Tantric Sacred Sex, Yoga, Vajrayana?

Tantric sex workshops in the West? (Tantra Archives - Live Love Raw)

(Buddha's Wisdom) What is TANTRA in Buddhism (Vajrayana)? From myth to method

Jambhala in yab yum position (Tantric sex)

Tantric sex is any of a range of practices in Hindu and later Buddhist Tantra that claim to be able to utilize sexual activity in a sacred ritual or yogic context.

Tantric sex is associated with antinomian elements, such as the consumption of alcohol and the offerings of defiled substances like flesh to deities.

Moreover, sexual fluids may be viewed as "power substances" and used for ritual purposes, either externally or internally [1, 2].

The actual terms used in the classical texts to refer to this practice include "Karma-mudrā" (Tibetan ལས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ las kyi phyag rgya, "action seal") in Buddhist tantras and "Maithuna" (Devanagari मैथुन, "coupling") in Hindu sources.

In Hindu Tantra, Maithuna is the most important of the five makara (five "tantric substances") and constitutes the main part of the Grand Ritual of Tantra variously known as Panchamakara, Panchatattva, and Tattva Chakra.

In Tibetan Esoteric (Vajrayana) Buddhism, Karmamudrā is often an important part of the completion stage of tantric practice.

While there may be some connection between these practices and the Kāma-Shāstra literature (which include the Kāma Sūtra), the two practice traditions are separate methods with separate goals.

As the British Indologist Geoffrey Samuel notes, while the kāma sāstra literature is about the pursuit of sexual pleasure (kāmā), sexual yoga practices are often aimed towards the quest for final spiritual liberation (moksha) [3]. More Tantric sex

• In 1992, Jane Wrightson passed with an Australian rating of R18 (like the American NC-17), the Australian tantric sex film Sacred Sex, which was appealed unsuccessfully to the Film and Video Board of Review by the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards, who viewed her classification as too liberal.

Eckhart Tolle awakened by ego death

INTERVIEW: Why did Eckhart "awaken"? | Eckhart Tolle

• Third interview pinpoints ego death (the realization that all things are anatta, not-self, egoless, the liberating truth that all things are impersonal)

Who becomes enlightened?

WATCH: (Eckhart Tolle) Who becomes enlightened?

Going through a Dark Night of the Soul? Eckhart Tolle explains

• Eckhart Tolle, YouTube channel; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Why Zen is the 'easiest' path to satori

Whatcha doin, SpongeBob? - Just sitting. - You mean shikantaza? - Uh, what? I mean, yeah, that.

Why Zen is the EASIEST path to enlightenment (but few understand it)

Can we speed this up? I've got things to do.

(Cinematic Bible Lore) May 16, 2025: 🌿 Is Enlightenment (redefined in Zen as satori or kensho rather than bodhi) really about effort, rituals, or sutra study, or could the simplest path be the most powerful?

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

• 0:00 What is Zen? [It's not monkey mind]
• 0:45 Bodhidharma: The Origin of Chan
• 2:48 Dōgen Zenji’s awakening
• 4:55 Why zazen is not meditation
• 6:58 Living [in] the present moment
• 8:20 Zen in daily life
• 11:08 How to practice zazen
• 16:41 The power of just sitting
• 18:49 Zen is Now

Don't think, Monkey. Zen mind is beginner's mind

This video dives deeply into the essence of Zen Buddhism — a tradition that goes beyond concepts and leads to direct experience of awakening through simplicity.

Discover the story of Bodhidharma, the teachings of Dōgen Zenji, and why zazen (seated meditation) is not just a technique — but a way of mindfully living in the here and now.

Whether new to Zen or deep in practice, this guide reveals why Zen is the easiest — and most overlooked — path to enlightenment.

🧘 LEARN:

• Why Zen rejects dogma, rituals, and intellectual striving
• The power of zazen: how “just sitting” (shikantaza) becomes awakening
• How Dōgen’s teachings dissolve the illusion of time and ego
• Why the present moment holds everything we seek
• How to bring Zen into daily acts like washing, walking, or breathing

💬 Question: Ever felt fully present — free from discursive thought, self, and striving? Share the experience in the comments.

