So, welcome everybody. I hope you can hear me and see me. This is the third lecture in
my course on the Arahant and the Foot Truth in Early Buddhist Discourse. Yeah, I start
again going through some of the points that were raised on the blog, which has been very,
very lively. I really enjoyed it. Yeah, the first topic I'm going to take up is the meaning
of dukkha. There was one, forgive me, one contribution by Rodolfo Rivas Molina, and I
think it's good just to remind us that he says that there are three different types
of dukkha, and I just wanted to give the canonical reference for that. One occurrence we have in the
Sangeeti suttam, that is the 33 Discourse in the Dighanikaya, and in the Party Text Edition,
this is Volume 3, page 216. So, this distinguishes between outright pain, between the fact that
everything is conditioned, and the fact that everything is bound to change.
So, this is just one very good point also, and as Rodolfo says, suffering, the translation
suffering would only cover the first of these three meanings. And there was also a contribution
by Manfred Wiesberger, and yeah, I think I give you the whole. He says, as to phrasing
the four noble truths in terms of dukkha, I think the answer is fairly simple. The Buddha
started his search because he could not accept old age sickness and death, the observable form of
dukkha. And he ended up with seeing the underlying psychological workings of the experienced dukkha,
maybe patichesamopad or dependent arising. So, on the one hand, it is his central theme.
On the other, it is an established formula on how to treat illnesses. Yeah, the term dukkha
was already in use apparently, as far as we can tell. So, we find even non-Buddhists
formulating the aim, for example, the Jains, formulating the aim of their practice to get out
of dukkha. So, the usage of this term is not specifically Buddhist. What is specifically
Buddhist is the way how it is used or what it is used for. And there was another contribution by
Ven. Kong Wu.
He wants us to notice also that impermanence also has a positive aspect.
He says, it is exactly impermanence in its functional aspect of law of cause and effect
that allows the process of training, purification and eventual liberation to take place.
So, the impermanence dukkha link may not always be a negative thing.
And I think this further supports my argument that we cannot confine our understanding of dukkha
to suffering. Yeah, then I still continue a little bit with dukkha and maybe then I
leave some room for question. This is a little bit now in relation to the Arahant.
This is Danya Percy and she brings in the position that is very common in tradition,
in the Theravada tradition, where it is thought that the Arahant experiences pleasure as disgusting
and would abandon it once he gets the chance. So, the Arahant just continues out of compassion.
But would Parinibhana that is he would finally or she would finally pass away and abandon even
pleasure since that too is dukkha. Yeah, I'm very glad that this very widespread understanding
within the Theravada tradition has been formulated so clearly because it's something that I actually
I'm going to challenge this a little bit I think. Yeah, my understanding is that this notion of the
Arahant who experiences everything basically as just disgusting everything is basically a form
of suffering and the only reason why the Arahant doesn't kill himself or herself is because these
poorly people they have to get a chance to make merit. This is an understanding that I do not see
in the early suttas. This is what I and this is in fact one of the real points that I want to make
in this series of lectures on the Arahant that we try to see and you are certainly completely free
to disagree with me but that we try to see if there's some degree of a historical development
between the way an Arahant is depicted in the early suttas and the way he or she is later
understood by tradition and before we get time to discuss this there's a few more contributions I
want to put in and then I hand over the ball to you on the same topic. This is Manfred Wiesberger
again so he says there is some propaganda around that revulsion is a necessary feeling to turn
away from samsara. That sounds to me rather extreme. To my mind it should be enough to see clearly
sober instead of revolted that whatever it is it cannot quench my inherent desire for lasting
happiness precisely because it never ever is or stays just the way I want it. Yeah I feel very
much in agreement with what Manfred has said there. Then this is from Juliana Martini she says
Dukkha is not simply painful and pain this is also clear from the perspective of the end of Dukkha
liberation. Yeah and this falls in again with this idea of the Arahant. You see if everything
is suffering then the end of Dukkha the end the ending of Dukkha will only be attainable after
this life. But that is not the case and this is not what we get in the suttas. We get a very clear
shift in perspective compared to the contemporary setting that the the final goal is to be attained
in this very life itself. The Arahant is reaches the Dukkha Kaya the destruction of Dukkha here and
now not only at the time when he or she passes away. And there's one more contribution
this is by Rosa Grau and she says I'm sure that an Arahant enjoys his life much more than we do.
Yeah and this is this is actually also what I think. There's one passage I want to quote
I just put in the references.
This is Majimani Kaya 89, Pali text edition volume 321. The translation is from Bhikkhu Bodhi page 730.
So here's a king and he comes to visit the Buddha and he pays his respect and he pays it in a very
little bit exaggerated manner and the Buddha says why do you feel so inspired and says
so the king says look and now I am reading Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation. When I come here
I see Bhikkhu smiling and cheerful sincerely joyful plainly delighting their faculties
fresh living at ease unruffled subsisting on what others give abiding with mind as a loof as a wild
deer. Yeah if we try to picture what this king has been seeing then clearly these these these
monks are enjoying what they are doing they are happy. There's a whole whole chapter on happiness
in the Dhammapada. Obviously I'm not saying they are enjoying sensuality no way but an Arahant
is not someone who sees everything as disgusting. I don't think so. Anyway the ball is with you now.
Any questions comments criticism.
So Lisa Fankardt she says dear Banta I could not post on the blog. The Buddha designed his teaching
for the human organism neurologically we experience everything as stress. Sensual pleasure in many
ways is a stress on the system that makes tranquility within our human system impossible by its nature.
Any experience is a stress on the system. I have seen Dukar translated as stress but I cannot
remember where but it is accepted in modern science that we have pleasurable stress as well
as stress that is not experienced as pleasure. It seems that the tranquil state equanimity or even
joy it it is physiologically different from the arising and passing of sensual experiences.
Thank you very much Lisa. Yeah
I have to apologize. I have a little cold so I'm gonna cough and do all these things now.
Yeah when I'm a Kong says that it's the number Thanissaro. Thanissaro Biko translates Dukar as stress.
John Emmer he says from today's reading Sadiputta says he's filled with horror loathing and
disgust of this foul body of mind. This seems difficult to align with the enjoyment of life
since the body is always present. Yeah I'm precisely going to come to that point. Yeah I have
difficulties with that passage. Good that you pointed out. Rosa Grau there's an emphasis in
early Buddhism on looking at what is ugly. I do not understand that. Yeah the Asubha
this is about getting out of sensuality. The contemplation of Asubha is trying to see that
the body is made up of different parts and that our perception of myself as being beautiful
or a person of the opposite gender as being beautiful is something that only goes skin deep.
