SuttaCentral
I read this sutta today as part of my daily sutta reading practice. I was wondering if any of you have recently read it and what you found helpful about it, in terms of applying it to our daily lay lives?
Here’s a link to the sutta: SuttaCentral
and the Clear Mountain Monastery 10 min discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udwB6o-N7kw
Just wanted to share some of my initial thoughts:
I think the key teaching point is that the Buddha emphasizes the importance of letting go of views when he says “Nothing is worth insisting on”.
I also found it helpful the emphasis on putting aside anxiety. As someone with OCD, this sutta highlights the harm that anxiety creates: “Not grasping, they’re not anxious. Not being anxious, they personally become extinguished.” I really like this sentence. I think I will add it to my list of brief phrases to remind myself as part of my dhammānussati practice. The Buddha is making it clear that anxiety is a barrier to becoming extinguished. Of note, the term “extinguished”, to me, means extinguishing the sense of self, which comes from the five aggregates; it is necessary to let go of this sense of self in order to transcend samsara and enter nirvana.
This sutta also demonstrates an important pedagogic technique. I often find the suttas fascinating in how skillfully they use different pedagogic methods. In particular, in this sutta, we see an example of the teach-back method, when Mahamoggallana says, to the deva, “Please share this talk with me so that I can also get to hear it.”
Amusingly, the deva tries to distract Mahamoggallana by showing him his palace. Mahamoggallana decides “This spirit lives much too negligently. Why don’t I stir up a sense of urgency in him?” and proceeds to do so by highlighting impermanence (shaking the palace). It is an interesting reminder for us lay people, who are often distracted by the baubles of modern life.
This sutta demonstrates that we can all encourage each other in our practice of the dhamma. The Buddha shared his wisdom with the deva, and then Mahamoggallana, as a kalyana mitta, further encouraged the deva in their practice.
I like this teaching, too. I think it applies not only to views, but to all things/phenomena (dhammā): the 6 sense fields, 5 aggregates, every concept, every experience, everything. The teaching is also found at AN 7.61 and SN 35.80 (and likely other places). Here are a few other translations of the Pali sabbe dhammā nālaṁ abhinivesāyā.
[Bodhi] ‘Nothing is worth adhering to.’
[Horner] ‘It is not fitting that there should be inclination towards any (psycho-physical) conditions.’
[Suddhaso] ‘All phenomena are not worth settling on.’
[Sujato] ‘Nothing is worth insisting on.’
[Thanissaro] ‘All phenomena are unworthy of attachment.’
Thank you for adding that clarification. I see that in the “Notes” to this sutta (available here: MN 37 Cūḷa Taṇhāsaṅkhaya Sutta | The Shorter Craving-Destruction Discourse | dhammatalks.org ), there is some additional clarification about the term dhamma (perhaps this was written by Thanissaro Bhikkhu since I think he did this translation) which aligns with what you mentioned:
“2. The Commentary identifies “all dhammas” here as three sorts of fabricated dhammas: the five aggregates, the twelve sense media, and the eighteen properties (the twelve sense media plus the consciousness appropriate to each sense organ). This, however, misses the point that “all dhammas” in other contexts include not only fabricated dhammas but also unfabricated dhammas. (Iti 90; Dhp 277–279).
It should also be noted that the Buddha gives the teaching that all dhammas are unworthy of adherence only to those who have already attained the Dhamma eye. As AN 9:36 shows, such people still have desire and passion for the experience of the deathless. To attain arahantship, they have to abandon that desire and passion as well. And because the statement, “All dhammas are unworthy of adherence” is also a dhamma, there comes a point where it, too, has to be abandoned. For other references to the abandoning of right view, see MN 22, SN 48:3, SN 48:4, and AN 10:93.
As for those who have yet to attain the Dhamma eye, they shouldn’t be in a hurry to abandon right view. They first have to attain to it, verifying their conviction in it by confirming that the Dhamma is true (MN 70). Only in the very last stages of the practice should all dhammas be abandoned. See MN 22.”
I take the dhamma to mean in the sense of eye and sights, … mana (mind) and dhamma (mental phenomena), thus I understand the following verse as when one stops completely immersing oneself in mental phenomena, they take a step back and from that vantage point they get a clearer picture of mental phenomena and how mental phenomena work.
