From:   "connie" <nichicon@...>
Date:  Mon Mar 10, 2003  3:41 am
Subject:  caves
 

Dhammapada v.37:

Durangamam ekacaram
asariram guhasayam
ye cittam sannamessanti
mokkhanti marabandhana.

"Faring far, wandering alone,
Formless and lying in a cave.
Those who do restrain the mind
Are sure released from Mara's bonds."
 

Sayadaw U Silananda says Buddhaghosa (Visuddhimagga XVII) uses the simile of the echo from the cave to talk about the rebirth of "neither that person nor another" being in the same way that the echo is not the original sound but depends on it.
http://www.buddhistinformation.com/no_inner_core.htm

I think of momentary death/life, being constantly reborn/reminded and of my world being how my mind echoes/mirrors it... my recognition. Hard to tell how dirty the mirror is in the dark... covered in a selfhood of my own ignorant imagining.

nirodha: "ni" (without) + "rodha" (prison, confine, obstacle, wall, impediment)

 

From:   "christine_forsyth" <cforsyth@...>
Date:  Mon Mar 10, 2003  2:36 pm
Subject:  Re: caves

I think Connie may be using Khantipalo's translation? Narada Thera translates it as, "Faring far, wandering alone, bodiless, lying in a cave, is the mind. Those who subdue it are freed from the bond of Mara."

The story attached to this verse 37 in Narada's translation can be found under 3. Citta Vagga 'Mind' at
http://www.buddhistvihara.com/online/narada/

Of interest are notes 3, 4, and 5 found at the foot of the section which explain "alone", "bodiless" and "cave".
"3 Because no two thought moments arise at a particular time.

4 The imperceptible mind is immaterial and colourless.

5 Guhasayam - i.e., the seat of consciousness. It is clear that
the Buddha has not definitely assigned a specific basis for
consciousness as He had done with the other senses. It was the cardiac theory (the theory that the heart is the seat of
consciousness) that prevailed in His time, and this was evidently supported by the Upanishads. The Buddha could have adopted this popular theory, but He did not commit Himself. In the Patthana, the Book of Relations, the Buddha refers to the basis of consciousness in such indirect terms as yam rupam nissaya, dependent on that material thing. What the material thing was the Buddha did not positively assert. According to the views of commentators like the Venerables Buddhaghosa and Anuruddha the seat of consciousness is the heart (hadayavatthu).

One wonders whether one is justified in presenting the cardiac theory as Buddhistic when the Buddha Himself neither rejected nor accepted this popular theory."

In the Thai version it is part of a longer explanation, entitled 'Katha Dhammapada Cittavaga 3' in the Thai Tipitaka.  Here is our translation of the Thai version:

The sage would 'straighten' the struggling/restless and unstable/unreliable citta, which is hard to keep, to restrain; like an arrow maker who straightens the arrow. Therefore the citta, which the Yogavacara [one who practices spiritual exercise] raises from longings which are like the currents of pencakammaguna [sense pleasures/objects] and onto the vipassana kammatthana [mental development] which is like the land, in order to abandon the snares of mara; [The citta] would struggle like a fish that the fisherman has lifted out of its water habitat and tossed on the shore would struggle. Therefore to train the citta, which is hard to suppress, rapid, and normally falls upon the desirable arammana in a certain manner is good; because the well trained citta brings happiness. The sage should keep/restrain the citta, which is so hard to see, intricate and refined, normally given to desires, because the citta that is guarded/protected brings happiness. People who compose/control the citta, that travels far, wandering alone, bodyless, heartbased/dwelling in a cave; would be those who will transcend the bonds of mara.  Panna would not be thorough and plentiful to the person whose citta is not steadfast, without clear realization of the saddhamma [the true doctrine], but with superficial faith. Harm would not come to the khinasaba [one in whom all cankers/taints are destroyed], whose citta is not contaminated by raga's [attachment, lust, ('s)] leaking upon it, whose heart is not overtaken and touched by dosa, whose punna and papa are abandoned, who is awake. Kulaputtas [sons of good (noble, wealthy) families] who know that the body is like a pot would surround the citta like a city at war with mara, fighting with weapons that are panna. Nor should one be preoccupied with this body which, once one has abandoned, without vinnana, would soon lay like a useless log on the ground. The chief of robbers on seeing their own kind; or those with enemies on seeing their rivals would do one another great harm, but the cittas that one has wrongly established would do one even greater harm than that dukkha. While for the person whose citta is well established, this condition would be even more beneficial towards making him a superior person; than mother and father or even other relatives could ever be.

