‘whereness’ does not apply

Excerpts from “The Island” by Ajahn Pasanno & Ajahn Amaro, chapter titled “The Unconditioned and Non-locality.” This week I’d like to go back to a subject that’s been done before on Dhamma Footsteps, namely: ‘Unsupported consciousness,’ I wrote a number of posts on this subject, back in the day when I was able to write my own posts. Take a look at ‘Unblinking gaze.’ Just key in the title in the Search box here on the front page. On the subject of ‘Atammayatā,’ see the text by Ajahn Amaro from “Small Boat, Great Mountain”, dated January 18 2024 and titled: ‘The place of non-abiding.’ Also, the post, dated January 25 2024: ‘Overlooking this to get to that.’

Consciousness of Nibbāna, although real, is best described as being unlocated — here we begin to say good-bye to the world of geography. Interesting that only what we call physical existence is dependent upon three-dimensional space – all the factors of the mental realm (the nāma-khandhas) are ‘unlocated’; that is to say, the concepts of place and space do not in any true sense apply there. Our thoughts and perceptions are so geared to operate in terms of three-dimensional space as the basic reality, and that view of things seems so obvious to common sense, that it is hard for us to conceive of any other possibility. It is only through meditative insight that we can develop the uncommon sense required to see things differently. A couple of everyday examples might serve to lead us into the subject. Firstly, the word ‘cyber-space’ is used frequently these days; one talks of “visiting such and such a website” and “my e-mail address” but where are these? Abhayagiri Monastery has a web-site but it does not exist anywhere. It has no geographical location. The words ‘visit,’ ‘homepage,’ ‘address’ and suchlike are the easy jargon of Cyberia, and we can be very comfortable using such terms, but the fact is – that just like a thought and, indeed, the mind itself – although they exist, they cannot be said to truly be anywhere. Three-dimensional space does not apply in their context.

The second example comes from a (purportedly) true incident. An American tourist, in Oxford, England, approached a tweed-jacketed and bespectacled professorial type and said: “Excuse me, but I wonder if you could tell me where exactly is the University?”

“Madam,” the professorial type responded, “‘the University’ is not, in reality, anywhere – the University possesses only metaphysical rather than actual existence.”

What he meant, of course, was that ‘the University’ – being comprised of separate, independent colleges and not having a campus – is just a concept agreed upon by a number of humans to have some validity. It might have financial dealings, it might set exams and issue degrees, but physically it does not exist. There are the different colleges that one may attend or visit, but ‘the University’– no. Like a website or a virtual garden in a computer program, or indeed like a mythical country such as Erewhon – all can be said to exist, but whereness does not apply; they are unlocated.

As we cross the border into the realm of the Unconditioned (if such a metaphor is valid), there needs to be a relinquishing of such habitual concepts as self and time and place. The apprehension of Ultimate Truth (paramattha sacca) necessarily involves a radical letting go of all these familiar structures. Here, as a present-day example and to illustrate the centrality of such relinquishment, is the insight which arose for Ajahn Mahā Boowa “in the period of intense practice immediately following Ajahn Mun’s final passing away. It was this thought, which he describes as having arisen on its own (and more that it was heard rather than thought) which led to Ajahn Mahā Boowa’s full enlightenment shortly thereafter.

9.1) “If there is a point or a center of the knower anywhere, that is the essence of a level of being.” ~ Ajahn Mahā Boowa, ‘Straight from the Heart,’ p 171

Secondly, we can take up the Buddha’s own words on the nature of Nibbāna or asaṅkhata-dhamma, the Unconditioned Reality.

9.2) “There is that sphere where there is no earth, no water, no fire nor wind; no sphere of infinity of space, of infinity of consciousness, of nothingness or even of neither-perception-nor-non-perception; there, there is neither this world nor the other world, neither moon nor sun; this sphere I call neither a coming nor a going nor a staying still, neither a dying nor a reappearance; it has no basis, no evolution and no support: this, just this, is the end of dukkha.” ~ Ud 8.1

9.3) “There is the Unborn, Uncreated, Unconditioned and Unformed. If there were not, there would be no escape discerned from that which is born, created, conditioned and formed. But, since there is this Unborn, Uncreated, Unconditioned and Unformed, escape is therefore discerned from that which is born, created, conditioned and formed.” ~ Ud 8.3, Iti 43

It is significant that, when the Buddha makes such statements as these, he uses a different Pali verb ‘to be’ than the usual one. The vast majority of uses of the verb employ the Pali ‘hoti’; this is the ordinary type of being, implying existence in time and space: I am happy; she is a fine horse; the house is small; the days are long. In these passages just quoted, when the Buddha makes his rare but emphatic metaphysical statements, he uses the verb ‘atthi’ instead. It still means ‘to be’ but some Buddhist scholars (notably Peter Harvey) insist that there is a different order of being implied: that it points to a reality which transcends the customary bounds of time, space, duality and individuality.

