Biodata of Brother Teoh Kian Koon

Bro. Teoh graduated from University of Malaya in Civil Engineering in 1979. He had been a spiritual practitioner cum ‘Meditator’ since 1971. Since his retirement in 2001 from his engineering career, he has been sharing his understanding and experiences with those who are keen in their search for true happiness, peace and liberation from birth and death and all mental suffering to become a more virtuous, nobler and wiser human being. He gives talks and holds meditation classes & retreats and weekly Dharmaclasses at various meditation centers and places that invite him.

For more details of Bro. Teoh’s dharma activities and his Kalyāṇamittaship grouping please login to his recently launched dharma website at: http://broteoh.com

1 Preface

It is Brother Teoh’s sincere wish that Dharma friends, spiritual practitioners, seekers of truth, and cultivators will be able to make use of the enclosed dharma transcript notes to develop a better understanding of the Buddha Dharma as taught by the Buddha so that they may progress along the path of dharma to become more virtuous, nobler and wiser human beings that can be a blessing to all of humanity and the world.

As these notes were mostly compiled based on a direct transcript from the recording of the Dhamma class (dated 17.3.2005); the text is aligned as closely as possible to the colloquial speech in the talk. However, some editorial amendments have been made to the text without detracting from the essence of the talk. With this, it is hoped that readers can accordingly adjust themselves to better understand its true meaning and intent while reading the transcript notes.

To get a copy of the eBook you can log on to our http://broteoh.comwebsite under Repository of Dharma material OR Google ‘Bro. Teoh’s Kalyāṇamittas – A Repository of Dharma Material’to view them under Repository, ‘Publications and Notes’.

2 Acknowledgement

It is the donors’ sincere intention that these dharma transcript notes be given free to those who are interested and have the affinity to receive them. I would like to take this opportunity to thank and rejoice in the generosity and wholesomeness of all Dharma friends or Kalyāṇamittas who have donated and helped out in the transcription, typing, typesetting, formatting, proof reading, etc. to make this free distribution of dharma dāna possible.

Special thanks should be accorded to Brother Tune who have taken the initiative to help recompile the earlier draft transcript for my subsequent final editing thereby enabling this dharma transcript book on the 5 Aggregates of Formand Mind to be reprinted.

By the power of all these wholesomeness, may all beings be well and happy, free from all mental and physical sufferings and dangers and may there be love, peace and joy - deep within their hearts. And may it also pave the way for there to be causes and conditions for all dharma friends who have donated or helped out in one way or another to realize their good and noble wishes/aspirations soonest possible.

With Metta always,

Brother Teoh Kian Koon

(Dated: 30th December 2018)

DHAMMA DISCUSSION

By Bro Teoh Kian Koon at SBVMS [Selangor Buddhist Vipassana Meditation society] Dated 17.3.2005

Topic: Five Aggregates of Form and Mind

- Based on a direct transcript from the recorded tapes

3 The Five Aggregates Of Form And Mind

A very good evening to all! Tonight’s topic is a continuation from our last session, which is the first sermon as taught by the Buddha. Tonight we are going to discuss an important aspect of his teaching, the 2nd turning of his First Noble Truth. Just to recap, I will summarize what we did in the last session. We discussed the first sermon as taught by the Buddha – the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. This sermon is very important because it is the first sermon the Buddha delivered immediately after his enlightenment. He went off to meet the five ascetics that were with him earlier on. At first they were quite skeptical about him. On approaching them, he need to explain to them this very important sutta so that there will be no more doubt that he was already fully enlightened. First he advises them to avoid the two extremes of self-mortification and sensual indulgence which is very important. You have to avoid these two extremes to cultivate the Middle Path or the Noble Eightfold Path which we had discussed before.

3.1 Three turnings of the 4 Noble Truths (3 types of wisdom)

After that, he proclaimed the Four Noble Truths and turned it three times. Because there are four truths and 3 turnings hence total twelve (4x3) aspects. And these twelve aspects are very important because according to the Buddha unless he himself has understood the Four Noble Truths in these twelve aspects, he does not proclaim to be the Sammāsaṃbuddha. I will read to you the actual wordings. In his first proclamation of the dhamma addressing the five ascetics, the Buddha said,

“So long as my knowledge and vision of the reality regarding these Four Noble Truths in its three phases or turnings and its twelve modes or aspects was not fully clear to me, I did not claim to have attained the incomparable supreme enlightenment in the world. But when my knowledge and vision of the reality regarding these Four Noble Truths and its 3 turnings are clear to me, then I proclaimed to have won the incomparable supreme enlightenment in this world”.

So just imagined even the Buddha, the fully Enlightened One, he emphasized so strongly on understanding these Four Noble Truths. What we had done was, we had discussed the 1st turning of the First Noble Truth as proclaimed by the Buddha. He proclaimed what dukkha is: “Birth, old age, sickness and death are dukkha;” and “To be separated from your loved ones is also dukkha; to be with people whom you don’t like is also dukkha; not able to get what one desires is also dukkha”. Then there is also the final summary which summarized all the first seven types of dukkha. He said, “In short, it is this clinging or grasping or attachment to the five aggregates of form and mind that leads to dukkha or suffering”. This final summary is very important. The first seven realities of birth, old age, sickness and death, to be separated from your loved ones, to be with people whom you don’t like and not able to get what one desires leading to dukkha – is relatively easy to understand. But then why did the Buddha summarized as: - ‘in short, it is this five aggregates of clinging and grasping borne of self-delusion that I call dukkha?’

This is the topic we are going to discuss in detail tonight. Understanding these five aggregates of form and mind is very important. It will lead to true realization and enlightenment. Regarding the 3 turnings I will just summarize the reasons why the Buddha turned it 3 times. In the first turning, he just proclaimed the truth like what we did just now. After he had proclaimed that truth, certain people who already have the karmic past or conditions behind them, they can become enlightened upon hearing the truth. It’s like the case of Venerable Kondanna. Before the Buddha even finished the first sermon, Kondanna was already a Sotāpan. He already enlightened to the truth. Likewise with Venerable Sariputta, he just inquired from Venerable Assaji, one of the five ascetics on what his teacher had taught him. He just mentioned two very simple verses and Venerable Sariputta was enlightened to the truth. So this proclamation of truth is very powerful and the Buddha in certain parts of his sutta did talk about it.

He said, “Under sutta maya panna, through hearing of the truth, enlightenment can arise”; meaning wisdom leading to enlightenment can arise. Sutta maya panna means upon hearing of the sutta (or discourse of the Buddha) a type of wisdom can arise. During the Buddha’s time there were a lot of incidences of these happening. Then in the second turning, he said, “This noble truth of dukkha is to be understood”. You listen to this word; the key word is ‘it is to be understood’. You have to understand it clearly. If you cannot understand this noble truth of dukkha clearly, then it is very difficult to understand your form and mind, very difficult to understand all the subsequent truths. That’s why do not underestimate the importance of this First Noble Truth. It may sound very simple after we have heard what the Buddha mentioned, but does it impact upon you? How this truth can have an impact upon you is very important. That is upon first hearing it and subsequentlyafter you have heard about it.

When the Buddha mentioned that this truth needs to be understood, what he meant was, you need to reflect and contemplate on these truths. On the truth that is being proclaimed. We should inquire why the Buddha said that. And through these contemplation and reflection on those truths as proclaimed by the Buddha or you can also put forth those truths and open it for discussion like what we are doing now at this dharma discussion session, you will be able to receive another level of understanding or wisdom, which the Buddha called cinta maya panna.

Cinta maya panna, according to the Buddha, is a type of wisdom borne of contemplation and reflection on the truths that have been proclaimed. When you do the contemplationproperly, understanding will arise, wisdom will arise. Even nowadays, through dharma discussion or when you are listening to a dharma talk, when you have a keen audience with the right conditions, truths or wisdom can arise. Then in the third turning, he said, “This First Noble Truth of dukkha has already been understood”. The reason why he said it has already been understood is because, that is the realization part. And this is equivalent to bhāvanā maya panna, which is wisdom borne of bhāvanā.

Bhāvanā is the meditative approach or via the meditative training. If you do the subsequent meditative practice, let’s say through cinta maya panna cultivation and you still do not have the conditions to really penetrate the dharma to realize the truth, then you have to do the meditative part. The meditative approach is the third turning. He said, “Finally through the meditative approach, you can also realize the truth to be enlightened, to be liberated”.

After we had covered that, we went on to discuss what dukkha is? Can you all remember the first seven types of dukkha and the final summary which we had just covered? The Buddha said, ‘in short, the attachment to the five aggregates of form and mind is dukkha’. Then I asked the question: ‘What are these five aggregates of form and mind?’ I discussed it in a much summarized way. Understanding these five aggregates of form and mind is very important in order to develop the full understanding of this First Noble Truth. That’s why the Buddha summarized it that way. What do you mean by this form and mind (Nama Rūpa)? How does it arise in ‘you’? You have to inquire. What is it? What are these five aggregates of form and mind and how do they arise in you? And why do they bring about dukkha? Why do we cling on to them? Why do we have this attachment to them? It’s because we do not understand what these five aggregates of form and mind are. If you have had the understanding, then you will know that these five aggregates of form and mind are not so real. They are conditioned arising entity. They are not really what you think they are. The understanding of these five aggregates of form and mind can bring about the subsequent unfolding of what they call, the realization of the three universal characteristics of these five aggregates of form and mind. The unreality of these five aggregates of form and mind will be clearly exposed and we will be able to have that understanding if we truly cultivate via the silent mind to ‘see’ clearly within, the moment of it’s arising and cessation. I will explain to you all again what this form and mind is.