[our dictionary indicates
guha (f.) a cave, the heart. Skt. guha.

guhasayo (adj.) living in a cave, lying in a hole (snake); whose seat
is the heart (citta or thought). Skt. guha+saya.]

We would like to note that the hadayavatthu is indeed one of the 28 rupas listed and studied in the Abhidhamma Pitaka. This is the rupa where the citta arises [in beings with rupa.] other than the dvipanca vinnana cittas, which arise at their specific passadarupas that serve as their vatthu or the rupa where the citta arises. Kamma conditions such rupas to arise at all times, but only when the citta arises at that rupa would it serve as base for the citta, thereby becoming 'vatthu' at that split second.

Our reading of the above would be as the commentary explains it, about the 'training' of the citta, which is constantly carried away by the arammana in endless trains of thought: 'the citta, which is hard to suppress, rapid, and normally falls upon the desirable arammana' and 'travels far, wandering alone, bodiless, arising at the hadayavatthu'.  Thoughts really know no boundaries, we can think of the north pole, the universe, of things that don't really exist even in conventional truth such as the Harry Potter world. Only when we learn to see things as they really are would we know the citta as 'hard to see, intricate and refined, normally given to desires' and 'travels far, wandering alone, bodyless, heartbased/dwelling in a cave'. Through that knowledge would satipatthana bring panna and all the kusala that panna brings, especially sati, whose duty is to protect the citta: 'because the citta that is guarded/protected brings happiness.'
 
 
 
 

From:   "connie" <nichicon@...>
Date:  Tue Mar 11, 2003  3:27 pm
Subject:  Re: caves
 

[...]  The 'seat of consciousness'/cave thing is interesting. In "The Heart and the Brain in Buddhism", Victor Gunasekara says: "The mention of heart in a context that seems to imply that it is the seat of the mind occurs only in later writings like the Abhidhamma Pitaka and the Jataka." And "It is not surprising that those who advocate the primacy of the heart are also advocates of faith, and the practices that go with it such as rite and ritual, relic worship, idolatry, etc." A little different version of this than the one I was reading is at http://www.uq.net.au/slsoc/bsq/bsqtr18.htm
 

Perhaps we are all cave dwellers at heart, if you consider that it hangs in the cavity of the rib cage/cave! About the heart and the brain, one thinks of the headless chicken and the heart transplant with the mechanical heart. Of course the teachings of the Buddha that says the rupa and the citta may be interdependent in the normal human world; they are not in special cases like some of the brahma bhumis where the two have completely separate existences. And if the devas can have rupas that are so refined we almost never see them, [There is a sutta where the deva couldn't enter into a discussion with the Buddha because his rupa kept sinking or being absorbed by the floor!] kamma could probably condition the rupa to arise as metal or whatever other material they use in a mechanical heart when it is not yet time for the being to end that particular lifetime. The thing is that the rupas can never blend completely with the nama in the way that the namas, such as the cittas and their cetasikas, can become indivisibly blended [sampayutta].

 

Connie:
Ven. Weragoda Sarada Thero's "Treasury of Truth - Dhammapada (text)" pdf. below:
 

Ch. 3 - Citta Vagga (Mind)

The wise person straightens the mind & the fluttering mind

v.33 [3.1] file://story of Ven. Meghiya --v.33 & 34//
phandana.m capala.m durakkha.m dunnivaaraya.m
citta.m meedhaavii uju.m karooti usukaaroo teejana.m iva

phandanam - pulsating, throbbing
capalam - fickle, unsteady
durakkham - difficult to guard
dunnivarayam - hard to restrain
cittam - the mind
medhavi - the wise one
ujum karoti - straightens
usukaro iva - like a fletcher
tejanam - an arrow shaft
 

v.34 [3.1 also]
ookamookata ubbhatoo thalee khittoo vaarijoo iva ida.m
citta.m pariphandati maaradheyya.m pahaatavee

okamokata - from its watery abode
ubbhato - taken out
thale - on dry land
khitto - thrown
varijo iva - like a fish
idam cittam - this mind
pariphandati - trembles
marad-heyyam - death's realm
pahatave - to abandon
pariphandati - flutters and trembles
 

