#1. About Māra

Give up desire for the aggregates and they will come to an end.At Sāvatthī. When Venerable Rādha was seated to one side, the Buddha said to him: “Rādha, you should give up any desire, greed, relishing, and craving for form; and any attraction, grasping, mental fixation, insistence, and underlying tendencies. Thus that form will be given up, cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, obliterated, and unable to arise in the future. [Read More]

Give up desire for the aggregates and they will come to an end.At Sāvatthī. When Venerable Rādha was seated to one side, the Buddha said to him: “Rādha, you should give up any desire, greed, relishing, and craving for form. Thus that form will be given up, cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, obliterated, and unable to arise in the future. You should give up any desire, greed, relishing, and craving for feeling … perception … choices … consciousness. [Read More]

One who truly understand these five aggregates and is freed from them is a perfected one.At Sāvatthī. When Venerable Rādha was seated to one side, the Buddha said to him: “Rādha, there are these five grasping aggregates. What five? The grasping aggregates of form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. A mendicant comes to be freed by not grasping after truly understanding these five grasping aggregates’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape. [Read More]

One who truly understand these five aggregates is a stream-enterer.At Sāvatthī. When Venerable Rādha was seated to one side, the Buddha said to him: “Rādha, there are these five grasping aggregates. What five? The grasping aggregates of form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. When a noble disciple truly understands these five grasping aggregates’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape, they’re called a noble disciple who is a stream-enterer, not liable to be reborn in the underworld, bound for awakening. [Read More]

Only a true ascetic fully understands the five aggregates.At Sāvatthī. When Venerable Rādha was seated to one side, the Buddha said to him: “Rādha, there are these five grasping aggregates. What five? The grasping aggregates of form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. There are ascetics and brahmins who don’t truly understand these five grasping aggregates’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape … Those venerables don’t realize the goal of life as an ascetic or brahmin … There are ascetics and brahmins who do truly understand … Those venerables realize the goal of life as an ascetic or brahmin, and live having realized it with their own insight. [Read More]

Only a true ascetic fully understands the five aggregates.At Sāvatthī. When Venerable Rādha was seated to one side, the Buddha said to him: “Rādha, there are these five grasping aggregates. What five? The grasping aggregates of form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. There are ascetics and brahmins who don’t truly understand these five grasping aggregates’ gratification, drawback, and escape. I don’t regard them as true ascetics and brahmins. Those venerables don’t realize the goal of life as an ascetic or brahmin, and don’t live having realized it with their own insight. [Read More]

The aggregates are to be fully understood, ending the defilements is the full understanding of them, and an arahant is the one who has achieved this.At Sāvatthī. Then Venerable Rādha went up to the Buddha, bowed, and sat down to one side. The Buddha said to him: “Rādha, I will teach you the things that should be completely understood, complete understanding, and the person who has completely understood. Listen and pay close attention, I will speak. [Read More]

Rādha asks the Buddha about the tie or conduit to rebirth, and the Buddha explains in terms of craving for the five aggregates. At Sāvatthī. Seated to one side, Venerable Rādha said to the Buddha: “Sir, they speak of this thing called ‘the cessation of attachment to rebirth’. What is the attachment to rebirth? And what is the cessation of attachment to rebirth?” “Rādha, any desire, greed, relishing, and craving for form; and any attraction, grasping, mental fixation, insistence, and underlying tendencies—this is called the attachment to rebirth. [Read More]

Rādha asks the Buddha about a the term “sentient being”, and the Buddha explains in terms of craving for the five aggregates. He compares such craving to a child playing with sandcastles.At Sāvatthī. Seated to one side, Venerable Rādha said to the Buddha: “Sir, they speak of this thing called a ‘sentient being’. How is a sentient being defined?” “Rādha, when you cling, strongly cling, to desire, greed, relishing, and craving for form, then a being is spoken of. [Read More]

Rādha asks the Buddha about Māra, and the Buddha explains in terms of the five aggregates. Seeing in this way leads to freedom.At Sāvatthī. Then Venerable Rādha went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him: “Sir, they speak of this thing called ‘Māra’. How is Māra defined?” “When there is form, Rādha, there may be Māra, or the murderer, or the murdered. So you should see form as Māra, the murderer, the murdered, the diseased, the abscess, the dart, the misery, the miserable. [Read More]