清淨道論 義疏通講 · 冊18Visuddhimagga · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 18

The first step on the path of insight is not “seeing something,” but “dividing what is seen into two heaps”—one inclines toward an object, the other undergoes alteration; there is no third heap

The Big Picture — With Virtue and Concentration Ready, Wisdom Makes Its First Move: Taking “Me” Apart into Name and Form

Chapter 1 explains virtue, and Chapter 3 onward explains concentration; Chapter 14 takes “me” apart into the five aggregates, and Chapter 17 places the five aggregates back into the flow of dependent origination. Those are “learning and inquiry,” mastering the map of the terrain. From this chapter begins the actual work of the path of insight: putting into practice, level by level and all the way through, what has already been understood, until every bond is severed. Of the seven purifications, the first two—purification of virtue and purification of mind—are the “root”; the Commentator calls them the “two root purifications.” The latter five—purification of view, purification by overcoming doubt, purification by knowledge and vision of what is and is not the path, purification by knowledge and vision of the way, and purification by knowledge and vision—are collectively the “body”: the body grows from the root (Vernacular §1). This unit opens the first of those latter five: purification of view = seeing name-and-form as they really are. Its structure is spare: first comes the definition (§1), followed by four points of entry—one whose vehicle is serenity enters through the factors of jhāna (§2), others through the four elements (§3), the eighteen elements and twelve bases (§4), or the five aggregates and the brief method (§5)—and finally an instruction on what to do “when the immaterial does not appear” (§6). The four doors take different routes but arrive at one sentence: This is name; this is form; there is nothing third. 〔What is seen〕This arc is the culmination of the book’s measuring rod of “breaking clinging by subtraction”: purification of view dismantles the “person”; purification by overcoming doubt dismantles the “first cause”; purification of what is and is not the path dismantles the subtlest counterfeit; purification of the way releases its hold all the way to equanimity toward formations; and purification by knowledge and vision severs the bonds through path knowledge. Subtraction ends not in nothingness, but in cessation. This unit is the first cut made by that blade.

§01 Establishing Purification of View—With the Two Root Purifications Accomplished, Seeing Name-and-Form as They Really Are Is This Purification → Vernacular §1

The Commentator first reconnects with what precedes: once the phenomena that are the soil of wisdom have been learned and inquired into, the two root purifications should be accomplished—purification of virtue (the fully purified fourfold virtue beginning with restraint of the Pātimokkha, already treated in detail in the exposition of virtue) and purification of mind (the eight attainments together with access, already treated in detail in the exposition of concentration). The latter five purifications are the “body,” and the first of them is purification of view—seeing name-and-form as they really are (Vernacular §1). 〔How to read〕Notice how plain the Commentator’s definition of “purification of view” is. It is not seeing light, seeing emptiness, or seeing some extraordinary realm. It is simply seeing name-and-form as they really are—seeing this body and mind clearly as two heaps of things. Here “purification” names the result of an action: the view that “there is a person here” has been washed clean. 〔What is seen〕The distinction between the “two root purifications” and the “body” is worth remembering: virtue and concentration are the roots, and the latter five are the trunk; a trunk without roots cannot stand. This is why the book spends thirteen chapters on virtue and concentration before it begins to explain insight.

§02 Apprehension by One Whose Vehicle Is Serenity—Emerging from Jhāna, Taking Up Its Factors and Associated Phenomena, and Finding Heart-Materiality by Seeking Name’s Support → Vernacular §2

