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The following post is from Tobias:
Please see the Waharaka Thero discourse (pdf):
“10:13 Asava means our expectations. They remain hidden as anusaya and come to
the surface (based on strong arammana) as asava…”That is vice versa to the explanation in the post Āsava, Anusaya, and Gati (Gathi):
#2
Āsava are indeed “mental fermentations” that lie deep down in us. That is comparable to mud sitting at the bottom of a glass of water.
If that glass of water is disturbed with a straw, then some of that mud comes to the surface. That is like anusaya bubbling up when we are disturbed by a strong sense event. When that happens, we display our real character/habits or gati (gati).Which one is correct?
Yes. I think one can get a good idea about this point of having a “stable mind” (like a post embedded firmly in the ground) after realizing the true meaning of the First Noble Truth on suffering or Dukkha Sacca.
– That understanding comes with the comprehension of Tilakkhana: anicca, dukkha, anatta.I just posted the following document in another thread at the forum. You may want to read that too:
The Way to NibbānaI have completed the document on the first transcribed discourse by Waharaka Thero. There are four in the series as of today (see the above post). I will keep adding future ones as I receive from Janith Fernando.
Here is the full text of the FIRST transcribed discourse;
The Way to NibbānaFeel free to make comments or to ask questions.
– I do not plan to do the same for the other discourses in the series, at least not in the near future.
– Instead, I am thinking about the possibility of expanding this document (and adding references to relevant posts at puredhamma.net).P.S. July 6, 2020: I have updated the above link to a revised version.
Vera is actually a bit specific than dosa.
It is more personal. When a person deliberately does something specifically to INSULT, that is when one forms vera SPECIFICALLY for that person.
– When there is vera, the tendency is to retaliate at every opportunity, even with deliberate planning.The best way to get rid of vera is to cultivate metta (or loving kindness) for that person.
– Since it is in a short verse (poem), “love” is not bad usage.Yes. The deeper meanings are not apparent until one is well on the way on the Path.
– In fact, the Buddha recommended the Satipatthana bhavana to those have comprehended Tilakkhana.
– Once one gets to Ariya Samma Ditthi by comprehending Tilakkhana, that is when Satipatthana bhavana becomes really effective to get to the higher stages of magga phala.I need to add a post on that to the series of posts on Satipatthana.
In any case, you are correct that the deeper meanings are in the Ānāpānassatikathā in the paṭisambhidāmagga commentary.
In the 1.3.5. Satokāriñāṇaniddesa section of the above link, The following explanation is given for Araññanti: “Araññanti nikkhamitvā bahi indakhīlā sabbametaṃ araññaṃ.”
Now, this is still a brief explanation. The word indakhīlā means to “get into an unmovable state of mind.”
– That is explained in the Indakhīla sutta (SN 56. 39).
– One’s mind becomes unperturble like an “indakhīla” when one is staying away from the “battles” and ‘struggles” in the mundane life.
– Indakhīla is a post that is deeply embedded in the ground. It cannot be moved even by a strong hurricane.The other terms are also discussed in that first link above.
P.S. By the way, rukkhamūla gatova means the same as “arañña gatova“.
– A rukkhamūla (base of a tree) is like an immovable post or indakhīla.Good question.
Let us go through the sequences of events for the first experiment. The correct explanation, of course, involves the gandhabba (our mental body).
The mental body is what decides. The physical body moves according to those decisions made by the mind. Specifically, muscle activity of hands controlled by the brain carries our the button press.
The time sequence is as follows:
1. The mind (the mind-base is hadaya vatthu located close to the physical heart) decides to press, say with the right hand (T0).
2. The decision is conveyed to the brain. This happens possibly via electromagnetic waves propagating from the area of the heart to the brain. (T1)
3. The brain activates the muscles in the right hand and the button is pressed (T2)This experiment is not as good as the second experiment, since each individual may also take some time deliberating which hand to use to press the button. I think that is why this time delay in this particular case was 6 seconds, unusually large compared to the delays in the second set of experiments.
– So, if we take that large uncertainty out, then the steps in 1 through 3 would be similar to those in the second set of experiments. Of course, the second set of experiments involves a different set of a time sequence.P.S. A suggestion to improve posting links:
To provide a link to a post, please follow the following procedure.
– Open the web page on a new browser window. Copy the title of the post and paste it in the posting where you want to put the link.
– Now go back and copy the URL of the web page.
