If I love, will you stay? 💞 Impermanence

"Gone, Gone, Gone"

(Autumn Kings) I caught a feelin' at the end of the night/ Vision of a god walkin' into the light/ Whisperin' words that I needed to hear:/ Never lose faith while you're livin' in fear

Then it was gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Yeow!

Had a premonition at the end of the night/ Vision of a devil tryna swallow the light/ Screamin' so loud, it was all I could hear/ Tellin' me it's better if I disappeared

Then it was gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone

Can't make up my mind/ I'm sick of never knowin' my direction/ Lookin' for a sign/ Need more than just the man in my reflection/ It's time for me to take what's mine/ Leave the rest to the great divine/ And find somewhere that I belong/ Before I'm gone!

Can't make up my!/ Can't make up my mind/ Cuz I ain't full of time!/ Can't make up my mind/ I'm sick of never knowing my direction/ Looking for a sign/ Need more than just the man in my reflection/ It's time for me to take what's mine/ Leave the rest to the Great Divine/ And find somewhere that I belong

Can't make up my mind/ I'm sick of never knowing my direction/ Looking for a sign/ Need more than just the man in my reflection/ It's time for me to take what's mine/ Leave the fears of the past behind/ And find somewhere that I belong/ Before I'm gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ La, la, la, la, la, la, la...

• Autumn Kings: Canadian rock band that formed in Ontario in 2015, who have since relocated to Detroit, Michigan, USA [2, 3]. The group started as an independent band but signed with Hopeless Records in August 2024 [4], crediting Linkin Park and Metallica as inspiration [15].

Nothing lasts; love it anyway (impermanence)

(Buddha's Wisdom) Can we love something so hard we keep it from changing or love someone without trying to keep it just the way it is? | The Buddha's truth about impermanence

What is "impermanence" in Buddhism?

Look, we'll never grow apart or separate!

Anicca (pronounced /ah-nee-cha/) means "impermanent," "transient," "in constant flux," "changing," "unstable," "perpetually altering," and so on. As an abstract noun (aniccatā), it is "impermanence."

It is one of the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence (ti-lakkhana). In most texts, the two other characteristics (that all things are "disappointing" and "impersonal" or dukkha and anattā) are derived (S.22. 15; Ud.IV. I).

The impermanence of "things" (dhammas, "phenomena") is their arising (appearing), turning (changing), and passing away (vanishing).

It is the restless arising, altering, and disappearing of things that have come to be (arisen, become) then immediately (in the next submoment) changed and in the next submoment scattered, dissolved, been destroyed, passed out of being. All of this is called "becoming."

• Then what may rightly be said of all things, of all mental and material phenomena in an ultimately sense -- namely, of cittas and kalapas -- is that, "Not having been, they come to be, but once having been, they cease." This is the radical truth of impermanence from moment to moment, not their eventual decline, which anyone can see. It is because we do not see their radical changeability and their hurtling towards destruction that the mind/heart clings to things or to the appearance of things, falling under the illusion/delusion that they persist from moment to moment. They SEEM to persist! That is because what replaces them (cittas and kalapas, mind-moments and particles) are other mental and physical phenomena that is almost but not quite the same. The new things (the replacements from moment to moment) are not identical. Casual observation makes the mind believe they are, that it is the self-same thing from one moment to the next persisting, carrying on. But it is not.

• 

  Flip the pages, and the cartoon shark moves.

  For example, to easily illustrate this subtle but vital point, imagine watching a motion cartoon (a moving comic strip reel). How is the illusion of "motion" being achieved? Certainly, the drawing is not moving. But that's what it looks like to the casual observer. A flipbook of cartoon images if being flipped through. If the flipping stops, the illusion (of motion) stops. If the flipping resumes, it is as if the motion resumes. The image itself NEVER moves. The reel or the flipping moves, and because the images are so similar BUT not identical, movement of the images is magically conjured. Now, take two or more consecutive images. Are they all identical or just very similar? They are very similar with a tiny, almost imperceptible difference between them. That miniscule difference causes the illusion of the image's motion when there is flipping or when the reel is spinning at a certain number of frames per second (FPS). But casually shuffling these images in hand (no flipping, no reel), they all look the same, exactly the same. Many frames later in the sequence, one can perceive a difference. Then, training the eye to notice, one can begin to see that they are all just a tiny (barely noticeable) bit different.

