Toward the Unconditioned¹

The Buddha talked about sankhata dhammas and asankhata dhammas - conditioned and unconditioned things. Conditioned things are innumerable - material or immaterial, big or small - if our mind is under the influence of delusion, it will proliferate about these things, dividing them up into good and bad, short and long, coarse and refined. Why does the mind proliferate like this? Because it doesn't know determined reality⁵, it doesn't see the Dhamma. Not seeing the Dhamma, the mind is full of clinging. As long as the mind is held down by clinging there can be no escape, there is confusion, birth, old age, sickness and death, even in the thinking processes. This kind of mind is called the sankhata dhamma (conditioned mind).

Asankhata dhamma, the unconditioned, refers to the mind which has seen the Dhamma, the truth, of the five khandhas as they are - as transient, imperfect and ownerless. All ideas of ''me'' and ''them,'' ''mine'' and ''theirs,'' belong to the determined reality. Really they are all conditions. When we know the truth of conditions, as neither ourselves nor belonging to us, we let go of conditions and the determined. When we let go of conditions we attain the Dhamma, we enter into and realize the Dhamma. When we attain the Dhamma we know clearly. What do we know? We know that there are only conditions and determinations, no being, no self, no ''us'' nor ''them.'' This is knowledge of the way things are.

Seeing in this way the mind transcends things. The body may grow old, get sick and die, but the mind transcends this state. When the mind transcends conditions, it knows the unconditioned. The mind becomes the unconditioned, the state which no longer contains conditioning factors. The mind is no longer conditioned by the concerns of the world, conditions no longer contaminate the mind. Pleasure and pain no longer affect it. Nothing can affect the mind or change it, the mind is assured, it has escaped all constructions. Seeing the true nature of conditions and the determined, the mind becomes free.

This freed mind is called the Unconditioned, that which is beyond the power of constructing influences. If the mind doesn't really know conditions and determinations, it is moved by them. Encountering good, bad, pleasure, or pain, it proliferates about them. Why does it proliferate? Because there is still a cause. What is the cause? The cause is the understanding that the body is one's self or belongs to the self; that feelings are self or belonging to self; that perception is self or belonging to self; that conceptual thought is self or belonging to self; that consciousness is self or belonging to self. The tendency to conceive things in terms of self is the source of happiness, suffering, birth, old age, sickness and death. This is the worldly mind, spinning around and changing at the directives of worldly conditions. This is the conditioned mind.

If we receive some windfall our mind is conditioned by it. That object influences our mind into a feeling of pleasure, but when it disappears, our mind is conditioned by it into suffering. The mind becomes a slave of conditions, a slave of desire. No matter what the world presents to it, the mind is moved accordingly. This mind has no refuge, it is not yet assured of itself, not yet free. It is still lacking a firm base. This mind doesn't yet know the truth of conditions. Such is the conditioned mind.

Footnotes

...¹

Given on a lunar observance night (Uposatha) at Wat Pah Pong, 1976

...uposatha²

Uposatha (or observance) days, are the days on which practicing Buddhists usually go to the monastery to practice meditation, listen to a Dhamma talk and keep the eight uposatha precepts - to refrain from killing, stealing, all sexual activity, lying, taking intoxicants, eating food after midday, enjoying entertainments and dressing up, and sitting or sleeping on luxurious seats or beds.

...kusala³

Kusala: wholesome or skillful actions or mental states.

...pariyatti⁴

Pariyatti, the teachings as laid down in the scriptures, or as passed down from one person to another in some form; the ''theoretical'' aspect of Buddhism. Pariyatti is often mentioned in reference to two other aspects of Buddhism - patipatti, the practice, and pativedha, the realization. Thus: Study - Practice - Realization.

... reality⁵

Sammuti sacca, a difficult term to translate. It refers to the dualistic, or nominal reality, the reality of names, determinations or conventions. For instance, a cup is not intrinsically a cup, it is only determined to be so.

... sukho⁶

''Cessation is true happiness,'' or ''the calming of conditions is true happiness.''

... consciousness⁷

The five khandhas.

...tipitaka⁸

The Buddhist Pāli Canon.

...abhidhamma⁹

The third of the ''Three Baskets,'' the Tipitaka, being the section on the higher philosophy of Buddhism.

...¹⁰

A Pāli phrase said at the end the traditional giving of the precepts.

...sīlabbata-parāmāsa¹¹

Self-view, doubt, and attachment to rites and practices.