MN-012-P1-AUG07-T


BV: This is a real interesting sutta about some of the things that the Bodhisatta did before he became enlightened, some of the practices that he did. And I’m real glad that he did that, so I don’t have to try it and see whether it works or not. You’ll get a chance to see.

MN:
1. THUS HAVE I HEARD. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Vesāli in the grove outside the city to the west.
2. Now on that occasion Sunakkhatta, son of the Licchavis, had recently left this Dhamma and Discipline. He was making this statement before the Vesāli assembly:

BV: He was a person that became a monk because he wanted to be around the Buddha, and he wanted to look at the Buddha all the time. And he got severely chastised for it. So he disrobed. And that’s what we’re talking about here. Because he was kind of bitter he started making stuff up, you’ll see.

MN:
"The recluse Gotama does not have any superhuman states, any distinction in knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones. The recluse Gotama teaches a Dhamma [merely] hammered out by reasoning, following his own line of inquiry as it occurs to him, and when he teaches the Dhamma to anyone, it leads him when he practises it to the complete destruction of suffering."
3. Then, when it was morning, the venerable Sāriputta dressed, and taking his bowl and outer robe, went into Vesāli for alms. Then he heard Sunakkhatta, son of the Licchavis, making this statement before the Vesāli assembly. When he had wandered for alms in Vesāli and had returned from his almsround, after his meal he went to the Blessed One, and after paying homage to him, he sat down at one side and told the Blessed One what Sunakkhatta was saying.
4. [The Blessed One said:] "Sāriputta, the misguided man Sunakkhatta is angry and his words are spoken out of anger. Thinking to discredit the Tathāgata, he actually praises him; [69] for it is praise of the Tathāgata to say of him: 'When he teaches the Dhamma to anyone, it leads him when he practises it to the complete destruction of suffering.'
5. "Sāriputta, this misguided man Sunakkhatta will never infer of me according to Dhamma: That Blessed One is accomplished, fully enlightened, perfect in true knowledge and conduct, sublime, knower of worlds, incomparable leader of persons to be tamed, teacher of gods and humans, enlightened, blessed.'

BV: This is something that monks recite when they do their chanting.

MN:
6. "And he will never infer of me according to Dhamma: 'That Blessed One enjoys the various kinds of supernormal power: having been one, he becomes many;

BV: She (SK) lusts after that one.

S: Pure chanda. Pure chanda.

BV: Not chanda. (laughter)

MN:
having been many, he becomes one; he appears and vanishes; he goes unhindered through a wall, through an enclosure, through a mountain, as though through space; he dives in and out of the earth as though it were water; he walks on water without sinking as though it were earth; seated cross-legged, he travels in space like a bird; with his hand he touches and strokes the moon and sun so powerful and mighty; he wields bodily mastery even as far as the Brahma-world.'
7. "And he will never infer of me according to Dhamma: 'With the divine ear element, which is purified and surpasses the human, that Blessed One hears both kinds of sounds, the heavenly and the human, those that are far as well as near.'
8. "And he will never infer of me according to Dhamma: That Blessed One encompasses with his own mind the minds of other beings, other persons. He understands a mind affected by lust as affected by lust and a mind unaffected by lust as unaffected by lust; he understands a mind affected by hate as affected by hate and a mind unaffected by hate as unaffected by hate; he understands a mind affected by delusion as affected by delusion and a mind unaffected by delusion as unaffected by delusion; he understands a contracted mind { as contracted }

TT: 5:30

BV: What’s a contracted mind? Sloth and torpor. Your mind contracts, and gets lazy, and then starts to ho-hum and daydream. And then, the sleepiness comes.

MN:
and a distracted mind as distracted;

BV: What is a distracted mind? Restless mind.

MN:
he understands an exalted mind as exalted and an unexalted mind as unexalted;

BV: What is an exalted mind? A mind in the rūpa jhānas is called an exalted mind. An unexalted mind is a mind that doesn’t have any jhāna at all.

MN:
he understands a surpassed mind as surpassed and an unsurpassed mind as unsurpassed;

BV: What is a surpassed mind? Arūpa jhānas.

MN:
he understands a <collected> mind as <collected> and an <uncollected> mind as <uncollected>; he understands a liberated mind as liberated and an unliberated mind as unliberated.'

BV: What’s a liberated mind? Seeing everything as being an impersonal process. That is how you are ultimately liberated.
Now we go to the ten powers of the Tathāgata. The Tathāgata is a word that the Buddha called himself. In Pali it’s got some strange kind of definitions… it’s like one who has gone forth well?

B U Jotika: ~

BV: Yeah. But the meaning of the word Tathāgata is one that is well-gone. He’s gone through all of his lifetimes and purified himself very much and…. Anyway.

MN:
9. "Sāriputta, the Tathāgata has these ten Tathāgata's powers, possessing which he claims the herd-leader's place, roars his lion's roar in the assemblies, and sets rolling the Wheel of Brahma. What are the ten?
10. (1) "Here, the Tathāgata understands as it actually is the possible as possible and the impossible as impossible. And that [70] is a Thatāgata's power that the Tathāgata has, by virtue of which he claims the herd-leader's place, roars his lion's roar in the assemblies, and sets rolling the Wheel of Brahma.

BV: The lion’s roar is when somebody criticizes you, you give a statement that’s one hundred percent true. And that’s called the lion’s roar. There’s no refuting it.

MN:
11. (2) "Again, the Tathāgata understands as it actually is the results of actions undertaken, past, future, and present, with possibilities and with causes. {That too is a Tathāgata's power…}

BV: In other words, he can tell what you’ve been doing for the last five hundred lifetimes or so. So he can talk to you in a way that you would be able to understand very easily. Why would knowing what you’ve been doing for the last five hundred times be relevant to what you’re doing now? Old habitual tendencies! If you do something in a particular way because you got in the habit of doing it that way, then the Buddha would be able to say something to you that would boink you a little bit, and you go, “Oh, I don’t need to do that anymore.”

