Impermanent. According to the answers of Venerable Sariputta in the Precepts of Conduct, a bhikkhu with pure moral conduct must practice Vipassana meditation in order to see the five aggregates of clinging as impermanent, as suffering, as ill... as not-self. Immediately following this sutra in the Samyutta Nikaya, there is a sutta titled the Sutavanta Sutta. We can consider it to be the same sutta, as a sister, to the Sutta Silavanta because it has the same content, only the difference is the noun bhikkhu, here sutvanta, an adept monk. The word sutta means "to hear." In the past there were no written documents, and it is also possible that according to the custom at that time there was no record of the Buddha's teachings. So students only learn by listening to the teacher's words. Hence the word sutta means what one learns, and sutvanta means one who acquires knowledge through study, one who hears much and knows well. In this discourse, Venerable Mahakotthika asked Venerable Sariputta the same question as in the Silavanta Sutta: "What things should an erudite bhikkhu observe carefully?" And the answer is the same — “a bhikkhu who is well versed in the Buddhadharma should observe the five aggregates of grasping and see that they are impermanent, are suffering, are ill…are not-self. So these two sutras can be considered as one. To see the five aggregates of clinging as impermanent and so on... what should be done? Concentration is needed. Without concentration, there is no hope to see the five aggregates of clinging as impermanent and so on... Concentration is an essential element in meditation practice. To practice samatha or vipassana meditation, this essential part is required. What to do to get concentration? Must practice mindfulness. Without mindfulness, there cannot be concentration, because mindfulness means being fully aware of the object. So to have concentration, it is necessary to practice mindfulness. What does it take to practice mindfulness? Need diligence. Without effort it is impossible to practice mindfulness. The three essential and important factors for the practice of mindfulness are right concentration, mindfulness, and right effort. Then, with the help of diligence and mindfulness, there will be concentration. Once there is concentration or calmness of mind, the mind will be free of obstacles. After that, you will begin to see the five aggregates of clinging as impermanent, as suffering, as sick, etc.. Of the three main factors of meditation, mindfulness is the most important. Because it is a necessary condition in meditation practice. We need to have strong mindfulness, the stronger the better. But be careful with the two factors of effort and concentration. Sometimes diligence can be too little or too much, and determination can be too little or too much. If the effort is too little, we cannot practice mindfulness. And if we put in too much effort, we also cannot practice mindfulness. Too much effort will lead to agitation and restlessness. When yogis are impatient to achieve something, to attain enlightenment, to achieve results. With that impatience, meditators tend to exert more effort than is necessary. And when the effort is too much, the mind is shaken or excited. When the mind is agitated, it cannot stay on the object. So we should avoid being too diligent when we practice meditation. Concentration is sometimes more than necessary. When there is too much concentration, meditators tend to lose or reduce their effort. As concentration is increased, the meditator's energy level declines again causing the meditator to now become lazy or sleepy. When lack of diligence, then the concentration necessary for meditation will be hindered. If you want the meditation practice to proceed smoothly, this vicious cycle should be avoided. Effort and concentration need to be just enough, they need to be balanced. How to balance them? Zen masters know this, and if they follow their instructions, there won't be too much effort or too much concentration. When you practice meditation you are instructed to be mindful of two objects – the in-breath, the out-breath, or the rising and falling of the abdomen. But when an object becomes prominent in the present, one should be mindful of that object until it disappears. Then return to the nose breath (or abdominal movement.) So the basic practice is mindfulness on two objects (1) the breath in the nose or the rising and falling movement in the abdomen, and (2) whatever object arises in the present moment. Why two objects? Why not an object? Why not more than two objects? If mindfulness of more than two objects is possible, there will be a lot of effort and thus will cause restlessness. If there is an object to focus on, paying full attention to an object is also not advised. While concentration can be achieved, in this case concentration may become excessive. Thus, so that the effort is neither too much nor too little, there are two objects to keep the mindfulness strong, steady, complete, and free from tension and agitation. Placing mindfulness on just two objects helps the yogi to balance effort and concentration, two important factors in the practice of meditation. They have to be balanced. They should always be just enough, not too much and not too little. In response to Venerable Mahakotthika the first two questions, Venerable Sariputta said that a virtuous bhikkhu and a knowledgeable bhikkhu should focus on the five aggregates objects of attachment seeing them as impermanent. , is suffering, and so on... Speaking of "knowledgeable bhikkhus", there is a problem posed. How much knowledge must be enough before he practices meditation? If you read the Purification Way, you might think that you need to know a lot before you practice Vipassana meditation. The Purification of the Way is a book written by the great Buddha, Buddhaghosa, a scholar bhikkhu, in the fourth century of the solar calendar. This book was written for the meditating monks, of course the author considers these readers to have a