by Tang Huyen

All barriers are self-erected. The self itself is self-erected, otherwise there would be no way to stop it. When it stops, only it stops itself.

It seems trite, but is true, to say that all barriers
are self-erected. The self itself is self-erected,
otherwise there would be no way to stop it. When
it stops, only it stops itself.

This kind of question — what could possibly convince
a well-established, exhaustively mentated self to just
abdicate? — cannot be answered. For if the self gives
itself up, or if the mind empties itself out and
surrenders, it just happens (it comes as close as
humanly possible to an ultimate experience), and all
explanations are going to be contrived and forced.
Since the Buddha explicitly says that his Law
(Dharma) is to be forsaken when it has done its job,
what he implies is that it is a temporary means,
which does its job but perhaps won't pass muster
beyond that. The Law is an a posteriori finding and
may or may not measure up to anything outside of
its scope, for example a priori standards.

There is the dialogue between the nun Dharmadinnā
(also known as Dharmanandī) and the layman Visākha
who was her husband when she was a laywoman. He
asks her what the counterpart (paṭibhāga) to pleasant
feeling is; she answers unpleasant feeling. He asks
what the counterpart to unpleasant feeling is; she
answers pleasant feeling. He asks what the counterpart
to pleasant and unpleasant feelings is; she answers
neither pleasant nor unpleasant feeling. He asks what
the counterpart to neither pleasant nor unpleasant
feeling is; she answers ignorance. He asks what the
counterpart to ignorance is; she answers knowledge.
He asks what the counterpart to knowledge is; she
answers blowing out (nirvāṇa). He asks what the
counterpart to blowing out is. She answers:

Your question goes too far (atisarasi), it is beyond
the compass of an answer (na sakkhi pañhānam
pariyantaṃ gahetuṃ). Blowing out has no counterpart
(a-sabhāga).

MA, 210, 789c–790a, partially quoted at Vyākhyā,
16; Pali borrowed from MN, I, 304 (44).

As to thinning out (slowly) or dropping out
(quickly), just do what you can — don't bother about
the technical niceties. If you can verify that your
suffering has diminished over time, that is good
enough. On these boards many people who have
spent years and decades in claimed mental culture
can't even take mere words on the screen but run
screaming. So just check that you indeed are
decreasing your suffering rather than maintaining
it or increasing it.

Colophon

Posted to talk.religion.buddhism on July 17, 2004, in reply to a question from "Bmitch" about what could convince a well-established self to abdicate — and whether the "gradual thinning" Tang Huyen often describes is truly total. Author: Tang Huyen. Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

The Dharmadinnā-Visākha dialogue is preserved in the Cūlavedalla Sutta (MN 44) and its Chinese Agama parallel (MA 210). Dharmadinnā was a laywoman who attained liberation and was ordained; her former husband Visākha, himself a stream-enterer, visited her with doctrinal questions. The Buddha later confirmed that her answers were correct. The dialogue's climactic exchange — in which every feeling, mental quality, and attainment has a counterpart that cancels it, until the series reaches nirvāṇa, which has no counterpart — is one of the most precise formulations in the Pali canon of nirvāṇa's absolute character. Tang Huyen cites both the Chinese Agama and Pali versions.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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