SUTRA: The Danger in Sensual Craving

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.) based on Ven. Thanissaro (trans.) of "The Shorter Discourse on Taking on Practices" (Cula-Dhammasamadana Sutra, MN 45), Wisdom Quarterly

Might there be a danger in sensual craving?

Might there be a danger in sensual craving?

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Savatthi in Jeta's Grove in Anathapindika's monastery. There he addressed his disciples: "Meditators!"

 

"Yes, venerable sir," they replied.

 

"Meditators, there are four ways of taking on practices. What are the four?

1. There is the taking on of a practice that is pleasant in the present but yields pain in the future.
2. There is the taking on of a practice that is painful in the present and yields pain in the future.
3. There is the taking on of a practice that is painful in the present but yields pleasure in the future.
4. There is the taking on of a practice that is pleasant in the present and yields pleasure in the future.

"Now, what is the first? There are some wandering ascetics and Brahmins who hold to a doctrine, a view, such as: 'There is no harm in [indulging in] sensual pleasures.' Therefore, they meet their downfall on account of [attachment to] sensual pleasures. They consort with female wandering ascetics who wear their hair coiled in a topknot.

 

"The thought occurs to them: 'Now, what future danger connected to sensual pleasures do those [other] wandering ascetics and Brahmins foresee that they have spoken of the abandonment of [attachment to] sensual pleasures and describe the full comprehension of sensual pleasures? It is pleasant, the touch of this female wandering ascetic's soft, tender, downy arms.'

 

The Buddha under bodhi tree with devas

"Therefore, they meet their downfall through sensual pleasures. Then, having met their downfall through sensual pleasures, with the breakup of the body, after death, they are reborn in a bad destination, the downfall (niraya), in the realm of hungry ghosts, even in hell. There they experience sharp, piercing pains.

"They say, 'This was the future danger connected to sensual pleasures those wandering ascetics and Brahmins foresaw that they spoke of the abandoning of sensual pleasures and described the full comprehension of sensual pleasures.

"'It is because of [craving and clinging to] sensual pleasures, as a result of sensual pleasures, that we are now experiencing these sharp, piercing pains.'

"It is just as if a maluva creeper (Phanera vahlii) pod were to burst open in the last month of the hot season and a maluva creeper seed were to fall at the foot of a sal tree.

Jeepers creepers, what's a "maluva" vine?

Dryad (Evelyn de Morgan)

The deva [dryad] living in a tree would become scared, apprehensive, and anxious. Her friends and companions, relatives and kin -- garden devas, forest devas, tree devas, devas living in herbs [fairies], grass, and forest monarchs -- would gather together to console her:

"'Have no fear, have no fear! In all likelihood a peacock is sure to swallow this maluva creeper seed, or a deer will eat it, or a brushfire will burn it, or woodsmen will pick it up, or termites will carry it off, and anyway it probably isn't really a seed.'

 

"But then no peacock swallowed it, no deer ate it, no brushfire burned it, no woodsmen picked it up, no termites carried it off, and it really was a seed. Watered by a rain laden cloud, it sprouted in due course and curled its soft, tender, downy tendrils around that sal tree.

 

"The thought occurred to the deva living in the sal tree: 'Now, what future danger did my friends and companions, relatives and kin -- garden devas, forest devas, tree devas, devas living in herbs, grass, and forest monarchs -- foresee in that maluva creeper seed that they gathered together to console me:

"'Have no fear, have no fear! In all likelihood a peacock is sure to swallow this maluva creeper seed, or a deer will eat it, or a brushfire will burn it, or woodsmen will pick it up, or termites will carry it off, and anyway it probably isn't really a seed." It is pleasant, the touch of this maluva creeper's soft, tender, downy tendrils.'

 

"Then the creeping vine, having wrapped the sal tree, having made a canopy over it, and cascading down around it, caused the massive limbs of the sal tree to come crashing down.

 

"The thought occurred to the deva living in the tree: 'This was the future danger my friends...foresaw in that maluva creeper seed, that they gathered together to console me... It is because of that maluva creeper seed that I am now experiencing sharp, piercing pains.'

"In the same way, meditators, there are some wandering ascetics and Brahmins who hold to a doctrine, a view, such as: 'There is no harm in sensual pleasures.'

Therefore, they meet their downfall through sensual pleasures. They consort with female wandering ascetics who wear their hair coiled in a topknot.

 

"The thought occurs to them: 'Now, what future danger do those [other] wandering ascetics and Brahmins foresee that they teach the abandonment and analysis of sensual pleasures? It is pleasant, the touch of this female wandering ascetic's soft, tender, downy arms.'

 

Therefore, they meet their downfall through sensual pleasures. Then, having met their downfall through sensual pleasures, with the breakup of the body, after death, they are reborn in a bad destination, the downfall, the realm of hungry ghosts, even in hell. There they experience sharp, piercing pains. They say:

"'This was the future danger connected to sensual pleasures those wandering ascetics and Brahmins foresaw that they spoke of the abandonment of sensual pleasures and described the full comprehension of sensual pleasures. It is because of sensual pleasures, as a result of sensual pleasures, that we are now experiencing these sharp, piercing pains.'

 

"This is called the taking on of a practice that is pleasant in the present but yields pain in the future.

 

II

The Buddha in Tavatimsa, World the Thirty-Three (Woflgangkaehler/flickrhivemind.net)

.

