#7. The Great Chapter

The wanderer Susı̄ma fraudulently enters the Sangha so that the wanderers can learn the secret to the Buddha’s fame and success. Hearing that some mendicants claimed to be perfected, Susīma approaches and asks them if they have developed psychic powers or the formless states, to which they say no. Perplexed, he asks the Buddha, who explains that awakening follows insight into the principles of impermanence and causality. Eventually Susı̄ma confesses his misdeed. [Read More]

Like rivers flowing to the ocean, the factors of dependent origination lead to suffering.So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. “Mendicants, when the ocean surges it makes the rivers surge. When the rivers surge they make the streams surge. When the streams surge they make the lakes surge. When the lakes surge they make the ponds surge. In the same way, when ignorance surges it makes choices surge. [Read More]

Venerable Saviṭṭha questions Venerable Musīla about his attainments, and concludes he is an arahant. But Venerable Nārada offers an explanation showing that it is possible to see the Dhamma without having fully realized arahantship.At one time the venerables Musīla, Saviṭṭha, Nārada, and Ānanda were staying near Kosambī in Ghosita’s monastery. Then Venerable Saviṭṭha said to Venerable Musila: “Reverend Musila, apart from faith, preference, oral tradition, reasoned contemplation, or acceptance of a view after consideration, do you know for yourself that rebirth is a condition for old age and death? [Read More]

Venerables Mahākoṭṭhita and Sāriputta discuss whether the factors of dependent origination are created by oneself, another, both, or by chance.At one time Venerable Sāriputta and Venerable Mahākoṭṭhita were staying near Benares, in the deer park at Isipatana. Then in the late afternoon, Venerable Mahākoṭṭhita came out of retreat, went to Venerable Sāriputta, and exchanged greetings with him. When the greetings and polite conversation were over, he sat down to one side and said to Sāriputta: “Well, Reverend Sāriputta, are old age and death made by oneself? [Read More]

The right way to investigate inside oneself is to see how suffering is created craving and attachment, stimulated by pleasant experiences.So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Kurus, near the Kuru town named Kammāsadamma. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants, “Mendicants!” “Venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this: “Mendicants, do you perform inner self-examination?” When he said this, one of the mendicants said to the Buddha, “Sir, I perform inner self-examination. [Read More]

The Buddha the story of how his awakening came about through investigation into dependent origination. He compares it to man discovering and ancient city, lost and overgrown with weeds.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, before my awakening—when I was still unawakened but intent on awakening—I thought: ‘Alas, this world has fallen into trouble. It’s born, grows old, dies, passes away, and is reborn, yet it doesn’t understand how to escape from this suffering, from old age and death. [Read More]

The Buddha defines the four kinds of “food” or “nutriment”, which include edible food, contact, intention, and consciousness, showing how they lead to suffering according to dependent origination. At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, there are these four fuels. They maintain sentient beings that have been born and help those that are about to be born. What four? Solid food, whether coarse or fine; contact is the second, mental intention the third, and consciousness the fourth. [Read More]

The Buddha defines the four kinds of “food” or “nutriment”, which include edible food, contact, intention, and consciousness. He illustrates them with a series of powerful and horrifying similes.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, there are these four fuels. They maintain sentient beings that have been born and help those that are about to be born. What four? Solid food, whether coarse or fine; contact is the second, mental intention the third, and consciousness the fourth. [Read More]

An ignorant person might become free of attachment to their body, but not their mind. Still, it would be better to attach to the body, as it is less changeable than the mind. But a noble disciple reflects on dependent origination.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, when it comes to this body made up of the four primary elements, an uneducated ordinary person might become disillusioned, dispassionate, and freed. Why is that? This body made up of the four primary elements is seen to accumulate and disperse, to be taken up and laid to rest. [Read More]

An ignorant person might become free of attachment to their body, but not their mind. Still, it would be better to attach to the body, as it is less changeable than the mind, which jumps about like a monkey.So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. … “Mendicants, when it comes to this body made up of the four primary elements, an uneducated ordinary person might become disillusioned, dispassionate, and freed. [Read More]