SN 22.2 At Devadaha [Samyutta Nikaya - Khandasamyutta]

In this talk, Ektaji explains the 'SN 22.2 At Devadaha' sutta (discourse) from Samyutta Nikaya (The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya by Bhikkhu Bodhi) from Chapter 22 [Khandasamyutta].
These suttas are at the heart of Buddha's teachings which were originally in Pali language. Ektaji uses some Pali words to make sure the meaning and importance of the sutta is not lost in translation and interpretation.

Visit her website for more information.

Transcript

Salaam.

Salaam.

Salaam.

Welcome to Buddha Sangha.

Today we'll do Samyutta Nikaya's Sutta No.

22.

2.

That is Chapter Khanda Samyutta's Sutta No.

2 at Devadaha.

In the book,

It is on page 856.

Thus have I heard.

On one occasion,

The Blessed One was dwelling among the Sakyans,

Where there was a town of the Sakyans named Devadaha.

Then,

A number of westward bound bhikkhus approached the Blessed One,

Paid homage to him,

Sat down to one side and said to him,

Venerable sir,

We wish to go to the western province in order to take up residence there.

Have you taken leave of Sariputta bhikkhus?

No Venerable sir.

Then take leave of Sariputta bhikkhus.

Sariputta is wise.

He is one who helps his brothers in the holy life.

Yes Venerable sir.

Those bhikkhus replied.

Now on that occasion,

The Venerable Sariputta was sitting not far from the Blessed One in a kasya bush.

Then those bhikkhus,

Having delighted and rejoiced in the Blessed One's statement,

Rose from their seats and paid homage to the Blessed One.

Then,

Keeping him on their right,

They approached the Venerable Sariputta.

They exchanged greetings with the Venerable Sariputta and,

When they had concluded their greetings and cordial talk,

They sat down to one side and said to him,

Friend Sariputta,

We wish to go to the western province in order to take up residence there.

We have taken leave of the teacher.

Friends,

There are wise khatiyas,

Wise brahmins,

Wise householders and wise ascetics who question a bhikkhu when he has gone abroad.

For wise people,

Friends are inquisitive.

What does your teacher say?

What does he teach?

I hope that you venerable ones have learned the teachings well,

Grasped them well,

Attended to them well,

Reflected on them well and penetrated them well with wisdom,

So that when you answer,

You will state what has been said by the Blessed One and will not misrepresent him with what is contrary to fact,

So that you will explain in accordance with the Dhamma and no reasonable consequence of your assertion would give ground for criticism.

We would come from far away,

Friend,

To learn the meaning of this statement from the Venerable Sariputta.

It would be good indeed if the Venerable Sariputta would clear up the meaning of this statement.

Then,

Listen and attend closely,

Friends.

I will speak.

Yes,

Friend.

Those bhikkhus replied,

The Venerable Sariputta said this,

There are friends,

Wise khatiyas,

Wise brahmins,

Wise householders and wise ascetics who question a bhikkhu when he has gone abroad.

For wise people,

Friends are inquisitive.

What does your teacher say?

What does he teach?

Being as thas,

Friends,

You should answer.

Our teacher,

Friends,

Teaches the removal of desire and lust.

This was the primary teaching of the Buddha.

Buddha realized whatever meditative practices you do,

Whatever traditions you follow,

Whatever rituals you do,

It does not cleanse the mind of its suffering.

It does not cleanse the mind of its negativity.

So,

He ventured deep to figure out why is there suffering in the minds of even those people who have been meditating for a long time.

Why is there the existence of negativity in everyone?

And the real cause that he found was craving or desire.

Under the same umbrella comes aversion because it is nothing but another form of desire or it has a craving hidden inside it.

For example,

If I have aversion to a messy room,

I have a craving for cleanliness.

So,

Every aversion has a craving hidden under it.

Therefore,

Craving and aversion both come under the same umbrella of desire.

When this desire overtakes one,

There is lust.

Lust for getting that thing by hook or by crook.

Lust is not just bodily lust but it is lusting for objects,

Lusting for material things,

Lusting for a house,

Lusting for an expensive car,

Lusting for clothes,

Gadgets,

For men,

Women,

For more relatives,

For name,

For fame,

For political power,

For social recognition,

Etc.

Etc.

So,

Lust is the blown up form of desire.

When desire blows up like a balloon,

It becomes lust.

He realised that the negativity of the mind is there because one does not make an attempt to drop desire or lust.