First comes one whose vehicle is serenity. Emerging from any fine-material or immaterial jhāna other than the base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, this practitioner apprehends applied thought and the other jhāna factors, together with their associated phenomena, by way of characteristic, function, and so forth; having apprehended them, the practitioner determines, “All these incline toward their object, and so, because they incline, they are called name.” Next, just as someone who sees a snake follows it and finds its lair, the practitioner examines name and asks, “Dependent on what does this name occur?” and sees its support—heart-materiality. From there the practitioner apprehends form—the four great primaries on which heart-materiality depends and the derived materiality—and determines, “Because it undergoes alteration, it is form.” Finally comes the brief gathering: what has inclining as its characteristic is name; what has undergoing alteration as its characteristic is form (Vernacular §2). 〔How to read〕This is the most natural door for someone whose vehicle is serenity. Just after emerging from jhāna, the factors are still warm: applied thought, sustained thought, rapture, pleasure, and one-pointedness. These things that “lean toward an object” are samples of name. Then the practitioner follows the question “What does name stand on?” down to heart-materiality, and from there to the great primaries and derived materiality. The two characteristics, “inclining” and “undergoing alteration,” are the keys to the entire unit: however the later doors divide things, these are the two measures by which the division is made. 〔What is seen〕“Seeing a snake, following it, and finding its lair”: one follows the snake, not the lair; the lair is found by following. In the same way, the practitioner initially sees only name, and form is found by pursuing the question of “name’s support.” Here sequence is not dogma, but the mind’s natural order.

§03 The Door of Defining the Four Elements—From Thirty-Two to Forty-Two Aspects, Sixty Material Phenomena, and Eighty-One Consciousnesses → Vernacular §3

One whose vehicle is bare insight—or one whose vehicle is serenity—may apprehend the four elements briefly or in detail through any door in the defining of the four elements. When the elements become manifest according to their actual function and characteristic, the kamma-originated portion is analyzed: ten material phenomena in the body decad of the head-hair, ten in the sex decad, and twenty-four in the nutritive-essence octads originated by nutriment, temperature, and mind—for forty-four in each of the twenty-four parts with four origins; sweat, tears, spittle, and mucus have two origins and sixteen material phenomena each; stomach contents, feces, pus, and urine have only temperature as origin and eight each. This is the method for the thirty-two aspects. Next come nine material phenomena in the digestive fire, nine in in-breath and out-breath, and thirty-three in each of the remaining eight portions with four origins—yielding forty-two aspects. Then, by way of support and door, another sixty material phenomena appear: the five beginning with the eye decad and the heart-basis decad. They are all gathered into one under the characteristic of undergoing alteration and seen as “This is form.” Immaterial phenomena then appear through the doors: the two sets of fivefold consciousness, three mind elements, and sixty-eight mind-consciousness elements—eighty-one mundane consciousnesses—and the seven mental factors that arise with each: contact, feeling, perception, volition, life, stability of mind, and attention. Supramundane consciousness is not apprehended because it has not yet been attained. All these are gathered into one under the characteristic of inclining and seen as “This is name” (Vernacular §3). 〔How to read〕This section has the densest numbers, and readers can easily become lost among forty-four, sixteen, eight, nine, and thirty-three. First see what the passage is doing: it dissects each part of the body—hair, sweat, stomach contents, fire, breath, and so forth—down to the level of material groups, counts them, and then gathers all of them into one heap under a single characteristic, undergoing alteration. It then gathers the eighty-one consciousnesses and seven universals into another heap under a single characteristic, inclining. The numbers are graduations on the dissecting knife, not facts to memorize. What matters is the act of “gathering into one”—hundreds of material phenomena become, in one sentence, “This is form.” 〔What is seen〕“Supramundane consciousness is not included because it has not yet been attained” marks an honest boundary: the path of insight observes what is actually in your hands, not what you have heard about. That is why defining name-and-form must precede the path and cannot be reversed.

