This aspect of sense restraint receives special emphasis in the last two vaggas of the Saḷāyatanasaṃyutta, which stand out by reason of their startling imagery and extended similes. Here the six sense faculties are spoken of as an ocean, the sense objects as their current, and the faring along the spiritual path as a voyage in which we are exposed to dangers that we can only surmount by sense restraint (35:228). Again, agreeable sense objects are like baited hooks cast out by Māra; one who swallows them comes under Māra’s control; one who resists them escapes unharmed (35:230). It is better, we are told, to have our sense faculties lacerated by sharp instruments, hot and glowing, than to become infatuated with attractive sense objects; for such infatuation can lead to rebirth in the lower realms (35:235). Our existential condition is depicted by the parable of a man pursued by four vipers, five murderous enemies, and an assassin, his only means to safety a handmade raft (35:238). A bhikkhu in training should draw his senses inward as a tortoise draws its limbs into its shell, for Māra is like a hungry jackal trying to get a grip on him (35:240). The six senses are like six animals each drawn to their natural habitat, which must be tied by the rope of sense restraint and bound to the strong post of body-directed mindfulness (35:247). The saṃyutta ends with a parable about the magical bonds of the asura-king Vepacitti and sounds a decisive call to eliminate all modes of conceiving rooted in craving and wrong views (35:248).
36. Vedanāsaṃyutta
Although feeling has often been mentioned as a product of contact at the six sense bases, since it is a potent force in the activation of the defilements it receives separate treatment in a saṃyutta of its own, with three vaggas containing thirty-one suttas. The Sinhala-script editions of SN include this chapter in the Saḷāyatanasaṃyutta, presumably because feeling arises through the six sense bases. In the present collection of suttas, however, feeling is seldom correlated with the sense bases but is far more often expounded by way of its threefold division into the pleasant, painful, and neutral (i.e., neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling). Thus it seems better to follow the Burmese textual tradition, which treats this chapter as a separate saṃyutta.
Feeling is a key link in the chain of dependent origination, the immediate precursor of craving, and thus to break the chain requires that our defiled responses to feeling be overcome. For this reason the Buddha has made feeling one of the four “establishments of mindfulness” (satipaṭṭhāna) and here he assigns it a saṃyutta of its own. Several suttas in the first vagga explain that the three types of feelings serve as stimuli for the “underlying tendencies” (anusaya). Each feeling is correlated with a different tendency: pleasant feeling with lust, painful feeling with aversion, and neutral feeling with ignorance. The Buddha’s system of mental training aims at controlling our reactions to these feelings at the very point where they arise, without allowing them to proliferate and call their corresponding tendencies into play (36:3, 4). The noble disciple, of course, continues to experience feeling as long as he lives, but by eradicating the underlying tendencies he cannot be inwardly perturbed by feelings (36:6). In two suttas we see the Buddha visit the sick ward and give profound discourses on the contemplation of feelings to ailing monks (36:7, 8). These suttas culminate in a description of the arahant and his inner detachment from feelings.
A long sutta in the second vagga (36:19) describes the calibration in types of happiness that human beings can experience, ranging from sensual happiness to the bliss of the cessation of feeling and perception. In the third vagga we find a classification of illnesses (36:21) commonly used in traditional Indian medicine, and also a detailed numerical classification of the different types of feelings along the lines that became prominent in the Abhidhamma (36:22). The final sutta offers an interesting gradation of rapture, happiness, equanimity, and deliverance into three levels each—as carnal, spiritual, and “more spiritual than the spiritual” (36:31).
37. Mātugāmasaṃyutta
This saṃyutta brings together thirty-four short suttas on women. The Buddha explains what makes a woman attractive to a man, the kinds of suffering peculiar to women, and the moral qualities that lead a woman to either a bad rebirth or a good one. In this saṃyutta the Venerable Anuruddha plays a major role, since his skill in the divine eye led him to make inquiries about such matters from the Master. The Buddha also explains how a woman wins the goodwill of her husband and his parents, the most important qualification being a virtuous character.
38. Jambukhādakasaṃyutta
39. Sāmaṇḍakasaṃyutta
These two saṃyuttas, with sixteen suttas each, have identical contents and differ only with respect to the interlocutors, two wanderers who lend their names to the two collections. The second is almost totally abridged. The suttas take the form of questions addressed to Sāriputta on such topics as Nibbāna, arahantship, the taints, the realms of existence, etc. Each ends with words of praise for the Noble Eightfold Path. The last sutta, which differs from this format, displays a gentle touch of humour.
