Craving, motherhood, and rebirth (sutra)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly, Mata Sutta (SN 15.14-19)

There are better ways to be pregnant, to deliver, and to mother (Nirrimi Firebrace/NM)

 .

Craving is our first mother (Rudi'Peni)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Blessed One was staying in Savatthi when he proclaimed:

"Rebirth (again becoming, this continued wandering on through samsara -- a process which is impermanent, impersonal, and unsatisfactory) runs far back into an incomprehensible past. Yet no beginning point is discerned when beings -- hindered by ignorance, ensnared by craving, [and inflamed by aversion manifesting as anger and fear] -- set off on this wandering.

 

"So long has this wandering been going on that it is difficult to come across any being who has not already been one's mother, father, sister, brother, son, and daughter at some time in the past.

 

"And why is that?

"Rebirth (or the "continued wandering on" that is samsara) runs far back into an incomprehensible past. Yet no beginning point is to be discerned when beings -- hindered by ignorance, ensnared by craving -- set off on this wandering [this journey through time and place, this continued wandering on in search of pleasure now here, now there, in search of final satisfaction, fulfillment, security].

These three things are true.

"Long have we all experienced suffering (disappointment, dissatisfaction, distress), experienced pain, experienced loss (separation from the loved), swelling up cemeteries -- long enough to become disenchanted with all formations (conditional phenomena, composite things, i.e., Five Aggregates of Clinging), enough to become dispassionate, enough to be liberated."

Motherhood
But motherhood is the most beautiful thing

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Connected Discourses of the Buddha (sutras)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (librarum.org); Amber Larson, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; edited book description

The golden Buddha, a forest-tradition itinerant teacher and wandering ascetic from India and Afghanistan shown here in modern Theravada Thailand (Nippon_Newfie/flickr.com)

  

FREE: Read the sutras (full text)

This volume offers a complete translation of The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Samyutta Nikaya), the third of the four great collections in the Sutra Collection (Sutta Pitaka) of the Pali Canon.

It consists of 56 short chapters, each governed by a unifying theme that binds together the Buddha's discourses into sets. The chapters are organized into five major parts.

The first, "The Book with Verses," is a compilation of sutras composed largely in verse. This book ranks as one of the most inspiring compilations in the Buddhist canon, showing the Buddha as the peerless "teacher of devas and humans."

Bringing Buddhism out of the clouds (HK)

The other four books deal in depth with the principles and meditative structures of early Buddhism. They are compiled in orderly chapters of important short sutras of the Buddha on such major topics as:

• Dependent Origination (how all things other than nirvana arise only in dependence on causes and conditions), 
• the Five Aggregates of Clinging (the four groups of physical phenomena lumped as one, "form," and the four psychological groups of phenomena -- "feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness" -- that give rise to the illusory ego, repeated rebirth, and all forms of disappointment/suffering),
• the Six Sense Bases (the five ordinary physical senses in addition to the mind),
• the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (the constituents developed immediately preceding awakening),
• the Noble Eightfold Path (a summary list of the limbs of the Middle Way pointed out by the Buddha), and
• the Four Noble Truths (the shortest possible summary of all Buddhist teachings as a path to liberation and complete freedom from all suffering).

Buddha, Sukhothai, Thailand

Among the four large divisions (nikayas) belonging to the Pali Canon, the Samyutta Nikaya ("Collection of Connected Discourses") serves as the repository for the many shorter sutras of the Buddha, where he discloses radical insights into the nature of reality and this unique Buddhist path to spiritual emancipation.

This collection was directed at all disciples but is of particular interest to intensive monastic practitioners capable of dedicating the effort to grasp the deepest dimensions of wisdom and compassion and of clarifying them for others.

Bhikkhu Bodhi (bodhimonastery.org)

Moreover, it provides guidance to meditators intent on consummating their efforts with the direct realization of the ultimate truth.

The present translation begins with an insightful general introduction to the collection a whole. Each of the five parts is provided with an introduction intended to guide readers through this vast collection of short Buddhist sutras.