TT: 9:48

There’s a story about this man and this woman. They were married and they were living together, and the woman never became pregnant. So the man wanted to have children, so he went and got another wife. And she immediately became pregnant. And the first wife thought that she was going to lose her authority in the household, being the first wife, when the other woman had the baby. So she gave the woman herbs to cause a miscarriage. And they were happy for a while and then it happened again, the second wife got pregnant. And again, the first wife gave some herbs and special foods and caused a miscarriage. And the third time it happened, the second wife started thinking, “This is not good. I’m not gonna take anything given by her anymore.” So she would pretend that she ate it and she would throw it away. And as a result, she had a baby. Now the first wife was so upset by this that she killed both the second wife and the baby. And the second wife, right as she was dying, said, “The next time we meet in whatever lifetime I’m going to kill you and all of your siblings.” And they went many, many lifetimes of being different kinds of animals, a fox and the chicks and a hen, and then they were just feuding for lifetimes and lifetimes. Finally the last time it happened: This one woman had a baby and she went to a watering hole and the other woman asked if she could suckle the baby. And the first woman seemed to recognize her somehow and said “No!” and the other woman got really angry, and they started grabbing onto the baby and pulling it one way or the other and finally the mother got the baby free and started running, and went right to where the Buddha was giving a Dhamma talk and put the baby down right at his feet. The other woman came barreling up there, and saw that she couldn’t get the baby, and the Buddha looked at both of them and said, “Why are you doing this?” Because he could see their past lifetimes. He said that they’d been killing each other for many, many lifetimes and they’d been carrying this feud from one lifetime to the next, to the next, to the next. And he told them that it was time to stop doing this and that they should become friends. And because it was the Buddha that did it, of course that’s what happened. (laughs) But that’s how old habitual tendencies, I mean they can--every time one woman killed the children and the other woman, the other woman would make some kind of vow that the next time it would be the other way around and they just kept doing that. And the Buddha could see that and he stopped that cycle for them, they actually became friends.

MN:
12. (3) "Again, the Tathāgata understands as it actually is the ways leading to all destinations. {That too is a Tathāgata's power…}

BV: You do this kind of practice, you’ll go there. There’s one sutta here called the Dog Ascetic sutta (MN-57), where this guy, he thought he would get enlightened. There was actually two guys. One guy thought he would get enlightened if he started acting like a dog. And he crawled around on his hands and knees, he ate stuff out of the dirt, he would scratch his self with his leg, and basically act like a dog. The other guy thought he would become enlightened if he acted like, I think it was a cow or a bull or something like that. And after they’d done that for many years they went to the Buddha and said, “Look at how good we are. We have this discipline that we can act this way all the time.” And the Buddha looked at the guy that was practicing the dog asceticism and say, “Well, what’s going to happen in your next lifetime is that you’re gonna be a dog! You’re not gonna get enlightened by acting this way.” And he looked at the other guy and said, “Well, in your next lifetime you’re going to be a cow!” And that was such a shock to them that they stopped those practices and started practicing the way the Buddha said. Of course you have to have that kind of thing in the story. Anyway, he was able to see if you practice this kind of meditation you’re gonna go to a heavenly realm, and if you do this you’re not. You’ll be reborn as an animal, you’ll be reborn into one of the lower realms, whatever.

TT: 15:05

MN:
13. (4) "Again, the Tathāgata understands as it actually is the world with its many and different elements. {That too is a Tathāgata's power…}

BV: He sees things the way they actually are, and the elements and how to mix things together and make things come out right and do those sort of things.

MN:
14. (5) "Again, the Tathāgata understands as it actually is how beings have different inclinations. {That too is a Tathāgata's power…}

BV: There was this couple that came to the Buddha as he was finishing a dhamma talk, and they kept on calling him “son”. “Son, it’s time for us to go home. Come with us, son.” And one of the other monks said, “Why are they calling you son?” And he said, “Well, I was their son for five hundred lifetimes. They’re used to calling me son, and getting me to do whatever they want.” So you can see the inclinations. There was another story, this gets some people upset when I tell it but I’m going to tell it anyway. This monk, he’d been a Brahmin for five hundred lifetimes. And when you’re a Brahmin, that means you’re really in the upper class and you call everybody lowborn. And this monk became an arahat. And he was walking around and this guy was going to market with a cart full of herbs. And the monk said, “Lowborn, what is in your cart?” And the guy got really mad. He said, “Rabbit turds.” And the arahat said, “Ah, so be it.” and it turned into rabbit turds. Now, this really upset the guy so he goes to the Buddha and he said, “What is it with this monk?” And the Buddha said, “Well, he’s a perfect one. He’s an arahat.” And the guy said “Well how can he call me a lowborn and look down on me like he does?” And the Buddha said, “Well, he’s been doing that for five hundred years so he has that habit, but he doesn’t have any ill feeling behind it. It’s just words, that’s all.” So the next time this guy saw the monk coming and the monk stops and says, “What have you got in your cart?” he said, “I have the finest herbs that have ever been picked.” And the arahat said, “So be it.” And, that’s what happened. But there wasn’t any hatred or conceit at all in his use of those words; it was just an old habit. That’s one of the things that makes it kind of difficult to tell when you’re around somebody that’s an arahat or not. You have to be around them for a long time and know what to look for before you can decide in you’re mind whether this person actually is an arahat or not. I’ve been around monks that there’s been a lot of claims. But I’ve been around them long enough to see that those claims weren’t for real, unfortunately. I keep on waiting. Maybe one of these days I’ll be lucky enough to meet one and live with them for a while.

MN:
15. (6) "Again, the Tathāgata understands as it actually is the disposition of the faculties of other beings, other persons. {That too is a Tathāgata's power…}

TT: 18:46

BV: In other words, they see their tendencies towards lust and hatred. In one of the commentaries, there is a description of how to recognize sixty-two different personality types. I don’t necessarily go along with this commentary. But the first six I go along with. There is the lust type of personality. The way you tell a lust type of personality is when they wear their clothes, they always wear them perfectly, like they were just made for them to be put on. And when they eat, they eat very precisely. And when they taste something, oh they really taste it. And you can tell by the way they walk. When they walk, they put their foot down very evenly. They don’t make a lot of noise when they walk. A hatred kind of personality, they wear their clothes kind of tight. When they do their jobs they do them fast but they’re kind of sloppy. When they eat it’s like they’re attacking their food and they don’t really taste very much. When they walk they drive their heels into the ground. The slothful kind of personality is one where somebody is really sloppy, all the time. They do things in a sloppy way. They just kind of ho-hum through life like they’re half-awake. They walk in a sloppy way--their strides are not always the same length so they walk in a kind of a jerky motion. Now, a lustful type of personality is someone that if we had a cabin that was in bad shape, it was in a state where it needed repair, it had a leaky roof, that’s where I would put that kind of monk. Because it would incense them for one thing. But also that helps put their mind in balance. And I would tell them to go on an alms round, and “You don’t go here; you go over there,” and they would see nothing but very coarse people and they would get very little low-grade food and things like that, because that would help balance that tendency. An anger personality type I would put in a very, very luxurious kind of cabin, and I would tell them, “When you go out on alms round, you go over here,” and they would get the best food and they would be around the best kind of people that were very pleasant and they always heard speech that was very kind, because that puts their mind in balance. Somebody that’s a slothful kind of personality, I would put them in a cabin that was high up on a hill, where they could sit out on their porch and they have this panoramic view. Because sloth, remember that’s the one that contracts, and they need to feel expansion. They need to feel open. So I would give them a big cabin where they could feel very much at ease. And I would put them around, or I’d tell them to go where a lot of intellectuals were so they’d start taking more interest in everything, because they’re around more intelligent kind of people. So, knowing the kind of personality types is good for when someone would come for a period of time, two weeks, three months, six months, a year. And that way you know how to adjust so that their personality would be more in balance. That’s what happens at some monasteries that I’ve been at. It’s always interesting to see that. I had this one fellow that, when he put on a piece of clothing, it looked like it was made for him. I mean, he could take something off the rack and put it on and it looked great on him! And he was a lustful kind of personality. (laughs) He went to this o ne Thai monastery, and they gave me a kind of mediocre cabin. It was OK but it wasn’t great. And they gave him this cabin where there was a lot of snakes. (laughter) Every night he was calling me to his cabin to get rid of the snakes for him. And all of the monks, they laughed and they thought that was just great, until a snake got into the abbot’s quarters and all of the sudden all of the monks were real excited and “We got to get this out of here!” But that guy was Australian, and he was suffering a lot with all of these snakes coming in and bothering him. (laughs) Anyway.

MN:
16. (7) "Again, the Tathāgata understands as it actually is the defilement, the cleansing, and the emergence in regard to the jhānas, liberations, <collectednesses>, and attainments. That too is a Tathāgata's power…

BV: Now isn’t that interesting, that in the same breath they’re talking about defilement and cleansing and jhāna. You see, that’s the way that leads to the jhāna. Not many people would pick that up. They would just see that and read right on through. But that’s the way--the hindrance has to be there first. And then the cleansing of the hindrance--the 6Rs, letting go of the hindrance, and then you get into the jhāna.

TT: 25:00

MN:
17. (8) "Again, the Tathāgata recollects his manifold past lives, { that is, one birth, two births…(as Sutta 4, §27)…Thus with their aspects and particulars he recollects his manifold past lives. That too is a Tathāgata's power…}

BV: And , once you get to a certain level in your meditation I might come and ask you if you want to remember past lives. And if you do, then I will explain how it’s done. But it’s always comical when I start teaching people about past lifetimes, because once they start, and they actually see a past lifetime, they come running over to me, asking me, “Is this my imagination?” I say, “No, it’s actually your memory,” because it can be very specific. You know the kind of clothes you wore, you know the kind of foods you ate, you know the kind of things that you did in that past lifetime, you know the people in that past lifetime and you might run across somebody that you’re doing a retreat with, that you’ve been in a past life with them. And maybe you knew them very well, maybe you didn’t. A lot of people, when I start teaching them this, they tell me that I’ve been a teacher, I’ve been like a college professor type, a higher kind of teacher in a lot of lifetimes, they see me and they’ve taken classes with me and that’s one of the reasons they listen to me. (laughs) Who knows? Anyway, let’s see, that was past lifetimes.

MN:
18. (9) "Again, with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, the Tathāgata sees beings passing away and reappearing, inferior and superior, fair and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate…{(as Sutta 4, §29) [71]…and he understands how beings pass on according to their actions. That too is a Tathāgata's power… }

BV: In other words, he’s going to the different realms and visiting people and talking with them, “What did you do to get here?” Got some interesting stories when you start doing that.

MN:
19. (10) "Again, by realising for himself with direct knowledge, the Tathāgata here and now enters upon and abides in the deliverance of mind and deliverance by wisdom

BV: What does that mean?

S: Understanding Dependent Origination?

BV: That’s it.

