Dying Aggregates and Intrinsic Aggregates (Seeing Is Believing)

This is the first day that I will teach you the basic Dhamma. To understand the basics, we must begin with the aggregates (khandha). These include the aggregates themselves, the sense bases (āyatana), the elements (dhātu), and the Four Noble Truths (sacca).

People may wish for Nibbāna, but without thoroughly knowing the aggregates, they cannot reach it. If we condense the phenomena of the thirty-one realms of existence, we can summarise them into two: the aggregates (khandha) and their cessation (nirodha). The aggregates constitute the thirty-one realms of existence. Nibbāna is an element that transcends them.

When these are brought together, they are called khandha-nirodha-nibbānaṃ—the cessation of the aggregates is Nibbāna. Where there is cessation of the aggregates, there is Nibbāna; where there is no cessation, there is saṃsāra.

Beginning from the Aggregates (Khandha)

Therefore, one must begin with the aggregates (khandha); only through them can Nibbāna be realised. Khandha means “that which is combined.” They are the combination of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. Together they are called the five aggregates, or simply mind and body (nāma–rūpa).

For practice, it is necessary to understand that the aggregates can be approached in two ways. According to the dependent-arising process (paṭicca-samuppāda), “ignorance conditions formations” (avijjā-paccayā saṅkhārā). In past lives, not knowing the truth, we performed wholesome and unwholesome actions. As a result, in this life we have obtained the human aggregates—five aggregates, or mind and body.

These aggregates have been conceived in the womb and are carried along together with ageing, sickness, and death. The presently existing aggregates are already accompanied by ageing, sickness, and death. This was taught in the Wheel of Dhamma as suffering—birth, ageing, sickness, and death. Although not explicitly named as “aggregates” there, they were explained as existing phenomena (dhamma) characterised by suffering.

We have the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. The eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body are material phenomena (rūpa). As mental phenomena (nāma), we have four: feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. Together, these constitute the six internal sense bases (five material bases and one mental base).

Do we need to contemplate this already-existing aggregate—the body seen with ordinary eyes? No. Rather, we must understand that with time this aggregate inevitably becomes old, sick, and dies. This shows that the aggregate itself is the truth of suffering. However, for insight practice, what we contemplate repeatedly is not the existing aggregate as a whole, but the arising phenomena occurring at the sense bases.

This existing aggregate possesses base elements internally, and when external contact elements—such as sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and mental objects—come into contact with them, each sense door meets its corresponding object. At that moment, a new phenomenon arises at that sense base.

This arising phenomenon did not exist before in either the sense base (dvāra) or the object (ārammaṇa). It arises only because of conditions. For example, consider a stick and a bell. The bell is like the base element; the stick is like the element of contact. The sound of the bell does not exist in the bell alone, nor does it exist in the stick. When each exists separately, no sound arises. But when the stick strikes the bell, sound arises.

Where does the sound come from? It does not come from the stick, nor from the bell. Through their contact, sound arises dependently between them.

Arising Aggregates, Suññatā, and Sabhāva Khandha

In the same way, the six sense bases are base elements. When each of them meets its respective contact element, an arising aggregate (khandha) comes into being. The bell and the stick both have mass—that is, material form—but the sound does not have mass. Likewise, seeing consciousness—the arising aggregate element—has no mass. Hearing, smelling, tasting, and other consciousnesses are known in the same way. They have no form, no shape, and no image.

For this reason, these phenomena are called suññatā-dhamma—void of entity, void of a person or a being.

Let us explain suññatā further. Sabhāva (or sabhāvam) means a particular intrinsic nature. Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and knowing—all of these are sabhāva dhamma. These are sabhāva khandha, newly arising aggregates, and are also called arising aggregates.

These arising aggregates have the nature of arising and passing away. Therefore, they are called rise-and-fall aggregates, or impermanent aggregates (anicca-khandha). These aggregates cannot be stopped by one’s wish or desire, and they do not belong to anyone. If the causes are present, they arise; if the causes cease, they vanish.

After an arising aggregate has arisen and is observed, it is no longer there—that is its impermanence. The existing aggregate, namely the whole body subject to ageing, sickness, and death, is a mass of aggregates. The arising aggregate, however, is a sabhāva khandha. Therefore, there are two layers of aggregates.

If we see the sabhāva khandha, we will see arising and passing away. Insight meditation is precisely the task of observing the arising sabhāva khandha and its vanishing.

