LUST IS LIKE FIRE: Sutra (MN 75), Part 1

Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Magandiya Sutra: "To Magandiya" (excerpt) (MN 75 PTS: M i 501) based on Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), Wisdom Quarterly; Yeah Yeah Yeahs

You have leprosy? - I used to. I burned it off.

"Magandiya, suppose there were a leper covered with infected sores, devoured by worms, picking scabs off the openings of the wounds with his fingernails, roasting and cauterizing his body over a pit of glowing embers. 

"His friends, companions, and relatives would bring him to a doctor. The doctor would concoct medicine. Then thanks to the medicine he would be cured of leprosy: well and happy, free, a master of himself, going wherever he liked.

"Then suppose two strong men, grabbing him with their arms, were to drag him to a pit of glowing embers. What do you think? Would he squirm and struggle to get away?"

"Yes, Teacher Gotama, for fire is painful to the touch, blistering and scorching!"

"What do you think, Magandiya: Is fire painful to the touch, blistering and scorching, only now -- or was it this way before?"

This [Seven Year] Itch is unbearable! (SELF)

"Teacher Gotama, both now and before fire has been painful to the touch, blistering and scorching! It's just that when the man was a leper covered with infected sores -- devoured by worms, picking scabs off the openings of those wounds with his fingernails -- that his faculties were impaired. This is why, even though fire is actually painful to the touch, he has a distorted perception of it as 'pleasant' [as relief from the burning itch],"

"In the same way, Magandiya, in the PAST sensual pleasures were painful to the touch, blistering and scorching. Sensual pleasures in the FUTURE will be painful to the touch, blistering. ["Quenching" is a synonym for nirvana.]

"When living beings are not free from passion for sensual pleasures [but in bondage to them] — devoured by craving, burning with a fever — their faculties are impaired. This is why, even though sensual pleasures are actually painful to the touch, living beings have a distorted perception of them as 'pleasant.'

Burning, burning, burning

Itchy worms make infected wounds unbearable and maddening. Burn them off?

.

I'm a leper! Worms crawled into my openings!

"Now suppose there were a leper covered with infected sores, devoured by worms, picking scabs off the openings of those wounds with his fingernails, roasting and cauterizing his body over a pit of glowing embers.

"The more he roasted and cauterized his body over the pit of glowing embers, the more disgusting, foul-smelling, and putrid the openings of those wounds would become.

"Yet, he would feel enjoyment and satisfaction because the itchiness of those wounds would be temporarily relieved.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Burning" (from the album Cool It Down) gets it given the dramatic "West Side Story" style music video the band made to accompany it. "What are you going to do when you get to the water?" Here they are performing it on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Yummy! A piece of...

"In the same way, living beings who are not free from passion for sensual pleasures — devoured by craving, burning with fever — indulge in sensual pleasures.

"The more they indulge in sensual pleasures, the more their craving increases and the more they burn with fever.

"Yet, they feel enjoyment and temporary satisfaction by depending on the five strands of sensuality.

"What do you think, Magandiya, have you ever seen or heard of a royal or a minister — steeped in enjoyment, provided with the five strands of sensuality, without abandoning craving, without removing the fever — who has in the past dwelled or will in the future dwell or is presently dwelling free from craving, with heart/mind inwardly at peace?"

"No, Teacher Gotama."

"Good, Magandiya, neither have I. I have never seen or heard of a royal or a minister — steeped in enjoyment, provided with the five strands of sensuality, without abandoning sensual craving, without removing sensual fever — who has dwelled or will dwell or is dwelling free from craving, with mind inwardly at peace.

Ah, finally, there is relief from the agony of lust!

But Brahmins and wandering ascetics who have dwelled or will dwell or are dwelling free from craving, their minds inwardly at peace, all have done so having realized — as it actually is — the arising and disappearance, the allure, the danger, and the escape from sensual pleasures, having abandoned sensual craving and removed sensual fever."

Then at that moment the Blessed One exclaimed:

Freedom from disease is the foremost fortune.

Nirvana [non-clinging] is the foremost ease!

The ennobling eightfold path is the foremost of paths

Leading to the Deathless, secure from all suffering.

When this was said, Magandiya the wanderer said to the Blessed One: CONTINUED IN PART II