Reverence for the Teacher

As an old-school spiritual disciple with a fair bit of teaching under my belt, I want to share one very important insight: respect and reverence for the teacher is the most powerful and necessary ingredient in spiritual progress. Without it, you may have the external trappings of spiritual life, and you may be able to convince yourself that you are on the path. But more likely, you are just an imitation disciple and will get nothing more from your spiritual practice than decorations for your false ego.

I learned to approach a teacher the old-fashioned way: bowing humbly with an attitude of surrender, offering in hand. I always tried to be a blank slate before my teachers, ready to offer any requested service. You can find out a great deal about a teacher by how he responds to such an approach. If he arrogantly tries to use you, or on the other hand, treats you too much like an equal, beware. If he is grateful, not condescending, acknowledges your respect with kindness, really hears where you are coming from and gives substantial instruction, you’ve struck gold.

The blessing of a realized teacher is the most valuable thing in the world. It can mean all the difference between empty, superficial following and deep realization of the teaching. When I met my mentor Bhikkhu Ñānananda, after approaching him as described above, we chatted for some time. He put me completely at ease but nevertheless asked probing questions about my history and insights. At last he leaned back and said simply, “You know, nibbāna is non-conceptual.” Period.

The words hit me like a brick. I found myself instantly in deep concentrated trance. Suddenly so many things made sense, so many mysterious connections were revealed, the Path stood clear before me. Of course I had already read the same words so many times in his books, but they were a blunt instrument compared to this incisive remark. That experience led, more or less directly, to realizing Fourth Path almost a year later. But had I not approached him properly, there is no doubt in my mind that the immensely valuable conversation and experience could never have taken place as it did.

Since taking up the role of sharing my insights here and elsewhere on the Internet, I have been appalled at the bad attitudes I have encountered. No one wants to respect a teacher, but simply criticize and manufacture faults from their fertile imaginations. I’m sorry, but I am not responsible for the bad attitudes and actions of other teachers. I am not going to respond to fabricated allegations of misconduct. It’s still the students’ responsibility to approach the teacher properly and offer respect and service. Otherwise, why should I continue to work so hard for your benefit?

‘Positions’ and the Middle Way

“Vaccha, the position that ‘the cosmos is eternal’ is a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. It is accompanied by suffering, distress, despair, & fever, and it does not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation; to calm, direct knowledge, full Awakening, Unbinding…”

“Does Master Gotama have any position at all?”

“A ‘position,’ Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata has done away with. What a Tathagata sees is this: ‘Such is form, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is perception… such are mental fabrications… such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance.’ Because of this, I say, a Tathagata — with the ending, fading out, cessation, renunciation, & relinquishment of all construings, all excogitations, all I-making & mine-making & obsession with conceit — is, through lack of clinging/sustenance, released.”

“But, Master Gotama, the monk whose mind is thus released: Where does he reappear?”

“‘Reappear,’ Vaccha, doesn’t apply.”…

“At this point, Master Gotama, I am befuddled; at this point, confused. The modicum of clarity coming to me from your earlier conversation is now obscured.”

“Of course you’re befuddled, Vaccha. Of course you’re confused. Deep, Vaccha, is this phenomenon, hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise. For those with other views, other practices, other satisfactions, other aims, other teachers, it is difficult to know. That being the case, I will now put some questions to you. Answer as you see fit. What do you think, Vaccha: …If a fire burning in front of you were to go out, would you know that, ‘This fire burning in front of me has gone out’?”

“…yes…”

“And suppose someone were to ask you, ‘This fire that has gone out in front of you, in which direction from here has it gone? East? West? North? Or south?’ Thus asked, how would you reply?”

“That doesn’t apply, Master Gotama. Any fire burning dependent on a sustenance of grass and timber, being unnourished — from having consumed that sustenance and not being offered any other — is classified simply as ‘out’ (unbound).”

“Even so, Vaccha, any physical form… Any feeling… Any perception… Any mental fabrication… Any consciousness by which one describing the Tathagata would describe him: That the Tathagata has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future arising. Freed from the classification of consciousness, Vaccha, the Tathagata is deep, boundless, hard to fathom, like the sea.” — Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta (MN 72)

The End of Conflict

“If, O monk, one neither delights in nor asserts, nor clings to, that which makes one subject to concepts characterized by the prolific tendency (papañca), then that itself is the end of the proclivities to attachment, aversion, views, perplexity, pride, ignorance and attachment to becoming. That itself is the end of taking the stick, of taking the weapon, of quarreling, contending, disputing, accusation, slander and lying speech. Here it is that all these evil unskilled states cease without remainder.” — Madhupiṇḍika Sutta (MN 18)

“Perception Causes Proliferation”

