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< - In the Buddha’s Words Summary, Notes and Highlights

In the Buddha’s Words An Anthology of Discourses From the Pali Canon Chapter VII. THE PATH TO LIBERATION

Author: Bhikku Bodhi Publisher: Wisdom Publications. Somerville, MA. Publish Date: 2005-6-28 Review Date: 2022-3-28 Status:📚

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  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3887 The Shorter Discourse to Māluṅkyāputta (MN 63), shows that the Buddhist path is not designed to provide theoretical answers to philosophical questions.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3888 In this sutta the monk Māluṅkyāputta approaches the Buddha and demands answers to ten speculative questions, threatening to leave the Saṅgha if this demand is not satisfied.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4002 “These speculative views have been left undeclared by the Blessed One, set aside and rejected by him, namely: ‘the world is eternal’ and ‘the world is not eternal’; ‘the world is finite’ and ‘the world is infinite’; ‘the soul is the same as the body’ and ‘the soul is one thing and the body another’; and ‘after death a Tathāgata exists’ and ‘after death a Tathāgata does not exist’ and ‘after death a Tathāgata both exists and does not exist’ and ‘after death a Tathāgata neither exists nor does not exist.’ (Majjhima Nikaya 63: Cūḷamāluṅkya Sutta; I 426–32)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3891 Two collections of suttas in the Saṃyutta Nikāya—SN 33:1–10 and SN 44:7–8—make it clear that the Buddha’s “silence” had a deeper basis than mere pragmatic concerns.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3892 These suttas show that all such questions are based on an underlying assumption that existence is to be interpreted in terms of a self and a world in which the self is situated. Since these premises are invalid, no answer framed in terms of these premises can be valid, and thus the Buddha must reject the very questions themselves.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3895 However, while the Buddha had philosophical grounds for refusing to answer these questions, he also rejected them because he considered the obsession with their solutions to be irrelevant to the quest for release from suffering.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4057 “Why have I left that undeclared? Because it is unbeneficial, it does not belong to the fundamentals of the spiritual life, it does not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbāna. (Majjhima Nikaya 63: Cūḷamāluṅkya Sutta; I 426–32)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4043 ’If there is the view ‘the world is finite’ … ‘the world is infinite’ ‘the soul is the same as the body’ … ‘the soul is one thing and the body another’ … ‘after death a Tathāgata exists’ … ‘after death a Tathāgata does not exist,’ the spiritual life cannot be lived.… If there is the view ‘after death a Tathāgata both exists and does not exist… there is birth, there is aging, there is death, there are sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair, the destruction of which I prescribe here and now. (Majjhima Nikaya 63: Cūḷamāluṅkya Sutta; I 426–32)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3909 the purpose of practicing the spiritual life under the Buddha is “the fading away of lust, … final Nibbāna without clinging,” the Noble Eightfold Path being the way to attain each of these aims

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4147 “Monks, if wanderers of other sects ask you: ‘For what purpose, friends, is the spiritual life lived under the ascetic Gotama?’—being asked thus, you should answer them thus: ‘It is, friends, for the fading away of lust (Samyutta Nikaya 45:41–48, combined; V 27–29)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4155 [Or else you may answer them:] ‘It is, friends, for the abandoning of the fetters … for the uprooting of the underlying tendencies … for the full understanding of the course [of saṃsāra] … for the destruction of the taints … for the realization of the fruit of true knowledge and liberation … for the sake of knowledge and vision … for the sake of final Nibbāna without clinging that the spiritual life is lived under the Blessed One.’ (Samyutta Nikaya 45:41–48, combined; V 27–29)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3911 The Noble Eightfold Path is the classical formulation of the way to liberation, as is already clear from the Buddha’s first sermon, in which he calls the Eightfold Path the way to the cessation of suffering.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3923 The eight factors are commonly distributed into three groups as follows:

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3924 the moral discipline group (sīlakkhandha), made up of right speech, right action, and right livelihood;

