TMCGSS-68 Moliya Phagguna Sutta | There is no self behind our mental processes. Piya Tan 240920

The Discourse to Moḷiya Phagguna | S 12.12, SD 20.5
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1.1 The Moḷiya Phagguna Sutta (S 12.12) is a discourse on how the 4 foods sustain and proliferate rebirth through dependent arising [§1-7], and how this cycle is broken through dependent ending [§8]. A more elaborate explanation of this process, using the parable of seeds, is given in the Bīja Sutta (S 22.54). The dependent arising sequence as given in the Moiya Phagguna Sutta begins thus:
Consciousness as food [leads to] rebirth [leads to] the 6 sense-spheres [leads to] contact (sense-stimuli). [§3-4]
Here, “consciousness as food” plays the role of the “consciousness” causal link (nidāna), and this consciousness is defined in the (Paṭicca,samuppāda) Vibhaṅga Sutta (S 12.2) as the six types of consciousness, each arising at their respective sense-faculties. Harvey, based on his interpretation of the Bīja Sutta (S 22.54), concludes that consciousness-as-food
must thus be the equivalent of these [six sense-faculties], with the root-like discernment [consciousness] of [the Bīja Sutta, S 22.54] being a form which does not occur in the processing of sensory or mental objects, just as bhavaṅga does not. The root-like nature of this discernment [consciousness] would also make it like bhavaṅga, for this not only precedes but also makes possible the “process of cittas” which arises in the sensory channels: it is like the root from which they grow. (Harvey 1995:158 f)
The Bhava Sutta (A 3.76), too, compares consciousness to a seed [3.2].
1.2 This distinction is a very important and useful one, and has earlier been pointed out by a number of scholars. The term viññāṇa is used in early Buddhism in at least two important senses, that is, the 2 basic conscious processes-namely, the functions of dependent arising (paṭicca,samuppādā)-discovered by the Buddha, that is, as cognitive consciousness and as existential consciousness. The first-cognitive consciousness-centering around viññāṇa and nāma,rūpa, shows how our senses work and how our lives are sustained down to the moment.
The second function of dependent arising-that of existential consciousness-centering around taṅhā (craving) and upādāna (clinging or fuel), is to show the true nature of what we call an “individual,” going through various lives, and it shows this by stating that consciousness arises conditioned by ignorance and formations. In simple terms, the former is our present-life flow of consciousness, while the latter is the rebirth-consciousness.
2 Moḷiya Phagguna’s wrong view
The Commentary explains that the name Moḷiya was given to Phagguna in lay life because he wore his hair in a huge topknot (moḷi or cūḷa), and the nickname remained with him after he joined the order (SA 2:30). Throughout the Sutta, Phagguna only asks the Buddha the following “who” questions: “… who consumes … ?” [§3]; “ … who touches?” [§4]; “ … who feels?” [§5]; “ … who craves?” [§6]; and “ … who clings?” [§7].
All these questions are pregnant with an implicit self-view: one assumes that there is a person involved, without any real knowledge of what constitutes a “person.” The Commentary says that Phagguna believes that he has understood the three other kinds of food, but as regards consciousness he has conceived the notion that there is a “being” (satta) that depends on consciousness as food:
Why does he omit the other three? Because they are more obvious conditions of effects. He could see anyone eating food. He could easily understand contact as food, such as, by looking at a partridge, a quail, a peacock, or a hen, being raised by its mother’s contact. And he sees mental volition as food, as when a turtle lays her eggs in the sand above the highwater mark. (SA 2:29)
He is however unfamiliar with the workings of consciousness, and falls back on his own opinions.
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