• 

  Move hundreds of thousands of frames in a reel

  Who cares? The more similar the frames, the more the moving cartoon will appear smooth and realistic, whereas the less similar the image-frames will make the movement appear jumpy and artificial. In high-fidelity movies, frame rate is important, moving faster than the eye can perceive it. Slow the rate down, and reality comes into view. Nothing on the screen is actually moving. The illusion is stripped away. Every "movie" has to move at a replacement rate that tricks the eye/brain into not noticing its segmented nature, its constituent nature, its compounded nature, its lack of identity. This frame NEVER becomes that frame, but because the second follows the first, the replacement is accomplished seamlessly.
• In just the same way, we never notice that our reality is a bunch of segments, a stream of mind-moments and particles -- incessantly arising, turning, and vanishing so quickly that everything around us gives off the illusion of identity (from moment to moment), continuity (that it is the SAME thing from one moment to the next moment), and the promise that thing (phenomena) there in front of us may (is capable of somehow, someday) fulfilling us, completing us, pleasing us, ultimately satisfying us, enduring and real. But it is neither real nor enduring and has no hope of ever fulfilling us. It is, in other words, impermanent, unsatisfactory, and impersonal, not itself from one moment to the next.
• So, again, who cares? One should care because it is by noticing that THIS IS REALITY, and this has always been reality, and that one CAN let go of the painful (the disappointing) by finally noticing that it is impermanent and impersonal, that it is dukkha and anicca, and that ultimately speaking, it is anatta, not-self). This realization leads to waking up, to enlightenment in this very life. This is why the Buddha teaches it -- not as a belief system to have faith in, but rather as a path-of-practice, a way of knowing-and-seeing for each person to personally experience. Why? So that the illusion (maya) will be broken and wisdom (panna, prajna) will arise and that clinging to the painful/disappointing will be let go of.
• It's too intellectual! Can we just have a Zen cartoon? What did Bodhidharma say about Zen?

I can't live without you! I need you, must have!

The meaning is that these things (all mental and material constituents) never persist in the same way for one whole moment, but that they are dissolving and vanishing from moment to moment (The Path of Purification, Vis.M. VII, 3).

Impermanence is a fundamental feature of all conditioned things (phenomena), be they material or mental, coarse or subtle, one's own (internal) or another's (external): ALL formations are impermanent (sabbe sankhārā aniccā; MN 35, Dhp. 277). 

• 

  Wait, a "triangle" is just three lines?