First, we have to ask ourselves, what the Buddha meant by Nama Rūpa. Nama Rūpa can be understood in two ways. First aspect is seeing it as a living being. We have a physical form, which is our physical body. Then we have a mind, and this mind has four aspects or aggregates. That’s why we have a form and mind, the five aggregates of form and mind which is the living being. Our body is the rūpa or form aggregate. Then the other four aggregates of mind are very important. These four aggregates within your mind, if you want to develop a very good and easy understanding of them, you will have to ask yourself what your mind can do. Remember, what we had gone through? What is the first aggregate? What can your mind do? You can feel isn’t it? The aggregate of feeling is there.

Secondly, it can perceive and know things. Whatever that has been perceived can be known isn’t it? This power of perception is also part of the ability of the mind. Then the third aggregate is what? This part is very important. It’s saṅkhāra. Saṅkhāra is pāḷi word. There are four equivalent English words used to explain Saṅkhāra. All these four combined together still do not fully explain what saṅkhāra is. According to the text’s translation, they have used four words to express this saṅkhāra. First, is mental activities which are your mental thinking, planning, scheming, etc.? Then there is this mental volition. You know what is volition isn’t it? It’s mental intention. Then you have mental states which are your mind states. There are many types of mental states. They include your moods, your emotions, and your various states of mind, etc. which arise after sense door contacts. Then the last term is mental formations. Your mind can create formations within your brain. Your brain is one of the organs that give rise to the conditions for these mental formations to arise. That’s why all your perceptions have this mental formation within your mind. There is an image there. What else can your mind do? It can give rise to consciousness isn’t it? In Pāḷi it is called viññāṇaṃ which is the last aggregate of mind. Your sense organs assist you to trigger off their respective sense door consciousness. Your eyes as the organ can give rise to seeing consciousness. Your ears, your nose, your tongue, your bodily touches or tactile sensations followed by your thinking mind. All these six sense doors consciousness will arise within you if there are conditions for the mind to come into contact with the sense data and their respective sense organs. When these three things come together via contact, they trigger off the appropriate sense door consciousness. You were given an analogy at the last session. For those who are not familiar, I think this analogy will help you to understand what consciousness is. Because the word is a bit new and for those who don’t really follow the Buddhist teachings, understanding consciousness is not so easy. So I will try to use this physics experiment analogy to explain it so that it’s easier for you to understand.

You have a battery, a bulb and a switch. When these three things are in order; the battery functioning with the connection in the correct polarity, the bulb in its functional state, then there is this switch. Upon switching on the switch, there is this light that appears from the bulb. Our sense consciousness is exactly the same. The sense data enters our sense door. If it is seeing, then it is an external form (colour, shape and form) that enters your sense organ which is the eye. Then together with your mind’s contact, seeing consciousness will arise. And when seeing consciousness arise, you have to develop the understanding of what this thing is all about because together with that consciousness will arise the five aggregates of form and mind. Within every consciousness that arises, there is the content of consciousness. This consciousness and its content have been summarized by the Buddha as the five mental aggregates of form and mind. And there are certain contents of consciousness that are universal to all consciousness. Contact is universal, feeling is universal and perception is also universal. Then there are four more, but these first three are the most important.

So, if you really want to understand form and mind, you need to really understand how consciousness arises. Then, there is also this saṅkhāra. We have to come back to saṅkhāra because saṅkhāra according to the Buddha’s teaching has 52. It includes the first two aggregates of Feeling (which is the vedanā aggregate) and perception (or saññā aggregate). And because it covers these two, in short, the four aggregates of mind are only saṅkhāra and consciousness. That is, saṅkhāra is the content of consciousness and everything that the mind can do is saṅkhāra. So if you understand saṅkhāra, you will understandthe mind very well. Up to this point is it clear? Can you all follow? If you cannot follow, you better let me know because this part is not easy to understand.

Now we have to inquire further to develop deeperunderstanding of these five aggregates of form and mind. Why did the Buddha say, it’s your attachment or clinging to these five aggregates of form and mind that leads to dukkha? You have to ask yourself why? Anybody wants to try? Why did the Buddha say that? Okay, that is one of the characteristics. That is very good. They have this characteristic of impermanence. Okay, what else? The non-self-nature will also arise if you understand what impermanence is all about. When you see impermanenceclearly, non-self is more orless automatic. Because they are of the nature to arise, exist and pass away. Everything that arises, exists and passes away due to conditions does not have a nature of its own because they are conditioned arising, okay? Because they are conditioned arising, it cannot be a permanent unchanging entity. Because dependent on conditions, it arises. When the conditions that support it are there, it will continue to exist or sustain itself. When the conditions behind its existence cease to be, that phenomenon will also cease to be.

Can you all follow? Okay, what else? What are the other reasons? How did it cause you to cling? Why is it that when these five aggregates of form and mind arise, it caused clinging? Why? There is this sensual desire right? But, in the first place, you should ask yourself how do all these arise and Why? Because you don’tunderstand the five aggregates of form and mind as they really are. You think they are very real. That’s why you never really see its unreality and empty nature. To see the unreality of the form aggregate, the unreality of the aggregates of mind leading to a clear understanding of their impermanence, afflicting and non-self-nature is very important. That’s why in the last session I asked you all these questions: “Is your body really you? Are your feelings really you? Are your perceptions really you? Are your saṅkhāra or mental activities, your thoughts, your mental states, etc. - are they really you? Are all the consciousness that arise within you really you?” You have to ask yourself all these questions, because these are the things that delude you. That’s why they say, the self-delusion of form and mind (sakkāyadiṭṭhi) will cause the living beings to cling and attach because you do not understand their realities. You think they are so real. Especially when you look around the world today, the level of sensualities is so strong that it can lure and delude the living beings so easily. You look at the multimedia world; you look at all the things you can have, the food paradises, fashion and automobile worlds, the modern musical instruments inside your studio and home theatre. Even the TV, the computers nowadays, the multimedia capability, and the social media and entertainments industry etc. – have these high levels of sensuality and they can lure you and draw your senses. Draw the living beings into thinking that they are very interesting, they are very nice and they are very real. Then they can fight for it and they can kill for it. They will do whatever just to own and possess it or just to experience it.

The key to understand all these is to understand that your five aggregates of form and mind are not real. They are not what you think they are and in order to truly understand that, you need to penetrate the 3 universalcharacteristics of these five aggregates of form and mind. Means to see its impermanent characteristic like what KC had said and its non-self and afflicting characteristics. Once you are able to ‘see’ via the direct seeing these characteristics clearly, then clinging will not arise. Then when you have penetrated these truths and understood them for what they are, clinging to these five aggregates of form and mind can never arise again. In fact you have already understood them for what they are. (This is the 3rd turning of the 1st Noble truth completed.)

3.2 What is a phenomenon?

The other thing that I need to explain is phenomena. This word is very important. Because in order to understand these five aggregates of form and mind, you need to know what these five aggregates of form and mind are. That, I think we have covered. As a living being, you have this body and a mind. That’s why the four aggregates of mind combine with this body are also called the five aggregates of form and mind. The second aspect to the understanding is more important. This is the mental aspect. Whenever sense consciousness arises, we already said, there are three things that triggered it. Sense organ, sense data and the mind coming into contacttriggering off their respective sense door consciousness. When sense door consciousness arises, the whole consciousness and its content is the form and mind (Nama Rūpa). How does the form come about? The last session I think KC and Bro. Lim did manage to get the answer. How does that form appear in the mind? We already concluded the mind is the knowing element isn’t it? The rūpa does not have mind. It does not have any knowing.So whatever that the mind know will be the rūpa and how does this knowing comes about? Can you all recall? It’s through your sense perception, right because you can perceive things? To know something, you need to perceive it, isn’t it? Just like the fan, the TV, the air-conditioner or the living beings, or whatever you see. If you perceived it, it means the knowing come from there. Just like sound and the hearing and the perception of vibration and voices etc. Even when somebody is opening the door, through that sound, you will know through your perception that somebody is trying to open the door or break into it. So the power of perception is linked to your six sense doors. You have your eyes, whatever you see, you will perceive it. Likewise for your hearing, your smell, your taste, your touch and your thoughts the Perception is the one that brings the external form into your mind. It transfers the rūpa of the external world (external form) into your mind. So this particularunderstanding of form and mind is more important than the first aspect understanding because you have to deal with this in the 12 links or Paticca Sammupada teaching as taught by the Buddha and the meditation in our daily life and learn to see how this form and mind, the five mental aggregates arise in you and how they pass away.

At every moment of sense consciousness or arising of these form and mind, there is this contact, there is this feeling aggregate inside and there is this perception and your thoughts or saṅkhāra, the contents of consciousness. You have to learn to see them and you will also have to learn to see your thoughts and your feelings. How they arise and how they pass away and how they conditioned each other to make you attach and cling to the five aggregates of form and mind via self-delusion. When feeling arise, when you do not have the right view or clear understanding of how these feelings are going to condition you, then you will attach. Because when feelings arise, there are normally 3 types of feelings (unpleasant, pleasant or neutral). Any of these, when they arise, if you do not have the wisdom or the right understanding, you will cling. Because when pleasant feeling, that is positive craving, a positive attachment to it. If it is a negative unpleasant feeling, that is negative craving or clinging, or you will have the aversion or the dislike, you want to push it away. The neutral feeling, if you are not careful, if it is not born of right understanding where you have the equanimous or upekkhā mind to really understand what neutral feeling is all about, it can give rise to indifference. This is normally brought about by what they call delusion because you don’t know what it is. The feeling just arise. To you it’s like it does not bother you. It is neither pleasant nor unpleasant. But there is an element of delusion. Not understanding it for what it is. So when that arises, it can also affect you because you do not know what is going on. So, this second aspect of five mental aggregates of form and mind is very important.

