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You might want to ask them to investigate how does sensual pleasures come about for a start. Ask them questions like, do you think this painting is beautiful? Is beautiful an attribute of the painting? Well if it is, then it should appear beautiful to everyone, anywhere, anytime. Actual fact is, there is no beautiful rupa out there. There are only ignorance and attachment in our minds to make us think that the outside rupa are beautiful/ugly. However, rupa has the propensity to vex us. When we attach ourselves to a rupa, we are mentally vexed. We have to perform abhisankhara to relieve ourselves from this vexation in order for sensual pleasures to surface. So, sensual pleasure is an outcome of a process. A process when one attaches and relieves oneself from suffering. We are so used to it that it becomes a natural thing to do. For someone who has not encountered Dhamma, it’s only right that they attach themselves to sense object and relieve themselves from suffering. This relief is what they called ‘Happiness’. But there can be no sensual pleasures without relief from suffering. In order to find sensual pleasures again, what do they do? Look for pain! No pain, no relief from pain, and therefore no sensual pleasures for them to enjoy. They thought they are trading up each time they could enjoy sense pleasures. But I think they are trading down. Way down! If only sensual pleasures can be acquired with resources without any side effects. But the consequence one has to bear is the sansaric habits that are cultivated over many lifetimes that are hard to break. So one is actually paying with rebirth suffering if he/she is ignorant about the Four Noble Truths and continue to get entrapped in a catch-22 situation.
When was the last time we took a paracetamol when we had NO headache and felt good about it? Never!
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“One does not try to impress anybody anymore and stops this dramatic play. One starts to feel it is not right.”
One of the ways I understand sakkaya ditthi is as such: when a person feels great importance and priority on whatever he is doing that can accentuate, flex, satisfy his ego, it is of essence, worthy to do it. To see it otherwise is sakkaya ditthi removed. In other words, a person who has sakkaya ditthi removed sees the fostering of his self ego being a futile effort. It can only bring forth more dukkha consequently if he strives to feed his ego.
Another understanding of sakkaya ditthi is to see there is no permanent unchanging self. Neither is there no-self after death. Got causes and conditions, effect arises. No causes and conditions, effect ceases to exist. It is like seeing a shadow of a coconut tree casted on the ground on a hot day. As the sun shifts position throughout the day, so does the shadow of the coconut tree. The shadow of the coconut tree appears to us that it has shifted over time. In fact, it did not shift. It is not stagnant either. Got causes and conditions, effect arises. No causes and conditions, effect ceases to exist.
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Hi Lair!
Don’t mention it. I just wish to share something that is happening in real life from a Dhamma perspective rather than from an entertainment one. There are people who do not believe in the existence of non-human and strange happenings. Of course we need to evaluate things logically as much as we possibly can. But some things are just beyond our logic. So, this kind of experience will actually help one to at least consider the co-existence of non-humans alongside humans and the animals instead of just denying it totally. Be it small or very meritorious deeds, we should always transfer merits to all beings as often as we can because we won’t know who have we offended in this long sansaric journey.
Here’s a real life incident related to the devotees by a bhante during a Dhamma talk.
There is this housewife who always hears a voice telling her to take a kitchen knife and rip open her daughter’s abdomen to see what’s inside. Strangely, this only happens when the housewife is doing house chores. Worse still, she had this urge to really do it! If not for her strong mind, she would have taken her daughter’s life already. Obviously, she was freaked out. She had to ‘fight’ the voice by singing out loudly in the house and everyone in her family thought she has gone mad. Subsequently, she went to seek medical and psychiatric help but to no avail. The psychiatrist diagnosed her of having severe depression. But she knows herself that she’s not. She told bhante that she cannot continue taking the anti-depression pills prescribed for her, else she will die. She had to increase the dosage from 20 to 25 pills a day. Then, bhante suggested to her to come to the monastery and become an anagārika (8-precept practitioner) during the vassa period in thailand, and transfer her accrued merits to the non-human who was causing her so much misery. After the vassa period ended, the housewife called bhante from home and told him that the voice has gone for good! That incident never relapse again. Luckily for the housewife, her creditor was willing to accept her merits and let her off. Bhante has related another incident whereby the creditor did not accept any form of payment and even the 4-bhikkhu Sangha was stopped from helping the debtor when the debtor invited the Sangha to his place for dana. These are the kind of events that, if we ourselves never experience before, it will be hard for us to believe.
Sabbe Satta Kammasaka
Beings are the owners of their actionsKamma dayada
The heirs of their actionsKamma yoni
All beings are the descendants of their own kammaKamma bandhu
Kamma alone is one’s real friendKamma patisarana
Kamma alone is the real Refuge of all beingsPerhaps in modern language, the way I see a worldly being entrapped in sansara is akin to a catch-22 situation. The wordly being does not know that he is in such a predicament, especially those who are indulging themselves heavily in sensual pleasures. They don’t know that sensual pleasures can only be realised if and only if the premise is dukkha. If they don’t go looking for dukkha, how do they enjoy the sensual pleasures through the temporary relief from dukkha? How fortunate we are to have the opportunity to learn the method Lord Buddha discovered to rig the system! Imagine if the Buddha did not discover the method to rig sansara, we are all screwed!
