[Dittha-Dhamma Loka-Dhamma]

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Image courtesy of Len Levinson

2023

What's New?

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Oblog: [O.12.11.23] Monday, December 11, 2023

On the index page for AN 4.236 and, by reference, for AN 4.135 I have said: "Note that this sutta and similarly for the previous sutta the Eight Dimensional Way) is saying that the Seven Dimensions of Awakening is constructed of intentional not-doings. That includes 'Sati' (mind, minding, recollection, memory, attention) and 'Samādhi' (serenity). It is not too difficult to see that 'Samādhi' is constructed of a series of abandonings, each higher state being attained not by 'getting' but by 'letting go of the previous state,' but how do we understand 'sati' to be intentional not-doing? Sati in this case is recollection of body, sensation, mental-states and things seen through the lens of Dhamma with the idea of observing how they come to be, are maintained, and come to an end with the further idea of becoming thoroughly objectively detached from them. The intentional not-doing is the not becoming attached or identified with such things as they come into awareness (or are recollected).

A couple of things need to be pointed out, made clear, emphasized here:

First is that the idea of sati-parimukkham should not be understood as the taking of the mind and placing it on the mouth, but the abandoning of the world (that is everything) with the only thing remaining being the attention on the mouth, and thereby the breathing.

I have made this error in attitude.

The other translators usually go much further afield in suggesting that this is an instruction to bring sati to the forefront of one's intent to do.

The other place this idea is being misstated in translations is in the description of the method for attaining the first jhāna. There vitakka is correctly to be understood as allowing the appearance of thinking to arise (that is that it comes to one from the outside) but the second part of this is being translated "pondering" or "sustained thinking" where it should (again reflecting the attitude of letting go or not-doing) be being characterized as allowing pondering or sustained thinking to continue. ... and then, for the second jhāna to emerge, letting them go.

It will be noted that this absolutely rules out the intentional creation: "placing the mind and keeping it there" which is intentional doing; the description of what is to be done to attain the first jhāna as taught by some teachers today. So not only is this not found in the suttas, and logically required by the intent to let go of every existing thing, but it is positively rejected, in AN 4.235-236.

 

Oblog: [O.12.02.23] Saturday, December 02, 2023

This is an attempt to get straight the meaning of AN 4.195, which describes a method for the escape from kamma. What you have here is something between a translation and an interpretation. The main thing that was diffucult to figure out was the meaning of "phussa phussa" (touch touch, or contact contact), but neither the Pāḷi nor the existing translations are very clear. ... and the Commentary is useless.

Those results of
bodily
(verbal, mental, blind)
undertakings

— murderous
distressing
corrupting influences —

abstaining from those
bodily
(verbal, mental, blind)
undertakings

and,
by thus abstaining,
making no new kamma;

and destroying
former kamma by
repeated contact^[1],

— a destruction seen for one's self,
experienced by the intelligent,
not dependent on time,
a come-see thing,
which leads to Nibbāna

— there remains no basis
dependent on which
a person could experience
painful corrupting influences
in future.

^[1] Phussa phussa. My translation of this very obscure passage is both my attempt to explain the intended meaning and a joke. The method is to keep in contact with the upward progress of one's quest (the change in reaction from any arising lust, anger and blindness to non-lust, non-anger and knowledge) which will result in a continuous heading into the results of one's previous kamma and by that change, sooner or later, reaching the point where there is no identified-with bodily, verbal or mental strata on which any kamma could be based. The results of former kamma may still occur to the body, be heard by the ear, or appear to the mind, but there is no longer any identification with body, speech or the personal mind, and when these things are finally disposed of, there is no kamma made or experienced.

For example: You are confronted with a situation in which to get what you want you must act deceptivly or harmfullly with the body, you must say what is not true, you must think a thought that is deviant, or you just are tempted to act without understanding

and you do not do such,

this is your abstaining from bodily, verbal, mental or blind making of new kamma. You are subjected to painful circumstances, hear unpleansant things, have unpleanant thoughts occur to you or you just have unpleasant sensations which you do not understand. In this case you bear the unpleasant without reaction in any effort to escape through creation of new pleasant kamma. Refraining from endeavours to escape the unpleasant through the creation of the pleasant, or with anger or rationalization is your bringing to an end old kamma.

Wooward: "he wears it out by constant contact"; Bhk. Thaissaro: "... he destoys it with each contact"; Bhk. Bodhi: "he terminates the old kamma having contacted it again and again". Bhk Bodhi quotes commentary: "Having contacted the kamma again and again by contact with knowledge, he destroys the kamma to be eliminated by means of knowledge. Having contacted the result again and again by resultant-contact, he destroys the kamma to be eliminated by [experiencing] the result."

In a word "phussa phussa" means you keep at it until there is nothing left there that either acts from personal involvement or experiences personally. The time required is dependent on the individual and the elevation of his mind but can be accomplished very quickly with effort.

 

Oblog: [O.11.13.23] Monday, November 13, 2023 2:37 PM

A long time ago a friend of mine who had been in Auschwitz asked me how kamma could account for the millions of people killed in the Holocaust if there were no such thing as collective kamma. (He was not making an objection, he was just asking.) There is no such thing as collective kamma, but there is such a thing as collective action. Action includes thinking and speaking. So that if millions of people are thinking "My country" or "My leader", or speaking or acting on that idea, and that country or leader is corrupt and going down the wrong path, those people so thinking, speaking and acting are going down that path with that country or that individual. Those people, all experiencing the consequences of their action together, are not experiencing collective kamma, they are all experiencing their own kamma collectively with others with similar kamma.

There is a corollary: a leader does not just experience the consequences of his intent to give pain to millions people he dislikes, he is also responsible for taking those who support him down the same wrong path.

Millions upon millions, back and forth since the beginning of recorded history.

 

Oblog: [O.10.26.23] Thursday, October 26, 2023

The thing, my friends, is not whether or not you believe there is a Hell or not; if there is, it will not matter what you believed. The only rational course is to behave as though there were. That way if there is, you are safe, if there is not at least here the wise will see you as having acted rationally.

A repeat. Quoted from the 2015 What's New? page.

 

Oblog: [O.10.18.23] Wednesday, October 18, 2023

It is in this
fathom-long body,
with its perception and
mind,
that I say the world,
the origin of the world
the ending of the world, and
the walk to walk to
the ending of the world
is to be found.

AN 4.45.

 

Oblog: [O.10.17.23] Tuesday, October 17, 2023

I would like to bring your attention to AN 4.41. This sutta has a number of interesting issues. Over all it describes four ways samādhi practice is developed.

The first issue is the translation of samādhi. Woodward, Bhk. Thanissaro, and Bhk. Bodhi all translate this term as "concentration". I have pointed out numerous times how that is both a mistranslation and misleading: it is too narrow and should be thought of as "focus"; a clarified view, not a narrowing of thought; it contains the idea of concentration in the term cetaso ekodī-bhāva found in the first jhāna as only an aspect of samādhi. But I say even this is better translated as "whole-heartedly single minded". The literal meaning of the word samādhi is "even-over", meaning "above it all", "on top of it" or just simply "understanding". I translate that as "serenity" (calm, clear, tranquil bright, etc.). I would prefer, if we had such: "serenity" (calm, clear, tranquil, brightly above things).

The four ways one is to develop serenity and make a big thing of it evolve into (saṃvaṭṭati)
1. pleasant living in this seen thing (diṭṭha-dhamma-sukha-vihāra);
2. knowing and seeing (ñāṇa-dassana-paṭilābha);
3. mindfulness and self-awareness (sati-sampajañña); and
4. the destruction of the corrupting influences (āsavas).

The first of these is the four jhānas. While the end-product of developing samādhi in this way is living pleasantly in this visible thing, it needs to be remembered that before that end is reached, the whole of the existing world is let go. The third is perception of the rise, maintenance and fall of sense experience, perception and thinking; the fourth is perception of the rise, maintenance and fall of form, sense-experience, own-making, and consciousness.

The second method is problematic. To this point, I and all the other translators of this passage and the other similar passages in the suttas have translated āloka" as light. But the PED definition of this term has "seeing" for a primary definition and words amounting to cognition for the third meaning. This understanding, it seems to me, must be at least taken into consideration, and for my part makes more sense than perception of light (the second meaning).

PED: Āloka [ā + lok, Sanskrit āloka] seeing, sight (object and subject), i.e.
1. sight, view, look S IV 128 = Snp 763; A III 236 (āloke nikkhitta laid before one's eye). anāloka without sight, blind Miln 296 (andha + a).
3. (clear) sight, power of observation, intuition, in combination with vijjā knowledge D II 33 = S II 7 = 105, cf. Paṭis II 150f. (obhāsaṭṭhena, Spk II 22 on II 7).

Then when you back up a little and think of what it means to have "knowledge and vision" (ñāṇa-dassana), the basic requirement for Stream-entry, I believe this sutta and those like it must be speaking of something like "enlightnment" or "seeing the light", knowing, and seeing in this world that whatsoever has come to be will come to an end, rather than seeing a light.

This far I suggest the case is made for at least hearing cognition as an alternate way of understanding this sutta.

 

Oblog: [O.10.15.23] Sunday, October 15, 2023

"We must come down from our heights, and leave our straight paths, for the byways and low places of life, if we would learn truths by strong contrasts; and in hovels, in forecastles, and among our own outcasts in foreign lands, see what has been wrought upon our fellow-creatures by accident, hardship, or vice."

"Nearly two hundred hours (as we had calculated it) had we walked the ship's deck together, at anchor watch, when all hands were below, and talked over and over every subject which came within the ken of either of us."

Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., 1911, Houghton Mifflin

The first quote is relevant to the understanding of "bhikkhu" as "beggar". "Straight paths" is to be understood as meaning common ordinary thoughtless ways. The second quote is to give an example of the use of "ken" for "knowing" or "jhāna".

Antam idaṃ bhikkhave jīvikānaṃ yad idaṃ piṇḍolyaṃ,||
abhilāpāyaṃ bhikkhave lokasmiṃ||
'Piṇḍolo vicarasi pattapāṇī' ti.

"This, brethren,
is the meanest of callings -
this of an almsman.

A term of abuse is this in the world to-day,
to say:

'You scrap-gatherer!

With bowl in hand you roam about.'

'Tis this calling
that is entered on
by those clansmen who are bent on [their] good
because of good,
not led thereto
by fear of kings,
by fear of robbers,
not because of debt,
not from fear,
not because they have no livelihood:
but with the thought:

'Here am I,
fallen upon birth,
decay,
death,
sorrow and grief,
woe,
lamentation
and despair,
fallen upon woe,
foredone with woe.

Maybe some means of ending all this mass of woe
may be found.'

Thus, brethren, a clansman leaves the world,
and covetous is he in his desires,
fierce in his longing,
malevolent of heart,
of mind corrupt,
careless and unrestrained,
not quieted,
but scatter-brained,
and thoughtless.

Just as, brethren,
a torch from a funeral pyre,
lit at both ends,
and in the middle smeared with dung,
kindleth no fuel
either in village or in forest -
using such a figure
do I describe unto you this man,
for he has lost his home and wealth,
nor yet does he fulfil the duties of a recluse.

—SN 3.22.80, Woodward translation, where the Buddha goes on to describe the value of having adopted this low form of earning a living as being that in this way there is the opportunity to get rid of the corruptions of mind. 'almsman' = 'piṇḍolyaṃ' 'scraper'.

"This is a lowly means of livelihood, alms gathering. Its a form of abuse in the world [to say], 'You go around as an alms gatherer with a bowl in your hand'"
— ITI 91, Bhikkhu Thanissaro translation.

I suggest 'monk,' or 'mendacant' or 'brother' is not a term of abuse in the world whereas 'beggar' is. There is, as it says in this sutta, a compelling reason for respectable people to adopt this 'lowest of possible occupations.' See: Using 'Beggar' for 'Bhikkhu' ... again and links from there.

 

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Oblog: [O.09.22.23] Friday, September 22, 2023

Sabbe saṇkhārā aniccā.
Sabbe saṇkhārā dukkhā.
Sabbe dhammā anattā.

I Hear Tell:

Once upon a time
The Consummately Self-Awakened
said words to this effect:

"One who gets it appearing, beggars,
or one who gets it not appearing,
this stands:

It holds up
as a property of things,
it is a settled thing:

'Everything made one's own
changes.'

This the one who gets it
wakes up to and
comprehends.

Waking up to this and
comprehending it
he describes it,
points to it,
makes it known;
establishes,
uncovers,
analyzes, and
makes it plain:

'Everything made one's own
changes.'

One who gets it appearing, beggars,
or one who gets it not appearing,
this stands:

It stands
as a property of things,
is a settled thing:

'Everything made one's own
is pain.'

This the one who gets it
wakes up to and
comprehends.

Waking up to this and
comprehending it
he describes it,
points to it,
makes it known;
establishes,
uncovers,
analyzes, and
makes it plain:

'Everything own-made
is pain.'

One who gets it appearing, beggars,
or one who gets it not appearing,
this stands:

It stands
as a property of things,
is a settled thing:

'All things
are not-self.'

This the one who gets it
wakes up to and
comprehends.

Waking up to this and
comprehending it
he describes it,
points to it,
makes it known;
establishes,
uncovers,
analyzes, and
makes it plain:

'All things
are not-self.'"

Aṇguttara-Nikāya III. Tika Nipāta XIV. Yodh-ā-jīva Vagga Sutta 134: Uppādā Suttaṃ, Settled. Translated from the Pāḷi by Michael M. Olds

 

Woodward has translated both 'saṇkhāra' (the own-made, all that is made one's own: body, sense-experience, perception, the identification of things as one's own and sense-consciousness) and 'dhammas' (things, phenomena) as 'phenomena'. The distinction, however, is significant. All that is made one's own changes and because of that is essentially just pain, but one may imagine something that does not change and is not painful and is the 'true self' of one and that is why it is necessary also to say: all things are not-self.

Warren translates "constituents" and "elements". Bhk. Thanissaro translates "fabrications" and "phenomenon". Bhk. Bodhi (#136) "conditioned phenomena" and "phenomena" which is an interpretation which makes free with the Pāḷi. All these miss the point in one way or another.

 

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Oblog: [O.08.29.23] Tuesday, August 29, 2023

"You look back at every mess you ever got in and you'll find your tongue started it."

"That's true," said Suzy. "But I can't seem to stop."

"You got to learn it like you learn anything else — just practice. Nex thing is opinions. You and me is always busting out with opinions, Hell, Suzy, we ain't got no opinions! We just say stuff we heard or seen in the movies. We're scared we'll miss something, like running for a bus. That's the second rule: lay off opinions because you ain't really got any."

"You got them numbered, huh?" said Suzy.

"I should write a book," said Fauna, "If She Could, I Could. Now take number three. There don't hardly nobody listen, and it's so easy! You don't have to do nothing when you listen. If you do listen it's pretty interesting. If a guy says something that pricks up your interest, why, don't hide it from him. Kind of try to wonder what he's thinking instead of how you're going to answer him back."

"You're sure putting the finger on me," Suzy said softly.

"I only got a little more, but it's the hardest of all, and the easiest."

"What number?"

"I lost track. Don't pretend to be something you ain't, and don't make like you know something you don't, or sooner or later you'll fall on your ass. And there's one more part to this one, whatever number it is: they ain't nobody was ever insulted by a question. S'pose Doc says something and you don't know what it means. Ask him! The nicest thing in the world you can do for anybody is let them help you."

Fauna to Suzy in Sweet Thursday, by John Steinbeck

 

Oblog: [O.08.24.23] Thursday, August 24, 2023

 

"'There are four Aristocratic Truths, beggars, in the
unrefuted,
uncondemned,
not contradicted,
not besmirched
by the intelligent
Dhamma I teach.'

This is what I have said.

And depending on what was it said?

Bound up in the six senses, beggars
a child's conception occurs —
on appearance there, is
named-form,
named-form rebounds as
the six senses,
the six senses rebound as
contact,
contact rebounds as
sense-experience.

