Feeling - Craving, part 2

Again, when after another long lapse, a fifth sun appears, the waters in the great ocean go down for an hundred leagues; then for two hundred, three hundred, and even unto seven hundred leagues, until the water stands only seven fan-palms deep, and so on unto one fan-palm; then seven fathoms, deep, and so on unto one fathom, half a fathom; waist-deep, knee-deep, ankle-deep. Even as in the fall season, when it rains in large drops, the waters in some places are standing around the feet of the kine; even so, the waters in the great ocean in some places are standing to the depth of kine-feet. After the appearance of the fifth sun, the water in the great ocean is not the measure of a finger-joint. Then at last, after another lapse of time, a sixth sun appears; whereupon this great earth and Sineru, the monarch of mountains, reek and fume and send forth clouds of smoke. Even as a potter’s baking, when first besmeared, doth reek and fume and smoke, such is the smoke of earth and mountains when the sixth sun appears. – The Buddha Numerical Collection VII. 62.

Pemasiri Thera: If you were lost in the hot and dry Saharan desert for a week, how do you think you’d feel?

David: Terrible. Thirsty and tired and dirty.

And if you saw an oasis, how would you feel?

Great! A big relief.

Before you saw the oasis, there was dukkha. After you saw it, there was sukha. Between the dukkha and the sukha, there is piti, rapture. That moment of rapture and gratification is an assàda. Always together with dukkha and sukha, assàda is a mental effect which leads to the arising of pleasant feelings. It does not mean enjoyment or pleasure.

Don’t causes and conditions lead to the arising of pleasant feelings?

All effects create conditions. An assàda is a big effect as well as a big condition because it splits dukkha and sukha down the middle.

Is sex an assàda?

Yes. Pleasant feelings surface when your sense doors contact pleasing sense objects. When you have sex with a woman, pleasant feelings arise. Your experience is one of some satisfaction and enjoyment. Sex is an assàda because it leads to the arising of pleasant mental feelings that are quite separate from the pleasant feelings which arise while you are physically having the sex.

I derive lots of pleasure just from thinking about sex, not even having it.

In the same way that one mustard seed is trivial when compared to a farmer’s hundred-acre field of mustard, your few minutes of engaging in sex are trivial when compared to your months of thinking about sex. One little seed of rapture leads to the arising of a whole field of pleasant feelings, the field being the sukha-vedanà derived. The assàda is very small and insignificant in comparison to all the pleasant feelings you generate from the assàda of sex. The pleasant feeling is huge. You make a big deal out of a little thing.

Last week, a religious ceremony, a Pinkama, was held in remembrance of Sumathipàla Na Himi, who died in 1982. A Pinkama is an assàda. When laity see the bhikkhus and hear the talks, a moment of rapture arises; and when laity offer alms, again more moments of rapture. Still, these few moments of rapture that the laity experience while directly participating in the Pinkama constitute a tiny amount of time compared to the hours of pleasant feelings the laity generate about the Pinkama. Well before and well after the ceremony, likely for weeks, they talk about the Pinkama, taking a lot of pleasure from it. Since the vast majority of the pleasant feelings the laity generate about the Pinkama are completely separate from their actual participation in the Pinkama, the Pinkama is an assàda for the laity.
As you come around to seeing the conditions in our sense sphere plane that lead to the arising of pleasant feelings, you will also see that these same conditions have serious drawbacks. âdãnava is the Pali word for the drawbacks and the pain and the misery in conditions that lead to the arising of pleasant feelings. Though Sumathipàla Na Himi’s Pinkama was only three or four hours in duration, the laity who put it on worked very hard prior to and during the event; they endured dozens of hours of hardship.

I don’t see any drawbacks in having sex.

The Buddha called sexual intercourse, indulged in by all types of sense-sphere beings, not just humans, right through from worms to the devas, a low-level activity. Sex is not the highest pleasure. Gross and non-ariyan, it has no benefit and generally leads to problems at some time or another. If you go outside a legitimate relationship, there are major drawbacks. I know a man who has AIDS. Not long ago he was robust; now he is frail, sick, and dying. I also met the woman from whom he contracted AIDS. She too is dying. And on top of her physical suffering, she feels responsible for infecting the man with the AIDS virus. She feels awful. From morning until night, all your problems arise out of three poisons greed, aversion, and delusion. Lobha, dosa, moha. You’re using objects of sensuality, of sense pleasure, without seeing any danger in using them. If you could just have a little amoha, a little non-delusion, you’d be much more aware of the dangers in objects of sensuality. You’d have far fewer problems and be okay for the day. This is wisdom.

