Friends:
What is Clinging (Upadana) ?
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'"Clinging, Clinging !" is the saying,
friend Sariputta,
please tell me,
What is Clinging ?'
'There are these 4 kinds of clinging, friend:
Clinging to Pleasure by Sensing,
Clinging to Views and Opinion, *
Clinging to Rule, Ritual and cultural Habits, #
Clinging to the concept of "Self" claiming 'I Am'. %
These, friend, are the 4 Clingings.'
'But, friend, is there any way to break,
& to escape these four clingings ?'
'There is, friend, indeed such a Noble 8-fold Way ...'
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Comments:
* Clinging to Views and Opinion:
Note that everytime one say:
'I have this View ...'
'I am of this Opinion ...'
'I Judge it to be like this ...'
'I Think it is like this and not like that ...'
'I am of the firm Persuasion, that this only ...'
'My Impression is that ...'
'I have this Idea that it is like this and that' etc.
It is rooted in Non-Knowledge; Uncertainty;
It is caused by not seeing it directly & not having seen it,
Having no direct personal experience with it,
Not having 'Touched' it, remaining Unassured,
Unascertained, still having Doubt about,
slightly Confused about ...
Which is quite Contrary to:
If you have direct knowledge about something,
you say right away:
I know it to be exactly like that!
and not in any regard otherwise!
ex: Any dog-owner if asked this question:
Do you now what a dog is like, how it looks ?
He say without any doubt nor hesitation:
Yes I do Know the dog ...
And why is that ?
It is because he have seen, heard, touched, smelled, etc.
phenomena 'Dog' many times in all variations.
He have by that got "direct experience" of phenomena 'Dog' ...
All other than such 'direct expericence' is: Mental Construction,
Projecting an plausible nice 'Idea' into and over a reality,
which always is somewhat untrue, and not really as it really is.
As the Buddha said:
However you imagine & construe it,
it is ALWAYS different & otherwise!
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# Clinging to Rules, Rituals and Habits:
(misapprehension of duty)
We accumulate numerous 'Habitual unskillfull Tendencies',
which arise because we do a certain thing many times.
Then - when unaware - we increase the chance to repeat it.
The mind do it by itself 'on autopilot'. Even though it now
-in this present context- is quite foolish.
"Inappropiate Attention" it is called:
ex: Unaware we drive our car to the daily work-location,
automaticly, even when our planned destination was
something else.
ex: The monk have learned to sweep as a novice.
So he sweeps every day, three times a day,
telling himself: 'This is like meditation'
not mindfull of the fact that this excessive
sweeping, is what really is keeping him from
sitting meditation, which he do not fancy,
so he uses sweeping as an 'escape act'.
ex: The E-Buddhist who habitually sits at computer
in morning, in midday, in evening, reading
'empty irrelevant' posts, so he also do not
sit to meditate, to train, and therefore never
gets direct experience about what he is reading
about and gets by that merely 'intellectual'
understanding of Dhamma which only is like a
'shadow' in comparison.
ex: A man stands and wait for the red traffic light
to become green before he crosses the street.
Then - unaware - he gets driven down by a runaway car,
from behind, right there in the pedestrian area.
He thought himself habitually safe, did not pay
'appropiate attention' and did not dare make the here
neccessary exception of crossing the street despite
of the red light, which would have saved him.
A somewhat comic tragedy caused by clinging to
'the rule: red light = always wait'.
No, not Always so ! It Depends on everchanging context!
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% Clinging to idea of 'Self', the theory of a 'Person=Me=I'
There is no fixed unchanging 'self'!!! Thats an obervable fact!
'I am my Ego', is an mere assumption not an observation.
We are not the same from moment to moment!
Neither physically nor mentally are we 'the same',
when we are 7 years old compared to when 87 years old.
All is changed, yet still we bear the same name ...
Therefore we think 'I am the same person, just older'
Yet 'Name' is an empty designation of Box #X saying
nothing of what is inside the box which is changing.
That is: there is no stable definable entity at all,
with fixed borders, that we can designate 'me' or 'I'.
We are a dynamic proces like a river:
Bathing in Ganges river in the morning we touch SOME water.
Bathing again in same river in evening, called by the same name,
yet we touch some OTHER water! The river can only be defined as
this 'flowing water' which is never the same! When the river
runs out in the sea it looses its name 'Ganges'. Then the river
water is mixed undiscernable with all other water & is just called
sea ... Even Exactly so with awakening:
When the river of 'Ego assumption' dries out there is no 'you'
nor 'me', internal or external, here or there. No reference idea!
'One is neither the same nor another'
'Na ca so, na ca anno'
king Milindas Questions.
Beyond Blissful:
So have I heard:
When the Buddha, after 7 days of non-stop sitting meditation in the
bliss of Awakening, in a mighty rainstorm while protected by Mucalinda
the mighty snake, then, he, the Blessed One, on recognizing the value
of that event, exclaimed:
Blissful is solitude for one who is content, wise & who see the Dhamma.
Blissful is harmlessness towards all beings without exception.
Blissful is freedom from any sensual urge whatsoever.
Yet, the supreme bliss, is the elimination of the
abysmal conceit ""I am"" !!! (asmi mana) ...
Udana Inspiration: II 1
All phenomena are Selfless
Sabbe Dhamma Anatta
So nothing is lost by giving up 'Self'
Since the 'Me' was never there anyway!
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The cessation of clinging causes (re)becoming to cease.
The cessation of becoming causes (re)birth to cease.
The cessation of birth causes ageing, sickness & death to cease.
The cessation of ageing, sickness & death is the end of Misery!!
Friendship is truly GREATEST
The entire Motivation behind
all of the Noble Life. Yeah!
Samanera Samahita
Cypress Hut, Gangamulla
Bambarella, Tawalantenna 20838.
Central Province. SRI LANKA.
Email:
monomuni@...
WWW:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Buddha-Direct
: - ]
--
A saying of the Buddha from
http://metta.lk/
The others know not that in this quarrel we perish; those of them who
realise it, have their quarrels calmed thereby.
Random Dhammapada Verse 6