  What does "conditioned" mean? It means composed of parts, constituents; has a conditional existence utterly dependent on its parts. For example, what is an equilateral "triangle"? Ultimately, it is a conditioned phenomenon. What is it conditioned on? It is conditioned on three equal-length lines in a particular arrangement. That theoretical (intangible) arrangement is the triangle, and those physical (tangible) lines arranged that way are the triangle. When the conditions or constituents are moved, where does the "triangle" go? It does not "go" anywhere because it was never really (ultimately speaking) there to begin with. What was there then? There was an illusion (in the mind) arising based on causes and conditions being present, utterly dependent on these causes and conditions or supports, ingredients, elements, constituents. Conventionally, we can very rightly say that the whole is greater than the parts, but ultimately this is not actually true. The parts contained the potential for the illusion before we ever saw the illusion.
• Again, not to be repetitive, who cares?! The noble ones (those along the stages of enlightenment) care because there are two precious things that result from this realization. One, everything and anything we cling to, if we saw it in its true nature (ti-lakkhana), we could immediately let go of and not be weighed down by or in bondage to it. Say, for example, we were eating rice in a dark cave and loving (and clinging to) it, and someone turned the light on. And we noticed that what we took to be white "rice" was maggots. Could we let go of our "rice" habit, our eating of it, of our clinging to it? Probably. Likely. Two, to what or to whom do we cling to the most in all the world, in all the universe, in all the multiverse? That's right, like it or not, it is to self that we cling. But what is "self" really? There is no self. But there is a persistent illusion of self (of identity, of continuity, even from life to life, transcending death). We don't notice it dying every moment. We don't believe it dies. It's right here. A moment later, it's right her, unchanged!
• Unchanged?
• Well, mostly unchanged.
• That mostly is vital because "it" is a little changed. And like the cartoon frames mentioned above, this tiny change causes the illusion of movement, motion, that it's ANIMATED, alive, real, capable of willful motion. But that, we can now at least conceptually begin to see, is an illusion. "This" (this self) is not what it seems. It's not at all what it seems. Look:
• Self (atta, atman, soul, ego, essence, personality, traits, karmic baggage, whatever) is real, conventionally speaking, and what anyone absentmindedly means by "self" was defined by the Buddha, whose purified mind and faculty of perception could directly perceive. What we mean when we say "myself," or when we speak of others and those "selves" is a tacit reference either to that body (form), these feelings (sensations), perceptions, mental formations (such as will, intention, motive), and/or this consciousness. (These five things -- these phenomena, phenomenal processes, one might even say epiphenomenal-, but why get all philosophical -- are called the khandha, or in Sanskrit skandha, the "Five Aggregates clung to as self").
• But "I" am a "self" and "I" have them, right?
• No. A triangle doesn't have lines. A triangle is the lines. But a line is not a triangle. And another line is not a triangle. And a third line is not a triangle. However, magically (illusorily) when the three lines ||| combine in that certain arrangement, shazam! There's the "triangle," utterly dependent on its causes and conditions. And let's say the "conditions" are the three equal-length lines, and the causes are pushing them into that arrangement. Bam! A "triangle" arose, came into existence, into being, became (always dynamically-becoming, never static-being), appeared out of nowhere. Just so, when these factors (elements, constituents, aggregates) are present, bam! There is what we call a "self."

• 

  It's not a theory; it's a practice

  But consider what we think (or more correctly assume) what a "self" is and should be and how it should behave and what its nature is. It is something I (the self) control. I will it to be, and it obeys. But this is nonsense. The body (form) is and is of such a nature, "I" didn't make it. And even if I caused it to come into being (the "I" who did that having existed in the past in a past life during which karma was generated and this body just being the karmic resultant), I didn't know what I was doing or how and when it would come to be and in exactly what form or appearance. The body, being material, is of a material nature and follows the laws or regularities of material form. It doesn't listen me, doesn't heed when I bid it to be this way or that. I have almost no control of it. I can "will" to move, and sometimes (but not all the time), it moves; yet sometimes it moves all on its own when I didn't will it to. But I call it mine, say it's me, and really believe, "I" (it, this "self" here is) am the one in charge of it. Form, being material, is ultimately the Four Great Elements, which are not four things so much as they are four general characteristics with about a dozen expressions, so there's no sense in arguing against the old model of physics that we think in our modernity is archaic and silly. It is not silly. It is observably true, if we knew what it meant. See Four Elements Meditation by Pa Auk Sayadaw to find the elements and directly know-and-see them without arguing from a position of ignorance.

• 

  Four characteristics of matter

  These four elements of form are only mentioned here because the Buddha simply lumped them all together and called them form, but he did not do that for "mind," which is much more understandably and deeply clung to as "self." The remaining four of the Five Aggregates are together called "mind." They go together. They, like the Four Great Elements, are not things so much as they are processes. The process of feeling (many constituent frames, one after another, never identical, in continuity, altered, different from moment to moment, one arising, turning, passing away before another arises, turns, and immediately passes away, like the frames of the cartoon), the process of perceiving, the process of mental-forming, the process of consciousness/knowing. The Buddha details them all to break the clinging to the illusion/delusion that any or all or anything else is "self." I am not my feelings, I am not my perceptions, I am not my mental formations. But you know what, I hot damn am sure MY consciousness! I am that I am, that consciousness itself that wills and knows, that watches and sees, that does and experiences!
• This is a powerful delusion, one that no other religion (doctrine or dharma or teaching) can break from. The Buddha can and did break from it. He saw through it, saw and taught others to directly see what "consciousness" is. It is just a stream (sota). A stream of what? A stream of ever-changing cittas (mind-moments) and cetasikas (mental-concomitants). They can be directly perceived by mental purification and mindfulness, as explained in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Sutra. Then the illusion bursts. I am not consciousness. I can't control consciousness. I cannot say and get it to do what I want, stay awake, know this or that, and so on. I'm deluded to think "this I am." For it doesn't behave any of the way I will or wish to command.