I have then,
for what is sensate
revealed:
'This is pain'
revealed:
'This is the origin of pain,'
revealed:
'This is the ending of pain,'
revealed:
'This is the walk to walk
to go to
the end of pain.'

And what, beggars,
is the Aristocratic Truth about pain?

Birth is pain,
aging is pain,
sickness is pain,
death is pain,
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery,
and despair
are pain.

In a word,
the five stockpiled heaps
constituting an existing being —
forms,
sensations,
perceptions,
own-making, and
sense-consciousness —
are pain.

This, beggars,
is what is called
the Aristocratic Truth
about pain.

And what, beggars, is
the Aristocratic Truth
about the arising of pain?

Rebounding off blindness is
own-making,
rebounding off own-making is
sense-consciousness,
rebounding off sense-consciousness is
named-form,
rebounding off named-form is
the realm of the senses,
rebounding off the realm of the senses is
contact,
rebounding off contact is
sense experience,
rebounding off sense experience is
thirst,
rebounding off thirst is
getting bound up,
rebounding off getting bound up is
existence,
rebounding off existence is
birth,
rebounding off birth
aging, sickness and death,
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery,
and despair
becomes one's own.

Even thus
does this whole
stockpiled heap of pain
originate.

This, beggars,
is what is called
the Aristocratic Truth
about the origin of pain.

And what, beggars,
is the Aristocratic Truth
about the ending of pain?

With the remainderless,
dispassionate
ending of
blindness,
own-making ends,
own-making ending,
sense-consciousness ends,
sense-consciousness ending,
named-forms end,
named-forms ending,
the realm of the senses ends,
the realm of the senses ending,
contact ends,
contact ending,
sense-experience ends,
sense-experience ending,
thirst ends,
thirst ending,
getting bound up ends,
getting bound up ending,
existence ends,
existence ending,
birth ends,
birth ending,
aging, sickness, and death,
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery,
and despair
come to an end.

Even thus
does this whole stockpiled heap of pain
come to an end.

This, beggars,
is what is called
the Aristocratic Truth
about the ending of pain.

And what, beggars, is
the Aristocratic Truth
about the walk to walk
to go to
the end of pain?

It is even this
Aristocratic Eight-dimensional Way,
that is to say:

Consummate vew,
consummate principles,
consummate talk,
consummate works,
consummate lifestyle,
consummate self-control,
consummate mind,
consummate serenity.

This, beggars,
is what is called
the Aristocratic Truth
about the walk to walk
to go to
the end of pain.

'These are the four
Aristocratic Truths, beggars, in the
unrefuted,
uncondemned,
not contradicted,
not besmirched
by the intelligent
Dhamma I teach.

This is that which was said;
on this that which was said depended."

See AN 3.61.

 

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Oblog: [O.08.16.23] Wednesday, August 16, 2023

The Aristocratic Silence

Having decided to make an effort to make development of your mind your first priority, having gone to your place to be alone, sitting down, sitting up straight with your legs crossed in front of you, you bring your mind to focus on the area around the mouth

... not the lips, not the place where the wind is felt at the tip of the nose when you breath, just the general area located around the mouth, and in the same way (not obsessively, not rigidly, not trying to stop thinking and pondering about your progress and problems, just noting from time to time ...

you have brought your attention to your in and out breathing.

This is peace.

This is calm.

That is, in comparison with the turbulence of most of the other aspects of your life.

With appreciation of the peace and calm of this solitude, joy arises, pleasure arises. And for a long time this will be a satisfying refuge.

But after a time, maybe a long long time, but sooner or later, you begin to notice that this state of affairs, while having yielded through insight a whole different style of life, has a flaw that is disturbing your peace and calm: you are spending your time thinking.

But you have also noticed that the key factor in the peace and calm you have attained is that this peace, this calm is a consequence not of having done anything, but of having let go of the thing (involvement with the external world) that was causing the disturbance.

Here, now, though, you find that you are triggered by a recollection, pictures, fantasies arise and are elaborated upon turning sometimes into whole movie scenarios, trains of thought arise, sometimes plain old idiotic babble goes on for hours. Half-thoughts that look valuable need to be developed. Good ideas occur that need 'working out' in words.

Here, observing that these thoughts having arisen are distractions from your intended refuge in peace and calm, that they are developed 'out there', you are able also to see that they are ended by the simple act of bringing the attention back to the area around the mouth.

These thoughts are something that is happening externally.

To break away from that, what works every time is to take the mind and bring it back to the focus on the area around the mouth.

Initially this is thought of as going from the external to the internal, or from the impersonal distraction to the personal thought which was the intent of the sitting. But at a later stage it will be seen that this (the body to which that area around the mouth belongs) too is external, so that way of thinking of it should either be avoided or at least it should be kept in mind that it will become different with time.

The reason this works is that 'the area around the mouth' is a 'thing'. To 'bring mindfulness to the fore' is an idea. You cannot break away from thinking by thinking.

The full development of this ability to end thought, to dwell abiding in the peace and calm of silence is not something that is accomplished snap fingers, as soon as you notice it, but with work becomes easier and then easy. And, after all, the intention here was to enjoy the peace and calm that is brought about through this serene state.

 

Oblog: [O.08.13.23] Sunday, August 13, 2023

 

Commentary here consistantly points to the fully accomplished state concerning these, where what is intended is that they are paths, ways to attain the final state.

In several places it is important to know that there are three ways pointed out by the Buddha, all of which lead to the final goal.

What is faith? It is the belief that there was a person who awakened himself to the way to end pain and was able to teach that way.

"I gained faith. Having gained faith I took a step along the way. Having taken a step, I saw that it gave me freedom. Having attained the freedom promised by taking one step, I have such faith that I will try the next step."

What is view attainment? "Having gained faith, I adopted Consummate View, that is the view that: This is pain. The origin of pain is thirst. To end the pain, end the thirst. This is the way: Consummate View; Consummate Principles; Consummate Talk; Consummate Works; Consummate Lifestyle; Consummate Self-control; Consummate Mind; Consummate Serenity. Having adopted view, I followed the steps of the way. Having followed the steps of the way, I could see that at each step wisdom was increased." That is view attainment.

What is being a body-eye-witness? "Having gained faith, I adopted Consummate View. Having adopted view, I followed the steps of the way. Having followed the steps of the way, I could see that at each step calm was gained, serenity was increased." This is being a body-eye-witness.

At each step along the way, all three are likely gained, but it may be that one aspect is emphaized or suits the personality better than the others. Certainly there is the doing of multiple paths symultaneously or one after the other resulting in 'being freed both ways" (by wisdom and by way of the body). All stages would require the first step of having faith.

See AN 3.21

 

Oblog: [O.08.5.23] Saturday, August 05, 2023 6:53 AM

 

Once upon a time The Consummately Awakened,
Sāvatthi-town come-a revisit'n.

There then he says to the Beggars gathered round:

"A world of woe!"
he says,
"Woe is the World!

To me, Beggars,
while still a youth
with coal black hair,
not yet The Consummately Awakened
still a bodhisattva,
came the thought:

'This is a world of woe!

Summed up,
coming down to
aging, sickness and death,
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery
and despair!

Here in this world
we have getting born and
dying,
reaching lofty states and
being laid low,
but where can we
find the escape
from all this Du K-kha?'

To me, Beggars,
came the thought:

'What is there
right here
in front of our eyes
that leads to
aging and death?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we have
birth,
there also we have
aging, sickness and death,
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery
and despair.

Birth exists
here in front of our eyes and
we can see for ourselves
that birth is
necessary for
the existence of
all this pain.

Without birth
we would have no
aging, sickness and death,
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery
and despair.

But what can we do
to escape
birth?

Then this thought occurred to me:

'What is there
right here
in front of our eyes
that leads to
birth?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we have
existence,
there also we have
birth.

Existence is
here in front of our eyes and
we can see for ourselves
that existence
is necessary
for there to be birth.

