Theravada or the way of the Elders and Mahayana or the great vehicle are two of the three major schools or traditions of Buddhism as practiced today. Both of them include special cultivation of faculties conducive to the attainment of supramundane knowledge. The teachings, referred to as the "Supramundane Dharma", are in complete agreement with what the Buddha taught.
The means or the textual foundations to be studied and practiced are not identical in both cases and consequently their practice and attainment are not identical either. Followers of the Theravadin tradition seek deliverance by themselves and for themselves alone. By contrast, the Mahayana teachings emphasize Buddhadharma as a vehicle similar to a raft or a boat transporting all sentient beings.
The amount of suffering in the world is unimaginable; whatever happiness there is, inevitably is lined with sorrow. The supramundane path was devised by the Buddha to address efficaciously the universal suffering and one should make a special point of studying it. In the brief discussion that follows we are going to consider the essential points of the teaching according to Theravada.
Shakyamuni Buddha was born approximately two thousand five hundred years ago in the outskirts of Kapilavastu in what is today northern India. In his late twenties he renounced his princehood and entered a spiritual path. He practiced close to nine years before attaining enlightenment and following that major event he taught Dharma for the rest of his life, converting sentient beings and leading a great number of people to enlightenment. Using expedient means, he taught according to the potential of his audience in each case and therefore his approach varied. Following the Buddha's final nirvana some five hundred of his most accomplished disciples, all attained arhats, gathered together in the Pippala cave to collect and to render his teachings in a form that would make them survive for posterity. Their joint effort at that occasion produced the basis for textual Buddhism, known as theTripitaka, a term literally meaning "three baskets" because the contents were separated into three groups according to emphasis. The Tripitaka is also known under the name Pali Canon, Pali being the language used at the time to write the teachings down. Ven. Kasyapa and Ven. Ananda, two of the monks most senior in Dharma, were given the responsibility of supervising the project. The Buddha's adherents awaited in great numbers outside the cave the outcome of the gathering, and therefore the event, known as the Great Council, is of major historical significance. The record of the Buddha's teaching was based on Ven. Ananda's recollection and substantial editing was more than likely; the occasion marks the coming into existence of Theravada. The original Sangha reassembled forming several groups, two of which became firmly established in the five hundred years following. They are known as Mahastavira and Mahasanghika. Eventually there existed in India eighteen Buddhist sects, each having its specific interpretation of the teaching for a basis. All of these followed Theravada, making it prosper and flourish. The existing sects splintered into five hundred lesser groups as the quality of practice and the understanding of the doctrine gradually declined. Almost nine hundred years after the Buddha's Parinirvana, an Indian scholar named Vasubandhu, a Bodhisattva in his own right, wrote his Abhidharma-kosa, a commentary of momentous importance to the understanding and development of Buddhism. Another Indian scholar named Harivarman posited a doctrine of great relevance to the systems of Buddhist thought, that of Satya Siddhi. The Buddhist community of India rallied into two major branches, both Theravada, incorporating the two above mentioned texts into their textual foundations. In China under the Ch'en Dynasty, approximately one thousand years after the Buddha's Parinivana, the Tripitaka Master Paramartha translated Vasubandhu's Commentary on Consciousness Only into Chinese. Known as the "early" translation, the work has been replaced with a later version by the Tripitaka Master Hsuan Tsang, dating from the T'ang Dynasty. Under Hsuan Tsang's leadership, the School of Consciousness Only has become the Dharmalaksana School (Fa Hsiang). The school held Vasubandhu's commentary as its only scriptural foundation and although referred to as a "sect", it was, more accurately, a specific type of teaching; following the decline of T'ang it was not heard from again. In the late T'ang, under the Yao Ch'in ruled by emperor Hung Chih, the Tripitaka Master Kumarajiva translated the Satya-siddhi-sastra into Chinese and made its content widely known, It was studied and taught by many Dharma masters during the rule of the six Dynasties. Satyasiddhi school was established at that time; the famous sastra constituted its sole textual foundation and like the Dharmalaksana, that school disappeared leaving only a written record behind. This brief historical outline traces the Theravada tradition in China. However, the school of three sastras, the Tien T'ai sect and several others in the Mahayana tradition have survived.
