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Notes - Samanamandika Sutta (MN 78)
by Mike Potter ( January 6, 2001)
The following are my notes of
the Samanamandika
Sutta (MN 78). It is an attempt to outline the various factors
described in this sutta so that their order and various relationships can
be clearly reviewed.
Can one be "accomplished in what is wholesome, perfected
in what is wholesome, attained to the supreme attainment, an ascetic invincible"
(the Arahant) by doing no evil bodily actions, uttering no evil speech,
having no evil intentions, and not making one's living by any evil livelihood?
Is virtuous intentions and conduct enough? No! The Buddha compares one
like this as standing in the same category as "the young tender infant
lying prone". Craving for (and the resulting clinging to) virtuous intentions
and conduct is still craving. Ignorance, the root of all taints, remains.
This is not Sila (Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood), because
the other factors of the Noble Eightfold Path are not present as supporting
conditions, and such intentions and conduct alone do not result in liberation.
Before one can be described as "accomplished in what
is wholesome, perfected in what is wholesome, attained to the supreme attainment,
an ascetic invincible", the Buddha tells us that the following must be
understood:
HABITS OF MIND
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Recognize unwholesome habits: unwholesome bodily actions,
unwholesome verbal actions and wrong livelihood.
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Understand how they arise: mind affected by greed, hatred and delusion.
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Understand how they cease without remainder: when one abandons unskillful
conduct and develops skillful conduct.
-
What is to be done to practice the way to cessation of unwholesome
habits? One awakens zeal (Right Effort) for the:
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Non-arising of unarisen evil unwholesome states;
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Abandoning of arisen evil unwholesome states;
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Arising of unarisen wholesome states;
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Continuance, non-disappearance, strengthening, increase by development
of arisen wholesome states.
-
Wholesome Habits
-
Recognize wholesome habits: wholesome bodily actions,
wholesome verbal actions and right livelihood.
-
Understand how they arise: mind unaffected by greed, hatred and
delusion.
-
Understand how they cease without remainder: one is virtuous, but one does
not identify with one's virtue; one understands as it actually is (deliverance
of mind and deliverance by wisdom).
-
What is to be done to practice the way to cessation of wholesome habits?
One awakens zeal (Right Effort) . . . (as above).
INTENTIONS
-
Recognize unwholesome intentions: intentions of sensual desire,
ill
will, and cruelty.
-
Understand how they arise: perceptions of sensual desire,
ill will, and cruelty.
-
Understand how they cease without remainder: secluded from sensual pleasures
and unwholesome states, one enters and abides in the
first jhana
(applied and sustained thought, with rapture born of seclusion).
-
What is to be done to practice the way to cessation of unwholesome intentions?
One awakens zeal (Right Effort) . . . (as above).
-
Wholesome Intentions
-
Recognize wholesome intentions: intentions of renunciation,
non-ill will, and non-cruelty.
-
Understand how they arise: perceptions of renunciation,
non-ill will, and non-cruelty.
-
Understand how they cease without remainder: secluded from sensual pleasures
and unwholesome states, one enters and abides in the
second jhana
(self-confidence and singleness of mind without applied and sustained thought,
with rapture and pleasure born of concentration).
-
What is to be done to practice the way to cessation of unwholesome intentions?
One awakens zeal (Right Effort) . . . (as above).
What are the ten qualities of one who is beyond training (the Arahant)?
One who possesses Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action,
Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration,
Right Knowledge, and Right Deliverance.