Craving: SEX on the brain

Edward Conze, The Way of Wisdom: The Five Controlling Faculties (accesstoinsight.org) edited by Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson; Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

"Nobody told me, nobody told me. Who knew palm hairiness could spread!?"

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"Do not look long, do not look short."

The Buddha: "When [a meditator] practices the perfection of meditation for the sake of other beings, the mind becomes undistracted.

"For one reflects that 'even worldly meditation is hard to accomplish with distracted thoughts, how much the more full enlightenment! Therefore, I must remain undistracted until I have realized full enlightenment.'

"Moreover, Subhuti, a bodhisattva [someone bent on supreme enlightenment], beginning with the first thought of enlightenment, practices the perfection of meditation.

"One's mental activities are associated with the knowledge of all modes when one enters into meditation [absorption and insight, jhana and vipassana].

"When one has seen forms with the eye, one does not seize upon them as signs of realities of concern, nor is one interested in the details.

"One sets oneself to restrain that which, if one does not restrain one's organ of sight, might give rise to lust (covetousness), dejection (sadness), or other harmful and unwholesome states (dhammas) to reach the heart.

"One watches over the organ of sight. And the same with the other five sense organs — ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.

"Whether one walks or stands, sits or lies down, talks or remains silent, one's concentration [samma samadhi = the first four jhanas = right concentration] does not leave one."

— Prajnaparamita, "The Perfection of Wisdom,"  Chp. 68

translated by Edward Conze; edited by Wisdom Quarterly

(c) From The Path of Purification

I'm beautiful on top although repulsive underneath.

(Visuddhimagga) This is the virtue that consists of the restraint of the senses:

"Here [in this Teaching] someone, (1) having seen a form with the eye, does not seize on its general appearance or the details of it.

"That which might, so long as one dwells unrestrained as to the (controlling) force of the eye, give rise to lustful/covetous, dejected/sad, harmful and unwholesome states to flood (and overtake) one, that one sets oneself to restrain:

"One guards the controlling force of the eye and brings about its restraint.

The Path of Purification

"Likewise when one has (2) heard sounds with the ear, (3) smelled fragrances with the nose, (4) tasted flavors with the tongue, (5) touched tangibles with the body, (6) cognized mind-objects (dhammas) with the mind" (M.i,180).

What does it mean?

Having seen a form with the eye: One has seen a form with visual consciousness capable of perceiving forms, which in normal language is usually called the "eye," though it is actually its tool, for the Ancients have said:

"The eye cannot see forms

because it is without thought;

thought cannot see forms

because it is without eye.

When the object knocks

against the door (of sight),

one sees with the thought

that has eye-sensibility

as its basis."

Yikes. Repulsive and revolting.

In the expression "one sees with the eye," only accessory equipment is indicated, just as one may say, "one shoots with a bow" (and not "with an arrow"). Therefore, the meaning here is: "having seen form with visual consciousness."

One does not seize on its general appearance (lit., "the sign"): one does not seize on its being a male or female, or its appearance as attractive, and so on, which makes it into a basis for the defiling passions (cravings, lusts, obsessions) to arise. But one stops at what is actually seen.

One does not seize on the details of it: One does not seize on the variety of its accessory features, like the hands or feet, the smile, the laughter, the talk, the looking here, the looking away, and so on, which are in common parlance called "details" because they manifest the defiling passions, by again and again (anu anu) tainting the mind with them.

But one seizes only on that which is really there (i.e., the repulsiveness of the 32 parts of the body).

How Ven. Mahatissa awakened

Mwah ha ha! Look, venerable, look at these teeth bones! Whaddya think?

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Mahatissa Thera lived on Mount Cetiya. One day the wandering Buddhist ascetic went to Anuradhapura to gather alms.

In a certain family a daughter-in-law quarreled with her husband then adorned and beautified herself like a celestial maiden. She left Anuradhapura early in the morning and went away to stay with relatives.

On the way she saw the ascetic and, as her mind was perverted (vipallasa = distorted), she gave a loud laugh.

Thank you, miss, thank you for smiling. I'm free.

The monk looked to see what was the matter. He acquired, at the sight of her teeth(-bones), the sign of repulsiveness and thereby realized full enlightenment...

The husband, who had run after her on same road, saw the monk and asked him whether he had by any chance seen a woman. The monk replied:

"Whether what went along here

Was a man or a woman, I do not know.

But a collection of bones is moving

Now along this main road."

[How does the flood of lust sink one? The cause or reason is non-restraint of the eye. A person dwelling without restraining the eye with the gate of mindfulness leaves the door of the eye open, and such unskillful states may flood in.] More