The Paradox of Becoming - Thanissaro Bhikkhu

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Element

Re: The Paradox of Becoming - Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Post by Element »

Drolma wrote:What are undefiled aggregates? I thought that by definition aggregates manifest via ignorance.
Drolma

Undefiled aggregates are aggregates that are free from defilement. Defilement is greed, hatred & ignorance. For example, the Buddha had a body, mind and consciousness, the Buddha used thought (sankhara kandha), but the Buddha's body, mind, consciousness and thoughts were free from defilement.

Some Mahayanas hold there are no aggregates because one does not 'label' them as 'aggregates'. Buddha did not teach like this in the suttas.

With metta

Element
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Re: The Paradox of Becoming - Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,

A good sutta on becoming and non-becoming...

Ud 3.10 - Loka Sutta
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I have heard that on one occasion, when the Blessed One was newly Awakened — staying at Uruvela by the banks of the Nerañjara River in the shade of the Bodhi tree, the tree of Awakening — he sat in the shade of the Bodhi tree for seven days in one session, sensitive to the bliss of release. At the end of seven days, after emerging from that concentration, he surveyed the world with the eye of an Awakened One. As he did so, he saw living beings burning with the many fevers and aflame with the many fires born of passion, aversion, and delusion. Then, on realizing the significance of that, he on that occasion exclaimed:

This world is burning.
Afflicted by contact,
it calls disease a "self,"
for by whatever means it construes [anything],
that becomes otherwise from that.
Becoming otherwise,
the world is
held by becoming
afflicted by becoming
and yet delights
in that very becoming.
Where there's delight,
there is fear.
What one fears
is stressful.
This holy life is lived
for the abandoning of becoming.
"Whatever priests or contemplatives say that liberation from becoming is by means of becoming, all of them are not released from becoming, I say.

"And whatever priests or contemplatives say that escape from becoming is by means of non-becoming, all of them have not escaped from becoming, I say.

This stress comes into play
in dependence on all acquisitions.
With the ending of all clinging/sustenance,
there's no stress coming into play.
Look at this world:
Beings, afflicted with thick ignorance,
are unreleased
from delight in what has come to be.
All levels of becoming,
anywhere,
in any way,
are inconstant, stressful, subject to change.
Seeing this — as it has come to be —
with right discernment,
one abandons craving for becoming,
without delighting in non-becoming.
From the total ending of craving
comes fading & cessation without remainder:
Unbinding.
For the monk unbound,
through lack of clinging/sustenance,
there's no further becoming.
He has conquered Mara,
won the battle,
gone beyond all becomings —
Such.
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."
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