thorough understanding of the teachings in the book. But for those who are not very familiar with the Buddhadharma, The book is made up of three parts and is difficult to read. The subject of the first part is about the purification of virtue. Part two talks about concentration, explains the forty topics of samatha, how to prepare for meditation, how to find a teacher, and other details of samatha. The book also explains the meaning of the abhinnas of the four kinds of wisdom that the practitioner attains after attaining the rupa and immaterial jhānas. The third part talks about wisdom, that is, about Vipassana wisdom. Venerable Buddhaghosa begins this section with details on the aggregates, bases, elements, roots, dependent origination, and the Four Noble Truths. Then he explained the practice of insight meditation. Reading the Visuddhimagga, one has the impression that before practicing vipassana, one must be familiar with all the details of the five aggregates, or of the doctrine of dependent origination. I don't think you have mastered the details of the above topics. God likes Sakka, King of the gods, once asked the Buddha how much knowledge a bhikkhu should have, enough to practice and to attain Arahantship. The Buddha said, "A bhikkhu hears that all things are not worth clinging to. Hearing such teaching, this bhikkhu knows all things directly." This means that, after hearing that all dhammas caused by craving or wrong views, are not worth clinging to, he can practice vipassana. So the bhikkhu needs only to hear so much, that all things should not be considered permanent, happy with a soul or a self. If that is all he knows, he can also practice meditation. Therefore, one does not need to know much about the Buddhadharma to be able to practice meditation. (I think you like to hear that.) The commentary explains one more detail that if one knows there are the Four Noble Truths, and knowing that the first two truths belong to the cycle of birth and death, and the latter two, leading to liberation from samsara, one can practice meditation on the first two. If you understand that much, you will have enough knowledge to practice meditation. The Four Noble Truths include two that are mundane, and the other two are mundane. When practicing Vipassana meditation, practice only the first two, worldly truths—The Truth of Suffering and the Noble Truth of the Collection. The third Noble Truth, the Noble Truth of Cessation, must be experienced, and the Fourth Noble Truth, the Path to the cessation of suffering, arises in the moment of enlightenment, which is the result of the practice of vipassana meditation. Having understood that much, there is enough knowledge to practice vipassana meditation. What about understanding the theory of causality? This teaching is also clearly explained in the Purification Path. In this case, the footnote helps a lot. If there is a cause, and the result of that cause, you already know what the cause and effect are. Even though we do not know all the details of dependent origination, as long as we know that there is a cause and its effect, and that they are related according to the law of cause and effect, we are considered to have an understanding of dependent origination. In short, the law of causation holds that mental and physical states always arise according to conditions. According to this doctrine, everything in this world is conditioned. Thus, just knowing that there are conditioned things, and that there are conditions conditioned by the above conditions, is enough to assume that most of the theory of causality is understood. This is quoted from the suttas, commentaries and sub-commentaries. Those who have no knowledge of the scriptures or of commentaries, but are able to think, consider the following questions. Two months after the Buddha attained enlightenment, The Buddha gave his first sermon to his five disciples. Did the Buddha's five disciples also know what the Four Noble Truths are, the five aggregates, the ground or cause and effect? Or ask that the five disciples of the Buddha understood the Abhidhamma through knowledge from a previous life? Someone will say, “Because they have accumulated a lot of perfections and experiences in their previous lives, they are special people, with special gifts. So when they listen to the Buddha's teaching, all their understandings are already in them." But it can be asserted that these five disciples could not have the above knowledge. These discoveries of the Buddha were not known to any living being until the Buddha gave his first sermon at the Isipatana Deer Park. So these disciples, having no knowledge of the five aggregates, cause and effect, etc., they learned to understand by hearing the Buddha's first teaching. As a result of hearing the Dharma, all became Sotapannas and later, Arahants. Similar examples can be found in the lectures as well as in the commentaries. Let's take another example. Venerable Sariputta was not yet a Buddhist when he met Venerable Assaji. At that time he followed the religion of another teacher, and knew very little about the Buddha's teachings. But being impressed with Venerable Assaji's appearance, he asked Venerable Assaji to teach him the Dharma. Venerable Assaji read a verse with four lines, and the commentary states that after hearing only the first two lines of the verse, Sariputra became a monk, and soon became a disciple of the Buddha. Venerable Sariputta was a wise man after the Buddha, for him it was not difficult to acquire knowledge while listening to Venerable Assaji's verse. And we are not as gifted as the five disciples of the Buddha, considering we are here more than two thousand five hundred years after the Buddha. So I think we should accept it too. It is necessary to know a little about the Buddhadharma, but not much. If only understood as having five aggregates, they are impermanent, suffering and not-self; and have the Four Noble Truths – if you have heard, read or known the above, I think you can practice Vipassana