Here's how dictionary.com defines disenchant:
To free from illusion or false belief; undeceive.

What a beautiful word! Satiety does not adequately convey that it's not just a temporary phase. For example, after the thanksgiving meal the people were satiated and thought they never wanted to eat again. But the very next day they were hungry. Revulsion, displacement, disrelish all have the problem of strong connotation of an aversive element, which is confusing to beginners and nonbeginners alike.

I understand the intent of using "revulsion" to express a strong turning away from all classes of sensual desires, especially subtle and difficult to abandon desires. However, I believe the use of "disenchantment" in conjunction with the sequence that it frequently appears with would make it obvious that breaking the spell/illusion would entail transcending all coarse and subtle sensual desires.

[b.bodhi's translation]
"Seeing thus, bhikkus, a well taught noble disciple becomes disenchanted with the eye..forms...eye-consciousness... disenchanted with the mind... being disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion [his mind] is liberated. When it is liberated, there comes the knowledge: 'It is liberated.' He understands: 'Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being.'"

Let's look at the dictionary.com definition again:
disenchant: To free from illusion or false belief; undeceive.

The more I think about it, the more I love that word. Unlike the other proposed English translations for nibbindati which have such a mundane feel, disenchantment has a much grander, transcendent quality to it. What better single word in the english language captures the essence and turning point of Buddhist practice so poetically? From beginningless time, we’ve entangled ourselves, deceived ourselves, allowed Mara to cover our eyes with a veil of ignorance to return time and time again to this unbearably painful and unceasing cycle of samsara.

How are we to disentangle ourselves from this seemingly inescapable doom? What is the crux, the key turning point of our practice where we get a glimpse of an escape, and a belief that an end to this whole mass of suffering can be found? What is the key point in our practice where joyful right effort becomes sustainable and natural, a point of no going back to old destructive ways? It would take something much more powerful than satiety or disrelish to truly turn away and transcend this mess. Revulsion? That tends to lead to destructive rampages or suicide. The key to transcending this whole mass of suffering is to rip off that veil of ignorance which has distorted our faculties and perceptions of reality, break the spell that Mara cast on us. Breaking the spell, we discover that all this time we were needlessly deceived, under the illusion of ignorance and wrong views. Touched by pleasant feeling, we are unmoved. Touched by painful feeling, we are unperturbed. Veil removed,
ardently practicing the sublime dhamma, we are on the way to transcending sensual desires. With faculties bright and clear, seeing reality without distortion, we get a taste of bliss apart from sensual pleasures and set our feet firmly on a path to ultimate bliss. I’m looking for a good english word to describe this key turning point, breaking the spell, freedom from deception, abandoning wrong view & beliefs. Someone help me out here.

-fk





frank@...


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