[ Chapter 10]
OUR UNDERLYING TENDENCIES
Most
people are inclined to blame either themselves or others for whatever they
consider wrong. Some people like to blame mostly others, some prefer to
blame themselves. Neither way is profitable, or will bring peace of mind.
It may help to really get a grip on the facts that prevail within each
human being by knowing the underlying tendencies (//anusaya//) within us.
If we understand that every human being
has these tendencies, then we may be less inclined to blame or be upset
or take offence and more inclined to accept with equanimity. We may be
more prone to work on these negatives when we become aware of them in ourselves.
The underlying tendencies are more subtle
than the five hindrances (//panca nivarana//): the hindrances are gross
and exhibit themselves in that way. Sensual desire: wanting that which
is pleasing to the senses. Ill-will: getting angry, upset. Sloth and torpor:
having no energy whatsoever. Sloth refers to the body, torpor to the mind.
Restlessness and worry: being ill-at-ease, no peacefulness. Sceptical doubt:
not knowing which way to turn. These five are easily discernible in oneself
and others. But the underlying tendencies are more difficult to pinpoint.
They are the hidden sources for the hindrances to arise, and in order to
get rid of them, one needs keen mindfulness and a great deal of discernment.
Having worked with the five hindrances
in oneself and to a certain degree having let go of their grossest aspects,
one can begin work on the underlying tendencies. The word itself suggests
their characteristic, namely, that their roots are deeply imbedded and
therefore hard to see and eliminate.
The first two tendencies are similar to
the hindrances sensuality and irritation, being the underlying bases for
sensual desire and anger. Even when sensual desire has been largely abandoned
and anger no longer arises, the disposition to sensuality and irritation
remain.
Sensuality is part and parcel of a human
being and shows itself in becoming attached and reacting to what one sees,
hears, smells, tastes, touches and thinks. One is concerned with what one
feels and has not yet come to the understanding that the sense objects
are only impermanent phenomena arising and passing away. When this lack
of profound insight is still prevalent, one ascribes importance to the
impressions which come in through the senses. One is drawn to them and
seeks pleasure in them. When the senses are still playing an important
part in a person, there is sensuality. Man is a sensuous being. There is
a verse which describes the noble Sangha as having "pacified senses." The
Loving-Kindness Sutta (//Karaniyametta Sutta//) describes the ideal monk
as "with senses calmed." In many a sutta the Buddha said that getting rid
of sense desire is the way to //Nibbana//.
Sensuality as an ingrained part of being
human has to be transcended with great effort and cannot be done without
insight. It's impossible to succeed just by avowing: "sensuality isn't
useful, I'll let go of it." One has to gain the insight that these sense
contacts have no intrinsic value in themselves. There is a coming together
of the sense base (eye, ear, nose, tongue, skin, mind) with the sense object
(sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, thought) and the sense consciousness
(seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, thinking) to form an impingement.
That's all that's happening. As long as one reacts to these contacts as
if they had importance, there is sensuality. Where there is sensuality,
there is also irritation, the two go hand in hand. Sensuality is satisfied
when the sense contact impingement was pleasant. Irritation arises when
the sense contact was unpleasant. It doesn't have to issue as anger, shouting,
fury, hate or even resistance. It's just irritation, which results in being
displeased, feeling ill-at-ease and restless. It goes together with being
a sensuous human being.
Sensuality and irritation only disappear
for the Non-returner (//Anagami//). The last stage before full Enlightenment:
one who does not return to this realm, but attains //Nibbana// in the "Pure
Abodes". Even the Stream-enterer (//Sotapanna//) and the Once- returner
(//Sakadagami//), the first and second stage of noble attainment, are still
beset by the //dukkha// of sensuality and irritation.
If one imagines that the impulse creating
sensuality or irritation is outside of oneself, one hasn't seen the beginning
of the path yet. It is necessary to realize that the reaction is our own,
so that we may start work on ourselves. If we don't even notice it happening,
how can we do anything about it? It's occurring constantly, without let-up,
so that we have innumerable occasions to become aware of our inner world.