MN:
that are taintless with the destruction of the taints. {That too is a Tathāgata's power that the Tathāgata has, by virtue of which he claims the herd-leader's place, roars his lion's roar in the assemblies, and sets rolling the Wheel of Brahma. }

BV: When you actually see and realize that everything that arises is part of this process, and there’s nobody home, when you realize that, it is such a powerful realization that you let go of all attachments. And when you let go of attachments, they won’t arise again. Now your mind is really clear, your mind is really perfect. You’re always in the present moment. And one of the advantages of trying to find an arahat and being around an arahat, is to question them, “What do you think about this?” Because they’ll give you the straight answer that leads to the cessation. They won’t mess around.

MN:
20. "The Tathāgata has these ten Tathāgata's powers, possessing which he claims the herd-leader's place, roars his lion's roar in the assemblies, and sets rolling the Wheel of Brahma.
21. "Sāriputta, when I know and see thus, should anyone say of me: 'The recluse Gotama does not have any superhuman states, any distinction in knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones. The recluse Gotama teaches a Dhamma [merely] hammered out by reasoning, following his own line of inquiry as it occurs to him'—unless he abandons that assertion and that state of mind and relinquishes that view, then as [surely as if he had been] carried off and put there he will wind up in hell. Just as a bhikkhu possessed of virtue, <collectedness>, and wisdom would here and now enjoy final knowledge, so it will happen in this case, I say, that unless he abandons that assertion and that state of mind and relinquishes that view, then as [surely as if he had been] carried off and put there he will wind up in hell.

TT: 29:56

BV: Anybody that experiences a jhāna has the potential in this lifetime to experience Nibbāna. Promise. It all depends on how you apply your mind and how you start adjusting and letting go of old ways of doing things, not being afraid of change.
There’s four kinds of Intrepidity. I said it right.

MN:
(FOUR KINDS OF INTREPIDITY)

22. "Sāriputta, the Tathāgata has these four kinds of intrepidity, possessing which he claims the herd-leader's place, roars his lion's roar in the assemblies, and sets rolling the Wheel of Brahma. What are the four?
23. "Here, I see no ground on which any recluse or brahmin or god or Mara or Brahma or anyone else at all in the world could, in accordance with the Dhamma, accuse me thus: 'While you claim full enlightenment, you are not fully enlightened in regard to certain things.' [72] And seeing no ground for that, I abide in safety, fearlessness, and intrepidity.
24. "I see no ground on which any recluse…or anyone at all could accuse me thus: 'While you claim to have destroyed the taints, these taints are undestroyed by you.' And seeing no ground for that, I abide in safety, fearlessness, and intrepidity.
25. "I see no ground on which any recluse…or anyone at all could accuse me thus: Those things called obstructions by you are not able to obstruct one who engages in them.' {And seeing no ground for that, I abide in safety, fearlessness, and intrepidity.}

BV: You understand that? I’ll do it again.
“Those things called obstructions by you”, hindrances, “are not able to obstruct one who engages in them.” So you get involved with the hindrance, they won’t obstruct your progress at all.

S: ~

BV: That’s right, that’s why the Buddha said you can’t say that sort of thing. That’s why he abides in safety, fearlessness, and intrepidity. He’s absolutely, perfectly convinced--not convinced, sure--that what he says is right.

MN:
26. "I see no ground on which any recluse…or anyone at ill could accuse me thus: 'When you teach the Dhamma to someone, it does not lead him when he practises it to the complete destruction of suffering.' And seeing no ground for that, I abide in safety, fearlessness, and intrepidity.
{27. "A Tathāgata has these four kinds of intrepidity, possessing which he claims the herd-leader's place, roars his lion's roar in the assemblies, and sets rolling the Wheel of Brahma.
28. "Sāriputta, when I know and see thus, should anyone say of me…he will wind up in hell.}

BV: In other words, all of the Buddha’s teachings lead towards Nibbāna, the cessation of suffering. See, there’s two kinds of ways that you can teach. The Thais in particular, and the Burmese too, they like to talk about suffering a LOT. And they teach about suffering a LOT. And the Buddha said if that’s what you teach, you’re teaching in the wrong way. The Buddha said you always want to teach about the cessation of suffering. There IS suffering, we don’t have to guess about that. What’s the cause of suffering? Craving. How do you let go of the craving? 6Rs. When you do the 6Rs properly, that’s the cessation of suffering. Right? And that was another thing that made me real happy when I ran across it in the suttas. My teacher, U Silinanda, he was very sick. He had a brain tumor and they had to do an operation. And I was with him before, during and a little bit after the operation. And before the operation, he was walking around saying “dukkha” a lot. “Oh, everything is suffering.” Because that’s what he was looking at: the pain he was having, the suffering he was having, the fear of death. Everything was dukkha. And I put up with it as long as I could, and eventually I said, “You know, if you always think about suffering, then that’s what you’re going to see. Why don’t you think about loving-kindness and radiate loving-kindness to everybody who comes and sees you?” And then I had to go off and do something and I came back a little bit later and he said, “You’re right. It’s better to focus on loving-kindness than all of this suffering.” Boy, that made my day, I want to tell you.

TT: 35:15

MN:
(THE EIGHT ASSEMBLIES)

29. "Sāriputta, there are these eight assemblies. What are the eight? An assembly of nobles, an assembly of brahmins, an assembly of householders, an assembly of recluses, an assembly of gods of the heaven of the Four Great Kings,

BV: This is the lowest of the heavenly realms, the deva lokas, and they’re the nature spirits.

MN:
an assembly of gods of the heaven of the Thirty-three,

BV: This is where Saccaka is the king of this particular heaven. When you die and you’re reborn as a nature spirit, it is considered a heavenly realm. One year of your life is equivalent roughly to about fifty years of living on the earth. And you live for about a thousand years. So that gives you an idea that these guys hang around for a while. When you go to the next heavenly realm, that’s the Realm of the Thirty-three, one day is equivalent to a hundred years here, and you live to be a few thousand years old. So if you’re reborn in a heavenly realm, you’re reborn for long periods of time. And they’re seven deva lokas where you don’t necessarily gain the real long periods of time. But you don’t do much meditation. These are by your acts of helpfulness and kindness and all of that sort of thing. The wholesome nature. You get into the Brahma lokas. Now you can only get into a Brahma loka through mental development. Say you just experience getting into the jhāna and something happens and you die. You’re gonna be reborn in a Brahma loka. In the low Brahma loka, it lasts about one-third asankheyya. OK, there’s four asankheyyas. There’s the expansion of the universe, that’s one asankheyya. It stops for one asankheyya. It contracts for one asankheyya. It stops for one asankheyya. And this is continually the expansion and contraction of the universe. The only time human beings, or any beings at all, are alive, is when the universe is expanding. When it stops, all life dies. When it contracts, there’s no life. You’ve got a big black hole, waiting to explode again. And then life happens again. So you’re reborn for a third of an asankheyya, which is a few billion years, roughly. When you have developed mastery of the first jhāna, which means you can go in and out of the first jhāna at will, then when you’re reborn you will be reborn in the Brahma loka where it lasts for one mahakappa. And that’s the four—OK, in years, an asankheyya--and I have no idea whether these are accurate numbers are not. That’s what it says in the commentaries so I use those numbers. It’s ten with a hundred and sixty zeros behind it. That’s how many years in one asankheyya. A mahakappa is times four. So it’s five hundred and forty zeros behind it. That’s a long time. Now, when you’re in the deva loka, you need to eat every day. They’re always munching on grapes and other kinds of stuff. If you don’t eat, then your fine material body will die from that realm and be reborn someplace else according to your karma. When you get into the Brahma lokas, your food is joy. So it’s a finer material plane. And say you have mastery of the third jhāna, being able to go in and out of the first jhāna, second jhāna and third jhāna at will, you have that kind of mastery. Then if you die and you don’t go any higher, you will be reborn in a Brahma loka and it will last for sixteen mahakappas. So start multiplying five hundred and forty zeros times sixteen. (laughs) When you get into the fourth jhāna, it lasts for five hundred mahakappas. When you get into the arūpa jhānas, it lasts for thousands of mahakappas. But you don’t have a physical body anymore, strictly a mental realm. But the whole thing is, what the Buddha taught was to go beyond the arūpa jhānas and experience Nibbāna, so there’s not ever any coming back. Even if you’re reborn in some of the higher arūpa jhāna realms, you’ll be there for an incredibly long period of time, but you will be eventually burning off all of that karma that you made to get there, and eventually you’ll be reborn in a deva loka, and then you could be reborn as an animal or in the hell realms or in the human realm. So that’s part of the wheel of samsara. And the Buddha told us how to get off of the wheel of samsara. And that’s what I’m trying to teach you now.

TT: 41:38

MN:
an assembly of Mara's retinue, an assembly of Brahmās. Possessing these four kinds of intrepidity, the Tathāgata approaches and enters these eight assemblies.

BV: In other words, he can go to the heavenly realms. He can go to the hell realms. He can go and visit wherever he wants.

MN:
30. "I recall having approached many hundred assemblies of nobles… many hundred assemblies of brahmins… many hundred assemblies of householders… many hundred assemblies of recluses… many hundred assemblies of gods of the heaven of the Four Great Kings… many hundred assemblies of gods of the heaven of the Thirty-three… many hundred assemblies of Mara's retinue… many hundred assemblies of Brahmās. And formerly I had sat with them there and talked with them and held conversations with them, yet I see no ground for thinking that fear or timidity might come upon me there. And seeing no ground for that, I abide in safety, fearlessness, and intrepidity. [73]
{31. "Sāriputta, when I know and see thus, should anyone say of me…he will wind up in hell. }

BV: He’s stating that it doesn’t matter who he’s with, his mind’s not gonna get excited about it, basically what it boils down to. If somebody comes along and they criticize him, it doesn’t make his mind shake. He has no hatred, no aversion at all.

MN:
(FOUR KINDS OF GENERATION)

32. "Sāriputta, there are these four kinds of generation. What are the four? Egg-born generation, womb-born generation, moisture-born generation, and spontaneous generation.

BV: Egg-born: that’s easy. Moisture-born: human being, as well as fish, other things like that. Born in moisture. Womb-born is human being for sure, but it’s also animals. And spontaneous-born: When you die from this realm, you’re spontaneously reborn in another realm, either fine material, coarse material. This is coarse material, what we have here. But you’re not reborn as a baby when it’s spontaneous birth. You’re reborn more or less like a teenager.

MN:
33. "What is egg-born generation? There are these beings born by breaking out of the shell of an egg; this is called egg-born generation. What is womb-born generation? There are these beings born by breaking out from the caul; this is called womb-born generation. What is moisture-born generation? There are these beings born in a rotten fish, in a rotten corpse, in rotten porridge, in a cesspit, or in a sewer; this is called moisture-born generation.

BV: I’ve seen other definitions of moisture-born too. This is the gross form.

TT; 45:06

MN:
What is spontaneous generation? There are gods and denizens of hell and certain human beings and some beings in the lower worlds; this is called spontaneous generation. {These are the four kinds of generation.}
{34. "Sāriputta, when I know and see thus, should anyone say of me...he will wind up in hell. }
35. "Sāriputta, there are these five destinations. What are the five? Hell, the animal realm, the realm of ghosts, human beings, and gods.
36. (1) "I understand hell, and the path and way leading to hell. And I also understand how one who has entered this path will, on the dissolution of the body, after death, reappear in a state of deprivation, in an unhappy destination, in perdition, in hell.

BV: Now, it’s real important to be with people as they are dying. Because they can have visions that correspond directly to their mental state. If they have anger at the time that they die, they will see hell realms. They’ll see fire. If they have greed in their mind, they will be reborn in one of the ghost realms. If they have a lot of confusion in their mind, they will very easily be reborn in the animal realm. And they can have visions of animals and things like that, but that corresponds to confusion in their mind. If they have visions of family members that have died in the past and they see them, then they will be reborn in the human realm. If they see devas floating down on a chariot of some sort, then they’ll be reborn in the deva loka or one of the higher realms. These are real visions that happen with people. I spent a year being around people that died, about one person a week for almost a year, asking them about visions that they had, trying to have them remember times when they did kind things to other people and made them happy, and it was a real interesting experience. I was with one lady in particular; she had cancer in the brain. And she was fading fast and I knew that she was gonna be dying that day so I went in and started spending time with her. Now I was in the room with her, but her family didn’t know me from Adam. And they came in the room and they were rather incensed that I was there because they wanted to be with her, and I certainly didn’t want to cause any problems. So I said goodbye to this lady and I wished her well and I shared my merit with her. And I told her to think kindly thoughts and remember kindly past instances so she could have a good rebirth. And I walked out of the room. Now the family was with her for a couple of minutes, and she died. I was walking down a hallway, nobody else in the hallway, and somebody came up and tapped me on my shoulder. And I turned around and there was nobody there. And I immediately had joy that was just--I was almost floating. It was really, really strong joy. And that to me was her saying goodbye to me and thank you for the help that I’d given her. These kind of things are real and they happen.

 
One of the mistakes that an awful lot of people make is when they go into a room where somebody is in a coma, and think that that person doesn’t know you’re there. They know. And if you want to communicate with someone that’s in a coma, you put your hand on their chest or you put your hand on their forehead. And very quietly and deliberately in your mind, ask if there is anything that you can do to help them. The answer doesn’t come right away. Sometimes it takes a little while. But an answer will come. And then you do what they ask, and then they’re all happy, and everything is great. But they can hear what you’re saying. They don’t necessarily have the energy to respond, but they can really hear. And I kind of devoted that whole year to seeing how many I could help to get into the heavenly realms. And it was a great year, it was really amazing.
Anyway.

TT: 50:13

MN:
(2) "I understand the animal realm, and the path and way leading to the animal realm. And I also understand how one who has entered this path will, on the dissolution of the body, after death, reappear in the animal realm.
(3) "I understand the realm of ghosts, and the path and way leading to the realm of ghosts. And I also understand how one who has entered this path will, on the dissolution of the body, after death, reappear in the realm of ghosts.
(4) "I understand human beings, and the path and way leading to the human world. And I also understand how one who has entered this path will, on the dissolution of the body, after death, reappear among human beings.
(5) "I understand the gods, and the path and way leading to the world of the gods. And I also understand how one who has entered this path will, on the dissolution of the body, after death, reappear in a happy destination, in the heavenly world,
(6) "I understand Nibbāna, and the path and way leading to Nibbāna. [74] And I also understand how one who has entered this path will, by realising for himself with direct knowledge, here and now enter upon and abide in the deliverance of mind and deliverance by wisdom that are taintless with the destruction of the taints.
37. (1) "By encompassing mind with mind I understand a certain person thus: This person so behaves, so conducts himself, has taken such a path that on the dissolution of the body, after death, he will reappear in a state of deprivation, in an unhappy destination, in perdition, in hell.' And then later on, with the' divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, I see that on the dissolution of the body, after death, he has reappeared in a state of deprivation, in an unhappy destination, in perdition, in hell, and is experiencing exclusively painful, racking, piercing feelings. Suppose there were a charcoal pit deeper than a man's height full of glowing coals without flame or smoke; and then a man scorched and exhausted by hot weather, weary, parched, and thirsty, came by a path going in one way only and directed to that same charcoal pit. Then a man with good sight on seeing him would say: This person so behaves, so conducts himself, has taken such a path, that he will come to this same charcoal pit'; and then later on he sees that he has fallen into that charcoal pit and is experiencing exclusively painful, racking, piercing feelings. So too, by encompassing mind with mind…piercing feelings.
38. (2) "By encompassing mind with mind I understand a certain person thus: This person so behaves, so conducts himself, has taken such a path that on the dissolution of the body, after death, he will reappear in the animal realm.' And then later on, with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, I see that on the dissolution of the body, after death, he has reappeared in the animal realm and is experiencing painful, racking, piercing feelings.

BV: When I was in Burma, there was a lady that was a butcher. And she killed pigs for a living. She got to be about fifty-five or so and got really sick. And she was getting close to death and she started getting out of her bed, crawling around on her hands and knees, squealing like a pig. And the family didn’t know what to do. They were really shocked by this. And one of them had the bright idea that they should show her something that she’s very familiar with, and that would calm her mind down, and then she would not do that anymore. So they, one of the brighter people went and got her butcher knives and showed them to her. And it scared her so much that she died right at that moment. Think she had a happy rebirth? Don’t think so.

TT: 54:45

MN:
Suppose there were a cesspit deeper than a man's height full of filth; and then a man [75] scorched and exhausted by hot weather, weary, parched, and thirsty, came by a path going in one way only and directed to that same cesspit. Then a man with good sight on seeing him would say: This person so behaves…that he will come to this same cesspit'; and then later on he sees that he has fallen into that cesspit and is experiencing painful, racking, piercing feelings. So too, by encompassing mind with mind…piercing feelings.
39. (3) "By encompassing mind with mind I understand a certain person thus: This person so behaves, so conducts himself, has taken such a path that on the dissolution of the body, after death, he will reappear in the realm of ghosts.' And then later on…I see that…he has reappeared in the realm of ghosts and is experiencing much painful feeling. Suppose there were a tree growing on uneven ground with scanty foliage casting a dappled shadow; and then a man scorched and exhausted by hot weather, weary, parched, and thirsty, came by a path going in one way only and directed to that same tree. Then a man with good sight on seeing him would say: This person so behaves…that he will come to this same tree'; and then later on he sees that he is sitting or lying in the shade of that tree experiencing much painful feeling. So too, by encompassing mind with mind…much painful feeling.

