In that case, Bāhiya, you should train yourself thus: In what is seen there must be only what is seen, in what is heard there must be only what is heard, in what is sensed there must be only what is sensed, in what is cognized there must be only what is cognized. This is the way, Bāhiya, you should train yourself.
“And since for you, Bāhiya, in what is seen there will be only what is seen, in what is heard there will be only what is heard, in what is sensed there will be only what is sensed, in what is cognized there will be only what is cognized, therefore, Bāhiya, you will not be with that; and since, Bāhiya, you will not be with that, therefore, Bāhiya, you will not be in that; and since, Bāhiya, you will not be in that, therefore, Bāhiya, you will not be here or hereafter or in between the two—just this is the end of suffering.”
May I also utter a request? This one is a bit less abstract.
I love similes, and this is one of my favourite ones:
“Just as, when it is raining and the rain pours down in thick droplets on a mountaintop, the water flows down along the slope and fills the clefts, gullies, and creeks;
these, becoming full, fill up the pools;
these, becoming full, fill up the lakes;
these, becoming full, fill up the streams;
these, becoming full, fill up the rivers;
and these, becoming full, fill up the great ocean;
thus there is nutriment for the great ocean, and in this way it becomes full.
Thus associating with good persons, becoming full, fills up hearing the good Dhamma.
Hearing the good Dhamma, becoming full, fills up faith.
Faith, becoming full, fills up careful attention.
Careful attention, becoming full, fills up mindfulness and clear comprehension.
Mindfulness and clear comprehension, becoming full, fill up restraint of the sense faculties.
Restraint of the sense faculties, becoming full, fills up the three kinds of good conduct.
The three kinds of good conduct, becoming full, fill up the four establishments of mindfulness.
The four establishments of mindfulness, becoming full, fill up the seven factors of enlightenment.
The seven factors of enlightenment, becoming full, fill up true knowledge and liberation.
Thus there is nutriment for true knowledge and liberation, and in this way they become full.”
AN 10.61
Sure, @Sabbamitta, that shouldn’t be too difficult. But please bear with me for a while because there are quite a few doodles in the pipeline… Ayya Vimala has also made a request, and I still don’t have any inspiration for Bhante @Subharo’s heaven realm doodle.
The best I could do are the rainbows and stars of the “Heavenly beings visit” doodle in post 25.
My vision of a heaven realm is just this:
Still in search of what is wholesome, seeking the supreme state of sublime peace, I wandered by stages through the Magadhan country until eventually I arrived at Uruvelā, at Senānigama. There I saw an agreeable piece of ground, a delightful grove with a clear-flowing river with pleasant, smooth banks and nearby a village for alms resort. I considered: ‘This is an agreeable piece of ground, this is a delightful grove with a clear-flowing river with pleasant, smooth banks and nearby a village for alms resort. This will serve for the striving of a clans(wo)man intent on striving.’ (MN 26)
Provided there are no vicious insects and mosquitoes…
So that would make quite a boring heaven realm. No flying bhikkhu(ni)s, no miracles, no refined sensual pleasures…
Could people post their ideas of heaven realms here? Maybe I’ll get some inspiration!
@yodha Well, I’m not much help as my idea of a heavenly realm is also similar to MN 26. Another good description is in Mahakassapa’s verses 1062–1070 in the Thag 18.1.
As for the heavenly realms: How if the doodle could somehow represent Sakkha and his heavenly musician Pañcasikha and the love song the latter presents to the Buddha? See for reference here:
Suppose there were a file of blind (wo)men each in touch with the next: the first one does not see, the middle one does not see, and the last one does not see. (MN 99)
AN 5.79
Again, in the future there will be bhikkhu(ni)s who are undeveloped in body, virtuous behavior, mind, and wisdom. When those discourses spoken by the Tathāgata are being recited that are deep, deep in meaning, world-transcending, connected with emptiness, they will not want to listen to them, will not lend an ear to them, or apply their minds to understand them; they will not think those teachings should be studied and learned.
But when those discourses are being recited that are mere poetry composed by poets, beautiful in words and phrases, created by outsiders, spoken by disciples, they will want to listen to them, lend an ear to them, and apply their minds to understand them; they will think those teachings should be studied and learned.
Lower heaven realms: similar to the best of the best you’d find on earth and more and more of this progessively let go the further up you go in the material heaven realms.
Higher up: more to do with perceptions/ideas about peace and love and letting go.
You might be wondering “what’s up with the snake-deva”. Back at the time of the Buddha there were many Animistic snake cults, and snake beings held a lot of currency at the time, sort of like how Westerner culture seems to like dragons and unicorns and elves and garden gnomes.
To me “heavenly realms” are just another, somehow fancy corner in Samsara, maybe a bit like a fantasy world.
What you describe as your view of “heaven realms”, the quote from MN 26, has something so much more beautiful to it, so much more peaceful and sublime: This is the very path how to transcend Samsara with all it’s heavenly and other realms, whatever sorts we can imagine…
I used to live in a monastery where there was a Thai Mae Chee (a 10-precept nun), and her title was “Sister”.
Likewise at the monastery where I’m currently staying, even layperson women are called “Sister”, not even on 10 precepts. Our layperson office lady here is called “Sister Visaka.” And the laymen introduce themselves as "Brother so-and-so."
So it’s different from monastery to monastery how the title “Sister” is used.
I just refer to this discussion below about this subject. It is interesting how we get certain perceptions and that’s just the point of this exercise (other than that we get some wonderful Doodles!!!)
Bhikkhus, conditioned phenomena are impermanent; conditioned phenomena are unstable; conditioned phenomena are unreliable. It is enough to become disenchanted with all conditioned phenomena, enough to become dispassionate toward them, enough to be liberated from them.
