CHAPTER SEVEN CONCLUSION Vn.l. Summation Based on the primary source of Buddhist scriptures as well as secondary source of Buddhist and non-Buddhist texts along with the latest studies relating to the topic, the thesis has presented the methods to enlightenment as depicted in Mahasatipatthana Sutta and the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita which present the ways to enlightenment of arhat and of the boddhisattva of the Theravada and Mahayana respectively. We have details of origin and development of each sutra, and have also dealed with concerning matters relating circumstances in which the Buddha gave the discourses, relating to who can practice these methods. Moreover, one will find in the thesis studies, analyses the particular methods to enlightenment and the fruits that practitioners will attain if following these methods The Mahasatipatthana Sutta was preached by the Buddha some years after his enlightenment. This method was then repeated many times in different occasions during his life. This proves that it is the most important method which anyone who wants to purify his mind, to pass far beyond grief and lamentation, to destroy ill and misery, to attain nirvana could not leave out. As it is predicted at the beginning of the discourse as ''ekayano ayam.. maggo" (the one and only path).The audiences of the Mahasatipatthana Sutta were the bhikJdius and Kuru people, the people with a good sila {ekam samayam bhagava kurusu viharati.. .bhilddiavd). According to this sutra, for 330 the normal people, this is the one and only path leading to the purification of beings, to passing far beyond grief and lamentation, to the dying-out of ill and misery, to the attainment of right method, to the realization of nirvana, (Ekayano ayam, bhikkhave, maggo sattanam visuddhiya, sokaparidevanam samatikkamaya dukkhadomanassanam atthangamaya nayassa adhigamaya nibbanassa sacchikiriyaya). The path is that of the fourfold setting up of mindfulness: kayanupassana (the observation of hody),vedananupassana (the observation of fee\ings),cittahupassana (the observation of mind), dhammanupassana (the observation of mental contents). Through method of observation {vipassana), the practitioners w^ill observe every thing that appears in their body, feeling, mind and mental contents in every moment in their lives. This is the process of merely observation, without any reaction or imagination. Just observing how they arise, how they weaken, and how they pass away without'I', 'me', or 'mine' so as practitioners can understand and experience the nature of impermanence of things in this world by themselves when they reach the stage of''Atthikayo' tP (This is hohyl),""Atthi vedana' ti va"(This is sensation!), ''Atthicitta'ntr (This is mind), or ''Atthidhamma'ti" (This is dhammal). There are no T, no 'my boby', no 'my mind' etc. The results of establishing of mindfulness are described in the sutra as: "Yo hikoci, bhikkhave, ime cattaro satipatthane evam bhaveyya sattavassani, tassa dvinnam phalanam annataram phalam patikankham dittheva dhamme anna; sati va upadisese anagamita'^^^ "Indeed, monks, whoever practices this fourfold establishing of awareness in this manner for seven years, he may expect one of two results: in this very life highest wisdom or, if a substratum of aggregates remains, the stage of non-retvimer."^^^ Practicing in this manner, one of two fruits is attained: ''dittheva dliamme anna; sati va upadisese anagamita". Either dittlieva dtiamme anna ^''D.,ii,314 *" Maha., 77 331 (the total understanding of an arhat) or the third stage of anagamin is attained by meditators within seven years. If there is someone who has been practicing more than seven years but he or she is not an arhat. They may misunderstand the method or do not work exactly as the technique wants them to work. The necessary condition for this method is ''evam bhaveyya" (in this manner or having practiced exactly as set out). It is ""sampajannam na rihcatf\ where sampajanna is not missed for any moment in life. The meditators practice feeling sensation in everything they do at the physical level, and understanding arising and passing. When they can practice in this way, they have the Buddha's guarantee of the results. Further the Buddha says leaving aside seven years, six years, five, four, and even down to one year; then seven months, six, and down to one, even half a month, or even seven days will suffice. It differs depending on the nature of each practitioner or on their past accumulation. Just like there are passengers traveling on the Sahara desert; they feel thirsty and looking for water. Someone who is at the middle of the Sahara desert will take a long time to reach the river for water. However, if there is someone who is at the end of the desert and near the bank of