meditation. Knowledge of the aggregates is very beneficial because practical experience can be verified with theories. When we meditate, we experience many things and many times we don't know what they are. But if we have a deep understanding of the aggregates, we will know what is happening and what is experienced. For example, a person knows the road map before going somewhere—when they get there they know where they are going, and know where to go. Again, While practicing under the guidance of a Zen master, knowing a little about the Dharma is enough. The Zen master will teach about the five aggregates, nama and rupa, etc.. So feel free to practice Vipassana meditation even if you haven't read the Pure Path, or know nothing about the Abhidhamma. The Zen master will provide insights. this and anything else deemed necessary. This is not to discourage the study of the Buddhadharma. Studying the Buddhadharma is very good, it is very valuable to know what the Buddha taught. If there is a more practice-oriented approach, it is possible to practice right now, without having to study much about the Buddhadharma. But if you want to share your knowledge with others, or hope that one day you will be a teacher, or right now, then you definitely have to gather some knowledge of the Buddhadharma. We now return to Venerable Sariputta's reply when he said that a virtuous bhikkhu and an educated bhikkhu must attentively observe the five aggregates subject to attachment, which are non-existent. usually, is suffering, is sick... is not-self. The commentary says that one must know three things about impermanence. (1) What is impermanent? We often say “impermanent, impermanent,” but what is impermanence? (2) What is the sign that it is impermanent? We must know the characteristic, the sign of impermanence. (2) What is repetition? What is extraordinary? When we say "impermanent", what do we mean? The five aggregates are impermanent, the Buddha taught. It is so, but through the practice of Vipassana you will eventually see it. So what is impermanent? The answer is that all the aggregates, not just the five aggregates of attachment, are impermanent. There is a difference between "aggregate" and "aggregate clinging". "When I say the aggregate of attachment, I mean the mundane aggregate. But when we speak of aggregates, the aggregates of mundane are also included. The aggregates of the world and the world are both impermanent. Mind Dao belongs to the supramundane aggregate. It also belongs to the aggregate of consciousness and belongs to the supramundane. But the Path consciousness arises and passes away immediately, followed by Fruition consciousness, and also ceases immediately. So the types of consciousness included in the supramundane aggregate are also impermanent. When we speak of impermanence, we mean that all dharmas are impermanent. But in the Buddha's book, we say "the five aggregates," instead of "all things in the world or things." Why do we say that the five aggregates are impermanent? What do we see that tells us they are impermanent? There must be some sign or characteristic to indicate their impermanence. Those signs are like flags so that we understand the five aggregates as impermanent. Perhaps you all know those characteristics. According to the Pure Land Path, birth, death, and change are characteristics of impermanence. First there is birth, then there is change, becoming. Then there is the descending and the passing away. Observing the aggregates, we see that they arise and remain for a short time, and then pass away. When we see them constantly arising, changing, and passing away, we know the characteristics or signs of the aggregates as impermanent. And know that the characteristics of impermanence are arising, then descending, and changing. change. There are three stages of existence: birth, staying for a while, and passing away. They are regarded as the three sub-stages of a thought-moment. When we see the state of mind arising, remaining for a while, and then passing away, we know that this state is impermanent. Knowing or seeing impermanence must come from experience. This seeing and knowing is not from books, it's not from the teacher either. It has to come from within.. So don't be satisfied with what you read in books or listen to lectures. You have to see for yourself, know for yourself. Meditation practice is essential to see impermanence just as Venerable Sariputta did. What to do to prove to yourself that the real dharmas are impermanent? It's actually very simple. Need to observe things, always watch the mind. Just observe them and you will definitely see them arising and passing away. When practicing vipassana meditation, sometimes note the mind. When the mind is free, note "distracting the mind" until it stops. Then back to the main topic. Thus through experience, it is seen that thinking is impermanent because it arises, remains for a short time, and passes away. The impermanence of the five aggregates, of body and mind, by self-seeing through the practice of vipassana. Having seen for himself the impermanence of dharmas, without following faith, blindly accepting what others say about the impermanence of the five aggregates. We can prove it to be true. If you practice and pay attention to what happens in the present moment, it will be impossible not to see impermanence. Through experience itself, we discover the secrets of body and mind. That is the meaning of "sanditthika," a characteristic of the Dharma that teaches that all things must be seen and known by oneself, and not by hearing from others. The commentary describes this characteristic in a different way, but with the same meaning. The commentaries speak of the characteristic of impermanence that it ceases immediately after arising. The language in books is different from the language used in everyday life and is often used to impress others. So when I say the characteristic of impermanence is "Not existing, after being, "You may wonder what the Master is saying. If we want to