Discussions with Bhikkhu Yogānanda

……“The difference between viññāṇa and paññā is explained as paññā bhāvetabbā, viññāṇaṃ pariññeyyaṃ: paññā is to be developed, viññāṇa is to be understood. When paññā is fulfilled, viññāṇa is fully comprehended. As in the magic show: to see through the magic is to miss the show.”

The last sentence is a reference to Bhante Ñāṇananda’s short masterpiece The Magic of the Mind.

“In the floodlights of paññā there is no room for the shadows of viññāṇa. The delusion of self-love reflects a world, so there are the two: an I and a world. Reflections on the eye, reflections on the ear, reflections on the mind: taking these reflections that fall on the senses as true, the materialists go looking for a world out there. When the Buddha called all of that a mere illusion, he meant all, including concepts. That’s why it is said sabba dhammakkhayaṃpatto vimutto upadhisaṅ- khaye. Mind and dhammas are the last resort of delusion.”……Extracted from Questions & Answers On Dhamma by Bhikkhu K. Ñāṇananda

“Purana Kassapa, O sire Gotama, claims to be omniscient and all-seeing; he claims to have perfect knowledge and vision saying : ‘While walking, standing, sleeping and lying awake, knowledge and vision is ever-present to me.’ And he has declared: ‘I abide knowing and seeing an infinite world with an infinite knowledge.‘ But Gotama, this Nigantha Nathaputta too, claims to be omniscient and all-seeing; he too claims to have perfect knowledge and vision saying: ‘While walking, standing, sleeping and lying awake, knowledge and vision is ever present to me.’ And he has declared: ‘I abide knowing and seeing a finite world with a finite knowledge.‘ Out of these two professors of knowledge, sire Gotama, who contradict each other, which one has spoken the truth and which one the falsehood ?”—

The Buddha, however, refuses to act as arbiter in this conflict of viewpoints. Instead, he says: “Enough O Brahmins, let that be.1 Let be your question: Out of these two professors.  of knowledge who contradict each other, which one has spoken the truth and which one the falsehood?” Brahmins, I will preach to you the Dhamma. Listen attentively ……. ” And he did preach it, pointing out, in the course of it, that in the terminology of the noble ones, ‘the world’ is defined as the five strands of sense-pleasures and that the ‘end of the world’ is Arahantship itself. 

One might wonder why the Buddha set aside such a clear-cut question. For one thing, ‘the world’, according to the Buddha, had to be redefined, so as to bring out its phenomenal nature. But there is probably another reason. Both worthies involved in this contest for supremacy claimed omniscience, but whereas the former saw ‘an infinite world with a infinite knowledge’ the latter saw ‘a finite world with a finite knowledge’.1 Now, the former could, within the bounds of logic, point out a flaw in the latter’s position: “You are seeing a finite world because your knowledge is limited……read more..  (page no 21-22 – Magic of the Mind –  Bhikkhu K. Ñāṇananda

What do signs signify ? “Things of course” — the less sophisticated would readily answer. As far as common sense goes, signs presumably stand for the ’things’ we perceive with their aid. And the ‘things’ are those forms we see, the sounds we hear, the scents we smell, the flavours we taste, the objects we touch and the ideas we cognize. The more sophisticated would, however, prefer to be more precise. They would take up the position that behind those changing attributes that we perceive with our imperfect senseapparatus, there lies an unchanging substance, an essence, a noumenon.

Though analysis fails to reveal any such real essence, a ‘Ding-an-sich’ under the ever-receding layers of qualities and attributes,1 they would still maintain that, after all, there could not possibly be an attribute without a substance — a quality without a ‘thing’ that it ’qualifies’. According to the Ka‘laka‘ra‘ma Sutta, a Tathagata does not conceive of a visible thing as apart from sight or an audible thing as apart from hearing or a thing to be sensed as apart from sensation or a cognizable thing as apart from cognition. Furthermore, as the Suttas often make it clear, all percepts as such are to be regarded as mere signs (safifia‘, nimiz‘z‘d).

Hence while the worldling says that he perceives ‘things’ with the help of signs, the Tathagata says that all we perceive are mere signs. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches and ideas are, all of them, signs which consciousness pursues. But still the question may be asked; “What do these signs signify ?” “Things, of course” — the Tathagata would reply. ‘Things’, however, are not those that the worldling has in mind when he seeks an answer to this question. Lust, hatred and delusion are the ‘things’ which, according to the teaching of the Tathagata are signified by all sense-percepts. “Lust, friend, is a something, hatred is a something, delusion is a something. “Lust, friends is something significative, hatred is something significative, delusion is something significative”- Extracted from Magic of the Mind – (Page 13-14) Bhikkhu K. Ñāṇananda

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