Buddhadharma as taught by Theravadins entirely transcends the world and therefore fosters great clarity of understanding of cause and effect as manifested in the context of mundane existence. Phenomena turn and change subtly and obliquely and the three marks of existence, i.e., birth, duration and death are without self, effectively controlled by karma. The adept observes the process by which phenomenon assumes form, one at a time; changes in the six realms on the wheel of life through past, present and future into birth/death; the adept observes causes and conditions until ego, wrong view and clinging are thoroughly understood. When it is understood beyond any doubt that the pattern of birth and death together with the many kinds of defilements rise as causes and effects, then from effects which are known their causes can be traced. When the causes are correctly identified and contemplated, they vanish and when there are no causes, there are no more effects. This is essentially the method as used by Theravadins. It liberates one from one's own karma. Phenomena are recognized as impermanent, unsatisfactory and void of self; eventually, complete liberation or nirvana is attained. To transcend the world is the purpose of Buddhadharma according to the Theravada. Within it there are two vehicles by means of which liberation can be attained, namely, the vehicle of the hearer or sravaka and that of pratyeka-buddha. The former heard, understood and thereby entered the Tao; the latter observed causes and conditions and by means of that effort attained liberation. The sravaka examines dharmas in terms of the Four Noble Truths as the following table illustrates:
The doctrine as taught by Theravadins commences with karmic power as the first of the Noble Truths, i.e. suffering as the root cause of past, present and future rebirths in the six realms. According to the Great Wisdom Commentary, three kinds of suffering are related to our physical bodies, namely, disease, old age and death, and three kinds of mental anguish generated by greed, hatred and ignorance. These manifest themselves in the realms of hells, animals, and hungry ghosts, In addition, we have pain and suffering due to decay as well as that due to action. There is also pain within pain, and there is the notion of suffering in the midst of happiness due to knowledge of pain's inevitability. Such deterioration of happy states is Âsuffering as a result of decay". When there is neither the evidence of happiness nor its decay, there is still the change due to impermanence. It is referred to as "suffering as a consequence of action."
Physical pain is caused by external conditions such as experiencing extreme cold, heat, effects of pollution, poisonous plants, having to negotiate arduous terrain and such; or by internal conditions such as thirst, hunger, exhaustion, worry, and so forth.
Realms of mental anguish include all varieties generated by interactions and relationships between people such as deceit, loss of the loved one, ambition, jealousy, and so forth. The eight kinds of suffering common to all people are: Birth, old age, disease, death, loss of love, encounter with the detestable, frustrated ambitions, and the ills related to the five skandhas. All of us are affected by these and intelligence without the support of wisdom is of no help. The search for the cause of it all begins at this point; it leads us to the second of the Noble truths, the Cause of Suffering.
Suffering does not arise by itself but by its causes and they, in turn, arise due to karma. The three karma-generating sources are body, speech,. and mind. Mind is the worst offender by far because it directs all our actions including our speech and, of course, our thoughts. Karmic manifestations of mind include the following defilements: Desire, hate, ignorance, pride, doubt, perverted view regarding a permanent self, extreme views, deluded views, obstinate views, and rigid views regarding ascetic practices and prohibitions. Conjointly with the three realms, the above ten defilements produce eighty-eight delusory views and eighty-one kinds of suffering. Deluded views steer the nascent thoughts in the wrong direction and misinterpreted and misdirected feelings follow in its wake. Deluded views are not difficult to discard but to stop misleading or unskillful thoughts is hard to do. Defilements as causes and conditions for unwholesome karma all are rooted in deluded views and misleading thoughts and generate untold suffering. Whoever wants to get out of the endless cycle of birth and death must therefore abandon the deluded views and misleading thoughts in order to extinguish the karmic causes. This is the teaching of the third Noble Truth, i.e., the Extinction of Suffering.
Extinction is equivalent to cessation. When defilements cease, birth and death cease as well. The path to the cessation of suffering is the path to nirvana.
As the term "path" suggests, there is a destination or a goal which the path leads to. If one travels by means of "beholding the truth", one can eradicate the deluded view. By means of cultivating the truth, one can discontinue misleading thoughts. In order to achieve all this one needs to strengthen one's self-discipline, and that brings us to the three pillars of all Buddhist practice, namely discipline, concentration, and wisdom. Self-discipline is indispensable for the development of concentration which in turn stabilizes the mind and cultivates wisdom through the eradication of delusion. Thus the three studies are causally connected.
The discipline as understood by Buddhists consists of specific rules of conduct and the practice of concentration of specific dharmas. Wisdom in this particular context stands for the absence of ego-notion and all views derived therefrom. The method used by Buddhists for that purpose includes systematic observation of one's own body as impure; one's feeling or sensations as conducive to suffering; one's own mind as impermanent and all of this world as without a nature of its own.