Enough, I can't take it anymore!

That the totality of existence is impermanent is also often stated in terms of the Five Aggregates clung to as self (khandha), the 12 internal (personal) and external (belonging to others) sense bases (āyatana), and so on.

Only nirvana (Pali nibbāna), which is the sole "unconditioned element" and "not a formation" (asankhata), not a composite composed of constituents like everything else, is permanent (nicca, dhuva).

The insight leading to the first stage of enlightenment called stream-entry (sotāpatti), is often expressed in terms of impermanence:

"Whatever is subject to origination [arising] is subject to cessation" (see the Buddha's First Sermon called the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, S.46. 11).

"Gone Gone Gone"

(David Guetta) Gone Gone Gone ft. Teddy Swims plus Tones and I

In the Buddha's last exhortation, before his parinibbāna (his "final nirvana" without remainder), the Buddha reminded his disciples of the impermanence of all existence as a spur to diligent effort:

"Behold now, meditators, as I exhort: Formations are bound to vanish. Strive diligently!" (vayadhammā sankhārā, appamādena sampādetha, DN 16).

Without the deep insight into the impermanence (changing characteristic) and insubstantiality (impersonal characteristic) of ALL phenomena of existence (i.e., the Five Aggregates clung to as self) there is no attainment of enlightenment and liberation (bodhi and nirvana, awakening and freedom).

Therefore, comprehension of what radical "impermanence" really means, which is something only gained by direct personal meditative experience, heads two lists of insight knowledge.

Seeing things as they are, it's possible to let go

One, "contemplation of impermanence" (aniccānupassanā) is the first of the 18 chief kinds of insight (q.v.) and, two, the "contemplation of arising and vanishing [rise and fall]" (udayabbayānupassanā-ñāna) is the first of the nine kinds of knowledge that lead to the "purification by knowledge and vision [knowing-and-seeing] of the path-progress' (see "purification," visuddhi, VI).

Contemplation of impermanence leads to the "conditionless deliverance" ["signless release"] (animitta-vimokkha).

As herein the faculty of confidence (saddhindriya) is outstanding, one who attains in that way the path of stream-entry (the first stage of enlightenment) is called a "faith-devotee" (saddhānusārī as listed among the "noble ones" or ariya-puggala) and at the seven higher stages is called faith-liberated (saddhā-vimutta). See also "the perception of impermanence" [the direct perceiving of radical impermanence of cittas and kalapas] or anicca-saññā.

• For more, see The Three Basic Facts of Existence I: Impermanence (BPS.lk, Wheel Nos. 186/187)
• Buddha's Wisdom (video); text by Ven. Nyanatiloka; Autumn Kings; David Guetta; expanded by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Nirvana: Deathless, Signless (Ven. Analayo)

Venerable sir, what is final liberation(moksha)? It is knowing-and-seeing nirvana!

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The Signless and the Deathless: On the Realization of Nirvana

The Signless and the Deathless

(BPS) The Signless and the Deathless by renowned academic Western Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Anālayo is a groundbreaking investigation into the ultimate goal of Early Buddhist practice.

Published by Wisdom Publications with a foreword by Bhante G (Bhavana Society Abbot Ven. Gunaratana), this text illuminates two critical yet underappreciated facets of awakening.

Venerable Bhikkhu Analayo

Namely, there is "signless" concentration (a-nimitta)—a profound state of mind achieved by releasing the conceptual marks used to construct our daily experiences—and the "deathless" element (amata)—the complete transcendence of mental suffering caused by mortality (non-immortality).

Leveraging an extraordinary mastery of Pali Buddhist canon, Chinese Buddhist canon, and Tibetan Buddhist canon source texts, the renowned German academic Venerable Anālayo masterfully bridges rigorous historical scholarship with practical meditative insight [vipassanā-ñāṇa].