Okay, before you really go into this understanding, I need you to understand one more thing because they are all interrelated. You need to understand phenomena. The last session we had already discussed it. We just opened up the topic for discussion but I didn’t go into detail. The key to understanding mind is the understanding of phenomena. If you cannot understand phenomena clearly, it’s not easy to understand mind. That’s why you always read in the Mahayana books, they always say, “the world is a phenomena world of consciousness, created by mind.” That’s why it’s not so real. But what is it that they called the phenomenal world of consciousness? What is that? Anybody can recall the definition of a phenomenon? What is a phenomenon? Okay, ‘anything that the senses canperceive is a phenomenon’. Can you all follow?

This definition is very important because from this definition you will understand mind. You will understand how mind comes about. Can every one of us repeat this? What is a phenomenon? ‘Anything perceivable by the mind is a phenomenon’. Can you give examples of a phenomenon? Yes! Sound can be perceived. Also anything that you can see is also perceivable through your eye organ, via your seeing consciousness. They are all phenomena. But a lot of people do not understand. They thought phenomenon must be a movement or a flow or something that can cause you to perceive it. But the true meaning of phenomena is very deep and wide. They are anything that is perceivable by your senses or mind, even your tasting, your smell, your touch, your sensations and your thought processes and whatever mental activities that arise, that your mindcan perceived is also a phenomenon. That’s how we can have three basic phenomena. First, we have this physical body which can give rise to physical phenomena like your hand movement is a physical phenomenon. The blinking of your eyes; your walking; your four postures etc. all these are manifestations of your physical body which give rise to physical phenomena. This part regarding physical phenomena, is it clear? Can you all follow? Then within your physical body, you really need to understand the reality of this form, and this physical phenomenon.

In fact under kāyānupassanā, the Buddha emphasized a lot on this form or kaya. Even ānāpānasati, mindfulness of in and out breathe, mindfulness of the four elements, contemplation of its thirty-two parts, the mindfulness of the four postures, clear comprehension and mindfulness of every actions and movements within life, - all these are part of your physical phenomena for you to cultivate the kāyānupassanā (foundation of mindfulness of the kaya). The second type of phenomenon has to do with your mind. That is the mental flow or mentalphenomena. All the perceptions that your mind perceived through your seeing, your hearing, your smell, your taste, your touch and your thinking will give rise to mental phenomena because anything that is perceivable by the senses is a phenomenon.

Then you have the last one which is nature’s phenomena. Nature has a lot of phenomena. In our daily lives you will come across everything that confronts our senses as nature’s phenomena. When you walk out of here, you can perceive the moving cars, you can look at the trees, the plants, and the way the leaves and the flags flows or moves when the wind blows. All these are nature’s phenomena that come about through nature’s creation.

3.3 Seeing the unreality of Form and seeing beyond Form

The first aggregate of form (rūpa) is not restricted to only our body. The more comprehensive and wider meaning is the external form that the senses perceived through our six sense doors. These external forms are very important. If you are not able to see these external forms clearly for what they are, then you will not be able to see the unreality of these forms. And if you cannot establish the unreality of these forms, you will never be able to understandhow clinging to all these forms arise because you do not know that they are not real. Their arising is due to two very fundamental conditionings. First, if you ask yourself, all these external forms that you come to perceive including the moving car, etc. - everything else within nature or whatever external to us and within the world where our senses can perceived, like the fan, the painting and all these that you can see in this room. All those that you hear, smell, taste etc. All these are externalforms. These forms you have to understand them very clearly and see them very clearly. That they are not really the way your mind perceived them to be. How do all these forms come about? How do they arise? You have to ask yourself. We have dealt with phenomena. Whatever that you perceived and bring to mind is yourcreation isn’t it? All the external forms have been created by your mind through your sense door consciousness, isn’t it? You see the power of creation by your mind? Can you follow? The seeing consciousness arise, upon you opening your eyes. All those sense perceptions that come through ‘your’ seeing consciousness, you created them. These external forms already arisen in you because there are these conditions for their existence. Can you follow? But when the conditions ceased to be, like when you close your eyes, external forms that have been created via your seeing consciousness are already gone. So, are they real? The moment of their arising, sustenance followed by their cessation (of that consciousness) must be seen clearly via a verystable daily mindfulness in order to have the ability to see the unreality of all these external forms. This is very important. Even this physical body, we will dwell into it. It is not really you and it’s not so real, not what you think.

External forms, there are two ways to see their unreality. First, is via the nature’s law of its conditioned arising. We ask ourselves, anything that we see, may it be a table, or a chair or a human being or any phenomena, like a sound? How does it comes about? There are this nature’s conditions to bring about its ‘existence’ isn’t it? How does this table arise or comes to be? Do you need a Creator GOD to create this table? No! Isn’t it? There are conditions for it to arise. The conditions are: you need somebody to gather the raw materials; then you need a skilled worker to skilfully do up the parts and fixed up the table. Then somebody offers it for sale. You have the money, you buy it, then it comes to be, it arises already. These are what they call very tangible forms. External forms are mostly more tangible and they last longer so you do not see their impermanentnature so easily. But when it comes to sound, we have already dealt with that. Sound is a very good example. When the vibration arises, there is a condition for its arising isn’t it? When you have these ears, which are nearby they can perceive the arising of that sound, so these are the conditions for hearing consciousness to arise. The external conditions that you need to arise the sound are: - say something like the air-conditioner, and the vibration from the car engine of a passing car. All these are conditions needed for their arising. So when you off the air-conditioning or when the moving car passes beyond your hearing range, - to you that form (sound) ceased to be. Then we ask the question, is it real? Is it real? Maybe ‘real’ to the existential world or to the physical world, the conditioned or conceptual world, means conventional truth. It may appear real but because it’s conditioned arising, dependent on conditions it arises, so it’s not so real! The reason being when the supporting conditions are there, it sustains its existence. And when the supporting conditions ceased to be, it ceased to arise or cease to be totally! Now you see the coming and the going or the appearing and disappearing of all these external phenomena that your mind created through your mind door, they are all not so real because they arise through conditions.

The Buddha gave a very good analogy; I think I have spoken on this before on a number of occasions earlier. He gave a very good analogy, a bullock cart analogy during his time. He asked his disciples, “What did you all see?” He pointed to the bullock cart. Of course all the Bhikkhus said it is a bullock cart. Then the Buddha said, “Take all the parts away, separate out the wheels, separate all the parts of the bullock cart”. Then he asked again, “Now where is the bullock cart?” Anybody wants to try? Because to the living beings, when the conditions or the parts come together, and the phenomenon that arises performs a function, you give it a name and a concept by calling it a bullock cart. You see how it arises and how it is being created? When all the parts come together, when you assembled them and it is able to perform a function, you give it a concept or a name. Then it arises already. But when the sustaining conditions are not there, like when you dismantle them, the concept is gone, and the ‘bullock cart’ is also gone. So the coming and going of external form is based on external physical laws’ conditions and there are causes and conditions behind its arising. When the conditions ceased to be, it disappears. So in that sense, via ultimate truth when you look at it, it is not real because it is impermanent due to its conditioned arising nature. So you will be able to subsequently understand why people used the words ‘conditioned existence areall manifestation of mind’. And causal phenomena are also manifestation of mind because all of phenomena or external forms arise due to mind’s perception. When there are causes for it to arise like sound or the bullock cart, then it arises. When the conditions no longer exist, it ceased to be. Can you follow?

Okay, externally, it is already not so real because it’s conditioned arising. But how doyou perceive the bullock cart? This part is very important. This part involves the mind. The knowing of the bullock cart comes from where? It’s through your mentalperception because you need to perceive it. So you bring the external ‘form’ into the mind. That perception comes through your sense door consciousness. The five aggregates of form and mind must arise. If it does not arise, there is no seeing consciousness. If there is no seeing consciousness, it means there is no contact, no feeling, and no perception of form. Can you follow? When you do not perceive, nothing arise. That’s why if you look at the Dhammapada, you will know why the first two verses are so important. The Buddha emphasized, “Mind is the forerunner of all things, by mind is the world created and led and bymind is the world drawn. And all men own the sovereignty of mind.”

You see, this aspect of mind is very important and we have already discussed it. That’s why I said if you do not understand phenomena, it will be verydifficult for you to understand mind. If you understand what a phenomenon is, i.e. anything that is perceivable by the senses is a phenomenon then you will know how mind arise. I had already explained, through your sense door consciousness and sense perception everything comes about isn’t it? Via conditioned arising. You must know all these! You need the sense organ, you need the sense data, and then you need the mind to create contact, to arise the sense door consciousness. Within the sense consciousness there is the feeling aggregate and the perception aggregate that perceive the things for you to see. So externally already not real because the bullock cart arises from conditions, external conditions when it is assembled together then it comes about. When you perceived it through your mind, it’s only an image here (pointing to forehead). That’s why the mental formation that created this bullock cart is actually mind-made, a creation of your thought and your mind. Externally already not so real, when you bring to mind, it’s only an image created by your thought. That’s why the Buddha said, “Mind is the forerunner of all things”. The Mahayana stressed a lot on this: “Yi qie, yi qie, wei xin cao”. Those who know mandarin will understand because its meaning is everything is “created” by mind. From the definition of phenomena, you will come to know that all of sense door perceptions create for you the ‘phenomena world’ and the ‘conventional reality’. All the external forms arise due to this understanding and you will come to know that their natures are due to other conditions that conditioned their arising. And because they are conditioned arising entities so how can they be a permanent unchanging entity? Now you will start to see and understand why they are impermanent because dependent on conditions they arise. So when conditions changed, things will also change. And when they change, you must understand their characteristics. It is nature’s law. It is beyond each and every one of us to control it. That’s why there is no control. According to the Buddha, ‘whatever that arise, there are causes and conditions behind it’.

3.4 Panca Niyama (5 Universal Orders of nature)

We have already discussed the five universal orders (pañca niyāma) of nature and they are:

1. utu-niyāma, the physical order of nature;

2. bija-niyāma, the biological order of nature;

3. karma-niyāma, the karmic laws then they have the

4. citta-niyāma, which is the order of the mind. Then the

5. dhamma-niyāma, which are natural occurrences or whatever nature’s laws or truths that are not covered by the first four.

