Exploring the Path - Pāli Course

Puttā matthi dhanammatthi,¹ iti bālo vihaññati;²
Attā hi attano natthi, kuto³ puttā kuto dhanaṃ.⁴

I have sons, I possess wealth, this is how a foolish perturbs oneself.
And truly so, when one indeed is not one’s own,
How could that be one’s sons or wealth?

No detailed history exists of how the Buddha and his group of five friends dwelled from the time the he taught the Dhammacakkappavattanasutta⁵ to the time he delivered the second important sutta, Anattalakkhaṇasutta. All that is handed down is that after Koṇḍañña was established on the path and became renowned as Aññāsikoṇḍañño, all of them settled down in the deer park of Migadāya and remained with the Buddha, receiving his instructions:⁶

… Atha kho bhagavā tadavasese bhikkhū dhammiyā kathāya ovadi anusāsi.⁷

Each day just three at a time would go around and collect alms for all six, who thus lived on what the three had collected:

… yaṃ tayo bhikkhū piṇḍāya caritvā āharanti,⁸ tena chabbaggo⁹ yāpeti.¹⁰

This practice continued during the following days until all the rest of the pañcavaggiyā bhikkhū, in the order of Vappa, Bhaddiya, Mahānāma and then Assaji, had attained the fruits and got established as Sotāpanna, leaving behind the three lower fetters of sakkāyadiṭṭhi, vicikicchā, sīlabbataparāmāso.¹¹

Only after all five were established with the first fruit of the path, the Buddha delivered this very sutta, by the end of which all of them became Arahant, with minds being completely freed from all impurities (āsava), thus rewarding the world with six fully Enlightened Ones:

 Imasmiñca pana veyyākaraṇasmiṃ¹² bhaññamāne¹³ pañcavaggiyānaṃ bhikkhūnaṃ anupādāya¹⁴ āsavehi cittāni vimucciṃsu. Tena kho pana samayena cha loke arahanto honti.

The concept of ‘I’, of ‘self’, the understanding that oneself or others are living entities with a soul, an ego or any substantial self is a general, widespread and deeply ingrained belief. Even if one might — on an intellectual or conceptual level or as a result of logical analysis — be convinced that there may be no permanent self, real understanding that supports liberation has to result from the experience of anicca, dukkha and anattā. The Buddha also expounded this in Sāvatthi in reference to the mind-matter phenomena, the five aggregates of clinging (pañcupādānakkhandhā) in the Yadaniccasutta:¹⁵

Sāvatthinidānaṃ. — Rūpaṃ, bhikkhave, aniccaṃ. Yadaniccaṃ taṃ dukkhaṃ; yaṃ dukkhaṃ tadanattā; yadanattā taṃ ‘netaṃ mama, nesohamasmi, na meso attā’ti evametaṃ yathābhūtaṃ¹⁶ sammappaññāya daṭṭhabbaṃ. Vedanā aniccā. Yadaniccaṃ taṃ dukkhaṃ; yaṃ dukkhaṃ tadanattā; yadanattā taṃ ‘netaṃ mama, nesohamasmi, na meso attā’ti evametaṃ yathābhūtaṃ sammappaññāya daṭṭhabbaṃ. Saññā aniccā…pe… saṅkhārā aniccā… viññāṇaṃ aniccaṃ. Yadaniccaṃ taṃ dukkhaṃ; yaṃ dukkhaṃ tadanattā; yadanattā taṃ ‘netaṃ mama, nesohamasmi, na meso attā’ti evametaṃ yathābhūtaṃ sammappaññāya daṭṭhabbaṃ. Evaṃ passaṃ…pe… nāparaṃ itthattāyāti pajānātī’ti.

The body, Bhikkhus, is impermanent. What is impermanent, that is suffering. What is suffering, that is not-self. What is not-self should be understood as ‘This is not mine,’ ‘I am not this,’ ‘This is not myself.’ In this way it should be understood with perfect wisdom in its true characteristic.

Sensation is impermanent. What is impermanent, that is suffering. What is suffering, that is not-self. What is not-self should be understood as ‘This is not mine,’ ‘I am not this,’ ‘This is not myself.’ In this way it should be understood with perfect wisdom in its true characteristic.

Perception, … mental conditioned reactions, … and consciousness are impermanent. What is impermanent, that is suffering. What is suffering, that is not-self. What is not-self, should be considered, ‘This is not mine,’ ‘I am not this,’ ‘This is not myself.’ In this way it should be understood with perfect wisdom in its true characteristic.

The Buddha opens this enlightening Anattalakkhaṇasutta with an apparently similar intellectual and logical approach easily comprehensible for any rationality:

Rūpañca hidaṃ, bhikkhave, attā abhavissa, nayidaṃ rūpaṃ ābādhāya saṃvatteyya, labbhetha ca rūpe – ‘evaṃ me rūpaṃ hotu, evaṃ me rūpaṃ mā ahosī’ti. Yasmā ca kho, bhikkhave, rūpaṃ anattā, tasmā rūpaṃ ābādhāya saṃvattati, na ca labbhati rūpe – ‘evaṃ me rūpaṃ hotu, evaṃ me rūpaṃ mā ahosī’ti.¹⁷

Were body self, then this very body would not be subject to disease and the body could be obtained thus: ‘Let my body be such and such, let my body be not thus.’ But as body is not-self, so it is subject to disease, and the body cannot be obtained thus: ‘Let my body be such and such, let my body be not thus.’

He then emphasizes in the second part of the sutta that this proper understanding of anattā is preceded by realizing the impermanent nature of each of the pañcupādānakkhandhā which in itself yields the realization of suffering and thus lays a base for experientially derived perfect knowledge of anattā:

… na meso attā’ti evametaṃ yathābhūtaṃ sammappaññāya daṭṭhabbaṃ.

… this is not myself - must be realized with full wisdom in its true characteristic.