Anatta

This is a Dhamma talk on anatta. Adam Mizner has dedicated many years to the in-depth study of Daoism, western Hermetics, and the Buddha Dhamma. He is initiated into and teaches methods from these traditions. He is a senior lay disciple of Ajahn Jumnien in the Thai Forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. This deep spiritual background has a large influence on his approach to internal development teaching.

Transcript

One of the primary teachings of the Buddha is the teaching of Anatta.

The teaching that separates the Buddha Dharma from all other spiritual traditions is the teaching of Anatta.

The practice of Vipassana is pointing directly towards Anatta.

But it is Anatta or not-self that is the least understood by most practitioners.

Mainly when people question the Dharma,

They question Anatta.

They are lost in a world of confusion in regards to not-self.

In regards to self and not-self,

In regards to what it is that attains enlightenment,

What it is that becomes free,

What it is that's practicing,

What is emptiness,

What is Anatta.

We practice Sila,

Samadhi and Banyan,

The three pillars of Buddhist practice.

Sila,

Virtue or restraint,

Is a practice in regards to Atta,

In regards to the self.

Because we are caught in the delusion of self.

If we weren't caught in the delusion of self,

We would be arahant,

We would be purified.

But because we are caught in the delusion of self,

We need to restrain the self.

This is why we practice Sila.

We practice Sila to purify our behavior.

The Buddha called it the blameless life,

To become blameless.

We practice Sila for the happiness it brings in here and now.

Because when we act poorly,

Unhappiness follows us.

When we act with aggression and anger,

Regret follows us and it leads to the lower realms.

In this way we cultivate Sila to restrain our conduct,

So that our conduct is pleasing to the wise.

We restrain our sense input,

Because too much sense input,

Too much entertainment,

Too much noise,

Too much visual stimulation,

Makes the mind busy.

The busy mind does not enter Samadhi.

So the monkey mind carries on and on and we can't enter Samadhi and therefore we can never realize Bhangya and we cannot realize Anatta.

A practitioner without Sila is nothing but a philosopher.

Strong Sila,

Restraint,

Restraining your conduct and restraining the senses,

Is the base for all practice.

No Sila,

No practice.

To talk about Anatta,

To talk about not-self,

When we have no restraint of the self,

Is nothing but high-minded talk,

Empty of value.

Samadhi is where we align the self,

We align the body,

We align the mind,

So that our awareness,

Our attention,

Everything is focused resting on one single point.

This is a form of restraint too.

When you enter Samadhi,

When you practice meditation,

Shamatha,

You're restraining the senses completely.

In this way,

Shamatha could be called perfect Sila.

Samadhi is perfect Sila.

When somebody breaks Sila,

They've always lost Samadhi at that time.

When somebody's Samadhi is poor,

It's because their Sila is poor.

Poor Sila leads to poor Samadhi.

Perfect restraint leads to strong Samadhi.

Strong Samadhi is nothing but perfect restraint.

We restrain the mind into a single facet of concentration.

This is Samadhi.

Still concerned with the self.

Sila and Samadhi are absolutely necessary on the path.

Then we have Panya.

Wisdom or seeing things for what they are,

Seeing truth,

Right gnosis,

Realizing the truth,

Seeing the truth which leads one directly to liberation,

Directly to freedom.

We achieve this wisdom,

This insight,

This clear seeing through the practice of Vipassana,

The practice of clear seeing.

The technique taught by the Buddha which is unique to Buddhism.

What is it that we see clearly?

We see the way things are and how are things?

Things are devoid of self,

Devoid of Ata.

This separates Vipassana from Sila and Samadhi.

The fruit is in Panya,

The fruit is in seeing clearly,

The fruit is in wisdom.

For it is wisdom that liberates us from suffering,

It liberates us from Dukkha.

Practicing Sila,

Maintaining Sila and practicing Samadhi,

We learn to see the body as just something that's happening,

Something which is neither me nor mine.

The body ages,

Becomes sick,

Is injured,

Changes,

Hurts,

Hungers,

Gets tired,

And follows its own function all on its own accord dependent on the causes and conditions of the physical plane.

