A First Look at Abhidhamma (8):
Stopping



Angulimala’s Story

During Buddha’s time, there was a very feared and brutal murderer.  He was very strong, he destroyed villages and towns.  Even armies could not defeat him.  He wore a garland (mala) of the fingers (anguli) of the people he killed.  Hence he was known as Angulimala.

There was an occasion when Angulimala was hunting the Buddha along a road.  It was very strange.  No matter how hard Angulimala chased after the Buddha, who seemed to be only walking slowly, he could not overtake the Buddha.  Hence Angulimala stopped and shouted to the Buddha, “Stop.  Stop.”  The Buddha answered Angulimala, “I have stopped Angulimala, now you stop.”  Angulimala was puzzled, the Buddha did not stop walking, thus why did the Buddha said instead that the Buddha had stopped while Angulimala had not?  The Buddha explained to Angulimala:

The World that Never Stops

This is a busy world.  The wonders of technology have allowed us to do more things, in less time, and over larger scale.  The world fulfills this enhanced capability and does precisely that.  Advancement in information technology has allowed faster communication throughout the world.  It allows faster reaction time.  The world also fulfills this enhanced capability and does precisely that.  As a result, change occurs much faster everywhere in the world.  The pace of life has picked up.  There is more work to do each day, more goals to achieve, and over shorter and shorter datelines.

This is why the ability to stop our thoughts becomes more important than ever.  Firstly, our brain does not stop immediately after a hard day of thinking.  It tends to continue thinking and thinking.  This builds up mental stress.  We may even lose sleep because our brain cannot stop thinking.  With the loss of sleep, health and emotional problems arise.  This lowers our productivity in whatever we do, and may even grow a sense of phobia towards our work, leading to even more mental stress.  Thus the ability to stop our thoughts is important.

Secondly, evil thoughts in our minds are more destructive than ever.  Things are done much quicker and easier.  The consequences of our actions also come faster, since reaction times are now shorter.  In just a short moment of folly, be it out of craving, anger or ignorance, much action can be executed before the mind returns to calmness and stability.  We end up succeeding in doing many things that bring regrets.  We also end up causing others to react in regrettable ways.  Thus the ability to stop our thoughts is important.

Thirdly, some recurring thoughts and emotions are so destructive that they should be stopped as quickly as possible.  This could be depression due to a death in the family, the breaking up of a relationship, or failure in career or endeavor.  This could also be anger against somebody, or craving (and infatuation) for somebody or some thing.  Often times we hear someone saying, "I shall remain sad for the rest of my life" or "I shall hate you forever" or "I shall never forgive".  These are very destructive thoughts and emotions that not only bring suffering to ourselves, but also suffering to all those around us.  Whenever one of us is trapped in a duality, all the people around us would also be trapped in the duality.  The contagion is worse than an infectious disease.  However if we can stop such thoughts and emotions in time, then we can limit the destruction brought by them.  The sooner we stop the sooner we can start healing.

The Working of the Citta Revisited

In the previous chapter, we learned about the eighty-nine kinds of citta, and how they work with each other.  Essentially throughout our lives, our mental world processes mental objects after mental objects.  The mental objects could be one of sight, sound, smell, taste, body sense and brain thought.  Each mental object lasts about the duration of seventeen consecutive cittas.  Among these seventeen cittas, seven of them are either wholesome (kusala) cittas or unwholesome (akusala) cittas.  The mental object provides the condition for the arising of these wholesome or unwholesome cittas, while our habits and karma provide the seed.

All these seventeen cittas and the mental object arise and fall very quickly.  The entire sequence occurs faster than a split second, since we are able to observe movements within a split second.  However many brain thought mental objects 'linger' on after our sight, sound, smell, taste and body sense experience.  These are stray thoughts.  When unwholesome cittas arise within the seventeen cittas, the sequence of cittas easily induces another brain thought mental object that would bring another sequence of unwholesome cittas.  Thus sequence after sequence of unwholesome cittas occurs one after another.  We soon find ourselves in a flare of anger, depression, craving, or ignorant beliefs.  This chain-reaction can go on and on.  One can remember more and more angry things, formulate more and more angry ideas, and dream of more and more angry scenarios.  In the end, the person can remain angry the entire day, although what actually sparked the entire chain-reaction, was ended long time ago!  In the same way, the person can remain depressed, infatuated or ignorant the entire day, week and even month.

