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Theruwan saranayi.
Hello everybody.• I think some of you already know about this, but for those who don’t know.
° There is a very good collection of Dhamma desana in English, by Venrabel Deegoda Dhammadassi.
• Recently I had an opportunity to ask some questions.
About addictions and how to deal with them. (I will leave the question below it’s a bit long.)The answer to the question is in video number 50.
• Timeline.
° 4:00 Reading the question.
° 06:50 End of question.
° 07:47 Four Aria truth.
° 10:45 The opening of the eye of wisdom.
° 14:25 Habits.
° 21:40 Paticcha samuppada.
° 01:03:30 Application of vitakkasanthana sutta.• There is extensive explanation of Karaniya Metta Sutta in video number 48.
° Begins at 46:35
° Videos number 1,2,3 and 4 are about anicca, dukkha and anatta.
° Video 5, is mostly about Ariya 8 fold path.• There will be a discussion about “Asubha”, at Thursday 5:30 Sri time.
° If you are interested.
You can find the relevant information in the post below.(Thank you, friend, for the post)• The question for video 50.
1. How do you come to cessation of, the wheel of addiction?
Constantly looking, searching and chasing after sensual contacts (pleasure).• Even though I do have a basic understanding. How the mind because of ignorance and our past corruptions attaches, or sticks to sensory inputs.
And then begins the process of accumulation of new corruptions, which fuels the process of rebirth.• Despite applying the Dhamma as much as I can in my day-to-day life.
I still find myself getting stuck in this process of habitual wheeling on unwholesome mental objects.
Running around and chasing after futile activities.• Although I do know it’s just the release of vexatious sense organ, that creates this false happiness (pleasure).
I see myself still chasing them.
It’s like seeing a pitfall, but still jumping into it.• I have come to be free from quite a lot of bad habits.
But there are some bad habits, that I do still get dragged into them.
I have reflected on the reason behind it, and applied the Dhamma (anicca, dukkha, anatta, asubha), as much as I have understood.
To eradicate the attachment to this kind of activity.
• For example let’s consider internet addiction.Even though I have limited my usage of the internet to once, or twice a week.
I do still find myself wheeling around, and wasting quite a lot of precious time on useless things.This idea to re-experience that activity (or bhava), along with the urge and the need comes up.
And before I realize it I found myself falling into akusalamula paticchasamupadha.
A jati happens, at that point I found it extremely difficult to put the phone aside.
Even if somehow I do put the phone aside physically, but mentally still hold on to it.
In such a state I found it difficult to apply the Dhamma to put an end to this process, and then as a result end up wasting quite a lot of time.• what’s the best and quickest way to uproot such defiled habits?
Whatever is internet, TV, drugs..etc.Please in you’re explanation, apply the paticchasamupadha, Tilakhana and four Ariya truths.
Thank you very much.
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• Sorry for the delay.
° I’m not sure why they haven’t uploaded the videos on YouTube.
° I have uploaded video number 50.
° I’m using an old phone, and YouTube is blocked in my country.(It’s not easy to find a VPN that works)
° I have put the video on unlisted, until
I have asked the venerable.Dhamma desana 50 in English, by Venrabel Deegoda Dhammadassi. – YouTube
• Timeline.
° 4:00 Reading the question.
° 06:50 End of question.
° 07:47 Four Aria truth.
° 10:45 The opening of the eye of wisdom.
° 14:25 Habits.
° 21:40 Paticcha samuppada.
° 01:03:30 Application of vitakkasanthana sutta.2 users thanked author for this post.
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As in the above post, the sermons given in the Zoom meeting with Ven. Dhammadassi Thero are uploaded as files (audio and video) to the Google account under the category of ‘Dhamma in English’ by Dileepa.
As follows, I will upload the videos one by one to the YouTube account. I have permission from Thero to upload them.
20231109_24_Ariya Karuna Sasana and Panna Sasana
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Thank you for sharing, Amin, Hojan! It is a wonderful sermon. My key learning points are as follows
- He gives the analogy of a street fight between the good viññaṇa (created from Kusala Mūla Paṭicca Samuppāda) and the bad viññaṇa from Akusala Mūla Paṭicca Samuppāda. Our current bad habits are strong because the viññaṇa for them is strong, and to defeat it we need to 1) Starve the bad viññaṇa and 2) Feed the good viññaṇa by thinking about the dhamma. Such that when the stimulus comes up, we will chose to activate the Kusala Mūla Paṭicca Samuppāda instead of Akusala one. He gives the example of YouTube addiction. When we sight/ thought of watching YouTube, the normal response would be to continue wanting to watch it (akusala PS), but with cultivation of good viññaṇa, we will activate the kusala PS and contemple for example, the anicca dukkha anatta nature of it.
I noticed in Kusala-Mula Paṭicca Samuppāda, the post needs to be re-written. Lal, would it be possible for you to rewrite this post?
- He gives another way of understanding PS, which is that even in every frame of the YouTube vid, there is a PS cycle where we have a vedana that we enjoy it, but also ends with jarā, marana, soka-paridēva-dukkha-dōmanassupāyasā sambhavan. However, we do not feel such suffering when watching because each successive frame is so quick. The suffering/ end of the PS cycle becomes obvious when the phone battery runs out suddenly.
I had another thought which is – what about feelings of satiation? For example, after eating food, we feel full and content, so where is the jarā, marana, soka-paridēva-dukkha-dōmanassupāyasā sambhavan? My response to that is that it is not very prominent becuase the more we eat, the fuller we get, the decrease in sukha vedana and tanha there is for every bite and the less delicious each bite gets, so the dhamma that we receive is less and less pleasureable, and in turn the suffering is less and less as we are more full. However all the while we are enjoying it, we are feeding the viññaṇa for indulging in food.