The moment desire and lust are dropped away,

Then suffering drops away.

And how does desire and lust drop away?

Just by the recognition that everything is changing.

Everything is changing.

Everything is moving constantly like a fast train.

There is no point in trying to hold on to a moving train.

If I hold on to a moving train,

Who is going to get injured?

Hi.

That is exactly what the mind does.

Everything changes.

Concepts change.

Ideas change.

Beliefs change.

People change.

Situations are constantly changing.

Everything is changing.

Even your so-called things,

Even if they last quite a long time,

They do break.

There is an expiry date for everything.

Everything changes.

If one accepts this law of nature in its entirety,

Which means when there is a change,

One is not blown away.

One smiles through the change,

Whether the change is good or bad.

He recognises that this is the law of nature and he honours it.

When one honours a nature,

The changing continuous aspect of this universe,

One gets relief from dukkha,

That is,

Suffering.

Very clear?

When you have answered thus,

Friends,

There may be wise khatiyas.

The dot dot dot is for the line behind.

We turn back to the page.

Wise Brahmins,

Wise householders and wise ascetics.

We come back to this page.

Who will question you further?

For wise people,

Friends are inquisitive.

In regard to what does your teacher teach the removal of desire and lust?

Being us,

Thus,

Friends,

You should answer.

Our teacher,

Friends,

Teaches the removal of desire and lust for form.

Your form is rupa,

The removal of desire and lust for feeling,

That is,

Vedana.

The removal of desire and lust for perception,

That is,

Sannyas.

The removal of desire and lust for volitional forms,

That is,

Sankhara.

And the removal of desire and lust for consciousness,

This is nimyana.

As explained earlier,

All these five khandhas,

The perception of something,

The cognition of something,

The feeling that arises from that perception,

The impression that is created by that perception and that reaction that becomes your habitual pattern towards that perception.

All these are your chains of attachment.

You think,

I am this.

Once it is labeled in the head,

I am this or this is my perception.

This is the way I feel.

This is the way I always react to this feeling.

Then I get trapped.

I am bound by this thought process,

By this understanding.

When you recognize everything is changing,

Everything is anicca,

Everything is just moving like a fast train.

Nothing is permanent.

Neither my perception nor the feeling that arises from the perception nor the reaction to that perception.

Nothing is permanent.

It keeps changing from moment to moment.

Then you will not hold on to it.

There is no more attachment to it because you have dropped that wrong understanding that this is I.

When this becomes very clear that that which changes cannot be I,

Then the attachment drops and lust and desire both are removed.

You don't have to make an effort to remove lust and desire.

You have to just recognize that there is a false identification with all of these.

That's it.

Waking up from the dream is sufficient for the dream to go away.

You do not have to push that nightmare away.

It will fall away the moment you recognize I am dreaming.

When you have answered thus,

Friends,

There may be wise khatiyas.

Again,

We turn the page.

Wise brahmins,

Wise householders and wise ascetics.

If we go back.

Who will question you further?

For wise people,

Friends are inquisitive.

Having seen what danger does your teacher teach the removal of desire and lust for form,

The removal of desire and lust for feeling,

The removal of desire and lust for perception,

The removal of desire and lust for volitional forms,

The removal of desire and lust for consciousness.

So,

We can ask this question.

So,

What is the danger in all of these?

Because they are not instructed yet.

They are not skilled in this knowledge yet.

So,

We might ask the question,

What is the danger?

Let's see what Sariputta advises that the bhikkhu should answer.

Being asked thus,

Friends,

You should answer thus.

If friends,

One is not devoid of lust,

Desire,

Affection,

Thirst,

Passion and craving in regard to form,

Then with the change and alteration of form,

There arise in one sorrow,

Lamentation,

Pain,

Displeasure and despair.

If friends,

One is not devoid of lust,

Desire,

Affection,

Thirst,

Passion and craving in regard to feeling or perception or volitional forms or consciousness,

Then with the change and alteration of all of these,

There arise in one sorrow,

Lamentation,

Pain,

Displeasure and despair.

Having seen this danger,

Our teacher teaches the removal of desire and lust for form,

The removal of desire and lust for feeling,

The removal of desire and lust for perception,

The removal of desire and lust for volitional forms,

The removal of desire and lust for consciousness.

What is the danger?

The danger is when you get attached to a particular form and that form changes,

There is pain,

There is despair,

Displeasure,

There is lamentation,

There is sorrow in life.