Having understood these, we have to tie back to our actual discussion on the five aggregates of form and mind. You have already understood what phenomenon is. After understanding that, it will direct you to the mind. Because through understanding phenomena, which is key to the understanding of mind, you can know how all the external forms (meaning the aggregate of your physical body together with all the external forms/things that you perceived), come about; - through nature’s conditions because they are conditioned arising phenomena. So when you know that they are conditioned arising, you will start to develop the understanding that there is no way you can cling on to them or wants things yourway because nature already has its laws and that is the way it is going to be or happen. If you want it your way, which is not nature’s way, then you will suffer because you have attachment to things. You want these things your way, like your body, to always remain young, never get old, never get sick, and never die. But the laws of nature have its own set of laws that will cause this body to go the way of nature; to decay, fall sick and finally die.

That’s why in the last session, we discussed the five daily recollections as taught by the Buddha: that this body of ours is not beyond sickness, not beyond decay and notbeyond death. And whatever that you think you own or are dear to you, they will one day either separate from you or you will separate from them. And the last one is regarding karma. If you contemplate these daily, and develop the understanding, then the attachment to your physical and mental forms will be less and less. Then you will understand that natural laws are such. All the clinging comes from your attachments and feelings borne of self-delusion. Whenever sense door consciousness arises, there is this aggregate of feeling. That’s why this vedanānupassanā or they call it “mindfulness on feeling” is a very important aspect of meditation. If you cannot develop that well, it’s very difficult for you to deal with your attachments or your clinging because attachment comes from this feeling aggregate.

If you look at what the Buddha had taught us under the twelve links… you all heard of the twelve links before? Paṭicca-samuppāda or Idappaccayatā in Pāḷi; the twelve links or the Law of Dependent Origination. Okay, for those who havenot heard about it maybe I will just briefly runthrough it. According to the Buddha, understanding this 12 links teaching is very important. Later you will be able to understand why he taught all these.

First, he said, “Avijjā paccaya saṅkhāra”. Avijjā is ignorance or delusion. Because you have ignorant, so you don’t understand and that’s why he said it conditioned saṅkhāra (mental activities). Hence, dependent on ignorance, arises mental activities because you don’t understand and so wanting to know and wanting to experience you will create thinking isn’t it? You tend to think. That’s why the first link is, “avijjā paccaya saṅkhāra.” Because there is this ignorance, you do not understand the truth and the reality and because of that, you will start your mentalactivities, which is thinking. Then dependent on this saṅkhāra he said arises Nama Rūpa. What is Nama Rūpa (Form and mind)? Why did he say that? We already discussed isn’t it? What is saṅkhāra? All your mental activities, your mental volitions, your mental formations and everything that your mind can do (including your thinking, planning, scheming, mental states, etc.) are actually saṅkhāra. So when saṅkhāra arise, these thinking activities will trigger off the mind door consciousness via contact with mind organ, then you input the content of consciousness hence arising the five mental aggregates of form and mind.

I had explained how consciousness arises. There must be Senseorgan, sense data and contact of mind. Contact of mind will give rise to that sense door consciousness and that consciousness will have the contents of consciousness giving rise to your five mental aggregates of form and mind. That’s how Nama Rūpa arises. So Nama Rūpa arises because of ignorance. Because you do not understand that’s why you want to think. Thinking creates contact within your mind, which is an organ. That’s how this mental form and mind continuously arise in the living beings. That’s why just now before I started I already said we have to see how Nama Rūpa arise in you, and understand what is this form and mind all about before you can deal with the form and mind. That’s how the clinging and attachment to all those things come about. I will go through the twelve links then you will understand clearly how dukkha arise. Okay, the first three links, can you follow?

Dependent on ignorance arises mental activities, i.e. Avijjā paccaya saṅkhāra, followed by saṅkhāra paccaya viññāṇaṃ. These are what they called dependent on saṅkhāra, viññāṇaṃ or the pure consciousness arises first. From this pure sense door consciousness then only your five mental aggregates of form and mind arise after you input your content of consciousness via your views, opinion and conditioning. After these five mental aggregates of form and mind arise, it conditioned what? What does it condition? Who can remember? NamaRūpa paccaya salayatana. What is salayatana? …. No! Before contact... your sense bases, i.e. Nama rūpa paccaya salayatana. Salayatana is your sense bases. Dependent on the arising of this five mental aggregates of form and mind, there must be sense bases, because without the sense door bases, there will be no form and mind. Then he said, dependent on these sense bases it will condition contact. In Pāḷi they call it phassa. Then dependent on contact, he said feeling will arise. Feeling is vedanā. Then dependent on feeling, it arises craving or tanha (Vedanā paccaya taṇhā). Tanha is craving. Then when your feelings arise, you will be attached if you do not have the wisdom. Whether positive or negative, craving has already arisen. Then dependent on craving or taṇhā, arises upādāna or grasping. After you have developed the craving, it will condition you to grasp at the things because the craving has become so strong that you want it so badly. So dependent on this craving, arises grasping, then dependent on grasping, you become that. They call it bhavo or becoming will arise. You will become that thing. Let’s say lustful nature, okay? You have a feeling that arises and makes you lustful, then you developed the craving further, you grasp at it, you have a very strong desire to have it, then you become that lustful nature. Then from this becoming, it conditioned ‘birth’ (of a rapist) hence arise the whole mass of suffering, and sorrow, lamentation, etc. will follow. So this is essentially a very brief explanation of the twelve links.

The part that I want to emphasize on is the second link. Dependent on ignorance, arises mental activities, saṅkhāra, this part is very important. That’s why if you can really recall what the Buddha said, he always use the words, “Sabbe saṅkhāra aniccaṃ, sabbe saṅkhāra dukkhaṃ and sabbe dhamma anattā”. Anybody who knows what these 3 things are? He said all of saṅkhāra are impermanent. That is what Sabbe saṅkhāra aniccaṃ means. All of saṅkhāra are impermanent and all saṅkhāra lead to dukkha, if you have the attachment. Then the last one he said, whether it’s saṅkhāra or whatever, all of dhamma is anattā or non-self. The reason why he said that was, he classified saṅkhāra as the conditioned world because mental saṅkhāra or mental activities arise within our form and mind. It is the existentialworld of consciousness or the phenomena world. You know what is the world of existence isn’t it? In life, whatever we experience within life itself, this is existence and that part is what the Buddha meant by saṅkhāra. Reason why he said all of saṅkhāra are only your mental thinking, your mental activities, that’s why they are impermanent. This moment, that sense consciousness arise like seeing, the thinking that follows the seeing will arise, then the next moment another hearing, smell, taste, touch or even the thought process. They will continuously create saṅkhāra within you. All the mental activities, mental volitions, mental states and even the activities of mind that create attachment will arise. This part can you follow?

The understanding of the impermanent nature of saṅkhāra is a very important key to the understanding of dukkha. If you do not understand that, then clinging will continue to arise within you. Because saṅkhāra are just your mental activities, they are onlyyour thoughts, not so real, everything that you bring to your mind when you think are mind made, images only. It may be a very pleasant moment in your life or a very sad moment in your life or something that happened and affected you a lot, maybe your love ones is sick, very sick or whatever. When it comes to you, it’s only your thought, your saṅkhāra; your activities of mind will start to develop the thinking. When you do not have the wisdom to know that it’s just only your thought, you will develop the attachment. Then you may think the person that is dear to you is very real and he is very important to you. That’s why you may want the best for him. He must not have that type of traumatic sickness. He must not have that type of problem. So if you are not able to see this clearly i.e. everything that goes on within us, they are all mind made, are only our mental creation then this truth that the Buddha tried to explain to us regarding impermanence, suffering state and non-self or empty nature characteristics of all phenomena will not be easy for you to comprehend.

Anybody has any question? Yes, KC. Yes…. Ah, yes. Okay, a very good question. The content of consciousness arises simultaneously together with the arising of that consciousness. Initially it’s just the sense consciousness that arise. That’s why the Buddha said, in the seeing, there’s only the seeing consciousness, there’s no one to see as yet! Do remember this very clearly.It’s only a consciousness. Like the light bulb, when you on the switch, if the battery is in order, the bulb will light up, like the consciousness arises. But because we do not understand the reality of that consciousness, that’s why within the five aggregates of form and mind, one of them is viññāṇaṃ, which is the pure sense door consciousness without its content. When it arises, if you do not understand it’s impermanent and non-self-nature, then you will think via inputting the content of consciousness conditioned by your views, opinion and conditioning.

What KC asked just now was very good. Whenever sense consciousness arises, what actually arise and in what order? If you have developed your meditative understanding well, you will understand that every arising of consciousness is followed by the content of consciousness arising simultaneously. They do notarise separately. But your mind can only do one thing at a time. So, all your aggregates of mind are within the content of consciousness, then your mind can be at the moment of perception, moment of feeling, moment of mental activities, and the moment of arising of consciousness and your mind is capable of knowing them. It’s moment to moment. But because they arise so fast in you, if you do not have the stability of sati or mindfulness within you, there’s no way you can deal with the arising of your sense door consciousness. Because they arise so fast and when they arise, your thought process with its perceptions and thinking, base on your conditioning will also arise very fast. Unless you have developed a very stable sati (mindfulness) you will not be able to cope with what is happening.

