What is the origination and the ending of the "World"?

Figure 1

Figure 2 (model #1)

Figure 3 (model #2)

Today I found an excellent sutta that supports our "mind works" model.

This is how the sutta starts:

Buddha:

"I will teach you the origination of the world & the ending of the world.

1. "What is the origination of the world?"

Dependent on the eye & (object)forms there arises eye-consciousness. The meeting of the three is contact. From contact as a requisite condition comes feeling. From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving. From craving as a requisite condition comes clinging/sustenance. From clinging/sustenance as a requisite condition comes becoming. From becoming as a requisite condition comes birth. From birth as a requisite condition, then aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair come into play. This is the origination of the world.

The same applies to other senses too...

"Dependent on the ear & sounds there arises ear-consciousness. The meeting of the three is contact... Dependent on the nose & aromas there arises nose-consciousness. The meeting of the three is contact... Dependent on the tongue & flavors there arises tongue-consciousness. The meeting of the three is contact... Dependent on the body & tactile sensations there arises body-consciousness. The meeting of the three is contact... Dependent on the intellect & mental qualities there arises intellect-consciousness. The meeting of the three is contact. From contact as a requisite condition comes feeling. From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving. From craving as a requisite condition comes clinging/sustenance. From clinging/sustenance as a requisite condition comes becoming. From becoming as a requisite condition comes birth. From birth as a requisite condition, then aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair come into play. This is the origination of the world.

This passage from the sutta basically confirms the vertical flow of our "mind works" model #1 in Figure 2. The unwise attention is an addition step I added on purpose to show the step where we go wrong and how we can fix it. The "world" here is referred to our six sensors (figure 1). It is not the physical world what we normally refer to as the world. Through the six senses we communicate with the connect external things around us. Therefore this is our sensory world. The Buddha sometimes called the six senses the "ALL".

Pleas read these posts to learn more about this:

What is the "All"

When the eye meet an object...

Not seeing how the six senses work, we recycle ourselves in the samsara.

2. What is the ending of the world?

Dependent on the eye & forms there arises eye-consciousness. The meeting of the three is contact. From contact as a requisite condition comes feeling. From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving. Now, from the remainder-less cessation & fading away of that very craving comes the cessation of clinging/sustenance. From the cessation of clinging/sustenance comes the cessation of becoming. From the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of birth. From the cessation of birth, then aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair all cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of stress & suffering. This is the ending of the world.

The same applies to other senses too...

"Dependent on the ear & sounds there arises ear-consciousness. The meeting of the three is contact... Dependent on the nose & aromas there arises nose-consciousness. The meeting of the three is contact... Dependent on the tongue & flavors there arises tongue-consciousness. The meeting of the three is contact... Dependent on the body & tactile sensations there arises body-consciousness. The meeting of the three is contact... Dependent on the intellect & mental qualities there arises intellect-consciousness. The meeting of the three is contact. From contact as a requisite condition comes feeling. From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving. Now, from the remainder-less cessation & fading away of that very craving comes the cessation of clinging/sustenance. From the cessation of clinging/sustenance comes the cessation of becoming. From the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of birth. From the cessation of birth, then aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair all cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of stress & suffering. This is the ending of the world."

The ending of the world mean no more birth. The end of suffering. The ultimate bliss. The Nirvana. No more birth of the six senses.

This passage from this sutta basically confirms the vertical flow of our "mind works" model Model#2 in Figure 3. The The Foundations of Mindfulness: (Satipatthana Sutta) , the contemplation of the body (kayanupassana), feeling (vedananupassana), mind (cittanupassana), and mental objects (dhammanupassana) which is shown in yellow bubbles in the flow chart (Figure 2), is the training and will enable us to see things clearly. With wise attention (Yoniso manasikara), an addition step I added in my model is to show the point of we can now contemplate on The Three Characteristics (ti-lakkha.na), Impermanence (Anicca), Suffering or Unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) and Not-self or Insubstantiality (anattaa) and this is the is final common pathway of contemplation of insight. The craving is completely destroyed by by insight or vipassana meditation.

To read the full sutta

Loka Sutta: The World

translated from the Pali by

Thanissaro Bhikkhu

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.044.than.html

Another sutta witha a similar theme:

Loka Sutta: The World