Multiple perceptions

Q & A
1

Hi
Have been contemplating the 5 khandhas specifically sanna and interlinking this with sanna and sankharas in the 12 link chain.
Perception requires memory or it would not exist, eg sense contact requires a corresponding sense consciousness contact for perception to occur.

Is there, therefore, six forms of sanna, six perceptions with six corresponding memory ‘banks,’ eg the six sense consciousnesses.

I would be grateful for any pointers in the suttas and maybe a fuller description in a scholarly article.

Thanks in advance for your help.

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“Feeling, perception, & consciousness are conjoined, friend, not disjoined. It is not possible, having separated them one from another, to delineate the difference among them. For what one feels, that one perceives. What one perceives, that one cognizes. Therefore these qualities are conjoined, not disjoined, and it is not possible, having separated them one from another, to delineate the difference among them.”— MN 43

Practically speaking the mechanism that alters perception is view, changing view changes perceptions, so view is the thing to work on.

“Perceiving constancy in the inconstant,
pleasure in the stressful,
self in what’s not-self,
attractiveness in the unattractive,
beings, destroyed by wrong-view,
go mad, out of their minds.”—AN 4.49

“Friend, there are two conditions for the arising of right view: the voice of another ( reading) and appropriate attention. These are the two conditions for the arising of right view.”—MN 43

Reading results in necessary right view theory, appropriate attention in the experience of right view. MN 19 explains how the Buddha-to-be achieved this prior to enlightenment through investigation of the effects of different types of thought. As in the scientific method, view is only changed through concrete experience.

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This is not accurate. Please check DN 9 Potthapada Sutta

Sahetū hi, poṭṭhapāda, sappaccayā purisassa saññā uppajjantipi nirujjhantipi.
Sikkhā ekā saññā uppajjati, sikkhā ekā saññā nirujjhati.

Sanna arises and ceases due to conditions.
One Sanna arises, and another Sanna ceases.

Can you quote where Buddha said by reading one can get a right view?

“Friend, there are two conditions for the arising of right view: the voice of another ( reading) and appropriate attention. These are the two conditions for the arising of right view.”—MN 43

In Sutta such as SN 6.1 Brahmāyācana Sutta , Buddha said:

“Apārutā tesaṁ amatassa dvārā,
“Flung open are the doors to the deathless!
Ye sotavanto pamuñcantu saddhaṁ;
Let those with ears to hear decide their faith.

So right view arises due to hearing the dhamma with focus attention to the source. Also Buddha called their devotee as Savaka ( means hearer).

Source here means from Buddha directly or from his devotee (Ariya).

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As already stated, I am speaking from a practical viewpoint. In DN9 the Buddha instructs that as the teaching progresses and understanding develops, perceptions change.

"In this regard, Potthapada, those brahmans & contemplatives who say that a person’s perception arises & ceases without cause, without reason, are wrong from the very start. Why is that? Because a person’s perception arises & ceases with a cause, with a reason. With training, one perception arises and with training another perception ceases. And what is that training?

[…]

“Quite withdrawn from sensual pleasures, withdrawn from unskillful mental qualities, the monk enters & remains in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. His earlier perception of sensuality ceases, and on that occasion there is a perception of a refined truth of rapture & pleasure born of seclusion. On that occasion he is one who is percipient of a refined truth of rapture & pleasure born of seclusion. And thus it is that with training one perception arises and with training another perception ceases.”—DN 9, Thanissaro

Here the Buddha is referring to the critical fact that sensuality cannot be overcome until it is replaced by feelings not of the flesh, involving a change of perception:

“Even though a disciple of the noble ones has clearly seen as it actually is with right discernment that sensuality is of much stress, much despair, & greater drawbacks, still — if he has not attained a rapture & pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful mental qualities, or something more peaceful than that[4] — he can be tempted by sensuality. But when he has clearly seen as it actually is with right discernment that sensuality is of much stress, much despair, & greater drawbacks, and he has attained a rapture & pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful mental qualities, or something more peaceful than that, he cannot be tempted by sensuality.”—MN 14

The Buddha lived in an oral culture, and it’s not profitable to try to impose conditions from the past on available modern media:

“The Indian world in which Buddhism arose was an oral world. The general scholarly consensus is that writing was not used in India until the Mauryan period sometime in the 3rd century BCE and that it was not used to record Buddhist texts until the 1st century BCE, when the Pali canon was written down for the first time in Sri Lanka. Every Sutta starts with the phrase evaṃ me sutaṃ (thus have I heard), which reflects the oral lineage of these texts.”—Oxford Bibliographies

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5

Indeed!