If I go further in if instead of taking off my clothes or the clothes of the other person I
also take off my skin or their skin the whole beauty disappears. So there's there's a very clear
point behind the Asubha practice. It is a tool to help the meditator to overcome sensual desire
and because of being able to overcome sensual desire then the meditator will be able to experience
real happiness in meditation in concentration. If one is involved with sensuality it is very
difficult if not impossible to go deep in the concentration. Buddhism early Buddhism clearly
deconstructs the notion that the human body as such is beautiful.
Which does not mean that we should be getting into a version towards the body. In fact what
John just pointed out and I'm going to discuss this when we come to the discourse I find it
difficult to imagine that an Iran has how did he put it yeah filled with horror loathing and
disgust at this foul body of mine. Yeah difficult but we we come to that when we get to the discourse.
I think I continue with the next topic there's still something more from the from the blog
excuse me yeah on Madhyama Agama 22 there's a contribution by Michael Beisert.
He says the discussion between Udayan and Sadiputta concerns the cessation of feeling
and perception. The Buddha considers the monk that attains the forjanas worthy of respect and
says nothing about cessation which supposedly is a higher attainment. I don't know how to interpret
that but it looks odd yeah that's a very keen observation. My personal explanation of this
would be that in both versions we have a reference to the forjanas and to the destruction of the
influxes. So I suppose the point was to give to to mention the akma of normal jhana development
and then the akma of insight development without getting into all the details. I would say that
somebody who gets the first jhana would also be worthy of respect and somebody who is a stream
entra also worthy of respect. So we don't get all the individual points like listed out because it
would just get very long if we would go like and the first jhana attainment who has stream entry
and the second jhana attainment who has stream it and so on. I mean it would have been nice if they
mentioned cessation also but I would personally think it's possible that this was implicitly
included by mentioning forjanas and the destruction of the influxes. Yeah then there was John Emer
and he was asking if there's a difference between the initial objection by venomudayin
in between the Pali version and the Madhyama Agama version and I followed it up and I
got down the Pali and the Chinese and I have it here on my screen one below the other and it looks
like one has been translating from the other. So all the differences we make out because of these
English translations and I'm really sorry about that. There's not really much we can do you see
because of copyright restrictions I can only put up the hare translation and Bhikkhu Bodhi has just
recently written to me that he is reading the proofs of his Anguttara Nikaya translation. So
this is going to come out by the end of this year sure and we will all have finally a reliable
translation of the Anguttara. But for the time being you see the point is that what I'm trying
to do in this series of lectures is to give you a first feeling of these discourses and to
touch on some central points. If we were to do a thorough and proper comparative study of say the
Madhyama Agama 22 and its Pali parallel this would take us a whole semester and you would
need to be knowing all these languages. So this is not what I want to do and this is also not why
most of the students have enrolled in the course. So I basically I present you some central points
from the discourse but I'm not going to go for each small difference. I just pick up those
differences that I think are worthwhile for us to discuss and reflect on and based on the
feedback I got last year I always try to also stir in the direction of what does it practically mean
what can we do with this. And this is also reason why even though I have this
Pali and Chinese here now on my screen I'm not going to paste it in now. I'm tempted to but I
don't because I am a little bit afraid that if we are going to use too much Pali and Chinese in
our discussion that there will be part of those we have over 400 students that are enrolled in this
course and there will be quite a part of them who will feel like put off or feel at least it makes
no sense to them. So I think I will try myself to I mean if it's just a single word like glass
lecture we had Viraga or was it on the first lecture no a second lecture just a single word
that needs to be clarified then fine but I think it's good for those of us who are familiar with
all the canonical languages if we keep in mind that for us it's just like it's lovely oh look
here the Pali reads like this and the Chinese says this but many others will be uh-huh okay I don't
get anything but never mind and if they get frustrated then all the beautiful contributions
that these students are able to make because of their practically dealing with the sutras and
making sense of it that will be lost so I'm yeah I'm leaving the Pali and Chinese here but anybody
of you wants I can send you an email no okay I'm going to go into a different topic now so if there
is any question on the two points I have mentioned now and this would be a good time to throw it
into the chat yeah then I'll continue I'm now getting a little bit into methodology
there was a question by Michael Beisert about a suggestion by Johannes Bronkhorst he has written
a book called the two traditions of meditation ancient India excuse me and so Johannes Bronkhorst
thinks that immaterial attainments these four attainments of boundless space and boundless
consciousness etc that can be attained when one has already achieved the four absorptions
that these were not part of the original Buddhist teachings and Rosa Grau adds that somebody seems
to think that this is a later development trying to harmonize the views of different schools
yeah and there's a nice opportunity for me to make a little statement on methodology you see
scholarship on Buddhism can be very helpful and this is why I am a scholar and trying to present
a scholarly research to you but it also has its limits and we need to be aware of the extent to
which we can rely on certain statements or not there has been different suggestions on the nature
of early Buddhism what the Buddha taught and we have been told by a very good scholar Caroline
Rice-David that the Buddha didn't teach not self no how could he teach something like this such a
wonderful person the Buddha how could he not know that there's a self no this was all added by later
monk reducters who changed the true teaching of the Buddha and we get similar statements about
the five aggregates I think that was I.B. Horner if I remember correctly the Buddha never taught five
aggregates and he also didn't teach dependent arising and here he didn't teach the four
immaterial attainments and at one point I collected a list of all the things that according to Buddhist
scholarship the Buddha never taught and the wonderful result I got was that the Buddha didn't
teach anything yeah so now we have to stop the lecture there's nothing left for us to discuss I
think the point is that I can basically say of anything that the Buddha taught it or didn't
teach it if I use this type of argument well later on they put it or took it out or shifted it around
they mixed it all up the Buddha the Buddha taught Mahayana and all these narrow-minded
terrible monks they took out all these nice teachings any argument of that type is possible
but for us as those who hear this type of explanation we should just notice look this is
just an opinion what this person says has not really much ground to stay on and what I'm trying
to do here is different because here we have Pali version and the Chinese Agama version and
sometimes a fragment here or something there we have different lines of the oral transmission
that we are tapping into and we are comparing them and sometimes we find differences and so
there is some some real ground for us to stand on and then we can say look these are the same
the different traditions are the same and there is no major logical inconsistency then this is as
far as we can go back nobody of us is able to say this is what the Buddha taught we can't say that
but we can say this is as far as we can go back we must be very very close to what the Buddha taught
and this is the this position of early Buddhism and in early Buddhist scriptures in the Pali
discourses the Chinese Agamas we find that the immaterial attainments are mentioned again and
