Warning!! Remember the Diamond sutra Warning!!.

Prajna-reflections

Exploring Sanna - Sanna-scanning

There is little guidance on sanna. Zandtaomed has always taken it as meaning memories or perceptions – memorising or perceiving.

Early on Buddhadasa taught zandtao the importance of the 5 khandhas – kaya, vedana, sanna, sankhara, vinnana – in learning about anatta; removing I and mine from the 5 khandhas. It is part of zandtao’s development "folklore", but how much does he apply it? At the same time there is MwB, and 3 of the 4 tetrads are khandhas – kaya vedana sankhara; proviso here MwB is citta not sankhara – how important is that difference? Is consideration of citta-sankhara a Buddhist intellectual rabbit-hole? Because of Buddhadasa's teaching on MwB practice there is some coverage of the 5 khandhas as the 3 tetrads. No coverage of sanna.

Yet clinging to perceptions as ideas is an upadana. What about other perceptions – perceiving colour? Is there potential for clinging there? Pre-Buddhism a zandtao big spiritualism was Nyanga, this was the clinging to the pain of his love for Peyton – clinging to the memory of pain buried deep and an explosive relief at Nyanga when he went inside, explored and then released the pain in his stomach. Exploring such clingings has been recurrent and beneficial – although not the expansive relief of Nyanga.

Whilst clinging to perceptions as idealisms has been part of his daily practice Nyanga has not, even though there was nominal reference to it with not clinging to the 5 khandhas. But the potential of exploring clinging to sanna has not been a focus of practice – until recently. Suddenly came into practice the release of clinging to sanna as memories – it came without any real understanding. It was not a practice based on understanding but a practice based on exploring. What are the benefits of releasing egos associated with sanna, what are those egos?

The work began with the stomach. Inner guide drew the dots between Nyanga and current digestion issues. Has there been clinging to memories that led to digestion issues? Were digestion issues two-fold?

Digestion problems due to an ageing stomach
Digestion problems due to memory attachments based on the eeuugggh internalisation of emotional issues that are still in the digestive system

As Buddhadasa said, this is I as attachment to one of the khandhas. Looking for attachment as emotions in the digestive system must be a much more conscious process.

Practice developed where looking for clinging to sanna became a body scan thing. Were there places in the body where sanna-clinging was prevalent? One place where this happened was the head where there were bad memories of stuff – images came up that were not pleasant; similar images have been seen before. This attachment to warts’n’all is part of practice but focus on sanna attachments in the head/brain was helpful.

Yesterday zandtao discovered a beneficial release of memory that he had not realised had happened. His knee has been locked; the locking began at 15, and has been present throughout his whole life. The whole left side of his body – hip down – has had restrictions to avoid this locking esp in football – the left stander. Soon after retirement Bpaa Mor changed this, and there was no fear of locking. Then Boonyeun took it further so physical therapy is a weekly therapy. Yesterday the leg was almost straight because sanna had forgotten to attach to the protective restrictions that had been a part of his life. Now this is a particular sanna practice – remove any memory attachments for the knee so that the only consciousness concerning the knee is knee-consciousness itself. Instead of the knee getting on and healing itself esp with Boonyeun’s help, memory by zandtao had been reverting back and sanna had been clinging to the locking protection.

What about posture? With Tai-Chi bill had learnt that posture was best left to chi but how much of posture now is “remembering a shape” and reverting to that shape?

What about the heart? Swimming led to the heart struggling, and Mor Nooi pushed him to recognise this. Eventually it led to the end of exercise, and without the exercise the heart is improving. How much is memory and heart-fear holding this recovery back? Heart just needs to be heart-consciousness, let the heart deal with itself and let the heart age at its own pace. Fear at being at the mercy of heart is understandable but a big thing, so there is a need to work on this fear and not just cling to a life controlled by heart fear.