Take a mendicant who has heard:
‘No mental phenomena are worth completely immersing in. (abhinivesāyā)’
When a mendicant has heard that no mental phenomena are worth insisting on,
they directly know all mental phenomena.
Directly knowing all mental phenomena,
they completely understand all mental phenomena.
abhinivesāyā
Digital Pāḷi Dictionary
abhinivesāya
1. masc. adherence (to); sticking (to); insistence; fixation; lit. completely entering down [abhi + ni + √vis + *a]
2. masc. settling (into); making oneself at home; lit. completely entering down [abhi + ni + √vis]
3. masc. interpretation, misinterpretation; lit. completely entering down [abhi + ni + √vis]
Regarding a view that the dhamma here refers to every concept, everything, my question to you would be if that was so, then as long as one would not insist on anything, they would know and understand everything according to the next verse in the sutta. Does that make sense? Would one understand physics, mathematics and every concept, everything by simply not insisting? I do not think so.
…
they directly know everything.
Directly knowing everything,
they completely understand everything.
This is an interesting question. One possibility is that our pre-conceived notions often prevent us from understanding things. This is common, for example, in science, where some scientists firmly believe one theory (and “insist” on it), but preventing them from seeing other possibilities.
I read this sutta today as part of my daily sutta reading practice. I was wondering if any of you have recently read it and what you found helpful about it, in terms of applying it to our daily lay lives?
Here’s a link to the sutta: SuttaCentral
and the Clear Mountain Monastery 10 min discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m855FIMCpc
I think this sutta is an interesting contrast to the prior MN37, which is the “shorter discourse”, and is given to a deva who is a stream-attainer. There, the deva is lightly admonished for being distracted by sense pleasures. In MN38, though, Sati, the fisherman’s son, is strongly scolded for having the wrong view that a self consciousness moves from one life to the next in a stable/identical form.
This sutta also lays out dependent origination, which is a central concept in Buddhism. It is very appropriate that dependent origination is described here because that is the answer to the question of what moves from one life to the next–there is no atman (self), instead, there is a “process”, that of dependent origination, which is conditioned by what happened previously (on an incredibly complex level; the Buddha mentions this in DN15). In my daily life, it is helpful to try to remind myself that each decision I make is shaping the “process” of my experience, and that if I want to be happy in the future, I need to make skillful/healthy choices in this moment. The choices/actions I make now, if they are wise/skillful, become a “gift” to my future being.
The analogy of a flame being transmitted from one stick to another is sometimes used to refer to this awareness, however, to my understanding, the Buddha did not explicitly state this. For example, Nagasena mentioned it his discussions with King Milinda (An Explanation of Rebirth)
Another point raised in this sutta is the concept of relishing/enjoying feelings: “Being so full of favoring and opposing, when they experience any kind of feeling—pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral—they approve, welcome, and keep clinging to it. This gives rise to relishing. Relishing feelings is grasping. Their grasping is a requirement for continued existence.” It is helpful to contrast this, though, to the non-attached enjoyment that an arahant may experience, which also describe “delighting” in an experience; in Theragatha 18, Mahakassapa says:
“Spread with garlands of vines, places delighting the mind, resounding with elephants, appealing: those rocky crags refresh me."
I also thought it was interesting that the sutta ends with Buddha saying that the mendicant Sāti, the fisherman’s son, “is caught in a vast net of craving, a tangle of craving”–that is a lovely example of the Buddha’s gift for metaphors and engaging characters—a fisherman like Sati works with a net, and the metaphor of a net for craving helps link these different elements together in the sutta.
I read MN40 today as part of my daily sutta reading practice. I was wondering if any of you have recently read it and what you found helpful about it, in terms of applying it to our daily lay lives?
Here’s the link to the Clear Mountain Monastery 10 min discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq7-4uv1lqE
After reading this sutta this morning, I feel that this sutta appears to emphasizes the outer vs the inner practice with its description of the “outer robe wearer” who has the external trappings of a seeker (i.e., they wear robes or simple clothing), while inside they are full of ill will or other unhealthy emotions. The Buddha highlights the danger of this by using a particularly vivid metaphor, that of a sword covered with arsenic–but wrapped in a “robe” to hide its true nature. In our lay lives, this is an apt warning that we should be careful of spiritual guides who themselves are not really what they seem. I think this is particularly salient with the commercialization of the secular mindfulness education industry.