again and again so there is as far as I can see not much basis in the textual sources that we have
to say this was added later now these four immaterial attainments are a block of text
and doing oral transmission what often can happen is that maybe the sutra originally only mentions
the four jhanas the four absorptions I'm sorry no Pali and because they are so closely associated
with the four immaterial attainments then an reciter accidentally keeps on reciting and in
the end we get one version where these are more so we might have two discourses one just has the
four absorptions I'm just making a hypothetical example and the other one has the four absorptions
and the four immaterial attainments we might get these things but these are usually the outcome
just of oral transmission they do not necessarily mean that the immaterial attainments were not
known to the Buddha onto his contemporaries and were put in at a later time where we can make
statements is when something is not found at all and here we come to another point raised by Rodolfo
Rivas Molina and he wanted to know about the store consciousness the alaya vinyana and so the store
consciousness is clearly not mentioned anywhere in the early discourses nor its counterpart the
bhavanga citta the subliminal mind how do you translate it that we find in the terrawire
tradition and both result out of a philosophical development that set in only after early Buddhism
so here we can make very clear statements this is a later development
and just to complete my
reply to Rodolfo Rivas Molina he was asking well I I just pasted in the whole question and then
there's again time for you to
question ask any questions he says it would be interesting to know what the old discourses say
about the store consciousness or what actually transmigrates that marks our inclinations in
future lives or makes it possible to enter temporarily the cessation of perception and
feeling yeah as I said the alaya vinyana the store consciousness and also the bhavanga which
has this function in the evolved terrawire tradition is unknown to the early discourses
what we get there's one reference here I want to give this is in the diga nikaya volume 300 page
100 page 105 this is the pitext edition we get the vinyana sota the flow or flux of consciousness
and this needs to be understood in conjunction with another explanation we get in the magimani
kaya volume one page 256 that it is definitely not the same consciousness that is reborn
this is about the information we get you see the early discourses
this is I think a very important characteristic they are prescriptive not descriptive they
prescribe the path to liberation and sometimes also things that are not immediately related to
that but they do not set themselves the task of giving us a complete map of describing all and
everything this is only a task taken up later by the abhidharma and shasta traditions
so there's this this this this question uh this kind of questions we we often don't get a
clear-cut statement as we get in later tradition but we just get these hints out of which we can
make sense and say well you see the continuity after death as far as uh what later on was
explained to be the store consciousness or the subliminal mind in the suttas what we can match
this with is this idea of a flux of consciousness a stream of consciousness out of which every
moment is changing and which is not the same it doesn't it there's nothing unchanging eternal
fixed stable within that stream that is about as much as we can say yeah there's time for
questions and comments now before i go into the next topic
martyr turner said i would like to see that list oh i have to look up where i have it
i think i put some of these points in a paper court um something on the chinese arguments
while i wait for questions i just briefly look at why i tell you because i think that
can be downloaded from the internet
you have reflections on comparative agama studies you can get it from my list of publications at
the university of hombre just google list of publications on alio and there's all these
articles don't read the whole list that's terrible but just reflections on comparative
agama studies i should at the end have several of these points i'm not sure if the whole list is
there anyhow yeah so i think i go for the next topic that's about the strong language used by
the buddha when he rebukes ananda for not uh for for for keeping silent when whenever saree puta is
being vexed so it's gabriel coherence who says the chinese version may go overboard in the buddha's
criticism and the essential point is intervening with a calm mind excuse me
my question is this what is the utility of phrasing the condemnation in this language
it seems neither to illustrate a calm intervention nor reflect the noble qualities of the buddha
why would the author's transcribers of these versions use these words
i thought that was a very good question
i first give some of the replies that some
have given and then yeah so this is mark johnson he says most of us have an idealized image of the
buddha as a teacher so full of compassion and skillful means that he would not have truly
done or said these things dare we consider that the buddha would occasionally make mistakes
or choose words that were not always the wisest or best choice we have a superhuman image of the
buddha could he after his enlightenment still have been quite human and not always perfect
does being a buddha mean perfection in all human and social interactions
yeah i thought that was a very wise comment
and we find this even in in tradition like i there there there's there's passages where
the buddha is described as taking a rest because his back is aching and then the commentaries come
up with all kind of explanation that no no the buddha didn't have any pain you see he just did
this to give his disciples an opportunity to teach there's this this tendency of of of seeing
that the total purity of the mind being completely free from any kind of defilements does not
necessarily mean absolute total and complete perfection in all and everything
and there was another reply here by by rosa growl
she says such a long oral and written transmission allows for all kind of mixes alternations
alterations i'm sorry misinterpretations and all sorts of phenomena that can be attributed
to human intervention an explanation could be that people who put the suttas in writing
but not as kind and compassionate as the teacher yeah i think this is a this is good
line of thinking i personally think that i would give main emphasis to the oral transmission here
and i'm not sure if at the time that material has been written down there would have happened
major changes this is not my interpretation my impression so far but in an oral transmission
this can be more easily imagined the buddhist monks were not trained from the early youth
in memorization unlike the vedic reciters so even though they were trying to transmit things
correctly as much as they could and the early buddhist oral transmission is not just a matter
of free improvisation we can imagine how a certain situation can evolve doing being
transmitted down say the buddha just says it and now i tell somebody else and i feel upset
about this udayin or about ananda and so the way how i'm reporting the situation it just
gets a little bit stronger ananda you should really not have done this and passing on a few
generations then the way the buddhist words have become has become just much more stronger than
they originally were there's a one case one case study i made um there's a one discourse i have
it here the chula
one basic situation is there's this debate as sachika and so he makes a big announcement i'm
going to challenge the buddha and i'm going to flatten him out you all come and see so he goes
with all his followings and they all believe that he's a saint he goes with all his followers in
front of the buddha and they have a debate and you will not be surprised the buddha wins the
debate sachika is totally defeated in front of his people so what he does is he invites the buddha
for a meal and he tells his followers you help me prepare by preparing the meal he's also some sort
of wandering debater so he would not have had the means to provide a meal for the buddha and his
monks so the next day i think yeah the next day the buddha and the monks come and they take the
meal and at the end of the meal this debate as sachika says so i would like to dedicate the the
merit of this offering to to my followers so here we have a situation where i mean good he has
challenged the buddha publicly but he has admitted his defeat he has kind of more or less apologized
he makes a offering of a meal and then he makes a dedication of merit and what the buddha says is