Without existence
we would have no birth
of any sort
by any sort of
individuality
whether in hell or
as a ghost or
as a daemon or
as man or
as a god or
in some wholly mental state.

But what can we do
to escape
existence?

Then this thought occurred to me:

'What is there
right here
in front of our eyes
that leads to
existing?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we have
getting bound-up,
there also we have
existing.

Getting bound-up
is here in front of our eyes and
we can see for ourselves
that getting bound-up
is necessary for
existence.

Without
continually
getting bound-up in
pleasure-seeking,
effort to be, or
effort to escape
painful circumstances,
we would have
no existence
whether as
a being in hell or
as a ghost or
as a daemon or
as man or
as a god or
as a wholly mental being.

But what can we do
to escape
getting bound-up?

Then this thought occurred to me:

'What is there
right here
in front of our eyes
that leads to
getting bound-up?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we have
hunger and thirst,
there also we have
getting bound-up.

Hunger and thirst
exist here in front of our eyes and
we can see for ourselves
that hunger and thirst
is necessary for
the existence of
getting bound-up.

Without hunger and thirst for
pleasures,
without hunger and thirst for
existence,
without hunger and thirst for
escape from
painful circumstances,
we would have
no getting bound-up in
pleasure-seeking,
effort to be or
effort to escape
painful circumstances.

But what can we do
to escape
hunger and thirst?

Then this thought occurred to me:

'What is there
right here in front of our eyes
that leads to
hunger and thirst?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we have
the experience of
sensations
of pleasure or
pain or
neither pain nor pleasure,
there also we have
hunger and thirst.

The experience of
sensations of
pleasure or
pain or
neither pain nor pleasure
exists here in front of our eyes and
we can see for ourselves
that these sensations
are the reason for
the existence of
hunger and thirst.

Without the experience of
sensations of
pleasure or
pain or
neither pain nor pleasure
we would have
no hunger and thirst for
pleasures,
hunger and thirst for
being,
hunger and thirst for
escape from
painful circumstances.

But what can we do
to escape
the experience of
sensations of
pleasure or
pain or
neither pain nor pleasure?

Then this thought occurred to me:

'What is there
right here in front of our eyes
that leads to the
experience of
sensations of
pleasure or
pain or
neither pain nor pleasure?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we have
contact
in the form of
the coming together of
sense-consciousness,
sense organ and
sense object,
there also we have
the experience of
sensations of
pleasure or
pain or
neither pain nor pleasure.

Contact
in the form of
the coming together of
sense-consciousness,
sense organ and
sense object
exists here
in front of our eyes and
we can see for ourselves
that contact
in the form of
the coming together of
sense-consciousness,
sense organ and
sense object
is necessary for
the existence of
the experience of
sensations of
pleasure or
pain or
neither pain nor pleasure.

Without contact
in the form of
the coming together of
sense-consciousness,
sense organ and
sense object
we would have
no experience of
sensations of
pleasure or
pain or
neither pain nor pleasure.

But what can we do
to escape contact
in the form of
the coming together of
sense-consciousness,
sense organ and
sense object?

Then this thought occurred to me:

'What is there
right here in front of our eyes
that leads to
contact
in the form of
the coming together of
sense-consciousness,
sense organ
and sense object?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we have
envelopment in experience
through the six senses,
there also we have
contact
in the form of
the coming together of
sense-consciousness,
sense organ
and sense object.

Envelopment in
experience through the six senses
exists here in front of our eyes
and we can see for ourselves
that envelopment in
experience through the six senses
is necessary for the existence of
contact
in the form of
the coming together of
sense-consciousness,
sense organ
and sense object.

Without envelopment in
experience through the six senses
we would have
no contact
in the form of
the coming together of
sense-consciousness,
sense organ
and sense object.

But what can we do
to escape envelopment in
experience through the six senses?

Then this thought occurred to me:

'What is there
right here in front of our eyes
that leads to
envelopment in
experience through the six senses?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we have
the interoperation of
names and forms,
there also we have
envelopment in
experience through the six senses.

The interoperation of
names and forms
exists here in front of our eyes and
we can see for ourselves
that the interoperation of names and forms
is necessary
for the existence of
envelopment in
experience through the six senses.

Without the interoperation of
names and forms
we would have
no envelopment in
experience through the six senses.

But what can we do
to escape
the interoperation of
names and forms?

Then this thought occurred to me:

'What is there
right here in front of our eyes
that leads to
the interoperation of
names and forms?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we have
sense consciousness,
there also we have
the interoperation of
names and forms.

Sense consciousness
exists here in front of our eyes and
we can see for ourselves
that sense consciousness
is necessary
for the existence of
the interoperation of
names and forms.

Without sense consciousness,
we would have
no interoperation of
names and forms.

But what can we do
to escape
sense consciousness?

Then this thought occurred to me:

'What is there
right here in front of our eyes
that leads to
sense consciousness?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we have
interoperation of
names and forms,
there also we have
sense consciousness.

Interoperation of
names and forms
exists here in front of our eyes and
we can see for ourselves
that interoperation of
names and forms
is necessary
for the existence of
sense consciousness.

Without interoperation of
names and forms
we would have
no sense consciousness.

This sense consciousness,
is delimited by the
interoperation of
names and forms.

To have consciousness
as an individual
it is necessary to have
the interoperation of
names and forms and
it is not necessary to have
anything more than
the interoperation of
names and forms
to have consciousness
as an individual.

It is only to this point
that there is that
which is understood to be
'a being,'
'a being born'
'aging, sickness and death,
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery,
and despair.'

What I saw, Beggars,
was that to have
consciousness as an individual
it is necessary to have
the interoperation of
names and forms;

To have
interoperation of
names and forms
it is necessary to have
consciousness as an individual;

To have envelopment in
experience through the six senses
it is necessary to have
interoperation of
names and forms;

To have
contact between
consciousness,
sense organ and
sense object
it is necessary to have
envelopment in
experience through the six senses;

To have sensations
of pleasure and
pain and
of neither pain nor pleasure
it is necessary to have
contact
between consciousness,
sense organ and
sense object;

To have
hunger and thirst
for pleasures,
being, and
escape from
unpleasant circumstances
it is necessary to have
sensations
of pleasure and
pain and
of neither pain nor pleasure;

To have
getting bound-up
in the form of
pleasure-seeking,
effort to be and
effort to escape
unpleasant circumstances
it is necessary to have
hunger and thirst for
pleasures,
being, and
escape from
unpleasant circumstances;

To have
existence
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being
it is necessary to have
getting bound-up
in the form of
pleasure-seeking,
effort to be and
effort to escape
unpleasant circumstances;

To have
birth
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being
it is necessary to have
the possibility of
'existence'
in some realm of existence
as some sort of being;

To have
aging, sickness and death,
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery,
and despair
it is necessary to have
birth
in some realm of existence
as some sort of being.

This is what
gives rise to
this whole mess of Dukkha.

What I saw, Beggars
was what had not been known before:
the idea that
'this thing is generated
by itself!'

This Dukkha
is a thing
that is generated
by itself!

And at that
I saw the light,
I got the point,
I had discovered the key and
gained the wisdom:
'things are generated
by themselves!'

At that point, Beggars,
came the thought:

'What would it take
to eliminate
aging, sickness and death,
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery
and despair?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

'Where we
do not have birth
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being,
there also we
do not have
aging, sickness and death,
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery
and despair.

It would take
the elimination of birth
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being
to eliminate
aging, sickness and death,
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery
and despair.

Without birth
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being
there would be
nothing to give rise to
aging, sickness and death,
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery
and despair.

At that point, Beggars,
came the thought:

'What would it take
to eliminate
birth
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we do not have
existence
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being,
there also we do not have birth
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being.

It would take
the elimination of
existence
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being
to eliminate birth
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being.

At that point, Beggars,
came the thought:

'What would it take
to eliminate
existence
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we do not have
getting bound-up
in pleasure-seeking,
effort to be and
effort to escape from
unpleasant circumstances,
there also we do not have
existence
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being.

It would take
the elimination of
getting bound-up in
pleasure-seeking,
effort to be and
effort to escape from
unpleasant circumstances
to eliminate
existence
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being.

