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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.You are right. The details of Prince Siddhartha’s life before becoming an ascetic have a few variations among different accounts by historians.
– Those details are not important for cultivating the path.However, some key features are in the Tipitaka and those can be assumed to be correct.
– Those include leaving for the ascetic life just after his son, Rahula, was born.The Tipitaka accounts are in the links that I provided in my first reply above. They can be assumed to be correct because everything else in the Tipitaka is self-consistent and correct.
The following post is by Oetb:
The post I read that motivated me to start the thread was the following:
The
Buddha was not a “Hindu prince”The links Lal replied states very clearly that the Buddha was a prince
and lived in palaces. What disturbs me a little bit is that the post of
the above link seems coherent in its arguments stating that the Buddha
was not a prince, but an aristocrat, and not lived in palaces, but
probably in wood mansions.A quote from the post says this:
So far as we can tell, Gautama’s father Suddhodana was a Shakyan aristocrat, and some sources call him a ‘raja’. But despite the version of Gautama’s life made familiar in legendary accounts, this doesn’t mean that he was a king (they were called ‘Maharajas’). It is possible that
he was just one aristocrat among many, but according to some sources,
Suddhodana was the Shakyans’ chief raja. We know from descriptions of other gana communities that chieftains were elected in a meeting of representatives of aristocratic families at the assembly hall…And after that quote, Bodhipaksa wrote this:
Excavations of the likely candidates for the Buddha’s home town don’t reveal any palaces, and in fact, the term the Buddha uses when he does describe his father’s houses as “palaces” is not the same as the term used for the dwelling of a “king” (maharaja). Probably the term
“mansion” would be more appropriate. So Suddhodana was more like a
“tribal chief” than what we would think of as a king, and Gautama a
“chief’s son” rather than a “prince.” The largest houses that have been excavated are of wooden construction, with people living above the animals’ accommodation. The archaeological evidence, in other words,
doesn’t point to anything very royal.Of course, that no palaces had been found in excavations does not
necessarily imply that there were no palaces. But could it be, has the
above quote suggests, that the word the Buddha used to reference his
houses had been mistranslated as “palace”, or that what was known as
“palace” is not the same as what we actually know as “palace”?Any dukkha experienced by a gandhabba is much less compared to the suffering in the four lower realms in the long run (in the rebirth process.)
Here is another account of the life of the Buddha I just came across. I just glanced through it. Since there are not many accounts in the English language, this could be helpful too:
“Life of the Buddha“Hello Tobias!
Those four factors help in one’s efforts to attain Nibbana. They are due to past puñña kamma. I just added a reference to that post.
The FIVE factors sati, saddha, panna, samadhi, viriya are called Pañca Indriya. They are discussed at, “Pañca Indriya and Pañca Bala – Five Faculties and Five Powers.”
Pañca Indriya needs to be cultivated.
– Of course, those four factors āyu (age), vaṇṇa (lively), sukha (comfort), bala (ability) help cultivate the Pañca Indriya.The Pali word for age is āyu. I had used the Sinhala word āyusa. I made that revision too.
