Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu - The Paradox of Becoming

Look at this world:

Beings, afflicted with thick ignorance,

are unreleased

from passion for what has come to be.

All levels of becoming,

anywhere,

in any way,

are inconstant, stressful, subject to change.

Seeing thisas it has come to be

with right discernment,

one abandons craving for becoming,

without delighting in non-becoming.

From the total ending of craving

comes dispassion & cessation without remainder:

Unbinding.

For the monk unbound,

through lack of clinging/sustenance,

there is no further becoming.

He has conquered Mra,

won the battle,

having gone beyond becomings

Such. Ud 3:10

The topic of becoming, although it features one major paradox, contains other paradoxes as well. Not the least of these is the fact that, although becoming is one of the most important concepts in the Buddhas teachings, there is no full-scale treatment of it in the English language. This book is an attempt to fill that lack.

The importance of becoming is evident from the role it plays in the four noble truths, particularly in the second: Suffering and stress are caused by any form of craving that leads to becoming. Thus the end of suffering must involve the end of becoming. The central paradox of becoming is also evident in the second noble truth, where one of the three forms of craving leading to becoming is craving for non-becomingthe ending of what has come to be. This poses a practical challenge for any attempt to put an end to becoming. Many writers have tried to resolve this paradox by defining non-becoming in such a way that the desire for Unbinding (nibbna) would not fall into that category. However, the Buddha himself taught a strategic resolution to this paradox, in which the fourth noble truththe path to the end of sufferinginvolves creating a type of becoming where the mind is so steady and alert that it can simply allow what has come into being to pass away of its own accord, thus avoiding the twin dangers of craving for becoming or for non-becoming.

My first inkling that the resolution of the paradox of becoming was strategicand paradoxical itselfrather than simply linguistic came from reading the following passage in The Autobiography of Phra Ajaan Lee. In this passage, Ajaan Lee is teaching meditation to a senior scholarly monk in Bangkok.

One day the Somdet said, ... Theres one thing Im still doubtful about. To make the mind still and bring it down to its basic resting level (bhavaga): Isnt this the essence of becoming and birth?

Thats what concentration is, I told him, becoming and birth.

But the Dhamma were taught to practice is for the sake of doing away with becoming and birth. So what are we doing giving rise to more becoming and birth?

If you dont make the mind take on becoming, it wont give rise to knowledge, because knowledge has to come from becoming if its going to do away with becoming.

This book is essentially an attempt to explore in detail the ways in which the Buddhas own resolution of the paradox of becoming employs the very same strategy.

In the course of writing this book, I found it necessary to revisit themes treated in some of my earlier writings. For instance, the topics of clinging and Unbinding, treated in The Mind Like Fire Unbound, and kamma and causality, treated in The Wings to Awakening, had to be covered again to give a full picture of the causes of becoming along with a sense of the rewards that come when becoming is overcome. But even though there is some overlap between this book and thosein terms of points made and passages citedI am treating these topics from a different angle, posing different questions and arriving at a different range of answers. Thus the discussion here, instead of being redundant, adds new dimensions to what was written in those earlier works.

Many people have read earlier incarnations of the manuscript for this book and offered valuable suggestions for improving its substance and style. In addition to the monks here at the monastery, I would like to thank the following people for their help: Ven. Pasanno Bhikkhu, Ven. Amaro Bhikkhu, Michael Barber, Peter Clothier, Peter Doobinin, Bok-Lim Kim, Nate Osgood, Xiao-Quan Osgood, Rose St. John, Mary Talbot, Ginger Vathanasombat, Barbara Wright, and Michael Zoll. Any mistakes, of course, are my own responsibility.

hnissaro Bhikkhu

Metta Forest Monastery

Valley Center, CA 92082-1409 USA

July, 2008