That’s why in the earlier sessions I always emphasized that you should try to see form; theunreality of form, only then will you be able to see beyond form. If you cannot see form, the unreality of form or the empty nature of form, (i.e. form is unreal like what we have already gone through just now) then it is very difficult for you to develop the wisdom to seebeyond form. Remember...There are two conditions arising aspects to it. First aspect, is via a natural condition based on nature’s laws it arises; the external form, like the bullock cart. Second aspect is through the mental creations. Our mind created it through the sense door consciousness via our sense perception which brings the external form into mind. If you can understand how forms come about, then you will understand how to see forms clearly and why they are not real. It is because they are conditioned arising, and because they are conditioned arising, hence they are not real for they exhibit these 3 universal characteristics of anicca,dukkha and anattā. You cannot have it your way because when conditions are like that, things will be like that, they will go the way of nature or flow that way, because they are conditioned arising entities and dependent on conditions they will arise, exist and cease accordingly. You cannot have it your way, so you will understand the impermanent nature of form, you can also see the dukkha and anattā nature of form. How attachment (craving) leads to dukkha. Because dependent on conditions they arise and flow, there is no permanent unchanging entity behind every phenomena. That’s why they say it’s a phenomenal world of consciousness created by mind.

First, learn to understand form and mind. The emphasis is on form. If you cannot see form, you cannot see the unreality of form, then it is even more difficult for you to see beyond form. Then form will continue to haunt you and continue to create delusion in you. The delusion of form will cause you to attach and cling to form. When attachments arise,dukkha will follow. It’s very important that you learn to see form, the unreality of form only then can you see the empty nature of forms. Once you see the empty nature of forms, the external creations that mind creates will ‘collapse’. When all these ‘collapse’, the wisdom arising will lead you to understand what the twelve links are. The 12 links are describe as: dependent on ignorance mental activities or thinking will arise, then mental activities conditioned vinanam or consciousness, etc. ……. But when wisdom had dawn upon you, you can see clearly the unreality of form, because they are conditioned arising hence their nature is impermanent and they go the way of nature, then your thought processes (thinking or saṅkhāra) will start to slow down. Because dependent on ignorant they flow, and they create attachments via delusion. And if you want things your way, dukkha will follow because they are impermanent. It’s not a permanent unchanging entity. They come and they go, so hey no you, hey no me within you. The anicca, dukkha and anattā characteristics will be very clear. Once you can see all these very clearly, all the external creations (world of forms) created by mind will collapse in front of you. They will not be able to trap you anymore. Not until these collapse happens, your mind will have no peace because these external forms will continue to entice and haunt you and create attachments in you, and because of that, the living beings will find it very difficult to free. But when you have developed the wisdom to see the unreality of form, and that form arises because of conditions you will be able to develop the wisdom not to attach.

We already said there are two aspects to the conditions arising nature of all phenomena. I have to repeat this because this topic is not easy to understand. I may have to repeat it many times. A lot of these I have already spoken many times before. That is if you can have this ability to see the unreality of form, then when ‘form’ starts to ‘collapse’, you will develop less and less thinking because they cannot haunt or delude you anymore and your thinking will slows down because you have less ignorance already. Then your mindfulness will be more and more stable. Then the directseeing of reality and the seeing of the phenomenal world will be very clear to you; all the physical phenomena, mental phenomena and nature’s phenomenaincluded. You will start to develop the understanding and you can follow them very closely. Because when your mind is not clouded by the mundane thinking or the mundane arising of the sense door consciousness that leads to perceptions, attachments, feelings and emotions, etc., your mind will be very clear. Then the real seeing will come forth. The true penetration of truth leading to insight knowledges will comeabout. This is how it actually works. When you are able to see form, the unreality of form, only then can you see beyond form, then form will not delude you anymore. Only then are you in the position to see mind. Because mind is less tangible (invisible), not like external forms which are more tangible and you can see them very easily. Since Mind is invisible and more subtle and most of the time it is very deceiving hence it can deceive you into believing a lot of things. That’s the reason why it is even more difficult to see mind.If you can’t see form, you can’t see mind. After we have dealt with that, the other thing that I want you all to understand is regarding this form and mind.

The mind is very tricky and it’s very deceiving because mind creates a lot of things via our sense doors consciousness. Every time it creates via the arising of sense door consciousness, the thinking will arise, the feelings will arise, the attachments will arise, and then you will be trapped. Through your thinking, through your thought processes, they will create all the dualities and concepts for you to attach to. That’s the reason why J. Krishnamurti said, thought will divide. Why does he say that? Take for example; thoughts create just one word, religion. It started to divide religions into Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Bahai, and all the rest. Everything arises already. Then even the living beings, they will create the concept of male and female, young and old, youth and middle age etc.

That’s the reason why if you are not able to see clearly what this ‘form’ is you tend to attach to “form” very easily. When you have that attachment, take for example, you look at KC, you straightaway say he is a Chinese isn’t it? You created the word race; it started to divide, Chinese, middle-age, men etc. Because of that, you developed the attachments to your race, to your age, to your gender and also to your religion. All these can give rise to a lot of attachments. You unknowingly accepted it. Then they gave you a name, KC, Mr Chang or Mr Wan? That label creates the ‘I’ in you just like when you are dealing with the sense door consciousness just now. When the seeing arises, it’s only the seeingconsciousness. There is no one to see. But because of delusion and ignorance, we created the thinking to say ‘I’ see. You associate with the seeing. If you ask further, who is the ‘I’ that see?

Anybody wants to try to answer that? When you say ‘I’ see. What is that ‘I’, the big capital ‘I’ that you are referring to? No, no, no, the English word ‘I’. The ego,‘I’ see. But the fiveaggregates don’t see. A lot of people will say my eyes see, isn’t it? Because when you question him, he will panic. But when you say, my eyes see, it is quite logical isn’t it? My eyes see, and without eyes I cannot see. Then how do you answer him? Is he right? He said his eyes see, is he right? You have to probe into it. Is there any truth in what he said? …. Okay, that’s one way of answering it. Is there any other way? He said his eyes see. That you have to ask him because he may not know the five aggregates of form and mind. Okay, now that we have studied this, this aspect is very important. Are the eyes responsible for the seeing? You must listen to this carefully! This will give you understanding. The eyes, the physical organ is only one of the conditions that give rise to the seeingconsciousness. The eyes alone never see. Like Bro. Wong said, without the mind, how can the eyes see? You ask a dead man to open his eyes and ask him to see. He doesn’t see. Can you follow? At night, certain people sleep with their eyes open, they never see. That’s why understanding conditions, existence and phenomena are very important. If you cannot understand phenomena, you cannot understand mind. Because the understanding of phenomena is key to the understanding of mind and the understanding of the mind is key to the understanding of the five aggregates of form and mind. You have to understand these very clearly because the eyes is only one of the organs responsible, meaning one of the conditions that give rise to seeing consciousness. The other thing you need is external sense data in the form of color, shape or form. Then you need the mind, the mind is key like what Bro. Wong said “because without mind, there is noknowing”, okay? When there’s no knowing, there’s no seeing.

But is there really an ‘I’ that see? What is this ‘I’? Our sister here said the five aggregates. If you call the five aggregates as the ‘I’, then you are calling a compounded thing as the ‘I’. Then I ask you another question, is your body really you? The five aggregates of form and mind, your physical form and mental aggregates, are they really you? If not then who are you? What are you?

To understand truth, you need to understand who are you and what are you? If you don’t even know who you are and what you are, then how can you understand form and mind? How can you understand the reality and the truth? Who are you? What are you? I will give you a hint. How do you know the world?How do you interact with the world? This one I will have to go back to the very basic. It is like going back to school but schools also never teach this understanding. You have to know who you are and what you are. Okay, how do you know the world? Through what? We have already gone through that. Through your perceptions isn’t it? You need your senses. Without your senses, you cannot know. Your form and your mind again come back. You need the mind and your physical senses to arise to the sense door consciousness and your perceptions to know. That’s why they say you are the greatest magician, you created the world.

That’s the reason why the Buddha gave five very important analogies to the five aggregates. First, he said this form or rūpa is like foam. Heard of this before? The foam, you wash with the soap, it appears like one white mass. Like very solid but after some time, it just withered away and there’s nothing. It’s not solid at all. He gave the analogy via saying our rūpa is like that. Not so real. Then he said feeling is like a bubble. What is a bubble? Pop, arise and disappear; pop, arise and disappear. So feeling is momentary,comes and goes. But when you are in your retreat, during your sitting, when you have a certain posture that creates a lot of pain, then you will ask yourself, how come it doesn’t go away? It always arises. Not to say it doesn’t go. It’s actually never there, but because your mind clings to it and you are not relax and that phenomenon tends to make you attach. You think that very body is very real; you think that pain is associated with you because you think the body is you. But very few people can actually see that. You have to learn to see through that, because this body as we had gone through, it has three types of dukkha, remember? One is within this physical form. They call it dukkha dukkhata. That dukkha that arises because of this form is kammically bind to us, so kammic arising. When this physical body aged or diseased or there is a wound, a cut or whatever, or you sit in certain posture you restrict it and the pain arise, this dukkha within the form is not easy to penetrate, unless you really have the meditative wisdom to see its reality and learn to endure it via proper contemplativewisdom. To be able to see clearly what these things are, only then can your mind develop the wisdom not to cling. That detachment of your mind can only arise after your wisdom has come about, that is after you have known the body for what it is and that the body is not really you. Just like the way we see form. Form is unreal; form is impermanent, it’s conditioned arising. Form has no permanent unchanging nature of its own. It’s non- self. Not until you see that and penetrated it with real insight, you can never be free. You will always cling.

I have gone through feeling right? Then the third aggregate is more interesting, perception. You know what is its analogy? I think KC will know. ‘Like a Mirage!’ yes that is the answer. Why did he say perception is like a mirage? Everybody knows what is a mirage right? In the desert, when you are really thirsty and at that time you see something, you think it’s really there. And mind you, that is what the Buddha said. That’s whyperception is unreal. See, it’s only a mirage because you created it through your mind, only a mental formation here (pointing to forehead), that appeared so real. This includes all the external forms you create and bring to mind through your sense perceptions. That’s why when you understand what a phenomenon is; anything that isperceivable by the senses is a phenomenon. Then you will know all external phenomena are your sense perceptions. And that is what the external form is all about. That’s why external form is tied to external phenomena. When you understandphenomena, you will understand form. Then you will understand mind. If you cannot see phenomena, you will not be able to see form. You will not be able to see mind. It is very difficult? So for the third aggregate of perception, remember the analogy is mirage – reason why it which is not so real.