Ways of Stopping

After knowing how the mental chain-reaction comes about, we ask whether there is a way to stop it.  Yes there is.  Recall that citta can only experience one mental object at a time.  Hence all the chain-reactions are only of a single chain.  If our mind can be 'distracted' during any part of the chain, then the entire chain would be broken.  This is essentially the way of stopping.  Using this idea, there are four basic common ways of stopping.  I sort them from the most conditional to the most unconditional.

1) Using Concepts and Beliefs

One effective way to stop a mental chain-reaction is to use some anti-concepts and beliefs to destroy the entire chain.  When we fall into a chain-reaction of anger, we can switch to thinking why we should not be angry; when we are depressed, we can think of why we should not be depressed; when we crave, we can think of the dangers of craving.  Notice that although such switching of thoughts does stop the chain-reaction of negativeness, it does not bring us out of the duality.  Sometimes, after thinking of the reasons why we should not be angry, we may again fall into thinking of the counter-reasons why we should be angry.  This goes on and on, adding stress to the situation physically and mentally.  Also, sometimes despite having the best reasons in the world for not being angry, our habitual energy continue to drown us in anger.  Hence this method does not work all the time, but when it works, it is a beautiful method.  This is also the most common method we offer to pacify our friends.

2) Vacations and Hobbies as Diversions

This is perhaps a more expensive method.  Very often when a person sinks into prolonged depression, he or she is advised to take a vacation to elsewhere so that he or she can put his or her mind off.  Similarly an angry person may calm down by leaving the scene of anger for a while and then coming back to it later.  By being physically away, the person experiences new mental objects.  These new mental objects have the chance of starting new chain-reactions that might effectively break or weaken the undesired chain-reaction.  If it works, the entire undesired chain-reaction is ended without trapping the person in the duality.

Similarly the person can use hobbies as a diversion.  Hobbies are shorter duration diversions than vacations.  One can take up a sport or a game, or simply meet up with friends in various forms of gathering.  When using a hobby as diversion, one should beware of the long-term effects of the hobby.  Drugs and alcohol have long-term damaging effects to the body, hence they are very poor diversions.  Also unwholesome hobbies generate unwholesome karma.  Thus as the person stops an unwholesome chain-reaction, he starts another unwholesome chain-reaction.  This is not useful.

3) Mental Counting, Chanting and Breath Focusing

This method is suitable when there is an immediate need to stop.  When we are very angry, we immediately stop what we are doing.  Next we take a deep breath, and exhale slowly.  Then we count from one to ten slowly.  Very often by the count of ten, we would find that the great anger impulse would have fallen drastically.  It may now fall within tolerable limits where the person can control his or her anger.  If it does not fall enough yet, we can repeat the exercise by taking another deep breath (and exhaling) and counting another ten counts.  Repeat until it works, count for a few hours if we have to.

How does this work?  By taking a deep breath (and exhaling), we calm our body and mind.  This is how our body works.  This short attention to the breath also helps to break the anger chain-reaction.  Next as we count from one to ten slowly, we break the anger chain-reaction again and again for at least ten times.  As the anger chain-reaction restarts again and again, its intensity is lowered every time.  Thus by the tenth count, it is usually lowered to a controllable level.

When this works, it offers us immediate control over our actions.  It works wonders.  It could also be applied to controlling depression, craving and ignorance. It is more effective towards spur of emotions and thoughts, rather than towards long duration emotions and thoughts.  When it works, it frees the person from the duality without the need of external stimuli.

Instead of counting, we may also do chanting.  Chanting is effective against spurs of fear, depression, craving and anger.  An alternative to this method is to focus on our breath without counting.  This requires more practice than the physical counting method and chanting.  However this method is more discrete.  When this method is perfected, it actually increases the mindfulness or awareness of the person in the long term, in addition to achieving stopping at the moment.

4) Mindfulness Practices

Mindfulness practices improve the awareness of the person during his or her daily life.  Starting from “breathing in, I know I am breathing in; breathing out, I know I am breathing out”, the person soon improves to awareness of walking, of standing, of sitting etc, and eventually even of thinking.  This has many profound and beneficial impact on one’s ending of suffering.  One of such impact is stopping.

In order to stop anger, we must first know that we are angry; in order to stop craving, we must first know that we are craving.  Hence mindfulness is the necessary first alarm bell.  Without mindfulness, we cannot stop in time.  Furthermore, mindfulness has a dampening effect.  Usually when we just hold our awareness on our anger or craving that has arisen, without fighting it or blocking it, it would just subside by its own.  This is commonly known as ‘starving’ the negative energy.  The negative energy cannot survive if we do not react to it.

Mindfulness will be elaborated in more details by two of the subsequent chapters.  Here I would briefly conclude that although this method is the most difficult compared to the other three, it is the most ultimate in that it is the least conditional on tangible circumstances.

Wanting to Stop

The means to stop are many.  It reduces to whether one actually wants to stop.  Does one want to forgive?  Does one want to let go of one’s anger over this issue?  Does one want to get out of one’s depression, to give up clinging, and to give up ignorance?

Sometimes we are so used to being angry with someone, that although our anger has long subsided, we are still in the habit of giving him or her a cold shoulder as he or she passes by.  Sometimes we are so used to feeling sad over the loss of someone dear, and crying regularly, that we do not know how to lead a life without crying anymore, despite that the sadness is long gone.  Sometimes we build our lives so dedicated to a particular vengeance (non-forgiving), that it becomes the only meaning of our lives.

We do not want to stop, because we are afraid of starting a new beginning.

But life itself is a new beginning each day!  No matter we want it this way or not, yesterday is gone.

It is a new beginning no matter we want it or not.  If we do not treat it as a new beginning, then we resist change, and resisting change causes suffering.  If we treat it as a new beginning, then freshness and healing can begin. 

Life is not only a new beginning each day.  In fact, life is a new beginning each hour, each minute, and each breath.  Life is a new beginning each citta, because the previous citta has fallen, and a new citta arises. 

Some Precautionary Note

It is perhaps a bad part in the article to have precautionary notes.  However I would be irresponsible if I do not mention them.

There is an old Taoist wisdom that says, “When phenomena reach their extremes, they become the opposite duality.”  Stopping is the opposite duality of non-stopping.  This is where the problem arises.

I have seen time and again, that people who practice stopping, become ‘addicted’ to stopping.  They become fanatics of the concepts and beliefs that ‘rescued’ them from non-stopping, or become addicted to vacations and hobbies, or become so risk fearing that they withdraw from the world.  It is not that they did not manage to stop, rather it is that they did not manage to end.

Stopping is a means to healing and renewing.  Stopping is not an end by itself.  If we end up dwelling in stopping, then we would have to practice stopping the stopping as well.  If the stopping does not stop, then we are essentially still reacting to the suffering that needed the stopping.  It is only when we do not need to react anymore, then the suffering has truly ended.

Stopping brings comfort and non fear.  Restarting, which means to confront the situation again, brings discomfort and fear.  Hence restarting is shunned, and stopping is dwelled upon.  However as long as restarting is not done, then we are not moving on.  Without the re-confrontation, we can never better ourselves.

Applying the old Taoist wisdom above, a better way perhaps is to stop slowly and regularly.  Do not let the suffering pile up.  In this way, the suffering would more likely not develop into a phobia, so restarting is easier.  In the case where the suffering has already piled up, then there are two ways.  The first way is to stop slowly in stages, so that each restarting is not a drastic jump back to normal load.  The second way is to stop completely and quickly, but restart slowly and in stages, so that again each restarting is not a drastic jump.  How slow and how many stages, would depend on the person’s will and tolerance.


Mindfulness Meditation

The ability to stop, is developed through every single watching of the stray thoughts.  The more we learn to watch our thoughts, the more we are in control of the thoughts, in the sense that we are no longer dictated by them. 

On a good day, we can watch all our thoughts without attachment.  On a bad day, we give in to all of them.  During good times, we can watch all our thoughts without attachment.  During bad times, we give in to all of them.  These different responses neither show we are better or worse in our development.  They only show the drastic phenomenon of the Law of Cause and Effect.

Hence do not be carried away when we can watch all our thoughts without attachment, and do not be frustrated when we give in to all of them.  It is the effort that counts.  Every bit of effort, could transform into the bit of will power that we need in the future, to stop.

Angulimala has stopped, have you stopped yet?


--By Lee Hon Sing.  Last modified: January 26, 2004.  All ignorance is mine. 


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