“Visual consciousness, brethren, arises because of eye and material shapes; the meeting of the three is sensory impingement (phassa, contact); because of sensory impingement arises feeling; what one feels one perceives; what one perceives, one reasons about; what one reasons about, one turns into papañca; what one turns into papañca, due to that papañca-saññā-saṅkhā assail him in regard to material shapes cognisable by the eye belonging to the past, the future and the present. And, brethren, auditory consciousness arises because of ear and sounds belonging to the past, the future and the present; olfactory consciousness arises because of nose and smell belonging to the past, the future and the present; gustatory consciousness arises because of tongue and tastes belonging to the past, the future and the present; bodily consciousness arises because of body and touches belonging to the past, the future and the present; mental consciousness arises because of mind and mental objects belonging to the past, the future and the present.” — Madhupiṇḍika Sutta (MN 18)

Eight Thoughts of a Great Man

“Well done! Well done, Anuruddha! Well have you pondered over the seven thoughts of a great man! That is to say: ‘This dhamma is for one who wants little, not for one who wants much; for the contented, not for the discontented; for the secluded, not for one who is fond of society; for the energetic, not for the lazy; for one who has set up mindfulness, not for the laggard therein; for the composed, not for the flustered; for the wise, not for the unwise.’ But, Anuruddha, do you also ponder over this eighth thought of a great man, to wit: ‘This dhamma is for one who likes and delights in nippapañca, not for one who likes and delights in papañca.” — Anuruddhamahāvitakka Sutta (AN 8.30)

The Key to Self-Transcendence

Emptiness does not cling to being and becoming. I know, the implications of this are close to “Form is emptiness; emptiness is form”. But that is not quite accurate, because the obverse relation—”being and becoming cling to emptiness”— is falsifiable by inspection. Being has only itself to cling to, and of course emptiness is incapable of clinging to anything, since its very nature is the absence of ‘things’. Only the second limb of the tetralemma of emptiness/clinging/being is valid.

As we discussed in a recent post and video, the Buddha’s teaching has the unique property of self-transcendence. The key to this astonishing property is its apophatic periphraxis, already discussed, and the ontological triple of Causality, Emptiness and Non-Clinging.

Causality: The principle of paṭicca-samuppāda (Dependent Origination): “When this is, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises; when this is not, that does not come to be, with the stopping of this, that is stopped.” — Vera Sutta (AN 10.92)

The Signless

So I’m sitting here in the midst of the tremendous insight I had back in August, and finally articulated just now, trying to process and digest its tremendous significance. The power of the apophatic structure of the Buddha’s teaching rests in the fact that nibbāna cannot become a symbol, a concept; it must remain ever and always an ineffable living experience of transcendence, or the essence of the Buddha’s teaching will be lost.

Simultaneously, the function of the Eightfold Noble Path as ‘a process of becoming that leads to the end of becoming’ is revealed to be applicable to any set of aggregates. In fact, the more drastic the change, the more bizarre the configuration of aggregates we find ourselves beset by, the more powerful the Buddha’s teaching shines as a means to transcend their influence. This is the source of its profound and unprecedented antifragility.

One Last Video

The recent post, Apophatic Periphraxis, will be our final video for the foreseeable future. I have finally built up sufficient ontological context, the framework of understanding to be able to say that. If you have followed our series from the beginning you will have no trouble understanding it. This is my ultimate public contribution in the realm of original thought.

I have been making videos on various topics associated with the Buddha’s teaching for almost four years now. There are well over two hundred videos, (many unpublished) spanning a vast gamut of topics: from the basics of how to overcome learning disabilities and cognitive impairment from forced mass schooling, to the deepest and most difficult subjects like Nibbāna and the advanced apophatic ontological model of the Buddha’s teaching.

Concept & Reality 1.4—Apophatic Periphraxis

Apophatic Periphraxis: Nibbāna the Inexpressible

Please see the full documentation

• Apophasis means talking about a subject that remains tacit, unspoken.
• Periphraxis refers to circumlocution, indirection or euphemism.
• An example of apophasis is the KITE essay.
• An example of periphaxis is a woman complaining that she ‘doesn’t have anything to wear,’ when her real concern is that her wardrobe makes her look fat.

Concept & Reality 1.3—Etymology of Papañca

Please see http://wp.me/P4JMQ7-pw for documentation.
The contexts in which the term is located are, on the whole, psychological in their import. The Madhupiṇḍika Sutta (MN 18) points to the fact that papañca is essentially connected with the process of sense perception, and so also does the Kalahavivāda Sutta (Snp 4.11) when it emphatically states that papañca-saṅkhā have their origin in sense perception (saññā-nidānā hi papañca-saṅkhā). The following formula of sense perception occurring in the Madhupiṇḍika Sutta may however be regarded as the locus classicus, as it affords us a clearer insight into the problem of papañca: