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“Pleasing and agreeable things in this world that has Kāma Guṇa can evoke Sāmisa Vedanā in a person but never Kāma assāda, right?”
Yes.
“So, if a person who experiences Kāma assāda, does it imply that this person has already executed the samphassa-jā-vedanā process?”
No. Kāma assāda are, by definition, samphassa-jā-vedanā.
The Buddha would also taste honey as sweet. The sweetness of honey is a Kāma Guṇa.
– An average person may attach to the taste of honey and may generate greedy thoughts about tasting more honey. That is due to samphassa (“san” + “phassa”) or “contact with “san” or defilement (greed in this case)”
– But the Buddha (or any Arahant or an Anāgāmi) would not generate “samphassa-jā-vedanā” for eating honey.Both about the same. But Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation has gaps (refers to another sutta for a section) as I remember.
Sorry about the confusion.
– I have deleted some of the repeated comments.
– The second desana with English subtitles is below.When Lang (cubibobi) tried to post the link to the second desana, it did not appear first. When I posted it for him, I inadvertently posted the wrong link (the one Christian had posted.)
Anyway, it turns out that Lang’s post was waiting for me to approve, and that was not clear to me.
The bottom line is the following.
– The forum software was updated a couple of days ago. It seems to be working better, other than the glitch that we saw with Lang’s post.
– Most of the postings appear to go through without a glitch.
– If your comment does not appear right away, please send me an email ([email protected]). It may be waiting to be “approved.” I am not sure why the software is doing that randomly. Hopefully, they will get it right next.Thanks, Lang. My apologies for the confusion.
Yeos: Lack of merits can affect such an outcome directly or indirectly.
One may be born in a lower realm due to a lack of strong good merits (or having too many bad ones). Then one will be unable to learn Dhamma.
– That is why the Buddha ALWAYS encouraged doing punna kamma. That will NEVER go to waste.Merits due to engaging in punna kamma (giving, helping others etc.) helps one get a human life with enough comforts to be able to learn and practice Dhamma.
– Even if one is born a human, one may not be able to learn and practice Buddha Dhamma if one is born to poverty, for example.
– Engaging in punna kamma also helps one setup the necessary mindset to absorb Dhamma (even for one who is born with necessary comforts).Mahi wrote: “Now there is no such desire to pursue for those so called happiness.But this creates a dullness a void. When you stop chasing it kicks in a restlessness.Only thing I know for sure I want to chase is Buddha’s teachings.But these teachings gradually increase the urge to renunciate , which is not possible rt now.”
Buddha did not teach to renunciate (give up) worldly things.
– He taught WHY holding onto to worldly things lead to suffering.
– One will SEE the fruitlessness and dangers in CRAVING for worldly things once one understands the real nature of this world.Let us take an analogy.
– It is very difficult to give up drinking for an alcoholic.
– If he tries to just forcefully stop drinking, that may only lead to depression.
– But he truly understands the CONSEQUENCES of drinking, he can gradually cut down the habit to drink.So, my suggestion is to keep learning Dhamma AND to live a simple life (the Middle Way).
– Remember that the Buddha not only advised to stay away from TOO MUCH sense pleasures. He also advised not to WILFULLY subject oneself to austerity (depriving the body of a moderate level of comforts)
– The “giving up” (getting rid of tanha) comes naturally via understanding (via getting rid of avijja about this world), at the level of one’s understanding.I just saw it. Hopefully, it ill be beneficial to many. Thank you!
Sadhu! Sadhu!! Sadhu!!!
June 13, 2020: I had not gone through the English version until today. I see that there are many corrections that need to be made. That is true for the second video below as well.
Mahi wrote: “Happiness is an illusion for me . World doesn’t make me happy and beyond world I don’t know . Yet I am not unhappy unless ofcourse strong mental or physical vedanta arise . So what state is it ?”
I am intrigued by your comment.
– Normally, people have a hard time controlling their tendency for sensual pleasures.
– Is this something that you have experienced since childhood?
– Was there some trauma that took place in early childhood?Of course, you don’t need to provide details if you are uncomfortable with it.
Yes. There are “sukha vedana” that bring happiness. But such “happy feelings” do not last very long, especially in the rebirth process.
