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It is said that wish or dream is a never-ending process in human's consciousness. Wish that is a kind of mental food has nourished a man's life can cause happiness and create suffering. And man's happiness is often evaluated by the success in wish or dream, such as wish to become a doctor, a president, a businessman, a scientist, a dean, an actor, an artist, a singer, and so forth. Such wish is to aim at asserting the so-called "I am" or "I will be" in society. This means that man will not be happy if he does not achieve as what he wishes. Even if he achieves his wish as above, happiness which comes in him is a kind of the pleasant feeling,* it is the cause of unwholesome dhammas grow and wholesome dhammas decline. 482 Such is the pursuit of ephemeral happiness, which is called the happiness of the worldly life, is synonymous with suffering, it is the operation of the third kind of food that is volition, intention, or will as said. Thus, the cultivation of volitional food is to eliminate wrong wishes and activities. 481 481 The pleasant feeling is one of the six types of pleasure of worldly life; cf. S. IV, 232; Vbh. 381. 482 M. II, 475.

257 What are the wrong wishes? The wrong wishes according to Buddhism that are in relation to unwholesome dhammas or evil things, lust, hatred, delusion, evil mentality, sensual pleasures, wealth, fame, possessions, position, revenge, violence, conflict, immorality, disharmony, especially the wishes that fortify "self" - "I am", "I am this" "I am that," "I am not this," "I'm not that," "I was," "I was this," "I wasn't this," "I was that," "I wasn't that," "I will be," "I will be this," "I will be that," "May I be," "May I be this," "May I be that," etc., are the wrong wishes that cause much suffering. Such wishes, humankind has created the ocean of the suffering with no end of disasters and death. Wish or will of mind is the very Activities aggregate or Volitional formation (sankharakhandha) of the Five Aggregates, also the very Activities element of Dependent Origination. It is a compound of mental activities, oral activities and bodily activities. It is also regarded as one's will to live 483 and defined by Lord Buddha as follows: "And what, brethren, are the Activities? These six seats of will: the will that is in body, sound, odour, taste, touch, and in mental images. These, brethren, are called the Activities. From the arising of contact, comes the arising of the activities. From the ceasing of contact is the ceasing of activities."484 The teaching shows that: All thoughts of and desires for body, sound, odour, smell, taste, and mental images of a person make up Activities aggregate (sankhara khandha.) If contact is not present, his feeling is absent; and his desire for things does not exist, his thought of thing does not come into existence either. This means Activities aggregate is an empty entity. All psychological activities of a person such as wishes, vows, wholesome and unwholesome thoughts, hate, love, 483 The Concept of Personality revealed through the Pancanikaya, ibid., p. 164. 484 S. III, 63-64.

258 jealousy, self-pride, mental reactions to life which have created his life in the present and in the next existence are of Activities aggregate. These things make sense for life, without them life becomes meaningless. However, the operation of them is but the operation of an illusion of a self (or ignorance) which says the true meaning of all values of ahuman life is very shadowy. In order to know further about that operation, let us listen to the Buddha's word: 485 "What is the undertaking of dhamma that is suffering in the present and results in suffering in the future? In this case, someone, even with suffering, even with grief, becomes one to make onslaught on creatures he experiences suffering and grief. Even with suffering, even with grief; he becomes one who takes what was not given... he becomes one to behave wrongly in regard to sense pleasures he becomes a liar ... a slanderer ... a harsh speaker ... a frivolous talker ... he becomes covetous malevolent in thought ... of wrong view, and because of his wrong view he experiences suffering and grief. He, at the breaking up of the body after dying uprises in a sorrowful state, a bad bourn, the abyss, Niraya Hell."486 .... ... The above teaching describes the ten actions of an evil worldly man: three of them relate to body; four relate to speech; and three relate to mind. Those ten volitional actions, good or evil, are of the operation of Activities aggregate or that of wrong wishes in the sphere of psychological conditions of the sensual world, which is dominated by the five mental factors called five hindrances (panca nivarana): sensual desire (Kamacchanda,) ill-will (vyapada,) sloth and torpor (thinamiddha,) flurry and worry (uddhaccakukkucca,) and doubt (vicikiccha.) 487 Those 485 Op. cit., p. 164. 486 M. I, 310, sutta No. 46. 487 A. III, 65.

259 hindrances overspread the heart of a person, weaken his insight, and cause the wrong wishes and activities. In order to control and erase from them, one should cultivate his wishes or Activities aggregate through the practice of two conditions of meditation: Calm (samatha) and Insight (vipassana) as Lord Buddha showed in the Discourse on "The Applications of Mindfulness" (Satiptthanasutta,) and "The Uninterrupted" (Annupadasutta) - Middle Length Sayings Vol. I and Vol. III and many other discourses in Middle Length Sayings. The cultivation according to those suttas will help us to eliminate the volitional food that cause the suffering and develop the food of volition that cause true happiness in this life and next