§04 The Two Doors of the Eighteen Elements and Twelve Bases—Taking Eye-Sensitivity, Not the Lump of Flesh → Vernacular §4

One proceeding by way of the eighteen elements turns toward “the eye element in this individual existence ... through the mind-consciousness element.” But the practitioner does not take as the eye the mottled lump of flesh called “eye” in ordinary speech, fastened in the socket by sinew threads; only the eye-sensitivity described under derived materiality in the exposition of the aggregates is taken as the eye element. The four supporting elements, the surrounding color, odor, flavor, and nutritive essence, the safeguarding life faculty—nine conascent material phenomena—together with twenty kamma-born material phenomena in the body and sex decads and twenty-four unappropriated material phenomena in three nutritive-essence octads, make fifty-three remaining phenomena determined not to be the eye element. The same applies to the ear, nose, and tongue; the body element has forty-three remaining phenomena (some count sound with those originating from temperature and mind and say forty-five). The five sensitivities and their five objects are ten elements, the remaining materiality belongs to the phenomena element; the two sets of fivefold consciousness are five consciousness elements, the three mind elements one mind element, and the sixty-eight mind-consciousness elements one mind-consciousness element—thus eighty-one mundane consciousnesses make seven consciousness elements, while their associated contact and so forth belong to the phenomena element: ten and a half elements are form, seven and a half are name. By the twelve bases the method is the same: eye-sensitivity is the eye base ... the seven mundane consciousness elements are the mind base, and the remainder is the phenomena base; ten and a half bases are form and one and a half are name (Vernacular §4). 〔How to read〕“Do not take the lump of flesh; take only eye-sensitivity” is the heart of this section. In ordinary speech, “my eye” means the fleshy globe that turns and blinks. The Commentator says that is not the eye element: the eye element is the point of sensitivity within it that can receive visible form; the remaining fifty-three material phenomena are its supports, surroundings, safeguards, and neighbors. The “eye” is dismantled until only a function remains. This is a demonstration, in a single organ, of “seeing only name-and-form, not a person.” 〔What is seen〕“Some say forty-five”: the Commentator records another teacher’s count without deciding it. This is the honesty of a textual scholar. Readers need not take sides between forty-three and forty-five; the dispute over the count does not affect the judgment that “ten and a half elements are form, seven and a half are name.”

§05 The Two Doors of the Five Aggregates and the Brief Method—The Judgment Concerning Seventeen Produced Forms and Ten Forms → Vernacular §5

One proceeding by the five aggregates takes the four elements of fourfold origin; color, odor, flavor, and nutritive essence; the five sensitivities; basis-materiality, sex, the life faculty; and sound of twofold origin—seventeen material phenomena fit for comprehension, produced, and materiality-as-materiality. Bodily and verbal intimation, the space element, lightness, malleability, wieldiness, accumulation, continuity, aging, and impermanence—ten material phenomena—are not fit for comprehension; they are only alterations and delimitations in the mode of materiality, not produced materiality, though they are still called “materiality.” The twenty-seven are the materiality aggregate, while feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness arising with the eighty-one mundane consciousnesses are the four immaterial aggregates: the materiality aggregate is form, the four immaterial aggregates are name. In the brief method, “Whatever form there is is the four great primaries and derived materiality” is form, while “the mind base and a portion of the phenomena base” are name—“This is name; this is form; this is called name-and-form” (Vernacular §5). 〔How to read〕The distinction between the seventeen and the ten must be seen clearly. Aging, impermanence, accumulation, and continuity are also called “materiality,” but they are ways in which materiality changes, not materiality itself—like a shadow in relation to an object. What the path of insight “comprehends” are the seventeen produced forms; the ten alterations are the markings upon them. At this point the four doors contract into the shortest sentence: This is name; this is form. 〔What is seen〕The four doors differ in fineness—the four elements are the finest, the brief method the coarsest—but the Commentator gives them no ranking. It is enough to split “me” into two heaps. These are four ladders for different dispositions, not a four-level examination.

