Still Sitting Stills Karma, Settling in Nirvana, Seeing Dharma❣
We have all kinds of problems and sufferings, summed up in four or eight sufferings (4: birth, aging, sickness, death + parting with the beloved, meeting with the hated, not attaining the desired, and, in short, all that arises from the five aggregates: 8). The five aggregates are form, feeling, idea, formation, and consciousness, which the Buddha categorized from the commonly categorized body and mind to analyze more clearly if they are eternal entities or not. They are neither eternal nor sovereign, thus they are dependently originated and ceased.
The so-called self was analyzed into the five aggregates and found to be neither self-same nor self-sovereign, thus no self-substance or eternal ego-ruled entity, i.e., no self. Because we stick to the strong sovereign self, sufferings arise. Our sticking to self comes from our karma of appropriating and identifying our body and mind as mine and I, of our craving for self-survival, self-strife and -satisfaction; betrayed by reality, they turn into sufferings. The triple poisons of desire, divisiveness, and delusion of self, created by karma, are the source of sufferings.
He said that all living beings are karma-born, -heirs, -owners, -machines, and -refuged. We inherit our ancestors’ karma as our bodies and minds, and operate like machines with bones, blood, brains, etc., creating our own karma, receiving karma results of good or bad, pleasure or suffering. Only when we still this karma-machine, can we settle in nirvana (no-wind, of karma: triple poisons), and see the Dharma, and serve and save all. Sitting still, thus, is essential to attain nirvana and awakening, which can be done by anyone, but difficult to actually do and continue.
He prognosticated the four holy truths (suffering, cause of it, cessation of it, and the way for it) and the eight holy ways (right seeing, thinking, speech, action, livelihood, striving, mindfulness, and concentration) for anyone to activate the way to see dharmas and act accordingly to achieve the holy (wholly wholesome) way and world in harmony, health, and happiness of and for all. We must know them clearly and activate them concretely to cultivate and verify them and their results in ourselves and others through our daily living and throughout our life to appreciate.
January 20, 2024 C.E.
Notes:
- We have the four inevitable sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, and death, and also eight, adding to these the four common ones of parting with the beloved, meeting with the hated, not attaining the desired, and, in short, the sufferings that arise from the five aggregates of form, feeling, idea, formation, and consciousness. Now we are endangered by nuclear holocaust and demise of the global life system, even by a single man-made decision.
- Dharma means 1. form (from d-harm: phenomenon) and 2. norm (from d-h-arm: norm: law operating through phenomena: ethic), and 3. the teaching of the law of all phenomena, that is, Dependent Co-origination (originally awakened on the origination of perception/consciousness depending on the sense organs and objects, but later applied to all phenomena, cf. note 3). This law is similar to the law of causality, now used by sciences, but deeper and wider, applied beyond objects – more on subjects and symbols – ideas, etc.).
- “The Dharma (Norm/Law/Truth/Ethic) of all dharmas (forms/phenomena/ truths/ethics)” is Dependent Co-origination, i.e., all phenomena are interdependently co-originated on limitless causes and conditions (similar to the Law of Causality, but deeper and wider – beyond conventions, conceptions, objects, etc.). This means that we are interrelated with other beings (other species, elements, stars, etc.), and relatives to each other, and that we must therefore live together harmoniously and strive to make a wholly wholesome world to become harmonious, healthy, and happy.
- The twelve-limbed Dependent Co-origination (bhava-cakka/bhava-cakra, becoming wheel) is the most well-known representative application of the Dharma of Dependent Co-origination, though it is misinterpreted due to its linear presentation by oral tradition and the Hindu idea of transmigration (an embryo-genetical interpretation called two causalities in three generations). Actually, it is a compound formed from the Dependent Co-origination of consciousness on sense organs and objects, of suffering on craving, and of samsara (total flow: moment-to-moment change, not like transmigration in Hinduism) on appropriation. It illustrates how our life goes with the five aggregates (originally identifying and analyzing so-called “self,” later “world”), resulting in suffering due to the triple poisons.