Observe the in-breath and out-breath in a natural way. Depending on the strength of concentration (samādhi), one will discern the rise and fall of the arising aggregate accordingly. The existing aggregate—the body—exists due to past causes. This is not only related to past lives, but also connected to present-life causes of kamma: mind (citta), temperature (utu), and nutriment (āhāra). These conditions, although operating now, are also counted as past causes in relation to the present moment.

Therefore, when the aggregate is contemplated wrongly, it becomes a clinging aggregate (upādāna-khandha). After an arising aggregate appears and its vanishing is not seen, it becomes an object aggregate for craving, clinging, and action—namely, craving (taṇhā), clinging (upādāna), and kamma (see Section 3).

Existing Aggregates, Arising Aggregates, and the Continuity of Saṃsāra

It is not the existing, old aggregate that connects to action. This aggregate is called the pañcakkhandha according to the Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha. Rather, it is the newly arising aggregate—the sabhāva khandha—that connects to the process (see Section 3 and the Dependent Arising chart).

For example, when it is hot and one desires comfort, one fans oneself. The pleasant feeling is experienced as “nice,” and then it passes away. However, one is not aware of the whole process. By fanning oneself again, the experience connects to action. If this experience is not contemplated, it must connect to the dependent-arising process.

If one simply leaves it there, feeling conditions craving, and craving connects to action. In this way, the newly arising aggregates—seeing, hearing, and so on—connect to affection, clinging, and action. One has to know them in this manner. We are continuously producing the causes that, after death, give rise again to aggregates characterised by ageing, sickness, and death. When will this end? There is no end to it. The incalculable continuity of ageing, sickness, and death will persist.

According to Mogok Sayadaw, this is like endlessly producing spare parts for corpses (something human beings uniquely manufacture, without any copyright). He even says that this is equivalent to committing suicide again and again for oneself.

Therefore, if one can discern the impermanence—the rise and fall—of the newly arising aggregates, there is no affection or clinging. Craving, clinging, and action then cease. The arising aggregate is to be known simply as arising and passing away—not as an existing entity. When it is known in this way, it becomes anicca and magga—that is, the five path factors of the mundane path (lokiya-magga), the truth of mundane path factors.

The yogi must develop these mundane path factors. Supramundane path factors—the Noble Eightfold Path—are not something to be developed deliberately; they arise only for the direct seeing of Nibbāna. If an arising phenomenon is known as arising, and a vanishing phenomenon is known as vanishing, the yogi must always discern them through observation. He will then know that there is only arising and vanishing dukkha occurring continuously. Therefore, he cannot take them as affection or craving.

Before practice, there is dukkhe-aññāṇaṃ—not knowing phenomena as dukkha. Because of this, they are taken with affection and clinging. With practice, this becomes dukkhe-ñāṇaṃ—the knowledge of knowing dukkha. The path factors arise in the heart, and craving, clinging, and action come to cessation.

There are two kinds of cessation:

1. Cessation through arising (uppāda-nirodha)

   Here, the yogi can contemplate up to craving, clinging, and mental action (cetanā), so that verbal and bodily actions become impossible.

(This point is explained in several of Mogok Sayadaw’s talks.)

2. Cessation through Non-Arising (Anuppāda-Nirodha)

This is the discerning of the arising dhamma as impermanent, such that craving, clinging, and related defilements do not arise.

If the yogi is able to contemplate continuously without interruption, anuppāda-nirodha becomes established—meaning that no defilements arise in between moments of contemplation. As the Buddha and the Sayadaw explained, if one practises in the morning, realisation may come in the evening, and vice versa.

When craving (taṇhā) arises and the yogi is able to contemplate it, this is still cessation through arising. However, if craving arises and defilements intervene in the practice, completion will take longer. If there are many gaps in continuity, the process becomes longer; if there are fewer gaps, it becomes correspondingly shorter.

These points were mentioned by the Buddha to Prince Bodhirājakumāra (Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta No. 85). In the minds of the Buddha and the arahants, whatever arises—seeing, hearing, and so forth—their knowing is merely knowing itself, not connected to defilements. Therefore, for them, the arising aggregates are anuppāda-khandhas—aggregates that do not give rise to defilements.

If one cannot yet discern anicca, one should re-establish samādhi by re-noting the in-breath and out-breath. Sayadawgyi also emphasised this point repeatedly.

