Friday, July 20, 2018

Stop Clinging (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Sayalay Aloka (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly trans. based on Ven. Thanissaro (trans.) Upadana Sutta, "Discourse on Clinging" (SN 12.52); Lana Del Rey ("Get Free" of Clinging); SC



At that time the Buddha was dwelling in Savatthi. There the Blessed One said to the monastics: "In one who keeps giving attention to [pleasant, alluring] clingy things,* craving develops.
  • [*In other words, things clung to, clingy phenomena, things that offer sustenance or nutriment for suffering/becoming, a specific reference to the Five Aggregates: form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousnesses, which is not one unitary thing but many discrete, segmented things.]
"With craving as a requisite-condition there arises clinging/sustenance. With clinging/sustenance as a requisite-condition, there arises becoming.

"With becoming as a requisite-condition, there arises rebirth. With rebirth as a requisite-condition, there arises aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair. Such is the origin of this entire mass of pain and suffering.*
  • [*"Pain" here is hard to endure physical states, whereas as "suffering" is referring to hard to endure psychological states.]
"It is just as if there were a great mass of fire -- 10... 20... 30 or 40 cartloads worth of timber burning -- and into it a person would time and again toss dry grass, dry dung, and dry timber so that such a great mass of fire -- nourished and sustained by constant additions -- would burn for a long, long time.

"In just the same way, in one who keeps giving attention to clingy things, craving develops. With craving as a requisite-condition, there arises clinging/sustenance. With clinging/sustenance as a requisite condition, there arises becoming.

"With becoming as a requisite-condition, there arises rebirth. With rebirth as a requisite-condition, there arise aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair. Such is the origin of this entire mass of pain and suffering.

Solution
I'm nonclingy (independent) and loving it!
"However, in one who keeps giving attention to the drawbacks of clingy things, craving ceases. With the cessation of craving, clinging/sustenance ceases. With the cessation of clinging/sustenance, becoming ceases.

"With the cessation of becoming, rebirth ceases. With the cessation of rebirth so, too, aging, sickness and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of pain and suffering.

"It is just as if a great mass of fire...were burning, into which a person [were no longer to toss in fuel] so that such a great mass of fire -- its original sustenance being consumed and no more being added -- would, with no more sustenance, go out.

"In just the same way, in one who repeatedly gives attention to the drawbacks of clingy things, craving ceases. With the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging/sustenance. With the cessation of clinging/sustenance comes the cessation of becoming.

"With the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of rebirth. With the cessation of rebirth so, too, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of pain and suffering."

Updated versions of many translations are freely available at dhammatalks.org

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