Ajahn Brahm: Letting Go vs. Clinging (video)

Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ajahn Brahm (BuddhistSocietyWA); Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Doctrines and Terms

(Poh Ming Tse Temple, 2014) Ajahn Brahm: Freeing Our Minds from Our Mental Prisons

Ven. Ajahn Brahm, an ennobled and very humorous Western monk who emerged from the Thai Forest Tradition in Isan under Ajahn Chah, now lives and teaches in Australia. He had just come from teaching at a retreat when he chose to explore ways of letting go in the Buddha's teaching. Indeed, there is danger in clinging (upadana) and liberation in letting go, internally renouncing, and freeing ourselves from suffering.

Orange is the new black, but for free robes not bound jumpsuits (dreamstime.com).

Prison is a scary place yet not nearly as fearful as our mental prisons, ones we've created as terrifying places we are imprisoned even as we walk around free to do as we like. In this video teaching by the ennobled and humorous Western Theravada monk, brought to us by the Buddhist Congress and Angulimala Fellowship, Ajahn Brahm shares his insights and wisdom on the most important prison break we can attempt. It is peppered throughout with the distinctive flavor of Ajahn Brahmavamso's trademark humor. See video below from 2010 when he began this thread.

MENTAL PRISON: Some of us are as tortured and trapped as prisoners in prison cells.

 

Non-clinging (nekkhamma) is a Buddhist Pali term translated as "the pleasure of letting go" or "renunciation." It conveys, more specifically, "giving up worldliness and leading a higher life" or "freedom from crippling lust, craving, and addictions." In the Noble Eightfold Path, it is the first practice associated with "Right Intention."

In the Theravada list, it is the third of the Ten Perfections, involving non-attachment and non-clinging to suffering. How do we cling to suffering? The root of our self-injury is clinging to the Five Aggregates, to wrong views of self.

Milarepa's Tibetan Vajrayana writings are canonical Mahayana Buddhist texts that emphasize the temporary nature of the physical body and the need for non-attachment.

 

Non-clinging is also a central concept in Zen Buddhist philosophy. One of the most important technical Chinese terms for "non clinging" is wú niàn (無念), which literally means "no thought." This does not signify the literal absence of thought, but rather not clinging to or identifying with thought, the state of being "unstained" (bù rán 不染) by thought -- like a lotus flower born in water and grown up in water rising above water and remaining unstained by water.

Therefore, non-clinging is being detached from one's thoughts. That is, it is to separate oneself from one's thoughts and opinions [of course, they are not actually one's own] in detail as to not be harmed mentally and emotionally by them (see The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch translated by Philip B. Yampolsky).

I can do this monastic stint standing on my head...because I'm free (annenbergproject.org)

.

"Freedom from sensual lust"

Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Doctrines and Terms

Gokyo Ri peak (Hendrik Terbeck/flickr)

The real meaning of "renunciation" (nekkhamma) is an internal act not an external one.

It is not by shaving one's head and face and donning saffron robes that one moves toward enlightenment (bodhi, awakening) and nirvana (moksha, liberation from all suffering). There are many monastics who yet cling and are therefore no closer to freedom than householders).

The word is apparently derived from nir + Ö kram, "to go forth (into the wandering, left-home-life of an ascetic)." But in Pali language texts, this term is nevertheless used as if it were derived from lust (kāma as in Kama Sutra) and always as an antonym to kāma (craving for sensuality). 

It is one of the Ten Perfections (pāramīs or pāramitās as in the Prajna Paramita, the famous "Perfection of Wisdom" literature).

  

Nekkhama-sankappa, the "intention of renunciation" -- thoughts free of lust, thoughts of renunciation, is one of the three kinds of right intention or right thought (sammā-sankappa), the second factor in the Noble Eightfold Path (see Magga, 2), its antonym being kāma-sankappa, lustful thoughts and intentions.

Four Ways to Let Go and Get Free

.

What is clinging?

Maitreya Buddha, Gandhara (wiki)

"Clinging," according to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII), is an intensified degree of craving. The four kinds of clinging are:

1. sensual clinging,
2. clinging to views,
3. clinging to mere rules and rituals [as if they could ever in and of themselves lead to or result in enlightenment],
4. clinging to personality-belief.

(1) "What now is sensual clinging? Whatever with regard to sensuous objects there exists of sensuous lust, sensuous desire, sensuous attachment, sensuous passion, sensuous delusion, sensuous fetters, this is called sensual clinging.