§06 Instruction for When Form Is Clear but the Immaterial Does Not Appear—Do Not Lay Down the Yoke: Three Similes of the Mirror, Sesame, and the Kataka Seed → Vernacular §6

If form has been apprehended through one of these doors but the subtle immaterial does not appear, the practitioner should not lay down the yoke, but should repeatedly examine, attend to, apprehend, and determine form. The more thoroughly washed, disentangled, and completely purified form becomes, the more naturally the immaterial phenomena taking it as object appear: as an unclean mirror is polished and the facial image appears of itself; as sesame meal is repeatedly sprinkled with hot water, kneaded, and pressed until oil emerges of itself; as a kataka seed is repeatedly rubbed until sediment sinks and the water clears. When form is purified, the opposing defilements settle, the mind becomes clear like water above mud, and the immaterial naturally appears. The meaning may also be illustrated through the similes of sugarcane, the thief, the ox, curd, the fish, and so forth (Vernacular §6). 〔How to read〕This is the gentlest and most practical passage in the entire unit. Name is subtler than form; many people see form clearly while name remains a mass of fog. The Commentator’s instruction is not “look harder at name,” but go back and see form more cleanly. When the mirror is clean, the image appears of itself; there is no need to chase it. 〔What is seen〕All three similes involve “not discarding the tool, but repeating the same action”—polishing the mirror, kneading the meal, rubbing the seed. On the path of insight there is no need to swap in a more sophisticated method; there is only carrying the same method through to purity. “Laying down the yoke” is an ox being unyoked halfway: the most common failure in practice is not taking the wrong road, but unyoking halfway along the right one.

For the General Reader

Take away two measures and one reminder. The two measures: what inclines toward an object is name; what undergoes alteration is form. Any thought today, any bodily sensation, belongs to one of these two heaps. In a single breath, try dividing “I am breathing” into “the chest and abdomen are changing” and “the mind inclines toward that change”; the work of purification of view begins there. The reminder: when name cannot be seen clearly, do not force your gaze upon name; go back and see form more cleanly. Once the mirror is clean, the image appears of itself.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–6 gives the complete, paragraph-by-paragraph translation of the establishment of purification of view, the door for one whose vehicle is serenity, the door of defining the four elements, the two doors of the eighteen elements and twelve bases, the two doors of the five aggregates and the brief method, and the instruction for when the immaterial does not appear.

Name is not “seen”; it “appears” after form has been seen cleanly—and once it appears, it escorts the names “being” and “person” off the stage

The Big Picture — How Name Appears After Form Is Purified, and Why the Commentator Calls on the Discourses to Speak for Him

The preceding unit dismantles form all the way down and then warns, “When the immaterial does not appear, go back and polish form.” This unit continues: for one whose apprehension of form has been thoroughly purified, name appears of itself in three ways—through contact, feeling, or consciousness (§1). Then come two admonitions. Only one for whom form has been thoroughly purified should undertake the immaterial; someone in a hurry to skip ahead will fall away like the mountain cow in the earth-kasiṇa chapter. Once apprehension is accomplished, the practitioner divides all phenomena of the three planes “like opening a casket with a sword, like splitting the root of twin palmyra palms” into two heaps, name and form, and reaches the decision: There is only name-and-form; there is no being, person, deity, or Brahmā (§2). Finally, the Commentator does not state the conclusion on his own, but cites three passages—the chariot stanza, the house simile, and the suffering stanza—to collate the meaning “There is only name-and-form; there is no being and no person” (§3). 〔What is seen〕This unit puts the finishing stroke on the arc’s dismantling of the person. Unit 18-01 teaches you to divide things into two heaps; this one teaches you, once those heaps are clearly distinguished, to say the sentence: there is no third thing called “I.” The Commentator’s recourse to scripture instead of speaking on his own is the honesty of a textual scholar, and the rivet that fastens “purification of view” to the Buddha’s word.

