MN101
âSuppose that a man is in love with a woman, his mind ensnared with fierce desire, fierce passion. He sees her standing with another man, chatting, joking, and laughing. What do you think, monks: As he sees her standing with another man, chatting, joking, and laughing, would sorrow, lamentation, pain, disuffering, and despair arise in him?â
âYes, lord. Why is that? Because he is in love with her, his mind ensnared with fierce desire, fierce passionâŚâ
âNow suppose the thought were to occur to him, âI am in love with this woman, my mind ensnared with fierce desire, fierce passion. When I see her standing with another man, chatting, joking, and laughing, then sorrow, lamentation, pain, disuffering, and despair arise within me. Why donât I abandon my desire and passion for that woman?â So he abandons his desire and passion for that woman, and afterwards sees her standing with another man, chatting, joking, and laughing. What do you think, monks: As he sees her standing with another man, chatting, joking, and laughing, would sorrow, lamentation, pain, disuffering, and despair arise in him?â
âNo, lord. Why is that? He is dispassionate toward that womanâŚâ
âIn the same way, the monk, when not loaded down, does not load himself down with pain, nor does he reject pleasure that accords with the Dhamma, although he is not infatuated with that pleasure.
SN42.11
Then Bhadraka the village chief went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him:
âPlease, sir, teach me the origin and cessation of suffering.â
âChief, if I were to teach you about the origin and ending of suffering in the past, saying âthis is how it was in the past,â you might have doubts or uncertainties about that. If I were to teach you about the origin and ending of suffering in the future, saying âthis is how it will be in the future,â you might have doubts or uncertainties about that. Rather, chief, I will teach you about the origin and ending of suffering as I am sitting right here and you are sitting right there.
âŚ
âWhat do you think, chief? Are there any people here in Uruvelakappa who, if they were executed, imprisoned, fined, or condemned, it would cause you sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress?â
âŚ
âWhatâs the cause, chief, whatâs the reason why, if this was to happen to some people it could cause you sorrow, while if it happens to others it does not?â
âThe people regarding whom this would give rise to sorrow are those I desire and love. The people regarding whom this would not give rise to sorrow are those I donât desire and love.â
âŚ
âWith this present phenomenon that is seen, known, immediate, attained, and fathomed, you may infer to the past and future: âAll the suffering that arose in the past was rooted and sourced in desire. For desire is the root of suffering. All the suffering that will arise in the future will be rooted and sourced in desire. For desire is the root of suffering.ââ
MN2
Mendicants, I say that the ending of defilements is for one who knows and sees, not for one who does not know or see. For one who knows and sees what? Proper attention and improper attention. When you pay improper attention, defilements arise, and once arisen they grow. When you pay proper attention, defilements donât arise, and those that have already arisen are given up.
âŚ
And what are the defilements that should be given up by seeing? Take an uneducated ordinary person who has not seen the noble ones, and is neither skilled nor trained in the teaching of the noble ones. Theyâve not seen good persons, and are neither skilled nor trained in the teaching of the good persons. They donât understand to which things they should pay attention and to which things they should not pay attention. So they pay attention to things they shouldnât and donât pay attention to things they should.
âŚ
This is how they attend improperly: âDid I exist in the past? Did I not exist in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? After being what, what did I become in the past? Will I exist in the future? Will I not exist in the future? What will I be in the future? How will I be in the future? After being what, what will I become in the future?â Or they are undecided about the present thus: âAm I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? This sentient beingâwhere did it come from? And where will it go?â
âŚ
When they attend improperly in this way, one of the following six views arises in them and is taken as a genuine fact.
âŚ
Or they have such a view: âThis self of mine is he who speaks and feels and experiences the results of good and bad deeds in all the different realms. This self is permanent, everlasting, eternal, and imperishable, and will last forever and ever.â This is called a misconception, the thicket of views, the desert of views, the trick of views, the evasiveness of views, the fetter of views. An uneducated ordinary person who is fettered by views is not freed from rebirth, old age, and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress. Theyâre not freed from suffering, I say.
SN12.20
âBhikkhus, I will teach you dependent origination and dependently arisen phenomena. Listen and attend closely, I will speak.â
âŚ
âAnd what, bhikkhus, is dependent origination? âWith birth as condition, aging-and-death comes to beâ: whether there is an arising of Tathagatas or no arising of Tathagatas, that element still persists, the stableness of the Dhamma, the fixed course of the Dhamma, specific conditionality.
âŚ
A Tathagata awakens to this and breaks through to it. Having done so, he explains it, teaches it, proclaims it, establishes it, discloses it, analyses it, elucidates it. And he says: âSee! With ignorance as condition, bhikkhus, volitional formations.â
âThus, bhikkhus, the actuality in this, the inerrancy, the nototherwiseness, specific conditionality: this is called dependent origination.
âAnd what, bhikkhus, are the dependently arisen phenomena? Aging-and-death, bhikkhus, is impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen, subject to destruction, vanishing, fading away, and cessation. Birth is impermanent ⌠Existence is impermanent ⌠Clinging is impermanent ⌠Craving is impermanent ⌠Feeling is impermanent ⌠Contact is impermanent ⌠The six sense bases are impermanent ⌠Name-and-form is impermanent ⌠Consciousness is impermanent ⌠Volitional formations are impermanent ⌠Ignorance is impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen, subject to destruction, vanishing, fading away, and cessation.