📺 Explore more: 🎥 The Deepest Teaching of Buddha 🎥 The Secret Behind Zazen Meditation 🎥 Buddhism vs. Zen – What's the real difference?

👉 Like, share, and subscribe to join in weekly journeys through the world’s deepest spiritual traditions. 📌 Hashtags #ZenBuddhism #ZazenMeditation #DogenZenji #SimplePathToEnlightenment #PresentMomentPractice #ZenExplained #Mindfulness

• Cinematic Bible Lore; May 16, 2025; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Bashar: How to accelerate awakening

Radioactive cloud moving through Europe after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster (Map Porn)

(Daryl Anka) Bashar Twin Flame: The ONE thing we MUST do to accelerate our awakening!

Bashar Twin Flame: The ONE thing we MUST do to accelerate our awakening!

Bashar live at consciouslifeexpo.com

(Divine Light Vibes) Feb. 12, 2025: Psychic Channel "Bashar" (Darryl Anka) 2025 🚨 Hidden truths revealed! 🚨 In this eye-opening session, Bashar uncovers shocking realities about Japan’s high radiation levels (from Fukushima) concentrated in a ten-mile radius, UFOs, and the role of reborn "souls" (individuals) in solving Earth’s crises -- as whales and dolphins can through understanding their songs and communicating with them rather than hunting and destroying them. What is our Moon, and why is it there? (Don't worry about it). Are ETs influencing global events? Can children hold the key to human survival? What’s the true karmic impact of hunting dolphins and whales out of existence, Japan? Take a deep dive into mind-expanding insights and explore the power of consciousness, frequency shifts, and interdimensional wisdom. 🌍✨

• What is Fukushima (March 11, 2011)? The US found a way to surreptitiously attack Japan with yet another atomic explosion, more polluting than the first two (Nagasaki and Hiroshima). It is unclear what shima means in Japanese, but the first two phonemes are clearer: fuk and u. Young people and those out of the loop may not realize or remember that it is yet another Love Canal, NY, USA.
• First we practice on ourselves, then we unleash disasters on other countries: List of environmental disasters
• Radiation effects from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
• Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jen Bradford, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Millionaire's Daughter (Therigatha 6.5)

I will give you progressive, gradual instruction.

In the collection known as the Verses of the Elder (Enlightened) Nuns, the Therīgāthā, in Chapter 6, we find the story of Anopama ("Peerless" due to her beauty), the millionaire treasurer of Sāketa's daughter (Thig. 6.5). She utters a paean or verse concerning her awakening, her enlightenment, from hearing the Buddha teach her the Dharma. Her verses are recorded in the collection of nuns' utterances in the Pali canon, where she states:

Born in a high-ranking family

property owners of great wealth,

consummate in complexion and figure,

I was the daughter of the treasurer Majjha.

Royal sons sought me.

Sons of rich merchants

longed for me.

One of them sent my father a messenger,

who said, "Give me 'Peerless.'

And I in return will give

eight times her weight

in gold and jewels."

Name the dowry-price. I must have her! I offer her weight in gold eightfold with jewels, too!

.

But I, having seen the Awakened One,

unsurpassed, unexcelled in all the world,

bowed at his feet and sat

close by to one side.

He, Gotama (the Buddha), out of sympathy,

taught me the Dhamma (Doctrine).

And as I sat in that very seat,

I attained the third fruit [non-return].

Then I cast off my beautiful hair

and went forth into the left home life.

Today is the seventh day since I made

all craving shrivel away.

• See also Thig 6.4: Sujātā Therīgāthā translated by Dr. Hellmuth Hecker and Ayya Khema (suttacentral.net)
• Thig 6.6: The Mahā Pajāpati Gotamī Therīgāthā—the Buddha's mother's song of awakening translated by Andrew Olendzki (suttacentral.net)
• Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), based on translation by Ven. Thanissaro, (Thig 6.5) Anopamā Therīgāthā (suttacentral.net)

Instant justice is not instant karma (video)

Karma can be understood as just being us.