Ultimately, this book provides advanced practitioners and Buddhist scholars alike with a precise, systematic map for stepping out of conventional mental conditioning and realizing the final end of suffering while still alive (in this very life). More

• Mindfulness of Breathing with Ven. Analayo: Meditation 1

What is ultimate liberation?

Ven. Nyanatiloka (Anton Gueth) edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Vajrayana, Mahayana, and Theravada scholarship

The Sanskrit spiritual term moksha ("liberation") is in Pali vimokkha (also vimutti): The three -- namely, emptiness- (suññatā-vimokkha), signless- (animitta-vimokkha), and aimless- [undirected] (appanihita-vimokkha) -- are for the first time described and enumerated in Pts.M. II, 351. As suññatāsamādhi, and so on; however, they are already given in the Sangiti Sutta (DN 33).

DN 33: Buddhist scholar L. S. Cousins has tentatively suggested [25] that this was the first discourse (Pali canon sutta) created as a literary text, at the Second Buddhist Council, his theory being that "sutta" was originally a pattern of teaching rather than a body of literature. This discourse is taught by the Buddha's Chief Disciple Sariputta ("Foremost in Wisdom") at the Buddha's request. It gives lists arranged numerically from ones to tens... More

• Ven. Analayo (Buddhist Publication Society); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Four 'altered states' (jhanas, meditations)

(Buddha's Wisdom) The first four jhanas ("meditations," meditative absorptions): from rapture (piti) to perfect equanimity

Ecstatic bliss (piti) becomes more and more refined through the absorptions

• (Vancouver Dharma and Gnosis) The 4 Jhanas
• Getting beyond the Five Hindrances to meditation
• Pa Auk Sayadaw: the great sayadaw of Pa-Auk Forest Monastery (Abbot Venerable Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa, Theravada scholar-practitioner from Burma)
• Ajahn Brahm (British monk trained in Thai Forest Tradition by Ajahn Chah, now abbot in Australia)
• Leigh Brasington (excellent lay American teacher trained by the accomplished German Jewish Buddhist nun Ayya Khema, who trained in Sri Lanka)
• Leigh Brasington on enlightenment and the jhanas

The Buddha's imprint: Dhammapada

(Einzelganger) Buddhist wisdom for inner peace

• The Dhammapada: The Path of Dhamma

The Dhammapada (Pali धम्मपद, Sanskrit धर्मपद, Romanized Dharma-pada) is a collection of the historical Buddha's sayings in verse form. It is one of the most widely read and best-known Buddhist collections [1].

The original version of the Dhammapada is in the Pali canon's Khuddaka Nikāya, a division of sacred texts in Theravada Buddhism.

The great Indian Buddhist monk Buddhaghosa

The famous Buddhist scholar-monk and commentator Buddhaghosa ("ghost or voice of the Buddha") explains that each saying recorded in the collection was made on a different occasion in response to a unique situation that had arisen in the life of the Buddha and the massive community of male and female monastics he founded.

Buddhaghosa's translation of the commentary to it, which is called the Dhammapada Aṭṭhakatha, presents the details of each of these events and is a rich source of legend for the life and times of the Buddha [2].

Levi's jeans corporation borrows a saying from the Buddha found in the Dhammapada.

.

There are many translations.

ETYMOLOGY: The title "Dhammapada" is a compound term composed of dhamma and pada, each word having a numerous denotations and connotations. Generally, dhamma refers to the Buddha's "doctrine" or "eternal truth" or "righteousness" or is a collective term for all "phenomena" [3] or "things." At its root, pada means "foot" (or "footprint"); thus, by extension, especially in this context, means either "path" or "verse" (cf. prosodic foot) or both [4].

English translations of this text's title have used various combinations of these and related words [5, 6]. More

If there's awareness, WHO is aware?

(Buddhism Podcast) "Who" is aware? A Buddhist teaching on no-self

• Skandha (khandha): The Five Aggregates clung to as self
• Then what is there? There is Dependent Origination
• 😃 "Not-self" (anatta) explained in plain English

What if I could buy "Waking Up" today? - Waking Up: a new operating system for mind

How is this even a serious discussion?