"And what is [the second] the taking on of a practice that is [both] painful in the present and yields pain in the future?

"There is the case where someone is a sky-clad* ascetic.

• [*Acelaka ("cloth-less") is often translated as "naked," but as the description shows, such a person might wear garments, although the garment would not be made of cloth.]

Hindu ascetics use ganja as a "sacrament."

"Such a person goes [about] rejecting conventions, licking hands, not coming when asked, not staying when asked.

 

"One does not consent to accept food brought or food dedicated or to an invitation to a meal. One accepts nothing from the mouth of a pot or from the mouth of a bowl. One accepts nothing from across a stick, across a pestle, from two eating together, from a pregnant woman, from a nursing woman, from a woman lying with a man, from a food collection, from where a dog is waiting or flies are buzzing.

 

"One [accepts] no fish or meat. One drinks no liquor, wine, or fermented drink. One limits oneself to one house [on alms round] and one morsel a day, or two houses and two morsels...seven houses and seven morsels. One lives on one handful a day, two...seven handfuls a day. One takes food once a day, once every two days...once every seven days, and so on up to a fortnight, devoted to regulating one's intake of food.

• [*Though one refrains from eating flesh, one might still accept it from those offering it so as to accept their generosity since rejecting it might offend them while they attempt to practice generosity.]

Sadhu: Is penancethe way to salvation?

"One is an eater of greens, millet, wild rice, hide-parings, moss, rice bran, rice-scum, sesame flour, grass, or cow dung. One lives on forest roots and berries. One eats only fallen fruit.

 

"One wears [coarse] hemp, canvas, shrouds, refuse rags, tree bark, antelope hide, strips of antelope hide, kusa-grass garments, bark garments, wood-shaving garments, head-hair garments, animal wool, owl's wings. One is a hair-and-beard puller, one devoted to the practice of plucking out hair and beard [rather than shaving].

 

"One is a stander, one who rejects seats. One is a hands-around-the-knees sitter, one devoted to the exertion [ascetic austerity] of sitting with hands around knees. One is a spike-mattresser, one who makes one's bed on a bed of spikes. One is a third-time-in-the-evening bather, one who stays devoted to the practice of bathing in water.

 

"Therefore, in a variety of ways one stays devoted to the practice of tormenting and afflicting the body [with severe ascetic austerities as if it were the body, not the mind, to blame for sensual craving]. With the breakup of the body, after death, one is reborn in a bad destination [below the human plane], the downfall, the realm of hungry ghosts, even in hell.

There are many "hells" or purgatories (niraya) in Buddhism, none of them permanent, the worst being Avici (the "Waveless Deep"). Time in any, however, can well seem like an eternity.

"This is called the taking on of a practice that is painful in the present and yields pain in the future.

  

III

Relaxing, holding attention on the breath, greed, hatred, and delusion weakened, and I saw things more clearly. I saw how they distort reality. I continued until absorption.

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Relaxing, holding attention on the breath, greed, hatred, and delusion weakened, and I saw things more clearly. I saw how they distort reality. I continued until absorption.

1. "And what is [the third] the taking on of a practice that is painful in the present but yields pleasure in the future? There is the case of
2. a person who is usually strongly greedy (lustful) by nature and frequently experiences pain and grief born of greed;
3. a person who is usually strongly hateful (aversive) by nature and frequently experiences pain and grief born of aversion;
4. a person who is usually strongly deluded (confused) by nature and frequently experiences pain and grief born of delusion.

"Even though touched by pain and grief, crying with a tearful face, one lives the high life (brahmacariya) that is utterly perfect, surpassingly pure. With the breakup of the body, after death, one reappears in a good destination [human plane or higher], even in a heavenly world. This is called the taking on of a practice that is painful in the present but yields pleasure in the future.

 

IV

You know, whether the world is "beautiful" or not depends more on the seer than the world. - Yeah, totally, man, I know what you mean. - But it's literally true, like when we meditate.

1. "And what is the [fourth, the] taking on of a practice that is pleasant in the present and yields pleasure in the future? There is the case of a person:
2. who is not normally strongly passionate by nature and does not frequently experience pain and grief born of passion;
3. who is not normally strongly aversive by nature and does not frequently experience pain and grief born of aversion;
4. who is not normally strongly deluded by nature and does not frequently experience pain and grief born of delusion.
5. Quite withdrawn [and secluded] from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful (mental) states, one enters and abides in the first meditative absorption (jhana) accompanied by rapture and pleasure born of withdrawal, accompanied by applied and sustained attention.

With the stilling of applied and sustained attention, one enters and abides in the second meditative absorption accompanied by rapture and pleasure born of unification of mind (samadhi, concentration) free of applied and sustained attention -- with internal assurance.

 

With the fading of rapture, one remains equanimous, mindful, and alert and experiences pleasure (piti, rapture, joy, bliss) with the body. One enters and abides in the third meditative absorption, of which the noble ones declare, 'Equanimous and mindful one has a pleasant abiding.'

 

With the overcoming of pleasure and pain -- as with the earlier disappearance of elation and distress -- one enters and abides in the fourth meditative absorption with purified equanimity and mindfulness, [having transcended both] pleasure and pain. With the breakup of the body, after death, one reappears in a good destination, even in a heavenly world. This is called the taking on of a practice that is pleasant in the present and yields pleasure in the future.

 

"These are the four ways of taking on practices." This is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the disciples delighted in the Blessed One's words.