For example,

When this body becomes older and if I am attached to the body,

I will not very easily accept the wrinkles,

The grey hair,

The slower movements of the body,

The weakening of the muscles and just this natural progression of this body following nature's law will create unhappiness in me.

Unhappiness is not because the form is changing,

The unhappiness is because of my attachment to the form.

My desire for this form to not change is what is the cause of my dukkha.

This is very clear.

Similarly,

External forms change.

Your big house,

Beautiful house which is perfect suddenly has plumbing issues,

Electrical issues and many other issues can happen in that form.

What happens to you?

Because it takes away a little form in the form of numbers in the bank balance down.

What happens to you?

There is sorrow,

There is pain,

There is lamentation.

Is that sorrow because of the issues in the house and the money numbers reducing in the bank?

No.

The truth is,

It is because of your desire that it should not change,

It should not alter.

This desire is the reason why there is dukkha because the nature's law commands everything to change,

Everything is changing,

Nothing is permanent.

But that causes dukkha to the ego that wants everything to be permanent.

Again and again,

Recognise that there is this false identification which that particular form,

This form is I or it is mine.

You say mine to this body but recognise one day that also drops away and that is also not yours.

So drop this false identification.

This false identification is the cause of attachment.

That attachment is nothing but craving for it to not change but by nature's law everything changes and that is why there is dukkha.

Simple mathematics.

When you have answered thus friends,

There may be wise khatiyas,

Wise brahmins,

Wise householders and wise ascetics who will question you further for wise people,

Friends,

Are inquisitive.

Having seen what benefit does your teacher teach the removal of desire and lust for form,

The removal of desire and lust for feeling,

The removal of desire and lust for perception,

The removal of desire and lust for volitional forms,

The removal of desire and lust for consciousness.

Being asked us,

Friends,

You should answer thus.

If friends,

One is devoid of lust,

Desire,

Affection,

Thirst,

Passion and craving in regard to form,

Then with the change and alteration of form,

Sorrow,

Lamentation,

Pain,

Displeasure and despair do not arise in one.

That is very important.

You can highlight that.

How does sorrow not arise in one?

When one is devoid of the lust of the desire of affection,

Of thirst,

Of passion and craving.

Do you get it?

These are all synonyms that are used for your desire,

Your want,

I like,

I want,

I dislike,

I don't want.

I'm passionate and ambitious about this.

All of this falls under the same umbrella.

When the thirst,

When the passion is eradicated,

Sorrow is removed.

If one is devoid of lust,

Desire,

Affection,

Thirst,

Passion and craving in regard to feeling,

Perception,

Volitional forms,

Consciousness,

Then with the change and alteration of feeling,

Perception,

Volitional form and consciousness,

Sorrow,

Lamentation,

Pain,

Displeasure and despair do not arise in one.

Having seen this benefit,

Our teacher teaches the removal of desire and lust for form.

The removal of desire and lust for feeling.

The removal of desire and lust for perception.

The removal of desire and lust for volitional formations.

The removal of desire and lust for consciousness.

Buddha saw the benefit of removing all the lust and desire that comes up in you for a vinyana.

The moment you cognise something,

There is a little craving in that.

For example,

Right now you have cognised this teaching,

A little craving has developed in you for understanding this,

For implementing it,

For an aversion has developed in you,

For not following it because my so-called empire that I have built has been built on the foundation of lusting and ambition and passion.

So either there is a craving or an aversion just in the mere cognition and perception of this spiritual teaching.

Do you recognise that?

Buddha says not to react to that craving or to that aversion that has arisen but to just be a witness to it.

Like you would be a witness to a passing train,

You would not try to jump on board.

You will be the one who will be hurt by a train that is passing.

Gravings come up and fall away.

Desires come up and fall away.

Gravings come up and fall away.

They are just passing bogies of a train.

Just witness without reacting,

Without identifying with them,

Without becoming one with them.

Your perception changes from moment to moment to moment.

Your perception of the same teaching is different now than what it was few minutes ago when we started reading this sutta.

Your reaction to your perception of what you understood about this sutta 5-10 minutes ago was different from what it is now.

Everything keeps changing,

Everything keeps changing and all this is happening in this internal world of the mind and body.

It's not even happening externally.

So just be very vigilant of this change in thought process,

Change in cognition,

Change in perception.

There's a change in the feeling about it.

The moment there is a change in perception there is an immediate change in feeling because perception and feeling are husband and wife.

Sania and Vedana walk together on this path.

