To Vaccha on Fire (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly translation (Aggi Vacchagotta Sutra, MN 72)

Buddha as modern museum art, Singapore (Angloitalianfollowus/flickr.com)

 

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Buddha was staying in Savatthi, at Jeta's Grove, in Anathapindika's park. 

 

Then the wanderer Vacchagotta came, exchanged courtesies, sat respectfully to one side, and asked:

1. "How is it, Master Gautama, does Master Gautama hold the view: 'The cosmos is eternal; only this is true, anything else false'?"
 

Composite art echoes doctrine of Dependent Origination

The Buddha answered: "...No."

[In sutras, which were originally memorized by making them into chants, there is a great deal of repetition: Each answer repeats the question in its entirety. While this is an excellent device to aid chanters, memorizers, and listeners, it is needlessly cumbersome and may even be misleading to readers. Nor is it likely that it would have been spoken this way in the first place.]

2. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'The cosmos is not eternal; only this is true, anything else false'?" "...No."
 
3. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'The cosmos is finite...'?" "...No."
 
4. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'The cosmos is infinite...'?" "...No."
 
5. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'The self [atta/atman, essence, ego, soul, or animating principle] and the body are the same...'?" "...No."
 
6. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'The self is one thing and the body another...'?" "...No."
 
7. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'After death the Wayfarer [Tathagata, one who like you has attained the goal you teach in your Doctrine and Discipline] exists...'?" "...No."
 
8. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'After death the Wayfarer does not exist...'?" "...No."
 
9. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'After death the Wayfarer both exists and does not exist...'?" "...No."
 
10. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'After death the Wayfarer neither exists nor does not exist...'?" "...No."

"How is it, Master Gautama, that when Master Gautama is asked if he holds the view 'The cosmos is eternal...' ... 'After death the Wayfarer neither exists nor does not exist; only this is true, anything else false,' he answers '...No' in each case?"

 "Seeing what drawback does Master Gautama entirely shrink away from each and every one of these ten positions?" 

A Thicket of Views

"Vaccha, the position 'The cosmos is eternal' is a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing [eel-wriggling] of views, a fetter [bond] of views. It is accompanied by dissatisfaction, distress, despair, and fever. It does not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, to calm, direct knowledge, full enlightenment, or nirvana.

"The position 'The cosmos is not eternal' is a thicket of views... [and so on for each of the ten views].
 
"Vaccha, the position 'After death the Wayfarer neither exists nor does not exist' is a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. It is accompanied by dissatisfaction, distress, despair, and fever, and it does not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, to calm, direct knowledge, full enlightenment, or nirvana."
 

"Does Master Gautama have any position at all?"
 

"A 'position,' Vaccha, is something that the Wayfarer has done away with. What the Wayfarer sees is this: 
 
"'Such is form, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is perception... such are formations... such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance.' Because of this, I say: The Wayfarer -- with the ending, extinguishing, cessation, renunciation, and abandoning of all views, all speculations, all I-making and mine-making and obsession with conceit -- is freed through the abandoning of clinging."

"But, Master Gautama, the ascetic whose mind/heart is thus released, where does one reappear?"
 
"'Reappear,' Vaccha, does not apply."
 

"In that case, Master Gautama, one does not reappear."

"'Does not reappear,' Vaccha, does not apply."
 

"...Both does and does not reappear."
 

"...Does not apply."
 

"...Neither does nor does not reappear."

"...Does not apply."
 
"How is it, Master Gautama, when Master Gautama is asked if the ascetic reappears... does not reappear... both does and does not reappear... neither does nor does not reappear, he says, '[This]  does not apply' in each case?

"At this point, Master Gautama, I am baffled and confused. The small amount of clarity from our earlier conversation goes out now."

"Of course you are baffled, Vaccha. Of course you are confused. Deep, Vaccha, is this Dharma [this Doctrine concerning existential phenomena like the Five Aggregates, which leads to enlightenment and complete freedom], hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise.
  

"For those of other teachings, other disciplines, other practices, other aims, other teachers, it is difficult to know-and-see. Such being the case, permit me to question you. Answer as you see fit. 

"How do you see this, Vaccha: If a fire were burning in front of you, would you know, 'This fire is burning in front of me'?"
 
[Vaccha repeats the question then answers] "...Yes."
 
"Now suppose someone were to ask you, Vaccha, 'This fire burning in front of you, dependent on what is it burning?' So asked, how would you answer?"

"...I would reply, 'This fire burning in front of me is burning dependent on grass and wood as its sustenance.'" 

"Vaccha, if the fire burning in front of you were to go out, would you know, 'This fire burning in front of me has gone out'?" "...Yes."

Which way did the flame go? (yaymicro)

"Now suppose someone were to ask you, 'This fire that has gone out in front of you, which direction has it gone? East? West? North? South?' So asked, Vaccha, how would you answer?" 

"That does not apply, Master Gautama. Any fire burning dependent on and sustained by grass and wood, being unnourished -- from having consumed its fuel and not being offered more fuel -- is simply classified as 'gone out.'" 
 
"Even so, Vaccha, any physical form used to describe the Wayfarer, that has the Wayfarer abandoned, its root destroyed, like an uprooted palm tree, deprived of the causes-and-conditions of existence, is not destined for future arising [reappearing].

"Freed from the classification of form, Vaccha, the Wayfarer is deep, unbound, hard to fathom, like the sea. 'Reappears' does not apply. 'Does not reappear' does not apply. 'Both does and does not reappear' does not apply. 'Neither reappears nor does not reappear' does not apply.

"Any feeling... Any perception... Any formation...
 