And what is perception?
Katamā ca, bhikkhave, saññā?

There are these six classes of perception:
Chayime, bhikkhave, saññākāyā—

perceptions of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and thoughts.
rūpasaññā, saddasaññā, gandhasaññā, rasasaññā, phoṭṭhabbasaññā, dhammasaññā.

This is called perception.
Ayaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, saññā.

Perception originates from contact.
Phassasamudayā saññāsamudayo;

When contact ceases, perception ceases.
phassanirodhā saññānirodho.

The practice that leads to the cessation of perceptions is simply this noble eightfold path …
~ SN 22.57

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Thanks for the reply.
In considering ‘meta awareness’ the phenomenological field of the conscious mind, all 6 sense contacts and corresponding perception exist at the same time with mindful awareness. Body senses and contact within the experienced sense and contact of the mind. A ‘mingling’ of the subjective perceptual experience observed by an objective mind, as one experience, non dual.

Thinking in a different way this can be interpreted as being mindful of the 5 Khandhas simultaneously, experientially, while being mindfully aware of the experience.

7

No mindfulness is dualistic, detached from the subject. It can be seen from the following insight that samsara is always separate from ultimate reality, and beginners also should make this division:

“Citta, these are the world’s designations, the world’s expressions, the world’s ways of speaking, the world’s descriptions, with which the Tathagata expresses himself but without grasping to them.”—DN 9

"There is the case, monk, where a monk has heard, ‘All things are unworthy of attachment.’ Having heard that all things are unworthy of attachment, he directly knows every thing. Directly knowing every thing, he comprehends every thing. Comprehending every thing, he sees all themes[2] as something separate. [3]—SN 35.80

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There are many inaccuracies, so let me deal with the major first. Because this is crucial.

Are you saying that one just read the Sutta, they can become stream enterer (i.e. attain right view)?

One question would arise then,

Wouldn’t one find the world fill with Stream Enterers? Reason is many people read Sutta presently compare to only a few hear Sutta during Buddha time?

I don’t think so. If you can prove it let me know.

Again, please provide the Sutta that described by Reading one can get right view. Otherwise, you might lead beings to the harm way. When Buddha stated something, Buddha meant it regardless of time (akaliko).

Also, how do you reconcile with these 3 Sutta and other Sutta(s)?

SN 55.5
“Sāriputta, they speak of a ‘factor of stream-entry’. What is a factor of stream-entry?”
“Sir, the factors of stream-entry are associating with good people, listening to the true teaching, proper attention, and practicing in line with the teaching.”

AN 10.61 Avijjā Sutta
…
And what is the fuel for proper attention?
You should say: ‘Faith.’
I say that faith is fueled by something, it’s not unfueled.
And what is the fuel for faith?
You should say: ‘Listening to the true teaching.’
I say that listening to the true teaching is fueled by something, it’s not unfueled.
And what is the fuel for listening to the true teaching? You should say: ‘Associating with good people.’

AN 7.29 2nd Parihani Sutta
…
“These seven things lead to the decline of a lay follower.
…
They neglect listening to the true teaching.

If one gets the Right View condition wrong, how can one progress in practice or having a practical viewpoint? So, One can’t be in practice and let alone progress in practice without Right View first.

Regarding @RichSW question

I would recommend try to at least start from SN 56.11, then progress slowly. If one can fully understand SN 56.11, one will see the 12 link chain here and now. That mean you have fully developed Ariyan 8Fold path.

For DO, please refer to SN 12. Especially SN 12.2 Vibhanga Sutta. For Perception Aggregates, there are many sutta. One of them is SN 22.59 Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta. But SN 22.59 is for advance level. One close to Non returner and/or Arahant maybe able to comprehend fully.

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