Not seeing anicca directly by oneself, but merely knowing about it from teachers, is called anubodha-ñāṇa—knowledge derived from another. Paṭivedha-ñāṇa means knowing the aggregates directly through penetration and practice. Only with a Buddha has arisen we know about this knowledge. If one understands these points correctly, becoming a stream-enterer is not difficult.

There is still time to emphasise an important principle: the newly arising aggregate did not exist before. After it arises, it does not continue to exist. Therefore, the aggregate is nothing other than arising and passing away.

Emptiness (Suññatā), Intrinsic Nature (Sabhāva), and Reflection on Cessation

Therefore, there is no being (misatta), no living entity (nijjīva), and no soul.

The suññatā-khandha is void of a person or a being, whereas the sabhāva-khandha possesses an intrinsic nature. It exists in accordance with causes, and when those causes cease, it no longer exists. The yogi must observe the aggregate as both existing and not existing—that is, as a process of rise and fall.

This is the nature of suññatā: emptiness or voidness. One should not take this to mean that nothing exists at all, as that would fall into conceptual thinking, a misunderstanding held by some Buddhists. Such a view becomes natthi-bhāva-paññatti—a concept of absolute non-existence. This point is very important.

For example, when hearing consciousness arises with the contemplation it no longer present, what remains? The nature of inconstancy remains. The knowing knowledge also vanishes; it is not knowing continuously. This, too, is the process of knowing and vanishing. As the contemplated objects vanish, the observing knowledge also vanishes.

Reflections on Cessation through Arising and Non-Arising

There is a talk by Mogok Sayadaw on this subject, which I translated in Part 10 under the title Craving and Suffering. Some scholars interpret the Burmese system as merely passive observation. This is not correct; they only see part of the whole picture.

If we study the works of Ledi Sayadawgyi, we will understand the importance of both contemplation and reflection. Many scholars and practising yogis continue to study his treatises and apply them in their teaching and practice. However, yogis themselves must understand how to apply these teachings skillfully according to different situations.

This is one of the important reasons why we study the suttas: to gain skillful means for dealing with defilements in daily life and during meditation practice.

Those who study the suttas together with Mogok Sayadaw’s talks will understand the importance of discerning anicca. Therefore, Burmese teachers emphasize this point—not because they teach only passive observation, but because they emphasize correct discernment.

An Extract from Sayadaw’s Teaching

“Always reflect that all dukkha comes from taṇhā. During observation, do not reflect on what will happen if you reflect. Otherwise, it becomes cintā-maya-ñāṇa and not bhāvanā-maya-ñāṇa. Reflection and direct observation are different; they should not be mixed.”

The Difference between Cintā-maya Ñāṇa and Bhāvanā-maya Ñāṇa

What is the difference between cintā-maya ñāṇa and bhāvanā-maya ñāṇa?

When cintā-maya ñāṇa is predominant, more bhavaṅga cittas tend to arise; when bhāvanā-maya ñāṇa is predominant, fewer bhavaṅga cittas arise. Bhavaṅga cittas take objects from the past. Cintā-maya ñāṇa involves thinking, planning, and reflecting.

Therefore, one should allow time for reflection and also allow time for direct observation. Practised in this way, progress becomes quicker. Reflecting on one’s own aggregates and on the truths of the Dhamma is cintā-maya ñāṇa, whereas the direct contemplation of impermanence is bhāvanā-maya ñāṇa. When these two practices are used appropriately, defilements do not easily intrude into the practice.

What, then, is the difference between having more bhavaṅga cittas and having fewer?

A person who is dukkha-paṭipanna—one whose practice is difficult—experiences more bhavaṅga cittas. These have a close connection with defilements. When contemplation is carried out without reflection, realisation proceeds slowly.

How should cintā-maya ñāṇa and bhāvanā-maya ñāṇa be used?

Mogok Sayadaw stated that cintā-maya ñāṇa is helpful in preventing defilements from entering during vipassanā practice. He encouraged yogis, before sitting, to reflect on dukkha or on the dangers of taṇhā—this is cintā-maya ñāṇa—and then to sit for bhāvanā-maya ñāṇa. An increase in bhavaṅga cittas indicates either the presence of stronger defilements or greater difficulties in practice.

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• Content of Seeing Is Believing-- Dhamma Talks by Sayadaw U Nyanabhasa
• Content of Publications of Bhikkhu Uttamo

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