To further assist readers the translator -- the eminent American scholar-monk, Bhikkhu Bodhi, the principal teacher of Wisdom Quarterly writers and translators -- has provided an extensive body of notes clarifying various problems concerning both the language and the meaning of these sacred texts.

Wheel of the Dharma above (NN)

Distinguished by its lucidity and technical precision, this new translation makes this ancient collection of the Buddha's discourses comprehensible to thoughtful readers today. Like its two predecessors in this series, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha is sure to merit a place of honor in the library of every serious student of Buddhism. The Connected Discourses

• Amazon: The Connected Discourses of the Buddha — a New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya
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Who is the American monk Bhikkhu Bodhi?

Editorial staff, Wisdom Quarterly; Bodhimonastery.org; Chaung Yen Monastery (BAUS.org)

Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Theravada Buddhist monk. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944, obtained a BA in philosophy from Brooklyn College (1966), and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School (1972) in California.
 
He was drawn to Buddhism in his early 20s, so after completing his studies he traveled to the ancient Buddhist island of Sri Lanka off the southern tip of India, where he received monastic ordination as a novice (samanera) in 1972 and full ordination (upasampada) in 1973, both under Ven. Ananda Maitreya, the leading Sri Lankan scholar-monk of recent times.
 

He was appointed editor of the Buddhist Publication Society in 1984 and as its president in 1988.

Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha

He has more important publications to his credit than any other living Buddhist scholar, either as author, translator, or editor, including The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (a translation of the Majjhima Nikaya co-translated with Ven. Bhikkhu Nanamoli (1995) and an excellent anthology titled In the Buddha’s Words (2005).
 
In May 2000 he gave the keynote address at the United Nations on its first official commemoration of the day of the Buddha’s birth, great enlightenment, and final-nirvana (Vesak). He returned to the U.S. from many years in Asia in 2002 and currently resides in upstate New York at the Buddhist Association of the United States' Chuang Yen Monastery (BAUS) and teaches there and at Bodhi Monastery in New Jersey. He is currently the chairman of Yin Shun Foundation. More

• What is the "True Wheel" (Dharma-chakra)?

How can I overcome maddening sexual lust?

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly via Sayalay Susila (sayalaysusila.net)

Tiger Girl with full Japanese back tattoo or irezumi (Arisu Nomura/imageof.net)

  

Question: How can I overcome sexual lust, which is recurring again and again despite experiencing progressive calmness in my meditation?

Answer: Contemplate this fathom-long body.  And develop the jhanas, the absorptions, to overcome maddening sensual cravings.

• Singing Birds and Stinging Bees: SEX Slavery

Shorter Sutra on the Aggregate of Distress

Wisdom Quarterly version, Cula-dukkha-kkhandha Sutta (MN 14)

Ssshh, don't talk or think about "cookies."

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was staying among the Sakyans at Kapilavatthu in the Banyan Park [Afghanistan]. Then Mahānāma (3) the Sakyan [the Buddha's cousin, which the Commentary claims was already a once-returner when this discourse was delivered] went to the Blessed One.

Arriving he bowed, sat respectfully to one side, and said: "Venerable sir, for a long time now I have understood the Dharma taught by the Blessed One in this way: 'Greed is a defilement of the mind/heart; aversion is a defilement; delusion is a defilement.'

Sexual craving is like a jungle thicket, hard to escape. A banyan park is better (Kiran Gopi)

  

The Buddha (ArunHaridharshan/flickr)

"Yet, even though I understand the Dharma taught by the Blessed One in this way, there are still times when the mental/heart states of greed, aversion, and delusion invade my mind/heart and remain.

"The thought occurs to me: What within me is as yet unabandoned so that there are times when these invade my heart/mind and remain?"
 

"Mahanama, that very [greed, hatred, and delusion] is what is as yet unabandoned by you so that there are times when they invade your heart/mind and remain.