There's justice because KARMA (the regularity or law of the universe that unskillful actions motivated -- those motivated by greed, hatred, or delusion -- and skillful ones motivated by nongreed, nonhatred, or nondelusion) brings about appropriate resultants.

When a farmer plants rice, it's no use to pray for mangoes to come up. Having been planted, rice will come up. How could it be otherwise? There is no need to pray for rice (though that may help), and there's no need to wish for mangoes. Plant sweet fruit if sweet fruit is wished for. Mango seeds are always available to us if we only knew it.

It is so fun and funny to watch "instant justice" videos. It seems to "prove" that karma is true. But these videos do no such thing. Moreover, they mislead us about what karma means.

We are all interdependent. So what shall I DO?

Karma means "action," and what kind of action it is is determined by the intention behind it. Stabbing someone is a good example. What is the karma being made? We do not know. Let's ask a psychic or seer (rishi). What is that stabber's motive when she raised that knife and brought it down on that man in the dark alley?

Psychic says, "She was trying to save his life because he could not breathe, so she thought she would make an opening in his throat like she saw on NCIS one time, and she did, and it worked, and he's alive and not at all mad about the little scar that saved his life." Ahh.

Psychic, what about that doctor in the operating room whose patient ended up dead during surgery? "That man is a murderer. He did not make a mistake with his scalpel, but thinking that the patient was cheating with his wife, he nicked an artery and made it appear like an 'accident,' which everyone believed, and he got away with it. But, like an all-knowing god, Karma knew."

How does Karma know when we humans, who stand in judgment in courtrooms every day, get it so wrong so often?

Tell us something we don't know! - Of course.

The answer is found in the Abhidhamma (Sanskrit Abhidharma, English "Higher Doctrine" or more precisely the Teaching of the Buddha in Ultimate Terms"), a body of literature on Buddhist psychology and physics that explains mental and physical phenomena in incredible detail.

Very briefly, when an act (a karma), a deed, a doing is being planned, it has a motivation that ordinarily people cannot see from the outside. With practice, the doer may be able to see it from the inside. (And there are psychics and seers, light beings and other types of beings who might be able to see it from the outside).

Easy Abhidhamma (Susila and Seven)

This motivation or intention (cetana) colors the deed as it is laid down in impulsions (javanas) and mind-moments (cittas) with attendant mental concomitants (cetasikas). It is as if there were only two kinds of cows, reds ones and black ones, but they were all white.

• The upshot is these mind-moments lay down a track (plant a seed) capable of coming to fruition later. There are trillions of such moments, so even a slight misdeed has the potential to produce many unpleasant results. "It's not fair!" we'll complain. One skillful deed has the power to produce many pleasant and welcome results. Others may say, "It's not fair" as we enjoy ourselves. Dharma is the best thing for beings, so Wisdom Quarterly exists to give dhamma-dana.

Huh? White cows in a pen, having only two exits available to them, either tread through red paint or black paint. One need not see which way a cow exited or why, yet one can immediately know which exist it was by simply looking at the cow. Is it stained red or black?

The Bible speaks of knowing people by their actions (reaping as they have sown), which are imperfect indicators of character. Why?

We all have mixed karma. And though a person is mostly good, it is no surprise that such a person is not perfectly good all the time. Likewise, though a person is mostly bad, it is no surprise that such a person is not perfectly bad all the time.

We judge by a preponderance ("know them by their fruits"), and it does not do us much good to judge. We may want to avoid certain people and not surround ourselves with unskillful friends, companions, or associates. We may want to associate with the wise. That is wise. And we will become wiser for doing it if it rubs off on us (that is, if we absorb their good influence and not if we don't. It's hard not to, but many of us are slow on the uptake).

So, okay, who cares: What's the harm in enjoying these instant justice videos or concluding that that's how karma works?

There's one great harm, and that is to come to believe that that is how karma works. And we very clearly can see all around us that that is NOT how karma usually works. It might never work that way, John Lennon's "Instant Karma" notwithstanding.

