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Brickwall Unlimited

Body and Mind Keep Changing

SN 12.61, the Assutavā Sutta — set 4, Not-Self and Dependent Arising

Reading time: about 5 min · 741 words

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Before you read

An argument that runs the opposite way from the one you expect. If you are going to identify with something, the Buddha says, pick the body. It lasts decades, and you can watch it change.

The mind is the worse candidate, precisely because it changes fastest: by day and by night it arises as one thing and ceases as another, like a monkey moving through the forest, grabbing one branch, letting go, taking the next.

The point is not that you have a self after all. It is that the thing people treat most confidently as their stable inner core is the least stable thing they own.

Translation

The Setting

So I heard.

At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī, in Jeta's Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's monastery.

The Body Is the Easier Thing to Let Go Of

"Bhikkhus, an unlearned ordinary person might well grow disenchanted with this body made of the four great elements. Their passion for it might well fade, and they might well be released from it.

Why is that?

Because the building up and the wearing down of this body made of the four great elements can be seen, its being taken up and its being put down. So an unlearned ordinary person might well grow disenchanted with it. Their passion for it might well fade, and they might well be released from it.

But as for what is called the heart, and the thinking mind, and knowing — an unlearned ordinary person is not able to grow disenchanted with that. Their passion for it cannot fade, and they cannot be released from it.

Why is that?

Because for a long time an unlearned ordinary person has held to it, taken it as mine, and grasped it: 'This is mine, I am this, this is my self.' So an unlearned ordinary person is not able to grow disenchanted with it. Their passion for it cannot fade, and they cannot be released from it.

The Monkey

It would be better, bhikkhus, for an unlearned ordinary person to take this body made of the four great elements as self than to take the mind as self.

Why is that?

Because this body made of the four great elements is seen to last one year, two years, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years, a hundred years, and longer.

But as for what is called the heart, and the thinking mind, and knowing — by night and by day it arises as one thing and ceases as another.

Suppose a monkey roaming the forest wilds takes hold of a branch, lets it go and takes hold of another, lets that go and takes hold of another. In the same way, bhikkhus, what is called the heart, and the thinking mind, and knowing — by night and by day it arises as one thing and ceases as another.

How the Learned Disciple Attends

Bhikkhus, a learned noble disciple attends closely and wisely to dependent arising itself:

'When this is, this comes to be; from the arising of this, this arises. When this is not, this does not come to be; with the quenching of this, this ceases.

That is: with ignorance as condition, putting things together; with putting things together as condition, knowing; with knowing as condition, name-and-form; with name-and-form as condition, the six fields of experience; with the six fields of experience as condition, contact; with contact as condition, felt experience; with felt experience as condition, ignorant wanting; with ignorant wanting as condition, taking personally; with taking personally as condition, becoming; with becoming as condition, birth; with birth as condition, ageing and dying, sorrow, lamentation, dissatisfaction, distress, and despair come to be.

That is how this whole heap of dissatisfaction comes to arise.

But with the complete fading and quenching of ignorance, the quenching of putting things together; with the quenching of putting things together, the quenching of knowing; with the quenching of knowing, the quenching of name-and-form; with the quenching of name-and-form, the quenching of the six fields of experience; with the quenching of the six fields of experience, the quenching of contact; with the quenching of contact, the quenching of felt experience; with the quenching of felt experience, the quenching of ignorant wanting; with the quenching of ignorant wanting, the quenching of taking personally; with the quenching of taking personally, the quenching of becoming; with the quenching of becoming, the quenching of birth; with the quenching of birth, the quenching of ageing and dying, sorrow, lamentation, dissatisfaction, distress, and despair.

That is how this whole heap of dissatisfaction quenches.'

Disenchantment, Fading, and Release

Bhikkhus, seeing this, a learned noble disciple becomes disenchanted with form, disenchanted with felt experience, disenchanted with recognition, disenchanted with putting things together, disenchanted with knowing.