i read from bhikkhu bodhi's translation whatever comes about from giving to a recipient such as
yourself one who is not free from lust not free from hate not free from delusion that will be for
the givers whatever comes about from giving to a recipient such as myself one who is free from
lust free from hate free from delusion that will be for you i have always had problem with this but
i mean the the statement is interesting in two ways and i will come to the second way later but
how is it possible that the buddha could be so resentful i mean this fellow has just said sorry
he's making a meal often he wants to dedicate the merit in front of his followers who have prepared
the meal who think this is a saintly person you tell him look the people who have made the meal
in your name they won't get much merits because they gave it to you you only get the merits because
you give to somebody like me so one gets a real strange impression and i studied the chinese
parallels and in one chinese parallel we get quite a different situation we have the buddha
makes that statement about the merit but he doesn't make it in front of this debater
he makes it much later the monks and the buddha have taken their meal they go home to the home
to the monastery and on the way to the monastery the monks start discussing hey these followers
how much merits they get and the debater how much does he get and the buddha just explains it to
them you see look these followers have prepared the meal for this fellow so they only get the
merits of giving to him and he is not an arahant but he has then given that meal to me and so he
gets the full merit completely different situation and this just comes from shifting the
small piece of text words the buddha says to a little bit later place in the sutta which can
easily happen during during oral transmission not necessarily somebody who is now manipulating or
whatever and as an aside to my main topic the passage is also interesting because it's actually
a canonical statement that puts into question the idea of transference of merit here the
sachika wants to transfer merit and the buddha says can't do but that is not our main topic
i just wanted to to to make this point to say that some of the passages where the buddha appears to
be acting in a way that we would not expect of somebody who is fully awakened could be the results
of some problem in the transmission of the text but there's also another perspective and here i
come back to manfred wiesberger he says i consider it absolutely plausible that the buddha used words
that affected his audience according to their background in a way that benefited them in the
long run that line of thinking seems for me to be more reasonable than attributing everything
which does not fit our current modern humanistic ideas to a flaw in the transmission of the
teachings and i think that's that's a good warning also we should we should beware of the problem of
projecting our own modern day perceptions too much into the text and seeing anything that doesn't
fit them as as a problem we can find a kind of middle way i clearly
you
is it better now
oh gosh
what was the last thing you heard me saying
oh this technical stuff
okay
about two minutes lost did you still hear me talking about the satyaka story
okay
okay okay okay yeah so i'm i'm
i i i have given that example of the satyaka
and i am going to start
with manfred wiesberger again i'm sorry about this
so he says i consider it absolutely let me just check if everything is being registered
now i'm getting nervous i know it's working good i consider it absolutely plausible that
the buddha used words that affected his audience according to their background in a way that
benefited them in the long run that line of thinking seems for me to be more reasonable
than attributing everything which does not fit our current modern humanistic ideas to a flaw in
the transmission of the teachings yeah i think that's a it's a very good very good point that
sets also a limit to our attributing things to transmission problems that we should also see that
we cannot read excuse me our own world view into the teachings we cannot expect that everything
meets our present day expectations because the ancient world was different and with that i'm
certainly not wanting to say that uh going in the direction of crazy wisdom of the idea that
the island is beyond being judged and can do whatever he or she wants i think rosa growl
took up that topic on the blog and i feel very much in agreement with what she says
and there's a very beautiful discourse in the middle-long collection number 47 the v mong saka
i have also translated the chinese spell and done a paper on that where the buddha makes himself
opens himself up to a very searching investigation and says anybody who wants who thinks of becoming
mighty sap check me out very thoroughly so that is perfectly in line with with with the teachings
that uh there's no no way of excusing immoral behavior by saying look i am
i am i have transcended all this you you just don't understand so
it's another comment by mark
i have two more comments and then there's time again for questions
i think we have to admit that we just don't always understand the context of all of the
dialogues in the discourses and since so many of the discourses readily display the boundless
wisdom and compassion of the buddha i'm inclined to think that the few that leave us puzzled as to
the buddha's response were likely very fitting response in that time and situation
yeah it's like like uh i think somebody on the block mentioned this moga purisa
you're you're a fool i personally also think this is a very strong word but it's it's not
it might just have been uh hey don't be silly something like that in the ancient setting
and also we might want to keep in mind that you see in those ancient times
for anybody to come to know about what the buddha teaches the only way was by hearsay
so if somebody who officially is dressed as a buddhist monk and thus as a disciple of the buddha
walks around giving out what is totally wrong and being told by other monks hey this is wrong
don't say that he keeps on insisting no no this is the way i understand the teaching it's like this
then there is also the occasion for a somewhat stronger term to be used like hey moga purisa i
mean who told you this so yeah there's some room for that and there's a final comment and
then i'm back with you for any kind of question by lynda grace and she says i find it very powerful
and beautiful the the madhyama agama version although i prefer the anguttara version in terms
of the rebuke is that not only that the buddha makes it clear that silence was not an appropriate
response but he frames it in terms of compassion and that is also something that really struck me
anyhow the ball is with you konmo can you give us that reference banten i suppose you mean the
that is magimani kaya 47 if i remember right let me check
yeah and you'll find this page 415 of picobody's uh translation and then this anali and one of this
1001 articles he's written on it which you can also download from the internet
making publicity for myself uh the topic of the article is the scope of free inquiry
so there you get the chinese version translated it's from the madhyama agama also and a little
discussion of the significance i find this a very very powerful discourse even stronger
than the kalamas which is usually being quoted as the buddha's chart of free inquiry
okay anyhow after a little publicity for myself uh any content wise question to i'm i've come to
the end of my discussion of the blog and any any comment or question or query you have in
relation to what i presented now is a good time to put it into the chat
so
well i hope you're not getting tired of me
yeah and then i i think i i go for our first discourse there was several students on the
blog noticed that in the discourse we had last time there was this other monk halara who the way
he was uh saying oh to the buddha sareputa said this and that it gives us the impression that he
was trying to find fault and this is actually a theme that that runs through these first discourses
of the arahan and particularly sareputa being being open being being criticized being censored
not being being seen uh for what he is there's a very well-known story which we are not going to
cover now by what among by the name of kokalika and he had a real hatred apparently according to
what the text say towards sareputa and mahamogallana i checked with malala sekara it's not clear if that
is the same kokalika as uh the one who was a follower of devadatta sources are apparently
not clear if these were two different people or one but it's it's clear that uh at the buddha's
lifetime as far as we are able to tell from the text that those who we now know are his two chief