"Any consciousness [these are the Five Aggregates of  Existence and Clinging] by which one describing the Wayfarer would describe him, that has the Wayfarer abandoned, its root destroyed, like an uprooted palm tree, deprived of the causes-and-conditions of existence, not destined for future arising. 

 
"Freed from the classification of consciousness, Vaccha, the Wayfarer is deep, unbounded, hard to fathom, like the sea. 'Reappears' does not apply. 'Does not reappear' does not apply. 'Both does and does not reappear' does not apply. 'Neither reappears nor does not reappear' does not apply."

Reaction

Wandering Indian ascetic (saiva tantra)

When this was said, the wanderer Vacchagotta said to the Buddha: 
 
"Master Gautama, it is as if there were a great sal tree not far from a village or town, and its branches and leaves were stripped away, its bark stripped away, its sapwood stripped away, so that -- divested of branches, leaves, bark, and sapwood -- it stood as pure heartwood. In just the same way, Master Gautama's words are freed of branches, leaves, bark, and sapwood and stand as pure heartwood.
 
"Excellent, Master Gautama, excellent! It is as if one were to set upright what was overturned, to reveal what was hidden, to show the way to one who was lost, or were to carry a lamp into the dark so that those with eyes could see what was there. In just the same way has Master Gautama -- through many lines of reasoning -- clarified the Dharma. I go to [the Buddha] for guidance, to the Dharma for guidance, and to the [enlightened] Sangha for guidance. May Master Gautama remember me as a lay follower who has gone to him for guidance from this day forward."

The World is on Fire!

Seven, Amber Dorrian, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly translation, The Fire Sermon (SN 35.28)

Calm, cool, and collected, the Buddha at Ayutthaya,Thailand (Perstephone/flickr.com)

  

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

("Fire and Ice," Robert Frost)

"self" immolates (xfilledwithdoubt-)

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Buddha was living in Gaya, on Gaya Hill, together with a thousand ascetics. There he addressed them.

"Meditators, ALL is burning! What 'all' is burning?

"The eye is burning, forms [seen by the eye] are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, and whatever is felt as either pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact as supporting condition, that too is burning!
 

But I'm not burning, right? (Megan Fox/ArticMonkeyss/tumblr.com)

 
"Burning with what? Burning with the fire of craving [lust, greed, selfishness], with the fire of aversion [fear, hate, revulsion], with the fire of delusion [wrong view, ignorance, illusion].

"I say it is burning with rebirth, aging, and death, with sorrow, weeping, pain, grief, and despair.

"The ear is burning, sounds [heard by the ear] are burning... The nose is burning, odors [sensed by the nose] are burning... The tongue is burning, flavors [savored by the tongue] are burning... The body is burning, tangibles [felt by the body] are burning...

"The mind is burning, ideas are burning, mind-consciousness is burning, mind-contact is burning, and whatever is felt either as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with mind-contact as supporting condition, that too is burning!

"Burning with what? Burning with the fire of craving, with the fire of aversion, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with rebirth, aging, and death, with sorrow, weeping, pain, grief, and despair.

 

The world is on fire -- the whole world known through the senses (winds-of-desolation).

 
"Meditators, when a noble follower who has heard (the Dharma) sees this, one becomes estranged [alienated and indifferent] regarding the eye, regarding forms, regarding eye-consciousness, regarding eye-contact, and whatever is felt as either pleasant or painful or neither-painful- nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact as supporting condition. With regard to all of these, one becomes estranged.
 

Cool (Rzoont/flickr.com)

"One becomes estranged regarding the ear... sounds... One becomes estranged regarding the nose... odors... One becomes estranged regarding the tongue... flavors... One becomes estranged regarding the body... tangibles...

"One becomes estranged regarding the mind, regarding ideas, regarding mind-consciousness, regarding mind-contact, and whatever is felt as either pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with mind-contact as supporting indispensable condition. With regard to all of these, one becomes estranged.

"When one becomes estranged (alienated, disaffected, indifferent), passion fades out. 

"With the fading of passion, one is liberated. When liberated, there comes certainty that one is liberated. 

Nirvana is extinguishing, cooling

Cooling (Rzoont/flickr.com)

"One understands that, 'Birth is exhausted, the supreme life has been lived, what can be done has been done, and there is no more [suffering] beyond.'"

That is what the Buddha said. Those gathered were glad and approved of his words.

Now during his utterance, the hearts of those thousand ascetics were liberated from the taints by abandoning clinging.

The "World"?
Ven. Nyanaponika Thera ("Karma and its Fruit")

"World" as self (weakonomics.com)

"In this fathom-long body with its perceptions and thoughts there is the world, the origin of the world, the ending of the world, and the path leading to the ending of the world" (AN 4.45).

 

The "world" of which the Buddha speaks is comprised in this aggregate [heap, collection, composite] of body-and-mind. For it is only by the activity of our physical and mental sense faculties that a world can be experienced and known at all. 

The sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and bodily impressions which we perceive, and our various mental functions, conscious and unconscious -- this is the world in which we live. 

And this world of ours has its origin in that very aggregate of physical and mental processes that produces the karmic act of craving for the six physical and mental sense objects.

[The Buddha asked:] "Ananda, if there were no karma ripening in the sphere of the senses, would there appear any sense-sphere existence?" — "Surely not, venerable sir!" (AN 3.76)

Thus karma is the womb from which we spring (kamma-yoni), the true creator of the world and of ourselves as the experiencer of "the world."

 

And through our karmic [intentional] actions in deed, word, and thought, we unceasingly engage in building and rebuilding this world and [rebirth in] worlds beyond. Even our good actions, as long as they are still under the influence of craving... More

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