40. Moggallānasaṃyutta
Mahāmoggallāna was the Buddha’s second chief disciple. In the first nine suttas here he describes his struggle for enlightenment, which was beset with difficulties in meditation. On each occasion he could overcome his difficulty only with the aid of the Buddha, who used his psychic powers to give the disciple “long-distance” guidance. In the last two suttas Moggallāna visits the heavens and preaches to the devas on the going for refuge to the Triple Gem. The first of these texts is extensive, the second (identical except for the audience) drastically abridged.
41. Cittasaṃyutta
Citta was a householder who was named by the Buddha the foremost male lay disciple among the speakers on the Dhamma (AN I 26,5). The present saṃyutta collects ten suttas that corroborate this designation. Even when Citta assumes the role of questioner rather than respondent, we are given to understand that he already knows the answers and is posing his questions as a way of starting a Dhamma discussion with the monks. Several times we see him teaching the Dhamma to bhikkhus, and the bhikkhus applaud him as one who has “the eye of wisdom that ranges over the deep Word of the Buddha” (41:1, 5, 7). The portrait of Citta we find in this chapter evinces a genuine historical personality, a layman with wide knowledge of the teaching, deep experience in meditation, sharp wisdom, and a mischievous sense of humour. The humour surfaces in his meeting with the Jain teacher Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta, whom he leads into an embarrassing verbal trap (41:8). On meeting an old friend of his, who had been a naked ascetic for thirty years but had gained nothing from his asceticism but nakedness and a shaved head, he claims to have gained such high attainments as the four jhānas and the fruit of nonreturning even while living as a householder (41:9). Even his deathbed scene conveys a sense of humour: when his relatives think he is babbling to himself, he is actually teaching the devas a lesson in impermanence (41:10).
42. Gāmaṇisaṃyutta
This collection of thirteen suttas is united by the fact that all the inquirers are described as gāmaṇis, headmen of various sorts. With a few exceptions, the inquirers are initially not followers of the Buddha and are sometimes hostile to him, but in each case the Buddha wins them over with his reasoned arguments and careful analyses of the problems they pose.
Among the headmen we meet Talapuṭa, a theatre director who was so moved by his conversation with the Buddha that he became a bhikkhu and attained arahantship (42:2). His verses (at Th 1091-1145) are masterly expressions of deep spiritual yearning. We also see a follower of the Jains come to the Buddha with the intention of tripping him up in debate, only to be stopped in his tracks and led to correct understanding (42:9). The long discourse to Rāsiya (42:12) distinguishes householders along a finely graded scale of excellence, and also evaluates different types of ascetics. In the final sutta the Buddha responds to the charge, apparently devised by envious rivals, that he is a magician (42:13).
43. Asaṅkhatasaṃyutta
This saṃyutta
functions as a compendium of the different designations of Nibbāna and the various modes of practice that lead to Nibbāna. The first vagga, which speaks of Nibbāna as the unconditioned, offers eleven presentations of the path to the unconditioned (43:1-11). The second vagga begins again with the unconditioned, and in one vast sutta (43:12) enumerates under forty-five headings the various path factors that constitute the way to the unconditioned, including those of 43:2-11 divided into their components. Thereafter, in 43:13-44, Nibbāna is expounded by way of another thirty-two epithets; the presentation of the path here is drastically condensed, but the text implies that all the factors of the first twelve suttas should be connected with each epithet. If 43:12 were to be broken up into separate suttas by way of the path factors, and these added to the first eleven suttas, we would then have fifty-six suttas on the unconditioned alone. And if this method were then to be applied to each epithet, the number of suttas in this saṃyutta would total 1,848.
44. Abyākatasaṃyutta
The suttas in this saṃyutta all respond to the question why the Buddha has not adopted any of the metaphysical tenets advocated and hotly debated by his contemporaries. Of particular concern is the problem whether the Tathāgata exists after death. The first sutta features a discussion on this topic between King Pasenadi of Kosala and the bhikkhunī Khemā, the nun foremost in wisdom, whose profound reply to the king is later affirmed by the Master (44:1). The suttas in this chapter are enough to dispose of the common assumption that the Buddha refrained from adopting any of these metaphysical standpoints merely on pragmatic grounds, i.e., because they are irrelevant to the quest for deliverance from suffering. The answers given to the queries show that the metaphysical tenets are rejected primarily because, at the fundamental level, they all rest upon the implicit assumption of a self, an assumption which in turn springs from ignorance about the real nature of the five aggregates and the six sense bases. For one who has fathomed the real nature of these phenomena, all these speculative views turn out to be untenable.
