The Living Computer
Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C06296
“I experience anicca, so I understand it. I experience dukkha, so I understand it. I do not experience anattā. How can I know it and understand it? How to experience anattā?”
~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
Regarding this subject, it’s useful to consider that before the Buddhist time there were quite a few people who understood the subjects of aniccaṃ (impermanence), and dukkhaṃ (dukkha-ness). For example the Buddha spoke of a teacher named Araka, in a distant city, who explained and taught impermanence as well as the Buddha himself. Now it doesn’t say in the scriptures where exactly this distant city is, but we think the teacher might be Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher who taught panta rhei – ‘All is flowing,’ ‘Everything flows,’ ‘All is in flux.’ Heraclitus lived at the same time as the Buddha and one of his central teachings was that of impermanence, so perhaps this is who the Buddha was referring to. Anyway, this is just one example that before the Buddha’s teachings there were many people who knew about impermanence and dukkha, but that anattā (not-self) was another matter, and it took the Buddha to make this known. And still, it’s not so easy to understand. Impermanence and dukkha are relatively easy to understand but anattā is more difficult. So what one needs to do is to examine life, examine these bodies and minds to see how they just happen naturally, that everything just happens naturally according to the law of nature, that the body is a collection of saṅkhāras, of conditioned concocted things which arise and pass away, and that the mind is also nothing but a flow of saṅkhāras, of concocted things which are concocted through conditions – they arise, perform some function and then cease – that this is what’s going on in life, this is just naturally what is taking place. And then when we watch the natural flow of body and mind, we come to see how it is impossible to achieve desires. When we operate through the illusion of self, we think that it’s possible to get what we want, but if we look more deeply, we see that it’s not possible to get what we want, and this is the first level of understanding not-self – to see that as these saṅkhāras of mind and body flow onward, they don’t listen to anyone, they don’t follow the orders or commands of anyone, and so it’s impossible for us to get what we want. To see this is one level of understanding anattā.
Another way of understanding and experiencing not-self requires that you understand the law of idappaccayatā (conditionality, the Buddhist Law of Nature) quite well. We have tried our best to help you and to encourage you to study and understand this law of idappaccayatā or the fact that everything happens dependent on conditions, on other things. When we see the facts of idappaccayatā, both within us and around us, when we see that everything just happens through causes and conditions, and when we see that things are idappaccayatā themselves and that they happen according to the law of idappaccayatā, then we see that things don’t come according to our desires. Things happen according to the law of idappaccayatā, not according to our wants and desires. So the more we understand idappaccayatā, the more we will understand not-self. We just don’t have the ability or power to control things so that they will happen the way we want them to happen, because they are under the control of idappaccayatā.
The body is idappaccayatā, the mind is idappaccayatā, and even if there was some soul which would die, or experience the death of the body, and then be reborn in some other body, then such a soul would not be a self (attā), it would merely be idappaccayatā. Such a belief in a soul that is reborn after death is a belief of other religions – it’s not a belief in Buddhism. In Buddhism there is just idappaccayatā – everything happens according to causes and conditions. There is no self or soul that goes and gets reborn. Buddhism teaches that everything, absolutely, is not-self. Body and mind are not-self. There’s no self or soul that will be reborn after death.
Therefore if we wish to have something which is the highest power, which is above everything else, and controls and directs everything, then that is idappaccayatā. This law of idappaccayatā is in control of everything. It’s permanent and unchanging, similar to what in other religions is called ‘God.’
So even if we have some ultimate power or law such as idappaccayatā, we don’t consider that to be attā, self. In other religions, this highest power or principle is considered to be the ultimate self or something like that, or to be some ‘supreme attā’ or Paramatman, but in Buddhism it’s all considered to be anattā, even idappaccayatā, even God. Even if you wish to speak in terms of ‘God,’ Buddhism will insist that God is not-self.
Even if we have some highest self – some traditions like to speak of the ‘higher self’ – but no matter how high this self may be, we still insist that it is anattā, not-self. Even the highest self is not-self because it’s merely idappaccayatā. No matter how high or sublime some self may seem, it merely happens according to causes and conditions and is therefore not-self.
If we have attā, self, then the thing which necessarily follows is attaniya (of-self). Once there is self, there are all the things of-self or that belong to self, and then there are all these burdens. When there are things belonging to self, then there are all these things to burden and create problems for the self. So to not have any attā or attaniya, any self or of-self, is to be free, to be released from all bondage, from all burdens. This is much better.
If this mind has attā, self, and attaniya, of-self, then it carries a lot of burdens with it. This mind isn’t free – it’s not peaceful because of these burdens. This is because in this world there are all kinds of things which affect and disturb the attā and attaniya. All these disturbances will then create problems for the self and that which is of-self, and so the mind can never find any peace. But when the mind has no more attā or attaniya, then it is free, it’s peaceful, there’s nothing that can disturb it, limit it, or harm it.
The mind which is free or void is the mind that perfectly knows or is enlightened to the fact that nothing is attā or attaniya. When the mind has thoroughly, completely, perfectly realized that all things are not-self – that there is nothing which belongs to self – then this is the mind which is void, and this same mind has tremendous power. This mind that is free is no longer limited, and so it can be said to be almighty. The void mind is almighty or all powerful, and this is the mind which is emancipated. This is the meaning of salvation.
(From the retreat “The Living Computer,” as translated from the Thai by Santikaro)
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Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu in 1990-1991 to foreign meditators attending Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage courses.
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