What about the lungs and humidity? Living in the cold with duvets, hats and scarf in a hot country so that lungs can cope with humidity. Mor Nooi pointed this out, are you clinging to this diagnosis? How much is there a problem with lungs and humidity and how much is it sanna-clinging? There is a lung-humidity problem but is it as bad as zandtao lives? Even with sanna-scanning the stomach still needs monthly fang kem but there are good releases in the digetsive area. So far sanna=scannng has not helped with lungs and humidity.

Releasing sanna-clinging has led to feeling better but it seems there is so much more. Until things have settled there will be sanna-scanning of body and mind to see if attachment to memory is leading to ego and restriction. No - a change! Sanna-scanning is now part of the large step 12 of zandtao’s practice.

Sanna-clinging is much more of an issue for older seekers. Firstly they have picked up more "knocks" to be remembered, and secondly younger bodies are not as adversely affected by hidden sanna attachments. Young people with their vitality can "bulldoze" their way through such attachments but as with all attachments it is more complete to release them and let them go. Yet at the same time it was a younger bill in his mid-30s who buried Peyton for 8 years releasing her pain at Nyanga. And a further 20 years before he realised how much loving her meant. Small sanna-scanning can have much more of an impact for older seekers.

Whilst the above paragraph is true, for young seekers family issues are far more dominant. Older seekers have learnt to release family issues although there are still many hidden - shadow. For young people family issues are often in-their-face rather than just buried shadow - sanna-shadow. As an older seeker zandtao knows where he would prefer to stand - even though "sanna-clinging" as memory lane might be more of a problem.

Sanna-scanning is very risky. Knowing the 5 khandhas the Buddha wrote of the 4 foundations of mindfulness. Buddhadasa, the expert zandtao turns to on Buddhism wrote about "removing I and mine from the 5 khandhas", yet his MwB did not include sanna. Sanna is risky. For zandtaomed there is the Seeker Story, sanna cannot be ignored but sanna-scanning is risky.

Zandtao ended up in his consciousness with some stuff from his inner child work. If he hadn't done the inner child work (Seeker Story), this would have been disturbing. As it was he didn't understand initially what was happening - there was confusion and agitation for a couple of days, then he got it.

Indiscriminate release of sanna is not to be advised, so strongly does zandtao feel about this that he took down the zandtaomed advice below. In his view autonomy can handle this but it is not the work of the seeker. It is recorded below as part of Prajna relections. Fascinating - given so few people read his stuff this is OK; it's not even twittered any more.

Zandtao is prepared to make changes to zandtaomed's practice such as the 5 Dhamma comrades, and "feeling, knowing and seeing the way things are" at the end of the seeker's journey via zandtaomed - as described in this advice, but not this sanna-scanning. He will continue to use it as part of his Prajna practice.

zandtaomed advice withdrawn

Zandtao has been working on his egos associated with sanna - see warning below, and this has led to this advice.

The core of any practice is the letting go of ego – or better letting go of egos bit by bit; it might be described differently with different practices. Maybe for some seekers letting go of ego as a whole is a possibility, but for zandtao letting go of egos bit-by-bit is the way of his practice and his zandtaomed advice.

In this advice zandtaomed wants to focus on letting go of ego, and this focus for zandtaomed culminates mainly in step 12 (the 4th stage of tetrad 3) of his practice. In this zandtaomed tries to release egos that have arisen as the 3 kilesa of greed, hatred and delusion, and 4 upadanas of desire, ritual, idealisms and need for self. Also as part of step 12 is what Buddhadasa calls “removing I from the 5 khandhas”. As a seeker to follow this method there would be attempts to let go of each of the 12 sets of egos (3 kilesa, 4upadanas and 5 khandha-releases) in turn until a practice is sufficiently developed where the seeker can release the 12 “at once”. Focus on one ego at a time within each set, examine it in detail, and then let go of the individual egos. Over time a practice can be developed where egos from all 12 can be released each meditation.

But great care needs be taken as such a grouping of 12 can let egos slip by. This is what happened to zandtao in as much as he realised egos had been accumulating as a result of sanna as memory, the issue is that egos can creep up on any seeker and cause problems. Whilst zandtao never thought he was being complacent, this is what was happening. As a seeker it is easy to delude yourself into thinking that egos have been dealt with when all kinds of new ones can emerge or be discovered.