– Come back to the posting, highlight the title, and click the “link” button on the format panel just above the comment area.
– A new window will open up and paste that copied link to the “URL” slot. Also, select “Open link in a new tab”, and click the “Add Link” button at the bottom.This way, one reading the post will be able to open the post in question in a new window, so that he/she can go back and forth between the post and the web page in question.
Thanks, Tobias!
Yes. That was an old post, which did not have it right.
I just revised the post (see new #1 and #2): “The Cooling Down Process (Nibbāna) – How Root Causes are Removed”
Please check the “open link in a new tab” checkbox when you put in a link.
– That way, the link will open in a new tab, and one would be able to see both the comment and post in question.To get rid of sakkaya ditthi, one needs to see the “anicca nature”.
– One way is to think about whether we can keep can anything as we like in the long term.
Can we keep our bodies the way we like?
Can we get rebirths the way we would like?The key is to look at the big picture of the process of rebirths within 31 realms.
– I would suggest reading the posts on the “Five Aggregates” that we have covered recently:Good Question, Lang.
As we discussed in that post, one only loses the wrong VIEW of sakkaya ditthi first.
– The tendency to feel and perceive sensory pleasures is likely to be still there even after attaining the Sotapanna phala moment.That is why a Sotapanna (or a Sotapanna Anugami) is free only from the apayas.
– Bonds to the kama loka are still there (even though less).
– Of course, those bonds start to WEAKEN even from the Sotapanna Anugami stage.A Sakadagami would not care to OWN material things (that provide sense pleasures) but would still like to enjoy them.
– It is only an Anagami who would not care for any sensory pleasure.So, I guess we can call it an “inside out” process. But losing cravings for material things also happen gradually. Some lose more than others.
– As the Waharaka Thero had explained in the recently transcribed discourse, a Sotapanna would lose a HUGE amount of defilements (that one may have not even been aware of). An average human would have an enormous amount of hidden defilements (mostly wrong views) as anusaya.
– That is what is lost mostly at the Sotapanna stage, starting at the Sotapanna Anugami stage.I am still revising and expanding that first youtube video. I hope to post the full document within a few days.
This has been discussed under a couple of topics in the forum.
Here is one:
“Four Conditions for Attaining Sōtapanna Magga/Phala”The main conclusions are:
1. The Sotapanna Anugami stage can be reached by reading/listening.
2. The Sotapanna phala moment (transition from a Sotapanna Anugami to a Sotapanna) happens while listening to a discourse by a Noble Person (Ariya).
– “Saddamma savana” or “listening to the correct Dhamma” is what is given as a requirement in the Tipitaka.
– Of course, reading was not widely available at the time of the Buddha.Mahendran asked: “Aren’t Our gathi and inherited abilities for certain subject areas such as music, dance,languages, maths etc etc..partly due to the genes of the parents?”
No. It is the other way around.
Gandhabba had cultivated such gati in previous lives.
A gandhabba is drawn into a womb that has a zygote which maximizes the possibility of continuing the “gati” of the gandhabba.
– That zygote has a set of chromosomes, half of which is from the mother and half from the father.
– But those chromosomes dictate mostly the physical features.
– Matching of other types of gati is determined by kammic energy.
– Some physical features as well as “gati” could come from mother or father. Some gati could be just the gati of gandhabba.
– Once born, that baby’s gati could be changed due to the influence of both mother and father (and others in the family, friends, etc).See the first several posts in the section “Origin of Life”
Those posts will answer the following question as a resounding YES: “Does it mean that gandhabba will also contribute to the abilities and the nature of the personality as a whole in addition?”
Mostly the physical features of the baby will be determined by the chromosomes. Gandhabba has its own gati.
– But of course, kammic process will try to match gati as well. But that is never going to be even close. Even the mother and father would have different gati. That “matching” would be a very broad overlap.It is a complex process. We can only get a rough idea.
Today, I received an email from Janith Boniface Fernando. He is the person who had compiled the Waharaka Thero Discourses with English subtitles.
He has sent me the English and Sinhala text files for the three videos that he has published so far.
– I am posting the three videos in the correct order together with the pdf for his English translations.
– Of course, yesterday I posted my revised and expanded English text for the first video above. I will post the rest of my expanded translation for that first video above so that the complete text will be available there.