In this way we can see quite clearly that the body is not self,

Is not Ata,

Cannot be cling to as me or mine.

When we enter Samadhi,

It frees the mind from the sufferings of the body and the mind enters bliss,

It enters pity,

Rapture.

In this way it becomes free from the body and we see clearly that I must be more than this body,

I am not this body,

This body is neither me nor mine,

But still we can have attachment and wrong view thinking that the mind is self,

The mind is Ata.

Thinking of the mind as a concrete thing,

Reifying the mind.

This wrong view is held onto by many meditators even if they achieve Samadhi.

This is why the achieved one says Samadhi does not lead to liberation.

You can become attached to Samadhi,

To the bliss and rapture of Samadhi and to the empowered mind,

Clinging to Ata as self,

Clinging to mind as self.

The practice of Vipassana allows one to be liberated from mind.

When perceptions or mental formations arise,

When things arise in the mind,

Thoughts,

Good,

Bad or neutral,

We see them arise out of emptiness,

Exist and fall away.

They arise and fall away on their own accord,

Following their own cause and effect,

Their own nature.

With practice we learn to see that ultimately we don't have perfect control over them.

If they were me nor mine then they would follow our will.

But even our will wavers,

It follows its own laws.

When the thought arises,

If we look directly at it,

Look to see where it's coming from,

Look at its center.

The closer you look,

The more you see,

There's nothing to find.

If you look at the center of the thought when it arises in meditation,

At that very moment of seeing where it comes from,

Of seeing its center,

The thought vanishes into emptiness.

It's not because you're chasing the thought away.

The thought vanishes into emptiness because the thought is emptiness.

Because the thought is not self.

It is Sunyata,

It is empty.

It is Anatta,

It is empty of self.

Practicing this way continuously,

We see that perceptions and mental formations are Anatta,

Are not self,

Are Sunyata,

Are emptiness.

But there's something beyond thoughts and perceptions.

What is it that's looking?

What is it that's knowing?

When you look at sense consciousness,

You can see it is not self.

It arises dependent on object,

It falls away with the falling away of the object.

The sense consciousness is dependent on the sense object and the sense gate.

With no eyes and no visual object,

There would be no visual consciousness.

So we can see that sense consciousness is Anatta,

It's not self.

It's Sunyata,

It's emptiness.

But there's a deeper part of consciousness.

The part that we cultivate,

The part that we practice,

The part that we use,

Which we call Yana,

Dayana.

The eye of knowing,

The knowing quality,

That which knows,

Naked awareness,

Empty cognizance.

Yana has certain qualities,

It is empty.

What does empty mean?

Space is empty.

It means it's formless.

It has no shape,

It has no color,

It has no form,

It cannot be found.

Empty,

Clear and pure,

These are the qualities of Yana.

These are the qualities of the knowing.

So then people say,

Ah,

So this knowing must be Ata,

It must be the self.

So we take the Pasana to the next level.

The Pasana practice is when the eye of knowing looks at the body,

It sees that the body is separate to the mind,

That the body is separate to the knower.

It is neither me nor mine.

It looks at the functions of mind,

It looks at feelings,

It looks at perceptions,

It looks at mental formations,

It sees them as separate to the knower,

It sees them as Anata,

It sees them as emptiness and not self.

But still we are left with the problem of Yana itself.

So we turn the light around,

We turn the knower around and we use the knower to look directly back at the knower itself.

Looking back at that which knows.

So you do it now,

You look back at the knowing quality,

Try to find it.

You find it is nowhere to be found.

It has no form,

It has no dwelling place,

It has no shape.

No matter how hard you look,

Even if you look for eons,

You will never find it.

The Buddhas could not find it.

But nobody can deny that there is knowing.

Even a scientific materialist has to admit that there is knowing.

Knowing cannot be denied.

Yet the knower cannot be found.

We call this the middle way between existence and non-existence.

To say the knower exists is incorrect because it cannot be found.

To say the knower does not exist is incorrect because nobody can deny knowing.

The awareness is there yet the awareness is empty.

Empty,

Clear and pure.

Just like space has no form,

The awareness is like space except that it has knowing.

