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I think it is close. It could be a little better as follows:
“As from a collection of flowers many a garland can be made by an expert florist, so also, many good deeds can be done (out of faith and generosity) by a person from birth to death.”
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Thank you, Gad. That is an excellent account of Visākha’s life.
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Paying taxes means paying one’s fair share to maintain the infrastructure (such as roads, the judicial system, etc.). That is more like “fulfilling one’s obligations.” (Of course, many governments spend carelessly, but that is a separate issue.)
- “Giving” is to those who do not have other means to sustain life. That includes bhikkhus and the poor. That is done with “good intentions” and going over and above one’s necessary obligations.
- “Giving” to the poor (and also animals) is out of compassion when seeing the suffering they go through. That generates “strong javana citta” with “good kammic energies.”
- “Giving” to bhikkhus and temples helps sustain the “Buddha Sasana” for future generations, and that is even more meritorious. Buddha’s teachings will not survive without temples and bhikkhus.
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Yes. You do.
- The meaning of “kusala” is to avoid “akusala.” See “Kusala Sutta (AN 10.180).”
- Another aspect is to engage in “puñña kamma” or “moral deeds,” like giving. That is also essential to cultivating the path. See “Puñña Kamma – Dāna, Sīla, Bhāvanā.”
- Also see “Dasa Akusala/Dasa Kusala – Basis of Buddha Dhamma.”
This is an important point. Please feel free to ask questions/comment.
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Yes. The trnslation of the verse:
“Muñca pure muñca pacchato,
Majjhe muñca bhavassa pāragū;
Sabbattha vimuttamānaso,
Na punaṁ jātijaraṁ upehisi.”
could be better as follows:
“Let go of the past, future, and present and transcend this existence and “be free of all suffering” (Sabbattha vimuttamānaso). With your mind wholly liberated (from the pancupadanakkhandha), you will be released from repeated (punaṁ) birth and death.”
- The point is that pancupadanakkhandha includes attachment to past and present experiences and any attachments arising at present. Once one has seen the unfruitfulness of craving anything in this world anywhere, why make more abhisankhara (“avijja paccaya sankhara“) and move away from Nibbana?
- We have been discussing this in recent posts, including today’s post. We need to move to the left on the chart in today’s post: “Vipariṇāma – Two Meanings.” Any abhisankhara generation in the purana or nava kamma stages moves a mind away from Nibbana.
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Excellent. Thank you, Gad.
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A couple of corrections:
“An anagami has only eliminated the desire for physical food (Kabalinkāhāra)”
- An Anāgāmi has removed the craving for all “close contact” with the physical body, i.e., tastes, smells, and touch (including sex). Any desire to enjoy sights and sounds associated with those is eliminated, too.
- Thus, kabaḷīkāra āhāra means craving those via all five physical senses (pañca kāma.) An Anāgāmi has removed them. I revised #4 of the post to include this.
“The Sakadagamin and Sotāpanna have these desires intact or weakened. However, they will never commit any akusala acts to enjoy these 4 types of food.”
- The correct statement is: “The Sakadagamis and Sotāpannas have these desires weakened. However, they will never commit any apayagami (i.e., can lead to rebirth in the apayas) akusala kamma to enjoy these four types of “mental food.”
“All beings below the arahant stage nourish their mind in one way or another, whether moral (the Ariyas and certain Puthujunas) or immoral (the majority of puthujunas) which will lead them to pleasant or unpleasant rebirths.”
- Usually, only the rebirths in the apayas are called “bad rebirths.” That is not possible for any Ariya, including Sotapanna Anugamis. Of course, the human realm (and even a few low-lying Deva realms) has significant suffering, too. Thus, we could say that anyone above the Anagami stage would be free of substantial suffering. Of course, death is ended only for Arahants.
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The translations are not accurate.
- See “Āhāra (Food) in Udayavaya Ñāna.”
- Feel free to ask follow-up questions.
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Yes, Gad. You are correct to say: “Unfortunately, it is beyond our control to address the distortion of Tilakkhana in Theravada texts.” But that is not an excuse to copy and paste such translations as if they are correct.
- I do not want the wrong translations to appear on this website unless the intention is to criticize and point out why they are wrong. What is the point of copying and pasting incorrect translations as if they were the correct translations?
- Of course, sometimes people post comments that include wrong translations, not realizing they are incorrect, and I point that out. That is fine. That is how one learns. I did that in response to your post with the wrong translation. But if you know a translation to be incorrect, please do not reproduce it here.