river, they need some hours or even some minutes to get the water from the river for drinking. For the persons who have good deeds from the past will need only seven days to reach the stage of dittheva dhamme anna or of anagamr. For some ones who just start working at the first step in this life may need seven years to attain this stage. Contrast to the Mahasatipatthana Sutta, the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita was taught by the Buddha just some years before his mahaparinirvana when there were a lot of his disciples who became arhats. This sutra was delivered at Rajagriha, on the Vulture Peak. He taught this *'* Acharya S.N. Goenka, Mahasatipatthana Sutta: The Great Discourse on the Establishing of A warenes. (Maharashtra: Vipassana rearch Institute, 2006),94 332 discourse in the great assembly with a great gathering of monks, with 1,250 monks, all of them arhats {sarvairarhadbhih) except Ananda.^'^ So the hears of this discourse are arhats. It means that the persons who can understand, practice, and get the most essence of this teaching properly is only arhats. The characteristic and natures of arhats are described that their outflows are dried up or exhausted {ksma-asrava), undefiled, fully controlled, quite freed in their hearts {suvimuktaci'ttai'h), well freed and wise {suvimuktaprajna), thoroughbreds, their work done, their task accomplished, their burden laid down, their own weal accomplished, with the fetters that bound them to becoming extinguished, their hearts well freed by right understanding, in perfect control of their whole minds. So we see here the hearers of this discourse are different from those who listen to the MahaSatipatthana Sutta. And the method to fiiU enlightenment that the Buddha was taught to arhats and bodhisattvas is to practice six paramitas namely dana paramita (giving perfection), 5/73 paramita (moral perfection), ksanti paramita (patience perfection), vv/ja paramita (energy perfection), dhyana paramita (rapt musing perfection), prajna paramita (wisdom perfection). Among six paramitas, prajna paramita plays the most important role. It is considered as the eyes that guide the bodhisattva to practice five other paramitas. The practitioners were asked to set their will as: "My own self I will place in suchness, and, so that all the world might be helped, I will place all beings into suchness, and I will lead to nirvana the whole immeasurable world of heings'",^^^{atmanam ca tathatayam sthapayisyami sarvalolcanugrahaya, *^ "evam maya srutam /ekasmin samaye bhagavan rajagrhe viharati sma grdhakufeparvate mahata bhiksusaijighena sardhamardhatrayodasabhirbhiksusataih, sarvairarhadbhih ksmasravairnihklesairvaslbhutaih suvimuktacittaih suvimuktaprajiiairajnaira^ samyagajfiasuvimuktacittaih sarvacetovasiparamaparamipraptairekam pudgalam sthapayitva yaduta ayusmantamanandaw //"^''Asta., 1 ^'^ Edward Conze (trans.), The Perfection of WisdoWisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary (Delhi: Sri Satguru publications, 1994), 163. 333 sarvasattvan api tathatayam sthapayisyami, aprameyam sattvadhatum parinirvapayisyamiti). After setting this will, the practitioners (mainly arhats) become bodhisattvas {ihs great beings). By practicing six perfections, the bodhisattvas become a shelter for the world, a refiige, the place of rest, the final relief, islands, lights and leaders of the world. They win full enlightenment, and become the resort of the world.Thanks to the practice of the six perfections, as described above; they do not wish to attain liberation in a private nirvana of their own. They survey the highly painfiil world of beings. They want to win full enlightenment, and yet they do not tremble at birth-and-death. Armed with the great armour, the bodhisattva is not rooted, focused or established in the perception of material forms or in the experience of personal feelings, perceptions and impulses. The bodhisattva is not rooted, focused or established in any possible state of individual or communal awareness within the cosmic display of earth, water, fire, wind, space and perspectival consciousness. The bodhisattva is not even rooted, focused or established in the practice of mindfulness and other contemplative disciplines, nor in their fruits, the supra-normal powers. The bodhisattva is not identified with exalted levels of the spiritual path, including gnostic sainthood or 70'? solitary sagehood, or even with the supreme goal of Buddhahood. Through standing in emptiness, the bodhisattva stands in perfect wisdom, ''sOnyatayam Icausika tisthata bodhisattvena mahasattvena ™'Asta.,XI,p.ll6 ^"^ ".. bodhisattvena mahasattvena mahasamnahasamnaddhena bhavitavyam /na rupe sthatavyam / na vedanayam na samjiiayain na samskare^u /na vijnane sthatavyam /na cak^u^i sthatavyam /na rupe sthatavyam