Seekers with a practice need to try to avoid egos as a result of complacency, and this is far from easy. Let’s recap on where egos arise. Through instinct we develop egos in order to survive, as young adults the self-esteem that collects together from all of these instinctive egos/selves helps us gain status within conditioned society. Unfortunately the more successful we are with achievement through self-esteem the more likely we are to delude ourselves that we are content – we don’t want to be seekers, we don’t want to lose that false status and achievement by following the true path. However release of conditioned egos is what happens with mature people who want to follow the path, and with that comes greater understanding and joy in life.

The conditioning process goes on around us all the time. As maturing adults we might begin to think that we have dealt with the conditioning of our upbringing, but we cannot be certain that new egos from conditioning are not arising – either not releasing old egos or forming new egos. Basically we deal with egos at our own pace through ongoing practice. Zandtao knows there are egos present, he works at releasing them with his practice; during his practice and throughout the day (hopefully) he examines whether his behaviour has been affected by ego thus recognising the egos that need to be released.

Paticcasamuppada, the description of dependent origination, talks of how egos arise:-



Let us consider how paticcasamuppada can improve our practice, and to begin to do that let us consider how conditioning through upbringing occurs by the law of paticcasamuppada.

From birth there is ignorance, and the sense events that arise are based in this ignorance. As contact (step 5) arises this is where choice is made, and the choices that are made can lead to “becoming egos” (steps 9 and 10). From birth we are not aware to make choices (at contact), and the choices are initially made through parenting and then later through parenting and the wider community ie conditioned society. From this conditioning a self as a collection of egos is developed, and from self can arise the self-esteem that allows for social success and status.

As a mature person we choose to follow the path and develop our own autonomy. Zandtaomed wants to consider the 5 Dhamma comrades - mindfulness/sati, love/karuna, wisdom/panna, concentration/samadhi and embodiment/sampajanna – here. Buddhadasa taught that they arise through the meditation of MwB, do they arise in other practices? These 5 Dhamma comrades build our autonomy and at the same time are the skills in step 12 used to release egos. How does our autonomy and 5 Dhamma comrades fit in with paticcasamuppada? How do they help us with conditioning as seen through the law of paticcasamuppada?

At some point we might become aware of the suffering that is caused by conditioning (Eckhart calls it firstgrace), and this awareness starts to remove ignorance. Through removal of ignorance the sense events that arise are better; for example because we are aware chauvinist events do not arise so often for us to make a choice at phassa (contact). But if we are not conscious of our conditioning then sense-events can slip through phassa and form egos because of habit, because we are still unaware of some of our conditioning or because through new conditioning we attach and form new egos. Dealing with egos and conditioning is part of the practice, in this way practice - process of releasing egos - fits with the law of paticcasamuppada.

Previous advice talks of recognising individual egos and letting them go. Use of paticcasamuppada can give another way of dealing with ego by using the law in reverse order. Work back down to the sense-event from step 10 – not “becoming an ego” by releasing the attachment and craving that has arisen thus letting go of the ego. What were the feelings that gave rise to the attachment? What was the sense-event that triggered the “becoming ego”? Using paticcasamuppada we can release egos, develop an awareness of how they arose, recognise the trigger event and feelings that led to the ego, and hopefully not choose in contact to develop the ego next time.

Does our practice need to include the use of this law? Perhaps not. Be conscious that this law exists and is at the root of Buddhist practice – and zandtaomed’s practice is Buddhist for releasing egos.

Now zandtao is beginning to consider paticcasamuppada in more detail and this has implications for this advice of zandtaomed – and maybe future advice. When it comes to kilesa and upadana, whilst their arising follows the law of paticcasamuppada such egos are “in plain sight”. In our practice our mindfulness and sampajanna can choose to recognise and release those egos. But egos can also be unconscious as in shadow. Now there is powerful shadow that arises from conditioning usually shadow associated with parenting. This shadow is dealt with through awareness and integration in our practice.

