SN 22.95 Are similes for five aggregates specific or general? (foam, water bubble, mirage, banana tree, magician trick)
Good question from suttacentral forum:
Are similes for five aggregates specific or general?
SN 22.95 - SN 22.95 Pheį¹a-piį¹įø'-Å«pama: A Lump of Foam simile
SN 22.95.1 – (rÅ«pa: form ↔ lump of foam)
SN 22.95.2 – (vedana: sensation ↔ water bubble)
SN 22.95.3 – (saƱƱÄ: perception ↔ mirage)
SN 22.95.4 – (saį¹ khÄrÄ: co-activities ↔ coreless banana tree)
SN 22.95.5 – (viƱƱÄį¹aį¹: consciousness ↔ magician’s trick)
SN 22.95.6 - (disciple becomes arahant, perfected)
188 Spk:
One evening, while dwelling in that abode, the Blessed One came out from his fragrant cottage and sat down by the bank of the Ganges.
He saw a great lump of foam coming downstream and thought, “I will give a Dhamma talk relating to the five aggregates.”
Then he addressed the bhikkhus sitting around him.
The sutta is one of the most radical discourses on the empty nature of conditioned phenomena;
its imagery (especially the similes of the mirage and the magical illusion) has been taken up by later Buddhist thinkers, most persistently by the MÄdhyamikas.
Some of the images are found elsewhere in the PÄli Canon, e.
g., at Dhp 46, 170. In the context of early Buddhist thought these similes have to be handled with care.
They are not intended to suggest an illusionist view of the world but to show that our conceptions of the world, and of our own existence, are largely distorted by the process of cognition.
Just as the mirage and magical illusion are based on real existents—the sand of the desert, the magician’s appurtenances—so these false conceptions arise from a base that objectively exists, namely, the five aggregates;
but when seen through a mind subject to conceptual distortion, the aggregates appear in a way that deviates from their actual nature.
Instead of being seen as transient and selfless, they appear as substantial and as a self.
189 Spk explains at length how form (i.e., the body) is like a lump of foam (pheṇapiṇḍa).
I give merely the highlights:
as a lump of foam lacks any substance (sÄra), so form lacks any substance that is permanent, stable, a self;
as the lump of foam is full of holes and fissures and the abode of many creatures, so too form;
as the lump of foam, after expanding, breaks up, so does form, which is pulverized in the mouth of death.
Spk’s commentary is also at Vibh-a 32-35.
190 Spk:
A bubble (bubbuḷa) is feeble and cannot be grasped, for it breaks up as soon as it is seized;
so too feeling is feeble and cannot be grasped as permanent and stable.
As a bubble arises and ceases in a drop of water and does not last long, so too with feeling:
100,000 koṭis of feelings arise and cease in the time of a fingersnap (one koṭi = 10 million).
As a bubble arises in dependence on conditions, so feeling arises in dependence on a sense base, an object, the defilements, and contact.
191 Spk:
Perception is like a mirage (marÄ«cikÄ) in the sense that it is insubstantial, for one cannot grasp a mirage to drink or bathe or fill a pitcher.
As a mirage deceives the multitude, so does perception, which entices people with the idea that the colourful object is beautiful, pleasurable, and permanent.
192 AkukkukajÄtaṃ.
Spk:
There is no pith growing inside (anto asaƱjÄtaghanadaṇḍakaṃ).
193 The simile is used for a different purpose at MN I 233,15-23. Spk:
As a plantain trunk (kadalikkhandha) is an assemblage of many sheaths, each with its own characteristic, so the aggregate of volitional formations is an assemblage of many phenomena, each with its own characteristic.
194 Spk:
Consciousness is like a magical illusion (mÄyÄ) in the sense that it is insubstantial and cannot be grasped.
Consciousness is even more transient and fleeting than a magical illusion.
For it gives the impression that a person comes and goes, stands and sits, with the same mind, but the mind is different in each of these activities.
Consciousness deceives the multitude like a magical illusion.
For a modern parable illustrating the deceptive nature of consciousness, based on this simile, see ĆÄṇananda, The Magic of the Mind, pp.5-7.
195 See MN I 296,9-11, spoken by SÄriputta.
I cannot trace a parallel spoken by the Buddha himself, but see Dhp 41.
