The Third Noble Truth & Beyond
§77. “And this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of stress: the remainderless dispassion-cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving.” —SN 56:11
§78. “Among whatever phenomena there may be, fabricated or unfabricated, the phenomenon of dispassion—the subduing of intoxication, the elimination of thirst, the uprooting of attachment, the breaking of the round, the destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation, the realization of Unbinding—is considered supreme. Those who have confidence in the quality of dispassion have confidence in what is supreme; and for those with confidence in the supreme, supreme is the result. —Iti 90
§79. “Seeing thus, the instructed disciple of the noble ones grows disenchanted with form, disenchanted with feeling, disenchanted with perception, disenchanted with fabrications, disenchanted with consciousness. Disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is fully released. With full release, there is the knowledge, ‘Fully released.’ He discerns that ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.’” —SN 22:59
§80. “Where there is no passion for the nutriment of physical food … contact … intellectual intention … consciousness, where there is no delight, no craving, then consciousness does not land there or grow. Where consciousness does not land or grow, name-&-form does not alight. Where name-&-form does not alight, there is no growth of fabrications. Where there is no growth of fabrications, there is no production of renewed becoming in the future. Where there is no production of renewed becoming in the future, there is no future birth, aging, & death. That, I tell you, has no sorrow, affliction, or despair.
“Just as if there were a roofed house or a roofed hall having windows on the north, the south, or the east. When the sun rises, and a ray has entered by way of the window, where does it land?”
“On the western wall, lord.”
“And if there is no western wall, where does it land?”
“On the ground, lord.”
“And if there is no ground, where does it land?”
“On the water, lord.”
“And if there is no water, where does it land?”
“It doesn’t land, lord.”
“In the same way, where there is no passion for the nutriment of physical food … contact … intellectual intention … consciousness, where there is no delight, no craving, then consciousness does not land there or grow. Where consciousness does not land or grow, name-&-form does not alight. Where name-&-form does not alight, there is no growth of fabrications. Where there is no growth of fabrications, there is no production of renewed becoming in the future. Where there is no production of renewed becoming in the future, there is no future birth, aging, & death. That, I tell you, has no sorrow, affliction, or despair.” —SN 12:64
§81. Sensual search, becoming-search, together with the holy-life search— i.e., grasping at truth based on an accumulation of viewpoints: through the relinquishing of searches & the abolishing of viewpoints of one dispassionate to all passion, and released in the ending of craving, through the ending of searches, the monk is devoid of perplexity & desire. —Iti 55
§82. Gone to the beyond of becoming, you let go of in front, let go of behind, let go of between. With a heart everywhere let-go, you don’t come again to birth & aging. —Dhp 348
§83. “‘All phenomena [dhammā] have unbinding as their final end.’” —AN 10:58
§84. Everywhere the sage independent makes nothing dear or undear.
In him lamentation & selfishness, like water on a white lotus, do not adhere.
As a water bead on a lotus leaf, as water on a red lily, doesn’t adhere,
so the sage doesn’t adhere to the seen, the heard, or the sensed;
for, cleansed, he doesn’t suppose in connection with the seen, the heard, or the sensed.
In no other way does he wish for purity, for he neither takes on passion nor puts it away. —Sn 4:6
§85. “Now, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones, when touched with a feeling of pain, does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. So he feels one pain: physical, but not mental. Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, did not shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pain of only one arrow. In the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. He feels one pain: physical, but not mental.
“As he is touched by that painful feeling, he is not resistant. No resistance-obsession with regard to that painful feeling obsesses him. Touched by that painful feeling, he does not delight in sensuality. Why is that? Because the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones discerns an escape from painful feeling aside from sensuality. As he is not delighting in sensuality, no passion-obsession with regard to that feeling of pleasure obsesses him. He discerns, as it actually is present, the origination, passing away, allure, drawback, and escape from that feeling. As he discerns the origination, passing away, allure, drawback, and escape from that feeling, no ignorance-obsession with regard to that feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain obsesses him.
“Sensing a feeling of pleasure, he senses it disjoined from it. Sensing a feeling of pain, he senses it disjoined from it. Sensing a feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain, he senses it disjoined from it. This is called a well-instructed disciple of the noble ones disjoined from birth, aging, & death; from sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs. He is disjoined, I tell you, from suffering & stress.” —SN 36:6
§86. [Some Nigaṇṭha (Jain) ascetics:] “It’s not the case that pleasure is to be attained through pleasure. Pleasure is to be attained through pain. For if pleasure were to be attained through pleasure, then King Seniya Bimbisāra of Magadha would attain pleasure, for he lives in greater pleasure than you, friend Gotama.