If one were to believe that this is how karma works, what is one to determine after a thousand times seeing something shabby going on with no apparent comeuppance, result, reward, or consequence. I saw, and have you never seen:

• A woman with a kind heard gave a dog some food, then it bit her. (After all, it is a truism in our society that "no good deed goes unpunished").
• Some guys robbed a bank and now have all this extra money to show for it.
• The drug dealer at our high school never got caught, and he drove a really nice car.
• Trump is not rotting in jail -- and neither are Biden, Bush, the Other Bush, Obi Won Jabroni, Tricky Dick Nixon, Johnson who helped in the killing of JFK, Dick Cheney, et al. ad nauseum.
• I was asked my opinion on the size of a butt by a person about to go out and, wishing to warn that person that her butt looked ginormous in those pants and she would be the victim of ridicule and laughter, I said so. The blowback was tremendous. (Okay, that one's on me. When asked or told anything on the topic of fashion by a significant other looking for a little boost, the only correct reply can be, "Yes, Dear" or a very enthusiastic, "No, those pants don't make your butt look too big" while never adding, "It's mostly your butt making those pants look too small." *Rimshot*

Karma does not need your help. Let it go. Trust.

The point is, there is something called "poetic justice," and what's poetic about is that it is idealistic, wishful thinking, true in a perfect world, would be true if we didn't have such a backlog of karma to clear.

Finally, it's wrong because "karma" NEVER means the result. Remember, karma means "deed" or "action." It's the doing. What results is called phala (fruit) and vipaka (resultant). It's unclear what the difference is, but it seems it used to be the distinction between the physical fruits and the mental resultants. It doesn't seem to mean that anymore.

It seems it used to mean that consequent emotions, feelings, or more immediate worrying and scruples, say, of being caught and the very definite circumstances one later found oneself in.

Skillful actions, or what we call "good," certainly do not immediately produce a ripened result. Fruit does not sprout overnight, or even years later, or even lifetimes later. It could be a while, quite a while.

Does Dr. Bruce Goldberg understand karma?

If one were to conclude that nothing wished for, pleasing, or profitable comes from sharing, giving, helping, offering, sacrificing (our own benefit for the benefit of others), gratitude, serving our parents, repaying our friends and beneficiaries, and so on, who would recommend doing it, and who would do it?

It's exactly because what we do seems to have no impact on the world -- or at least no "fair" one -- that a buddha arises, makes known the Dharma, and leads others to abandon and renounce what leads to harm and to cultivate and develop what leads to contentment, prosperity, sufficiency, and pleasing results.

These are of two kinds, the here-and-now and the hereafter. Given that many modern people cannot bring themselves to believe or have confidence that there will be a hereafter, a tomorrow, a world (and many worlds) to come, results of actions, pleasing and unpleasing results of our deeds, how can anyone tell them otherwise?

Many people did not believe the Buddha, and one has to imagine he was pretty convincing and charming and oozing with compassion as he spoke. He knew these things directly, whereas we only have our limited life experience, our warped and misshapen views, the opinions and preferences we cling to, and minds so tainted by our experience and identifying with the things that happen that we have hardly even begun to purify our view, our minds, our hearts, or our conceptual grasp of the reality around us.

This reality is like a house of mirrors to us, and we are like blind judges trying to describe an elephant by our limited touch to someone who has neither seen nor touched it. Whatever we touch, we will make much of that in our description. What we have not seen, we will likely neglect to mention (even if someone else touching that part tells us to mention it).

We form our concepts then, due to our limited experience, the recency bias, and other distortions (perversions, vipallasa), we report that when asked.

We must know our chances of knowing are very limited. Then, not having read the Kalama Sutra or the sacred scriptures of our spiritual tradition nor asked the wise to explain them or give guidance on how to purify our third eye to see things directly, we give faulty opinions. Preferring our own views, our own traditions, our own teachers, we refuse to give ear to others. So we neither grasp our own teachings nor theirs.

Hollywood, to be popular, will frequently give us poetic justice (to feed us what we do not get in real life). The "evil" landlord coming to evict a poor, hardworking family down on their luck gets hit by a flood on the way. (It's as if the God of the gaps steps in).