On the other hand, the total absence of suffering is the “happiness” that cannot be taken away.
– That happiness is NOT created by a cause (like buying a new car or building a new house.)
– Any happiness that can arise due to “material things” does not last long, especially in the rebirth process.
– At least at the moment of death, one WILL have to give up those “things” that bring happiness.Of course, this requires some contemplation.
Also, if one does not believe in rebirth, it could be harder to understand.
Christian wrote: “It’s very clear to me and everything, I can somehow even “see” that process within my own mind which makes things much easier in general but one thing I can not figure it out is that how one grasp for lower realms, is kamma after end of bhava “grasping” lower realms? I mean anybody sane enough would not grab anything to get reborn in lower realms but maybe I can not phantom it because of many experiences I have now with real Buddha Dhamma. How one grasp existence in lower realms?..”
That is an important point.
– No one would willingly grasp a lower existence (bhava), like an animal or a niraya being.
– What it grasps is the CAUSE of such an existence. This is an extremely important point.We need to remember that this grasping of existence happens at the cuti-patisandhi moment, and takes less than a billionth of a second. There is no time to THINK.
– That ‘grasping” happens AUTOMATICALLY according to one’s gati.For example, let us consider an extreme example. Let us say person X killed person Y who had done something bad to X.
– Now, most moral people would go to the police to resolve the matter, but X decided to take the law into his hands and kill Y. By the way, it is not easy to kill a human, especially if that is pre-planned.
– Therefore, that means X has a defiled mind CAPABLE of killing a human.
– A possible scenario close to the cuti-patisandhi moment is the following. The kammic energy for that strong kamma would re-create that mindset in X’s mind. He may see Y threatening him or a similar situation. A gun also appears in his hand. If he still has that mindset, he would just take the gun and shoot Y. At that moment X dies and is reborn in a niraya with that hateful mindset. (P.S. This will be very similar to seeing a dream.)
– In another possible scenario, X had changed his gati after killing Y. Suppose he learned Dhamma and comprehended Tilakhhana. In that case, even though the above scenario will be re-created due to kammic energy, X WILL NOT go through with killing Y again.
– That is why Angulimala did not get rebirth in an apaya even though he had killed almost a thousand people. “Account of Angulimāla – Many Insights to Buddha Dhamma”Another way to say the above is to say that X in the above case did not go through with the “upadana paccaya bhava” step in Paticca Samuppada at the cuti-patisandhi moment.
– See, “Tanhā Paccayā Upādāna – Critical Step in Paṭicca Samuppāda“This is a deep issue. Let me try to point out some key facts.
1. Everything in this world (living and inert) have origins in the mind. “Dhamma” means “to bear” and they bear everything in this world.
– Dhamma are energies produced by the mind. Basically, they are created by kamma vinnana.
– This is why “Manōpubbangamā Dhammā..”2. Another way to say that is to say everything arises via the Paticca Samuppada (PS) process.
– We have discussed how future lives arise via the akusala-mula PS.
– The arising of non-living things is a deeper aspect of PS.3. Whether living or not, all are sankata.
– That basically means something that arises and destroyed and is subjected to unexpected change during its existence.4. Living beings (there are an infinite number of them) create future lives as well the external world that is needed for their “enjoyment.”
– However, due to those intrinsic problems associated with a sankata in #3, neither a life form nor those “external things” cannot be maintained to their satisfaction.5. Therefore, suffering is intrinsically “built-in” in this very complex process.
– Striving to gain “sensory pleasures” in such a world is fruitless and dangerous.
– That is what is embedded in Tilakkhana: anicca, dukkha, anatta.6. We can get a simple idea of why a living being is a sankata.
– We have discussed how kamma vinnana leads to the arising of a “mental body” or a gandhabba.
– That gandhabba is created totally by kammic energy. It is unimaginably small energy.
– But once merging with a single cell (zygote) in a womb, it can grow to be a full adult. See the first several posts in “Origin of Life.”
– When that “coarse human body” dies, that gandhabba can make a few more. But by the time the gandhabba itself dies (when the kammic energy for the human bhava is exhausted), the mind has created kammic energies for many more such “mental bodies” for various existences.
