Seth Auberon, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly, Nidana Sutra (AN 3.33) based on Ven. Thanissaro/Geoffrey DeGraff (trans.)
Red, white, and gold Thai Buddha statues (Piyawit Kampput/p_kampput/FIVE S.P./flickr) |
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What did so many gain from non-greed? |
"Meditators, there are three causes (motivations) for actions (karma). What are the three?
"Any action performed motivated by aversion... Any action performed by delusion..."
"Just as when seeds are unbroken, unspoiled, able to sprout, undamaged by wind and heat, capable of growing, well planted, buried in well prepared soil, and the devas of the rain offer streams of rain, those seeds come to growth, increase, and abundance. In the same way, any karma performed with greed as motivation... performed with aversion as motivation... performed with delusion as motivation -- born of delusion, caused by delusion, originating from delusion, wherever one rearises, there that action will ripen.
"Where that action ripens, there one will experience its fruit, either in this life that has arisen due to (past) karma or further along in future lives. These are three causes that motivate actions.
"Now, there are three [other] causes, three [other] motivations for actions. What are the three?
- Greed (craving, lust) is a cause, a motivation for actions.
- Aversion (manifesting as hate or fear) is a cause, a motivation for actions.
- Delusion (wrong view, ignorance) is a cause, a motivation for actions.
"Any action performed motivated by aversion... Any action performed by delusion..."
A different dream of green (long-long/flickr) |
"Where that action ripens, there one will experience its fruit, either in this life that has arisen due to (past) karma or further along in future lives. These are three causes that motivate actions.
"Now, there are three [other] causes, three [other] motivations for actions. What are the three?
- 4. Non-greed is a cause, a motivation of actions.
- 5. Non-aversion...
- 6. Non-delusion...
Peaces lies within not without. - See The Roots of Good and Evil by Ven. Nyanaponika
Overwhelming kindness, the Buddha at Sukhothai (Ted Richardson Phuket lawyer/flickr) |
"Any action performed with non-aversion...Any action performed with non-delusion... It is just as when seeds are unbroken, able to sprout, unspoiled, undamaged by wind and heat, capable of growing, well planted, buried in well prepared soil, and a person reduces them with fire to fine ashes.
"Having reduced them to fine ashes, one would winnow them away in a good wind or wash them away in a swiftly flowing stream. Those [bad] seeds would thereby be destroyed at the source, made barren like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future arising.
"In the same way, any action performed with non-greed...performed with non-aversion...performed with non-delusion -- born of non-delusion, caused by non-delusion, originating from non-delusion, when delusion is gone, that karma is abandoned, uprooted, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future arising.
"These, meditators, are three causes for the origination of karma."
A person who does not know, that person's actions -- born of greed, born of aversion, born of delusion, whether many or few -- are experienced right here. For no other ground [field where they could sprout, take root, and bear their results] is found.
- According to the Commentary, "right here" means within the stream [or string] of becoming, of rebirths, of lives (attabhava), i.e., the chain of otherwise endless rebirths. "No other ground is found" means that the fruit of the action is not experienced [because there is no longer any field in which the results of those actions, that karma, to be experienced. The end of rebirth means the end of all unsatisfactory, impermanent, impersonal experience.]
So a meditator, knowing, sheds greed, aversion, and delusion. By giving rise to clear knowledge, one sheds all bad destinations.
- The Commentary notes that this verse refers to the attainment of full enlightenment (arhatship) and that an arhat -- by realizing nirvana -- sheds not only unfulfilling/unsatisfying good destinations, but also all bad, painful, and miserable destinations.
The word "sheds" acts as a "lamp" in this closing verse -- it appears only once, but functions in two phrases, as rendered here in translation. Nirvana is sometimes explained as "blowing out" or quenching or cooling as a lamp/candle no longer fed by fuel. On the use of the lamp as a literary figure of speech in ancient India and Indo-Scythia, see the Introduction to Dhammapada: A Translation.
But I thought all "desire" was bad?
What is the second of the Four Noble Truths? |
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