Becoming aware doesn't mean yet that we
can get rid of our reactions. There also has to be an understanding of
the futility of an unwholesome response and an effort to investigate the
causes. It's easy to see that sensuality and irritation are the underlying
tendencies which creates sensual desire and ill-will. This insight should
arouse a little acceptance and tolerance towards one's own difficulties
and those of other people. If this is happening to everyone constantly,
then what is there to get upset about? The only thing to do is to work
with it, to use it as one's subject for contemplation (//kammatthana//)
and introspection. It's well worthwhile to use one's difficulties as one's
method for the task of purification.
Our tendencies and hindrances are all interconnected.
If one is able to diminish one, the others also become a little less obstructive,
lose their heaviness and cease to be so frightening. People generally fear
their own reactions. That is why they often feel threatened by others;
they're not so much afraid of the other person's reaction, but far more
so of their own. They're unsure of themselves, fearing to become aggressive,
angry and then losing some of their own self-image.
Having a self-image is very detrimental,
because it is based on the illusion of permanence. Everything constantly
changes, including ourselves, while a self-image presupposes stability.
One moment we may be a sensual being, the next moment an irritable one.
Sometimes we are at ease, at other times we are restless. Which one are
we? To have an image of oneself creates a concept of permanence which can
never have any basis in fact. It blocks one's insight into the underlying
tendencies because one will be blind to those which do not fit one's image.
The third underlying tendency is doubt
or hesitation. If one has doubts, one hesitates: "What am I going to do
next?" One doubts one's own path and abilities, and how to proceed. Due
to hesitation, one doesn't use one's time wisely. At times one may waste
it or overindulge in activities which are not beneficial. Doubt means that
one doesn't have an inner vision to guide one, but is obsessed by uncertainty.
Doubts and hesitation lie in our hearts because of a feeling of insecurity.
We are afraid of not being safe. But there's no safety anywhere, the only
one that can be found is //Nibbana//. This fear and insecurity in the heart
cause doubt and hesitation to arise. If we were to leave them behind and
not pay any attention to them, we could step ahead so much more easily
and could accomplish many times more.
Doubt and hesitation are abandoned with
Stream-entry. The one who has attained the first Path and Fruit no longer
doubts, because that person has had a personal experience of an unconditioned
reality, totally different from the relative reality in which we live.
He can now forge ahead without worry or fear. There can be no doubt about
a direct experience. If we tell a small child: "Please don't touch the
stove, you might get burned," it's quite likely that the child will nevertheless
touch the stove. Having once touched it and experienced the painful feeling
of being burned, he will surely never touch it again. The experience removes
doubt and hesitation.
The next underlying tendency is the wrong
view (//ditthi//) of relating all that happens to a "self." This goes on
constantly and we can verify that easily, as it happens to everybody. Very
few people realize: "This is just mental phenomena." They believe: "I think."
When there is pain in the body, few will say: "It's just an unpleasant
feeling." They'll say: "I'm feeling very badly," or "I have a terrible
pain." This reaction to whatever happens as "self" is due to an underlying
tendency so deeply imbedded that it takes great effort to loosen its hold.
To lose the wrong view of self does not
simply mean to intellectually understand that there is no real "self."
What is required is an inner view of this whole conglomeration of mind
and body as nothing but mere phenomena without ownership. The first step
is taken at Stream-entry, when right view of "self" arises, though all
clinging to self-concepts is abandoned only at //Arahant// level.
Next comes pride and conceit (//mana//),
which here means having a certain concept of ourselves, such as being a
man or a woman, young or old, beautiful or ugly. We conceive of what we
want, feel, think, know, own and what we can do. All this conceptualizing
creates ownership and we become proud of possessions, knowledge, skills,
feelings, being someone special. This pride may be deeply hidden in ourselves
and hard to find and may need some introspective digging. This is due to
the fact that so much of our whole being is involved. When we say: "Now
find that concept about being a woman," the answer often is: "Of course,
I am a woman, what else am I?" But as long as "I am" anything, woman, man,
child, stupid or intelligent, "I am" far from //Nibbana//. Whatever I conceptualize
myself to be stops me in my tracks.
