SN 44.10 Ananda Sutta - Is There A Self?

In this talk, Ektaji explains the 'SN 44.10 Ananda' sutta (discourse) from Samyutta Nikaya (The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya by Bhikkhu Bodhi) from Chapter 44. 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.

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Transcript

Salaam.

Salaam.

Salaam.

Welcome to Uddhasangha.

Today we will read a sutta on breathing.

Most of us are looking for that solution for our overly active minds.

We crave for a moment in time when this mind settles down and becomes absolutely quiet.

We recognize that the cause of our dukkha or misery is our own chatty mind.

Such people can very well understand that it is not external people,

Situations and things that are the cause for misery.

But it is one's own mind that is the cause for misery.

And what specifically in one's own mind is the cause for misery?

It is craving.

The constant craving or aversion which is the same is the actual cause for misery.

I want something,

I want something,

I want something,

I want something.

The mind keeps on beating around the same broken record.

And that feverishness to get that is what agitates the inner environment of an individual.

And that agitation,

That feverishness does not let you rest in meditation or in open-eyed day-to-day activity.

Warning.

People who still blame external people,

Situations and things for their own misery.

People who still regard external people and situations as the cause for their own misery.

Such people will not be able to understand the depth of sutras like this.

Only people who understand that there is only one cause for misery and it is my own mind.

Such people will appreciate a sutta like this.

It is from Anguttara Nikaya,

Book of the Nines,

Sutta No.

23.

So it is AN 9.

23.

Craving.

I will teach you bhikkhus,

Nine things rooted in craving.

Listen and attend closely.

I will speak.

Yes Bhante,

Those bhikkhus replied.

The blessed one said this.

And what are the nine things rooted in craving?

One.

In dependence on craving there is seeking.

I will pause there.

We will understand it point by point.

A little craving arises in you,

Maybe at the sight of a woman or a man passing by.

That little craving says,

I want to know this person.

This craving is a very simple,

Harmless desire that has come up in you.

Why is it labeled craving?

Because if by chance you do not get an opportunity to meet this person,

To become familiar with this person,

The mind goes into a feverish mode and it is constantly thinking,

It is constantly visualizing that scene,

It is constantly hoping it should have said this and it should not have done this.

You know that feverishness of a broken record follows this little desire.

That is why this first desire itself is called craving.

There is a deeper level of desire which is akin to lust which comes on later in the process.

But the initial thought is accompanied by an invisible hand which literally goes out to achieve or obtain or grasp that thing that it is craving for.

Understand that craving and aversion are not two different things.

When you say,

I don't want something,

It is the same as a hidden want.

The want is to not see this or not be with that.

It is still a craving.

That is why the sutta is not separately craving and aversion,

It is just craving.

So,

Independence on craving,

There is seeking.

Now because I just saw this person pass by,

I have this little thought that I want to be friends with this person or I want to know this person.

The seeking begins.

You start looking for an opportunity to friend him or her.

It is not about just looking for an opportunity in the external physical world but you conjure up a million scenarios that could happen in future where you could bump into this person.

So you see you are lost in an unreal world,

An Alice in Wonderland kind of situation.

It is almost like intoxication.

It is almost like being hypnotized.

So what does this mean?

It has taken you away from reality.

So independence of craving,

There is seeking.

Number two.

Independence on seeking,

There is gain.

So I seek for an opportunity and I jump at it and I take it and I become this person's friend.

So there is gain.

Of course this is called the law of attraction.

Whatever you really seek for comes to you.

Then of course universe has its own language of understanding.

It does not understand your English or French or German or Urdu or Hindi.

It just understands the pull that you have towards this particular person and it creates its own formula based on your past karma sanskaras for that particular situation.

So you may gain it but it is not necessary that the gain is pleasant for you.

It could be an unpleasant gain as well.

And we have all experienced this in our lives.

So naturally we all know that seeking does lead to gain but that gain is not necessarily the kind of gain that we had imagined when we were lost in our Alice in Wonderland story.

Independence on gain,

There is judgement.

You start coming up with judgements.

See when I run behind this I get it.

And I get it in this quantity,

In this amount of time.

You have all kinds of analysis,

You have judgements,

You have judgements about the other person,

About the situation and about yourself.

This is all experiential.

Buddha always taught only that which could be experienced as reality.

He did not talk about philosophy or viewpoints.