 

(2) ''What is clinging to views? 'Alms and offerings are useless [without karmic benefit to the giver]; there is no fruit and result for skillful and unskillful deeds: all such views and misconceptions are called clinging to [wrong] views.

(3) "What is clinging to mere rules and rituals? Holding firmly to the view that through [the observance of] mere rules and rituals one may reach purification [enlightenment and liberation, bodhi and nirvana), this is called clinging to mere rules and rituals.

 

(4) "What is clinging to personality-belief? The 20 kinds of ego-views [beliefs about self, identity, ego] with regard to the groups of existence, these are called clinging to personality-belief" (Dhs.1214-17).

 

This traditional fourfold division of clinging is unsatisfactory. Besides clinging to lustful objects of the sense, we would expect either clinging to fine material spheres and immaterial spheres of existence or simply clinging to continued existence (bhava-upādāna, continued being, which can never be static, and is therefore translated as becoming).

Although a non-returner, a person who has gained the third stage of enlightenment, is entirely free of the traditional four kinds of clinging, that person is not yet freed from rebirth, as one still possesses clinging to continued-becoming. The Commentary to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII), trying to get out of this dilemma, explains sensual clinging as including here all the remaining kinds of clinging.

 

"Clinging" is the common rendering for upādāna, but "grasping" would come closer to the literal meaning of it, which is "uptake" or the habit of repetitive craving; see Three Cardinal Discourses (Wheel 17), p.19.

34th Lotus Festival, Los Angeles (sutra)

Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Carlos Lozano, Marisa Gerber (latimes.com); John D. Ireland (SN 22:94); Andrew Olendzki (Thag 15.2); Black Flag

Devas like Radha Devi are rejoicing as the scent of spring wafts through the summer air.

Lotus blossoms, birds, and bees in view of L.A.s skyscrapers and blight (latimes.com)

.

Lotuses of Echo Park, L.A. (latimes.com)

Everything is coming up lotuses because the Los Angeles "Lotus Festival" is back at the newly restored Echo Park Lake near downtown. It is Echo Park's 34th festival and runs all weekend honoring the culture and traditions of L.A. Asian communities, particularly the influence of the Philippines.

 

Festivities kicked off Friday night with music and a movie premiere of a 24-minute film on the history of Echo Park, which lies just west of downtown [one of the west coast's main financial districts in the megalopolis known to the world as] Los Angeles. The celebration continues Saturday and Sunday, beginning at noon and runs until 9:00 pm and 8:00 pm respectively. The event is sponsored by the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks and includes food, music, and boat races. But the real star of the festivities are the lotus flower beds, which are in full bloom. More

What's so great about the lotus?

Waterlilies are wonderful, too (WeGoTwo/flickr).

In India the lotus is revered as the favorite flower, rich in spiritual significance. It is to the East what the rose is to the West. The most remarkable thing about it is that for all its delicate beauty and sublime fragrance, it grows up out of muck.

As Thich Nhat Hanh is fond of saying, It is composed of all "non-lotus elements" -- mud, mire, water, clouds, air, and stinky swamp silt. Yet, behold its beauty!

Later Mahayana Buddhism developed a "Lotus Sutra," but earlier discussions come from the historical Buddha and the enlightened elders (theras and theris), his direct disciples, like Udayin:

The Blooming Lotus

Andrew Olendzki (trans.) Udayin Thera's lotus verses (Theragatha 15.2 excerpt)

Sukhothai (Golan Jesus Roncero/flickr)

As the flower of a lotus,

Arisen in water, blossoms,

Pure-scented and pleasing the mind,

Yet is not drenched by the water,

In the same way, born in the world,

The Buddha abides in the world;

And like the lotus by water,

He does not get drenched by the world.

This translation is by Andrew Olendzki of a poem by the enlightened Elder Udayin [an "elder" being a thera in the "Teaching of the Theras" or Thera-vada Buddhism]. It evokes one of the most famous of Buddhist images and is laced with meaning on many levels.

In one sense -- from early Buddhist teachings -- it can be taken to describe the ability of the enlightened person to rise above the world of sensory experience instead of remaining mired, clinging or attached to it. Although the human condition is rooted in the desires (cravings, graspings) that give rise to life and the illusion of a separate, independently-existing "self," which is actually dependently-arisen, one can awaken and live in this world without being bound by the impulse to hungrily crave pleasure and angrily reject pain.