The white hat shoots the gun out of the black hat's hand so as to disarm that agent while not becoming the sort of person who shoots people. When the robotic Stormtroopers attack, the "good guys" shoot'em up. No one in the audience is alarmed because "they have no feelings," "they're not actually human," "they deserve it," "they're evil," "they're minions" "they work for the empire..."

This is all well and good on screen with a gob full of popcorn, but try to take that out into the real world, and we get endless war, closed off opinion, us versus them thinking, black and white thinking, Hollywood-influenced fantasizing, and lots of delusions and rationalizations to justify our positions.

• H (Video 1); Akimbo (Video 2); Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Bhante, Wisdom Quarterly

Enlightened nun "Beautiful Curly-Hair"

G.P. Malalasekera (Pali Proper Names); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Black and Buddhist (Faith Adiele)

Ven. Bhaddā-Kundalakesā was an enlightened elder nun or 

therī (one who has gone forth for at least ten rains retreats).

She was deemed "foremost in swift intuition" among the nuns (comparable to Bahiya of the Barkcloth among the monks).

She was reborn in the family of a treasurer of wealthy Rājagaha, the royal city ringed by seven hills where the Buddha frequently stayed at Vulture's Peak.

On the same day as she was born, a son was born to the king's chaplain under an astrological constellation favorable to highway robbers, who was therefore called Sattuka.

One day, through her balcony lattice, beautiful Bhaddā saw Sattuka being led by the city guard to execution on a charge of robbery. She at once fell in love with him and refused to live without him.

Her father, out of his love for her, bribed the guard to release Sattuka. He ordered him bathed in perfumed water, and brought him home, where Bhaddā, decked in jewels, waited upon him.

Sattuka soon began to covet her expensive jewels and conceived of a lie to steal them. He told her that he had made a vow to the deity of Robbers' Cliff that, should he escape execution, he would bring the deity an offering in thanks.

She trusted him and, and putting together an offering, went with him arrayed in all her lovely ornaments. On arriving at the top of the cliff, he told her of his real purpose. She, undaunted, begged him to let her embrace him just one more time. He agreed to this. Then, pretending to embrace him from behind, she pushed him over the cliff.

The deity of the mountain praised her presence of mind, saying that men were not in all cases wiser than women. Unwilling to return home after what had happened, she joined the Order of the White Clad Niganthas [Jains, as the founder Mahavira allowed female ascetics before the Buddha accepted nuns].

As she wished to practice extreme austerities (tapas) as penance, they yanked her hair out with a palmyra wood comb. Her hair grew back in close curls, so they called her Kundala-kesā ("Curly-hair").

Can I put clear Neosporin on dark skin or on an open wound? (verywellhealth.com)

.

Unsatisfied with the doctrine (dharma) of the Niganthas, she left them, and going for guidance to various teachers, she became very proficient in philosophical discussion and eager to debate.

She would enter a village and, making a heap of sand at the gate, set up a tree branch of rose apple saying, "Whoever wishes to debate me, let him trample on this branch."

One day, Sāriputra -- the Buddha's chief disciple declared "foremost in wisdom" -- seeing the branch outside of Sāvatthi's gate, asked some children to trample it.

Bhaddā then went to Jetavana accompanied by a large crowd of spectators she invited to be present at the debate.

Sāriputra suggested that Bhaddā should first ask him questions. To all of these he replied skillfully until she fell silent.

Would that there were a teacher so wise as me.

It was then his turn, and he asked her, "One, what is that?" (The meaning of this was probably, "State any one fact that is true for everyone.")

Unable to answer, she asked him to be her teacher. But Sāriputra sent her to the Buddha, who taught her. He added verses, stating that it were better to know one single stanza bringing calm and peace than 1,000 verses bringing no profit.

At the end of this sutra, Bhaddā attained full enlightenment, and the Buddha himself ordained her as a nun afterward.

In the time of Padumuttara Buddha, she had heard him teach and declare as foremost among nuns one whose intuition was swift (khippābhiññā). She vowed that this rank should one day be hers.