Come on, Buddha, "no-self" is crazy, right?

Why even talk about this "crazy" teaching that couldn't possibly be (conventionally) true? Of course, "I" exist and "you," too! Just look at us! But, of course, what we see and think we see, that is not a real "self" -- not anything we produce, control, direct, own, or command. It's happening of its own; in an ultimate sense, it is impersonal -- even though it feels utterly personal. Because what am I if not this body, these feelings, these perceptions, these mental formations like will (motives, impulses, intentions), and this consciousness (which many sophisticated persons, particularly ancient Brahmins and modern Hindus, to say nothing of Christians, Muslims, Jains, and others) cling to that "thing" which we must really be when we figure out we are not this body or the other attendant mental phenomena. At least, at the core, I must be THE ONE WHO IS AWARE, the watcher, the knower, the decider, the doer. But this wrong view falls apart under careful, mindful, systematic attention with a cleansed and purified mind/heart. Otherwise, all that will be seen are the usual distortions and perversions of view. This Doctrine invites no one to blindly believe or parrot a Teaching, but to "come and see, investigate it."

• How can contradictory truths (such as conventional vs. ultimate) both be true? - They can't. Only the ultimate one is ultimately true. Be we don't live in ultimate truth. We live mired by conventions of language and assumptions about reality that are all wrong. For example, there is a very easy comparison to be maid thanks to the widespread teachings of physics. Question: Is this desk right here mostly dense or mostly empty space?
• Answer: Well, mostly dense, of course. That's why it serves as a desk.
• Okay, now go ask your physics professor the same question and listen to her tell you all about atoms and particles, sub-particles, quarks, muons, and whatnots, finer and more subtle components of matter.
• What can she say? I'll just beat my hand down on her desk during office hours to prove to that Egghead that, of course, a desk is solid!
• Yes, sure, see where that gets you. Once we understand that an "atom" (an indivisible, uncuttable, irreducible unit of mass) contains more empty space than anything tangible, we'll suddenly see what she's talking about and what science teachers in schools and professors in universities teach.
• So what, then what?
• Then it will both be true that this desk seems dense and solid -- because our hand can't go through it like it can the empty air -- and yet is not actually true at all. It seems true. It is conventionally true (insofar as it is useful to speak this way to one another to distinguish things like air and desks), but it is not ultimately true. Only what is ultimately true was ever actually true -- even as we walk about like ignorant monkeys never giving it a second though. Desk solid, air empty. Solid things are only relatively solid to less dense things, and hands don't go through because of gravity and energy, not because a bunch of density is resisting. And air is not empty, having a bunch of gases and other molecules floating through it. But it's easier to talk this way in common parlance to understand each other and get things done. As science advances, more will know what it really is like, even if they do not particularly appreciate the distinction.

COMMENTARY

Wisdom Quarterly

Buddha, why are you always smiling? Freedom?

One could say that it is not "who" is aware, but WHAT is aware? Asked this way, it can be answered. The Five Aggregates (form; feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousnesses) clung to as self (which are all dependently originated) phenomena. Form forms, feelings feel, perceptions perceive, formations form, and [the six kinds of] consciousness are conscious. Each PROCESS is arising, performing a function, and passing away very quickly, billions and trillions of nearly identical but not actually identical "thought-moments" (cittas) after another. Note the semicolon after form. Why is it there? Form means "material form" (fine-material or rupa in superior planes of existence and tangible or kama in this sensual human world), the body, which is not singular but also fourfold, composed of the mahabhuta or dhatus (Four Great Elements, which are not things like "atoms" but rather kalapas, dense fine-material particles, characteristics of materiality not materiality itself). These eight (condensed to five) aggregates are not to be taken on faith or for the sake of philosophy. Through the path of purification, the heart/mind can be temporarily purified, intensified, and trained to directly perceive these eight streams or phenomena. And in seeing them -- seeing them for what they really are -- the mind/heart lets go. One awakens to freedom from all attachment, aversion, and delusion about them. Thus, in no longer clinging to wrong views about them, one lets go and abandons them, glimpses nirvana, and is free. One enters the first stage of enlightenment or stream-entry. The Buddha does not talk about "no-self" lightly nor before one is ready to hear and begin to understand it. But he cannot let it go unmentioned and untaught because it is the basis, the crucial determinant, of awakening. In other non-Buddhist teachings, at the time of the Buddha as now, this teaching does not exist. Therefore, the Buddha said there neither arise beings of the first stage, second, third, or fourth stage of enlightenment, nor are there to be seen individuals on the path to those realizations. Only when a supremely awakened buddha arises in the world does this teaching get taught and the way of realizing it for oneself. For unless one comes to know-and-see it directly, there is no liberation.