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4172 “And what, monks, is right speech? Abstinence from false speech, abstinence from malicious speech, abstinence from harsh speech, abstinence from idle chatter: this is called right speech. (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4175 “And what, monks, is right livelihood? Here a noble disciple, having abandoned a wrong mode of livelihood, earns his living by a right livelihood: this is called right livelihood. (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4173 “And what, monks, is right action? Abstinence from the destruction of life, abstinence from taking what is not given, abstinence from sexual misconduct: this is called right action. (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3926 the concentration group (sam̄dhikkhandha), made up of right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration;

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4176 “And what, monks, is right effort? Here, monks, a monk generates desire for the nonarising of unarisen evil unwholesome states; he makes an effort, arouses energy, applies his mind, and strives. He generates desire for the abandoning of arisen evil unwholesome states…. He generates desire for the arising of unarisen wholesome states…. He generates desire for the continuation of arisen wholesome states, for their nondecline, increase, expansion, and fulfillment by development; he makes an effort, arouses energy, applies his mind, and strives. This is called right effort. (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4181 “And what, monks is right mindfulness? Here, monks, a monk dwells contemplating the body in the body, (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4182 He dwells contemplating feelings (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4183 He dwells contemplating mind in mind, (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4184 He dwells contemplating phenomena in phenomena, (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4184 ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having removed longing and dejection in regard to the world. This is called right mindfulness. (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4185 “And what, monks, is right concentration? (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4186 first jhāna, (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4186 which is accompanied by thought and examination, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion. (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4188 second jhāna, (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4188 which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without thought and examination, and has rapture and happiness born of concentration. (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4189 With the fading away as well of rapture, he dwells equanimous and, mindful and clearly comprehending, he experiences happiness with the body; he enters and dwells in the third jhāna of which the noble ones declare: ‘He is equanimous, mindful, one who dwells happily.’ (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4190 With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous passing away of joy and dejection, he enters and dwells in the fourth jhāna, (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4191 which is neither painful nor pleasant and includes the purification of mindfulness by equanimity. (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3927 the wisdom group (paññākkhandha), made up of right view and right intention.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4169 “And what, monks, is right view? Knowledge of suffering, knowledge of the origin of suffering, knowledge of the cessation of suffering, knowledge of the way leading to the cessation of suffering: this is called right view. (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4170 “And what,monks, is right intention? Intention of renunciation, intention of non–ill will, intention of harmlessness: this is called right intention. (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:8; V 8–10)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3920 Contrary to a common assumption, the eight path factors are not steps to be followed in sequence, one after another. They are more appropriately described as components than as steps. Optimally, all eight factors should be present simultaneously, each making its own distinctive contribution, like eight interwoven strands of a cable that give the cable maximum strength.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3922 However, until that stage is reached, it is inevitable that the factors of the path exhibit some degree of sequence in their development.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3932 In the Nikāyas, the Buddha often expounds the practice of the path as a gradual training (anupubbasikkhā) that unfolds in stages from the first step to the final goal. This gradual training is a finer subdivision of the threefold division of the path into moral discipline, concentration, and wisdom.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3934 Invariably in the suttas the exposition of the gradual training begins with the going forth into homelessness and the adoption of the lifestyle of a bhikkhu, a Buddhist monk. This immediately calls attention to the importance of the monastic life in the Buddha’s pragmatic vision.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3936 In principle the entire practice of the Noble Eightfold Path is open to people from any mode of life, monastic or lay, and the Buddha confirms that many among his lay followers were accomplished in the Dhamma and had attained the first three of the four stages of awakening, up to nonreturning

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3938 (an̄ḡm̄; Theravāda commentators say that lay followers can also attain the fourth stage, arahantship, but they do so either on the verge of death or after attainment immediately seek the going forth).