One is "drenched by the world" when one succumbs to grasping, clutching, and clinging -- behaviors that inevitably bring about suffering, disappointment, and a disillusionment. The heart/mind clings to an attractive object like water permeating something and drenching it.

The Buddha did not immediately transcend the world, but lived in it for 45 years with a heart/mind free of all attachments, defilements, and bonds.

The question of just what sort of being the Buddha was grew in importance. The image of the lotus emerging from the mud and blooming above the world became a popular way of expressing the Buddha's transcendence. In the canonical passage upon which Ven. Udayin builds his verse (SN 22:94) the phrase "having passed beyond the world" (lokam abhi-bhuyya) is added, and this becomes the basis for the Vetulyaka assertion that the Buddha was essentially a transcendent being.

This interpretation had profound implications for later Buddhism: It set the stage for the "Three Bodies of the Buddha" Doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism. In this way of looking at things, awakening (represented by the blossoming of a lotus) is something that can happen for all beings.

Tantric Buddhists (Vajrayana school) were drawn to the contrast in this image between the ordinary, defiling mud in which the plant is rooted and the uplifted loveliness of the blossom it can produce.

Relentless in their non-attachment to dichotomies demolishing opposites, the tantric approach is to be capable of embracing both extremes without clinging to either. The emphasis changes, but we can see that the essential teaching of non-attachment or non-clinging (nopalippati) to the objects of sense-perception, to a particular way of teaching, or to conventional dualities. It carries through the ages by this simple image of a bright lotus growing out of murky water.

SUTRA: Flowers

John D. Ireland (trans., SN 22:94), BPS (Wheel #107), edited by Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha under a blossom or vimana (WQ)

[The Buddha once said:] “I do not dispute with the world, meditators. The world disputes with me. A proclaimer of Dharma does not dispute with anyone in the world. What is not believed by the wise in the world, of that I say 'It is not so.' What is believed by the wise in the world, of that I say 'It is so.'

 

“And what is it, meditators, that is not believed by the wise in the world and of which I say 'It is not so'? That the body [any form]… feeling… perception… formation [mental activities]… [or] consciousness is permanent, stable, eternal, not liable to change, is not believed by the wise in the world, and I also say it is not so.

 

“And what is it, meditators, that is believed by the wise in the world and of which I say 'It is so'? That the body… feeling… perception… mental formation… consciousness is impermanent, unsatisfactory, liable to change, is believed by the wise in the world, and I also say it is so.

“There is, meditators, in the world a world-condition which the Tathagata [the Buddha] has fully awakened to, has fully realized. Having fully awakened to it and fully realized it, he declares it, teaches it, makes it known, establishes it, discloses it, analyzes it, makes it clear.

“And what, meditators, in the world is the world-condition which the Tathagata has fully awakened to, has fully realized? Meditators, the body… feeling… perception… formations… consciousness, meditators, in the world is that world-condition the Tathagata has fully awakened to, has fully realized…

"Grouped Discourses" (Wheel 107)

“And whosoever, meditators, when it is being declared, taught, made known, established, disclosed, analyzed, made clear by the Tathagata thus, does not understand, does not see, that person, an uninstructed worldly person, blind, without vision, not understanding, not seeing, I can do nothing for.

 

“Just as a water-lily or a blue lotus or a white lotus, born in water, growing in water, having arisen above the water stands unwetted by the water, similarly, meditators, the Tathagata, brought up in the world and conquering the world [i.e., conquers the Five Aggregates by penetrating the Truth with wisdom their true nature as impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal], lives unsullied by the world [i.e., unsullied by craving and attachment to the world].”

“Rise Above”
Black Flag with  Henry Rollins

There is even a grungy old punk rock song that runs: Jealous cowards try to control/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ They distort what we say / Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ Try and stop what we do/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ When they can't do it themselves/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ We are tired of your abuse/ Try to stop us, it's no use.

  

Rougher original version of Black Flag's singalong "Rise Above"
 

Society's arms of control/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ Think they're smart, can't think for themselves/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ Laugh at us behind our backs/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ I find satisfaction in what they lack/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!

We are tired of your abuse. Try to stop us but it's no use! (repeat)/ We are born with a chance/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ I am gonna have my chance/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ We are born with a chance/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ And I am gonna have my chance...