• NOTE: Previously mistranslated, the point of this sentence is that the mental states that invade Mahanama's mind/heart are precisely the ones he has yet to abandon. In practical terms, this means he does not have to look for another quality lurking behind them but, instead, can focus attention on abandoning these states directly whenever they arise. The remainder of the discourse gives a lesson on how craving, aversion, and delusion can be abandoned by understanding the object on which they most frequently focus: sensuality (Ven. Thanissaro).

If fat is sexy, is fatter sexier?

"For if that were abandoned by you, you would not live the household life and would not partake of sensuality. It is because it yet remains unabandoned by you that you live the household life and partake of sensuality.
 

"Even though a disciple of the noble ones has clearly seen as it actually is with right view that sensuality is very disappointing, associated with much despair and great drawbacks, nevertheless -- if one has not attained a rapture (piti) and supersensual pleasure [sukha, both associated with the first and second absorptions] apart from the ordinary five sense strands, apart from unskillful mental states, or something more peaceful than that [any attainments beyond the second absorption] -- one can be tempted by sensuality.

Paris (Bryan1974/flickr.com)

"But when one has clearly seen as it actually is with right view that sensuality is very disappointing, associated with much despair and great drawbacks, and one has attained a rapture and supersensual pleasure apart from the ordinary five sense strands, apart from unskillful mental states or something even more peaceful than that, one can no longer be tempted by sensuality.

"I, too -- before enlightenment, when still an unawakened bodhisattva -- saw as it actually was with right view that sensuality is very disappointing, associated with much despair and great drawbacks. But as long as I had not attained a rapture and supersensual pleasure apart from the ordinary five sense strands, apart from unskillful mental states, or something even more peaceful than that, I did not claim that I could avoid being tempted by sensuality. 

"But when I saw as it actually was with right view...I claimed that I could avoid being tempted by sensuality."

Why? The Five Hindrances

The Five Hindrances (nīvarana) or "obstacles to enlightenment" make one blind, whereas the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (bojjhangas) give rise to internal light and wisdom (S.v.97f.). The "Discourse on the Hindrances" points out how the methodical development of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (satipatthānas), when practiced and brought to culmination, rid one of the Five Hindrances (A.iv.457f.).

Was the Buddha a God? (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly translation, Dona Sutra (AN 4:36); Bhikkhu Bodhi (the defilements); Ven. Thanissaro (explanatory note); Justalittledust.com

A golden Buddha rises from the forest in Thailand (Thai-on/flickr.com)

The Story of Dona the Brahmin as a hymn by MOD (TBCM.org.my, Malaysia)

  

Gandharan scroll (justalittledust.com)

[Thus have I heard.] At one time the Blessed One was traveling along the road between Ukkattha and Setabya while the Brahmin Dona was traveling along the same road.

The Brahmin Dona saw in the Blessed One's footprints thousand-spoked wheels, together with rims and hubs, complete in all of their features. On seeing them, the thought occurred to Dona, "Amazing and astounding, these are not the footprints of an ordinary human being!"
 
Then the Blessed One, leaving the road, went to sit at the root of a tree -- legs crossed, body erect, establishing [the four foundations of] mindfulness before him.
 

The statue is massive (Thai-on/flickr.com)

And Dona, following the Blessed One's footprints, saw him sitting there at the root of that tree -- confident and inspiring confidence, with senses calmed, heart/mind calmed, having attained the utmost self-control and tranquility, tamed, with senses restrained and guarded, a great being (naga).

• [Naga is a term used to describe similar great beings, like tusker elephants or magical and/or extraterrestrial dragons. It was adopted by early Buddhists as yet another epithet for the Buddha and enlightened Buddhist disciples.]

On seeing him, Dona went up to [the Buddha] and asked, "Master, would you be a divine light being (godling, divinity, deity, deva)?" [See note below].
  

"No, Brahmin, I am not a divine light being."

 
"Would you be a divine messenger (angel/os, spirit, gandhabba)?"

"No, Brahmin, I am not a divine messenger."

"Would you be a mythical creature (yakkha)?"
 

"No, Brahmin, I am not a mythical creature."

