Q45. What does really knowing something entail?
~ By Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
I advise and request that all students and investigators of Dhamma listen particularly to the words of the Buddha that I am about to quote. The Buddha said that to really know something, we must know five things about it, namely:
(1) What are its characteristics and properties?
(2) What is its origin, its source?
(3) What is its assāda, its enticing quality, its appeal, its allurement?
(4) What is its ādīnava, the hidden danger, the sinister power to harm that lies concealed in it?
(5) What is the nissaraṇa, the skillful means by which we can get the better of it and escape its power?
These five questions make up a valuable set.
If you study something from these five perspectives, you will get the better of it. At the present time, you may be studying on the graduate level or postgraduate level. However, if you aren’t studying in these five ways, you will be mastered by your subject matter, that is, by the world. If we study the world in terms of these five aspects, there’s no way we will be mastered by the world. So let’s be careful about studying the world. Why are we studying? For what ultimate purpose are we studying? If we are studying so as to build peace in the world, then let’s be very careful. Our studies will bring no beneficial results if not based on these principles of the Buddha.
You probably have never heard of these things called assāda, ādīnava, and nissaraṇa, yet the Tipiṭaka is full of them. These three words – assāda, ādīnava, and nissaraṇa – hardly appear in what we hear and read, but please remember that they appear frequently in the Tipiṭaka. When the Buddha wished to impart a real knowledge of anything, he taught along these lines. Sometimes he cut it short, considering only the last three. What is the nature of something’s assāda (its allurement)? What is the nature of its ādīnava (its harmful properties, especially hidden ones)? Everything has both attractive and harmful qualities. What is the nature of the nissaraṇa, the cunning maneuver by means of which we can get the better of it?
There is, so to speak, a hook hidden in that bait hanging there. The assāda is the juicy bait enticing the fish to bite. The concealed hook is the ādīnava, that is, the dangerous, cruel power to harm that lies hidden inside the bait. And the nissaraṇa is the technique for outwitting the hook and bait. The fish must have a technique for eating the bait without becoming hooked. The thing called the bait then no longer functions as bait and instead becomes a good piece of food, which the fish can happily swallow without getting hooked.
Therefore, we ought always to look at the world in these terms. One aspect of the world, the assāda, the bait, lures us until we become so deeply engrossed in it that we turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to all else. But there is a hook inside the bait. People who get hooked on the world can’t break free; they drown in the world, that is, in suffering. Conversely, ariyas, noble ones advanced in practice, look carefully and see profoundly what the assāda, the ādīnava, and the nissaraṇa are like. They are thus able to live in the world, swallowing the bait of the world without getting caught on the hooks. They know everything well enough to be fully aware of these five aspects: its properties, its samudaya (root cause), its assāda (bait), its ādīnava (hook), and the nissaraṇa (stratagem). To know anything well we have to learn about and come to know all five factors, or at a minimum the last three.
Whatever we do, whatever we get involved with in the course of our studies and other activities, we ought to apply this principle to them all. Then we shall know how to discern, and shall be able to reap the greatest reward without being hurt. This is what ‘really knowing’ means. By acting on this knowledge, it will be an easy task to practice Dhamma and leave behind the defilements. Viewing the world in terms of these five aspects, we shall see it as filled up with assāda or attractive allurement on the outside and ādīnava or danger on the inside. We shall know the nissaraṇa of recognizing swindles, counterfeits, deceptions, illusions, and shall not be hooked by any bait in the world. Mind that operates with wisdom will view colors and shapes, flavors, odors, sounds, tactile objects, and mental images rightly in terms of these five aspects. It will not be overpowered by them and there will not develop craving and clinging that give birth to ego and selfishness. Emptiness and freedom will become our day-to-day condition. Ultimately, practicing Dhamma for progress towards Nibbāna will not be beyond our capacities.
(From “Buddha-Dhamma for Inquiring Minds”)
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Buddha-Dhamma for Students (title of original translation) was composed of two talks given by Ajahn Buddhadāsa in January 1966 to students at Thammasat University, Bangkok. It was translated from the Thai by Rod Bucknell, and revised in 2018 by Santikaro Upasaka. To read/download as free ebook (pdf).
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For all English retreat talks, visit Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu.
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Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives D-127