Comedian Russell Brand on "Mind Shift" (video)

Xochitl, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Daniel Pinchbeck ("Mind Shift," Gaiam TV)

Brand with the Dalai Lama

(GaiamTV) Daniel Pinchbeck interviews comedian and actor Russell Brand ("Messiah Complex"), who alludes to ex-wife Katy Perry when he gently jokes about our Reptilian Overlords, whom he laughs about as being just another frequency like us. Also in this episode, feminist and activist Eve Ensler ("V-Day," "Vagina Monologues") brings progressive momentum to the show promoting kindness and egalitarianism.

Disney to capitalize on RAVE music (EDM)

Dev, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Gerrick Kennedy, Los Angeles Times

Do we have to go to Disneyland to listen to it? No, Cherry Glazerr, just go corporate.

Wooo, Mickey Deadmau5, yeah! (Hard)

“Let It Go,” the soaring showstopper from “Frozen,” has an unlikely remix coming out soon.

 

The Academy Award-winning smash sung by Idina Menzel got a reworking by Dutch electronic dance music DJ Armin van Buuren.
 

Dconstructed morphs Disney tunes into EDM

His remix is just one of more than a dozen that Walt Disney Records commissioned for “Dconstructed,” a compilation album that placed Disney tunes, including several beloved classics, into the hands of EDM (electronic dance music) stars.
 
Songs have been pulled from older Disney films: “Dumbo,” “The Lion King,” and “Toy Story,” and more recent hits, such as “Monsters University” and “The Incredibles.”

The 14-track set will include contributions from Buuren, Avicii, Kaskade, Mat Zo, and Unkle. More

• Raves: Electric Daisy Carnival auditions, Hard Summer

The world, the world! (sutra)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; F.L. Woodward (trans.), Kindred Sayings, The Chapter on Channa and Others (Samyutta Nikaya, IV, Pali Text Society)

Saving the world, protesting economic and social injustices, Occupy L.A. (Wisdom Quarterly)

  

(84) Ven. Ananda came to see the Exalted One [Buddha]...and asked:

"'The world! The world!' it is said. venerable sir, please explain, how far does this saying go?"

"Ananda, what is transitory (paloka-dhamma = bhijjanaka, worldly phenomena, impermanent) by nature is called 'the world' in this noble doctrine and discipline [Arya-Dhamma-Vinaya].

 

"And what, Ananda, is transitory by nature? The eye, Ananda, is transitory by nature...visible objects... [The same is said for all six senses including the] mind is transitory by nature, mind-states, mind-consciousness, mind-contact [contact = the coming together of sense base, sense object, AND consciousness], whatever pleasure or pain (weal or woe) or neutral state experienced arises owing to mind-contact -- that, too, is transitory by nature. 

"Ananda, what is transitory by nature is called 'the world' in this noble doctrine and discipline."

Empty (void)

(85) Then Ven. Ananda...said to the Exalted One: "'The world IS empty! The world is empty!' it is said. Venerable sir, how far does this saying go?"

"Ananda, because the world is devoid of a self or anything belonging to a self (atta-niya, a self's property or possessions), therefore it is said, 'The world is empty.' And what, Ananda, is devoid of a self or what belongs to a self?

"Eye, visible objects, eye-consciousness... mind, mind-objects, mind consciousness are devoid of a self. Ananda, that is why it is said, 'The world is empty!'"

In Brief

Massive, sitting, golden Shakyamuni Buddha statue, Thailand (WQ)

 

(86) ...Then Ven. Ananda said to the Exalted One: "Well, for me, venerable sir, if the Exalted One would teach me a teaching in brief, a teaching which on hearing from the Exalted One I might dwell solitary, remote, earnest, ardent, and aspiring."

 

"Now what do you think, Ananda? Is the eye permanent or impermanent?" -- "Impermanent, venerable sir."

"What is impermanent, is that pleasant or painful (weal or woe)?" "Painful, venerable sir."

"Now what is impermanent, painful (woeful, disappointing), changeable by nature, is it fitting to regard that as, 'This is mine. This I am. This is my self'?" -- "Surely not, venerable sir."

 

"Eye, visible objects, eye-consciousness, eye-contact -- is that permanent or impermanent?" [This same is said of all six senses, types of sense objects, consciousness, and contact between the three].