disciples uh didn't have an easy time particularly sareputa seems to have been often the object of
unfounded allegation criticism etc and this is this is interesting for us to to know just that
in in this case who somebody who was an arahan and who must have been very pure
was not recognized by everybody and this coming coming back to the topic i just poached before
so there is no no crazy wisdom actual misconduct by somebody we can clearly draw an inference this
person is not a fully awakened one but uh what michael i think mark was so sad or michael yeah i
don't remember that this this idea of this this total perfection without making the slightest
mistake is going a little bit too far sometimes if these are minor mistakes that are not motivated
by defilement and that we are sometimes not able to recognize somebody for the qualities or for
the level of awakening he or she has and so it's it's always good when dealing with the
spiritual teachers particularly to be a little wary of just going by rumors and to try to find
a middle way between blind faith letting anything happen because well my teacher says so and the
excessive skepticism that keeps on wanting to find fault at the at the smallest little thing
okay before i go into the discourse let me just say lisa tnh suggests that right speech would
always contribute to healing don't know if this is a mayana test for right speech sorry try to find
the reference we'll post it later on the book tnh will be ticked not done i suppose and um
right speech would always contribute to healing
yeah there is um i believe we went through that in the last course on the abhaya rajkumara suttan
there's a very telling survey of what type of speech the buddha uses and that can be unpleasant
speech as long as it is truthful and beneficial in the long run
yeah
now we get into the discourse magy manikai 24 so the setting of the discourse is buddha and
sari puta his chief disciple you know they are both observing the rainy season retreat the three
months of the rainy period when the monks stay in one place in sabati and so after the rainy season
retreat is over sari puta takes his leave he says goes to the buddha and says i'm gonna walk
around in the country and he leaves and then another monk comes goes to the wood and says
look that sari puta he's just slighted me and then he left and so the buddha quickly tells
another monk you go and get sari puta before he leaves and he brings sari puta back and in the
meantime while that happened the rumors already spread ananda has heard what's happening and
tells all the other monks you come come there's going to be a discussion about this
so whenever sari puta comes back and the buddha says look you just after you left another monk
came and he said you slighted him and without excusing or anything you just left and now we're
going to get the way how an arahan reacts to a false accusation at the end of the discourse we
will find out that this accusation was false i read the discourse for you manjimani kai 24
the venerable sari puta said blessed one someone who lacks mindfulness of the body in regard to
the body might well slight a companion in the holy life just before setting out to journey among
the people i however i'm well equipped with mindfulness of the body in regard to the body
how could i slight a companion in the holy life just before sitting out to a journey among the
people you see already how he how he reacts i mean i i i was originally planning to read
through the whole thing but i have to comment on this right away you see if that happened to me
you know what i would say hey who is that what is he saying absolutely wrong he's lying
excuse me and here he says no no i didn't do it or what is he saying says look if somebody of this
type it might happen but i'm not of that type it won't happen in my case so he is able to clarify
that he didn't do that without bringing in i didn't do it without accusing the other and
in a very elegant and diplomatic way yeah i find that very part very touching and now he gives us
a series of similes last course we had a lot of joy with these different similes so i'm happy
we're getting a few more similes he's now illustrating his attitude towards this false
accusation with a series of similes and i keep on reading blessed one it is just as a dehorned ox
that is patient and docile being thoroughly tamed causes no harm wherever it goes
whether from village to village or from street to street blessed one i'm like this having a
mind like a dehorned ox free from fetish or resentment without ill will or quarrel
i dwell pervading the entire world with the mind that is boundless exalted immeasurable and well
cultivated just for us to understand this references to the boundless mind is an indirect
reference to the brahma viharas loving kindness compassion sympathetic joy and equanimity
continue with the sudha the second simile blessed one it is just as a son of an outcast
whose two hands have been cut off being utterly humbled causes no harm wherever he goes
whether from village to village or from town to town blessed one i'm like this my mind is like
the son of an outcast whose two hands have been cut off free from fetters or resentment without
ill will or quarrel i dwell pervading the entire world with the mind that is boundless exalted
immeasurable and well cultivated already an outcast has to in ancient indian society be very
very keeping to the sides and be very humble and he even has his two hands cut off for whatever
reason now he gets into the elements blessed one it is just as the earth receives what is
pure and what is impure excrement urine snot and spittle without for this reason hating it
or liking it without feeling embarrassed ashamed or humiliated blessed one i'm like this my mind is
like the earth free from fetters or resentment without ill will or quarrel i dwell pervading
the entire world with the mind that is boundless exalted immeasurable and well cultivated
blessed one it is just as water washes away what is pure and what is impure excrement urine snot and
spittle without for this reason hating it or liking it without feeling embarrassed ashamed
or humiliated blessed one i'm like this my mind is like that water free from fetters or resentment
without ill will or quarrel i dwell pervading the entire world with the mind that is boundless
exalted immeasurable and well cultivated blessed one it is just as fire that burns her what is
pure and what is impure excrement urine snot and spittle without for this reason hating it or liking
it without feeling embarrassed ashamed or humiliated blessed one i'm like this my mind
is like that fire free from fetters or resentment without ill will or quarrel i dwell pervading the
entire world with the mind that is boundless exalted immeasurable and well cultivated blessed
one it is just as the wind blows away what is pure and what is impure excrement urine snot and spittle
without for this reason hating it or liking it without feeling embarrassed ashamed or humiliated
blessed one i'm like this my mind is like the wind free from fetters or resentment without ill will
or quarrel i dwell pervading the entire world with the mind that is boundless exalted immeasurable
and well cultivated now we get another simile blessed one it is just as a broom that sweeps
away what is pure and what is impure excrement urine snot and spittle without for this reason
hating it or liking it without feeling embarrassed ashamed or humiliated blessed one i'm like this
my mind is like a broom free from fetters or resentment without ill will or quarrel
i dwell pervading the entire world with the mind that is boundless exalted immeasurable and well
cultivated blessed one it is just as a cleaning rag that wipes away what is pure and what is
impure excrement urine snot and spittle without for this reason hating it or liking it without
feeling ashamed or humiliated blessed one i'm like this my mind is like a cleaning rag free
from fetters or resentment without ill will or quarrel i dwell pervading the entire world with
the mind that is boundless exalted immeasurable and well cultivated now come the final two which
i already told you before i find a little bit problematic blessed one it is just as when a jug
with many cracks has been filled to the brim with grease and placed in the sun the grease leaks and
oozes out everywhere if a man with good eyesight comes and stands beside it he sees this jug of
grease with many cracks which has been filled to the brim and placed in the sun and he sees the
grease leaking and oozing out everywhere blessed one i too am like this i constantly contemplate
the impurity of this body with its nine orifices leaking and oozing out everywhere and the last