Why should we regard our bodies as impure? Please try to reconstruct in your mind how you obtained your body starting from its very beginning. It commenced from the fluids produced by your parents' bodies, and was followed by a sojourn in the fluids of the womb; then the passage through the vagina into this world that is so dirty it can never be made clean again. The body spontaneously generates filth without and within and the process continues as long as one lives. After life's end, tiny creatures deep in ground as well as the countless bacteria will devour the remains, generating more uncleanliness. Examining this body, where is its purity? Embracing couples experience happiness, unaware it is like tow bags of bones embracing. To restrain and ultimately extinguish one's greed manifesting itself as desire is quite difficult and therefore we are advised to regard our bodies as impure.
Why is it said that feelings or sensations always result in suffering? Feeling or sensation is a combination of mind and body. When a happy state predominates there is nevertheless the awareness of its impermanence, and therefore the correct understanding of happiness is that it is layered with suffering. Pleasure is by definition enjoyable while it lasts, but once it has vanished, it is replaced with intense suffering. For those who have renounced the world there is neither suffering nor happiness. There is only an awareness of change, accompanied by equanimity. Such attitude is exactly the opposite of that adopted by people of worldly concerns. They never leave the seesaw of happy and unhappy mind-frames and the inevitable result is suffering. The observation of feelings as they turn into suffering is an excellent practice that reveals all attachments as meaningless bondage.
How can one observe the impermanence of one's own mind? Every rising thought is a shadow of the six conditioned sense-data. When observed closely, the activity of the mind is revealed as completely rooted in time. It consists of one thought following another, each of them rising when the preceding one has disappeared without trace and this pattern can never stop. The mind can only hold one thought at a time. To examine the passing thoughts one after another is to become fully aware of their insubstantial and deceptive nature. Every thought rises because of causes and conditions and since these change continually, the resulting thoughts change also thus manifesting their impermanence. Whoever practices according to this teaching can eradicate grasping.
What is the meaning of "all of this world is without nature of its own"? Absolutely everything including the last atom changes from one moment to the next and therefore all existence is a never ending transition. The timing or the pace at which transition occurs is determined by the dynamics of karma and since these are not the same in each case, the timing of the transition varies accordingly. For this reason it is stated that "all of this world is without nature of its own". One's own self, as well as that of other beings are merely inferred. A practice of this Dharma discloses where defilements come from. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, considered essential to the enlightening practice in the Theravada tradition. In addition, their practice includes the Four Good roots and the Five Meditations. We hope to study these at another occasion. This is the teaching of the Fourth Noble Truth, the Path.
In our present survey of Buddhadharma according to Theravada, we have covered so far the Four Noble Truths; the doctrine of cause and effect; an examination of feelings or sensations in terms of happiness and suffering; and delusion and enlightenment as the two opposites in reference to the Four Noble Truths. It may seem somewhat unusual to begin with the effect and than turn to the cause, proceeding backwards, but the effect and than turn to the cause, proceeding backwards, but the effect is easier to understand. To begin with that which is still fresh in one's memory and then retrieve the more subtle connections that have already meshed with the flux, is more efficacious. For the purpose of generating dislike for the worldly we have pointed out the resulting suffering in the three realms and showed how by eradicating the causes the joy of nirvana can be attained. Later on there will be an opportunity to examine the causes of the Tao.
A sravaka should understand the Four Noble Truths in the order they are presented. First, perceive suffering as retribution in the round of birth and death, and vow to eradicate its causes. Second, discern the link connecting karma with defilements and extinguish both. Third, realize that extinction of suffering is the prime cause leading to nirvana. Fourth, enter the path leading to the extinction of passion and to nirvana.
In all Buddhism regardless of tradition, practice is the essential expedient, indispensable for successful completion of the task at hand. Practice makes full liberation accessible to all potentials without exception. The next step along the path to enlightenment is the Path and the Fruit of the arhat, attained when ego-based notions and concomitant misleading thoughts are abandoned. Arhat is the last stage on the path of a sravaka, leading to the complete halt of the cyclic pattern of birth and death and leaving the three realms forever.