"Then of what is impermanent, disappointing, and changeable by nature, is it fitting to regard that as, 'This is mine. This I am. This is my self'?" -- "Surely not, venerable sir."

"So seeing, Ananda, the well-taught noble disciple... [is] freed of conceits; one grasps at nothing in the world [does not cling to anything in the world or anything regarding an illusory ego]. Being free from grasping, one is not troubled. Being untroubled, one is by oneself set free. Thus one realizes, 'Rebirth is destroyed, lived is the highest life, done is the task. There is no more of this [suffering] to come.'

 

"This, Ananda, is the proper approach to the uprooting of all conceits [delusions]."

 

The Heart of Wisdom Sutra

(COMMENTARY)

The later Mahayana tradition says all of this much more cryptically in the "Perfection of Wisdom" literature (Prajna Paramita), epitomized in the Heart Sutra.

 

There the Five Aggregates of Clinging are laid bare: form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are empty. 

 

That is, they are devoid of a "self" through and through. Illusion exists. These constituents of being/becoming are generally regarded as a "self" by untaught, ordinary worldlings.

 

But because they are impermanent and unsatisfactory (disappointing), it is incorrect to regard them as personal. They are impersonal (not-self), beyond our control, brought into transient or momentary existence by causes and conditions. They do not arise by themselves but are brought into being by causes and conditions, which is to say they are dependently originated or arisen. 

 

All of this happens again and again based on ignorance. When liberating-insight arises, enlightenment dawns, and all suffering is brought to an end.

All Civilizations (and Self) Must Fall (video)

Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

(B1) The seafaring Aegean civilization (a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea, the Minoan, Mycenaean or Crete, the Cyclades, and the Greek mainland) destroyed ancient Egypt. Crete is associated with the Minoan civilization from the Early Bronze Age around 1200 BCE.

One facet of the universe, along with being ultimately impersonal and disappointing, is that it is impermanent. This radical flux, or constant state of change, leads to a wearing away of larger structures, such as entire human civilizations. They may last thousands of years, but that is of course only in the sense of continuity. They, in fact, do not last two consecutive days. This is the ever present change or flux the Buddha refers to as anicca. 

The ancient Greek and Egyptian civilizations fused at Thonis-Heracleion (Hilti)

 

Insight into this is liberating when it leads to dispassion and letting go, accompanied by the realization that it is in a sense unreal as well. All formations (compounded things, composites, constructions, fabrications) are unreal. What is true for the micro is true for the macro. The Buddha focused on psychological phenomena, on what we regard as "self," those things we feel closest to and identify with. On a grander scale and much more obvious to our investigations is the fact that large things fall apart, dissolve, crumble away. If we cannot accept that this happens to the greatest of humans, the most glorious "gods" (brahmas and devas in space), the loftiest of plans, it will be very hard to accept the fact that -- and this is verifiable through vipassana -- it is true of I, me, and mine.

Monuments in Egypt are far older than ancient Egypt. They actually go back 10,000+ years, but to say so and show the evidence is to step into the realm of "forbidden" archeology.

 

(AW) "The True Story of Troy" documentary: It's the site of history's most legendary war and the Western world's oldest "adventure" story. According to myth it began with a rigged beauty contest and ended with a giant wooden Trojan horse unleashing utter destruction. Now archaeologists and literary detectives and military analysts are uncovering evidence suggesting the war was really waged. From archaeological trenches at ancient Troy and the citadel fortress of King Agamemnon from Homer to Hollywood, we search for Troy.

 

Khmer King Yayavarmann VII, Bayon temple, Angkor Wat, Cambodia (platonkohphoto/flickr)

  

End of Khmer Rouge (Hanumann/flickr)

When Buddhism ultimately says there is "no soul" (anatta) it is not aligning with materialistic science and its annihilationist view of the afterlife -- that we all die and it ends here in a pile of ashes. 

When Buddhism conventionally says there is a "soul" (atta), it is not aligning with Abrahamic religions and their eternalist view of the afterlife -- that we all die and it continues from here because an imperishable part of us goes on to one more rebirth in heaven or hell.

Who am I? Five Aggregates

Ultimately, that amalgamation of heaps of (1) form (the four primary material elements) and the four primary components of mentality), (2) feeling, (3) perception, (4) mental formations, and (5) consciousness we call body and mind, the "soul" or "self" is ultimately not what it seems.