– Many merits to Janith Fernando for sharing with us these files.First Video:
English and Sinhala text for the First Discourse
Second Video:
English and Sinhala text for the Second Discourse
Third Video:
English and Sinhala text for the Third Discourse
June 25, 2020
Fourth Video:English-and-Sinhala-Text-Fourth-Discourse.pdf
June 28, 2020
Fifth Video:What is the ideal way to attain Nirvana leading a lay life – Part 05
July 11, 2020
Sixth Video:What is the ideal way to attain Nirvana leading a lay life – Part 06
July 28, 2020
Seventh Video:What is the ideal way to attain Nibbana leading a lay life – Part 07
Aug. 15, 2020
Eighth Video:Septemeber 11, 2020 – Ninth Video
I have not received the text files for the last two.
Thank you for the article and your quote from it, oetb.
– I will read the article when I find some time.Yes. It would be a good idea to address this in a post OR in a detailed comment here. I will try to get to it ASAP.
This issue is related to what I briefly touched on in the recent post, “Difference Between “Me and Mine” and Sakkāya Diṭṭhi”
I am pasting the last part of the post below:
11. Many people have the perception that Buddha Gotama “adopted” that five-fold analysis from the Vedas because those terms appeared in Vedic literature before Buddha Gotama.
– There was Buddha Kassapa on this Earth before Buddha Gotama. Buddha Kassapa’s teachings (especially the true meanings of key concepts) were lost with time. But many terms, including the concepts of kamma, kamma vipāka, five aggregates, and many others, were incorporated into Vedic teachings and transmitted through many generations. Of course, the Vedic teachings used the Sanskrit language, which was derived from Pāli or Magadha language. Sanskrit means “derived from” (“san” + “krutha” or සන් කෘත or සංස්කෘත in Sinhala.)
– The Pāli words like kamma, Nibbāna, Paṭicca Samuppāda were made “more impressive-sounding” by mostly adding the “r” sound. Those three Pāli words became karma, nirvāna, and Pratītyasamutpāda, respectively, in Sanskrit.
– The same is true for the concept of five aggregates or pañca khandha. The Vedic teachings adopted them as five Skandhas.Whose Concepts are Kamma, Nibbāna, Paṭicca Samuppāda, etc.?
12. A full account requires possibly a whole book. But there are several instances in the Tipitaka where Buddha Gotama explained to various Brahmins that many of their teachings originated with Buddha Kassapa.
– For example, in the Māgandhiya Sutta (MN 75), Buddha Gotama has a conversation with a Brahmin who quoted a verse from the Vedas. Buddha Gotama then says that verse was initially uttered by Buddha Kassapa and that it come down through generations in the Vedas without the true meaning. I have discussed that in the post, “Arōgyā Paramā Lābhā..“
– When Prince Siddhartha was born, such Vedic teachings were there. We have a somewhat similar situation right now, with many vital concepts misinterpreted.
– I mentioned the above because I see in online forums many people wonder whether Buddha Gotama “adopted” Vedic concepts. Those concepts originally came from Buddha Kassapa. But any Buddha discovers them by his own efforts.
– Then the question comes up as to the “evolution of humans.” There was no evolution of humans. Humans existed on Earth (with Brahma-like bodies) at the beginning of the Earth. This is why it would take a book to discuss all these things. I have given a brief account of the “beginnings” in “Buddhism and Evolution – Aggañña Sutta (DN 27).”***
Furthermore, there is much confusion about the key Pali words anicca and anatta because many people confuse those with Sanskrit words anitya and anatma. There are no words in Sanskrit that provide the same meaning of anicca and anatta. That is discussed in the post that you quoted above.
– That is why the Buddha said not to translate the Tipitaka, especially to Sanskrit.
– The idea was to transmit the Tipitaka in Pali and to explain the content in any language.I have completed revising and expanding of the document for the first desana (posted by cubibobi on May 31, 2020). The first video posted by Christian posted on May 29, 2020 is the second video in the series.
– I have done only half of the desana. I just wanted to get it out since it is fairly long.
– It may take me a few more days to complete the second half of the desana.June 26, 2020: Here is the full text of the FIRST transcribed discourse;
The Way to NibbānaThe original document was drafted off of the above-mentioned video with English subtitles by Janith Boniface Fernando. A Word document was made using that English text by Lair Valio Alves and Seng Kiat Ng.
– Many merits to all who contributed to this effort!P.S. July 6, 2020: I have updated a revised version.