196 Spk explains that mÄyÄyaṃ bÄlalÄpinÄ«, in pÄda b, refers specifically to the aggregate of consciousness.
The aggregate-mass is a murderer in two ways:
(i) because the aggregates slay each other;
and (ii) because murder appears in dependence on the aggregates.
As to (i), when the earth element breaks up it takes along the other elements, and when the form aggregate breaks up it takes along the mental aggregates.
As to (ii), when the aggregates exist such things as murder, bondage, injury, etc.
, come into being.
On the comparison of the aggregates to murderers, see too 22:85 (III 114,20-24).
Are similes for five aggregates specific or general?
In the daily sutta of today, we read the SN 22.95, and the poem part of the sutta is like this:
Form is like a lump of foam,
Feeling like a water bubble;
Perception is like a mirage,
Volitions like a plantain trunk,
And consciousness like an illusion,
So explained the Kinsman of the Sun.
I was wondering if these comparisons “Form is like…” were made as particular similes or are just more general similes for the same idea — being void, hollow, unsubstantial.
What I mean is is there any characteristic of a “lump of foam” specific to form, a “water bubble” specific to feeling etc. or the verse could also be like “Perception is like an illusion”?
for reference, frankk translation of SN 22.95 in pÄįø·i + eng.
SN 22.95 - SN 22.95 Pheį¹a-piį¹įø'-Å«pama: A Lump of Foam simile
SN 22.95.1 – (rÅ«pa: form ↔ lump of foam)
SN 22.95.2 – (vedana: sensation ↔ water bubble)
SN 22.95.3 – (saƱƱÄ: perception ↔ mirage)
SN 22.95.4 – (saį¹ khÄrÄ: co-activities ↔ coreless banana tree)
SN 22.95.5 – (viƱƱÄį¹aį¹: consciousness ↔ magician’s trick)
SN 22.95.6 - (disciple becomes arahant, perfected)
frankk answer:
In other words, he's asking if the mappings for the 5 similes are for those respective 5 aggregates specifically,
or whether any of the 5 similes can apply to any one of the 5 aggregates?
I don't believe the commentaries give an answer on that (see B. Bodhi footnotes below).
IMO (in my opinion) those mappings are specific to each aggregate,
not general (any simile can apply to any aggregate).
Just as the 5 aggregates are sorted from most coarse and persistent, to most subtle and fleeting,
the similes are likewise sorted from most solid and persistent, to most subtle and transient.
1. (rūpa: form) A mass of foam floating down the river, persists for some time.
You can pick it up with your hands, it doesn't just break apart right away.
2. (vedana: sensation) water bubble popping from rain drop landing on ground). You can see it,
you can even touch it with your hand (rain falling on hand) for an instant where it feels "solid", "real", "there",
but the bubble immediately pops, dissipates, in contrast to the mass of foam.
3. (saƱƱa: perception) a mirage is even less solid than a bubble or foam. It's like trying to grab a handful of sun light.
4. (saį¹khÄra: fabrications, volitional formations, intention) The trunk of a banana tree looks like a tree that would have heartwood, a solid core.
But if you start peeling away the sheathes of "bark",
you find the banana tree is hollow, empty in the middle.
Similarly our volitional formations, fabrications, will power, intentions feel solid,
our "self" feels like solid material form that can wield will power,
but when we investigate it carefully and peel away the layers of activity that comprise volition,
we find nothing there, a hollow core like the hollow banana tree.
5. (viƱƱÄna: consciousness) magician's trick, illusion.
The similes for the first 4 aggregates contain material form,
or require material form for support (mirage needs light and material form being reflected/distorted to produce the unreal "mirage").
You could say a magician's trick requires the material form of the magician and his props to produce the illusion,
but unlike the first 4 similes, the resulting illusion can be much more disconnected from the supporting material, more unreal, more imaginary.
one cool thing about the rūpa and vedana simile connection
A mass of foam contains bubbles,
and the vedana simile is a bubble popping.
In the 4 satipaį¹į¹hÄna,
1. kÄya (a physical body of material form/rÅ«pa)
2. vedana (sensations)
3. mind
Notice that vedana straddles and encompasses both the body and mind,
and even the "mental" portion of vedana is mostly derived from mental reactions to physical contact.
The foam (rūpa) and bubble popping (vedana) of SN 22.95 shows the strong connection
between body and sensations.
related: my analysis of SN 22.95
emphasizing that the terms jhÄna and upekkha are explicitly used in this sutta to become enlightened, even though no one else translates it that way.
