XPost: alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan, alt.zen   
   From: peter@dharma.dyndns.info   
      
   Samsara - Grasping & Clinging   
      
   How can we get away from and become completely independent of things,   
   all of which are transient, unsatisfactory and devoid of selfhood? The   
   answer is that we have to find out what is the cause of our desiring   
   those things and clinging to them. Knowing that cause, we shall be in a   
   position to eliminate clinging completely. Buddhists recognize four   
   different kinds of clinging or attachment. 1) Sensual attachment   
   (Kamupanana) is clinging to attractive and desirable sense objects. It   
   is the attachment that we naturally develop for things we like and find   
   satisfaction in: colors and shapes, sounds, odours, tastes, tactile   
   objects, or mental images, objects past, present, or future that arise   
   in the mind, and either correspond to material objects in the world   
   outside or within the body, or are just imaginings. We instinctively   
   find pleasure, enchantment, delight in these six kinds of sense objects.   
   They induce delight and enchantment in the mind perceiving them.   
      
   As soon as an individual is born, he comes to know the taste of these   
   six sense objects, and clings to them; and as time passes he becomes   
   more and more firmly attached to them. Ordinary people are incapable of   
   withdrawing from them again, so they present a major problem. It is   
   necessary to have a proper knowledge and understanding of these sense   
   objects and to act appropriately with respect to them, otherwise   
   clinging to them may lead to complete and utter dereliction. If we   
   examine the case history of any person who has sunk into dereliction, we   
   always find that it has come about through his clinging fast to some   
   desirable sense object. Actually every single thing a human being does   
   has its origin in sensuality. Whether we love, become angry, hate, feel   
   envious, murder, or commit suicide, the ultimate cause must be some   
   sense object. If we investigate what is it that drives human beings to   
   work energetically, or to do anything at all for that matter, we find it   
   is desire, desire to get things of one kind or another. People strive,   
   study, and earn what money they can, and then go off in search of   
   pleasure — in the form of colors and shapes, sounds, odors, tastes, and   
   tactile objects — which is what keeps them going. Even merit making in   
   order to go to heaven has its origins simply in a wish based on   
   sensuality. Taken together, all the trouble and chaos in the world has   
   its origin in sensuality.   
      
   The danger of sensuality lies in the power of sensual attachment. For   
   this reason the Buddha reckoned clinging to sensuality as the primary   
   form of attachment. It is a real world problem. Whether the world is to   
   be completely destroyed, or whatever is to happen, is bound to depend on   
   this very sensual clinging. It behooves us to examine ourselves to find   
   out in what ways we are attached to sensuality and how firmly, and   
   whether it is not perhaps within our power to give it up. Speaking in   
   worldly terms, attachment to sensuality is a very good thing. It   
   conduces to family love, to diligence and energy in the search for   
   wealth and fame, and so on. But if looked at from the spiritual point of   
   view, it is seen to be the secret en trance for suffering and torment.   
   Spiritually speaking, attachment to sensuality is something to be kept   
   under control. And if all suffering is to be eliminated, sensual   
   attachment has to be done away with completely. 2) Attachment to   
   opinions (Ditthupadana). Clinging to views and opinions is not difficult   
   to detect and identify once we do a little introspection. Ever since we   
   were born into the world, we have been receiving instruction and   
   training, which has given rise to ideas and opinions. In speaking here   
   of opinions, what we have in mind is the kind of ideas one hangs on to   
   and refuses to let go of. To cling to one's own ideas and opinions is   
   quite natural and is not normally condemned or disapproved of. But it is   
   no less grave a danger than attachment to attractive and desirable   
   objects. It can happen that preconceived ideas and opinions to which we   
   had always clung obstinately come to be destroyed. For this reason it is   
   necessary that we continually amend our views, making them progressively   
   more correct, better, higher, changing false views into views that are   
   closer and closer to the truth, and ultimately into the kind of views   
   that incorporate the Four Noble Truths.   
      
   Obstinate and stubborn opinions have various origins, but in the main   
   they are bound up with customs, traditions, ceremonies and religious   
   doctrines. Stubborn personal convictions are not a matter of great   
   importance. They are far less numerous than convictions stemming from   
   long held popular traditions and ceremonies. Adherence to views is based   
   on ignorance. Lacking knowledge, we develop our own personal views on   
   things, based on our own original stupidity. For instance, we are   
   convinced that things are desirable and worth clinging to, that they   
   really endure, are worthwhile and are selves, instead of perceiving that   
   they are just a delusion and a deception, transient, worthless and   
   devoid of selfhood. Once we have come to have certain ideas about   
   something, we naturally don't like to admit later on that we were   
   mistaken. Even though we may occasionally see that we are wrong, we   
   simply refuse to admit it. Obstinacy of this sort is to be considered a   
   major obstacle to progress, rendering us incapable of changing for the   
   better, incapable of modifying false religious convictions and other   
   long-standing beliefs. This is likely to be a problem for people who   
   hold to naive doctrines. Even though they may later come to see them as   
   naive, they refuse to change on the grounds that their parents,   
   grandparents and ancestors all held those same views. Or if they are not   
   really interested in correcting and improving themselves, they may   
   simply brush away any arguments against their old ideas with the remark   
   that this is what they have always believed. For these very reasons,   
   attachment to opinions is to be considered a dangerous defilement, a   
   major danger, which, if we are to better ourselves at all, we ought to   
   make all efforts to eliminate. 3) Attachment to rites and rituals   
   (Silabbatupadana). This refers to clinging to meaningless traditional   
   practices that have been thoughtlessly handed down, practices which   
   people choose to regard as sacred and not to be changed under any   
   circumstances. In Thailand there is no less of this sort of thing than   
   in other places. There are beliefs involving amulets, magical artifacts   
   and all manner of secret procedures. There exist, for instance, the   
   beliefs that on rising from sleep one must pronounce a mystical formula   
   over water and then wash one's face in it, that before relieving nature   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)