§01 The Immaterial Becomes Manifest in Three Ways—Through Contact, Feeling, or Consciousness → Vernacular §1

For one whose apprehension of form has been thoroughly purified, immaterial phenomena become manifest in three ways. Through contact: when apprehending “the earth element has hardness as its characteristic” and so forth, the initial impact is contact, the associated feeling is the feeling aggregate, perception the perception aggregate, volition together with contact the formations aggregate, and mind the consciousness aggregate; the same applies from the earth element in head-hair through that in in-breath and out-breath. Through feeling: the feeling experiencing the flavor of the object is the feeling aggregate, and the associated perception, contact and volition, and mind are respectively the perception, formations, and consciousness aggregates. Through consciousness: the consciousness cognizing the object is the consciousness aggregate, while its associated feeling, perception, contact, and volition belong to their respective aggregates. This method is to be applied, according to every distinction, to each of the four elements in the forty-two portions beginning with the earth element in kamma-originated head-hair, and to the doors for apprehending form beginning with the eye element (Vernacular §1). 〔How to read〕The three ways are three “entrances,” not three kinds of name. Some are awakened by “contact”—the instant mind strikes hardness. Some by “feeling”—the sensation that tastes it. Some by “consciousness”—the knowing. Whichever entrance one uses, the four immaterial aggregates appear together: name appears as a whole handful, not as strands picked up one by one. 〔What is seen〕Notice that every passage begins with the same material phenomenon—“the earth element has hardness as its characteristic.” The manifestation of name is bound tightly to the purification of form. This section does not teach a new technique; it displays what the closing statement of 18-01, “when form is purified, the immaterial appears of itself,” actually looks like.

§02 Only One Whose Apprehension of Form Is Thoroughly Purified Should Develop the Immaterial—The Mountain-Cow Warning and the Twofold Judgment of Name-and-Form → Vernacular §2

Immaterial phenomena become manifest in three ways only to one whose apprehension of form has been thoroughly purified; therefore one should engage in apprehending the immaterial only with thoroughly purified apprehension of form. If one abandons form and takes up the immaterial as soon as one or two material phenomena appear, one falls away from the meditation subject like the mountain cow described in the development of the earth kasiṇa. When one whose apprehension of form is purified undertakes the immaterial, the meditation subject increases, grows, and reaches fullness. One determines that the four immaterial aggregates appearing through contact and so forth are name, and that the four great primaries which are their objects and derived materiality are form. Thus the eighteen elements, twelve bases, and five aggregates—all phenomena of the three planes—are divided into name and form like opening a casket with a sword or splitting the root of twin palmyra palms, yielding the decision that apart from name-and-form there is no being, person, deity, or Brahmā (Vernacular §2). 〔How to read〕The weight of the mountain-cow warning lies in “when one or two material phenomena have become manifest.” This is not complete ignorance of form, but impatience after understanding a little. That is what falling away on the path of insight usually looks like. 〔What is seen〕The similes of “opening a casket with a sword” and “splitting the root of twin palmyra palms” say the same thing: one cut, two clean halves, with no hairline gap between them in which an “I” can hide. The four terms “being, person, deity, Brahmā” are listed together—even deities and Brahmās are no exception. This is the book’s characteristic thoroughness.

§03 Collating the Many Discourses—The Chariot Stanza, House Simile, and Suffering Stanza → Vernacular §3

Having determined name-and-form according to its actual function, in order to abandon the worldly conventions “being” and “person” more fully, transcend delusion about a being, and establish the mind on the ground of non-delusion, one collates through many discourses the meaning “There is only name-and-form; there is no being and no person”: as the name “chariot” depends on an assemblage of parts, the conventional name “being” exists when the aggregates are present; as space enclosed by timber, creepers, clay, and grass is called a house, space enclosed by bones, sinews, flesh, and skin is called form; only suffering arises, only suffering stands and passes away, and apart from suffering nothing arises and nothing ceases (Vernacular §3). 〔How to read〕The three passages approach from three angles. The chariot stanza says “being” is a name placed upon an assemblage. The house simile says “form” too is a name placed upon enclosed space—even the body is merely a space enclosed by bones, sinews, flesh, and skin. The suffering stanza gathers the arising and cessation of both into one statement: what arises is suffering, what ceases is suffering; there is nothing else. 〔What is seen〕The destination of this unit is the word “only”: only name-and-form, only suffering. The Commentator says the discourses are cited “in order to establish the mind on the ground of non-delusion.” Purification of view is not a theoretical conclusion, but ground on which the mind can stand without shaking. “Once the parts are dismantled, there is no chariot hiding behind them”: this is the first closure of the arc’s measuring rod of subtraction.

