| Mūlapariyāya Sutta | |
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| Type | Canonical Text |
| Parent | Majjhima Nikaya |
| Abbreviation | MN 1 |
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| Theravāda Buddhism | ||||||||
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| Buddhism | ||||||||
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TheMūlapariyāya Sutta (MN 1,The Root of all things orThe Root Sequence) is aTheravada Buddhist discourse which "is one of the deepest and most difficult suttas in thePali Canon."[1] This discourse analyzes the thinking process of four different types of people and shows how the arising ofdukkha is due to an intricate process which begins withperception and can only be ended byinsight into thetrue nature of reality.
In this first sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya, the Buddha looks at thought process of four kinds of persons - untaught ordinary persons (puthujjana), disciples of the higher training (asekha, who has at least achievedstream entry),arahants, and theTathagata and how they deal with the root or foundation (mūla) ofsuffering which isdesire born ofignorance.
The first kind of person is said to be a regular person and hence ignorant of thedhamma. The Buddha states how this kind of person deals with experience in the following manner:
Perceiving earth as earth, he conceives [things] about earth, he conceives [things] in earth, he conceives [things] coming out of earth, he conceives earth as 'mine,' he delights in earth. Why is that? Because he has not comprehended it, I tell you.
The discourse then continues to list all of the things the ordinary ignorant person conceives (maññanā) and delights in. These objects of thought are termed the 'Twenty-four bases (vatthus) of cognition' and range from the most gross aspects of experience to the most subtle. The vatthus are:[2]
The ordinary process of the untaught world-ling's conception of the world is filled with ignorance and conceptual proliferation (papañca) from the initial moment of sensory perception. This leads to conceiving 'things in' and 'coming out' of whatever he perceives. This refers to how everyone develops views (diṭṭhi) about how things are, how they should be and how they should relate to them, from simple views to complex metaphysical speculations. People also develop conceptions of themselves as having a solidSelf, and they also become attached to things when they delight (nandi) in them which leads tocraving andclinging. Ordinary people conceive of things by identifying with them, by wanting to possess them, by seeing their self as being contained in them or by seeing their self as being separate from them.[3] This process begins at perception, which is already distorted for the untaught person who conceives and projects self-hood, solidity and expectations into his field of experience.[4] The stage of "conceiving" (mañati) is really a state of cognitive distortion, which is led by the three defilements of craving (taṇhā), conceit (māna), and views (diṭṭhi). It is in this sense that the untaught person is said to be deluded.
This process is an outline of theinterdependent arising ofsuffering in the minds different kinds of people and how this process is counteracted by those who have taken up the teachings of the Buddha. The sutta goes on to elucidate how each other type of person gets closer and closer to the goal ofnibbana by knowing things as they are and not delighting and clinging to them. The disciple in the higher training attempts not to conceive of things in a wrong way by not identifying with them and by not clinging to them. He does this by directly knowing things as they are, ie as impermanent, suffering, and non-self. He disciple must be vigilant because he has still not eradicated subtle mental dispositions of clinging.[5] Thearahant and theTathagata are awakened beings and therefore see directly into the truth of reality with no distorted conceptions, having uprooted all trace of the three defilements.
According toThanissaro Bhikkhu, this sutta is a response to the Indian philosophical school calledSamkhya and parallels their philosophy while at the same time critiquing it. This school was said to have been founded by a philosopher called Uddalaka who posited there was a "root" principle which was in all things and gave birth to all things, a sort of "ground of being"[6] called Mula-Prakṛti. According to the Theravadan commentaries, the monks listening in this sutta were Brahmins who even after being ordained continued to hold to some of their previous views. This helps explains why the sutta ends with the very rare sentence: "Displeased, the monks did not delight in the Blessed One's words."[6]
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