The fourth aggregate is more interesting. This will lead you to see anattā. Anybody wants to try? Brother Lim? It’s saṅkhāra. The Buddha said, “saṅkhāra is like a banana stem”. Anybody has peeled the banana stem before? The trunk, you cut it out, layer by layer you peel it. What did you get in the end? There’s nothing isn’t it? Because as you peel layer after layer, and at the center or core of it, it’s empty. Hence empty-nature of sankhara. It’s only your thought or activities of mind and your saṅkhāra arise due to conditions. Mind contact with sense data and sense organ. They come and they go. Consciousness keeps on arising, thoughts keep on arising, perceptions keep on arising and your mental activities keep on arising, mental volitions, mental states, mental formations, etc. keep on arising and they are all not real. How do they arise? Arise through your mind isn’t it? You take that to be your problems isn’t it? You created them through your wrong thoughts borne of delusion. That’s why the Noble Eightfold Path is very clear. Right Thought is very important. You have to arise the Right Effort to develop the Right Thought because thoughts conditioned feeling. If you are not careful with thoughts it can make you suffer because all the things that bring about suffering or dukkha are due to your conditioned thinking borne of wrong view. Because of your wrong thoughts, born of ignorance, you tend to grasp at those things that you think (borne of your attachment to the external forms or aggregate of rūpa).

We haven’t come to mind yet. When you come to mind, it’s even worst. When you are attached to your aggregates of mind its worst. This is only external form but because form can gave rise to so much meaning to delude and deceive you, to lure and trap you, so you have to be very careful.

Just now I haven’t finished. We talked about the physical body and all those things that you differentiate and discriminate? You said young, Chinese, etc. But when you start to see clearly that all these are created by thoughts to delude you, what must you do? You must learn to see beyond form isn’t it? That is the meaning of seeing beyond form; don’t only look at the physical (or outward appearances), or external forms. The external form will divide and create a lot of attachments. You will attach to your religion, your appearances, your age, your gender, etc. That’s why they say certain people’s views are very strong. Their opinions are very strong because they attached to the external forms. They are attached to labels, especially religious labels, that’s why they fight, they kill and they do funny things in the name of religion, in the name of their country, in the name of their race. If you are not able to see clearly what this form is all about, how it deludes you and create all these confusions and attachments, you can never see beyond form. But once you start to see the unreality of form, then you say, eh, why should I look at KC basing on his external appearance? KC is not just the external form. If I see beyond that, what do I see? No more male, female, old, Chinese, etc. - all those divisions or things gone isn’t it? I don’t have so many problems already, isn’t it?

Then what do I see? I see the mind inside. Is there still, any difference? When you look into his mind by looking beyond his form, what did you see? You see mind, isn’t it? Are we nearer to each other? Not so different already. You have a mind, I also have a mind. But there is still a lot of difference. He has his views, he has his opinion and he has his understanding. That’s why he is still different. That’s why for two persons, even if you don’t look at their physical differences, at the mental level he will still argue with you, he will fight with you because his views and opinions and conditionings are so strong, that is attachment to views and opinions etc. This is the mental part and this part is worst, because it is invisible and it is so deceiving. It can really trap the living beings. That’s why keep an open mind. Whatever you don’t understand, try to develop the understanding. Don’t cling to your views and opinions and start to develop the misunderstanding through argument. No point because everything is the way it is. The reality is just like that. Nature is just like that. When you see beyond the physical form, you can look at the mind; there are still these differences because we are conditioned by our teachers, our parents, all the media, the books we read, the education, the school, whatever that influences us. They conditioned us and we can only accept or agree to whatever that is acceptable to you. Then you manifest, live and act in accordance with those views and opinion and conditioning because you do not want to develop the understanding of the truth. You think that is what you are. Then again you are deluded because your views and opinions are going to block you. It’s going to create a lot of attachments and sufferingswithin you. But when you have the ability to develop the meditative cultivation especially the cultivation of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and the Noble Eightfold Path to fruition, then your form and mind will cease. Then you will be able to see beyond mind. When you are able to see beyond mind, then all the views, attachments, opinions and the creations of mind will collapse. They no longer arise. Then, true understanding borne of true wisdom will arise. Then enlightenment in the here and the now is possible.

Regarding the five analogies, just now I stopped at the fourth one, saṅkhāra. Saṅkhāra analogy is its empty nature. Remember the analogy of the Banana stem? You peel it layer after layer, nothing in the middle, at the core of existence there is nothing. What the Buddha tried to tell you was, whatever that your mind or your saṅkhāra create through your sense doors perceptions, all the external forms are not real. That’s why it’s empty. All of phenomena are unreal. They come and they go because of conditions. They arise because of conditions, sustain its existence because of supporting conditions and they ceased to be when conditions ceased to be. When you understand all these very clearly, you will be able to understand the empty nature of existence. Finally it is only your thoughts so not so real.

Everything arises and passes away because of conditions. That’s the reason why Venerable Sariputta was able to realize the enlightenment upon hearing just two verses from Venerable Assaji. When he met Assaji who was one of the five ascetics that heard the first sermon, Assaji was so serene, so calm and he knew this monk was special, very different from the normal monk. So he decided to approach him. But he waited till he has finished his pindapata, finished his meal, then as he was about to return to where he came from, he approached him. Sariputta just asked, “May I know who is your teacher and what is it that he teaches?” And Venerable Assaji being very humble replied, “I don’t know much”. Then Sariputta, who is very wise said, “Don’t worry I don’t need much from you. I only need to know what your teacher told you. Just repeat what little you know.That’s enough for me”. This was because Sariputta was the foremost in wisdom and he has very strong pāramī behind him. When he listened to any truth, not necessary from the Buddha, he can also become enlightened. So when Assaji said, “This is what my teachertaught. He said whatever that arise in this world, there are causes and conditionsbehind.” Then he said the second verse, “These causes and conditions my master had explained.” Do you know what happened after that? After hearing these two verses, he became a sotāpan. He realized the first stage of sainthood. Sariputta, upon hearing this truth, became enlightened because his wisdom was so high. Do you know why?

This is what I have been trying to explain to you all. Please pay attention and contemplate into it. The second turning of the first Noble Truth clearly states that this noble truth of dukkha is to be understood. You have to understandit and to understand this; the Buddha summarized all of dukkha as clinging to the five aggregates of form and mind. That’s the reason why the form and mind is so important. I tried to develop for you the understanding of this form and mind via explaining what a phenomenon is. If you cannot understand what a phenomenon is, you will not be able to understand the form and mind. If you cannot understand mind, it will be very difficult for you to understand the second turning. Even the first aggregateof form, I tried so hard to make it simple for you all to understand but it is not easy. Luckily it’s recorded. You can listen to it slowly, but ignore the first part because maybe all this while I’m not used to holding a ‘microphone’, so when I started using the microphone, I don’t know what happened. I cannot hold on to things, when I hold on to things the dhamma cannot come out or flow from the heart naturally. So luckily you all fixed that. After you fixed that, then the flow is morenatural because a lot of things that come out from ‘me’ are not what ‘I’ say. I cannot speak from the memory anymore. It’s only whatever that comes, ‘I’ speak. But if the conditions are not there, it cannot come out. I don’t know why. Don’t ask me why.

Okay, so this form and mind is very important. We have already discussed the fourth aggregate being saṅkhāra. The last one is also very important; viññāṇaṃ or consciousness. This fourth aggregate of mind, which is the fifth aggregate of form and mind is sense consciousness or viññāṇaṃ. Do you know what the analogy the Buddha gave is? You will get a shock of your life when you hear it. He says it’s like a magician! This viññāṇaṃ is like a magician. That’s why just now I said you are the greatest magician on this earth because you can create almost everything that you can see and perceive in this universe. You open your eyes, everything already created. The world comes into being already. The whole of existence already arisen. That’s why the Buddha said, “Mind is the forerunner of all things.” Now you follow?

Mind is the forerunner of all things and because of sense door consciousness, whenever you see, hear, smell, taste, touch and think their respective consciousness will arise to creates the whole phenomena world of consciousness isn’t it? That’s the reason why just now I was asking, who are you, and what are you? And the key to understanding these is to ask yourself, how do you know the world? We know the world through our six sense doors isn’t it? And through our mind that creates the sense door consciousness and the sense perception. And how you interact with the world? Again through your five aggregates of form and mind and your sense door consciousness isn’t it? Through your thinking, your thoughts, your views, your opinions etc., isn’t it? This is what the living beings are all about, so we have to ask ourselves, who are we, what are we? Do these bodies really belong to us? Is this body really you? You have to ask yourself that. Try to understand that, contemplate into it to develop the understanding. I used to give a very close analogy but it’s not an exact analogy.

For discussion purposes we can inquire, “Is this body really you?” Okay, no! … Why is it not you? That’s a very good answer. Apart from that any other answers? This is also one way of seeing it which is quite good. You see, a lot of people who are not Buddhist, they will not agree. As Buddhist, we take quite a lot of things for granted because we understand the teaching of the Buddha that’s why we said it’s not really us. But the normal people will say “how can you say it’s not me? I want to eat, I eat. I want to walk, I walk. I want to doanything I can do”. Why you say it’s not me? I have full control of myself. I want to commit suicide I can. I want to die I can. I want to scold you I can do it. They say I want to be loving, I want to be kind, and I can. Then why did you say it’s not me? How do you answer that? Okay, that’s a very close answer? Like the eyes just now, is it your physical eyes that see? No, isn’t it? What is it that sees? It’s a combination of conditions isn’t it? The eyes are only one of the conditions. It assists in the seeing. It’s a supportingcondition for seeing. Likewise this body is exactly the same. That’s why the form and mind is not easy to comprehend. Ability to control doesn’t mean you own, and it doesn’t mean it belongs to you.