"Would you be an ordinary human being?"
 

"No, Brahmin, I am not an ordinary human being."

 

Chiang Mai, northern Thailand (YR Journey/Arsenal1886london/flickr.com)

 
"When asked if you are a deva, gandhabba, yakkha, or an ordinary human being, you answer: 'No, Brahmin, I am not.' What sort of being are you then?"
 
"Brahmin, the defilements [asavas/taints and samyojanas/fetters] by which -- had they not been abandoned -- I would be a deva, gandhabba, yakkha, or an ordinary human being -- those are abandoned, their roots eradicated, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future rearising.
 
"Just like a red, blue, or white lotus -- born in water, grown up in water, rising above the water -- stands unsmeared by water so, too, I -- born in the world, grown up in the world, having risen above the world -- live unsmeared by the world. Remember me, Brahmin, as 'awakened.'
 

"The defilements by which I would go to [be reborn in] a deva-state, or become a gandhabba [angelic deva-messenger] in the sky, or go to a yakkha-state [becoming a "caretaker of the natural treasures hidden in the earth and tree roots," according to the Encyclopædia Britannica (2007)], or a human-state -- those have been eradicated by me, uprooted, their stems removed.

"Like a blue lotus rising up -- unsmeared by water -- unsmeared am I by the world, and so, Brahmin, I am awake."

• Human beings in Buddhism
• Revisiting Dona (Gandharan scroll) 
• In the Buddha's Words (preview of anthology)

Golden Buddha, mouth of Dambulla Cave, Sri Lanka (Richard Silver/rjsnyc/flickr.com)

 
Note: Now or in the future?
Noted by Ven. Thanissaro (Geoffrey DeGraff, Abbot, Wat Metta) edited by Amber Larson (Wisdom Quarterly)

Tan Geoff's best translation

Dona's question is phrased in the future tense, which has led to a great deal of discussion as to what this entire dialogue means: Is he asking what the Buddha will be in a future life, or is he asking what he is right now? The context of the discussion seems to demand the present: Dona wants to know what kind of being would have such footprints. And the Buddha's image of the lotus -- which is born in muck but rises above it to spread its beauty and wondrous fragrance -- describes his present state. Yet, some might argue that the grammar of Dona's questions seem to demand the futuret. A.K. Warder in his famous book, Introduction to Pali (p. 55), notes that the future tense is often used to express perplexity, surprise, or wonder about something in the present. We do it in English as well: "What on earth would this be?" This seems to be the sense here. Dona's earlier statement, "These are not the footprints of a human being," is also phrased in the future tense yet does not mean "What would they be in the future?" The mood of wonder extends throughout Dona's conversation with the Buddha.

It is also possible that the Buddha's answers to Dona's questions -- which, like the questions, are phrased in the future tense -- are a form of word-play, in which the Buddha is using the future tense in both its meanings, to refer both to his present and to his future state.
 
The Buddha not identifying himself as a human being relates to a point made throughout the Canon, which is that an awakened person can no longer really be defined in any way at all. On this point, see MN 72, SN 22.85, SN 22.86, and/or the article "A Verb for Nirvana." Because a mind/heart with clinging is "located" by its clinging, an awakened person is trapped, fettered, or located in no place at all in this or any other world: This is why one is unsmeared by the world (loka), like the lotus which is unsmeared by water it springs from.

The defilements left behind
Bhikkhu Bodhi (In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pāli Canon/Wikipedia.org asava), edited by Dhr. Seven (Wisdom Quarterly)

Various points about various definitions of the mental defilements, defilements of the heart, obstacles to insight and enlightenment and liberation are collected and summarized by the American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi:

The āsavas or taints are a classification of defilements considered in their role of sustaining the forward movement of the process of [re]birth and death.

The commentaries derive the word from a root su meaning "to flow." Scholars differ as to whether the flow implied by the prefix ā is inward or outward; hence some have rendered it as "influxes" or "influences," others as "outflows" or "effluents."

