“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.” - Morpheus
I was a child, with clean clothes,
when I first heard the Dhamma.
And within me, heedful,
was a break-through to the truth.
Then I arrived
at an enormous dissatisfaction
with all sensuality.
Seeing the danger
in self-identity,
I longed only
for renunciation.
Leaving my circle of relatives,
slaves, workers,
prosperous villages & fields,
delightful, enticing possessions,
I went forth,
abandoning not-insignificant wealth.
Having gone out through conviction
in the well-taught true Dhamma,
it wouldn’t be proper for me —
aspiring to nothingness —
having cast off gold & silver
to take them back.
Gold & silver
don’t buy Awakening,
don’t buy peace.
This [gold] isn’t proper for contemplatives.
This isn’t noble wealth.
This is
greediness, intoxication,
delusion, bondage to dust,
suspicion, many troubles.
There’s no lasting stability here.
It’s to this extent that many, many men
— heedless, their hearts defiled —
opposing one another, create
conflicts, murder, bondage,
calamity, loss, grief, & lamentation.
Many misfortunes are seen
for those head-over-heels in sensuality.
So, my relatives:
Why do you, like enemies,
try to bind me to sensuality?
You know I’ve gone forth,
seeing the danger in sensuality.
Gold coin & bullion
can’t put an end to fermentations.
Sensuality is an enemy,
a murderer,
hostile, arrows & bonds.
So, my relatives:
Why do you, like enemies,
try to bind me to sensuality?
You know I’ve gone forth
with shaven head, wrapped in a patchwork cloak.
Leftover alms-scraps, gleanings,
a robe made from cast-off cloth:
That’s what’s proper for me —
the requisites of one with no home.
The great seers have rejected sensuality,
both human & divine.
Released are they, in the place of security.
Arrived are they, in unshakeable ease.
So may I not come into union
with sensuality, in which no shelter is found.
It’s an enemy, a murderer
— sensuality —
painful, like a mass of flame.
Greed:
an obstacle, fearful, threatened,
full of thorns,
very out-of-tune,
a great cause of delusion.
Sensuality:
a frightening attack,
like a snake’s head
in which fools delight —
blinded, run-of-the-mill.
Because many people in the world
are stuck in the mud of sensuality,
unknowing,
they don’t realize the end of birth & death.
Many people follow the path
to bad destinations
because of sensuality,
bringing disease on themselves.
Thus sensuality creates enemies.
It burns, is defiled.
It’s the bait of the world,
constraining, the bondage of death,
maddening, deceptive, agitating the mind.
It’s a net cast by Mara
for the defilement of living beings:
with endless drawbacks, much pain,
great poison,
giving little enjoyment, creating conflict,
drying up the good side [of the mind].
I, having caused much trouble like this
because of sensuality,
will not return to it,
as I always delight in Unbinding.
Doing battle with sensuality
in hopes of the cool state,
I will stay heedful, finding delight
in the ending of fetters.
I follow the path —
eightfold, straight,
griefless, stainless, secure —
over which great seers
have crossed." - SuttaCentral
“I considered: ‘This Dhamma that I have attained is profound, hard to see and hard to understand, peaceful and sublime, unattainable by mere reasoning, subtle, to be experienced by the wise. But this generation delights in attachment, takes delight in attachment, rejoices in attachment. It is hard for such a generation to see this truth, namely, specific conditionality, dependent origination. And it is hard to see this truth, namely, the stilling of all formations, the relinquishing of all acquisitions, the destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation, Nibbāna. - SuttaCentral