I want to bring out this analogy that I had used before. This analogy is quite close but it is not an exact analogy. You assume that this very body and mind are equivalent to a car and a driver. The car and the driver analogy; if let’s say the car is in perfect condition. Everything is there; the petrol, the engines, etc. - everything is functioning. Then this driver, being a skillful driver, he can drive and has control over the car isn’t it? If he wants to accelerate, he can; if he wants it to brake, it brakes; if he wants to turn, he can do all the stances and whatever that is possible, or allowable by that car. But you can see veryclearly, the driver is the driver, isn’t it?The car is the car. But why is it that when it is in your body, the mind together with this physical body, you can’t see? Why? When it’s the driver and the car they are so clear to you. The two entities are different; one controlling the other. Likewise the mind also controls you but younever see.That’s why to develop the real seeing, you have to reflect within. The Mahayana always said “Hui Kuang fan zhao”;you reverse the light and see or look within, then you will seehow all these are created by your mind. The mind is the one that instructs you through its mental intentions or volitions.

That’s why if you can see very clearly, then you will come to realize that this physical body is just an external manifestation of our mind. Because there is this mind within, that caused mentalintentions to create all the movements, like intention to eat, intention to walk, plus all those activities created by mind. It’s just like the driver, but there is a limit to what this body can do. That’s why it’s just one of the supporting conditions behind its arising because of the karmic force that comes together with it. But this physical body of ours takes a much longer time to arise and disappear. It’s just a phenomenon like sound, but this sound phenomenon is very short hence the conditions are very clear, very easy to see but because this body takes longer time to cease, we overlooked it as a phenomena. We think it’s real. This is the reason why I said it is not real … let’s say if somebody is paralyzed from the waist down. You ask him to walk, he cannot walk. Even if he wants to walk he cannot walk. So you can see very clearly that it is not the body that walks. It’s the mind together with this form; if everything is in order, when the conditions arethere, then it performs the function of a walking man. Just like the case of the car, if the engine has no problem, then the car will obey the driver. But let’s say if there is no petrol, even how skillful the driver is that car will not move. Or there is problem with the engine, just like the body when it is paralyzed, it cannot walk. So it’s not you. Can you understand?

It’s just a phenomenon that arises because of birth, and then there is a sustenance phase of growth, aging, then there is the dying part. So this body is not really you because of its impermanent nature. It arises because of biological order. This physical body is governed by the biological order of nature. All the food that you eat, the air that you breathe and whatever that sustained this body. The way you wash it, clean it and maintain the health, is dependent on the karmic inheritance behind it. If your karmic force is such that it is time to go, no matter how well you try to take care of it, it will still go. Death will still occur. But when the physical body ‘dies’, what actually happen? The living beings take death as ‘die’. They say die. But the actual understanding is different; it’s just this mental part,separates from the physical. Then they called it death. Because when the physical body is devoid of consciousness,what will happen to that body? It decays; and no more pain can be felt isn’t it? You can do an autopsy, you can cut it, and it doesn’t have any more pain. It doesn’t know what is going on. So there is no more seeing consciousness, smell, taste, touch, etc. everything is gone. So you see this physical body, when it’s devoid of consciousness, and the other supporting conditions, it behaves differently hence it’s no more you. It becomes only elements and it returns to nature. Can you follow? So that’s the reason why the body is not you. Okay? So this part is it clear?

Then the magician part, do you all get the meaning? The consciousness, the Buddha said is the greatest magician. Why is consciousness given such an analogy - a magician? Magician creates illusion for you to see isn’t it? You look at all the great magician? They create illusion. Because it appears like he created magic but it is only an illusion. It looks real but actually it is not real. Your sense consciousness is the same. When seeing consciousness arises, it creates the whole sense sphere of seeing. The existential world that you perceive through your seeing consciousness will arise. And the arising as explained just now - for the external forms, there are external conditions behind their arising, like the air-con, etc. But the knowing of it is by the mental part perceiving the external form via your mind. So there are two aspects to their arising; the external (nature’s conditions) and the mental conditions behind its arising. That’s why all these forms that are external to your mind are not real, in the sense that they arise because of conditions. One is nature’s condition, dependent on the five pañca niyāmas. Just like the table and the air-conditioner - how does it arise? There must be conditions behind their arising. The second one is through your mental knowing, your perceptions, and your creations by your mind. Your mind after having make contact with your sense organ and the sense data creating the sense door consciousness that gives rise to that seeing consciousness. Then your perception brings the external form into the mind. So all these are conditioned arising and because they are conditioned arising, they are impermanent. Do you see the anicca characteristic, the impermanent nature of form? When you see this, you will understand the empty nature of forms. That forms are not real, like this body it comes and it goes. When the conditions for its arising are no more than it cease to be, and it cease to be when the consciousness leaves, it’s no more you. No more feeling, nothing, it returns to nature, okay?

Tonight I tried very hard to make you all understand the unreality of forms. I also don’t know how to put it in words because there are so many aspects to develop this understanding of the First Noble Truth of dukkha especially the five aggregates of form and mind. Especially the first aggregate, we stressed a lot on only the first aggregate of form tonight. The other four aggregates of mind; we have not really gone into them as yet. But this first aggregate, there are so many aspects to it. Whatever that comes with the conditions tonight, “I” just spoke on it. But there are still a lot more which I don’t know why they didn’t come out or it doesn’t flow. Maybe it’s not time yet.

Okay, we have another 10 minutes; maybe we should open it up for questioning. Anybody has any question to ask? Yah! Okay. That’s a very good question. You see, what we are going through is the second turning. This second turning of the First Noble Truth can let us understand dukkha. Because the Buddha said under this second turning, “this noble truth of dukkha is to be understood.” So we should inquire how we can understand this truth. I have gone through all the things that are related to the understanding and we need to discuss these five aggregates of form and mind is mainly because he had summarized all of dukkha as the clinging to these five aggregates of form and mind. So because of that, we dwell into them to develop the understanding.

4 Questions And Answers

Qs.1: How do you relate all this to meditation?

Answer: Brother Wong’s question on ‘how do you relate all these to meditation’ is very important right? What I try to do tonight is to help develop the conditions for your initial understanding to arise. This will prepare you to have the base and the conditions to receive truth subsequently. If you do not have the understanding of what these five aggregates of form and mind are or all about, and how to see form, the unreality of form and how to see the empty nature of form and phenomena and how to see beyond form then it is not easy to develop the awakening via meditation. But once you are able to have these understanding, then it will develop in you a very strong base for receiving truth, for receiving the real wisdom. Then the next time when you listen and reflect on what have been taught the contemplative understanding or wisdom leading to the enlightenment in the here and the now is then possible because this is the second turning wisdom on reflection and contemplation of the truth (cintamayapanna) as taught by the Buddha or as proclaimed by the Buddha.

If you reflect and contemplate into it, you will develop a different type of understanding and through what I have explained it will straighten up your views. It will straighten up your understanding of the five aggregates of form and mind. Then when you start to see this very clearly, and go into your meditative practice it will be a lot easier to develop the true wisdom or insight knowledge required to trigger off the enlightenment. Sati supported by right understanding or right views with regards to the law of Karma, the Four Noble Truths and the Laws of cause and effect/dependent origination will bring about Samma Sati leading to Samma Samadhi which are the 7th and 8th path factors of the Noble Eightfold Path.

The key to developing meditation is to develop the understanding of what is meditation? You can use any method or technique. Although methods and techniques never define the meditation but a lot of people need method and technique as an anchor to start with. There’s no harm in doing that. But understanding meditation is most important because you have to understand the real meaning of the meditation as taught by the Buddha. Then the method does not matter because the method never defines the meditation. If you inquire sincerely, via asking yourself what is a method then you will come to understand that it is just a series of instructions to do thing. Whatever method you used, it can be the breathing method or ānāpānasati; I can tell you if 100 students or practitioners doing the so called ānāpānasati or mindfulness of in-and-out breath, they will all understand it differently and do it differently. They can have the same teacher giving them the same instructions, but when they sit, a lot of different things will arise in their minds because of different interpretation and different understanding of the topic. And the mind really is very unpredictable, unless it is very well trained.

And when you are not very well trained, what you are doing may not be the real ānāpānasati. You will end up focusing on the breath, concentrating on the breath, developing all the absorption on the breath etc. The same goes for rising and falling of the abdomen, or whatever method or technique you may use. The key to understanding meditation is to develop the satipaṭṭhāna practices, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. With that, your mindfulness will be very strong and very stable. Then you will be able to develop the collectedness or firmness of mind or what they call Samādhi through this very stable mindfulness. Your mind will be very quiet. Your thought will be less and less. Less and less as explained by me just now. The twelve links states: “If there is ignorance, mental activities will continue to arise”. And that is the reason why you think a lot. So if you do not develop the wisdom to understand the five aggregates of form and mind clearly and to understand their universal characteristics of nature, i.e. anicca, dukkha and anattā, it will be very difficult for you to develop your meditation to weakenignorance or avijjā. But when you have the understanding via having straighten your views you will have lesssaṅkhāra or you will think less hence more clarity of mind states. Finally you will understand that you only need to cultivate the Noble Eightfold Path especially the Four Foundations of Mindfulness to develop the understanding of your form and mind then it will be easier to develop your meditation. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness cover the mindfulness of the five aggregates of form and mind under Dhammanupassana. The first foundation is kāyānupassanā which deals a lot with mindfulness of our kaya or physical body.