The Buddha goes on to mention that if the outer appearance is all that matters, then parents would ask their children to just dress appropriately and that would be enough for spiritual development. As a parent myself, I thought this was a really interesting metaphor. So often, I’ve had to catch myself from trying to make my kids into something I want them to be instead of what they wanted to be. In a way, I was trying to put outer garments on them to suit my own ego needs for validation by society by having “successful” kids (my kids have done fine on their own!).
How can we tell if someone has an inner life that matches their “outer robes”? The Buddha mentions that, after purifying themselves, these individuals experience joy (“They see themselves purified from all these bad, unskillful qualities. Seeing this, joy springs up” and this is conducive to immersion meditation (samadhi) and metta-meditation (“And when blissful, the mind becomes immersed in samādhi.They meditate spreading a heart full of love to one direction, and to the second, and to the third, and to the fourth.” So, a spiritual seeker who radiates joy and metta may have an inner alignment with their outer presentation.
I read MN41 today as part of my daily sutta reading practice. I was wondering if any of you have recently read it and what you found helpful about it, in terms of applying it to our daily lay lives?
Here’s the link to the Clear Mountain Monastery 10 min discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7FioZ1_BsU
Here’s a helpful talk by Ajahn Brahmali: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dHb8qR3Zso (this was posted on this forum previously)
MN41: This is a particularly important sutta for lay followers since it was given to the lay householders of Sala. We often think about the five precepts as a guide to behavior in lay life. This sutta expands on that, and provides 10 ways to conduct ourselves by way of body, speech and mind. Perhaps we can refer to this as the “10 ways householder practice”. These 10 ways can be helpfully divided (from a mnemonic perspective) into a 3/4/3 structure. The 3 body conduct guidelines are to refrain from stealing, sexual misconduct and violence, while the 4 speech conduct guidelines are to refrain from lying, divisive speech, harsh speech and gossiping, and the 3 mind conduct guidelines are to avoid covetousness, practice loving-kindness, and right view. It concludes with right view, which is the first step of the eightfold path, showing the beautiful interconnectedness of the suttas.
Another fascinating aspect of this 10 ways practice is that the body is the simplest component for a lay person to comprehend and is thus an ideal gateway to this progressive path of spiritual development for a lay person like myself. Speech, the next domain, is the natural bridge between body and mind. Mind is the final domain for our conduct and this makes sense because this is often more challenging. Interestingly, there is no mention of sati or samadhi in this sutta since that was not a lay practice in Buddhism at that time. I am grateful that in our modern era, we have more access as lay persons to these practices of sati and samadhi.
This sutta then moves on to a discussion of rebirth: “A person of principled and moral conduct might wish: ‘If only, when my body breaks up, after death, I would be reborn in the company of well-to-do brahmins…” It concludes on a very hopeful note, for lay practitioners, by saying: “‘If only I might realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life, and live having realized it with my own insight due to the ending of defilements.’ It’s possible that this might happen.” (by the way, I think this is a helpful positive affirmation (self-talk) that we can repeat throughout our day to ourselves–”may I realize undefiled freedom of heart … with my own insight”). To my limited understanding, this is the description of nibbana (the ending of defilements leading to an undefiled freedom of heart). This is such a hopeful message–that we as lay followers may realize nibbana. Indeed, there are examples in the suttas of lay practitioners, such as Isidatta and Citta, who attain stream-entry (in AN6.44: “But my uncle Isidatta was not chaste; he lived content with his wife. When he passed away the Buddha declared that, since he was also a once-returner, he was reborn in the host of joyful gods.”). The life of a monastic clearly provides more opportunities for us to practice since it is not “dusty”, but this path may not be open to all of us given our life circumstances.
Interestingly, these 10 ways are repeated in MN46, which is given to monastics (section pts-vp-pli1.315)
May you live with undefiled freedom of heart with your own insight!
“Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Self-Enlightened One”.