Does sex result in a poor future birth?

It conditions the punabbhava, the future birth. Your craving for sex has caused you a lot of grief in the past and it is bound to cause you some grief in the future. You won’t find liberation through sex. I’m not saying relationships are wrong or that sex in itself is a problem. It’s the craving and the clinging, the intensification and development of craving into clinging, which is the problem. And to attain jhàna, you have to let go of your craving for sex.

Since your perception, your sannà, is muddled, you simply don’t see the àdãnavàs, the pains and troubles in relationships. Instead, you make the asubha into subha and make the subha into asubha, such as finding young women attractive and old women unattractive. Rouge and bright red lipstick might look good on young women. Maybe. But no matter how much rouge and red lipstick women in their seventies or eighties wear, you still think they look garish you manage to see the asubha in elderly women, as your perception of old and elderly women is a little clearer than your perception of young women. A wise man’s perception is completely balanced and clear. He sees the asubha and the subha in both young and old women, and he doesn’t lose himself in attraction to either young or old women. He knows that lipstick is an artificial product that women wear just to beautify their faces and that it has no function other than beautification. Historically, lipstick was worn because it protected the wearer’s lips from the sun and wind, but now it doesn’t give any such protection. Please don’t misunderstand. I am not against women wearing lipstick. Only saying, we must know the reality of objects. Read ânanda’s advice to Vaïgãsa, which you will find in the ânanda Sutta of the Vaïgãsa-Saüyutta. Vaïgãsa was disturbed by kàma-ràga and unhappy with his life of celibacy. Also read the Kàma Sutta in the Sutta Nipàta.

I can’t imagine a life without sex.

Through the practice of asubha, seeing the non-useful and troublesome aspects of the body, you have at times led your mind away from craving women. With your kàma-tanhà, your craving for sensuality, temporarily suppressed, you had the opportunity to see the dangers and drawbacks in sense pleasures, yet failed to do so. Not just you, most of us don’t see the àdãnavàs, the drawbacks, inherent in sensuality and only see the assàdas, the few moments of rapture. Like the prickly little mimosa-pudica, that sensitive type of touch-me-not weed, which opens up to the sun and warmth of the day but closes up to the slightest vibration, we only open our eyes to the pleasant and always close our eyes to the unpleasant. We are blind to the unpleasant. In putting on Sumathipàla Na Himi’s religious ceremony, the Pinkama, the laity simply don’t see the drawbacks all the work they have to demand only see the few minutes of joy and happiness.

THE NEED FOR CRAVING

Make no mistake! We need kàma-tanhà; we need craving sensuality. It is an indispensable factor in attaining liberation from suffering because it is forever leading us into direct contact with objects of sense pleasure, which also always puts us in direct contact with their many dangers and drawbacks. If we didn’t crave objects of sense pleasure, of sensuality, we would never discover their drawbacks and we would never want to go beyond. Craving is certainly necessary if we are to ever realize there is no person behind our sense doors. The Buddha talks about this in the Gratification Suttas.

Is the goal of meditation to go beyond the kàma-loka?

You don’t have to go beyond the kàma-loka to attain path of a sotàpanna is still in the kàma-loka. If people had to go beyond the kàma-loka to meditate, no one would ever want to meditate.

Before we discover the drawbacks of pleasurable objects, we must have the opportunity to fully experience these pleasurable objects, which means all of our sense doors must be in good working order, and the pleasurable objects must be readily available. Conditions need to be suitable. As an able-bodied young prince living a life of luxury at Kapilavatthu, the bodhisatta Siddhàrtha Gautama experienced every possible sense pleasure to its fullest he experienced wonderful sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas. He had free rein with many women, had a wife, and had a son. His father gave him three palaces, living in the one best suited for the season. All of Siddhartha’s clothes were made of fine Benares silk and, to fill them with a pleasant fragrance, they were stored in sandalwood closets for seven years before he wore them. His food was the best the world could offer. While taking in all these pleasures, Siddhartha was intoxicated with his health and youth and energy. Working at a well paying job in Canada, with physical health intact and abundant access to sense pleasures, including a marriage, you too have indulged in enough sense pleasures and enough pride. Sense objects can be delightful.

