9. SUPRA-MUNDANE CONTEMPLATION
THE FOURTH TO EIGHTH JHANA MEDITATIONS
In the Buddha's system the platform was the fourth to eighth Jhana meditations.
Dimension of Infinite Space - "the perception of the dimension of the infinitude of space."
Dimension of Infinite Consciousness - "the perception of the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness."
Dimension of Nothingness - In the dimension of nothingness, there is "the perception of the dimension of nothingness, singleness of mind."
Dimension of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception - Resulting attitudes are detached, released, disassociated, and without clinging or craving, with a general awareness without barriers. There is a discernment experience that 'There is a further escape,' and perseverance is restored, preparing one then for an advance upon Supra-Mundane Insight meditation.
Then through INSIGHT meditations the gate to the Wisdom of the Supramundane path was opened.
INSIGHT ABSORPTION
Now Insight can proceed from the first Jhana (under certain circumstances), from the fourth or any of the succesive four mentioned above. The question is how is Insight different from the Jhana meditations.
Well, first it must be remembered that LIBERATION is attained upon two different fronts: insight knowledge (vipassanāñāna) and the knowledge pertaining to the supramundane paths (maggañāna).
The first is the direct penetration of the three characteristics of conditioned phenomena: impermanence, suffering and non-self. It takes as its objective sphere the five aggregates (pancakkhandhā): Body form/sensations, discrimination, perception, consciousness and mental formations (the contents of the conscious mind).
Because insight knowledge takes the world of conditioned formations as its object, it is regarded as a mundane form of wisdom. Insight knowledge does not itself directly eradicate the defilements, but serves to prepare the way for the second type of wisdom, the wisdom of the supramundane path, which emerges when normal insight has been brought to its climax.
The Dhammasanganī explains the word lokuttara, which is the supramundane, as meaning "it crosses over the world, it transcends the world, it stands having surmounted and overcome the world."
CHAN-Dao students can see that this is precisely the same final fruit of Chan Contemplations.
Now that experience may actually take place within the subconscious, lasting for only a mind-moment.
ABSORPTION DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VIPASSANA AND THE SUPRAMUNDANE
In the case of the mundane, this one-pointed attention issues merely in the absorption into the object, an absorption that can only suppress the defilements temporarily.
In the supramundane zhuó jiàn, 灼见, deep insight, particularly of the four paths, the coupling of this attention with what is termed a higher wisdom brings the exercise of four functions all together at a single moment. These four functions each apply to one of the Four Noble Truths. In other words, they appear together.
THE WISDOM OF THE INSIGHT SUPRAMUNDANE PATH
This wisdom is called "supramundane" because it rises up from the world of the five aggregates to realize the state transcendent to the world, which the Theravadins would call Nibbana, but to us it is the State of the Uncarved Wood, the Pure Mind.
For Buddha the climax in the development of insight was the attainment of the supramundane paths and its fruits.
The first path, called the path of stream-entry (sotāpatti) because it marks the entry into the stream of the Dharma, eradicates the first three fetters - IDENTITY (the false view of self), Identity clinging to rites and rituals, and Doubts about the path.
The next supramundane path is that of the once-returner (sakadāgāmi). This path does not eradicate any fetters completely, but it greatly attenuates sensual desire and ill will.
The third path, that of the non-returner (anāgāmi) utterly destroys the sensual desire and ill will weakened by the preceding path. The non-returner is assured that he will never again return to sense-sphere domination.
Each path leads to a MOMENTARY PEAK EXPERIENCE directly apprehending the Pure Mind State (Nibbāna).
This is the supramundane EXPERIENCE OF FRUITION.
Now those experiences actually take place within the subconscious, lasting for only a mind-moment.
The fruits are then the Experience of Freedom from Identity and the Experience of Freedom from the dual elements Sensual Desire and Ill-will.
The supramundane paths and fruits always arise as discernments of states of higher discerned consciousness.
But whereas the path performs the active function of cutting off defilements, fruition at this point is simply that resulting experience when the path has completed its task. But it is these experiences which are the meditative state called fruition attainment (phalasamāpatti) that establish the base for the purpose of experiencing the pure mind here and now.