At that point, Beggars,
came the thought:

'What would it take
to eliminate
getting bound-up in
pleasure-seeking,
effort to be and
effort to escape from
unpleasant circumstances?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we do not have
hunger and thirst for
pleasures,
hunger and thirst for
existence, and
hunger and thirst for
escape from
unpleasant circumstances,
there also we do not have
getting bound-up in
pleasure-seeking,
effort to be and
effort to escape from
unpleasant circumstances.

It would take
the elimination of
hunger and thirst for
pleasures,
hunger and thirst for
existence, and
hunger and thirst for
escape from
unpleasant circumstances
to eliminate
getting bound-up in
pleasure-seeking,
effort to be and
effort to escape from
unpleasant circumstances.

At that point, Beggars,
came the thought:

'What would it take
to eliminate
hunger and thirst for
pleasures,
hunger and thirst for
existence, and
hunger and thirst for
escape from
unpleasant circumstances?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we do not have
sensations of
pleasure and
pain and of
neither pain nor pleasure,
there also we do not have
hunger and thirst for
pleasures,
hunger and thirst for
existence, and
hunger and thirst for
escape from
unpleasant circumstances.

It would take
the elimination of
sensations of
pleasure and
pain and of
neither pain nor pleasure
to eliminate
hunger and thirst for
pleasures,
hunger and thirst for
existence, and
hunger and thirst for
escape from
unpleasant circumstances.

At that point, Beggars,
came the thought:

'What would it take
to eliminate
sensations of
pleasure and
pain and of
neither pain nor pleasure?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we do not have
contact
in the form of
the coming together of
consciousness,
sense organ and
sense object,
there also we do not have
sensations of
pleasure and
pain and of
neither pain nor pleasure.

It would take
the elimination of
contact
in the form of
the coming together of
consciousness,
sense organ and
sense object
to eliminate
sensations of
pleasure and
pain and of
neither pain nor pleasure.

At that point, Beggars,
came the thought:

'What would it take
to eliminate
contact
in the form of
the coming together of
consciousness,
sense organ and
sense object?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we do not have
envelopment
in experience
through the six senses,
there also we do not have
contact
in the form of
the coming together of
consciousness,
sense organ and
sense object.

It would take
the elimination of
envelopment
in experience
through the six senses
to eliminate
contact
in the form of
the coming together of
consciousness,
sense organ and
sense object.

At that point, Beggars,
came the thought:

'What would it take
to eliminate
envelopment in
experience
through the six senses?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we do not have
sense consciousness,
there also we do not have
envelopment in
experience
through the six senses.

It would take
the elimination of
sense consciousness
to eliminate
envelopment in
experience
through the six senses.

At that point, Beggars,
came the thought:

'What would it take
to eliminate
envelopment in
experience through
the six senses?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we do not have
interoperation of
names and forms,
there also we do not have
envelopment in
experience through
the six senses.

It would take
the elimination of
interoperation of
names and forms
to eliminate
envelopment in
experience through
the six senses.

At that point, Beggars,
came the thought:

'What would it take
to eliminate
interoperation of
names and forms?'

Tracking this down to
its point of origin, Beggars,
I could see:

Where we do not have
sense consciousness,
there also we do not have
interoperation of
names and forms.

It would take
the elimination of
sense consciousness
to eliminate
interoperation of
names and forms.

What I saw, Beggars,
was that
the interoperation of
names and forms
is eliminated
when sense consciousness
is eliminated;

Sense consciousness
is eliminated
when the interoperation of
names and forms
is eliminated;

Envelopment in
experience through
the six senses
is eliminated
when the interoperation of
names and forms
is eliminated;

Contact
in the form of
the coming together of
consciousness,
sense organ and
sense object
is eliminated
when envelopment in
experience through
the six senses
is eliminated;

Sensations of
pleasure and
pain and of
neither pain nor pleasure
are eliminated
when
contact
is eliminated;

Hunger and thirst for
pleasures,
hunger and thirst for
existence, and
hunger and thirst for
escape from
unpleasant circumstances
is eliminated
when sensations of
pleasure and
pain and of
neither pain nor pleasure
are eliminated;

The bind-ups of
pleasure-seeking,
effort to be and
effort to escape from
unpleasant circumstances
are eliminated
when
hunger and thirst for
pleasures
hunger and thirst for
being, and
hunger and thirst for
escape from
unpleasant circumstances
is eliminated;

Existing in
any realm of existence
as any sort of being
is eliminated
when bindups are
eliminated;

Birth in
any realm of existence
as any sort of being
is eliminated
when existence
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being
is eliminated.

Aging, sickness and death,
grief and lamentation,
pain and misery
and despair
are eliminated
when birth
in any realm of existence
as any sort of being
is eliminated.

This is how
this whole Dukkha mess
is eliminated!

What I saw, Beggars
was what had not been known before:

The idea that
'it can be eliminated!'

This Dukkha
is a thing
that can be eliminated.

And at that
I saw the light,
I got the point,
I had discovered the key and
gained the wisdom:
'these things can be eliminated!'

In the same way
as if a man
who was crossing through the jungle
were to come across
an ancient path,
one walked
by the Old Timers, and
taking that path,
traveling along that path
a while,
he were to come across
an ancient citadel,
the fortified
inner city of
some Ancient King,
complete with
pleasure gardens,
orchards,
ponds, and
ancient ruins ...
a really splendid old place.

Then,
taking this discovery to the King and
describing its wonders and
swearing to being
an eye-witness
to its existence,
he begs of the king
that he restore
this citadel to
its former glory.

And that
the king does, and
thereafter
that citadel
becomes populous and
comes to growth and
prosperity
as in ancient times gone by.

In the same way, Beggars,
I have seen
an ancient path
traversed by old-time
men of knowledge
in days gone by.

And what is that path?

It is this very
Aristocratic Eight-Dimensional High Way,
that is:

Consummate views,
consummate principles,
consummate talk,
consummate works,
consummate lifestyle,
consummate self control,
consummate mind,
consummate serenity.

Traveling that path, Beggars,
I came to know
aging and death,
I came to know
what gives rise to
aging and death,
I came to know
what eliminates
aging and death,
I came to know
the way to the ending of
aging and death.

Traveling that path, Beggars,
I came to know
birth,
I came to know
what gives rise to
birth,
I came to know
what eliminates
birth,
I came to know
the way to the ending of
birth.

Traveling that path, Beggars,
I came to know
existence,
I came to know
what gives rise to
existence,
I came to know
what eliminates
existence,
I came to know
the way to the ending of
existence.

Traveling that path, Beggars,
I came to know
getting bound-up,
I came to know
what gives rise to
getting bound-up,
I came to know
what eliminates
getting bound-up,
I came to know
the way to the ending of
getting bound-up.

Traveling that path, Beggars,
I came to know
hunger and thirst,
I came to know
what gives rise to
hunger and thirst,
I came to know
what eliminates
hunger and thirst,
I came to know
the way to the ending of
hunger and thirst.

Traveling that path, Beggars,
I came to know
sensations,
I came to know
what gives rise to
sensations,
I came to know
what eliminates
sensations,
I came to know
the way to the ending of
sensations.

Traveling that path, Beggars,
I came to know
contact,
I came to know
what gives rise to
contact,
I came to know
what eliminates
contact,
I came to know
the way to the ending of
contact.

Traveling that path, Beggars,
I came to know
envelopment in the six senses,
I came to know
what gives rise to
envelopment in the six senses,
I came to know
what eliminates
envelopment in the six senses,
I came to know
the way to the ending of
envelopment in the six senses.

Traveling that path, Beggars,
I came to know
the interoperation of
names and forms,
I came to know
what gives rise to
the interoperation of
names and forms,
I came to know
what eliminates
the interoperation of
names and forms,
I came to know
the way to the ending of
the interoperation of
names and forms.

Traveling that path, Beggars,
I came to know
sense consciousness,
I came to know
what gives rise to
sense consciousness,
I came to know
what eliminates
sense consciousness,
I came to know
the way to the ending of
sense consciousness.

