On a website devoted to discussions of the early Buddhist texts, I found a passage and a comment:
Bāhuna, the Realized One has escaped from ten things, so that he lives unattached, liberated, his mind free of limits. What ten? Form … feeling … perception … choices … consciousness … rebirth … old age … death … suffering … defilements … Suppose there was a blue water lily, or a pink or white lotus. Though it sprouted and grew in the water, it would rise up above the water and stand with no water clinging to it. In the same way, the Realized One has escaped from ten things, so that he lives unattached, liberated, his mind free of limits.
(AN 10.81, tr. Bhikkyu Sujato; emphasis added by “travlingwonderer”)
For me, a mind free of limits yet without consciousness makes no sense.
(“travlingwonderer”, discourse.suttacentral.net)
Here’s an earlier translation of the same passage:
The Wayfarer dwells free, detached, and released from physical body, feeling, perception, mental factors and (persisting) consciousness… from rebirth, decay and death… from the passions, Bahuna, the Wayfarer is free, detached and released, and dwells with a mind whose barriers are broken down.
(AN 10.81, tr. Pali Text Society [PTS] vol V p 103; emphasis added)
The nature of “(persisting) consciousness” is described in another of Gautama’s lectures:
That which we will…, and that which we intend to do and that wherewithal we are occupied:–this becomes an object for the persistence of consciousness. The object being there, there comes to be a station of consciousness. Consciousness being stationed and growing, rebirth of renewed existence takes place in the future, and here from birth, decay-and-death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow, and despair come to pass. Such is the uprising of this mass of ill.
(SN 12.38; tr. PTS vol II p 45)
Gautama frequently abbreviated “this mass of ill” as “the five aggregates subject to clinging”:
Birth is suffering, old age is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and anguish are suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering.
(AN 3.61; tr. Bhikkyu Bodhi; PTS vol I p 160; emphasis added; see also SN 56.13)
In the first translation of the opening passage, the five aggregates were given as “form, feeling, perception, choices, consciousness…”. The Pali word “rūpa” was rendered as “form”.
In the second translation, “rūpa” was rendered as “physical body”. Gautama defined the word as follows:
It’s deformed; that’s why it’s called ‘form’. Deformed by what? Deformed by cold, heat, hunger, and thirst, and deformed by the touch of flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, and reptiles. It’s deformed; that’s why it’s called ‘form’.
(SN 22.79, tr. Bhikkyu Sujato; PTS vol III pp 72-73)
In the first translation of the opening passage, the Pali word for the fourth aggregate, “saṅkhāra”, was rendered as “choices” (Bhikkyu Sujato, 2018). In the second translation, the word was rendered as “mental factors” (Woodward, 1930).
The Pali Text Society’s Pali-English dictionary describes “saṅkhāra” as “one of the most difficult terms in Buddhist metaphysics”. Additional translations of the word include “the activities” (Woodward, 1925), “the habitual tendencies” (I. B. Horner, 1957), and “volitional formations” (Bhikkyu Bodhi, 2012).
The five aggregates were the subject of the second sermon of Gautama’s ministry:
Body (“rūpa”)… is not the Self. If body… were the Self, then body would not be involved in sickness, and one could say of body: ‘Thus let my body be. Thus let my body not be.’ But… inasmuch as body is not the Self, that is why body is involved in sickness, and one cannot say of body: ‘Thus let my body be. Thus let my body not be.’
(repeated for feeling, perception, the activities, and consciousness.)
… Therefore… every body whatever, be it past, future or present, be it inward or outward, gross or subtle, low or high, far or near,–every body should be thus regarded, as it really is, by right insight: ‘This is not mine. This I am not. This is not the Self of me.
(repeated for feeling, perception, the activities, and consciousness.)
(SN 22.59; tr. PTS vol III pp 59-60; second sermon, Vinaya Kd 1.6, Mv.I.6.38; parenthetical added)
The aggregates of the past and future were frequently considered alongside the aggregates of the present:
Body… is an ill, both in the past and in the future, not to speak of the present. So seeing… the well-taught (noble) disciple cares not for a body that is past, is not in love with a body to be, and for the present body seeks to be repelled by it, seeks dispassion for it, seeks the ceasing of it.