[The Buddha:] “Surely the venerable Nigaṇṭhas said that rashly and without reflecting … for instead, I should be asked, ‘Who lives in greater pleasure: King Seniya Bimbisāra of Magadha or venerable Gotama?’”
“Yes, friend Gotama, we said that rashly and without reflecting.… but let that be. We now ask you, venerable Gotama: Who lives in greater pleasure: King Seniya Bimbisāra of Magadha or venerable Gotama?”
“In that case, Nigaṇṭhas, I will question you in return. Answer as you please. What do you think: Can King Seniya Bimbisāra of Magadha—without moving his body, without uttering a word, dwell sensitive to unalloyed pleasure for seven days & nights?”
“No, friend.”
“… for six days & nights .… for five days & nights … for a day & a night?”
“No, friend.”
“Now, I—without moving my body, without uttering a word, can dwell sensitive to unalloyed pleasure for a day and a night … for two days & nights … for three … four … five … six … seven days & nights. So what do you think: That being the case, who dwells in greater pleasure: King Seniya Bimbisāra of Magadha or me?”
“That being the case, venerable Gotama dwells in greater pleasure than King Seniya Bimbisāra of Magadha.” —MN 14
§87. On one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Āḷavī on a spread of leaves by a cattle track in a siṁsapā forest. Then Hatthaka of Āḷavī, out roaming & rambling for exercise, saw the Blessed One sitting on a spread of leaves by the cattle track in the siṁsapā forest. On seeing him, he went to him and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One, “Lord, I hope the Blessed One has slept in ease.”
“Yes, young man. I have slept in ease. Of those in the world who sleep in ease, I am one.”
“But cold, lord, is the winter night. The ‘Between-the-Eights’[a period in February] is a time of snowfall. Hard is the ground trampled by cattle hooves. Thin is the spread of leaves. Sparse are the leaves in the trees. Thin are your ochre robes. And cold blows the Verambhā wind. Yet still the Blessed One says, ‘Yes, young man. I have slept in ease. Of those in the world who sleep in ease, I am one.’”
“In that case, young man, I will question you in return. Answer as you see fit. Now, what do you think: Suppose a householder or householder’s son has a house with a gabled roof, plastered inside & out, draft-free, with close-fitting door & windows shut against the wind. Inside he has a horse-hair couch spread with a long-fleeced coverlet, a white wool coverlet, an embroidered coverlet, a rug of kadali-deer hide, with a canopy above, & red cushions on either side. And there a lamp would be burning, and his four wives, with their many charms, would be attending to him. Would he sleep in ease, or not? Or how does this strike you?”
“Yes, lord, he would sleep in ease. Of those in the world who sleep in ease, he would be one.”
“But what do you think, young man. Might there arise in that householder or householder’s son any bodily fevers or fevers of mind born of passion so that—burned with those passion-born fevers—he would sleep miserably?”
“Yes, lord.”
“As for those passion-born fevers—burned with which the householder or householder’s son would sleep miserably—that passion has been abandoned by the Tathāgata, its root destroyed, like an uprooted palm tree, deprived of the conditions of existence, not destined for future arising. Therefore he sleeps in ease.
[Similarly with fevers born of aversion and delusion.]
“Always, always, he sleeps in ease: the brahman totally unbound, who doesn’t adhere to sensual pleasures, who’s without acquisitions & cooled.
Having cut all ties & subdued fear in the heart, calmed, he sleeps in ease, having reached peace of awareness.” —AN 3:35
§88. “‘There are three establishings of mindfulness that a noble one cultivates, cultivating which he is a teacher fit to instruct a group.’ Thus it was said. And in reference to what was it said?