For the General Reader

Remember two things. First, name “appears”; it is not “hunted down.” The more cleanly form is seen, the more naturally one of the three entrances—contact, feeling, or consciousness—brings all four immaterial aggregates before you at once. If you are in a hurry to find name, first go back and polish form. Second, the chariot stanza is worth memorizing: “Just as the name ‘chariot’ arises dependent on an assemblage of parts, so, when the aggregates are present, there is the conventional name ‘being.’” The next time you say “I,” knowing that you are uttering a name placed upon an assemblage is the piece of ground of non-delusion this unit means to give you.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–3 gives the complete, paragraph-by-paragraph translation of the immaterial becoming manifest in three ways, the mountain-cow warning and twofold judgment of name-and-form, and the three passages collated from the discourses.

Chariot, house, puppet, bundles of reeds, drum and sound, blind and lame—the Commentator uses a chain of similes to make “only name-and-form, no being” visible to anyone, and then tells you that this “seeing” has three names

The Big Picture — The Final Stroke of Purification of View: From “Mere Designation,” Through “Mutual Dependence,” Beyond the Two Extremes

The preceding two units separate name and form into two heaps and cite scripture to establish “only name-and-form, no being.” This unit puts the final stroke on Chapter 18 as the Commentator shifts to simile for five successive movements. First, seven similes show that “being” and “person” are mere designations (§1). Next, grasping a being is shown necessarily to fall into the two extremes of eternalism and annihilationism—holding back and overshooting—while those with eyes see (§2). The puppet and bundles of reeds then show that name-and-form are empty, lifeless, and inactive yet mutually dependent (§3); drum and sound show that name-and-form do not mix yet condition one another (§4). Finally, the blind-and-lame simile and three boat stanzas show that name and form each lack independent power and occur through mutual dependence, and the final definition of purification of view is given: seeing name-and-form as they really are, having overcome the perception of a being and standing on the ground of non-delusion. It has two further names: determination of name-and-form and delimitation of formations (§5). 〔What is seen〕This unit is the collection of similes for the arc’s “dismantling of the person,” and one of the most densely figurative units in the whole book. What matters is the sequence of similes: first dismantle (chariot, house—the name is placed on a collection), then safeguard (the two extremes—after dismantling, do not fall into “nothing exists”), then establish (puppet, reeds, drum, blind and lame—there is no “person,” but there are “two heaps occurring in mutual dependence”). Subtraction does not reduce things to nothingness; it reduces them to “conditions.”

§01 Seven Similes Show That There Is Only Designation—Chariot, House, Fist, Lute, Army, City, and Tree → Vernacular §1

Hundreds of discourses reveal only name-and-form, not a being or person. When axle, wheels, frame, and shaft are assembled in one configuration, “chariot” is merely a designation; examined part by part in the ultimate sense, there is no thing called a chariot. Timber and the rest enclosing a space yield “house”; fingers and thumb, “fist”; trough and strings, “lute”; elephants and horses, “army”; walls, houses, and gateways, “city”; trunk, branches, and leaves, “tree”—all are mere designation. Likewise, when the five aggregates of clinging are present, “being” and “person” are mere designations; examined phenomenon by phenomenon, no being exists as the basis for grasping “I am” or “I.” In the ultimate sense there is only name-and-form. One who sees this way sees as it really is (Vernacular §1). 〔How to read〕Seven similes are listed in a single breath, but they repeat one gesture seven times: things collect, stand in one configuration, and receive a name. Chariot and tree frame the list; the middle five grow progressively larger (fist → lute → army → city), suggesting that a “collection” can be as small as a hand or as large as a city while the logic of naming remains the same. 〔What is seen〕“Mere designation” does not mean that names cannot be used—the Commentator himself continues to use “practitioner” and “bhikkhu.” It means do not take the name to be an entity hidden behind the parts. This sentence contains the whole of purification of view: seeing as it really is means seeing designation as designation.