Once objects of sense pleasure are fully experienced, insight into their drawbacks, their àdãnavàs, can arise.

Many Sri Lankans believe that Siddhartha was completely sheltered from the harsh facts of life while he lived at Kapilavatthu. And all in one day, on a trip outside the palace grounds, he encountered for the first time in his life a sick person, an old person, a corpse, and an ascetic. Then straightaway, in a flash of insight, he was struck by the universality of suffering, renounced the householder’s life, and sought the attainment of nibbàna. Not true. At the same time Siddhartha was experiencing the pleasures of Kapilavatthu, he regularly confronted sick people and old people and he regularly reflected on these unpleasant truths. Then gradually, over the course of years, Siddhartha came around to realizing that his body was also subject to sickness and death and that his life of luxury had its limitations. It took a long time for Siddhartha to overcome his intoxication with sense pleasures. He wasn’t struck by the true nature of being human all in one day. It was a gradual process.

The story of Siddhartha’s quest is a familiar one. He left the palace and practiced the rupa-jjhànas and aråpa-jjhànas with âlàra Kalama and Uddaka Ràmaputta, and then practised self-mortification with the five ascetics. Though Alàra Kalama and Uddaka Ràmaputta thought the arupa-jjhànas to be highest possible attainment and the five ascetics thought self-mortification to be the one and only way, Siddhartha became disillusioned with their practices and said to them, “This is not what I am looking for. I have to go beyond this.” He left them, followed the middle way, and did eventually attain enlightenment. Then after about four weeks of sitting under various trees experiencing the bliss of nibbàna, he, as the Buddha, decided to convey his newly found wisdom to his two former teachers, âlàra Kàlàma and Uddaka Ràmaputta, because they would have straight away understood nibbàna. But they had just died. They were both quite old. The Buddha then sought out the five ascetics.

Through direct observation of your life, you know maintaining a comfortable lifestyle in Canada has its drawbacks that you have to work hard at a regular job which leaves you with little spare time or freedom. You also know that marriage has its drawbacks and you went so far as to get a divorce. Initially, you had craved a relationship with your girlfriend, got married, and then saw some drawbacks in married life. Once the assàdas, the moments of rapture, are experienced, it’s possible to notice that these moments of rapture are brief and small things, and that there is a huge amount of craving and suffering surrounding these moments. You know your body wears out, ages, and gets sick. Our bodies are fragile and we’ll die someday.

We need to contemplate the misery and dangers that comes through our sense doors. We are suffering birth, sickness, decay, death, and again birth, sickness, decay, and death. Samsàra is endless. When you see the dangers that come through your sense doors your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind more clearly, you will want release from the dangers that come through your sense doors. When you see the dangers that come through the eye, you will want release from the dangers of the eye. All six sense doors are necessary to attain jhàna and to attain nibbàna. When you see the dangers that come through the body, you will want release from the dangers of the body.

I’m bound and determined to find a good woman.

Yes. You do still want a relationship with a woman, but not as much as you did seven years ago. You are making progress. Since all the necessary conditions have come together working sense doors, lots of kàma-tanhà, plenty of access to objects of tanhà, and enough misery, you might conclude, “Escape is a good idea. I must realize nibbàna.” You don’t have to waste your life looking for objects to satisfy your cravings; your main aspiration in life needn’t be to fulfill any lack. And you needn’t fall into a lower state. No. You have the chance to practice generosity, attain jhàna, and attain path and fruit. That opportunity exists. You could win.

How can boys who ordain before puberty see any drawbacks in having sex?

Young novices aren’t thinking a lot about having sex. They miss playing games with other young boys and I think that they should be allowed to play games with other boys. Young novices just want to play cricket. Only much later they begin thinking about sex and they don’t have to ever experience sex to attain nibbàna, not in any real physical way, because the conditions that give rise to pleasant feelings, the assàdas, need only be mostly experienced. Only mostly experienced because what is experienced through one sense door applies to all sense doors. Through extrapolation, the novices can apply what they know about the nature of their eyes to the nature of their bodies. They only need to appreciate that their bodies have the potential to experience the assàda of sex.

