 |
| You stupid bish, you and your pansy vegan boytoy don't know ish about farming! - OK, sir. |
.
 |
| We love Earth and avoidchemicalskilling a! |
Kāma Sutta: This is the first sutra in the "Chapter of the Eights" (
Atthakavagga) of the "Sutra Collection" (
Sutta Nipāta).
The Buddha, seeing a Brahmin cutting down trees on the banks of the
Aciravatī River and preparing a field for sowing, spoke to him.
He spoke to the Brahmin again on several other occasions whenever he saw the farmer engaged in various operations in the field.
Very uplifted by the Buddha's courtesy, the Brahmin resolved to
invite him to accept a meal when the field was finally ready for harvest.
 |
| Who knew all my work could be ruined? |
But on the day before the reaping of the field, heavy rains fell, the river flooded, and the harvest was entirely swept away.
The Buddha foresaw that all the Brahim's efforts would amount to nothing, so he visited to console him.
It was on this occasion that the Buddha saw that the man was receptive. With a chance to make a breakthrough, he taught him this sutra. At the climax of the discourse, the Brahmin awakened to the first stage of enlightenment (stream entry) and became a sotāpanna (Sn.vv.766-71; SnA.ii.511ff; J.iv.167f; cp. DhA.iii.284f; see also MNid.i.1ff).
- Elsewhere among the texts, in the Kāmanīta Jātaka (J.ii.212), this Brahmin is referred to as Kāmanītabrāhmana or the "Brahmin Kamanita."
What did the Buddha teach the that brought him to direct realization and enlightenment?
SUTRA: Objects, Desires, and Pleasures
 |
| Thank you, Friend, for helping me pull the plough! - You're welcome! I'm strong and happy to help. Let's go down by the river now. I want to eat some sweet grass. - OK, let's go. We can swim, too! |
.
 |
Are you going to release me now, Friend? - No,
you stupid animal, I'm a gonna kill and eat you! |
If one with lustful mind
Succeeds at feeling pleasure,
Such a mortal is pleased
With that wish fulfilled.
But if the impassioned person
Were to see those pleasures lost,
Then the addict would feel
As though by arrows pierced.
One who shuns pleasures of sense
Avoids treading on a serpent’s head,
As such this person by mindfulness
This tangled world transcends.
Obsessed with property and fields,
With money, estates, and servants,
With many pleasures, family and friends —
That person, overcome by greed,
Such weaknesses indeed bring down.
By dangers is that person sunk,
By disappointments overwhelmed —
As water enters a boat that leaks.
So let a mindful person avoid
Addiction and cravings for sense,
And with them abandoned, cross the flood,
As a boat is bailed to reach the Further Shore.
SUTRA: Sensual Pleasures
If a mortal desires sensual pleasure
And that sense desire succeeds,
One may become elated,
Having got what was wished.
But for a person in throes of pleasure,
Aroused by desire,
If such pleasures go away,
It hurts like an arrow’s strike.
One who, being mindful,
Avoids sensual pleasures
Like side-stepping a snake’s head,
Transcends being stuck to the world.
There are many objects of sense:
fields, lands, and gold, cattle and horses,
slaves and servants, women and relatives.
When one lusts over these,
The weak overpower one
And by adversities is one crushed.
Suffering follows one
Like water in a leaky boat.
- (Bhikkhu Bodhi, Norman, and Ven. Ñāṇadīpa all have “enter” here, while Ven. Ṭhānissaro has “invades.” But this is a stock line, and it’s hard to read anveti as anything other than “follows.” Niddesa (Mnd 1:70.2) has anveti anugacchati anvāyikaṁ hoti. The metaphor is not that water “enters” a boat, but that a leaky boat already contains water and takes it along (like a shadow that always follows or an ox-cart following behind, as in the opening verses of the Dhammapada). That is why it has to be bailed out in the next verse.)
That is why a person, ever mindful,
Wisely avoids sensual pleasures.
Give them up and cross this flood,
As a bailed-out boat reaches the further shore.
"In one case, an individual sinks down once and stays sunk. In a second case, an individual, on coming to the surface, sinks down again. In a third case, an individual, on coming to the surface, stays on the surface. In a fourth case, an individual, on coming to the surface, opens one's eyes and looks around. In a fifth case, an individual, on coming to the surface, heads across. In a sixth case, an individual, on coming to the surface, gains a foothold. In a seventh case, an individual, on coming to the surface, crosses over, reaches the further shore, stands on high ground, a Brahmin.
4. "And how does one, on coming to the surface, open one's eyes and look around? In this case an individual comes to the surface, [seeing,] 'Confidence in skillful qualities is beneficial, conscientiousness is beneficial, concern is beneficial, persistence is beneficial, wisdom with regard to skillful qualities is beneficial.'
What is a "shaman"? This is a tricky question, to be certain. While there are many facets and nuances that will not be addressed here, the following article provides a basic framework for understanding what shamanism is...
The common, classical definition runs: Shamanism is a system or practice of a practitioner, the shaman, who willfully changes her or his state of consciousness from normal to altered in order to enact something, communicate with something, or to perform some specific duty on the behalf of another person, community, or group.