“There is the case where the Teacher—out of sympathy, seeking their well-being—teaches the Dhamma to his disciples: ‘This is for your well-being, this is for your happiness.’ His disciples do not listen or lend ear or apply their minds to gnosis. Turning aside, they stray from the Teacher’s message. In this case the Tathāgata is not satisfied nor is he sensitive to satisfaction, yet he remains untroubled, mindful, & alert. This is the first establishing of mindfulness…
“Furthermore, there is the case where the Teacher—out of sympathy, seeking their well-being—teaches the Dhamma to his disciples: ‘This is for your well-being, this is for your happiness.’ Some of his disciples do not listen or lend ear or apply their minds to gnosis. Turning aside, they stray from the Teacher’s message. But some of his disciples listen, lend ear, & apply their minds to gnosis. They do not turn aside or stray from the Teacher’s message. In this case the Tathāgata is not satisfied nor is he sensitive to satisfaction; at the same time he is not dissatisfied nor is he sensitive to dissatisfaction. Free from both satisfaction & dissatisfaction, he remains equanimous, mindful, & alert. This is the second establishing of mindfulness.…
“Furthermore, there is the case where the Teacher—out of sympathy, seeking their well-being—teaches the Dhamma to his disciples: ‘This is for your well-being, this is for your happiness.’ His disciples listen, lend ear, & apply their minds to gnosis. They do not turn aside or stray from the Teacher’s message. In this case the Tathāgata is satisfied and is sensitive to satisfaction, yet he remains untroubled, mindful, & alert. This is the third establishing of mindfulness.…
“‘There are three establishings of mindfulness that a noble one cultivates, cultivating which he is a teacher fit to instruct a group.’ Thus it was said. And in reference to this was it said.” —MN 137
§89. He who in the midst of sensualities, follows the holy life, always mindful, craving-free; the monk who is —through fathoming things— unbound: He has no agitations. He, the thinker knowing both sides, doesn’t adhere in between. He I call a great person. He here has gone past the seamstress: craving. —Sn 5:2
§90. The brahman gone beyond territories, has nothing that —on knowing or seeing— he’s grasped. Unimpassionate for passion, not impassioned for dis-, he has nothing here that he’s grasped as supreme. —Sn 4:4
§91. Not intoxicated with enticements,
nor given to pride,
he’s gentle, quick-witted,
beyond conviction & dispassion. —Sn 4:10
§92. And anyone who has realized, who is an attainer-of-knowledge here, having unentangled the bond to becoming and non-, free of craving, untroubled, undesiring—he, I tell you, has crossed over birth & aging. —Sn 5:4
§93. Here, Hemaka, with regard to things that are dear —seen, heard, sensed, & cognized— there is: the dispelling of passion & desire, the undying state of unbinding.
Those knowing this, mindful, fully unbound in the here & now, are always calmed, have crossed over beyond entanglement in the world. —Sn 5:8
One free from passion for all sensuality relying on nothingness, letting go of all else, released in the highest emancipation of perception: He stays there unaffected.
If, All-around Eye, he stays there, unaffected for many years, right there would he be cooled & released? Would his consciousness be like that?
As a flame overthrown by the force of the wind goes to an end that cannot be classified, so the sage free from the name-body goes to an end that cannot be classified.
One who has reached the end: Does he not exist, or is he for eternity free from dis-ease? Please, sage, declare this to me as this phenomenon [dhamma] has been known by you.
One who has reached the end has no criterion by which anyone would say that— for him it doesn’t exist. When all phenomena [dhamma] are done away with, all means of speaking are done away with as well. —Sn 5:6
§95. “What do you think, Anurādha: Do you regard form as the Tathāgata?”
“No, lord.”
“Do you regard feeling as the Tathāgata?”
“No, lord.”
“Do you regard perception as the Tathāgata?”
“No, lord.”
“Do you regard fabrications as the Tathāgata?”
“No, lord.”
“Do you regard consciousness as the Tathāgata?”
“No, lord.”
“What do you think, Anurādha: Do you regard the Tathāgata as being in form? .… Elsewhere than form? .… In feeling? .… Elsewhere than feeling? .… In perception? .… Elsewhere than perception? .… In fabrications? .… Elsewhere than fabrications? .… In consciousness?.… Elsewhere than consciousness?”
“No, lord.”
“What do you think, Anurādha: Do you regard the Tathāgata as form-feeling-perception-fabrications-consciousness?”
“No, lord.”
“Do you regard the Tathāgata as that which is without form, without feeling, without perception, without fabrications, without consciousness?”
“No, lord.”
“And so, Anurādha—when you can’t pin down the Tathāgata as a truth or reality even in the present life—is it proper for you to declare, ‘Friends, the Tathāgata—the supreme man, the superlative man, attainer of the superlative attainment—being described, is described otherwise than with these four positions: The Tathāgata exists after death, does not exist after death, both does & does not exist after death, neither exists nor does not exist after death’?”
“No, lord.”
“Very good, Anurādha. Very good. Both formerly & now, it is only stress that I describe, and the cessation of stress.” —SN 22:86
