..续本文上一页 is the more precious between cow dung and gold; so we needn”t waste time and proclaim our stupidity by making comparisons.
The disintegration of avijja marks the moment when Arahatta-magga and Arahattaphala arrive together at their final destination. If we make a comparison with climbing the stairs to a house, one foot is on the last step, the other foot is on the floor of the house. We have not yet reached the house with both feet. Only when both feet are firmly on the floor of the house can we say that we have “reached the house”. The citta “reaches Dhamma” when it has both feet firmly planted in the supreme Dhamma. It has attained the singularity of Nibbana. From that moment of attainment, the citta is completely free. It manifests no further activities for the removal of kilesas. This is Arahattaphala: the fruition of Arahantship. It is experienced exclusively by those who are free of kilesas—those living Arahants who attain sa-upadisesa-nibbana.
As for rupa, vedana, sañña, sankhara and viññana, they are merely conditions, natural phenomena that spontaneously arise and cease without the ability to impact or contaminate the citta in anyway. The same applies to sights, sounds, smells, tastes and tactile sensations: each has its own separate reality. Their existence no longer poses a problem as the citta is now free of the ignorance that caused it to make false assumptions about them. Now that the citta is fully aware of the truth, it knows the reality of its knowing presence as well as the reality of all natural phenomena within and without. With each having its own separate reality, the conflicts that used to arise between them no longer exist. All are free to go their separate ways. At this stage, the long-standing conflict between the kilesas and the citta is finally over.
When the truth is known in this way, the citta feels no anxiety or apprehension concerning the life and death of the khandhas. The citta simply perceives the activities of the khandhas—how they arise, interact and cease; and how they eventually disintegrate at death. But since the essential knowing nature of the citta never dies, fear of death is not a factor. One accepts death—when it comes—as well as life—when it continues. Both are aspects of the same truth.
THIS CONCLUDES THE INVESTIGATION of the citta. Upon reaching this level, the citta is cut off forever from birth and existence, severed completely from all manifestations of avijja and craving. The state of “avijja paccaya sankhara”—the state in which “fundamental ignorance conditions the arising of conditioned phenomena”—dissolves completely. It is replaced by avijjaya tveva asesaviraga nirodha sankhara nirodho: the fading away and cessation of conditioned phenomena that ends the entire mass of suffering.
When avijja is extinguished, conditioned phenomena—which give rise to dukkha—are also extinguished. They have disappeared from the knowing nature of the citta. Conditioned phenomena, such as thoughts, which are an integral part of the khandhas, continue to function in their own sphere but they no longer cause dukkha. Uncorrupted by kilesas, they simply give form and direction to mental activity. Consciousness arises in the mind, purely and simply without producing suffering. Viññana paccaya namarupam, namarupa paccaya salayatanam, salayatana paccaya phasso: All sense media and the sense contact that they condition are just naturally occurring phenomena that exist according to their own intrinsic characteristics. They have no negative effect whatsoever on the citta that has successfully completed its task to the point of evamme tassa kevalassa dukkhakkhandhassa nirodho hoti. This is the total cessation of the entire mass of dukkha…
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