The Heart of the Issue

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
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waterchan
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Location: Kamaloka

Re: The Heart of the Issue

Post by waterchan »

I find the explanation by Ajahn Chah linked above to be the clearest and most intuitive. He was a monk who literally lived and breathed the Dhamma as well as adhering rigidly and relentlessly to the Vinaya.
quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur
(Anything in Latin sounds profound.)
daverupa
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Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2011 6:58 pm

Re: The Heart of the Issue

Post by daverupa »

Suttanipātapāḷi 3.12. Dvayatānupassanāsuttaṃ [url=http://ahandfulofleaves.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/sn-3-12_dvayatanupassana_dual_realizations.pdf]Discourse on Dual Realizations[/url] wrote:This discourse represents a unique, and quite possibly one of the earliest, presentations on causality given by the Buddha. Here, in a series of dyads accompanied with verse, the Buddha is giving advise to an assembly of bhikkhus on how to properly answer inquiries into the means of self-awakening; giving the main principles of the four ennobling truths, the classic points of dependant origination and other factors descriptive of the arising, behavior and means of cessation of dukkha and the mental habits which cause renewed existence.

The factors of dependant origination are a listing of seven from the classic twelve viz. avijja, saṅkhāra, viññāṇa, phassa, vedanā, taṇhā, upādāna -- nāma-rūpa and saḷāyatana are missing from this order, although nāma-rūpa is mentioned within the specific context of the arising of imaginings (maññati) as the nature of falsehood (mosa), and saḷāyatana is implied as saññā, as is bhavaand the pathway leading to dukkha where we read of the ‘continuous cycle’ (saṃsāra) of birth and death. Each dyad is framed with anecdotal verse as description of the specific, or implied, nature of causality and release.
  • "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting oneself one protects others? By the pursuit, development, and cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness. It is in such a way that by protecting oneself one protects others.

    "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting others one protects oneself? By patience, harmlessness, goodwill, and sympathy. It is in such a way that by protecting others one protects oneself.

- Sedaka Sutta [SN 47.19]
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