§02 One Who Grasps a Being Must Fall into the Two Extremes of Eternalism and Annihilationism—The Discourse on Two Views and Three Kinds of People → Vernacular §2

One who abandons seeing as it really is and grasps that “a being exists” must admit either that it is destroyed or that it is not destroyed. Admitting indestructibility falls into eternalism; admitting destruction into annihilationism—because, as curd follows milk, there is no other thing that follows it. Grasping that a being is eternal is called holding back; grasping its annihilation is called overshooting. Thus the Blessed One says: of devas and humans beset by two views, some hold back (delighting, taking pleasure, and rejoicing in becoming, their minds neither entering, gaining confidence in, settling upon, nor resolving upon the Dhamma of becoming’s cessation); some overshoot (troubled, ashamed, and disgusted by existence, they delight in nonexistence: “After the body’s breakup this self is annihilated and disappears; this is peaceful, sublime, and true”); and those with eyes see (they see what has come to be as what has come to be and practice for disenchantment, dispassion, and cessation) (Vernacular §2). 〔How to read〕This section is the safety valve on “dismantling the person.” Someone who has just learned “there is no being” can slide most easily into annihilationism—“There is no self anyway, and death ends everything.” The Commentator calls that “overshooting,” just as bound by view as the eternalist’s “holding back.” The answer of those with eyes is not choosing a side, but “seeing what has come to be as what has come to be and practicing for disenchantment, dispassion, and cessation.” It is a path, not a position. 〔What is seen〕“Curd follows milk” is extremely concise: after curd there is no additional “owner of the curd” following it; likewise, after the aggregates there is no additional “being.” Thus the question “Is it destroyed or not?” cannot even get started. The two extremes are broken by breaking the question itself.

§03 Two Similes of the Puppet and Bundles of Reeds—Empty, Lifeless, Inactive, Yet Mutually Dependent → Vernacular §3

A wooden puppet is empty, lifeless, and inactive, yet the conjunction of wood and strings lets it walk and stand and makes it appear active and agentive. Name-and-form too are empty, lifeless, and inactive, yet through mutual conjunction they walk and stand and appear active and agentive. The Ancients say: in truth here are only name and form, with no being and no person; this is empty like a fabricated mechanism, merely a heap of suffering like grass and wood. Again, two bundles of reeds stand leaning upon each other, each supporting the other, and when one falls both fall; in five-aggregate becoming, name-and-form occur depending on one another, and when one falls at death both fall. The Ancients say: name and form are twins depending on each other; when one breaks, both break together through conditions (Vernacular §3). 〔How to read〕The puppet answers, “If there is no person, who moves?” The conjunction of wood and strings moves and looks like a person. The bundles of reeds answer, “If there is no person, how do name-and-form stand?” They stand leaning upon each other, and pulling one bundle away makes the other fall. Read together, the two similes say: empty, but not scattered; mutually dependent, but without an owner. 〔What is seen〕“Merely a heap of suffering, like grass and wood”: comparing a being to grass and wood is not contempt, but restores “suffering” from “my suffering” to “a heap of things that suffer.” This step releases the “sufferer”; suffering itself remains and is addressed only in later chapters.

§04 The Simile of Drum and Sound—Name-and-Form Do Not Mix, Yet Condition Each Other → Vernacular §4

