A Discourse on Paticcasamuppada

by Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw | 62,614 words

The Paticcasamuppada refers to “The Doctrine of Dependent Origination”. This is the English translation done by U Aye Maung Published by U Min Swe Buddhasasana Nuggaha Organization Rangoon, Burma....

Chapter 20 - Attavadupadana

Attachment To Ego-belief

The last upadana (attavadupadana) is attachment to ego belief. It is the strong conviction about the ego entity, the firm belief that the ego exists permanently, that it is the agent of every deed, speech and thought.

Few people are free from this upadana. The average man believes that it is “I” who sees, hears, moves, etc. This illusion of ego entity is the mainspring of self love and concern about the welfare of ones self. The universality and omnipotence of self love are underscored in Queen Mallikas reply to king Kosala.

Mallika was originally the daughter of a flower vendor. One day she met the Buddha on the way and offered her food. After eating the food, the Lord told Ananda that the girl would become the queen of king Kosala. On that very day, king Kosala who was defeated in the battle, fled on horseback. Utterly exhausted and forlorn, the king rested in the flower garden where he was tenderly attended on by Mallika. Being much pleased, the king took her to the palace and made her his chief queen. The Buddhas prophecy came true because of her recent good kamma and her good deed in the past existence.

But Mallika was not as good looking as other lesser queens. Moreover, as a woman born of a poor family, she felt ill at ease among the courtiers. So in order to cheer her the king one day asked her whom she loved most. The answer which he expected was “Your Majesty, I love you most.” He would then tell her that he too, loved her more than anyone else and this demonstration of his love would, so he thought, increase their intimacy and make her more at home in the palace.

Nevertheless, as an intelligent woman who had the courage of conviction, Mallika replied frankly that there was no one whom she loved more than herself. She asked the king whom he loved most. The king had to admit that he too loved himself more than anyone else. He reported this dialogue to the Buddha. Then the Lord said, “There is no one in this world who loves another person more than himself. Everyone loves himself or herself most. So everyone should have sympathy and avoid ill treating another person.”

In this saying of the Buddha, the word “self” or in Pali, atta, does not mean the atta or atman of the ego belief. It refers only to self in its conventional sense or the self that a man speaks of to distinguish his own person from other living beings. But the ego belief is also a source of self love. The more powerful the belief is, the greater is the love of oneself.

We do not love anyone more than our own selves. One loves ones wife or husband or child only as a helpmate, an attendant or a support. Marital or parental love is no more real than love of precious jewellery. So if a person says that his love of someone is greater than his love of himself, his words must be taken with a large grain of salt. In cases of life and death crisis, even a mother will not care for her child.

Once a woman travelling with a caravan across the desert was left behind with her child as she was asleep when the caravan departed. As the sun rose higher in the sky, the sands became hotter and she had to place her basket and then her clothes under her feet. Still the heat became more unbearable till at last she was forced to put down her child under her body. Hence, the saying that even a mother will sacrifice her child for self preservation.

Because of this self love based on ego belief, man seeks his welfare or the welfare of his family by fair means or foul. He does not hesitate to do evil that serves his interests. But the belief in a permanent self also leads to good kammas. Some people are motivated by the belief and so they practise sila, dana, jhana, etc., for their welfare in afterlife. As a result they land in deva and Brahma worlds, but there they have to face again old age, death, and other evils of existence.

In short, every effort to seek ones welfare in the present life or hereafter is rooted in ego belief. Such kammic effort differs from that arising from kamupadana only in that its mainspring is obsession with personal identity whereas in the case of the latter the driving force is craving for sensual pleasure. Nevertheless, for those who are strongly attached to ego belief, egoism is closely bound up with sensual desire.

As for the Ariyas who are wholly free from ego belief, they are motivated only by kamupadana when they do good. Thus, the dana, sila and bhavana of Anathapindika, Visakha, Mahanama and others on the holy path may stem from their desire for better life in the human and deva worlds or for the attainment of higher stages on the path.

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