THE BLESSED NOBLE AWAKENED ONE - THE TATHAGATA
Few
At Savatthi. As he was sitting to one side, King Pasenadi Kosala said to the Blessed One: “Just now, lord, while I was alone in seclusion, this train of thought arose in my awareness: ‘Few are those people in the world who, when acquiring lavish wealth, don’t become intoxicated & heedless, don’t become greedy for sensual pleasures, and don’t mistreat other beings. Many more are those who, when acquiring lavish wealth, become intoxicated & heedless, become greedy for sensual pleasures, and mistreat other beings.’”
“That’s the way it is, great king! That’s the way it is! Few are those people in the world who, when acquiring lavish wealth, don’t become intoxicated & heedless, don’t become greedy for sensual pleasures, and don’t mistreat other beings. Many more are those who, when acquiring lavish wealth, become intoxicated & heedless, become greedy for sensual pleasures, and mistreat other beings.”
That is what the Blessed One said. Having said that, the One Well-Gone, the Teacher, said further:
Impassioned with sensual possessions, greedy, dazed by sensual pleasures, they don’t awaken to the fact that they’ve gone too far β like deer into a trap laid out. Afterwards it’s bitter for them: evil for them the result.
Mental Absorption
“I tell you, the ending of the mental fermentations depends on the first jhana… the second jhana… the third… the fourth… the dimension of the infinitude of space… the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness… the dimension of nothingness. I tell you, the ending of the mental fermentations depends on the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception.
“‘I tell you, the ending of the mental fermentations depends on the first jhana.’ Thus it has been said. In reference to what was it said? There is the case where a TRUE FOLLOWER OF THE PATH SHOWN BY THE BLESSED NOBLE AWAKENED ONE -THE TATHAGATA , withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful qualities, enters & remains in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. He regards whatever phenomena there that are connected with form, feeling, perception, fabrications, & consciousness, as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a disintegration, an emptiness, not-self. He turns his mind away from those phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of deathlessness: ‘This is peace, this is exquisite β the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.’
“Suppose that an archer or archer’s apprentice were to practice on a straw man or mound of clay, so that after a while he would become able to shoot long distances, to fire accurate shots in rapid succession, and to pierce great masses. In the same way, there is the case where a TRUE FOLLOWER OF THE PATH SHOWN BY THE BLESSED NOBLE AWAKENED ONE -THE TATHAGATA… enters & remains in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born of withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. He regards whatever phenomena there that are connected with form, feeling, perception, fabrications, & consciousness, as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a disintegration, an emptiness, not-self. He turns his mind away from those phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of deathlessness: ‘This is peace, this is exquisite β the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.’
“Staying right there, he reaches the ending of the mental fermentations. Or, if not, then β through this very dhamma-passion, this very dhamma-delight, and from the total wasting away of the first five of the fetters1 β he is due to be reborn [in the Pure Abodes], there to be totally unbound, never again to return from that world.
“‘I tell you, the ending of the mental fermentations depends on the first jhana.’ Thus was it said, and in reference to this was it said.
(Similarly with the other levels of jhana up through the dimension of nothingness.)
“Thus, as far as the perception-attainments go, that is as far as gnosis-penetration goes. As for these two spheres β the attainment of the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception & the attainment of the cessation of feeling & perception β I tell you that they are to be rightly explained by those monks who are meditators, skilled in attaining, skilled in attaining & emerging, who have attained & emerged in dependence on them.”
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