TT: 56:47

BV: One of the traditions in Buddhism is on the anniversary of your friend’s or your parent’s death, you come to the monastery and you offer food and requisites to the monks. And it’s not a personal gift, it is a gift, and with that you are giving the merit of that gift to your departed ones. Now they have this place that’s called the Hungry Ghost realm, and these guys are really hungry because their mouth is about the size of a pinhole, and they can’t get any food in it, they can’t get any drink. If your parents, for whatever reason, or your friends, for whatever reason, is reborn in that realm, on the anniversary of their death, when you give this offering to the sangha, and then give the merit of that to the departed person, if they are in that Hungry Ghost realm, all of the sudden they will be able to eat and drink and have clothing. So it’s a tradition that every year that you do that. Now if there’s not a sangha around and you want to do that, you can offer it to a Buddha image by just putting it in front of the Buddha image but thinking that you are offering to the entire sangha. And that thought is strong enough that the benefits will go to the departed one. So that’s one of the duties of the children towards their parents, they’re supposed to do that. Now, if they were reborn in the Heavenly realm, oh they’d have a party every time you do that. They get real happy and get all kinds of good stuff. That’s really nice.

TT: 59:07

MN:
40. (4) "By encompassing mind with mind I understand a certain person thus: This person so behaves, so conducts himself, has taken such a path that on the dissolution of the body, after death, he will reappear among human beings.' And then later on…I see that…he has reappeared among human beings and is experiencing much pleasant feeling. Suppose there were a tree growing on even ground with thick foliage casting a deep shade; and then a man scorched and exhausted by hot weather, weary, parched, and thirsty, came by a path going in one way only and directed to that same tree. Then a man with good sight on seeing him would say: This person so behaves…that he will come to this same tree'; and then later on he sees that he is sitting or lying in the shade of that tree experiencing much pleasant feeling. So too, by encompassing mind with mind…much pleasant feeling. [76]
41. (5) "By encompassing mind with mind I understand a certain person thus: 'This person so behaves, so conducts himself, has taken such a path that on the dissolution of the body, after death, he will reappear in a happy destination, in the heavenly world.' And then later on…I see that…he has reappeared in a happy destination, in the heavenly world, and is experiencing exclusively pleasant feelings.

TT: 1:00:50

BV: That’s the advantage of being in the deva lokas. It’s a happy place. They’re singing and dancing and having fun and munching on these grapes all the time.

S: How do ~

BV: They appear. (laughs)

S: And they’re really tasty, too.

BV: They’re really tasty. There’s another story about, I think it was Anuruddha. He was born as a prince, and he was a young man and he liked to gamble. And one day he was playing with his friends and he gambled a cake, and he lost. So he sent his servant to his mother, and she gave him a cake, and he came back and paid off the debt. And he kept going and he kept losing, and before long she didn’t have any more cakes. Now, in one lifetime, he had met a past Buddha and made the determination that he would never hear the words “I don’t have.” So, he lost again, sent the servant to get the cake. The mother said, “I don’t have any cake.” And she just put a lid on a platter and took it back. And the devas, because he made that wish, they produced a cake. And when they opened it up, I mean, it was the most fragrant smelling cake and everybody started munching on it, and it was the best tasting cake they’d ever run across. So Anuruddha pops up and he runs to his mother and he says, “You don’t love me.” And she said, “Why do you say that?” And he said, “Well, you’ve never given me any of the ‘I don’t have’ cakes before. I only want this kind of cake from now on!” So every time he wanted a cake, she’d just plop down a thing on a platter and they’d take it to him and the devas would give him a cake! (laughs)

BJ: ~

BV: Anuruddha, yeah, yeah. That was Ananda’s older brother.

BJ: ~

BV: Oh that’s right, that’s right. They were cousins, that’s right.
Anyway, being in the heavenly realms is—there are some of the higher realms where the devas, just, they delight in manifesting things. In the highest one, they don’t even bother manifesting, they just tell one of the other guys to make it for them, and it appears before them. (laughs) Whether this is for real or not, we don’t know, but makes for a good story.

MN:
Suppose there were a mansion, and it had an upper chamber plastered within and without, shut off, secured by bars,

BV: That’s very Asian. They secure everything by bars. Bars over the windows, bars over the doors, drives me crazy. We don’t even lock the doors here. Why would we put bars on everything?

