Sutta Search

Exploring the Dhamma, as understood from the perspective of the ancient Pali commentaries.
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sukhamanveti
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Sutta Search

Post by sukhamanveti »

Hello.

I once read a sutta in which the Buddha said that all beings trapped in endless cyclic existence had at one time or another been one's own mother. I believe that it was a short sutta. Now I'm not even sure which Nikaya the sutta was in. Is anyone familiar with this discourse?

At the moment I am really feeling the truth of "I too am subject to old age." Stay with me, memory!

Ed
Sīlaṃ balaṃ appaṭimaṃ.
Sīlaṃ āvudhamuttamaṃ.
Sīlamābharaṇaṃ seṭṭhaṃ.
Sīlaṃ kavacamabbhutaṃ.


Virtue is a matchless power.
Virtue is the greatest weapon.
Virtue is the best adornment.
Virtue is a wonderful armor.

Theragatha 614


Sabbapāpassa akaraṇaṃ,
kusalassa upasampadā,
Sacittapariyodapanaṃ,
etaṃ buddhāna sāsanaṃ.


Refraining from all wrong-doing,
Undertaking the good,
Purifying the mind,
This is the teaching of the buddhas.

Dhammapada v. 183/14.5
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cooran
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Location: Queensland, Australia

Re: Sutta Search

Post by cooran »

Hello sukhamanveti, all,

SN 15.14-19 Mata Sutta Mother

At Savatthi. There the Blessed One said: "From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. A being who has not been your mother at one time in the past is not easy to find... A being who has not been your father... your brother... your sister... your son... your daughter at one time in the past is not easy to find.
"Why is that? From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. Long have you thus experienced stress, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling the cemeteries — enough to become disenchanted with all fabricated things, enough to become dispassionate, enough to be released."
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

metta
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
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sukhamanveti
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Re: Sutta Search

Post by sukhamanveti »

Chris wrote:Hello sukhamanveti, all,

SN 15.14-19 Mata Sutta Mother

At Savatthi. There the Blessed One said: "From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. A being who has not been your mother at one time in the past is not easy to find... A being who has not been your father... your brother... your sister... your son... your daughter at one time in the past is not easy to find.
"Why is that? From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. Long have you thus experienced stress, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling the cemeteries — enough to become disenchanted with all fabricated things, enough to become dispassionate, enough to be released."
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

metta
Chris
Thank you, Chris!
Sīlaṃ balaṃ appaṭimaṃ.
Sīlaṃ āvudhamuttamaṃ.
Sīlamābharaṇaṃ seṭṭhaṃ.
Sīlaṃ kavacamabbhutaṃ.


Virtue is a matchless power.
Virtue is the greatest weapon.
Virtue is the best adornment.
Virtue is a wonderful armor.

Theragatha 614


Sabbapāpassa akaraṇaṃ,
kusalassa upasampadā,
Sacittapariyodapanaṃ,
etaṃ buddhāna sāsanaṃ.


Refraining from all wrong-doing,
Undertaking the good,
Purifying the mind,
This is the teaching of the buddhas.

Dhammapada v. 183/14.5
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phil
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Re: Sutta Search

Post by phil »

I think (but am not sure) that this is the same samyutta in which the Buddha uses various striking similes to drive home the beginningless(?) nature of samsara, to drive home how long "we" have been wandering. We have cried more tears of grief than all the water in all the seas, is one. Another is that if there were a mountain a mile (roughly) wide and long and high, and we were to walk past it once every 100 years and brush it once with a piece of velvety cloth, the time it would take to wear the mountain down to dust would be less than the time we have been wandering through samsara!

I think the point of these similes is to condition samvega (sense of urgency) but I have also known Dhamma friends who take it as a way to detach from having a lot of expectations for results/progress in this one lifetime. I favour the former response!

Metta,

Phil
Kammalakkhano , bhikkhave, bālo, kammalakkhano pandito, apadānasobhanī paññāti
(The fool is characterized by his/her actions/the wise one is characterized by his/her actions/Wisdom shines forth in behaviour.)
(AN 3.2 Lakkhana Sutta)
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sukhamanveti
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Re: Sutta Search

Post by sukhamanveti »

phil wrote:I think (but am not sure) that this is the same samyutta in which the Buddha uses various striking similes to drive home the beginningless(?) nature of samsara, to drive home how long "we" have been wandering. We have cried more tears of grief than all the water in all the seas, is one. Another is that if there were a mountain a mile (roughly) wide and long and high, and we were to walk past it once every 100 years and brush it once with a piece of velvety cloth, the time it would take to wear the mountain down to dust would be less than the time we have been wandering through samsara!

I think the point of these similes is to condition samvega (sense of urgency) but I have also known Dhamma friends who take it as a way to detach from having a lot of expectations for results/progress in this one lifetime. I favour the former response!

Metta,

Phil
Hi Phil,

Indeed it is in that samyutta. The samyutta is the Anamataggasamyutta, which Bhikkhu Bodhi renders "Connected Discourses on Without Discoverable Beginning." Thanissaro Bhikkhu titles it "The unimaginable beginnings of samsara." I think that a sense of urgency is part of the idea. A major purpose of the samyutta appears to be to aid in generating revulsion toward samsaric existence: In each of the discourses in that group the Buddha says, "For such a long time, bhikkhus, you have experienced suffering, anguish, and disaster, and swelled the cemetery. It is enough to experience revulsion towards all formations, enough to become dispassionate towards them, enough to be liberated from them." (Interestingly, some have used the sutta that says "It is not easy... to find a being who in this long course has not previously been your mother..." or some version thereof in conjunction with the imagination as a means to generate love and compassion for all beings.)

Ed
Sīlaṃ balaṃ appaṭimaṃ.
Sīlaṃ āvudhamuttamaṃ.
Sīlamābharaṇaṃ seṭṭhaṃ.
Sīlaṃ kavacamabbhutaṃ.


Virtue is a matchless power.
Virtue is the greatest weapon.
Virtue is the best adornment.
Virtue is a wonderful armor.

Theragatha 614


Sabbapāpassa akaraṇaṃ,
kusalassa upasampadā,
Sacittapariyodapanaṃ,
etaṃ buddhāna sāsanaṃ.


Refraining from all wrong-doing,
Undertaking the good,
Purifying the mind,
This is the teaching of the buddhas.

Dhammapada v. 183/14.5
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