Venerable Kaccānagotta asks the Buddha about right view, and the Buddha answers that right view arises when one sees the origin and cessation of the world and is free of attachments. This sutta, brief but profound and difficult, became renowned as the only canonical reference named in Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, perhaps the most famous philosophical treatise in all Buddhism.At Sāvatthī. Then Venerable Kaccānagotta went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him: “Sir, they speak of this thing called ‘right view’. [Read More]

One who does not understand dependent origination is no true ascetic.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, there are ascetics and brahmins who don’t understand these things, their origin, their cessation, and the practice that leads to their cessation. What things don’t they understand? They don’t understand old age and death, their origin, their cessation, and the practice that leads to their cessation. They don’t understand rebirth … continued existence … grasping … craving … feeling … contact … the six sense fields … name and form … consciousness … They don’t understand choices, their origin, their cessation, and the practice that leads to their cessation. [Read More]

One who does not understand dependent origination is no true ascetic.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, there are ascetics and brahmins who don’t understand old age and death, their origin, their cessation, and the practice that leads to their cessation. They don’t understand rebirth … continued existence … grasping … craving … feeling … contact … the six sense fields … name and form … consciousness … They don’t understand choices, their origin, their cessation, and the practice that leads to their cessation. [Read More]

Venerable Moḷiyaphagguna asks who eats the consciousness food. The Buddha says the question is improper, as it assumes a self as agent. Rather, all the factors of dependent origination are simply natural conditions and have nothing to do with a “self”.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. These are all produced by craving, and hence connect with dependent origination.So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. … “Mendicants, there are these four fuels. They maintain sentient beings that have been born and help those that are about to be born. [Read More]