Exploring The Dhamma

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Exploring The Dhamma
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Anatta - The Doctrine on No-Soul
"All phenomena (dhammas) are without Self when
one sees this with Insight-wisdom, one becomes
weary of dukkha. This is the Path to Purity. -
Dhammapada verse 279
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Anatta The Doctrine on No-Soul
Both Christanity and Islam have the notion of an
individual soul. Hinduism has the idea of Atmam.
This soul or self in man is the thinker of
thoughts, feeler of sensations and receiver of
rewards and punishments for all its action good
and bad.
Buddhism argues that the idea of self/soul is an
imaginary, false belief which has no
corresponding reality, and it produces harmful
thoughts of me and mine, selfish desire,
craving, attachment and other defilements,
impurities and problems.
This false view can be traced as the cause of all
evils in the world from personal conflicts to
wars between nations.
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Why was the idea of Self created?
Two ideas are deeply rooted in man
Self-protection
Self-preservation
For self-protection, man created God, on whom he
can depend for his own protection, safety and
security.
For self-preservation, man conceived the idea of
an immortal Soul or Atman, which will live
eternally.
In his ignorance, weakness, fear and desire, man
needs these two things to console himself. Hence
he clings to them deeply and fanatically.
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Anatta The Doctrine on No-Soul
The Buddhas teaching does not support this
ignorance, weekness, fear and desire but aims at
making man enlightened by removing and destroying
the ignorance and desire.
The Buddha realised that the idea of self is so
deep rooted and not many people are willing to
hear any teaching against them.
Four weeks after His enlightenment, He thought to
himself I have realized this Truth which is
deep, difficult to see, difficult to
understand.. Comprehensible only by the
wise..Man who are overpowered by passions and
surrounded by a mass of darkness cannot see this
Truth, which is against the current, which is
lofty, deep and subtle and hard to comprehend.
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Anatta, the Five Aggregates and Paticca-samuppada
The doctrine of Anatta or No-soul, is the natural
result of, or the corollary to, the analysis of
the Five Aggregates and the teaching of
Conditioned Genesis (Paticca-samuppada).
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Five Aggregates - Panca Khandha  
The Buddha taught that the human being is made up
of five aggregates (Panca Khandha) - Nama
(feeling perception mental formations
consciousness) and Rupa (matter).
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Five Aggregates - Panca Khandha  
1st Aggregate Aggregate of Matter (Rupa)
The 1st Aggregate includes the Four Great
Elements (extension cohesion heat motion) and
the Derivatives of the Four Great Elements.
The Derivatives of Four Great Elements include
our 5 material sense-organs (eye, ear, nose,
tongue, body) and their corresponding objects in
the external world (ie visible form, sound,
odour, taste, and tangible things and also some
thoughts or ideas or conceptions which are in the
sphere of mind-objects).
The whole realm of matter, both internal and
external, is included in the Aggregate of Matter.
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Five Aggregates - Panca Khandha  
2nd Aggregate Aggregate of Consciousness
Consciousness is a reaction or response which has
one of the 6 faculties (eye, ear, nose, tongue,
body and mind) as its basis and one of the 6
external phenomena as its object.
For example, the visual consciousness has the eye
as its basis and a visible form as its object.
Mental consciousness has mind as its basis and
idea or thought as its object.
Consciousness does not recognise an object. It
is only a sort of awareness awareness of the
presence of an object.
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Five Aggregates - Panca Khandha  
2nd Aggregate Aggregate of Consciousness
For example, when the eye comes in contact with a
colour (say blue), visual consciousness arises
which simply is awareness of the presence of a
colour but it does not recognise that it is blue.
There is no recognition at this stage. It is
Perception Aggregate that recognises that it is
blue.
The visual consciousness is hence seeing without
recognizing. So are the other forms of
consciousness.
The Buddha also explained that Consciousness
depends on matter, sensation, perception and
mental formations and that it cannot exist
independently of them.
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Five Aggregates - Panca Khandha  
The Mind
In Buddhism, the mind is regarded as an organ
like the eye or nose. It can be controlled and
developed like other faculty.
The difference between the eye and the mind is
that the former senses the world of colours and
visible forms, while the latter senses the world
of ideas and thoughts and mental objects.
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Five Aggregates - Panca Khandha  
3rd Aggregate Aggregate of Perception
It is perceptions that recognise objects whether
physical or mental.
Like consciousness, perceptions are also of 6
kinds, in relation to 6 internal faculties and
the corresponding 6 external objects.