(repeated for feeling… perception… activities… consciousness)
(SN 22.10, tr. PTS vol III p 19; “noble” substituted for “Ariyan”)
Gautama continued his second sermon:
Seeing thus… the instructed noble disciple experiences revulsion towards form, revulsion towards feeling, revulsion towards perception, revulsion towards volitional formations, revulsion towards consciousness. Experiencing revulsion, (the disciple) becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion his mind is liberated. When it is liberated there comes the knowledge: “It’s liberated.” (The disciple) understands: “Destroyed is birth, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more for this state of being.”
(SN 22.59 tr. Bhikkyu Sujato, PTS vol III pp 59-60)
Gautama delivered his second sermon to the five ascetics who had once been his companions. Having spent years dedicated to self-mortification, the five ascetics were perhaps particularly suited to an experience of revulsion with regard to each of the aggregates.
All five of the ascetics were reported to have attained liberation upon hearing Gautama’s second sermon (ibid, Vinaya Kd 1.6).
Many years after that sermon, when the order of monks was well established, there was an occasion where Gautama praised “the meditation on the unlovely (aspects of the body)” to a group of monks. The “meditation on the unlovely” can be expected to generate revulsion toward the body, much like that which led Gautama to dispassion and to liberation.
After he praised “the meditation on the unlovely”, Gautama went on a half-month solitary retreat. When he returned, he discovered that scores of monks a day had committed suicide, as a result of having meditated on “the unlovely” (SN 54.9, Vin. III.68–71).
Gautama’s attendant recommended to him that he provide his monks with “another means of gnosis”, some means other than “the meditation on the unlovely” to arrive at what Gautama described as “perfect wisdom” (SN 54.9, “gnosis” tr. PTS).
Gautama gathered the monks together, and taught them “the mindfulness of inbreathing and outbreathing”. About that mindfulness, he said:
… if cultivated and made much of, (the mindfulness of inbreathing and outbreathing) is something peaceful and choice, something perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living too.
(SN 54.9, tr. Pali Text Society SN V p 285; parenthetical paraphrases original)
“The mindfulness of inbreathing and outbreathing” consisted of sixteen thoughts directed and sustained, each thought accompanied by an awareness of inhalation or exhalation (see Appendix—From the Early Record). Gautama described the last four of the sixteen thoughts as a particular mindfulness of the state of mind:
Contemplating impermanence I shall breathe in. Contemplating impermanence I shall breathe out.
Contemplating dispassion I shall breathe in. Contemplating dispassion I shall breathe out.
Contemplating cessation I shall breathe in. Contemplating cessation I shall breathe out.
Contemplating renunciation I shall breathe in. Contemplating renunciation I shall breathe out.
(SN 54.1, tr. PTS vol V p 275-276)
The mindfulness of state of mind in “the mindfulness of inbreathing and outbreathing” was likely a mindfulness of mental states related to the aggregates. Gautama declared that each of the five aggregates is impermanent, and that each of them ceases:
Body… is impermanent, conditioned, arisen because of (something). It is a vanishing thing, a decaying thing, a fading-out thing, a ceasing thing.
Feeling… perception… the activities… consciousness is impermanent, conditioned, arisen because of (something). It is a vanishing thing, a decaying thing, a fading-out thing, a ceasing thing.
By such ceasing is there said to be ‘ceasing.’ By the ceasing of these there is said to be ‘ceasing.’
(SN 22.21, tr. PTS vol III pp 23-24)
Gautama also advised “being detached from” and “renouncing” each of the aggregates:
… by thoroughly knowing, by understanding, by being detached from, by renouncing body, one is fit for the destruction of suffering.
By thoroughly knowing, by understanding, by being detached from, by renouncing feeling … perception … the activities … consciousness, one is fit for the destruction of suffering.