Above attachment to sanna was mentioned as leading to this advice. Sanna is one of the 5 khandhas, the aggregates that make up who we are. Buddhadasa’s advice concerning the 5 khandhas rings in here “removing I and mine from the 5 khandhas”. How do we do that? How do we know the difference between the way a khandha is meant to function and whether a khandha has developed ego? That not knowing is unconscious and is a shadow, yet not the type of shadow that unconsciously adversely affects our behaviour such as a shadow of deeply-buried repression. Zandtao does not consider the khandha shadows in the same light, but there is still this shadow ego attached to khandhas.

Paticcasamuppada can help us see how the khandhas can lead to unconscious egos. Sense-events arise that are automatically handled by the khandhas and most are not made conscious – sight sees far more sense-events than we are conscious of but the khandha-consciousness relating to sight handles most of what is seen. Can we be comfortable with this? Mostly because we trust nature and the khandhas nature provides. But have we developed self-interests that interfere with nature’s good process? If we become more aware of sense-events that arise, we can perhaps recognise such self-interference. As a gross example do we recognise all of our chauvinist behaviour and its impact with regards to race and gender, or do we delude ourselves that such behaviour is not important – selecting what sight sees (what sense-events are seen consciously) to suit chauvinist egos? Referring to paticcasamuppada developing awareness that removes ignorance and being more conscious of the choice we make at phassa can help to release these egos and less threatening shadows.

Zandtao became aware that there was ego associated with sanna, memory was attaching to sense-events thus creating unconscious shadow egos. Through becoming more conscious of memory processes, recognising that memory was attaching to become egos, there was a release of some ego. It felt better. This was carried out in part by body scanning and in part by being aware that there was holding onto memory-concerning-body, recognising the way zandtao held onto certain memories led to a release of these sanna-kaya egos and it felt better. There was not only ill health because of weakness in kaya, but additional ill health because of the ego arising from the reinforcing by memory of that ill health – releasing the memory helped. This then led to zandtao considering sanna attaching to other khandhas and the release of egos.

Warning!! .

Sanna-Scanning can unearth attached memories that were not intended. Zandtao unearthed memories concerning childhood relationships that had previously been touched on with inner child work. This was beneficial, not intended, and took time to resolve as he was not initially aware these memories were accessed. Indiscriminate sanna scanning is dangerous and should not be entered into lightly. Do NOT go there if your Seeker Story is not complete. If your Seeker Story is a thorough recounting such sanna-scanning might well be beneficial for you - unearthing memories that were previously not accessed.

It is interesting that three of the khandhas are kaya – body, vedana – feelings, and sankhara – mental operations, similar to the first three tetrads of MwB. That leaves vinnana-consciousness – the consciousness that attaches to the other khandhas to form the egos of self. Once we release the vinnana-consciousness from the other 4 khandhas, is there attachment in the vinnana-consciousness? And the answer is quite possibly, there is some remains in vinnana with a potential for attachment. Zandtaomed sees this potential as a form of magnetic attraction, therefore the work with vinnana is not finished once it has been released. It needs redirection. Fortunately that same attraction can be used as faith to be attracted to the path, so as a part of the 4th tetrad consciousness released from attachment becomes magnetic faith reconnecting with Dhamma – consciousness as a whole – Source. Faith in the path takes the released consciousness of vinnana and in zandtaomed’s approach to the 4th tetrad that faith is used to develop a love-wisdom balance that leads to a clear vision of the spiritual liberation of autonomy – feeling, knowing and seeing the way things are – tathata. However aware we are, egos sneak in and without a practice they consolidate their shadows. Through ongoing practice, we release them by avoiding complacency. Look at your practice and sharpen it up. Review it, let your autonomy review it. Use the Dhamma comrades to ensure your practice is the best it can be, build the best vihara (no attachment to khandhas), and have faith in the path.