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3939 The fact remains, however, that the household life inevitably fosters a multitude of mundane concerns and personal attachments that impede the single-hearted quest for liberation. Thus when the Buddha set out on his own noble quest he did so by going into homelessness,

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4269 “A householder or householder’s son or one born in some other clan hears that Dhamma. On hearing the Dhamma he acquires faith in the Tathāgata. Possessing that faith, he considers thus: ‘Household life is crowded and dusty; life gone forth is wide open. It is not easy, while living in a home, to lead the spiritual life utterly perfect and pure as a polished shell. (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3941 after his enlightenment, as a practical way to help others, he established the Saṅgha, the order of monks and nuns, for those who want to devote themselves fully to the Dhamma unhindered by the cares of household life.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3943 The gradual training occurs in two versions: a longer version in the Dīgha Nikāya and a middle-length version in the Majjhima Nikāya.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3944 (1) the longer version has a more detailed treatment of the observances that pertain to monastic etiquette and ascetic self-restraint;

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3945 (2) the longer version includes eight types of higher knowledge while the middle-length version has three types. However, as these three types are the ones mentioned in the Buddha’s account of his own enlightenment (see Text II,3(2)), they are by far the most important.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3951 The sequence opens with the appearance of a Tathāgata in the world and his exposition of the Dhamma. Having heard this, the disciple acquires faith and follows the Teacher into homelessness. He then undertakes the rules of discipline that promote the purification of conduct and the right livelihood of an ascetic.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4264 “So too, brahmin, here a Tathāgata appears in the world, (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4268 He teaches a Dhamma that is good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4269 “A householder or householder’s son or one born in some other clan hears that Dhamma. On hearing the Dhamma he acquires faith in the Tathāgata. Possessing that faith, he considers thus: ‘Household life is crowded and dusty; life gone forth is wide open. It is not easy, while living in a home, to lead the spiritual life utterly perfect and pure as a polished shell. (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4274 “Having thus gone forth and possessing the monk’s training and way of life, abandoning the destruction of life, he abstains from the destruction of life; with rod and weapon laid aside, conscientious, merciful, he dwells compassionate to all living beings. Abandoning the taking of what is not given, he abstains from taking what is not given; taking only what is given, expecting only what is given, by not stealing he dwells in purity. Abandoning sexual relations, he observes celibacy, living apart, refraining from the coarse practice of sexual intercourse. (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4278 “Abandoning false speech, (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4279 Abandoning malicious speech, (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4282 Abandoning harsh speech, (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4284 Abandoning idle chatter, (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4286 “He abstains from injuring seeds and plants. He eats only one meal a day, abstaining from eating at night and outside the proper time.10 He abstains from dancing, singing, music, and unsuitable shows. He abstains from wearing garlands, smartening himself with scent, and embellishing himself with unguents. He abstains from high and large couches. He abstains from accepting gold and silver. He abstains from accepting raw grain. He abstains from accepting raw meat. He abstains from accepting women and girls. He abstains from accepting men and women slaves. He abstains from accepting goats and sheep. He abstains from accepting fowl and pigs. He abstains from accepting elephants, cattle, horses, and mares. He abstains from accepting fields and land. He abstains from going on errands and running messages. He abstains from buying and selling. He abstains from false weights, false metals, and false measures. He abstains from accepting bribes, deceiving, defrauding, and trickery. He abstains from wounding, murdering, binding, brigandage, plunder, and violence. (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3953 The next three steps—contentment, restraint of the sense faculties, and mindfulness and clear comprehension—internalize the process of purification and thereby bridge the transition from moral discipline to concentration.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4294 “He becomes content with robes to protect his body and with almsfood to maintain his stomach, and wherever he goes, he sets out taking only these with him. (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4297 Possessing this aggregate of noble moral discipline, he experiences within himself the bliss of blamelessness.