Please refer to part 3 of “Why Buddhism Now?” for a detailed explanation with the structural system of the “Becoming Wheel” (bhava cakka/cakra):
https://buddhism869196463.wordpress.com/%e3%83%9b%e3%83%bc%e3%83%a0%ef%bc%9ahome/
- Sitting still makes one calm and clear, as a bowl settling down makes the water inside of it become calm and clear, reflecting the world. Constant cultivation of still sitting leads to calming (samatha/śamatha) and observation (vipassanā/vipaśyanā), nirvana and awakening (bodhi), witnessing of the truth world (Dhamma/Dharma-dhātu), and becoming the truth body (Dhamma/Dharma-kāya).
- The Triple Poisons are desire, divisiveness, and delusion (of a self-same, self-sovereign self). The “Triple Only” are only me, only now, and only money (short-sighted views and actions, which make the wider world worse), which can be cured by the Triple Learnings of morality, concentration, and prognosis.
- The four holy (cattāri ariya-saccāni/catur-ārya-satya, ariya/ārya, Greek hagia, not noble as often mistranslated) truths are those of suffering (duḥkha sacca/dukkha satya: duk-kha, wrong-going, going against wishes), the cause of it (samudaya satya/samudaya sacca, identified as craving: taṅhā/tṛṣṇā, lit. thirst, as drinking seawater, even though it makes one more thirsty), the cessation of it (nirodha sacca/nirodha satya, identified as nirvana: no-wind, cf. nivāte padīpa: lamplight in no-wind, which illuminate the world without flickering shadows or pitch darkness by its light blown off), and the way for it (magga sacca/ mārga satya, identified as the eight holy ways).
- The eight holy (ariya/ārya) ways (ariya-aṭṭhaṅgika-magga/ ārya-aṣṭāṅga-mārga) are right view (sammā‑diṭṭhi/ samyag-dṛṣṭi), right thinking （sammā-saṅkappa/ samyak-saṃkalpa), right speech (sammā-vācā/ samyag-vāc), right action (sammā-kammanta/ samyak-karmānta), right livelihood (sammā-ājīva/ samyag-ājīva), right striving (sammā-vāyāma/ samyag-vyāyāma), right mindfulness (sammā-sati/ samyak-smṛti), and right concentration (sammā-samādhi/ samyak-samādhi).
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静坐は業を静め、涅槃に安住し、法を見る❣
私達はあらゆる種類の問題と苦を持っているが、四苦又は八苦に要約される（４：生老病死苦＋求不得苦、愛別離苦、怨憎会苦、要するに、五蘊盛苦：８）。五蘊（集合体）とは色（色形）・受（感受）・想（思想）・行（行為）・識（六識：眼耳鼻舌身意識）であるが、これは仏陀が、普通心身と分けられれているのから、もっとはっきりとこれらが永遠の実体か否かを分析する為に分けたのである。それらは永遠でも主宰（支配者）でもなく、（他）に依存して生滅するのである。
所謂「自我」は五蘊に分析され、自己同一でも自己主宰でもないから自己―実質または我支配の実体でもない、即ち無（実体）我である。私達は強い主宰我に執着する為に苦は起きるのである。自我への執着は心身を我所（有）と所有し、我と同定する私達の業、自己生存欲、自己闘争と自己満足、の業、に由来する；だが現実に背かれて苦となる。業により生まれる貪瞋（我）痴の三毒が苦の根源である。