As they grow disenchanted, their passion fades. Through its fading, they are released. When it is released, there is the knowledge: 'It is released.'

They discern: 'Birth is worn away, the spiritual life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more of this state of being.'"

The first discourse is finished.

Words used in this translation (26)
ageing and dying
Growing old and dying, treated in these texts as one linked process and as the end point of the dependent-arising sequence.
becoming
This project's rendering of "bhava" -- the settling of experience into a way of being that feels like somebody being something. Often translated "existence."
bhikkhus
Buddhist monks -- those who have left household life to practise full time. The Buddha's usual way of addressing the assembly, roughly "friends" in force.
birth
This project's rendering of "jāti": birth, coming into being. In the dependent-arising sequence, ageing and dying depend on it. In MN 141 the word appears once in its everyday sense instead, in a simile about a mother.
body
The physical body, as distinct from speech and the mental side of experience.
contact
This project's rendering of "phassa" -- the meeting of a sense, its object, and the knowing of it. A technical link in the dependent-arising sequence, not physical touch specifically.
dependent arising
The teaching that experience -- and the dissatisfaction in it -- comes from conditions rather than from any fixed self or essence. Each link depends on the one before it, which is why removing a condition stops what follows.
disenchantment
A cooling of fascination with ordinary experience -- not depression, but the natural next step once you see clearly how things actually work.
dissatisfaction
This translation's rendering of "dukkha," the Buddhist term for the unsatisfying, unstable quality of ordinary experience. Often translated "suffering," but that can sound more dramatic than the everyday sense of things not quite being right.
fading
The fading away of attraction and investment in experience, as passion cools.
felt experience
This project's rendering of "vedanā", often translated "feeling". It is the immediate pleasant, painful, or mixed tone of an experience, before any story we build on top of it.
form
This project's rendering of "rūpa" -- the physical, material aspect of experience, one of the five heaps.
heart
This project's rendering of "citta": the feeling side of mind. It takes on moods, wants, leans, and reacts. Practice can gladden, steady, train, and release it. Some call it the "heart-mind" or "feeling mind". Here "heart" does not mean only emotion, or the physical organ.
ignorance
This project's rendering of "avijjā" -- not general stupidity, but specifically not seeing how dissatisfaction works and how it ends. The first link in the dependent-arising sequence.
ignorant wanting
Wanting something you can't have right now. This project's rendering of "taṇhā", often translated "craving". We call it ignorant because it comes from not seeing clearly; ordinary, sensible wanting is something else.
knowing
This project's rendering of "viññāṇa" (often translated "consciousness") -- bare awareness of an object through one of the senses or the mind.
name-and-form
The mental and physical sides of experience taken together: roughly, whatever you can name plus whatever has shape. One link in the dependent-arising sequence.
noble disciple
Someone who has had the breakthrough into the path and so is no longer merely an ordinary person. It does not mean noble by birth, and does not require being a monastic.
ordinary person
This project's rendering of "puthujjana" -- someone who has not yet had the breakthrough into the path. It is the standard term for the untrained starting point, not an insult.
putting things together
This project's rendering of "saṅkhāra": the ongoing activity of assembling experience, and also what that activity assembles. Context shows which of the two the text means. Other translations often say "formations" or "fabrications", which this project avoids as needlessly opaque.
quenching
An extinguishing image for dissatisfaction and its causes going out. Different Pali words use this image on different pages, so the exact scope comes from the sentence.
recognition
This project's rendering of "saññā" (often translated "perception") -- the mind's act of identifying and labeling what it encounters.
six fields of experience
The six channels through which you experience anything at all: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking. Other translations often say "sense bases".
spiritual life
The Buddhist path of practice as a whole -- not just a set of beliefs, but a whole way of living.
taking personally
This project's rendering of "upādāna" -- treating some piece of experience as "me" or "mine" and holding on to it. Usually translated "clinging" or "attachment."
thinking mind
This project's rendering of "mano": the part of mind that thinks and registers ideas. These texts count it as a sixth sense, alongside the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body.
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