| In the Khuddakanikaya
Culaniddesa Second Part Mogharajamanavaka-panhaniddesa, 505, the Buddha
asked the bhikkhu, “Behold Bhikkhu, what do you think of this? There
are grass, trees, branches and leaves in the compound of this vihara (temple).
People would take them away and burn them, or dispose of them. Do
you ever feel as if it were us that people take away, burn or dispose of?”
Bhikkhu: No, Sire. Buddha: Why not? Bhikkhu: Because those things are not the selves or what concerned the selves to us, Sire. Buddha: Behold Bhikkhu. Likewise, whatever does not belong to you, abandon it. Abandoning them would be beneficent, be everlasting happiness. Behold Bhikkhu, rupa does not belong to you. Abandon it. Abandoning it would be beneficent, be everlasting happiness. ...Abandoning vedana ... sanna ... sankhara ... vinnana would be beneficent, be everlasting happiness. A person would consider the world as being void thus. At the end of the passage the Buddha said, “Behold, Householder, when a person sees the concurrent arising of all dhamma, the continuance of all sankhara as what they truly are, there would be no harm. When a person considers the world in the same way that he does the grass and trees with panna, he would not desire existence, the self or anything else except for nibbana without patisandhi. The person would consider the world as a void thus.” While we still do not feel towards the rupa that we used to take for ours, the vedana or feelings that we used to take for ours, sanna or memories that we, so named, are in this world, with such duty, or towards all sankhara, whether kusala-dhamma or akusala-dhamma, in the same way that we do towards the grass, trees, branches and leaves, we would not be able to abandon attachment to realities that are rupa, vedana, sanna, sankhara and vinnana. August 5, 2000 |
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