Craving, indulging, discovering dangers, and seeking escape all are necessarily connected.

People who are missing a sense door don’t seek escape from the kàma-loka. They are stuck. For example, if the kamma to develop eyes was missing at the moment of their conceptions, when their past kammas linked to their new kammas, they don’t develop eyes and can’t indulge in the pleasure that comes through the eyes. And if they don’t indulge in the pleasure that comes through the eyes, they can’t discover the dangers and drawbacks of the eyes. If they don’t discover the dangers of the eyes, they will never want to seek escape from the eyes. The attainment of jhàna is impossible for people who lack the kamma to develop all sense doors. No chance. However, if the kamma to develop all sense doors was present at a person’s conception but through accident one of the sense doors was destroyed it is still possible for that person to attain jhàna. A person may have had the kamma to develop eyes at conception, yet was born blind because the mother was malnourished during the pregnancy. That person can still attain, even without eyes.

Anyone who doesn’t fully experience objects of sense pleasure doesn’t seek escape from the kàma-loka. Beggars with their six sense doors intact have the potential to attain arahatship. They have that chance. But they don’t seek or go towards nibbàna because of their lack in kàma-tanhà, a lack in the objects of sense pleasure that need to be experienced. Some of these beggars don’t fully experience objects of sense pleasure because they simply don’t care to fully experience objects of sense pleasure they are quite satisfied with their lives. Other beggars do want to fully experience certain objects of sense pleasure, such as tasty food and fine clothes and a home, but they can’t fully experience those objects because they don’t have the skills to obtain them. Since these two types of beggars don’t fully experience the needed objects of sense pleasure, they don’t discover the drawbacks in these objects and don’t seek escape. How can beggars appreciate, as you do, that holding a high paying job, marriage, sleeping in a comfortable bed, and owning a home is fraught with drawbacks?

The people who fail to satisfy their cravings for objects of sense pleasure often waste their lives pursuing objects of sense pleasure, which means they usually never realize the thought of giving a Dana, never think escape is a good idea, and never look towards nubbin. And because of the tanhà that is continually arising in them, perhaps overcome with thoughts of having sex, they might commit acts of violence; they might commit an akusala-kamma. On account of greed, they miss the chance to attain path and fruit, and sink down into the apàyas, the lower worlds. These people lose. Understanding tanhà and using it wisely is the practice of meditative development, bhàvanà.

I’ve never heard of a teacher recommending the wise use of craving.

No. No other teachers say that. Better to use the word chanda. There are conditions that give rise to pleasant feelings, assàdas, and there are also drawbacks in those conditions, àdãnavàs. The meditator who attains to the rupa-loka sees the drawbacks of the kàma-loka. The meditator who attains to the arupa-loka sees the drawbacks of the rupa-loka. And the meditator who attains to equanimity regarding formations, sankhàra-upekkhà, sees the drawbacks of the rupa-loka and the arupa-loka, and then turns towards nibbàna. We must see the asubha the problems in the pleasure and develop equanimity regarding formations. The sotàpanna has a good understanding of the conditions that give rise to pleasant feelings, the assàdas, and has a good understanding of the drawbacks in those conditions, the àdãnavàs. The arahat has a rock solid understanding of the assàdas and àdãnavàs, and abides in equanimity. Again, when after another long lapse, a fifth sun appears, the waters in the great ocean go down for an hundred leagues; then for two hundred, three hundred, and even unto seven hundred leagues, until the water stands only seven fan-palms deep, and so on unto one fan-palm; then seven fathoms, deep, and so on unto one fathom, half a fathom; waist-deep, knee-deep, ankle-deep. Even as in the fall season, when it rains in large drops, the waters in some places are standing around the feet of the kine; even so, the waters in the great ocean in some places are standing to the depth of kine-feet. After the appearance of the fifth sun, the water in the great ocean is not the measure of a finger-joint. Then at last, after another lapse of time, a sixth sun appears; whereupon this great earth and Sineru, the monarch of mountains, reek and fume and send forth clouds of smoke. Even as a potter’s baking, when first besmeared, doth reek and fume and smoke, such is the smoke of earth and mountains when the sixth sun appears. – The Buddha Numerical Collection VII. 62.