 

Some of the treasures recovered from the Greco-Egyptian civilization (Franck Goddio)

  

These are opposite views, so how could the Buddha not side with either? That's a logical fallacy surely? It may seem like a paradox or sophistry. But we can rest assured that it is neither. When we realize for ourselves the reality we, too, can get to sounding like mystic or Zen koan writer. It really is not this way, and it really is not the other way either. Indeed, there is no self (ultimately speaking), and there are countless rebirths. We do not die at death...except that we are dying at every single moment, and physical death is one of those moments, too. There is continuity. But what "continues" or seems to continue is not the exact same thing, is not some imperishable "soul" as Hindus, Jains, and the Abrahamic faiths maintain. 

Khmer (Cambodian) Empire may have come to Olmec Mesoamerica

Buddha, Ladakh, Likir Gompa (Ifphotos/flickr)

Buddhism is unique in this assertion -- that there is no ego, no personality, nothing to cling to. Letting go is NOT possible by an act of will. Only liberating-insight can bring it about. Fortunately, it is also possible to gain an intellectual grasp of the Teaching, the Dharma, but a mere intellectual grasp will never do to reach enlightenment. 

We must know-and-see, that is, directly experience the truth. And the truth will set us free from the illusion we currently feel so utterly trapped by. Only insight into the truth can do it, and for mindfulness of body, sensations, mind, and phenomena to produce liberating-insight, we need a great deal of calm, serenity, tranquility.

If we are motivated by disappointment (dukkha), suffering, a strong desire to escape, this craving may do more to ultimately obstruct us just as it helped get us very far along the Path. We need not "want" the truth to be true. The truth is true regardless. And if the heart/mind is calm, absorbed, purified by concentration and applies these four kinds of intensive mindfulness, it will produce insight. One of the most amazing things the Buddha ever said occurs in the discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. It ends with the Buddha guaranteeing that whosoever practices correctly according to these instructions for seven years...not even seven years but just seven days will surely break through to the truth, will surely gain at least one of the stages of enlightenment and thereby make an end to all suffering.

Of Mindsets and Monkeypots

Petr Karel Ontl, "Of Mindsets and Monkeypots" (BPS/ATI); Dhr. Seven (ed.) Wisdom Quarterly

I'm going ape over your dancing, baby. Dance, baby, dance! (rawstory.com)

  

Monkey King

In rural India, I am told, there are people who earn extra money by trapping and taming monkeys to be sold into slavery as pets.

 

Over the years, through trial and error, several ways have been devised to capture these clever but greedy/grasping primates. But the simplest method is said to be THE MONKEYPOT. 

Hey, monkey, it's a trap. Just let go! (redxb9)

In a clearing, the trapper fastens a short piece of cord or chain to a stake or tree-stump. To the other end is attached a small pot with a narrow neck. Into this pot are dropped several nuts, fruit, or a clump of precious salt, and a few more are scattered on the ground. The trapper then hides out of sight.

 

Soon a band of monkeys arrives and descends to feed. Before long, one of them discovers the contents of the pot. It puts its hand in the pot easily enough. But having grasped the enticing treat, it cannot pull its clenched fist out through the narrow opening no matter how hard it struggles. 

[Why? Its narrowed hand can go in the neck, but its full hand is too big to pull out -- and, due to its grasping nature, it never thinks to let go.]

Lust is the strongest manifestation of SENSUAL CRAVING, tanha and lobha or thirst and greed, just as VIEWS are the mind's obsession (Williams/laluzdejesus.com).

 

It panics in fear and the trapped monkey creates a ruckus, which brings the trapper running with net and cage or skewer. The monkey's fate, for all its cleverness, is sealed.

 

At first glance it would appear that the villager is the trapper, the baited pot his trap, and the poor monkey his victim. No doubt the villager sees things this way. The hapless simian, were it able to speak, would probably agree. 

However, a closer look shows a different perspective. The villager is NOT the trapper, nor the pot the trap, because there is nothing holding the monkey:

It could very easily remove its hand from the pot and rejoin the free monkey in the treetops if only it would let go of the nuts, the fruit, the salt. If it would only let go!

  

Monkeys only? 

I just want more and more love and...

The monkey in this anecdote does not suspect that it is being held prisoner solely by its mind. It has found some treat. 

