What is yours and not yours (sutra)

Venerable Nyanaponika Thera (trans.) Alagaddupama Sutra, "The Snake Simile" (MN 22), BPS.lk via accesstoinsight.org edited by Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Golden Buddha framed by chemtrail-formed clouds (polo D/popolisson/flickr.com)

THE SUTRA, SECTIONS 1-39

Not Yours [44]

40. "Therefore, meditators,* give up whatever is not yours! [45] Giving it up will for a long time serve your welfare and happiness. What is not yours?
 
[The Five Heaps of Clinging]

1. Form [corporeality, this body] is not yours. Give it up! Giving it up will for a long time serve your welfare and happiness.
2. Feeling is not yours. Give it up! Giving it up will for a long time serve your welfare and happiness.
3. Perception is not yours. Give it up! Giving it up will for a long time serve your welfare and happiness.
4. Mental formations are not yours. Give it up! Giving it up will for a long time serve your welfare and happiness.
5. Consciousness is not yours. Give it up! Giving it up will for a long time serve your welfare and happiness. [46]

41. "What do you think, meditators? If some people were to carry away the grass, sticks, branches, and leaves in this Jeta Grove, or burn them, or do with them what they pleased, would you think, These people carry us away, burn us, or do with us as they please?" — "No, venerable sir." — "Why not?" — "Venerable sir, it is because that is neither our self nor the property of a self."

"So, too, meditators, give up what is not yours! Giving it up will for a long time serve your welfare and happiness. What is it that is not yours? Form... feeling... perception... mental formations... consciousness are not yours. Give them up! Giving them up will for a long time serve your welfare and happiness."

The Explicit Teaching and Its Fruit

42. "Meditators, this well proclaimed Teaching [47] is plain, open, explicit, free of patchwork. [48]

In this well proclaimed Teaching that is plain, open, explicit, and free of patchwork, for those who are arhats (fully enlightened), free of taints, who have accomplished and completed their task, have laid down the burden, achieved their aim, severed the fetters binding them to rebirth, who are liberated by full knowledge, there is no (future) round of rebirth that can be ascribed to them.

 

43. "Meditators, in this well proclaimed Teaching that is plain, open, explicit, and free of patchwork, those meditators who have abandoned the five lower fetters will all be reborn spontaneously (in the Pure Abodes) and there they will [reach full enlightenment and] pass away finally, no more returning from that world.

 

44. "Meditators, in this well proclaimed Teaching that is plain, open, explicit, and free of patchwork, those meditators who have abandoned three fetters and have reduced greed, hatred, and delusion are all once-returners and, returning only once to this world, will then make a complete end of suffering.
 

45. "Meditators, in this well proclaimed Teaching that is plain, open, explicit, and free of patchwork, those meditators who have abandoned three fetters are all stream-enterers, no more liable to downfall, assured, and headed for full enlightenment.

 

46. "Meditators, in this well proclaimed Teaching that is plain, open, explicit, and free of patchwork, those meditators who are mature in Dharma, mature in confidence (saddha, faith) [49] are all headed for full enlightenment.

 

47. "Meditators, in this well proclaimed Teaching that is plain, open, explicit, and free of patchwork, those who simply have confidence in me, simply love for me [50] are all destined for heaven."

• There is no "heaven" (sagga) in Buddhism but rather many heavens, celestial worlds above the human plane -- from lowly Sensual Sphere planes of the messengers (gandharvas), to the sky rulers of the four directions (catumaharajikas), to the devas of World of the Thirty-Three...up to Fine-Material Sphere worlds and Immaterial Sphere planes of existence. None of these are permanent; one is born there by karma (good actions), and when that karma is exhausted, one falls back to carry on in the Continue Wandering On (samsara), the wheel of rebirth and death. The human world is, therefore, a fortunate destination because it is an excellent place between pleasure and pain to realize the liberating truth about the nature of existence marred by ignorance about reality. It is not what it seems, and enlightenment and nirvana are much better.

48. This is what the Blessed One said. Satisfied, the meditators rejoiced in the words of the Blessed One.

• *We have translated bhikkhus as "meditators" because although the Buddha originally delivered this and many other sutras to monastics, in most cases what is said is intended for entire audiences of followers (practitioners). Meditation (bhavana) is not principally a sitting practice but practice in all forms -- literally the "bringing into being" or cultivating of beneficial qualities that lead toward enlightenment and nirvana. Had the nun's order or Bhikkhuni Sangha not lapsed, many sutras would be worded, "O nuns!" yet no one would think what was being said were limited to nuns or women.