6.7. The Attainment of the Cessation of Perception and Feeling

[Full title: Distinctive Issues of the Five Nikāyas and some Important Buddhist Terms Relating the Study; (7): The Attainment of the Cessation of Perception and Feeling]

The Cessation of Perception and Feeling (saññāvedayitanirodha) is a special meditative attainment in which all mental activity ceases. Unlike the jhānas and immaterial jhānas, which can be attained by worldlings, the cessation of perception and feeling is the domain exclusively meant for non-returners and Arahants who acquire mastery over the eight jhānic attainments above, possessing two powers of serenity and insight. The cessation of perception and feeling is recognized by the Buddha as the highest and utmost level of samādhi ‘concentration’ which one can reach (see Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta number 31.18; 59.16).

When non-returners and Arahants feel weary of the occurrence and dissolution of formations, they often enter upon and abide in this meditative state to dwell in bliss by being without consciousness. According to Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā’s explanation, when a bhikkhu is attaining the cessation of perception and feeling, it does not occur to him, as: “I shall attain the cessation of perception and feeling,” or “I am attaining the cessation of perception and feeling,” or “I have attained the cessation of perception and feeling”; but rather his mind has previously been developed in such a way that it leads him to that state (Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta number 44.16). It means that the meditator first enters each jhāna in turn, emerges from it, and contemplates it with insight as impermanent, suffering, and non-self. And then, after completing this process with the eighth jhāna–the base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception -and attending to certain prelimnaries, the meditator determines to be without mind for a particular length of time. His determination, backed by his previous accomplishments and preparations, leads him into the attainments of cessation. Similarly, when a bhikkhu is emerging from the attainment of the cessation of perception and feeling, it does not occur to him: “I shall emerge from/I am emerging from/I have emerged from the attainment of the cessation of perception and feeling”; but rather “when the time decided upon by the determination for the attainment has lapsed, by reason of that prior determination he spontaneously emerges from the attainment of cessation and the mindprocess resumes” (Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta number 44.18).

Thus, a question quite important is: How does language relate to this? The venerable Dhammadinnā goes to explain that when a bhikkhu is attaining the cessation of perception and feeling, his verbal formation (that is, applied thought and sustained thought) ceases first (in the second jhāna), then the bodily formation (that is, in-and out-breathing) ceases next (in the fourth jhāna), and the mental formation (that is, perception and feeling) cease last in the attainment of cessation itself (see Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta number 44.17). In the contrary case, when a bhikkhu emerges from the attainment of the cessation of perception and feeling, first the mental formation arises, then the bodily formation, and last the verbal formation.

For this point, commentaries of Five Nikāyas expound a more detailed view that:

“When one emerges from cessation, the consciousness of fruition attainment arises first, and the perception and feeling associated with that are the mental formation that arises first. Then, with the subsequent descent into the life continuum, the bodily formation; that is, breathing, recommences. And subsequently, when the meditator resumes his ordinary activity, the verbal formation arises” (The Middle length Discourses of the Buddha, No. 470).

Besides, as the meditator emerges from the attainment of the cessation of perception and feeling, three kinds of contact touch him: voidness contact; signless contact; and desire less contact. And his mind at that time inclines, leans, and tends to seclusion (viveka); that is, nibbāna which is secluded from all conditioned things (see Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta number 44.20-1; The Middle length Discourses of the Buddha, n. 471-2).

Traditionally, one, who has attained the cessation, is not subject to injury or death within the attainment itself. This special meditative attainment is capable of protecting the meditator and even his belongings such as his robes and seat from destruction (see The Middle length Discourses of the Buddha, No. 520).

Commenting on the difference between one who is dead and a bhikkhu who has entered upon the cessation of perception and feeling, the venerable Sāriputta explains:

In the case of one who is dead, who has completed his time, his bodily formations have ceased and subsided, his verbal formations have ceased and subsided, his mental formations have ceased and subsided, his vitality is exhausted, his heat has been dissipated, and his faculties are fully broken up. In the case of a bhikkhu who entered upon the cessation of perception and feeling, his bodily formations have ceased and subsided, his verbal formations have ceased and subsided, his mental formations have ceased and subsided, but his vitality is not exhausted, his heat has not been dissipated, and his faculties become exceptionally clear.^[1] (Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta number 43.25)

According to Majjhima Commentary,

“the faculties during the ordinary course of life, being impinged upon by sense objects, are afflicted and soiled like a mirror set up at a crossroad; but the faculties of one in cessation become exceptionally clear like a mirror placed in a case and deposited in a box” (The Middle length Discourses of the Buddha, No. 448).

In general, the cessation of perception and feeling is not merely on higher attainment along the level of concentration, but implies the full development of insight brought to its peak in Arahantship (see The Middle length Discourses of the Buddha, n. 681).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

In MN, SNo 43.24 the venerable Sāriputta also points out that a physical body which is called ‘dead’ only if it is bereft of three states -vitality, heat, and consciousness. It is then discarded and forsaken, left lying senseless like a log. Thus, the departure of consciousness from the body is not sufficient to constitute death; but vitality and the vital heat must also perish. And only with such three conditions, there is a real dead of a physical body (see also MLDB, n. 447).