Traveling that path, Beggars,
I came to know
the own-making of the world,
I came to know
what gives rise to
the own-making of the world,
I came to know
what eliminates
the own-making of the world,
I came to know
the way to the ending of
the own-making of the world.

What I came to know, Beggars,
I taught to the beggars,
to the sisters,
to the laymen and laywomen,
that is to say,
this living of
a god-like life
has been made known by me, and
has become great and
prosperous and
has spread far and wide."

SN 2.12.65

The sticking points:

Is he talking about a state that has been lost and has been re-discovered (the Bodhi Mind): no. He is talking about the Aristocratic Multi-dimensional Way.

The use of "existence" for "bhava" especially where it is used along-side "being" which is also "bhava". It is not a matter of the correctness of the translation. "Existence" is an accepted translation. I have used this translation and juxtaposition with "being" intentionally. It is vital to understand that what the Buddha is speaking of as the goal is apart from, separated from, detached from this world that we understand as "existence," and that, in whatever form it is found, from the bottom of the depths of Niraya below to the tip of the top of the end of sense-perception and sense-experience above. If you do not see this, you do not see the goal. It is to force you to try and see this that I have chosen to use this term here. You can also see this very clearly if you study the Manā Nidāna Suttanta: Existence = sense experience and that depends on the contact of consciousness with named forms. Break that contact and you have freed yourself from existence, rebirth, living, becoming, aging, sickness and death, grief and lamentation, pain and misery and despair.

"Tracking things down to their point of origin" for "yoniso-mana-sikārā". Mrs. Rhys Davids: "thinking according to law"; Bhk. Thanissaro: "appropriate attention" Bhk. Bodhi: "careful attention;" Thorough examination, etc. would do it if one understood that that meant tracking things down to their point of origin, but starting from any of these states that could be called "thorough" or "careful" or "wise" or "systematized" one is more likely to die before tracking things down to their point of origin.

"Getting bound-up" for "upādāna". This could be "grasping" or "clinging" or "fueling". What it means is the scheming, planning, taking action, going after getting, getting involved in, supporting the wish to experience pleasure, to exist, or to escape from unpleasant things.

How does the statement 'this thing is generated by itself' square with the statement by Sariputta in SN 2.12.67, that 'it is not, friend Koṭṭhita, that aging and death [etc.] is not one's own and not another's, but arises on its own. But it is just that aging and death depends on birth.'? Well it is not generated by itself where there is identification with consciousness of named forms by an individual and where there is no identification with consciousness of named forms by an individual, there is no generation at all, but where there is consciousness of identification with named forms and it is seen that this identification with the consciousness of named forms is not the self, then that which is generated is generated by itself. It is not generated 'on its own' but it is generated by itself. So the safe way of saying this is to say that 'the generation of this, depends on that; by the elimination of that, this is eliminated.' I suppose the problem could be eliminated by translating 'samudaya' as just 'arising' rather than 'arising to itself', but that would obscure the understanding that this is not arising because of one's "self." It arises dependent on identification of consciosness of named forms as "self," but that consciousness of named forms is to be seen as "not self."

Why is this broken up into such small fragments? First, because that is intended to reflect the spoken word. Emphasis. Then it is to bring more clearly to consciousness the meaning.

My say.

 

---

 

Oblog: [O.07.27.23] Thursday, July 27, 2023

Topics of Talk

Restrain or refrain from low subjects of talk such as of:

Kings and ministers of state,
robbers and thieves;
the horrors of war and battle;
talk of food, drink, clothes, beds, garlands and perfumes;
talk of cities, towns, villages;
relationships, men and women,
heroes and villains;
gossip at the corner,
over the back fence,
or at the well;
talk of those alive or of those who are departed;
talk comparing differences between this and that;
speculative talk about creation,
existence or non-existence.

Retain or obtain such high subjects of talk such as of:

Wanting little,
contentment,
impassivity,
living in solitude,
putting forth energy,
ethical conduct,
serenity,
wisdom,
freedom,
the knowledge and vision of freedom.

Or keep silent.

AN 10.69

 

I Hear Tell

"Do not, monks, address a Truthfinder by name, and with the epithet 'your reverence'. A Truthfinder, monks, is a perfected one, a fully awakened one."

VP 2.MV001-006 Ch 1 § 12 Horner.

But, of course, the narrator, and everyone else described by the narrator, is made by those that remembered or those that wrote down the Pāḷi to do just that.

In my "No Commentary" versions of the suttas that are found on the Index page of this site I am using "The Consummately Awakened," or just "Consummately Awakened" where earlier, in translation, I have used "The Lucky Man", "The Potter", or "Bhaggava". I have also changed "Broke-Tooth" to "Venerable" or "Bhante". This is not intended to be a revision of my translation. This is being done to express my belief that what we have in these suttas is what I have heard (I Hear Tell = I have heard that ... and I am now telling you) so that what is found in the Pāḷi as the work of the narrator, (usually understood to be the word of Ānanda), is here me speaking to you. What you have here is what I have heard. And in that case what is called for is not simply translation but translation in sympathy with my beliefs, and my belief is that the Buddha did not wish to be called "Bhaggava", but "Sammāsaṃbuddha". So what I am doing is making the change from translation to narration.

For those who have doubts or who do not understand my narration, I believe I have provided ample background documentation on this site.

 

Oblog: [O.07.13.23] Thursday, July 13, 2023

 

I think it would pay well to give a look at AN 5.27.

I think my translation is clearest, but you can still see the implications in the other translations.

'This serenity
— peaceful, above it all —
gained as a result of impassivity,
is got by having become focused and is
uncontaminated
by the destructive habit of
own-making,'
— even so is the knowledge
that arises within oneself.'

Serenity (samādhi): being peaceful and happy above it all.

'This serenity,
gained as a result of impassivity.'
This tells us that we are speaking of the serenity of the Magga,
the Aristocratic Multidimensional Way.
This, in turn, is explained as
the result of the four jhānas or
states of knowing
that which is higher than
the world.

'Become focused.'
As opposed to concentrated
because concentration is the continuous action of attention to a thing where
focus is a state at rest
on a reality clearly seen.

Own-making: sankhārā.
The intentional acts of
body, word-thought and mind
directed at creating personal experience and
the results of that action.
This can be translated constructing,
but it must be kept in mind
that what is being constructed
is always going to be the personal.
That is the point of Buddhism!
That is to escape pain
it is necessary to
escape the made-personal,
the own-made.

So then this sutta is saying that the samādhi, that results from the jhānas, is not sankhārāmed, not own-made. It is conditioned, but is not own-made. The intention is for the letting go of that which obstructs the jhāna.

Any bhikkhu or person who says that vitakka and vicara means: "Placing the mind and keeping it there," is directly contradicting this sutta. "Placing" and "keeping" are both sankhārāming.

No place in the suttas or in the Vinaya is the Buddha saying that these two terms should be understood in anything but the sense that they are used every other place. Nowhere is there anyone in the suttas or Vinaya who says that they heard this differentiation from the Buddha. No agreement is found between this view and that expressed in the Suttas or the Vinaya.

There is also the fact that in practice this futile behavior will frustrate the emergence of the first jhāna and because of that the attainment of any higher state right up to Nibbāna. That does not mean that the exotic mental states found in other religions are not real experiences. That just means they are not the experiences of what is defined in Buddhism as higher mental states.

This gets deeper. Because Nibbāna is reached by way of samādhi, and this sutta is saying that samādhi is not own-made, that means it is not not a result (paṭicca) of following the Magga (something some bhikkhu translators are saying).

Nibbāna is a result of the individual following the Magga but it is not own-made. We could say Nibbāna is a secondary, follow-on, by-product. It is the result when own-making is let go.

Said another way: The own-making of the one following the Magga is the intentional not doing (which is still own-makng) suggested by its steps; the result, Nibbāna, is a result of that but has not been own-made - that was not the intent of the not-doing. It might have been in the mind of the one doing the own-made not-doing, but the act itself was directed at letting go of something. If the person did in fact intend the attainment of Nibbāna with the not-doing, then they would have created or attained a world-bound state that was not the goal. Such is the case of those that postulate an on-going Bodhi-mind or the equivalent.

