BUDDHISM IN KERALA: Withdrawal is the 3rd Mental Perfection:

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Withdrawal is the 3rd Mental Perfection:

Friends:

Withdrawal is the 3rd Mental Perfection:

Withdrawal is Removal of Misery
Withdrawal is Extraction of Disease.
Withdrawal is Pulling out the splinter of Pain.
Withdrawal is Retraction from Danger.
Withdrawal is Renunciation of Ill.
Withdrawal is Letting Go of what is Burning.
Withdrawal is Turning Away from what is Sorrow.
Withdrawal is Seclusion from what is Grief.
Withdrawal is Clearing of Captivating Illusions.
Withdrawal is Waking Up from Enthralling Trance.
Withdrawal is Freedom from Enslaving Addiction.
Withdrawal is Protection from what is Entrapping.
Withdrawal is Giving Up what is Detrimental.
Withdrawal is Discharge of what is Infested.
Withdrawal is Breaking out of the Prison.
Withdrawal is Release from all Suffering...

"Back to Nature" by Robert Storm Petersen. (1882 – 1949)

The Withdrawn, as the man newly freed from prison
does not at all wish himself back in prison!
The Basket of Conduct, Cariyapitaka

Infatuated with lust, impassioned and obsessed,
they are caught in their own self-created net,
like a spider, which spins it's own web!
Cutting through, the Noble Friend withdraw and go free,
Without longing, without greed, leaving all misery behind.
Dhammapada 347

The Bodhisatta as the King Culasutasoma gave up his whole kingdom.
Knowing withdrawal to be an advantageous victory, he remembered:
A mighty kingdom I possessed, as if it was dropped into my hands...
Yet all this tantalizing luxury, I let fall and go without any even slight
trace of longing or clinging. This was my perfection of Withdrawal...
Jataka no. 525

Lust, I say, is a great flood, a whirlpool sucking one down,
a constant yearning, seeking a hold, continually active, and
difficult to cross is such morass of sense and sensual desire...
A sage does not deviate from the good, but remains steady!
A recluse stands on firm ground, when solitarily secluded:
When withdrawn from all, truly he is calmed and silenced!
Having directly touched the Dhamma, he is independent!
He behaves right and does not envy anyone anywhere...
He who has left behind all pleasure arised from sensing,
an attachment difficult to cut, is freed of both depression and
longing, since he has cut across this great flood, and is released.
Sutta Nipāta IV.15

Any being, that cools down all desires and greedy lusts,
by being alert and ever aware of the inherent danger,
by directing attention only to the disgusting aspects of
all phenomena, such one withdraw from all craving and
thereby wears down and breaks the bars of the inner prison.
Dhammapada 350

If one gains an infinite ease by leaving a minor pleasure,
the clever one would swap the luminous for what is a trifling
sense delight, by withdrawing from this trivial banal boredom.
Dhammapada 290

The one who has reached the sublime end all perfected,
is fearless, freed of craving, desireless and detached..
Such one has broken the chains of being and is certainly
withdrawing into the final phase, wearing his last frame...
Dhammapada 351

Prince Siddhattha Gotama reflected thus:

"Why do I, being subject to birth, decay, disease, death, sorrow and
defilement, thus search after things of the same nature. What if I,
who am subject to things of such nature, realize their disadvantages
and seek the unattained and unsurpassed, perfect security: Nibbāna!"

"Cramped and confined is the household life, a den of dust, but the life
of the homeless is in the free open air of heaven! Hard is it for him who
abides at home to live the Holy Life as it should be lived, in all its true
perfection, and in all its purity."

"The household life is a cramped way, choked with dust. To leave it, is
like coming out into the free space of open air! It is not easy for one,
who lives at home, to live the Noble life completely perfect and pure,
bright as mother-of-pearl. Surely I will now shave off my hair and go
forth into homelessness."