We can say then that the Contemplations then for access are twofold:
The last conceptualization of SELFLESSNESS and the last conceptualization of OTHERLINESS (when Desire and Ill-will flourish).
CULTIVATION
The Supramundane insight is said to be cultivated "for the abandoning of views, which are built by word-concepts," which includes clearly the View of SELF and the View of RELATIONSHIP. This brings effectively the fruit of the No-Mind state. The supramundane level of the first path cuts off the fetter of personality view and all speculative views derived from it.
The apparent target of the paths and fruits is exclusively the Pure Mind, XIN SHEN 心神, thus bringing the Serenity of the mundane in harmony with the supramundane.
In mundane Insight the element of serenity prevails, while the supramundane levels of the paths and fruits brings serenity and a more penetrating insight into balance.
FRUITS OF THE NO-MIND STATE
In the Visuddhimagga, Buddhaghosa presents the simile of a lamp, which performs four tasks simultaneously: it burns the wick, dispels darkness, makes light appear, and consumes oil.
Using this simile we find that "burning the wick" signifies that the path penetrates (shengang, 深耕) the First Noble Truth by bringing a penetrating and full understanding of suffering; conquering the direct enemy of a fraudulent LOVE, thereby releasing True Benevolent Affect (metta).
We find that "dispelling the darkness" signifies that there is a penetration (shengang, 深耕) of the Second Noble Truth by abandoning CRAVING, the origin of suffering; conquering the direct enemy, thereby releasing Compassion (karuna).
We find that "making light appear" signifies that it penetrates (shengang, 深耕) the Third Noble Truth by conquering the direct enemy of Mundane Happiness, thereby releasing Gladness (mudita).
We find that "consumes oil" signifies that it penetrates (shengang, 深耕) the Fourth Noble Truth by conquering the direct enemy of an intellectual indifference to the way one lives, thereby developing the Noble Eightfold Path producing then an Equanimity (upekkha) which allows that to occur within a Stained Samsara.
So there is an abandonment of :
Fraudulent Love
Craving
Mundane Happiness
Intellectual Indifference
So the following four fruits (the experiences) arise together:
True Benevolent Affect (metta)
Compassion (karuna)
Gladness (mudita)
Equanimity (upekkha)
When one dwells within this BECOMING STATE then further fruition brings the essential gateway to Awakening, which is ATTENTION together with the APPLICATION OF WISDOM. But this ATTENTION has no object.
The key was the melding by Supramundane Insight meditation.
The INSIGHT SUPERMUNDANE PATH equivalents are the Chan contemplations of Function, Essence and Non-Form.
WISDOM and ATTENTION
The ATTENTION has no object and is effectively the Insight Factor of PURE MINDFULNESS.
We can intuit therefore (correctly) that the WISDOM also has no object and it is the Insight Factor of PURE WISDOM.
These two melding thus open the gate to the Pure Mind Discernment, which was Buddha's Awakening.
The perseverance of Heng shen 恒神 may be considered as an integral part of introspection and therefore "insight", although perseverance in and of itself does not lead to that state.
It is clear then that the secret of the supramundane path is the ATTENTION OF ONE-POINTEDNESS together with the APPLICATION OF WISDOM. But this ATTENTION has no object. We call it PURE MINDFULNESS.
Supramundane Insight and the Chan Contemplations
Comparing this previous model with the Chan Contemplation model, what do we discover?
In Chan Contemplation, using the Dé and Dào meditations as preliminaries, there is a great similarity upon the final reaches of the path.
The key however is the melding of the set of nine Contemplations of Function, Essence, and Non-Differentiated Form. This brings about the union of the experiences without mind of:
PURE AWARENESS and PURE MINDFULNESS
Wisdom is identical with Pure Awareness and Attention with Pure Mindfulness.
This is not a coincidence and points to an interesting conclusion. It is that the Supramundane Insight that Buddha used to attain Awakening is in some manner or other a logical equivalent to the Chan Contemplations discovered and developed by the early Chinese Buddha Dharma followers.
We will pursue this equivalence later, for the interesting thing here is to examine more closely the FRUIT along the path, from the first simple cognitive refraining to the final attainment of the Pure Mind.
IN CONSTRUCTION