Sutta on methods of sense restraint?

[Dmytro]

Buddha called Ven. Nanda the foremost in sense restraint:

http://www.awake.kiev.ua/dhamma/tipitak ... ali-e.html

Here's the sutta about it:

9. Nandasutta- Venerable Nanda.

Bhikkhus, saying it rightly Nanda is a clansman. Saying it rightly he is powerful. Saying it rightly he is extremely pleasant. Saying it rightly he is extremely passionate. Bhikkhus, other than with protected mental faculties, knowing the right amount to eat, becoming wakeful, becoming aware and mindful, how could he have lived the holy life complete and pure. Bhikkhus, this is how Nanda protected his mental faculties. If Nanda wanted to look at the eastern direction, he would call to mind every thing before looking at the east, thinking May evil demeritorious things connected with coveting and displeasure not arise to me. He becomes aware in this manner.

If Nanda wanted to look at the western direction, ....re... northern direction, ...re... southern direction, ....re.. look up, ...re... look down, ....re.. the inter directions he would call to mind every thing before looking at the inter directions, thinking May evil demeritorious things connected with coveting and displeasure not arise to me. He becomes aware in this manner. Bhikkhus, this is how Nanda protected his mental faculties.

Bhikkhus, this is how Nanda knew the right amount to partake. He partook food carefully considering. `It is not for play, to look beautiful or to adorn the self. It's for the upkeep of the body without attachment to soups as a help to lead the holy life. Destroying the earlier feelings will not arouse new feelings so that there may be no faults for my pleasant abiding. Thus Nanda partook the right amount of food.

This is how Nanda was wakeful. Here, Nanda purified his mind from obstructing things during the day seated somewhere. Nanda purified his mind from obstructing things during the first watch of the night seated somewhere. During the middle watch of the night, turning to his right he takes the lion's posture keeping one foot over the other and mindful of the time of rising. Having got up in the last watch of the night he purifies the mind from obstructing things. Bhikkhus, this is how Nanda was wakeful.

Bhikkhus, this is Nanda's mindfull awareness. Here, bhikkhus, to Nanda, feelings, arise, persist and fade with his knowledge. Bhikkhus, to Nanda, perceptions, arise, persist and fade with his knowledge. Bhikkhus, to Nanda, thoughts, arise, persist and fade with his knowledge. This is Nanda's mindful awareness.

Bhikkhus, other than with protected mental faculties, knowing the right amount to eat, becoming wakeful, becoming aware and mindful, how could he have lived the holy life complete and pure.

http://www.awake.kiev.ua/dhamma/tipitak ... ggo-e.html

In Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation:

This, monks, is how Nanda guards his sense doors. If Nanda has to look to the east, he does so only after having everything considered well in his mind: "While I am looking to the east, I will not let covetousness and grief, or other evil, unwholesome states, enter my mind." Thus he has clear comprehension.

If he has to look to the west, south or north, he does so omly after having considered everything well in his mind: "While I am looking to the west, south or north, I will not let covetousness and grief, or other evil, unwholesome states, enter my mind." Thus he has clear comprehension.

[Dmytro]

From a book by Ashvaghosha, dedicated to Ven. Nanda and his practice:

2. The Restraint of the Senses
(a) From Ashvaghosha's Saundaranandakavya

By taking your stand on mindfulness you must hold back from the sense-objects your senses, unsteady by nature. Fire, snakes, and lightning are less inimical to us than our own senses, so much more dangerous. For they assail us all the time. Even the most vicious enemies can attack only some people at some times, and not at others, but everybody is always and everywhere weighed down by his senses. And people do not go to hell because some enemy has knocked them down and cast them into it; it is because they have been knocked down by their unsteady senses that they are helplessly dragged there. Those attacked by external enemies may, or may not, suffer injury to their souls; but those who are weighed down by the senses suffer in body and soul alike. For the five senses are rather like arrows which have been smeared with the poison of fancies, have cares for their feathers, and happiness for their points, and fly about in the space provided by the range of the sense-objects; shot off by Kama, the God of Love, they hit men in their very hearts as a hunter hits a deer, and if men do not know how to ward off these arrows, they will be their undoing; when they come near us we should stand firm in self-control, be agile and steadfast, and ward them off with the great armor of mindfulness. As a man who has subdued his enemies can everywhere live and sleep at ease and free from care, so can he who has pacified his senses. For the senses constantly ask for more by way of worldly objects, and normally behave like voracious dogs who can never have enough. This disorderly mob of the senses can never reach satiety, not by any amount of sense-objects; they are rather like the sea, which one can go on indefinitely replenishing with water.

In this world the senses cannot be prevented from being active, each in its own sphere. But they should not be allowed to grasp either the general features of an object, or its particularities. When you have beheld a sight-object with your eyes, you must merely determine the basic element (which it represents, e.g., it is a sight-object), and should not under any circumstances fancy it as, say, a "woman" or a "man." But if now and then you have inadvertently grasped something as a "woman" or a "man," you should not follow that up by determining the hairs, teeth, etc., as lovely. Nothing should be subtracted from the datum, nothing added to it; it should be seen as it really is, as what it is like in real truth.

If you thus try to look continually for the true reality in that which the senses present to you, covetousness and aversion will soon be left without a foothold. Coveting ruins those living beings who are bent on sensuous enjoyment by means of pleasing forms, like an enemy with a friendly face who speaks loving words, but plans dark deeds. But what is called "aversion" is a kind of anger directed towards certain objects, and anyone who is deluded enough to pursue it is bound to suffer for it either in this or a future life. Afflicted by their likes and dislikes, as by excessive heat or cold, men will never find either happiness or the highest good as long as they put their trust in the unsteady senses.