(SN 22.24, tr. PTS vol III p 26)
However, for Gautama, seeing each of the aggregates “as it really is” had a particular consequence:
Whatever… is material shape, past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, mean or excellent, or whatever is far or near, (a person), thinking of all this material shape as ‘This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self’, sees it thus as it really is by means of perfect wisdom. Whatever is feeling… perception… the habitual tendencies… whatever is consciousness, past, future, or present… (that person), thinking of all this consciousness as ‘This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self’, sees it thus as it really is by means of perfect wisdom. (For one) knowing thus, seeing thus, there are no latent conceits that “I am the doer, mine is the doer” in regard to this consciousness-informed body.
(MN 109; tr. PTS vol III p 68; reprint 1977; parentheticals paraphrase original)
In my experience, the loss of “latent conceits that ‘I am the doer, mine is the doer’” results from the witness of action in the “consciousness-informed body” that takes place without any intention to act, without the exercise of will or deliberation.
Gautama’s “fourth concentration” is a moment-to-moment conscious experience of reflex movement of the body in inhalation and exhalation, movement that results from the place of occurrence of consciousness.
The consciousness associated with the self is generally experienced as fixed at a location somewhere near the eyes. Modern neuroscience has found a way to artificially cause that consciousness to come unstationed:
Self-location—the sense of where I am in space—provides an experiential anchor for one’s interaction with the environment. … many researchers have defined self-location solely in terms of body-location—the subjective feeling of where my body is. Although this view is useful, there is an issue regarding whether it can fully accommodate the role of “first-person perspective”-location—the sense of where my first-person perspective is located in space.
… under experimental manipulations, one’s sense of “first person perspective”-location could be separated from where one’s eyes are physically located in space.
… Based on our findings, we suggest that, instead of defining self-location only in terms of body-location, the sense of self-location can be better characterized as the subjective experience of where I am in space that results from the interaction between body-location and “first person perspective”-location.
(https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5348511/, emphasis added)
The neuroscientists used head-mounted displays, live video feed, and tactile stimulation to cause “‘first person perspective’-location” to separate from where the eyes are “physically located in space”.
My experience has been that such a separation occurs naturally before sleep:
Just before I fall asleep, my awareness can move very readily, and my sense of where I am tends to move with it. This is also true when I am waking up, although it can be harder to recognize (I tend to live through my eyes in the daytime, and associate my sense of place with them).
(Waking Up and Falling Asleep)
Zen teacher Koun Franz spoke about “letting go” to allow “the base of consciousness” to move away from the head:
Okay… So, have your hands in the cosmic mudra, palms up, thumbs touching, and there’s this common instruction: place your mind here. Different people interpret this differently. Some people will say this means to place your attention here, meaning to keep your attention on your hands. It’s a way of turning the lens to where you are in space so that you’re not looking out here and out here and out here. It’s the positive version, perhaps, of ‘navel gazing’.
The other way to understand this is to literally place your mind where your hands are–to relocate mind (let’s not say your mind) to your center of gravity, so that mind is operating from a place other than your brain. Some traditions take this very seriously, this idea of moving your consciousness around the body. I wouldn’t recommend dedicating your life to it, but as an experiment, I recommend trying it, sitting in this posture and trying to feel what it’s like to let your mind, to let the base of your consciousness, move away from your head. One thing you’ll find, or that I have found, at least, is that you can’t will it to happen, because you’re willing it from your head. To the extent that you can do it, it’s an act of letting go–and a fascinating one.
(“No Struggle [Zazen Yojinki, Part 6]”, by Koun Franz, from the “Nyoho Zen” site)
Franz described “an act of letting go” to allow the “base of consciousness” to move away from the head. Gautama described “making self-surrender the object of thought”, in order to lay hold of concentration and “one-pointedness”:
Herein… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness. (The disciple), aloof from sensuality, aloof from evil conditions, enters on the first trance, which is accompanied by thought directed and sustained, which is born of solitude, easeful and zestful, and abides therein.
(SN 48.10, tr. Pali Text Society vol V p 174)
“Making self-surrender the object of thought” is making a surrender of “that which we will, that which we intend to do, and that wherewithal we are occupied” the object of thought, such that a station of consciousness no longer “comes to be”:
But if we neither will, nor intend to do, nor are occupied about something, there is no becoming of an object for the persistence of consciousness. The object being absent, there comes to be no station of consciousness….