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4298 “On seeing a form with the eye, he does not grasp at its signs and features.11 Since, if he left the eye faculty unguarded, evil unwholesome states of longing and dejection might invade him, he practices the way of its restraint, he guards the eye faculty, he undertakes the restraint of the eye faculty. On hearing a sound with the ear … On smelling an odor with the nose … On tasting a flavor with the tongue … On feeling a tactile object with the body … On cognizing a mental phenomenon with the mind, he does not grasp at its signs and features. (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4305 “He becomes one who acts with clear comprehension when going forward and returning; who acts with clear comprehension when looking ahead and looking away; who acts with clear comprehension when flexing and extending his limbs; who acts with clear comprehension when wearing his robes and carrying his outer robe and bowl; who acts with clear comprehension when eating, drinking, chewing, and tasting; who acts with clear comprehension when defecating and urinating; who acts with clear comprehension when walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking up, talking, and keeping silent. (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4309 “Possessing this aggregate of noble moral discipline, and this noble restraint of the faculties, and possessing this noble mindfulness and clear comprehension, he resorts to a secluded resting place: the forest, the root of a tree, a mountain, a ravine, a hillside cave, a charnel ground, a jungle thicket, an open space, a heap of straw. (Majjhima Nikāya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3954 The section on the abandonment of the five hindrances deals with the preliminary training in concentration. The five hindrances—sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt—are the principal obstacles to meditative development, and thus they must be removed for the mind to become collected and unified.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4312 “On returning from his almsround, after his meal he sits down, folding his legs crosswise, setting his body erect, and establishing mindfulness before him. Abandoning longing for the world, he dwells with a mind free from longing; he purifies his mind from longing. (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4314 Abandoning ill will and hatred, he dwells with a mind free from ill will, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings; (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4316 Abandoning dullness and drowsiness, he dwells free from dullness and drowsiness, percipient of light, mindful and clearly comprehending; (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4317 Abandoning restlessness and remorse, he dwells free from agitation with a mind inwardly peaceful; (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4318 Abandoning doubt, he dwells having gone beyond doubt, unperplexed about wholesome states; (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4319 five hindrances, defilements of the mind that weaken wisdom, (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3960 The next stage in the sequence describes the attainment of the jhānas, profound states of concentration in which the mind becomes fully absorbed in its object.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3961 The Buddha enumerates four jhānas, named simply after their numerical position in the series, each more refined and elevated than its predecessor.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4320 first jhāna, which is accompanied by thought and examination, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion. (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4325 second jhāna, (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4325 which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without thought and examination, and has rapture and happiness born of concentration. (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4327 “Again, with the fading away as well of rapture, he dwells equanimous and, mindful and clearly comprehending, he experiences happiness with the body; he enters and dwells in the third jhāna (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4331 “Again, with the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous passing away of joy and dejection, (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4332 fourth jhāna, (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4332 which is neither painful nor pleasant and includes the purification of mindfulness by equanimity. (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3963 Although wisdom rather than concentration is the critical factor in the attainment of enlightenment, the Buddha invariably includes the jhānas in the gradual training for at least two reasons: first, because they contribute to the intrinsic perfection of the path; and second, because the deep concentration they induce serves as a basis for the arising of insight.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3965 The Buddha calls the jhānas the “footsteps of the Tathāgata” (MN 27.19–22) and shows them to be precursors of the bliss of Nibbāna that lies at the end of the training.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4326 This too, brahmin, is called a footprint of the Tathāgata … but a noble disciple does not yet come to the conclusion: ‘The Blessed One is perfectly enlightened.…’ (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3967 From the fourth jhāna three alternative lines of further development become possible.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3968 first line: four meditative states that continue the mental unification established by the jhānas. These states, described as “the liberations that are peaceful and formless,” are further refinements of concentration.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3969 Distinguished from the jhānas by their transcendence of the subtle mental image that serves as the object in the jhānas, they are named the base of the infinity of space, the base of the infinity of consciousness, the base of nothingness, and the base of neither-perception-nor-nonperception.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3972 A second line of development is the acquisition of supernormal knowledge.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3972 The Buddha frequently refers to a set of six types,