The praty-eka-buddha vehicle is focused on the causal structure of the round of existence, supported by the method of the Twelve Links in the Chain of Existence also known as dependent arising, defined as the arising of effects evenly in dependence on a conjunction of conditions; no single cause can produce an effect, nor does only one effect arise from a given cause. The world we live in is continually built by ourselves, the result of karmic force. Every constituent of our world is one part of an all-embracing net of views. The formula of Dependent Arising discloses what sustains the wheel of birth and death, making it revolve from one existence to another. The table on the following page illustrates cause and effect in relation to each other and to the world. Because they explain the causes and conditions of birth and death in transmigration, the Twelve Links of existence are sometimes referred to as the "twelve branches of existence". The term "existence" is all-inclusive while "branch" implies a change in direction, a branching out and a partial separation. The branches we are talking about are rooted in birth and death and in transmigration; the links follow one another in orderly fashion. The progression never stops, nor will it ever end.
1) Due to ignorance arise karmic formations: Ignorance is interpreted in this context as non-known or knowing wrongly and can be compared to the absence of light. It is most common among sentient beings and therefore they are unable to determine what is pure and what is defiled; what is cause and what is effect. Unaware of retribution in the form of suffering in the three evil realms not far off in their future they are stunted by the workings of humans and heaven. Ignorance is the chief condition of defilements.
2) With karmic formations as condition arises action: Karmas accumulated during previous existences manifest themselves as actions by body, speech and mind. Past causes produce present effects.
3) With action as condition arises consciousness: Karma-generated actions condition resultant kinds of consciousness both wholesome and unwholesome. At the moment of conception an especially potent karmic formation accumulated in the karmic continuum of the deceased being generates rebirth consciousness in the realm appropriate for that karma to mature. During the course of existence, other accumulated karmas generate other resultant types of consciousness according to circumstances
4) With consciousness as conditions name-and-form (mind-and-body) come to be: the term "name" denotes mind and "form" stands for material phenomena produced by karma. In those realms where all five aggregates are found, consciousness conditions mind and matter together. In the event of such rebirth, three mental aggregates arise simultaneously with the rebirth-linking consciousness, namely, feeling, perception and mental formations along with the form skandha that includes body, gender and heart-base. In the case of a human embryo, these are first present as latent potential and develop along with the development of the embryo.
5) With name-and-form as condition, the six sense bases come to be: Of the six sense bases, the first five are the sensitive matter of the eye, ear, nose, tongue and body. The sensuous plane mind-and-matter conditions the arising of all six sense bases. Then the karma-born material phenomena arise, as in the case of the human embryo, they condition the arising of the five sense organs, developing as the embryo grows.
6) With the six sense bases as condition arises contact: Contact here denotes the contact with resultant consciousness. It is the "come together" of consciousness and the mental factors with an object by means of any one of the six sense bases. As contact can occur only when the sense bases exist, it is said that contact is dependent on the six sense bases. It is the connection with the "outside world" once the baby is born.
7) With contact as condition arises feeling: Whenever contact occurs, feeling arises simultaneously, conditioned by the same contact. There are six classes of feeling corresponding with the six sense bases. In terms if its affective quality, feeling may be pleasant, painful or neutral, according to the base and contact. The above five links or branches are the result of suffering in the present.
8) With feeling as condition, craving comes to be: Feeling conditions the arising of craving. If one experiences a pleasant feeling, one relishes that feeling and desires the object only insofar as it arouses the pleasant feeling. On the other hand, when one experiences a painful feeling, one has a craving to be free from the pain, longing for a pleasurable feeling to replace it. Thus many kinds of desire arise, conditioned by feeling.
9) With craving as condition, clinging or grasping come to be: Craving ? a mode of greed or wrong view comes to be when craving for gratification of the senses intensifies and turns into clinging or craving. In the weak, initial stages the greed for an object is called craving; the intensified form of greed is called clinging or grasping.
10) With clinging as condition, existence comes to be: Clinging is a condition for active existence because, under the influence of clinging, one engages in action that is accumulated as karma. It includes clinging to the notion of an "ego" and all the states associated with it. Clinging is a condition for resultant existence because that same clinging leads one back into rebirth in a state determined by one's karma. When the seeds are sown, the paddy will grow. In the same way the karma generated in the present will produce an effect in the future. The three links given above are present causes, having suffering for effect in the future.
11) With existence coming into being as condition, birth comes to be: Birth is understood as the arising of mundane consciousness and karma-born matter in a new life, new realm of existence. The essential condition for future birth to occur lies in our present existence.