Yana is empty knowing,

Free from form.

The middle way between existence and non-existence is anatta.

Not being able to find it,

It is free of self.

Having no place of dwelling,

Having no form,

You could not say it has an essence or an existence.

You could not say it is non-existent.

To say it is non-existent or to fall into the error of annihilation,

The view of nothingness.

You cannot say that because there is a knowing quality.

In this way,

Seeing anatta is free from eternalism,

Free from the view of eternalism,

Of self,

Of an everlasting spirit because there is nothing to be found.

Free from that error,

Free from the view of annihilation,

Free from the view of nothingness,

From the view of void because you cannot deny knowing.

The knower,

Yana,

Buddha.

That which knows is buddha.

After the buddha achieved complete liberation and he was asked,

Are you a deva,

Are you a god?

The buddha said,

No,

I am buddha.

I am the knower,

I am awake.

To know is buddha.

That is why the primary katha,

The primary mantra we use is buddha,

To know.

The quality of buddha is buddha.

When the knower is distracted,

There is no buddha.

When buddha is never distracted,

It is buddha.

The path is buddha,

The food is buddha.

Buddha is there but there is no form in buddha.

Buddha cannot be denied and knowing is there.

But we fall into distraction.

When we are distracted,

We have no mindfulness,

We have no sati.

Sati is broken.

The knower is distracted.

It is caught up with body.

It is caught up with feelings.

It is caught up with mental formations.

It is caught up with perceptions.

It is caught up with sense consciousness.

A sound comes into the ear,

The sound hits the ear.

We get caught up with that sound as pleasant or unpleasant,

As pleasing or unpleasing and we identify with that sound.

Like and dislike arise upon hearing that sound.

With like and dislike there is dualism,

Duality.

We lose the freedom of emptiness.

Shunyata disappears and ata arises.

Self arises with like and dislike.

Not letting go of like and dislike,

Not letting go of self,

True practice is impossible.

So in this way we practice.

Sila to restrain and refine the self.

Samadhi to refine the self and bring the self into blues and rapture to make the self powerful.

And banya,

The practice of vipassana,

The practice of kleosin,

Using the eye of knowing,

The eye of knowing to see anatta,

To see emptiness.

The practice formula usually teaches to see,

Know and let go.

See,

Know,

Let go.

So you use the eye of knowing now.

Look back at the consciousness,

Look back at the knowing itself.

You will see that there is nothing to see,

You see emptiness.

Upon seeing this you know the reality of not self.

There is nothing to find.

The moment you see that simply let go,

Relax,

Stop.

See,

Know and let go.

When a thought arises again,

Look at it,

Know it for what it is.

It is anatta,

It is shunyata.

It is not self,

It is emptiness.

You know this by looking,

You know this by seeing.

The moment you see and know,

Then relax and let go.

There is nothing else to do.

There is no higher practice than this.

Any defilement that arises,

Any emotion that arises,

Any thought that arises,

Any perception that arises,

Any poison that arises at all.

If you look directly at it,

You see,

You know and you let go.

It vanishes that moment.

When you let go,

You rest,

You let go into emptiness,

Into not self,

Into nibbana.

Then we fall into distraction again,

We fall into delusion again,

Avijjap,

Non-knowing,

The opposite of knowing.

The opposite of mindfulness arises and thoughts arise,

Thoughts are the cause of samsara.

Lights and dislike arise,

We get attached to sense input.

When that happens,

We are distracted.

So simply bring the awareness back to vipassana.

Look once again,

See,

Know and let go.

In this way we see not self.

Directly,

You don't have to take my word for it,

You don't have to take the scriptures word for it.

You simply look and look again.

Keep looking,

Try as hard as you can to find the self.

Try to find the knower.

You find that there is nothing to find.

But you can't deny it,

Just empty knowing.

There is knowing but you couldn't say the knowing is a self.

There is just knowing.

Empty and awake,

Sunyata,

Bhuta.

The truth of anatta,

The truth of not self,

The essence of the Buddhist path,

The purpose of vipassana.

Reviews

Such a concise and clear illumination of foundational ideas! Beautiful and unforgiving path.