Achieved Is The End Of Craving - Joseph Goldstein

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• published: 09 Aug 2014
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A dharma talk where Joseph Goldstein explains the Buddha's teachings on how craving and grasping lead to suffering. The Buddha's Song of Victory (Enlightenment): Through many a birth I wandered in samsara, Seeking, but not finding the builder of this house. Painful it is to be born again and again.” “O house-builder! You are seen. You shall build no house again. All your rafters are broken. Your ridgepole is shattered.” “My mind has attained the unconditioned. Achieved is the end of craving.” [Builder: craving] [House: body (the five aggregates)] [Rafters: defilements] [Ridgepole: ignorance] ~ Dhammapada verses 153-154 The Tanha Sutta (Craving): http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.199.than.html ___________________________________________________________________ One day I wiped out all notions from my mind. I gave up all desire. I discarded all the words with which I thought and stayed in quietude. I felt a little queer-as if I were being carried into something, or as if I were touching some power unknown to me..... and Ztt! I entered. I lost the boundary of my physical body. I had my skin, of course, but I felt I was standing in the center of the cosmos. I spoke, but my words had lost their meaning. I saw people coming towards me, but all were the same man. All were myself! I had never known this world. I had believed that I was created, but now I must change my opinion: I was never created; I was the cosmos; no individual Mr. Sasaki existed. ~Zen Master Sokei-an Sasaki ___________________________________________________________________ I came back into the hall and was about to go to my seat when the whole outlook changed. A broad expanse opened, and the ground appeared as if all caved in... As I looked around and up and down, the whole universe with its multitudinous sense-objects now appeared quite different; what was loathsome before, together with ignorance and passions, was now seen to be nothing else but the outflow of my own inmost nature which in itself remained bright, true, and transparent. ~ Yuan-chou (quoted by Suzuki in Essays in Zen Buddhism) ___________________________________________________________________ The venerable Musila and the venerable Savittha were once staying at Kosambi in Ghosita Park. Now the venerable Savittha said thus to the venerabe Musila: Apart, friend Musila, from belief, apart from inclination, hearsay, argument as to method, from reflection on and approval of opinion has the venerable Musila as his very own the knowledge that -- the ceasing of becoming is Nibbana (freedom)? Apart, friend Savittha, from belief and the rest, this I know, this I see: -- The ceasing of becoming in Nibbana. Well then, the venerable Musila is Arahant, for whom the intoxicants are perished. When this was said the venerable Musila became silent. The truth of cessation (Nibbana) has the characteristic of peace. Its function is not to die. It is manifested as the signless. ("signless" being secluded from the sign of the five aggregates, it is taken as having no graspable entity - Visuddhimagga Atthakataha) ~from the book Buddhism, edited by Richard A. Gard ___________________________________________________________________ When perception is stronger than mindfulness, we recognize various appearances and create concepts such as “body,” “cat”, “house,” or “person”… On some clear night, go outside, look up at the sky, and see if you can find the Big Dipper. For most people that is a familiar constellation, easy to pick out from all the other stars. But is there really a Big Dipper up there in the sky? There is no Big Dipper up there. “Big Dipper” is a concept. Humans looked, saw a certain pattern, and then created a concept in our collective mind to describe it. That concept is useful because it helps us recognize the constellation. But it also has another, less useful effect. By creating the concept “Big Dipper” we separate out those stars from all the rest, and then, if we become attached to the idea of that separation, we lose the sense of the night sky's wholeness, its oneness. Does the separation actually exist in the sky? No. We created it through the use of a concept. Does anything change in the sky when we understand that there is no Big Dipper? No. ~Joseph Goldstein ___________________________________________________________________ The entire heavenly realm is within us, but to find it we have to relate to what's outside. ~Joseph Campbell ___________________________________________________________________ May all beings be well, happy and peaceful. The gift of the Dhamma excels all gifts; The taste of the Dhamma excels all tastes; Delight in the Dhamma excels all delights. The eradication of Craving overcomes all sorrow.