12) Dependent on birth arise decay and death: Once birth has occurred, old age or decay and death must inevitably follow, as well as all the suffering, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair in between. All of these are rooted in birth, and therefore birth is singled out as their principal condition. Birth and death are future effects of suffering.
Upon examining the above twelve links we, realize that ignorance, craving and clinging are rooted in delusion. Ignorance or delusion is a past cause, craving and clinging are two kinds of delusion operative in the present. Consciousness, name-and-form, the six sense bases, contact, feeling, birth, old age and death all represent retribution through suffering. Action and existence are karma-generating agents. As the above table illustrates, links number two through ten are completed in the present. Ignorance is the root of greed manifesting itself as craving and clinging; existence manifests itself as action, thus generating future rebirths and bringing suffering as retribution in its wake. This process is the same as when past experiences influence the present. Every future rebirth will initiate exactly the same sequence as the present one, for as long as ignorance is the root base, the cycle will predictably and inevitably repeat itself. The exact repetition of this pattern enables one to see one's previous existence. One is able to appreciate the amount of evil or unskillful karmas one has generated due to ignorance, thereby planting causes for suffering in the rounds of birth and death to come. One must endure another rebirth due to deluded view and misguided thought: Following that, one will develop the six sense bases with their corresponding six-fold data, formulate more deluded views and develop attachments generated by greed in the present, followed by retribution in the future. For most of the people, that is what they perceive as reality from which they proceed with the planting of further causes of suffering. Thus the cycle of rebirths is perpetuated. According to the formula of the Twelve Links in the Chain of Existence, this is the entrance into transmigration.
However, the supramundane Dharma provides a second alternative: By means of understanding the Four Noble Truths and by sustained practice, those on the path are empowered to eradicate ignorance and its concomitant defilements. The cessation of ignorance causes cessation of karma-generating actions, cessation of karma generating action causes cessation of relinking consciousness, that in turn causes cessation of name-and-form, cessation of name-and-form causes cessation of six sense bases and in the absence of the six sense bases there is cessation of contact, cessation of feeling and cessation of grasping. Since no karma is being generated in the present, there can be no rebirth and without rebirth no aging, no death is possible. Consequently there will be no suffering in the future. Without birth and death, the cause of cessation has nirvana or final extinction for effect. This is the final extinction according to the formula of Twelve Links in the Chain of Existence read anti-clockwise. The fruition thus attained is the most advanced stage of praty-eka-buddha. For a person of such attainment there is no more rebirth.
The formula demonstrates that the chain of existence consists of several layers of cause and effect. The present is the result of past causes; it also generates causes the results of which will mature in the future. Future first becomes present and then, the past. The effects turn in time into causes which, in turn, will produce more effects. Normally the pattern repeats itself without beginning and without end.
The entire universe can thus be viewed as an intricate net of karmic forces endlessly perpetuating themselves as cyclic patterns rooted in time. The Twelve Links in the Chain of Existence disclose the source of all karmas and consequently the source of all there is. Theravada practice approaches the twelve links in terms of the four Noble Truths as follows:
The first five links of the twelve confirm of second of the Four Noble Truths, i.e., the Noble Truth of the Causes of Suffering.
The first and the second of the twelve links tie the past to the present, and the third, fourth and fifth operate in the present. The five links following, namely, the links number six, seven, eight, nine and ten, are operative in the present, jointly with links numbered eleven and twelve that ripen in the future and assert the first of the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Truth of Suffering.
Mindful observation of the twelve links is cultivation of wisdom that reveals the way to extinction, while the complete extinction of all twelve links is nirvana; it is the final attainment of praty-eka-buddha and of the arhat. Although the method for this path to enlightenment is unlike other methods, it shares with them the same foundation of the three studies, namely discipline, concentration and wisdom. All of Budhhist practice has one goal, namely, the eradication of defilement and the attainment of full awakening. It comprises the development of rare powers of the senses, the knowledge of pervious existences, the capability to appear in any place at will and insight into the termination of transmigration. As long as the meditator possesses a body, nirvana is incomplete. Parinirvana or "nothing remaining beyond nirvana" manifests itself at the time of dissolution of the retribution-body, when there is nothing left to hold on to. Such is the absolute state according to Theravada. Study of the doctrine according to Theravada reveals that the sravake, the praty-eka-buddha and the arhat all have for their purpose the extinction of birth and death, the eradication of greed, hatred and ignorance and the attainment of complete and perfect enlightenment.