Aggi Vacchagotta demands the Buddha answer

What is the Buddha really denying?

(Natasha Yehenara) Anatta ("no-self"): What exactly is the Buddha denying?

What happens at death? (Gnosticism)

(Dalai Lama) What happens to the "soul" after death?

Death is not final but only a transition

• Materialism, which the Buddha called a pernicious wrong view, says when we die from here, everything ends, we dissolve, there is no result of actions (karma); life had no meaning, and everything is lost. This is the Annihilationist view, the fear or relief that we will be annihilated at death when we will not.
• Escape the rebirth trap of samsara now before it's too late.
• Eternalism is what the Buddha called a pernicious wrong view that takes the other extreme -- that we do not die at death but persist and go on. This is closer to the (conventional) truth, as anyone who has a near-death experience will realize, but it is wrong in assuming that an eternal "soul" or "substance" carries on. An impersonal process carries on, a chain of causation, so that karma bears fruit. And while the person who passes from here and rearises (reappears) hereafter are not identical, so there is no "identity" to cling to even now at this moment. What is there? There are the ever-changing Five Aggregates clung to as self, dependently arisen, and hurtling toward destruction, dissolution, disappearance at every moment. There is nothing to cling to, but the aggregates nevertheless grasp and cling.
• As with Gnosticism, this needs to be realized while we are yet alive, or the process will continue, and we will simply be reborn again and again and again.

Gnostics, what goes on, what remains?

(Gnostic Talk) I've stopped calling it "death" because the Gnostics had a completely different word for it. What is the Pistis Sophia? (It is comforting to think that Jesus Christ/Saint Issa understood this, but sad that modern sectarian Christians do not.

We won't be judged after death

(Gnostic Talk) We won't be "judged" at death: Archons will do this instead

How to escape the rebirth trap: Gnosticism

(Gnostic Talk) The full story of the Reincarnation Trap every Gnostic needs to know

All is burning: 'The Fire Sermon' (sutra)

 

The Buddha's FIRE SERMON: the speech that converted 1,000 wanderers

What is the "all" that is burning?

(Buddha's Wisdom) 🔍 WE’RE BURNING RIGHT NOW — THE BUDDHA’S FIRE SERMON There’s a constant inner heat -- craving, hatred, confusion -- that drives our decisions and drains our peace.

In this guided breakdown of the Buddha’s Fire Sermon (Adittapariyaya Sutta), see exactly what’s burning, why “ALL is burning” became one of Buddhism’s most powerful teachings, and a 5-step method to stop being consumed by it, today.

DISCOVER

• How the Buddha converted 1,000 fire-worshippers with a single 20-minute speech
• The three psychological fires burning in our chest right now (and why they always find new fuel and never stop)
• The hidden follow-up teaching that challenges even clinging to the pursuit of “enlightenment”
• The 5-step method that extinguished suffering for 1,000 people simultaneously
• What the Buddha taught AFTER the Fire Sermon that made even enlightened beings question everything
• Master Buddhist meditation and mindfulness with the Buddha's original Fire Sermon teaching
• (Dhamma Talks at Dhammagiri) The greatest miracle of the Buddha (instruction): "The Fire Sermon" | Adittapariyaha Sutta

My house burned (commentary)