[1] PART IV: The Book of the Six Sense Bases (Saḷāyatanavagga)
Homage to the Blessed One, the Arahant, the Perfectly Enlightened One
Chapter I
35 Saḷāyatanasaṃyutta Connected Discourses on the Six Sense Bases
Division I THE ROOT FIFTY
I. THE IMPERMANENT
1 (1) The Internal as Impermanent 1
Thus have I heard.2 On one occasion the Blessed One was dwelling at Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s Park. There the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus thus: “Bhikkhus!”
“Venerable sir!” those bhikkhus replied. The Blessed One said this:
“Bhikkhus, the eye is impermanent.3 What is impermanent is suffering. What is suffering is nonself. What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’
“The ear is impermanent…. The nose is impermanent…. The tongue is impermanent…. The body is impermanent…. The mind is impermanent. What is impermanent is suffering. What is suffering is nonself. What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ [2]
“Seeing thus, bhikkhus, the instructed noble disciple experiences revulsion towards the eye, revulsion towards the ear, revulsion towards the nose, revulsion towards the tongue, revulsion towards the body, revulsion towards the mind. Experiencing revulsion, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion [his mind] is liberated. When it is liberated there comes the knowledge: ‘It’s liberated.’ He understands: ‘Destroyed is birth, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more for this state of being.’”
2 (2) The Internal as Suffering
“Bhikkhus, the eye is suffering. What is suffering is nonself. What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’
“The ear is suffering…. The nose is suffering…. The tongue is suffering…. The body is suffering…. The mind is suffering. What is suffering is nonself. What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’
“Seeing thus … He understands: ‘… there is no more for this state of being.’”
3 (3) The Internal as Nonself
“Bhikkhus, the eye is nonself. What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’
“The ear is nonself…. The nose is nonself…. The tongue is nonself…. The body is nonself…. The mind is nonself. What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’
“Seeing thus … He understands: ‘… there is no more for this state of being.’”
4 (4) The External as Impermanent
“Bhikkhus, forms are impermanent. What is impermanent is suffering. What is suffering is nonself. What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, [3] this I am not, this is not my self.’
“Sounds … Odours … Tastes … Tactile objects … Mental phenomena are impermanent.4 What is impermanent is suffering. What is suffering is nonself. What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’
“Seeing thus, bhikkhus, the instructed noble disciple experiences revulsion towards forms, revulsion towards sounds, revulsion towards odours, revulsion towards tastes, revulsion towards tactile objects, revulsion towards mental phenomena. Experiencing revulsion, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion [his mind] is liberated. When it is liberated there comes the knowledge: ‘It’s liberated.’ He understands: ‘Destroyed is birth, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more for this state of being.’”
5 (5) The External as Suffering
“Bhikkhus, forms are suffering. What is suffering is nonself. What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’
“Sounds … Odours … Tastes … Tactile objects … Mental phenomena are suffering. What is suffering is nonself. What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’
“Seeing thus … He understands: ‘… there is no more for this state of being.’”
6 (6) The External as Nonself
“Bhikkhus, forms are nonself. What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’
“Sounds … Odours … Tastes … Tactile objects … Mental phenomena are nonself. What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’
“Seeing thus … He understands: ‘… there is no more for this state of being.’” [4]
7 (7) The Internal as Impermanent in the Three Times
At Sāvatthī. “Bhikkhus, the eye is impermanent, both of the past and the future, not to speak of the present. Seeing thus, bhikkhus, the instructed noble disciple is indifferent towards the eye of the past; he does not seek delight in the eye of the future; and he is practising for revulsion towards the eye of the present, for its fading away and cessation.
“The ear is impermanent … The nose is impermanent … The tongue is impermanent … The body is impermanent … The mind is impermanent, both of the past and the future, not to speak of the present. Seeing thus, bhikkhus, the instructed noble disciple is indifferent towards the mind of the past … for its fading away and cessation.”
8 (8) The Internal as Suffering in the Three Times
At Sāvatthī. “Bhikkhus, the eye is suffering, both of the past and the future, not to speak of the present. Seeing thus … The mind is suffering … for its fading
away and cessation.”
9 (9) The Internal as Nonself in the Three Times
At Sāvatthī. “Bhikkhus, the eye is nonself, both of the past and the future, not to speak of the present. Seeing thus … [5] … The mind is nonself … for its fading away and cessation.”
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha Page 122