Some similar areas of Dhamma are examined in ‘The Questions of King Milinda, (100 BC. – 200 AD) It is significant, in the following exchange between the Buddhist monk, Nagasena, and the King, how the element of sīla (morality/integrity) and its role in the realization of Nibbāna, are brought firmly into prominence.

9.7) Nibbāna is neither past nor future nor present; It is neither produced nor not produced nor to be produced, Yet, it exists, and may be realized. ~ Miln 323, (E.W. Burlingame trans.)

9.8) Nibbāna Is Not a Place

“Reverend Nāgasena, is this region in the East, or in the South, or in the West, or in the North, or above or below or across – this region where Nibbāna is located?”

“Great king, the region does not exist, either in the East, or in the South, or in the West, or in the North, or above or below or across, where Nibbāna is located.”

“If, Reverend Nāgasena, there is no place where Nibbāna is located, then there is no Nibbāna; and as for those who have realized Nibbāna, their realization also is vain…” (The King goes on to tell Nāgasena why he thinks this is so.)

Nāgasena replies: “Great king, there is no place where Nibbāna is located. Nevertheless, this Nibbāna really exists; and a man, by ordering his walk aright [practising wisely], by diligent mental effort, realizes Nibbāna… Just as there is such a thing as fire, but no place where it is located – the fact being that a man, by rubbing two sticks together, produces fire – so also, great king, there is such a thing as Nibbāna, but no place where it is located – the fact being that a man, by ordering his walk aright [practising wisely], by diligent mental effort, realizes Nibbāna…”

“But what, Reverend Sir, is the place where a man must stand to order his walk aright [practise wisely] and realize Nibbāna?”

“Sīla, great king, is the place! Abiding steadfast in Sīla, putting forth diligent mental effort – whether … on a mountain-top or in the highest heaven – no matter where a man may stand, by ordering his walk aright [practising wisely], he realizes Nibbāna.”

“Good, Reverend Nāgasena! You have made it plain what Nibbāna is, you have made it plain what the realization of Nibbāna is, you have well-described the Power of Sīla, you have made it plain how a man orders his walk aright [practises wisely], you have demonstrated that Right Effort on the part of those who put forth diligent effort is not barren. It is just as you say most excellent of excellent teachers! I agree absolutely!” ~ Miln 326-328, (E.W. Burlingame trans)

To underscore the quality of placelessness, the non-locality of Dhamma, here we have Ajahn Chah’s final message to Ajahn Sumedho, which was sent by letter (a rare if not unique occurrence) in the summer of 1981. Shortly after this was received at Chithurst Forest Monastery in England, Ajahn Chah suffered the “stroke that left him paralysed and mute for the last ten years of his life.

9.9) “Whenever you have feelings of love or hate for anything whatsoever, these will be your aides and partners in building pāramitā. The Buddha-Dhamma is not to be found in moving forwards, nor in moving backwards, nor in standing still. This, Sumedho, is your place of non-abiding.” ~ Ajahn Chah

This was by no means the first time that Ajahn Chah had used this expression – on neither moving forwards, backwards nor standing still (e.g. see ‘Food for the Heart – collected teachings of Ajahn Chah,’ p 339) – but it is perhaps significant that these were the words he chose to write as final instructions to one of his closest and most influential disciples.

Another analogy that might be useful when investigating these areas where habitual approaches and language no longer apply is in the nature of the subatomic realm. Scientists have found that “conventional notions of space and time cease to have much relevance below the Planck scale (i.e. distances less than 10-35 m). Such ultramicroscopic examinations of the world leave us, similarly, in a vastly different conceptual landscape, for they too describe an arena of the universe in which the conventional notions of left and right, back and forth, up and down, and even before and after, lose their meaning.

In sum, the mind cannot be said to be truly anywhere. Furthermore, material things, ultimately, cannot be said to be anywhere either. “There is no ‘there’ there,” as Gertrude Stein famously put it. The world of our perceptions is a realm of convenient fictions – there is nothing solid or separate to be found in either the domain of the subject or that of the object, whether it be an act of cognition, an emotion, the song of a bird or this book that you hold in your hands. However, even though all attributes of subject and object might be unlocated and thus ungraspable, with wisdom they can be truly known.