Week 119 (Recorded on July 6th, 2024).
• PDF link to a free digital copy of the Sutta can be obtained from the website: www.mindreleas...
• Brahmā Nimantaṇika Sutta, "Challenging & Instructing the Brahmā Gods" (MN 49) From the Majjhima Nikāya (The Middle-Length Discourses).
Today's sutta exploration session was devoted to the Brahmā Nimantaṇika Sutta (“Challenging & Instructing the Brahma Gods''), where Lord Buddha has such a colorful and powerful encounter with Baka the Brahmā God, who deludedly thought that his lifespan was endless and that there was no birth, aging, and death in his realm. Lord Buddha then comes to shake Baka the Brahmā God out of his delusion, by roaring His lion's roar, in teaching Baka that absolutely no being in existence lies outside the law of impermanence, and therefore none is immune from decay and death, and recurring birth, so long as they have not pierced through the delusion of ownership and identification, including and especially with the four elements.
While unpacking this sutta for us, Bhante Candana showed how in our own world as humans, we too function with the permanence bias that is deeply entrenched in our psyche, while encouraging the listener to constantly bring up urgency, in order to attain the noble goal of this training, which is the complete ending to the slavery of Sangsara, the cycle of continued births and deaths.
In the Q&A section, Bhante offered a beautiful response to a question on how to relate to the four elements in our view of ourselves, as a tool of balancing our approach in the training and constantly refining our practice of the Dhamma.
NOTE: If you like to support Bhante, you may consider donating via:
gofund.me/9d16...
Bhikkhu Candana lives and continues his Dhamma work without the support of a Buddhist community or a monastery, but survives thanks to the occasional donations he receives to obtain his food, shelter, transportation, and medicine.
17 окт 2024