Later, when Kassapa was Buddha, she was one of the seven daughters of Kikī, King of Benares, and was named Bhikkhadāyikā (v.l. Bhikkhudāsikā).

For 20,000 years she remained celibate and built a dwelling for the Monastic Order (A.i.25; AA.i.200ff.; ThigA.99ff.; Ap.ii.560ff).

The DhA. account (ii. 217 ff.) differs in various details. There Bhaddā is shut up by her parents at the top of a seven storied building with only a single woman to wait on her, for "girls when young, burn for men!"

It was thus that she saw the robber. In the "Verses of the Enlightened Nuns or Therīgāthā (Thig.vss.107-11) are included several verses spoken by her when she had been a wandering ascetic Jain nun for 50 years, wandering about in Anga, Magadha, Kāsi, and Kosala, living on the people's alms.

Bark Cloth Bahiya's sudden enlightenment

Ven. Ānandajoti (trans.), Bāhiya Suttaṃ (Ud. 1.10) Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Sutra about Bāhiya—

Thus have I heard. At one time the Awakened One [the Buddha] was dwelling near Sāvatthī, in Jeta’s Wood, in Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery.

At that time Bark Cloth Bāhiya was living near Suppāraka, on the edge of the ocean, being venerated, respected, revered, honored, esteemed, and receiving requisites of cloth, alms-food, dwellings, and medicinals.

When Bark Cloth Bāhiya had gone into seclusion, a reflection arose in his mind: “Among those in the world who are arhats [enlightened ones, awakened ones, lit. "worthy ones," who are worthy of support, gifts, and offerings] or have entered the path to enlightenment, I am one of them.”

Then a devatā (a "shining one," a light being), who was formerly a close relation of Bark Cloth Bāhiya, out of compassion and wishing for his welfare, knowing with his mind the reflection in the mind of Bark Cloth Bāhiya, went to him and said:

“You are certainly not enlightened, Bāhiya, nor have you even entered upon the path to enlightenment. This practice of yours is not one whereby you could already be enlightened or one that will ever lead to enlightenment.”

“Then who now, in this world with its devas and arhats, is enlightened or has entered upon the path to enlightenment?”

“There is, Bāhiya, in the northern territories a city by the name of Sāvatthī. There the Awakened One dwells at this time. He is a worthy one, a perfectly awakened teacher. Bāhiya, the Awakened One is certainly a worthy one, who teaches the Dharma (the path of practice) that leads those who practice it to enlightenment.”

Then Bark Cloth Bāhiya, being greatly stirred by that devatā, immediately left Suppāraka, and staying for only one night in every place along the way, walked to Sāvatthī, into Jeta’s Wood, up to Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery.

At that time many wandering ascetics (Buddhist monastics) were meditating while walking in the open air. Bark Cloth Bāhiya went yo to them and asked:

“Where, venerable sirs, is the Awakened One staying at present, that worthy one, that perfectly enlightened teacher? We wish to see him.”

“The Awakened One, Bāhiya, has entered among the houses for alms.”

Early image (Gandhara)

Bark Cloth Bāhiya hurried and left Jeta’s Wood into Sāvatthī, where he saw the Awakened One on alms-round, confident and inspiring confidence, with his sense faculties at peace, his mind at peace, having attained supreme self-control and calm, tamed, well guarded, with restrained faculties, a true nāga [mighty one, like a noble elephant].

Seeing him, Bark Cloth Bahiya went right up to him and prostrated with his head at the Buddha’s feet and said, “Let the Awakened One teach me the Dharma, venerable sir. Let the Fortunate One teach Dharma that will be for my benefit and happiness for a long time.”

The Buddha responded, “It is the wrong time, Bāhiya, for we have entered among the houses for alms.”

For a second time Bark Cloth Bāhiya pleaded, “But it is hard to know, venerable sir, the dangers to the Awakened One’s life, or the dangers to my life! Let the Awakened One teach the Dharma to me, venerable sir. Let the Fortunate One teach the Dharma that will be for my benefit and happiness for a long time.”