A sotapanna has clearly seen the priceless value in this rigging method and places unshakable faith in using this method to get out of sansara. Whereas the worldly being cannot leave the prison they entrapped themselves in because they themselves are the prison!
Hi firewns,
Aren’t we so fortunate to encounter Buddha Dhamma in this life? The year is 2019 and yet we have the great fortune to come across the true teachings of the Buddha. Many thanks to the ariyas who brought back the true Dhamma. Still giving me the goosebumps thinking of it!
Glad to discover another bhante who has the right understanding of Anicca and Anatta. Link to the discourse below for your perusal. Starting from 01:41:51.
Hi Akvan,
“Are you asking whether a Sakadagami anugami, is incapable of dying until he attains the sakadagami stage, and similarly for anagami and arahanth anugami?”
That’s right.
“A saddhānusārī is incapable of dying (separating) from that Noble birth until he realizes the Sotāpanna stage.”
Can one assume likewise for the rest of the Ariyan Magga Phala sets?
Hi Lal,
Does not go to the apayas and freed from the apayas, isn’t both the same thing? Or are there any subtle differences between the 2? I also read that a Sotāpanna Anugami is unable to die before becoming a Sotāpanna. Which implies if a Sotāpanna Anugami were to die, he or she will definitely become a Sotāpanna.
“An even in this kappa, the Gōtama Buddha Sāsana would last only 5000 years, a negligible time in terms of a kappa. This is why we should not waste this rare opportunity.”
I think this is the most important message of this post.
Many thanks to Lal for giving us an introduction to this intriguing sutta.
“Observing the physical and mental phenomena, the meditator cultivates an understanding of the causal interactions between the physical and mental phenomena”
During the days of the Buddha, his disciples both monks and laity people are called Sāvaka (Dhamma hearer). We often see in the suttas depicting accounts of the Buddha delivering desana to prospects whom he deemed were capable of understanding his dhamma. What is not evident in the suttas is the Buddha asking people to straightaway meditate and see mentality and materiality and so on and so forth. Formal meditation is adjunct to listening to dhamma. Here are some rhetorical questions I would like to ask. How authentic is our observation on the physical and mental phenomena? Can we truly be sure that we are seeing the ‘real thing’? Or are they just created by our cunning mind when we crave for what we want to see? We must be careful of many meditation programs out there which are trying to sell us a fast-track way to liberation, which in my opinion is no different from any get-rich-quick scheme. I am certainly very doubtful and cautious on some lineage and meditation teachers who claimed that their method is the most authentic way to attain various stages of Nibbana. Fake Rolex watches are out there simply because there are real ones in the market!
We must not forget the applicability of Buddha Dhamma in our everyday lives is very real and practical. Otherwise, how can it help us alleviate suffering? New age meditation technique like the one described in this post might appeal to some. But is it really effective in helping us handle traumatic incidents? Or are they nothing more than just a clinical experimentation? Citing a hypothetical case, a participant who just ended a retreat was about to leave the meditation centre when he received a call that his next of kin had passed away from a freak accident back home. Can this participant who just ‘saw’ kalapas, ultimate mentality and materiality in this meditation be able to remain composed and unshaken if he has not yet been exposed to Buddha Dhamma and inculcate a steady mindset to accept the Anicca nature? We read the famous story in the suttas of a lady who almost went mad when her son died. Buddha asked her to find mustard seeds from a family who does not have any deceased family members, delivered a desana to her and thereafter, she managed to regain her composure and attained stream entry.
“And so saying, she went into the presence of the master.
Then the master said to her,
“Have you obtained, Gotami, the mustard seed?”
“Finished, sir, is the matter of the mustard seed” she said.
“You have indeed restored me.”And the master then uttered this verse:
A person with a mind that clings,
Deranged, to sons or possessions,
Is swept away by death that comes
— Like mighty flood to sleeping town.At the conclusion of this verse, confirmed in the fruit of stream-entry…”
Buddha did not ask the lady to come sit down and meditate on this materiality, that mentality etc.
Another example from the suttas…A rich man’s son Yasha had wandered off into the monastery where Buddha was staying. Yasha listened to the dhamma delivered by the Buddha and attained stream entry. Rich man was frantically searching for his beloved son and arrived at the monastery where Buddha was staying. Buddha wielded his supernatural power to shield his son from the rich man’s vision and delivered a desana to the rich man. Upon listening to the desana, the rich man attained stream entry and his son, Arahantship. Nowhere did the Buddha give both of them the instruction to sit down and meditate on this and that. Even if the Buddha did, what is the likelihood that both of them could observe physical and mental phenomena and their relationship in such a short span of time and attain path and fruition?
“Envy: To feel displeasure and ill-will at the superiority of another in happiness, success, and the possession of anything desirable”
Jealousy: An apprehension of losing something or someone to another, of losing a loved one to a rival. Typically a third person, a rival, enters the scene and attempts to take away a lover.”
A person would envy another because the standard is unlikely to be achieved by him. For example, the next door Joe is envious of Jack Ma, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet…etc. He would not be jealous of these super high net worth people because he is no where near to their monetary status.
A person would be jealous of another because he is very close to achieving the rival’s standard or at the very least perceived to be attainable by him. For example, Joe is jealous of John’s recent promotion to managerial position. Joe has been working very hard for that position and was very disappointed that he was not given the promotion. It is unlikely that Joe is envious of John in this regard.