When a stick strikes a drum and sound arises, drum is one thing and sound another; they do not mix, the drum is empty of sound and sound empty of the drum, yet sound is conditioned by the drum. So, when name arises dependent on form called support, door, and object, form is one thing and name another; they do not mix, name is empty of form and form empty of name, yet name occurs conditioned by form. The Ancients say: those with contact as the fifth arise neither from the eye, nor from visible form, nor from between the two; conditioned phenomena arise dependent on causes as sound arises when a drum is struck. The same applies to ear and sound, nose and odor, tongue and flavor, body and tangibility; conditioned phenomena arise neither from basis-materiality nor from the phenomena base, but dependent on causes as sound from the struck drum (Vernacular §4). 〔How to read〕The preceding section says mutual dependence; this one adds, “mutually dependent, but not mixed.” Drum is not sound, sound not drum, name not form, form not name—mutual dependence is not fusion into one mass. “Those with contact as the fifth” designates mental phenomena—contact, feeling, perception, volition, and mind. The stanza says they arise “neither from the eye, nor from visible form, nor from between the two,” closing three common misunderstandings: they do not emerge from inside the eye, from inside visible form, or from some thing between eye and form. They arise dependently; it is that simple. 〔What is seen〕“The drum is empty of sound, sound empty of the drum”: here emptiness means “does not contain.” Sound is not hidden inside the drum. Likewise, name is not hidden inside form, nor form inside name. “Only name-and-form” is divided another layer inward: even between name and form there is no fused entity to grasp.

§05 Name-and-Form Each Lack Power of Their Own—The Blind-and-Lame Simile, Three Boat Stanzas, the Definition of Purification of View, and Its Two Alternative Names → Vernacular §5

Name is powerless and cannot occur on its own: it does not eat, drink, speak, or assume a posture. Form too is powerless: it has no wish to eat, drink, speak, or assume a posture. Form occurs dependent on name and name dependent on form; when name wishes to eat, drink, speak, or assume a posture, form does those things. The simile is a person blind from birth and a lame person wishing to travel: the blind person has feet but no eyes, the lame person eyes but no feet; the blind carries the lame, who gives directions—“Leave the left, take the right; leave the right, take the left.” Each is powerless, but through mutual dependence they travel. Name-and-form likewise do not arise or occur through their own power, yet arise and occur through mutual dependence; it is not that they do not exist. Thus it is said: they are born and stand not by their own power; conditioned phenomena occur dependent on others, born weak in their own power. They are conditioned by others, originating from another as object; by object-conditions and other phenomena they arise. As people cross the ocean depending on a boat, the name-body occurs depending on form; as a boat travels depending on people, the form-body occurs depending on name; people and boat cross through mutual dependence, and name-and-form likewise depend upon one another. Thus for one determining name-and-form through various methods, seeing name-and-form as they really are, having overcome the perception of a being and standing on the ground of non-delusion, is purification of view. “Determination of name-and-form” and “delimitation of formations” are its alternative names. The chapter then closes (Vernacular §5). 〔How to read〕The blind-and-lame simile is the unit’s most vivid scene. Name has a “wish” but no limbs; form has limbs but no “wish.” Eating requires a name that wants to eat and a form that can move; neither is “the person eating.” The three boat stanzas are the same simile at sea. 〔What is seen〕Notice that the final definition of purification of view adds two qualifications to the statement in 18-01, “seeing name-and-form as they really are”: “having overcome the perception of a being” and “standing on the ground of non-delusion.” It is not merely knowing name-and-form: the perception of a being has been surpassed, and the mind stands upon ground free of delusion. The two alternative names, “determination of name-and-form” and “delimitation of formations,” name the same knowledge from different angles. An earlier reading in this edition once called this knowledge by another name; the base text has these two, and this rendering follows the base text.

For the General Reader

Four similes can serve you for life: chariot—a name is placed upon a collection; puppet—there is no person, but wood and strings move; bundles of reeds—they stand leaning on each other, and pulling one away makes the other fall; blind and lame—name, which wishes to eat, has no hands, while form, which can move, cannot wish: “eating” is the cooperation of two powerless things, not a person eating. Add one safety valve: “no being” does not mean “nothing exists.” Sliding that way is overshooting, just as bound by view as eternalism. The path of one with eyes is seeing as it really is, disenchantment, dispassion, and cessation.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–5 gives the complete, paragraph-by-paragraph translation of the seven similes, the discourse on two views, the puppet and bundles of reeds, drum and sound, the blind and lame with the three boat stanzas, and the definition and two alternative names of purification of view.