彼は一切生類は業誕生者、業相続者、業所有者、業機械、業依拠者であると言った。私達は自らの祖先の業を新新として受け取り骨・血・脳などとして操作し、自らの業を生み、善悪、楽苦の業報を受ける。この業機械を静止する時にのみ、涅槃（無風、業：三毒の）に安住し、法を見、一切に奉仕・救済できるのである。そうであるから、静坐は涅槃と覚醒を達成するには必須であり、これは誰にも可能であるが、実際実行し継続することは困難である。
彼は誰でも法を見てそれに従って行い皆が皆の為に調和、健康、幸福な聖（全体健全）な方法と世界を達成出来るように四聖諦｛苦・集（起）・滅・道（程）｝と八聖道（正見・正思・正語・正業・正命・正精進・正念・正定）を処方した。私達はそれらを明らかにし、具体的に私達の毎日の生活と生涯を通して享受する為にそれらを実践の修養をしその結果を確証する行動をしなければならない。
2024共通年1月20日
註：
- 私達は不可避の生老病死の四苦、これに加えて普通の求不得苦、愛別離苦、怨憎会苦、要するに、形態・感受・観念・形成・意識の五蘊盛苦の八苦を持っている。今や、一人の人間の決定によってさえ起きうる地球生命系への核の冬や破滅の危機に曝されている。
- 法（dharma）は１． 形態（form： d-harmより: 現象：真理)、２．規則（norm： d-h-armより:現象中の規則：倫理)、３．諸法の法、縁起（元来は感覚器官と感覚対象に依る知覚・意識の発生に覚醒したが後に一切現象に適用されたもの。註３参照）。この法則は、現今諸科学に用いられる、因果律と同様であるが、もっと深く広い－客体を越えて主体と観念などの象徴に適用される。
3. 諸法（形態・現象）の法（規則・法則・真理・倫理）は縁起（因縁生起）、即ち、一切現象は無量の直接原因と間接条件により相依生起するということである（因果則に似ているがさらに深く広い－世俗、観念、対象などを超える）。これは私達は他者（多種、要素、星宿など）と相依関係にあることを意味し、相互に相対的であり、私達が調和、健康、幸福になる為には共に調和して生き、全体健全な世界を作る努力をしなければならないことを意味する。
4. 十二支縁起（bhava-cakka/bhava-cakra、生成輪、輪廻輪）は縁起の法の適用例の最もよく知られた代表ですが、口碑による線形の表出（三世両重の因果と呼ばれる胎生学的解釈）の為とヒンズー教の輪廻説により誤解されている。実際には感覚器官と感覚対象にって共縁起する意識、割愛による苦、専有（同定：執着）によるサンサーラ（全流：全体刻々変化の意で、ヒンズー教の輪廻ではない）の複合形です。（元来は所謂「自己」後に世界を同定し分析する為の）五蘊と共に、三毒の故に苦に成る私達の生がどのように展開するかを例示したものである。
生成輪 (bhava cakka/cakra)の構造的形態の詳細説明については「何故今仏教か？」の３を参照：
https://buddhism869196463.wordpress.com/%e3%83%9b%e3%83%bc%e3%83%a0%ef%bc%9ahome/
5. 静坐は、椀が安住するとその中の水が静謐に透明になり世界を映すように、人を静謐に明澄にする。静坐の常時の修行は止（止静）(samatha/śamatha) と観（観法） (vipassanā/vipaśyanā), 涅槃と覚醒 (bodhi), に導き法界 (Dhamma/Dharma-dhātu：真理世界)を直証し,法身 (Dhamma/Dharma-kāya：真実身)になる。誰でも真実にある樹（両者共法：dharmaの語根 dhṝと同様永続を意味し一万年生き延びる樹もある）調和している樹（一切元素と調和し酸素、花、果、建築材など与える）の様に成れる。
6. 三毒は貪瞋痴（自己同一、自己主宰の我という愚痴）である。三だけは今だけ、金だけで自分だけということであり（短見・短絡行動で、より広い世界を悪化させる）が、戒定慧の三学はこれらを治癒できる。
7. 四聖諦（cattāri ariya-saccāni/catur-ārya-satya, ariya/ārya ariya/ārya, Greek hagia：聖：全体健全、高尚：nobleは誤訳）は苦諦（duḥkha sacca/dukkha satya: 思い通りにならないこと）、集諦（その集起：因samudaya satya/samudaya sacca, 渇愛: taṅhā/tṛṣṇāとされる、海水を飲むように、例えそれがもっと渇いても）、その滅（nirodha sacca/nirodha satya、涅槃とされる、参考：nirvana=nivāta, nivāte padīpa: 無風の灯明、揺れる陰のない世界を照らし、それが吹き消された暗黒でもない）、その道（magga sacca/ mārga satya、八聖道とされる）である。
8. 八聖道（ariya-aṭṭhaṅgika-magga/ ārya-aṣṭāṅga-mārga）は正見（sammā‑diṭṭhi/ samyag-dṛṣṭi）、正思（sammā-saṅkappa/ samyak-saṃkalpa）、正語（sammā-vācā/ samyag-vāc）、正業（sammā-kammanta/ samyak-karmānta）、正命（sammā-ājīva/ samyag-ājīva）、正精進（sammā-vāyāma/ samyag-vyāyāma）、正念（sammā-sati/ samyak-smṛti）、正定（sammā-samādhi/ samyak-samādhi）である。