— Saundaranandakavya, xiii, 30-56; translated by Edward Conze

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... html#ch2.2
http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_ ... vsaunu.htm

[Dmytro]

Lohicca sutta from Samyutta Nikaya (in the translation of Ven. Bodhi) describes an important aspect - spaciousness of mind:

"Master Kaccana said 'with sense doors unguarded.' In what way, Master Kaccana, is one 'with sense doors unguarded'?"

"Here, brahmin, having seen a form with the eye, someone is intent upon a pleasing form and repelled by a displeasing form. He dwells without having set up mindfulness of the body, with a limited mind, and he does not understand as it really is that liberation of mind, liberation by wisdom, wherein those evil unwholesome states cease without remainder. Having heard a sound with the ear ... Having cognized a mental phenomenon with the mind, someone is intent upon a pleasing mental phenomenon and repelled by a displeasing mental phenomenon. He dwells without having set up mindfulness of the body ... cease without remainder. It is in such a way, brahmin, that one is 'with sense doors unguarded.'"

"It is wonderful, Master Kaccana! It is amazing, Master Kaccana! How Master Kaccana has declared one whose sense doors are actually unguarded to be one 'with sense doors unguarded'!

But Master Kaccana said 'with sense doors guarded.' In what way, Master Kaccana, is one 'with sense doors guarded'?"

"Here, brahmin, having seen a form with the eye, someone is not intent upon a pleasing form and not repelled by a displeasing form. He dwells having set up mindfulness of the body, with a measureless mind, and he understands as it really is that liberation of mind, liberation by wisdom, wherein those evil unwholesome states cease without remainder. Having heard a sound with the ear ... Having cognized a mental phenomenon with the mind, someone is not intent upon a pleasing mental phenomenon and not repelled by a displeasing mental phenomenon. He dwells having set up mindfulness of the body ... cease without remainder. It is in such a way, brahmin, that one is 'with sense doors guarded.'"

"It is wonderful, Master Kaccana! It is amazing, Master Kaccana! How Master Kaccana has declared one whose sense doors are actually guarded to be one 'with sense doors guarded'!

[Dmytro]

If he wants, he remains percipient of loathsomeness in the presence of what is not loathsome. If he wants, he remains percipient of unloathsomeness in the presence of what is loathsome. If he wants, he remains percipient of loathsomeness in the presence of what is not loathsome & what is. If he wants, he remains percipient of unloathsomeness in the presence of what is loathsome & what is not. If he wants — in the presence of what is loathsome & what is not — cutting himself off from both, he remains equanimous, alert, & mindful."
[I'd like to know if the English translation of this paragraph is accurate or not, since it differs from the equivalent sutta in Chinese Agama (SA 282)
]

It's accurate. Perhaps the English wording can vary.

Metta, Dmytro

[Dmytro]

Hi Starter,

Just figured out that any theme or details appears to actually mean the theme of the attractive / repulsive [the distinctive attractive/repulsive features] (instead of all the gross sign and fine details/features of six sense objects), which appears to be also the teaching in AN 3.68:

'For one who attends inappropriately to the theme of the attractive, unarisen passion arises and arisen passion tends to growth & abundance...'

'For one who attends inappropriately to the theme of irritation, unarisen aversion arises and arisen aversion tends to growth & abundance...'

'For one who attends inappropriately [to the theme of the attractive or irritation?], unarisen delusion arises and arisen delusion tends to growth & abundance...'

Indeed Titthiya sutta is very relevant here.

General inappropriate attention is just haphazard.

Metta, Dmytro

[starter]

Hi I saw that the following paragraph MN10 was referenced for how to practice sense restraint. After a second thought I tend to interpret the following as the practice of one of the four establishings of Mindfulness (Mindfulness of Dhammas) instead of the practice of sense restraint, which should probably be practiced later, after practicing sense restraint [by not dwelling on the attractive or the repulsive characteristics of the 6 sense objects and by focusing on their drawbacks (anicca/dukkha/anatta)], wakefulness, and mindfulness/full awareness and thorough/clear comprehension that can suppress the hindrances to a degree, so that we can establish the 4 mindfulness.

From the Satipatthana Sutta (MN 10)

"Furthermore, the monk remains focused on Dhammas in & of themselves with reference to the sixfold internal & external sense media. And how does he remain focused on Dhammas in & of themselves with reference to the sixfold internal & external sense media? There is the case where he discerns the eye, he discerns forms, he discerns the fetter (sensual desire -- could be either greed or aversion) that arises dependent on both. He discerns how there is the arising of an unarisen fetter. And he discerns how there is the abandoning of a fetter once it has arisen. And he discerns how there is no future arising of a fetter that has been abandoned. (The same formula is repeated for the remaining sense media: ear, nose, tongue, body, & intellect.)

"In this way he remains focused internally on Dhammas in & of themselves (with reference to the sixfold internal & external sense media), or externally on Dhammas in & of themselves, or both internally & externally on Dhammas in & of themselves. Or he remains focused on the phenomenon of origination with regard to Dhammas, on the phenomenon of passing away with regard to Dhammas, or on the phenomenon of origination & passing away with regard to Dhammas. Or his mindfulness that 'There are Dhammas' is maintained to the extent of knowledge & remembrance. And he remains independent, unsustained by (not clinging to) anything in the world. This is how a monk remains focused on Dhammas in & of themselves with reference to the sixfold internal & external sense media".

Metta to all,

Starter