The moment the perception is a wanted or pleasurable perception there is a pleasurable feeling.

When the perception is an unwanted perception there is an unpleasant feeling.

It keeps changing,

It comes,

It goes.

Be very vigilant that this is happening.

Just like a witness not reacting,

Not indulging and not jumping onto that passing train.

I have got nothing to do with it.

Not my circus,

Not my monkeys.

If friends,

One who enters and dwells amidst unwholesome states could dwell happily in this very life without vexation,

Despair and fever and if with the breakup of the body after death he could expect a good destination then the Blessed One would not praise the abandoning of unwholesome states.

Do you get it?

If by being negative,

By being jealous,

By being hateful,

By gossiping,

By having ill will in your mind,

By doing the wrong action and by using the wrong speech,

By these unwholesome states if really you would get a good place after death,

You would go to a good destination then why would the Buddha,

The Blessed One even advise about removing these negative states?

He would not.

He would say continue,

Increase them,

Have more of the negativity.

Right?

Because it's going to take you to a good destination but that's not true.

It does not take you to a good destination.

It cannot take you to a good destination.

But because one who enters and dwells amidst unwholesome states,

Dwells in suffering in this very life with vexation,

Despair and fever and because he can expect a bad destination with the breakup of the body after death,

The Blessed One praises the abandoning of unwholesome states.

So with unwholesome states of course you suffer in this life because you're suffering in your own mind.

For example,

If a person has ill will in his heart for person B but person B is enjoying his time in Switzerland,

Skiing in the Alps,

Trekking,

Enjoying the beautiful train ride through the snowing Alps,

He has no idea that person A is valuing in the pus of ill will,

Valuing in the pus of negativity,

Valuing in the pus of doubts.

He has no concern with person A's state of mind.

Person B is enjoying the beauty of Switzerland and is at peace,

Is at rest,

Probably meditating.

So you tell me in this situation who was the one suffering?

Person A was suffering because of the ill will that he had generated in his heart or was person B suffering for whom the ill will had been generated in person A's heart?

The answer is very clear to the wise one.

The one who generates the ill will,

The negativity,

The suspicion,

The doubt,

The hatred,

The anger,

He is the one who suffers.

The one for whom all this negativity is generated is totally unaware of your negativity.

He has got nothing to do with it.

So wake up to this truth.

You check within yourself.

If you have ill will,

Negativity,

Doubt,

Suspicion,

Any unwholesome state for another person,

You are suffering,

Not that other person.

You suffer not only in this very lifetime but also after death.

That is why the Buddha advised that one must drop all the unwholesome states,

All negativity.

You choose what you want to do.

If friends,

One who enters and dwells amidst wholesome states would dwell in suffering in this very life with vexation,

Despair and fever and if with the breakup of the body after death he could expect a bad destination,

Then the Blessed One would not praise the acquisition of wholesome states.

But because one who enters and dwells amidst wholesome states dwells happily in this very life without vexation,

Despair and fever and because he can expect a good destination with the breakup of the body after death,

The Blessed One praises the acquisition of wholesome states.

What is a wholesome state?

Love,

Compassion,

Choosing to avoid negativity,

Choosing to avoid gossip,

Choosing to stay away from ill will,

Choosing to refrain from doubt,

Suspicion,

Jealousy and all the other negativity that can take away the peace and calmness in my own mind.

This is the choice of being in a wholesome state.

If person A chooses to be in a wholesome state,

It doesn't matter if the entire world attacks him through all kinds of unjust means,

Verbal abuse,

Criticism or even physical harm.

But if A has chosen to just stay and be established in the wholesome states,

He cannot be disturbed.

Everybody who is attacking him will be disturbed but this person who has decided to be in a wholesome state,

His mind is always centred,

Always calm,

Always relaxed and he is unaffected.

That is the power of wholesomeness over unwholesomeness.

The Buddha recognised this power of wholesomeness.

If he had not recognised this power of wholesomeness,

He would not advise us to encourage wholesome states and refrain from unwholesome states.

This is what the Venerable Sariputta said,

Elated those because delighted in the Venerable Sariputta's statement.

A short sutta but very meaningful and to the point.

Today's homework is for you to recognise what are those unwholesome states that dominate over you and make you suffer.

Can you make an attempt to let go of all the unwholesome states by recognising that these unwholesome states are only because of a particular craving,

Particular desire and some kind of lust?

The journey of wholesomeness always will triumph.

Keep walking the path.

May you be at peace.