Talk Seven: Sāriputta’s Instruction on Mind Consciousness (Step by Step)

Insight contemplation as taught by Venerable Sāriputta is expressed as:

Here, khandha (body) does not refer to the physical body as a fixed form or shape. Rather, it refers to phenomena that arise due to causes—for example, hearing consciousness, which arises dependent on conditions. This is viññāṇakkhandha, arising in the present moment.

(Sayadaw explains mind and body in terms of concept and reality.) True contemplation is contemplation of paramattha khandha (ultimate reality). If we examine the whole world of existence, it consists only of mind and body. One must watch and observe the khandhas with sati and paññā. Whether pleasant or unpleasant feeling (sukha or dukkha) arises, one watches and observes. Insight knowledge does not stop or destroy phenomena.

If we expand the analysis, mind and body are understood as:

• the five aggregates (khandhas),
• the six sense bases (āyatanas), which become twelve when including their objects,
• and the eighteen elements (dhātus).

With mindfulness, one knows the arising. By knowing with wisdom (paññā) the arising of phenomena as merely khandhas, clinging to self falls away. In this way, personality view (sakkāya-diṭṭhi) gradually disappears.

Do not confuse this with book knowledge. Knowledge learned from others is anubodha-ñāṇa. Knowledge that arises directly from practice is paṭivedha-ñāṇa—direct knowing of the nature of mind and body. Phenomena vanish immediately after arising; they are impermanent (anicca).

Momentary discernment of seeing, hearing, and other sense processes cannot immediately destroy clinging, because we have been clinging throughout countless rounds of existence. Therefore, we must contemplate repeatedly, many times, to develop insight knowledge of dissolution (bhaṅga-ñāṇa).

This contemplation should be practiced in all four postures. With sustained contemplation, one begins to see dissolution. Externally, the body may appear unchanged, but internally it feels empty, filled with continual dissolutions.

At last, with the development of knowledge, one discerns the truth of dukkha and no longer wants it. With no desire for it, that knowledge leads to cessation.

(Here he is explaining a verse of Venerable Sāriputta.)

Now I will talk about thinking minds (thoughts) and how to contemplate them. If you are unable to note them specifically as lobha mind, dosa mind, and so on, simply note them as “thinking mind” or “thought.”

Mogok Sayadaw explains that if one discerns change, one is seeing dissolution. Change (vipariṇāma) does not mean “the same.” In ordinary usage, people say something has “changed” when it becomes sick (in Burmese, this word can also mean “going wrong”). But in reality, changing from one state to another is already change—for example, when flowers fall, that is change. When a tree flowers, people tend to think of it as development, not change, yet the nature of phenomena is always changing. This constant change reveals the unsatisfactory characteristic (dukkha-lakkhaṇa).

[Note: This point is extremely important for human beings to contemplate thoroughly. Because of delusion, we create many problems and much suffering through sensual pleasures based on self-view, greed, and anger.]

Non-delusion (amoha) is contemplative knowledge. At an immature stage, when this knowledge becomes stronger, it can itself become an object—for example, after discerning dissolution, a yogi may think, “This too is in the state of dissolution.” At that point, the yogi must contemplate the thought and the subsequent mind. (Explained many kinds of thoughts.)

Thoughts are not disturbances to insight practice; they also become objects (for example, ehi-passiko—“come and see”). In samatha practice, thoughts are hindrances, but in insight practice they are objects. One should contemplate their arising and observe that they are not of a permanent nature.

For example, in the in-breath and out-breath, contemplate the two endings. Observe the small gaps where the breath stops. Knowing that the breath is not existing at that moment is knowing its vanishing. During the immature stage, one knows this in a coarse way; as practice matures, the yogi discerns dissolution in many parts along the in-breath and out-breath.

If one becomes skillful, one can also catch the desiring mind that wants to breathe in and breathe out. In the beginning, this is difficult because the process is very refined.

Therefore, at times Sayadawgyi taught yogis to know the in-breath and out-breath, and at other times to know the desiring mind that wants to breathe in and breathe out.

Now I am explaining how to catch the dissolution of the in-breath and out-breath. These are host minds, whereas the guest minds are the impermanent phenomena (anicca) that arise and pass away. Tomorrow I will explain how to contemplate their dissolutions.

(He then gives a lecture on eating.) Contemplation of the eating mind is a costly contemplation because it involves money and preparation, whereas seeing, hearing, and so on do not. Moreover, eating does not occur frequently; it only happens while consuming food. Therefore, one contemplates eating only during the act itself, in order to discern its arising and falling.

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