one blessed one it is just as a joyful youth might bathe and perfume himself with fragrances
put on white clean clothes and adorn himself with jewels and having shaped his beard and
ranged his hair might place flowers on his head suppose that three kinds of corpse are then
garlanded around his neck a dead snake a dead dog and a dead human being discolored bloated foul
smelling rotten and oozing putrid fluids that youth would feel embarrassed and ashamed filled with
utter disgust blessed one i'm like this as i constantly contemplate the foul and impure
parts of this body my mind is embarrassed and ashamed and filled with utter disgust
so now we look at the comparative perspective i have listed the Madhyama Agama
ten similes above and we have nine similes in the Anguttaranikaya
the first one that we find and which those of you who have been joining me last year will be very
familiar with very often we get variations in sequence this is very normal in orally transmitted
literature and has normally with some exceptions no deeper meaning so if we look at what
uh comes together here we find that uh basically we get the same similes one difference is that the
Madhyama Agama has number seven the broom and number eight the cleaning rag and there we might
in fact wonder what the point is of speaking of a cleaning rag when the broom has already been brought
in let me see yeah there's a small difference here number six in the Pali speaks of an outcast girl
it's equivalent number two in the Chinese is an outcast and whose hands have been cut off
but um yeah the the difference is not major now coming back to the point i was making about
methodology the simile that i find particularly difficult is number 10 in the Madhyama Agama and
which corresponds to number eight in the in the Pali version we have it in both versions
therefore what i'm going to say now is my personal opinion and it is not methodologically
based on the comparative study but what i would like us to notice if we go back
you see all of the earlier similes in both versions they mentioned this boundless
exalt immeasurable and well cultivated mind it is only with number nine and ten that we
suddenly don't get this anymore this is a an irregularity in the presentation which is
unexpected and so my hypothesis but very clearly this is just an opinion is it could be
that at a time in the transmission before the transmission lineage of what we now have in the
is it magima nikaya or nanguta nikaya and in the Madhyama Agama before these two split into
different transmission that these last two were added and it would have been natural because of
all this speaking about impure excrement urine snot and spittle in the earlier versions that
by way of association this would attract the idea of the jug with its many cracks
and then about the carcass on the neck and when they were added doing oral transmission
they were not they were they were taken from a different context and they were not fully
adjusted to the content because we do not get the final part on developing the brahma viharas
but as i'm saying this is just the hypothesis of mine and this is based on my study of the role of
the body in buddhist meditation some topic that i'm at present preparing a paper on and it seems to
me that an arahant would have a neutral attitude towards the body i i can't see personally that an
arahant says my mind is embarrassed ashamed and filled with utter disgust
yeah i have fear at the party i'm sorry i was promising not to give you the party but i had it
already there so this time i hope i'm forgotten in the same way venerable sir i'm repelled horrified
and disgusted with this body and in the Madhyama Agama we have the similar thing i constantly
contemplate the foul and impure part of this body my mind is embarrassed ashamed and filled
with utter disgust we get some such statements in a very specific context where like for example a
nun is being accosted by somebody who is trying to to to to maybe even trying to rape her by trying
to have sex with her and where it makes sense for her to say look i'm i'm just disgusted with this
body i'm not interested in sex but in the present context i find this a little difficult but again
i and i hope i'm making my point very mythologically clear what i'm saying is based on on i believe
there's an inconsistency in the presentation because that final part is missing and i believe
it does not fit what i think would be the attitude of an arahant towards his body but i'm not on
methodologically firm ground here i am now sharing the same ground with Caroline Rice-Davids
and Ivy Horner etc it is just an opinion of mine and please take it as that and feel totally free
to disagree what is really important about this discourse i think if we if we just bracket this
final tune is that it teaches us and i hope i'm coming back being a little bit practical now again
it teaches us how to react to the false accusation you see somebody is making a false accusation and
it is our duty to clarify what has happened not just keeping keeping out of it completely
but he does it in such a way that it's not a direct attack of the other
as i was making the caricature of myself or i would react in such a situation that was not
the way to do it he just says look i am somebody who is like this wouldn't do it and i'm of that
type it's a very very clear statement but at the same time it's so so so so diplomatically phrased
that there is no direct attack of the other and then he goes into this beautiful similes that
describe the humility and patience he has even when people make false accusations like an ox
without horns this makes maybe less sense to us now in the modern west but if you have been to
india and seen those that still have their horns and come close to them when they don't want you
to be close you know what he's talking about like an outcast like the four elements this is
particularly powerful i think it's a completely different perspective on the four elements than
we get in the satipatana sutta where the idea is to see that our own body is the same as outside
nature but here they are actually used to inculcate a mental attitude of of patience and humility
like a broom and all of these lead on to the brahma vihara so the the the divine abode it's
loving kindness etc so the the the occasion of being falsely accused by someone else of being
directly attacked in front of the person that sanny puta would have cared most about in the
whole world in front of the buddha himself he merely uses that as an occasion this is this is
this is my chance to practice brahma vihara here i am my mind stays open broad boundless
yes that was what i had on this discourse now let me see there have been a few few comments
looks like variations that have been added by rosa growl i am not entirely sure because i i had
to concentrate on the text so i'm not sure when this came and what it refers to juliana martini
she says the three types of corpse similar seems to be the only one that has no liking or disliking
but yes in fact marta turner inconsistency in the text may be a stronger ground than not fitting
with your own opinion yeah definitely yes thank you ah rosa growl was saying about the broom and
the racks yeah i i think that might be a simple case where in the repetitive nature of oral
transmission there may have been unclarity if somebody thought this broom somebody thought
it's rags and then then we end up with two yeah it happens in other suttas exactly
martyr that was a very nice comment yeah
yeah definitely
yeah looks like we still have time to get into the second
it's actually nice if we take on the second one it's not as long as the other one and it's on the
same topic more or less it's about overcoming resentment so we are with magma magma 25
death discourse on water similes this is just an exposition given by sarniputta to the monks
sarniputta addressed the monks when we're friends i shall explain to you five methods for overcoming
resentment suppose there's a forest dwelling monk a wearer of wreck robes who sees a discarded piece
of cloth in a cesspool stained by excrement urine snot spittle and other impurities
on seeing it he holds it with his left hand and spreads it out with his right hand and wherever
he sees portions that are not stained by excrement urine snot spittle or other impurities
and that are without holes he takes them off and takes them to make a rag robe
this is a practice and done in ancient times by the monks and nuns and also still sometimes
practiced nowadays that a robe is not made out of a new cloth but that one collects rags to make
a rope out of it it's nowadays reckoned as one of the ascetic practices and it stands as a symbol
for an ascetic forest monk approach i continue the sutta similarly venerable friends if there's
