Name That Sutta?

Exploring the Dhamma, as understood from the perspective of the ancient Pali commentaries.
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Jhana4
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Name That Sutta?

Post by Jhana4 »

Someone was telling me about a sutta, in which the Buddha predicted that someday people would learn how to regenerate their organs and live at least 1000 years, which would result in the death of Buddhism. He couldn't remember the name of the sutta. Does it sound familiar to anyone?
In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:
One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.
The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.
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retrofuturist
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Re: Name That Sutta?

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,

I predict your certain someone is tad confused about a particular sutta and possibly being a little imaginative.

There are suttas that explain that in deva and brahma realms where lifetimes are long and things are pretty sweet, it is easier to believe that one is eternal and that dukkha can be avoided... and therefore have diminished incentive to practice the Dhamma.

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
Euclid
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Re: Name That Sutta?

Post by Euclid »

The 'thousand years' and 'death of buddhism' sounds like the sutta where the Buddha predicts the Dhamma will last 1000 years, but only 500 if women are admitted into the Sangha (I paraphrase)
Jhana4
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Re: Name That Sutta?

Post by Jhana4 »

retrofuturist wrote:Greetings,

I predict your certain someone is tad confused about a particular sutta and possibly being a little imaginative.
I know it appears that way, but he is a student at a sutta study class, a regular meditator at the temple and I *thiink* he was a bhikku for a while. He doesn't seem like a crank, otherwise I probably would thought something like you or just brushed it off as a "mis-remeberance". I admit, it does sound like something that does not fit in with the Pali Canon at all.
In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:
One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.
The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.
Jhana4
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Location: U.S.A., Northeast

Re: Name That Sutta?

Post by Jhana4 »

Euclid wrote:The 'thousand years' and 'death of buddhism' sounds like the sutta where the Buddha predicts the Dhamma will last 1000 years, but only 500 if women are admitted into the Sangha (I paraphrase)
That sounds interesting *too*.

Do you have a name for that sutta?
In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:
One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.
The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.
perkele
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Re: Name That Sutta?

Post by perkele »

Here is a German translation of it: http://www.palikanon.com/angutt/a08_051-060.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It is called "Gotami Sutta" here, and listed as Anguttara Nikaya 8.51.
AN 8.53 here is called Saṃkhitta Sutta and is about instruction by the Buddha to the newly ordained nun Gotami.

On accesstoinsight.org, however, AN 8.53 is called "Gotami Sutta", and AN 8.51-52 is missing.
I think I have never found it in English.
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cooran
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Re: Name That Sutta?

Post by cooran »

Jhana4 wrote:
Euclid wrote:The 'thousand years' and 'death of buddhism' sounds like the sutta where the Buddha predicts the Dhamma will last 1000 years, but only 500 if women are admitted into the Sangha (I paraphrase)
That sounds interesting *too*.

Do you have a name for that sutta?
This might be of interest:
Buddhist Eschatology
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 67&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

with 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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mikenz66
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Re: Name That Sutta?

Post by mikenz66 »

As Cooran's link reminds me, it would be prudent to check the Vinaya, not just the Suttas, for discussion of that sort of issue.

:anjali:
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some1
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Re: Name That Sutta?

Post by some1 »

Perhaps it is related to DN26: Cakkavatti Suttam
http://buddhism.sansayan.com/tipitaka/sp/dn/dnp3.php wrote:What good things can we do? Let us abstain from the taking of life, and, having undertaken this good thing, will practice it. And through having undertaken such wholesome things, they will increase in life-span and beauty. And the children of those whose life-span was ten years will live for twenty years.....

..... Among the people with an eighty thousand-year life-span, girls will become marriageable at five hundred. And such people will know only three kinds of disease: greed, fasting, and old age. And in the time of those people this continent of Jambudipa will be powerful and prosperous, and villages, towns and cities will be but a cock's flight one from the next. This Jambudipa, like Avici, will be as thick with people as the jungle is thick with reeds and rushes. At that time the Varanasi of today will be a royal city called Ketumati, powerful and prosperous, crowded with people and well-supplied. In Jambudipa there will be eighty-four thousand cities headed by Ketumati as the royal capital.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.26.0.than.html wrote: In the past, unskillful behavior was unknown among the human race. As a result, people lived for an immensely long time — 80,000 years — endowed with great beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength. Over the course of time, though, they began behaving in various unskillful ways. This caused the human life span gradually to shorten, to the point where it now stands at 100 years, with human beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength decreasing proportionately. In the future, as morality continues to degenerate, human life will continue to shorten to the point were the normal life span is 10 years, with people reaching sexual maturity at five.....

....With the recovery of virtue, the human life span will gradually increase again until it reaches 80,000 years, with people attaining sexual maturity at 500. Only three diseases will be known at that time: desire, lack of food, and old age. Another Buddha — Metteyya (Maitreya) — will gain Awakening, his monastic Sangha numbering in the thousands. The greatest king of the time, Sankha, will go forth into homelessness and attain arahantship under Metteyya's guidance.
Jhana4
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Re: Name That Sutta?

Post by Jhana4 »

Some1, you are a rock star! Thanks!
In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:
One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.
The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.
Jhana4
Posts: 1331
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2011 5:20 pm
Location: U.S.A., Northeast

Re: Name That Sutta?

Post by Jhana4 »

perkele wrote:Here is a German translation of it: http://www.palikanon.com/angutt/a08_051-060.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It is called "Gotami Sutta" here, and listed as Anguttara Nikaya 8.51.
AN 8.53 here is called Saṃkhitta Sutta and is about instruction by the Buddha to the newly ordained nun Gotami.

On accesstoinsight.org, however, AN 8.53 is called "Gotami Sutta", and AN 8.51-52 is missing.
I think I have never found it in English.
THanks!
In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:
One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.
The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.
Jhana4
Posts: 1331
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2011 5:20 pm
Location: U.S.A., Northeast

Re: Name That Sutta?

Post by Jhana4 »

cooran wrote:
Jhana4 wrote:
Euclid wrote:The 'thousand years' and 'death of buddhism' sounds like the sutta where the Buddha predicts the Dhamma will last 1000 years, but only 500 if women are admitted into the Sangha (I paraphrase)
That sounds interesting *too*.

Do you have a name for that sutta?
This might be of interest:
Buddhist Eschatology
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 67&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

with metta
Chris

Thanks!
In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:
One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.
The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.
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