The underlying tendency of pride and conceit
is only uprooted for the //Arahant//. There's no directly discernable relationship
to any of the hindrances there, but the conceiving of "self" and the wrong
view of "self" are the chief manifestations of delusion, the root cause
for all our defilements.
Next we come to clinging to existence (//bhavaraga//).
That's our survival syndrome, clinging to being here, not willing to give
up, not ready to die today. We must learn to be ready to die now, not wishing
to die, but to be ready for it. Wishing to die is the other side of the
same coin of clinging to existence. It's trying to get rid of existence
because life is too difficult. But being ready to die now means that the
clinging to being someone and being here to prove it, has been abandoned,
for it has been seen to be a fallacy. At that time wrong view of "self"
has been eliminated.
Clinging to existence brings us into a
dependency syndrome. We want everything to work out well for us and resent
it if that doesn't happen. This creates irritation and sensuality. We often
forget that we are only guests here on this planet and our visit is limited
and can be over at any time. This clinging to being alive brings much difficulty
to all of us because it projects us into the future so that we can't attend
to the present. If we don't live in the present, we're missing out on being
alive at all. There's no life in the future, it's all ideation, conjecture,
a hope and a prayer. If we really want to be alive and experience things
as they are, we've got to be here now, attending to each moment. This entails
letting go of clinging to what will happen to us in the future, particularly
whether we are going to continue to exist. Existing in this moment is enough.
To be able to let go of that clinging means to let go of the future, only
then will there be strong mindfulness, real attention and clear knowing.
Clinging to existence will always give
us the idea that something better will come along if we just wait long
enough and that denies effort. Effort can only be made now, who knows what
tomorrow will bring?
The last of the seven tendencies is ignorance
(//avijja//). Ignoring the Four Noble Truths. Ignorance is the so-called
starting point in the chain of cause and effect which brings us back to
birth and death again and again. Ignorance opposes wisdom, and here it
concerns the fact that we disregard reality by not realizing that all our
//dukkha// comes from wanting, even if our desire may be a wholesome one.
If we continue to ignore the first two noble truths, not to speak of the
third truth, which is //Nibbana//, we are enmeshed in //dukkha//. Our underlying
tendency of ignorance eventuates in the wrong view of "self" -- the conceiving
of a "self" -- showing us the interconnection of all the underlying tendencies.
Without ignorance there wouldn't be any sensuality and irritation, nor
any hesitation or doubt, no wrong view, nor pride and conceit, or clinging
to existence.
It's very useful to pick the characteristic
that creates difficulties for us over and over again and make it one's
focus of attention. Since they are all interconnected, minimizing one will
help to reduce the others to more manageable proportions.
To see these underlying tendencies in oneself
takes a great deal of proper attention towards oneself, which needs time
and solitude. One can't do it while talking with others. If the mind is
clear one can do it during meditation sessions or through contemplation.
Contemplation is a valid adjunct to meditation,
an important helpmate and is always directed towards insight, while meditation
may at times be geared towards serenity. Contemplation means looking inward
and trying to see what arises: "What makes me tick?" With utter truthfulness,
remembering the underlying tendencies, knowing that everybody has them,
one can ask: "How are they manifesting in me?" Once that has been seen,
there is further validity in contemplating: "What can I do about getting
rid of this particular tendency, or at least minimizing it?" One should
allot some time during each day for contemplation. If one has spent a whole
day without introspection, one can't hope to go inward at meditation time.
Meditation and contemplation complement
and need each other.
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Transcribed for DharmaNet by Maureen Riordan
Sincere thanks Dr.
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Update : 01-01-2002