Greed -- unreasonable and unreasoning desire -- has arisen. Though the jungle abounds with nuts and fruits and salt and all kinds of foods, the monkey's conditioned reaction dictates that it must have these as well.
 

Its narrow mindset is the only thing that imprisons it, that prevents it from letting go, from seeing the absurdity of this predicament, this enslavement, this "trap" -- or the obvious way out of it.

 

Now, before anyone makes any smug comments about the monkey and its intelligence, or the apparent lack thereof, and before we congratulate ourselves on our vastly superior reasoning powers, let us see where we ourselves stand.

 

This business of letting go is so easy, yet so hard, for monkey and for human alike. We are both caught up in the same predicament. The details may differ, played out on higher levels of sophistication or complexity [and higher ones where celestial beings are caught up in more alluring space worlds], but the end result is the same: enslavement by concepts and conditioning. 

While the monkey is done in by its greed for a few nuts, we humans are done in by our greed for wealth, fame, power, status, pleasure, and shiny trinkets and toys which we believe we absolutely must have and cannot live without. 

You're still not getting it! I want what I want when I want it, and I expect you to know what that is without me having to explain it every single time. I don't think that's too hard!

 

Even more fundamentally, we become enslaved by our attitudes and feelings toward them.

 

We endlessly seek gratification for the senses: pleasant things to look at, to listen to, to touch, to taste, to smell. Moreover, we are spurred on by thoughts or concepts created by our ego-driven minds. 

These last can be the hardest to satisfy since we cannot just please our senses and be content. Rather, we strive to fulfill fantasies of outdoing our peers, of turning them green with envy by having the biggest, the costliest, the latest, the shiniest. We are caught up in competition, in a game of one-up-manship. 

 

It cannot even be said that we are materialistic: We don't know how to be! We do not genuinely enjoy and appreciate the material things we have, much less life itself. We don't even know how to relax. More

• Petr Karel Ontl was born into a Bohemian-American family in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1942 and emigrated to the USA in 1949. He has been a Theravada Buddhist for the past 20 years affiliated with Bhavana Society, West Virginia, USA.

"Affection" (verses from the Dhammapada)

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Acharya Buddharakkhita, Dhammapada, XVI, "Affection"*

Inspiring quotes from the Dhammapada, the imprint or path of Dharma (House of Doves)

 

Verse 209. Giving oneself over to things to be shunned then not exerting where exertion is needed, one who craves and seeks after [sensual] pleasures, having given up one's own true welfare, envies those intent upon theirs.
210. Seek no intimacy with the desired nor with the undesired, for not to see the desired or to see the undesired, both are anguish.
 

(The Dhammapada/flickr.com)

211. Therefore, cling not to what is held dear. For loss of or separation from the dear is painful. Yet, there are no bonds for those who cling to nothing desired or undesired.
212. From endearment springs grief, from endearment springs fear. For one who is wholly free of endearment there is no grief. How then any fear?
 
213. From addiction springs grief, from addiction springs fear. For one who is wholly free of addiction there is no grief. How then any fear?
214. From attachment springs grief, from attachment springs fear. For one who is wholly free of attachment there is no grief. How then any fear?
215. From lust springs grief, from lust springs fear. For one who is wholly free of craving there is no grief. How then any fear?
216. From craving springs grief, from craving springs fear. For one who is wholly free of craving there is no grief. How then any fear?

• How can one possibly be free of clinging, endearment, addiction, attachment, lust, and craving? It is only possible through liberating absorption (jhana) and insight (vipassana), not by a triumph of will, deprivation, or austere self-torment.

(The Dhammapada/flickr.com)

217. People consider dear one who embodies virtue and insight, who is principled, who has realized the (liberating) truth, and who does what one ought to be doing.
218. One who is intent upon complete freedom (nirvana) dwells with heart/mind inspired (by supramundane wisdom) and is no more trapped by sense pleasures -- such a person is called "One Moving Upstream." 
219. When, after a long absence, a person safely returns from afar, relatives, friends, and well-wishers welcome one home on arrival.
220. As relatives welcome a dear one on arrival, even so one's own good deeds will welcome the doer of skillful deeds who has gone from this world to the next. More
 

*Edited from Buddhist Publication Society's The Dhammapada: The Buddha's Path of Wisdom, translated by Acharya Buddharakkhita introduction by Bhikkhu Bodhi (Kandy, BPS, 1985).