavāda) of the Buddha. The truth of the Dhamma can be grasped only through calm concentrative thought and insight (samatha and vipassanā) and never through blind faith. One who goes in quest of truth is not satisfied with surface knowledge. He wants to delve deep and see what is beneath. That is the sort of search encouraged in Buddhism. That type of search yields right understanding.

He that cultivates dhammavicaya -investigation of the Dhamma, focuses his mind on the five aggregates of grasping, the pañcupadānakkhandhā, and endeavours to realize the rise and fall or the arising and passing away (udaya-vaya) of this conglomeration of bare forces (suddha-saṅkhāra-puñja), this conflux of mind and matter (nāma-rūpa-santati). It is only when he fully realizes the evanescent nature of his own mind and body that he experiences happiness and joyous anticipation. Therefore, it is said: Whenever he reflects on the rise and fall of the aggregates, he experiences unalloyed joy and happiness. To the discerning one that (reflection) is deathless Nibbāna.

What is impermanent and not lasting he sees as sorrow-fraught. What is impermanent and sorrow-fraught, he understands as void of a permanent and everlasting soul, self, or ego entity. It is this grasping, this realization of the three characteristics or laws—transiency (anicca), sorrow (dukkha), and no-self or soullessness (anattā)—which is known to Buddhists as vipassanā-ñāṇa or penetrative insight, and which, like the razor-edged sword, entirely eradicates all the latent tendencies (anusaya). With it, all the varied ramifications of sorrow’s cause are finally destroyed. A man who ascends to this summit of vision is an arahat, a perfect one, whose clarity of vision, whose depth of insight, penetrates into the deepest recesses of life and cognizes the true nature that underlies all appearance.

The third enlightenment factor is viriya or energy. It is a mental property (cetasika) and the sixth limb of the Noble Eightfold Path, there called sammā vāyāma or Right Effort.

Buddhism is for the sincerely zealous, strong and firm in purpose, and not for the indolent (āraddhaviriyassāyaṃ dhammo, nāyaṃ dhammo kusītassa).

In the words of the Buddha, each individual has himself to put forth the necessary effort, and work out his own deliverance with diligence

A follower of the Buddha should not under any circumstances relinquish hope and effort; for the Buddha was one who never gave up courage and effort even as a Bodhisatta. As an aspirant for Buddha-hood, he had as his motto the following inspiring words: mā nivatta, abhikkama, “Falter not, advance”. The man who is mindful (satimā) and cultivates keen investigation should next put forth the necessary effort to fight his way out. The function of viriya or energy is fourfold. It is defined as: the effort to eradicate evils that have arisen in the mind; the effort to prevent the arising of unarisen evil; the effort to develop unarisen good; and the effort to promote the further growth of good already arisen.

Thus the path of purification is impossible for an indolent person. The aspirant for enlightenment (bodhi) should possess unflinching energy coupled with fixed determination. Enlightenment and deliverance lie absolutely and entirely in his own hands. “Man must himself by his own resolute efforts rise and make his way to the portals of liberty, and it is always, at every moment, in his power so to do.

The fourth enlightenment factor is pīti, rapture or happiness. This, too, is a mental property (cetasika) and is a quality which suffuses both the body and mind. The man lacking in this quality cannot proceed along the path to enlightenment. There will arise in him sullen indifference to the dhamma, an aversion to the practice of meditation, and morbid manifestations. It is, therefore, very necessary that a man striving to attain enlightenment and final deliverance from the fetters of saṃsāra should endeavour to cultivate the all-important factor of happiness. No one can bestow on another the gift of happiness; each one has to build it up by effort, reflection and concentrated activity. As happiness is a thing of the mind it should be sought not in external and material things, though they may in a small way be instrumental. Contentment is a characteristic of the really happy individual. The ordinary worldling seems to think that it is difficult to cultivate and develop contentment; but by dint of courage, determination, systematic attention and thought about the things that one meets with in everyday life, by controlling one’s evil inclinations, and by curbing the impulses, the sudden tendencies to act without reflection, one can keep the mind from being soiled, and experience happiness through contentment. In man’s mind arise conflicts of diverse kinds, and if these conflicts are to be controlled, while still not eliminated, man must give less rein to inclinations and longings; in other words, he must cultivate contentment. Hard it is to give up what lures and holds us in thrall; and hard it is to exorcise the evil spirits that haunt the human heart in the shape of ugly and unwholesome thoughts.

When discussing happiness in the context of sambojjhaṅgas, we must bear in mind the vast difference between pleasure and happiness. Pleasure—pleasant feeling—is something very momentary and fleeting. Is it wrong to say that pleasant feelings are the prelude to pain? What people hug in great glee in this moment turns to be a source of pain in the next. “The desired is no more there when the outstretched hand would grasp it or being there and grasped, it vanishes like a flake of snow.”

Unlike the animal whose sole purpose is to derive a feeling of pleasure from any source, at any cost, man should endeavour to gain real pīti or happiness. Real happiness or rapture comes not through grasping or clinging to things animate or inanimate, but by giving up (nekkhamma). It is the detached attitude toward the world that brings about true happiness. The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness, speaks of pleasant worldly feeling (sāmisa sukha) and pleasant unworldly feeling (nirāmisa sukha). Nirāmisa sukha is far superior to sāmisa sukha.

Due to the need to limit the space per blog post I will stop the descriptions at this point. Please await the next post # 45 -The Seven Factors for Awakening (satta bojjhanga)- Part 3, for further descriptions on this teaching.