Restrained mind leads to happiness

v.35 [3.2] file://story of a certain monk//
du~n~niggahassa lahunoo yattha kaamanipaatinoo cittassa
damathoo saadhu; danta.m citta.m sukhaavaha.m

dunniggahassa - difficult to be controlled
lahuno - swift
yattha kamanipatino - focusing on whatever target it wishes
cittassa - of the mind
damatho - taming
sadhu - (is) good
dantam - tamed
cittam - mind
sukhavaham - brings bliss
 

Protected mind leads to happiness

v.36 [3.3] file://story of a certain disgruntled monk//
sudaddasa.m sunipana.m yattha kaaminipaatina.m
citta.m meedhaavii rakkheetha citta.m gutta.m sukhaavaha.m

sududdasam - extremely difficult to be seen
sunipunam - exceedingly subtle
yattha kamanipatinam - focusing on whatever target it wishes
cittam - mind
medhavi - the wise one
rakkhetha - should protect
guttam cittam - the guarded mind
sukhavaham - brings bliss
 

Death's snare can be broken by tamed mind

v.37 [3.4] file://story of Monk Sangharakkhita//
duura.ngama.m eekacara.m asariira.m guhaasaya.m citta.m
yee sa~n~namessanti (tee) Maarabandhanaa mokkhanti

durangamam - traveling vast distances
ekacaram - moving all alone
asariram - bodyless
guhasayam - dwelling concealed
cittam - the mind
ye - if someone
sannamessanti - (were to) restrain
(te) Marabandhana - they from the bonds of death
mokkhanti - are released
 

Wisdom does not grow if mind wavers & the wide-awake is unfrightened

v.38 [3.5] file://story of Monk Cittahattha -- v.38 & 39//
anava.t.thitacittassa saddhamma.m avijaanatoo
pariplavaa pasaadassa pa~n~naa na paripuurati

anavatthitacittassa - of wavering mind
saddhammam - the true doctrine
avijanato - ignorant of
pariplava pasadassa - of flagging enthusiasm
panna - wisdom
na paripurati - does not grow
 

v.39 [3.5 also]

anavassuta cittassa ananvaahataceetasoo
pu~n~napaapapahiinassa jaagaratoo bhayam natthi

anavassuta cittassa - (to the one) with mind undampened by passion
ananvahatacetaso - mind unaffected by hatred
punnapapapahinassa - gone beyond both good and evil
jagarato - wide awake
bhayam natthi - fear exists not
 

Weapons to defeat death

v.40 [3.6] file://story of 500 monks//
ima.m kaaya.m kumbhuupama.m viditvaa, ida.m citta.m
nagaruupama.m .thapetvaa pa~n~naayudheena Maara.m
yoodheetha jita.m ca rakkhee aniveesanoo siyaa

imam kayam - this body
kumbhupamam viditva - viewing as a clay pot
idam cittam - this mind
nagarupamam - as a protected city
thapetva - considering
pannayudhena - with the weapon of wisdom
Maram - forces of evil
yodhetha - attach
jitam - what has been conquered
rakkhe - protect too
anivesano - no seeker of an abode
siya - be
 

Without the mind body is worthless

v.41 [3.7] file://story of Tissa, monk with stinking body//
aya.m kaayoo vata acira.m apeetavi~n~naanoo chuddhoo
nirattha.m kali.ngara.m iva pa.thavi.m adhisessati

ayam kayo - this body
vata - certainly
aciram - soon
apetavannano - will be bereft of consciousness
chuddho - discarded
iva - like
nirattham - worthless
kalingaram - a decayed log
pathavim - on the ground
adhisessati - lies
 

All wrongs issue out of evil minds

v.42 [3.8] file://story of Nanda, the Herdsman//
disoo disa.m ya.m ta.m kayiraa verii vaa pana veerina.m
michaa pa.nihita.m citta.m na.m tatoo paapiyoo karee

diso - a robber
disam - to a similar bandit
tam - to him whatever harm
kayira - inflicts
veri va pana - a hater
verinam - to a hated person (inflicts some harm)
miccha panihitam - misdirected
cittam - mind
nam - to him
tato papiyo - a worse crime than that
kare - does
 

Well-trained mind excels people

v.43 [3.9] file://story of Soreyya//
ta.m maataa na kayiraa, pitaa api ca a~n~nee ~naatakaa vaa
sammaa pa.nihita.m citta.m na.m tatoo seyyasoo karee

tam - that favour
mata - one's mother
na kayira - will not do
pita - one's father too (will not do)
api ca - besides
anne - other
nataka va - or relations
samma panihitam - well disciplined
cittam - mind
nam - to that person
tato seyyaso - something much better than that
kare - will do unto one
 

[End study]