B. Bodhi footnotes from his translation of SN 22.95
(Bodhi's footnotes are mostly a summary of translations of SN 22.95 Tv PÄįø·i commentary)
One evening, while dwelling in that abode, the Blessed One came out from his fragrant cottage and sat down by the bank of the Ganges.
He saw a great lump of foam coming downstream and thought, “I will give a Dhamma talk relating to the five aggregates.”
Then he addressed the bhikkhus sitting around him.
The sutta is one of the most radical discourses on the empty nature of conditioned phenomena;
its imagery (especially the similes of the mirage and the magical illusion) has been taken up by later Buddhist thinkers, most persistently by the MÄdhyamikas.
Some of the images are found elsewhere in the PÄli Canon, e.
g., at Dhp 46, 170. In the context of early Buddhist thought these similes have to be handled with care.
They are not intended to suggest an illusionist view of the world but to show that our conceptions of the world, and of our own existence, are largely distorted by the process of cognition.
Just as the mirage and magical illusion are based on real existents—the sand of the desert, the magician’s appurtenances—so these false conceptions arise from a base that objectively exists, namely, the five aggregates;
but when seen through a mind subject to conceptual distortion, the aggregates appear in a way that deviates from their actual nature.
Instead of being seen as transient and selfless, they appear as substantial and as a self.
189 Spk explains at length how form (i.e., the body) is like a lump of foam (pheṇapiṇḍa).
I give merely the highlights:
as a lump of foam lacks any substance (sÄra), so form lacks any substance that is permanent, stable, a self;
as the lump of foam is full of holes and fissures and the abode of many creatures, so too form;
as the lump of foam, after expanding, breaks up, so does form, which is pulverized in the mouth of death.
Spk’s commentary is also at Vibh-a 32-35.
190 Spk:
A bubble (bubbuḷa) is feeble and cannot be grasped, for it breaks up as soon as it is seized;
so too feeling is feeble and cannot be grasped as permanent and stable.
As a bubble arises and ceases in a drop of water and does not last long, so too with feeling:
100,000 koṭis of feelings arise and cease in the time of a fingersnap (one koṭi = 10 million).
As a bubble arises in dependence on conditions, so feeling arises in dependence on a sense base, an object, the defilements, and contact.
191 Spk:
Perception is like a mirage (marÄ«cikÄ) in the sense that it is insubstantial, for one cannot grasp a mirage to drink or bathe or fill a pitcher.
As a mirage deceives the multitude, so does perception, which entices people with the idea that the colourful object is beautiful, pleasurable, and permanent.
192 AkukkukajÄtaṃ.
Spk:
There is no pith growing inside (anto asaƱjÄtaghanadaṇḍakaṃ).
193 The simile is used for a different purpose at MN I 233,15-23. Spk:
As a plantain trunk (kadalikkhandha) is an assemblage of many sheaths, each with its own characteristic, so the aggregate of volitional formations is an assemblage of many phenomena, each with its own characteristic.
194 Spk:
Consciousness is like a magical illusion (mÄyÄ) in the sense that it is insubstantial and cannot be grasped.
Consciousness is even more transient and fleeting than a magical illusion.
For it gives the impression that a person comes and goes, stands and sits, with the same mind, but the mind is different in each of these activities.
Consciousness deceives the multitude like a magical illusion.
For a modern parable illustrating the deceptive nature of consciousness, based on this simile, see ĆÄṇananda, The Magic of the Mind, pp.5-7.
195 See MN I 296,9-11, spoken by SÄriputta.
I cannot trace a parallel spoken by the Buddha himself, but see Dhp 41.
196 Spk explains that mÄyÄyaṃ bÄlalÄpinÄ«, in pÄda b, refers specifically to the aggregate of consciousness.
The aggregate-mass is a murderer in two ways:
(i) because the aggregates slay each other;
and (ii) because murder appears in dependence on the aggregates.
As to (i), when the earth element breaks up it takes along the other elements, and when the form aggregate breaks up it takes along the mental aggregates.
As to (ii), when the aggregates exist such things as murder, bondage, injury, etc.
, come into being.
On the comparison of the aggregates to murderers, see too 22:85 (III 114,20-24).
Comments
Post a Comment