For a second time the Buddha responed, “It is the wrong time, Bāhiya, for we have entered among the houses for alms.”

For a third time Bark Cloth Bāhiya said, “But it is hard to know, venerable sir, the dangers to the Awakened One’s life, or the dangers to my life! Let the Awakened One teach the Dharma to me, venerable sir. Let the Fortunate One teach the Dharma that will be for my benefit and happiness for a long time.”

“In that case, Bāhiya, train yourself thus: In what is seen there must be only the seen. In what is heard there must be only the heard. In what is [otherwise] sensed there must be only the sensed. In what is cognized there must be only the cognized. This is the way, Bāhiya, to train yourself.

“And since for you, Bāhiya, in what is seen there will be only the seen, in what is heard there will be only the heard, in what is [otherwise] sensed there will be only the sensed, in what is cognized there will be only the cognized, Bāhiya, you will not be with that.

And since, Bāhiya, you will not be with that, therefore, Bāhiya, you will not be in that. And since, Bāhiya, you will not be in that, therefore, Bāhiya, you will not be here nor hereafter nor in between the two. —Just this is the end of suffering here and now.”

Through the Awakened One’s brief teaching of this Dharma, Bark Cloth Bāhiya’s mind was immediately freed from the defilements and was free of clinging. Then the Awakened One, having advised Bark Cloth Bāhiya with this brief advice, went away.

Then not long after the Awakened One had gone, a cow with a young calf, attacked Bark Cloth Bāhiya and deprived him of life.

Then the Buddha after walking for alms in Sāvatthī, while returning from the alms-round after the meal, after going out from the city with many monastics, saw that Bark Cloth Bāhiya had died. Seeing him, he addressed the monastics, saying:

“Meditators, take up the body of Bark Cloth Bāhiya on a bier, carry it away, cremate it, and make a memorial mound (sacred stupa) for him, our fellow in the spiritual life, who has died.”

“Yes, venerable sir,” said those monastics and put Bark Cloth Bāhiya’s body on a bier, carried it away, burned it, and made a mound for him. Then they went to the Buddha, paid their respects, and sat down to one side.

While they were sitting to one side, they said: “Cremated, venerable sir, is the body of Bark Cloth Bāhiya, and a mound for him has been made. What is his destination? What is his future rebirth?”

“A wise man, meditators, was Bark Cloth Bāhiya, who practiced Dharma in accordance with the Dharma, and did not trouble me on account of the Dharma. Completely liberated, meditators, is Bark Cloth Bāhiya.” Then the Buddha, having understood the significance of the occasion, made this exalted utterance:

“In the place where the water, earth, fire, and wind find no footing,

There the stars do not shine, nor does the sun give light,

There the moon does not glow, there darkness is not found.

And when the sage, the Brahmin, has experienced nirvana through wisdom,

Then from both form and formlessness, happiness and suffering, one is free.”

This exalted utterance was also spoken by the Awakened One. Thus have I heard.

Backstory: Bahiya's sudden enlightenment

G.P. Malalasekera, encyclopedia entry in Dictionary of Pali Proper Names (and PTS) derived from the Commentaries; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

But, Bahiya, this is the time for gathering alms.

Bāhiya Dārucīriya or "Bahiya of the Barkcloth" suddenly reached full enlightenment. How? The Commentaries (tika) give the backstory.

Bahiya was born in a householder's family Bāhiya (identified as Bhārukaccha in AP.ii.476), which led to his name.

He engaged in trade, voyaging by ship. Seven times he sailed down the Indus River and across the sea, and seven time returned home safely.

On his eighth trip, however, while on his way to the "Golden Land," Suvannabhūmi, he was shipwrecked. He saved his life by floating ashore on a plank of wood, reaching what he thought was an island which was in fact peninsular Suppāraka.

Having lost all his clothes, he made himself a bark garment (daruciriya), and went about, alms bowl in hand, in Suppāraka.

People, seeing his austere garment and struck by his ascetic demeanor, paid him great honor. They offered him costly robes and many other luxuries, and when he refused them his fame increased. Because of his bark garment, he was known as Dārucīriya.