(Doug's Dharma) Just as WQ lost homes in Eaton Fire, Doug got burned

TIMESTAMPS

• 00:00 Scan the Fire
• 01:19 Find Our Fires — Craving • Rejection • Confusion
• 02:50 1,000 meditators, same burn — The Kassapa Setup (near Bodh Gaya)
• 04:11 All is burning — the Buddha’s Fire Sermon (SN 35.28)
• 07:27 Silence: 1,000 awaken — What liberation felt like
• 09:20 How to stop burning — the 5-Step Practice
• 11:01 Beyond the Fire

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#Buddhism #FireSermon #Buddha #Mindfulness #Meditation #Enlightenment #Adittapariyaya #ThreePoisons #Craving #LettingGo #InnerPeace #Theravada

SOURCE

• Ādittapariyāya Sutta (SN 35.28) - original "Fire Sermon" text

Comment below: What Buddhist fire burns strongest: craving, hatred, or delusion? Practice Buddhist mindfulness together.

• Matt, Buddha's Wisdom, "The Fire Sermon," 9/2/25; Doug's Dharma; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The way out: Ennobling Eightfold Path

The Noble Eightfold Path: Why Buddhism begins here | Buddha's Wisdom

(Buddha's Wisdom) July 5, 2026: 🔍 THE ENTIRE BUDDHIST PATH HIDES INSIDE ONE SMALL WORD.  The Noble Eightfold Path is Buddhism's way out (vimutti, moksha) of suffering (dukkha), yet almost everyone reads it as if were eight rules to obey, like a report card. It was never that!

This video rebuilds the Eightfold Path to Enlightenment from the ground up, showing why it isn't eight steps at all, why we're already walking a version of it right now, and how one mistranslated English word quietly changed how the whole teaching is understood.

📿DISCOVER

• Why sammā (usually translated "right") actually means aligned, whole, and in harmony, not "right answer versus wrong answer"
• The wrong Eightfold Path the Buddha described in the Great Forty, the shadow path most people are walking right now without knowing it
• How the eight factors collapse into just three trainings: wisdom, ethics, and meditation (stillness, samadhi, concentration)
• The ancient riddle of the tangle that became the skeleton of Buddhaghosa's Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga)
• Why the path is the Fourth Noble Truth, the cure written at the foot of the diagnosis, and how it ends by erasing itself
• How the Eightfold Path connects to Dependent Origination and the tangle of suffering

⚡ Ever felt the Eightfold Path was a scorecard being failed? This is the video that reframes it completely. Subscribe to Buddha's Wisdom.

Enlightenment: Four Stages to Awaken

(Buddha's Wisdom) The Four Stages of Enlightenment in Theravada Buddhism

What if I'm missing my life purpose, failing?

(The Awakening to Reality) Edgar Cayce: What happens to souls who fail their earth mission?

Been reborn on planet Earth? Don't know if you're "failing" to fulfill the purpose you set out before coming here? Living with purpose, passion, and profits?

• EdgarCayce.org
• A day at A.R.E. (Cayce's Association for Research on Enlightenment) Relax, Rejuvenate, and Rediscover: Meditation, spa, cafe, yoga, bookstore, lectures, and more Day at A.R.E.

Who was this Edgar Cayce guy?

(Brian Garrett) Edgar Cayce 2012 biography (documentary)

The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?

Pastor preaches purpose

Pastor Rick Warren has 4.8 out of 5 stars (with 17,746 reviews) for this New York Times #1 bestselling book by that claims to help readers understand and live out the "purpose" of their life.

See, according to the pastor, before we were born, God [Karma?] already planned our life. God longs for us to discover the life he uniquely created us to live -- here on Earth and forever in the hereafter of eternity [the anionic or timeless reality behind time].

Let The Purpose Driven Life show the way. As one of the bestselling nonfiction books in history, with more than 35 million copies sold, it is far more than just a book; it's the road map for a spiritual journey, a journey that will transform life.

Designed to be read in 42 days, each chapter provides a daily meditation and practical steps to help discover and live out a unique purpose, starting with exploring three of life's most pressing questions:

1. The Question of Existence: Why am I alive?
2. The Question of Significance: Does my life matter?
3. The Question of Purpose: What on earth am I here for?

The book also includes links to 3-minute video introductions and a 30- to 40-minute audio Protestant Christian Bible study message for each chapter plus questions for further study and additional resources. More