He only spoke about that which could be experienced by everyone.

So independence on gain,

There is judgement.

You have a judgement.

Now independence on judgement,

There is desire and lust.

I told you there is a deeper kind of desire which is akin to lust.

Now I have made this judgement,

This analysis about this person.

I have seen this particular person through my own coloured glasses.

Always remember you are looking at another person through the way you want to see him or her.

You believe things about him the way you want to believe things about him or her.

So you are wearing coloured glasses and these coloured glasses bring about the judgement which creates even more deeper sensations in you.

And those deeper sensations are like invisible hands going out and lusting for it even more,

Even more,

Even more.

Just like when you are on a diet and you promise yourself I will just have one scoop of ice cream.

And the ice cream turns out to be supremely delicious and you just cannot stop that lust for reaching out to a second scoop and then to a third scoop.

Do you understand what I am saying?

So the same way every judgement that this is yummy,

This is tasty,

This is delicious,

This is awesome,

This person is great or I will get this from this.

Any kind of judgement increases lust and lust comes out in the form of feverishness.

Feverishness to want it more or not want it.

Both are lust.

Independence on desire and lust there is attachment.

Now because this lust has come up in you,

There is a lot of attachment to that double chocolate ice cream or to that wonderful person.

Yes,

Attachment starts with a very little small thought of I want.

Do you notice this now?

Just that little thought of I want,

The little craving of I want led to seeking,

Led to gaining,

Led to more judgement about it.

The judgement was either pleasant or unpleasant.

Either ways the lust increases in you and when the lust increases in you,

There is attachment.

Analyse your own life,

The people,

Situations and things in your own life.

How many attachments can you notice?

Just become aware about them.

Don't do anything.

You cannot push people away.

You cannot push situations away.

There is a higher law of karma operating.

So there is no need to try and challenge that law.

You just honour and respect the truth that this is my attachment and this has developed because of that moment of craving.

Just become aware.

Don't live your life anymore in a hypnotic kind of state.

Live your life in reality,

Being able to see reality as it is.

Then you will not fool yourself and you will not fake the world.

You will not accrue any more karma and you will naturally obtain a pure inner environment.

And a pure inner environment is very conducive to a very silent,

Quiet and blissful mind.

That which you are thirsting for is right with you.

The only problem is that you do not know the methodology to get to it.

Recognise all your attachments.

You have the methodology sitting within you.

Just recognise your attachments.

Drop the lusting for it.

Be a witness to them again and again and again.

And see how every little craving will arise and drop off before it becomes a fully blown attachment.

In dependence on attachment there is possessiveness.

This is very experiential.

Whatever you are attached to,

Whether it is a family member or it is your gadget,

Your car,

Your mansion or it is just a position in office or how your social circle sees you.

There is attachment in all these things and all these attachments lead to you being possessive about them.

You are even possessive about how people see me,

How people interact with me.

People should not talk like this to me.

People should speak like this to me.

People should see me like this only and not like this.

You have a fake image of yourself which you have planted in other people's minds about yourself.

And now you want them to see you only in that particular image.

This is called attachment to a false image of me in you.

And now I am possessive about you seeing me only in that image.

Do you get it?

Attachment leads to possessiveness.

You check if there is a lot of possessiveness in your life.

In dependence on possessiveness,

There is miserliness.

Miserliness is basically not wanting to share.

When you are possessive about something,

Even if it is not an external physical object like a human or a gadget or a house or a car,

Even about certain ideas,

You become miserly.

You don't want to share them.

Have you noticed this happening?

Possessiveness leads to miserliness.

In dependence on miserliness,

There is safeguarding.

Whatever you don't want to share with others,

You try to safeguard it.

Oh,

I have to protect this as if somebody was really going to take it away from you.

You protect it,

Fear sleep.

And in that trying to protect it,

Trying to safeguard it,

Your mind is very feverish.

Have you noticed?

You don't find a very balanced or a centred kind of state very easily because you're so feverish about not losing something.

Yes,

We notice that happening to us a lot.

So,

In dependence on miserliness,

There is safeguarding.

This safeguarding is not just external,

It is also in the mind.

And with safeguarding,

As the foundation,

Originate the taking up of rods and weapons,

Quarrels,

Contentions,

Disputes,

Accusations,

Divisive speech,

False speech and many other bad,

Unwholesome things.