impress others, we use scriptural language, but that's not our goal. The purpose we want to let others know, rather than want others to admire our knowledge of books. So it has to be said in a way that everyone can understand. Now the Master said right away: The characteristic of impermanence is that it ceases immediately after birth, so you can understand me easily. If you want to know whether a state is permanent or impermanent, consider its passing away rather than its arising. Seeing cessation is more important than seeing arising. For if there is only arising and no cessation, there may be the opposite understanding and thinking that the state is permanent. So seeing the destruction. is important. However, cessation immediately follows birth. When there is no birth, there can be no cessation, so these two states go together—arising and passing away. When you see a state arising and passing away, you will know it as impermanent. So cessation after birth is a characteristic, a sign of impermanence. The third question to be discussed is, what is it like to see the repetition of impermanence? Here is the contemplation of impermanence, aniccanupassana in Pali. The word anicca is "impermanent". The word anupassana includes anu, meaning "repeatedly" and passana, meaning "seeing." Anupassana means seeing again and again, continuously observing. But this word is often translated as contemplation. When the word aniccanupassana is translated as contemplation of impermanence, we often think of it as just thinking about impermanence. But that's not an unusual sight. We want to understand impermanence by repeating over and over that "impermanent, impermanent, impermanent. But that is not the true understanding of impermanence. We should be careful not to deceive ourselves in makeshift assumptions. Many times people say, "Ah, this is impermanent, this is impermanent," and think that they really understand the impermanence of a thing. In fact, what they're doing is just repetition, like a parrot. The real impermanence that we need to see in order to gain insight is moment after moment of impermanence. There is a kind of false impermanence that can be understood without meditation—dropping a glass, breaking it, saying it is impermanent. There is no need for meditation to understand that kind of impermanence. Or when someone dies and says, "Oh, that person is impermanent," that understanding is not called insight. It does not lead to boredom of the five aggregates. There is no boredom of the five aggregates, there will be no reduction of defilements in the mind and enlightenment will not be attained. The pseudo-understanding of impermanence cannot help us get bored with body and mind. It will not lead to enlightenment. This knowledge will not help us at all. So it is necessary to practice and gain a deep understanding of real impermanence, not a false impermanence. Aniccanupassana, contemplation of impermanence, as discussed earlier, is the continuous seeing of impermanence while contemplating the arising and passing away of the aggregates. This understanding is not due to thinking, nor is it due to not observing the five aggregates. If it is truly impermanent, it must be seen immediately while observing the arising and passing away of the aggregates during vipassana meditation. If you don't meditate, there will be no contemplation of impermanence. It is possible to have the actual experience of contemplation of impermanence during vipassana meditation, but when coming out of meditation there is no aniccanupassana. There can only be recollection or recollection of aniccanupassana. There are three characteristics of conditioned phenomena: anicca impermanent, dukkha dukkha, and anatta not-self. It is said that when there are no Buddhas in the world, impermanence and suffering can also be taught, but no one but the Buddhas can teach about not-self. But the Buddha himself in one of the suttas, said that if one characteristic is seen, the other two characteristics are also seen. That is, if you see impermanence, you also see the characteristic of suffering and the characteristic of not-self. Only the Buddhas can teach the theory of anatta. When there are no Buddhas, is it possible to contemplate impermanence? Can contemplation of impermanence be taught? The footnote raises this issue, and writes that the teaching of contemplation of impermanence in the absence of the Buddhadharma, is impermanent impermanence, it is not moment by moment impermanent. If one sees impermanence from one moment to the next, when there is no Buddha, it is also possible to see impermanence when there is no Buddha. The sub-commentary states that impermanence and suffering if taught in the absence of the Buddha, they are false impermanence and artificial suffering, not real impermanence and real suffering that we see through the practice of vipassana meditation. . If one sees impermanence from one moment to the next, when there is no Buddha, it is also possible to see impermanence when there is no Buddha. The sub-commentary states that impermanence and suffering if taught in the absence of the Buddha, they are false impermanence and artificial suffering, not real impermanence and real suffering that we see through the practice of vipassana meditation. . If one sees impermanence from one moment to the next, when there is no Buddha, it is also possible to see impermanence when there is no Buddha. The sub-commentary states that impermanence and suffering if taught in the absence of the Buddha, they are false impermanence and artificial suffering, not real impermanence and real suffering that we see through the practice of vipassana meditation.END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).WORLD VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST ORDER=BUDDHIST DHARMA WHEEL GOLDEN MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THE WOMEN OF THE SAKYA CLAN CHAN TANH.VIETNAMESE TRANSLAT ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THE WOMEN OF THE SAKYA CLAN CHAN TANH.