TT: 1:04:43

MN:
with shuttered windows, and in it there was a couch spread with rugs, blankets, and sheets, with a deerskin coverlet, with a canopy as well as crimson pillows for both [head and feet]; and then a man scorched and exhausted by hot weather, weary, parched, and thirsty, came by a path going in one way only and directed to that same mansion. Then a man with good sight on seeing him would say: 'This person so behaves…that he will come to this same mansion'; and then later on he sees that he is sitting or lying in that upper chamber in that mansion experiencing exclusively pleasant feelings. So too, by encompassing mind with mind…exclusively pleasant feelings.
42. (6) "By encompassing mind with mind I understand a certain person thus: This person so behaves, so conducts himself, has taken such a path that by realising for himself with direct knowledge, he here and now will enter upon and abide in the deliverance of mind and deliverance by wisdom that are taintless with the destruction of the taints.' And then later on I see that by realising for himself with direct knowledge, he here and now enters upon and abides in the deliverance of mind and deliverance by wisdom that are taintless with the destruction of the taints, and is experiencing exclusively pleasant feelings. Suppose there were a pond with clean, agreeable, cool water, transparent, with smooth banks, delightful, and nearby a dense wood; and then a man scorched and exhausted by hot weather, weary, parched, and thirsty, came by a path going in one way only towards that same pond. Then a man with good sight on seeing him would say: 'This person so behaves…that he will come to this same pond'; and then later on he sees that he has plunged into the pond, bathed, drunk, and relieved all his distress, fatigue, and fever and has come out again and is sitting or lying in the wood [77] experiencing exclusively pleasant feelings. So too, by encompassing mind with mind…exclusively pleasant feelings. These are the five destinations.
43. "Sāriputta, when I know and see thus, should anyone say of me: 'The recluse Gotama does not have any superhuman states, any distinction in knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones. The recluse Gotama teaches a Dhamma [merely] hammered out by reasoning, following his own line of inquiry as it occurs to him'—unless he abandons that assertion and that state of mind and relinquishes that view, then as [surely as if he had been] carried off and put there he will wind up in hell. Just as a bhikkhu possessed of virtue, <collectedness>, and wisdom would here and now enjoy final knowledge, so it will happen in this case, I say, that unless he abandons that assertion {and that state of mind and relinquishes that view, then as [surely as if he had been] carried off and put there he will wind up in hell.}

BV: OK, we’re going to stop and do the rest of this sutta with the Bodhisatta’s austerities tomorrow. I got carried away talking. Too many stories. Got any questions?

S: Seems like everything ~ now.

BV: Says here and now, doesn’t it?

S: ~

S: ~ to these different heavens here and now?

BV: You can go to these different heavens here and now, depending on your mental development, and how you develop your mind. I teach people how to remember past lifetimes and how to go to these other realms. There is real advantage to doing that. You lose any doubt at all in the workings of karma, and you see it in your own past lifetimes and how that karma manifests. And you can see it in other beings when they tell you their story.

S: I believe in karma, I have ~

TT: 1:09:36

BV: Well, but your version will change once you see the way it actually is. But there is great advantage to doing this. And this kind of meditation is called the tivijja meditation. It’s the Super Knowledges. There’s three of them. You can only start on this path after you have good control of being at least in the fourth jhāna. It’s for real. And I tell a lot of people this but not too many people really go and follow it all the way through, but this is the fast track to Nibbāna, once you get to the fourth jhāna. There’s three different paths once you get to the fourth jhāna that you can take. The one that almost everybody does is by going through all of the arūpa jhānas: experience the cessation of perception and feeling; seeing Dependent Origination; and experiencing Nibbāna. A person that is very sensitive to feeling, after they get into the fourth jhāna, they will naturally start developing psychic abilities, like he was talking about, and you hear, knowing other people’s minds, using the divine eye, all of that. But the last Super Knowledge is the cessation of perception and feeling, seeing Dependent Origination, and attaining Nibbāna. They way the Buddha attained Nibbāna was by going to the fourth jhāna, then he started remembering his past lifetimes, and then he started seeing the arising and passing away of beings, and then he experienced the cessation of perception and feeling, Dependent Origination--and you see Dependent Origination in the past lifetimes and you see Dependent Origination in seeing other beings arising and passing away. You see that. And then the experience of Nibbāna occurs. That’s three ways that it happens, three paths. So, they’re talking about here and now, in these kind of experiences; they’re just talking about different kinds of paths. Ok?

S: Ok.

BV: Everybody has their idea of the way they think karma works, but until you really start seeing it in your own past lifetimes, it’s only hammering it out by your reasoning instead of actually seeing it. When you see it and experience it, then you can start letting go of some of your old habitual tendencies in this lifetime, because of the past life experiences.

I have one monk friend, that lived in a village and he was like thirty-five years old, and he had a young daughter, and he died. And he was reborn in the neighbor’s house and he remembers living as husband and wife in this one house, and he grew up with his daughter as his best friend. And he has the memory of all of this. He remembers that past lifetime. And you hear about this kind of thing in cultures that are not so sophisticated. You hear about this in a lot of the villages and that sort of thing.

You can ask me who I would rather teach: Would I rather teach somebody that is in the city or somebody that’s in the country. And I’ll take the person in the country every day of the week. Their minds are much more simple. They haven’t got so many distractions. When I was in Burma, I got invited to teach some farmers at a village and somebody went with me and translated. And in four days, their progress was so good that it was shocking. I just wasn’t prepared for people that, you say, “Well, do it this way,” and they haven’t got anything else to think about and they say, “OK, I’ll do it that way,” and they do! And their progress is phenomenal! Really good. The more technology we have, the more scattered mind becomes. And the more you get into thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking. A lot of the farmers, they will spend time observing, without a lot of thoughts. I met the aborigine who was an old guy. He would sit, for hours, without moving. And he was brilliant. The Australians made fun of him: “He’s just a dumb aborigine.” He wasn’t dumb. I’m telling you, he was not dumb. And he taught his whole family. They would sit for hours without talking, and just sit without moving. And they were real comfortable being with each other without having to say anything.

TT: 1:15:13

Anyway, Let’s share some merit.

Sutta text translation: (C) Bhikkhu Bodhi 1995, 2001. Reprinted from The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya with permission of Wisdom Publications, 199 Elm Street, Somerville, MA 02144 U.S.A, www.wisdompubs.org

Material enclosed by angle brackets in the sutta text is where Bhante Vimalaramsi has substituted his preferred translation.

 

Transcription: Uma Sarason
 

 

Text last edited: 13-Dec-08