- A related point: I frequently post links to Sutta Central translations, some of which are wrong. But I try to point out the errors. Those links need to be used with caution. I have many posts pointing out the inconsistencies/errors in Sutta Central translations. But it is a good resource because it provides Pali Tipitaka suttas in the English alphabet so people can read the Pali version. The English translations there can be useful if one knows how to replace the incorrectly translated verses.
- The sole purpose of this website is to educate people about the correct teachings of the Buddha. Of course, if I write something inconsistent, anyone is welcome to explain why it is inconsistent with the Tipitaka. If that explanation is sound, I will thank them for correcting my errors.
- The goal is to end up with the correct teachings of the Buddha and DISCARD wrong interpretations, regardless of whose interpretation it is.
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The translation you quoted is incorrect: “At the end of the discourse, the thief who was steadfastly keeping his mind on the arising and perishing of the aggregates discerned the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self nature of all conditioned things and soon attained Sotapatti Fruition.”
- “Anicca, dukkha, anatta” characteristics do not refer to an “impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self nature” OF THE aggregates (panca upadanakkhandha).
- The point is that cultivating panca upadanakkhandha (which is the same as engaging in apunna/akusala kamma) is unfruitful (anicca) and takes one away from Nibbana (dukkha). Thus, that engaging in such actions is useless and of no benefit (anatta.)
This is a bit of a deep point to think about and understand.
- It takes an effort to understand this: “Sotapanna Stage via Understanding Perception (Saññā).”
Even though AI will never be able to match human intelligence, it will lead to a revolution in many applications like self-driving cars and computer coding. Those applications only involve speeding up mechanical processes with much less “operator error.”
- More importantly, AI will be able to speed up the working of the human brain. Human thoughts arise in the “seat of the mind (hadaya vatthu)” but are implemented (i.e., turned into physical actions) by the brain. The brain is necessarily slow because the energy available (by eating food) is negligibly small compared to the many orders of magnitude larger power available for modern computer networks.
- While AI cannot come up with “paradigm-changing discoveries,” it will help implement human ideas much faster.
- The following video shows that Neuralink is in the first stages of this revolution.
- The role of the brain is discussed in the post “Brain – Interface between Mind and Body.“
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Thank you, Gad.
- Yes. These are examples of rare cases of unusual kamma vipaka.
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The sutta says that one cannot LIVE the householder life as an Arahant.
- A layperson or a householder can attain Arahanthood, but they must become a bhikkhu within seven days, or they will die.
- Santati died the same day he attained Arahanthood. I am not sure whether King Suddhodana died the same day, but he was quite ill and likely to have died within that seven-day limit.
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You are right. I have revised #5 as below:
5. Generating “kāma saññā” at this initial “kāma dhātu stage” does not mean one is already in the “kāma bhava.” Generating “kāma saññā” happens just before kāma bhava while in the “kāma dhātu” stage. An Arahant‘s mind does not go beyond the “kāma dhātu” stage. A kamma (with defiled intention or sañcetanā) must happen to get to the kāma bhava, as the Buddha explained in the “Paṭhamabhava Sutta (AN 3.76).”
- The “Paṭhamabhava Sutta (AN 3.76)” states “Kāmadhātuvepakkañca, ānanda, kammaṁ nābhavissa, api nu kho kāmabhavo paññāyethā”ti?” OR “If no kamma took place (kammaṁ nābhavissa), would the transition from kāma dhātu to kāma bhava come about?” The answer was “no.”
- That kamma happens in the “kāmasaññaṁ paṭicca uppajjati kāmasaṅkappo” step in #1 above. As we know, kamma is done with (abhi)saṅkhāra and “saṅkappa” means “citta saṅkhāra.”
- As the verse in #1 shows, “kāma saṅkappa” arises (kāma saññaṁ paṭicca uppajjati kāma saṅkappo) in the second step. Let us carefully go through the steps involved.
Yes. Your assumption is correct.
- Jhanic and samapatti sukha are also”distorted saññā.”
- Brahmas (and Anariya yogis) get attached to them via the similar kāma guṇa (but at a lower level; Brahmas don’t engage in killing/stealing, etc. Of course, they don’t have the physical bodies to take such actions, but in any case, such strong greedy/hateful thoughts do not arise in a Brahma or an anariya yogi.)
- Getting rid of attachment to jhanic and samapatti sukha is what is left to do for an Anāgāmi.
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