(SN 12.38; tr. PTS vol II p 45)
A person “lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness” when they continue a presence of mind with “the subjective experience of where I am in space”, even as “where I am” shifts and moves in the body.
The successive places “where I am” in the body can be made contiguous, provided that a feeling is extended such that “not one particle of the body… is not pervaded” by that feeling. As I wrote previously:
Gautama described the “first trance” as having feelings of zest and ease, and he prescribed the extension of those feelings:
… (a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease.
(AN 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, parentheticals paraphrase original)
Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey that the weight of the body accompanies the feelings of zest and ease.
The weight of the body sensed at a particular point in the body can shift the body’s center of gravity, and a shift in the body’s center of gravity can result in what Moshe Feldenkrais termed “reflex movement”. Feldenkrais described how “reflex movement” can be engaged in standing up from a chair:
…When the center of gravity has really moved forward over the feet a reflex movement will originate in the old nervous system and straighten the legs; this automatic movement will not be felt as an effort at all.
(“Awareness Through Movement”, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 78)
“Drenching” the body “so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” with zest and ease allows the weight of the body to effect “reflex movement” in the activity of the body, wherever “one-pointedness” takes place.
In falling asleep, the mind can sometimes react to hypnagogic sleep paralysis with an attempt to reassert control over the muscles of the body, causing a “hypnic jerk”. The extension of a weighted zest and ease can pre-empt the tendency to reassert voluntary control in the induction of concentration, and make possible a conscious experience of “reflex movement” in inhalation and exhalation.
Gautama described the extension of feelings of zest and ease in the first and second concentrations. He said that zest ceases in the third concentration, yet the feeling of ease is still present (see Applying the Pali Instructions). In the fourth concentration, a “purity by the pureness of mind” is to be extended:
… seated, (one) suffuses (one’s) body with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind.
(AN 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, parentheticals paraphrase original)
The “purity by the pureness of mind” that suffuses the body is the purity of the mind without any intention to act.
Gautama declared that “the mindfulness of inbreathing and outbreathing” was “something perfect in itself”. For a mindfulness to be a thing “perfect in itself”, that mindfulness must renew itself, must be self-sustaining. In my limited experience, “the mindfulness of inbreathing and outbreathing” is only self-sustaining so long as a return to the conscious experience of “reflex movement” in inhalation and exhalation is possible.
My summary of the actionable elements of “the mindfulness of inbreathing and outbreathing” did not include any mention of the aggregates:
1) Relax the activity of the body, in inhalation and exhalation;
2) Find a feeling of ease and calm the senses connected with balance, in inhalation and exhalation;
3) Appreciate and detach from thought, in inhalation and exhalation;
4) Look to the free location of consciousness for the automatic activity of the body, in inhalation and exhalation.
I find now that a mindfulness of mental states related to the aggregates can serve to unstation consciousness, provided that I have “no latent conceits that ‘I am the doer, mine is the doer’ in regard to this consciousness-informed body”.
Gautama sometimes referred to “the mindfulness of inbreathing and outbreathing” as “the intent concentration on in-breathing and out-breathing”. About the “intent concentration”, he said:
Formerly, monks, before I myself was enlightened with the perfect wisdom, … I used generally to spend my time in this way of living (the intent concentration on in-breathing and out-breathing). As I generally lived in this way, neither my body nor my eyes were fatigued, and my mind was freed from the āsavas (the defilements).
(SN 54.8, tr. PTS vol V p 281; parentheticals and emphasis added)
… if the wanderers who hold other views should thus question you:
‘Friends, in what way of life does Gotama the recluse generally spend the rainy season?’ thus questioned, thus should ye make reply to those wanderers holding other views: ‘Friends, the Exalted One generally spends his time during the rainy season in the intent concentration on in-breathing and out-breathing.’
… (One) who would rightly use the words ‘noble way, best of ways,
the Realized One’s way of life’ would rightly do so in calling by this name
the intent concentration on in-breathing and out-breathing…”
(SN 54.11; tr. PTS vol V p 289; “noble” for “Ariyan”, “Realized One” for “Tathāgata”)