In the Buddha's Words - Bhikkhu Bodhi [164]
In one of his earliest discourses popularly known as “The Fire Sermon”—Text IX,4(2)(b)—the Buddha declared that “all is burning.” The “all” is just the six senses, their objects, the types of consciousness arisen from them, and the related contacts and feelings. The way to liberation is to see that this “all” is burning with the fires of defilements and suffering. The Saḷāyatanasaṃyutta repeatedly states that to dispel ignorance and generate true knowledge, we must contemplate all the sense bases and the feelings that arise through them as impermanent, suffering, and nonself. This, according to Text IX,4(2)(c), is the direct way to the attainment of Nibbāna. An alternative route, commended by Text IX,4(2)(d), is to see that the six senses are empty—empty of a self or of anything belonging to a self. Since consciousness arises via the six sense bases, it too is devoid of self—Text IX, 4(2)(e).
IX,4(3) The Elements. The elements are the subject of the Dhātusaṃyutta (Saṃyutta Nikāya, chapter 14). The word “elements” (dhātu) is applied to several quite disparate groups of phenomena, and thus the suttas in this chapter fall into separate clusters with little in common but their concern with entities called elements. The most important groups consist of eighteen, four, and six elements.
The eighteen elements are an elaboration of the twelve sense bases. They consist of the six sense faculties, the six sense objects, and the six types of sense consciousness. Since six types of consciousness have been extracted from the mind base, the mind element that remains must be a simpler type of cognitive event. The Nikāyas do not specify its precise function. The Abhidhamma identifies it with a type of consciousness that fulfills more rudimentary roles in the process of cognition than the more discriminative mind-consciousness element. IX,4(3)(a) contains a simple enumeration of the eighteen elements. Contemplation of these elements helps to dispel the notion that an abiding subject underlies the changing contents of experience. It shows how experience consists of different types of consciousness, each of which is conditioned, arisen in dependence on its own specific sense faculty and object. Thus to ascertain the composite, diversified, conditioned nature of experience dispels the illusion of unity and solidity that ordinarily obscures correct cognition.
The four elements are earth, water, heat, and air. These represent four “behavioral modes” of matter: solidity, fluidity, energy, and distension. The four are inseparably united in any unit of matter, from the smallest to the largest and most complex. The elements are not merely properties of the external world, however, but also of one’s own body. Thus one must contemplate them in relation to one’s body, as the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta teaches (see Text VIII, 8 §12). The three suttas combined in Text IX,4(3)(b) show that these elements can be viewed: as impermanent and conditioned; from the triple standpoint of gratification, danger, and escape; and by way of the four-truth pattern.
The six elements include the four physical elements, the space element, and the element of consciousness. Text IX,4(3)(c), a long excerpt from MN 140, explains in detail how to contemplate the six elements in relation to the physical body, the external world, and conscious experience.
IX,4(4) Dependent Origination. Dependent origination (paṭiccasamuppāda ) is so central to the Buddha’s teaching that the Buddha said: “One