Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammâ-Sambuddhassa Buddha and his all teaching were always meant for everyone…not to own self only. And sharing of this dhamma post are ...for all beings..you may read, understand, like, share the post (may all be benefited from your sharing) and may you also be merited. Dear Dhamma Friends, Homage to Triple Gems..Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. We are in Hand book for Mankind by Venerable Buddhadasa Bhikkhu EMANCIPATION FROM THE WORLD..this chapter will be the last chapter by Venerable Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. To-day it is part 2 The root cause of hesitancy is ignorance. A fish that has always lived in the water, if told about life on dry land, would be sure to believe none of it, or at most only half of it. We, immersed as we are in sensuality, are as habituated to sensuality as is the fish to water, so that when someone speaks of transcending sensuality, transcending the world, we cant under stand. And that which we can understand to some extent we are hesitant about. It is natural for us to think on this lower level; to think on the high level produces a new picture. The conflict between the high level thinking and the low level thinking is what constitutes wavering. If mental energy is insufficient, the low level thinking will triumph. Doubt and wavering with regard to goodness is something chronically present in everyone right from birth. In a person who has been brought up wrongly, it may be a very common complaint. We have to introspect and note the bad consequences of this wavering, which is present to such an extent in our work and our everyday living that we become skeptical about goodness, truth and liberation from suffering. The third fetter is Superstition (Silabbatapraramasa) or attachment to rules and rituals based on a misunderstanding of their real purpose. Essentially it is a misguided attachment to certain things one does. Usually it has to do with doctrines and ceremonies. An example of this is belief in magic and magical practices, which is blatantly just superstition and occurs even among Buddhists. Practice based on the belief that it will produce magical abilities, psychic powers and protective forces is founded on false hopes and is irrational. Another example is the undertaking of moral precepts (Five Precepts, etc.) or virtuous conduct. The real purpose of this is to eliminate mental defilements; but if we believe that it will give rise to miraculous powers which we shall then be able to use to eradicate the defilements, we are in fact grasping and clinging, and so defeating our original purpose. The practice is quite correct in itself, but if we misunderstand it and cling to it irrationally, regarding it as something magical or sacred, then it becomes pure superstition. Even taking upon oneself the moral precepts, if done in the belief that it will lead to rebirth as a celestial being, is without a doubt an example of attachment to rules and rituals and goes contrary to Buddhist aims. Such beliefs contaminate otherwise virtuous conduct. The objective of the Buddhist discipline is the elimination of the cruder defilements of body and speech as a foundation for the progressive development of concentration and insight. The objective is not rebirth in heaven. To have such false motives is to soil and contaminate ones own morals with grasping and clinging, with false ideas. Charity, or adherence to moral precepts, or meditation practice, if carried out with a mistaken idea of their true objective. inevitably will stray from the Buddhist path. Do understand that even Buddhist practice associated with misunderstanding because craving has come in and taken over, bringing the expectation of mystical powers, becomes superstition instead. This applies to even the very small and trivial things that most of us like to indulge in, such as ritual chanting, merit making and the like. The ceremony of placing rice and trays of sweets before the Buddhas image, if performed in the belief that it is an offering to the Buddhas spirit and that he will be able to partake of it, is 100 percent certain to produce effects precisely the opposite of what the devotee is hoping for. Behavior that defeats its own true purpose is generally quite common in Buddhist circles. It is foolish and irrational and results in practices originally worthwhile and attractive becoming contaminated with the stupidity and ignorance of the people performing them. This is what is meant by superstition. As we can see, this defilement has its origins in delusion and misunderstanding. Most of us have our own ingrown beliefs in mystical powers as a result of having been misinformed and led astray by others. We need not go into any more detail here; but though it may be rather disturbing, everyone ought to do some critical self-examination along these lines. When these first three defilements, namely self belief, doubt and superstition, have been completely given up, one is said to have attained the lowest level in the supramundane plane, that is, to have become a Stream enterer. To give up completely these three defilements is not difficult at all, because they are just primitive qualities possessed by primitive, under-developed people. In anyone who has studied well and made progress, these three elements should not be present; and if they are, then that persons mind should be considered still primitive. Anyone ought to be able to give up these three defilements and become an Aryian. If he cant he is still a foolish and deluded person, or, to