– So, at the end of a particular mental body, the mind grasps a new existence. That is how the rebirth process continues.
– Of course, most of those existences are in the four lowest realms, because of the tendency to do immoral things to “gain pleasures”.7. Only when one can grasp the inherent problem with the above process, that one will attain magga phala, and stop grasping new existences (bhava.)
I do not have any more comments, other than the following.
y not wrote: “Taking also other sutta and the posts into account, it is taking the feelings to be the self (I am ‘this’ or ‘that’ feeling’) that is not acceptable. Because feelings are fleeting, impermanent.”
I think anicca is translated as “impermanent.” That is wrong, as I pointed out even in today’s post: “Five Aggregates and Tilakkhaṇa – Introduction”
I specifically mentioned in my previous comment above that we need to be careful in reading those translations at Sutta Central. Some words like anicca, anatta, vinnana, sankhara, phassa, etc are NOT translated correctly at Sutta Central (or at most other sites/books)
– Just replace those words with the original Plai word and it will be fine in most cases.
– Of course, the other problem is that they do word-by-word translations and the real meaning MAY NOT be conveyed in some cases.If anyone has specific questions, please ask specific questions.
Thank you, y not.
Yes. It is a good sutta to read: “Bahuvedanīya Sutta (mn 59)”y not asked: “‘wherever it’s found, and in whatever context.’ would here include Nibbana. Is that correct?”
– Buddha’s definition of happiness is to remove ANY TRACE of suffering.
– It is good to read as many suttas as possible and to verify that.
– “Real happiness” is to be free from ANY type of suffering. That cannot be attained ANYWHERE in the 31 realms.
– P. S. Two English translations are available there. If anyone does not know how to see the translations, please ask. There are translations in other languages as well. Of course, in some cases, the translations may not be fully correct.I am trying to get the new post out. After that, I will read the sutta and see whether I can add anything more.
Usitha wrote: “On a previous visit to certain forest monasteries, they made it seem like the slightest involuntary action was a fault and to be corrected immediately.”
– Yes. It is sometimes discouraging to see how people have distorted Buddha Dhamma.“I think there’s a handful of people, who have mixed up this kind of mindfulness believing it to be samma sati.”
– Yes. Samma Sati is having the right mindset (anicca, dukkha, anatta nature).
– As we know, Sammā comes from “san” + “mā” or “getting rid of defilements that may arise in the mind. “What is “San”? Meaning of Sansāra (or Saṃsāra)“Yes. Christian. You are right that one needs to understand Buddha Dhamma to really “see” the Buddha.
But looking into the background of the Buddha, before his Enlightenment, is important to many people.
– That is part of learning about Buddha Dhamma, especially for those who have not had much exposure to Buddha Dhamma.
– When I was growing up in Sri Lanka, we learned that background material in primary school.I also came to realize the importance of this only recently. This also includes reading up on setting the “necessary background”: Moral living, giving to monks and poor, etc. I need to add more posts on that.
Another important aspect for some people who are practicing Buddhists is to follow some rituals like making offerings to the Buddha and recite the traditional recitals. Of course, one cannot get to Nibbana just by following rituals. But that may provide the necessary background to calm the mind and getting one ready for “formal meditation”, for example.
See, “Buddhist Chanting”
-In that respect, there are two types of people (with two major types of gati) who follow Buddha Dhamma. They are Dhammānusari and Saddhānusari.
– The first is more interested in the teachings.
– The second type of person needs the support of the “rituals” that I mentioned. Of course, they also will learn the teachings, but those “rituals” help them to set up the background.There are two types of gati.
– One is connected to defilements. For example, the tendency to steal could become a gati. I have heard about a King who enjoyed stealing things from shops. He would visit shops as a “commoner” and steal things. The ministers were aware of that and, without the King knowing about it, followed him on such visits. They would pay off the shop owner without the King knowing about it. They did not want the King to be caught and get into trouble.
– The other type of gati is what you are describing. It is harmless and would have no kammic consequences. Such things are just innocent habits, and could even come from previous lives. For example, there is this story in the Tipitaka about a very young Arahant. He had the tendency to jump over things, even though it would be considered “unbecoming” for an Arahant. It turned out that he was born a monkey not too far back in his previous lives.