someone whose bodily actions are not pure but whose verbal actions are pure one should not
pay attention to his impure bodily actions but pay attention only to his pure verbal actions
this is how a wise person who on seeing such an individual is aroused to resentment or to rid
himself of that resentment so we get this image of this impure bodily conduct but pure verbal
conduct so just as uh out of a dirty piece of cloth we we take out that little bit that can
be used we we pay attention to the wholesome part second simile i read again suppose that not far
from a village there's a deep pool whose surface is covered with water plants and suppose that
the man comes along who is oppressed by extreme heat hunger thirst and exhaustion caused by a hot
wind on arriving at the pool he takes off his clothes puts them on the bank and enters the pool
pushing aside the water plants with both hands he enjoys a pleasant bath and rids himself of the
oppression by heat hunger thirst and exhaustion similarly venerable friends if there's someone
whose verbal actions are not pure but whose bodily actions are pure one should not pay attention to
his impure verbal actions but should pay attention only to his pure bodily actions this is how a wise
person who on seeing such an individual is aroused to resentment ought to rid himself of that
resentment so here the image we get of a of of a water a pool a lake and we want to get at the
water but it's it's covered by water plants as happens quite often in asia and so you you need
to you need to push them aside in order to be able to get at the water and in the same way we
disregard this other person's unwholesome words and speech and we just push them aside
mentally so that we can get at the at the at least bodily at least his actions are pure or her
actions are pure oh this is nice third simile suppose that at a crossroads there's a puddle
of water in the depression made by an ox's hoof and suppose that the man comes along who is
oppressed by extreme heat hunger thirst and exhaustion caused by a hot wind he thinks to
himself this ox's hoof print at the crossroad contains a little water if i were to scoop it
up with my hand or with the leaf the water would become muddied and i would not be able to rid
myself of the oppression by heat hunger thirst and exhaustion let me kneel down with hands and
knees on the ground and suck up the water directly with my mouth he then kneels down with hands and
knees on the ground and sucks up the water directly with his mouth and so he's able to rid himself of
the oppression by heat hunger thirst and exhaustion similarly whenever friends if there
is someone whose bodily and verbal actions are impure but whose mind is pure to a small extent
one should not pay attention to his impure bodily and verbal actions but should pay attention only
to his mind which is pure to a small extent this is how a wise person who on seeing such an
individual is aroused to resentment ought to rid himself of that resentment this is a very stark
image if we keep in mind the ancient indian regard for the higher parts of the body compared to the
lower parts of the body and so to go down on the knees and hands and go down with the mouth to where
a cow has had her foot and suck that up is a is an extremely humbling image in in in the ancient
indian setting yeah and needless to say the whole question that we are discussing here is about
getting rid of resentment the point is not to to to to completely ignore that in a different
setting the question is when we are getting upset about it how do we get out of being upset
similarly number four suppose a person is on a long journey and having become ill on the way
as suffering greatly and exhausted he's alone without a companion the village behind him is
far away and the village ahead has not yet been reached suppose that a second person comes along
and standing to one side looks at this first person and suppose that he helps that sick traveler to
get through the wilderness and reach the next village and there gives him excellent medicine
and good sustaining food caring for him well in that case that person's illness would most
certainly subside that is to say the second person is extremely compassionate towards the
sick person having a heart full of loving kindness similarly vulnerable friends if there's a person
who's bodily verbal and mental actions are all impure then a wise person on seeing him thinks
this person's bodily verbal and mental actions are all impure but let him not on the breaking up
of the body at death go to a bad realm of existence and be born reborn in hell as a consequence of
his impure bodily verbal and mental actions if this impure person encounters a good friend
he may give up his impure bodily verbal and mental actions and cultivate pure
bodily verbal and mental actions in that case through cultivating pure bodily verbal and mental
actions this reformed person will on the breaking up of the body at death go to a good realm of
existence be reborn in a heavenly realm that is to say this wise person is extremely compassionate
towards that impure person having a heart full of loving kindness this is how a wise person who
on seeing such an individual is aroused to resentment or to rid himself of that resentment
so here we get the next case this person is just through and through impure
and that is just the ideal object for developing compassion and now we get the final case
suppose that not far from a village there's a pool full to the brim with clear beautiful water
its banks covered with verdant grass and surrounded by flowering trees
suppose that a man comes along who is oppressed by extreme heat hunger thirst and exhaustion
caused by a hot wind on arriving at the pool he takes off his clothes puts them on the bank
and enters the water he enjoys a pleasant bath and wits himself of the oppression by heat hunger
thirst and exhaustion similarly venerable friends if there is someone whose bodily
verbal and mental actions are all pure then one should constantly pay attention to his pure bodily
verbal and mental actions this is how a person wise person who on seeing such an individual is
aroused to resentment or to rid himself of that resentment i think it's interesting that the last
case takes up somebody who is pure and still speaks of resentment and my own my own suspicion
is that sari puta may have been well aware that of the fact that even though he was
pure bodily verbal and mentally there were evidently others who felt resentment towards him
yeah so we get these five similes
first one i bodily impurity is like a dirty cloth you just take only what is clean
and i'm personal idea i have is i find it interesting that we get this example of the
rag robes and the forest monks and i i i my my i find it very inspiring in so far as
strict monks i when i when i just ordained i was very very strict and i found that being
very strict with myself i was also very easily judgmental towards others i was very
um very good at knowing what others were doing wrong
and in the meantime i have found a way of still being a strict monk but without getting
judgmental about others and these kind of images are have been very helpful
and the second one the verbal impurity it's like plants on a water surface you just push it aside
they're not a real problem it's if we look from afar then it looks like there is no lake because
everything is green but if we come a little closer we can just push them a little aside we see
there's water we push a little more get more water and we get what we what we what we really need
and the third one the bodily and verbal impurity this person is acting wrongly with the body and
with words and we get this image of this is like water in the hoof of an ox we kneel down to take
whatever you can get from it yeah it it gives as i already said it gives a real feeling of humility
and without any pride you you just you you're willing to go to whatever you can do to get out
that little bit that can be gone
then somebody's totally impure like a sick person alone in the wildness
and yeah that as i said how how can we not have compassion when somebody is so completely lost
and the last one yeah if somebody is pure rejoicing in in that purity of others instead of
feeling envious jealous and having resentment yeah i find this there's no major differences
between the two versions that i would like to discuss i think this this these similes are very
very powerful and now there's uh still a little bit of time for us to to discuss anything in
relation to this discourse there's already one comment by juliana juliana martini shows that
holding resentment has a lot to do with misguidedly placing and keeping one's intention on certain