use the best term, a worldling (Puthujjana), someone with a thick blindfold covering the eye of insight . When any individual has managed to give up these defilements, his mind is freed from bondage to the world. These three are ignorance and delusion obscuring the truth and are fetters binding the mind to the world. Giving them up is like rendering ineffective three kinds of bondage or three blind folds, then slipping free and rising above and beyond the world, into the first supramundane level. This is what it is to become an Aryian of the first degree, to attain the first level in the supramundane plane. Such an individual is called a Stream - enterer, one who has attained for the first time the Stream that flows on to Nirvana. In other words an individual at this stage is certain to attain Nirvana at some time in the future. What he has attained is only the Stream of Nirvana, not Nirvana itself. This Stream is a course that flows right on to Nirvana, inclining towards Nirvana just as the water-course of a river slopes down towards the sea. Though it may still take some time, a mind which has once entered the Stream is certain to achieve Nirvana eventually. Attaining the second level in the supramundane plane implies giving up the three fetters just mentioned, and further, being able to attenuate certain types of craving, aversion and delusion to such a degree that the mind becomes elevated and only very feebly attached to sensuality. It is traditionally held that an individual who achieves this level will return to this world at most only once more, hence he is known as a Once - returner. A Once - returner is closer to Nirvana than a Stream - enterer, there remaining in him no more than a trace of worldliness. Should he return to the sensual human world, he will do so not more than once, because craving, aversion and delusion, though not completely eliminated, have become exceedingly attenuated. The third stage is that of the Never - returner. This grade of Aryian, besides having succeeded in giving up the defilements to the extent necessary for becoming a Once - returner, has also managed to give up the fourth and fifth fetters. The Fourth fetter is sensual desire and the fifth is ill will. Neither the Stream - enterer nor the Once - returner has completely given up sensual desire. In both of them there is still a remnant of satisfaction in alluring and desirable objects. Even though they have managed to give up self belief, doubt and superstition, they are still unable to relinquish completely their attachment to sensuality of which some traces remain. But an Aryian at the third stage, a Never - returner, has succeeded in giving it up completely, so that not a trace remains. The defilement called ill will, which includes all feelings of anger or resentment, has been washed out to a large extent by the Once - returner so that there remains only a trace of ill humor to obstruct his mind; but the Never - returner has got rid of it altogether. Thus the Never - returner has thrown off both sensual desire and ill will. This sensual desire or attachment to and satisfaction in sensuality was explained adequately in the section on sensual attachment. It is a chronic defilement, firmly fixed in the mind as if it were a very part of it, of the same substance. For the ordinary man, it is hard to understand and hard to eradicate. Anything at all can serve as an object for desire: colors and shapes, sounds, odors, tastes and tactile objects of any sort, kind and description. These are sensual objects (Kama), and the state of mental attachment which takes the form of satisfaction in these desirable objects is sensual desire (Kama - raga). What we call ill will is the reaction of a mind that feels dissatisfaction. If there is satisfaction, there is sensual desire; if dissatisfaction, ill will. Most peoples minds are subject to these two states. There may arise ill will towards even inanimate objects, and what is more, one can even be dissatisfied with the things one has produced oneself, the things that arise in ones own mind. Where there is actual hatred and anger towards an object, ill will has become too fierce. An Aryian at a stage below the Non - returnee has given it up to a degree appropriate to his station. The ill will that remains for the third grade of Aryian to relinquish is just a mental reaction so subtle that possibly no outward evidence of it appears. It is an inner perturbation not revealed by any facial expression, yet present inwardly as dissatisfaction, as irritation or annoyance at some person or thing that does not conform to expectation. Imagine a person completely devoid of every form of ill will: consider what a very exceptional individual he would be, and how worthy of respect. The five defilements we have just been discussing were grouped together by the Buddha as the first to be given up. Self belief, doubt, superstition, sensual desire and ill will have all been given up by an Aryian at the third level. Because there remains no sensual desire, this grade of Aryian never again returns to the sensual state of existence. This is why he gets the name Never - returner, one who will never come back. For him there is only movement forward and upward to Arahantship and Nirvana, in a state having nothing to do with sensuality, a supreme, divine condition. As for the five remaining defilements, these only the Arahant, the fourth grade of Aryian, succeeds in relinquishing completely…to be contd.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 04:15:54 +0000
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