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3973 six kinds of direct knowledge

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3973 The last of these, the knowledge of the destruction of the taints, is “supramundane” or world-transcending and thus marks the culmination of the third line of development. But the other five are all mundane, products of the extraordinarily powerful mental concentration achieved in the fourth jhāna:

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3975 the supernormal powers, the divine ear, the ability to read the minds of others, the recollection of past lives, and the knowledge of the passing away and rebirth of beings

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3977 The jhānas and the formless attainments by themselves do not issue in enlightenment and liberation. Though lofty and peaceful, they can only silence the defilements that sustain the round of rebirths but cannot eradicate them.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3978 To uproot the defilements at the most fundamental level, and thereby arrive at enlightenment and liberation, the meditative process must be directed to a third line of development. This is the contemplation of “things as they really are,” which results in increasingly deeper insights into the nature of existence and culminates in the final goal, the attainment of arahantship.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3981 This line of development is the one the Buddha pursues in the passage on the gradual training.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3982 he prefaces it with descriptions of two of the direct knowledges,

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3982 the recollection of past lives and the knowledge of the passing away and rebirth of beings.

Highlight(pink) - Location 3983 collectively called the three true knowledges

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4334 “When his mind is thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, he directs it to knowledge of the recollection of past lives. (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4338 ‘There I was so named, of such a clan, with such an appearance, such was my nutriment, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such my life-term; and passing away from there, I was reborn elsewhere; and there too I was so named, of such a clan, with such an appearance, such was my nutriment, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such my life-term; and passing away from there, I was reborn here.’ (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4342 “When his mind is thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, he directs it to knowledge of the passing away and rebirth of beings. (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4344 With the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, he sees beings passing away and being reborn, inferior and superior, fair and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate. (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4345 He understands how beings pass on according to their actions thus: ‘These beings who behaved wrongly by body, speech, and mind, who reviled the noble ones, held wrong view, and undertook actions based on wrong view, with the breakup of the body, after death, have been reborn in a state of misery, in a bad destination, in the lower world, in hell; but these beings who behaved well by body, speech, and mind, who did not revile the noble ones, who held right view, and undertook action based on right view, with the breakup of the body, after death, have been reborn in a good destination, in a heavenly world.’ (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3984 Although the first two are not essential to the realization of arahantship, the Buddha probably includes them here because they reveal the truly vast and profound dimensions of suffering in saṃsāra, thereby preparing the mind for the penetration of the Four Noble Truths by which that suffering is diagnosed and surmounted.

  • Highlight(pink) - 3986 The passage on the gradual training does not explicitly show the process of contemplation by which the meditator develops insight. The whole process is only implied by the mention of its final fruit, called the knowledge of the destruction of the taints

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3988 The āsavas or taints are a classification of defilements considered in their role of sustaining the forward movement of the process of birth and death.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4352 “When his mind is thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, he directs it to knowledge of the destruction of the taints. (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4354 He understands as it really is: ‘This is suffering. This is the origin of suffering. This is the cessation of suffering. This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.’ (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4355 He understands as it really is: ‘These are the taints. This is the origin of the taints. This is the cessation of the taints. This is the way leading to the cessation of the taints.’ (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3994 The three taints mentioned in the Nikāyas are respectively synonyms for craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, and ignorance.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4360 “When he knows and sees thus, his mind is liberated from the taint of sensual desire, from the taint of existence, and from the taint of ignorance. (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3995 When the disciple’s mind is liberated from the taints by the completion of the path of arahantship, he reviews his newly won freedom and roars his lion’s roar: “Birth is destroyed, the spiritual life has been lived, what had to be done has been done; there is no more coming back to any state of being.”

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4361 When it is liberated there comes the knowledge: ‘It is liberated. ’ He understands: ‘Birth is destroyed, the spiritual life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming back to any state of being.’ (Majjhima Nikaya 27: Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta; I 175–84)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3915 While we are often told that the practice of the Buddhist path depends entirely on personal effort, this sutta emphasizes the importance of spiritual friendship.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3917 the endeavor to attain spiritual perfection is not a purely solitary enterprise but occurs in dependence on close personal ties.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4196 “Venerable sir, this is half of the spiritual life, that is, good friendship, good companionship, good comradeship.” (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:2; V 2–3)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4197 “Not so, Ānanda! Not so, Ānanda! This is the entire spiritual life, (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:2; V 2–3)

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 3918 Spiritual friendship gives the practice of the Dhamma an inescapably human dimension and welds the body of Buddhist practitioners into a community united both vertically by the relationship of teacher to students and horizontally by friendships among peers treading a shared path.

  • Highlight(pink) - Location 4198 When a monk has a good friend, a good companion, a good comrade, it is to be expected that he will develop and cultivate the Noble Eightfold Path. (Saṃyutta Nikāya 45:2; V 2–3)

Notes

Total: 6

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