That is what is being said when the Buddha describes Nibbāna: that it is not own-made, not that it is not a result of something.

See the discussion "Is Nibbāna Conditioned?" for more on this.

 

Oblog: [O.07.04.23] Tuesday, July 04, 2023

 

The Travels of Fa-Hsien

(399-414 A.D.)

or
Record of the Buddhist Kingdoms

Translated by
Professor H.A. Giles

Routledge & Kegan Paul
London, 1923

As a very early travel-log this is an interesting work; for the Buddhist, it does not have much to offer. It is mostly composed of "X distance from here, one finds Y where the Buddha did this and a pagoda was built." Here and there one will find descriptions of various legends concerning the original bhikkhus and the Buddha. These mostly have little resemblance to the stories found in the Pāḷi cannon we have today. There is no description of the doctrines held by the various peoples encountered. No description of the differences that were understood at that time between the Greater and Lesser Vehicles. There are some interesting things to be found by reading between the lines. There were easily a million renunciate bhikkhus existant at the time. Most of the people encountered on the journey were Buddhists of one sort or another and both seem to have been, shall we say, "interested" in acquisition of power and wealth. The rules of the Vinaya seem to have been largely the same throughout the regions traversed, but there were some slight differences. Also, these rules were mostly not written down. It was the main purpose of Fa-Hsien to obtain a copy of the written rules (along with a number of suttas, apparently not available in China), and he only found two versions that were written down. The rest were passed verbally from one Master to the next. Land was given to the orders by way of a 'perpetual' deed which was written on a metal plate.

Beal has written about this book, but Giles states that Beal's work is full of errors. I read the Giles translation in book form, and it is readily available as an expensive paperback, or is downloadable for free from here. See just below.

That's about it.

Giles, The Travels of Fa-Hsien
Beal, Buddhist Records

 

Oblog: [O.06.30.23] Friday, June 30, 2023

 

The Dhamma Ear

The reader who would wish to think of this work (this website) properly will not think of it as a translation though that is the name given to it. This work is an instruction, advice. A preaching. A teaching. It has been written from the position of a person seeking the solution to the problem of rebirth. This has been the goal of this work, that is, my study of what the Buddha taught, since its inception c. 1964. This orientation has resulted in certain differences between this work and the translations.

The first thing, and the thing that governs all the other differences, is that it should be seen that there has been an effort to make every word at every turn reflect the desire to attain absolute freedom. Another way of stating that same goal is to say that this work is oriented towards escape from the worldly rather than improvement of, or happiness within the world.

Upekkha, for example, is translated "detachment" rather than "equanimity" because detachment reflects absolute freedom, both within this world and from this world, where equanimity is a balance between factors of this world. Suggesting that a person attain equanimity is a good thing but it will not result in absolute freedom or freedom from the things of this world.

Lists, sequences, usually go from the attached to the freed state. Soaked, permeated, suffused and saturated. Seen from the point of view of the detachment created in the jhānas, the state of being saturated is the state of being saturated with freedom.

The jhānas are states of progressively greater freedom. They are arrived at by letting go, not by getting this and that. That the end result of having mastered the jhānas is the state of living pleasantly in this seen thing should make it obvious that this is going from being attached to being detached, something that requires less and less, not something that requires more and more. The seeker experiences the jhānas as lesions in going from more to less, the accomplished person has done that and just accepts the detached state of the jhānas as one which causes him very little disturbance.

Training in the Pāḷi goes from improving the worldly condition of the trainee to achieving complete detachment from the world. The goal is the detachment. Where the advice is towards attaining a goal within the world, it is seen as a lesser accomplishment.

Words reflect thoughts and the way one thinks binds one to the world or leads to freedom. The effort here is to find the word that best reflects freedom or a path to freedom.

It is (after a great deal of frustrating experimentation) the position here that the Buddha's Pāḷi defies an ultimately correct translation. "Paṭhavi", for example, is literally, "earth"; in meaning in English it is sometimes "earth" sometimes "solidity" sometimes "the point of resistance" sometimes "hardness". That means that the translator is going to give you a half dozen different words for the one word in Pāḷi, or is going to give you one word that is meaningless more than half the time. The case is the same for the majority of words in the Pāḷi. This is not what is thought of as translation. If you want to know the words spoken by Gotama, learn Pāḷi and read it in the original language. Here what you will get is the message the Buddha taught as I have learned it, practiced it and experienced the results over the years. Some mistakes have been made, but they are in the vast majority of the nature of going from acceptable to better, rather than from wrong to correct. In any case, I sincerely apologize for mistakes I have made.

The difference then, of what you will find here versus the translations is in the understanding of what is correct and what is not. Here what is correct is a word that reflects freedom, what is incorrect is a word that reflects being bound to this world. In the translations that is sometimes the case and sometimes not.

My experience of what is being taught here is positive, it has consistently lead from freedom to freedom — where experience is lacking, the words satisfy the mind that the practice when fulfilled will do so. I can recommend it whole-heartedly.

 

§

 

The Buddha and The Real World

Something that comes up very frequently in the forums is the doubt raised by differences in view between what the Buddha is describing and what is held to be true by the ordinary individual here today.

The description of the world system, stroking the sun and moon, gods of rain, any sort of being thought of as a divinity or any sort of being that is human-like either higher or lower than normal, heaven and hell, alteration of the courses of the stars, and so forth are being contrasted with the currently held view as to the nature of these things and doubt as to the omniscience of the Buddha arises as a result.

What is not being seen here is that the views of what is real are just that — views, opinions, speculations. One sees the views that are currently held about what is real and what is not, the other sees that the whole personal world is a creation of the imagination. It changes with time. It changes with point of view. It will change again with time and point of view. There is nothing there that is the real world, any more than there is anything there that is the real self.

A similar thing is going on with those who would deny magic powers. A point of view is being put forward with the idea that it alone is the truth and all other views are wrong.

A similar thing is going on with regard to the idea of re-birth.

A similar thing is going on with regard to wealth inequality. The idea that kamma determines whether or not a person is wealthy or not never seems to enter the picture. The result is a million suggestions that this inequality is unjust and should be corrected in this way or that (for example, confiscating 99% of the wealth of the wealthy). The problem of wealth inequality is not corrected from that end. First of all, it will never be corrected; secondly, if it is to be corrected it must be corrected at the other end: the place where people make their wealth is in their acts of generosity.

Finally, these people that make these assertions and express these doubts not as questions or expressions of their own doubts but as assertions of the correctness of their views and the errors of the Buddha make huge bad kamma for themselves in that at the same time that they profess themselves Buddhists, they disparage what the Buddha taught and by that hold themselves superior to him.

The Buddha did not teach Dhamma only for the people here yesterday, tomorrow, or today, he taught for all time and across all states of consciousness. Learn to live with that and you will cross doubt.

 

Oblog: [O.06.28.23] Wednesday, June 28, 2023

 

In several places (e.g. DN 33.8.10, AN 8.65) we find the description of states called "Mastery." (Abhibhāyatana). In my translation of AN.8.65 I suggest this is "Mastery over fear" (Abhi-bhāya-āyatana). But in SN 4.35.96 we get a straight-up definition of the term which is a little more comprehensive and a little more complicated.

"Abhibhāyatana" is there described as a state where one has previously encountered the arising of unprofitable conditions but in which now these conditions no longer arise. As with so many other states described by the Buddha, this too is a state which most people have experienced at a lower level. It is the state like the one where when previously one was madly in love with another person and some time later asks one's self how one could ever have been attracted to such a one.

"And what, beggars, is mastery over the six realms?
In the case of this case,
we have the case of the beggar who
at the sight of an object by the eye
is not assailed by bad,
unprincipled,
unskillful recollections and ideas
downbound to rebirth.
In this case
such a beggar should understand it this way:
'I have mastered this realm.
This is called 'mastery over a realm' by the Lucky Man."