- He talks about the Vitakkasanthana sutta. at 1:03:55 He lists the ways to get rid of defiled thoughts in the following order:
- Thinking about the good qualities of Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, Sila
- ādīnavo (looking at the negative side) – what do I lose if I engage in this action? what have I built up so far with my good practice that I will waste and restart my progress? what dukkha will I create?
- asatiamanasikāro (to ‘retreat’ or get out from the situation). Eg when my friend invites me to alcohol, I will excuse myself before it gets too tempting
- vitakkasaṅkhārasaṇṭhānaṁmanasikātabbaṁ (understand how it arises) Eg when I am trying to stop a cigarette addiction, I can see that every step of the way of going to the market and buying the cigarette is feeding the viññaṇa. Thus it is not enough to just say “stop smoking”, because that way I can be tempted to buy the cigarette and not smoke it, which will spiral to smoking. The viññaṇa should not be fed from the start
- Using external force to stop the thought. He suggests attadipatiya (thinking how it aligns to my own personality. I am a moral person, so is it fine for me to engage in this?), dhammadipatiya (the dhamma is well taught, is rarely found. It is a waste to engage in such action with this dhamma I have learnt), and lokadipatiya (that there are people in the world that would disapprove of my actions, eg unseen beings, ariya friends who would disapprove. I have not come across these terms attadipatiya, dhammadipatiya, and lokadipatiya but I think what the venerable mentioned is useful to stopping defiled thoughts.
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- He gives the analogy of a street fight between the good viññaṇa (created from Kusala Mūla Paṭicca Samuppāda) and the bad viññaṇa from Akusala Mūla Paṭicca Samuppāda. Our current bad habits are strong because the viññaṇa for them is strong, and to defeat it we need to 1) Starve the bad viññaṇa and 2) Feed the good viññaṇa by thinking about the dhamma. Such that when the stimulus comes up, we will chose to activate the Kusala Mūla Paṭicca Samuppāda instead of Akusala one. He gives the example of YouTube addiction. When we sight/ thought of watching YouTube, the normal response would be to continue wanting to watch it (akusala PS), but with cultivation of good viññaṇa, we will activate the kusala PS and contemple for example, the anicca dukkha anatta nature of it.
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Some subtle issues need to be clarified. I will only address #1 of Pathfinder’s comment for now.
1. The Tipitaka does not mention a Akusala Mūla Paṭicca Samuppāda.
- The Buddha discussed only one Paṭicca Samuppāda. It explains how a mind attaches to this world with a defiled mind, i.e., with raga, dosa, and moha.
- There are ten samyojana (samsaric bonds) associated with the mind of an average human (puthujjana.) These samsaric bonds can be broken only by fully understanding the Paṭicca Samuppāda process.
2. All ten “samyojana” (“san” + “yoga” or “bonds for the rebirth process”) arise due to “san” (raga, dosa, moha.)
- Raga and dosa do not arise together, but each arises with moha.
- Thus, all ten samyojana have moha.
3. A Sotapanna has removed three ditthi samyojana. Those are primarily rooted in moha.
- Kama raga samyojana has raga and moha primarily. Patigha samyojana has dosa and moha primarily. These two are removed at the Anagami stage.
- Rupa raga and arupa raga samyojanas have raga and moha primarily. Mana, uddhacca, and avijja samyojanas have moha primarily. These five are removed at the Arahant stage.
4. The goal of cultivating the Noble Path is to break those samyojanas, which can happen only by removing avijja/moha from one’s mind.
5. This can be seen by understanding what is meant by “kusala.”
- Kusala means to abstain from akusala. See “Kusala Sutta (AN 10.180)” and “Ten Immoral Actions (Dasa Akusala).”
- There is nothing to do except to eliminate avijja/moha from one’s mind. Then, the mind will automatically stop engaging in akusala kamma, including those three types done by the mind. It happens in a step-by-step process described by #3 above.
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Lal: There is nothing to do except to eliminate avijja/moha from one’s mind. Then, the mind will automatically stop engaging in akusala kamma, including those three types done by the mind. It happens in a step-by-step process described by #3 above.
Doesnt the Buddha also encourage developing somethings? In Aparaaccharāsaṅghātavagga, he encourages developing Saddhindriyaṁ (faith), vīriyaṁ (effort) and a long list of other things to develop. In developing these things, pañña grows and avijja will automatically be removed. In Paṭhamavagga he also encourages:
“One thing, mendicants, when developed and cultivated, leads solely to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, and extinguishment. – Buddhānussati.
In that case, is there still a Paticca Samuppada process for developing something good?
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I stated in my previous comment what is to be done once one is on the Noble Path.
- To start on the Noble Path, one must first become a Sotapanna by understanding the worldview of the Buddha and developing faith (saddha) based on that understanding. While doing that, one would also remove the ten types of wrong views (miccha ditthi.)
- I have discussed that in many posts; of course, it is not easy to find them without some guidance. Let me point out a few posts that could be helpful.
“Sila, Samadhi, Panna to Panna, Sila, Samadhi“, “Six Root Causes – Loka Samudaya (Arising of Suffering) and Loka Nirodhaya (Nibbāna),” “Kusala and Akusala Kamma, Punna and Pāpa Kamma”,” and “Four Conditions for Attaining Sōtapanna Magga/Phala.”
- There are other posts. However, many of them are likely referred to in the above posts.
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