A stock passage in the suttas  [Pali "discourses," sutras] indicates the term's real significance independently of etymology when it describes the āsavas as states "that defile, bring renewal of existence, give trouble, ripen in suffering, and lead to future birth, aging and death" (MN 36.47; I 250).

Thus other translators, bypassing the literal meaning, have rendered it "cankers," "corruptions," or "taints." The three taints mentioned in the Nikāyas [discourse collections, volumes] are respectively synonyms for craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, and ignorance. [The fourth āsava, attachment to views, appears in the commentaries.]

When the disciple's mind is liberated from the taints by the completion of the path of [enlightenment] arhantship, one reviews this newly won freedom and roars a lion's roar:

"Birth is destroyed, the spiritual life has been lived, what [was] to be done has been done; there is no more coming back to any state of being" (In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pāli Canon, edited and introduced by Bhikkhu Bodhi, Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2005, p. 229).
 
Earlier British Buddhist scholars Rhys Davids and William Stede (1921-25) state in part that "Freedom from the 'āsavas' constitutes full enlightenment" [entry on āsava (pp. 115-16)].

The Lotus Sutra (Chapter 2)

Dhr. Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; based on Burton Watson translation

Chapter II: Expedient Means

At that time the World-Honored One calmly arose from his meditative-absorption (samadhi) and addressed Sariputra, saying: "The wisdom of the buddhas is infinitely profound and immeasurable. 

The door to this profound wisdom is difficult to understand and difficult to enter. Not one of the hearers (shravakas) or nonteaching-buddhas (pratyekabuddhas) is able to comprehend it.

 

"What is the reason for this? A [supremely enlightened samma-sam-] Buddha has personally attended [on] a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a million, a countless number of buddhas and has fully carried out an immeasurable number of religious practices. He has exerted himself bravely and vigorously, and his name is universally known. He has realized the Dharma that is profound and never known before, and preaches it in accordance with what is appropriate, yet his intention is difficult to understand.

 

"Sariputra, ever since I attained buddhahood, I have through various causes and various similes widely expounded my teachings and have used countless expedient means to guide living beings and cause them to renounce attachments. Why is this? 

It is because the Thus Come One (Tathagata) is fully possessed by both expedient means and the perfection of wisdom.

A lotus, its beauty and fragrance, arise from mud.

 

"Sariputra, the wisdom of the Thus Come One is expansive and profound. He has immeasurable [mercy], unlimited [eloquence], power, fearlessness, concentration, emancipation, and meditative-absorptions, and has deeply entered the boundless and awakened to the Dharma never before attained.

 

"Sariputra, the Thus Come One knows how to make various kinds of distinctions and to expound the teachings skillfully. His words are soft and gentle and delight the hearts of the assembly.

 

"Sariputra, to sum it up: the Buddha has fully realized the Dharma that is limitless, boundless, never attained before.

"But stop, Sariputra, I will say no more. Why? It is because what the Buddha has achieved is the rarest and most difficult-to-understand Dharma [truth]. The true entity of all phenomena can only be understood and shared between buddhas. This reality consists of the appearance, nature, entity, power, influence, inherent cause, relation, latent effect, manifest effect, and their consistency from beginning to end."

 

At that time the World-Honored One, wishing to state his meaning once more, spoke in verse, saying:

The great hero of the world is unfathomable. Among heavenly beings or the people of the world, among all living beings, none can understand the Buddha. The Buddha's power, fearlessness, emancipation, and meditative-absorptions, and the Buddha's other attributes -- no one can reckon or fathom.

 

(windhorse.com.au)

Earlier, under the guidance of countless buddhas, he fully acquired and practiced various ways, profound, subtle, and wonderful doctrines that are hard to see and hard to understand.

 

For immeasurable millions of aeons (kalpas) he has been practicing these ways until in the place of practice he achieved the goal. I have already come to know-and-see completely this great goal and recompense, the meaning of these various natures and characteristics.

I and the other buddhas of the ten directions can now understand these things. This Dharma cannot be described, words fall silent before it. Among the other kinds of living beings there are none who can comprehend it, except the... More