He came to believe that he had attained full enlightenment, but a devata (a "shining one," said to be a brahma from the Pure Abodes or Suddhāvāsa, who had been a celibate companion in the supreme life during the time of Kassapa Buddha, according to the Commentary, MA.i.340), reading his thoughts and wishing him well, pointed out to him his error.

What is the road to nirvana? (NG)

The devata advised him to go see the Buddha in Sāvatthi. By the power of that devatā, Bāhiya reached Sāvatthi in one night, a distance of 120 leagues. But he was told that the Buddha was in the city on alms round.

Bāhiya followed him and pleaded to be taught something for gaining enlightenment. Twice he asked, and twice the Buddha refused, saying that it was not the time for teaching. But Bāhiya insisted, saying that life is uncertain and that the Buddha or he might pass away before it was time for teaching.

The Commentaries say that Bāhiya was too excited by his meeting with the Buddha and that the Buddha wished to give him time to regain his composure, hence his refusal.

But then the Buddha came to know of Bahiya's impending death and also of his potential (upanissaya) for full enlightenment. He was to attain in this very life due to his past karma (a pacchimabhavika).

Map showing ancient western trade routes serviced by this historical ancient Indian port. The gateway city of Bharakuccha is named on the map as Barigaza on the Gulf of Khambhat. The inhospitable mountains and deserts to the north of the Erythraean Sea suggests its importance in trade with ancient Axum, Egypt, Arabia, and the sea-land trade routes via the Tigris-Euphrates Valley and Ancient Rome. More

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Oh yeah, first to reach...eat my dust, ladies!

The Buddha then taught him the optimal method of regarding all sen
se experiences -- namely, as mere (impersonal, disappointing, impermanent) experiences and nothing more.

Even as he listened, Bāhiya became an arhat, and the Buddha seeing this went on his way. Shortly after, Bāhiya was gored to death by a cow with a calf (like the story of Pukkusāti and the others*).

The Buddha on his way back, seeing Bahiya's body lying on the dung heap, directed the monastics to prepare it, cremate it, and erect a sacred burial mound (tope, thūpa, stupa) over the relics.

In the assembly he declared Bāhiya to be "foremost among those who instantly comprehend the truth" (khippābhiññānam) (A.i.24; Ud.i.10).

Let's climb this rock to practice or die trying.

Bāhiya's resolution to attain to this eminence was made in the time of Padumuttara Buddha when he heard the Buddha declare a wandering ascetic foremost in instantaneous comprehension.

In the time of Kassapa Buddha, when the Buddha's teachings were fading from the minds of humans, Bāhiya was one of seven wandering ascetics who climbed a massive rock and determined not to leave it until they had attained their goal of spiritual liberation.

Their leader became an arhat, and the second a non-returner (anāgāmī) -- passing away to rebirth in the Pure Abodes (Suddhāvāsa). The rest were reborn in this age as Pukkusāti, Kumāra Kassapa, Dabba-Mallaputta, Sabhiya, and Bāhiya.

Although Bāhiya had kept the precepts in previous rebirths, he had never given a bowl or a robe to a monk. For this reason the Buddha did not, at the end of his instruction, ordain Bahiya by saying "ehi bhikkhu pabbajā" to him.

The Buddha knew that Bāhiya had insufficient merit to obtain divine robes (from devas). Some say that he was once a brigand and had shot a non-teaching fully self-enlightened one (pacceka buddha) with an arrow and had taken possession of that pacceka buddha's alms bowl and robe.

Bāhiya was killed while searching for a proper robe to receive ordination (UdA.77ff.; AA.i.156ff.; DhA.ii.209ff.; Ap.ii.475ff).

*The violent cow that gored Bāhiya was the same one that murdered Pukkusāti, Tambadāthika the Public Executioner, and Suppabuddha (2). (It is said that the cow was possessed by a yakkhini or yakshi, a female-ogre or inimical spirit; see her story at DhA.ii.35f). Source

• The Fast Way to Enlightenment: Bahiya of the Barkcloth