A box of jewels!!
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Five Aggregates - Panca Khandha  
4th Aggregate Aggregate of Sensation
These are all our sensations or feelings,
pleasant or unpleasant or neutral, experienced
through the contact of physical and mental organs
with the external world.
There are 6 kinds of sensations
Sensations experienced through eye contact with a
physical object ear with sound nose with odour
tongue with taste body with tangible objects
mind with mind-objects or thoughts or ideas.
What precious jewels!! I am going to be rich!!
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Five Aggregates - Panca Khandha  
5th Aggregate Aggregate of Mental Formations
In this group all included all volitional
activities (both good and bad) or kamma.
Like the others, volition is also of 6 kinds,
connected to the 6 internal faculties and the
corresponding 6 external objects.
I must take it. Nobody is watching me..
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Five Aggregates - Panca Khandha  
5th Aggregate Aggregate of Mental Formations
Sensations and perceptions are not volitional
actions and do not produce karmic effects.
It is only volitional actions such as
attention, will, confidence, concentration,
energy, desire, hate, conceit, ignorance, idea of
self, etc that produce karmic effects.
There are 52 such mental activities which
constitute the Aggregate of Mental Formations.
I must take it. Nobody is watching me..
BAD KAMMA
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Five Aggregates - Panca Khandha  
What we call a being or an individual or I
is only a convenient name or a label given to the
combination of these 5 aggregates.
I am angry!!
These 5 aggregates are all impermanent and
constantly changing. The Buddha said The world
is in continuous flux and is impermanent.
Whatever is impermanent is dukkha. The five
aggregates of attachment are dukkha.
One thing disappears, conditioning the appearance
of the next, in a series of cause and effect.
There is no unchanging substance in them.
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Five Aggregates - Panca Khandha  
There is nothing behind them that can be called a
permanent Self (Atman), individually, or anything
that can in reality be called I.
I am angry!!
Everyone agrees that each of the 5 aggregates
individually cannot be called I.
But when we combine these five physical and
mental aggregates as a psysio-psychological
machine, we get the idea of an I.
This is a false idea, a mental formation and is
nothing more than one of those 52 mental
formations of the Perception Aggregate, namely
the idea of self (sakkaya-ditthi).
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Five Aggregates - Panca Khandha  
I am angry!!
These five aggregates together, which we call a
being, are dukka itself. There is no other
being or I behind these five aggregates, who
experiences dukkha.
As Buddhaghosa says
Mere suffering exists, but no sufferer is found
The deeds are, but no doer is found.
There is no thinker behind the thought. Thought
itself is the thinker. If you remove the
thought, there is no thinker to be found
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Conditioned Genesis Paticca-Samuppada 
According to this doctrine, nothing in the world
is absolute. Everything is conditioned, relative
and interdependent.
The principle of this doctrine is given in a
short formula of 4 lines
When this is, that is This arising, that
arises When this is not, that is not This
ceasing, that ceases
On this principle of conditionality, relativity
and interdependence, the whole existence and
continuity of life and its cessation are
explained in a detailed formula which is called
Paticca-Samuppada consisting of 12 factors.
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Conditioned Genesis Paticca-Samuppada 
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Conditioned Genesis Paticca-Samuppada 
It should be clearly noted that each of these
factors is conditioned (paticcasamupanna) as well
as conditioning (paticcasamuppada). They are all
relative, interdependent and interconnected.
Nothing is absolute or independent hence there
is no first cause accepted by Buddhism.
According to this doctrine, the idea of an
abiding, immortal substance in man or outside,
whether it is called Atman, I, soul, self, or
ego, is considered only a false relief, a mental
projection.
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Anatta The Doctrine on No-Soul
According to the Buddhas teaching, it is as
wrong to hold the opinion I have no self
(annihiliationist theory) as to hold the opinion
I have self (eternalist theory) because both
are fetters, both arising out of the false idea
I AM.
The correct position with regard to the question
of Anatta is to try to see things objectively as
they are without mental projections, to see that
what we call I is only a combination of
physical and mental aggregates, which are working
together interdependently in a flux of momentary
change within the law of cause and effect, and
that there is nothing, permanent, everlasting and
eternal in the whole of existence.
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The gift of Dhamma excels all gifts
the taste of Dhamma excels all taste,
the delight in dhamma excels all delights, The
Craving-Freed vanquishes all suffering. -
Dhammapada verse 354
End of Lesson