This is a state reached here after one has first been

"assailed by bad,
unprincipled,
unskillful recollections and ideas
downbound to rebirth."

and where,

"If such a beggar does not allow in,
lets go of,
dispels,
ends,
and causes them to stop becoming,"

he has understood the case as

"'I am not losing my grip of skillful things!'"

The difference between this and the lower-level example I have given is between the natural occurrence of growing out of interest in something versus making an effort to overcome such. In the case of my example, little or nothing has been learned or mastered and one is subject to the same situation occurring again in a slightly different form. In the case given by the Buddha, the mastery is at such a fundamental level (the eye and other sense organs) that there is no possibility that the experience can sneak up on one from another angle.

Interestingly enough, this definition of "abhibhāyatana" encompasses mastery of fear and fear encompasses "bad, unprincipled, unskillful recollections and ideas downbound to rebirth." I consider I have made an error of translation here, but perhaps a double-meaning was originally intended or perhaps this even shows the evolution of the word.

 

Oblog: [O.06.27.23] Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Here is one that I think it would be helpful to understand when people ask about the different feelings, or sensations. In MN 136 the question comes up as to when it is proper to say: "Whatever one experiences is pain" and when it is proper to say that "When one has intentionally done a deed by body, speech or thought one experiences pain, pleasure, or sensation that is not painful, but not pleasurable." The former is the response that should be given when the situation is dealing with the idea that the Buddha is saying that everything is painful. In essence this is saying that in essence, things are painful. There are pleasures to be had, but because they change or come to an end, their existence results in the individual experiencing pain. The latter is the response to a person asking about the number and type of sensations there are. This latter should not be considered as the only answer to this question as there are different numbers of sensations mentioned in relation to different ways of considering the matter.

For greater detail on this see: SN 4.36.11.

 

Oblog: [O.06.23.23] Friday, June 23, 2023

New Index (Home) Page

You may have noticed that there is now a new opening page to the BuddhaDust website. (If you go to this page and see the old page, click the refresh button or in stubborn cases, the control key and the refresh button.)

What I have done here is to present the Dhamma as I have translated it without comment, without introductions, without footnotes, without sidebars, without links to other translations, without titles, section numbers or section spacing. In other words, without the distractions of additions to the suttas. What the reader gets is as close as we can get in writing and translation to the way the listener got the suttas originally. The only compromise I have made in this regard is to give the sutta number at the end of each sutta, and at the end of the list of suttas on the index page a link to the old index page and all the tools of Dhamma Research that were present on this site previously.

I believe this formatting is the best way to encourage thinking about the sutta itself as opposed to thinking about what someone else has thought about it or the vocabulary of its translation.

Do Dhamma Research, of course. It is an essential part of practice, but do not let it become your only or even dominant form of practice.

 

Oblog: [O.06.8.23] Thursday, June 08, 2023

A Treasury of the Buddha's Words: The Greater Discourse on Voidness Venerable Ñāṇamoli Thera trans.

 

Oblog: [O.06.6.23] Tuesday, June 06, 2023

A Treasury of the Buddha's Words: One Fortunate Attachment Venerable Ñāṇamoli Thera trans.
Relative to the debate as to whether what is being spoken of is a day or an attachment. I do not understand how a reasonable person could go with 'attachment'. A simple look at the context yells out that this is speaking of a lucky day.

 

Oblog: [O.06.5.23] Monday, June 05, 2023

The First Sign of Serenity

Sign = Nimita
Serenity: Samādhi

Set up,
settle down,
compose, and
focus the heart
on the first sign of serenity
concerning the internal.

What is that first sign of serenity?

Separated from
pleasures of the senses,
separated from
unskillful involvements,
with re-thinking,
with pondering,
with the pleasurable-excitement
born of solitude,
enter into the first knowing and
make a habitat of that.

Simple, easy to remember:

Appreciation of
the peace and calm of
solitude.

Remember this as the first sign
that you have entered samādhi, serenity.

The idea taken from MN 122-olds

 

Oblog: [O.05.29.23] Monday, May 29, 2023

Yaṃ kiñci samudaya Dhammaṃ,|| sabban'taṃ nirodha-dhamman.|| ||

Whatsoever that is a self-arisen thing,
all that is an ending thing.

'Self-arisen' = samudaya.

PED has this as just 'arisen', which ignores the 'sam', and ignoring the 'sam' ignores the significance of this term which is that this is a thing which has arisen by its own power.

It is 'self-arising'. In both senses of the word: it arises as a consequence of preceding impersonal conditions (it arises on its own), and it results in the identified-with individuality (it arises as self or to the self).

It does not arise because of a 'you' there, but that which you have to this point thought of as 'you' (the body, sensations, perceptions, own-making, sense-consciousness) has made it come to be.

Thus this is a thing which has through the actions of this identified-with individuality created itself.

So seeing, one will recognize that the apparent coming to be of a thing to the self is a result of the intentional identification with that process (saṇkhārā: own-making) which because of its changing nature ends in pain and is not the self, but which, when the intent to create experience for the self is ended, is brought to an end.

That's not all!

This idea that things are self-arising is one of the principle things awakened to by Gotama. (See SN 56.11, the first sutta). It is not "the origin of pain" (me) "the arising of ill (PTS Woodward), or "the origin of suffering" (Rhys Davids, Bhk. Bodhi); or "the propagation of stress" (Bhk. Thanissaro), or "the arising of unease" (Bhk. Punnaji) ... though it is all these that is not what the Buddha is teaching or the Pāḷi is saying. What the Buddha is teaching and the Pāḷi is saying is: "this is the aristocratic truth of pain's self-arising" dukkha-samudayo ariya-saccaṃ.

 

Oblog: [O.03.31.23] Friday, March 31, 2023

I have, to this point, understood the phrase "after-before-perceivin" "pacchā-pure-saññī" as being a reference to a sort of magic power in which the observer is able to see what is in back of himself as well as what is in front. This may be the case in some situations, but reviewing SN 5.51.11 I see that it also means, (and likely this was the more commonly understood meaning) perceiving things as the same whether they are passed or are to come.

For more on this topic, see: The Eye in the back of the Head.

 

Oblog: [O.03.26.23] Sunday, March 26, 2023

'Just pain arises in the arisen,
pain passes away in the passed away.'

SN 2 12 15 - Olds

It is usual for the Buddhist to say to those surviving the death of a loved one: "So transient are all own-made things",
but this is not being understood by most here today [USA, Sunday, March 26, 2023 8:12 AM] and it usually only results in confusion and resentment or the thought that one has been rude, or inconsiderate, or put preaching Buddhism above the feelings of the bereaved.

It might be more helpful if we were to say:

"The body was not the soul of that individual, the body, coming to an end, was only the coming to an end of what was essentially just pain."

See also: AN 5.49: Kosala Sutta.

 

 

Oblog: [O.01.07.23] Saturday, January 07, 2023

Please note: Here and there there may be passages (I am attempting to eliminate them!) where I have confused escaping kamma with ending kamma. Kamma is not brought to an end in this system, it is escaped. Escape from kamma is possible because kamma reaches only as far as that which has become: that is, that arises as a consequence of the conjunction of individualized consciousness with named forms.

 

Oblog: [O.01.05.23] Thursday, January 05, 2023

MN 64 Mahā Māluṇkya Suttaṃ The Path of the Non-Returner. New Olds translation. The Pāḷi has been proofed for the third time against the PTS text, and edited to conform in style to the Olds translation. The Olds and Pāḷi are interlinked at various points; the other translations are interlinked at the start of the Nidana. The main thing to consider in this sutta is the idea that getting rid of the yokes to lower rebirths is not the point: the point is to get rid of obsession with them. This is also the case in other situations, e.g.: the factors of individual existence (the khandhā).

 

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BACK ISSUES
of
The Oblog

A Dhamma Curriculum. The Oblog, What's New? listings reformatted as a Dhamma study guide.

What's New? 2023 ■ What's New? 2021 ■ 2022 was mostly a write-off; what little that was done is listed under 2021, repeat for 2023 ■ What's New? 2020 ■ What's New? 2019 ■ What's New? 2018 ■ What's New? 2017 ■ What's New? 2016
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