When we safeguard something,

Now to safeguard it,

What do we do?

We will go to any extent to protect it.

This is very understandable if you are safeguarding your young child or protecting your child,

Protecting somebody in an external physical world.

The disaster happens when the ego wants to safeguard its past ideas,

Wrong beliefs,

Wrong understandings.

And now the ego does not want to accept that in the past it had a wrong belief,

It had a wrong understanding,

It had figured out things wrong.

So,

Because of that not wanting to accept the truth,

The ego safeguards a particular wrong idea.

Now to safeguard that particular wrong idea,

There is picking up on rods and all you've seen,

All kind of danga facade or beating up and all the strikes and all the processions that you see on TV.

Because people are safeguarding a particular idea.

Yes,

It could be a religious idea,

It could be a non-religious idea.

So some land up trying to safeguard a wrong kind of idea saying that our religion believes this,

Therefore your religion is wrong.

And this leads to a lot of disputes,

Conflicts,

Contentions.

It's a lot of unwholesomeness,

Not only in the person who generates it but this unwholesomeness spread around a lot.

That is why I've become very clear that siding with one religion,

Siding with one kind of faith,

Siding with one group or with one set of ideas limits you.

And then the ego holds on to this limitation because it gets attached to this limitation and because of that attachment it will do wrong things,

Even unwholesome environment creation.

You wake up and see whether picking up on rods,

Getting into disputes,

Fights,

Unwholesome speech,

False speech is all that helping you as an individual have a pure inner environment.

If it is,

Please continue.

That is your path.

But if it is not,

Even at the cost of slapping your own ego,

Even at the cost of punching your own ego,

You should take a strong step and withdraw from that unwholesomeness.

Because that unwholesomeness is that which will become an obstacle in your own spiritual progress.

Be very clear,

There is only one goal and that goal is my own inner wholesomeness and I can recognise my wholesomeness very easily,

Correct?

If inside I am unwholesome,

I will feel a pinch,

I will not feel clean,

I will feel dirty about certain ideas,

About certain thoughts I had,

About certain things I am doing or certain things I am even listening to or encouraging.

Yes?

But if inside I am very clear that my wholesomeness is number one priority,

I will discard all these negative actions.

No false speech,

No unwholesome speech,

No divisive speech,

Not taking up of any roads,

Not involving in any disputes.

Keeping my own inner environment wholesome at any cost,

This is the goal of every sincere spiritual sadhak.

You check,

Is your inner environment pure?

If not,

Then go back up these nine points and figure out what is that first craving that has led all the way to this disputes,

To this unwholesome state of mind.

And learn to drop that craving again and again and again and again.

It will come up again and again because it is our past karma samskara.

In the past,

We did not understand the importance of being more wholesome versus being unwholesome.

We had the it's okay attitude towards unwholesome.

It's okay attitude is in Hindi the chalta hai attitude that most of us have.

Now that we start walking the path of purity,

We recognize,

Oh,

I have to drop this chalta hai attitude,

It's okay attitude and be very clear that my inner environment needs to be pure at any cost.

Come what may,

I will not make this inner environment impure.

Very clear?

These are the nine things rooted in craving.

So you can go through this sutta once again and as homework,

Identify all those things that are hidden deep inside your mind as little cravings and aversions,

Ragas and dveshas because only those lead to an unwholesome inner environment.

Remember again warning,

Those who blame external people,

Situations and things for their own unwholesome inner environment will feel on the path of spirituality.

Even if they attain enlightenment,

They slip from enlightenment.

Be very very careful on this path.

Your goal should be maintaining inner purity more than any other craving.

Even the craving for enlightenment is a craving.

Even that creates attachment on the spiritual path.

So again check check check.

If there is attachment,

Withdraw,

Drop,

Let go.

Just be,

Just observe,

Just observe.

It's not about the external action,

It is about the internal craving or aversion that is making your mind feverish.

So your mind when it is free of feverishness,

It is pure and wholesome.

Again don't believe me,

Don't believe the Buddha.

You yourself look within,

Identify if these nine steps are the path from craving to an unwholesome state of mind or not.

Apu,

Vipu,

Bhava.

Be your own light.

Vipu,

Vipu,

Bhava.

Reviews

Thanks

Really lovely and clear ways to transform your inner being and in the process bliss within you

Great deep teaching - shame that the sound quality was not very good