details in the other person's behavior etc and that instead a boundless mind is unable to focus
on and grasp disturbing details making it making a whole story out of them yeah that's a very good
observation that is indeed the case when i get upset with somebody it's usually that my mind
replays like like like like an eternal replay that that goes on in my mind going on he said
that he should not have said that but he did said that and he should not have said that and he gets
two two two two two and the vision becomes very very narrow and focused on that which i think is
not correct and which hurt me and which maybe was also not correct but if i practice the brahma
viharas in this this this open broad attitude then there is no longer this this uh i don't know
how you call it like you know the horses have this blink blinkers i think they're called where they
they cannot see to the sides they can only see what is in front and you you take off those
blinkers and you realize yes that that was wrong but there are so many other or some good good
things about that person stewart corner uh i guess that we can use these similes for resentment
that we have towards ourselves too well you will know yourself uh if you are impure or not
um
lisa fancourt where does the attention go to that which is a target for or
ill will or that which provides nutriment for good qualities to arise
yeah that is that is the crucial question i think oops
and it it is basically attention is something amenable to our our decision we can shift that
it naturally goes to that which has aroused our ill world but we can we can we can consciously
with the help of even intellectual reflection on these similes or as juliana has pointed out with
the help of broadening our our mind having this broad idea we can naturally shift it either to
step back from the situation see it in its broader perspective or to consciously have a
shift over to to see something something good it depends i assume on the strength of the resentment
when we are really upset and angry i guess it will be difficult to just sit back and practice
meta it will probably necessary to make a really strong effort to to bring up something positive
to make ourselves realize look this is the picture you have this is not complete
dania percy i'm wondering if we apply that advise advise then we wouldn't correct mistakes that
happen a few minutes ago we saw the buddha advise to correct a misrepresentation but if you let it
go we won't want to correct it i much rather let it go well as i try to say dania that the point
is about resentment so just a very very simple example last week somebody let's say in relation
to some publication somebody wrote something to me and i got upset about it so i did not reply
because i was in a state of upset i felt that it was totally incorrect what they were doing and
not appropriate and so i i just stopped myself from doing something and i have had a few days
in between i've done my meditation and now today i was able to reply in a just calm and balanced
manner without resentment and just clarifying look the situations like this like this
i would prefer if we do it like this and can it be done like this would you be
okay with that so so that that is the whole point the point is not that uh in in this particular
situation i'm mentioning what the others were doing were wrong was wrong there's no no question
about that but the point is that i can only appropriately deal with that situation if i am
balanced myself if i take my stance on lick what you're doing is wrong this is wrong and i feel
resentment about it the way i'm going to deal with that situation the other person is surely
going to get hurt and surely they're going to come back with something it's not going to work
even if i look at it only from the situation of dealing with with with the problem but if i if i
take that little step back and i wait until i have become calm and then i see look this is
where they're coming from they're not doing that to hurt me this is just their situation and
how from their situation can we find a solution that works with my ideas it's a completely
different picture so she gives on are you i have already answered your next question it seems
yeah for instance and so she just says somebody yelled at her
and whether you should explain it to her i just ignore her well um yeah and you you already said
uh a meditative yeah the the question is sometimes uh in the situation itself if we don't get upset
we are ready to to to to deal with it right away but that is the whole point of of of meditating
also to know am i now reacting because i got upset or am i just dealing with the situation
that that inner feeling that inner sensitivity whether my way of uh replying to the situation
is based on a full picture of the situation or just on my narrow idea that i'm angry and i want
to finish it get rid of it or something rosa growl says we often want to change others but
not ourselves yeah that's the point right on the spot exactly if only everybody one else would be
nice life would be so easy you know not the perspective of a dharma practitioner thank
you very much for giving us all these problems thank you very much for making my life difficult
cause my opportunity to practice marx has the same yeah i think i said that i told that story
already last uh last year but i i i i i may be forgiven for repeating the same story i was as
many years ago at a tibetan monastery up in in the katmandu valley and there was one monk and
very old and tiny monk and what was so noticeable about him was that you did not notice him he was
like like a shadow he was not there and then somebody told me that he had been tortured by
the chinese for 20 years and they asked him after when they finally released him they found
out he was not a spy they thought he was a spy or something and they said i mean he only spoke
tibetan and i don't speak enough tibetans and the reply he gave was it really improved my practice
you see and i find this statement still so powerful and i keep reminding this monk with this this
he absolutely had he he was just so soft and so no ego at all no no carrying himself in front of
himself that you wouldn't notice him unless you really looked he's there and this idea that 20
years being systematically tortured in in prison and the only thing he has to say is it really
improved my practice this is an image i keep uh keep using myself when i have this uh in comparison
ridiculous little problems trying to improve my practice yeah juliano martini shows that holding
resentment has a lot to do with misguidedly placing and keeping one's intention on certain details in
the other person's behavior and that instead of boundless mind is unable to focus oh yeah yeah
that's okay we had that already in my experience i sometimes find myself mulling over whether i
should say or fix something somebody because in fact this is easier than feeling upset projecting
the next action thinking i'm wise and compassionate and such like just as an excuse yeah
martyr turner i'm interested that the man in the text is oppressed by extreme heat etc
oops the starting point for this involves strong and rather stressful motivation to find what is
good yeah we are coming to the end i think i read the last two comments and then we close
but this seems like one of these suitors that can be easily misunderstood in that this is not saying
that we should condone other people's unwholesome behavior rather it is as you kindly say a teaching
on how to let get off resentment yeah that is also very clear and the suit is good that you make that
point again it is on how to get rid of resentment not a total charter on how to deal with unwholesome
behavior and lizard fankard the lion's roar suggests that there are times when we must in
fact draw boundaries yeah but in many cases as a buddhist right speech does not mean not standing
up for yourself yeah yeah helping others learn to respect these boundaries are important yeah yeah
definitely that is that is not the question we had that already i think last week about
mental tranquility and not being involved yeah the sutra is on and i think this is even the title
no on how to get rid of his resentment or it's at least what sari puta says in the introduction
i shall explain to you five methods for overcoming resentment that is the topic
anyhow i have been overdrawing for two minutes i hope you forgive me for that
thank you very much for listening to me for being there present and for all your
very helpful and nice comments and questions and i look forward to seeing you again next week and
i am already now curious to see what is going to happen on the blog because this is becoming
really fascinating for me to see all the different ideas and opinions that are coming out right
goodbye