BUDDHISM IN KERALA

Friday, April 9, 2010

Friends:

Direct Experience of Understanding, & Development of the Noble 8-fold Way:

The Blessed Buddha once said:
What, friends, should be fully understood by direct experience?
The Five Clusters of Clinging. What five?
The cluster of clinging to form...
The cluster of clinging to feeling...
The cluster of clinging to perception...
The cluster of clinging to construction...
The cluster of clinging to consciousness...
These are the five things, which should be fully understood by direct experience!

And what, friends, are the 2 things, which should be overcome & left by direct experience?
Ignorance and Craving for new Becoming...
These are the two things, which should be overcome & left behind by direct experience!

And what, friends, are the 2 things, which should be realized by direct experience?
Complete Understanding and Absolute Freedom...
These are the two things, which should be realized by direct experience!

And what, friends, are the two things, which should be developed by direct experience?
Calm and Insight...
These are the two things, which should be developed by direct experience.

And how does a Bhikkhu indeed do so? Here, friends, the Bhikkhu develops:
Right View, which is based upon seclusion, disillusion, ceasing, and culminating in release.
Right Motivation, which is based upon seclusion, disillusion, ceasing, and culminating in release.
Right Speech, which is based upon seclusion, disillusion, ceasing, and culminating in release.
Right Action, which is based upon seclusion, disillusion, ceasing, and culminating in release.
Right Livelihood, which is based upon seclusion, disillusion, ceasing, and culminating in release.
Right Effort, which is based upon seclusion, disillusion, ceasing, and culminating in release.
Right Awareness, which is based upon seclusion, disillusion, ceasing, and culminating in release.
Right Concentration, which is based upon seclusion, disillusion, ceasing, and culminating in release.
It is in this way that a Bhikkhu comes to fully understand all that, which should be understood;
comes to overcome, abandon & leave behind all, which should be left behind; comes to realize by
direct experience all, that is realizable, & finally comes to develop all, which should be developed…