Qs 2: Who are you and what are you?

Answer: Is your feeling really you? Is your perception really you? Are your thoughts and your thinking really you? Are your sense conscious nesses really you? We have dealt with all these isn’t it? Are they really you, your feelings, etc. ? All those feelings that you have experienced while living your life, are they really you? “Not you? Why?” Why did you say it’s not you? But you have to develop your own understanding so don’t just say not you because I have told you before. What I tried to tell you is very true, because it can be understood. It’s like an inquiry within. That’s why when you are in a meditation retreat, if you have this contemplative mind that enables you to contemplate into the truth, then realization can come about, wisdom can arise. It’s exactly like what I am trying to ask you. Don’t take the answer for what it is, like what the Buddha proclaimed. When he said Dukkha is this, this and this, “Oh! I know already!” Then you never learn unless your pāramī is very strong like some of those monks, i.e. upon hearing the Sutta, they got Enlightened. But if you don’t have that type of pāramī, if your past is not that strong to support you, then try to develop your own understanding. That is important because you have to really ask why this feeling is not me. Because when I feel something, it’s so real; when there is pain it’s so real, but because it comes and goes, that’s why it’s not you or not so real. And because when I have this pain, after a while the pain disappears and I didn’t die isn’t it? Then another feeling arises. A more pleasant feeling may arise or another maybe more painful feeling. And because I never die, it shows very clearly that this feeling is not me isn’t it?

The same goes with perception, this moment I perceived this, the next moment I perceived another thing, the TV, the car, or whatever. “Every timeperception changes, did I die? I didn’t die isn’t it?” Likewise your thinking, every time when your thought arises, then another one arises, you never die. Thoughts comeand go.Consciousness also come and goes. Your hearing, smell, taste, touch and thinking, they come and go isn’t it? So, if they are notyou, then how come they arise in you? How come the five aggregates of form and mind continuously arise in you? That’s the reason why, I have been trying to make you all understand this through an explanation or analogy that is as simple as I can think of.

The purpose of asking all these questions is to let you develop the inquiry mind. If it’s not you, then what is it and how come it arisestogether with your five aggregates of form and mind? How come it’s always there? Like before I started my class, I said, “you will learn to see howform and mind arise in you. How thoughts and feelings arise in you with every moment of sense experience or consciousness and how they conditioned each other.” That’s why your thoughts conditioned your feelings. Feeling again conditioned your thoughts. All these if you are not careful, if you do not develop the wisdom, to enable you to detach via accepting them as what they are, clinging or attachment is going to arise and Dukkha is going to follow.

I will give you all a hint on how to understanding these five aggregates of form and mind clearly. Feeling is not you because feeling changes and you didn’t die. All the other aggregates of mind changes and you also didn’t die, so what can it be? If it is something that follows you and it’s not you, then what can it be? “It’s just a phenomenon”… that’s one of the answers. It’s quite close… because it’s conditioned arising isn’t it? Sense consciousness is conditioned arising. There is the mind, there is the sense data, and there is a sense organ, upon contact, it (the respective sense consciousness) arises isn’t it? So it’s conditioned arising. Conditioned arisingmeans what? It’s born of nature’s creation following nature’s law isn’t it? When the conditions come together, it arises. If it is born of conditions, it only arises when the conditions come together, then it is not a permanent unchanging entity. That’s why it’s not you, for it comes and it goes. If you look clearly into you, there is another aspect within you that has got nothing to do with all these but is responsible for the creation of all these.

There is another aspect that is beyond these five aggregates of form and mind within your nature that is responsible for the arising of all these. Still cannot follow? Ya! Karmic! Karmic is one of them because a lot are caused by Karmic past; karmic activities and they caused a lot of things to arise. There is this Karmic nature within us; but we will deal with it later because that part is more abstract and very different.

What I can tell you is: “all these are by-products of mind, of the True mind. All these are creations, created by the mundane mind, the thinking mind, the one that creates all the delusion of form and phenomena.” Delusion is ignorance. The Mahayana has a very good analogy and explanation on this. They gave the analogy of the Inn Keeper i.e. if you are the owner, you will take care of the Inn. You are always there isn’t it? Whereas the guests that come and stay, they will come and go. Let’s say this hotel has six rooms and every time there is a tenant or somebody coming to stay, they will occupy one of these rooms. You assumed they are your six sense doors. All these guests they come and they gobecause they are not the owner. They are only there to stay for the night. But our sense doors consciousness that arise, they are very fast, they don’t even stay overnight, for a split second, they are gone. They come and they go and because of that, they are by-products of your truemind. They are not your true mind. The reason why they are not your true mind is, you ask yourself, and all those that arise because of causes and conditions - you must have sense data, sense organs and the mind only it can arise. What happened if the sense dataceased to be? Let’s say all these vibrations, all these sound you switch them off, is there anymore hearing? Gone isn’t it? There is no more hearing, right?

That hearing consciousness is no more but what is that which is aware of this cessation? The essence of mind isn’t it? It’s actually only one mind but because of the six sense organs and the six external sense datas, created the 6 type of corresponding sense consciousness, and 6 plus 6 plus your six internal sense organs, the eighteen sense realms that created the World and the UNIVERSE arise. But there is one aspect within ‘you’ that exist no matter whether there’s sense data or not, whether thereis anything coming or going or not, it is always there. That which can arise the sati or the mindfulness. It is mindfulness that enables you to be aware. It is before perception. Perception is creation already i.e. coming out of it already. It is the mundane mind already. But that nature within you that is just aware that there is no arising of that sense consciousness of hearing or sound is a totally different nature within you. It’s also Anattā. It’s not you. But when you develop your practice to a level where your mindfulness can be quite stable, and your wisdom starts to arise, when your penetration of truth reached a certain level, then your thinking will naturally be less andless, because like the Buddha said: “It’s Avijjā that creates saṅkhāra” or Ignorance that creates thinking and mental activities. So when that goes, or becomes less, your mental activities also slow down and become less and it’s during this moment when you have less distraction caused by the thinking mind (mundane mind), that your seeing becomes clearer and clearer. Your ability to see nature as they really are! You will be able to see the flow of nature, the moment of arising of phenomenon, its sustenance andflow of phenomenon, leading to cessation of all phenomena. All these you will start to see clearer and clearer until it becomes very clear, then the three characteristics of Anicca,Dukkha and Anattā, are very clear. Then when you see truth, you will always see because truth is everywhere in the midst of life and nature. These characteristics of nature are always there and if you see, you will always see. That’s why you have to develop theability to see. Not until you can really develop the understanding through your right seeing, you can’t understand all these. That’s why the second turning of the first Noble Truth that states: this Dukkha is to beunderstood; do not underestimate its importance. Don’t think that it is just the first noble truth of suffering and it is not important. But it is the key to understanding all the subsequent truths, the second and the third Noble Truths, etc. and the realization of almost everything because through these understanding of the form and mind, you actually penetrate. Do you have any other question?

Question3 …. Asked by a lady (Sister Lye)

Answer 3: You see, a lot of the Mahayana teachings if you don’t understand, they look like very abstract. Even the Heart Sutta, - which proclaimed, ‘form is emptiness, emptiness is form’. A lot of people just cannot understand. Not only they can’t understand, they can’t even accept what is being said! They say how can you say, form is emptiness? Form is form isn’t it? But when you understand what I had already taught you, that form is unreal, they are there because of conditions, they are condition arising entities then you can understand this truth that form is actually emptiness, and emptiness is form. That’s why, what our sister Lye here is trying to ask is: ‘In the Zen tradition, they always say, “if you see water that is not water; if you see mountain that is not mountain;” because they are referring to your wrong seeing’. Even in the Shurangama Sutta, there is a very good saying to explain this. You listen to this carefully! It said, “Perception of form is consciousness, whereas its non-perception is wisdom.”

I had already taught you all these, isn’t it? Mind is the forerunner of all things. When mind arises, everything arises. So everything you see and perceived is your consciousness. Because together with the consciousness, are the content of consciousness which are your five mental aggregates of form and mind that created the world and everything else that ‘you’ come to perceive. All knowing come from mind. That’s why the Buddha said ‘your’ mind; the most important part is saṅkhāra. That’s why he said: “SabbeSaṅkhāra Aniccaṃ” - All of saṅkhāra are impermanent. “Sabbe Saṅkhāra Dukkhaṃ” - All of saṅkhāra lead to dukkha, if you have attachment to them. Then “Sabbe DhammaAnattā” - all of saṅkhāra and the unconditioned are also Anattā because “Dhamma” here includes the conditioned and the unconditioned which is also Anattā, non-self, not you.

The other thing that I want you all to understand is: ‘ability to understand the five aggregates of form and mind can enable to free your mind from the delusion of self’. This is very important. That is how you gain realization of the first stage of sainthood. Self-delusion or sakkāyadiṭṭhi is rooted out and overcome, when you have penetrated with the understanding that this 5 aggregates of form and mind is not real, not you. Then your understanding of anattā will be very clear and with that, the delusion of self is gone. Then it’s possible to develop the real understanding. That is the reason why understanding that the five aggregates of form and mind is not really you is very important because they arise due to conditions, and they are conditioned arising phenomena hence no more ‘self-delusion’. Okay, any other question? If not, shall we end? Thank you!

******* SADHU! SADHU! SADHU!*******

Table of Contents

Biodata of Brother Teoh Kian Koon

1 Preface

2 Acknowledgement

3 The Five Aggregates Of Form And Mind

3.1 Three turnings of the 4 Noble Truths (3 types of wisdom)

3.2 What is a phenomenon?

3.3 Seeing the unreality of Form and seeing beyond Form

3.4 Panca Niyama (5 Universal Orders of nature)

4 Questions And Answers

Qs.1: How do you relate all this to meditation?

Qs 2: Who are you and what are you?

Question3 …. Asked by a lady (Sister Lye)