Short New Sutra from 84000

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
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Nicholas Weeks
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Short New Sutra from 84000

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

One of his last teachings - The Eleven Thoughts:

https://read.84000.co/translation/toh311.html#toc
Summary:
Teaching the Eleven Thoughts takes place just before the Buddha attains parinirvāṇa, when he bequeaths his final testament to the assembled monks in the form of a brief discourse on eleven thoughts toward which the mind should be directed at the moment of death. He exhorts his listeners to develop nonattachment, love, freedom from resentment, a sense of moral responsibility, a proper perspective on virtue and vice, courage in the face of the next life, a perception of impermanence and the lack of self, and the knowledge that nirvāṇa is peace.
There are actually two translated versions, 11 thoughts and a 10 thoughts version. Both are very short.
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: Short New Sutra from 84000

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

At the time of his parinirvāṇa, he spoke to the bhikṣus: “Bhikṣus, at the time of death you should bring to mind eleven thoughts. What are the eleven? You should bring to mind the thought of non-attachment to this life, the thought of love for all beings, the thought of giving up all resentments, the thought of acknowledging all faulty moral discipline, the thought of undertaking the entirety of moral discipline, the thought that even great harms that have been caused [by others] are insignificant, the thought that small acts of virtue are significant, the thought of a lack of fright with respect to the next world, the thought that everything conditioned is impermanent, the thought that all phenomena lack a self, and the thought that nirvāṇa is peace.
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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