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… in the commentary. The second line refers to someone who has realized the “peaceful state” of Nibbāna (santaṁ padaṁ). The term for “realized” (abhisamecca) is usually reserved for the breakthrough to the four noble truths , eg. SN 56.4:1.1). Such a person must then be a stream-enterer at least (SN 56.49:1.7, see also āgataphalā abhisametāvinī viññātasāsanā at Aniyata 1:2.1.26). Is the poem then restricted to the practice of a …
Read →… It does, however, create a similar problem to that discussed in the previous paragraph, because it is generally considered that only a stream-enterer is accomplished in ethics. Those who have not seen the four noble truths can, of course, live a good life, but they are not yet “experts”. The commentary appears to be aware of this problem, as it offers an infinitive reading for atthakusala, that is, “one who wishes to dwell in the …
Read →… Chapter” with a long discourse in mixed prose and verse (Snp 3.12). It is an unusual discourse for the Suttanipāta. Length-wise it would fit with the suttas of the Majjhima. Doctrinally, too, it focuses on the four noble truths and other core doctrines in a way that is reminiscent of the longer prose discourses. The fact, however, that it is based around the number two, and that each section consists of a prose statement and verse …
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… in the standard list of twelve factors are nonetheless associated with dependent origination. The word “condition” (paccaya) occurs no less than 22 times throughout the text. If we start at the beginning, the four noble truths themselves are integrated with dependent origination in several ways in the sutta. The second item, “attachment” (upadhi) is similar in meaning to “grasping”, and is found in this sense in the context of …
Read →… that each item consists of two sets of two, which is expressed as a fourfold matrix:
origin in prose
cessation in prose
origin in verse
cessation in verse
Reinforcing this, the very first item is the “ four” noble truths , which are also divided into two sets of two. This shows that the text is thinking in terms of fitting multiples of two into each other. But if two twos make four, four fours make sixteen. And there are sixteen …
Read →… deeper, we notice that the chapter of the “eights” consists of sixteen suttas. This is an example of the method of nested doubling, which is commonly found throughout the suttas. Take, for example, the four noble truths and the eightfold path. Each of these is nested in the other: the fourth truth is the eightfold path, and the first path factor is the four truths. This nested doubling shows that each aspect of the Dhamma is …
Read →… however, might prove an exception to this, as there we find ñāṇa instead of muta (Snp 4.9:5.1). The Niddesa explains ñāṇa here as knowledge of the ownership of deeds, knowledge in conformity with the ( four noble) truths , knowledge of the (six) direct knowledges, and knowledge arising from (meditative) attainment (Mnd 9:32.8). Thus it assumes that we are speaking of meditative knowledges, and that ñāṇa here has the same scope …
Read →… says we form judgments based on seeing the “appearance and disappearance of forms” (rūpesu disvā vibhavaṁ bhavañca). The exact sense of these words is tricky. Normally the pair bhava and vibhava occurs in the four noble truths in the sense of the craving to “continue life in a state of existence”, or the craving to “annihilate oneself and end existence”. Here, however, they are said to arise not from craving but from contact and seem …
Read →… perception of permanence (niccasaññā), but rather to the “fixed regularity of the Dhamma” (dhammaniyāmatā). The Dhamma is lasting, not in the sense of a permanently existing thing, but in the sense that the four noble truths are always an accurate description of how the world is.
The remainder of the text develops the theme of how a view, once adopted as the highest, leads to contempt for those of a different view, and hence to …
Read →… five hindrances through the practice of meditation. But it is wisdom that will “lock out” the streams, eliminating them forever.
The verses until now have been an extremely compressed summary of three of the four noble truths : the danger is suffering, it is caused by ignorance and craving, and mindfulness and wisdom show us the path out. Now Ajita asks a subtle question that gets to the nature of the remaining truth, Nibbāna. Those …
Read →… rebirth in a refined and long-lasting heavenly realm, which was nonetheless still impermanent and not free from suffering. Both traditions practice deep samādhi, but only when informed by the right view of the four noble truths will that samādhi lead to awakening.
The benedictive verses at the beginning and end, the framing of each verse as a blessing, and the prominence of advanced doctrinal content suggest that the Ratanasutta must …
Read →… have plunged into the ending, free of craving, without grasping, having become Dhamma, unaffected. They have taught this Dhamma
out of compassion for living creatures— suffering, origin, path, and cessation, the ending of suffering. In these four noble truths ,
the endless suffering of transmigration finally comes to an end. When the body breaks up, and life comes to an end, there are no future lives; I’m everywhere well freed.
Read →… 5.12, Thig 7.1), Uppalavaṇṇā (Thig 13.5), Jinadattā (Thig 15.1), or else an unnamed nun (Thig 3.2, Thig 5.1, Thig 5.8, Thig 6.8, Thig 13.4). Typically these nuns are said to have conveyed the central teachings of Buddhism such as the four noble truths , the aggregates, elements, and so on. These are the central topics of the Saṁyutta Nikāya, and we can therefore conclude that this, or its ancestor, was carefully studied by the nuns.
Read →… and fully understood rebirth, hungerless in this very life, you will live at peace.
Four or five times I left my dwelling; I had failed to find peace of heart, or any control over my mind.
I approached a nun and politely questioned her. She taught me the Dhamma: the elements and sense fields,
the four noble truths , the faculties and the powers, the awakening factors, and the eightfold path for the attainment of the highest goal.
Read →… body, feeling and mind-states before he or she uses the dhamma of mindfulness or of energy to counteract the dhamma of restlessness or of sense-desire. Another example of this interwoven pattern is in the Four Noble Truths ; the Fourth Noble Truth of the Path is initiated by acknowledging the First – that of suffering and stress. One doesn’t have to have arrived at cessation, the Third Truth, before the Path can be glimpsed and …
Read →… (bodhi-pakkhiya-dhamma). DN 16 reports that toward the end of his life, the Buddha recommended these qualities as the essence of his teaching. See The Wings to awakening for more details.
2. The duties outlined in this section parallel the duties appropriate to the four noble truths , as outlined in the “wheel” of the Buddha’s first sermon. See SN 56:11.
See also: SN 22:23; SN 35:204; SN 38:14; AN 2:29; AN 4:41; AN 4:94; AN 4:170
Read →… with the Great Brahma. See §22.
5. The Brahma-wheel = the Dhamma-wheel, the name of the Buddha’s first sermon, so called because it contains a “wheel” that lists all twelve combinations of two variables: the four noble truths –stress, its origination, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation–and the three levels of knowledge appropriate to each truth: knowledge of the truth, knowledge of the task appropriate to the truth, …
Read →to raise myself from water
to dry land.1
Swept along by the great flood,
I penetrated
the truths.2
Notes
1. A standard image for the practice is that of making one’s way across a river from its dangerous near shore to the safety of the further shore. For other uses of this image, see SN 35:197, AN 4:5, AN 7:15, and Sn 5.
2. The four noble truths .
Read →… with an admirable friend
even a fool
becomes wise.
People of integrity
should be associated with.
In that way discernment grows.
Associating with people of integrity
one would be released from all suffering & stress,
would know stress,
the origination of stress,
cessation & the eightfold path:
the four noble truths .
Stressful, painful, is the woman’s state:
So says the tamer of tamable people.
Being a co-wife is painful.
Read →“The footprints of all creatures that walk can fit inside an elephant’s footprint, so an elephant’s footprint is said to be the biggest of them all. In the same way, all skillful qualities are included in the four noble truths .719 What four? The noble truths of suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering.
And what is the noble truth of suffering? Rebirth is …
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